Angel of Redemption (66 page)

Kayla

In every person’s life,
there comes a moment when time completely stops. A moment that is so surreal, you
think it has to be a dream because there is no way that real life would fuck
you over so hard.

Right now, that moment belongs to me. I’ve heard
the words Logan said, but for some reason I can’t sort them out in my head. I
can’t make sense of them because they don’t make sense. He’s talking about my
baby sister like she’s some slut who easily spread her legs for him just
because he asked her to. Dean’s hands are on my arms, his grip tightening as
Logan shouts at me.

I laugh even though there’s nothing funny about
what’s happening. There’s no way Claire would be able to keep that kind of
secret. There
’s no way she’s pregnant. There’s no way she wouldn’t have
told me. There’s no way…

“I get that you’re upset, Logan,” I start. “But
this has nothing to do with you. You don’t have to lie just to hurt me.
”

His jaw tightens. “I’m not lying,” he growls. “Ask
him. Ask your boyfriend.”

I turn to face Dean and sigh, thinking
—hoping—that
I’m going to get the look of annoyance and disbelief that I’m expecting. But I
don’t, and my stomach sinks. My mouth goes dry and the horrible, twisting
feeling in my gut begins working its way into my chest, making my heart thump
uncontrollably. I think about the way Claire’s been acting. I think about the
last couple of months, how I’ve caught her sneaking around and lying to her
parents and me on more than one occasion. Oh. My. God.

“No,” I beg. “No, no, no, no, no.” The look of
regret and sadness in Dean’s eyes destroys me.

Turning back to Logan, I see that he’s no longer
smiling. He actually looks a lot like I feel, like he’s going to vomit. I don’t
even realize my body is moving forward until it’s pulled backward, my back
crashing into Dean’s chest.

“You little bastard!” I scream, fighting against
strong hands that have no intention of letting me go. I see Logan’s face
crumble seconds before he turns and bolts from the room. I’m still struggling,
twisting, hoping to get enough leverage to escape, but Dean just holds me
tighter.

“Kayla, stop!” he demands in a low, authoritative
voice.

“I’m going to fucking kill him,” I snarl.

“No, you’re not,” he says, more soothing this
time. “I know it’s hard, but I need you to calm down so I can get to him before
he leaves. Baby, if he gets to his car, you know exactly where he’ll go. Stop, please?”

I do know. He’ll head straight for Claire. In
Logan
’s eyes, he has nothing to lose. If he really wanted to, he could
disappear into thin air, taking my baby sister with him.

With one last thrash, I give up and stop
fighting. Dean finally releases me, and I practically collapse into the chair
next to his desk. With only a moment’s pause—likely to make sure I’m
actually going to stay put—he takes off. I hear his feet on the steps
followed by shouting and banging. I fight back tears, gripping the chair as if
it were my lifeline. My whole body is trembling as I listen to more yelling and
more heavy footsteps. I can tell who’s who from the cadence of their voices. A
third male voice joins in, and then Emily appears in the doorway of Dean’s
office.

“What happened?”

I stare at her, unable to speak for fear of losing
my shit completely.

“Kayla?” Emily bends down in front of me. “Are you
okay? Are you hurt?”

I don’t know what to tell her. I close my eyes,
burying my face in my hands. Emily doesn’t ask any more questions. She crouches
down next to me, wrapping her arm around my back while I rock myself and fight
my warring emotions. More sounds and voices echo through the house, but I block
them out.

How could this happen? How
 did it
happen? Right under my fucking nose. Granted, I don’t live with Claire. I didn’t
even know she had a boyfriend, but I knew something was wrong. Why didn’t she
tell me?

Doesn’t she trust me? I can feel the tears
beginning to well.

Dean’s voice startles me, and I lift my head up.
I have no idea how long I’ve been sitting here. “Aiden has Logan.” He tosses a
set of keys, a cellphone, and what looks like a driver’s license onto his desk.
“Emily, he might need help. Logan won’t let me near him, and he’s pretty
volatile right now.
”

“Why? What’s going on?” Emily asks, exasperated,
looking between Dean and me. Dean tilts his head.

“Logan just walked in on Kayla and me.”

“Walked in on you doing what?” Emily asks
cautiously.

“Kissing,
” Dean scoffs. “I was just
kissing her, but Logan… We were supposed to meet so he could tell Kayla that he’s
been dating Claire.”

“Claire?” Emily narrows her eyes, and then they
widen. “Oh, shit! How did that happen? Oh my God, Kayla must be so pissed.
”

“Yeah. And apparently she’s pregnant,” Dean adds.
“Or, at least Logan says she is.”

“What?” Emily screeches. “How did you not know
this?”

That’s it. Whatever semblance of control I’ve
been able to hold on to snaps, and I let out a shuddering sob. Dean is on his
knees in front of me before I can even inhale.

“Hey! Hey!” he says, cradling my face and pushing
tears from my cheeks with his thumbs. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay!” I cry. “What the fuck just
happened, Dean?”

“I’m going to go check on Logan and Aiden,” Emily
says quietly, standing up.

“Good idea,” Dean answers without looking away
from me. She shuts the door behind her, leaving us alone. He doesn’t say
anything else, which is probably a good thing because I’m beginning to process
everything Logan said. He’s been screwing around with my little sister for
months. He’s surprised that Dean didn’t tell me.

“You knew?” I ask, my voice high pitched. “You
knew and didn’t tell me?”

Dean shakes his head.
“No, I didn’t. I
found out about the relationship yesterday. I wanted to tell you last night,
but I thought it was more important for him to tell you. I didn’t know she was…”

“How did you find out?” I interrupt. Dean reaches
into his pocket and extends his closed hand toward me. When I open my palm, he
drops a chain into it.

“I found that in the House car.” I stare down at
it, shifting my fingers so that the charm on the end flips over. Claire’s
necklace. The one I bought her that she was freaking out over not even a week
ago. “I remembered it from when you picked it out. I didn’t want to believe it,
but he admitted it.”

“It’s hers,” I agree. “How did it get in there?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t ask. I’m so sorry, Kayla.
I should have known.”

I blink at him. Yeah, he should have. He lives
with Logan. He’s supposed to be his guardian
—to know what’s going
on in his life. He’s known for awhile that Logan had a girlfriend. How could he
not know who that girl was?

“When did it start?”

“He says it started the day they met at your
office.”

I swallow back the vomit making its way into my
throat. “How long have they been, uh, sleeping together?” I ask weakly.

“I don’t know. I honestly don’t know that much.
He hasn’t been very forthcoming with information. I swear, Kayla, I had no
idea. Maybe she’s not pregnant. Maybe he just said it to get a rise out of you.
That’s exactly the kind of thing he would do.”

As much as I want to believe the words Dean’s
saying, my instincts tell me something entirely different. My
seventeen-year-old sister is going to have a baby. I wring my hands together
roughly. Dean covers them with his.

“We’ll sort this out, okay?”

“Sort what out, Dean?” I snap. “The fact that two
kids who can’t even take care of themselves are having a baby? Or the fact that
you and I were so absorbed in ourselves and each other that we let it happen?”

“We didn’t let it happen,” he says, loudly. “I
admit, I didn’t push him to talk to me the way I would have if it had known him
like I know Brayden and Curtis. But there’s no guarantee anything would have
been different.
”

“We could have put a stop to it.”

“Really?
” Dean scoffs. “You seriously
think if we’d known and told them they couldn’t see each other, we could have
kept them apart?”

“Maybe if I’d explained why.”

“And what would you have said that didn’t totally
violate confidentiality?”

I open my mouth, then close it again. He
’s
right. I couldn’t have told Claire about Logan’s past or the resulting
behavioral issues that I’m still worried may land him in jail someday. And
explaining to Logan that I was afraid he’d completely corrupt and hurt my
little sister would have been counterproductive to establishing his
self-confidence.

Then something else floods my thoughts so fast it
makes me dizzy.

“Oh, shit!” I gasp.

“What?”

“Oh my God. When Richard finds out, he’s going to
kill her.” My eyes widen. “He’s going to murder Logan. I mean he’s really going
to murder him.” As much as I want to hate that boy right now, my sister will
need him if she really is having his baby. And I’m going to make that little
fucker take care of his responsibilities for the first time in his life. “Dean?”
I can feel the panic rising. He stands and pulls me up with him. I wrap my arms
around his waist and bury my face in his chest. “This can’t be happening,” I
whimper. “Tell me this isn’t happening.”

“I wish I could, baby. I’m sorry. But it’ll be
okay. We’ll get them through it.”

Again, I want to believe him, but something tells
me that this is going to get worse before it gets better
…if it ever gets
better. With everything they have working against them, I just don’t see how
any of this is going to work out.

“I have to talk to my sister.” I try to push
away, but Dean pulls me back, his hand cupping my chin. He presses his lips
against mine. I
’m not really mad at him—I know it’s not his fault.
Logan is good at keeping secrets. But I’m not in the mood to kiss him back.

“Do you want me to go with you?
” he asks,

I swallow painfully, my mouth and throat still
lacking moisture. “No. It’s okay. I want to talk to her alone first. Then, uh,
maybe we should have a sit down? All of us?” I’m asking because I’m not sure.
My brain is muddled, and I have no idea how to move forward from this moment. I’m
still stuck in the moment when Logan screamed out that my sister is having his
baby.

Dean nods. “I think that’ll be good. Do you want
to do it tonight?”

“I don’t know. I have to talk to Claire. I, uh, I
need to think.”

“Do what you need to do, baby. You know I’m here.
Call me when you need me.”

“Thank you,” I say quietly.

As we’re walking toward the front door, it bursts
open. The boys rush through, loud and laughing. Matty is right in the middle.
He meets my gaze and freezes, the smile instantly disappearing. He holds back
as the rest of the boys greet me cheerfully and drop their bags in Emily’s
office before bounding away.

“Do I need to go pack?” he asks flatly.

“No, honey. You’re staying right here.” I answer,
trying hard to sound like everything is normal.

“What’d he do this time?” he sighs.

“We’ll talk about it later,” Dean interjects. “Go
ahead and go do your homework.”

Matty looks at Dean and then back at me. He knows
something’s up.

“I’ll be back another day and we can talk, okay?”

“Okay,” he mumbles, shifting his backpack higher
onto his shoulder and shuffling toward the den. Dean motions for me to go
outside and follows close behind.

“I’ll try to keep him out of the loop until you
can talk to him. The last thing he needs is to hear about this mess from Logan,
especially with the state he’s in right now.”

“I should be up there right now,” I say, looking
up toward the second floor.

“You need to go to your sister first. Let Aiden,
Emily, and me deal with Logan.”

“I need to deal with him,” I insist.

“You will, Kayla. But right now, it’s more
important to get to Claire.
” His fingers caress my elbow reassuringly.

“Thank you,” I murmur.

He opens the car door, but stops me before I can
get in. “If I don’t hear from you by six o’clock, I’m coming for you.” His
thumb grazes my bottom lip. I smile slightly. It’s an automatic response
whenever he touches me.

I love you.

It’s on the tip of my tongue, but now’s not the
time. Someday soon, though. If we survive this, I’ll tell him. I’m going to
have to take a chance and hope he’s ready…hope I’m not pushing him into
something he doesn’t want.

I climb into my car and pull out my Bluetooth to
call Kate’s cellphone.

“This is Kate,” my supervisor answers in her
thick accent.

“Hi, Kate. It’s Kayla.”

“Hello, Kayla. Where are you?”

“I’m in my car. I was just at Wyatt House. I was
supposed to have a visit with the Douglas kids at four thirty, but I’m not
going to be able to make it. I don’t have their number in my phone, can you
call and cancel for me?”