Chapter Thirteen
TWO DAYS LATER, Alex and Kennedy sat outside, alone together, some distance from the house on a bench overlooking the wonder of the mountains in the far distance.
Alex watched his new mate with pride. She fit in so well with the others. Even Carter had taken to her, and it hadn’t mandated the pair having sex. What Gideon had done in the gym had settled his psychic scent over her, bringing her into the group.
As promised, Bailey hadn’t been upset or strange about anything. She acted more excited about having Kennedy around than he’d imagined she might.Guess she’d been telling the truth about dying to have another girl in the group.
The affection between him and Kennedy felt real. Since their bonding two days ago, she’d been open, caring, and she smiled a lot. Seeing her grin made him happier than he’d been since even before losing Katie. It was as if Kennedy turned on a light inside him that had been dim for too long.
“So now I know that you like Kung Fu movies, white chocolate over dark, and redheads.” She smiled at his fake leer. She added, her voice gentle, “I’d like you to tell me about Katie.”
He’d known this was coming. But sharing intimate details had to happen if he had a hope in hell of keeping her with him long after they took care of Lang and his asshole friends.
Alex blew out a breath. “Katie. Man, I still miss her.”
She squeezed his hand. Surrounded by trees and overlooking a running stream, with the weather growing colder and the air crisp and clean, he felt like they had their own tiny spot of heaven to themselves. What better place than to speak of Katie while the sun shone brightly down over them?
“Katie got into more scrapes growing up, but I was always there to bail her out.” His heart hurt remembering her bright gray eyes and laughing smile. “She always had to champion the underdog. Probably because she and I felt like underdogs our whole lives.”
When Kennedy remained quiet, he continued, “Our parents were good people. Dad was an insurance adjuster, mom a teacher. Average, decent, hardworking. But they had no idea what to do with two kids who could know things no one else could. It didn’t take long for Katie and me to realize our gifts bothered our parents. They took us to church a lot at first. I wasn’t a fan. Had trouble sitting still as a kid.”
Kennedy smiled. “I can just see you sitting in church, squirming to be set free.”
He grinned. “Yeah. Katie hated it too. Though she was younger than me by three years, we were flip sides of the same coin. I see images, catch glimpses of knowledge about a thing through touch. Katie would see the future by touching people. Somehow she met someone connected to Lang’s project, and that sent her off to work at U-Ground under a fake name.
“When I lost track of her, it about drove me insane. Then I found her at U-Ground, and she relented to talk to me because she needed help. She knew bad things were happening, but I don’t think she knew how bad until she experience it, for all that she could see the future.” His eyes grew moist, imaging the hell she must have gone through there at the end. “I saw what they did to her. A few months ago, I fought Myers, and he was holding the knife he’d used to kill Katie. My sister sent me a message through it. She’d known her end was coming. Damn, Kennedy. How could she do that? Just leave me out of the loop when I could have helped her?”
“She loved you.”
“But not enough to try.” He was surprised to feel so angry. “You don’t understand. Our whole lives, it was just us against everyone else. We used our abilities in tandem, and we protected each other. Same as we protected the little guy, you know?” She nodded, and he had to tell her the rest. “She always knew who to protect in school, which kid needed help from social services or to be saved from entering an abusive relationship.
“I guess we saw ourselves as low scale heroes. Sounds arrogant, but it gave us purpose.”
“It isn’t arrogant. You helped people.”
“But I didn’t help the one that mattered.” He released her hand, afraid he’d crush it if he held on too tight.Damn it, Katie. Why? Why couldn’t you have trusted me to help you?
“You know, a smart guy once told me to stop taking responsibility for things I can’t change.” She stroked his shoulder. “Seems to me like Katie made her choice. She’s gone, and you know, Alex, she’s at peace now. Her gift couldn’t have been easy to live with.”
“No, it wasn’t.” Was that why she’d refused to let him save her? Because she’d wanted to end things?
“But she was more than just a woman who could see into the future. What did she do for fun? What was her favorite food? Or better yet, what’s the one thing she did that annoyed you most?”
Alex gave a slow smile as memories overtook the sadness and anger. “Katie loved practical jokes. She was always trying to one-up me.” He chuckled. “She had a thing about trying to make me sit on a whoopee cushion. And I mean, when she was thirty. Not just when she was a kid.” He shook his head, smiling. “She played other pranks, but I got so sick of that stupid pink cushion. I was paranoid about sitting down. Like, even now, I doublecheck my seat before I take it.”
Kennedy grinned, her blue eyes sparkling. “That’s hilarious.”
“She was funny, I’ll give her that.” He thought about his sister’s big heart, the joy that masked a deep loneliness inside. “But she was sad a lot too. I guess I liked thinking she’d rather laugh than cry, but I think Katie was alone, wrapped up in her own mind too much. Our parents’ bland acceptance hurt her. I was used to it, and I took comfort in my sister. She was enough for me. But I don’t think I was enough for her.”
Kennedy wriggled an arm around his waist and squeezed.
“She loved my mom and dad so much. A daddy’s girl, really. But my dad thought his role as father extended to providing financially, with an ‘attaboy’ or ‘attagirl’ and a pat on the head all he could handle. He left the emotional stuff to my mom, who was usually exhausted by the end of her day. We knew we could talk to her, but it had to be about normal things. Nothing psychic-related, nothing deep like child abuse or sexual assault, the stuff we saw on a daily basis. It was a difficult childhood,” he said, surprised to realize the truth.
He’d grown a hard shell, becoming a man who protected the innocent to compensate for not being able to let his own guard down and be vulnerable. Katie had gone the other way, devoting too much of herself to others, so consumed with saving the helpless she’d become a victim herself. Then, because she hadn’t seen any other way out, she’d let herself go under rather than fight for the love she should have had.
“I think she wanted a partner, a boyfriend or lover, someone who was all hers. But she didn’t think she’d ever have that. We never had meaningful relationships with other people, only each other,” Alex said, thoughtful. “It didn’t bother me, because I’m an asshole and like my space.”
“Alex.”
