Chapter Four
Neil set Caitlyn down but held her hand, knowing exactly why these creatures were terrified of him. Obviously, they are prey animals, and they know a predator when they see one. He looked from the horses and then back at her, feeling slightly ashamed, uncomfortable. “I, um, I think I smell different.”
Jordan stared at him, uncomprehending. “They know what people are,” she protested.
But I’m not exactly human. Neil couldn’t tell her that, though he heartily wished he could. “Maybe they’ll get used to me,” he replied lamely.
Not wanting to cause the animals to panic again, he stayed where he was while Jordan tossed grass over the fence to them. Caitlyn tugged on his hand again. “Come on.”
“No, I think I’d better stay away. The horses are scared of me.”
She gazed up at him. “Why?”
“I don’t know, little one.”
“Caitlyn, go feed the chickens, please.”
Wanting to go with her but fearing to set even more creatures into a terror-driven panic, he merely watched as the child ran across the yard to a large pen made of interwoven wire, Axel trotting happily alongside. She scooped some grain from a barrel, then threw it inside to the birds. Turning his attention back to the horses, Neil watched them approach cautiously.
They lowered their heads to the grass, still watching him nervously, but when he made no move toward them, they relaxed. He observed Jordan filling a water tank, her expression tight, and he knew the animals’ reaction to him worried her.
It took Jordan and Caitlyn about thirty minutes to complete their work, and then Jordan strode toward him with a fake smile plastered in place. “All right, we can head to town now.”
“What are we gonna do in town, Mommy?” Caitlyn asked, holding Neil’s hand once more.
“Neil needs new clothes, sweetie. Remember?”
“Oh, yeah, huh.”
Neil noticed Jordan hardly looked at him on the short walk to the house. I suppose it’s best if I don’t come back here with them. Bitterness, like ashes in his mouth, rose as Jordan went into the house for her keys and purse. He and four others had been sent away, exiled for the offense of being themselves. Now he must live among people he could not and did not understand.
Treated like a pariah wherever I go. I’m expected to live among them, become one of them, but I can’t. No home, no welcome anywhere. He had been ordered to find work among the humans, but Neil doubted he could do that, either. I should become what I was born to be.
Waiting by the truck while Caitlyn laughed and tussled with Axel, who licked her face and barked, Neil absently wondered what it would be like to have offspring. That’s not something I’ll ever know. Not now. Caitlyn’s simple innocence appealed to him in a way the youngsters of his kind never did.
Jordan emerged from the house. “All set?” she asked brightly, yet again, she did not look directly at Neil.
Neil didn’t speak as she moved the small seat for Caitlyn to the back seat, leaving him the front. “Mommy, can Axel come?”
“Not today, sweetie.”
Neil absently rubbed the dog’s ears while Axel leaned his full weight against his legs. Panting lightly, Axel stared up at him with simple adoration, a love that Neil had done nothing at all to earn. Is that the nature of a dog? To offer unconditional love and loyalty? These creatures certainly are fascinating.
With Caitlyn strapped into her seat, Neil left the dog to climb in beside Jordan. “Buckle up,” she told him, and Neil wished she would look at him.
He followed what she did and buckled the harness around himself as Jordan backed the truck up. Axel watched as she turned the truck around but made no move to chase after them. “He won’t run away?” he asked, just for the sake of saying something.
“No, he’s really good about staying in the yard or the house,” Jordan replied. “He leaves the stock alone.”
As Caitlyn sang to herself, Neil gazed out the window at the passing scenery, the silence between himself and Jordan long and uncomfortable. Deciding that he would not come back with them, he reached into his pocket for the thick wad of cash he’d been given. Peeling off a few with large numbers on them, he set them on the seat between them.
“For your care of me,” he said, then shoved the rest into his pocket.
“No, hey, that’s too much,” Jordan protested. “And I hit you, remember?”
“Keep it anyway.”
Ignoring her demands that he take it back, Neil stared out the window. He observed the brown and white cattle in the fields and absently pondering living on them. Feeding when he grew hungry yet staying away from humans. I don’t belong here.
“—apartment.”
Neil swung back toward her. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t listening.”
“I was just saying that there are jobs you can get, and some decent apartments to live in.”
“Oh. Maybe.” He stared out the window again. “I might just move on.”
Jordan stayed silent so long that Neil expected that she had dropped the matter entirely and would be fine seeing the last of him. Then she said, “It might be nice to see you again if you didn’t. Move on, that is.”
He turned his head enough to watch her from the corner of his eye. “Why? I’m getting the impression you’ll be quite happy to see me gone.”
“That’s not it at all,” she replied, her voice quiet. “I’m just—scared. First Axel, then the horses. Why are animals so frightened of you?”
“They know what I am.”
“And what is that?”
Neil stared out his window. “A predator.”
“Now that’s just nonsense,” she snapped. “What sort of predator? You don’t sexually prey on children, do you?”
Neil spun around. “What? Of course not. How can you think that?”
“Because that’s about the only predator that walks on two legs these days.”
“Are you saying your people don’t hunt?” he demanded, growing cross. “They don’t kill deer? You raise cattle for meat—are you not also a predator, even if you slaughter them wholesale and sell the meat in markets?”
Jordan finally looked at him. “Is that what you mean? Because you’re a hunter, my horses are terrified of you?”
“I can’t tell you any more than that.”
“Why not?”
“It’s forbidden.”
Jordan uttered a caustic laugh, then said nothing else. Fearing he had already revealed more than he should, Neil didn’t speak again as the truck rolled into the streets of the town. It was a busy place, with other vehicles driving around or parked along the street, people walking along sidewalks. Some entered and left the many shops that lined the broad avenue. Jorden found a spot large enough for the truck and parked it.
“This sporting goods store should have everything you need,” Jordan said, her tone neutral as she got Caitlyn out of her seat.
Neil climbed out of the truck and closed the door, gazing at the shop with shirts, pants, boots, and signs in the front windows. Other people entered, some left, and Jordan held Caitlyn’s hand as she led the way into it. Wondering at her strange behavior, Neil followed, intending to inform her he would not be going back with them.
“Jordan,” he said, catching up to her in the midst of racks of jeans and signs proclaiming ten percent off.
She paused to look at him, her expression tight, yet with a strange neutrality in her large dark eyes. “Look,” he told her, glancing down at Caitlin, “there’s no need for you to stay with me. I’m leaving.”
Jordan blinked, and Caitlyn exclaimed, “Why?”
“You helped me when I needed it,” he went on, his tone gentle, and he tenderly touched Caitlyn’s small face. “Now I should move on.”
“You don’t have to, Neil,” Jordan said, her lips twisting in something that resembled pain. “I’m sorry if I seemed cold to you. Like I said, I just got a little spooked.”
Neil smiled. “Then I should go.
I don’t want you scared.”
“I’m not scared,” Caitlyn piped up. “I love you, Neil.”
Squatting to be on an eye level with her, Neil took her small hands in his. “I love you, too, little one. But I don’t belong here.”
“Yes, you do.”
Caitlyn started to cry and effectively broke Neil’s heart. He picked her up and held her against his neck, gazing at Jordan. “Stay a few more days,” she murmured, her own eyes glistening.
He shook his head. “Then it’ll be that much harder on her,” he replied. Holding the little girl close for a few moments, he kissed her wet cheek, then handed her to Jordan. Caitlyn wailed all the more, sobbing, her face red as Neil turned and walked away.
Wandering around the store, Neil absently purchased a few pairs of jeans, some shirts, socks, and a backpack to put them in. No one paid him much attention as he shopped, and he stood patiently in line to pay for them. Thinking he’d find a grocery store to buy food, he also contemplated Jordan’s suggestion of an apartment to live in.
I should move on. Find someplace else. Or maybe go into the mountains and live off the land. He liked that idea and seriously contemplated it as the clerk rang up his items and he paid for them from the wad of cash in his pocket.
Taking the bags, Neil walked out of the sporting goods store and out into the midmorning sunlight. Pausing on the sidewalk to look around for a grocery store, he saw Jordan a block away. Caitlyn wasn’t just crying now as she clung to her mother’s leg—she was screaming. A blond-haired man leaned into Jordan’s face, his own a mask of rage, Jordan’s expression tense, maybe even frightened.
Jordan might not be his mate, but Neil’s possessive and protective instincts kicked in just the same. He had a pretty good idea who the man who yelled at Jordan was, and remembered he had a tendency to be violent. Striding down the sidewalk, Neil also noticed the people on the street passed them by with only embarrassed glances at them, but none interfered.
“I will fucking kill you,” the man roared at Jordan, his finger jabbing into her face. “I am taking Caitlyn.”
Jordan stood her ground, and Neil admired her courage even as he drew closer. “No, you won’t. You touch her, and I’ll call the cops.”
“Go ahead,” he sneered. “I’ll be in Canada before they get their asses moving. Caitlyn, you’re coming with me.”
Caitlyn wailed and screamed as the man tried to grab her by the shoulder. Jordan blocked his move, and the man swung his arm back, his face enraged. His fist, aimed at her face, headed toward her. Seeing it coming, Jordan tried to step back, to get away from it.
The fist slapped straight into Neil’s hand.
The man, Neil now recalled his name as Knox, stared hard in shock as Neil gripped his clenched fist. “You will leave the lady alone,” Neil growled softly. “Unless you want to lose your balls.”
Jordan swept behind him with Caitlyn even as Knox yanked his hand out of Neil’s. “Who the fuck are you?” he demanded.
“Nobody.”
“That’s my wife and child, asshole,” Knox snarled. “You get out of my way.”
“Your former wife,” Neil corrected. “And you have no right to that baby.”
“I have every right.”
Knox reached behind him and pulled something from his hip pocket. When he clicked a button, a long slim knife snapped out. He grinned. “You’re gonna die, sucker.”
He slashed the blade at Neil’s face, but Neil was faster. He seized Knox’s wrist, and twisted hard, forcing the man’s arm up behind his back. Knox cried out in pain while Neil plucked the knife from his fingers. “Nice toy,” he said casually, examining it. “I think I’ll keep it.”
“Let me go, dammit.”
“Neil,” Jordan said, her tone urgent. “Let him go. Someone is going to call the cops.”
While he wasn’t quite sure what cops were or why they were important, Neil released Knox’s arm. The man spun around, rubbing his painful wrist, pure evil and menace in his eyes. Neil advanced on him, holding the knife toward his throat. Knox, now alarmed, backed away until Neil had him against the wall.
“Stay away from her,” Neil said, his voice deadly quiet. “You really do not want to make me angry.”
Chapter Five
Terrified that someone had called the police and that Neil, not Knox, would be arrested, Jordan tugged on his arm. “Let’s go,” she hissed. “Let him be, please.”
She wasn’t just afraid someone had already called the police, however. Jordan had taken a single look at Neil’s face, and she knew instantly that Knox was in real peril of being killed. Never before had she seen such cold menace and danger emanating from a man before. If Knox was violent, Neil’s pale, icy eyes were those of a predator.
A killer.
“Please,” she whispered.
Never before had she ever seen Knox terrified. He’s always terrifying others. Neil dragged the tip of the blade down Knox’s cheek from his eye, and Jordan swore Knox was going to wet his jeans. Knox licked his lips, frozen.
“I can be the demon from your nightmares, Knox,” Neil said, his voice soft. “I can roast you where you stand. This is your only warning.”
Then, as though he had just passed a casual conversation on the street, Neil turned away. Taking Jordan by the arm, he stuck the blade in his jeans pocket and swung Caitlyn into his arm. Bending, he swept his bags into his other hand and walked beside her down the street.
Jordan shot a swift glance over her shoulder. Knox leaned against the wall, his head back as though he had only then realized he had escaped a terrible fate. Maybe he just did.
“You can be one mean guy when you want to be,” Jordan commented, her voice quivering under the strain.
“Hush, little one.” Neil’s voice, low and soothing, spoke comfortingly to Caitlyn. “It’s all okay now.”
Caitlyn, her face hidden in his neck, gradually ceased her sobs and screams but continued to clutch him as though he were a life preserver. He reached the truck, and Jordan opened the rear door immediately. Caitlyn cried out, “No,” and started crying again, but Neil didn’t try to put her in her car seat. Instead, he sat on the rear seat, his feet on the pavement, and slowly rocked her.
Caitlyn, soothed by his voice and the gentle rocking, fell asleep on his shoulder. Jordan, deeply grateful for not just his intervention, but also his easy way with her daughter, leaned against the side of the truck.
“That was bad,” she murmured, gazing over the street and absently wondering why no one called the cops.
“Knox is an evil man,” Neil said softly, yet when she met his eyes, they were the same as when he stared Knox down. Cold, dangerous, and predatory. Jordan shivered when she looked into them.
“He wasn’t always like this,” she replied, rubbing her arms. “I loved him once. In those days, he knew how to make me laugh. He loved me in those days, too. Then he went to prison and came out a changed man.”
“You’re not safe, Jordan,” Neil went on, his inflection soothing and the direct opposite of his words. “He has no intention of letting you live.”
She tried to laugh. “Oh, come on now, this a custody battle, not the Mafia. Once he realizes he can’t have Caitlyn, he’ll back off.”
Adjusting Caitlyn, asleep on his shoulder, Neil pulled the switchblade from his pocket, and only then did she realize he had never retracted the blade. How did he not slice himself to ribbons?
“Does this look like an empty threat, Jordan?” he asked, showing her the deadly weapon. “Your people shun violence, yes? Make no mistake, had I not been there, this would have ended up in your throat.”
Swallowing hard, Jordan nodded slowly. “You’re right. I saw it in his eyes when he said he would kill me. He meant it.”
“He did.”
“So, what do I do?” Jordan asked, near panic. “I can’t go to the cops; they’ll only take a report. I can get a restraining order, but it’s paper. He’ll go to jail for an extra six months for killing
me because he violated it. Caitlyn will have no one if he kills me.”
“Or he’ll escape to Canada with her.”
“That, too. And I’ll be no less dead.”
Jordan, more scared than she had ever been in her life, watched the traffic go by on the street, the citizens who didn’t have violent ex-husbands stalking them walked by on the sidewalks, shopping in hand. They laughed and talked, and she absently wondered if any of them had problems.
“Please stay,” she said at last, speaking before she could force herself to change her mind. “I’ll hire you, pay you, to protect Caitlyn and me.”
“What?”
Scared enough to continue, she met his pale eyes. “You can handle Knox. You’re tougher than he is. It’s clear you know how to fight. He’ll back off if he knows you’re around. He’ll leave us alone.”
Neil stared at the pavement under his boots. “It’ll make him more determined than ever,” he said slowly. “He will try to kill me.”
“He’s scared of you.”
Neil looked up with a faint grin. “Not nearly scared enough. But before I agree, I need to know something first.”
“Go ahead.”
“How are you going to feel if I have to kill him?”
The denial came to Jordan’s lips—it won’t come to that—then she looked at the switchblade in his fingers and Caitlyn asleep on his shoulder. “I—I won’t hold you responsible.”
“Are you sure about that?”
She drew a deep ragged breath. “Yeah. I’m sure. I will pray you don’t, but after what I saw today, it’s possible Knox will do something stupid.”
“All right, I’ll stay. But you don’t pay me. I could not leave if I knew you and this little one were in grave danger.”
“No, I have to pay you, Neil. It wouldn’t be right if I didn’t.”
Shifting Caitlyn so he could put her in her car seat, Neil then examined the switchblade, pushed the button, and retracted the blade. He grinned. “I like this gadget.” He then shoved into his hip pocket.
Standing up, he gently brushed his fingers down Jordan’s cheek. “I will protect you, Jordan.”
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