Stone (Griffin Brothers #6)

Chapter 4

Her cuts were superficial. By the time she was in a better frame of mind, she was nearly healed up. A person could get used to this if it was something that everyone could have. Sage looked over at Stone and asked him if he was ready to take her home.

“I’m hoping that we’re both home.” She asked him what he meant by that. Sage didn’t want to get her hopes up about the house they were currently hiding out in. “I called Odel and asked him what he wanted for the house as it sits, including the furniture. I figured that if we wanted to change things out later, we could do that, too. But for now, it’s move-in ready.”

“What would you have done if I hated this place?” He told her. “You’d give up your dream home simply because I didn’t like this place? That’s stupid. You need to have a say in things, too, you know.”

“I do know that. However, in this, I’m very happy that we both love the house. I think that’s the way the fates or whoever is in charge of us finding out other halves took that into consideration. That we’d have the same tastes and such.” She asked him if he had been dropped on his head as a child. “Not that I’m aware of. But I have gone toe to toe with my brothers occasionally.” He laughed then, and she thought it was a sound that she could get used to. It was an uninhibited sound that brought a smile to her own face.

When his cell phone rang, he answered it quickly. After asking if it was all right that he put it on speakerphone, Odell said it was fine with him. Suddenly, she thought that she could hear a pin drop in the room, things were that quiet. After laying the phone on the coffee table that separated them, Odell started laughing.

“I had me a price in mind when you went to see the house. With and without the fixings to make it into a home. Now, I need to rethink things. I believe that I was going to charge you too much after thinking about how much trouble it was going to cost me to get the place emptied out. But why don’t you just take the furniture and we’ll try and negotiate a good price between us.” After telling him how much he wanted for the house, stating that it would be enough to settle up his mother’s estate, Sage looked at Stone. “I don’t want you to think that I’m selling it to you at a higher price because it’s you, Stone. But you and your family have done a great deal for this old man, and I couldn’t be happier either with the way you taught my children.”

“What about your family? Won’t they be upset for the price you’re giving me?” He told him that his only sister had passed a few years ago from cancer, and she was all he had left but his mom. “Odell, you know you could get twice what you’re telling me if you were to put it on the market.”

“I do know that, but now I don’t have to. I’m getting a fair price on the place, and I don’t have to do much more than sign my name in a few places and have it taken off my shoulders. I like that more than you can know.” Stone said that he’d pay the closing costs. “All right. I forgot about that. You do that, and we’ll have us a good relationship if you keep me in mind when you need some food in that place.”

“Deal.” They were going to meet in the morning at the bank. The two of them decided that they couldn’t have done any better than the deal that they had, and Sage was excited to have the place. She was afraid if she was honest. Just meeting Stone, there was plenty that she didn’t know, but it felt right. Like it was in the fates for her not just to meet Stone but to buy this house with him as well.

“I don’t have any money.” She blurted that out, and he told her that was all right. “No, it’s…you know what? I want you to stop saying that. You use it entirely too much. But I don’t have a pot to…the only clothing that I have besides from the few things that I took to the Danielsons—holy shit, I’m supposed to take Hailey back to them when that’s all settled.”

“We’ll get it worked out.” She wanted to tell him that he smiled too much but thought that he really didn’t. She had a feeling that he didn’t get the opportunity to smile at all until now. “I have more money than we can spend in a hundred lifetimes. Buying this house will not put a dent into what I have. Even on some of the investments that my family and I have together is more than enough to see us through.”

“Not to sound too greedy, but just what sort of number are we talking about?” He told her that if she were to put sand from the beach into her hands, and each grain was a dollar, it would be less than what he had. “You’re kidding me.”

“No. I wouldn’t kid you about something as important as money. Also, while we’re talking about that, you should know that I can’t lie to you either. Nor will I ever cheat on you. You are my one and only true love.”

Instead of asking him what that meant, she asked about his family. Sage knew they were a huge part of his life and was again jealous about the relationship he had with them.

The family decided that the dinner tonight was going to be a celebration. She was nervous and a little afraid of meeting them all at one time. Then there was the child, one that she had no relationship to other than coming here to bring her to the Danielson home.

After talking to the Danielsons at length about things that she’d found out about Hailey, she was to send pictures to them as soon as she met the child. Sage only hoped that the little girl didn’t hate her because she was there to take her home.

They decided too that they were going to spend the night in the new house. She didn’t know what Stone’s plans were about sleeping in the house, but she was going to put her foot down about them sharing a bed. She didn’t know him any more than she did Hailey and wasn’t jumping headfirst into a sexual relationship with a stranger. No matter how much she liked him. Then there was the money situation.

Could he really have that much in the way of money? It was more than she could have thought, a number for what he’d told her. He did say that he couldn’t lie to her, but that could have been a—

“You’re thinking way too hard. Just ask me what it is that’s bothering you, and I’ll answer it. I promise you when I tell you that I’d never lie to you. About anything.” She told him that was hard to believe. Everyone lied. “I won’t to you. Not ever. Ask me?”

“What do you want from me?” He asked her what she meant. “What is it…am I going to be one of those women that you get tired of as you never get older? Are you going to toss me aside?” He shook his head, and before she could tell him that he needed to use his words, he spoke to her.

“You’re immortal as well. Nothing can kill you. You’ll not die of old age simply because I’m your mate. You’ll never gain weight, but only if you were to be pregnant with our child. If you want any.” She asked him what that meant, thinking for the first time in her life that she wanted to have this man’s child. “We’d have to have sex to begin with then—ouch. You’re very painful to be around sometimes.” His laughter took away some of the sting of what he said. “I love you, Sage. So very much.”

“You’ve only just met me.” He told her that it didn’t matter, that he did love her with all his heart. “You’re a romantic, aren’t you? I don’t know if I’ve ever had anyone want to woo me or not. I’m not good around people.”

“I’ll help you with that. I’m very good around people. Most of the time, anyway. I get frustrated with humans sometimes. Not so much kids but the adults are bad. They take advantage more than not.” She pointed out that she was a human. “No, not anymore. You have magic. A great deal, too. I shared with you when you became my mate. Rain and Storm have also shared simply because of I being your mate. Edwin as well though I have no idea how much he has given you. He’s the pack leader now, and you would have gotten something from him.”

“What can I do?” He said that he’d not know until she told him. “Okay, I’m not going to freak out again like I did yesterday, but I was in the shower and decided that I needed something less manly for myself. Suddenly, it was just there.”

“That’s good, right?” She glared at him. When he laughed, she did as well. “Look, you’re not going to die ever, and everything that I have is now yours. Everything.”

A sudden thought popped into her head, and she felt stupid for thinking of being sexy for Stone. When his cell phone rang, he pulled it out of his pocket without breaking eye contact with her. She didn’t know what was going through his mind, but she got up to go and get her jacket. They needed to get to the Griffin house soon.

“That was the school board. I have to decide if I want to go back to teaching or if I can take over the principal job. And Jorden has been arrested. He’s the former principal at the elementary school that I taught at.” She asked him if he was the one that shot at them. “Yes. Storm and Rain found him after figuring out where he was standing when he shot at us. Mostly, it was me, but it doesn’t matter. He hurt you, and for that, he’s going to pay.”

“Good. I don’t know what I can do to help the process, but hopefully, he won’t be getting out of jail anytime too soon.” He told her about a hearing that was going to determine if he was going to go to prison or not. “I guess it would be attempted murder.”

“Yes, times two. He shot at where you and I were both standing and made it so that we were both hurt.” She asked him about his wounds. “He shot me in the head. But as soon as I—breath honey. Just breathe.”

She found herself kissing her bottom, as her grannie used to say, and could only stare at her feet. He’d been shot. In the head. And he was making it sound like that was no big deal. When he told her that his family wanted to know if they were going to dinner with them, he asked her what she wanted to do.

“Dinner with your family. And just so you know, the next time that you’re shot anywhere on your body, I don’t want to know like you just told me. I know you can’t lie to me, but if you could give it to me in bits and pieces, I might well be…” She looked up at him. “It just occurred to me that I love you. How is that even possible?”

“I don’t know. But I’ve loved you since…to be honest, it feels like I’ve loved you all my life. I just needed for you to find me before I knew what true love is.” She told him he was a romantic. “I guess I am. I’ve never thought of myself as one until now. I do so deeply love you, Sage. With all my being.”

They walked over to his brother’s house. She knew that it was being catered, she’d been asked several times what sort of food did she like. Mexican had always been her favorite, and the hotter, the better. She was told that Edwin liked it hot, too. The family was wondering who could take it hotter. Also, the triplets liked it spicy, too, she’d been informed.

It was a little overwhelming at first. All the men in the family were large. Not fat but tall and well-toned. She wondered again if they lifted cars in their spare time to keep in such good shape.

“I heard that you got to see Stone’s wolf.” She said that he’d been protecting her from the gunshots. Harman asked if she’d been hurt. “You should get to used to seeing all of us around. That way, our wolves will get your scent to find you if you need us to.”

“Mostly just small cuts that healed quickly. I think that it was the glass from the windows. Or perhaps the stones that were in the turnabout. I don’t hurt at all.” He told her that was good. “I am happy that it didn’t hurt me all that much.” She looked over at Stone, who was talking to his other brother. “He told me that he was shot in the head. That scared the crap out of me. I really would hate for something to happen to him when I’ve only just fallen in love with him.”

~*~

Hailey didn’t want to be around all these people, but she knew that she was going to have to be in order to go home to her grandparents. She didn’t understand how they were her great-grandparents, but it didn’t matter right now. This woman was telling her that she was going to take her to them.

“But I don’t want to go to them. I like it here.” She said that they were looking forward to raising her. “I’m not going.”

“I’m sorry, honey, but it’s not up to you. You’re just a little girl that has been dealt a crappy hand, and now that you’re parents are gone, you have to go someplace.” She asked why she couldn’t stay here. “Because they’re not your family. Earl and Margaret Danielson are.”

She knew that it was a done deal, as her mom used to tell her. But she didn’t want to have to stay with strangers again. It was all right now that she had the other little girls around, but these people were going to take her from them, and she didn’t want that to happen.

“You keep me then. I’ll be the best little girl you’ve ever seen. I don’t want to go away again.” She started to cry and remembered what her dad used to tell her. That tears didn’t get you anywhere. No one at the other house had said that to her, and she loved having friends in the other four little girls like her. “I won’t do anything to get you into trouble. I promise. I just don’t want to move again.”

“I’m so sorry.” When she started to cry, tears again, she let the other woman, she thought her name was Sage, hold her. It was a nice feeling to be held by someone. When she asked her if she was all right, she wanted to tell her no, but she was just a kid, and her opinion didn’t matter to anyone. “You’ll see, honey. Things will work out for you. They’re going to be good for you.”

She heard her cell phone ring, but instead of answering it like her parents did all the time, she just held her. Telling her about the house that her great-grandparents had wasn’t anything like the one that her new friends were living in. They didn’t even have a pool.

After they talked for a bit more, Sage telling her that she’d love living with them, she decided that she was going to run away and never come back. It wasn’t going to be a good thing, she was just a kid, but she didn’t want to move again and be with people that she didn’t know again.

“When I was a little girl, my mom used to have her friends over all the time. They were mean to me, and I decided that I was going to run away.” She looked up at her, shocked that she knew just what she was thinking. “I didn’t get very far before the police found me. But I did learn a valuable lesson in it. I was only a child, and there were far more scary people out there than my mom and her friends. People that would take me and sell me off for unthinkable things.”

“You mean like sex?” Sage looked at her and asked her where she’d heard that. “My mom used to say it to me all the time. How she was going to sell me off to one of her friends so they could have sex with me. It’s how she punished me. Telling me that anyone would want me as I was young and pretty. You bet that I straightened up right then after telling me that. I don’t know what sex is, but it sounded dirty, and I didn’t want that to happen to me.”

“That’s a horrible thing to frighten someone with.” Hailey told her that she didn’t mess up anymore after being told that. “I would think not. My goodness, I’d never say that to a child of mine. Or any child, for that matter. That’s horrible.”

She decided not to tell her the other things that her mom used to tell her. There were a lot of things, too, that she didn’t think were right. Like the time she told her that she had to go to school or she was going to have to watch her and her husband, not her dad, have sex while she watched.

“We can’t have it with you around. I like to get loud,” her mother had told her. She’d heard them in the middle of the night once, and it scared her enough to keep her door locked. They were more than a lot noisy, and it terrified her. It sounded to her that the mister was beating her mom, and she kept telling him that she wanted more. It made her sick, too, that night when her mom screamed that she was coming. She never asked her where she was going but kept her mouth shut even the next day when she had breakfast with them.

She never called the man that mom lived with anything but mister. If he had a first name, she didn’t know what it was. He would be mean to her when she called him anything but dad, but she knew for a fact that he wasn’t her father. The man hadn’t been around all that long, and her mother told her that he wasn’t her dad, but she was hoping that he wanted the job someday. She didn’t. She hated him.

Hailey was free to go and play with the other little girls. They were so nice to her that she sometimes forgot about her mother being dead. It didn’t matter to her all that much. She’d never treated her like Mrs. Griffin, or Paige as she said to call her, treated the little girls. It shocked her that they called Mr. Griffin, his name was Jeffery, Dad when he wasn’t. He didn’t even seem to mind, either.

“Did you know that they’re going to be getting married?” She asked one of the triples, she couldn’t tell them apart just yet but thought that her name was Libby. “Maybe they’ll take you in, and you’d be our cousin. That would be awesome, don’t you think?”

“But I don’t want any parents. I didn’t like the one that I had.” Amy told her that they’d be better because they were the Griffins. “How is that supposed to make a difference? I don’t want someone selling me off for sex.”

“They’d never do that. I swear it. They’ll make sure you have everything you ever need too. Not that we ask for anything but it’s nice to get a hug or two when we need one. And parents like them is something that you’re never going to get with humans.”

“What do you mean? They’re all humans, aren’t they?” She told her that they were wolves that shifted into men. “No, I don’t believe that. They’d be really hairy all the time. And what happens if they bite me? Then I’ll be a wolf, too.”

That had merit. If she was a wolf, she could scare the grandparents and they’d not want her. It was something to think about, but she listened to Glory when she explained that it didn’t happen like that. That just a bite wouldn’t do it.”

“I don’t think I want to know what would make it happen.” She said that was fine, but when she did, they’d tell her. “How come you know so much? I mean, you’re not a wolf, too, are you? Any of you?”

“No, but we’re not human either. We have magic, too. See?” When Libby changed into another outfit, it startled her. After doing that a couple of more times, it was clear to her that she was going to have to get away from this family sooner rather than later. There was something very wrong with them all. “You try it.”

She could do it as well. It scared her at first, being able to change with just a thought but the girls were confused about it as much as she was. She wasn’t a part of their family and so she shouldn’t be able to do it. Hailey asked if she should tell Sage.

“I would. Or Uncle Stone. He might understand more. He’s been a wolf a lot longer.” She didn’t want this to be a fluke. Hailey had never had new clothing before other than the stuff that her mom would pick up at the clothing drives. The little dress she had on was one that one of her classmates had had, and she fell in love with it. “Come on, we’ll go with you to see what is going on.”

She didn’t want to interrupt the family. They were having a good time, but food had been brought in and she was suddenly starved. Almost as soon as she asked to speak to Mr. Stone, he noticed that her dress was different. That got the whole table staring at her then. She didn’t much care for that either.

“That could only mean one thing, you know that, don’t you, Stone?” He said that it could be plenty of things that he didn’t want to talk about it. She didn’t either and moved away from the big man in favor of going to see the girls again. They had beautiful rooms, and she loved hanging out with them. It wasn’t until after they ate that Sage came to talk to her again.

“I just heard from your grandparents. Your great-grandparents, I mean. They had something happen that makes it so that you can’t go and live with them just yet. Mrs. Danielson passed away in her sleep last night.” She asked her what that meant, knowing what passed away meant, but wanted to know if this was somehow different. “Margaret had a bad heart, and she was very stressed out about your mother dying, and she had a heart attack while sleeping.”

“Now, what am I going to do? Do I live with my great-grandda?” She said that she didn’t know yet as Earl was still trying to figure out what he was going to do with his life. “I’m betting that it has nothing to do with me, huh?”

“I don’t know, to be honest.” She sat there on the edge of the bed and looked around the lovely room that Amy had. “You’ll have to stay with me, I guess, until things are settled up. I don’t want you to think that this is going to affect you in any way, but with her passing on, it’s going to be doubly hard on Earl than it was before to care for you.”

“He’s old, too.” She told her that he was eighty-three. “Libby told me that when I’m able to drive that he’ll be gone, he’s so old.”

“I don’t know but they’re both in poor health as it is.” Sage pulled her into her arms. “This is a lot to take in. I only came here to get you and then go back home. Now I find that I don’t want to leave, and I think I might well have purchased my forever home with Stone.”

“I’ll be a good girl for you.” Sadly, Sage told her that it wouldn’t be up to her but to the courts. “You tell them that you think I’ll be a good girl. You don’t even have to take care of me. I’ll go and stay with my friends until they toss me out.”

“If I take responsibility for you, honey, it’ll be me taking care of you. But we’ll talk some more, all right? There is plenty of time as Earl has to go through the courts on his end as well.” She looked at her, lifting her chin up so that she could see her. “It’ll be all right, Hailey. I have this under control but I have to talk to Stone too. If and right now, that’s a big if, if he wants to take you into our home, we’ll have to go through adoption just like everyone else has.”

“I don’t think that anyone wants me.” She started crying and held onto Sage as hard as she could. “My mom didn’t want me around, nor do you guys, and I have nobody to love me like the girls do. I’m so hurt right now.” She might only be almost six years old, but she knew that the pains in her heart were there because she knew what she was talking about.