“Are you all right?”She nodded, then shook her head at Matt…Trevor.That was something else she was going to have to get used to.He was Trevor and not Matt, as they’d all thought.“I know just how you feel.It’s like my life has been a lie, and I just don’t know where to start over or just let things go the way that they are now.”
“I’m sorry about your parents, Trevor.They’ve been so close to you all this time, and you didn’t know.”He told her that he thought, too, that they’d been watching over him.“I don’t doubt that at all.You’re a good kid and smart, too.They’d be so proud of you right now.”
“You had a lot to do with my upbringing, Skye.I wouldn’t have survived those first few years had you not taken me under your wing.You’re the best mother figure a kid like me could have.”She hugged him.Holding back tears as best she could, she held onto him until he pulled away.It occurred to her that she loved him like he really was her own son and wouldn’t have had it any other way.“Don’t get all emotional on me.You’ll ruin my new shirt.”
They both had a lot of new things.Not just clothing, but a room for themselves.Food whenever they wanted it, as well as someone to talk to in the way of the Savage family.All of them had been very good to them, and she couldn’t have been happier to have them in their lives.
“Kaida saved my life, and I can’t help but feel like I owe her everything.Did you hear that Tucker is looking into some contacts to figure out what to do next?It’s not like the Connors are going to be getting out of jail anytime soon.Nor will Jason.”They had enough evidence on the Connors to keep them in jail as a flight risk.So far, they had demanded that the police allow them to take their son home and be done with everything.They weren’t budging on allowing them to get out anytime soon.
Jason was going back to prison.This time, she hoped for good.The man had murdered more people than she would have imagined.And he’d been hired by the Connors to kill her and take the kid.How they figured out that she was with him, she might never know, but it was scary for her to think what he would have done to her had she not kept on the run from him.
“I think that we’re safe for now, don’t you?”She said that she’d never felt safer than she was right now.“Good.I was hoping you’d say that.Now, before you get upset with me, I’m going to go and see the Connors.They won’t be in the same room as I will be, but far enough away from them that they can’t touch me.Tucker said that he thinks I can get a confession from them where no one else will be able to.”
“Please don’t do this.”He said that he needed some closure, too.“I would imagine that you do, but this isn’t the way to go.They could hurt you.If not physically, then mentally, for sure.”
“I started to tell you that I’d be fine, but I don’t know that for sure.I do know that if I don’t do this, I’ll wonder for the rest of my life as to why and how they did this to them and to me.”He hugged her.“You can understand that, can’t you?Why I’d need to know what made me so special at such a young age that they thought that they could get away with this.And they might well have if not for you coming along when you did.”
They talked about other things in their life rather than the one that was going on now.She understood why he needed this and was happy that he could.However, she didn’t have to like it any more than she was going to like confronting Jason someday in court.It was funny—not ha-ha funny, but weird funny—how the two of them had found each other.If they hadn’t, she was sure that at some point, she would have been murdered, and Trevor would be right back with the Connors being locked up in his room and only brought out when there was a way to show him off.Her heart hurt for the young boy.
When Tucker left with Trevor a few hours later, she went to the kitchen to find something to munch on until dinner.She didn’t know what she was smelling, but she was looking forward to having whatever it was.This house always smelled like home-cooked meals and love.She envied the love that Kaida and Tucker had.It was like they were each in their own little world and only came out when it was impolite not to.She laughed every time she caught them kissing.It would embarrass them so much.
Getting to the police station an hour later, the time being set up by Jason’s attorney, she sat outside his cell and watched him fumble around with his clothing.His attorney, someone she’d only just met, told her that she could ask him anything she wanted, but she wasn’t to expect it to be used against him.Standing up, she was nearly to the door when she was called back.
“He told me that you’d be stubborn about this.Remember, Ms.Houston, whether he agrees or not with that, everything is being recorded, including the fact that there is a camera in every cell.”He winked at her, and she returned to the seat.“Now, she’s only here because it was a request of yours to see her, Jason.What is it you wish to talk to her about?”
“Why couldn’t you have just died?”Skye was startled by the questions.“It didn’t matter what I did about you or to you; you just fucking wouldn’t die.Christ, and I really tried, too.Everything that I did, you’d just get up and walk away.”
“Maybe you just weren’t as good as you thought you were.”He said that he’d hired people to kill her, and they couldn’t do it either.“I think a better question would be, why did you want me dead?I didn’t know you at all.But you kept coming after me like you were stupid or something.”
“I am not stupid, you fucking cunt.I’ve been killing women for decades, and you just wouldn’t die.”She asked him how many people he had killed.“Not people but lowlifes that owed someone something.I just wanted you dead, then one day, I saw you with that kid.I’d seen his picture someplace and went to the Connors about it.They didn’t care what happened to you so long as they could get their boy back.Why did you kidnap their kid?”
“He wasn’t their child.They killed his parents to get him.”He snorted and told her that was why they were caught.Freelancing with murder is always going to get you caught.“Yet here you sit with bars around you, caught too.”
“You can’t use this against me.I told you that.”She shrugged and told him that she didn’t care what he said.She’d use it if she were asked.“You fucking bitch.I swear to you, I hate people.”
“I’m sure that not too many like you either.You’re a murderer, a liar, and a thief.”She looked at the attorney, and he winked at her.“What did you want to talk to me about?I have a busy schedule and I need to keep on track of it.”
“I hired someone to kill you soon.And when they do, I’m going to dance a little dance in happiness.You’ll never be able to thrall him as you have me.He’s a professional.”She told him that he worked for the police.“No, I told you.I hired him right out of the jail cell before he got out.”
“Right.He’s working now, telling them everything you told them about me.In addition to things that you told him about me, you’re also going to be tried for trying to kill off Trevor and the people who hired you to kill him.You tried to get them to pay up, and when they didn’t, you—”
“No.He was in the jail cell right there.You don’t know what you’re talking about.”She told him what he looked like.“No, you’re wrong.Damn it.I know what I’m talking about.”The door opened down the hall, and she glanced in the direction of Brenin.He’d been in the jail cell next to Jason’s and had recorded every word of what he wanted done to her.“That’s him right there.See?I told…what is he doing here?”
“He’s my friend.And when they wanted you to confess to murder for hire, they asked him to come in and pretend to be a gun for hire.Didn’t you think it was suspicious that he seemed more up on the laws than you did?Christ, you’re an idiot of the first order, aren’t you?”
Leaving this time, she let his shouts echo down the hallway where she was headed.Brenin asked her if she was all right, and it was all she could do not to break down and fall on her face.As soon as she was outside, she sat on the steps and put her head between her knees.
“You told me what he said, but I didn’t want to believe it.He was going to hire you to kill me.”She looked up at him.“I know that you wouldn’t have, but just the thought that he thought it was all right to hire someone to come along and kill me simply because he’d been asked to do it.I just don’t understand where his mind was.”
“He’s probably been at killing for a good long time, and since he was never caught, he felt that he was doing something right.At least that’s what I’m thinking.”She asked him if he’d run into that sort of thing before.“I have.We all have.It’s just the way that some people think about themselves.That they’re something along the lines of the almighty, and what they say and do is the way things should be done.I’m sorry that he hurt you, honey.Why don’t you and I have some dinner and a nice cold beer and enjoy the rest of the day without thinking about Jason?”
She took him up on his offer and wondered if Trevor was doing any better.She hoped so.The young man needed to have a good look on life before he got too much older and was jaded.Like her, he was all alone in the world, and she wanted nothing more than to keep him safe and happy for the rest of their lives.
Chapter 1
Kings, he loved his new nickname, watched after Trevor while they walked around town.The boy meant a great deal to him, and he couldn’t believe how much he loved him.He needed to talk with Skye again—he’d been avoiding her—to see if she was his mate or not.It made sense to him that she might be, but he’d been assigned to keep an eye on young Trevor, so he’d not been around her all that much.
He, of all his brothers, didn’t mind getting a mate.He didn’t care if she was human or not.It had occurred to him that it didn’t matter what they were coming into the family; it was when they were a part of it that they really made them shine.And shine they did.He had no doubt that if Skye was his mate, she’d be just as helpful and magical as the other wives of his brothers when they came along.