Dead Heat (Alpha & Omega #4)(12)

Brother Wolf had bowed to Charles’s belief that to protect Anna from everything would cause her more harm than good. It didn’t stop his wolf from being very unhappy with Maggie.

“I can’t find my phone,” said a half-familiar man’s voice in the kitchen. “I had it this morning. Have you seen it anywhere?”

“I don’t keep track of your toys, Kage,” said Hosteen. “But if I did, I might have seen it in the laundry room this morning.”

“I found it and put it on the phone table in the hallway,” Maggie announced as she entered the kitchen. “I thought you’d look there first. I’ll get it.”

Charles put a hand on Anna’s shoulder and walked into the capacious kitchen beside her.

Seeing a forty-year-old version of Joseph made Charles feel like a horse had kicked him in the stomach. The last time he’d seen Kage, he’d been a young man and the resemblance had not been so obvious. His attention on his mother, Kage grinned Joseph’s grin. “Thanks, Mom. I knew I could count on you. Now, as Chelsea likes to tell me, if I could only find my common sense, I’d be all set.”

Maggie shook her head. “If you had any common sense you’d have left this place to be a banker like your older brother. And you’d have been as unhappy for the rest of your life as he would have been if he’d stayed here. Be content that your phone is found.” She patted his shoulder and left by another doorway, presumably to get the phone.

“You find your rooms all right?” Hosteen asked them.

“Beautiful,” Anna answered for them.

Kage looked toward his visitors for the first time and stiffened warily. “Charles. Hosteen told me your names, of course, but I didn’t make the connection to you. I don’t think I ever heard Dad use your last name.” Charles wasn’t aware of anything he’d done to make Kage wary of him, but people often feared him. He had a sudden flash, an image of Kage as a young boy peering at him from around his mother’s back as Maggie sobbed, accusing him of …

He didn’t remember anymore.

Maggie was another reason that it had been such a long time since he’d last visited. It had not been her fault nor his, but his presence brought tension between Joseph and his wife. Oddly, the trouble wasn’t from Joseph, whom she had picked second. It was Maggie who couldn’t let the past rest. She had rejected Charles, but she was still possessive of him.

Anna smiled. “Lots of people named Charles around,” she said.

“Kage,” Charles said. “This is my wife, Anna. Anna, meet Joseph and Maggie’s son, Hashké Gaajii Sani. He goes by Kage.”

Anna smiled and moved forward, holding out her hand. “Pleased to meet you,” she said with the warmth that was so much a part of her. “I understand that you’re going to show us some horses.”

“That’s the plan,” Kage agreed, his face relaxing under Anna’s influence. “I just need to grab my phone—”

Maggie slid back into the kitchen from another direction and handed him an old-fashioned, battered flip phone.

“Thanks, Mom. Do you prefer mares or geldings?” Still paying attention to Anna, Kage flipped the phone open and glanced at the screen.

“I don’t know,” Anna said. “Mostly I’ve ridden geldings.”

“I understand you have a couple of weeks,” Kage said. “The big show starts in three days and I’ll have to spend most of my time there. I have a few horses in mind. I’ll show some to you today and then I’ll take you out on a trail ride tomorrow.”

Anna shot Charles a startled look, probably at the “couple of weeks.” But Charles needed time with Joseph. If the tension between Maggie and Anna got worse instead of better, they could find a hotel. Besides, choosing a horse was serious business; it was important to take the time to do it right.

“I’ve missed some calls from my wife,” said Kage with a frown. “She gets nervous when I don’t pick up. She rides pretty good for a city girl, but she knows that horses are big and things happen. I’ll give her a call and then we’ll go down to the barn.”

He hit a button and waited as the phone on the other end rang directly to a message. “This is Chelsea Sani. Please leave a—” He cut the message off and gave his phone an irritated look. “I have four new messages since this morning. I’m sorry, I’d better listen to them.”

“No trouble,” said Anna. “We have a couple of weeks. A few minutes isn’t going to make any difference.” She hesitated. “You should know this already, since Hosteen is a werewolf. But if you listen to the messages here, Charles and I will be able to hear them, too. So if they are private…”

He grinned at her. “No worries. We have a teenager and two younger children. There is no way either of us would leave private messages on our phones.”

“Kage, damn it. Pick up.” The voice was the same woman as before. But instead of being professional and cool it was irritated and … Charles didn’t know this woman well enough to do anything more than pick up some intense emotion.

The second message was more troubling. “Kage. You have to come home, please. I don’t feel well. Headache from hell.” She gave a laugh that was more like a sob. “And there’s a knife. It’s shiny and sharp.”