Cry in the Night (25 page)

Kade longed to go with him, but he couldn’t leave Lauri in this state. “Call me after you talk to her.” He put his phone away, then jogged back to his sister and led her to the truck. She was shuddering with the cold and with shock. He turned on the engine. It warmed up quickly, and he turned the heat on full blast once the thermometer needle moved off cold.

At least he was doing something. It was easy to fix her shivering, but it wasn’t going to be so simple to protect his family.

19

BREE DRESSED FOR DINNER AT HILARY AND MASON’S. SHE moved by rote, still shocked to have confirmed that Rob was still alive. She zipped up the dress, then glanced at her gold wristwatch and frowned. Kade should have been home by now with Lauri. If he wasn’t here in a few more minutes, she’d try to call him.

She swallowed the lump in her throat that swelled every five minutes. How was she going to tell Kade? What was the status of their marriage? How would this affect Davy? And Olivia? Tears blurred her image in the mirror. She was so scared. How could she hold it all together in front of Rob’s family? And Kade?

She forced herself to pick up a brush and run it through her red curls. She checked on Davy and Olivia and found him dressed in clean pants and a Michigan sweatshirt. He was on the floor talking to the baby, who cooed up at him.

She dropped a kiss on his head, then turned toward the door. She stopped and turned back to look at him. He’d recognized his father even after all these years. Even if he did think Rob was a monster. “Have you seen the windigo anymore?”

“No,” he said. “It’s gone.” He hesitated. “Mom?”

She looked back at her son. “Yes?”

“Do you ever miss Daddy?”

She retraced her steps and sat on the edge of his twin bed. Kade had made it to look like a racecar, complete with wheels. A boy’s perfect bedroom. Her husband had done so much to let Davy know how much he loved him.

She studied her son’s face. The dusting of freckles, the earnest green eyes, the red hair that fell across his forehead. “I think about him.” More than her son could possibly know right now.

Davy’s brow wrinkled. “Isn’t it kind of mean to wish he was still alive? We wouldn’t be living with Dad now.”

Bree leaned over and pulled him from the chair to her side. She wanted to hold him on her lap, but he often resisted that, now that he was such a big boy. Or so he thought. To her, he’d always be her little boy, even when he was forty.

She smoothed her palms over his cheeks, which were too fast losing their baby chubbiness. “Your daddy will always be part of you, Davy.” For once, he didn’t tell her not to call him Davy. “You walk like him and have some of his expressions.”

“Really? I’m starting to forget him, Mom.” Tears appeared on his lashes.

Her tongue began to form the words that would say his father was alive, but she knew she couldn’t tell him. Not yet. “He’ll always be here with you. Even if you sometimes forget his face.”

He leaned against her and wrapped his skinny arms around her neck. “Love you, Mommy.”

Mommy. It was a word to treasure because she heard it so seldom. “Love you too, Dave.”

“You can call me Davy. Just once in a while,” he whispered.

She hugged him tight and brushed a kiss over his forehead. He smelled of little boy and soap, and her heart filled to overflowing with love.

“I’d better do my homework now,” he said, pulling away.

“We’ll be going as soon as Dad gets home,” she told him, rising and heading to the door. The sound of a door closing echoed up the stairs, and she heard Samson’s nails click on the floor in the hall. “There they are now. You’ll have a few more minutes until Dad changes.”

She left her son’s room and hurried down the hall. Was Lauri crying? What sounded like sobs rose from the living room. Bree rushed down the steps and found Kade guiding Lauri to the sofa. Black streaks from her mascara made her eyes look bruised.

Kade glanced up and saw Bree. Relief lit his eyes. He was pale too as he held out his hand to her. Bree hurried to join them. “What’s happened?” she asked.

“He’s dead!” Lauri wailed, collapsing onto the sofa. She flung herself onto the pillow and buried her wet face in it.

Bree’s confusion deepened, and she sought Kade’s face. “Who?” she mouthed.

Kade took her arm and moved her out of earshot of Lauri. “Wes,” he said. The lines around his eyes deepened. “Shot. Lauri swears Mr. Jones shot him, and the death was a warning. Mason’s going to go see Mrs. Saunders and try to find out his real name.”

“He murdered Wes?” Bree needed to sit down. She couldn’t think, couldn’t take it in.

“There’s more, Bree.” He turned her to face him. “He told Lauri she has to bring Dave to talk to him. Alone.”

All the blood drained from her head. “Absolutely not.”

Kade was shaking his head as she spoke. “Of course not. But we have to protect him, watch him. The guy told Lauri that Dave was going to be leverage. I think that whole windigo-putting-a-baby- in-the-snow thing might have some basis in fact. Mason wants Dave to show him where this happened.”

Was Rob capable of something so horrific? Once upon a time she would have said no. “Do we have to do that, Kade?” But she knew they did. They couldn’t hide in the house forever.

He dropped his gaze, and his shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry Dave’s involved.”

Bree had reached out to embrace him when she heard Olivia begin to cry upstairs. “I’ll be back,” she said. “Don’t worry, Kade. We’ll get through this.”

She wasn’t sure she really believed it. An earthquake of change was already shattering their lives.

Kade drew in a deep breath and squared his shoulders. Lauri was still crying, so he left her on the sofa and went to the gun cabinet. Unlocking it, he checked the available ammo. There was plenty. He locked the cabinet again and went to the kitchen to throw the dead bolt on the back door. But that lock wouldn’t slow down a determined intruder with a gun for long.

His gaze lit on Samson’s broad shoulders. An intruder would shoot the dog first, and it would kill Bree and him both if anything happened to their dog. “You stay close by me, Samson, hear?” The dog whined and nosed his hand. Kade petted him again.

“Kade?” Bree stood in the doorway. “I called Hilary to beg off the party. I just can’t handle anything more tonight.”

“Good idea.”

“I’ll go talk to Lauri,” she said, walking toward the living room.

Good. Bree would help get his sister’s grief under control. He never knew what to say, and tears made him want to run.

Glancing at the clock beside the bed, he wondered how long it would take Mason to talk with Mrs. Saunders. He decided to check the pictures in the camera he’d left to track the cougars. He went upstairs to the computer room and booted the machine. Once he plugged in the camera, he watched the pictures come up and began to click through them.

Open field. A rabbit. The rear end of an elk. Nighttime with nothing. Nothing here, he decided when he had about ten pictures left. It had been futile. Wait, what was that? He leaned closer and studied the photo. Just at the edge of the photo. He couldn’t quite make it out, but there was some kind of animal there.

He flipped to the next photo, and the image of two spotted kittens sharpened into view. His jaw dropped. Though he’d hoped to find this evidence, now that he had, he couldn’t quite believe it.

His gaze drank in the kittens. Maybe four weeks old. Their blue eyes were striking against their spotted fur. A lump formed in his throat. He’d get that grant now. This discovery was going to set DNR on its head.

He printed out some pictures for the grant application, stuffed them into a manila folder, then went downstairs. Bree had her arm around Lauri. His gaze went to the baby in the carrier. Samson lay beside Olivia.

Lauri lifted her head. “I need Anu.” She rubbed the back of her hand over her eyes.

“I called her,” Bree said. “I told her not to come, but she insisted she’d be right over. She loves you very much.”

“Let me wash my face before she gets here.” Lauri brushed past Kade on her way to the kitchen.

“I don’t know how to help her,” he muttered, moving closer to his wife.

Bree’s eyes softened. “No one does. But hold her when she needs you to, Kade. Let her know you’re hurting for her.”

“I’m mad at her too,” he admitted. “She’s brought danger to our doorstep, Bree.”

Her head was down, and her gaze stayed on the baby. “So many problems right now,” she murmured. “Victor’s problems, Florence’s and Pia’s deaths, the baby. Now this with Lauri and Davy.”

He was going to have to explain the situation to Dave, something he didn’t want to do. Living in fear wasn’t good for any of them, but until this guy was caught, that was exactly what they’d have to do.

Olivia cried until Bree popped the warmed bottle into her mouth. She struggled to maintain her own composure. She was shell-shocked. Davy was the important thing right now. She had to keep him safe. Safe from danger, safe from emotional harm too.

She turned her head and stared at Kade’s strong jawline as he sat on the sofa. Was their marriage even legal now? She’d have to consult a lawyer. It was hard not to blurt out that Rob was alive. That the body they’d brought home to rest in the cemetery was someone else.

Who? Rob had refused to tell her. She sensed he was involved in something bad. Why else be so secretive? If only she could talk to Anu about it—but that was impossible until she talked with Kade. She had to tell her husband first.

Olivia had finally fallen asleep. Bree put the baby in the portable crib. The doorbell rang, then Anu came in through the doorway. She had her hands full of pots and bowls on a tray. Bree took the items from Anu. Davy ran to his grandmother and allowed her to pull him into her lap. The bond they shared only seemed to grow with the years.

“You have grown since I saw you last,” Anu said, hugging the boy. She held out her hand to Lauri. “
Kulta
, I am so sorry for your loss today.”

Lauri’s tears were already flowing, so Bree left Lauri to Anu’s ministration and carried the food to the kitchen.

Pain began to pulse behind Bree’s temples. This night would be one long nightmare of regrets. If only there had been time to tell Kade about Rob before Anu arrived. She couldn’t spring the news on him here in front of Rob’s mother.

Bree was certain that Rob had been in touch with his mother, however. It would explain Anu’s distress the other day. Anu had to have as many questions as Bree. Where had he been all this time? How was he earning a living? He would have to be using a fake Social Security number. Which led to Bree’s next assumption that whatever he was doing wasn’t exactly legal. Anu probably knew everything. She and Rob had been so close.

Her gaze fell on her husband as he filed in with the rest for supper. Her heart cramped. Rob was going to change everything. There would be custody issues, even marriage issues, to work out. Davy was going to be torn between two fathers.

The disruption of her life loomed like a nightmare she’d never awaken from. Would Rob’s family pressure her to leave Kade and go back to him? Would her own heart do the same?

She couldn’t deny his presence had stirred old feelings. Just today she’d told Davy it was okay to love two fathers. But it wasn’t okay for her to love two husbands. She’d have to choose between her first love and the man who now shared her life. The more contact she had with Rob, the more likely it would be that the love she felt for him would grow stronger. She’d loved him once with her whole being, and his death had nearly destroyed her.

She didn’t know how she was supposed to feel about all this or how to find her way to happiness again.

“Bree, you okay?” Kade carried Olivia in his arms. The baby was awake and sucking on her fingers.

“I-I’m fine.” She avoided his gaze and stared into the baby’s face. “She shouldn’t be hungry since she just ate.”

“I don’t think she is. I changed her, but she seems to want to look around. Don’t you, baby girl?” He jostled the infant and she stared up at him as though memorizing his face.

Watching him with Olivia, Bree hoped he was beginning to love the baby, but maybe Kade was just being Kade. He didn’t have a mean bone in his body. Kade reached out to every hurt human or animal he met. Quiet and strong, he had been there for her through every trauma.