Shattered

“Can we bring our dog here, too?” Lucky asked.

“And our cat?” Chance added.

Shaw glanced quickly at Kate. “You have a dog and a cat?”

“We got them for our birthday last year,” Lucky said. “We had them with us at Jack’s ranch while Mom was in the hospital. Jack’s mom and dad, Uncle Frank and Aunt Rose, have been taking care of them for us. Harley and Scratch were supposed to come home this weekend. They must be missing us like crazy—”

“Because we’re missing them,” Chance finished for his brother. “Please say they can come stay with us here.”

“I don’t see why that couldn’t be arranged,” Shaw said. “If it’s all right with your mother.”

“She doesn’t mind, do you, Mom?” Lucky said.

“She loves Harley and Scratch,” Chance said.

“Harley and Scratch?” Shaw repeated, eyeing Kate dubiously.

“Harley’s our black Lab,” Lucky said. “He runs really fast, like our dad’s Harley-Davidson motorcycle.”

“And Scratch…” Chance exchanged a chagrined look with Lucky, then glanced up at Shaw. “Well, you can guess how she got her name.”

Shaw laughed. “I can’t wait to meet them.”

Kate was beginning to understand there was far greater danger in having her sons spend time with Shaw than she’d ever imagined. He was going to spoil them rotten by giving them anything and everything their hearts desired. Including the attention from a father figure they were soaking up right now like sunshine.

He was going to make them love him.

They were never going to want to leave.

Several times since this journey had started, Kate had contemplated grabbing the twins and running as far and as fast as she could. But even now, the giant who’d introduced himself as the children’s bodyguard followed in a smaller black limo behind them. There was no escape from this nightmare.

At least, not yet. She wrapped her hand around the cell phone in her Levi’s pocket. She’d secretly tucked it there when she was packing. As soon as she had a moment alone, she was going to call Jack and tell him everything.

He would understand. And he would help her…if he could. Kate wasn’t sure how Jack’s undercover assignment was going to affect his ability to intervene. Especially in light of the fact the twins were Wyatt Shaw’s biological sons.

She and her sons were captives for the moment, but Shaw wasn’t going to be able to keep them behind these walls for long. The boys had to go to school. And Shaw had promised she could work. There would be opportunities for escape.

It might take some planning, but Wyatt Shaw would discover that she had weapons of her own with which to fight the war between them. Her grandfathers would help her. And her father and mother. And Jack would be there for her…when he wasn’t taking care of his wife and son.

Kate felt sick. Did she dare bring the wrath of Wyatt Shaw down on her family? Or on Jack?

Maybe the best thing to do was wait Shaw out. Being a father was a novelty right now. How would he react if the two little boys got sick all over his carpet or were cranky because they were feverish? He might not find it so much fun playing parent when the twins turned stubborn and defiant. How would he respond if they were mischievous? Or downright mean to him? All of which she’d experienced with her sons in their short lives.

Once Shaw realized what being a parent was really all about, he might be as anxious to be rid of the twins as he’d been to have them come and live with him.

She could always hope.

The limo rolled to a stop in front of a sprawling, single-story house with white adobe walls and a red, barrel-tiled roof. Shaw’s home was half-hidden by flowering bougainvillea and draped by gnarled live oaks that provided cool shade from the hot Texas sun.

Kate looked for windows, but didn’t see any. She felt her heartbeat ratchet up. How could anyone bear to live in a place so shut off from the light? She would feel suffocated in a house like that.

A barrel-chested man in a long-sleeved plaid, western-cut shirt, worn blue jeans and cowboy boots opened the door to the limo and stood back as Shaw got out, the boys tumbling after him. Her sons headed straight for the German shepherd sitting beside him.

Kate’s heart was in her throat, afraid the large dog would snap at them. When Shaw reached a hand back inside for her, she took it as the fastest way to get out of the limo.

“Be careful!” she warned the boys.

“Wolf won’t hurt ’em, ma’am,” the heavyset man said.

Despite his dangerous-sounding name, the dog sat unruffled as her sons “oohed” and “aahed” and ran their hands over his furred head and back.

“This is Micah,” Shaw said, introducing the man to Kate. “He takes care of the house. He’s a terrific cook.”

“Good to see you, Boss.” The hired man turned to Kate and said, “You need anything at all, ma’am, just let me know.”

“Thank you,” Kate said.

Micah excused himself to help Bruce with their bags, which were in the trunk of the second limo. Wolf rose and followed him.

“Let’s go inside,” Shaw said to the twins. “I’ll show you your rooms.”

As though it was the most natural thing in the world, he slid an arm around Kate’s waist and headed down the winding walkway that led to the front door. She went with him willingly, because her other choice was to make a scene in front of her sons.

The boys hop-skipped on the lush lawn beside Shaw to keep up with his long strides.

“You said rooms, Shaw,” Lucky pointed out. “Does that mean I don’t have to share a room with Chance?”

“Is that all right with you?” Shaw asked.

“It sure is!” Lucky backpedaled beside Kate as he crowed, “Mom, I’m gonna have a room of my own!”

“Me, too!” Chance shouted, running in circles on the lawn with his hands held out like an airplane.

Kate made a distressed sound that Shaw must have heard because he leaned close and said, “Any reason why that isn’t a good idea? I just thought—”

“It’s a fine idea,” she snapped. “Any other wishes you plan to fulfill while we’re here?”

“As many as I can,” he snapped back. “I’ve got a lot of making up to do, as you well know.”

“You’re going to spoil them, Shaw.”

“By giving them their own rooms?”

“And bringing their horses and their dog and their cat here.”

“That doesn’t sound like a hell of a lot,” he said. “I would have liked to be the one to give them their first horse. Or their first dog.”

“Or their first cat?”

“I hate cats.”

Kate couldn’t help it. She laughed.

“What’s so funny, Mom?” Lucky asked.

“I tickled your mother’s funny bone,” Shaw said.

“I know Mom’s really ticklish in the ribs,” Chance said. “I didn’t know she had a funny bone. Where is it?”

She looked helplessly at Shaw and laughed harder. It beat the heck out of crying.

Shaw chuckled. “I’ll show you sometime.” He opened the door to his home and gestured his sons inside.

Kate saw why there were no windows on the outside. The interior walls in the U-shaped house were made of windows that brought the outdoors inside. The patio in the center of the courtyard was shaded by a giant oak and graced with a waterfall burbling over stones into a pond dotted with blooming white water lilies.

Kate watched her sons move through Shaw’s earth-toned bachelor living room, past the saddle-leather, man-size chairs and the plush, man-length couch, both situated in front of a stone fireplace that ran up to the cathedral ceiling, as though they were bird dogs hunting down the scent of a covey of quail.

They touched everything, the odd-shaped lamps, the Hopi Indian dolls, the pillows on the couch, letting their curiosity take them from item to item. They scuffed their feet across the colorfully patterned rug.

She waited for Shaw to tell them to back off, not to handle this, to leave that alone. But he said nothing. She searched his face, trying to discern what he was feeling. But he had his emotions well contained.

When the boys finally headed down a wide hallway off the living room, he followed them as though he were attached by an invisible string. She thought he might have forgotten she was there, so entranced was he with his sons.

She stood bemused for a moment, wondering if she should follow him or stay where she was.

He returned to the doorway and said, “The bedrooms are down this hall.”

He waited for her, and she was grateful the hallway was wide enough for her to walk beside him without touching. She saw the boys had stopped and waited for him.

“Which room is mine?” Lucky asked.

“Which one is mine?” Chance asked.

“This is yours,” he said to Lucky, pointing through a doorway. “And this is yours,” he said to Chance, indicating the doorway next to it.

At first Kate thought there was a mirror in the wall between the two rooms. Then she realized that a double door had been cut in the wall between the two rooms, and that they were mirror images of each other. The boys could shut the door between their rooms for privacy, or leave it open if they wanted to play together.

While Kate watched, the two boys met in the doorway, then turned and grinned at Shaw, acknowledging the perfect beauty of the connecting doorway. Then they turned again to explore their separate rooms, which each held a twin bed, an end table and lamp and a desk with a computer. Flatscreen TVs hung on the wall of each boy’s room, with a DVD player on a table beneath it stacked with many of the same movies she’d seen on the plane.

Kate smelled fresh paint. “When did you do all this?”

“I had a doorway cut between the rooms the day I found out about the twins.”

Kate felt a shiver run down her spine. He’d planned this moment. He’d intended to have his sons living here. This was no vacation he’d organized for them. This was forever.

Kate glanced up at Shaw and at last saw some of the emotions he’d been so careful to hide. Triumph. And satisfaction.

“I hope my room is near the boys.” So she could grab them when the time came and make her escape.

“You’re sleeping in here.” He opened the door to the room at the end of the hall and waited for her to enter.

Kate’s heart skipped a beat when she realized he’d invited her into what was clearly his bedroom. A mystery novel lay half-read facedown on the end table. A picture of a woman with a young boy who she thought might be Shaw and his mother sat atop the chest of drawers. A shiny pair of black lizard cowboy boots, one a fallen soldier, sat at the base of a wardrobe.

“What is this?” she demanded.

“Didn’t I mention it? You’ll be sleeping with me.”

9

When the boys began to bicker, Kate knew they were finally exhausted from the excitement of the day.

“Time for bed,” she said.

“Aw, Mom,” Chance said.

“I’m not tired,” Lucky argued.

“Showers. Now.”

“Do we have to, Shaw?” Lucky asked.

Kate was incensed that her son was looking to a stranger for permission. “Yes, you have to,” she said sharply.

“You heard your mother,” Shaw said.

Kate realized it wasn’t until Shaw confirmed her demand that her sons obeyed her and trotted off to take showers in the bathroom across the hall. “I can handle this,” she told Shaw, hoping he’d take the hint and leave.

“Let me stay.”

He didn’t plead, just stood there looking vulnerable. And virile. She knew she was being a fool. He was manipulating her again, using her soft heart against her. She put herself in his shoes and imagined what it would be like to discover you had two children you’d never known existed. How you’d want to be a part of everything they did from now on. It would take someone more cruel than she was to exclude him.

But that meant she was going to have to share the bedtime ritual she performed each night with her sons. She fought back the jealousy she felt. Her sons craved a father, and Jack had taken himself out of the picture for the next four months. She should be grateful Shaw was willing to step into the role.

“All right. Stay,” she said.

“What should I do?”

She was amazed that a man as powerful as Wyatt Shaw could look so helpless. She retrieved a pair of boy’s white briefs and a set of Batman pajamas out of the overnight bag she’d brought and handed them to him. “When Lucky comes out of the shower, dry him off and put these on him.”

It occurred to her suddenly that Shaw might not know which twin was Lucky. She hadn’t yet heard him address either one by name. She eyed him askance, wondering whether he would be able to tell which twin was which, since they were truly identical physically.

A moment later, the boys came running into the bedroom, naked and shrieking, towels flying behind them, tracking wet footprints on the tile floor.

Shaw turned to her, scowling, and said, “You had them circumcised?”

Kate had a sudden vision of a naked Shaw, who wasn’t. J.D. had insisted on it. Flustered, she said, “Yes. And it’s too late to undo it now. So live with it!”

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