Dylan (Bowen Boys, #3)(7)
“That’s not what I meant, and—”
“You said ‘silver lining,’ so shut the f*ck up and hear it,” Dylan continued. “I can tell her she’s the world’s greatest housewife, and tell her that the house needs to be cleaned hourly so that—”
He hit the floor. Khan was a big man and stronger than him simply because he was their leader, but Dylan was pissed off, which he figured gave him an advantage over him. As soon as Khan hit him in the mouth, Dylan realized how wrong he’d been. Khan was simply bigger. And none of the moves that Caitlynne had taught them were working to his advantage.
After several seconds: “You had enough?”
Dylan thought about shifting and taking his brother down, but his next words made him rethink that.
“You shift and so help me, I will grab that grenade and shove it so far up your ass you’ll never shit right again.”
Dylan believed him.
“I’m not letting you go until you think about the silver lining.”
But he didn’t ask to be let go. He lay there under his brother, who had both his hands jerked behind him and his knee in his spine. He knew that if he didn’t come up with one silver lining he wasn’t moving.
“She looks like she can take panther sex.” His head hit the floor hard. “I can’t think of anything with you pounding my body in the f*cking floor. What the f*ck would you think if that were Monica laying there? I saw her bleeding to death. Help me, for Christ’s sake.”
Khan let him go. Dylan didn’t get up but only rolled to his back and stared up at the ceiling. He didn’t close his eyes, because every time he did, he saw her on the deck with the gun in her hand…and then later on the operating table with Walker cutting into her.
“She has more bullet holes in her than the five we worked on. There is at least one in her leg, as well as in her back. There are numerous cuts on her that I figure are knife wounds. Some of them are still pink.” He looked over at his brother. “I’m terrified out of my mind that someone is going to come here looking for her, and I can’t protect her. What am I going to do?”
Khan looked at the woman, then at him. “I don’t know, but I can tell you this; she’s stronger than she looks or she would never have survived getting here. And even though her mind is scrambled right now, she knew enough to tell you not to call the police. For all we know, she could be just what I said, a woman in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Dylan nodded and stood up. When the door to the room opened, he felt his panther run along his skin to help him. His dad seemed to know this and moved back.
“Turn on the television. You have to see this.” His dad reached for the remote, and after a few seconds of punching buttons without any progress, he handed it to Khan. “Damn it, why can’t there be a button that says ‘on’ instead of nine hundred that say stupid stuff like ‘list’ and ‘cbl’? What the hell does that mean, anyway?”
“Cable, Dad,” Khan told him with a laugh. Then none of them said anything for the next several minutes. The news was on each station and blaring the same thing.
“…to date, all we have is that the attorney for the biggest trial of the decade, Vern Clements, was murdered on Sunday night along with his wife Cindy and their five-year-old daughter, Ruby. The police are asking that any information on this woman, Jack Crosby, be called into the hotline.” A picture of the woman in his bed flashed on the screen. “She is considered armed and dangerous. If you know her whereabouts, the police are cautioning not to approach her but to call nine-one-one immediately and leave the area. Again, Jack Crosby is wanted in connection to the murders of Vern and Cindy Clements and their lovely daughter Ruby.”
“Turn it off.” Dylan took the remote from Khan and turned it off himself. “I need for you all to leave now. This is now too dangerous for anyone but me to be here.”
“I’m your father, and I’ll not leave until—”
“Dad, don’t you get it? She’s a murderer. She killed a little girl, and now the police are after her. When they find her here they’re going to arrest me, too.” He looked at the beautiful woman. “I can’t let that happen to you. None of you.”
They left a few minutes later. His mom had been making lunch for them all in his kitchen and stayed to make sure he knew how to finish it. She looked at him before she left, then hugged him.
“There might be something more to this than we know. Even more than the police are being told. She might just be a victim of someone’s revenge.” Dylan nodded. “Are you going to call the police on her?”
“No. I’m upset, not stupid. If they find her here before she wakes, I’ll work from there. If she wakes and remembers something…well, I guess we’ll play that by ear, too.” He looked down at his mom. “She’s my mate, and I can’t let her be hurt more than she already is. I have to protect her, and if that means hiding her here until we can get answers, then that’s what I’ll do.”
After she left, he went back up to the bedroom and sat next to the bed. He wasn’t sure what the hell he was supposed to do, but sitting around wasn’t going to get him anywhere. Glancing at his watch, he saw it was almost one, so he went to his desk and wrote a note. Then he got in his truck and went to the school where he taught to get his things before it was too late.