Without Regret
Page 16

Thankfully the judge had been computer illiterate at the time and couldn’t fathom a young child doing the damage the team of highly paid lawyers was accusing her of. Granted the next five judges had a hard time thinking it was a coincidence, but then again they didn’t have any real evidence against her, which really was a blessing since the public defenders she kept getting stuck with didn’t really seem to know what they were doing. Even she had to admit that it was a little unnerving when they kept mumbling, “oh my god, oh my god” over and over again during the trial.
She’d learned quickly not to expect much from any of the public defenders assigned to her. Although she really wished they’d been able to get her out on bail, not that her parents would have forked over the money.
Unfortunately for her she seemed to fit in less at juvenile hall than she had at school, which really shouldn’t have surprised anyone. Short, smart mouthed computer geeks really didn’t do well with large girls who liked to entertain themselves by playing, “Beat the crap out of the nerd.”
Thankfully she’d learned during her second stay at Juvie that she fit quite nicely behind one of the bookcases in the small library, which was a good thing since her mouth constantly seemed to get her in trouble. The only thing that she would agree with Chris was that she was pretty fast, but then again anyone who had to run away from a girl nicknamed Big Bertha would have to be.
“You’re not really buying any of this are you?” Chris asked, breaking into her thoughts with a heavy semi annoyed sigh, making her wonder what she’d missed, but not actually caring enough to ask him to repeat himself.
“Would you let me go if I said yes?” she asked, trying not to sound too hopeful.
His eyes narrowed on her as he let out, in her opinion, an adorable little growl that would probably scare the hell out of most women. She really needed to get the hell out of here before she did something stupid like blush.
“Why don’t we go talk out in the hall?” Ephraim suggested, gesturing for Chris to follow him out into the hall.
With one last look of annoyance in her direction, Chris stood up and reluctantly followed his “father” out of the room, giving her a good view of a rather delicious butt and golden back muscles that she couldn’t seem to take her eyes off of. Thankfully the sound of the door closing caught her attention.
Her eyebrows shot up in disbelief as she looked around the empty sitting room. Did they really think she was going to sit here and wait for them? She inwardly snorted at that as she crawled over the arm of the couch and headed over to the open window. Even though they were on the first floor it was a bit of a drop to the ground from the window. They probably had a deep basement, she decided as she carefully raised the screen as she kept an eye on the door.
By the time they realized what she did she’d be long gone, she thought with a smug little smile.
Chapter 7
“This isn’t working,” Chris said as soon as the door shut behind him.
Ephraim shook his head as he leaned back against the banister. “No, it’s not.”
“She doesn’t believe a word that I’m saying and I haven’t even gotten to the f**ked up stuff yet,” Chris said, feeling exhausted. “If I go back in there and tell her the rest she’s going to resist.”
“I could show her what I really am,” Ephraim offered.
Chris considered the offer for all about twenty seconds before he shook his head. “I don’t want her afraid of you or Madison.” Anyone else and he would have been on board with that game plan, but this was his mate. He needed her brought up to speed quickly so she could take her place by his side in protecting his family.
“She’s going to have to find out about us,” his father pointed out.
“I know,” Chris sighed, rubbing the back of his neck, “but I’d rather she know that you and Madison play on our team. I think the best thing is for her to meet the enemy first.”
“She already has,” Ephraim said, suddenly tilting his head to the side, lips twitching with amusement.
Chris didn’t have to ask to know that his father heard something. He also didn’t need to ask what was going on since he had a pretty good idea of what he heard and headed for the front door with his father keeping pace right beside him.
“Eric told me that she really hasn’t had much of a reaction to any of this, well except being stubborn,”
Ephraim said.
Chris had noticed that and really hadn’t given it much thought until now. But now that he thought about it, it was kind of odd. From what he knew, she’d been attacked this morning. The knowledge that some f**king leech had put his fangs in his mate had nearly sent him into a rage. It pissed him off that the bastard died. He would have loved to make an example out of the ass**le.
But as a woman who knew nothing of their world he would have understood if she freaked out a little bit, well maybe not a lot. She was his mate after all. There was no doubt in his mind that he’d been fortunate to be paired with a strong woman who may look fragile on the outside, but was probably a little ass kicker on the inside. No doubt she’d had a shock this morning and was in for several more tonight, but she was handling it like a f**king pro. She was just the type of woman he wanted to help guard his family, but he still needed to tread lightly. He wanted her brought into their world quickly with as little difficulty as possible.
“How did Madison react when she found out?” he asked, opening the front door and heading to the left.
“She threw biscuits at me and tried to keep me hostage in the shower,” Ephraim said with a careless shrug.
Okay………
“Not really helpful, Dad.”
Ephraim chuckled. “Sorry. All I can say is that everyone reacts differently. Madison became curious and a thorn in my side. You were too afraid for Madison’s safety to really allow yourself to become afraid and by the time we had our talk you were more receptive to what I had to tell you.”
“Well,” Chris drawled, “pouring blood down your throat and watching you recover in a couple of hours after having your throat ripped out and your heart blown out of your chest probably had something to do with that.”
“Probably,” Ephraim agreed, noticeably cringing, probably from the memory of attacking Madison, Chris decided. It had been one of the most important and by far the scariest nights of his life. Oddly enough he’d never truly been afraid for his own safety. Not that he was one of those people who thought nothing bad could ever happen to him. Fuck no. If anything he just didn’t give a rat’s ass. At the time he’d been scared shitless that something was going to happen to Madison.
Back then Madison had been a new teacher at his high school and stuck with all the bullshit duties like watching over ass**les like him in detention. Almost from the start he felt an odd connection to her, which kind of scared the shit out of him since he hadn’t liked or trusted many people at the time. There had just been something different about her that made him relax. He wasn’t sure if it was because she didn’t suck up and play favorites with the rich kids and treat the losers like they were a waste of her time or maybe it was because she didn’t treat him like he was a waste of space.
She was the first teacher who ever told him that he was pissing her off because he wouldn’t get his ass in gear and use the brain she accused him of having. The rest of the teachers accused him being nothing but white trailer trash and made bets on when he would drop out of high school, knock some girl up, when he would go to prison the first time and what his criminal vocation would be. He was kind of insulted that the running favorite had been drug dealer.