Protector's Claim

by Airicka Phoenix

  “I’ve always wanted something by the ocean,” he mused, taking the seat next to me. “On a high cliff.”

  “Can we find something like that around here?” I wondered.

  His shoulder rose. “We can try.”

  Mulling the idea over in my head, I reached for my fork. I used it to spear several pieces of egg when the doorbell chimed.

  We both looked at each other, his expression blank.

  “Who—?”

  “It’ll be fine,” he cut in.

  I hadn’t thought it wouldn’t be fine, but him trying to assure me made the knot in my stomach return.

  Together, we slipped off our stools and padded to the foyer. The walk seemed to strain on forever before the doors came into view. I held my breath as Kieran answered.

  The two detectives from the previous day darkened our doorway, neither looking any friendlier. They glanced from Kieran to me, then back to Kieran.

  “May we come in?” Hale asked.

  Kieran stepped aside and allowed them into warmth they were chasing away with just their presence.

  I shivered and crossed my arms.

  “Sorry for disturbing you so early,” he began. “But we wanted to get to you before you heard it on the news.” Those dark eyes found me again and stayed. “We’re sorry to inform you that your father died last night.”

  “He’s not my father,” I blurted without thinking.

  Hale inclined his head. “I apologize.”

  “How did he die?” I asked instead, stiff fingers digging into my upper arms.

  From the corner of my eye, I saw Kieran shift. It was a subtle movement, barely noticeable beyond the crossing of his arms over his chest, but something prickled along the back of my neck.

  “Acute respiratory failure,” Hale answered. “Air pocket in the lungs. Apparently, it’s common after trauma to the lungs.”

  After all that, the great and monstrous David Thornton was dead. I had never thought it possible. In fact, watching him get wheeled out the day before, still alive, I truly believed he was immortal, some ancient demon put on earth to terrorize the innocent. Hearing that he was finally gone seemed so impossible. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

  “You’re sure?”

  Hale nodded, studying my face.

  “So, it’s over.” Even said out loud, I couldn’t place it as a question, nor could I hide my relief as I turned to Kieran. “He’s gone.”

  He was already waiting when I stepped into his arms. They closed around me tight as I choked back a sob against his shoulder.

  “Thank you for letting us know,” Kieran said to the men behind me.

  “It’s odd, really,” Hale said as if Kieran hadn’t spoken. “An hour earlier, the doctors were convinced he’d make a full recovery. Strange how he just passed so suddenly.”

  “People pass suddenly all the time,” Kieran replied simply. “People like him deserve to rot in hell.”

  “That’s where we will have to disagree, Mr. Kincaid. I believe people like him deserve to rot in prison.”

  Silence descended over the crowd, fraught enough to pull me from Kieran’s arms to face the other two men. They were both looking at Kieran.

  “Does it matter where he rots so long as he’s not hurting anyone anymore?” I ventured. “Dead or in prison, the world is a safer place.”

  Hale turned his attention down to me. “Perhaps.” He shifted slightly from one foot to the other. “Where were you both early this morning?”

  Kieran raised an eyebrow. “Are you accusing us of making his lungs stop working?”

  His lungs stop working.

  The four seemingly harmless words echoed along the walls of my realization. They sank into that dark, twisted place where I always fantasized about all the ways I wished David would meet his end, gruesome and violent ends. Suffocating because his own body — the vessel he spent years crafting and honing to be fit and impressive — had finally given up on him, had betrayed him was equally satisfying. It would have been excruciating and he would have been powerless to do a damn thing as I had been for years because of him.

  I felt no remorse.

  A humorless grin perked up one corner of Hale’s mouth. “Humor me.”

  “We were home,” I stated firmly, coming to Kieran’s defense.

  “Both of you?”

  I prayed there was no evidence to the contrary when I opened my mouth to assure him we were.

  “Yes, both of us, all night and all this morning,” Kieran said for me. “We were just having breakfast.”

  The lie scuttled down my spine with razor point tips. It settled at the base of my stomach, a crouching spider with too many legs. It burrowed beneath my skin, creating a twinge I had to grit my teeth to ignore. It took all my efforts not to let my face project my surprise, my wince. It was harder pretending not to realize what that lie meant.

  Hale hummed deep in his throat. “Well, sorry to have disturbed you so early. Someone will be in touch if we have any further questions.”

  We watched them make their own way out and close the doors behind them. Neither of us moved until we heard their car doors slam shut, followed by the rumble of their engine. Only then did we lock eyes, both of us knowing that the other had lied. It was a defining moment, a test to accept or walk away. Now or never. I knew I should probably ask. A normal person would. But it wouldn’t make a difference. If he had done what I was fairly certain he had, it wouldn’t make me love him less. Why would it? He’d done it for me and I had lied for him. If he hadn’t, well, then he hadn’t. The only important fact was that David was dead. Everything else was just background noise.

  “Our eggs are getting cold,” I said, taking his hand.

  I gave it a squeeze before tugging him after me back towards the kitchen.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight — Kieran

  Seven Months Later...

  “That was a beautiful service.” Norah shook out her napkin and draped the bit of fabric daintily over her lap. “They certainly put some effort into it, which is a lovely change for a graduation ceremony.”

  Across the small, square table, I met Gabby’s gaze and we both shared the ghost of a grin. Neither one of us was willing to tell my mother it was done deliberately for her sake, nor would we mention the amount of money that had been put into making sure every detail was done to Norah Kincaid’s delicate preference. But in retrospect, it was a small price to pay to keep her from ruining Gabby’s special day with her nitpicking.

  I regretted nothing.

  “Thank you for coming,” Gabby said, unrolling her own napkin. “I really appreciate it. It was nice having a few familiar faces in the crowd.”

  Chin lifted, Norah fixed her with a pinched lip frown. “Dear girl,” she snipped haughtily. “You’re family. This appreciation business is for the other people. Now,” she gave a dignified sniff, “where is that waiter? I’m famished.”

  I saw the glimmer of tears in Gabby’s eyes before she blinked them back and straightened her shoulders. “I actually need to use the washroom. I’ll see if I can find him on my way.”

  “Please,” Norah muttered as I got to my feet and helped Gabby to hers.

  “Okay?” I murmured for her ears only.

  One hand lifted to sweep back a loose lock of hair being pushed around by the warm breeze. The late afternoon sun caught the ring on her finger, the one I put there not two months earlier and the cluster of diamonds sparked to life. She gave me a brilliant smile, the kind that never failed to pull on all my heartstrings.

  “Perfect,” she answered, leaning in and brushing a kiss to my mouth. “I won’t be long.”

  I caught the escaped strand dancing wildly in the breeze and smoothly tucked it behind her ear, never once taking my eyes off hers. “Take as long as you need. I’m not going anywhere.”

  With a final stroke of her fingers along the curve of my cheek, she turned and hurried in the direction of the door leading off the rooftop patio.

  I
watched her until she was gone and only then did I regain my seat.

  “It’s inappropriate the way you two go on,” Norah stated, stealing glances around us for anyone watching. “You’re not a teenager, Kieran. You should behave your age in public.”

  It was an age-old speech. Mother hated public displays of affection and always got extremely uncomfortable when I couldn’t keep my hands off my wife.

  “It was merely a kiss, Mother,” I said, concealing my grin.

  “It’s not just the kissing.” Her fingers toyed with her tennis bracelet. “It’s the looks.”

  Intrigued, I raised both eyebrows. “The looks?”

  She peeked around us again and lowered her voice even further. “The way you two stare at each other. It’s nearly pornographic.”

  I couldn’t help it. I burst out laughing, loud enough for Norah to turn pink and hiss at me to stop at once.

  “She’s my wife,” I breathed at last. “I won’t apologize for loving her.”

  “There is a time and place for everything. That type of behavior should be reserved for the bedroom.”

  I chuckled. “You’re not going to change my mind about this. I waited a long time to have her and now that I do, I have a lot of time to make up for. Besides,” I sat back in my seat, “being with her makes me happy. She makes me happy. I don’t care who knows.”

  Something in her features shifted. The majority of her impatience and annoyance dissolved into something barely passing as acceptance, but only just.

  “I do tolerate her much more than that sister of hers.” Her nostrils flared as if smelling something distasteful. “That entire family was atrocious ... may they rest in peace. I can’t imagine how someone like her came from that pack of rubbish.”

  “Doesn’t matter. She’s not a Thornton. Not anymore.”

  It was the first thing I made sure of. With that entire line gone, the only thing left was to erase it forever by giving her my name.

  Mother seemed to consider this a long moment while she nudged her silverware to align perfectly with each other and the plate. She checked her watch, fiddled with her bracelet. All nervous little ticks I recognized.

  “What?”

  She shook her head, waving a dismissive hand. “Nothing. I’m delighted for you.”

  All traces of humor evaporated. “Mother.”

  Norah fixed narrowed eyes on me. “Do not take that tone with me, Kieran.”

  “Don’t,” I warned her. “She means the world to me and I have never asked you for anything, but I am asking you now not to hurt her.”

  She blinked. “Hurt her? Is that how you see me? As some heartless monster?”

  “Not a heartless monster, but you tend to forget that not everyone is capable of reaching the bar you set for them.”

  She sniffed and turned her face away. One finger hooked into the bracelet and she dragged it around her frail wrist.

  “That’s ridiculous,” she muttered. “I don’t have a bar, and even if I did,” she barked when I opened my mouth, “it’s because, as a Kincaid, you can’t afford to lower yourself to the level of other people.”

  “Gabby isn’t other people. She’s the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. She’s the woman I’ve chosen to have children with.”

  “Children?” she blurted as if the word was something foreign and frightening.

  “Yes, children. Plural. I want as many as she’ll give me. Boys and girls. I want them to have her eyes and my name. I want them with her.”

  That seemed to pull her into that quiet place she sometimes went to when she just didn’t understand, but would never admit it. I didn’t expect her to. It had been a different time, a different situation when she’d married my father. They had raised me to be different, too, and I was — different from them, and that was an alien concept for her.

  But I wondered what she’d been expecting when I introduced Gabby to her. Had she honestly thought it was a passing amusement? I doubted it. She’d never once met any of my previous lovers. And even if she had, she’d been there when I married Gabby. She’d been present at the courthouse. She’d watched as I put my ring on Gabby’s finger. Had she honestly thought I would run now?

  Gabby took that moment to return. I sensed her before I saw her making her way back. She turned heads in her white dress, her golden locks loose around slender shoulders. The summer sun glittered in the strands and shimmered off the pale surface of her eyes.

  She was radiant.

  The sheer power of her presence alone was enough to steal my breath, my senses. I was so hopelessly lost in her that I ached in her absence. Seeing her return filled me with a purpose I would die without.

  “Gabby.”

  Her lips bowed in pleasure, even though I’m certain she couldn’t have heard me. She was still too far. Yet, I rose, my hand already going to her chair and pulling it out. My eyes never left her.

  “Hey.” She murmured upon arrival. She touched my arm to steady herself slipping back into her seat. “I let the hostess know we’re ready for our waiter,” she told Norah. “He should be here any second.”

  Norah merely nodded.

  Spotting the pinched look on my mother’s face, Gabby glanced curiously at me. I just shook my head and took the loosely curled hand resting lightly next to her plate. I brought it to my lips and watched the concern dissolve from her face, leaving behind a warm flush.

  “Have you thought anymore about where you want to go for our honeymoon?” I asked her, lowering our joined hands to the table. “Now that you’ve finally graduated, you promised I could have you all to myself.”

  Gabby laughed, the sound pure and breathtaking. “As if my schooling ever stopped me from being all yours.” She gave my fingers a squeeze. “And I honestly don’t care where we go. I just want you all to myself.”

  I started to lean in for a taste of her mouth when a movement just over her shoulder caught my attention.

  It was an arm streaking back and forth in the air in a wave that was impossible to miss. Several heads were turning, but I knew it was meant for me.

  “I’ll be right back.” I told the two at my table. “I won’t be long,” I promised Gabby with a brush of my lips against her knuckles.

  She smiled and skimmed her thumb over my mouth. “I’ll be here.”

  With a quick kiss, I moved away. The other occupants of the rooftop restaurant had gone back to their meals once realizing the tall, elegantly dressed man at the corner bar wasn’t there for them. I made my way to him with half a mind to remind him that I was in the middle of lunch.

  “Kieran.” Tiberius Rutherford extended his palm. “It’s been a while.”

  Not long enough, in my opinion. But I nodded and accepted his offered hand.

  “It has been.”

  Tiberius drew away first and motioned to the man seated on the stool next to him. “Have you met Lincoln Van Doren? He and his sons are assisting me in my new project.”

  The man resembled his photo, except that he appeared taller in person. His mustache seemed straighter over his pursed mouth. He held himself with the rigidness of a man in the midst of war. But it was his eyes, the steel, cold gray that bore into a person’s soul that put me on edge.

  “Mr. Kincaid, it’s a pleasure.”

  I didn’t know what surprised me more — that he knew my name, or that I instinctively didn’t like him and I couldn’t even say why. Nevertheless, I shook his hand when he offered it, but immediately returned my attention back to Tiberius.

  “Was there something I could help you with? I’m in the middle of lunch.”

  Tiberius peered past me, his gaze assessing the sight of Gabby and my mother with careful consideration.

  “I never got the chance to extend my sympathies to Gabrielle after her tragic loss,” he said instead. “I can’t even imagine what she must have gone through.”

  “It was a trying time, but she’s always been stronger than people gave her credit for.”

  Tib
erius nodded slowly, ignoring, or missing my brisk tone. “I suppose she would have had to be, given everything.”

  I disliked his implication even more than I disliked him bringing up Gabby’s personal past in front of a perfect stranger.

  “Gabrielle Thornton, no?” Van Doren inquired, following Tiberius’s gaze.

  I shifted my position to block his view. “It’s Kincaid now, actually.”

  The change was instantaneous, an immediate shift from regretful to delighted. “That’s right. I heard you got married. Congratulations. Lady will be thrilled. She’s been quite worried about Gabrielle since the incident.”

  “It was tragic,” Van Doren stated. “So young to lose so much, but it wasn’t without reward. She’s now the sole heir to the Thornton fortune, is she not?”

  I studied the man, half tempted to ask what business it was of his, but if my mother had taught me anything, it was too never create an unnecessary complication; he may have rubbed me the wrong way, but he didn’t matter enough to warrant my attention.

  “Was there something you needed?” I asked again, louder so it wasn’t missed.

  Tiberius must have sensed my fraying nerves, because his whole focused reverted back to me and stayed.

  “Right to the point then.” He straightened. “I had hoped we could make some time to finish discussing our business arrangement. I know it’s been a while, but I hope you haven’t forgotten.”

  My back molars creaked with the force of my clenched jaw. “I haven’t,” I bit out.

  “I didn’t think you would.” He folded his lanky frame onto the stool, making us nearly level. “Would you excuse us, Lincoln?”

  I was given a final once over before the man pushed to his feet and moved to one of the empty tables nearby. Then it was just Tiberius and me.

  “I’d like the Black Lotus,” he came right out and said without hesitation. “It was the reason I went that night, to see the functionality of the place and if it would be a good fit for my doll factory. I’ve come to understand that you own it now that your father has passed it on to you.”

  “That’s correct.”

  Tiberius bobbed his head a few times. “Excellent. So, as promised, I returned Gabrielle to you and in return, I would like the Black Lotus.”