She didn’t want to think about that, no matter how much she wanted to believe it was for the best.
She scooped a portion of the fresh-baked casserole onto a plate for Riley, then added a spoonful of applesauce and a couple of florets of steamed broccoli. She had no delusions that the green veggies would pass his lips without a good deal of cajoling, but she figured it was always worth a shot to try.
With a glass of chocolate milk to complete the meal, Leni pushed open the swinging door with her hip and stepped out to the dining room with both hands full.
At that same moment, two men approached the diner’s entrance from a large gold SUV in the parking lot. She didn’t have to see the Parrish & Sons logo on the side of the vehicle to know who it belonged to. Leni recognized Enoch Parrish’s bent, wiry frame even before he lifted his gray head and scowling face.
The younger man accompanying him looked vastly different than she recalled.
Travis Parrish had gone away to prison a tall and trim, slope-shouldered twenty-five-year-old. He was returning home twice as thick and bulky with weight-trained muscles. His rich brown hair was shorn tight against his skull and flecked with silver now, evidence of a difficult existence these past several years. But his face was unmistakable.
So was the flat, dark gaze that found her through the glass of the diner’s front door.
Some cowardly part of her urged her to drop what she held in her hands and rush to bar the door before they could get in. But it was already too late for that anyway. The bells over the entrance gave a jaunty clamor as Shannon’s convicted assailant and his sneering, elderly father came inside.
A handful of the locals turned to greet Travis like an old friend or a favored son. Maybe it was unfair for her to wish everyone despised the Parrishes as she did. To most of the town, they represented not only the founding family but the largest employer when the timber business had been booming. The Parrishes continued to bankroll various businesses and charitable causes in the county. They had been flexing their wealth and power for generations, and there were few who would cross them, even now.
Still, watching Travis stroll into her establishment to shake hands with her customers as if he belonged there—as if he hadn’t been sent away for nearly killing her sister—set Leni’s teeth on edge.
She put the plate and glass of milk down on the countertop near the cash register, her gaze wary and guarded. She didn’t know whether to demand the two of them leave, or let them see that she wasn’t going to be easily intimidated.
She chose the latter, at the same time praying they would go before Riley came out of the restroom.
Someone seated farther down at the counter called out to Enoch. “Heard what happened to Dwight the other night. Attacked by a goddamn vamp? What’s the world coming to when we’ve got bloodsuckers pushing this far north?”
“My boy’s doing just fine, considering,” the elder Parrish said, swiveling his narrow gaze on Leni behind the register. “As for the creature that attacked him, we’re gonna be ready for the bastard next time he dares show his face again.”
Leni wanted to laugh at the sheer bravado of the statement. There was nothing Enoch Parrish and all three of his sons combined could do to Knox before he eviscerated every last one of them. She held the old man’s gaze, refusing to let him cow her.
Another man chimed in from a booth near the door. “Takes more than a near brush with death to slow Dwight down. I passed him and Jeb driving a load of timber toward the border on my way into town this morning. They were hauling ass too, nearly plowed right into me.”
Travis, who’d been busy basking in the welcome from some of the patrons, now swung a glance at his father.
Something peculiar flickered in the old man’s eyes, but he shuttered it with a slow blink and a flattened smile directed at the local man who spoke. “We had an order that needed filling right away.”
“Must’ve been important to brave the awful road conditions out that way.”
Enoch chuckled dryly. “Money doesn’t wait for good weather.”
The man laughed. “Amen to that.”
“Besides, Dwight has a vehicle to replace now.” The Parrish patriarch turned his attention back to Leni. “What we ought to do is press charges against the Breed male who attacked him. Unless you can think of a reason we shouldn’t.”
“Maybe I should press charges against Dwight for running me off the road earlier that night. Whatever he claims Knox did to him, he had it coming.”
With the diner buzzing with conversation now, Enoch moved closer to the register where she stood. Skewering her in a stare that made her skin crawl, he lowered his voice to a soft murmur. “He’s gotten to you, hasn’t he, girl? That blood-drinker. He got his fangs into you already. Or was it something else he stuck in you?”
Leni bristled. “How dare you speak to me like that? You’re disgusting.”
“No, Lenora. You are. What you’re doing with that subhuman ain’t right. It goes against nature.” He licked his thin, cracked lips. “I’m sure I could find a judge who agrees with me. One who’ll also agree that kind of environment’s not good for a child.”
The weight of the threat gave her pause. She knew Enoch Parrish would have no qualms about paying for a verdict in his favor. No judges worthy of their robes would rule that way, but there were others willing to bend laws for the right price. She had no doubt the Parrishes knew exactly who they could call.
Travis sauntered over, pausing beside his father. “Been a while, Leni.”
“Not long enough. I can’t believe they let you out early.”
His face hardened. “Well, they did. And things are going to change around here now that I’m home. All I’ve thought about these past six years is my son.”
