Heat Race - Tanya Chris Page 0,95

then she hadn’t left Ferris at all—not of her own choosing—and that could only mean one thing.

Saul’s relationship with his father had always been conflicted. Otis had been his tormentor and his judge, the first person he’d learned to fear and the one who’d given him the most reason to fear. But also his sole caretaker after his mother left and the only role model he’d ever had. Saul had wanted to please him—both to avoid triggering his anger but also out of the childish belief that his father must be worthy of admiration and emulation simply because that was his job. That was what a father ought to be. Now Saul had to face the fact that his father wasn’t just a bad father, a bad husband, and a bad person. He was also a murderer.

“He killed her.”

No one disagreed with him. Jasper and Felicity exchanged glances, as if silently asking each other how much he could take.

“What do you think we should do about that?” Jasper asked finally.

Saul didn’t have an answer. It’d been ten years, and Ferris’s sheriff was still his father’s friend. The chances of making his father pay for what he’d done were slim, but was he just supposed to let him get away with it?

“He lost you,” Felicity said. “That’s punishment of a sort.”

Saul shook his head. His father wouldn’t care about losing him. He’d sent those men after him, hadn’t he? Maybe the plan had only been to destroy the house, but he doubted his father would’ve shed any tears if he’d been destroyed along with it. If his father were capable of shedding tears, he’d be a different man.

“No one has to decide anything right now,” Jasper said. “Let’s just concentrate on getting to know your family while we’re here.”

Saul nodded. He wasn’t going to let his father do yet more harm by intruding on this happy occasion.

“So what happened to make you look like you’ve been hit by a truck?” Felicity asked, and Saul settled in for a long explanation of the last few months.

JACK HENRY

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jack Henry was on the floor of Dee’s office surrounded by the contents of all her desk drawers when she came in. She must be tired after forty-five minutes of herding six-year-olds. He’d feel bad about the chaos he’d wrought except that before he’d shown up, her office had always looked like this.

“I thought you had this place whipped into order,” she said, taking in the scene with her usual equanimity. “Decided to unwhip it, huh?”

“I’d only made it through the surface layer before.”

Now that they’d decided to have a baby, he had an itch to go through every nook and cranny, to make everything clean and tidy. He’d spent the last few weeks organizing, and today he was full of a manic energy that told him his heat was coming right on schedule with tonight’s full moon.

“You’re nesting,” Dee said as she pushed through the mess to claim her desk chair.

“You don’t know the half of it. I bought all that shit.” He gestured to the row of shopping bags crowding the narrow hallway outside her office. “Pillows and blankets and…” He shrugged. Honestly, he didn’t remember what half of it was. He’d gone to a department store at lunchtime, ostensibly to browse, and had come away with enough soft goods to furnish an entire dormitory. “I may have gone overboard.”

“It’s okay to be excited. Bearing a child is an amazing experience not everyone gets to have.”

“Why didn’t you want to?”

“Well, now.” She pursed her crimson lips. “Not to say I never wanted to have a baby. More like I didn’t want to keep one. Pregnancy may only last nine months, but a child is forever. I get enough of rug rats at work.”

Dee was incredible with children. Coordinating fifteen to twenty toddlers—or fifteen to twenty teenagers—was no small task, and she was equally as good with the little ones as she was with the ones who were nearly adults, but Jack Henry could understand the difference between spending time with children and having one that was permanently yours, never to be returned to its rightful owner.

“Saul’s going to stay home with the baby,” he told her. “He’s really excited about it. He’ll make a great primary caregiver.”

“So you’ll be back to teach?”

Almost a full month after Lon had come to the studio to rape him, Jack Henry finally knew the answer to that. “If you’ll have me.”

“Honey, you know you’re welcome any time. I’ll