Page 13 of Unhinged Kallie

Kallie looked up at me, and her big blue eyes were sad. “I’m sorry I disappointed you, Daddy,” she said.

Carter wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and before I could correct her, he did it for me. “Your dad’s not upset with you. He’s mad at the school. You did the right thing. If I’d been there, I would’ve done it too,” he said, and my eyebrow went up at that.

Very interesting indeed.

Reaching out, I laid my hand over her much smaller one. “Carter is right, Angel, but if it ever happens again…”

“I know, just let him,” she said, and I shook my head.

“No, Angel, you stab him when no one can see you.” I smiled and patted her hand. “Who wants hog dogs for dinner?”

* * *

SIX MONTHS LATER

How was it possible that two humans so small could create such a mess? Kirby laughed at me as I followed behind Kallie and Carter like a human mop. What had come of my life? I used to have order and cleanliness. The house was quiet, but now it was always noisy with thumping feet, music, or whatever other child noises Kallie, Carter, Troy, and Talon made. It felt like I was managing a zoo with feral cats that had taken a dose of speed while sniffing cocaine.

“Uncle Cain!” Talon’s shrill voice screamed outside, and a shiver raced down my spine. The scream was followed by bawling, and I was on the run, bursting through the screen door and leaping over the banister to land on the driveway, running toward the sound.

“Let go of me!” Kallie screamed.

“Let go of her!” Carter yelled.

“Get off of me, you fucking brat,” an unknown male voice growled.

My feet raced faster down the driveway toward the yelling and Talon’s hysterical crying. Looking over my shoulder, Abel was coming behind me. What were they doing this far down the driveway? They knew the rules. It was forbidden. And where was Aspen? She was supposed to be looking out for them.

I wasn’t prepared for the rage that consumed my body as the scene at the end of the driveway opened before me.

Talon was on the side of the road screaming and crying while their dog Brunhilda—who was very obviously dead—was laid across her lap while the car that struck her was at the end of the driveway.

It wasn’t the car or the dog that had me seeing red. It was the man standing outside it with the back door open, holding Kallie in the air while both Carter and Troy hung onto his legs. He didn’t see me, but I sure as fuck saw him smack Carter across the face. Carter yelled but hung on tighter, and to his credit, he bit the man’s leg. Apparently, biting was a popular thing to do on this property.

“Ah,” he screamed.

“Out of the way,” I yelled, and as soon as Carter and Troy saw me, they jumped to their feet and backed away. It was at that moment, as the man looked up and we locked eyes that he realized his error.

“Oh shit,” he said, dropping Kallie, but it was too late. I wasn’t stopping, and before he could jump back into the driver’s seat, I dropped my shoulder and ran into him at full speed. The momentum cracked his head off the door frame, and he fell to the ground out cold. I stood there seething, staring down at the man who had just sealed his fate.

I was shaking with the adrenaline and knowledge that this man almost took my child. I hunted men like him now, and one of them had nearly taken my Angel. No one touched her, and he would die slowly and painfully for as long as I could keep his sorry ass alive.

“No, not Brunhilda,” Abel said, dropping to the ground, holding his daughter, who was still bawling.

Something touched my hand, and I looked down to see Kallie with her eyes full of tears and a scrape on her cheek like she’d been struck.

“Keep it together, brother,” Abel said, and it was the first time in my life that I was the one on the edge of insanity and needed to be pulled back.

“Where was Aspen?” I growled.

“She went inside to take the pie out of the oven. That was it,” he said.

“That better be the only reason. If I find out, you kept her in the house longer….” Bending down, I picked up Kallie, who wrapped her arms around my neck. “You will be finding somewhere else to live if you want to remain breathing, brother.”

“I swear, I didn’t.” The look in his eyes was one I didn’t see often, but when I did, I knew he was telling me the truth, and I nodded.

“Daddy?”

“Yes, Angel?”