Khan (Bowen Boys, #2)(33)

“Old man, I don’t care if you are my dad, stop flirting with my mate.” He sat down again, but didn’t stop glaring. “How do you expect to live to see a grandchild if you’re constantly pushing the envelope?”

“I will because you love me.” He patted her on the shoulder. “You want me to stop, then do right by the girl and wed her. Walker did. It makes a woman know that she’s permanent when you put a ring on her finger, don’t it, Caitie, my dear?”

Caitlynne walked in and smiled at George before she smacked him on the head. “I told you several times already to stop calling me that stupid name. It’s McCray or Caitlynne. Not that insipid name that sounds like I should be drinking milk out of a bowl. And for the record, I will never do that. Hello, everyone. I’m home.”

Walker kissed her on the mouth hard and quick. Monica had no doubt that the big man was going to take his wife upstairs and mark her again very soon. Caitlynne had told her yesterday that it was their way of dealing with her being around so many men all the time. She kept her job and no one was killed. Then she smiled. Monica never wondered if she was kidding or not. The woman had a very scary smile.





Chapter Twelve


Khan watched Monica. He could tell she was still mad at him, and he didn’t really blame her. He’d been demanding and hard on her about this. He wasn’t going to relent on his demands of the bodyguards, but he could see why it made her mad. She liked her privacy.

But when they’d come to him the day before yesterday about the plan, he’d been against it. Against it so harshly that he’d threatened to take her somewhere that they’d never find her and where this Barr person would never find her. Then Marshall spoke up.

“So you’re willing to run the rest of your life?”

He looked up at the weretiger.

“You willing to pack your family up, the one you might have with her, and move every few years? Because that’s what will happen if this man isn’t caught.”

“He’s one man. I can handle him. If he gets to be too much of an issue, then I’ll simply do what is best for my family.” Marshall shook his head. “No one will miss him. He’s a murderer.”

“And so will you be.”

That made him shut up and look at Monica as she continued.

“You’ll be no different than he is. Killing because you can or because it gets too inconvenient for you? How on earth do you expect me to live with myself if you kill him because of me? How, if we do have children, will they feel knowing that their dad killed a man?”

He opened his mouth to deny what she was saying and that if their children found out, she would have told them, but she cut him off.

“What if they’re like me and know?”

So here he was with a houseful of strangers in a house that wasn’t his with a mate that was pissed at him. He had to do something. Soon, too, because he didn’t like the tension between them. Especially since she wasn’t touching him. He wasn’t touching her either, but she’d pissed him off. He glanced at Walker and Caitlynne and wanted what they had. His mother kicked him under the table.

“Khan, there’s something in the kitchen I need your help with. Do you think you could help me? I’ve gone overboard buying things for the new baby. I wish for a girl, but will be so happy with a little grandson to bounce on my knee.” He followed her into the kitchen and was nearly ready to ask her why she didn’t just have one of the millions of people working there do it. But she slapped him hard on the face first.

“What the hell was that for?” When she pointed to a chair, he sat. “Would you mind telling me why I’m on your shit list before I get told to stand in the corner too?” He flushed when she started taping her foot. Not a good sign. Neither was the arms crossed over her chest. Khan tried to think what he’d done and was coming up empty on things she might have heard.

“Are you going to sit there and tell me you don’t know?”

He didn’t move. It was a trap and he knew it.

“Are you going to marry her or not? Or are you going to simply let being your mate, the almightily Khan Bowen’s mate, be enough for her.”

He didn’t like the way she was painting a picture of him, but wisely kept his mouth shut. “That girl is depressed beyond words. Did you know that she can’t contact you? Have you done anything at all about fixing that?”

He looked up at her sharply. “I’ve made sure she can contact me and I tell her where I’m going every time I leave the house or go to another part of it. She knows where I am better than I do sometimes.”

“Can she link with you?”

He looked at the dining room door and back at his mother when she whispered through his mind.

“She spoke to Dylan when he was here. And when he asked her to contact you, she said that you were not there. What if something happens and she needs you where a phone won’t work? Being in another part of the house doesn’t mean crap if there is someone trying to hurt her where she is.”

“She can do it. I…” He tried to think if he’d ever talked to her through their link and knew that they had. Or had they? She’d sent him images of herself, but spoken? He tried to think. “She didn’t tell me. She should have told me.”

When he stood back up, his mom pushed him back down. “I’m not through with you yet. Do you love her?”