For herself, Auggie would never ask for anything from anyone unless she absolutely had to.But for those little girls who would be expecting her to beMommy Augthe instant they walked in, there wasn’t anything she wouldn’t beg for.
Cal pulled her closer.He pressed a kiss right in the middle of her forehead.“I’m not going anywhere.I’m here as long as you need me.I promise.”
She believed him, too.
The sound of the girls running inside, yelling for her, stopped her from just throwing herself into his arms and staying there for the rest of her life.
36
He stayedout in the living room, while Claudia spoke with Auggie, Em, and Junie in Auggie’s room.The girls were busy taking off their coats and boots and chattering about eating out at Chandler’s, with some of their other cousins.Cal was sore—probably moving around more than he should, considering—but Maeya had crawled to him.She’d just started crawling recently.But she was wicked fast.She’d headed right toward him.
Of course, he’d lifted her and snuggled her close.How could a man resist?Markie was at his feet now, her little arm around his knee, as she just looked around.Claudia was standing at his side, talking to him softly.While Zach and Em and Junie were back in Auggie’s bedroom with her now.
There were little girls just watching them.January, especially, kept sending him and Claudia worried looks.That one was a very perceptive child.And she looked so much like Auggie, it hurt him to think about.Auggie would have been so much like her, back…when Bruce had abandoned them.Cal hadn’t forgotten her words earlier, the flat way she’d told her story; he had been imagining three tiny girls, looking so much like the ones around him now, feeding wood into that damned stove right there across the room, praying it would keep them warm at night.Imagining how cold they would have been if it hadn’t.Knowing what could have happened.
Damn that bastard for what his daughters had been put through.All of them.From the ones down the hall, to the sweet little girls he and Claudia held now.They had deserved so much better than Bruce Tyler.
“Aunt Claudia, what’s really going on?”January came to them, and asked, as she reached for the baby.“I’ll take her, Mr.Gra—Cal.You look kinda bad.”
“I’m just hurting from the car accident, Jan.I’m okay, I promise.”He patted his favorite redheaded baby on the back and gave her to her sister.He sensed January was the kind who needed to be doing something for someone she loved when she was scared.Junie was like that, too, he’d discovered.Junie tended to fuss over Auggie and Em the most, and the girls.Em was all heart and emotion and love; Junie was the nurturer and caretaker.Augusta Dawn was the protector and provider.
But who protected the protector?
Well, he could answer that now.She hadhim.No matter what.They all did.
“You’ll have to talk to Auggie, Jan,” Claudia said.“She’ll tell you when she can.Just…she’s okay.Everyone is just fine, okay?I promise.”
It was obvious January didn’t believe them, but she looked at her sister in her arms.And nodded.The look in her eyes was one he wouldn’t forget.Damn it, he wanted to protect these kids from this.Somehow.
Maybe a part of him was starting to understand why his father had suffered a mental break when that bastard was threatening Cal’s sisters before.There wasn’t anything Cal wouldn’t do to protect these kids.All he wanted was to keep these kids and their older sisterssafe.
“It has something to do withhim,doesn’t it?I know…stuff has been happening around town.And it’s him.I heard Aunt Pam and Uncle Ned say something…after Fletcher and Dylan were hurt.”
Claudia just nodded.“Auggie will tell you what happened in a little bit.Right now, she is still talking with Zach.”
“Okay…is…he going to come here?”Her fear was written all over her beautiful face.
“I’m not leaving here,” Cal told her.He wanted to just scoop all nine of the redheaded devil-girls up and take them right back to town, to the house he had grown up in.Where he and Cadell couldprotectthem forever.For as long as it took.
No little girl ever deserved to look that terrified of her own father.Ever.
His father might have been a criminal at heart, but he wouldneverhave done anything to physically harm his children.Of that Cal was beyond certain.
These girls deserved so much better than what they had gotten.“I’m not going anywhere, Jan.I promise.”
37
He walked Claudia out.Zach was walking around the rear of the house with Em showing him the back entrances.Zach would leave in a moment.For now…Cal looked at his little sister.“Be careful driving back.”
“I’m good.Zach will be out on the road, too, you know.We are the cops, the good guys.I can take care of myself.”
She’d always been fiercely independent.That had just gotten worse since she’d pinned on that badge.He was still getting used to the idea of his baby sister being a cop and carrying a gun for a living.Getting used to the idea that he couldn’t protect her from the bad guys out there.
That gun had saved her life and Junie’s and Auggie’s that day on the street when Larry Kellman had opened fire.He would never forget that.“I’m thinking of starting to carry.I have Granddad’s pistol.”He had been given the pistol in his grandfather’s will—ten years before his father had been arrested and all of his father’s weapons seized.They’d just gotten the guns his father had collected back in the last year or so.Cadell had them now.“And I know how to use it.”
“I’m not going to tell you not to.It scares me for them.That he’s still out here.And I am glad you were here tonight.But I know you are hurt more than you are letting on.Are you even up to guard duty?”
“Yes.In a heartbeat.He’s not getting near her, them, again.Not on my watch.Did you see how afraid that little girl inside was?Jan doesn’t deserve to be so afraid.And neither does Auggie.What he put them all through—I want to rip him apart.With my bare hands.”
