Unforgotten Family (An Ariel Kimber Novel Book 6)

by Mary Martel

  The kid was a smart little boy, but making excuses for Isobel at the moment didn't make him sound smart at all.

  "Drugging him isn't the kind of love I think Rain wants to receive from a woman," Quinton muttered irately. "It's not the kind of love I want you to think is acceptable either. I want more for you both than that level of crazy."

  Isobel had tried to drug my father.

  That horrible thought kept running through my brain and I didn't know how to deal with it. Granted, she tried to give him a pot brownie and hadn't slipped a roofie in his drink so she could take advantage of him when the lights went out. Still... who does that? Quinton was right, a crazy person did that.

  And that crazy person lived with my father and his adoptive son.

  And now I was leaving said son with her in a strange place neither of them had ever been before with strange people neither of them had ever met before.

  "She's not a bad person," Baxter assured us. "She's really not. She loves Rain and she loves me. You don't have to worry about leaving me with her, she won't hurt me. Besides, I took care of both my mother and myself when we had no one else or nothing. I don't need someone to take care of me, I can look after myself."

  I didn't need the reminder that Baxter's mother was dead, and before her death she and her son had lived a horrible life where Baxter had been forced to take care of her and be the man in the family. That reminder made me feel like garbage and had my palms itching to call my father and let him know what was going on.

  "If something happens to you because of the decisions I'm making right now, I will never forgive myself. And I don't think Rain will ever forgive me either."

  That terrified me. My relationship with Rain was one of the most precious things in my life, and I didn't want to damage it for any reason. It would crush me.

  "Put your headphones back on and watch your movie," Quinton ordered Baxter. Despite the unease swirling around in my belly, I rolled my eyes. Baxter would do it simply because it had been Quinton who told him to. The kid had a hero worship going on when it came to Uncle Quint, and it didn't help that Quinton was wrapped happily around the little boy's finger and catered to his every want and need.

  Quinton turned back to me and cupped my face in his rough but gentle hands. His eyes bored into mine and my anxiety slowly faded.

  "The kid is right, and I don't think we have anything to fear with Isobel harming either your father or the boy. I think she's a little messed up in the head because of her time spent in the well, and maybe she's not acting like a normal person but, baby, we've got to be patient with her. Remember, her entire family was murdered before the Council got their hands on her and then she was just tossed down in a hole in the dirt. She's had no time to grieve and she hasn't had enough time to adjust to her new life now. We gotta give her time and trust that Rain isn't stupid. Do you honestly think he'd let her live in his house and be alone with the kid if he didn't trust her? Because I sure as fuck don't. I think she's done some questionable shit, and I know I gave her a hard time, but I just want her to be aware of what I'm capable of if she slips up and fucks with my family. I don't actually think she's going to do it."

  What an asshole.

  I couldn't take his back and forth, wishy-washy attitude right now.

  "I don't care," I muttered angrily as I jerked my head out of his hands. I turned back to the window, essentially blocking him out and ending the conversation.

  When I was done I was done and that was all there was to it.

  "Fine," Quinton sighed heavily. "I'll go check on her and make sure she's alright while you pout."

  I wasn't pouting, damn it.

  His heat moved away and then it was gone entirely. He'd gone to check on Isobel who'd tried to drug my father. I didn't want to hate her, and I didn't want to resent my boyfriend for going to check on her, but if she kept this shit up then that was where we'd be no matter how Rain or Baxter felt about her.

  Unfortunately for me, I now knew I needed to make what I was sure would be an unpleasant phone call as soon as we landed and got off of this plane.

  Fortunately for Quinton, though, he seemed to have forgotten all about his fear of flying the moment the drama started.

  I couldn't find it in me to begrudge him this.

  Rain Kimber

  My cell on the desk started to vibrate, letting me know I had a phone call. I dragged my eyes away from the screens in front of me and picked up the cell. I turned it around and the name flashing on the screen sent a shiver of unease down my spine.

  Ariel.

  Shit.

  That little shiver did not bode well for me. Usually I only felt elation and happiness when my daughter's name appeared on the screen. However, it seemed like these days my phone only rang when shit hit the fan or was about to go down.

  I answered on the fourth ring. "Baby girl."

  No matter how old she got, she'd always be my baby girl.

  "Don't be mad."

  Fuck, not a good way to start out any conversation with the girl. She was incredibly spirited and that usually landed her in a whole shit load of trouble more often than not. I didn't mind so long as she took me with her and I could protect her. It was when she went off on her own half cocked that I got pissed at her and wished she was still young enough I could ground her ass to her room for the rest of her life. Unfortunately, I'd missed out on those days, and disciplining her wasn't something I think I'd ever be able to do.

  "Where are you?" I asked in a gruff voice. "I'll come to you and we can have this chat face to face."

  "Uhh..."

  Oh, Jesus, this was much worse than I had originally thought.

  "Better question," I said. "Have you called Quinton with your problem yet?" Not that I wanted her to call that pervert before me, but if anyone could keep her out of too much trouble it was that man.

  "Uhh..."

  I sighed into the phone. "He's with you, isn't he? Please tell me that whatever the problem is, it's his fault and maybe I’ll get to smack him around a little bit. That would make me feel so much better."

  I had wanted to strangle the life out of the shit since I started suspecting he was having sex with my daughter. Don't get me wrong, I liked him, really, I did. But that like only went so far, and once you defiled my daughter you took things too far, and an ass kicking should be expected. And I really wanted to kick his ass. One beatdown is all it would take for me to feel a whole lot better about the whole thing. I think there were a few more asses I needed to kick after I got my hands on Quinton, and that pissed me off all the more.

  "Quinton is actually with me," Ariel said in a rush. "We uh... we sort of have Baxter and Isobel with us and we are taking them to a coven to see if we can stash them there for safe keeping. I was going to wait to tell you the news when we got home, but something came up that I felt like I had to tell you. It's something I think you have a right to know."

  My throat seized and it felt like I'd been punched in the gut.

  "We need them to be safe and it's not safe there anymore. If you think hard enough about it, you will see that I'm right. It wasn't an easy decision to make, but I made it. I need you to trust me that I know what I'm doing. I know how important they are to you, and I would never endanger either of them. Rain—"

  I cut her off. As much as it hurt to push the words out past my constricting throat, I did it. "Smart move. One I would have eventually made on my own and have been thinking about. I was going to get into contact with some of my dad's old contacts. I've been procrastinating, though, because it hurt too much to think about them staying with someone else. It stings my pride to think I can't take care of them and keep them safe."

  What I didn't say was that I'd been thinking about sending Ariel with them when I sent them away. She was always my number one priority, no matter how much I cared about the other two, Ariel would always come first. If I could get all three of them off somewhere safe where I knew how to get ahold of them when I wanted to, then I wo
uldn't have hesitated to send them there.

  "I want you to think about staying with them. We got a storm headed our way here and I don't want you caught up in the middle of it."

  Wishful thinking, I knew. She was already at the heart of it, and some would even argue that she was the cause behind it. I didn't see it that way. Sometimes you needed to make a stand, and Ariel had taken hers the moment she lied to the Council and stole a person from them. My daughter might have been a troublemaker, but she always made me proud, did my family proud.

  "Where are you taking them?" I asked. Did I really want to know? How hard would it be not to get on a plane myself so I could fly there and check things out for myself? Baxter was my charge, my responsibility, and trusting that with someone else wasn't an easy pill to swallow. And, as much as I tried to avoid Isobel despite the fact we lived under the same roof, she'd grown on me and I'd be a fool to not admit she'd meant something to me since the very moment I'd seen her floating in that water.

  "Not over the phone," Ariel said, cutting into my thoughts. "And that's not really why I'm calling. I just thought I'd tell you now over the phone so I could get it out of the way, and maybe you wouldn't be so mad about it by the time we get home. Quinton is concerned you're going to be pissed at him."

  Quinton had every right to be concerned. He knew I knew he was having sex with my daughter, and that I wanted to put my fist in his face every time I thought about it.

  "I... did you know that Isobel tried to feed you pot brownies?" she asked in a quiet, hesitant voice.

  My eyebrows shot up in surprise. This is what she wanted to tell me?

  "Course I knew. That woman is so far from subtle it isn't even funny. She couldn't pull a fast one over on me if she tried, and believe me, she's tried. Why are you bringing this up now to me?"

  I heard her sharp intake of breath and frowned down at the desk. What was going on?

  "Ariel, is something going on with Isobel?" I hoped like fuck the woman was alright, because I'd lose my mind if she wasn't, and then the others might clue in to the fact I was hiding shit when it came to her. Like, my fucked up feelings.

  "Do you trust her with Baxter?" Ariel asked. "I mean, is it safe for me to leave him in her care, because now I'm questioning everything with her. If she is comfortable with doing that to you then what else is she capable of?"

  I got where she was coming from, and maybe I should have been pissed that she'd tried to get me to eat one of her brownies, but I wasn't. Instead, I'd been highly amused and it had made the urge to grab her and kiss the shit out of her harder for me to hide. She was a trickster, and life with Isobel would never be boring for me, that was for sure. Maybe this time away from her would be good for me, it would give me some time to add an extra layer of cement around my heart that would serve me well to keep her ass out of it.

  "You can trust her with Baxter. Honestly, the only thing I would be worried about is whether or not you can trust Baxter with Isobel. The kid is angry and hostile toward her because she's not his mother, but is the only mother figure he's got in his life right now. He needs therapy and help getting over his mother's death, and I'm not sure I'm the person best suited to help him with that. Every single time she tries to tell him to do something or even makes him a sandwich, he has a cutting remark about how she's not his mother and it hurts her greatly. She doesn't need to say it aloud for me to see that it hurts her. I'm not going to worry about her taking care of him, she loves the kid almost as if he were her own and she'll take care of him like it. What I'm going to worry about is him emotionally abusing her."

  "Shit," she muttered under her breath.

  If anyone understood emotional baggage when it came to their mother, it was my Ariel.

  "I'll have a talk with him before we head back."

  Even though she couldn't see it, I nodded. The kid loved her already like a sister, if she talked to him he would listen to everything she had to say and soak it up like a sponge.

  "I gotta go," she told me. "Quinton is here with the car. I'll call you later to let you know how the drop off went and to let you know when you should expect us home. Love you, Dad."

  The phone went dead. She hung up before I had the chance to say the words back, which was probably her intention. Sometimes she still got a little misty eyed when I told her I loved her. The same went for me. Though, I wasn't sure what brought me the most joy, her telling me she loved me or her calling me dad. Both filled my heart with so much joy it was in danger of bursting.

  I sat the phone back on the desk and sat back in the office chair. I kicked my feet up on the desk and crossed my boots at the ankles.

  There were better things I could be doing with my time, so many things I could think of that I needed to get done and would rather be doing than this. I should get up from the chair and walk out of here, it was not like the boys couldn't handle themselves. They didn't need me watching over them and would probably be upset if they found out I was in here.

  I did no such thing.

  Instead, I reached forward and turned the dial up on the volume so I could hear what was being said in the shop. I swear, these boys forgot there were cameras in this whole building.

  "—don't think you should be fucking with Uncle Quint's things," Tyson was saying.

  The blond twin snickered as the black-haired one crossed his thick arms over his chest. They stood side by side and, as far as I could tell, were wearing identical clothing.

  "I think he's scared of daddy Quinton, twin."

  "I don't think it, I know it, twin."

  "The last time he spanked you, did he hit you a little too hard, leave a mark?"

  "Jesus." I shook my head at their banter. No wonder Quinton was always so uptight.

  Tyson threw his arms up in defeat. He shook his head and turned his back on them, walking away. Over his shoulder, he snapped, "Fine, fuck it. You want to get your asses kicked, you go right ahead. I hope I get to watch."

  "Ohhh," the black-haired one mocked, "I'm shaking in my boots."

  "I think I'm going to call him Daddy when he spanks me," the blond one informed his twin.

  They both shared a shit-eating grin before dissolving into a fit of laughter.

  Yeah, there were lots of things I should be doing with my time, but had no intention of doing. I would stay here with my boys, keeping watch over them and making sure they were safe.

  They never had to know I was here unless they needed me.

  Raven

  "Yo," Scout yelled down the stairs. "Are you expecting company? There's a black SUV hauling down the driveway."

  I glanced up from the carved piece of wood I'd been rubbing down with sandpaper and looked up the stairs. The door at the top was open, and Scout stood in the doorway with his massive arms crossed over his chest and a scowl on his face. The man looked like he was a fucking beast who lifted weights all the time, chugged protein shakes full of raw eggs and steroids, and frightened small children in his free time.

  None of that shit was true, except for the weight lifting, and I didn't know what he put in his shakes except for the fact he didn't put steroids in them. He claimed his body was a work of art and the man barely even took a Tylenol.

  "No," I answered, as I set the wood and sandpaper down on my worn worktable. "I'm pretty sure I would have mentioned it if I were expecting company. You know, like I always do. Like we all do."

  I rolled my eyes. Scout did not enjoy the company of others, and people showing up unannounced was his idea of a freaking nightmare. Hell, people showing up at all even when he knew they were coming made the man want to break out in hives.

  Scout glared at me, and his puckered up face looked like he'd sucked on a lemon and didn't much care for the taste of it.

  "This is bullshit," he muttered angrily, and the door slammed shut behind him.

  "Shit."

  I scrambled off the bench and raced up the stairs. He'd scare the piss out of whoever came knocking on our front door. And we lived so
far out of the way that we didn't get random little people trying to sell candy for a school fundraiser or Girl Scout cookies. People usually had a purpose behind knocking on our door.

  I ran up the stairs two at a time and pushed the door open roughly.

  The door to the basement opened up inside the large, cavernous garage. The basement didn't run along the entire house, but only underneath the garage.

  We'd built our house a couple years back, and it wasn't exactly what I'd call conventional by any means. The garage really wasn't a garage at all, but more of a pole barn. Our house was made up of three pole barns connected. The one in the middle was where our kitchen, living room, laundry room, den, dining room, office, and all of that good stuff was. The garage was on the right side and the other pole bar on the left side was where all of the bedrooms were and another living room and a bar.

  As a teenager and even in my early twenties, I would never have expected to find myself in a place like this. A nice place that my coven had built from the ground up. We weren't wealthy, at all, and I believed my own family to have been cursed by outside forces. Read: The Council. But we'd worked really hard, scrounged every cent we could, and we made this happen. The property had been in Gunner's family for years and he was more than happy to donate it to the cause. Forty-five miles of wilderness and only our home on the land. No neighbors, and there was a small lake with a stream on the property. The stream cut through the backyard and made the view beautiful.

  Scout's father had been a normal man without magic, but his mother had been one of the rare females who'd had magic. She'd gotten pregnant when she was seventeen and her boyfriend had been twenty-five. He'd worked for his father's construction company, and when he found out she was pregnant he asked her to marry him. That particular story did not come with a happy ending for Scout's father, because no matter if she'd loved the man or not, he was not a witch and his mother had always dreamed of having a coven of her own one day. She'd gotten her own coven when Scout was three years old, but that didn't mean she'd tossed his father aside. She'd allowed the man to continue a relationship with his son, to be a father to him, but it had come at a great cost to her, because she'd had to hide her entire life from the man. But she'd done it, and because of that Scout had grown up in her coven with all of her men, but also being able to spend every other week with his father until he became a teen and his magic came in. Then he'd had to learn how to control it before his mother felt he could go back to spending time with his dad. The result? Scout grew up learning the ropes of his father's construction company, and when the man had an unfortunate heart attack that had taken his life, the company had passed from father to son like it had when his grandfather had passed.