PS02 - Without Regret (48 page)

many times any of them explained to her that her family could never return there. It was too dangerous now that Marc’s

existence had been discovered and there wasn’t a doubt in his mind about that since the attack had been focused on the little

boy.

They were all beyond lucky that Chris had taught the boy how to defend himself. If he hadn’t…….

He didn’t even want to think of what could have happened if Marc hadn’t fought the attack off. His eyes strayed to the dark

angry scab lines that marred the little boy’s neck and he had to force himself to calm the hell down before he scared the little

boy. Marc didn’t need to know how angry or frightened he was that this happened.

“Mom said we’d meet Grandma for vacations at Disneyworld and stuff, but I’d rather have Grandma with me every day,” Marc

mumbled as he looked down at his sneakers and Eric wished he could fix it, but Mrs.

Buckman had made it very clear that she was not letting some shifter run her out of her home. He suspected that it had more to

do with her age and not wanting to hold back her family, but she’d never admit that.

“It will be fine, Marc. We’ll find a new home, maybe travel, it will be great,” Joshua said, putting on a smile for his little

brother when they both knew they wouldn’t be traveling anywhere for quite some time or finding a new home, at least not with

this war going on.

“I miss Chris. When is he coming back?” Marc asked and Eric wasn’t surprised. Chris was the boy’s best friend.

It was just another reminder of how foolish Chris was acting. He didn’t know the reasons behind it, but he wasn’t going to

allow Chris to fuck up and ruin his life.

After everything Chris had gone through he deserved a little happiness. Now if he could just figure out a way to make sure that

he got it without every Sentinel on earth paying the price that would be great.

“Joshua and I have to go do something. Can you go back to your mom and sister and look after them, please?”

Marc opened his mouth to argue when the shouting started.

“MARC CHRISTOPER WILLIAMS, you get your behind up here right now!”

Everyone in the large foyer stilled as all eyes landed on the red faced little boy who was doing his best to sneak past his

brother and probably go hide, but it was pointless since his mother could hunt him down in matter of seconds.

“You weren’t supposed to leave the apartment, were you?” Joshua asked, smirking as grabbed his brother by the arm and

turned him around, giving him a gentle shove in the direction of his doom.

Marc noticeably swallowed as he headed towards the back staircase. “Yeah, and I may have accidentally eaten all her

chocolate,” the boy admitted, making them both wince.

“Tell your mother I’m sending out for more and whatever else she needs,” Eric said, making a mental note to do that quickly.

The last thing any of them needed was a pregnant Pyte in need of a chocolate fix. He sure as hell wouldn’t survive having her

here unless she had an unlimited supply of chocolate. He still remembered when she was pregnant with Marc and he stopped

by to check on her and Chris. How she guilted him into making a three am drive to the Wal-Mart an hour away during a

snowstorm he would never know, but it had been better than sitting there listening to her describe all her pregnancy

complications in detail.

Marc nodded solemnly as he started up the stairs.

“Please double the order.”

They chuckled as they stepped into the elevator. When the doors opened at the detention level all humor died as they took in the

empty cells.

“Where is she?” Joshua demanded.

Eric was wondering the same thing as his eyes moved to a cell that sure as hell shouldn’t be empty. As much as he’d hated to

stick a kid, a Sentinel kid for that matter, in a cell, he hadn’t had much choice.

When the kid arrived here a week ago from California he’d been combative and angry as hell. He’d been admittedly impressed

with the kid. He hadn’t seen a kid with that much backbone or attitude since he met Chris, but Chris had never attacked his men

and sent five of them to the infirmary thank god.

This kid had a bad attitude and hated the world, but he had so much fucking potential. As much as he wished he didn’t have to

send the boy to the Council for review, he did. He might be young, but he was also a criminal.

He just hoped they were able to rehabilitate him otherwise he’d have to share Isabella’s fate and live out his life on an island.

It was a fucking waste on both counts.

“No!” they heard Isabella cry from the direction of the bunkroom. It was the room Sentinels used when they took their turns

watching over prisoners.

As he ran down the hall he prayed the little bastard hadn’t hurt her otherwise he’d have no choice, but to kill him. He was

barely five feet into the bunkroom when he came to a skidding stop as he tried to make sense of the scene before him. Joshua

barely managed to avoid slamming into his back, which at the moment he appreciated.

“What the hell…..,” Joshua murmured, voicing his thoughts exactly.

Izzy stopped doing her weird little, was that a victory dance? Judging by the gloat on her face and way she was jumping up and

down while hugging the video game controller to her chest he would have to go with that. His eyes shot to the widescreen

television and noted the insanely high score that he would have to take as a personal challenge to beat one day and back to

Isabella who was making the boy that took ten Sentinels to cuff laugh.

“I could beat that score you know,” Joshua murmured next to him.

He ignored Joshua’s obvious bullshit, because he’d seen the man play and moved into the room. Instantly the kid stopped

laughing when he spotted them. In one swift move he was on his feet, shoving Isabella behind him and blocking her from their

view. The kid’s eyes narrowed on them slightly and he knew he was going to have to bring the kid down before he hurt

someone.

“It’s fine, Sebastian,” Isabella said, stepping in front of the kid as he continued to glare in their direction.

“That’s just Eric and the traitor I was telling you about.”

“How am I traitor?” Joshua asked, pouting.

“What the hell have you been doing?” Eric asked as he took in the insane amount of empty chocolate wrappers and Coke cans

before his eyes landed on several computer towers hooked to the flat screen television and the two wireless keyboards on the

couch.

Isabella followed his eyes and shrugged. “Making a few changes and decisions.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” he demanded, feeling a little frightened. Had she gotten into their server? Nah, that

was”Your system sucks, I was able to hack into it in under two minutes,” she said in a matter-of-fact-tone.

“And your security sucks. I was able to break into it in under one minute,” Sebastian said, shooting Isabella a smug smile.

“Showoff,” she mumbled as she gave Eric her attention.

“Would someone please tell me what the hell is going on here?” he demanded, wondering if she just crashed their network

again. He prayed like hell she hadn’t. Not now.

Again with that damn shrug. “I decided to accept your job offer,” she said, sitting back down and grabbing a can of Coke.

“Job offer?” he asked, frowning.

“Mmmhmm, I’ve decided that I’m going to run your IT

department from here and in return you’re going pay me an insane amount of money and keep me supplied with caffeine.”

He eyed her warily for a moment before he asked, “Will you give us Tattletale?”

“No, Tattletale is my baby,” she said, finishing off her Coke. “But I’ll use it for you as long as you don’t try putting me on an

island,” she clarified and he couldn’t help but grin.

Chapter 41

He was sore, exhausted and more than ready to get the hell out of Boston and go home and try to figure out how he was going to

make it without his little mate, but his father had other plans. Instead of jumping into a car and getting the hell out of town they

were dragging ass through the compound, presumably looking for Joshua.

Without a word he followed his father toward the back of the compound and took the stairs that led to the heavily secured

living quarters. Neither spoke as they walked up the three flights of stairs. He knew his father wanted to have a word with him

and he appreciated the fact that his father had restrained himself so far. Right now he was struggling to keep moving forward.

He couldn’t believe that it was possible to miss a person he barely knew this much, but he did. All his aches and pains had

nothing on the pain he was feeling from being away from her. Every time he thought about her the ache in his chest tightened.

Ephraim punched in a code and scanned his hand and in seconds the door unlocked with a loud beep. Without a word he

followed his father into the barely used residential section and came to a stop when his father stepped in front of him.

“We have to talk.”

“No, no we don’t,” he said, trying to step around his father and go where, he didn’t know, but he did know that he didn’t want

to have this conversation. Not now when he was barely holding it together.

He didn’t need his father to tell him that he was disappointed in him, or that he’d just fucked up his life and Izzy’s. He sure as

hell didn’t need the lecture about the baby. He wouldn’t be surprised if his father beat the shit out of him over the baby, but it

wouldn’t be anything that than he didn’t deserve.

“Look,” Ephraim said, stepping in front of him while he shoved a hand through his hair, “I know I should have told you sooner.

I should have called, but with everything going on I didn’t want you getting distracted and getting hurt. I-“

“Oh my god, is it Madison? Are the babies okay?” he asked, scared to death that Madison was going to suffer another

miscarriage. It would break her, there was no question about that.

“No, the babies are fine,” he said and Chris couldn’t help but feel relieved, but that the relief was short lived because he

realized that he wouldn’t be there to comfort his little Munchkin if their baby didn’t make it and why the hell did he have to

start thinking of it as a baby and not a mistake? It was only going to make it that much harder to cope with not having Izzy.

“A few nights ago someone broke into the house,” his father started, instantly grabbing his attention. With the amount of

security they had no to mention two Pytes living in the house there was no way in a hell anyone should be able to break in.

“Everyone’s fine, but he went after Marc.”

“What the fuck do you mean he went after my brother?”

he asked, turning to leave the unit, the compound, the city, the state and go after the asshole and kill him.

“It was a shifter, Chris. Our human cover was blown,”

his father said, stopping him dead in his tracks.

“What the hell are you talking about, Dad?” he asked unnecessarily. If one shifter could find them then so could others. They’d

prepared for this day, dreaded it, but here it was and during a war to make it just that much more perfect.

“We’ve abandoned our old lives, Chris. We didn’t have a choice,” his father explained.

“Are we changing our last name?” he asked, praying like hell that his father said no. He liked being Chris Williams, but more

importantly, that would hopefully be the last name Izzy gave his daughter. He needed to hold onto that hope and why the fuck

was he allowing himself to get attached to a child that he would never see, never mind didn’t want a few hours ago?

“There’s no point in doing that yet,” his father said and Chris nodded, deciding he’d worry about that later.

Right now he had bigger problems to worry about.

“Where are they?”

“We’ve taken over this wing. As long as we’re here, this our wing of the compound,” Ephraim said, walking over to the first

apartment and scanned his hand.

“Joshua and Jill have taken over those two,” he said, gesturing towards the left. “So that leaves you with the choice of the three

across hall.”

He didn’t want to pick a suite. He wanted, need to go home and force his mind on his job, but he knew that would never

happen. Wherever his family was, he was.

The door was barely open before Ephraim was shoved out of the way and he had a seriously pissed off female Pyte in his face.

Yup, it just kept getting better and better, he thought, wondering if she’d do him a favor and just knock him the fuck out so he

wouldn’t have to miss his mate.

“I am not speaking to you,” she announced, her eyes bright red as she glared up at him.

“But you are.”

“I’m not.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“It sure feels like you’re talking to me,” he teased, drawing comfort from their friendship.

Her lips twitched, and just like that all the anger was gone and she was pulling him down for a hug. He wasn’t too surprised

when she hit him upside his head for good measure.

“Don’t ever do anything that stupid again. You scared the hell out of your father,” she whispered in his ear before pulling away

and going to Ephraim’s side.

He stepped past his father and found his sister Jill asleep on the couch with a book on her chest. “Where’s Grandma and