Page 15

He released me in an instant and drew his gun as he rushed up the porch steps on silent feet. The look he shot over his shoulder along with a jerk of his head silently told me to get out of harm’s way. But my legs were frozen and my heart thundered in my chest as I peeked around him while he reached for the doorknob. He had one chance to take whoever was skulking around Gramps’ house by surprise; after that, any advantage he had would be lost, and there’d be a potential shootout in our sleepy neighborhood. Dawson took a deep breath to steady himself, then threw the door open.

“FBI!” he shouted as he stormed into the foyer. “Hands! Get those hands where I can see them!”

When gunfire didn’t immediately erupt and I could force myself to move, I ran up behind him to see who the piece of shit lurking in the kitchen was. A figure, dressed all in black, stood with their back to us, hands raised high above their head.

“Turn around!” Dawson yelled, weapon trained on the intruder’s back. “ Slowly… ” I watched, heart jammed in my throat, as they did as he’d ordered. “With your right hand, I want you to take off your hat. Now .”

The perp reached for the bill of their ballcap just as their profile came into view.

My heart dropped to my shoes.

I took a step past Dawson, headed for the kitchen because I needed to see for myself—needed to see that my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me.

“Danners!” he shouted as he caught my arm.

“There’s no need to shout at her like that, young man,” the intruder said, the hint of warning clear. Not just any warning— parental warning.

“ Mom ?” My voice was so packed with disbelief that I could hardly force the word out.

She slowly turned to face me and pulled her hat off. As soon as she laid eyes on me, she smiled. “Hi, baby…”

She rushed over to hug me, and I took a step in retreat. That smile quickly fell, along with her apparent hope of an easy reunion.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, my icy tone reinforcing exactly how I felt about her sudden return.

She cast Dawson a wary glance while I fumed so hard I thought the smoke detectors might go off any second. “We need some privacy,” she said with parental authority she’d long since forfeited. “You can wait outside.”

Instead of retreating through the front door, he stood fast and stared her down like the unfaltering bastion of confidence I’d once resented him for being. “I’ll leave if she wants me to leave.” Then he turned that steely gaze to me. “Do you want me to go?”

“You’re going to hear us from out there anyway, so I don’t see a point in it.”

“Then I’m staying.”

“This is a family matter,” my mother argued, taking a step closer like she could somehow intimidate him—or me. “Your presence isn’t required.”

“I go where she goes,” he countered, edging in front of me, “and I leave only if she wants me to. I believe she’s made her stance on the issue—all of them, really—quite clear. So if you wish to continue this conversation, it will be in my presence, or it won’t happen at all.”

“Kylene—”

“Nope. Whatever you have to say can be said in front of Agent Dawson. Now answer my question: why are you here?”

She had the absolute gall to look wounded. “Because I love you? Because I miss you?”

“I’d believe those answers from someone else, but not you, so try again.”

She took another desperate step closer but stopped when Dawson barred the way. Her irritation with his antics was instant, but she quashed it and refocused on me. “I heard about what happened and came as soon as I could.”

“Which thing that happened?”

She swallowed hard. “The incident at the pageant.”

“That was almost THREE WEEKS AGO!” I shouted at her. “You’re a little late on that one, and that’s not even considering the roid-raging football player who nearly beat Garrett and me to death on homecoming night, or Mr. Matthew almost carving me up and burying me out in the woods. Glad it only took a mob hitman trying to throw me off a building to get you to care. I’ll make a note of that for next time.” I held my hand out like a notepad and scribbled on it with an imaginary pen. “‘Nearly fall thirteen stories to your death at the hands of a mafioso to get Mom to come home.’ Done.”

“Listen,” she said, that stern tone I recognized in a instant cutting through the tension in the foyer, “I understand you’re upset—”

“ Upset ? Yeah, no. We are way past upset, Mom. This is full-on rage barely bottled up, and do not act like you didn’t expect this. You should know better than that.”

“There’s so much I wish I could make you understand—”

“I mean, I’m pretty sure I get the gist, Mom. Shit got hard, and you buggered off to California. The end. No further explanation needed. You look good, though—I guess Frank the engineer is keeping you busy. So busy that you can’t even, I don't know, check in on your only child .”

“Your anger is warranted, but—”

“Yeah, no shit it’s warranted!”

“Kylene Marie Danners, language!”

“I’m eighteen now, Mom, in case you forgot that, too. I’m pretty sure you don’t get to police my mouth anymore.”

“I’m well aware of how old you are,” she replied, her voice straining as she fought back her frustration. “I’m the one who gave birth to you, remember?”

“And then left me and Dad without a second thought when things got tough. Not sure you should be trying to play the parent-of-the-year card.” Her body stiffened at my harsh words, most likely because they were true—and the truth hurt. “And you forgot my birthday, too. Maybe it’s you who doesn’t remember.”

“I’m worried about you, Kylene.”

An acerbic laugh escaped me. “ Really ? Just now? Glad to see it only took a few near-death experiences and my life completely falling apart to concern you. You must be so proud of yourself.”

“I just really need to talk to you. Please .”

“I don’t see what there is to talk about,” I countered. “You were worried. You came to check on me. I’m alive and well, so now you can go back to your life out west with a clear conscience.” I walked over to the door and swung it open for her. “Tell Frank the homewrecker I said hi.”

Tears welled in the corners of her eyes, and a small pang of guilt twisted in my gut.

She sniffled once, smoothed her black jacket, then grabbed her tote from beneath the table. “I’m going to stay with Meg tonight. We can try this again tomorrow,” she said as she crossed the room, flashing a death stare at Dawson as she passed. “Maybe then you’ll be a bit more ready to have this conversation.”

“I highly doubt it,” I replied as she stopped in the doorway next to me, “but you should totally ask Meg about the conversation she and I had the other night while you’re there.”

She looked me over, her hesitation as plain as the pain in the depths of her eyes. But what in the hell did she have to be tortured over? Her horrible decisions? Too bad. She had been the adult at the time. She was the parent. She was the one who should have taken the shit sandwich we’d been handed and made it palatable.

Instead, she’d run. And as far as I was concerned, I didn’t owe her anything.

“I know you won’t believe me when I say this, but I love you, Kylene. More than anything in this world. If I could have changed how the situation played out, I would have—but I couldn’t. I need you to understand that.”

“And I’m pretty sure I never will.”

She opened her mouth to respond, then snapped it closed with an exhale. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“No, you won’t.”

Without further pomp and circumstance, she walked to a car she’d apparently rented, climbed in, and disappeared once again, leaving me with a tornado of feelings I’d locked away months ago swirling in my chest.

“Well, that was fun,” I said with enough force to keep my voice from cracking before slamming the door. “I’m sorry you had to witness that.”

“Danners—”

“Please don’t.” I threw my hands up to ward off whatever he was about to say. “I know I went at her hard and wasn’t exactly mature about any of it, but I just…” My words trailed off as that tornado spun out of control. Tears ran down my cheeks as the pain of seeing her and needing her and hating myself for it overwhelmed me. “I’ve been able to ignore all this because she was gone, but seeing her hurts so much, and I don’t know what to do…”

And I didn’t.

But Dawson did.

In two long strides, he closed the distance between us, wrapped his arms around me, and held me together while I fell apart.

“You can’t help how you feel,” he whispered against the top of my head. “It’s hard when the people we love most disappoint us—let us down when we need them more than anything. There’s no right or wrong way to handle those feelings, and I’m sure as hell not judging you for how you did.”

“ Really ?” I said, sniffling hard as I tried to compose myself. “Because I was mentally preparing for a Dawson lecture the second she left.”

“No lecture,” he replied with a soft laugh, “but maybe just an observation. There’s something she isn’t telling you; I could see it in her eyes. And maybe that something might change how you view her in all this. Might make her less of a villain. If it were me, I would want to know what it is, but only once I’m really ready to hear it.”

I loosened my grip on his waist and slowly pulled away. “You think she’s not telling me something?”

He nodded once, never breaking his intense gaze. “I do.”

“But about what? Why she left? Why she’s staying out west? Maybe what happened between her and my dad during the trial?”

“I have no clue. It could be any of those things, or none of them. I just know what I saw.”

I contemplated his assessment for a moment, then tried to wrap my head around the potential implications. “Okay,” I said, steadying myself a little, “I’ll hear her out, then. But not today. Today I get to be a bitch about it.”

“Look at you being quasi-reasonable for once,” he said, baiting me with his patronizing tone. “It’s almost like you’re being an adult about this.”

“Well, I am eighteen now, so…”

“A point you made abundantly clear a few minutes ago.”

I grimaced. “That was pretty rugged, wasn’t it?”

“Rugged is subjective. I was actually impressed with your ability to verbally eviscerate. Maybe you should look into law school at Ohio State. You’d be a menace in the courtroom.”

“I’d be found in contempt five minutes after my opening argument.”

“Fair point.”

“Got any use for sharp-tongued blondes in the FBI, by chance?”

“We only consult with those.”

“Smart. We’re a total liability.”

“No one is more aware of that than I am, Danners. Believe me. I’ve had a couple near-death experiences of my own because of it.”

“But I keep things interesting,” I said, dragging my sleeve across my face to erase any leftover signs of my emotional breakdown. “You can’t deny that.”

“Never tried to.”

“Because you’d never lie to me, right? Is that the angle you’re going with?”

“If that’s how you want to see it.” The weight in his hazel stare nearly made my heart stop cold while the wall clock in the kitchen ticked away. “You feeling a bit better now?”

I forced a smile as I nodded. “Yeah. As good as possible, given the circumstances.”

“Good. Then maybe you should get some homework done before not graduating on time adds itself back to the top of the list of things to worry about.” He shot me a sly smile as he stepped just out of range.

Smart guy .