“We can do that.”
“I’ll help, you know that.”
“I figured you’d want to be involved. But you’ll only be there when you’re not in school, so I want to be sure we get it right,” Brandt said.
“Every minute I can be,” Ronan said.
“Were you able to get all your credits transferred to Tulane?”
“They don’t leave a damn thing for me to share, do they? You know about Giada. You know about transferring to Tulane. You know about me and Emmalyn and the land.”
Brandt adapted a booming, all-knowing voice. “I am Brandt — the Alpha — I know all!” he said dramatically before he started laughing.
Ronan laughed, too. “I’m temporarily registered to start classes in a week, on a probationary basis. Once all the necessary documentation is received after everybody is back from holiday break, I’ll be moved to full-time, an official student in the master’s program. After I achieve that, I’ll start on my doctorate.”
“As long as you don’t let it go.”
“Oh, no. I’m definitely going to achieve it all. I just have to readjust things.”
“I understand. Now, tell me why you’re wanting the safest place for your mate and her kids. What’s that situation?”
Ronan sighed. “I honestly don’t know it all. But I know that she’s terrified to let anybody in. I barely convinced her to have dinner with me earlier this evening. If she hadn’t realized my mother is my mother, I don’t think she would have.”
“You’re kinda getting ahead of yourself, then, don’t you think?”
“No, I don’t think that. I think that preparation is the best plan in all things. Even in this.”
“Alright. Tell me what else you know about her situation.”
“One of her boys told me that ‘Daddy hurt Mommy’.”
“Ohhh. Okay. So we got some killing to do,” Brandt said.
“Yep.”
“What else?”
“She was trying to convince me that I didn’t want to be anywhere around her. She said that if they’re found things could get really dangerous, hoping that it would keep me away. She also said that she’s afraid to even enroll the boys in school because if she does she’s afraid they’d be found.”
“So, she ran from their father, presumably her husband, and she’s been in hiding ever since,” Brandt said.
“That’s my take on it,” Ronan said.
“And she don’t know she’s yours.”
“Not yet. I was trying to earn her trust, or at the very least her tolerance before I did the whole, ‘You’re mine and I will not take no for answer’ thing. I figured an obsessed male is the last thing she needs to contend with. Not that I’m obsessed, but I’m kind of obsessed, you know what I mean?” Ronan said.
“Only too well.”
“What’s plan B if plan A goes to shit?”
“I don’t really have one. I’m thinking I’ll move them into Remi’s with me, and we’ll just go from there.”
“That’s not plan B. That’s what you’re planning regardless, to have them there until your house is ready, right?”
“Yeah.”
“What are you going to do if she gets spooked and runs? What are you going to do if her husband finds them?”
