Cage (The K9 Files #27)

Chapter 10

T he next morning, Cage and Risa and Jason and Brian stopped in to see Killian at the hospital. Scotty had a follow-up visit with the vet and was at the clinic, waiting for them to pick him up. Thankfully Killian was now conscious and cheerful. He was delighted to see the whole lot of them.

“You know, I would move closer to be with you too if I thought I could find a place,” he offered, shaking his head. “Being alone at this age sucks.”

Immediately Cage laughed. “Tell you what,… we’ve got a trailer on the property. It’s not new by any means and could use a little cleaning up, but you’re more than welcome to come join us.”

The old man stared at him in astonishment. “Seriously?”

“Sure, why not? It’s not as if we have anything else to do with the place. You’re right. It sucks to be alone when you’re old, but it also sucks to be alone when you’re young,” Cage said gently, “and this little guy could use a grandpa.”

At that, Jason and Brian wheeled over, and Brian lifted up his arms. Killian leaned over and gave him a hug. Tears were in Killian’s eyes as he muttered, “I don’t know how I would make that happen.”

“We have a place for you. That’s all you need to know. Sell your house and get whatever you can for it, so you’ve got something to live off of, along with your pension. Then come on down our way,” Cage suggested. “And, if you need a hand, we’ll make that happen too.”

By the time they left, Brian was over the moon with joy, and Jason was laughing. “Look at that, a ready-made family, including a grandpa.”

“Don’t knock it,” Cage reminded him. “That old man saved our lives.”

“Oh, I’m not knocking it,” Jason noted. “I’m just thrilled for you. Dude, now I can leave you guys alone when I’m off on my trips, knowing you’ll be okay.”

Brian turned to him and asked, “You’re not leaving, are you?”

“No, not leave as in leave forever ,” he explained, “but I’m on a professional basketball team now, so some days I have to go away for training camps and road games.”

“Wow.” Brian was totally in awe.

At that, there would be no end to Brian’s adulation for Jason, or Cage’s for his brother. Jason understood because he had survived so much himself, and he couldn’t be happier.

Risa picked up Cage’s hand resting on the gear shift, and she squeezed his fingers and as they drove along. “That was a hell of a leap,” she stated, smiling broadly. “At least your vehicle is getting fixed, finally, and I love they are going to leave it parked at ‘grandpa’s’ place until we get back for it.

“It was, wasn’t it?” he said quite comfortably. “This way we can keep an eye on his progress over the next week or two as well.”

“I don’t think your boss was expecting all this.”

Cage thought about it and laughed. “No, I’m pretty sure my boss did not expect all of this, but you’ve got to understand her,… him,… them,” he began. “Badger and Kat? They roll with all these punches, and, if this is what I want to do, they’ll be there for us.”

“Wow, you’re showing me a side of life I’ve never seen, and a certain kind of people I’ve never met before.”

“Yeah, and just think. You’re the one who walked away from it years ago.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” she countered. “I didn’t really walk as much as I didn’t understand what was going on.” Just then she got a call from Graham. “Oh my gosh,” she greeted him. “I totally forgot, but I’ll have to break our dinner date for next week.”

“Why?” Graham asked in disappointment. By the time she got through explaining everything, he was over the moon in happiness for her. “Don’t worry. I get down that way all the time, so maybe we could make it another day, if you are still up for it?”

Picking up a note of hesitation in his voice, she smiled as she replied, wanting to reassure him. “Absolutely. I definitely want to spend more time together and do a much better job of keeping in touch. Plus, I’ve got some people I want you to meet. Sorry, my news took over the call. Was there a specific reason you phoned me?”

“Yes,” he replied, with a chuckle. “I wanted to tell you that, after much discussion with Eleanor, via her lawyers of course, she has agreed that the money I had given her for your education and the down payment for a house is all being transferred to you as intended. The lawyers are handling it, so I’m confident you should see that show up in your bank account pretty quickly.”

“What?” Risa was ecstatic, yet in shock. Her mother was not one for compromises, and definitely not prone to doing the right thing where money was concerned.

Graham explained, “At the end of the day I don’t think your mother wanted to trust her luck in court. Not when we had contracts in place for these kinds of things,” he shared. “I had no idea that she would be the type of person to keep it from you, and I’m very sorry you had to deal with that. But now, with the chance that it could all come out in court and potentially damage her credibility in the midst of settling our other business, she is backing down.”

“Wow,” Risa muttered, stunned, as she stared over at Cage.

“So, as long as you’re okay with it, I would really like to stay in touch. It would be something for me to look forward to.”

“Oh my goodness, of course. I’m sorry we lost touch in the first place. Mother always pointed out that I needed her because nobody else wanted anything to do with me. That was one of the hardest things for me, and I was just foolish enough to believe her.”

“Now you know better,” Graham stated. “I’ll give you a week or two to get settled, and then I’ll hop on down, and we’ll go out for lunch.”

When he ended the call, she stared at her phone, feeling the tears in the back of her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she got her emotions under control and told Cage all about it.

“That’s really great. Any idea how much it was?”

“No, I have no idea, but the amount doesn’t even matter. It’s the whole idea of it. I’m just shocked.”

“The reality is, Graham had Eleanor over a barrel. So you should probably give your mother a wide berth for a while.”

“I planned to give her a wide berth for a long time anyway,” Risa replied. “Finding out what she did was hard enough. Then remembering how I struggled financially while going through school, yet she did nothing, really stings. She even went out of her way to misrepresent her own situation, which makes me want to have nothing to do with her. I definitely need to give it some time,” she muttered. “I’m just now realizing how much Celine was like my mother.”

He nodded. “Yep, you don’t need toxic people who lie to you in your life. Now keeping in touch with Graham, that sounds good, and it seems your stepdad really wants to stay in touch.”

“Yes, he said as much, and I believe him,” she said. “I really liked him, and it broke my heart when they split up. And, of course, a break up between parents is really tough on the kids, no matter their age, even in the best of cases, and this situation was anything but. It’s a tough world to be a kid out there.”

“It is,” Brian agreed from the back seat. “It really is.”

All the adults laughed at that, and Risa smiled at Cage. “It’s a pretty decent day all around.”

“Good, keep that in mind when we finally get to the chaos at home.”

It wasn’t a terribly long drive, and a couple of hours later they pulled up to the same old farmhouse she remembered. She sighed happily. “I forgot how beautiful it is here.”

Brian poked his head through the side window and asked, “This place is yours?”

“Yeah, and now it’s yours too. This was the home where Jason and I grew up. Our parents left it to us.”

“Oh, wow, this is cool.”

That was just another thing for Cage to remember, as he needed to check with the lawyers to confirm this boy got his inheritance too, but that was an issue for tomorrow.

Right now, it was a case of getting everybody settled.

Hours later, after Brian and Jason had played on the basketball court until the sun went down, everybody then ate dinner and afterward disappeared to bed for the night. Scotty was incredibly protective, but seemed to absolutely love being with everybody here.

Despite his injury, Scotty found the basketball court fun and the basketball itself very confusing, trying to steal it from them constantly, but it was too big for his jaw. At the end of the day, they had to pull him out of the game and give him some balls of his own—tennis balls—which he thought were pretty perfect. Now the dog was following them all around, making sure that everybody was exactly where they needed to be.

Cage smiled as he patted Scotty. “It’s okay, boy. This is home for you now too.”

Scotty gazed up at him, almost a look of acknowledgment, a look suggesting that he had this now. Then he settled in a huge dog bed in the middle of the hallway, where he could watch everybody come and go. With the deepest heaviest sigh, he relaxed, probably for the first time in a very long time.

Risa came up beside Cage, wrapped her arms around him, and whispered, “That’s an awful lot of good done today.”

“It was, wasn’t it?” he said. “What do you think about Killian?”

“I think he seemed really happy to join us soon, but we can’t let it go too long, or he’ll get to feeling as if he’s not welcome. I want to bring some of my furniture down here, and I thought maybe he and I could share a moving truck and help him make it happen.”

“Depends on how much stuff you’ve got,” Cage noted, “but we can work out those details.” He pointed through the living room window to a decent trailer with a big deck off it across the yard. “That’s the trailer I’m talking about.”

She smiled and nodded. “That’s perfect, and Brian will love having Killian close by. Scotty too.”

“Yep, and I think all three of them will be pretty happy here.” He looked down at her and kissed her gently. “What about you? Are you okay with all this?”

“I am okay. It’s a lot of change. It’s a lot of new and different. It feels as if everything’s been tossed up and dropped into a completely chaotic mess,” she shared, “but that’s okay too. It feels pretty darn fine. But one thing we have to settle up.”

“What’s that?” he asked.

“Where am I sleeping?”

“Ah, I do have a bedroom upstairs for you.”

“Oh, that’s nice.” She wrinkled up her nose. “I hope that it’s yours.” He looked down at her and frowned. She ran her fingers across his lips and asked, “Now what’s the frown for?”

“I didn’t want to push it too fast.”

“Push away,” she said, laughing. “Since I found you again, I haven’t let go one bit. So, if anybody’s pushing, it’s me. Honest to God, I’m not even really pushing. I’m just letting you know that I’m not letting go.” He hesitated and she nodded. “I know you think it’s too much, too fast, too something”—she rolled her eyes—“and you always were a bit of a worry wart. You were always asking me if I was okay with the speed of things. Apparently you’ve forgotten that I was the one who usually pushed you a little faster each time.”

He chuckled as he pulled her into his arms and held her close. “I haven’t forgotten. I was trying to put all that out of my mind and give you time.”

“Silly you,” she muttered, with a headshake.

“Not silly,” he argued. “I was thinking of you.”

“Yeah, I know you were,” she said, with a smile. “Always considerate, always there for us, but, in this instance, I have no intention of being a fool any longer. I don’t know what I was thinking when I allowed my mother to trick me into believing everything she said, but there it is. Only as I left home and finally sorted out who I am on my own did anything start to make sense.”

“I’m glad it’s all making sense,” he replied, with a smile, “because that’s important.”

“It is,” she murmured. “One of the things that I’m very clear on is the fact that I was a fool to not follow up. I was a fool to have believed her and just to assume I wasn’t wanted.… I was a fool to let you go—and Graham, for that matter, but I am not too proud to admit it. I did finally figure it out, and, honest to God, I couldn’t be happier.” He looked at her for a long moment, and she nodded. “And, before you ask, I am sure.”

He smiled, leaned down, and kissed her intently, until she sagged against him. “In that case, I really do think we need to go upstairs.”

“Oh, I agree,” she teased and pecked him playfully.

When they got up to his room, she walked in and stopped, then started to laugh. “You already put my things in here?”

“Well, I was kind of pushing it and wasn’t sure I should be rushing you, but it’s where I thought you belonged. We’ve already had enough time apart.”

“No kidding,” she replied, with a smile. “We’ve had way-too-much time apart.” She wrapped her arms around him and added, “And this is just perfect.”

“Good,” he murmured, “I was hoping it would be.” He picked her up, carried her over to the bed, and whispered, “You’re right. We’ve lost way -too-much time.”

He went to give her another kiss, but she shook her head. “I need a shower.”

“Oh, right.”

She stepped back, walked to the bathroom, then turned to look at him. “Of course you could always join me.” He looked down at his leg, and she nodded. “You need to get out of that thing, don’t you?”

“I do, so you go have a shower, and I’ll join you. How’s that?” He watched as she walked away, realizing this would be the first time she’d seen his prosthetic and his stump. It wasn’t so much that he was bothered, yet he didn’t want her to be bothered, and that was a whole different thing.

As he sat down on the side of the bed, he thought about it and realized that a chair was not very far away. If he put it outside the bathroom, that would make it a whole lot easier for him.

He quickly moved the chair, then sat down and stripped off his clothes as much as he could, slowly took off the prosthetic, groaning with relief as his muscles had a chance to relax and to shift.

He absolutely loved the freedom the prosthetic gave him, but also something was so limiting about it that he loved taking it off too. With that off, he quickly rolled down the sock, wincing at the redness and swelling underneath. He really needed to go back on crutches for a day or two, but he was also pretty damn stubborn about that. He stood, grabbed the one crutch he had placed to the side, and, using that, he made his way to the bathroom with ease.

As he stepped into the bathroom, she muttered, “I wondered if you would come.”

“Absolutely,” he declared, as he propped the crutch against the side of the wall, then, using the handrails, hopped into the shower, and stood behind her. “Do you want me to do your hair?”

“Absolutely. I would love it if you would do my hair.”

He gave her scalp a really good scrub, loving the way she leaned back in complete trust, but then why wouldn’t she? By the time he was done with her hair, he was having a hard time keeping his own body in control because all he wanted to do was ravage her against the shower wall. He wasn’t even sure how well that would work and didn’t want to put it to the test. Not right now.

She grabbed the shampoo next and asked, “Do you want me to wash your hair?”

“No, I’m fine,” he said. “I’ll just shower and then shut this off and come out.”

She quickly stepped out, grabbed a nearby towel, and moved into the bedroom, as he finished showering. He joined her a few minutes later, a towel wrapped around his lower body, as he smiled at her.

“I figured you would already be in bed.”

“Well, I’m mostly in bed. I’m just sitting here, thinking about the day and all the craziness.”

“Of course. I have to admit this entire thing worked out a whole lot better than I thought it would.”

“Absolutely,” she murmured, “now we just have to make a success out of it.”

He sat down beside her. “As far as I’m concerned, this has been a success right from the beginning.”

She smiled and nodded. “I can’t believe how much not only my life has changed but also everyone’s lives. You’ve brought in so much change so quickly.”

He frowned and asked, “Is it too quick?”

“No,” she said, placing a finger against his lips. “Not too quick. In many ways it was not quick enough.” He raised an eyebrow, and she just smiled. “I mean, I’m here. We’ve got Brian and Scotty, and Killian is coming,” she shared, with a bewildered expression. “It is a full-on family for you.”

“Not just for me,” he corrected, “but for all of us.”

“I think that’s one of the nicest things. It really does feel as if I’m being included. That wasn’t something I ever expected to need or to want, and yet I can’t wait for this life. I’m so happy to know that I’m a part of it and a part of everything you have built.” She smiled over at him and kissed him gently. “I’m so proud of you.”

He pulled her tightly into his arms and muttered, “I’m proud of you.”

“I hardly did anything,” she noted. “I mean, compared to you, I’ve done nothing.”

“And there is no comparison to be made,” he declared. “This isn’t a contest. This is all about trying to do the best we can, and that is all we can expect of anybody.”

“I love that about you,” she whispered. “You always have such an accepting philosophical attitude. Even when I feel shitty about things I’ve done, you’ve always been right there, reminding me that I did the best I could in that moment.”

“You do… always,” he confirmed, with a smile. Then he stood, dropped the towel, and pulled back the bedding, helping her to stand in the meantime. “I don’t know about you, but I’m getting tired, and I suspect tomorrow could be just as long as today. A different kind of long but crazy. Hopefully not the same craziness as before though.”

“I agree,” she murmured, as she curled up on the bed. As he went to lie down, she opened her arms, and he shifted so that he was right there with her.

“We can wait until the morning,” he suggested, nuzzling her neck.

“We could, but I suspect that morning will just be a repeat of tonight, and hopefully so many other nights in front of us.”

“I always loved that about you,” Cage whispered. “You were always right there for everybody.”

“Of course,” she murmured. “I’ve got to tell you that being in your arms is like having every day renewed, the best ever, and nothing was quite so nice as being in your arms.”

And, with that, he rolled ever so slightly and pulled her into his arms, then laid a kiss on her that held all the pent-up emotional needs he had been holding back, ever since he’d first seen her. When he finally raised his head, she was shuddering in his arms, her eyes glazed over.

“Dear God,” she whispered, “I forgot what I’d been missing all these years.”

“In that case, I’ll spend all of tonight reminding you.”

“And you are most welcome to do so,” she shared, “but, holy crap, you need to kiss me again.” She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him down, so that he was half on her, and his lips were plastered tightly against hers. When he shifted and groaned, she added, “You’ll need to do more than this.”

He laughed. “And here I thought I would just let you set the pace.”

“Oh, you’ll let me set the pace all right,” she confirmed, “but it’s definitely a two-person activity.”

And, with that, he lowered his head to explore the body that he loved so desperately, the body that he knew so long ago.

He took a nipple gently into his mouth, suckling deep, feeling her belly curl with the pull, and hearing her whispered groans in his ears. When he moved to the other breast, she was already shaking and shuddering, something he had forgotten. How could he have forgotten that she was so responsive, so joyous in his arms, so completely content to be herself? She had always been that way. It was such a gift, and she never really understood just how it made her so special.

She twisted in his arms, crying out and feeling her body explode, time and time again with his ministrations, until she was exhausted and yet still wanting so much more. She pulled him higher and whispered, “I need you inside me now.”

He chuckled. “I forgot how demanding you could be.”

“Well, if you think this is demanding, just wait if you don’t follow through,” she muttered, as she twisted, trying to slide lower beneath him.

When he least expected it, she was suddenly there, her hands wrapped around his erection, and his whole body started to tremble as she moved beneath him. Finally he couldn’t handle her wiggling any longer, and he shifted, opening her thighs and plunging deep.

She cried out, twisting in his arms at the sudden possession, and then in a guttural voice whispered, “Don’t stop.”

Hearing that, he started to move, his body exploding at the joyous reunion with hers, a remembrance of a special moment where they could go back to being who they had always been, lovers of the best kind, both best friends and lovers. When she came apart in his arms again, she held him close, as he finally found his own satisfaction, soon collapsing beside her in her arms.

She whispered, “Now sleep.”

“I can do that,” he agreed, his voice soft, as he faded. What a lovely way to go into dreamland, and he held her close, kissed her once, and was out.

Risa drifted off to sleep beside Cage, absolutely ecstatic at the changes in her life, feeling more fulfilled and happier than she had in eight long years. Now, all she had to do was reap the benefits and enjoy their lives together once more.

With that happy thought, she fell into a deep and silent sleep, absolutely overwhelmed at the beautiful future awaiting her.