by Ramona Gray
Cooper sat up too and put his arm around her. She leaned against his solid warmth. “At first, they just made fun of him for how smart he was, for the glasses he wore, for being small. I felt so bad for him, Cooper. He was bullied at school and he was bullied at home, and he never caught a break. He told Maureen that Brian and Angela were being mean to him, but she didn’t care. She told them to be nicer to Josh and that was about it. Maureen didn’t work, but she and Jerry were gone most nights and weekends. They were part of a poker league that had games almost every night. We were left alone a lot.”
“Did Josh talk to his social worker?” Cooper said.
“Yeah. I talked to mine too. But they were both overworked and they had a lot of kids in their care and Josh… it was easy for him to slip through the cracks, you know? Being teased by a couple of kids in his foster home was a drop in the bucket for the social workers. Especially when they had other kids who were setting their foster homes on fire, or stealing, or doing drugs.”
She stared at the scar on her arm. “After a while, their teasing escalated. They started being physical with him, pushing him off the couch or kitchen chairs. One time, Angela slammed Josh’s hand in his bedroom door and broke two of his fingers.”
“Fuck,” Cooper said. “What did your foster parents do?”
“We didn’t tell them. Angela and Brian threatened us. They said if we told the truth about what happened, they would,” she swallowed thickly, “slice us open with their claws.”
Cooper made a low sound of anger and she glanced up at him. “That was the first time they threatened us with their shifter abilities. Josh told Maureen and Jerry that it was an accident and they believed him. Honestly, even if we had told them the truth, they wouldn’t have done anything about it.”
She rubbed at her scar. “After the finger breaking incident, Brian and Angela started using their shifter abilities to scare Josh. It terrified him when their eyes glowed or they would extend their claws. Hell, it terrified both of us. They loved it when we were that scared. It’s like they fed off of our terror or something.”
“I’m so sorry, my mate,” Cooper said.
“It sounds so ridiculous to admit that I’m afraid of shifters because of two kids, but -”
“You were only a child yourself,” Cooper said. “It’s not ridiculous.”
She reached up and tugged on the back of his neck until he bent his head and she could kiss him. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” He rested his forehead against hers and purred. After a few minutes, he lifted his head. “Better?”
“Yes,” she said. “A week before my tenth birthday, Brian and Angela murdered Josh.”
“Holy fuck.” Cooper’s voice was weak with surprise. “They killed him?”
“Yes. It was an accident, they didn’t mean to kill him – at least, I don’t think they did – but Angela sliced open his throat with her claws and he bled to death in front of me.”
“My mate.” Cooper pulled her into his lap. “I am so sorry.”
“We were in Josh’s room,” she said dully. “It was Saturday. Maureen and Jerry were gone. They’d been gone most of the day. Josh and I were playing Risk. Brian and Angela came in and Angela knocked over the board. Josh was – he was mad. We’d been playing for hours and they just wrecked our game like it was no big deal.
She took Cooper’s hand. “Josh shoved Angela. She wasn’t expecting it – neither of us ever fought back – and she fell and hit the back of her head on the bookshelf. She wasn’t really hurt, she wasn’t even bleeding, but she was… angry. And Brian was too.”
She started to cry. Cooper kissed her forehead and then her cheeks. “I’m sorry, my mate.”
“Brian grabbed Josh and threw him on the floor. He pinned him down and Angela half-shifted. They were both hissing and yowling at him. Josh was crying and I was crying, and I tried to help him, I swear. When Angela’s nails turned to claws, I tried to pull her off of him, but she was bigger than me. She punched me in the stomach and then she clawed my arm.”
Cooper lifted her arm and pressed a kiss against the scar that ran down her arm.
“I was bleeding from my arm, and I was scared. Then Josh started screaming. Angela kept swiping one claw in the air in front of Josh’s throat. She was hissing at him and growling and telling him she was gonna cut his throat.”
She licked her dry lips, the tears flowing freely down her cheeks. “I don’t know exactly what happened. Everything happened so fast. I don’t know if Josh moved his head at the wrong time or if Angela’s claws were longer than she thought. I don’t know, but I… Josh stopped screaming and made this horrible gurgling sound and Angela – the look on her face. You could see she was in shock.”
She wiped at the tears on her face, then took the tissue that Cooper grabbed from the box on the nightstand. “Brian let go of Josh and he and Angela kind of backed away. I started screaming and crying when I saw Josh. There was so much blood, Cooper. It was pouring out of his throat and I didn’t know what to do. Josh was grabbing at his throat and I… I grabbed his pajama shirt from the bed. I pressed it against his throat, but it was too late. He died. He died staring up at me and he… and I…”
She burst into tears, the sobs ripping out of her chest with brutal intensity. Cooper held her tight, rocking his big body back and forth as she buried her face in his chest and sobbed. He purred to her and rubbed her back until the sobs slowed, and the pain and the terror inside her had eased a little.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered into his chest.
“Baby, no. You have nothing to apologize for.” He kissed the top of her head and handed her more tissue. “Don’t say you’re sorry. What you’ve gone through is horrible and traumatic. You have every right to be this upset.”
She wiped at her face and leaned against him. “Maureen and Jerry came home a few hours later. I was still sitting in his room and holding Josh. They both freaked out and then they…”
“They what?” Cooper said.
“They covered it up. Or tried to.”
“What?” Cooper’s body stiffened and she could hear the shock in his voice. “What do you mean they covered it up?”
“After Angela and Brian told them what happened, Maureen sat me down and told me that I needed to keep my mouth shut about what really happened. She said they were telling the police Josh cut his own throat because he was being bullied at school.”
“You are fucking kidding me,” Cooper said.
“I didn’t want to lie. I said I would tell the police the truth, and then Jerry…”
“What did that motherfucker do to you?” Cooper was growling now, his body a hard and rigid board beneath hers, and the anger practically seeping out of his pores.
“He told me if I didn’t tell the police that Josh killed himself, they would tell the police I killed him.”
“That fucking cunt,” Cooper said. “I’m going to kill him.”
“He’s already dead,” she said. Cooper jerked beneath her. “Jerry said the police would believe him and Maureen over me because I was just a stupid little kid. He said that no one would take my word over theirs. He said he’d leave me alone with Angela and Brian if I told the truth. That terrified me. I didn’t want to die like Josh did.”
“Fuck,” Cooper said. “I’m sorry, baby. I shouldn’t… I’m angry but I’m not trying to upset you or make this about my reaction.”
“It’s okay,” she said. “I don’t mind.”
She really didn’t. Hearing Cooper’s anger, seeing his disbelief and his horror, weirdly made her feel a little better. Like she wasn’t crazy for thinking that Jerry and Maureen were monsters.
“I was terrified so I did what they told me to do. I told the police that I was in my room when I heard Angela screaming. Angela told them she came into Josh’s room just as he cut his throat with a knife from the kitchen.”
“Jesus fucking Christ,” Cooper said.
“The police didn’t question me
that much. At least not that day. I spent the week switching between numb disbelief and terror. I could barely sleep or eat, and I couldn’t be in the same room with Brian and Angela. My birthday was the following weekend and that’s when I asked Monique if I could live with her. It’s why I freaked out so much, why I cried so hard, and begged her to let me stay with her. I was so afraid of Angela and Brian. I was paralyzed with fear.”
“Of course you were,” he said before stroking her hair. “Baby, anyone would have been terrified in your position.”
“After Monique brought me back, I couldn’t leave my room. I literally couldn’t do it. I would freeze up with terror and start to cry when I tried. I peed my pants.” She stared at him with trembling shame. “I couldn’t leave to go to the bathroom, so I peed my pants.”
“It’s all right, my mate.” Cooper kissed her forehead and stroked her hair. “It’s all right.”
“The next day, Jerry took Angela and Brian out of the house and that was the only way I could leave my room. I showered and used the bathroom, but I still couldn’t eat. I kept seeing Josh’s face, kept seeing his look of surprise as the blood ran out between his fingers. I still wasn’t sleeping well, and I was… well, I think I was going crazy.”
“What happened then?” Cooper said when she didn’t speak for a few minutes.
“Later that day, my social worker dropped in. She would do that sometimes. All the social workers did – just randomly drop in to check on one of their kids. When she saw me, she immediately removed me from the house. Maureen and Jerry tried to stop her. They said that I had the flu and that’s why I looked so bad, but she didn’t believe them.”
“Thank fucking God,” Cooper said.
“She took me to McDonalds,” Daisy said. “She bought me an ice cream cone, and we sat in her car in the parking lot. She talked about Josh. She said she knew that I missed him and was grieving, and she would look into therapy for me. She told me that sometimes people, even little kids, have something called depression and that even if I thought Josh dying was my fault, it wasn’t.”
She rubbed at the scar. “I sat in her car watching my ice cream melt all over my hand and I… I lost it, Cooper. I knew I had to tell the truth. I wish I could say it was because I wanted justice for Josh, but, honestly, I was really scared that Angela would do the same thing to me. I didn’t want to die like that. I didn’t want to die afraid and peeing my pants like Josh did. I felt horrible about that for a really long time but my therapist, she… well, she helped me work through that part of the trauma.”
“I’m glad, baby.” Cooper kissed the top of her head.
“I told my social worker what really happened to Josh and,” Daisy swallowed hard as fresh tears leaked down her cheeks, “she believed me. She took me to a friend of hers who was a police officer and I told him what happened. My social worker had me placed in a temporary emergency foster home. They removed Angela and Brian from the home, and the police questioned Maureen and Jerry. They denied everything, but Angela and Brian were just little kids too, you know? It didn’t take long before Angela confessed to the police. Maureen and Jerry were charged with something… I’m not sure what, and I don’t know what happened to Angela and Brian.”
She slumped against Cooper, closing her eyes as he held her tight and rocked her again. “I Googled Maureen and Jerry about five years ago. They were both dead. They died in prison actually. Maureen from cancer and Jerry from a fight with another inmate.”
“Good,” Cooper said. “They deserved to die.”
“I don’t know where Angela and Brian are now. I didn’t remember their last name so I couldn’t Google them, and when I tried to get in touch with my old social worker to ask her, the agency said she’d retired and moved to Costa Rica. They wouldn’t give me her contact information.”
“Where did you go after Maureen and Jerry’s?” Cooper said.
“I moved from foster home to foster home until I turned eighteen,” Daisy said. “My social worker made sure I went to human only foster homes, but it was too late. The damage was done. I was terrified of shifters and it made it impossible for me to find an adoptive home. No one wanted to deal with my fear and my trauma. I took the job at your firm because my therapist said it might help me with my fear. An immersion type thing, you know?”
He rested his forehead against hers. “Thank you for telling me what happened, Daisy.” He wiped the tears from her cheeks with his thumbs. “I’m so proud of you for how brave you are, my mate.”
“I’m not brave,” she said. “I’m weak and afraid and -”
“You’re not.” He cupped her face and stared solemnly at her. “You found justice for your friend, and you’ve managed to live your life despite your fear. I don’t know that I would have the strength to go out every day and face my worst fear. You are so very brave, little mate.”
“I don’t feel brave,” she whispered.
He pressed a kiss against her mouth. “You will someday, my mate. I promise.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Cooper? I have the file… oh, sorry, I didn’t realize you were in a meeting with Wes.” Daisy stopped in the doorway of his office.
“No problem,” Cooper said. “Is that the Salder file?”
“Yes.” Daisy set it on his desk along with a steaming hot cup of coffee. “I figured your other coffee would be cold by now.” She grinned at him before picking up his old half-empty cup of coffee.
“Thank you, my mate,” Cooper said.
“You’re welcome.”
She headed toward the door and Cooper took a quick glance at Wes before saying, “Is Lusa still dropping you off at Anna’s place for tutoring tonight?”
“She is. You’re good with picking me up?” she said.
“Yes.”
“Great. Thank you.”
His gaze dropped to her perfect ass when she turned and left his office. She shut his door and he glanced at Wes. “Sorry.”
“No problem.” Wes took a sip of his coffee. “Things seems to be going well with your mate.”
A little surprised – Wes rarely spoke about anything personal when at work – Cooper said, “Yeah. It’s been great, actually.”
“I’m happy for you, Cooper.”
“Thanks, Wes.” He sipped at his fresh coffee. Daisy was a thoughtful and generous mate and in the two weeks since she had shared with him her traumatic past, it felt like they’d grown closer with each passing day. Everything was perfect between them and while Daisy kept teasingly warning him that they were in the honeymoon phase and sooner or later he’d be annoyed by something she did, he seriously doubted it. Had he and his lion ever been this happy before? He didn’t think so.
He leaned back in his chair. “So, you heard that Boone’s grandmother is in the hospital, yeah?”
Wes nodded. “He texted me earlier. She fell and broke her hip, he said.”
“I guess she’s doing all right, but you know how he feels about her. He’s taking a few days off to stay at the hospital with her. I figured I’d put Chase or Gray with you tonight, but I forgot that Gray took the day off, and Chase has some concert he’s going to tonight.”
Cooper glanced at his laptop screen. “I don’t have any other free guys to go on the stakeout with you until Boone gets back. Unless you’ve changed your mind about me going with you?”
A small grin crossed Wes’s face. “I don’t think that’s wise, Coop. Pretty sure you won’t be able to keep your cool around him.”
“He shouldn’t have gone after my mate,” Cooper said.
“Technically, it’s our client he was going after,” Wes said.
“Stop being the voice of reason, Wes.”
Wes laughed and took another sip of coffee. “I can do the stakeout by myself.”
“Oh yeah? You gonna do a stakeout on your bicycle?” Cooper said.
That earned him another laugh from Wes. Cooper grinned at him. “Take a few days off, Wes. You and Boone have been looking for this Xan
der guy every day for the last two weeks.”
“It’s a big neighbourhood,” Wes said. “But I have a good feeling about the area I’m checking out tonight.”
“It’ll still be there when Boone gets back. Xander hasn’t made any attempt to contact Anna since that night at the burger joint. Maybe being chased by you was enough to scare him off.”
“Maybe,” Wes said.
“But you don’t think so.”
“No.”
Cooper scrubbed his hand through his hair. “Honestly, I don’t think so either and the sooner we find this asshole, the better I’ll feel about my mate tutoring Anna. But I’m okay with you taking a few days off.”
“I’d rather keep looking for him,” Wes said. “Besides, I’ve got the car thing for tonight figured out.”
“You hire Eleanor to drive you over there?”
Wes nodded. “I did.”
“She gonna do the stakeout with you?”
He was only teasing, but a flush covered Wes’s cheeks. “Well, she’s not going to be a part of the stakeout in that she’ll be in any danger. I need to use her car so I can blend in. The guy knows what I look like so it’s not like I can stand on a street corner and watch for him. Right?”
He sounded weird and defensive. Cooper held his hands up. “Hey, I’m not arguing. Expense whatever the cost is to have Eleanor waiting around to drive you back home.”
Wes shook his head. “You’re not paying the extra cost accrued because I don’t drive.”
Cooper waved his protests off. “Don’t worry about it. Hand in the receipt from Eleanor for reimbursement.”
“Cooper, I don’t feel right about -”
“We’re a team, Wes,” Cooper said. “We support each other, right? So shut the fuck up already and hand in the car service receipts for the nights that Eleanor joins you on the stakeout.”
“Okay, boss,” Wes said with a small smile. “Thanks.”
“Like I said, we’re a team.”
* * *
Christ, this had been a mistake. Why the fuck did he think he could sit with Eleanor in her car all goddamn evening?