He looked at the second note he wrote.Who knew if the people would be smart enough to do what he said?But he had to try.
I’m only 14.She was born today, and I can’t take care of her.Please find her a good home.Thank you.
He wrapped her in extra blankets just in case, and once he was certain there was no one around, he quietly exited the car and made his way two blocks over to the parsonage.After kissing the baby’s forehead, he gently placed her carrier on the stoop.Then he knocked hard, several times, before turning and running to hide in nearby bushes from where he could watch.
A moment later, the front light came on and an older man opened the door.It took him only a moment to see the baby, picking her up as a woman soon joined him.
They saw the first note, which he’d left on top and obvious, and the couple gasped at the same time.
The woman took the baby and headed inside while the man stared at the note—the mobster note—and then looked around, peering into the night.
Finally, he closed the door and the light turned off.
Donnel rushed over, carefully peering in the windows when he saw lights go on in a different room.
It was the kitchen.And while holding the first note over the kitchen sink, the man lit it with a match, the flame quickly destroying it.
Donnel didn’t hang around.He rushed off, breathing a sigh of relief.He’d stopped at Bryn’s apartment on the way and slid a note under the door, listing only the hotel information and room number where he’d left Bryn, and the phone number he’d called.
Callum was a smart man.He’d call the number, or track it down, and locate whoever they were.
Donnel would call Bryn’s number, and if they answered, he’d give them the information about the parsonage so they could retrieve the baby.
And if no one answered?
He’d try Faegan, and if his brother answered, then he’d hang up and walk away knowing Callum failed.
My soul might be damned, but at least the load won’t be quite as heavy.
Donnel knewthere was no way he could bring the baby with him.Too many questions, and not enough resources of his own to support a shifter pup.
Plus, he didn’t want Callum to kill him.
Since he’d never told Hyacinth he was in contact with Bryn, it would trigger questions and anxiety in Hyacinth that everyone was better off avoiding.
While they were gone movers would empty their house and move their belongings into storage.He’d already arranged the vacation and sold his business.That money he’d roll over into his next venture, with help from the Targhees to obtain new IDs.
And they would disappear again, but he’d frame it to Hyacinth as a surprise because he sold the business, not because Faegan had found them again.
He drove all night, exhausted when he finally pulled into the parking garage at the hotel in Columbus, Ohio, about an hour before dawn.
When he quietly let himself into the room, he found his mate sound asleep.He took a moment to breathe, freezing the image in his mind.
He’d already stripped and eased into bed when she finally stirred.“Don?”
“Yes, love?”
When she rolled to snuggle against him, he buried his face in her hair, deeply inhaling.“Did your business meetings go all right?”she asked.
He squeezed his eyes tightly shut against the tears.“Yes, love.Everything went fine.”This wasn’t the first time he’d brought her to a hotel and sequestered her while he “attended business meetings” when he’d learned Faegan was on their trail.
He never wanted to worry her.She’d suffered for so many years already.Lost so much.
They both had.
Another reason he didn’t want a baby.She’d barely recovered a fragile facsimile of her sanity as it was.Raising someone else’s baby—a shifter baby—would likely drive her mad again.He should’ve insisted on Callum wiping her memories, too, but Hyacinth refused to agree to that, and Donnel couldn’t bear to overrule her back then.
She sighed, like she might go back to sleep, but then she softly spoke.“What’s the surprise you mentioned?”
