Kianna and Her Three Alpha Wolves [Featherstone Pack] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) (18 page)

Kianna looked around as she walked down the hallway. It seemed so bare, so stark, even in comparison to the run-down little ranch he’d lived on. She couldn’t imagine living in a place such as this.

“Ma’am…? Your identification, please,” the officer standing behind the desk asked her.

Smiling at him, she handed him everything he needed. He looked hers as well as her mates’ over and then handed them back and told them to head into the room on the right.

Taking a deep breath, she pulled her shoulders back and started walking. The closer she came to the room, the smaller her steps got.
You can do this, you have to do this
. Stopping just outside the room, she turned and gazed at Alex, Duncan, and Teaghen, the encouraging smiles on their faces giving her the boost she needed to open the door and step in.

She saw him the moment she entered, and her heart started drumming so hard in her ears that she felt like she was going to faint.

Sean Deacon had aged a lot since she had last seen him, but he was still as scary looking now as he had been fifteen years ago.

But there was also something different about him. Looking around, Kianna made note of every single guard in the room and their location before she started her approach toward her brother.

The guard just inside the door gave a tight smile to her and her mates and said, “You have one hour, ma’am.”

Nodding, Kianna pushed her shoulder back once again and walked confidently, at least on the outside, to Sean.

The awkwardness was almost palpable the moment she sat at his table.

“I thought the only way I’d be seeing you is through glass or in a box,” she snapped out.

“They let you have a visit without glass if you’ve shown that you have behaved well,” Sean said.

“It can’t be too hard keeping your cell clean, can it?” she asked sarcastically.

“Listen, Kianna, if you came here to ridicule me then you might as well head on back to your mom’s house. I’m serving my time and not giving anyone any grief.” Sean stood quickly, pushing back his chair and started to turn away.

“Wait, Sean. I’m not going to apologize for being pissed off at you, but I’m sorry for my comment.”
Why the hell am I apologizing to this fuckwad?!
When he turned back to face her, she was stunned.

He had tears in his eyes.

Teaghen, standing behind her, said, “Please, Sean, sit down. Your sister has some questions she needs answers to.”

Sean sat back down and laid his hands flat down on the table.

“Whatever you need to know, Kianna, I’m sure your mom or Bubba can give you all the answers,” he said.

Kianna looked behind her to see Alex and Duncan raise their eyebrows at Sean’s comment.

“They’re gone, Sean, both Bubba and my mom are dead.” Fuck, as much as she hated this bastard, she didn’t like being the bearer of bad news. “Mom passed a while back, and Bubba went to hell just after you went to prison.” The last part of her sentence was sure to rile her brother.

Why am I trying to antagonize him? It is like poking a bear with a sore paw, dammit. What the hell has gotten into me?

Sean burst out laughing. Well, hell, she wasn’t expecting that response, maybe a tear or two for his daddy but not laughter.

“Oh, shit, isn’t that just fucking peachy?” he finally said, after calming down. “Here I was so hoping to see dear ol’ Daddy here with me, and the bastard got away without so much as a day in prison.”

Kianna watched with curiosity as Sean again placed his hands on the table. Where was the fuckwad that had tormented her for the first fifteen years of her life? Why wasn’t he threatening to beat the shit out of her or calling her every nasty name he could think of? He wasn’t playing fair. He was supposed to stay an asshole.

“I don’t get it, Sean. You’re in prison for killing Steve, yet you don’t seem angry or pissed off at the world anymore. You don’t even appear to be too upset about Bubba’s death.”
This has to be a trick
. Sean idolized his daddy, did everything he told him to do and then some, so why wasn’t he curled up into a ball crying over his daddy’s death?

Sean started to reach for Kianna’s hand, but when all three Featherstone brothers growled at him, he quickly sat back again.

“I see you brought your protectors with you. I’m happy for you, Kia. They were always a thorn in Daddy’s side, but no matter what, they never failed to look out for you when things got real bad.” Sean looked up at the men standing behind her and said, “I want to thank you for that.”

Kianna was getting more and more pissed off as the conversation continued. Sean wasn’t supposed to apologize. He wasn’t living up to her nightmares, and it was pissing her the hell off.

“Cut the shit, Sean,” she said. “And just so you know, Bubba left me everything, the whole kit and caboodle.”

She watched as Sean’s face visibly paled. “Does Ray know?” he asked.

“Of course he does, he even tried to have the will declared invalid, but the judge saw his tricks for what they were. A last ditch attempt to get control of the ranch and its assets,” she said.

“Kianna, you aren’t living at the ranch alone are you?” Sean asked her, his face taking on a concerned look.

“Not at the moment. Ray is causing too much trouble right now for it to be safe for her to stay there, so she’s staying at the compound with us,” Alex said, his big arms crossed over his chest just daring Sean to say something stupid.

“Good, good…you have to keep her safe. I haven’t seen Ray since I got locked up, but judging from his demeanor during our phone calls, I’d say he’s as bad as Bubba ever was, if not worse, and he’ll do anything to keep that ranch.” Sean stood then and started to pace back and forth in little circles. Stopping, he looked at Kia and asked, “What information do you need from me, Kia? If I can help in any way, just name it. I caused you and your mom so much pain over the years it’s the least I can do.”

Sitting down again, he took her hand in his, this time ignoring the growls behind her, and said, “I’m not asking for your forgiveness because what I did to you can never be, should never be forgiven, but I’m asking for your understanding. You were raised in the same house as I was, but you didn’t see a lot of what Bubba did to us boys. That was something he kept his dirty little secret. Let’s just say he was a sick fuck and leave it at that. Bubba ingrained in all us boys, from the time we could walk, that women were never to be trusted and that the only way to keep them in line was to beat it into them.”

When she would have said something, she kept her mouth closed when Sean raised his hand to her in a stopping motion.

“I’ve learned a great deal in the past two years, and I’m hoping to continue to learn more as I live out my sentence here. And one of the things I learned, that Steve was lucky enough to learn years ago, is that how Bubba raised us and his views on things was completely fucked up. I’ve been working with a pastor that comes through here and, no, I haven’t gone all religious, but he has helped me understand that what Bubba did to us boys and then, in turn, what we did to you and other women, was so wrong. My being here was the best thing to happen to me. It helped me to get my head out of my ass and back on my shoulders straight. Rev. John has helped a lot in dealing with things that happened to me and to help me understand how I could do something so evil as to kill my own brother…”

Kianna could see the tears forming in Sean’s eyes and realized that the man sitting before her finally understood. He finally comprehended the horrors that he caused.

“Kia, Ray will try to kill you, little sister. Bubba and I started a lucrative business on the side, and Ray isn’t going to want to give that up. You need to keep as far away from him as possible.”

Leaning back, Kianna studied the brother sitting across from her.

“You really piss me off, Sean,” she stated plainly. “Coming here was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, and I was totally prepared to do battle with you to get the information I need. And you had to go and get all normal on me. Why the fuck do you have to make things so difficult?”

Kianna could feel the tears starting to form and quickly brushed them away. By now, her mates had pulled over more chairs for them to sit on and were surrounding her.

“I’m sorry, little sister. I would do anything to take the pain away. All I can do now is live my life in a healthy way and whatever you need from me, all you have to do is ask.” Sean patted her hand and leaned back, waiting.

Clearing her throat, Kianna said to him, “I need to know about the ranch. Ray says that Bubba bribed a county clerk to redo the property lines when he bought it and that the ranch actually belongs to the Featherstones. Is he telling me the truth?”

“From what I understand, he’s telling you the truth. Bubba bragged to us all one night when he was drunk how he stole all the land out from underneath the Featherstones’ noses, and they’d never be able to prove it.”

“Dammit.” Kianna thumped her fist on the table, drawing glares from some of the guards.

* * * *

Duncan placed a hand on the back of his mate’s neck and started to massage it. “Easy, sweetheart, we already told you it doesn’t matter what happened forty some years ago. That ranch is yours now.”

“It’s not though,” she cried. “It belongs to you and your pa…” She quickly closed her mouth before she said something stupid.

Sean smiled at her like he knew exactly what she was going to say.

“What?” She glared at him.

“I know all about them, Kia.”

Duncan’s and his brother’s jaws just about hit the floor. How the hell did he know about them? And an even better question was, why hadn’t he told anyone?

“What the hell are you talking about, Sean?” Duncan asked.

“The fact that you and your family are shape-shifters,” Sean said back to him as if he had just told him the sky was blue.

“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” Duncan worried that if he didn’t stop this conversation, they were going to get into things better off left unsaid.

“I understand why you wouldn’t want it to get out. And if you believe nothing else, believe me when I tell you that your secret is safe with me. I’ve known, since Kia was about thirteen, what you all were. At first, I thought I was going insane, but when I saw it happen over and over again, I couldn’t deny it any longer. At first I thought it would be a gold mine. Ya’ know, tell the world about the shape shifters. But even I was smart enough to know that no one else would believe me and telling Bubba would only make him crazier than he already was, so I’ve kept it to myself. And now I’m glad I did,” Sean said in a quiet voice.

Just then, one of the guards came over and told them that visiting time was over. Standing, Sean looked at Duncan, an expression of concern evident on his face, and said, “You need to get Ray out of the picture, and fast, and there’s only two ways to do it. Put him in here with me, or put him in the ground because he’s going to keep coming after her until he finishes the job. I have a safety deposit box at one of the local banks back home that holds enough information to put Ray away for a very long time. Not just for the poaching and smuggling, but for a murder he committed a few years back. I’ve had the gun and some other stuff tucked away as insurance. He already tried to take me out in here once by hiring my cellmate at the time to shank me.” Sean lifted his shirt and showed him a six-inch scar on his left side.

“I told him, if I die, all the information goes straight to the cops. I’ve had permanent bodyguards ever since.” Sean nodded his head over to the table beside them where two big inmates sat watching them.

Duncan watched, fully alert, as Sean took his hand from his pants and laid a small key on the table.

“Be very careful around him. He’s a hell of a lot more dangerous than Bubba ever was.” He gave Kianna a sad smile and turned to head back to his cell.