Club Scars (12 page)

Kat leaned up to kiss him.

“I can’t believe you thought I was crying over a dishwasher.”

“You’re hormonal.”

“I’m hormonal every month. Normally you just tell me to take a fucking Midol and get over it,” Kat said with a grimace.

“I see what I get for trying to be nice.”

“Don’t get all mushy and sensitive on me. I need my tough old man.”

“That sounds kind of familiar,” Crux murmured, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

“Hmm, a wise ass, I mean wise man, told me that recently.”

“Do your damn dishes. You’re about to get a wet ass.”

Kat whirled around to shut off the faucet, cursing under her breath as suds crept onto the counter. Crux smacked her ass and gave it a grope before heading back to his project.

Eight

John Merrick leaned back in his chair listening to the investigator’s report. The search of the low-life’s hovel hadn’t turned up anything useful. The animal was smarter than he’d given him credit for. He didn’t shit where he slept. It didn’t mean that he was clean. It meant that he was careful. What was interesting was that Croston had called the whole crew together for a meeting as soon as the law had left. While not a direct hit, perhaps they were on the right track and the attention had rattled the hoodlums.

He grimaced. Unfortunately, the search, and subsequent humiliation, didn’t seem to have shaken Katrina’s devotion to her greasy biker. After the gang’s women had stayed around into the early morning hours to help her clean up, Katrina hadn’t hesitated to step out in public today. A sneer curled his lip. She’d held her head high in the face of certain gossip and censure in the small town. It would seem stronger methods would be necessary to reverse the brainwashing.

He rubbed his forefinger across his upper lip in thought. The life Katrina had embraced after fleeing his home had shocked him. He ground his teeth. The fact that his flesh and blood could allow a deformed heathen like Croston to touch her sickened him. They were a real live beauty and the beast. He’d never understand what his striking daughter could see in someone like that. Overlooking his hideous disfigurement, as if one could, Katrina had been raised in the lap of luxury and refinement. The shack she lived in now was little more than a garden shed. She hadn’t just settled; she’d crawled into a hole. That Katrina had rejected him and everything he’d given her, only to sink so low, was a slap in the face that still stung.

He realized the private investigator was no longer speaking. The man stood silent, awaiting his orders. John stroked his goatee with long fingers and then tapped his lips with a forefinger. There had to be a way to get Katrina to see the folly and futility of her life. For all of her headstrong ways, she wasn’t a stupid girl. She was his flesh and blood after all. He just needed to break the spell and the twit would crawl back home where she belonged.

“Continue the surveillance. I’ll be in contact.”

The taciturn, former military man nodded his head and spinning on his heel, left the room.

The leather executive chair squeaked in protest as John leaned back and kicked his feet up on the corner of his desk. Lids slowly drooped over his eyes. His fingers drummed on the polished wood before him. What was it going to take? He could admit to himself, he had underestimated Katrina. Her perseverance would’ve been impressive in different circumstances.  What fueled her burning resolution to defy him? What did she hope to prove? She had to know that she would never win. He’d given her plenty of rope up to this point, but if the spoiled little princess wanted to hang herself, he was more than willing to take this game to the next level.

Nine

Clipping the baby carrier into the stroller, Kat adjusted the blankets swaddling her boy. The snow had stopped, but the wind was biting.

“I would love to push him if you want to look around,” Eva said a little shyly.

Kat bit her lip, looking up through her lashes at the eager girl. Eva was gazing into the stroller with a look of longing. Kat grinned. Mox better keep an eye on this one’s birth control. It looked like she was getting baby fever.

“You want Aunt Eva to chauffer you, little man?” she asked the wide-eyed infant and then smiled at Eva. “You have to watch him. He’s his father’s son, a bit of a flirt.”

Ginny and Eva laughed and Eva took the stroller, pushing it toward the aroma therapy shop. Ginny hooked an arm through her best friend’s, hugging her close.

“How’re you doing?”

“Better.” At Ginny’s doubtful side glance Kat hurried to reassure her. “Honestly, I’m doing fine. Crux is being a real rock. My gruff old man has been going out of his way to make me happy. I’m spoiled.”

“That’s the way it’s supposed to be. You’re the new mama.”

“Everything is going to be okay, Gin. I promise you. We’ve all been through so much and we’ve come through it as a family. This is no different.”

“I’m supposed to be comforting you!”

“You make everything better just being here. Sitting at home all day is killing me. I have way too much time to think and obsess.”

“Come over to The Lantern.”

“You know I love being there, but I feel like I’m in the way, like Cam and I are disrupting things.”

“Please! We all love having you there and if someone has to wait a minute for their cheeseburger, they’ll get over it. It’s not like we’re performing brain surgery there,” Ginny scoffed.

Kat laughed, shoving at her friend’s shoulder. “Hush, you!”

“Well! It’s the truth. I would rather a customer or two have to wait a minute to get their order because we’re fawning over Cam than for you to be sitting home driving yourself crazy. Not that that is a long drive.”

“Yeah? Well, it’s no road trip for you either, honey.”

A sales clerk who had been approaching them suddenly steered clear as she got close enough to hear their spat.

“Now look what you did. You scared off the help.”

“Good. We didn’t need her anyway,” Kat answered leading Ginny toward the incense in the back corner.

“Are you looking for a new box?” Ginny asked as they started to browse.

“Nah, they put extra stitches in mine just like Crux requested.”

“Drag your mind from the gutter!”

“I saw yours down there. Did you want me to say hi?”

“Very funny,” Ginny said, her haughty sniff turning into a snort of amusement.

“Actually, my beloved husband bought new hinges for my incense box. It was so sweet. Silly or not, that box means the world to me.”

“It’s not silly at all and what a sweetheart. Don’t worry. I won’t blow the hard asses cover.”

Kat grinned. “He’ll appreciate that.”

“Where did Eva go?”

“I’m right here,” Eva laughed from behind them.

“Those candles that I bought you are over there on the East wall. This place also has the best incense ever. Karna hand dips her own stock and the smell is so amazing. A lot of places have old incense that has been sitting around losing its potency. “

“It’s like a hippy den in here,” Eva teased, pushing aside a curtain of beads.

“I think this family could use a little make peace, not war,” Ginny said dryly.

“Amen,” Kat seconded.

“I’m all about being nice until it’s time not to be nice,” Karna said with a saucy grin as she emerged from the back room. “Hey there, ladies! Have a basket.”

“You know us too well,” Ginny said, taking a couple of shopping baskets from her to pass to the others. She turned back and gave the shop owner a warm hug. “Karna, you know Reaper’s old lady, Lee. Meet my soon to be daughter-in-law, Mox’s fiancée, Eva.”

Karna leveled her intense gaze on Eva and cocked her head to the side, lips pursing in thought as they shook hands. “I’ve seen you somewhere.”

“Umm, I work at The Lantern,” Eva offered uncertainly.

Karna shook her head, tapping her lips in thought. The finger reversed and she pointed at Eva as the memory resurfaced. “You were at Curly’s when I was in there with Eddie. The guys shot a couple of games of pool.”  

Eva’s face darkened in a deep blush but she nodded, eyes darting guiltily in Ginny’s direction. “We, umm, went out for wings.”

“You know you are allowed to eat places other than The Lantern, right?” Kat asked with an eye roll. “The queen isn’t that big of a tyrant.”

“Oh, no. That’s not it. I, uh,” Eva stammered and then dropped her face into her hands, shaking her head as she mumbled. “That was the night I got distracted and burned dinner beyond edible.”  

The other women laughed and Ginny squeezed Eva’s shoulders in a hug.

“It happens to the best of us, baby. I hope he was worth it.”

Eva’s guilty giggle verified Gin’s naughty suspicion and drew howls and bawdy teasing from the others.

“At least Moxie couldn’t blame you for ruining dinner,” Kat said still grinning.

“I want to hear more about what Karna was doing with Crazy Eddie,” Ginny said making everyone turn to look expectantly at the busty blonde.

“I’d hate to make Eva blush again,” she said with an unrepentant grin and wrapped an arm around Kat, steering her and the conversation toward the stroller. “You had the baby. How did I miss that?”

“I’ll have to get on the Trinity Falls gossip mongers. They’re slipping!”

“He’s a doll!” Karna said, leaning over the stroller to push the blankets back from Cam’s face. “What’s the little man’s name?”

“Camden Alex Croston.”

“I love that!”

“This is his first shopping trip other than the boring old grocery store.”

“We’ll take good care of him. I just got some amazing dream catchers in that would be perfect for his nursery. They’re actually made by a local Shawnee woman. They’re gorgeous.”

“Oh, he needs one of those,” Kat agreed. “I love dream catchers.”

“Karna, do you have any of the dragon’s blood jar candles in the back?” Ginny asked, picking up a handful of votives.

“I poured some the other day,” the store owner said with a smile. “Let me show Kat these dream catchers and I’ll bring some out.”

“Dragon’s blood?” Eva asked with raised eyebrows.

“I see your skepticism, but smell this. They are divine and I just love the deep red color,” Ginny said, holding out a votive candle.

Eva sniffed the candle gingerly. Her eyes flared in surprise.

“Mmm, that does smell good. It’s earthy, but has a spicy smell too. I can’t really describe it, but I like it.”

“Karna’s candles are kick ass. I’ve burned the incense since I was a kid. My dad hated the stuff, but it masked whatever else I was burning,” Ginny said with a husky laugh.

“I’m not even going to ask.”

“Don’t ask, don’t tell,” Ginny sing-songed with a wink.

Kat hung two dream catchers from the stroller’s handlebar. She fingered the trailing feathers. It seemed sad somehow that she felt the need to protect one so young from evil. Infants were the true innocents. She looked down into Cam’s bright eyes and her chest ached like a fist closing around her heart. Most parents wanted a better life for their children. They were no different. More than anything in the world, she wanted to give this little one the childhood stolen from both her and Crux. She jumped as Ginny nudged her.