Broken Road

by Char Marie Adles

Lord have mercy what had she just done?

  Chapter Nine

  Winthrop stalled as long as he could before taking her into town. He was quick in learning that she lived up to her name.

  Devil, he thought with a bit of irony. What kind of parent names their kid Devil?

  He shook his head and concentrated on the rode. They had just left the ranch and with every passing minute he wished he had never left. He hadn’t left the ranch in months. What were people gonna think when they saw him with her? Most likely they’re going to think she was a high schooler like he had.

  Winthrop felt his eyes drift from the road towards her again; he couldn’t seem to help himself when it came to her. She had the window rolled down and the wind was teasing her long hair and a smile spread across her lips as she saw something new pass by. Devil held her baby girl tight to her chest and pointed at things telling the baby about each one. The baby giggled at the funny faces her mother was making and her mama laughed back.

  The laughter in the truck did something to Winthrop. It gave him a lightened feeling in his chest and dug up a long forgotten smile from somewhere in his heart. He realized for the first time he could remember that he was happy in a long time.

  Lilla giggled as she tugged on some of Devil’s hair and Devil laughed and kissed her forehead. The baby had turned her inside out and upside down with nothing more then a toothless smile and some giggles.

  After years of few smiles and no laughter it felt good to have to do nothing and be careless. She was free for at least a little while and could plan out what she was going to do next. Now that she had Lilla it was time to start thinking about a home, and when Wylde came back they could all be together.

  There was that voice in the back of her mind however that told her that she would never see her sister again, but she forced that voice to somewhere she wouldn’t have to listen to it.

  There was a shift in the mood inside the truck and Devil turned to Mr. Canter with a questioning look.

  He was looking at her with a tender smile that sent her heart racing and after a second Devil couldn’t take it anymore. It was doing strange things to her pulse and made her want to do strange things with the man. Things she shouldn’t even be thinking of.

  “Stop it,” she muttered at him, looking away as her face heated with her thoughts.

  Her word hit him like a bucket of icy water. He shouldn’t have been staring at her the way he had! Or any way for that matter. He was thinking of things he should not be thinking of. Dangerous things.

  Winthrop kept he eyes on the rode after that. No sense in losing his pride when she could tear it to pieces without lifting a finger.

  The sign they passed soon said that twenty more miles were ahead of them before they reached to small town of Marlo and Devil pulled out her cell phone to call her manager. After three rings Celia Buch, twenty-five, manager and best friend to Devil for more then fours years, picked up her phone and said in greeting, “Where the hell are you!”

  Devil smiled a little. “Nice to talk to you too. I’m somewhere close. Listen I need you to do me a favor.”

  “Sure thing, but tell me where in the hell you are!”

  “Meet me at the Harvest Inn in Marlo with my stuff please. There is someone I want you to meet,” Devil whispered into the phone.

  There was a silence on the other end and just when Devil had thought Celia had hung up on her there was a meaningful laugh on the other end of the line.

  “Oh, ho! Now I get it. I’ll be there honey and I’ll be waiting.”

  She could almost see the grin growing across her friend’s face.

  “It’s not what you think-”.

  “I bet it isn’t,” Celia agreed evilly and hung up the phone.

  Devil closed the phone with a grunt of frustration and smiled at Lilla as she tried to copy Devil’s face. She had the pretties part of eyes just like Devil’s mother had had, and a cap of soft black hair the crowned the top of her head. She was a squishy little pink thing that giggled and in her eyes couldn’t have been more perfect.

  “Who did you call?”

  The deep voice startled Devil and she gave Lilla a little squeeze that made the baby squeak in surprise. Mr. Canter was watching the road but he was scowling.

  Not a good sign. Devil shifted closer to the door.

  “Just a friend. She’s gonna get my stuff for me since you said we’ll be staying at the ranch for now. She was worried about me ‘cause I didn’t tell anyone where I was going. That I was going to get Lilla. She doesn’t know I have a daughter yet. It’s still new to me too.” Devil shifted again, but this time so that she would be facing him.

  Winthrop grunted and mulled over her answer. So she had a friend, but hadn’t told anyone about her daughter or that she had come to pick her up. What would her friend think when she found out about the baby? Since she hadn’t told anyone about the baby or where she had gone that meant that she really didn’t have a place to stay and a motel wasn’t a place to raise that poor kid when her mom was still a kid herself.

  He made up his mind then and there. They were going to stay with him until he knew for sure that she could take care of Lilla and that meant finding her a job and settling her in at the ranch. That also meant that she wouldn’t stay secret for long. So he would need to come up with a story about her. He wasn’t going to tell anyone the truth about the kid and his brother. Maybe she could be a cousin, she was Native American like him after all, all for her eyes that was. He could pass her off as his cousin from-

  “Mr. Canter?”

  He shifted his thoughts and focus on the girl.

  “Yeah?”

  “Thanks for taking me into town. I know how much of a problem it was for you to stop work to do this.”

  He watched as the girl lowered her eyes when he looked her way.

  “It’s not that big of a deal, but I need to get supplies for that arm of yours anyway while were here,” he said by way of explanation.

  She nodded and looked out the window. Before she knew it they were in town. She was nervous about someone knowing who she was and coming over to her, but the moment she saw Celia when they parked in front of the Inn she relaxed.

  Nothing bad was going to happen.

  “I’ll leave you to your friend for a few minutes while I walk down the street to the store. I’ll be back in a moment,” Winthrop said and got out of the truck before he did something stupid like kiss the damn girl. She looked helpless and all he wanted to do was help himself to her.

  He pulled his hat low over his eyes as he walked down the street to the store to hide his grin.

  Just like the big, bad wolf.

  …

  Devil watched her friend hold a giggling Lilla and giggled right along with her. This was the first time she had ever seen Celia warm up to a kid. She hadn’t liked her sister’s new baby, but for some reason Lilla had everyone she met wrapped around her little fingers.

  “So…what are you going to do? Who’s kid is this and why do you have her. And BTW girlfriend you have to tell me who the hunk was,” Celia said as Lilla made a grab at her short blond hair.

  Devil fingered a lock of her hair that had fallen loose of its ponytail. It was now or never.

  Devil took a deep breath and went all out. “That’s my daughter and the hot guy as you call him is her dad.”

  “What!” Celia exclaimed almost dropping Lilla. Devil swooped the baby into her arms and she giggled as she grabbed at Devil’s hair.

  “She is my daughter now,” Devil repeated with a smile.

  Celia stared at her for a long moment, her jaw sliding south for the winter. “I don’t know you! How could you have had a baby I didn’t know about? I am sure I would have noticed a baby bump. And that man has to be at least thirty! You couldn’t have known him that long!”

  Devil laughed out loud. “She is really my niece. Her birth mother was my sister Wylde, but Wylde disappeared again and I adopted her; so she’s mine. But that man is her f
ather.”

  Celia held up a hand looking incredulous. “You mean to tell me that your long lost sister who ran away when you were little just dumped her kid on you and left again?”

  Devil smiled at the baby before she looked back to her friend. “No. She wrote me a letter telling me where to find her. I signed the papers and now she is mine.”

  Her friend frowned in confusion. “Then what are you going to do? You still have the tour to finish and then you have your contracted jobs that go from then till the end of next year. You don’t have time to raise the kid. Can’t you just leave her with her dad?”

  “I will never do that to a child. You know what kind of background I came from before I met Royal, then you. You are one of the few people who knows everything about me. I will not be like my parents. Lilla deserves a mother and a father, even if I don’t like the brute. I’ll fill in until Wylde comes back. I just need time to think.”

  “How long? A few days, a week?”

  Devil sighed. “I just need time to think. Tell all the guys to take a month off and by then I’ll know everything I need to know. Paid leave for them of course. You too, I know you’ve been eyeing the band’s drummer.”

  Celia blushed. “No such thing!”

  “I need a month to do whatever it is I want to do. We only have one show left in the tour and it was supposed to be in a surprise location. What’s more surprising then Montana? We could have it in the big city near here. It would be prefect for me.”

  Celia reached out to ruffle Devil’s hair. “I guess after all the hell you’ve been put through you deserve happiness. It’s funny how your name matches you so well. Take the time ya need. I’ll take care of everything tell then. She’s a real cutie.”

  “Thanks Cee, I didn’t know what to do without you.”

  She gave me an unimpressed looked and smiled softly. “You do so much for others and have not a care for yourself. You’re worth more then you think. Find someone to see you better then you see yourself.” She glanced over Devil’s shoulder. “Maybe he can help you.”

  Devil looked over her shoulder and smiled as she saw a scowl cross Mr. Canter’s face. She turned back to her friend.

  “No way in hell,” she said with a grin.

  Cee laughed and kissed her cheek, handed over a duffle bag and left as Mr. Canter came to a stop next to Devil.

  “Take care of her, ya hear? Other wise she will give you hell. There is a reason her name is Devil,” Cee said as she breezed by and hoped in her little rented sports car.

  She whipped out of the parking lot before Winthrop could open his mouth in greeting. It would appear that one came from money unlike her friend. He looked at the friend in question and she smiled up at him.

  “Should we get out of here? You must hate town.”

  She went over to the truck and hopped in before he could ask what had happened. It appeared that her and her friend had talked about something she wouldn’t talk to him about.

  He shrugged that off and hopped into the truck and buckled up. It was a short trip back to the ranch and he grabbed her arm before she could escape back into the ranch house.

  “What happened between you two?”

  “Nothing, um, why don’t I go inside and make lunch? I’m sure you have work to do and Lilla needs a nap.” Devil pulled away before he could see her blush and rushed into the house.

  Great, just freaking great that her friend had ruined how she looked at Lilla’s father. Now she could look at him with out thinking she was turning into a pervert.

  Winthrop watched her go with a scowl and decided that she was hiding something he would want to know. He had a feeling it had to do with him.

  He adjusted himself and he walked towards the barn to help the guys with some work before lunch. The kid really got him worked up in ways he had never been worked up with her shy glances at him and her laughter haunted him every moment she wasn’t close by.

  “I should be in jail,” he muttered to himself before he saw his men and set to work.

  Chapter Ten

  Soon both Devil and Lilla were settled into the ranch house and to avoid Mr. Canter Devil had taken up any job she could do. She did laundry, the cooking, playing with Lilla and bringing ice tea to the ranch hands when it was too hot.

  Three days passed before she finally ran into Mr. Canter. Well ‘run into’ wasn’t how Devil would have put it. He had to have planned it for when she woke up at five to check on Lilla he came out of his room at the same time and knocked heads. That’s how she also found out that he had switched to the room across the hall from her’s.

  Winthrop grabbed her by the shoulders to steady her, but the warmth of her skin was a shock against his cold palms and his hands tightened in an unforgiving grip.

  “Ouch,” Devil said pointedly.

  Devil waited for his hands to loosen their grip yet they only tightened. She looked up into his face and saw a confused frustration there. So she waited for what he had to say. And waited, and waited.

  “What?” she finally snapped.

  It was cold in the house and she was in shorts and a tank top and freezing her ass off in the old hallway.

  Mr. Canter’s jaw tightened in a clench. “You bother me.”

  Devil mouth fell open in surprise.

  That was it? That was all he had to say to her? That she bothered him?

  Why of all the-!

  “You get under my skin and I don’t like it one bit, but your little silence game is driving me nuts! Speak woman!”

  “That’s it?” Devil asked him.

  Winthrop raised his eyebrows at her question.

  “That’s it? Is that all you have to ask me, all you have to say? You avoid me like the plague for three days and that’s it?” he asked in astonishment.

  Devil was uncomfortable with him being so close and she herself was close to blurting out what she had been thinking over those last three days. But she couldn’t for it would be like stabbing her sister in the back. But somehow that evil little bit of evil inside her forced her to say something and it was that something that made her want to shoot herself. However she couldn’t stop the words that fell form her bowed lips.

  “You bother me too, you giant jerk. You’ve been the only thing on my mind since I got here. Do you even know how much you bug me? All I’ve been thinking about is kissing you and it’s your entire fault!”

  Devil’s hands were too late to cover her mouth and stop the words from coming out.

  Suddenly it was as if all the air was sucked out from between them and the world disappeared.

  Winthrop found it hard to swallow pass his suddenly dry throat and even harder not to fall over on his backside, stunned. Had the kid just said what he thought she just said? By the look on her face it told him she had and he wasn’t just hearing things. A million things raced through his mind. This girl was only eighteen, he was thirty. She was still a kid who had a kid. She was his brother’s.

  And he didn’t give a damn about any of it because she wanted to kiss him. Without much further ado he crushed his lips down on her’s in a feverish haze of need and took her up in his arms, crushing her small body against his own. Winthrop threaded his fingers in the thick long hair at the bottom of her neck and angled her head so he could deepen the kiss.

  Devil was stunned at the turn of events and was going to push away when the evil little her asked, “Why not kiss him? He is single and he wants you. Live a little for the first time in your life.”

  Devil wanted to argue that this man was her sister’s but found that she couldn’t. He had once been her sister’s but she had left him, so he belonged to no one. The way was clear. She felt a twinge of guilt, but when she remembered how her sister had left her when she ran away from home she tossed it aside. They were even now.

  So she kissed Mr. Canter back.

  Winthrop was surprised when his assault of her mouth became a real two-sided kiss and he tipped her head back even farther and gently bit her bottom li
p.

  “Open for me,” he breathed.

  And she did just that and how sweet it was as they became both the kisser and the kissed. Heat spread low in Devil’s belly and Winthrop passion was growing blindly. They both wanted more but weren’t sure how to go about it. So Devil took the first move in hopes it was the right one. She slipped her hands from around his neck down his sides and slipped her fingers just beneath his jeans.

  With a possessive growl he backed her up against the wall so that their bodies were as close as they could be. Winthrop could feel the heat of her body through her thin clothes and he burned for her. She had started a fire that couldn’t be put out and was about to turn into an explosion.

  Devil nipped at his lower lip and kissed him back as hard and sweet as she knew how. He didn’t seem to mind that she had no idea what she was doing, but it seemed to be working. She was hot and trembling with feeling she didn’t even know she could feel. She wanted to be closer, wanted to be part of him yet somehow that seemed as if it would never be enough.

  A high pitched wail sounded from the room next to the wall where they were kissing.

  The cry had went straight through Winthrop red hazy passion in a second and he broke away cursing, “Damn it!” He hit the wall next to Devil’s head and winced as his rough voice.

  Devil stared at him dazed with wide eyes.

  Winthrop stared down at the girl whose large baby blue eyes stared into his dazed. Just like a deer in the head lights. She looked so frail in that moment that he felt almost guilty at what they had done. Almost.

  He bit back the words of comfort that almost fell from his lips and gazed down at her silently to see her reaction to what had just passed between them. When she simply just kept searching his face he gave into the urge to kiss her lips gently one more time. So he brushed her reddened lips with his and smiled faintly as another cry sounded from the room.

  “This isn’t over,” he promised before he pushed away from the wall and headed down the stairs leaving her there to watch after him.