Page 47 of Talon
“I am, and see?He’s cranky because he’s not getting all the sex he wants.”Humor glinted in her eyes while Ghost growled beside her.
“Woman…” he warned.
“You look like you’re feeling better,” Kerry said, looking at Robyn and ignoring the growling that still continued.
“I am, at least for now.But who knows how long I’ll feel good before the exhaustion and nausea come back.”Robyn glanced at Ghost, as if waiting for him to pick up on something, then turned back to Kerry who was frowning.
“Are you okay?Have you seen a doctor?”
“I’ll be fine.I have an appointment in a couple of weeks.I just have a parasite.”
Gasps sounded around the table and several voiced concern for Robyn and her health.It all stopped when Ghost stood and looked down at Robyn then spoke through clenched teeth, each word ground out as if it were its own sentence.
“Will.You.Please.Stop.Calling.Our.Child.A.Parasite?”
Silence filled the room.
Robyn tilted her head to one side and beamed up at Ghost, as if he’d done exactly what she wanted.
“You’re pregnant?”Heather asked, her voice filled with excitement.
Robyn nodded then turned her attention back to Madison.“See, fiercely protective, even before there’s a concept of being hurt.He didn’t want to tell anyone, not yet.I did.But told him I would wait for him to tell everyone.”She grinned.“If you’re going to play with the big dogs, you have to learn to play dirty.”She laughed as Ghost sat back down beside her.He wrapped an arm around her shoulder, tugged her close and kissed the top of her head.
“Still think we should have waited to tell everyone,” Ghost grumbled.
“That’s what you get for knocking up a woman smarter than you are,” Lurch said.“You think it’s bad now, wait until you have her and her mini-me.”
Ghost shook his head.
Congratulations were said from around the table, then they all went back to eating.After the meal, as they sat and continued to talk, Madison watched the way they all interacted.She noted that as much as the men acted like most brothers she’d seen, the women seemed much closer than sisters.There appeared to be no competition between them and no one trying to one up or steal each other’s man, both of which she’d seen from sisters while growing up, and since.She didn’t know if it was a small-town thing or because of the limited dating pool or what, but it made Madison glad she was an only child.
With that thought, something else popped into her head.Before she could forget, she gripped Talon’s arm for his attention.
“Did Billy inherit anything when his wife died?”
Talon looked at her for a moment, frowning.She wasn’t sure if it was because he didn’t like her question or if he didn’t know.After a moment he turned away.
“Jake?”Talon called out.
“Yeah?”
“When Morgan’s wife disappeared, slash died, what did he inherit, if anything?”
“Shit, I didn’t even look into that.I should have.Why?”
“It just occurred to me,” Madison said with a shrug.“When Dad died, I got everything.His truck, what little money he had in the bank, the property there in South Dakota.There was a lot of paperwork to get everything settled.I vaguely remember Billy being gone a lot a few months before Dad died.Mostly because Dad would go over to his place, check on things and take care of the animals.”She took a deep breath.“I was just thinking about how protected this baby will be.One thought led to another, and I started thinking something had to trigger all this.Whether it was her death if he wasn’t involved with that, or what triggered his killing her, if he was.Either way, it seems like her death was the inciting incident to the shitshow my life has become.”
Jake pulled his phone from his pocket and typed something out for several seconds then shoved it back into his pocket.
“It will be a bit before we know anything, but we’ll get all the information on it.”
“We’ve got a fire laid out in the clearing,” Lurch said.“We can leave Talon and Steele here to clean up then join us after, if everyone would like to move this party out there?”
Madison stared at him for a few seconds, trying to decide if he was serious or if he wanted to split them up so he could get on with his evening.After a few seconds, the others began to stand.One by one, they took their plates to the sink, then went outside.To where the fire was set up, she presumed.
She hung back, not sure if she should join them or not, but after a moment, Talon seemed to see her hesitation and tilted his head toward the door.
“Go ahead.This won’t take us long, then we’ll be out there.”He stood and looked down at where she still sat, not certain.“Go.”He bent and kissed the top of her head.
