“What’s wrong, Danny?” His tone was calm. Quiet. He didn’t fight her grip on his shirt.
Didn’t look even a little surprised at her sudden aggression.
“Who are you?” She twisted the shirt tighter, pulling Craig’s face in close.
His eyes were brown.
Not dark brown, though. They were the same shade as the caramels Sam made every Christmas.
Craig’s hands came to cover hers but he didn’t try to work them free. “I told you the truth, Danny. I’m a private investigator hired by your brother.”
“He’s not my brother.”
“He is, though.” Craig’s eyes flicked to where her sisters stood watching. He eased closer. “Jude is your son, isn’t he?”
Her whole body went cold. “Don’t you go near my son.” She could barely get the words out between the tight clench of her teeth. The voice coming from her no longer sounded like her own. It was low and throaty. Almost a growl. “I will rip you apart and no one—”
“I know what you are, Danny.” Craig’s eyes rested on hers as one thumb slowly shuttled over the inside of her wrist. “I know.”
“Stop it.” She tried to pull free but he held her hands tight.
“Listen to me, Danny.” He moved in a little more, until his body almost touched hers. “I am not here to do anything but help my friend.” His eyes moved over her face. “Maybe help you too.” His fingers started a slow glide over her skin, sliding across the knuckles of her left hand one at a time, stroking with a careful touch. “Let me help you.”
“I don’t need your help.” Her whole body hummed, almost burning with the need to punish anyone who dared threaten her son. “I need you to go. Leave us alone.”
“That’s not going to happen, Danny.” Craig closed the last little bit of distance between them. “I’m not leaving until I have what I came for.”
“What is it you believe you came here for?”
His lips pulled into a smile. “I’m not sure that list is complete yet.” One finger lifted to slide along her jaw. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Danny.”
He dropped her hands and stepped away, sliding into the driver’s side of the shiniest car she’d ever seen. Craig gave her a wink as he pulled away, leaving Danny standing in the middle of the street staring after him.
“What the fuck was that?” Frankie’s voice caught her off-guard, sending her stumbling to one side.
“That is our newest pain in the ass.” Sam eyed Danny. “He likes you.”
“Can you blame him?” Frankie tugged off the beanie keeping her blonde curls contained. “She’s scary hot.”
“Most men don’t like the scary part, though.” Alex stared down the street. “That one does.” Her attention turned to Danny. “What did he say to you?”
So many things. None of which she wanted to share with her sisters. “He was still talking about the Lance guy.”
“Who’s Lance?” Frankie shook out her hat, knocking free a sprinkling of sawdust. “Is he hot too?”
“He’s some guy Danny supposedly knows.” Sam lifted her brows. “Are you sure you don’t know who he’s talking about?”
“Positive.” Danny chewed her lower lip.
Telling her sisters the truth wasn’t an option right now. They would only get upset.
And if there was one thing she’d learned over the years, it was how quickly they could feed off each other. In good ways and in bad.
“I don’t think he’s coming back.” Danny said it like she meant it.
Like she believed it.
It was the only option. Sell her sisters on Craig’s complete departure so they would leave her alone.
So she could figure out what in the hell was going on.
Sam smiled. “Good.” She wrapped one arm around Danny’s shoulders. “Momma bear strikes again.”
“Seems like.” Danny shoved on a matching smile. “I’m shocked he didn’t run screaming when you would only give him oatmeal raisin.”
“You better not have given him all the oatmeal raisin cookies, Sam.” Frankie frowned. “You made those for me.”
Sam’s eyes went wide. “I wasn’t going to give him the good cookies.”
“Don’t talk shit about my cookies.” Frankie grabbed the tie to Sam’s apron and pulled it.
“Stop being a baby.” Sam snagged the tie from Frankie’s grip, stepping away. “I’ll make you more.”
Frankie grinned. “Want me to come help?”
Sam shoved at their younger sister as she tried to follow along. “Not unless you’re going to go home and shower first.”
“Sawdust is probably fiber.” Frankie shook her head, sending bits of wood falling around her.
“I don’t even want to know what your house looks like.” Sam pushed her again. “Go. Hurry up.”
Frankie blew her sisters a kiss as she walked backward toward the small black-sided prefab ranch house at the end of the street.
Danny worked her face into a smile. “I should go back to see how JD is doing.” She waved at Sam and Alex. “I’ll see you at dinner.”
When she opened the door to the shop voices carried in from the back. She walked to the open doorway separating her showroom from the processing section of the building. JD stood at the large stainless steel table he used to butcher big game and hogs, explaining everything he was doing to the very interested ten-year-old watching with sharp eyes.
“This here is the tenderloin.” JD made a deft slice along the carcass. “You wanna be real careful with it ‘cause it’s the best part.”
Jude’s eyes lifted from the demonstration to the door where she stood. “JD’s showing me how to take a deer apart.”
“I see that.” Danny went to where her son stood, a hairnet over his shaggy blond head. She pressed a kiss to it.
“Are you helping or are you just standing there?” JD lifted his brows at Jude. He nodded to the vacuum sealer. “Bring over the big bags first.” He winked at Danny as Jude scurried away. “He came in right after you left. I figured you’d want me to keep him busy.”
“Thank you.” Danny leaned a little closer, looking over the partly-butchered deer. “She didn’t do too much damage, did she?”
“Hit it just right. Broke the neck.” He tipped his head toward the large plastic bin at one end of the table. “Junior’d already done the hard work.”
“That explains how you’re butchering already.” She’d done her best to shield Jude from the sort of things that were a part of her everyday life growing up, but some of those things were still a part of her life. Had to be.
“Here.” Jude held up one bag, ready and willing to help.
JD carefully eased the tenderloin into the bag. “I think I found myself a new assistant.”
Jude smiled wide as he set the bag down and held up another.
“Did you finish your school work?” Danny went to the hooks lining the wall and grabbed an apron, tying it on before netting her hair and gloving her hands.
“I finished it all before lunch.” Jude was completely focused on his task, closely watching everything JD did.
“You’re a good boy.” Danny gave him another kiss as she grabbed the stack of filled bags.
Jude didn’t respond. He was busy hanging on JD’s every word.
Guilt tugged at her gut as she watched him. He’d missed out on so much in his life and there was so much more he would never experience.
It was the worst part about being who they were.
The isolation. The suspicion they had to carry like a shield.
It was all that would keep them safe.
And at the end of the day there was only one thing that mattered.
Keeping Jude safe.
THREE
“WHAT ARE YOU doing?” Danny rushed out of her house, down the planked porch and into the street. “You can’t bring that here.”
She’d seen him coming.
Good.
Craig leaned out the window of the pickup he’
d switched his sedan for at the rental place. “I said I was coming back, Danny. Did you think I was kidding?”
She caught the edges of her robe and wrapped them around her body, covering the lacy neckline of the silky tank she wore beneath it. “You said you were coming back, not that you were bringing a freaking camper when you did.” Her blue eyes widened as she leaned back to peer down the length of the trailer. “Where did you even get that?”
“Holy cow!” Jude came running out of the house, leaving the door open. He made it to the bottom step before stopping and hurrying back to pull it closed. The second time he skipped steps in his haste to see the camper Craig bought last night. “Are you going camping?”
“Something like that.” Craig leaned out a little more. “I thought you weren’t allowed to talk to me.”
Jude didn’t even look his way. He was too busy inspecting the outside of the camper. “My mom’s here.”
Craig shifted the truck into park and climbed out.
“You can’t leave that here.” Danny backed up a little, one hand pressing to her head.
He made a show of looking one way down the empty street before turning to stare in the other direction. “Doesn’t look like I’m in anyone’s way.”
Danny’s house was the only place on the street. The brand new white story-and-a-half sat in the center of the block, facing the backside of her shop downtown. There were no cars parked anywhere. Not a sign anyone else would need to pass.
Because no one would.
The occupants of this tiny barely-there town consisted only of six sisters and a few of the people they employed. People like JD.
Who was super friendly after a few beers.
And clearly didn’t know the full extent of his employers secrets, otherwise he wouldn’t have said shit last night when Craig accidentally ran into him the next town up at the tiny bar where all the local loggers spent their downtime.
Loggers who were also employed by the sisters. Most of them anyway.
“There’s nowhere for you to plug it in.” Her head barely tipped in a nod. Like that would make a difference to him.
Craig pointed to one of the many compartments running up the side of the camper. “Got a generator.” He lifted the keys to Jude. “You wanna go inside and check it out?”
The little boy’s eyes slid to his mother.
She crossed her arms the way all the women of Shadow Pine did when they were ready to go to battle. “I think that’s a great idea.” Her eyes didn’t leave Craig as she spoke.
Jude immediately grabbed the keys and took off, disappearing around the back of the trailer.
“What are you doing?” Danny moved in closer, glaring as she whisper-yelled in the dim quiet of the early morning air.
Craig shrugged, trying to keep the easy smile and relaxed demeanor that served him well in life. “I like it here.” He moved a little closer. “Figured I might stay for a bit.”
“Do you make a habit of showing up places and being a pain in the ass?”
“Actually, I do.” He smiled.
He’d dropped a pretty penny to make this moment happen.
And it was worth every cent.
Danny’s long blonde hair lifted on the breeze, drifting around her shoulders.
All he wanted was to touch it. Feel the slide of it between his fingers. Breathe against it. Inhale her air.
She was what he’d been waiting for. Searching for in more ways than one.
He’d laughed at his friends’ stories about finding the women they loved. Thought Hagen and Joel’s tales of instant recognition were nothing more than memories clouded by the eventual love they found.
Then he saw Danny.
“You don’t understand what you’re doing.” Danny’s tone shifted. The edge it usually carried softening to something else.
Something he understood.
“I do.” He reached out to catch a strand of hair, unable to resist the urge to touch her any longer. “You know you’re not the only ones, don’t you?”
“The only ones what?” Jude’s voice caught him by surprise, sending Craig back a step.
“The only ones who like it here.” Craig nodded to the camper. “What did you think?”
“It’s awesome.” Jude grinned wide. “We usually camp in tents.” He turned to his mother. “It has a bathroom.”
“That’s nice, honey.” Danny’s smile was tight. “Why don’t you go finish your breakfast and start on your school work?”
“You want some breakfast?” Jude was staring at him expectantly.
“I would love some breakfast.” Craig’s experience with kids was limited.
Mostly by design.
The first children he’d spent time with were the three little girls in Greenlea, and every second he was with them lodged the fear he carried deeper into his gut.
But Jude wasn’t a little girl. He was a kid. Old enough to see through the mask Craig wore, trying desperately to hide what he most likely lacked. What he knew couldn’t be forced or faked, no matter how hard a person tried.
“I’m sure Mr. O’Neal has other things to do and doesn’t have time to eat breakfast now.” Danny’s eyes widened on him. “Like take his camper somewhere else.”
“I don’t have other things to do, actually.” Craig rested one hand on his stomach. “And the fridge in the camper’s not stocked up yet, so I can’t even make my own breakfast.”
“My mom made pancakes.” Jude’s eyes were pleading when they locked onto Danny. “Please, mom? Can he have breakfast with us?”
Letting Jude fight his battles wasn’t part of Craig’s initial plan.
And maybe it shouldn’t be now, because the guilt in Danny’s eyes as she looked at her son cut into him. “You know what? I should probably take a rain check on that breakfast.” He pointed to the camper. “I forgot to fill the water tank. I should go do that.”
Jude didn’t miss a beat. “We have water.” He pointed to the spigot at the front of the house. “You can use ours. Right, mom?”
For a kid who acted like he might be a kidnapper yesterday, Jude sure was warming up to him really quickly this morning. “I think your mom might need a little—”
Danny reached out to pull Jude in against her chest, holding him tight. “I need to talk to Mr. O’Neal for a minute, Ju-Ju.” She braced her hands on his cheeks, holding his face toward hers. “Please go eat your pancakes.”
He nodded, blue eyes dropping to the ground. “Kay.”
The way the little boy slow-walked back to the house made Craig’s chest ache in a way that was foreign, but not unknown. “I’m sorry, Danny. I didn’t mean to—”
“That’s why you need to leave. Because you don’t mean to, but you will.” She looked up at him. “You might not think being here is a problem, but it is.”
“So your plan is to just live here forever? Isolated?” The more Craig learned about the town of Shadow Pine, the more he realized what it really was.
A fortress.
One designed to keep everyone out. To protect what was inside from a world that didn’t understand.
But he wasn’t part of that world.
Not anymore.
“My plan is to protect my son.” Danny’s whole demeanor shifted in an instant. “And if that’s how I have to do it, then so be it.”
“You can’t hide him away from the world. It’s not fair to him.” He might not be capable of certain things where kids were concerned, but Craig sure as hell knew what it was like to be a boy living in a world that wasn’t what it should be.
“You think you know what’s fair?” Her voice rose as she advanced on him, the warrior he saw in Danny yesterday coming back full-force.
She was fucking breathtaking. Strong. Sure.
Ready to fight in the blink of an eye for her child.
An Amazon living in the Themyscira she created.
The kind of woman who could make up for all he lacked.
But outside Shadow Pine was the real
world. One she couldn’t keep out forever.
That was where he could help her. Help Jude. Be the one to help her navigate all that would eventually come for Danny and her sisters.
“I think I know what the reality of your situation is.” Craig let her keep coming, she needed to attack. That was fine. “Your son deserves a life.” He paused, waiting until they were toe to toe. “And so do you.”
Danny’s eyes flashed. “What I deserve is peace.”
“You do.” Craig held his ground. “I’m not here to take that from you.” She was so close. Close enough his body was almost against hers. “Maybe I could give you a little more if you gave me the chance.”
“I think peace is the last thing you will give me, Mr. O’Neal.”
“Stop calling me that.” He didn’t like the formality. Didn’t like that she was trying to put distance between them.
It wasn’t happening.
Not today. Not tomorrow either.
“I’ll call you what I want to call you.” She barely paused, her cool blue eyes narrowing in challenge. “Mr. O’Neal.”
Craig almost smiled. That backbone. That strength.
It was everything.
But it also meant he had to tread very carefully. He knew what Danny was capable of, even if she didn’t.
He’d seen it.
The single most important thing to her was her son’s safety, so that’s where he had to start.
Proving he wasn’t a threat.
“Then you better get used to the sound of it on your lips, Danny. Because you are going to be saying it a lot.”
Her skin barely flushed.
How long had it been since she’d been touched? Appreciated?
Taken care of?
Too damn long, that was for sure.
Craig nodded toward the house. “Go take care of Jude.”
Her head barely tipped. “I don’t take orders, Mr. O’Neal.”
This time Craig couldn’t stop the smile. He’d watched Lance chase Kari with no small amount of jealousy.
Not because he wanted Kari. He didn’t. Not really.
But he absolutely wanted someone like her. Someone strong.
Someone brave.
Someone who would do anything for her child. To keep them safe. To make sure they knew they were loved. Important.
Danny (Big Northwest Book 1) Page 3