Chapter Fourteen #2
Her eyes flew open. What was she doing? Practical was the mantra.
Survival was everything. Rinsing off the soap, she turned off the water and stepped out.
In record time, she was dried off and dressed.
Being clean and having clothes she hadn’t worn for days boosted her confidence.
Rather than put on her boots, she opted for the black canvas sneakers.
She braided her hair, securing it with one of the elastic hair ties from a package she’d discovered at the bottom of the bag of goodies.
After storing the rest of her new belongings back in the bag, she set it on the chair in the bedroom. The dirty clothes went into the hamper. As ready as she’d ever be, she left the room to face Eli and his brothers.
****
Eli did his best to appear relaxed, but his gaze kept straying to the stairs.
“Watching them won’t make her appear any faster.” Noah stirred the onions and mushrooms sizzling in a large cast iron skillet.
Levi, who was filling tall glasses with sweet tea, grinned. “We all know where he’d rather be, and it’s not down here with us. I told him he should take his time, but he didn’t listen.”
“Give it a rest.” Cyrus took a stack of plates from the cupboard and handed them off to Zach, who began to set the table. Noah did most of the actual cooking, but they all pitched in with the rest—even Silas, who was currently setting cutlery at each place around the table.
“How much longer until we eat?” Josiah came down the hallway from the office where he’d disappeared earlier.
Even with everything else happening, bills had to be paid, business emails answered, and phone calls returned, especially since they had to cancel a couple of contracts.
As their money man, he oversaw daily business operations.
“Potatoes are in the warming oven, onions and mushrooms are pretty much done, and the steaks are marinated. The garlic bread is ready to pop under the broiler.” Noah pulled several large grill pans out of the cupboard. “Should I start cooking the steaks?”
Eli wanted to wait, but there was no telling how long she’d be. “Go ahead. If she’s not here when the food is done, I’ll go get her.”
“Smart. We all know big brother gets short-tempered when he was hungry.” Cyrus walked behind Silas and smacked him on the back of the head. Not hard enough to hurt, but it was no love tap.
“Thank you for pointing that out. That just earned you the midnight shift on patrol.”
Eli and the others struggled not to laugh.
Silas was more like Cyrus’s son then the rest of them, as he’d been six when their daddy passed.
It wasn’t much of a punishment, since they all knew Silas was a night owl by nature.
The byplay had momentarily distracted him, but his attention was pulled back to his silent vigil.
Another few minutes passed before the door upstairs finally opened.
Eli swung around and pointed at Levi, a silent warning to hold his tongue.
His brother pointed at himself and feigned a lack of understanding before grinning.
Praying he wouldn’t say anything to upset Kinley, Eli forced himself to stay where he was rather than go to her.
Silence descended. Only the sizzling of the meat on the grill pans broke the quiet.
She was wearing the ridiculous purple leggings with the prancing white unicorns. Because of her long legs, they didn’t quite reach her ankles, but they looked damn good on her. She’d topped it with a long-sleeved black top that clung to her every curve. Black canvas sneakers covered her feet.
Silas broke the silence. “I see you like the unicorns.” He gave her a thumbs-up.
“They’re fun.” Something Eli knew had been lacking in her life. She met everyone’s gaze but his. It cut him deep, even though he was the one who’d told her he had to put all emotion aside outside the bedroom. She was only following his lead.
“Everything fits well.” Levi ran his gaze over her and gave a nod.
Her cheeks pinkened and she self-consciously ran a hand over the top. “It does. Thank you.”
Eli walked behind his brother and shot out his elbow, catching him in the ribs. “What?” Levi protested. “I didn’t say anything wrong.”
“If you’re done fooling around, we have business to attend to.” Cyrus motioned them all to sit. “You holler when you need help,” he told Noah.
“I’ve got this.” He flipped the four steaks currently grilling. “I can cook and listen.”
Eli held a chair for Kinley and relaxed when she didn’t object to sitting beside him.
For a man who claimed to need to contain his emotions, he was doing a piss poor job of it.
Letting them run wild wouldn’t keep her safe.
Precision and control were called for. He mentally pulled back, took a deep breath, and gave Cyrus a nod.
Cyrus pointed at Zach. “You’re up. Where are we with the text messages?”
Kinley leaned forward, hands fisted in her lap.
“It’s slow going. A lot of it is Holden bragging to Ridge about how things are going to change now that he’s head enforcer.” Zach glanced at Kinley. “A lot of those changes include you.”
“I gathered as much from what little I saw earlier. Anything about my daddy?”
“No.” He held up his hand when she started to object. “I told you I’d give you the truth and I am. There’s a shit ton of complaining. That boy dearly loves to whine. He lays all his problems square at your daddy’s feet, but I honestly don’t believe he’d have the guts to take him on.”
“Not by himself and not directly.”
“You think he had accomplices? I thought wolf packs had rules for settling disagreements.” The bleakness in her eyes when she looked at him almost broke Eli.
“They do, but Holden wouldn’t risk losing. He’d do whatever it took to maneuver the odds to favor him.”
Living in such an environment had to take a toll on all the members of the pack. To have to always be alert around people you should be able to count on would fester until it exploded.
The chime of a phone alert interrupted them.
Zach tugged Ridge’s phone from his pocket.
“Incoming.” He brought it up and began to read.
“It seems everything is on schedule for the pack to arrive tomorrow. Well, well, seems our boy Holden and a few of his buddies will be here a couple of hours early to rendezvous with Ridge and check out our perimeter.”
“Holden never listens to anyone. Not his parents, the elders, or the alpha.”
Eli feared if she clenched her hands any tighter, she was going to snap a bone. “I thought defying the alpha was highly discouraged. There’s a lot I don’t know about the inner workings of a pack, but that’s a sure way to get a beating or worse.”
“You’re not wrong. Duke Wright rules with an iron fist, but for some reason he gives Holden more leeway than the others.
Holden sucks up to him, agrees with everything he says, and does it while subtly manipulating him.
He might not be as strong as Duke, but he’s sly.
Daddy warned Duke, but he refused to listen.
I overheard an argument where Duke accused Daddy of being jealous.
” She gave a disparaging snort. “As if.”
Eli noted she no longer called him Uncle Duke as a way of distancing herself.
The man didn’t deserve any special acknowledgement after treating her so poorly.
“So, basically Holden is a backstabbing, devious son of a bitch.” It wasn’t new knowledge but a confirmation of what he’d already believed about the man.
Kinley was trembling. It was subtle, but visible.
He could no longer ignore her pain. When he put his arm around her, a shudder racked her from head to toe. “What is it?”
“I know in my heart Holden had something to do with my daddy’s death.
” She pressed her hand to her chest. “He might not have killed him, but I guarantee he planted the seeds in someone else’s brain.
If he could figure out a way to get rid of him while not endangering himself, Holden would take it.
He’s been whispering in Duke’s ears for years that I should mate with him, that we’d make strong sons for the pack.
He’s the main reason Daddy and Duke argued so often. ”
“Why didn’t you leave?” Cyrus was frowning, his brows furrowed.
“You think I didn’t want to? It wasn’t as easy as waking up one day, packing a bag, and leaving.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Cyrus?” The warning in Eli’s voice went unheeded.
“She’s an adult. No one could legally hold her there.” He pointed an accusing finger at Kinley. “You chose not to walk away.”
“I had nowhere to go!” Angry blotches of color marred her face.
“And with what? I worked in the pack kitchens to cover my room and board. My dear Uncle Duke”—the sarcasm was unmistakable—“never failed to remind me I was expected to contribute to the pack. But I wasn’t permitted to get a job in town. For my safety, he assured me.”
“And your father agreed?” Eli was appalled at the restrictions she’d lived under. She ignored his question, which was answer enough, and kept going.
“The truth is it kept me dependent and under Duke’s thumb.
I have a high school education, no job experience, and not many marketable skills.
” She was breathing heavily, her chest heaving.
“We had a household account to purchase what we needed. I’m not proud of it, but I cut corners and skimmed money from it.
I took sewing jobs from other pack members and started hoarding cash. ”
“Good for you.” Eli wouldn’t have her feeling guilty about doing what she had to do. “It couldn’t have been an easy life.”
“It was hell.” Her pain was palpable. “I knew it would break my daddy’s heart if I left, but Holden was getting more brazen by the month. It was only a matter of time until he stopped taking no for an answer. I got so I was afraid to leave the house on my own.”
The implication of that put Eli in a killing mood and once again made him question Lincoln Wright and his decision to subject his daughter to such conditions.
She continued, her gaze unfocused, as if peering into the past. “I wore the same clothes for years, learned how to stretch a dollar in the kitchen, ate at the pack kitchen whenever I could, and stayed up late most nights sewing. It took me years to save a couple thousand dollars.”
His brothers were silent, the desperation of her situation sinking in.
It was a childhood of abuse, pure and simple.
She’d had a roof over her head, food to eat, and her daddy hadn’t laid a hand on her, but she’d never had the bedrock of love and loyalty shared by his family.
She’d essentially been on her own since she was a child.
Maybe her daddy meant well, but he’d put his own brother ahead of his daughter, hadn’t protected her. To Eli, that was unforgivable.
“Even though I had nowhere to go and had no idea how I was going to survive, I’d planned to leave. Time just ran out.” All the color had drained from her face, leaving her pale. Her eyes were dry, her shoulders hunched in defeat. Rather than turn toward him, she turned away.
His wolf howled in pain. Something inside him cracked wide open.