Oh, Brandi, he thought, being careful to shield his thought and not send it through their incredibly sensitive link, I’m so fucking sorry you saw what you did. But I’m not the male you think I am. I would never hurt you—I just want to protect you and Emmie and keep you from harm.
But there was no way to make her believe it—no way to even tell her since he could hear through the link that she still wanted to keep distance between them. Maybe Baird was right—maybe all he could do was pray.
Slade hadn’t done that in years—he wasn’t exactly the most devout male, given his bloody and troubled past. But what the hell—he might as well give it a try.
“Goddess,” he muttered, looking down at the sticky bar counter and keeping his voice low. “Maybe you sent Brandi to me or maybe it’s all a mistake—I don’t know. All I know is that I love her now—her and her little girl. I want to take care of them—to provide for them and for the baby, if Brandi is pregnant. I want to do what’s right. Please, that’s all I ask—just help me do what’s right.”
He heard no answer but a warm feeling of peace suddenly settled on him, as though someone had put a comforting arm around his shoulders. He remembered Baird’s words about being patient and told himself to hang on—for just a little longer.
It was all he could do.
Chapter Thirteen
“For the last time, Emmie, the Daddy-man is not coming back!” Brandi tried to keep her voice even but she could hear the tension and stress in her tone. She shouldn’t be irritable with her daughter but Emmie kept asking about Slade and she would not let up!
“Never?” Emmie’s big brown eyes filled with tears.
“You saw him once,” Brandi reminded her. “Just once, remember?”
“That’s not true!” Emmie cried harder. “I see him every night in my dreams, Mommy. And he’s sad without us—really, really sad.”
Emmie shook her head. How could her daughter be dreaming of the big Kindred? She herself no longer was, although maybe that was because the bond between them had already been established. She could feel his emotions sometimes though—anger, regret, longing…they tore at her but she tried to block them out. After what she had seen in his mind, she would be a terrible mother if she let a man who was capable of such violence near her child! For her own sake—and for Emmie’s sake too—she had to try to forget him.
But Emmie certainly didn’t make it easy.
“Mommy,” she whispered, tears running down her cheeks. “I want the Daddy-man. He loves us! He wants to protect us—can’t you feel it? He wants to protect my new little brother too.”
“Little brother?” Brandi frowned. “What do you mean? You don’t have a brother—unless you’re talking about Mr. Bear?” Mr. Bear was Emmie’s favorite stuffed animal she slept with every night.
“No, not Mr. Bear!” Emmie stamped her foot. “The little brother you have in your tummy!”
“What?” For a moment Brandi felt faint. “Wh-what are you talking about, sweetpea?” she asked, her voice trembling. “I don’t have a baby in my tummy. Who told you that?” She had yet to have “the talk” with Emmie. Had someone been talking about the facts of life in Emmie’s school?
“The nice pretty Goddess-lady,” Emmie said promptly. “The one who sends me the dreams of Daddy-man. She says you’re going to have a little brother for me in about a year.”
“Well, that sounds like an interesting dream but that’s all it is—just a dream,” Brandi said carefully.
“It’s not a dream!” Emmie stamped her little foot again. “She’s real! As real as you and me. And she says you and Daddy-man belong together.”
Brandi sighed deeply. God, would her daughter’s obsession with the big Kindred ever end?
“Emmie-bear…” She got down on her knees and held her daughter’s shoulders, looking earnestly into the little girl’s eyes. “I know it’s really hard to understand but sometimes people come into your life for a little while and then they leave.”
“Like my other Daddy? Daddy-man got sent down the river for doing bad things?” Emmie wanted to know.
“Yes, kind of like that,” Brandi acknowledged. God, she’d tried so hard to shield her daughter from the ugly reality of prison and somehow she’d still managed to get involved with not one but two cons. What was wrong with her?
“I miss him,” Emmie whispered. “Mommy, if he went down the river, can’t we find him? I think I know where it is, now.”
“No, honey, we can’t.” Brandi tried to make her voice firm but inside her heart was breaking. If she was honest with herself, she missed Slade too. What she’d seen in his memories had been shocking and frightening but after calming down a bit, she’d understood that he wasn’t killing for the fun of it—he was defending himself. If she was on her own, she might have been willing to give him a second chance. But knowing he had that kind of violence inside him was frightening and the fact that she had Emmie to think of changed the equation. Her daughter came first with Brandi and she always would.