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Authors: Kathi S. Barton

Steele (9 page)

BOOK: Steele
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“How will you have a baby, our baby, if we do that?” She jerked from him and glared. “Yeah, I’m sure you know that in order for us to have a child, unprotected sex is a given. And to tell you the truth, I enjoy being buried inside of you.”

“You’re an asshole.” She looked up at him and wondered what he was really doing this for. “I’m fine now. I don’t know how we’re going to work around me marking you, but—”

He kissed her. Then when he lifted his head, she could see that something in him had changed. He had changed into someone she didn’t really know.

“I’m in love with you. I know that you’re going to have a hard time believing me. But it’s true. I never….” He moved back to the bed and held her to him as he continued. “When the woman came to me about her body the day that my life changed forever, I was so pissed about it. I didn’t want to help her. I didn’t want to help any of them anymore. I was still hurting from the whipping that my father had given me the day before.”

“Why?” He laughed, but it was bitter sounding. Hurt too. “You and your sister were seventeen when this happened. Why would he beat you at that age?”

“He’d caught me talking to one of my clients. It’s what I called the people who came to me for help.” Steele moved on the bed but didn’t let her go or get up. “I’d had an argument with Aster that morning. I’d told her to go away and leave me be. I didn’t want her to know that I’d been hurt again. She would have gone to him and gotten herself whipped too. And as much as she got on my nerves, she was all I had. So she left me, and I went to find the bodies.”

“He killed himself.” He nodded. “I read the paper and it told how he’d been found in his office with a signed confession on all that he’d done. He’d also mentioned in it that your mother had helped him.”

“She had. A great deal as a matter of fact. And no matter how much she’d tried to say he was lying about her involvement, there was simply too much evidence to say otherwise.” Steele was quiet for a moment or two, and Kari tried to think how that would have made him feel. She also had a feeling she was supposed to tell him something, but it was just out of her reach. He started to tell her about that day, and she sat very still wanting to know it all.

“Ray—he was with the FBI then—came to the house too. I had called them because I had a feeling that my parents would buy their way out of it if they could. And if they did, I’d be gone too. I wasn’t sure that they’d kill me, but I knew that I’d never see the light of day again. So he showed up at the house with a large crew of men and they took over.” He told her the story as if it were happening then and not twelve years ago.

“You called me in?” Steele had been put in a room with three officers. His client wandered in and out, but she never looked at him. She was more interested in the others they had found. “Wanna tell me why you went over the local’s head and called in the Feds?”

“I figured I’d live longer if I did.” Ray had laughed and Steele nodded. “My parents have a way that makes things disappear that they don’t like or can’t control. I’d just as soon not be one of their footnotes.”

“What do you know about all this?” He’d only shrugged, and Ray nodded. “The locals say you’re nuts and that you see the dead. That true?”

Steele didn’t answer him. If he thought it was a lie, how did all this happen? Ray sat down across from him after sending out the officers with him. He told her that he’d been terrified that he was going to jail.

“I’m to tell you that you’re suspected of killing these women. Did you?” He told him no. “Didn’t think so. And before you go getting all pissy with me, I’m going to take you into custody so I can keep an eye on you. I don’t trust these guys to keep you safe either.”

His mom had come into the room then, screaming at him to tell them it was a lie. She’d even managed to hit him twice before Ray took her to the floor. She was saying that she was going to have his badge before this was all over. He told her to go right ahead.

“I’ve sent some men to bring your husband home.”

“Good, he’ll get this straightened out soon enough.”

“He’s going to be arrested as a suspect in the murder of the bodies out there.”

“He did it.” She had pointed at Steele. “Tell them that you did it and I’ll make sure you are put in a very nice place. I might even have your sister put there too. You’re nothing but worthless brats anyway.”

“I didn’t do it.” His mother reached for him again, but Ray planted his knee in her back to keep her down. “The lady said Dad did it. When I asked her what happened, she pointed to the house and then the grave. I asked her if Dad did it, and she nodded.”

“Ghosts again? You’re taking his word? He fucking thinks he’s talks to dead people. And you’re believing him?” Her laughter had sounded like nails on a chalkboard. “I’m so going to ruin you for this. And Steele, when this is over, you and that fucking sister of yours will rot in hell before I lift another finger to help you.”

But a guy in a suit had come to get Steele, and as he led him to his room, the man had told him not to worry, nothing would happen to either him or Aster. Ray was as good as his word on that.

“Then Aster came to me. She explained to me that it wasn’t my fault and that she’d done it to herself.” Kari sat up and looked down at Steele as he told her the rest. “I never saw her again after that. She said that she’d done all she could and now it was up to me.” Then as clear as a bell, Kari remembered what she was supposed to tell him.

“I saw her. And your grandmother.” He frowned at her. “The day I was hurt. She came to me. She told me that I had to have you go and see your mother. And that I was to tell you that I love you and that you had to see her before it was too late.”

“You love me?” She smacked him on the arm. “Say it again. Tell me you love me again and I’ll do whatever you want.”

“Anything?” He nodded. “Good; I love you.” He smiled and she looked at him oddly. Before she could say a word, he moved to his pants and came back to her. When he sat on the bed, she could only stare at the pretty little box in his hand.

“Will you marry me?” She shook her head. “You have to, baby. I mean it. We’re going to have children, lots of them, and I want you to have my name. I love you.”

“I can’t marry you, Steele. I’m not like you.” He laughed and told her that’s what appealed to him the most. “I mean, I’m not rich; I have no idea how to be rich. And I’m not human.”

“I don’t care.” She had a feeling that he didn’t either. “We’re going to be married as soon as possible. Today, if you’ll have me. I’ve made arrangements for a quick ceremony, and later we’ll have a huge bash.”

“No bash.” He smiled. “I didn’t say yes. I just said no bash. And I want you to think about this. What if you get sick of me? I mean, I’m not really a nice person.”

“I love you.” She wanted to growl at him, but he opened the little box and pulled out the ring. “I had this made for you when you were resting. I wanted you to have something as special as you are.”

The ring was gorgeous. The large blue diamond was surrounded by smaller white ones. The band was wide and thick, and she saw that it was engraved. When she asked for it, he handed it to her, and she could see that the engraving was actually words.

“I’ve dreamed of loving you all my life. And I will dream of your love when I have left this world for another.”

She looked at him and smiled. The tears, happy tears, were flowing from her eyes as she pulled him to her. “Yes, I’ll marry you. I love you so very much.”

“I love you as well.” He kissed her again and pulled away. “Today? Will you marry me today?”

“Yes.”

Chapter 8

 

Steele paced the little room and tried his best not to run. He’d been there all of ten minutes and he felt as if the walls were closing in on him. He was going to see his mother. And whatever she had to say to him, he wasn’t going to believe a word out of her mouth.

“Will you please sit down?” Kari had said that to him four times now and every time, he did as she’d commanded. It had been a request the first time, a gentle reminder the second, and now it was just a snap. “You do know that she can’t hurt you any longer, right? That so long as we’re in the room with her, she’s going to be on the other side of some kind of barrier.”

“No. No she won’t. They said that she’ll be in the room with us and a guard. They think…for some reason they think she might try to hurt us.” He looked around the room again. “She’s hurt me enough, and here I am letting her do it again.”

“She won’t hurt you. I’ll tear her throat out if she tries.” Steele knew that she wasn’t kidding either. “If you get up again, I’m going to tie you to that chair. And trust me, it won’t be as enjoyable as you think it might be.”

Steele scooted back in the chair, not even realizing that he’d been about to get up again. Christ, what the hell was he doing here? He knew that he’d told Kari he’d do anything she wanted, but this was bordering on punishment.

“Did I ever tell you how I was changed?” He looked at her, confused. “Into a panther. Did I tell you how I managed to be changed into one?”

“No. I know that you didn’t get much in the way of training.” She nodded and smiled at him. “And I’m thinking that it was against your will.”

“No. And yes. I didn’t get any because the guy who did this to me ran off and never returned. I suppose that was what he did. I remember him saying that he wanted an army of female cats to wait on him hand and foot. The three other women with me in the cell the first few days, they didn’t survive the change. It’s very hard on people when they aren’t in good shape to begin with.” Steele leaned back and watched her as she started her tale. “There were nine of us that worked the bar. Not the one I was in when you saw me, but one on a college campus. I was taking some classes, just general stuff to try and figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up.”

“Did you figure it out?” She grinned at him. “I’m assuming that you did. And what, pray tell, did you decide on?”

“I was going to be a student.” They both laughed, and he realized it was just what he needed. When she smiled at him again, he could see the sadness in her eyes. “But he did hurt me when he took us. He hurt all of us, the ones that didn’t die. There were…I don’t know for sure how many of us there were, but there were six women in my cell. We were all…I guess you could say we were all in varying stages of age.”

“You mean children too?” She nodded. “And none of you had given him permission? I think there’s a law about that. I’m sure that Ray would know something about it.”

“He does and there is. He and I are going to find the other women and see if we can help them.” Steele nodded. “Anyway. One day he came in and pointed to me and two other women. The cell door was open then and I thought I could rush him, escape, and come back for the rest. But before I could get up enough nerve to do it, five big fucking panthers came into the cell with us. They tore into us like they’d been starved and we were going to be a tasty snack.”

Steele wanted to find this guy himself and tear into him. To think of the suffering that these women had gone through, how much Kari had suffered. He stood up to pace again, and this time she didn’t say anything.

“One of the women died right away. They didn’t even try to save her. One of the others, a big man we called Thump, came in after it was over and pulled her out by her hair. The blood she’d left behind stained the floor. I think it was a nasty reminder that if we died, no one gave a fuck.” Steele honestly didn’t want to hear any more but knew that he needed to. “For five days this went on. One by one the women died, leaving only me and one that was so close to her death that I wasn’t surprised when the next morning she was gone, dead. That afternoon, he brought in two more women to stay with me.”

“How long?” She didn’t answer him, and he stopped walking to turn and look at her. “How long were you held captive?”

“I honestly don’t know. Weeks, I think. The two women with me at the end said that they’d been there for a while. They had already gone through the shift, they’d told me, and they thought that I would too. I fought it as much as I could. But then one day, when he came back to us, the panther took me. I don’t remember much after that, but when I woke, the others were there still and my clothes were gone.” Kari laughed bitterly. “I guess I might have scared him a little. They said that the few days I’d been out, no one had come back. It was nearly a week later when the police showed up. By then…by then it was too late. We were panthers and the rest of the women—I never knew how many—were all taken away by someone.”

“Did they take you to a panther? Someone that could have helped you?” She shook her head. “Then how the hell did they expect you to live? With no one to show you…Christ, it’s no wonder you have trouble controlling your animal. Someone should have been on hand to train you guys on this.”

“I don’t think they knew what had happened to us. I doubt that anyone thought about what we might have been changed into. We were healthy looking for the most part…starved, but healthy. We can heal when we shift.” She stood up and stretched. “Steele, do you know the man that is buried in your family cemetery? William Pike?”

He started to tell her what he’d found out, but the guard that had set them in this room came to them. “She’s about ready for you. Don’t want to see you, but she said she’s got something to say. If I were you, what I’d do is let her spew whatever it is she has to say and move on with your lives.”

“You don’t believe her either.” It wasn’t a question, but the man shook his head anyway. “Neither do I. Does she know who is coming to see her?”

“Her spawn, she said. I told her it was her son and she nodded and said spawn.” The man looked at him and nodded. “You can handle her. I’ve been working here a long while and you get to see all kinds come and go that are like her. You’ve the look of a man who can take her crap and dish it out too. Rules though. Don’t give her anything at all. Not a kiss, not a hug, or even a sheet of paper. She’ll use it to hurt you. This one goes right along with it, no touching. Not even to brush your fingers over hers. She’s chained to the table just fine, but she’s not one to settle when she’s supposed to. And whatever you do, don’t tell her that she’s going to get out. She’ll beg you to, beg you to let her go, that nothing was her fault, but to be honest with you, sir, no one would be safe with that woman out there. And neither would you. I have no right to tell you this, but your momma, she’s been talking to the dead.”

Steele felt his body tense up, and he might have stood outside the door where they’d been led had it not been for Kari. Her gentle push had him moving in, but his mind was still working on his mother talking to the dead. He wondered just who the dead might be. Steele hoped it was the women she’d helped kill, that she’d come back to haunt her. But for some reason he had an idea that it was his sister.

“Well, look who it is.” Steele looked at the woman at the table. There had to be some mistake. This was not the woman he’d seen every day for the first seventeen years of his life. This woman was old, used up looking, and her face looked…well, it looked like an old apple that had been in the sun too long. “Are you going to sit down or are you just going to stand there gawking at me like some sort of chimp in a cage?”

“Mother?” When she smiled, he saw her then. It was the same one, the very one she’d give him every time she was ready to impart some nasty remark to him. “You certainly haven’t aged well.”

Kari laughed, and he glanced at her before looking at his mother again. At one time his mother was a fashion plate. Hair always done nicely, she’d have someone come to the house weekly just so she could go to one of her meetings. Her clothing had been the talk of the block. Eloise Bennett never wore a pants suit, never owned a pair of jeans, and would never have been caught dead in a pair of bright blue jump pants and a baggy sweat shirt as she was dressed in right now. The number over her heart, if she even had one, and her last name brought home to him that his mother really was in an institute for the criminally insane.

“Come give me a hug.” She put up her arms as far as the cuffs at her wrist would allow it and smiled at him. “You owe me that much. Come here, Steele, and hug me for old times’ sake.”

“I don’t think so. And even though we were told not to touch you, I wouldn’t even if I was allowed.” In fact, he wanted to leave now, but sat down when Kari did. “I’m never touching you again no matter how much you beg. As a matter of fact, I don’t really want to be here. But my wife insisted.”

“Wife?” Kari nodded when his mother gave her a pointed look. “You’d better not have given her my rings. Your father gave me those, and they will never be anyone’s but mine. And as soon as I’m out of this place, I’m getting everything back. Including my house.”

“To be honest, I wouldn’t let her wear the gaudy things if you paid me. As for you getting out, that is not going to happen either. I will come to every trial, every one of your hearings, and anything else I can do to keep you here for as long as you live. And then some.” He looked at Kari and winked when she glanced at him. “I had her rings made, if you want to know the truth, by selling off yours and paying for them. It was fun for me to do this for her and to you. And when we have children, I’ll pass them on to them. There will be no tainting of their love by giving them your rings.”

“You fucking bastard. But then, you always were stupid and ungrateful for all that we tried to do for you. I suppose you gave away all our money too. I’m going to need that when I get out of here. And the house, too, so don’t get too cozy in it. I’ve got friends in high places, people that are disgusted by how you’re treating me. You’ll see. With or without your help, I’m leaving here.” She smiled again. This one was one that she’d reserved for his father. “Steele, your father and I had such good times in that house. You’d not believe how much we regretted sharing it with you and that sister of yours. Where is she, anyway? She was here this morning. Damn pain in the ass if you ask me.”

“You see Aster?” She nodded and looked around the room. Steele did as well. He’d not seen his sister for over a decade, and wondered why she’d been here and not with him. Then it hit him. “She haunts you, doesn’t she? She comes here and haunts you. It’s why they keep you locked up this way.”

“I see her. And they won’t believe me. And she doesn’t haunt me, but torments me. Why? I gave that brat every damned thing she wanted…or needed. If I had given her what she wanted, then she’d be more of an embarrassment to me than you were. Why we did what we did is beyond me when I think on it.”

“Embarrassment?” They both looked at Kari when she stood up. “Embarrassment? How the hell do you figure that? Christ, woman, do you have any idea how many people he helps? How much others need him and what he can do?” His mother sneered at Kari and she laughed. “You don’t care. You never cared about either of them, did you?”

His mother made a flapping motion with her fingers as she mimicked Kari speaking. As she sat back down, Kari looked at him and he nodded at her. It was time to get whatever it was out of his mother before it was too late. And Kari was going to get it.

“I spoke to your mother.” Steele was glad he’d been looking at his mother or he would never have believed the fear he saw there. “I can see that you know what she and I talked about. She never cared all that much for you either. And at times, she told me, she wished to Christ she’d never let you take over her life.”

“Lies. It’s all lies.”

Kari shook her head. Steele wasn’t really sure what was going to be said to his mother. Kari had told him that that was the way his grandmother had wanted it. That he would know the shock of his parents’ lies when Kari spoke to her.

“She should have been locked up long ago. Long before she came to live with me. Did you know that she took in whores? She built this house for them all and had doctors come in and take care of them free of charge. I put a fucking stop to that.”

“Then how would you have gotten Steele and Aster?” His mother paled to the point that there was no color in her face at all when Kari spoke softly to her. Even her lips had gone white. “She told me that had she had to do it over, she would have kept them and not given them to you and your husband to raise. It was the biggest mistake she’d ever made.”

“You have no idea how many times I wish she had.” His mother looked at him. “I’m guessing she didn’t tell you the lies my mother spoke of? Just as well, they’re as untrue as…well as you seeing ghosts. I did what she made me and that was it. How the hell was I supposed to know that you’d be defective? And Christ, you’d think that even after we did it, she’d at least leave us her money. But oh no, not her, she left it all to you. You and that sister of yours.”

“You’re not my mother.” His mother laughed, and Steele felt his heart pound hard in his chest. He wondered how much harder it would have gone had Kari not put her hand over his. “Who is?”

“Ask her. She thinks she knows it all.” Then she laughed again. “Or better yet, let me spin a tale for you. All lies, but I so love a good lie, don’t you? And since there is no one here to deny or tell you any different, I’ll make it a good one.”

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