Page 87

“That was dangerous.”Ry lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles.

“I didn’t think about it.I was just doing the job I was hired for.When I found out what was going on and who it traced back to, I knew what I had to do.”She took a deep breath.“I knew it was time to come home.”

“What did you do, Kitty Kat?”

“I had planned on confronting my father and Walter about my findings, but…” Her anger at her father and Walter returned as she remembered the night she confronted them.Anger, disappointment, and the fear of her own wants and needs had clashed that last night in her father’s place.“God, sometimes I wish I could forget certain things.”

The guys’ reactions were instantaneous.Their hands left hers, and they put their arms around her shoulders and on her waist, giving her as much comfort and support as they could with the way they were sitting.

“I’d gone to my father’s apartment.I had a key and let myself in.”She could still hear the odd noises coming from the back of the apartment.“At first, I thought there was no one home until I heard a cry from the back bedroom.I followed the noise and found my father and Walter.”

“Oh, hell, they were fucking each other,” Ry said.

“If only,” she whispered.“They had a prostitute, and they were whipping her.”

Both men stiffened, and Katie tilted her head back.

“Not like you two, nothing like you do.This wasn’t for her pleasure but theirs.I could tell the difference from being at the clubs.”

“What did you do?”Jed asked.

“I screamed, and I scared the shit out of everyone.I marched up to the poor woman, helped her out of the X frame they had her tied to, and took her into the bathroom.”She remembered the poor woman flinching as she cleaned her up.“She had several cuts on her back from the whip.Her name was Judy.I talked with her as I cleaned her up and bandaged her wounds.I found out she had been a student but had fallen in with the wrong crowd and was now beholden to some pimp.”

Her anger rose.Her father was a predator.He walked out on her as a child, then came back and fed her lines of what she wanted to hear.Her father was sadist.He got off on other people’s pain.No more.She was in control of her life.

“I left her in the bathroom with some of my old sweats and a T-shirt, told her to dress, and not to worry.Then I went out and faced my father and Walter.”

“That could not have been fun,” Ry said.

“Hell, those two deserved each other.My father was furious, but Walter just looked guilty.I told my father I was taking Judy with me when I left.Randall started to try to explain, but I told him I didn’t want to hear his lies.He was a monster and ahypocrite.And I quit.Then I marched back and got Judy, and we left.”

“And they just let you?”

“I think they were both in shock.My father because I actually told him off, and Walter out of guilt.”

“What did you do with Judy?”Jed asked.

“We went to my apartment.I called Dr.Pam, and she came over.After a few hours, she had a place for Judy to stay where she’d be safe.Pam started counseling Judy the next day.”

“What about you?”Ry asked.

“Me?I packed up my apartment, arranged for my stuff to be shipped here, got in my car, and came home.”She kissed Ry’s jaw and then Jed’s.“It was time.I was tired of the ity, of my father and Walter, but I also missed Gran.”The fluttering in her stomach encouraged her to continue.“And I missed both of you.I missed your voices, your strength, and your attention.”

The room went silent, and Katie peeked at the men from beneath her lashes.The surprise and love on their faces caused the last of the tension to drain out of her body.

“What you saw didn’t color your views of us and our lifestyle?”Jed asked.

“No.There was nothing safe and sane about what my father and Walter were doing.What we do is safe, sane, and consensual.”

“We wouldn’t have it any other way,” Ry said.

“The city was just a place to live, and I missed home.Felton’s Creek is home.Gran is home.You are both home.I let my father convince me what I would have with you was nothing but violence and shame.But he was the one with the violence and shame issues, not me.”She snuggled closer to the men.“He made me doubt my feelings for both of you and doubt myself.But you’ve shown me real love.I’m sorry it took me so long to figure things out.I will never doubt us or what we have together.I don’t.”

“Never,” both men whispered.

Chapter Eighteen

Saturday morning, the sun was shining and not a cloud in the sky.This weekend was the annual Felton’s Creek Celebration.Ry finished setting up the sheriff’s office booth, then went to help Jed unload the horses from the trailer.