by Sierra Brave
“The parent-child relationship is often a complicated one.” She rested her head on his shoulder while tucking herself in closer to his side, another comforting gesture that somehow had him ready to spill his guts to this woman he barely knew.
“No kidding. I know I’m supposed to be devastated…I can’t seem to muster up much feeling on his passing at all.” Why, why, why can’t I keep my big trap shut around her? She’s going to think I’m a fucking sociopath.
“Perhaps you will when the shock wears off a little.”
“Maybe, but I doubt it. I know it sounds bad, but my dad wasn’t the man that all those people today thought he was. If they knew half of what he was really like…Shit, I must sound like a huge asshole. I’m sorry. I don’t even know why I’m telling you this stuff.”
She patted his knee. “Because you need to talk to someone and I’m here.”
Wrong! Wrong! If I wanted to dredge up all this bullshit until I choke on it, I’d be talking to Dash and Mama Carol; they know the real deal.
Part of him wanted to call it a night if only to end the uncomfortable conversation, but his body wouldn’t cooperate. His heart raced as he swallowed the lump in his throat. Normally, the horse inside him would have been ready to bolt, but at this moment, the damn thing was more like a mule, digging its hooves in and refusing to budge.
“It’s not like I’m happy he’s gone. It’s more like I can’t force myself to feel sad about it.”
“Why do you think that is?” Her sweet, calm tone sent shivers down his spine and a cloud seemed to block all logical thoughts as if his brain was swimming in a pool of liquid Prozac.
“Up until my second year of college, a part of me was still trying to win his love, thinking if I became a doctor he’d have to respect and acknowledge me as a person.”
“I’m sure he loved you.” As she lifted her head and glanced at his face, another lump rose into his throat and their gazes locked. The corners of her lips turned upward and she nodded as if to encourage him to keep dumping all his family dirt on her.
“Nah, he despised me.”
She gasped while shaking her head, her jet-black locks shimmering with every move. “That simply isn’t…I mean can’t be true.”
He chuckled before setting his mouth in a grim line. “Sweetie, you have no idea. I didn’t even understand he was my father until I was about four. I was always upset when Mama Carol would leave the house in the afternoon or bring me home from her place after dinner on what were supposedly her days off.
Back then, I didn’t realize she wasn’t my mom. All I knew was Dash was going to be here at this cozy little place, wrapped up in an afghan his grandma made while Mama Carol read him bedtime stories while I was alone in a house so big and devoid of love, I was scared to get out of my bed to get a sip of water until she showed up to wake me the next day.”
Suki placed a hand on her chest as she exhaled. “I’m sure it had to be confusing.”
His parched mouth could barely form words anymore. He closed his eyes and turned his head away from her to avoid her scent while he pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger.
“Are you okay, Malcolm?”
He chewed on the side of his cheek, forcing his spit glands to let go of a little saliva while he counted to ten in his head, willing his self-control to return. He took a deep breath and plastered a smile on his face before facing her again. “I’m fine. Sorry…so, long story short…my father and I were never close. When his lawyer called to tell me my father was dead, I didn’t even know he’d been sick. Mr. Pyke insisted I needed I come up here for the funeral and to settle my father’s estate so I felt a sense of obligation. Plus, I suppose I found it hard to believe he was really gone.” He rubbed his temples. “I must admit, the notion of my old man setting up a ruse to force me to speak to him crossed my mind.”
“If he hated you, why would he want to see you?”
Malcolm scoffed. “I never understood it myself, but for a while, I received a letter from him once a week. Clearly, he had something left to say. I guess that’s why he’s included me in his will—he’ll have the last word after all.”
She nodded and opened her mouth to say something, but he quickly cut her off. “Enough about me—I want to hear all about you. Tell me everything. I bet you’re a therapist or a social worker.”
The sadness in her eyes and the darkness clouding her expression disappeared as she laughed. “A nurse.”
“See…” He paused as he pushed a strand of her hair behind her ear and brushed his thumb across her cheek. “I knew it had to be something with some type of bedside manner.”
“I guess.” Her cheeks flushed and her eyes darkened as her pupils grew larger before she looked away.
“A beauty like you must have lots of guys blowing up your phone.”
“Not really. Even the men around here who don’t shun my family aren’t exactly looking to marry into it. Even after all this time, we’re seen as less than others just because over a hundred years ago, one of my ancestors gave birth to a boy who couldn’t shift completely. Sometimes, I still hear whispers of ‘abomination’ when I walk into a crowded room.” She chuckled but seemed less amused than nervous.
“That sucks. It’s horse shit too and so is the old story of her being impregnated while shifted. The child—“
“Suffered from a rare genetic disorder…yes, I know. The bullying got to me when I was little and I might have started to believe something was wrong with me, but a kind, young man stepped in and told me the truth.”
She stroked the side of his cheek, opposite her, forcing him to look her in the eye. He lifted his eyebrows and offered her his best, flirty smile. “Sounds like a good guy.”
“The best…” She stared at him unflinchingly as if she were looking for something. “You still don’t remember me; do you?”
Shit! He placed his palm on the back of his neck as he shook his head. “Sorry, babe, but I’m sure I’d remember meeting someone who looked like you. Are you sure you’ve got the right guy?”
She sighed. “It’s getting late. I should get home. I need to study.”
Well, damn…I blew it. “Wait! Did we meet when we were kids?”
Her straight white teeth showed as a smile spread across her face. “That’s right.”
“That explains it. I had a near-death experience when I was sixteen that left a lot of blank spots in my memory. I remember most of my early childhood, but a lot of teenage years are gone or so broken into pieces I can’t make much sense of them.”
The corners of her lips dropped and the light in her eyes dimmed. “Yeah, seems like I heard something about your accident. I’m sorry.”
“For real? I thought my dad did a good job covering it up.” He shrugged. “It’s still early. Do you really have to go?” He reached out for her hand as she stood.
“I’m afraid so, but it was great to see you again. Get my number from Dash and call me sometime.”
He jumped to his feet. “I most definitely will. Let me walk you to your car.”
As small as Mama Carol’s front yard was, they barely had to step off the porch before she was unlocking the door to her vehicle. Mal’s heart sank as she opened the door, and a sense of longing he’d never experienced in his life welled up inside of him. He drew on every bit of will power inside of him to resist the urge to slam her door closed and push her against the car while laying a kiss on her.
“Please thank Mrs. Hammond again for me.”
He nodded. “Sure thing…well, drive carefully.”
“Maybe this will help you remember meeting me.” She stepped up to his side and threw her arms around him. His eyes widened and his pulse soared as she bear-hugged him like a child before pushing herself up on her tiptoes and planting a peck on his cheek. Before he could react, she bolted, jumping in her car.
“Wai—.“ She slammed the door shut. As her car scooted down the driveway, his feet moved without thought, following until
he stood in the road watching her drive away. As the vehicle grew smaller in the distance, his head cleared. What am I doing? I’m leaving here tomorrow.
Chapter Six
Suki had arrived at Jackson Pyke’s a bit early and had been sent into the conference room to wait. She couldn’t imagine why she needed to attend Doc Patterson’s will reading. She figured it must have to do with the educational fellowship he’d put in place for her when she began her Transformative Biology Association certification long before the Doc’s death. She scanned the room, looking at the framed pictures on the wall as she waited alone at the long table. Her mentor had pushed her hard to learn everything she could from him. She searched the recesses of her memory, trying to remember when he first started to insist, “I won’t be around forever—you have to download my brain into yours!”
She recalled him being much heavier the first time he’d said the phrase. Must have been at least a year before he admitted to being sick. He might have kept the secret a lot longer had he not passed out at work on a day Doctor Jenkins had left early. After she consulted his medical records to see how to treat him, she understood why he was so adamant. Damn it, Doc. You could have just told me.
A few minutes later, Mr. Pyke escorted Malcolm and his friend, Dash, into the room and sat them across from her. She greeted both of them and they nodded in response though the look on Dash’s face seemed stern. Reaching into her purse, she dug around looking for a pen, assuming she was only there to sign a few documents and would be quickly sent on her way. She found her black felt-tip and pulled it out along with a piece of peppermint candy she’d been hoarding.
As she tried to open the wrapper without making too much noise, Jackson Pyke spoke, “Now that both of the heirs are here, we can get down to business. Mr. Patterson, Ms. Marks, we have quite a lot of information to go over so listen up.”
Suki pursed her lips in reflection, squinting her eyes as she placed a finger on her chin and waited for the lawyer to explain. The doctor treated her like family, but being referred to as an heir was odd. Why she’d need to be there for more than a few formalities was beyond her. She glanced at Mal. He seemed to be more interested in staring at her than what was being said. His lips curved slightly upward into a tiny smile as their gazes met, and Suki’s heart skipped a beat until she glimpsed at Dash’s sneer. What’s he so pissed about?
She barely had her bearings before Jackson Pyke started spewing nonsense about the possibility of her inheriting old Doc Pat’s half of the medical practice he had shared with Doctor Jenkins. Her eyebrows flew all the way up her forehead as her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. No…no, no, no…why did you do this, Doc?
During the ride back from the attorney’s office, Mal sat in silence while Dash drove. Vaguely, he could hear his friend’s angry tirade, but he’d retreated too far into his own head for what was said to be anything more than background noise. Finding out there’d been another heir had been a shock, but seeing Suki and learning she’d been his father’s private nurse and stood to inherit quite a bit of his old man’s estate had been a gut punch and a slap in the face.
Still, I didn’t have to say all the things I did to her… He placed his palm against his forehead, pushing his fingertips into his hair as he held his heavy noggin. If she hadn’t saddled up next to me and let me spill my guts I wouldn’t have even cared. She probably had a good laugh. Why did she want to get close to me? What was there to gain? As the answer dawned on him his stomach stirred with nausea. An entire fortune is better than half. Was anything she said even true?
He glanced at Dash as they pulled behind Mama Carol’s house to the small apartment Mr. Hammond had helped the young wolf shifter build on their property. “Do you think I went too far?”
“Huh?” Dash stomped on the brakes so hard Mal jolted forward and his seatbelt tightened around his chest. “Too far? Hell no! Nothing short of telling that gold-digging slut to go fuck herself would have been enough.”
“Damn…that’s too much. Maybe I’m missing a piece of the puzzle. Maybe we’re distantly related. She did say we’d met before.” He stepped out of the car in a near daze before heading toward the door.
Once they were inside, Dash headed to the frig. He returned to the small den with a cold bottle of beer in hand before taking a seat in an old, hand-me-down chair Mal recognized as having been in Mama Carol’s house when they were kids. “I know you don’t drink, but if you want to make an exception, there are few more bottles. Help yourself.”
“Pass—unless you want me shifting uncontrollably in your house.” Mal shook his head before turning around to stare out of the sliding glass door. There wasn’t much to see besides a few cars in the parking lot of the church across the street.
The wolf shifter scratched at the label on his beer bottle with a single fingernail. “Yeah, I remember you telling me you were allergic and all that, but I thought you were full of shit on the uncontainable transformations. My bad.”
“Well, it could be a lie, but it’s what I was told after the incident. I vaguely remember the taste of what I think was gin when I have flashes of confronting my old man in his study.” He tilted his head, looking off in the distance as he struggled to access his murky memories. “Best I can figure out, once I was big enough to fight back, he stopped hitting me with his fists or open hand. He couldn’t risk a shiner or busted lip at the office the next day, but he’d simply iced over and barely spoke to me. He started to only punish me when he actually had a reason, but he’d force me to bend over and submit to the belt or the cane like a child. Maybe I thought being hit was preferable to being ignored. I think I wanted some type of reaction. I might have been trying to provoke him.” He rubbed his aching head.
Dash’s face paled as his eyes widened. “What the fuck? You never told me about that.”
Malcolm dropped his rear on the couch. “I didn’t remember until last night and it’s mostly bits and pieces still. I must have pissed him off pretty good since he nearly killed me.”
“Hateful fucker.” Dash’s balled up fists and tense posture disturbed Mal.
“Calm down. He’s dead now.”
Dash nodded. “It’s good to have you back.”
Mal scoffed. “It’s not like I can stay.”
Dash sat on the edge of his seat, looking as if he might bound up onto his feet at any second. “What are you saying? You’re home now, and with him gone, there’s no reason to leave again.”
Pushing his palm through his hair, Mal held his head. “I have a business and a life elsewhere.”
Dash laughed loudly and held his belly. “I’ll give you the business but a life? You got a woman back there?”
Mal flipped Dash off. “Fuck you.”
“Didn’t think so.”
“How about any friends?”
“I have friends.”
“Bullshit. You have no real friends there.”
“Aside from you, my business partners, Wayne and Derrick, are my best friends.”
Dash shook his head, pursing his lips. “Are they shifters?”
“No.”
“I rest my case. You can’t be that close to them because they don’t even know who you really are.”
Mal held his hands together, intertwining his fingers as he looked away. “Okay.”
The sound of the wolf shifter’s gasp was deafening. “Wait. You told them?”
Glancing over to read Dash’s expression, Mal winced at the mixture of fear and anger before he nodded.
“You fucking moron—you’re lucky no one found out or you might be dead and guess who would be responsible for putting the bullet in your brain?”
Mal jerked his head back, his eyes bugging. “You?”
He blew out a heavy breath, his shoulders drooping. “Maybe not since you’re a horse. If you were a wolf, definitely. I imagine one of the Banks boys would be digging a hole for you though. Shit…Did they tell anyone? Fuck, we need to drive down and take care of this before someone finds out
.”
Mal’s jaw dropped as the words sank in. “What are you saying? Like…kill them?”
“Duh?”
“Murder?”
“Do you have any idea how many of us have died in underground government bunkers or experimental military labs? Humans can’t be trusted. They will try to weaponize us any chance they get and if the general public knew about us…fuck, I can only imagine the redneck hunting parties coming after us with semi-automatics.”
Mal rolled his eyes. “You’re overreacting. Some shifters marry humans.”
Dash palmed his face. “Only after introducing the significant other to their matriarch and receiving an okay to reveal the secret. Those old ladies…somehow they seem to be able to sniff out who’s loyal and honorable.”
“Wayne’s solid. Derrick too.”
Jumping up from his chair, Dash towered over him as he leaned down and stared at his face. “What do you even know about these two?”
He placed a finger in his ear and turned his head away from his friend’s high octave screech. “Wayne is a great guy. He’s trustworthy, non-judgmental, and funny. Derrick’s…like, I dunno how to explain…He’s kind of like Wayne’s wife.”
Dash lifted an eyebrow as he slipped his hands into his pockets. “Okay, I think I understand how you revealed our most sacred secret. Did it come out in bed—an intimate moment between the three of you?”