Theodore (Xavier's Hatchlings #2) - Kathi S. Barton Page 0,10

you are, Mr. Manning. You tell me why you want to help me when I’m nothing to you.”

“You are. You mean a great deal to me, Pem. I’m your mate.” He hadn’t moved. Not even to touch her. Even from where he was sitting, he could have touched her without her ever thinking a thing about it. “I won’t lie to you again about what I can do for you. Touching you will share what I have in the way of magic. I don’t know how much you’re going to get, but I would like to try and help you as much as I can.”

“Why would you assume that I want anything from you at all?” He smiled at her, and she felt her heart flutter. “I think perhaps you should tell me more about what it is you think you can add to my already shitty life by touching me. Right now, all I can think about is that you’re out of your gourd for thinking I’d trust anything about you.”

“Fair enough.” He didn’t move back on the couch but did put his hand down. “I’ll work on you trusting me if you would do me a favor, and please call me or one of my brothers when you feel the need to end your life again. Not that you can. As of the moment I figured out who you were to me, you became immortal.”

“How the fuck did you manage that? You didn’t touch me, did you?” He said for her to be safe, all he had to do was to claim her verbally. When she stood up, so did he. “Take it back. Right now, take back whatever mumbo jumbo you used on me to make it so I’d not be able to die.”

“I can’t.” Theo looked at his brother, then back at her. “Your father is in jail. He’ll only be there for a limited time—three days. After that, I will be around in the event he tries something else. He’s out to get into this house. And he won’t stop at anything or anyone to get inside.”

“How do you know this?” It was Grandma who told her that her dad had been snooping around since before Harold had passed on. “Did he have something to do with Grandda dying?”

When her grandma didn’t answer her, she turned and got down on her knees to ask her again. She had tears in her eyes when she finally looked at her, and Pem hurt for them. He had—she knew it.

“There is really nothing that proves he did.” She asked Theo what he knew. “The death of your grandda is listed as suspicious, not as a homicide—not yet, at any rate. But I’m having my mom and my aunts look into things. We don’t know for sure that he killed him, but with the way things fell into place, it makes him look guilty as hell. It’s one of the reasons that one of my brothers or myself is here with your grandma all the time. I don’t think, even if he didn’t have anything to do with your grandda’s death, he’d not stop at anything to kill your grandmother too if he thought he could make a dime off her.”

“He’s been sneaking into the house for years. Your grandda and I, we’ve been putting some things away so we could make sure we had a little to tide us over when we were old enough to stop working. Patrick, he found it and took it all before either of us knew what he was about. I just don’t know what I would have done living out here all by myself if these Manning boys hadn’t come around when they did. Thanks to them, I have a roof over my head and some money to get by on.”

“Thank you.” Neither man said anything when she spoke. “What can I do to help you keep my grandma safe? You do know that there is another son, correct? While he likes to put on airs that he’s wealthy, I know that Austin is broker than my grandma here. He needs watching too.”

“If you tell me their names, I’ll have my aunt look into them. She has connections that you’d not believe.” George laughed a little at that. “Okay, all of my family has connections. Aunt Carson is more connected than I think most of the world leaders. Including the president.”

“I don’t know why you’re doing this or why you took my