Honor Unraveled (9 page)

“Yeah. So, Kit?”

“Uh-huh?”

“Can we quit stalling and go break up the cat fight?”

Kit grinned, then sighed. “Yeah.” They moved out of the master bedroom and down the hall. By the time they’d reached the media room, they could hear Ivy and Casey arguing in the living room. They slowed as they neared, then Kit paused a few feet from the end of the hallway, listening to their exchange.

“Casey,” Ivy said in a calm but authoritative voice, “this isn’t something we have a choice in. Your dad and I have discussed your summer camp. It can’t happen this summer.”

“I’ve gone there for the last three years. You promised I could go. You’ve already paid for it.”

“And things have changed since then. I’m sorry. We are where we are. We’ll find things to do here. We’ll have fun.”

“You’re not listening, Mom.”

“I am listening, Case. I know you’re disappointed—”
 

“No. You don’t know that. And you never listen to me. I hate you!”

At that, Kit hurried into the room. “Whoa! That’s your mother you’re speaking to, little girl.” He caught Casey around the shoulders and spun her around, then marched her to the back door with a hand at the base of her neck.

“Kit, please. Don’t do this.” Ivy hurried after them, but he ignored her—in part because he was trying to get his temper under control and in part because, screw it all, as Casey’s dad, he did have a right to participate in correcting her.
 

“We were having a conversation,” she continued. “I don’t need you to come in here and take things over. Kit! Where are you going?”

He led Casey outside. On the porch, he sent a look back, seeing Blade keep pace with Ivy. He nodded at his friend. He heard Blade say to Ivy, “Let ’em go, Ivy. It’s gonna be okay. He’ll back you up.”

Blade wrapped an arm around her waist, holding her back as Kit walked away with Casey. Ivy tried to get free of his grip, but she might as well have been trying to bend an iron bar. “Let me go, Ty.”

“No. Let them talk it out. He’s the reason Casey can’t go to camp. We’re all why. You shouldn’t have to take the heat for that.”

“Dammit, Ty, let me go. This doesn’t concern you.”

“It does—you and Kit are two of my best friends.”

“He doesn’t know how to deal with her when she gets like this. Where’s he taking her?” Kit was marching Casey at a fast clip across the lawn to the side of the garage. Casey had to jog to keep up with him. Ivy struggled against Ty’s hold. “He’s going to hit her. You saw how angry he was.”

“He’s never hit us and we piss him off all the time. Give him a chance, Ivy.”

“I don’t strike Casey. I never have. We talk things through.”

“Yeah, well, from the sounds of the convo we walked into, a little spanking wouldn’t hurt.”

Ivy stopped struggling and glared up at him. “Ty Bladen.”

“It’s Holt now.”

Right. She remembered that he’d applied for a legal change to his name after he found out the truth about his father. “Ty Holt. This isn’t acceptable.”

Ty let her go and grinned at her. “Kit’s nothing like my dad. Or yours. Trust him. He’s got your back.”

Ivy wiped the angry tears from her face. Ivy paced while Ty simply leaned against a support beam. Several long minutes passed. She was glad he stayed with her while they waited for the two to return. At last, Kit and Casey started back toward them. Casey had been crying but was subdued when she stopped in front of Ivy.
 

“I’m sorry, Mom. I don’t hate you. I’ve never hated you. Dad said there might be something he could do to let me go, if it’s okay with you, after what just happened.”

“And…?” Kit prompted.

“And if that doesn’t work out, I understand.”

Ivy let out a ragged breath and pulled Casey in for a hug. “I’m sorry, too. We’ll wait to see what Dad can do.”
 

Casey nodded. “I’m going to my room. Dad said you guys would decide on a punishment because I lost my temper and said mean things.” She moved past Ivy and went inside.

“Right, then,” Ty said as he pushed off the pillar he was leaning against. “I can see that this drama is less exciting than I’d hoped. I’m off.”

He went inside, leaving Ivy alone with Kit. She sent him a questioning glance. He grinned at her. “What? You didn’t think I knew the difference between a little girl and an enemy?”

Ivy shook her head. “I don’t know what to expect from you at all. I don’t like yielding my authority over Casey to anyone.”

Kit lifted his shoulders and shrugged that off. “You’re still in charge. I just reinforced that with her.”

“What did you say to her?”

“I explained that the sanctions you’re imposing came from me, and that if she had an issue with them, she could discuss it civilly with you or bring her concerns to me. And that if I ever heard her disrespect you again, she’d spend a week running laps around the gym.”

“Oh.” Ivy sighed. Kit had defused the tense situation so easily that she had trouble grasping what just happened. Lately, blowups like these were becoming more frequent, louder, and lasting longer. “Well. Thank you. She’s getting so moody lately. Sometimes I don’t even know how to reach her. Everything I say infuriates her.”

“I guess she’s at that age. You’ve raised her to be an independent thinker and a little go-getter. She’s exercising the strengths you’ve given her, though maybe not in the right way. I’m happy to back you up. Anytime.”

Ivy met Kit’s gaze. His help had been fast, thorough, uncomplicated. All of her adult life she’d longed for someone to share the journey with—the good moments and the trials. Someone calm and patient. Kit wasn’t the boy she’d known, but he was looking more and more as if he were a man she wanted to get to know.

“So what are we going to do about her summer camp?” she asked Kit.

“I checked them out. They’re a stand-up group. They keep a good ratio of adults to kids. I’d be a lot happier if they were set up as more of a prison camp than the summer camp they are. Guards with guns. And walls.” He grinned at her. “Barbed wire.”

“Kit—”

“I know. If my enemies want to cause problems, they could as easily take any civilian from town. With the WKB vote on the line, it’s unlikely they’ll go hours out of their way to harm Casey when they could achieve the same result right here with much less effort.” He shoved his hand through his short, spiky hair. “It’s just that she’s my kid. My flesh and blood. I want her safe.”

He walked away a few steps, hands on his hips, head down as he considered their options. Ivy waited for him to speak. He stopped and glanced back at her.

“Look, Owen has contacts and resources I can’t even begin to guess at. Let me see what we can come up with.”

Ivy nodded. “Thank you. And thank you for listening to her. I hate to say that she and I have raised each other for most of her life—not what you’re supposed to do with a child. She’s often bull-headed, but she’s usually reliable and always capable. If you let her participate in her own safety, she’ll deal with this transition a lot better.”

Kit walked toward her. “And you? What can I do for you to help make this easier?”

Ivy closed her eyes, blocking his big body from her sight. What she wanted was what she’d always wanted. His arms around her. His lips against hers. Their lives to be one. When she opened her eyes, he was looking at her mouth. His gaze lifted.
 

“I could really use a friend right now,” she told him.

The muscle in his jaw bunched as he silently stared at her. He nodded. “Friends can hug, right?” he whispered.

She reached for him as he pulled her against his body. It wasn’t a friend’s hug, but it was every bit what she needed. She pressed her cheek against his chest.

“Sometimes…sometimes I’m stuck in time, standing on that football field, watching you walk away.”

His arms tightened around her, then his hand was fisted in her hair. His nostrils flared as he glared down at her. “I didn’t walk away, Iv. I was dragged away. Seeing you cry that day about killed me.”
 

“You feel like a stranger to me, yet not.”

“You look exactly the same. Except maybe smaller. Your eyes are as sad, but they’re tempered with other things, too. Like joy and determination. And confidence. You’re all woman now, Iv. Beautiful and strong.”

Ivy shook her head, trying to keep herself from hearing his words. “I seem smaller because you’re so much bigger. I keep looking at you, trying to reconcile the boy I knew with the man I see.”

He went still. “Do you like what you see?”

She smiled and shook her head. “No. You look like a heartache to me.”

He nodded, accepting that indictment. He eased his hand from her hair, moving it to cup her cheek. His thumb pressed beneath her jaw, lifting her chin while his eyes studied her face. “I know that feeling. Jesus, do I know it.” His thumb stroked her jaw. “We can’t change the past, but we can decide our own future. I want you in mine. Any way I can have you. Friend. Enemy. Lover. You want to start as friends, I’m cool with that.”

Ivy slipped her hand into his, grasping his thumb as she turned her face into his palm. Geez, his hand was big. Like the rest of him. “Thank you. For that. For your help today. Casey thinks you walk on water, you know. You’ve always been a hero to her—you’ve always been a hero to me. Even when you didn’t find me.”
 

“Ivy….”

She shrugged. “It’s okay, Kit. It is what it is.” She turned toward the house. Casey was waiting for word of her punishment. She looked back at him. “I’m going to go talk to Casey, unless you’d rather I wait for you?”

“No. Go ahead. I’ll come down after I talk to Owen.”

Kit watched her leave, still stunned by the revelation that the two females he loved the most in the world held him in such high regard. Despite everything he’d done—or not done. He switched his comm’s mic on. “Hey, Greer. Where’s Owen?”

“In the den.”

“Thanks.” And fuck. He’d probably watched the whole scene that had just transpired since the den’s French doors opened onto the same patio as the other public rooms. The man wasn’t used to dealing with a teenage girl. None of them were. He was surprisingly sanguine about the changes happening to the team. The women living with them. The kids. The pets. The civilian chaos.
 

Kit wondered, not for the first time, what Owen’s private life was like. If he had family, a woman somewhere. Hopes or dreams or needs. The man kept to himself. A human black hole.

He knocked on the patio door to the den, then entered. Owen was leaning back in the desk chair, facing the patio. His legs were spread open, his hands folded in his lap. He looked up at Kit and lifted a brow. Bastard didn’t even pretend he hadn’t been watching.

“I need a favor,” Kit said. Owen didn’t speak, just waited under that curved brow for the coming request.

“I need to put a couple of guards out at Casey’s summer camp.”

“Okay.”

“You got anyone I could use?”

“When and for how long?”

“Next week. For a month.”

“Done. I have some guys who could use a break. You’re covering their salaries. I’ll take care of getting them there.”

Kit grinned. “Thanks, man. You just made my daughter one happy kid.”

Owen nodded. “I live to serve.” He turned back to the desk, dismissing Kit.

Kit was almost to the hallway door when Owen stopped him with a question. “Kit—why this woman? Why her and not another?”

Kit turned back to his boss. “Why Ivy?”

Owen nodded.

“You wouldn’t believe it.”

“Try me.”

Kit studied him, wondering where the question was coming from. He glanced outside, across the patio, into the sun-drenched field as he searched for the right answer. Owen’s question was serious and deserved an honest answer. “Because every time I look at her and think about not being with her, I feel a pain like a fist in my chest. She stood alone against the world and protected our daughter. She taught her to be strong and self-sufficient. Not every mother does that—not with so much stacked against her. She’s a warrior in her own way, and I admire that.”

Owen studied him. “You love her.”

Kit shook his head. “That barely describes what I feel. It’s more like a starving man standing by a buffet table, a drowning man handed a lifeline. Without her, I’ll not only have a complete failure to thrive, but I’ll likely die.”

“I envy you. Rocco and Blade, too. I don’t think I’ll ever have what you three do.” He leaned back in his chair.
 

Kit held Owen’s gaze. He nodded once. “You know, that sounds like a challenge. I bet the girls know someone they could set you up with.” He grinned at his boss.

Owen gave a halfhearted laugh. “Yeah. No, thanks. Females take a look at me and run the other way.”

“Right. So you’re sticking with cold water.”

“That I am. And lots of it.”

They shared a laugh, only because it was better than looking at the dark side of that statement. “Thanks, Owen.”