Walker (Bowen Boys) (6 page)

“She doesn’t belong here. And he told me
that he wasn’t going to claim her. And what did I see when I walked into that
bedroom? He was all over her. Practically throwing her back on the bed and
mating with her.”

Walker growled and pulled a large piece
of glass from Khan’s head without trying to be gentle. He threw down his
instruments and stepped away from Khan before he murdered him. “I’m releasing
her today.” Walker left them standing there to go to the bedroom where Lynne
was. She was sitting in the bed looking out the window, and his dad was going a
mile a minute.

“Hello, son. Get Khan straightened out?”

He nodded at his dad as he pulled out is
cell. “Hello, Jane, this is Doctor Bowen. Could you please make arrangements to
come to my parents’ home? I have a patient that needs to be dismissed.” He
didn’t look at Caitlynne or his dad as she made arrangements to come right
over. “She’ll need a ride back to her home. Can you give her a lift?”

After everything was settled, he turned
to the two of them. His father looked sad, but Caitlynne looked…he was thinking
she looked like she had nothing on her mind, but that wasn’t right either. She
looked indifferent, maybe even bored. He started to speak when his dad stood
up.

“Well, I guess…I guess it was nice
meeting you, Lynne. I’m sorry that you couldn’t recuperate here, but things…” He
looked at him then at Caitlynne again. “Things aren’t always what you hope
for.”

His dad walked out of the room with a
pat on his back. Walker looked back at Caitlynne and she turned away from him. He
wasn’t sure what to say to her so he simply leaned against the dresser and
waited for Jane. She would be here very soon as she was a group member and
lived not far from his parents. The door bell chimed four minutes later and he
heard his nurse on the steps. Walker stepped into the hall to talk to her.

“I need you to remove her catheter and
help her to dress. She’s going to need something for pain no doubt when you get
her home. I’ll give you something to take with you so you can give it to her.” He
tried to tell himself he was doing the right thing. “Don’t tell anyone where
you take her, Jane. She’s been hurt because someone was chasing her.” Not
entirely true, but she had been hurt. And probably by him and Khan more than
she’d been hurt physically by those men. He glanced at the closed door again
before continuing. “If she starts to bleed again or needs…anything I want you
to take her to…take her to…” He didn’t know where to have her taken.

But Jane patted his arm. “I don’t know
what’s going on here, but I’ll take care of her for you. You just leave it to
me, Doc. I’ve got her for you.”

Walker nodded and started down the
hallway. He was being a coward and, more than that, he was being an ass. He
wanted more than anything to go back up there and kiss her again. Tell her
things were going to be fine, that he and Khan would work this out, but he was
reasonably sure that they never would and he’d be lying to the one woman in the
world he was supposed to love above everything else. Walker left the house
without stopping to speak to anyone. He was glad now he’d pulled on his pants
before going for his brother’s throat when Caitlynne had hit Khan. He walked to
his car he’d left there the night before when he’d brought Reed home and drove
to his house.

His mate. His mate was within ten miles
of him and he was alone in his house. When his phone rang he knew who it was
immediately by the ring tone and ignored it. He wasn’t in the mood to speak to
anyone right now. Especially not his mom and dad.

There were times when he didn’t much
care for his brother Khan. Like last night. Khan had been wrong to tell him he
forbid him to see Caitlynne. Khan had been equally wrong to have attacked him
today, especially in front of Caitlynne. Moving to the kitchen, Walker tried to
remember when the last time his brother had been out. Or for that matter, the
last time he’d laughed.

Walker pulled a beer out of the
refrigerator and stood in the kitchen, drinking it. He wasn’t the least bit
surprised to see his brother at the door knocking a few minutes later. Walker
opened the door for Marc and told him to get himself something to drink.

“Her name is Caitlynne April McCray and
she lives at—”

“I don’t want to know.”

He sat at the table while Marc continued
with a nod. “She lives in a house. What she does for a living might surprise
you. It certainly did me. I just don’t—”

Walker cleared his throat, knowing that
once Marc was on a tangent, he’d never stop.

“Right. She’s a school teacher. Junior
high home economics, as a matter of fact.”

“School teacher? Which do you not
believe? The teacher part or the home economics part?” He tried to imagine her
standing in front of a room full of adolescent boys and couldn’t do it. She was
more of a… “Are you sure she’s not like the shop teacher or something?”

Marc laughed. “Nah. Home Economics like
I said.”

Walker waited for him to continue and
decided that he was going to kill more than one of his siblings today. When
nothing more was forthcoming, he realized that Marc wasn’t in this room. Physically
he was, but his mind had wandered. He waited, knowing that he’d come back
sooner or later.

“There’s too much money in her account. Not
to mention she has really nice digs too. Something out of one of those house
fashion mags Mom is always buying.”

Red flags were going off everywhere in
Walker’s mind and he wasn’t even an investigator like Marc was.

“Could be she just does a really awesome
job, but her bi-monthly deposits make me think she works for someone higher on
the food chain.”

“You think she’s into selling drugs? Or
something along those lines?”

Marc shook his head.

“What then?”

“Her house and truck are locked up
tight. But there’s something…off about them. The truck is too low to the ground,
and her house? I’m thinking that whoever broke her window a week ago had to have
been better than those idiots that had her. The kind of people I’m talking
about play for keeps. The security system she has in place is expensive and
very smart. She knew what she was having put in and why. I just wish I knew her
well enough to ask her if I could look at it closer. Am I going to get to know
her better, Walker?”

He didn’t answer him.

He and Marc had steaks on the grill and
two baked potatoes each. Neither of them was into girly salads and he didn’t
even bother with mushrooms or anything else to take away from his rare sixteen
ounce steaks. Marc didn’t seem to mind either.

They talked about nothing at all and
when they were out on his deck when the sun was going down, Marc brought up
Caitlynne again. He was like a dog with a fat bone.

“You had me investigate, yet you let her
go back to her home. There are any number of reasons I can think of as to why
you’d do that, but I know the real one.”

Walker didn’t bother answering.

“She’s either your mate or she owes you
money. I dismissed the second one right away because she has more than you even
on payday. So she’s gotta be your mate.”

“You got it.” Marc didn’t gloat, nor did
he ask again why he had sent her away. So he told him. “Khan told me…no, that’s
not right, he forbade me to see her.”

“No fuck? Sheesh, I wish he’d get laid
or something. Can he even do that?”

Walker shook his head.

“Not the getting laid part. I’m pretty
sure no woman would come near him without him snarling at her. But you’re going
to mate with her anyway, right? Or are you going to let him rule you?”

“Yes. For now.” Walker looked out over
the woods behind his house. “She and I kissed today and when Khan came in and
started to show me how much larger he is than me, she…she knocked him on his
ass with a water pitcher. I pulled out the glass and let him deal with it
afterwards. I sent her home so she and I couldn’t get any closer.”

Marc snorted. “You think that’s going to
work? You sending her away? I don’t. You’re an idiot if you think that.”

So did Walker. He wondered how long he’d
last before he tried to find her.

Chapter Five

The crutches weren’t doing her a bit of
good. They had the first day and then into the second, but now she had tossed
them across the room and glared at them every time she tried to make her body
cooperate with what she was doing.

When Jane had taken her home three days
ago, Lynne tried to remember why she was in an all-fired hurry to leave. Then
she’d think of that jackass Khan and would get pissed all over again. Lynne
wondered what his problem was as she made her way to the kitchen. She nearly
tripped over the rug when someone knocked on her back door.

Jane. The woman had been coming over on
her way to work every day. She was entirely too chipper for her tastes, but she
did seem to love her job of taking care of people. She opened the door, but
blocked her entrance.

“You should be using your crutches, not
walking around yet.”

Lynne nodded, but didn’t move.

“If you let me in, I’ll share the pizza
I have.”

Pizza. Caitlynne loved pizza and when
Jane showed her the box, it was all she could do not to knock her down and take
it from her. It was from her favorite place. And from the scents coming from
the box, it was one that was covered in meat and cheese and everything else
they had in the kitchen.

“The guy who owns the place knows you.” Jane
got down some paper plates when Lynne showed her where they were. “I noticed
the pizza boxes in the fridge and figured you’ve been there. When I mentioned
your name, he knew just what kind you liked. He said to call him sometime and
he’ll give you the news.”

Lynne nearly bobbled the glass of wine. She
set it down and sat with Jane as she took out the first slice. She’d have to
get rid of her sooner rather than later now. She would have to call Omar and
find out what he knew.

“I’ve been ordering from him since I
moved here. They have the best pizza.” They did too. Omar Sanders was one of
her workers, one of her snitches. “I order one at least once or twice a week.”

“Yeah, that’s what he said. Said you
hadn’t been around lately and I told him you’d been injured a week or so back. He
said he knew.” She frowned as she took another slice. “How do you suppose he
knew that?”

Because she’d been injured two weeks ago
on information that he had given her. It wasn’t his fault that the information
was only half there, and she’d already told him she was fine. But because of
her injuries, it was the reason that she’d been sleeping so soundly the night
the idiots had broken in. She’d taken a pain pill so she could sleep after
talking with her boss for over an hour beforehand.

Lynne shrugged. “He’s the best, but a
little off his rocker. That was awesome pizza. How much do I owe you for saving
me from having to cook for myself?”

“Nothing. It was fun and I like talking
to you.” Jane looked at her watch as she stood up. “I need to get going.
Working a double tonight. Thanks, Lynne. It was really nice for me too. I hate
to cook.”

“Me too.” Jane went out the door and
Lynne was just shutting it when she caught something out the corner of her eye.
Waving at Jane and making a production of slipping around on the wet decking,
she saw who was there.

“Mother fuck,” she said low and to
herself as Jane drove away. She made her limp more pronounced as she made her
way into the house, pulling out her cell as she went. “Agent McCray to speak to
leader Garrett.” She recited the numbers that were given to her when she was
first trained. “I have a code seven twenty-three.”

“Stand by, Agent McCray, while I find
him.” The girl’s tone was nervous and full of terror. Lynne knew that had she
shown up rather than called, the girl would have pissed herself. Lynne wasn’t
your every day agent.

“Where?”

Lynne told him the precise location of
the man across the street when he came on the line.

“I’m sending a sleeper to you. For
Christ’s sake, don’t fucking shoot this one.”

One time. One time she shoots the guy
sent to protect her and it’s like she did it every day. She went to the front
room, pulled up the sight to locate camera she had mounted on her roof, and
turned the camera toward the man standing there.

“Gray sweat pants, green and navy sweat
shirt. He has on tennis shoes, running and high top. He has on a cap and
his…you might want to tell the sleeper he’s armed. I think it’s a Glock, but
can’t be sure since he has it in his hand.” She heard him tell someone to be
careful and she smiled. She thought maybe she’d taught him a few of those
words. He came back on the line.

“You have that good of a view of him,
why the hell didn’t you tell me in the first place?”

She hadn’t told Garrett about her extras
she’d put on her house a few months ago.

“I don’t suppose you know if he has on
clean underwear, do you?”