“Kath-a-leen.” Her foster mother stood over her, her face lined with wrinkles, her breath stinking of cigarettes. “Did you break that vase?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Don’t you lie to me. Joey saw you do it.”
“But I didn’t.”
Smack! “Don’t you talk back to me. Don’t I give you a roof over your head and food to eat?”
Mouth pressed together, Kathleen knew not to answer with the truth. She shared a room with three other girls. Barely had room to move. And the food was minimal and tasteless.
“I’ll teach you not to lie if it’s the last thing I do!” Slap! Slap! A thick belt replaced the slapping hand.
Kathleen fought back the tears, refused to show the pain and remorse the woman wanted.
Another shift, another shadowy figure.
“I’m sorry, Miss Callahan. We found your father on the bank of the river. Coroner has ruled it an accidental drowning. He must’ve fallen from the bridge.”
Daddy was gone...but she still had Alice.
“I don’t care what you say, Kathleen. I don’t have to stay with you, and I don’t want to stay in school. It’s boring. I’m twenty years old. I have my own money that you can’t touch. I can do what I damn well please.”
Kathleen reached out for her, her mind screaming for her to say something, say anything, to keep Alice with her. And then she was gone, a puff of smoke in the wind.
The horror came faster now. A screech of tires. People shouting. Emily screaming. And the pain…oh, sweet heavens, the pain was agonizing.
The blast of a gun made her jerk. Alice! She was screaming over and over. Kathleen fell on top of her, protecting her, already knowing it was too late. No. No. No. Not Alice. No!
Doctors, their eyes sad but resigned. “We’re sorry, Miss Callahan. The fragment dislodged. We couldn’t save her.”
Alice lay on the bed. So pale, so pretty. So dead.
The scene shifted again. She stood over another dead body. Murky at first, then her vision cleared. Eli lay facedown, blood pooled around him. Just like Alice.
Not Eli! No, no, no!
“Kathleen! Wake up. It’s a dream. You’re having a dream. You’re safe. Kat. Wake up now. It’s just a dream.”
Opening her eyes, she blinked up at Eli, who was on his knees in front of her. His hands gripped hers, his eyes filled with worry.
“Sorry.” She shook her head quickly to dispel the horror. “Must’ve fallen asleep.” Then, gasping, she looked over her shoulder, fearful that Sophia and Violet had heard her scream.
“They’ve had dinner and have already been settled into bed. Teresa said she hated to wake you, you looked so peaceful.”
She blinked again, trying to get a grasp on reality. It had been too real. That last part. It had just been too damn real.
“Didn’t mean to drop off like that.” She tried for a smile, then winced as she saw the bruising around his eye. “Looks sore. How does it feel?”
“Not bad. I’ve had worse.”
“Did you wear the eye patch for the girls?”
Brown eyes twinkled with amusement. “Yes. I’m now Pirate Daddy.”
“They’ve drawn pictures and were already planning a series of books when I dozed off.”
He stood and, since he already had hold of her hand, pulled her up with him. “Come see what they’ve done.”
He didn’t move away when she stood, and she bumped into him, the heat of his body against hers causing a visceral reaction she hadn’t anticipated. Heat flooded through her as an unexpected need rose within her.
Refusing to acknowledge her reaction, Kathleen took a step back, tugging at her hand. Instead of letting her go, Eli said softly, “Kat? Look at me.”
She lifted her eyes to his, saw tenderness, a simmering desire. Her heart pounded, part want, part panic. If he kissed her, what would she do?
A little smile twitched at his mouth, and he looked like he was about to say something but then stopped himself. Instead, his hand squeezed hers gently. “Come see what they’ve done.” He said again as he pulled her forward, toward the table.
Both disappointed and relieved, she followed him to the small table where several pages were neatly stacked and a small trash can beside the table held multiple wadded pages. Apparently, several story attempts had been started and scrapped. Though Violet was most definitely the more talented in drawing, Sophia was well on her way to being a storyteller. She already had five paragraphs about her Pirate Daddy.
“You might possibly have a writer and an illustrator in your midst.”
“Looks like. Although we might have to talk to Sophia about plagiarism. Read the first line of the story.”
Daddy was a pirate. One of the good ones.
Kathleen laughed, recognizing the first sentence as the beginning of Starburst, which started with Starburst was a fairy. One of the good ones.
“Hopefully, it’s just a first draft.”
He squeezed her hand again. It had felt so natural, she’d almost forgotten he was still holding it.
“So…um. I guess I’d better get home.”
“Stay for dinner.”
“I can’t. I have a job to do for Grey tonight.”
“A job, this late?” A glimmer of amusement glinted in his eyes. “Not breaking into another house, are you?”
She laughed. “No, you were my first and last.”
For some reason, the words invoked an image that had nothing to do with breaking into a house. Pushing aside the emotion, the rising heat, she said, “It’s a drop-off at the police station.”
Truthfully, she was going to wait until midnight to place the envelope on the detective’s desk. But to stay and have dinner with Eli? Just the two of them, without the children there as a distraction? She couldn’t risk it.
“Please, Kathleen. I’d like to have dinner with you. Just us.”
“Why?”
“Why not?”
“I...” There were a thousand reasons, yet she had no answer.
“You’ve got to eat. I’ve got to eat. Why not share a meal?”
“Is it as simple as that?”
“It’s a meal. Nothing complicated about it.”
Oh, if he only knew.
She took a breath, let it out slowly. “Then yes, I’ll stay.”
Chapter Twenty-three
Eli felt as if he’d won a major battle just getting her to stay for dinner. She was attracted to him and fighting it with every breath she took. It had been years since he’d wooed a woman. He was so out of practice he found himself wishing that caveman-style wooing was still an acceptable practice, because his body was urging him to forgo the social niceties. Throwing her over his shoulder, carrying her to his bedroom, and kissing her into submission sounded like a damn fine idea. The knowledge that she was trained in self-defense and could take him on full force did nothing to diminish his desire. If anything, the very idea made him harder.
Pushing those heated thoughts aside, he walked side by side with Kathleen down the stairs and into the dining room. She halted uncertainly at the door, and Eli inwardly winced as he noted the table setting. He’d told Teresa he was going to persuade Kathleen to stay for dinner. She had taken him at his word and then some. The table was set with fine china, silverware, and sparkling crystal. Candles were lit and flickered romantically in the dimmed lighting. It looked nothing like an impromptu sharing of a meal, but a scene set for seduction.
Since Teresa had a tendency to remind Eli almost daily that the girls needed a mother, he should have anticipated that she’d see this as a special occasion. Although it was, the last thing he wanted was to scare Kathleen away. She was skittish enough as it was.
“Looks like Teresa went to a lot of trouble.” The hesitancy in her voice was apparent.
Eli shrugged. “I don’t have dinner guests very often. Teresa doesn’t get to use the fine china most of the time because of the girls. I imagine she had fun setting the table.”
The wariness in her eyes receded, and she moved into the room, her body relaxed. “That was sweet of her.”
“Yes, it was.” He pulled out a chair. “Shall we?”
The instant Eli sat across from Kathleen, Teresa rolled their meal in on a dining cart. Since inviting Kathleen for dinner had been unplanned, Eli figured the roast chicken, potatoes, and green beans that the girls had eaten earlier would be their meal as well. Instead, Teresa had worked magic.
She set a plate overflowing with T-bone steak, baked potato, and asparagus in front of Kathleen and then one in front of Eli.
“Oh my, Teresa. This looks amazing,” Kathleen said.
She beamed like she’d won a million dollars. “Just a little something I whipped up when Mr. Eli told me you were staying for dinner. It’s so nice to see him having dinner with such a lovely young woman. He doesn’t—” She broke off when she saw the subtle shake of Eli’s head and then finished, “He doesn’t eat near enough red meat.”
Kathleen had been admiring the food, but her head popped up at Teresa’s odd statement.
Swallowing laughter, Eli said, “Thank you, Teresa. You’re a jewel.”
Looking relieved, Teresa backed out of the room with a quick, “Enjoy your meal. And don’t worry about the dishes. Just stack them in the sink, and I’ll get to them tomorrow.” Then with one last bright, encouraging smile, she said, “Good night.”
“Good night, Teresa. And thank you,” Kathleen said, then shot Eli a mischievous smile. “So you eat red meat only when you have lovely dinner companions?”
“Something like that.” He held up a bottle of his favorite Cabernet. “Wine?”
“Yes. Thank you.”
She took a sip and then cut into her steak. “So, about what happened today. You don’t really think it was an accident, do you?”
He wasn’t surprised at the question. Kathleen was as astute as she was lovely. “I wasn’t sure at first. Just seemed an odd, inefficient way to kill someone. But, I’ve changed my mind.”
“Why?”
“Got video feed showing two men in hoodies setting up the equipment in empty office space on the fifteenth floor.”
“Did you know them?”
“Couldn’t see their faces. Looks like they knew where the cameras were. As soon as the platform fell, they were gone. Another security camera caught them running out the back on the first floor, into the alley. They disappeared out of sight. The equipment was rented by a fake company.”
She nodded slowly, and he could see her mind working out the logistics, the scenarios. “But if someone really wanted to hurt you, why choose such an unreliable way? The timing would have needed to be just right to make it work.”
“I agree. A sloppy way to off somebody. If you’re going to take someone out, even if you want it to look like an accident, there are a lot better ways to get it done.”
“I’m not sure which is scarier, that someone wants you dead or that they’re willing to take out others without caring who or how many.”
That grim fact chilled him a helluva lot more than someone wanting him dead. “There’s a disturbing level of recklessness, carelessness.”
“You think this is related to the emails?”
His mouth twisted in a wry smile. “I sure as hell hope so. Unsettling enough to know somebody wants me dead. Having more than one out there is doubly disturbing.”
“And doubles the chance of one of them succeeding.”
“There’s that, too.”
“And you have no leads?”
“No. But I’m going to go see Adam again tomorrow.”
“If it is Adam, why threaten your children, too? What’s the point?”
“To torture me.” Eli shrugged. “Could be more for distraction than anything else. I hope that’s all it is.”
“I can’t imagine all the things you had to do after your father died and your brother went to prison.”
“It all kept me focused. I had goals, knew what I had to do. Plus, I had my children.”
“They seem well adjusted, happy.”
“I’ve worked hard to make sure none of this touches them. Hopefully, by the time it matters to them, the Slater name won’t have the stigma it does now.”
“You’re a good dad.”
“Most important job I’ll ever do. Tell me about yours.”
She gave a half-hearted wave of her hand. “You know most of it. He was a thief, got caught, went to prison. Gained an early release by agreeing to work for the government.”
“Those are facts. Tell me about the man.”
She took another sip of her wine, another bite of her food. He got the idea that her hesitation wasn’t so much a reluctance to share but that she was trying to come up with the right words.
“In many ways, he was a wonderful father. He made us laugh. We knew we were loved. Before my mother died, I never understood what he did for a living. I just knew he worked nights. When he brought Alice home…after we lost our mom, he changed. He was so sad…morose.”
“But he continued with his chosen profession?”
“You mean stealing? Yes, he did. He took Alice and me on a couple of jobs. That’s when I found out what he did.”
Eli ground his teeth to keep from saying exactly what he thought about Daniel Callahan exposing his children to a potentially dangerous situation. The affection in her voice as she spoke of her father told him any kind of criticism would shut her down.
“What kind of jobs?”
“Hmm.” She took another bite, stared in the distance as she remembered. “A jewelry store break-in. At least, I think that’s what it was. We waited in the car. Alice was only a baby. I wasn’t sure what was going on until he and a few other guys came running out of the building. They got into another car. My dad threw a bag in the passenger seat and took off, following them to an old warehouse. He made us sit on the other side of the room, but I definitely saw some sparkles as they went through the take.
“Then we came home, and he tucked us into bed.”
“Did you ask him about it?”
“Yes. Not that night, but later on I did. He explained that it was his job. Said all daddies had jobs and that was his. I accepted it, and that was that.”
Eli could see that happening. Even as much as Sophia had a ton of questions, whatever Eli told her, she took to heart and accepted as fact. If Daddy said it was true, then it was.
“When did you realize he was breaking the law?”
“I’m not exactly sure. I guess a part of me knew all along, but I didn’t dwell too much on it. When he was arrested, it was a brutal awakening.”
“And you and Alice went into foster care. Separate families.”
Her mouth twisted into a painful smile. “You’ve already proven you know quite a bit about that.”
Yes, he did. However, he didn’t know her thoughts and feelings. He could only imagine what it must have felt like for her to have her only family ripped away like that. She’d been caretaker to Alice from her sister’s birth.
He was surprised she continued to talk, had feared she would shut down.
“Even though it hurt to be separated from Alice, I was glad she went to a stable, loving home. They were good to her. She was only six when it happened.” She paused, then said softly, “They treated her like one of their own.”
The words “unlike me” went unspoken.
“Yours wasn’t as happy?”
She shrugged, and he left it at that. Bringing back more bad memories was the last thing he wanted. “It must have felt like your birthday and every holiday combined when your father was released and you were reunited with him and Alice.”
“In a way, yes. It was wonderful. I missed Rocky and Georgia, of course, but it was great to be a family again.” She cocked her head a little, a wistful smile on her mouth. “Still not the same, though. It could never be the same. You think it can be, but…”
Sensing she was about to end the conversation and call i
t a night, he asked, “Was Rocky the only reason you went into private security?”
“Not totally. When my dad got out of prison, he was more serious, focused, as if he was on a mission, determined that Alice and I learn something. He made sure we spent at least two solid hours together each night learning from him. From how to pick a lock to how to defend ourselves. When he realized I’d learned a lot of self-defense skills from Rocky, he let me train Alice.”
Eli could see why she said things hadn’t been the same. Their father had gone from being a foolish, irresponsible man who took his children to a burglary, to teaching them the business. Perhaps he’d had a premonition that he wouldn’t be around much longer.
“Sounds like he changed a lot.”
“We never had any deep, philosophical discussions. Prison definitely changed him but not all for the better. He was harder to reach, less talkative.” She grimaced. “Sadder.”
“Yet he wanted you to learn from him, prepare you for the world.”
“Yes.” She cocked her head again and speared him with a “now it’s your turn” look. “Tell me about your father. What was he like? What did you learn from him?”
Turnabout was fair play, but that didn’t make talking about Mathias any easier. “I learned what not to do as a father, as a man, as a husband. Doesn’t mean I haven’t screwed up, especially with Shelley, but I was determined not to make the same mistakes.”
“He was cruel to you?”
“Mathias alternated between cruelty and his own brand of affection. As I got older, I realized there wasn’t that much difference between the two. He was a sadistic bastard who got what he deserved.”
It wasn’t the time to go into all the secrets and lies the Slaters still lived with. At some point, she might need to know, but for now, he didn’t see the need to put her off the family any more than she probably already was.
“It’s getting late. I’d better go.”
The mood had turned somber, not what he had intended. Still, he knew not to push. She’d shared more than he’d ever anticipated. He felt humbled, as he knew she didn’t like to talk about her past.
He wasn’t surprised to see her pick up her plate and head to the kitchen. She was a self-sufficient woman, and he admired that. Both his mother and Shelley had always had servants to cater to their every need. Kathleen took care of herself and would want to pull her weight no matter what situation she was thrust into.
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