Beasts and Burdens (5 page)

“I knew you only loved me for my cookbook.”

He chuckled and limped over on his cane. He was in exquisite pain, but the series of shots he received that morning were making him numb enough to deal with it. “Hardly,” he murmured before kissing her forehead. “How are you doing?” He squeezed her slightly in a sideways hug.

“My back hurts, my feet hurt, and I think the baby has dropped—since I can’t seem to not waddle when I walk.”

He chuckled and kissed her on the temple. “I meant, since Ethan left. Are you mad at me?”

She sucked in a deep breath that made him dread the answer that was to follow. “No.” He drew back and looked at her to see if she was just placating him. “I’m just unhappy now.”

“I’m sorry, Cori, you know if I could have sent anyone else, I would have. Did you make all this food just for us?”

She knitted her brow and laughed. “Of course not, I made extra for our house guest.”

“House guest? Is Belus coming for dinner?”

Cori frowned. “Oh shit, I keep forgetting to ask him. No, I made all this for Duke.”

“Duke,” Danato grimaced, “why would you invite him for dinner?”

“I didn’t,” Cori said putting all her attention back on her onions.

“Who did?” Danato put enough depth in his voice to make her head dip further.

“Ethan did,” Duke answered as he clambered down the stairs reaching the main floor. “Good evening, sir.” He stopped midway to the island apparently waiting for Danato to respond.

“Duke,” Danato said civilly as he moved around Cori to meet him. “Would you mind telling me what you were doing upstairs?” Danato settled in beside the stools at the end of the island and waited for him to answer. The stand-off was poised, but so far nothing had prompted drawing guns.

“I was unpacking my things, sir.”

Until that.

“Excuse me.” Danato smiled, but the amusement he found in the scenario was in Duke’s audacity. “I don’t recall inviting you into my home.”

“You didn’t sir,” Duke said with surprising bravado. “Ethan assigned me to look after Cori.”

Danato took a step forward that should have sent Duke running. He was either braver than Danato had ever given him credit for, or he was just that devoted to Ethan. “Walk me through this Duke, because right now my interpretation is getting a little blurred by my desire to throw you out on your ass.” Duke had the good manners to look a little concerned by that statement.

“Ethan was none too pleased about leaving his lovely wife by her lonesome, so I’m going to be staying with y’all for a while, until he gets back.”

“And I was not consulted.” Danato managed to keep his volume down even though he was about ready to wring Duke’s neck.

“Ethan instructed me to follow his orders above yours, sir.” Duke wasn’t comfortable saying that out loud, but he stood his ground well enough.

“Tell me, Duke—if you happen to know—why did Ethan think he had the right to usurp my authority?”

“He said that the prison is your supreme province, but as far as his wife is concerned…” Duke trailed off not willing to say the rest. Danato wasn’t entirely surprised that Ethan would pull something like this. He still resented not being able to rush to her rescue when she was locked up in the prison by Clark. This was just his way of keeping control of a situation that was out of his hands.

Also, Danato thought that Ethan might have lost faith in his ability to protect Cori. He was doing his best to hide his pain, but it was obvious to everyone that he was not as spry as he once was—if he ever really was during the time they had known him. When push came to shove, if Cori needed to be rushed to the infirmary for labor, he may not have been the best man for the job. 

“You aren’t suggesting that you share the apartment with Cori?” Danato asked suddenly thinking back to Duke’s unpacking.

“No, sir,” Duke snapped personally offended by the suggestion.

“Danato,” Cori scolded him from the table where she was setting out the last of the food.

“Are you really okay with this?” Danato asked her, seeing that she had not jumped in to fight for her feminine independence.

Cori shrugged at him and scratched her belly. “I don’t know. I mean, it’s just Duke. It might be kind of nice to have someone to talk to after you fall asleep under your newspaper.” She was fidgeting under his gaze. She wanted to let Duke stay, but she didn’t want to say so in case it hurt his feelings, which it did, but he understood their concern. He was going to have to start accepting that he wasn’t going to be the one she turned to for protection anymore.

“So, if Duke stays,” Danato scrutinized him a moment, before finishing his query to Cori, “You’ll have to keep impressing him with your culinary skills.” Cori smiled. “I mean you can’t lose face.” Cori shook her head.

Danato waggled his finger for her to come over and she waddled over and paid her dues in hugs and kisses on his cheek. “Both of you sit down, I just need to wiz, and we can eat,” Cori said before waddling off to the bathroom.

“Spoken like a true lady, sweetheart,” he called after her and she waved haphazardly before disappearing into the bathroom.

As soon as she was behind the closed door, Danato grabbed Duke by his shirt and yanked him into a back bend. “Now, Duke, before we can eat, I need to reestablish that I am indeed still your warden.”

“Yes, sir.” He held Danato’s fists, but didn’t try to squirm away, accept to get purchase for his feet.

“Tonight could have gone a very different way and we both know it.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Do you know why it didn’t?”

“Because you love Cori more than life itself, and when presented with the option of losing face in front of me or keeping her safe, you’ll choose to sacrifice your own ego to protect her,” Duke rattled off the explanation like it was memorized just for the occasion. “Sir,” He added for good measure.

Danato put him upright again. “In a nutshell, but he forgot to tell you that I would be willing to do as he wishes, because I love and respect him as well.”

“No, he didn’t sir,” Duke murmured.

Danato paused feeling a stab of pride in his ever so smart young protégé. He knew a day would come when he would feel more gratified by Ethan’s contention than aggravated, he just didn’t expect that it would come this soon. He supposed that it wasn’t so much a change in Ethan that had caused it—since he had long since been on this path—but rather a change in himself. Life was humbling him, in good ways and bad.

10

Cori wasn’t sure when she had fallen asleep against Danato, but there she was leaning on the sleeping bear, sleeping herself. She blinked lazily at Duke who was gently coaxing her out of sleep. “Ma’am, would you like me to escort you upstairs?”

Cori nodded, and Duke very gently guided her legs off the couch and helped her rise to her feet. He looped her arm around his and he didn’t flinch at the weight she put on him. She opened her mouth for an endless yawn, before she could speak. “You’re a good man, Duke.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” he whispered despite being out of earshot of Danato.

“I’m sorry I fell asleep.” They made it to the first landing. “I really wanted to get to know you better.”

“I appreciate that ma’am, but I’m not much good in a conversation. I’m pretty boring.”

“Ethan’s fond of you,” she mumbled.

“He’s a good friend to me, so I’m a good friend back.”

They reached the second floor and Cori stopped. “I’m sorry you got stuck babysitting me.” She frowned at him. He deserved a more respectable duty than guiding his boss’s wife to her room.

He shrugged and offered her an equally modest smirk. “I’m not. I babysit demon creatures all day long. Escorting a young lady such as yourself to her quarters is about as pleasant as a man’s day can get.”

Cori smiled at him. “You are just too damn sweet. Do you have a girl back home?”

“No, ma’am.” He shied away from her gaze.

“Well, we are going to have to find you one, before you have a married, pregnant woman swooning like a teenager.

He chuckled and blushed. “Yes, ma’am, I’d appreciate that.” Cori moved to open her door, but stopped and turned back to Duke. “Something you need?”

“Umm,” Cori gulped and cleared her throat. She was suddenly without any witty dialogue to make her transition in topics. “Duke, I never…thanked you.”

“Really ma’am, I’m happy to do it.”

“No, um, not tonight. I mean…” Cori shrugged. “You probably don’t remember, but when I first came to the prison. I had a little run in with some overly friendly men. You stopped it.”

“I remember.” Duke frowned and shook his head. “It was nothing any respectable man wouldn’t have done.”

Cori grimaced, feeling tears pushing at her eyes. “That’s just it Duke. It was something. I was in a really bad place when I came here. If you wouldn’t have helped me that day, showed me that little bit of kindness. I wouldn’t have made it, you know?” Cori shrugged. 

Duke nodded in understanding and stared down at the floor.

“I’m sorry it’s taken this long to offer my gratitude. I just wasn’t sure how to thank you for renewing my faith in the human race without making you uncomfortable.” Cori chuckled. “Which I don’t think I achieved even now.”

Duke smiled and looked back up at her. “I reckon that smile is enough reward for my gallantry, but I appreciate you mentioning it. Now you best scoot yourself off to bed, before you make me get teary-eyed.”

Cori chuckled and turned back to open her door. She wasn’t sure what hit her first, the heat wave, or Duke as he defensively pushed between her and the door. She fell back partly from his intervention, and partly from the pressure of the explosion. Duke’s airborne trip, on the other hand, was entirely from the force of the blast. His short flight landed him harshly against the opposite wall.

“Duke!” She yelled over the roaring fire, but he didn’t move. “Danato!” She changed tactics.

She did a quick summary of her body parts, and determined that aside from a possible bruise on her hip she was fine. She tried to move and found her assessment severely lacking, since she hadn’t noticed the five inch piece of wood sticking out of her calf next to her shin. It was cutting off the blood flow, so she hardly noticed it.

Before her, the apartment was engulfed in flames that were spilling out of the doorway. The inferno that lapped over the ceiling above her wasn’t rhythmic like water, it was wild and serpentine. The flames licked down at her, snapped like whips when they reached beyond their limits. Sparks spat out from the tips as they did, showering her in biting embers. This was not a house fire. This was the house.

“DANATO!” Cori screamed at the top of her lungs. She had never been so afraid in her life. This wasn’t a monster escaping from captivity. This was her “welcome” mat trying to tamp her out.

Hands grabbed around her and hoisted her up. She jumped from the sudden touch, but Duke’s calming accent informed her in no uncertain terms, “I gotcha, I gotcha.” He plodded down the stairs to reach safety, but the fire slithered around the stair railing and all but walled off the remaining descent to the main floor.

“Duke,” Cori whimpered.

He backed up looking up and down for another option. He looked as frightened as she was. He tightened his grip on her and backed into the railing of the first landing. “Hang on,” he said before flipping backward over it. By some miracle he kept hold of her and stuck the landing with little more than a puff of exhalation.

The flames spread and curtained off their passage from the hallway into the living room. There was no smoke—yet another indicator this was not a real fire—but the heat was tremendous. Duke was forced back, shielding himself and her by turning his back. “I don’t suppose you have a back door.”

“No,” Cori answered all at once realizing how utterly wrong that was. “Danato!” Cori could just make out Danato’s frame through the veil over Duke’s shoulder. He was standing midway through the combined rooms staring at the blaze. He looked scared, and pained, but he wasn’t panicked like she and Duke were. He was speaking. Speaking to the house?

All at once he put his hands together in prayer and she could see him mouth “please.” He was begging for their lives. It was unbearable watching the man that she once thought of as invincible, limping in excruciating pain, but now seeing him pandering for her life instead of demanding it…

The blanket of fire parted and Danato stepped into the break, but no further. She presumed that he still suspected the opening to be an indecisive gesture. “Duke!” He yelled and Duke whipped back around and launched through the break in the threat.

Danato was quick behind them, and they were out the door without coats or cares about their belongings left inside.

11

As soon as Belus’s door opened, Danato pushed in with Cori in his arms. He had left Duke to alert the guards of what was happening, and to advise them not to attempt quelling the flames in the burning house. He was reluctant to leave Cori’s side, but he could see the situation was beyond simply watching over Cori.