Denying the Devil

by Calle J. Brookes

  Thankfully, this brother-in-law wasn’t the teasing type. He didn’t say a word about Nate.

  Perci had almost thought her day was going to be uneventful. Until she was working the intake desk while Tiff took her lunch.

  She looked up when the pneumatic doors slid open with the familiar hum. A dark-haired older woman in an expensive pantsuit stood there, looking around.

  Perci knew exactly who the woman was.

  Nate’s mother walked right in like she owned the hospital—which as far as Perci knew, she still did—and came straight to the desk.

  To Perci.

  Like Perci had been her target all along.

  She had the same eyes as her son. The color and shape were exactly like Nate’s. So was the rich dark hair. She smiled at Perci across the intake desk. “Hello, Persephone, how are you?”

  “Dr. Masterson, I’m doing...well.” She didn’t have any idea what she was supposed to say to the woman who was now her sisters’ mother-in-law. She’d only met Rhea Masterson once, when she’d interviewed Perci for her current position. The woman had been calm, no-nonsense, and professional.

  Her eyes had looked through Perci like she could see right through her and read every thought she’d ever had.

  “You’ve healed all right? Compound fracture of the tibia?” Rhea’s gaze dropped to the cast still on Perci’s leg.

  “Yes, ma’am. I bumped it last night when a patient fell on me. Nate and Dr. Peterson are being cautious. I’ll be out of it within a week.”

  “Good. See you don’t overdo it, dear. Is my son around?” She smiled, revealing an expression just like her son Levi’s. “None of the boys know I’ve made it back. I’d like to surprise them.”

  “Nate’s in his office, as far as I know.” She’d made it a point to avoid him since The Kiss That Changed Everything, as she’d been calling it to herself. Whenever she thought about it. Which was far too often for her peace of mind.

  They’d passed twice in the hallways, but he’d been with other people. He hadn’t said a word. But she’d felt his gaze on her.

  “Great. I’ll sneak back and surprise him. Are you free for lunch?”

  “Yes...”

  “Good. We’ll go to the diner. I’ve been craving those onion rings for days. Ever since I decided to come home.”

  As far as Perci knew, her sisters’ mother-in-law had been out around the country doing medical relief after natural disasters. Rhea had been flooded in for Phoebe’s wedding, had a recently broken arm and sprained knee for Pip’s, and was dealing with a measles epidemic in Mexico for Pan’s.

  Her sons had been disappointed she’d not been there, but they’d also joked about it. Apparently, if she could have been there, she would have. And they’d been secure in that knowledge.

  But why on earth did she want to have lunch with Perci? Surely, she didn’t believe the hype about Perci and Nate being involved?

  Half the town thought they were, no matter what she had said to the contrary.

  She had no idea how to deal with that man. Nate confused her on so many levels.

  Part of her just wanted to pick up and run away. But that was the coward’s way—Tylers did not run when things got bad. Period.

  5.

  NATE’S DOOR OPENED. He looked up, ready to rip into whomever had violated his privacy. The words died on his lips. “Mom! I didn’t know you were coming home.” He rose, ready to hug her.

  She held up a hand to stop him. “Just what have you been up to? I’m hearing rumors about you and that pretty nurse out there? World War III Hospital Edition, is that what it’s being called?”

  He winced. “Where did you hear that from?”

  “I don’t know; half my friends tell me something’s going on with the two of you. Yet I hear nothing about it from you—or my other sons.”

  “Perci and I...we don’t exactly get along. That’s all it is. People are making more of it than is actually there. How long are you here for?” He was not going to discuss Perci with his mother. Period. He wasn’t discussing Perci with anyone, especially before he had how he felt for her fully figured out.

  “As long as I am needed. I understand I have a sweet little daughter-in-law who’s going to make me a grandmother soon and isn’t feeling well. She’ll need some pampering. Someone who understands what she’ll be going through. I want to meet her as an adult—I delivered her and her sister, after all. I delivered all the Tyler girls. Every last one of the Tyler girls in this county, I believe. I’m here to help.”

  He winced internally. Pip was three months pregnant—it was going to be a long visit then. Nate loved his mother, but she could be intense. Meddlesome—especially when she thought it was best for her sons. That meant she was going to be staying.

  He hoped his sisters-in-law were ready for the tornado about to invade them all. “We’ve missed you, Mom. I’m glad your back.”

  “Glad to be back. Now. I’m going to go grab that beautiful little nurse out there. Take her to lunch. I’m sure she can fill me in on how well you’ve run my hospital since I’ve been gone.”

  Nate winced.

  The idea of his mother and Perci possibly teaming up together against him absolutely terrified him.

  NATE MASTERSON’S MOTHER terrified her. Perci knew that two minutes after Rhea dragged her the mile down to the cafe. The owners had replaced the window that had been destroyed when John Rutherford had tried to kill Pan—and almost had killed her cousin Nikki. It made Perci leery to sit in one of those window seats ever again.

  After they ordered, and Mrs. Masterson spoke to several people in the town, Nate’s mother stared at her. “Well. Now we can talk. Woman to woman.”

  “Yes.” Tylers were not cowards, she wasn’t about to be afraid of this woman. Perci wouldn’t let herself be. Now confused...that was a better word. “Can I ask, why did you invite me to lunch today? You could have asked any of your sons, and Pip is over at Matt’s clinic right now.”

  “Because it’s you that concerns me.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “I know you and Nate are struggling together. I am here to help. He always has been a contrary boy.”

  “We’re not... I mean...there’s nothing...Nate and I just don’t get along, that’s all.” How was she supposed to tell Nate’s mother exactly how the man twisted her into a thousand knots?

  She smiled softly. “I know. But I was also there the first time he saw you. It’s one of the reasons why I left.”

  “Excuse me?

  “I left to get out of his way.” Rhea waved a hand dismissively. “He would never have gotten involved with a woman he worked with if I was around and in charge of everything. I left, thinking the two of you would work closely together and things would evolve. That’s how I planned things, anyway.”

  Perci took a sip of her soda. Mostly to buy herself some time to come up with a response. The older woman had left rather abruptly all those months ago. Everyone had talked about it. No one had known why. They’d assumed it had something to do with the memories of her husband. Apparently, they’d all been wrong. “I’m sorry, but that doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Yes, it does. Nate is the type of man to resist any kind of change in his life. He fights from morning until night because of that fear. I knew when he saw you, you’d give him the greatest fight of all. I honestly hadn’t expected the fight to last this long, though. I was not planning to stay away as long as I did.”

  “That’s...crazy. Nate and I...it’s just never going to happen.”

  Yet she’d kissed him back, not even a full twenty-four hours earlier.

  “You sure about that? I do have to admit I’m surprised—and thrilled—that my other three sons found their own happiness, with your sisters. I never expected that to happen. And now I’m going to be a grandmother. That’s why I came back, instead of giving you and Nate more time. I can think of only one thing more perfect—and that is for my Nate to get his head out of his ass. So tell me: any ideas
on how to help him do just that?”

  Perci just sat there and stared.

  She’d thought Nate was a piece of work. He didn’t hold a candle to his mother.

  6.

  PERCI MANAGED TO KEEP herself together with Rhea Masterson only because her mother had raised her to be able to handle herself in any situation with grace and dignity. She might spit and fight when called for, but Perci knew how to behave.

  Perci wondered if Nate’s mother did.

  The woman was just too sly for her liking. Too all-knowing. It was irritating as hell.

  Much like her son.

  The idea that Rhea had taken off and missed almost a year of her sons’ lives just so Perci and Nate would get together was insane.

  And not something Perci was going to be sharing anytime soon.

  Her shift ended. Her little red car was waiting. It had been vandalized a while back when one of her sisters had been attacked, but it had been fixed by one or two of her brothers-in-law. She wasn’t getting rid of that car anytime soon, though. It had once been her mother’s. She appreciated it, of course. But every time she drove that car she was reminded of the hell they had all been through on the mountain that day.

  Phoebe had come so close to dying—and Perci and Pip hadn’t been that far off, either.

  It had changed them all that day.

  Changed everything.

  Her father was gone when she pulled in at the house. As were the boys; no doubt they were off somewhere with her sister. Phoebe had once been responsible for their brothers’ care. Now at almost seventeen, twelve, and eight, the boys were either with their father of the evening or Perci. Phoebe still came over every day to tend the house and oversee the boys’ homeschool lessons. They lived too far out of town to make public school a good option.

  Until recently, Tylers kept to themselves.

  Remnants of the hell they’d gone through since Perci had been nineteen and the sheriff’s son had attacked her twin.

  He had come back not even three months ago to harass them again. It had nearly proven fatal.

  Perci would never forget that. She had the scars to remind her of Jay Gunderson and the hell he had brought them all.

  He’d been in her bedroom at least once that she knew.

  Something else she hadn’t forgotten. She’d taken some of her spare cash—a rare occurrence in the Tyler family—and purchased paint and some new secondhand furniture for her space. Frivolous or foolish, maybe, but she’d needed to do it. To erase the taint of evil that she hadn’t been able to forget.

  She had the entire second floor of the house to herself now. Pip was gone, Phoebe was gone, Pan was gone. Even their younger brother Phoenix was gone, having followed the film crew back to California when they’d left. The house that had once seemed so full of life, love, people was barely that anymore.

  Even her three youngest brothers were gone more often than not, splitting their time between their sisters’ places. With the Mastersons.

  Her dad spent a great deal of his time working on his Hail Mary plan to save their ranch—in Finley Creek, Texas.

  Perci pushed aside the melancholy and checked the doors one more time. Just to be on the safe side.

  It seemed like she’d been afraid of her own home since the moment those assholes had attacked Phoebe.

  But tonight. Tonight, it just seemed so much worse.

  7.

  THAT NURSE WAS AS BEAUTIFUL as her sisters. He could see why his boy had been so enamored of her twin. Enamored enough to do some pretty stupid shit to get the twin’s attention.

  It had cost Jay his life.

  Clive didn’t know what he was doing there alongside the road, waiting for her again.

  He’d followed that nurse home tonight. He’d seen her car when she’d pulled onto the small highway that led toward the edge of the county where all the Tylers lived. And he’d followed. Just like that.

  Like he had all those times before.

  Possibly just like Jay had the girl’s twin.

  Had his son watched the twin and just wondered what she was doing? Imagined taking her clothes off and taking her to her bed nearby?

  Maybe. Maybe by following this girl he could understand his son’s fascination. Understand why Jay had come after her again after three years in jail. There had to be something about those girls that had been worth dying for. There had to.

  Otherwise, Jay’s death made no sense at all.

  Clive could walk up on that Tyler porch, burst through the door, and take that girl. Just take her, kill her, and leave her in a damned field somewhere her family would never find her.

  Make those Tylers and Mastersons pay for the way they had taken his Jay from him.

  Clive just stared as the lights inside the Tyler ranch told him exactly where the girl was. Perci. Her name was Perci. He’d known her for years now. Had made a point of making sure she knew him.

  Perci had been in the barn that day with his boy.

  He’d heard she’d almost burned alive. That she’d saved her twin’s life. That she was a heroine. That she’d almost died.

  Like his son had.

  But she was fine now, had made a damned movie, and was screwing around with the fourth Masterson brother. A doctor.

  They’d marry soon. Have kids of their own. Perfect children who wouldn’t screw up to the same extent that Jay had. The Mastersons had old money, lots of land, and owned the damned hospital, as well.

  She would prosper. While his son turned to dust. While Clive’s dreams for his son did, as well.

  Clive’s phone buzzed. He checked it quickly.

  It was Maria. His stepson—and nephew—Clint’s neighbor. She thought it was getting her in good with Clive, letting him know what was going on with the boy. Maria thought Clive would care that his wife’s granddaughter was growing up without a mother. Just like her two boys had. But that child wasn’t any relation of Clive’s other than a great-niece—he was no damned grandfather to that child, and he and Clint had both agreed on that.

  But he hadn’t told Maria that.

  Not with him wanting a warm body in his bed at night. Maria was more than willing.

  What would Maria think if she knew he was outside this redheaded girl’s home, staring at her silhouette through the window shade?

  Probably nothing good.

  Just like his son Jay had been.

  Nothing good.

  Damn it, why had Jay been so stupid?

  Clive stayed exactly where he was as the hours passed.

  Staring at her bedroom window and wondering what about her and her sisters had been worth his son dying over.

  As the sun rose over the mountains, he was no closer to getting those answers.

  8.

  NATE FOUND THE WOMAN he wanted in the back of the ER, treating a fair-haired child, long past the time she should have clocked out and headed home. He took one look at the patient chart and winced.

  It was a child they had seen far too many times before. Nate would be consulting with the physician on duty about her impressions. He suspected abuse but wanted a corroborating physician’s report.

  Then he’d be calling the next stage in the process. He stood in the exam bay and watched Perci comfort the little girl as best she could.

  The mother wasn’t anywhere to be seen. And the father most likely hadn’t even made an appearance.

  Nate suspected the father was the one responsible for the girl’s bruises in the first place. Perci looked up when he entered. The little girl, Ivy, stared at him out of fearful green eyes. Her little hand rose and she stuck her thumb in her mouth as her other hand tightened on Perci’s scrub top. Perci wore scrubs with Cookie Monster printed all over the cotton. The blue of the puppet matched her eyes perfectly.

  And the character no doubt helped soothe the children who came through the ER.

  Perci somehow always got the child patients.

  Perci was singing. Rocking. Holding the little one like it was the
most natural thing in the world.

  He could see her rocking her own child in just that way some day. Rocking her child as that child’s father stared at them, thinking just how damned lucky he was.

  That thought had him jolting.

  Some other man would give her that child one day. Build a family, build a life with her. Change everything.

  Nate scowled. The idea of some other man touching her pissed him off.

  Nate wanted it to be his hands on her.

  Hell, he wanted it to be his child she held just like that. And no other man’s.

  He was such a damned caveman where Persephone Tyler was concerned. She’d figure that out one day.

  “Dr. Masterson, how can Ivy-bear and I help you this evening?” There was strain on her face. Her eyes kept flickering between him and the child. And the door. As if she expected the parents to walk in at any moment.

  He somehow doubted that would happen. The mother wasn’t exactly a prize. The father didn’t even come close to being Father of the Year.

  “Documentation.” He kept his words low, not wanting to frighten the child. She was already seriously frightened of men in general. “I’m calling Joel’s office and child protective services in five minutes. I need to speak with Dr. Hayes. And I need someone to take photographs.”

  She nodded. “I’ll grab the camera.”

  “No, I’ll get it. You just keep holding her.” Keep doing what she was doing. It was working. The little girl was calming.

  It was a long process, to document every mark and bruise on the little girl’s body. They called in both the attending physician and the charge nurse to sign and witness. When it was finished, he excused himself to make the calls.

  His brother Joel was far more helpful than the child protective services.

  They gave a host of excuses. It was too late, the roads were too flooded, and unless an approved bed became available, Ivy was going to an institution first thing in the morning. An institution with troubled kids more than four times the not-quite-three-year-old’s age.