Atonement (The Protectors #6)(11)

I'd always loved coming home after a long day at work, even on the days when my personal life was a fucking mess. Between my ex-wife and Jenna's battles with addiction, the house carried a lot of bad memories, but somehow I'd managed to hang on to the good ones too. My wife and I had bought the place a few months after getting married and before Jenna had arrived. She'd hated the old farmhouse style 3-bedroom house from the beginning, deeming it outdated and too far from civilization. But that was exactly what had appealed to me about the ten-acre property. I'd spent enough of my childhood in shitty apartments and around the dregs of society to last a lifetime and it had been the last thing I'd wanted for my child. I'd asked my wife, Melissa, to give the place a shot and had promised we'd move to the city if she still felt the same after a couple of years. But by the time that deadline had come and gone, I'd known my marriage was doomed to fail and I hadn't bothered to extend the offer again. It wouldn't have mattered anyway since Mel had been spending most of her time in the city anyway.

I pulled the rental car to a stop in front of the wraparound porch and took in the sight of the two empty rocking chairs that had been one of the first things Mel and I had bought when we'd moved in. I'd had high hopes for those chairs, but more often than not, it had just been me nursing a beer as I'd watched the sun set. But I'd never gotten rid of the second chair … not after Mel had left, not even after Jenna had disappeared. I didn't really have a good reason why.

"It's nice," I heard Dante murmur.

I chuckled. "Calling me Magnus three times today and now this," I said as I motioned to my run-down house. There was nothing "nice" about the peeling blue paint, loose and broken shutters and unkempt landscaping. While I hadn't meant the comment to be negative, Dante definitely took it that way because there was a flash of disappointment in his gaze before he extinguished it all together.

"Whatever, Pop-pop," he snapped before getting out of the car and slamming the door behind him.

"Dante," I called, but he didn't respond. By the time I got out of the car and called to him again, he had his gun out and was walking towards the side of the house.

"Gonna check the perimeter," he muttered.

So much for the truce we'd somehow managed to reach.



       
         
       
        

"Fuck," I muttered as I slammed the door closed and trudged towards the house. I pulled out my phone, dialed, and waited for Colton to pick up.

"Hey, it's me," I said.

"Hey, you here?"

"Yeah," I said. I'd texted Colton the previous night from the hotel to let him know I was in town, but I hadn't told him about the trial. As far as he was concerned, I had only returned to pack up the house and put it on the market. While my identity had been kept from the media in regards to the trial, I was going to tell Colton the truth in case the press got wind of who the primary witness against the powerful defendant really was. I'd rather he heard it from me than the news media.

"I'll head over."

"No, hold off," I said as I watched Dante disappear around the side of the house. "How about you come over for dinner tonight?"

"Sure, sounds good. I had Bess grab you some groceries when she went shopping yesterday."

Bess was Colton's wife of nearly twenty-five years.

"Thanks. Tell her I'm looking forward to seeing her tonight."

"She actually went to Dallas for a couple weeks  –  her dad's been sick."

I nodded to myself in understanding. The man had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer just before I'd left for Seattle and I suspected he didn't have a lot of time left. While Colton couldn't leave their ranch for extended periods of time, I had no doubt Bess made the trek to Dallas whenever she could. The couple hadn't been blessed with children, but Colton's wife had numerous nieces and nephews to spoil. "Well, tell her thank you and I hope he's feeling better soon."

"I will. See you around six?"

"Yep, that's good." I hung up and then forced myself to walk up the porch stairs. My hand was actually shaking as I pulled the house key from my pocket.

Fuck, I didn't want to do this. I didn't want to fucking say goodbye to my girl. But the second I walked through this door, I'd be doing that.

I clenched the key in my fist and leaned my head against the door for a moment as I tried to get control of my emotions. It was a house, nothing more. I was here to pack it up so I could put the past behind me and start anew.

Except it was so much more than just a house. It was the place my daughter had first called me "Daddy." Every room held so many memories of her … the living room where she'd taken her first steps, the kitchen where she'd always stand on a chair next to the counter to help me cook dinner when she'd still been too short to reach it on her own, the staircase she'd tumbled down after trying to "drive" an empty laundry basket down the carpeted steps … her bedroom where I'd tucked her in night after night and read her stories. The same bedroom I'd said my last words to her in. 

I felt tears stinging my eyes as I shoved that particular memory away.

A shiver crept up my spine as I sensed I was no longer alone. I glanced over my shoulder to see Dante watching me from near the bottom of the porch stairs, his expression full of worry. I had no idea how long he'd been watching me for or how long I'd been standing there like that, but as the embarrassment at having been caught in such a weak moment flowed through me, I steeled my spine and jammed the key into the door. I left it open behind me, not caring whether Dante chose to follow me or not. I was too damn tired to deal with him.

The house smelled musty, but it was surprisingly clean. My guess was that I had Bess to thank for that. When I'd asked Colton to keep an eye on my property, I'd meant the basics like checking that the house was secure and keeping an eye on my horses. Since Colton was a busy man, I'd hired a local girl, a friend of Jenna's actually, to come out every day to care for the two horses I owned.

I hadn't thought to grab my bag before coming into the house, so I decided to do a quick walk through. I ignored the uncomfortable sensation sliding along my skin and went into the kitchen to check out the contents of the fridge. Not surprisingly, it was fully stocked and there was even a bag of ground coffee sitting next to my coffee maker. The blessed woman had thought of everything. I walked through the kitchen and past the mudroom that had a door leading out to the backyard. The lower half of the house was basically a big circle so I didn't need to backtrack as I checked out the living room, den and office. I didn't miss the fact that the few plants I had in the house were alive and I realized Bess must have been dropping by on a regular basis to keep them watered.

I didn't see Dante as I reached the front hallway and figured he'd stayed outside. I headed up the stairs where all the bedrooms were. My plan was to head directly to my bedroom, but when I looked to my right at the top of the stairs and saw the doors to Jenna and Matty's rooms open, I hesitated. I'd kept both rooms closed off after Jenna had run away and I was a little surprised that Bess had gone into either room. I walked to Matty's room and glanced into it, but unlike the downstairs, there was a thin layer of dust covering everything.

So, Bess hadn't cleaned the rooms.

Strange that the doors were open. Had she just been curious and taken a look around, forgetting to close the doors again? She hadn't been particularly close to Matty or Jenna, so it seemed odd that she'd want to see their rooms.

I shook my head. Didn't matter. I spared the inside of Matty's room a quick glance and marveled at how my grandson had changed in the two years since he'd lived in the room. The wall was painted a robin's egg shade of blue and there were a few pictures on the walls depicting cars and trains. They matched the bedspread on the twin bed against one wall and there were dozens of toys littering the floor … like Matty had been in the middle of playing when time had come to a grinding halt and his comfortable childhood had been snatched from him. His dresser drawers were pulled open and a few clothes were scattered on the floor around it, proof that Jenna had been in a hurry when she'd packed up his things.

There was nothing in the room that reflected who Matty was now. No superhero dolls, window coverings or bedding set. No Avengers coloring books, no Spiderman posters. I absently wondered if my grandson would have discovered his inner superhero obsession if it hadn't been for Tate and his Spiderman doll that had made Matty feel safe in a time when his entire world had been turned upside down. Tate had told me how Matty hadn't spoken to him in the days after he'd taken the little boy with him as he'd fled Lulling. Spiderman had bridged the gap and it was only recently that Matty had gifted the beloved doll to another little boy who'd needed it more.



       
         
       
        

I smiled as the pride for my grandson surged. I'd messed up with Jenna, but I'd done the right thing by Matty. Yeah, there'd been a part of me that had immediately wanted to bring Matty home when I'd learned he was alive, but within minutes of seeing my grandson with the man who'd saved him, as well as Hawke who'd only recently come into their lives, I'd known he was exactly where he was supposed to be.