by Maddy Barone
“I don’t hate you.” Gina was almost surprised by her swift words. That didn’t mean she was going to forget all the years of her mother putting Todd first. “I’m angry with you. It seemed like you didn’t care enough about me. You cared more about him. I understand better now, but that doesn’t erase the last decade.”
Silent tears slid into the hair at her mom’s temples. “Gi-Gi, I’m sorry. I am so sorry.”
Tears stung her own eyes at the forgotten nickname. She hadn’t been called Gi-Gi since her father died. “It will be okay. Like you said, we’re free now. You freed us when you shot him.”
“I had to do it.” Her mom’s voice was thick with tears. “I’ve never killed anyone before, but he would have killed you if I hadn’t stopped him. I had to do it.”
“I’m glad you did.” She could feel the bruises on her throat when she swallowed. “It worked out. He’s dead and we’re with people who will take care of us and never threaten us or use one of us against the other. We’re safe now.”
Her heart lightened when she said that. The truth of it was like the sun, chasing away shadows and warming the cold places in her heart. Maybe the mother she had despised for years could become a real mother. Maybe they could learn how to love one another again. Cole had been right. He said they could learn to love one another if they tried, and somehow she had fallen in love with him.
“Are we safe here?” her mom asked cautiously.
“Yes, we are safe here. Mom? What do you think about Jay?”
Her mom was silent for a long moment, and when she spoke it wasn’t about Jay. “Tell me about your husband.”
“Cole.” She smiled a little. “He’s not perfect. He gets bossy and tries to order me around. He’s gotten angry with me a time or two. He never tries to manipulate me. He doesn’t threaten. He’s never raised a hand to me. He would die to keep me safe.”
“He loves you.”
“And I love him. He is what a husband should be. I think he learned that from his dad.”
“That’s good.” Her mom nodded. “Okay. What do you think about Jay?”
“I only met him just now. But if he’s like the other men of his family I think you can trust him.”
Her mom went back to pleating the sheet. “I can’t have any more children.”
“I doubt Jay cares. Why don’t you take some time to get to know him? ”
“How much time would he be willing to give me?”
The bitter note in her mom’s voice made Gina wince. “He’s waited a long time for the right woman. Ask him. I bet he’s willing to give you all the time you need.”
Her mom smoothed out the pleats she’d created and looked at Gina. “I’ll think about it.”
“Mom, you deserve to be happy.” She reached and gently picked up her mom’s hand. “We both do.”
Fingers tightened over her own. “Can we start over, Georgina?”
Gina paused, looking for an answer that was both honest and nice. Years of resentment and disappointment were hard to dismiss in a day, but this was a new life for both of them. She could hang on to her bitterness or put it behind her. “I think we can.”
“Good. Jay told me he would take me to where he lives as soon as I’m well enough. You’ll live there too. We’ll start a new life there. A better life.”
“Yes.” It appealed to Gina. This woman had suffered under Todd too. Gina wasn’t sure they would ever be as close as Carla and Patia were, but they could build some sort of relationship. “Are you tired now? Should I leave you to rest?”
“I am a little tired.” Her mom gave her hand a squeeze before letting it go. “Could you ask Jay to come back in? I think I rest better when he is near.”
A few minutes later, Gina left Jay sitting in the chair, his knees touching the edge of her mom’s bed, while he whispered to her.
She walked down the mezzanine to the stairs, where she found she had to pause for a minute to steady her knees. She used the banister to support her weight as she went down one step at a time. A young man she didn’t know leapt up the stairs. He was young, perhaps her husband’s age, his jeans and cotton shirt showing off his long and lean build, with his nearly white blond hair in two braids reaching almost to his waist.
“Wait! Let me help you,” he said.
He may have meant to be polite, but it was an order, not a request. Clearly, he was related to her husband in some way even though he was blond and blue eyed. And he didn’t bother with giving her an arm to lean on. He picked her up and carried her downstairs, across the room, and into the private dining room off the kitchen, where he placed her solicitously into a chair.
“There.” He stood back and smiled at her. “We haven’t met. “I’m Taylor Stensrud.”
She had no idea how he fit into Cole’s complicated family tree, but she smiled back. “I’m Gina.”
“Colby’s mate.” He nodded. “Have you eaten?” He didn’t give her a chance to answer. “Hey! Parker! Bring some breakfast for Miss Gina.”
A second man leaned into the dining room, saw her, and ducked back into the kitchen. He came back in only a few minutes with a plate heaped with more scrambled eggs and bacon than she could eat in a week and put it on the table in front of her. He was almost a carbon copy of Taylor. His blond hair was a few shades darker than Taylor’s pale blond. They must be brothers.
“Thank you,” she said.
The two brothers stood, just staring at her until she cleared her throat. “Fork?”
“Oh.” A vivid flush washed Parker’s lean cheeks. He pulled a fork out of his back pocket. “Sorry. Here.”
They continued to stare at her while she ate. Soon two more young men joined them, and then a third. All of them stared at her as if she was the most fascinating thing in the world. Gina imagined an exotic animal in a zoo might feel like this. She waved her fork at them.
“Hey, guys? Is there something I can do for you?”
They shook their heads.
She put her fork down with considerably more force than needed. “Then why are you looking at me? It’s rude.”
The three newcomers blushed. It was clear even through their dark tans. Parker cleared his throat. “Someone hurt you,” he said. “And we’re pissed as hel…er, really angry about it.”
Taylor added, “No woman should be hurt like that, but especially not a woman who belongs to the Clan.”
The other three muttered agreement.
“Good grief.” Gina wondered if they had seen her mom yet and if they considered her a member of the Clan. “Are you all related to my husband?”
Yes, they all were related to Cole and went into detailed descriptions of how their grandfathers were the brother or cousin or uncle of Taye’s dad. Gina lost track long before Rose appeared in the door.
“Boys,” she said severely, “quit bothering Gina. Mrs. Madison needs help at Mayor McGrath’s house.”
The five young men filed quickly out of the dining room, nodding at Gina. Rose sat down at the table. “Don’t let them bother you. How are you feeling?”
Gina took a bite of bacon. “Not too bad. A little tired now.”
“That’s to be expected.” She examined Gina’s face. “I bet that hurts.”
It did, but as long as she didn’t move too much it was bearable. “It’s okay. You know, I can’t eat all of this.”
Rose smiled at the still heaping plate. “One of those boys got it for you, I bet.”
“Parker. Or Taylor. I can’t remember which is which. But they aren’t boys. How old are they? Mid-twenties?”
Rose shrugged. “I suppose so. I just think of that whole generation as boys.” She shook her head. “Sometimes I feel so old.”
“You don’t look old.”
Rose giggled. “Thank you. I guess I’m pretty well preserved for a woman who was born almost ninety years ago.”
How strange, to think this woman sitting at the table with her had been born in the Times Before, when people traveled in airplanes
and could speak to people hundreds or even thousands of miles away. “What was it like in the Times Before?”
Rose shrugged again with a half-smile. “Different. Not necessarily better or worse, just different.”
“Do you miss it?”
“No.” Rose considered. “I miss some of the conveniences, and sometimes even now I miss my mom, but this is where my life is. My children and my mate are here. I wouldn’t go back without Sky, and Sky would have hated the Times Before.”
Gina wondered if she would have liked living then. She couldn’t imagine it. Would Cole have liked it? “I wonder where Cole is? Has he come back from getting Ray?”
Rose’s eyes unfocused and her head tilted, as if she was listening to a distant noise. “No, not yet, but he will be here soon.”
Only a couple of minutes later Cole and Taye came into the dining room. Cole came immediately to her chair. He eyed her still heaping plate. “Eat,” he urged.
“I’ve already had enough. I’m stuffed. You want some?”
Carla came in. “Silly question.”
Cole sat down, took her fork, and began shoveling in eggs. Taye put his arm around Carla and kissed the top of her head. Gina hoped that meant they had made up.
“How is Ray doing?” Carla asked. “Is Patia with him?”
Taye nodded. “We’ll bring her back after supper. Ray is tired, but doesn’t want to sleep when he can snuggle with his fiancée.” Gina wasn’t sure if Taye approved of the snuggling or not. “Sky is at the mayor’s house,” he told Rose, who nodded. “At one o’clock this afternoon we are meeting with General Atwater to sign a treaty.”
“A treaty?” Carla’s voice was cautious. “Those didn’t work too well for your people back in the old days.”
Taye brushed a kiss over the top of her head. “This will be different. Atwater promises to never use what’s left of the Kansas-Missouri army to attack anyone ever again. We and Omaha promise to not take any more revenge.”
Cole growled.
“I know.” His dad put a hand on Cole’s shoulder. “After what they did to you and others, they are getting off lightly.”
“If you can call killing more than seventy-five percent of their army ‘lightly’,” Carla said with a touch of sarcasm. But the sarcasm was nearly drowned by satisfaction.
Gina swallowed. So many dead. How many of them had she known? Were the privates who had guarded the ladies’ tent among the dead? Guilt tried to prick her. She silently told it to go away and put the blame where it belonged: squarely at her stepfather’s feet.
“We could have killed them all,” Cole said harshly. He put the fork down, the plate empty now. “This Atwater knows it. He’ll march what’s left back to Kansas City.”
“Don’t envy him,” Taye said. “Telling the mothers that their sons are dead won’t be easy.”
Gina shuddered. “Aren’t there any wounded?”
“Sure. A few hundred. Some of those won’t live to see Kansas City.”
Some of them were just kids who joined the army because they were drafted. But that was Gerald Todd’s fault too. Cole leaned his weight against her arm.
“Don’t cry for them,” he said quietly. “We didn’t kill anyone who wasn’t wearing a uniform.”
She leaned into him. “I know. It’s war, and you didn’t start it.”
“No,” Taye agreed. “We finished it. Do you want to witness the treaty signing?”
Gina thought about it. “Is Cole going?”
Her husband nodded.
“Then, no. I’ll stay here and rest.”
Cole’s eyebrows pulled down. “Are you okay? Does your head hurt?”
“I’m fine. Just a little tired. I don’t need to go because I don’t want anything more to do with Kansas-Missouri. That part of my life is over. I want to start my new life now.”
Cole kissed her lightly. “I’ll take you home as soon as the doctor clears you.” He glanced up at his dad. “Is the train back in service yet?”
Taye nodded. “It will begin taking passengers tomorrow. If the doctor says Gina and her mother are good for travel, we’ll leave right away.”
Chapter Sixteen
“Almost home,” Cole said.
Gina leaned over him to look at the train window. At first, she saw nothing but dead grass wet with spring melt. No town. No farms. No trees. No people. In a minute, the train chugged up a slight rise, and by leaning further over Cole she could see a panorama of grasslands bordered by bare trees, and faintly, a low line of buildings in the distance. Kearney?
“Twenty minutes,” Cole said, pulling her back into her seat with an arm around her waist. “We’ll be at the station in a bit, and two hours after that, we’ll be home.”
Anticipation twirled around nerves. “And you ― I mean, we live outside Kearney, right?”
“Yeah, about six miles north.”
She took his hand and held it tightly. Soon she would see her new home. He had described the place he called the den to her, and she wasn’t sure she understood it. It was a one-story building from the Times Before with lots of sleeping rooms. It had once been a hotel, where many people could stay during their travels. There was a big kitchen and a large dining hall where they all ate together, and a communal room where the Pack gathered in the evenings to sing and play games. It would be nothing like the formality in the President’s mansion in Kansas City, so Gina was sure she would like it. The only thing that nagged at her was the lack of privacy. He’d said they would have their own room in the den, but with wolf hearing, everyone would know what they were doing in their room. She ran her gaze over Cole’s handsome face, down the thick column of his neck, to his wide shoulders tapering to a narrow waist and sighed. He still hadn’t made love to her even though she felt much better. He said he wanted to wait to make love until they were home. The lack of privacy was a concern, but she would get used to it. Tonight at last she would be safe in her new home, sharing her husband’s bed and starting a new life with him.
She glanced back over her shoulder. Her mom rested on a cot near the back of the train car. Jay sat next to her, holding her hand and whispering to her. The rhythmic rattle of the train drowned out what he was saying. Her mom’s mouth, less swollen than it had been three days ago, had a gentle curve. Gina was sure it wouldn’t be long before she had a new stepfather. Far, far better than Gerald Todd. Her mom would be starting a new life too.
In the seat across the aisle, Patia and Ray also held hands and murmured quietly together. Considering that only a few days ago Ray had been near death, he looked incredibly healthy. Ray’s dad, Mayor Madison, was drowsing with his head slumped against the window, his wife’s head on his shoulder. There were a dozen other Pack members in this car, and their excitement, though suppressed, was clear. Everyone wanted to be home.
The sliding door at the front of the car opened and Taye came in. Half the men from the Clan and Pack had left Omaha on four feet, running over the Nebraska prairie to bring word back to their kin of what had happened in Omaha. That still left over one hundred men to board the train and guard their women and wounded. Too many to fit into one train car.
Taye walked down the aisle, swaying easily with the rocking of the train, nodding at the men from his pack. He paused to touch his daughter’s head with gentle fingers before giving Gina a smile.
“Almost there,” he remarked to the train car in general.
Mayor Madison stood up and stretched. He said with feeling, “I can’t wait to be home and quit of this Omaha business.”
His wife said teasingly, “Eddie, are you afraid that Marty has run Kearney into the ground?”
Mayor Madison’s face creased in a smile. He was a handsome man. Thirty years from now Ray would look just like him. “I’m sure my brother has been conscientious, but his new wife might be a distraction.”
The train whistle shrieked. Gina looked out the window again and saw they were entering Kearney. Home? She gripped Cole’s hand tighter. He looked d
own at her with a smile so tender her breath caught. She didn’t know what living at the den would be like, but Cole would be there, so it would be home. She smiled back.
“How are you feeling, Mrs. Summer?” Taye asked.
Her mother had decided to go back to her first husband’s name. She said since Todd had already had a wife, she had never been legally married to him. Gina approved.
“Well enough to walk off the train on my own, Mr. Wolfe. I don’t need to be carried on the cot.”
Taye considered. “If you get tired Jay can carry you.”
It might have been a suggestion, but it sounded more like an order to Gina. Her mother’s smile tightened. It seemed like after bowing down to Todd, she didn’t like following orders anymore.
Obviously, Taye hadn’t expected any argument because he went on without waiting for her mother’s agreement. “The wounded in the car behind this one will disembark first. Jay, when they are off, you’ll help Mrs. Summer down the steps and into the station. Then Ray will go. Cole, you and Gina will be third. Then everyone else will follow.”
The train slowed as it passed through Kearney. It wasn’t a big city like Kansas City or Omaha, but it looked well kept. The streets were clean and the buildings she saw seemed to be in good repair. A gaggle of pre-teen boys ran alongside the train as it passed, waving excitedly. With a hissing of brakes, the train slid to a halt beside a long building whose roof extended into a shelter over a platform.
Gina watched Jay help her mother up from the cot and guide her slowly, gently, along the aisle to the door. The burly arm he had around her waist steadied her. Ray stood up without any help, although Patia hovered close as they exited the train. Gina took a deep breath and stood up. Cole walked very closely behind her, and for once he didn’t push her aside so he could go out first and check for danger.
After she stepped down from the train it was a whirlwind of new faces and some that were vaguely familiar to her. Ray Madison was there, hugging his brother, Eddie, and sister-in-law, Lisa, and his nephew who was almost his own age. His wife, the big blond woman named Victoria, was there. Gina remembered her in the coffee shop the first time she’d laid eyes on Cole. Victoria almost smothered her in a giant hug, congratulating her boisterously for accepting Cole’s mate claim. She met an older man with long iron gray hair in two thick braids. Des was the head of the pack that lived in Kearney. Connie, his wife, was a gruff woman with direct gray eyes and silvery white hair.