by Lara Adrian
With the diner buzzing with conversation now, Enoch moved closer to the register where she stood. Skewering her in a stare that made her skin crawl, he lowered his voice to a soft murmur. “He’s gotten to you, hasn’t he, girl? That blood-drinker. He got his fangs into you already. Or was it something else he stuck in you?”
Leni bristled. “How dare you speak to me like that? You’re disgusting.”
“No, Lenora. You are. What you’re doing with that subhuman ain’t right. It goes against nature.” He licked his thin, cracked lips. “I’m sure I could find a judge who agrees with me. One who’ll also agree that kind of environment’s not good for a child.”
The weight of the threat gave her pause. She knew Enoch Parrish would have no qualms about paying for a verdict in his favor. No judges worthy of their robes would rule that way, but there were others willing to bend laws for the right price. She had no doubt the Parrishes knew exactly who they could call.
Travis sauntered over, pausing beside his father. “Been a while, Leni.”
“Not long enough. I can’t believe they let you out early.”
His face hardened. “Well, they did. And things are going to change around here now that I’m home. All I’ve thought about these past six years is my son.”
She scoffed. “I’m shocked you could find the time, in between the bible studies you took up to impress the parole board and all the hours you’ve obviously spent working out in the prison gym.”
“People can change, Lenora.”
“Not you. And just to be clear,” she added, “Riley’s not your son. He never will be.”
His hard expression turned stony. “We’ll see about that.”
At that same moment, Riley burst out of the restroom like the force of nature he was. “I’m ready, Aunt Leni! I even washed my hands two times.”
“Good job, buddy.”
Travis’s big body went utterly still as his gaze lit on Riley. His breath gusted out of him on a low curse. “Shit. Look at him. He’s so big. I kept picturing a baby in my mind.”
Oblivious to the situation taking place across the diner, Riley skipped over to the back booth then halted. “Hey, where’s my mac-n-cheese?”
“I’ve got it for you right here,” Leni said. “Come around behind the counter with me, kiddo.”
As reluctant as she was to bring him any closer to the Parrishes, she needed the reassurance of a solid barrier between her and Riley and the two men who were determined to take him from her. To her relief, he obeyed without a hint of resistance. Entering from the open end opposite her and his father, he shuffled up to her side. Leni wrapped her arm around his shoulders and drew him close.
Travis never took his eyes off him for a second. “Hi there, Riley.”
“Hi. Can I have my mac-n-cheese now, please?” He tilted his face up at Leni, giving her a goofy grin.
She brushed some of his pale blond hair away from his eyes. “Yes, you can. Why don’t you eat your lunch in the kitchen?”
“He’s got his daddy’s smile,” Enoch said, patting Travis’s hand, which was gripped on the edge of the counter.
“I don’t have a daddy,” Riley stated matter-of-factly. “I don’t have a mom, either.”
“You’ve got a mom,” Leni countered. “You’ll always have your mom. Remember what I told you about that?”
He nodded, touching the center of his chest. “She lives in here.”
“That’s right. Until we see her again, you need to keep her right there in your heart.”
Enoch’s airless chuckle rattled quietly. “Sweet sentiment. But I’ve always believed little boys need their fathers more than they need their mothers. Don’t you agree, Travis?”
“Yeah. I sure do.”
Leni bristled, her hold on Riley tightening. “Are you two going to order something? If not, I’ll thank you both to leave so I can get back to work.”
“Oh, hey.” Travis snapped his fingers. “I just remembered. I brought something for you, Riley.”
He stared at the stranger, confused. “You did?”
Before Leni knew what he was doing, Travis reached into his coat pocket and withdrew a shiny new phone. He woke the screen and held it out to Riley. “It’s got some fun games on it, and if you push this button we can talk to each other anytime we want to.”
“Cool.”
Leni snatched it away before Riley had a chance to touch the device. She handed it back to Travis. “He’s too young for a phone, and he has no reason to call you.”
“I had a feeling you might say that.” He stared at her for a long moment, then smiled. “So, I brought something for you too.”
He pulled a white envelope out of his pocket and slapped it down on the counter. “It’s a court order for a paternity test.”
Riley glanced innocently up at her. “What’s a per-ternity test?”
Travis gave her a thin smile. “Do you want to tell him, or should I?”
Leni glared at his smug expression as she picked up the plate of macaroni and cheese and handed it to Riley. “Go on, eat your lunch before it’s cold. I’ll bring your chocolate milk in. Just give me a minute, all right?”
He nodded, then pushed through the swinging door into the kitchen as she’d asked.
As soon as he was gone, she reached beneath the counter. Holding the envelope in one hand, the flaming tip of a long-nosed lighter in the other, she touched fire to the edge of the court order. She held Travis’s gaze as she let the document burn.
He shook his head. “You shouldn’t have done that, Leni. I thought you were the smart one.”
She threw the burning envelope at him. He batted it away, then stomped it out with his boot when it drifted to the tile floor.
“Get out of my diner,” Leni said. “Both of you, stay out of our lives.”
Enoch sneered. “I told you, son. She’s a dumb slut, just like her sister.”
“Dumb sluts get hurt,” Travis said. “Sometimes, they disappear.”
“Are you threatening me? You’re not out of prison two days and you’re already itching so much to go back you’re going to threaten me in front of half a dozen witnesses?”
He swung a glance at the diner full of people, all of them watching and listening now. Enoch curled his gnarled fingers in the sleeve of Travis’s coat. “Come on, son. We’re obviously wasting our time with her.”
“Yes, you are,” Leni agreed. “So, go.”
They took their time about it, but after a few moments they were gone.
Leni sagged onto her elbows on the counter. What had she just done? She couldn’t let them intimidate her, but dammit, she hadn’t meant to escalate the situation, either.
Shuffling footsteps approached from the other side of the counter. Then a hand landed gently on her bent shoulder.
Old Claude heaved a long sigh. “Lenora, I’m worried for you. Don’t you realize it’s dangerous to draw a line in the sand with folks like the Parrishes?”
She lifted her head. “Yes, I know that. Maybe it’s time someone did it anyway.”
CHAPTER 18
Leni came back to the house just before sundown, carrying a sleeping Riley in her arms.
Knox met her at the back door. After prowling the confines of the house like a caged animal all day, he’d been counting down the seconds until nightfall when it would be safe for him to run out and hunt for a blood Host. Now that Leni was back, his only concern was the look of utter fatigue on her beautiful face.
The defeat he saw in her eyes disturbed him even more.
He’d never seen her so dejected, not even after his boorish behavior with her yesterday.
Worry pulled his face into a scowl. He reached out to take her burden. “Let me help you with him.”
“No.” A single word, crisp with finality. “I can manage. He conked out after supper in the diner. I need to put him to bed.”
She walked past Knox without meeting his gaze. Her continued cold shoulder irked him, but the tension he
saw in her spine and carefully schooled expression hinted at something more than just aggravation with him.
Knox’s scowl deepened, along with his concern. “Did something happen today, Leni?”
“Nothing I can’t handle.”
With that quiet statement, she walked up the stairs to the bedroom on the second floor.
Knox waited below as the old floorboards creaked under her soft footsteps. After a few moments, he heard her make her way from Riley’s room to the master bedroom at the other end of the hall. She closed the door behind her and didn’t come out.
Ten minutes passed, then several more.
Knox swore under his breath. If she thought he was going to play along for another round of avoidance, she was sorely mistaken. If being near her without wanting to feel her in his arms was a torment he could barely withstand, being ignored by her was even worse.
And he couldn’t deny the fact that he was troubled by her withdrawn demeanor.
Something was wrong.
Something had happened to upset her, and every combat instinct inside him was certain it had everything to do with Travis Parrish.
He took the steps three at a time, then stole down the hallway to her bedroom. His knock went unanswered. So did his low request for her to let him in.
Then he heard the faint sound of her hitched breath coming from somewhere inside. Followed by a muffled sob.
“Damn it.” Knowing he had no right to barge into her private quarters didn’t stop him from reaching for the doorknob. It was unlocked, though hardly an invitation for him to enter.
“Lenora?” He stepped inside, drawn to the hushed sounds of her crying inside the adjoining bathroom. She was still wearing her navy pea coat and boots, sitting on the closed toilet seat with her face in her hands, her body curved into itself as she wept. “Ah, Christ. Leni.”
He crouched before her and gathered her into his arms. She didn’t resist his embrace. All of the fight seemed gone from her as she continued crying into his chest.
“It’s all right now. I’ve got you.” It was a miracle his voice didn’t sound more unearthly than it did. Rage poured through him at the feel of her trembling in his arms. “You heard from Travis today?”
She nodded, sniffling. “He came into the diner this afternoon with his father, Enoch.”
The bastard had gotten within arm’s length of her while he’d been holed up waiting for the sun to go down? Fuck.
Knox wanted to punch his fist through something—preferably, Travis Parrish’s face.
“Tell me what happened, sweetheart.” His reply was toneless with the depth of his fury. “What did he do? And God help him if he laid as much as a finger on you.”
“No, nothing like that,” she said, shaking her head. Her tears slowed as Knox caressed her back. She lifted her head, glancing up at him with red-rimmed eyes. “He’s managed to get the law on his side now. He came in with a court order for a paternity test on Riley.”
“Shit. Where is it?”
“I lit the damn thing on fire and threw it back in his face. Then I told him to get out of my diner and not come back.”
Knox felt a smile tug at the edge of his mouth in spite of the gravity of the situation. “You’re amazing, you know that?”
She frowned. “I’m only doing what I have to do. I have to keep Riley safe. I have to keep him out of the Parrishes’ hands. For Shannon as much as anyone else, I have to do whatever it takes to protect him.”
Knox didn’t miss the fact that she was excluding him from that equation. Sometime between yesterday morning and tonight, she had determined she was on her own when it came to taking on Travis and his family.
It wasn’t going to go over well when he informed her he’d arranged for a safe house without conferring with her. That the remote location a couple hours away from Parrish Falls belonged to the Breed warriors of the Order was only going to add a lot of gasoline to that fire.
“There’s more, Knox.” Leni’s voice took on a strangled edge. “Travis said something to me before he left. Something indirectly about Shannon.”
“What about her?”
Tears welled up in her eyes again, emotion choking her words. “He got mad after I burned up the court order. He told me I shouldn’t have done it. His father called me a dumb slut. Travis agreed. He said, ‘Sometimes dumb sluts get hurt.’ Then he said, ‘Sometimes they disappear.’”
Knox’s growl vibrated deep in his chest. Not only because of the two men who’d spoken to her like that, but because of the threat those words carried.
And underneath the awful words was the intimation that Leni might have been right about the Parrishes’ involvement in Shannon’s absence.
Leni sagged against him, releasing a broken sob. “What if they killed her, Knox? Oh, God. What if she really is dead?”
He wanted that answer as much as she did. Maybe more than she did, because if it turned out Travis or any of his kin had anything to do with harming Leni’s sister, he was going to kill every last one of them with his bare hands.
He pressed a kiss to the top of Leni’s head. “We’re going to find out what happened to her, I promise.”
A small, pained moan escaped her.
“Don’t do that,” she whispered, pulling herself away from him even though it was clear to him that she needed the comfort. She frowned, shaking her head as she searched his gaze. “Don’t let me think you care about me.”
“I do care.”
She drew back farther, then got to her feet and moved near the glass-enclosed shower. It was about as far as she could get from him without entirely leaving the room. She swiped at the salty streaks that wet her face. “Yesterday, you said you didn’t want to add to my problems.”
“That’s right.” He stood, but remained where he was because he had the feeling one wrong move would send his brave, beautiful Leni running from him now. “I don’t want to do anything that’s going to hurt you or make things harder for you.”
“Don’t you get it?” She scowled at him, looking cornered and afraid. “By being kind like this, you are hurting me. Just by being here like this, you’re making things harder.”
Fuck. He had felt like the worst kind of bastard yesterday. Now, his self-directed anger multiplied tenfold. “I’m sorry for what I said. For the way I acted. All of it.”
She swallowed, her hazel eyes still wary and untrusting, still wounded. “I’m the one at fault. I asked something of you I had no right to—starting that first night when I assumed I could simply ask you to kill someone just to make my life easier.”
“That wasn’t why you asked me to deal with Travis Parrish. You were scared, Leni. By my guess, you were terrified of what he might be willing to do to take Riley away from you. After what he said to you at the diner today, I don’t think you were far off the mark.”
“But that’s not your duty, Knox. Just like it’s not your obligation to put your life on hold to help protect us—no matter what my Breedmate mark seems to make you believe.”
He exhaled sharply. “Your mark isn’t the reason I’m here now. It never was. I would’ve wanted to help you, protect you, even if I’d never seen it.”
“I don’t need protecting, remember? I don’t break. Nothing can wound me, not even Travis Parrish.”
“But I’ve wounded you,” Knox pointed out. He let a curse hiss through his teeth. “I saw that yesterday when you offered me your blood and I refused it.”
She gave him a withered look. “I don’t want to talk about that right now.”
“I do, Lenora.” He took a step toward her. “You offered me a gift, a sacred one. I threw it back in your face. Not because I didn’t recognize the honor of what you were willing to give me. I couldn’t take your blood because I’m not deserving of your bond.”
Her eyes held his solemn stare. She still looked as though she might bolt at any second, but she remained unmoving, watching him slowly close the distance between them.
“I don’t kno
w how to be what you need, Leni, what you deserve. You make me want to be something I’ve never been before.”
Her brows knit over her uncertain gaze. “Not even with Abbie?”
“No. Not even with her.” He reached out to Leni, smoothing an errant tendril of dark brown hair from where it stuck to her damp cheek. “Abbie and I didn’t share a blood bond. She died on the night I planned to ask her to be my mate. Before her, I’d never let anyone in that close. Losing her gutted me.”
Leni’s breath sighed out of her lungs. “I’m sorry, Knox. I can’t imagine how painful that must’ve been for you.”
He nodded, recalling the depth of his anguish and his guilt. It had stayed with him for all of the past eight years. “The thought of hurting you has been its own kind of hell, Leni. So was not seeing you, not talking to you. Knowing I’d wounded your heart made me want to walk right back into the sun and stay there.”
“Knox, no.” Her expression softened along with her voice. She placed her hands on the sides of his jaw. “I hated seeing you in pain. It killed me to see your handsome face scorched so badly.”
“I told you I’d recover,” he murmured, her tender touch stirring his arousal. He hadn’t followed her upstairs out of lust, but it was impossible to be anywhere near her and not burn with the need to touch her, to kiss her. He leaned forward and brushed his mouth over hers.
When he drew away from her lips, Leni gave him a sheepish smile. “I had planned to ask you to leave when I got home tonight.”
He arched a brow, though he was unsurprised to hear the newsflash. God knew he’d earned it. “Is that still what you want?”
She shook her head. “I didn’t really want it even then.”
“Good.”
He kissed her again, reveling in the feel of her mouth against his. As they kissed, he swept her winter coat off her shoulders so he could feel her body’s warmth under his hands. She melted into his embrace, but there was no hiding the tension in the fine muscles of her back and shoulders.
The stress of her confrontation with the Parrishes was still riding her, and while he knew how to give her physical pleasure, what she needed even more than that was comfort and reassurance.
