Believe: The Complete Channie Series (189 page)

He would have loved to have something like this when he was a kid, but his family had a hard time scraping together enough food to fill the bellies of five hungry boys, much less spend money on something as frivolous as toys. He and his brothers had to make do with match boxes for train engines, wooden spools of thread for tankers and scratches in the dirt for tracks. They’d grown up without television or much contact with the outside world, so they didn’t know what they were missing.

Hunter grumbled and complained about the triplets’ toys taking over the family room, but secretly enjoyed rearranging the tracks every night to surprise them. If they weren’t downstairs by the time he finished breakfast, he’d go wake them up so he could show them what he’d done before he and Channie left for their secret rendezvous with Josh and Kassie. The current layout of Sodor was his best design yet and he wanted to see their faces when they saw it for the first time.

“Ow! Dammit.” Hunter lifted his right foot and dug a blue Lego brick out of his heel. He put it in the shoe box labeled “Daddy’s toys” above the refrigerator with the others. Anytime anyone stepped on one of those little plastic devices of torture, it went into the box. The first week of enforcing the rule yielded enough bricks to build a model house. At this rate, Diego would have enough to add the roof by Wednesday.

Hunter poured himself a bowl of Froot Loops then gazed out the window over the kitchen sink as he ate. It must have snowed at least two feet yesterday, but the few clouds in the sky this morning were nothing but soft, wispy puffs of orange, pink and purple. He was tempted to call Kassie and tell her to get her lovely ass out of bed to see the sunrise. But he knew her well enough to know she wouldn’t appreciate the wake up call.

His phone buzzed in the other room. Maybe Kassie had gotten up early after all. Hunter set his bowl on the counter and darted back into the family room. He pulled his most prized possession out from under the sofa and frowned when he read the text from Josh.

<911 Dad’s coming cancel DDD Warn C and K>

Hunter sank into the sofa and stared at the screen. He and Josh had been planning this Valentine’s date for over a month. But there was no way they’d be able to pull it off if Mr. Abrim, was tagging along.

He’d laid down the law and told Josh he couldn’t see Channie no more after her daddy threatened to shoot him. And Kassie’s momma didn’t want her daughter dating nobody on account of her being pregnant.

Hunter couldn’t for the life of him see the logic in that. It wasn’t like she was gonna get knocked up again. Luckily, Josh’d come up with a plan. He called it “double dating deception” or “DDD.”

Hunter pretended to court Channie while Josh pretended he wanted to hang out with Kassie to keep her mind off her troubles. She was his cousin but they were more like brother and sister. When they all got away from prying eyes, they switched. Mr. Abrims must have gotten suspicious. Josh was a lousy liar so Hunter wasn’t surprised, but he was horribly disappointed. He pulled his pillow out from behind the sofa and laid down. No point getting up early, now.

He’d just drifted off when his phone buzzed again. This time it was Kassie.

“Hey, it’s back on. Meet us at the park-n-ride.
”

Hunter sat up and grinned. “That’s awesome! I knew you’d figure something out. I cain’t wait to see you. Love ya, sugar bunch!”

“… Love you too. Bye.”

He’d told Kassie he loved her two weeks ago after sneaking in through her bedroom window. She only lived about a mile away from Channie’s house, where Hunter was currently living, so it was just too tempting not to sneak over there at least once a week. No one else knew about their secret trysts, not even Josh or Channie. It was risky enough as it was.

Hunter grabbed his new shirt and a clean pair of jeans out from under the sofa then headed upstairs to take a shower. He set his clothes on the floor, next to the bathroom door. He’d ironed his shirt and jeans last night and didn’t want to get them all steamy and wrinkled before his big date. He wished he could’ve just used a cleansing spell, but he hadn’t quite mastered the shaving aspect of it. The one and only time he’d tried it, he’d given himself the worst case of razor burn he’d ever had. And his face wasn’t the only thing the spell worked on. It was a good thing he’d remembered to protect the hair on his head before casting the spell or he would’ve been bald. He’d canceled his mid-week date with Kassie to give the rash a chance to fade so she wouldn’t think he had a social disease.

She’d been thrilled with his ‘man-scaping,’ and thought he’d shaved his entire body just for her. Now he had to do it before every date. Using a razor tripled the time it took him to take a shower, but it wasn’t worth the pain to do it with a spell. Things would be so much easier if he could just tell Kassie the truth. But Empties weren’t allowed to know about magic, unless they were married to a mage.

Hunter was shaving a very sensitive area when Channie banged on the door. “Hurry up in there! If you use all the hot water again, I swear I’m gonna skin you alive.”

“Hold your dang horses, woman.” Pretending to court Channie was hard work. He had to make it look real enough to fool Channie’s family, but not real enough to require a chaperone every time they left the house. But the worst part of their fake courtship, was that it made it harder for Hunter to get over Channie. Living in the same house didn’t help either, but what choice did he have? He wiped the mirror down with his towel and frowned at his reflection.
You had your chance and blew it. Channie’s heart belong’s to Josh. It’s time to move on.

It was part of his morning ritual to remind himself that Channie was taken. He’d tried to stop loving her after her secret marriage to Josh, but his heart refused to listen. He started messing around with Kassie in an attempt to distract himself. It worked pretty good—for up to an hour twice a week—but he hadn’t expected to fall in love with her, too. Turns out you can love two people at the same time. Loving Kassie didn’t make him love Channie any less or heal the hole in his heart. All it did was make him more vulnerable. Kassie had just as much power to hurt him as Channie ever did.

The doorknob rattled. This time it was Diego, Channie’s brother-in-law and designated man of the house while her folks were gone. “Come on, man. We’ve got a line out here.”

Hunter wrapped his damp towel around his hips and sauntered into the hall. A cloud of steam billowed out behind him. Channie usually parked her pretty little self in her bedroom doorway across from the bathroom so she could glare at Hunter whenever she had to wait more than five minutes. Her door was open, but she wasn’t there. Just as well. She was blind to every guy except Josh. She wouldn’t notice Hunter if he paraded around in front of her buck-naked.

The trips darted into the bathroom one right after the other. All three of them dropped their pajama bottoms and peed into the toilet at the same time.

Hunter picked his clothes up off the floor and slipped into Channie’s room to change.

Diego’s energy field pulsed with territorial energy as he followed Hunter into her room. What did he think he was going to do? Rifle through her skivvies? “We need to have a chat about respecting Channie before you leave.”

“What are you talking about?” Hunter was very careful around Channie’s family. He held her hand occasionally to sell the courtship ruse, but he hadn’t so much as kissed her cheek. Not that she’d let him if he tried. “Where is she? I thought she was in a hurry to take a shower.”

“She gave up waiting on you and decided to use her parent’s bathroom.”

Hunter’s stomach clenched. Channie knew better than to go into her folks room while they were gone. If her momma found out, she’d beat the girl to within an inch of her life. “I’ll cast a cleansing spell in there when she’s done.”

“Abby’ll take care of it. It’s on her list of chores. Her folks’ll be expecting to find traces of Abby’s magic when they get home. But that’s not what I wanted to discuss. You just spent half an hour in there.” Diego nodded towards the bathroom. “That might work when you’re only going out for a few hours. But you’re going to be together all day and half the night. You’re gonna need to use willpower. Can I trust you?”

Heat shot up Hunter’s neck, across his cheeks, all the way to his scalp when he figured out what Diego was talking about. His whole head and the upper half of his chest burned. He wanted to set the man straight, but that would only create more suspicion. It was better to let him think he’d revved his own engine to empty the tanks before going out with Channie. “I give you my word of honor. I ain’t gonna lay so much as one finger on that girl.”

Kassie was a different matter altogether, but Diego didn’t need to know that. In fact, he
couldn’t
know that. If he thought Hunter was cheating on Channie, he’d cut off his balls.

“Do you mind?” He shifted his gaze to the door then back to Diego’s face. Hunter wasn’t overly modest, but it wouldn’t be a good idea to let Diego see what all he’d shaved. “I’d like to get dressed.”

“I’ll wait in the hall to make sure Channie doesn’t walk in on you.” Diego narrowed his eyes at Hunter then pulled the door shut behind him. “Consider yourself warned.”

“Damn hypocrite.” Hunter muttered the words under his breath. Diego had knocked up Channie’s sister with triplets when she was fifteen but if Hunter so much as let his gaze wander south of Channie’s collarbone, Diego boxed his ears.

Josh
and Kassie were waiting for them at the park-n-ride when Channie and Hunter got off the bus.

Channie flew into Josh’s arms. He picked her up and swung her around before kissing her.

Those two lived in their own private world. They had plenty of problems. They were married, but had to keep it a secret. They had to sneak around like a couple of criminals just to spend a few hours with each other. They had to keep the fact that Josh was a mage a secret from everyone, including his parents. The fate of two clans depended on whether or not Josh could defeat the most evil mage in history in less than a year’s time. But you’d never know they had any problems at all to look at them. They knew how to live in the moment.

Josh pulled back from Channie and whispered, “Happy Valentine’s Day, Mrs. Abrim.”

Her eyes sparkled, full of love and devotion. “Happy Valentine’s Day, husband of mine.”

Hunter laughed to hide his pain. He was glad they were happy, but it still ripped a hole in his heart to have it rubbed in his face. “Get a room.”

He wanted what they had. He wanted to get lost in a woman’s eyes. He wanted to know that someone loved him more than anyone or anything else on the planet. No. He didn’t just want that…he
needed
it.

His entire family was missing, maybe even dead. He wanted to love someone so completely, so intensely that their love had the power to ease the constant ache in his heart. He’d never have that with Channie, but maybe he could have it with Kassie.

He felt a little guilty for wanting to use her like a narcotic to numb his pain, but it benefited Kassie, too. Hunter didn’t hold it against her that she carried another man’s baby. She’d gotten pregnant before he met her. He wished the child were his, but that wouldn’t keep him from loving the little tyke when he arrived. Hell, he loved him already. There was nothing quite like feeling Kassie’s baby kicking against him when they made love.

He jogged across the parking lot and hopped in the back seat of Josh’s vehicle with Kassie. He didn’t blame her for not jumping out to greet him when he got off the bus. It was damn cold outside and warm as toast in the car. “Hey, sugar. Did you miss me?”

Kassie grabbed the collar of Hunter’s coat and pulled his face to hers. She devoured his lips as she slid her hands under his coat and traced the waistband of his jeans with her fingers. Hunter shivered with pleasure, then returned the favor. He didn’t even notice when Josh and Channie got in the car.

Channie thumped the back of Hunter’s head. “Cut that out and put your seat belt on. I want to see this surprise y’all have been so secretive about.”

Kassie was the first to figure it out. When Josh pulled up in front of the Omni Hotel and handed his keys to the man in the black suit, she squealed and grabbed the back of Hunter’s neck. The temperature in the car shot up as she laid another mind-blowing kiss on him. He might have stayed right there in the back seat if Josh hadn’t muttered, “Now who needs a room?”

Hunter interrupted the kiss just long enough to whisper against Kassie’s lips, “I cain’t wait to get you in bed.”