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Storm and Aaron exchanged a look before the teenaged girl slanted a look back at the door and said in a saccharine voice, “Sure, he can come in. But if he gets nasty with you, I might pop him in the mouth, Ms. Bella. I’m tired and my temper runs short when I’m tired.”
Isabel sighed and pushed a hand through her hair before giving Storm a warning look. Storm gave her an angelic smile. Isabel shifted her gaze to Jacob. “She may be pulling your leg. She may not be. And the last time she threatened to pop a kid in the mouth, she knocked out two of his teeth—he was bigger than you. That was before she came here, but I heard about it from her caseworker.”
“I just want to know what in the hell is going on,” Jacob said in a surly voice, opting to totally ignore Storm’s comment.
“Then come on in, sit down, and shut up.” Isabel gave him a hard look, then did the same at the older two before giving Brooklyn a softer version. “As hard as it is for you to be quiet, Brooks, you need to hold your tongue, too.”
“Okay.” She licked her lips, then whispered, “But where is Travis?”
“He’ll be back.” Moving to the window seat, Isabel sat down. “I’m trusting all of you to be responsible enough about this to keep it to yourself. And I might have to keep you all home from school for a few days until I find out what’s going on—it’snota get-out-of-jail-free card. You’ll still be doing your lessons here on the computer.”
“Fine,”Jacob snapped, jamming his thin shoulders against the wall and glaring at her. “Just tell us what happened.”
Taking a deep breath, she said, “I can’t tell you everything. It’s not safe—and I made an agreement.” She gave Aaron a hard look when he started to interrupt. “Regardless of how tough life has made some of you—” and she wouldn’t belittle them by pointing out that they were just kids. She’d just been a kid, too, and she’d taken down Wilson Steele. “I made agreements and I gave my word. You know how I feel about honoring promises.”
When none of them balked, she smoothed her damp hands down her yoga pants and gave a very brief, very redacted version of the events—she’d once had knowledge of a man who’d done horrible things and she’d helped put him and several of his accomplices away in federal prison. One of them had found her.
She’d had to pick and choose her words very carefully because she couldn’t risk any of them finding out anything that might identify her—that could endanger them. When she was finished, Aaron huffed out a breath. “I could drive trucks through the holes in that story with how much you left out.”
“I already told you I can’t tell you everything,” Isabel said.
Aaron went to shoot something back at her.
Storm laid a hand on his thin shoulder and squeezed. “Is he dangerous?” she asked.
“He could be. And if you want, I’ll find new homes for each of you. I might have to, anyway.”
“No!” Brooklyn lurched off the bed and propelled herself to Isabel. “No, Ms. Bella. If we go, you’re alone. And Travis is here. He’ll protect you.”
Isabel had stopped expecting anybody to protect her a long time ago. But, yeah, her heart warmed at the thought of Travis Barnes ... her knight.
“I’m not alone, baby,” she said, stroking her hand down Brooklyn’s soft, downy hair. “Even aside from Travis, the people who’ve been protecting me are already aware of what’s going on. They’ll find out what happened, how he found me ... and they’ll take action.”
“That’s if they get here first,” Jacob mumbled.
He was looking outside the window, a hard, angry look on his face.
“They’ve never let me down.” She said it gently, and she saw him flinch.
“Cops,” he said with a sneer. “They’ve never doneanythingbut let me down.”
He turned on his heel and stormed out, all but plowing into Travis as he left.
Brooklyn bolted off the bed and dashed to Travis, wrapping her arms around his legs and clinging to him. “Are you going to protect Ms. Bella?”
“I think Ms. Bella can protect herself,” he said after shooting a look at Isabel. His lean face softened with a smile and he hunkered down in front of the girl to brush his knuckles over her cheek. “But I’m going to make sure nobody hurts any of you.”
“She said a bad man hurt her once and she put him in prison.”
“I know.” Travis dropped a kiss on Brooklyn’s brow, then scooped her up. “She’s a brave woman, Brooklyn. And a smart one. I need to talk to her about a few things. Can you stay with Aaron and Storm for a while? Ms. Bella and me, we need to talk to a friend of mine.”
“But—”
He gave her a look.
She huffed out a breath. “Fine.”
“You have to tell me how you do that,” Isabel said as she followed him out of the room, closing the door behind them.
