Nolan by Kathi S. Barton Page B

read your mind too.” Rylee took that better than she might have under the
circumstances. “Also, you should know that the moment you entered into this
relationship with Nolan, you became what he is. Not the panther part of him,
but the rest.”
    “The rest?” No one answered Rylee, but she
got up to pace. “My nephew, he’s going to have to be made safe above anything
that prick might…that man might do to me.”
    Reggie thought it was funny that Rylee
immediately curbed her language. When the monitor in her pocket made a noise,
she excused herself and stood up. Gracie said she’d go too, and they left to
get her daughters. Reggie both hated and loved nap time. She missed them while
they were down, but needed them to take a nap so she could rest too. They were
such a joy to have, but exhausting. When she and Katie came back, each of them
with one of the girls in their arms, it looked as if the other women had gotten
no further than they had before she’d left them.
    As Rylee paced the room, Alexis and Anne were
played with. Reggie was sure that Rylee would have a lot of questions, but for
now, she seemed to be content to walk off her frustrations. When she stopped
and turned to her, she felt her cat stir at her skin.
    “You’re not going to shift, are you?” The
fact that she was aware that she might have shifted startled Reggie. She’d been
told that only another paranormal could tell that, and maybe a few humans. When
she told her that she wasn’t, but her cat was a little nervous, Rylee nodded
before continuing. “I’m guessing that one or all of you know what Shane and I
have been going through?”
    “Yes. Joey told Micah what he’d been able to
find on you when he took the case, and he told us so that we’d be better
equipped to help out. Nolan also talked to Mrs. Jacobs at the hospital. About
your ex-brother-in-law. David Cole is on our list, too.” Rylee snorted at her. “You
don’t believe me?”
    “Oh, I believe that you know about some of
the stuff we’ve been going through, and maybe Chris knows a lot more, but what you
don’t know is that I’m a total screw up at this parenting thing.” Gracie asked
her who told her that. “Shane. Not so much in words, but have you seen what
that bas…that guy did to him? Beat him up, and I went on like nothing was going
on.”
    “You cannot fix what you’re unaware of.” Again,
Rylee snorted, at Katie this time. “My husband does that. I would think that
you taught him, but he’s been doing it a good deal more and more lately. I
don’t care for it any more from you than I do him. If you have a comment or
something profound to say, then please do so. But we have work to do and we
need your help to get it done.”
    “I’ve spent the last eleven years of my life
in the service, ma’am. I have said more things, done more than that, than most
people do in a lifetime. And right now I’m trying to be a mother to a
motherless boy and doing a really shitty job of it.” Rylee stretched her neck
and it popped twice before she looked at Katie. “Had I a single clue what the
hell I was doing, none of this would have happened and we’d be living out our
lives on the edge of disaster without the Bentleys being aware of it.”
    “Oh no, that’s not true. Sooner or later you
and Nolan would have met.” Chris smiled at Rylee when she asked her how. “The
fates. They have a hand in most of our lives, and more in that of a shifter. You
were meant to be his mate, and no matter how much you would have tried to avoid
it, you still would have been mates.”
    “And if I hadn’t been there, you’re saying
that something else would have brought us together?” Chris nodded. “Well, I
call it bullshit. I think everyone has choices, and mine is to be without a
mate.”
    “Yeah, well, it’s a little too late for that,
my dear.” Katie stood up and laid the baby on the bed before looking directly
at Rylee. “You are doing a wonderful job, my dear. And Shane