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The rest of the evening, they spoke about their childhood. They had a great deal in common, the two of them in that they had to grow up without a lot of things. But she’d been homeless, and he’d had a roof over his head all his life. Plus, he had a great family that supported each other.
When it was midnight, they decided to go inside. It had been warm outside, so the air conditioner in the house made it seem ten times colder. He asked her if she wanted to spend the night, and she said that she didn’t want to have to make him take her home, but she wasn’t going to have sex with him. Not tonight.
“You let me know when you’re ready, and I’ll be there for you. But you’re right. We need to get to know one another a bit more, I think.” She agreed. “You take the master bedroom, and I’ll bunk in one of the other rooms. All of them have furniture in them, but I’ve been sleeping in the master.”
“I don’t want to take your bed from you.” He told her that she was his guest and she deserved the best. “All right, but only because I’m exhausted. But a good kind of exhaustion.”
“I feel the same way.” As they made their way up to the bedrooms, she didn’t know if she ever wanted to leave this place. It was homey and lovely, and it was the perfect place to have a family in. Getting ahead of herself a little, George scolded herself for being too optimistic about what was going on with the two of them.
Time will tell, she supposed. Tomorrow, she was going to meet her niece and nephew and try to figure out what she needed to do about them. The only thing that came to mind was that if she could raise them at all, it would be with Lance. He would be a great father and a good role model to them. Her too. He was one of a kind, and she thought that she was falling in love with him. Perhaps she was already in love with him, she thought. Which could be good or bad, depending on what happened when they met her.
Chapter 3
Cybil was desperate to find out how her daughter, Caroline, and her daughter’s husband, Tate, were so rich all of a sudden. Not only that, but even a mention of her name was having people gushing about how wonderful they were and that John, the little shit, was the best kid they’d ever met.
“Hogwash.” She wanted to strangle the kid every time she thought of him getting lippy with her. And telling on her about everything that had happened. She could be living in the lap of luxury if not for him. She needed to get on his good side, which she didn’t see happening as much as she hated the little tattletale, but she needed to get some money, and living on the streets wasn’t something she wanted to happen.
She thought of her husband then. Christ, he’d loved Caroline when she’d been born. If not for the fact that she’d been sick so much and he’d taken her to the emergency room when she’d passed out one morning, he wouldn’t have known about her either. But things had worked out for her. For a while, anyway. He’d been, all the way up until he’d told her no more spending very lavish with gifts for her because she’d given birth to a wonderful little girl. But that’s when things took a turn. The mother fucker told her that she couldn’t go on spending money like they had it. Come to find out, because of her, according to the will he’d left, there was no insurance payoff like she had counted on because they were broke. Not only that, but what little there was to be had, it was left to his darling, he actually called her that, his darling little girl, Caroline.
Cybil watched the comings and goings of the big building that she’d seen her daughter go in over an hour ago. Catching time with her, even if she had to confront her on the streets, was something she was going to do. She was hungry and needed to be taken care of. Her daughter, the ingrate, needed to step up to the plate and start doing her daughterly duty to her. Whatever that meant.
When Cybil came out of the building, she was dismayed to find that she wasn’t alone. While she didn’t know the other woman, she thought her to be picture perfect to be a model. However, she wasn’t who she wanted to talk to. It was Caroline, and she was damn well going to do right by her.
Hurrying across the street, nearly getting herself killed in the process, she pecked her daughter on the shoulder when she didn’t turn to acknowledge her. Finally, when she turned, she took a step back from her anger. It was palpable. It was so strong. When the other woman asked her what she wanted, it was difficult for her to think beyond how much her daughter looked like her father at that moment in his last minutes before she killed him.
“Thanks, Georgie, but I think I can handle her now.” Cybil turned to her when the other woman stepped back. But not far. “What do you want, Cybil? I think that I’ve made it perfectly clear that you and I are no longer related. I’m not going to help you, and I have no desire to breathe the same air as you are. Say what you need, then get out of my way.”
“When did you ever think that it was all right to speak to me that way? You’ll respect me, or I’ll take you to task.” They both laughed, the other two women. Laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world. “Perhaps you can bring me in on the joke. I don’t find it funny about how you’re treating me.”
“Frankly, Cybil, I could care less if you were to fall over dead right now.” Georgie, what the fuck kind of name was that told her to remind her of the meeting. “Oh. Yes, thank you. Cybil, you should get your affairs in order before too much longer. You’re going to be called to stand before the king of our kind for killing Dad. And a few other unexplained deaths that he’s going to be asking you about. You’ll not lie to me again about anything that I ever speak to you about.”
The magic or order, she thought, hit her hard. She wasn’t strong enough to stand up on her own, so she reached for Caroline, who backed away from her. Thankfully, she was able to grab onto the large mailbox that was on the street to hold onto it while her body took a beating from the magic that she’d placed on her. Cybil, weak as a kitten, tried her best to act like it didn’t affect her, but both of the other two could see that it had.
“What are you talking about? I have no time for such bullshit. Tell him to leave me alone, or I’ll…” There wasn’t a single thought in her head on what she could threaten her daughter with. Her ex-daughter, she supposed. “Look. I want you to take care of me. Slip me some cash when I need it so that I don’t have to be stealing food all the time. It’s the very least you can do for me since I did allow you to live.”
She’d not meant to say that, but with the magic, she couldn’t not talk to her without telling the truth. When a large man, one that she thought she could have sex with for days, not care if he killed her with it or not, came and put his arm around both of the other two.
“Back off, Cybil, or I’ll tear you apart.” There it was again. But this time, it was from the woman that had been called Georgie. That brutal look that reminded her once again at how her husband looked at her when he found out about the other children she’d aborted. “You should get away from here while the getting is good. Not that it will do you any good. As soon as Ronan calls for you, no matter where you are, you’ll be toast. I’m glad that I’m going to have a front-row seat to it. The entire family will be there to witness you getting your comeuppance.”
Turning on her heel, she left the three of them there. She was quite proud of herself for not making a scene until she remembered that she still didn’t have any money or a place to live. Turning back, remembering that she was willing to beg if that was what it took, she looked for a purse that she could take from Caroline to steal. Neither of the women had one, which she thought was strange beyond words, so she told her to give her something she could pawn.
“No.” That was it, just no. When she put out her hand, hoping that it didn’t get broken or something, Caroline just stared at it. “I’m not going to give you anything. Ever again. You’ve stolen enough from us for several lifetimes. Now get out of my life until the meeting. By the way, I’d get ready to meet your king if I were you. I don’t think he’s the least bit happy about you, either.”
“Like I care about that at the moment.” But she did and told Caroline that she was going to give her one more chance to give her money before she snatched her bald. The man, who she’d forgotten about until then, stepped in front of the two women and growled deep in his throat. “Can you use your words?”
The man, he was a fucking huge lion, shifted then and snarled at her again. This time, she could feel the hair on her neck dance and her entire body freeze in place. The need to submit to someone more powerful than her made her nauseous. This time, she didn’t waste any time by begging for money but made her way in the opposite direction of her daughter. Christ, he was a monster. She had to wonder if he was as big as the king and couldn’t quite imagine how he’d be.
Trembling so badly that she had to lean against the building she’d been living in until she thought that she could walk straight. The look in his mouth, those great, large teeth, made her realize just how tiny her husband had been. And she thought him to be a big lion.
“No trespassing. You’re going to have to move on.” She asked the man what he was talking about who was just suddenly in front of her. “The building is slated to be torn down in the morning. You won’t be able to stay there anymore.”
“What makes you think that I’ve been squatting here?” He said that he could smell her scent all over the place. “Then tell me what it is I’m supposed to do now. My daughter and son-in-law have turned me away. I have nowhere to live.”
“Caroline is my sister-in-law. I know what you’ve been trying to do. So before you try and spout off to me how they’ve mistreated you, I want you to know that I have the whole story. That’s the reason that we’re tearing down this building. The others, if you were to have a walk around them, would have guards around them in the form of wolves. I’d not mess with them, either. Move along before I have to move you.”
“Why don’t you have me arrested? That’s the only way that I’m not going to sneak into someone’s buildings and sleep. It’s the option I have left to me.” He told her that if she went to jail, they’d feed her and put a roof over her head. “Excellent. I’d like that option, please.”
“No. You could rob a bank right now, though I doubt you’d scare anyone into giving you a dime, and you’d not be arrested. We want you to suffer as much as you can until your trial date with Ronan.” She asked if she could just get it over with by paying a fine. “A fine? For murder? Why is it that everyone lately thinks that paying a fine is going to get them out of murdering someone? No, you aren’t going to be paying anything. Not that you have anything anyway. Just move along before I have to kick your ass. And while I wouldn’t normally hit a woman, I’d do that just to have the pleasure of knocking you stupider.”
