made sense at the time and he would probably have done the same thing if their roles had been reversed at that moment.
“The list of qualities and talents you possess is longer than my arm.” Megan placed her hand on his shoulder and stared up at him with dark, all-knowing eyes. “We’re all accustomed to you handling all matters and seldom making mistakes.”
“Thank you,” he said, sensing he wouldn’t like where she was going with this.
“Kylie is a very beautiful woman. Smart and pretty, with a likeable personality. I can see why you would fall for her.” She paused, holding his gaze, and dragging the moment out before continuing. “Is there a chance she might not be being honest with you? Dani told me some of the things she said while in the truck, like how she needed to make some phone calls, and how she easily handled a loaded weapon. Before you left to go look for Dani, Kylie kept her cool while drilling me for information on Dani. Perry, is Kylie a cop?”
Perry saw immediately why Megan believed he would keep information from her like Kylie being a cop. “No, she isn’t. And if she were I would tell you,” he said, not lying.
Megan let out a long breath, once again exhaustion lining her face and making her eyes look puffy like her daughter’s. Perry ran his hand down the side of Megan’s head, hoping his smile reassured her.
“You don’t have time or energy to worry about me. Nor is it necessary. Go get that bath and relax.”
“You’ll make sure all the girls are in bed? They all have school in the morning.”
Perry wasn’t sure he wanted any of them leaving the house, even tomorrow for school. The hit tonight was personal, and he’d be damned if Peter were given another chance to smooth out his failure tonight.
“Bathtime now, young lady. Your girls are in good hands.” Perry turned her around and pushed Megan into her bedroom, closing her in when he pulled her door shut.
As outraged as he was at Dani for pulling the most stupid stunt of her life, one that too easily could have cost her life, it amazed him how perceptive she was. Kylie would need to watch her ass or a sixteen-year-old would blow her cover. He pondered this, going back and forth between being proud and furious with his niece while turning out Dorine’s lamp when he found her asleep in her bed and then carrying Denise upstairs and putting her in her bed next to Dorine’s.
When he opened Dani’s door without knocking, three incredibly stunning women turned their attention to him. Diane looked tired like her mother, Dani leery, and Kylie’s bright blue eyes were guarded for reasons he wasn’t sure of as he entered and closed the door silently behind him.
The bedroom was so quiet he swore he would hear a pin drop on the other side of the house as he walked into the feminine paradise of pink pillows and white lace. Dani sat cross-legged in the middle of her bed facing Kylie, who relaxed in the wooden rocking chair Megan used to have in the living room and where she had nursed all of the girls when they were babies. Diane was stretched out behind Dani on the bed, her head propped up by her hand.
“We’re pretty sure the man I saw tonight was the bad guy you’re trying to catch with your case, Uncle Perry.” Dani offered the information lightly, flashing him a glowing smile as if she were showing off an A on a report. “I can totally ID him for you. I know exactly what he looks like. Caucasian, brown straight hair, shorter than you, probably less than six feet tall.”
“None of that information is worth you almost losing your life tonight,” he growled, the anger that had burned through him earlier quickly returning. “
Dani shook her head and looked down at her hands, her long brown hair draping over her shoulder and hiding part of her face.
“At least she had the sense to figure out before she got in the car with him that he wasn’t the guy she’d been chatting with online,” Diane said, pushing herself to a sitting position and rubbing her sister’s back.
“Yes, he was,” Kylie and Perry said at the same time.
“That’s the whole problem and what had me terrified,” Kylie added, resting her elbows on her knees while staring at the two girls. “All this time, Dani, you’ve been talking to an online sexual predator.”
“That is just so hard to believe,” Dani said, although she sounded more defeated than defiant now. As she collapsed back on her pillows, her long thick hair fanned around her face, which had at some point been scrubbed free of makeup. Dani looked younger and more innocent than ever. “We did our homework together, talked about the future, our families and our brothers and sisters.”
“If he weren’t as good as he is the police would have captured him already,” Kylie offered soberly.
Dani turned her head, staring at Kylie without saying anything at first. “I swear you’re a cop. I’m going to find a Bible and make you put your right hand on it and tell me you aren’t.”
Kylie’s laughter was melodic. “I would do that for you,” she said easily, pushing herself to her feet. “Tomorrow,” she added. “It’s late and I do believe it’s a school night. I can’t believe your mother hasn’t kicked me out yet.”
“Everyone is in bed or heading there,” Perry announced. “Diane, call it a night.”
Diane didn’t argue with him, but then she seldom did. She gave Dani a quick hug, and her sister pulled her into her arms, hugging her fiercely. It was an act he hadn’t seen between the two of them in ages, and he hated thinking of where the night could have ended up if events had turned out differently. He would give thanks they didn’t, though, and prayed that the reality of the situation would scare some serious sense into his nieces.
Diane crawled off Dani’s double-sized bed and straightened her blouse that hung low over leggings, which showed off her thin legs. Then grabbing her hair at her nape and pulling it behind her shoulders, she turned to Kylie but didn’t approach her. “Thanks for helping our uncle,” Diane said, fidgeting with the bottom of her shirt as if hesitating to say more. “Good night,” she added, then walked around her uncle to her room across the hall.
“Yell at me tomorrow, okay?” Dani said, rolling to the side of the bed. “I just want to crash.”
“Be grateful you are crashing in your bed tonight,” Perry said, wishing he could think of the perfect thing to say that would convince him Dani wouldn’t ever seek out a stranger online again. “And we will discuss this in great detail tomorrow. I’ll be over to get a full statement from you.”
“Like the real deal?” Dani’s eyes lit up, as she once again saw all of this as a great big adventure.
“No,” he barked. “Not
“I won’t, I promise.” She dropped her feet off the side of her bed but then sat there instead of standing. “I need to go to the bathroom and get ready to go to sleep.”
Kylie headed toward the door, pausing when Perry didn’t move and hugged herself. Perry looked at his niece, who met his gaze, suddenly looking very sad.
“I guess I wanted someone to care for me and want me for me so badly, Uncle Perry, I refused to look at the obvious. Kylie and I went through a lot of the text messages Petrie and I exchanged and it was kind of obvious he wasn’t who he said he was. Kylie pointed out some things I’ll be sure and check for in the future.”
Perry knew how proud Dani was. She was just like him in that sense. Being wrong sucked. But getting killed over stupidity sucked even more. He still wanted to knock some serious sense into her, but the way she looked at him right now, appearing more defeated and so incredibly innocent with all of that crap washed off her face, Perry was around Kylie before he thought about it and pulling Dani into a huge bear hug.
Lifting her off the floor, he wrapped his arms around her slender, firm body. She was the perfect sixteen- year-old, her future ahead of her and so many doors open and waiting for her to choose. No one would rip her out of his life. This family already had lost a good man, Megan’s husband and the girls’ father. It had nearly destroyed them, and only time and a lot of love kept them from falling completely to pieces. No one would do any more damage to Perry’s girls.
“I love you, Dani,” he said, his voice thicker with emotion than he cared for it to be.
“I love you, too, Uncle Perry,” Dani said, a sob catching in her throat.
Perry did a final walk-through of the house, making sure everyone was in bed and checking all doors and windows. It crossed his mind to take Kylie home and then come back here, camp out on the couch for the night. Then it also hit him to just keep Kylie with him and both of them crash here.
Although he didn’t really like what Megan had to say, she had a point. Bringing a lady around the girls, if that lady wasn’t going to hang around, didn’t help create a healthy environment for any of them. He couldn’t do that any more than Megan could have men coming in and out of her life. Parenthood had some fucking steep criteria.
