Chapter 39
Going to sleep with all five of us crammed into Maisie’s bed was chaotic, but perfect.
Apparently, she had emotionally loosened up a lot between Colt and I, and practically dragged all of us into her little nest. She’d fallen asleep sandwiched between Bryan and I, Carter against Bryan’s back, and Colt cuddling on Carter.
I slept like a rock with her purring away, triggering a cascade of everyone else purring softly, too.
Waking up that same way to Nora singing to herself on the baby monitor was a level of domestic bliss I’d never experienced before. Loath as I was to move, I slipped free from the cuddle pile and went to check on Nora. She reached for me as soon as she saw me, my heart instantly melting.
“Good morning, sweet girl. Want to come for a cuddle?” I scooped her into my arms, checking to see if Paisley and Cody were awake, too. They both peeked with sleepy eyes at me and crawled out of bed to follow me to Maisie’s room. “Special delivery.”
Maisie lifted her head, a beautiful smile stretching over her face. “Come here, babies.”
They piled into the spot I’d vacated, competing for who could snuggle closer to their mom.
Nora and I lay down next to them. Soon enough we’d have to get up and greet the day, but I couldn’t resist indulging in this moment of sweetness.
Once Paisley had her fill of Maisie she climbed over her and Bryan, waking the other with a knee to the spleen.
Paisley flopped face first into the minuscule gap between Carter and Bryan, wiggling her way into Carter’s arms.
“Morning, Daddy.”
That got everyone’s attention. The whole pack swiveled their heads to look at the little girl.
Carter’s surge of weepy affection went off like a crack of thunder in the bond. “Good morning, Princess Paisley.”
Cody vibrated with tension but Bryan was already pulling him into a cuddle, whispering softly to him.
“Paisley, honey,” Maisie began tentatively. “Why are you calling Carter Daddy?”
“That’s how Mimi from kindergarten got her new daddy.”
“How does that work?” Carter asked.
“She wanted her really nice neighbor to be her new daddy and after she called him that, he fell in love with her mama.”
Carter wrapped her in a squeezing hug. “I’m definitely already in love with your mama.”
“So, you are my new daddy?”
Carter and Maisie stared at each other, no one in the room daring to breathe.
“You don’t get to pick,” Cody snapped. “We should get to vote on who our new daddy is.”
Colt held up his hand, drawing the kids’ attention. “Just a thought, but you guys are allowed to have more than one.”
Paisley turned an accusatory eye toward Maisie. “Why did we have one mean one when we could’ve had a whole bunch of nice ones?”
“That’s because he was picked for Mama,” Maisie explained. “I didn’t get to choose him.”
Paisley scrunched up her face at that. “I like these ones better.”
Maisie smoothed a hand over her daughter’s hair. “Me, too.”
Cody looked deeply skeptical. “So, what? You’re all gonna be our dads?”
“Would that be okay?” I asked.
He hesitated for only a second, tucking deeper into his cuddle with Bryan. “Yeah, that would be okay.”
This heart-melting family time lasted until the kids started to ask for breakfast. I passed Nora over to Colt and got ready for my trip into town.
It would’ve been nice to be able to take Maisie and the kids with me for a change of scenery, but that was still too high of a risk.
It would be my first time going into town since Maisie had arrived, and it felt a little weird that I wouldn’t need to look for her while I was there.
“Want some company?” Carter offered, slipping easily into my arms.
“I’d love some. Get a list of requests from the kids and I’ll double check our grocery list.”
“On it.”
Foxtrot followed me around while I worked, able to pick out the patterns that meant a car ride was imminent.
“Foxy, you want to come to town?” I wasn’t sure if she would stick close to Nora, or if she would still want to join me, but she perked right up at my question, running a circle around my legs. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
Maisie slid up to my side, tugging me down for a kiss. “Drive safe.”
“Always. Do you have any requests for yourself?”
“You’ve all given me plenty already. I’m perfectly fine.”
I didn’t push her, but I was definitely going to keep an eye out for something while I was in town.
Between Carter and I, we ended up with a hefty list.
“I wish I could go with you to help,” Maisie said, hovering at the door.
“I wish you could, too. Hopefully someday soon.”
Everyone was cute as hell as we went out to the truck, waving at us from the living room window.
Foxtrot perched in the front seat on Carter’s lap, keeping watch while we drove.
The drive wasn’t particularly long, at least for this part of the world.
If it was under an hour, I considered that short.
“We’re keeping them, right?” Carter asked as the truck rolled onto the highway.
“Of course we are.”
He let out a sigh of relief. “Okay, good. I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page.”
“We are,” I assured him. “I love Maisie, and the kids, too.”
“And she wants to stay? I’m not imagining it?”
“It’s not perfect, but she’s happy here. Unfortunately we have no control over some things, but I think we’ve done a pretty good job with the things we have influence over.”
Carter scratched Foxy’s ears, his eyebrows pinched together. “It’s still fucked all of this happened to begin with. At least she doesn’t look like how she did in the news report. I would hate for her to not feel comfortable going into town forever because people might recognize her.”
“Another town might be okay. People have short memories. As long as she’s not with all three kids, the odds of anyone noticing her at all are pretty low.”
Carter let out a frustrated sound and Foxtrot licked his face, trying to dispel whatever had upset him. “Then I feel like we’re as bad as that fucking compound, never letting her leave with all of them.”
“It’s not forever,” I reminded him. “It’s only until the Deckers are dealt with.”
“And when’s that going to be? Haven’t they been working on a case against them for years?”
“You know I’m not one to say we should trust the cops, but there’s not really an alternative with situations like this. Either they’ll be useful or they won’t, but nothing we say or do is going to change that part.”
He took a moment before responding, lowering the passenger window a crack so Foxy could shove her nose up to it and investigate the outside air. “When this is all over, we need to celebrate.”
“Does that mean you have a specific idea in mind?”
“More like a thousand of them. If she wanted to, I would send her to college. She never got the chance to go. We could take her to New York. Make a giant family trip out of it with our whole pack, my parents, Riley and her pack. We have a lot of roots there and that’s where she would have gone if she’d been able to get away.
We could take her to Paris, sign her and Colt up for art classes.
She always talked about going to the Louvre when we were young.
I want to open bank accounts and college funds for the kids.
I want to take them on summer vacations and skiing for Christmas. ”
I hadn’t realized how much thought he had given it. I had been focusing on the days and weeks ahead of us, but Carter was planning a whole future.
“We’ll get to do all of those things. Maybe not immediately, but—”
“That’s the problem, though. The only reason everything is on pause is because of Paul. I don’t hate a lot of people, but I might throw a party if he stepped in front of a bus.”
“I think that might be the most violent thing I’ve ever heard you say.”
His cheeks flushed. “Sorry, I—”
“No, I agree with you. After everything he’s done, getting run over is too easy of a death.”
“I want to start our lives together. It’s not fair that the kids can’t go to school, or do extracurriculars. What if they get sick? We can’t even take them to the doctor. They’d probably get flagged in the system.”
“We have to take this one day at a time. I know it’s not ideal, but that’s what we have to do. We can figure it out. I have a cousin who’s a doctor, and your brother’s packmate has a sister who works as a doctor on the rez, doesn’t he?”
“Yeah, Dakota’s sister.”
“See? The kids won’t suffer, we just have to get a little creative to work around the restrictions.”
“I know.” Carter reached out, taking my hand. “I just wish we didn’t have to.”
I kissed his knuckles and laced our fingers together.
He stared out the window for most of the rest of the drive, all of his righteous fury tiring him out. I didn’t like working around the restrictions either, but it had to be done.
Once we got to town, we took our time with the list of tasks.
We ordered some supplementary food for the bison in case winter struck hard.
They most likely wouldn’t need much support, but it was better to have on hand just in case.
After that we did a grocery run, picking out all the treats the kids requested and stocking up on Maisie’s favorite tea before swinging by the bakery to pick up an iced lemon loaf for her.
The groceries would be fine with the weather turning the truck into a giant cooler. We stuck the frozen bits in the truck bed, and anything for the fridge in the backseat.
Our final stop was the tractor supply store. We leashed Foxy up outside, where she sat patiently waiting for our return. The back of my neck prickled. I looked around, trying to discern the source, but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.
Inside, when we had gotten all of the necessities, we detoured over to the children’s section. They had a display of child-sized cowboy hats in every color.
“These are so cute.” Carter picked up a pink one with fluffy feather bits and a little crown at the front. “Should we get some?”
“I don’t see why not.” I picked out a baby-sized pink one with white and yellow daisies on it for Nora, and Carter chose a red one with a braided blue band for Cody.
“Will they still fit in the spring?” Carter asked.
“I didn’t think to measure anyone’s head before we came,” I said with a laugh. “If they don’t fit, I guess we get new ones.”
“You’re so right.”
The prickly sensation hit me again when we got up to the cashier, like a predator was watching me.
I turned to see a man staring at us through the window.
He looked about mid-thirties, maybe early forties, an exhausted and bitter look in his eyes.
His dark hair was shaggy, his clothing not exactly unkempt, but like someone had chosen it in the dark with none of the shades quite matching.
The man’s gaze strayed from us down to where Foxy was leashed up.
She was on high alert, laser focused on him, her body utterly frozen.
After Carter paid, he turned to see what I was looking at. He stiffened instantly, his fingers digging into my arm.
I turned back to him. “What is it?”
“That’s him.”
“Him who?”
“Paul.”
Hot fury slid through me. I had never been a violent person, but I would make an exception in this case.
Carter continued, “The last picture I saw of him when I looked him up was a few years old, but I’d bet our house that’s him.”
“Let’s get out of here.” We collected our bags, Carter taking a couple extra so my hands were free to get Foxy. I didn’t want Paul anywhere near our dog, as if the poison in his soul would somehow leach into her.
Paul stepped back when we exited the store, hovering awkwardly, still looking between us and our dog.
Once I had her leash in hand, we booked it back to the truck, but only after we had swerved down a separate street.
It didn’t look like he was following us, nor should he have any reason to.
We waited inside the truck for several minutes, but he never reappeared.
“That was fucking weird,” Carter breathed when we finally eased out of our parking spot. “Why was he hanging out around Foxy?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.” I reached over and gave her a head pat. “You okay, sweet girl?”
She swiveled her head, licking my hand.
“Does Paul know what you look like from when you went to school with Maisie?”
“I don’t think so. I never saw him face to face. He graduated long before we started high school. The only reason I recognized him was because I looked up all the Deckers after Maisie showed up. His face is on their website for the goat farm.”
“All right. Good. Keep an eye behind us.”
We were vigilant the whole drive home, but there was no sign of anything out of the ordinary. Foxy even fell asleep on Carter’s lap. Maybe it was just a strange fluke, a crossing of paths and nothing more.
Whatever it was, it was a reminder that the beast stalking Maisie was unfortunately alive and well.