Page 9

WOLF

“Kale’s gonna be okay, Wolf. From the sounds and looks of him, he’s got cold,” Kendra, Mace’s mom, says, straightening from where she’s examining him on my couch. She lifts him against her chest. “It’s not uncommon. Did he show any signs of a cold before his fever spiked?”

“No, I’ve been keeping him inside. The only ones who’ve been close to him were those you already knew would be around him.”

Kendra nods, handing Kale to me. “Bride had the sniffles a couple of days ago, she might have unintentionally brought a cold over. You need to keep a close eye on him and make sure that his symptoms do not worsen. Give him meds for the fever.” She explains to me how and when to give pain relief meds to Kale, along with a few other things, including hooking up a humidifier in his room.

“I’ll call and check on him tomorrow,” she says, heading for the door with her husband.

Mace, who’d shown up with them, doesn’t follow behind. His eyes have been going between Jacqueline and me since he walked in the door.

I had to struggle to keep from looking at Jacqueline while focusing on my son. I needed to make sure he was good before dealing with her.

When she’d come back over here, I hadn’t expected it.

Least of all for her to tell me that the lights were out at her place.

A part of me wanted to put it down as her way of making an excuse to come back over.

But I went to her place, and I knew it wasn’t an excuse.

Someone had been in her house. They cut the power instead of just tripping it.

Jacqueline was smart enough to have gotten out when she did.

Hell, she’d been lucky not to have been attacked before getting away.

When I went to her place, I hadn’t seen anyone, but that doesn’t mean someone hadn’t been there.

I need to get back over there and figure out what exactly is going on.

I found that her power had been cut, and no one was in the house, but that’s all I’d been able to do before Kendra and her husband got to my house.

“Need me for anything, brother?” Mace asks.

Looking at him, I shake my head. “No, I’ve got it.”

I wasn’t going to do anything tonight. It was late. I need to take care of Kale. I’ll deal with Jacqueline’s place tomorrow. Tonight, her ass could just stay here.

“You sure?” he asks, glancing in Jacqueline’s direction.

“Yeah.” I nod and jerk my chin to the door. “I’ll fill you in tomorrow.”

Mace takes a moment longer before nodding. “Right.” He glances down at my son. “If anything changes. Just call.”

“I will.” When it comes to Kale, I’ll do what it takes to make sure he’s healthy.

I don’t want to be pissed about him getting sick. Bride being around him and potentially sick shouldn’t have happened. Not with him being so young. I’m sure I’ll be getting a call from Noelle tomorrow apologizing, but there’s no reason for it. It’s just the type of woman she is.

Mace leaves, closing the door behind him. I cross the short distance and lock up for the night before turning to deal with Jacqueline.

“I need to put Kale down in his crib. Take your shoes off and chill while I do that. After I get him down, we’ll talk,” I tell her and head for the hallway. I wasn’t gonna give her a chance to argue with me.

In my son’s room, I get him changed and set up in his crib. He just lay there staring up at the mobile hanging above him. I don’t know where Jade and Rosemary found it, but it was motorcycles just dangling there. I thought it was pretty cool.

While he laid in his crib, I got the humidifier hooked up.

I hadn’t had to pull it out yet, but it was something that the women bought for a precaution.

It’s one of those Vick ones that comes with the menthol pads and whatnot that is supposed to really help.

I didn’t care if it stunk so long as it worked.

I also took some of the cream out of a jar and put it on the bottoms of Kale’s feet.

It wasn’t time for him to have a bottle, so I’ll have to wait until he’s ready for that. For now, though, my boy seems content, and I can go out there and deal with Jacqueline.

How I intend to do that, I don’t know. I figure she’s going to want to know why I’m not letting her go back over to her house first.

I close the door just a bit and go into my room, grab the monitor, and head back to the living room.

I find her curled into the corner of my couch.

Her dress barely covered her legs. My cock jerked at the sight of her, wanting nothing more than to have her wrap herself around me while I slammed inside her.

Instead of doing what my cock wants me to do, I cross the room and flop down on the couch opposite of where she’s sitting.

“Is he okay?”

Her question surprises me. I wasn’t expecting her to ask. Earlier, I’d placed Kale in her arms to go check the house out, and I hadn’t thought about it. Then, coming back, seeing her holding him while rocking in the recliner, it almost felt right to see her with him.

“He’s good,” I tell her, waving the baby monitor and clearing my throat. “We gotta talk.”

“Someone was in my house, weren’t they?” she whispers, dropping her gaze from mine.

“Don’t know for certain. If they were, they got out of there before I went in. But someone had definitely cut the power to your place,” I explain to her and watch her lift her head, eyes wide.

“What?” she breathes.

“Someone had deliberately cut the power to your place,” I tell her again and further explain, “Tonight you’re staying here. Tomorrow, in the daylight, I’ll go over there and get a better look at everything.”

“I should go stay at my brother’s,” she murmurs.

“No.” I shut her down even thinking of leaving. “You’re staying here.”

“I don’t want to intrude,” she protests. “I can . . .”

Leaning toward her, I get into her space. “You’re staying here, and that’s final.”