convinced her that she didn’t belong anywhere-that no one loved her-although anyone seeing her family knew different.
Tomorrow he and her cousins might tell her how they felt, but her heart would be guarded again. Tonight, perhaps, they had a chance of getting through. Perhaps.
He felt like he was setting out poorly equipped for a mission. To try to mend such a long-held belief? He had half a mind to wait and push her into seeing a counselor. Yet was there ever a wrong time to hear you were loved?
Virgil had chosen the couch, Morgan a chair. Muttering under his breath, Wyatt dropped into another chair and scowled at Jake. He obviously didn’t like seeing Kallie in Jake’s arms or the way he’d assumed control. “Listen, Hunt, this-”
“Shut. Up.” Jake shot him an even look. “Up on the mountain, Kallie told Secrist it wouldn’t matter if she died, that she’d never belonged anywhere.” He took her cocoa and set it on the adjacent table.
Wyatt’s mouth opened. Then his brows drew together. He exchanged a dismayed look with Morgan. “But-”
This time Wyatt stopped when Jake frowned.
Jake looked down at Kallie. Exhausted, fading in and out, although light tremors still shook her body. Her exhaustion had caught up. “Sprite.”
She opened her eyes slowly, her gaze not quite focused. “Uh-huh?”
“Tell me where you went after you left your stepfather.”
“Now? But-”
“Don’t think; just tell me.” To better evaluate her responses, he slid his hand between the buttons of her robe. With his palm on her upper abdomen and fingertips between her small breasts, he could feel her relaxed stomach muscles and slow heartbeat.
“I went to live with Aunt Penny.”
“Why’d you leave?”
Every muscle under his hand tensed, and the hurt that gathered in her eyes tore at his heart. She shrugged. “She sent me to Teresa-got tired of me, I guess.”
“What? No,” Morgan said loudly enough to make her startle. Her cousin jumped to his feet. “No, that’s not true.” Moving closer, he stared at her. “Jesus, Kallie, didn’t anyone tell you? She was terrified Charles would hurt you.”
Kallie blinked and frowned up at Morgan, unable to understand what he meant. “Charles never hurt…” Well, maybe her big cousin had slapped her once because she’d spilled her milk. “But why?”
“He’s bipolar. Hell, right after you left, he beat up a kid at school so bad the kid went to the hospital. Penny said he’d just…lose it sometimes.”
“No,” Wyatt burst out.
Morgan shot him a silencing glare, then took her hand. “Kallie, he cried when you left. He’d refused to admit anything was wrong, and so had Penny. But then he hit you…” His lips pressed together. “Yeah, well, he got a psych doctor who figured out what was wrong and put him on medication. Aunt Penny bawled for-hell, forever-at losing you. But she had to work and couldn’t trust Charlie to watch you after school. Not when he was so messed up.”
Morgan squeezed her hand. “Let me tell you-”
“Later,” Jake said, silencing her cousin. “She’ll want more later. Right now, I want to hear about-”
“Who the hell do you think you are, Hunt?” Wyatt snapped, not Virgil, who she’d thought would object first. “And get your hands off her.”
Kallie suddenly realized Jake had his hand flattened on her stomach, his fingers between her breasts. She shook her head at him.
He didn’t move. His eyes never left hers, intent, so very blue. “I’m the man who fought a killer for her.”
Her mind replayed the way he’d come out of nowhere to slam into Andrew-he could have died. She started to shake again. He shifted, holding her closer, with his hand still warm on her bare skin. She tried to push at it.
“Uh-uh, sprite,” he said softly, and she gave up, too lost in the warmth of his gaze to argue.
“So,” he said, his voice as easy as if they’d simply gotten together for a beer at the ClaimJumper. “After Penny, who’d you live with?”
Why did he keep asking about her past? She frowned, trying to understand why he was-
His chin rose, and his eyes hardened. His voice deepened, “You will answer me. Now.”
Wyatt made an angry sound even as her words spilled out. “I went to Aunt Teresa and Uncle Pete.”
“Good place?” he asked, his fingers rubbing her cheek for a moment before dropping back down to lie as warm as a blanket on her chest.
She remembered the sound of children laughing, bickering, Aunt T singing as she cooked. Pete coming home from work, roaring, “
“So what happened? Why didn’t you stay?”
The hurt slammed into her like a car wreck. She tried to sit up, and the hand on her chest held her down, keeping her still. She shoved at it again. “I don’t-”
“Go on, sprite. Tell me.”
“They moved.” She pressed her lips together as she remembered how Teresa had put her on the plane. Hugged her. Just a vacation, she’d thought. “They sent me here and didn’t want me back in the new place.”
“That would hurt,” Jake said softly. “How come?”
The comforting tone in his voice did her in, and her eyes filled. “I don’t know,” she whispered. “I don’t know what I did wrong. Nobody ever lo-” But no, Aunt Penny had loved her. Morgan said so. She’d cried. Kallie blinked, confused.
And Wyatt exploded. “Son of a fucking bitch. Didn’t Pa ever talk to you?” He stomped over-her grumbly cousin-and glared down at her. “Pete lost his job, dammit.” He inhaled slowly, and the anger faded from his face. “Cuz, he got laid off, and they had four kids and you. They couldn’t pay the mortgage and had to move in with his sister. Two families in a one-bedroom apartment. On food stamps. Pa tried to give them money, but you know Uncle Pete, a real hard-ass about being a man.”
Kallie stared up at him as he shoved his hands through his hair. “They had a fight with Pa over the phone. They didn’t want to let you go, but it sounded like they were going to end up on the streets. Pa was yelling that he’d be damned if he’d let his niece starve.”
She hadn’t done anything wrong?
“Breathe, Kalinda. Pull it in. Slower.” His deep voice held her, made her listen, and
