“You promised.” She heard Cassie’s low forlorn voice.
“I know I promised, pup,” Kane said softly, his voice drifting into the hallway. “But Dash and your momma had to move again. They’ll call us as soon as they settle in. I promise, everything’s okay, but we need to make sure they stay safe, too.”
“But I need my momma,” Cassie told him with irrefutable logic. “The fairy misses her.”
Sherra sighed softly. Cassie blamed everything on the fairy, even her harebrained rush into the danger the day before.
“And the fairy has every good reason to miss her,” Kane said gently, his normally rough voice velvet-soft.
“They’ll be heading home in a day or so anyway. I sent Merc and Tanner just to help Dash watch over your momma. I told them, no matter what, you stand in front of Cassie’s momma, and they said they would. Do you think they’ll let anything happen to her?”
Sherra tilted her head, her eyes closing as his voice soothed even her frayed nerves.
“No,” Cassie said hesitantly. “Merc and Tanner and Dash will keep her safe. But I’m her little girl, Kane. She’s supposed to tuck me in. And tell me when it’s okay to eat my chocolate so I don’t get a tummy ache…” Sherra’s eyes flew open, her heart clenching at the sound of coming tears.
“Excuse me?” Kane adopted a tone of false offense. “Have you got a tummy ache yet?”
Sherra shook her head. They had kept chocolate strictly out of reach.
“Well, no…”
“And don’t you get plenty of chocolate?” he asked her then, causing Sherra’s eyes to narrow warningly.
“Yeah. Those Oreos are the best, Kane. Double chocolate.” The sigh of bliss had Sherra staring into the doorway in surprise.
Surely, Kane was not slipping that child chocolate. He wouldn’t.
“Good girl. So, what’s your poison? Milk?”
“Yes, please. And four cookies this time,” the little girl answered.
“Four?” Laughter filled his voice. “Double chocolate? I don’t think so, my girl. Two double, or four normal. Your choice. And don’t remind me that you aren’t supposed to have more than one today. I might feel like I need to keep practicing how to say no to wily little girls.”
“I might cry.” Silence met the little girl’s threat.
“You might cry harder when there’s no cookies,” he grunted. “Don’t you attempt to blackmail me, you little swindler.” Cassie giggled at his gruff tone. “I helped raise Merinus. You can’t come up with a threat she didn’t invent first. That woman was a terror on two legs. You can only hope to match her wiliness.”
“I can do better, but I like you. Even if you did spank me. That’s not daddy training, Kane.” The little girl laughed. “Okay, four regular now. Two double later.”
“Who said anything about later? Six a day limit, pup. You already had two. And if you sneak away from Dawn when she comes to collect you, I’ll cut you off for sure. Spanking might not be daddy training, but discipline comes in somewhere, hotshot.”
“Shew, you’re tough as Momma. You sure you’re not a daddy already, Kane?” The little girl’s words splintered Sherra’s heart.
“No, baby, I’m not a daddy.” His soft, regretful tone destroyed her soul. “Come on, cookie time before Merrie comes in. She’ll tan both our hides if we’re not careful.”
“I love you, Kane.” The little girl sighed. “But if I don’t talk to my momma soon, you’re not going to have enough chocolate to bribe me with. Little girls need their mommas.”
“Yes, baby, they do,” he agreed softly. “More than anything, little girls need their mommas.”
Sherra lowered her head, her hand clamping over her mouth as she turned and hurried quickly to the back of the house and into the late morning air. Tears tightened her chest, clogged her throat. A knife stroke of agony ripped through her soul as her womb pulsed in grief. If you can’t protect someone else’s child how can you hope to protect your own?His furious words after Cassie’s near-death still had the power to slice through her soul. He was right. She should have been ready for whatever Cassie would pull. They all knew how adept her hearing was. She should have thought, should have caught the little girl before she rushed through the door. He had been furious, as terrified as she was when Cassie slipped away from her. Sherra knew he hadn’t meant the words to be as hurtful as they had been, or the memories to rise inside her as bleak and black and they had.
Their child. She stopped in the shadow of one of the old oaks, her hands pressing her flat abdomen as her womb convulsed in need. The heat was building again. She couldn’t conceive, would never conceive because of her own foolishness. Was it fate’s sneering payment for having not protected the child she had carried the first time? She believed heavily in fate, in payment earned for any and all crimes against nature. Just as the world was now paying, as nature demanded the survival of the species science created, was fate exacting its own payment because she hadn’t protected the life she had been given?
“Sherra, are you okay?” Callan’s voice came through the communications unit she had clipped on before leaving her bedroom.
She drew in a deep breath. If he was watching the pinpoints on the monitors in the communications shed, he would know where she was and worry that she wasn’t heading for the meeting he had arranged.
“I’m fine.” She fought to keep her voice even, to keep her breathing calm. “I’m on my way in.”