by K. J. Dahlen
“Yup, we both are.” Sam chuckled as he followed Mountain into the house.
~* * * *~
A little later, after they’d eaten and were thinking about going to bed Izzy held her brother’s hand and they were reminiscing about the last time they saw each other. “I’m so sorry I haven’t been around the last eight years,” She spoke softly as tears began to roll down her cheeks.
Boone lifted his hands and gently wiped her tears away. “Please don’t do this, don’t cry. It’s ok. I remember the night I was shot, I remember everything you did and said and I would go through it all again, to protect you.”
Izzy snarled. “He had no right, no fucking right at all.”
Boone shrugged. “Dad always was a bastard.” He looked at the rest of them sitting there. “I guess we should tell you everything. I think you have the right to know.”
“They know most of the story,” Izzy told her brother, her eyes warning him.
“Then they need to know the rest of it, don’t you think?”
Izzy let out a sigh and nodded.
“Our father was a bastard from the time I could remember. Izzy was seven years old when I was born, so she had endured much more than I ever did. The first memory I have is when I was about two years old. I remember being cold and hungry and hearing my parents screaming at each other. Izzy wasn’t home from school yet, so I was in our bedroom sitting in the corner waiting for her to come home.” He shrugged. “It was always better when she was with me. She would hold me and tell me I was going to be ok.”
“Dad never could keep a job for very long,” Izzy took up the story. “Between his drinking and his gambling, we never knew from week to week if we would have a place to live or food on the table. It was a hard way to grow up. I think we changed schools fifteen times before Boone was ten.”
Boone let out a heavy sigh and continued, “The year before the shooting Mom had had enough. She wanted to leave and take us with her. She said she could get a job and support us and her. But Dad wouldn’t let her take us. He screamed at her that if she was going to walk out on him, she would go alone.” He glanced over at his sister and went on, “She surprised us all when the next morning she was gone. She took her clothes and left during the night. Things went downhill after that. Dad was never home and when he was there, he was drinking heavily. We never had enough food but Izzy took care of me, just the same as she’d been doing ever since I can remember. I remember that she often went hungry so that I could eat.” Boone rubbed his head almost like he had a headache. “About a week before the shooting, Dad came home one night in almost a good mood. He was drunk of course but for the first time in forever, he wasn’t angry.”
“I remember that night,” Izzy whispered. Her eyes were becoming haunted.
“He even remembered we were there. He brought us hamburgers from a fast food place. It was ten o’clock at night but he woke us up to eat cold, soggy hamburgers. He kept telling us his problems were over. He would stare at Izzy and tell her she was going to make him rich. I never did figure out what he was talking about. He finally fell asleep around one in the morning. Izzy had to carry me to bed after Dad fell asleep.”
Izzy shivered but didn’t say anything.
“Then a few hours later, he woke us up screaming about losing something. He tore the house apart, screaming and yelling. He was like a wild man that morning. He tore the whole house apart but didn’t find whatever it was he was looking for. Izzy would clean up and Dad came right behind her tearing things up.” He turned to her and asked, “Do you remember?”
“I remember.” She nodded. “I also remember a few days later. He came home that night and he was crazy.”
“Yeah, he was,” Bonne concurred. “He came into the bedroom and began yelling some crap about you finally being his good luck.”
“That’s when he told us about the card game he lost, and what he used as collateral.” Izzy sneered. “He bet his fifteen year old daughter on a single hand of cards.”
“But that wasn’t the whole bet,” Boone told her and everyone else. “Later that night or the next morning, Uncle Mike came into my hospital room and started yammering something about a key. Apparently, dad wanted him to ask me about a key he lost a few days before. It must have been the morning he tore the house apart.”
“A key?” Izzy frowned.
“Yeah, the night he came home with the hamburgers he’d taken a key from some guy at the card game he was at. The other guy didn’t know it was gone yet, but dad couldn’t find it the next morning. Apparently, that’s what he was looking for.”
“What does a key have to do with anything?” Sam asked.
“I’m not sure.” Boone shrugged. “I told Uncle Mike I had no clue what the hell he was talking about. I didn’t see any key that night, but Uncle Mike insisted dad had a key that night. He even suggested one of us had taken it. I told him I didn’t know anything about it and I also told him you wouldn’t have taken it either.” He shook his head. “He kept coming back every day to ask about the key. Then Dad went on trial for the shooting. I was still in the hospital and you were nowhere to be found. I asked Uncle Mike about you but he never told me anything.” Boone paused and stared at his hands in his lap. “It was only after Dad went to jail and he made arrangement for me to go and live with him that I found out the reason you never came to the hospital to see me. He told me he banned you from seeing me again and that if you did, he would have kicked me to the streets.” Boone laid his head on the back of his chair and closed his eyes. “God, I hated that man. I hated the fact I had nowhere else to go. I think if you would’ve come around just then, I would have begged you to take me away. I would have gladly lived on the streets with you.” He turned his head and found her looking back. “Then you and Melora showed up. I know I was angry that day but I wasn’t angry with you. I was pissed at myself. I was feeling sorry for me. It wasn’t until Melora explained the kind of life you were living that I could see I was better off with Mike but I still hated it. She told me that day that you had been watching over me. She told me that I might not see you but that you were there.” He paused. “It made me feel better knowing you were still around watching over me.”
Izzy reached out and took his hand. “You were never alone. Even when Melora and I left Chicago, someone was watching over you.”
Boone smiled. “I know. I saw them every day. I never let them know but I did.”
“Let’s go back to this key for a moment,” Mountain urged. “Whatever became of that?”
Boone shrugged. “I don’t know. A couple of years ago, Mike cornered me out on the patio. As usual, he’d been drinking. A letter from Dad arrived that day in the mail and after he read it, he started drinking. Anyway, he came out to where I was sitting and started asking me about the stupid key again.” Boone shook his head. “I told him again, I had no idea what he was talking about. Then he said something about Izzy must have it. I tried to tell him she would have told me but he got mad and hit me. I was surprised, yet not surprised. He’d slapped me around before but that night he smacked me hard enough to knock me out of my chair. I couldn’t move and the jolt from slamming down on the patio gave me so much pain I almost passed out.”
Izzy put her hands over her mouth as tears filled her eyes.
He shrugged. “I don’t know how long I laid there before Aunt Judy finally helped me back into the chair. She got me to bed but two days later, I was back in the hospital with pneumonia.”
“God, Boone I am so sorry!” Izzy cried. “I should have been there for you and I wasn’t.”
Boone shook his head. “No, you had every right to make a life of your own. I was ok for the most part.”
Izzy shook her head. “No you don’t understand. I took the key that night. After Dad fell asleep and I carried you to bed, I went back to the living room because I heard Dad saying something. He was talking in his sleep and I stood there and listened to him spout off about besting the man. I didn’t know who he was
talking about, he never said his name but he did say he would use the key against him. Someone would pay big to get the damn key back and that he would be set up for life.” Izzy wiped her tears away. “After everything he’d done to us and to Mom, I didn’t want him to get his payday so I took the key and I hid it. Then I watched him go nuts trying to find it. The night of the shooting, he spouted off about trading me in the fucking card game. Before I knew it, you grabbed the gun and then he had it and you were laying on the floor bleeding. I saw your bat on the floor beside the door and I just picked it up and swung it at his head. I watched him go down and I picked you up and got you the hell out of there.” Izzy sobbed. “Oh God, Boone I am so sorry! If I had left the key alone, you wouldn’t have been shot and none of this would have happened.”
“I think you both know better than that,” Mountain finally spoke up. He’d listened to the whole story come out and one thing he knew was that their father wasn’t worth spit and that he would use his children to get ahead.
Boone nodded. “Yeah, I do anyway. Dad never cared for us, even when Mom left. The only reason he wouldn’t allow her to take us, was he always figured on using us to get ahead.”
“She wasn’t much better,” Izzy told them.
“What do you mean?” Boone asked.
“After Uncle Mike kicked me out of your life, I went to find her. It took me a while, like two years but I managed to track her down. She was living in some dive and working as a stripper. She knew all about Dad and what happened. She saw the story on the news but didn’t come forward. She said she couldn’t take care of herself let alone a crippled kid, so she let you go home with Mike. When I asked her why she didn’t fight harder to take me and you with her when she left, she told me the truth. She said you were her kid but that I wasn’t. She told me I wasn’t Sonny’s kid either. I was her sister’s brat. The night I was born, she helped her sister through the labor, then things went wrong and her sister bled to death. Roxi said she had no choice but to pretend I was her kid since she claimed she didn’t know who my father was. Then she got this look in her eye and she told me she knew who my father was and that if I helped her, she would make sure I got some money out of the deal. I told her she could go to hell before I’d help her.”
“So we’re not brother and sister at all?” Boone asked.
Izzy slid off her chair and knelt in front of Boone’s chair. “You will always be my brother. It doesn’t matter to me whether we share the same bloodline or not, you are my brother, now and forever.”
Boone just stared at her for a moment. He began shaking his head then she cried out, “A family doesn’t always mean being that closely related, you know. It does mean you love the other person. I love you so much Boone, I have since the day you were born and that love will last until both of us are gone from this world.”
Boone took a deep breath and exhaled. “So ok, like you said love is what’s important. I can’t imagine life without you being part of me.”
“So what is this thing with the key?” Sam asked.
Izzy shrugged. “I don’t know but the key is important to somebody.”
“Do you still have the key?” Melora asked.
Izzy nodded. “Yeah, I still have it but I have no idea who to ask about it. I don’t want Sonny or Roxi to profit from it nor do I want whoever Sonny took it from to get it back.”
“Maybe I can help find out who the key actually belongs to,” Mountain suggested.
“How are you going to do that?” Izzy asked.
“I’m not sure yet, but I’m working on it.” He smiled at her.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Later after they had all gone to bed, Mountain pulled Izzy into his arms. “Are you okay?” he whispered.
“I’m not sure. I hated telling him we weren’t siblings. He looked so lost.”
“Everything he’s ever known has been lost to him,” Mountain said. “You’ve been a part of his life since he was born. He thought you were his sister all this time and now, he finds out you’re not. He’s feeling lost right now.”
“But I am his sister,” she insisted. “I won’t give him up, I can’t. I’ve loved him since he was born. I can’t just turn those feeling off.”
“I’m glad to hear that. What you told him earlier is true. You are still family.”
Izzy sighed.
“What’s wrong baby?” he held her closer and felt her trembling.
“I’m not sure. All my life I knew who I was, I was Sonny’s daughter and I was Boone’s sister, then I was told I didn’t belong to either of them. I didn’t belong to Roxi either. I would never know my real mother and I have no idea who my father is. Roxi wouldn’t tell me his name. For the longest time after she told me, my life was a lie I was so lost. I couldn’t go see Boone. I was so hurt, I couldn’t tell him what I’d just found out. He would have been devastated.”
Mountain nodded. “Plus, we still don’t know how the key figures into this or who might still be after it and, or you.”
“God,” she whispered. “I wish to heavens I’d never heard of or seen that damn key.”
Mountain hugged her close, then decided to turn her attention to something else. He began nibbling on the back of her neck while his hands got busy cupping her breasts.
Izzy groaned as she felt her body respond. Mountain’s hands slipped under her shirt and one of his hands cupped her bare breast while the other slipped down under the band of her underwear. His fingers found her clit and he rubbed it while she lifted her hips slightly.
Then he slipped one finger deep inside her. He could feel her wetness and after a few in and outs he slipped another finger into her core. He felt her body heating up and then it was his time to groan as she pushed her ass against his hardening cock.
Soon, he was three fingers deep and her juices were flowing. Mountain pulled down his boxers and when his cock was free, he positioned himself at her entrance then he pushed himself inside her deep and hard. He hissed when he felt her wrap herself around him. She was warm, wet and tight. As he moved in and out of her, he could feel his body tighten. His lips suckled the side of her neck, then he groaned as he felt her pushing back.
He ground his hips into hers and sank in deeper. Then he felt her tighten and he thrust deeper, harder and faster. Only three hard thrusts later, he felt her ignite and he groaned as he exploded inside her.
His hands gripped her hips as his cum burst from the tip of his cock and painted the walls of her pussy. Mountain ground himself into her.
Oh God Talon, I love you,” she whispered.
“I love you too sweet girl…” He began pumping inside her again. His cock was semi hard but with each stroke, he could feel himself getting ready for another round.
Izzy groaned as she pushed against him. Mountain rolled her on her belly and raised her hips as he snuggled in behind her. Each thrust was deeper and harder than the last. Before he thought it would be possible, he was ready to blow again.
His hand reached around her hip to her clit and with a few rubs, he could feel her body tighten with her orgasm. Grinding in to her core, he climaxed with her. He groaned as he slid down beside her and his arms tightened around her.
Izzy took his hand and raised it to her lips. Spreading tiny kisses to his skin, she whispered, “How did I get so lucky to find you?”
Mountain chuckled. “I think I’m the lucky one.”
“Mmmm…” She snuggled her back to his chest and spooned her body to his. “I think I need to sleep now.”
“Sweet dreams sweetheart,” he murmured in her ear. He closed his eyes and drifted off holding her close.
~* * * *~
A while later, Mountain’s eyes snapped open, and he held his breath. He wasn’t sure what woke him only that he sensed danger was near. A moment later, he heard a slight knock on his door. Moving away from Izzy, he pulled on his jeans and went to the door. Cracking it open, he found his daughter standing there. She had the baby in her arms and a worried look on h
er face.
“What is it?” he asked.
“I think there’s something wrong with Boone,” she informed him. “I was on my way to the kitchen and I heard him moaning in pain.” She looked up at her father. “Can you check on him? Please?”
Mountain’s eyes went to the door down the hall. He nodded, “I’ll check on him.” Turning to her he asked, “Where’s Sam?”
“He’s heating a bottle.” She grinned.
“Hmmph.” Mountain grumbled as he walked to Boone’s door. Hesitating, he listened for a moment then he too heard groaning. He gave a single knock then opened the door. Standing in the doorway he called out softly, “Hey, are you okay?”
Boone thrashed around on the bed. “No I don’t think so.”
Mountain moved closer to the bed. He watched as the young man grimaced “What’s going on?”
“I’m not real sure,” Boone admitted. “For a long time after the shooting, I didn’t feel anything below my waist, but for the past two years I have nights like this when my whole body burns.”
Mountain frowned. “I thought the bullet severed your spinal cord?”
Boone shook his head. “The doctors couldn’t take the bullet out. The risk was too great. The bullet is still in my back.”
“Do you have anything for the pain?”
Boone nodded. “Yeah, there’s a bottle of pain pills in my shaving kit.”
Mountain went into the bathroom and found the small black shaving kit. Opening it up, he found a prescription bottle. Reading the label, he opened it and shook a pill out into his hand. Getting some water, he went back to Boone’s bed and handed him the medication. “How long has it been since you’ve seen a doctor?” he asked.
“Two years. I saw a doctor when I had pneumonia.” Boone told him.
“What about a doctor for your back?”
“That’s been a little longer.” He sneered.
“How much longer?” Mountain crossed his arms over his chest.
“The last doctor I saw for my back was four days after the shooting.”