Page 43 of Unwanted Vows

As I move, I hear the soft murmur of voices from Paul’s room. His mother is still with him. Leaves rustle outside, and there are human footsteps.

I stifle a grunt as I go into Snake Creeps Down. It has been too long since I practiced properly. Tulok would take me to task for it.

I’m not jealous of Leland. He and Catriona are truly made for each other. But I would not mind calling Tulok “father’’. I learned more from him in the three months I spent on Ildogis than I had ever picked up from my father or grandfather.

As I bring myself back to mountain pose, Angel pads out of the bedroom. Her hackles are raised and she eyes the front door balefully. I run my hand down her back in acknowledgement, and slip into the shadows of the hall. Angel goes with me, gliding into Paul’s room.

Maddy is lying on the floor beside Paul’s bed. She rises up on one elbow as I crouch low, and duck walk into the room. The wide glass window that had looked so inviting earlier, now looks dangerous.

“Into the hall,” I murmur. “Paul, too.”

In the faint light from the window, I can see her eyes widen. There is a shadow on the glass.

Without so much as a thought, I dive, scoop Paul off the bed, rolling with him to the floor. There is a faint pfffft sound, an odd scraping, and something strikes the bed where our son had lain just a moment before.

Paul begins to struggle in my arms, but Maddy touches him and he stills.

Angel paces toward the window, hackles raised. “Heel!” I hiss in a whisper. For a miracle, she comes back to us.

“Into the hall,” I whisper again, torn between whether to protect them from the window, or whether to check the hall before they eased into it.

Maddy solves my dilemma. Flattening herself she wiggles her way to where she could look around the bottom of the doorframe. She goes around it, and I send Paul after her. Once they were both away from that window, I also slip through, the cat and dog coming with me, and close the door behind us.

Maddy says softly, “Hey Rube, the enemy is at the gate.”

Outside, floodlights came on, and a siren starts to blare. Raucous music pours from speakers. A dog barks sharply, once. Then someone screams.

Angel growls low in her throat, and plasters herself over Paul. Somewhere a gun fires, a dog snarls, and a man screams.

Then Austin’s voice calls out, “All clear! All clear, stand down.”

“Stay put,” I tell Maddy and Paul. “It could be a ruse.”

I stand, glide toward the front door, and manually key the door camera. Austin is standing there with Jason Wintergreen wiggling in his grip.

Of course. Why had we not seen this coming? The man had immediately run to Grandfather to complain.

Austin ran his hand over his face. To the casual observer, it looked like he was rubbing away weariness. But his two fingers paused for just a second under his eyes, and his fist scrunched up over his mouth. Being watched, keep still and cautious, that hand said to anyone who cared to observe carefully.

I undo the safety latches and deadbolt, opening the door just enough for Austin to shove Jason into the room, and then follow. He is accompanied by a massive, shaggy German Shepherd dog, marked in the classic black and tan pattern.

As soon as the dog’s tail clears the door frame, I slam the door back shut. “Looks like you caught a fish,” I say.

“More like a slimy leech,” Austin returns. “I found him skulking under Paul’s window.

“More than skulking, I think,” I comment grimly. “He found some way to fire a dart through the window, even though it was closed.

I hear movement from the hall. Maddy and Paul step into the light. “That’s the man who said Grandfather wanted us,” Paul says. “What is he doing here?”

What, indeed, I think to myself. “Jason Wintergreen,” I agree. “What are you doing here, cousin?”

Jase sneers at me. “Oh, now you acknowledge me. I thought you said I was a jumped up rascal with barely enough kinship to be a kissing cousin. Isn’t that what you said when we were in school?”

I glare at the little weasel. “It is, and it is still true. I cannot imagine what Grandfather was thinking of, asking you to marry Rylie.”

“Keeping it all in the family,” he sneers back. “Did you think you were the only arrow to Grandfather Aims’ quiver? He has a whole quarrel of plans just waiting to be set in motion.”

I grind my teeth. “It seems, little stool pigeon, that your song was a bit incomplete. I’d persuade you to sing some more, but my affianced wife and my son are present.”

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