Khan (Bowen Boys, #2)(5)
Walker smiled at Monica as Marc moved to the little chair next to the bed. “She’s fine. Pregnant, that’s all. She gets very emotional and she’s not used to it.” Walker asked her to lay back. “Let me make sure nothing is broken and get you stitched up. Has anyone talked to you about where you’re going to stay?”
Monica glanced at him and he nodded. “Marc said I could stay at his house. I know he’s your brother and all, but I won’t take advantage of his good nature. I just need a place to stay until I can move on. I can’t bring Tony’s crap into your family.”
The examination took thirty minutes. When Walker asked him to step out so he could check the rest of her out, Marc went to find Caitlynne. She was in the lounge making calls. Her ever-present laptop sat on the little table in front of her. She smiled as she closed the phone when he walked up.
“I’m doing phone interviews for a secretary. I hate this shit. I want to be out on the job, not stuck inside doing crap work. Do you know how many phone calls I got on my honeymoon? Over five hundred. I’m already hating this.”
He knew she wasn’t and that she’d be very good at being the director of the CIA. He also knew that she’d already been able to solve a major crime wave hitting the DC area while she’d been away. Marc was very proud of his sister-in-law.
“When did she start working for you?” He told her what he knew about her, knowing that if he didn’t, she’d go and ask Monica.
“She’s been living here since June, right about the time you and Walker met. She applied to work for me around that time too. I’d been looking for someone to answer phones and she fit it. But I figured out she was a little more than that and hired her as one of my investigators. She’s that good.”
Caitlynne nodded. “And the man? Her stalker? What do you know about him? Has he hurt her before since she’s been working for you?”
Marc started to say no, but thinking on it, he thought maybe he had. “I believe so, but she’s never said anything. Last week, she gave me her notice. Said she had to go and take care of a very sick mother. I never thought anything about it until just now. She was running again.”
“I would think so. Her parents are deceased. She has one brother, but he’s not worth much. No other relatives that I can find. She’s moved a lot over the past fifteen months. And at each place she lands, she racks up a hospital bill that she can’t afford but makes payments on. She’s made monthly payments to each place since this started.”
Marc wasn’t surprised that she had so much information on the girl. “I can’t let her go. I don’t know what it is about her, but something makes me want to protect her at all costs.” He glanced at her when she snorted. “It’s kind of the same feeling I have when it comes to you. Most of the time, I want to strangle you, but there are times when I want to make sure you’re all right.”
He didn’t say anything when she looked away. He knew that she was dealing with her emotions. When she turned back to him, she was grinning. He was almost ready to cup himself when she reached over and patted his leg.
“I love you too, moron. But this feeling? Is it a cat thing or something else? You said she wasn’t your mate. How sure are you of that?” He told her he was positive. “Then we have to figure out what it is and keep her here until we do. She’s going to bolt at the first opportunity, you know that, right? I would if I was her.”
Marc was as sure of that as he was she wasn’t his mate and told her so. Walker came out a few minutes later. She was being released into Walker’s care and they were taking her to his house. Marc was suddenly glad for the extra help that came in daily to clean up after him. His house used to be a natural growing ground for mushrooms and other fungi.
~~~
Monica looked at the couple who was helping her. Mrs. Bowen, as Caitlynne had told her to call her, was very beautiful, and her husband, the doctor, was very kind. She hadn’t known what to think of the woman when she’d snapped at her, but knew what she’d been doing. She had taken her out of her funk of being a failure.
Monica felt like that a lot lately. Every time she would think that she’d shaken Tony Barr, he would show up like a bad penny. A very painful bad penny. She looked around the room she’d been given and wondered how long it would be before she could make her escape.
She’d never had a boss like Marc. He was really nice and was always telling her what a great job she was doing. All the people who worked for him said he was very fair and never made them feel like he was better than them. Him coming to work the trash sting was a surprise. She’d been slated to work with David, but he’d come down with the flu.
“Okay. I have to go and do my community service for Caitlynne. She’s a real hard ass and I screwed up.” Marc sat on the bed next to her and handed her a reader and the remote. “There’s everything you’d want to see on the television and that thing is yours. I got two for my birthday and I haven’t even opened it yet. I think that Khan said there’s a fifty dollar credit on it so go for—”
“I can’t take your gift.” He laughed at her. “I’m serious. I can’t take a gift that you got for your birthday. It’s not right.”
“But you see I don’t need it so I’m gifting it to you. That’s what Khan said to do with it. I asked him for the receipt and he didn’t have it. He told me to give it away.” He handed it to her. “I got something else from him. I swear. Take it.”