by April Zyon
Chapter Twenty
When Kasper and her men surfaced, they stumbled down to the kitchen for coffee. Owen was there, stuff spread out over the table again, and wearing a smirk. “Damn, you’re all still alive. Guess that means I lose fifty bucks. The coffee is fresh, and there’s still cinnamon rolls on the counter, if you’re interested.”
“Thank heavens. Food.” Kasper gave the men’s hands a squeeze and moved off so she could get the cinnamon roll. She also poured the coffee for both of her guys as well. “So what have you found? Something good, I hope.” She took the coffee to Victor and James and went back for her plate.
“Very good stuff,” Owen told her. “We’ve found the final nails to pound into your cousins’, and uncle’s, coffin. I know this won’t exactly be great news, but it was only the two of them involved. We’ve cleared your other cousins, Brian and CJ, completely of any wrongdoing. Small comfort, but at least it’s something. Davis and Danny are fucked six ways of Sunday, though. So are your uncle’s cohorts. We were finally able to track all the money and can nail several of the men Davis got involved with. I had to pass it all along to the FBI, of course, but Ares did lend a hand there to keep us out of the pokey for semi-illegal behavior.” He shrugged and pulled out a chair for her to sit on.
Kasper felt a bit numb around the edges. She chewed her lower lip, then took a deep breath. “Have you told Pepper any of this yet?” Knowing her uncle had been determined she die was one thing, but seeing the full-blown proof was almost too much. Almost.
“We need for her to be ready as well. Need to ensure that she knows exactly what it is that is going to happen, so that she can prepare herself. And Donovan Swan, were you able to find the information needed to pin him with my parents’ murder?”
“Thomas and Lincoln are talking to Pepper about everything. The feds will need to talk to her, but we’ll ensure she has a lawyer, plus one of us, with her through it all. Surprisingly, she seems to be handling it all really well. You may want to chat with her at some point about it, too.” he said. Getting up, he went to pour himself more coffee.
Taking a sip while coming back to the table, he sat before giving her the other news. “As for your almost, but not quite, fiancé. Yeah, we were there, remember?” he said with a smirk as her cheeks warmed. “Looks like he’ll be charged as an accessory in your parents’ murder—which had not been officially ruled a murder until he blabbed, by the way. The cops hauled him in for questioning, and he was singing like a canary last I heard. He apparently ran his mouth off while drunk, gave some guy a boatload of money, and then your parents were killed. He thought if he got you to marry him, after all his proposal was so well timed and charming, that he’d be able to convince you to alibi him out if the guy he inadvertently, while intoxicated, hired to kill them was caught. Or so he’s claiming. I’m waiting on some more details from your local PD before I go digging to see what I can actually find.”
Kas sighed. “This isn’t good.” She rubbed her temples. “I’m glad she’s taking it well. I want them. All of them nailed so far to the wall they blend with the wallpaper. I want those men to pay for the deaths of my family. I don’t want them to get off on any technicality, either.” She took another deep breath when one of her men rested his hand on her shoulder and rubbed. She leaned into that touch and shivered. “Thank you. For everything you did and all you found, Owen. Thank you,” she whispered.
“I only wish it was better news,” he told her quietly. Sighing, he rubbed a hand over his face. “Anyway, I’ll leave you to digest everything. I’m going to start packing the gear up, since I won’t need it for our last few days here. We have a few last things to do around the house and then we’ll be out of your hair. Or rather, most of us will.” Patting her shoulder, he got to his feet and closed up the two laptops. Tucking them under his arm, he gathered up the folders and left the kitchen.
She watched Owen leaving, then looked at her men. “So.” She wanted them to stay. God help her, but she needed them to stay with her. “What happens now?” Kas had thought she would have more time. More time to figure out the next move for the three of them.
“I’m guessing you’re not asking in the food sense of things, though another cinnamon roll does sound good,” Victor said. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “We’re not going anywhere, sweetheart. You are ours. While we may need to go out for jobs on occasion, we’ll always come home to you. Whether that’s here, or out at the farm, it doesn’t matter, because we’ll be together.”
That had her smiling. She nodded and moved to wrap her arms around his waist as well. She hugged him tightly. “Good. I just want to be with you two. I need to be with you. I don’t care where it is. I just plain need you both. I am never letting either of you go. So you have to choose where it is that we are going to live.”
“Why don’t we take it a day at a time?” James asked. “We’ll have a bit of downtime once we’re officially done here. So I say we stick it out here, get Pepper either back to school or settled in, and then maybe take a couple days at the farm, too. That way you can check the place out, see what it’s like, and it might help you—to help us—decide what we do.”
“I would like that.” She felt as if a weight was lifted off her shoulders. “We’ll get Pepper back in school. If we can get Lincoln and Thomas to let her go, that is. What is up with them, anyway?” Kasper asked with a slight frown. “They are acting as if they own her or something.” No, they acted much the way that James and Victor acted with her. She knew that Thomas and Lincoln were Scions and were destined for another woman, for a key, and Pepper wasn’t one of those. If she were, she would have had a protector like Kas had, someone who kept her protected and from harm, and gods only knew that Pepper hadn’t had that.
Both her men shrugged, but she knew they knew something. When she continued to stare at them, Victor rolled his eyes. “Here’s a thought—go and ask them. Then we’ll all know. Amazing, I know, I’m just that good with the ideas right now. Has to be the fact I had only three hours of sleep last night because of some insatiable woman who couldn’t keep her dainty hands off me.”
James snorted coffee across the table and proceeded to cough violently.
Kasper laughed. “Oh, please. And who was it that woke me up not twice, but five times last night? No wonder everyone was placing bets on if we were alive or not,” she said with a grin. “Then again, James continued to wake me as well. Not that I’m complaining, because I’m not.”
“You’d better not be.” Victor patted James on the back as the other man fought for air while glaring at them both. “I happen to know you were enjoying it all as much, if not more, than we were.”
“Exactly.” She winked at him. “I know that without the shadow of a doubt. I loved it every single bit as much as you both did.”
“There’s time for that later,” Mikhail said coming into the kitchen. “Right now, you two slackers are needed to help finish wiring up the cameras and motion sensors on the house. So finish your coffee and get your asses outside. Kasper and I are spending the morning together.” He looked at his watch and sniffed. “What’s left of it.”
Kasper laughed. “Good mid-morning to you, too, big brother.” She stood and gave both men a kiss on the cheek before heading to the door. “I’ll be ready in ten minutes. Relaxing around the house or hiking today?” she asked her brother.
“We’ll go with hiking,” he told her. “Make sure you have layers you can remove as the day goes on. Why the hell are you two still sitting there? Nolan is in the mood to get everything done today, so the longer you sit there, the longer it will be before you get off for the night.”
She then turned to her men and raised an eyebrow. “Go. I don’t want to have to wait up all night long for the two of you. Get your asses in gear, boys, or I will have Mikhail sleep on the sofa in my bedroom tonight and you can bunk down here.”
“Why would you torture me to get back at them?” Mik demanded. He looked absolutely horrified at
the prospect. “I thought you were actually starting to maybe like me, at least a little. This is not how to show you like your big brother.”
“You know, it’s almost tempting to force her into making him sleep on that thing,” James said. “If only for the fact it’s the most uncomfortable piece of furniture on the planet after about two hours.”
“It is tempting.” Victor nodded. “But that means no you know what with You Know Who.”
“Right, there is that seriously depressing drawback.” James sighed and got to his feet. “We’re only going because we want you know what with you tonight, and not because we want your brother’s sleep to be comfortable.”
“Exactly.” She smiled then; she couldn’t help herself. “And I would have Gareth help Mikhail bring in the sofa from the game room so that he would be more comfortable,” she assured her brother. “Okay, back in ten so that I can get my butt ready for this.”
“Glad to know you’ve thought this through,” he muttered. “Quickly, kiddo. I’ll meet you at the front door.” He turned away from her to head for the fridge. “Did you want a juice as well as your water?” he called out to her as she moved toward her bedroom.
“Yes, please,” she called over her shoulder.
Ten minutes later, Kasper was walking out of her room, pulling her long blonde hair up into a tight ponytail. “I’m ready, big brother.” She walked to James first to give him a hug, then to Victor. “Think of me while you are slaving away securing this house?” she asked with a smile.
“We always think of you, darling,” James said. “Out of curiosity, where are you two off to?”
“For me to know, her to find out, and you to maybe learn, if she feels like sharing.” Mikhail passed her the bottle of juice and then tipped his head toward the front door. “Let’s get a move on before it gets too hot.”
“You got it.” She winked at her guys and then headed off with her brother to gods only knew where.
*****
Mikhail parked the SUV in the lot and climbed out. They were near the nature trails he’d brought her to before, but a different section. He led her to a trail and then set a slow walking pace as they moved through the trees. For a long time, he was silent as they climbed at a slow, steady pace up the trail. Eventually, they came to a rest area where he waved her over to one of the benches. Passing her a snack bar and one of the refillable water bottles, he sat next to her.
“This is certainly beautiful, isn’t it?” Kas took a deep breath. “So, what did you bring me out here for?” She wanted to know. “Talk to me. You have something on your mind. What is it?” Whatever it was, it was something he had wanted to get out of the house to talk to her about.
“What? A brother can’t want to spend some quality time with his newly found baby sister before he trucks back home again?” He rolled his eyes and shrugged. “It’s mostly true, you know. I was also wondering how you were doing with the impending departure of us all from under your roof. I’m guessing Vic and James are going to stick around. More than fine, if you were wondering. Doesn’t mean I like the idea of finding you and then having to let you go already. Kind of sucks, actually.”
“It does.” Kasper looked out at the vistas before them. “Tell me about your farm? Would I like it there? Is it as peaceful as it can be here?” She loved her home, but she loved her men more.
“We’re in a sweet spot,” he told her. “No neighbors as far as the eye can see, further if you’re looking on a map. Green, green, and more green. The views are amazing, the work is a bitch and a half, but it’s all satisfying. We picked the location because there’s no satellite coverage so having gods popping in and out wouldn’t ever be tracked. Plus, because of our status with the military, it means we can’t be spied on easily. We have the place rigged to the nth degree so no one can sneak up on us while we’re relaxing. It’s pretty amazing. The house is massive, more room than we’ll all ever need, even if we all start families. You definitely have to come for a visit, if nothing else.”
“I bet that it’s beautiful there, too, isn’t it? What about the heat? Does it get far too hot in the summertime?” She wanted to know. “So it’s big. I like that. I’d like to be able to be secure once more. It would be lovely. Sounds like a place that I could be safe and secure.”
“Absolutely.” He nodded. “I wouldn’t have left Camilla there alone, for the most part, if I didn’t know it was completely safe and secure. As to the summers, it can get a little crispy, but we have air conditioning in the house so you never really notice it. We did a lot of work around the place during this last summer. Except for a couple of days where it was too hot to even think about moving, it wasn’t all that bad.”
She watched the long stretches of deep green pastures, cattle, horses, and lots of trees. The beautiful scenery passed by for quite a while before she spoke again. “So, you wouldn’t mind having me underfoot? You wouldn’t mind being able to see me almost daily? You would have to see me with my men, however. Would you be able to handle that?”
“I’d love to have you around, Kasper. But we are going to have to deal with one little matter first.” He shifted to face her a little more and lifted an eyebrow. “Only if you’re up for taking on all the shit I’ve done and had to do over the years. Because I’d like to actually hug my sister without worrying about what trauma I may cause her by slipping up.”
She looked at his hands and then took a deep breath. “Okay.” She smiled and nodded. “I would like to be able to hug my big brother as well. You sure you’re ready to share all of your deepest secrets with me?” Kas hesitated, but only because she wanted to ensure that he was ready. “With all that you have to hide and have likely done over the years, I need you to know that if I pass out, I will be okay. I promise.”
“I know you will be, I only hope you don’t hate me for whatever you may see,” he said. Mikhail held his hands out to her, palms up. “It’s up to you, baby girl. If you’re not ready, we can wait.”
“I couldn’t hate you,” Kasper told him and moved just a small bit closer to him. Taking a deep breath, Kasper placed her hands in his. The rush of truth that hit her was like a semi hitting a brick wall at one hundred miles per hour. She cried out, but then gasped and was taken by the darkness that came from the truth of her brother.
When she came back to the present, she was lying on her back, her head on Mikhail’s leg, and he was staring down at her in concern. “Are you okay?” he asked softly. “You were out a really long time. Long enough that even I started to wonder if I should get you to the nearest hospital.”
She nodded, but that action made her head hurt. “I’m good,” Kas told him with a smile. “No more worrying about touching me now though.” She liked that idea. It made the blackout worth it. “You’ve done a lot, but you’ve changed, and saved, countless lives. Never be ashamed of the man that you are, Mikhail. Please?” He had hit her like a ton of bricks just as Ares had. It had been intense and knocked out memories from a couple of her first assignments, but she didn’t mind. She was fine with it because those first couple missions had been hard on her psyche and beyond terrible.
“I’m not, but others don’t always see things as you seem to. In more ways than one,” he said. Gently, he brushed her hair from her cheek, still looking concerned as he watched her. “I didn’t want to do that with James or Victor around. I had a feeling they wouldn’t take too kindly to me knocking you on your ass with my past.”
“Pretty smart man,” Kas said with a nod. “They likely would have been pretty pissed. Now that they know I’m fine, we can tell them. Maybe,” she added. “Because we both know that they likely know why you brought me out here. Right?”
“Maybe. I never am quite sure with those two. Why don’t you try sitting up? I have a couple of aspirin if you need them, but you should definitely have some more water.” He helped her to ease up to a more seated position even though she was still leaning heavily into his side as her head spun. “Slow your breathing. No need
to add on hyperventilating to the list of things you did today.”
“Yes, too true.” Kas focused on that inner part of herself so she would calm. “They’re very particular about me, and I love it. I’m just as over protective of them.” The confession was something Mik likely already knew. “How about we stop for lunch before we get back? I should be over the shakes by then.” Sometimes with the ability she had, it knocked her on her ass, but she always rebounded—always. She realized then that Ares had withheld a shitload from her when she’d touched him, and her Aunt Arty had been withholding from her all of her life.
“Can do,” he said with a nod. Wrapping his arm around her, he rested his forehead to her temple. “We’ll go in a couple of minutes. I need a second to get over that scare you gave me. Every second you were out I had the worst feeling I’d made a mistake, that I shouldn’t have pushed you into doing it, and doing more praying than I have in my entire life that you’d be okay.”
“It’s okay.” She was trying to soothe him as he was her. “I just am not so sure I’ll be touching any of the other men for a while. I hope they’ll understand. Being knocked on my ass sucks monkey balls. Ya know?”
“I’m sure they’ll get it,” he said quietly. “Though you will be happy to know that my life is likely the worst one you’ll have to deal with. Not saying the others don’t have deep, dark secrets. I’m not even going to say they haven’t had to do things that take a toll on the soul. But theirs are likely a little less likely to send you through the rabbit hole to insanity-ville.”
“I hope you’re right, on the off chance they touch me by accident, or I them.” She sat comfortably with her brother for a long time. Finally, she felt him getting up and let him help her up. She smiled. “It’s nice to be able to touch my brother without worrying about hidden secrets.”
“Well, you know everything now,” he said. Making a face, he shook his head. “If you feel the need to forget a bunch of shit, go for it, I would not ever be offended in the least. Some of it I’d love to forget. If my memory weren’t so good, I’d definitely try.”