Silence filled the office which usually was what Cody loved about the space. It was where he came to get peace and quiet, but now? Hell, he felt awkward as he sat on the opposite end of the large sofa, opening the whiskey and pouring a large measure before placing the bottle and glass on the coffee table.
“Do you want anything else?” He nodded toward her empty cup, not recognizing his own voice as it came out a few octaves higher, feeling as if he was being strangled.
“I could do with a beer.” She raised an eyebrow, her emerald eyes doing strange things to him every time they met his.
Cody tilted his head, knowing her approximate age, but not her exact. “When’s your birthday?”
He hated asking that. It tore at his heart that he had to ask his own daughter when she was born. But he wouldn’t serve alcohol to anyone underage, not even his own daughter. The look on her face told him she hated it too. Or was it that she hated him?
Cordy tilted her head higher, her jaw tightening and he saw her steeling herself for long seconds before she whispered. “June, the eighth of June, and I really could do with a beer. It’s been a long night, heck, it’s been a long couple of weeks getting here, so please, get me a beer.”
June . . . fuck it! She’d only have been a few weeks gone when he’d left, but . . . most she-wolves knew almost immediately. Or that’s what he’d been told over the years. Did she know and kept it from him, or not?
“Hey . . . did you hear me?”
Cody jerked back to the present, his thoughts a jumbled mess as he sprang to his feet, grateful for the distraction. “Sorry, yes, I heard you. I hope your mother doesn’t mind you drinking . . . you’re just past legal though.”
He’d barely managed to get the word out. Mother. He fled from the room. Fled being the right word as his feet moved with such speed he almost ran all the way to the bar, picking up the nearest bottle of chilled beer. He had no idea what to do next or how to proceed without making an ass of himself.
Only knowing he had to. Cordy deserved answers and he needed them too. He had to know what happened after he left. Was she all right? Had her life been okay? Had Cordy’s? The only way to find out was to turn around, walk back to his own dang office and talk. Easy? No. Simple? No. Would he do it? Hell yes.
“Here.” He handed her the bottle as he retook his seat, ignoring his whisky. “Cordy, I need to ask you something before we start. Does your mother know where you are? Does she know you’re safe? Because if not, then you need to let her know.”
Cordy’s face shut down as she twirled the bottle in her hands, long slender fingers that reminded him of her mom’s. Her eyes flitted to his and he saw the lie before her lips moved. “Yeah, she knows.”
He didn’t want to push it right then. He’d come back to it when she was more relaxed. When he’d won her trust, if that ever happened. “Okay, so, where do you want to start? Earlier you were angry and I guess you had a right to be. I wasn’t there for you, but I didn’t know about you. I’m sorry, Cordy, but I honestly wasn’t aware that your mother was pregnant. Did she tell you that?”
He hoped to hell she had. Surely she wouldn’t have lied to her daughter about what had happened between them? No. The girl he knew and loved wouldn’t have done that. She wouldn’t have told her that he’d known and left anyway.
Cordy’s eyes hardened but at the same moment they started to glisten before tears started to fill them. He moved toward her but her hand shot up, halting him. “No! Stay there.”
Shit. He wanted to go to her but she was putting up walls . . . heck, they had only just met. They were strangers. Of course she didn’t want him anywhere near her. “Of course. Sorry. Talk to me, tell me what’s going on.”
“I’ll try, but it might come out jumbled, I’m upset.” Cordy took a sip of beer, as if trying to settle herself. “I’ve had over two weeks trying to figure out how this conversation would go. Hell, I’ve had months! Shoot, okay, let me start at the beginning. After you left, my mother had an idea she was pregnant, she wasn’t certain so she didn’t say anything to you. She didn’t want you to feel trapped. Anyway, a few days later she knew for certain, and then so did her parents and the Alpha. She wanted to bring her baby up herself but the Alpha had other ideas. He forced her to mate with someone, his name’s Clyde Morton, and for such a long time I thought he was my father.”
Cody felt sick and was grateful he hadn’t drank the whisky because he was pretty certain it would have made a re-emergence right about then. Cordy’s face had paled, her eyes falling away as she took a slug of beer, he couldn’t help himself from shuffling closer. “I didn’t know, Cordy. I swear I didn’t know.”
She turned those eyes he saw every morning in the mirror up to him. “She said as much, but somehow I thought she was lying to me. I guess I liked to think of you as the ‘bad guy’. You know, like you’d ran out on us and left us to the mercy of that mean fucker.”
“What?” Cody’s stomach roiled again, bile rushing up his throat at her words and all the connotations that came with them.
“Yeah, he’s not exactly gonna win father of the year anytime soon. Or best husband either. He knew she was pregnant but when she never gave him another baby, it seemed to anger him and he took it out on her at first, then both of us. I didn’t know why, not to begin with, because he forced Mom not to tell me that I wasn’t his and, of course, I didn’t know any better and I called him Daddy.”
“Fucking bastard.” Cody’s anger rose, together with shame and regret. “I’m sorry, for everything. I should’ve checked back in with her, but I was young and heartbroken. She made it clear she didn’t want to leave with me so I never did. It was years later that I ended up here and by then I guessed she would’ve settled down and gotten over me. I should’ve done more, got in touch, anything.”
“Yeah, you should have,” Cordy said coldly. “When I turned eighteen, things got so bad that I moved in with my grandparents, I’ve stayed with them since then, on Mom’s side, not his. They’re not part of our pack and I’ve never met them, but I couldn’t stay under that roof a moment longer. But Mom’s still there and things are worse, he’s cruel in the extreme, and there’s not a week that goes by that he doesn’t hurt her in some way or another. It was after one of his beatings that she finally broke down and admitted to me that he wasn’t my father, that you were, and she told me all about you and what happened. That’s when I started hunting for you on the internet . . . you weren’t that hard to find. Only took me a few weeks to track you down. When I showed your picture to her, of this place, shit, she broke down and cried her eyes out.”
Cody couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It was beyond bad, far worse than he could’ve feared. His love, his beautiful and fierce she-Wolf, being mis-treated and beaten by a bully as well as his daughter. Fuck, no! That wasn’t going to be happening for much longer. Not if he had anything to do with it.
“I’ll go there. I’ll take care of things,” Cody snapped out, his teeth almost breaking as his jaw clenched with such force he could hear them grinding together, crunching and crushing.
“No!” Cordy’s hair flew around as she shook her head vigorously. “You can’t. She’ll be on lockdown now that I’ve run away. The Alpha will have his men guarding her and Clyde will, no doubt, have given orders that if you show up she’ll be the one to be punished. I’m scared for her, they might even kill her if you go in there all guns blazing. Damn, I didn’t think this through . . . all because I wanted to slap your face. That’s all I wanted. I needed you to feel the pain we’ve been through all these years because you fucking left us!”
At that moment he felt it too. Pain, anguish, sorrow, all of it flowing over him to almost crush him as Cordy’s body fell in on itself. Her legs rising up, her arms reaching around her knees as finally tears streamed down her cheeks.
He couldn’t stay in place a moment longer, sliding along to take her into his arms, pulling her over onto his lap. His thick arms circling her, holding her
close, keeping her safe against his chest. “I’m here now. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I won’t let him touch you again, Cordy. I promise you, he won’t lay a hand on you again. I’ll fucking cut it off him before I allow that. Shh, I’ve got you now. I’ve got you.”
~ Chapter Five ~
She stayed in his arms for long minutes, well after she’d stopped crying, and he wondered if it was because she’d longed to feel the arms of her father. Her real father around her.
Cody felt something strange happening the moment he’d held her. As if his beast recognized her as his and maybe she had too. Possibly the connection had soothed her, he certainly hoped so. He had no idea where they went from here. Cody was not familiar with anything to do with being a father, hell, he was good at playing the cheeky uncle. The one that turned up, had fun, created chaos and left, leaving the parents to clean up and calm the hyper kids down.
Dealing with a full-grown daughter? No. He had no clue how to proceed. Although, at this moment, she seemed like a child, curled up on his lap. Her fingers latching onto his shirt, gripping on for dear life as if she expected him to drop her to the floor and run. No. Not happening. Maybe he had to tell her that?
Was that what was going on here? Was she expecting him to run again?
“My place is upstairs, there’s plenty of room for you to stay. Where’s your car and I’ll go get your stuff.” Cody thought a decent night’s sleep would help them both. He’d broach the subject of contacting her mother again in the morning.
“Hmm, I don’t have a vehicle. I snuck out of the camp and I’ve been hitch-hiking the past couple of weeks. My grandparents knew what I was going to do and they gave me money so I could stay in cheap motels at night. They knew I was leaving, no matter what, so they said that way I’d be off the streets at night and with using cash they couldn’t track me. Not using cards, or banks, they said that wasn’t a good idea. I do have one of theirs, for emergencies only, but I’ve not used it.”
“What? You’ve been hitch-hiking? Are you crazy? Don’t you know what could’ve happened to you?” Shit, was she nuts? Anything could’ve happened to her. Emotions that were completely alien ran through him, first and foremost was the need to keep her safe. Warn her about the dangers of doing such a reckless thing such as hitch-hiking through several states and, just damn! It was wrong of her grandparents to agree to such a reckless endeavor.
Cordy moved so fast he wasn’t aware of it until she was on her feet, and moving toward the door, her face flushed and her temper flaring. “Don’t you dare take that tone with me. You’ve no right! You hear me? Do you? You’ve no fucking right! You’ve known me for all of five minutes and suddenly you’re talking to me like you’re my father! No, just no! I’m outta here. I’ve come, I’ve done what I wanted to do. Met you, slapped your smug face, and now I’m leaving. If I get back quickly enough then maybe they’ll not take it out on my momma too much. So, hi and bye, Cody Fucking Murphy.”
She spun around and darted for the door again, her hand on the knob before he got to her, his palm slamming on the wood, halting her escape. His breath caught in his throat at the thought of her leaving. He couldn’t allow that. Not in a million years could he lose her. Not when she’d just walked into his life. Not when he’d only found out she existed.
He felt as if his heart was being torn in a dozen different directions as she turned, snarling up at him, “Let me out!”
And there it was. His anger, his ire, his fury that had burned inside him when he was her age, and younger, and the reason he’d been forced to leave the pack in the first damn place. Staring him right in the face.
He felt as if he’d been doused with ice water. If he’d held any lingering doubts that this girl before him was his, they evaporated as she spat her anger up at him. “I said! Let me out!”
“No,” he replied calmly. “I’m sorry. You’re correct, I had no damn right to say that. Please, stay so we can work this out. Your mom needs us to do this, Cordy. I need to do this.”
She deflated before his eyes, as if the world was on her shoulders, those green eyes searching his as if she expected him to abandon her . . . again. “How?” she whispered, desperation in that one word.
“I’m not sure, yet. But I’ll figure something out, of that you can be sure.”
“He’ll never let her go. Clyde Morton is a monster and he’ll never let her go.”
“We’ll see about that.” Cody was already thinking of how he’d do things, but he was absolutely certain of one thing: Cordy wasn’t going back to that pack. Ever.
“Okay, I’ll stay.” She gave him a searching look. “Just promise you won’t try and contact anyone at the pack. They can’t know I’m here or they’ll come for me. Not only that . . . if he finds out where I am then he’ll know Momma’s told me about you and I don’t know what he’ll do if that happens. Please?”
“I promise.” Cody nodded. “Now, do you have anything with you? Clothes?”
“Yeah, I’ve got a pack. I stashed it outside, I’ll go get it.”
“No, I’ll get it, just tell me where it is.” Cody wasn’t letting her outside, not on her own. Firstly, it was late and secondly, he was terrified she’d run.
“We’ll both go.” She smirked. “I’m not going anywhere. I said I wouldn’t, and I don’t lie. Well, not usually, if it’s to that asshole, that’s a different matter entirely.”
“Fine.” He chuckled. “Let’s go and then we’ll head up to bed. I’ve got an early delivery tomorrow so I need to get some rest.”
Retrieving her belongings didn’t take long. She’d hidden them nearby, and they were back inside and in his apartment within minutes. Cordy stopped just inside to look around the large space that he’d taken years to make his own.
“Not what I expected,” she admitted, taking in the comfy sofas and the floor to ceiling windows that looked out to the forest beyond. Then she saw the massive wall mounted television above the open fireplace. “That’s more like it.” She bobbed her head in its direction.
“I’ve got several gaming consoles, if you’re into that sort of thing, and a huge video library. I don’t watch live shows, most of them bore me and I prefer films or I binge on boxsets when I have the time.”
“I’ve only got an ancient Xbox at home, so yeah, I’d like to check yours out, thanks.” She turned around, looking at the room again. “This is huge. You live here alone?”
Cody nodded. “Yeah, for the most part. I’ve had people stay sometimes, when they needed somewhere, you know, if times were tough or things happened that meant they need to lay low and out of sight. And before you ask, I don’t mean because they broke the law. But I won’t break someone’s confidence, Cordy. All I’ll say is that they’ve usually had to get away from a bad situation and I helped them out.”
She turned around, gazing at him with a thoughtful look before her chin tipped up. “Patty told me you helped her, I guess you mean something along those lines.”
Cody shrugged. “Yeah, something like that.”
Cordy shook her head, screwing her eyes shut tight, her fists balling at her side briefly before she opened her eyes again. Staring up into his face. “This didn’t go quite as I’d planned.”
“And how was it supposed to go?” he asked, his chest tightening at the look on her face. One that showed the emotions rolling through her. One that had his beast howling inside his head and had him desperate to storm over to her and take her into his arms and tell her everything was going to be okay. But he knew that would be a huge mistake.
She was fragile still. This was new, for them both. If he moved, even an inch, he had the feeling she’d bolt. So he stayed rooted to the spot and gave her time. Time to sort through her feelings and time to talk and get to know him. The real him, and not the monster she’d built up in her mind.
“I’d planned on finding you, check. Planned on seeing you as I had in my mind, as a player with women falling at your feet that you used and abused, and left as soon as
you’d had your fill, unfuckingcheck. What I’ve found, so far anyway, is the opposite of that, and my brain is still trying to come to terms with it, and it’s hard and I’ve no idea what to do, or even what to freaking call you? Cody? Mister Murphy? Asshole? Sorry, I didn’t mean that last one, it just popped out. I guess I’m still having a hard time with all of the finding out my daddy isn’t really my dad at all and that you are.”
His heart ached for the pain she was going through, but he was at a loss on how to deal with all of this. He felt for her, inside, but he didn’t know her. Was she the touchy-feely type? Or not? Would she slap him if he went to her now? Shit, did they write handbooks for these situations? Maybe he could Google it and find one online, because he sure as hell had no fucking idea how to proceed without cocking things up, and that was the last thing he wanted to do.
Ask her! His beast snarled at him. Damn it. Simple solution and he hadn’t even thought of it.
“I’m sorry, Cordy, I really am.” He softened his usually gruff voice, lowering it so he didn’t scare her. “I have no idea what you’re going through right now, but I know I’m feeling terrified so it must be a hundred times worse for you. All I can say is I’ll do whatever it takes to help you. All that stuff we can work on tomorrow, but, right now, what can I do? This very second, I can see how upset you are and I’d like to help you right now. I don’t know you, so I’m not sure what kind of a person you are, don’t bite my head off . . . but would you like a hug?”
Tears filled her eyes, a stray drop leaking to slip and slide down her cheek, her nose turning red as she sniffled and suddenly she looked like a lost and lonely child. The urge to go to her swelling up inside him even more, his feet moving on their own as he stepped toward her at the same moment as she nodded.
No words spoken, just a simple tip of her head and he was right there, his arms around her and pulling her against his chest and hers wrapping around his waist. Her body trembling while she cried gently against him.
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