Steele (11 page)

“They took me to see her too. A few days ago. It was her.” Grandda sat down on the chair and picked up the framed picture of Aster, one of the last pictures he’d been able to find of her. “I just couldn’t believe it, so I did some snooping. This ability to move small things has come in handy.”

Kari knelt in front of him. “What did you find, Grandda? Something has made you sure, and it couldn’t be just the picture.”

“She’s got all those clippings in this book of hers. I saw her taking it out one day and wondered why it made her so sad. Then I saw it and knew. It was of the death of that man, that bastard Bennett, and his daughter dying. There was even a few on Eloise too. She had them all, and they’d been put in this book with…well, she’d not been a great fan of the man.” Steele never thought of how all the things that had come out would have affected her. But then, he’d had no idea she even existed until two months ago. He would imagine that she’d keep tabs on the family if for no other reason than to know when to be afraid or to stop being afraid.

“I’ll send a letter to her.” Kari shook her head. “No, that won’t work. She can just ignore it. And I can’t go and see her either. That would be…I don’t have any idea what I’d even say to her. ‘Hello, Mom. I’m your long lost son.’ That’ll go over well.” Steele wanted to go to her now, but was worried that she’d not be the right person; or the right one, but wouldn’t want him in her life.

“I’ll write to her. And I’ll do it as Kari Briggs. Or better yet, send a lawyer to see her and talk to her. You have a lot of them, Steele. Which one do you think would do the best job and not make her pissy about coming here?” Steele had no idea, but he had a feeling that Kari did when she smiled brightly at him. “I know. I’ll talk to Mr. Chandler. He’s a nice, grandfatherly type. He won’t put her off. Not like that man you sent to have me sign those papers.”

She moved down the hall and disappeared into her office as he thought about who she meant. All he’d done was have a lawyer come to the house and have her sign off on a few forms. She now owned everything he did. That hadn’t gone over as well as he’d hoped either. He started to follow but looked at the three men who had come to mean a great deal to him. There was more, he’d bet his life on it.

“She’s not just afraid, Steele. The poor woman never leaves her house. Her food is brought to her. She has a job that she does in a spare room in her house. A person comes by twice a week to pick up the things she does, but she never sees them. And when she does go out, it’s not for long, and she goes alone and returns that way too. While I was with her, she’d gone to the paint store all by herself and only handed that man at the counter her list before she sat in one of them chairs and waited until he told her it was ready.” Steele asked his grandda what she did. “Paints pictures. Haunting and sad paintings that sell well. She’s been…I would say that she’s been living out some nightmare for a long time. My poor baby has been hurt so badly by all this. And here I sit, can’t do a damned thing about it.”

“We’ll see if we can get her some help. I’m sure that she’s going to take some convincing, but with Kari in charge, she won’t be able to resist giving into her.” Grandda snorted. “You think she’ll be able to make her see us or not?”

“I think that if my girl is anything like her mother, she’s going to be a stubborn little thing. And if she’s like me, she won’t come easy to this anyway. Either way, I think it’s going to be a hard one to do.” Grandda stood up and smiled. “If you don’t mind none, I’m going to go and have a visit with her. I know it’s her, and I just can’t stand to be away from her this much.”

After Grandda left, Donny and Carlton said that they were going to watch some television. He had to smile at how they’d gotten that to work for them. They’d been whispering in Izzy’s ear when they wanted a movie put in whenever they had the woman alone. It might take them a couple of hours, but they’d get to see it eventually. But Izzy was onto them now, and ignored them just for spite. Instead of taking a few hours, it might be days before they got a movie they wanted. If they got what they wanted at all. Just last night he’d walked in on a musical, and they were sitting there watching it as if they’d been assigned it for homework. That’s how he’d figured out what Izzy was doing.

“Those boys don’t need to be filling their heads with stupid stuff. Why they want to watch some show about a man blowing snot on another one is beyond me. And what they hear from them commercials too.” She looked at him and grinned. “I’ll do what they want sometimes, but for the most part, I’m going to impart some educational things on them when I can.”

“You do know that if they were both still living, they’d be decades older than you are.” She nodded and told him that didn’t make them any smarter than her. “I suppose not. But once in a while, could you give them something fun to watch? I don’t want them moping around here all the time.” She told him she’d think about it. He knew it was the best he was going to get.

Steele found Kari on the phone. He sat down across from her to watch her. Christ, she was beautiful. When she finally hung up, she smiled at him.

“He said he’d go and see her as soon as he could file a flight plan. I told him you’d hurry that up. He agreed with me on the letter, it can be tossed away. A person at the door not so much.” She stretched out and he could see the curve of her breast. His cock thickened to the point of near pain. Adjusting himself, he watched her run her hands down over her full breasts to her hips as she smiled at him.

“Come here.” She shook her head. “Then I’ll come to you. But I want you to know that I’m going to lay you out on my desk and feast on you.”

“I’d very much like that. I’ve been thinking of you doing the same thing since I walked in here.” She stood up and moved around to his side of the desk. “But there’s something I want to tell you first. It’s very…I want you very much.”

Steele watched her as she pulled her sweater off and noticed that her skin looked soft and warm. It wasn’t the first time he noticed it, but it was the first time he wanted to taste the little sweat that was there. Then when she began to unbutton her blouse, he felt his mouth water. He loved her breasts, and her nipples too. Actually, there was nothing about her he didn’t love and want to eat. He watched her until she had it opened but not off.

“What do you think about children?” He looked up at her, his mind still focusing on her body. When she repeated her question, he leaned back in his chair and stroked his cock.

“I want as many with you as I can get. Are you pregnant now, baby?” She shook her head and pulled the blouse off, then her bra. “Would you like to be? Because right now I feel like I could take you several times and never stop. I’d love nothing more than to fill you with our child.”

“Yes, I’d like that too.” He stood up and started for her, only to stop when she put out her hand. “I’m in heat. Do you remember what that means?”

“You’re fertile.” She smiled at him. “See, I paid attention.” Steele put his hands down the back of her pants and cupped her bare bottom, pulling her up against his hard cock. He rocked into her heat several times until he thought he’d come just like they were. He tried to think of anything else to slow his mind and body down, and his mind latched onto Carole, the other panther they’d met.

They had found a leap of panthers and had been talking to the leader. She had been so nice to them that Steele had had the woman and her family over for dinner several times. And with her help, Kari had a great deal more control over her cat, as well as a great many other things she’d not known that she was capable of. She could shift with control and use her body, like her hands, in ways that simply scared him a little.

“She said it would happen three times a year, if you remember, but not to really expect too much if it didn’t happen the first time we were in heat. We could wait if you want.” He nibbled at her jaw and moved to her throat, biting the warm flesh as he went. “I can’t think when you’re doing that.”

“Don’t think then. Just enjoy what I’m doing to you.” He reached around to the front of her pants and undid them. Sliding them off her hips, he sank to his knees as he moved her pants down along her legs, taking her panties with them. “I want to drink from you. Then when I’ve had my fill of you, I want to lay you out over my desk and fill you with my child.”

“Please.” He nuzzled her pussy with his chin, then opened his mouth over her. Her moan made him harder and he had to reach down with his free hand and release himself. As soon as she leaned back on his desk, Steele lifted her up so that both her legs were on his shoulders and he held her up by her ass. She was so wet that he had to drink quickly to keep up. And Christ, she tasted delicious right now.

Give it to me, Kari. Give it all to me. Come for me so that I can fuck you with my cock.
She curled her fingers into his hair, and he bit down on her clit. Her scream of release nearly had him coming too, but he fucked her hard with his tongue until she was finished and her body lay lax over his desk. Standing up, he moved between her legs until he was at her apex and held himself over her. She looked up at him when he said her name.

He entered her slowly, watching her face for the pleasure he knew she got from his slow moves. Her hips rose up and down to his strokes, sucking him in even as he pulled back in the same easy motion he was using. His cock was so full and wet from her juices that he watched as he slid in and out of her, glistening in the light of the room. Each time his cock was just a little wetter and a good deal closer to just letting go.

“I need to taste you.” Steele nodded and leaned over her. He felt her tighten around him and knew that when she sank her teeth into him he was going to come as well. And he couldn’t wait, needed to feel her mark him, sink her canines into his skin as she came surrounding him with her sheath. The wet, heated lick of her tongue over his throat had him pumping into her harder. His balls tightened to his body as she nipped at him. It was on the tip of his tongue to tell her to do it when she bit him.

Steele felt every drop of his cum shoot from his cock as his blood raced to fill her mouth. He heard her screaming out his name even as his balls tightened up again for a second release, then a third, until he could hardly think beyond filling her again and again. Steele pounded her now, hitting her as deeply as he could to touch her womb. A baby, a baby was all he could think about as he filled her again and again. Coming again, his body spent, he knew that hadn’t created a child but had formed a deeper bond than ever before. When he couldn’t move any more, he dropped on top of her and closed his eyes. Her giggle had him looking up.

“We might not be going to have a baby, but we sure made a good effort at it. Perhaps we should do it again right now until we get it right. We could keep trying until we get pregnant.” Growling, he looked down at her and smiled. He kissed her on the mouth and then deepened it. When he lifted his body from hers, all he could imagine was a child growing within her. He hoped that soon they created a child for them.

Chapter 10

Beth looked at the lawyer twice more before she decided that he was insane or that this was a complete joke. Not a funny one, but a joke all the same. Or he had the wrong person. Beth moved to the kitchen counter and stood there for several seconds before she turned back to the man. He was smiling at her in a gentle way, but she’d learned over the years not to trust anyone.

“You’re saying that a woman by the name of Kari Briggs wants to speak to me.” He nodded. “And this woman, this Briggs person, she says that she has information for me about my children. And that you’re here to set this meeting up for us.”

“She does, Miss Náire. And that’s correct.” He’d even pronounced her made-up last name right. She’d changed her name from Cartwright to Shame after what had happened to her, and had used the Irish translation of the word to keep people from asking too many questions. Because no matter how much she stayed out of the public, people still got in somehow.

“I think she’s made a mistake. I don’t have any children. None at all.” She looked back out the window and spoke softly. “There was one at one time, but he died at birth. The hospital or wherever you got your information is incorrect. Tell her that I’m terribly sorry, but she has the wrong person.”

“He didn’t die that day. Neither of them did. You were lied to, about this and so many other things during that time of your life. There was a girl and a boy born to you on July twenty-fourth. And neither of them were still-born or any other such thing.” She looked at him again, this time fear overriding her caution. “The Bennetts lied to you so that you’d never come back for them. Or the babies. They had it in their head to…well, Kari thinks that once you were released from the hospital back then, you’d have been killed. And all this time, everyone has assumed that you were dead.”

“Steele Bennett?” Beth slid down the counter and crumbled on the floor when he nodded. When he reached for her, she shied away from him, but he didn’t leave her side. “I heard that he was dead too. Read about it in the paper. That and his wife, that bitch, was in prison for helping him murder all those other women. Was that a lie?”

“No. He committed suicide some years back. Even before he was brought to trial, as you know. It didn’t stop the state from convicting him, of course, but he was long dead before he could be put to death.” She nodded and felt the relief of it roll over her. “His wife, Eloise Bennett, was tried and committed to the institute for the criminally insane about twelve years ago. Your son lives on the estate and your daughter…I’m sorry to tell you this, but she died some years ago as well.”

“Aster Bennett was my daughter?” He nodded and helped her to stand. Beth felt weak, depressed all of a sudden for the loss she hadn’t known about until then. What was…? “The son, he is like his father? A bastard? Please tell me that he’s nothing like his father. Please?”

“No. He’s a good man. Honest and hardworking. I work for him and his family now. Not a better man to be found, I’d say. He has a wife now. Her name is Kari Briggs Bennett.” Beth had to get out of there, or get away from the man. He was going to trap her or take her back to them. “I have a letter for you from her. She said that she knows that you’re afraid, but she wants you to have this.”

He stood up after pulling it from his briefcase. Beth didn’t take it, so he laid it on the table and turned from her. She didn’t know what to think, what to even say to him until he turned on his way out with his hand on the doorknob. He was simply going to leave her there with all her thoughts and fears, and she wasn’t sure how to deal with it.

“If nothing else, Miss Náire, you should read the letter from her. She is probably one of the nicest women you’ll meet or have the pleasure of knowing. And she understands how you’re feeling, much more than you can realize. Kari wants to help you.” She only looked at him. “I have also included my card in there. Should you have any questions, please call me. I will be here until I hear from you either way.” He told her where he was staying.

“I won’t go there again, not to that house. Not for all the money in the world. And no one can make me.” He nodded. “Do you have any idea what happened to me? Do you know what Bennett did to me?”

“Yes. And I know how much you have suffered since then. But you have to remember one thing if nothing else. He gave you a son and daughter. One you still have the chance to meet if you choose to. And you won’t ever be harmed by either of them.” He left her with that; opened the door and stepped out as simply as she’d let him in.

Beth sat in the chair for a long while, long after her lunchtime was over and nearly into her time to eat dinner. Food was the furthest thing from her mind right now, but the meeting and the letter were not. It stared at her throughout her sitting there until she had to get up or scream.

The letter lay on her table for the rest of the day. And that evening when she’d finished her painting, she saw it again when she’d made her a cup of tea before fixing her dinner. Her name, her real name, blazed over the front of it in a bold yet very feminine hand. Beth didn’t even bother moving it when she sat down to eat her cold sandwich and salad. She was not going to touch it.

After watching some television, nothing that she could recall what it had been, she went to her room and dressed for the night. Crawling into bed, she thought of all the reasons why she was never going to that house, and thought that the house, the estate that her son lived in, was not the house she’d been raped in. The house she’d been taken to, the one that Steele Bennett had tied her to a bed in, had long since been torn down. She had always wondered who had given that order. It was nearly ten when she turned off her light and hopefully her mind. She should have known that it wouldn’t work.

“Damn it all to hell.” It was nearly four when she’d had enough of tossing and turning. The room was closing in on her and the letter, still on the table, seemed to be screaming for her to come to it. If she heard it a dozen times, it was more than enough. “Read me,” the words echoing in her head made her stomp her way to the kitchen.

“And what am I supposed to do now?” She glared at the letter and at her friend, who now sat there near it. “It has nothing in it that I want to know. And I sure as hell do not want to meet a son that could be just like his father. I should have cut his heart out, had he had one.”

“What would you have me say to you?” She wanted Emil to tell her that she was right, but the ghost would not, she knew it. The woman had never helped her with decisions in all her life.

Beth paced back and forth by the table, cursing the letter one moment, then begging it to give her a clue as to what it said. Finally in a fit of frustration, she sat down and picked it up.

“This does not mean I’m going to do whatever it is she wants.” Emil nodded but said nothing. “I’m just going to read it so that blasted litany goes away.” She started to tear the envelope open but got up to get a knife. Sliding it under the seal, she slit it open and watched as three squares of something fell out, as well as the business card that Mr. Chandler had said was in it. Picking up the first square, she sobbed when she realized what it was.

The young woman staring back at her could have been her image at the age of eighteen or so. Running her finger over the long hair, she could see, even with the snapshot so old, that there were the same flecks of gold in her eyes that Beth had inherited from her own dad. This was the daughter she’d lost. Beth wanted to shove everything back into the envelope and hide from it.

The next picture was of a young man. Her son, she’d bet. He looked so much like her dad that she knew there was little doubt he was hers too. The sadness in his eyes made her weep for him, and she touched her fingers to his image as well. There was something pulling her to him, a maternal thing she supposed, but Beth wanted to find him and hold him until he smiled at her. Putting it down, Beth picked up the last one.

This was of the two of them, the children as babies. The little bundles were wrapped up tightly in a white blanket and their little faces, so fresh and new, had been exposed for the picture. The only things that told her which was which were the tiny little pink and blue hats that each of them wore. Beth held it to her heart for several minutes and looked at her friend.

“They should have had me there with them.” Emil nodded. “They cheated me out of so much that I’ll never get back. I hate them now, both of them more now than I did before I knew what they’d done.”

“As you should. But as I have told you, hating will get you nothing but a sick belly and mind.” Emil nodded toward the envelope. “That is all you have to do now, read about what the Mrs. has to say to you.”

Picking up the letter, she read the first line three times before she was able to see it properly. The tears were making it all blurry.

“Hello, Miss Pike. My name is Kari Briggs Bennett. I don’t normally go by such a title, but I wanted you to know right away who I was. I’m your daughter-in-law. I’m so glad that we found you.

“I have enclosed some pictures of your children. I’m so terribly sorry for your loss with Aster. She is a wonderful woman and I have so enjoyed getting to know her.”
Beth put the letter down and had to get up and walk for a moment. Her daughter was dead. She was dead, and yet this woman was talking about her as if she was right with her. Beth picked up the letter again and started to read where she’d left off.

“…to know her. I want you to know now, at the very beginning of this, that I can talk to spirits. As can Steele, your son. And from the research we have conducted, we’re thinking, hoping really, that he got this ability from you. Is that right?

“Sadly I didn’t get mine from a parent, but because for a short while I was dead. Not all people experience this ability after something like this happens, but I was one of the lucky ones. I have also spoken to your father.”

Beth didn’t put the letter down this time, but carried it to the room that she’d set up as a studio. As she moved around the room, she turned on every light, every lamp, and even the small nightlight she used sometimes when she wanted to go and check on something in the night. Then she curled into a corner and began to read again. It was, at times like this, the only place she felt safe.

“He is a wonderfully funny man that I have come to love as a grandfather. He is brilliant and polite to a fault, and he misses you so terribly much. For all this time, after he found out about the children you gave birth to, he had assumed you dead. It wasn’t until recently that we were able to discover that not only are you living and well, but you might bear the same gift that your children did.”

Beth read about how her father had died, a man who had gained a good deal of weight after her mother had passed. She knew this, of course. She had been there when he’d passed, but he’d never known what had happened to her then and she wished now, like she had so much in the past, that he’d lived long enough to save her. Kari told her of stories, small things that only her dad might have known, things that as she grew up, she’d shared with him. Beth was sobbing when she finished the last of the letter.

“I would ask that you come to see us. And failing that, we come to see you. We will understand if you do not want to have any contact with us; having us associated with that horribleness that you had to endure would have turned even the most staid person to turn away. But Steele wants to see you, if only once. He would like to meet the woman who had been wronged as he had by the family you trusted. And Aster and your dad want to talk to you as well.”

Beth sat there, curled in a ball until the sun came up and lit up the room even more. The picture she’d been working on all day yesterday was captured in the light now, and she stared at it as if she’d never seen it before. And if she was truthful to herself about it, she hadn’t seen it until now. Her muse had painted it.

Beth called softly for her. “Emil?” The ghost appeared almost immediately and sat down beside her. Her muse, her Emil, had been with her all her life, as had several other ghosts she’d gathered to her.

The whole story poured from her…what the letter had said, what Kari had wanted from her now that they had found her. She even told her that her son wanted to meet her and that she couldn’t go to him.

“And why can’t you?” Emil got up to pace and looked twice at the picture before turning back to her. “We cannot be drawing and painting in this room for the rest of your days, you know? There is a life out there and you should be living it. How many times have I said that to you?”

“I can’t go.” Emil tisked at her and sat down again. “What if he’s like his father? I don’t care what this man says or how pretty the letter is from his wife. For all we know, she doesn’t exist and my son paid this man to say these things. Or Mrs. Bennett for that matter. What if she’s right there waiting for me, laying in wait to tear into me as she had all those years ago?”

“I’ll go and find out.” Beth shook her head. “I’ll go and none will be the wiser. That way you can have a clear picture of what is happening before you go. And you will go, child. It’s the only way you can have peace and you know it.”

While it really was a good idea, it was still a bad one. She had no idea if they would hurt her Emil or not. Didn’t know what kind of people they were. Had no idea if they would—

“You’re thinking of this too hard. You always do that. What if they are just as they say they are? Your relatives wanting to see you after all these years?” She stared at her friend since birth. “I’ll return soon.”