Page 41 of A Daddy for Christmas 2: Kitt

Epilogue

It was a week past Christmas—New Year’s Eve—and so much had changed for both of us.

First of all, I’d found a lawyer, who agreed to take Kitt’s case on a contingency basis until we won it, and Kitt was cleared to receive his inheritance. The lawyer even suggested a reputable psychiatrist he’d worked with before, who was able to clear Kitt’s medical records right away with a few tests and a few sessions with Kitt. He signed documents for the court that declared there was no reason Kitt needed any kind of “guardianship,” and in light of the other circumstances with his brother, the judge had quickly dismissed the hold that Jazz Devlin had on Kitt.

As for me, I’d decided to leave my job for sure. I didn’t blame Lucas—his father-in-law, Ed Colton, hadn’t been the man either of us had thought he was, and his family had been in the dark about what just what kind of person he truly was. I was convinced in the end that Lucas had been taken in by him as much as I had, but Colton had still been getting his information from Lucas on our whereabouts. That and the fact that I had been the one to kill Colton—even though it was in self-defense—changed things between us. He had his family to consider after all. I couldn’t argue with that.

It turned out to have been Ed Colton who had hired the men who attacked us in Arkansas and who were now spending time in the Ft. Smith jail, pending trial. We both agreed with the lawyer that we needed to travel back there and face the music with the cops. We would receive some minor charges for leaving the scene without talking to the police, but our lawyer said he’d be able to work it out if we agreed to testify against them.

From what Lucas could piece together from various texts and emails to Colton, Jazz Devlin had hired him to “take care” of Kitt because he was in deep financial distress, and he was desperate for the inheritance Kitt was set to receive on his upcoming birthday.

Ed Colton, as it turned out, had a shady past that Lucas and the rest of his family had never known about. It included some contract killing. All of that sordid mess was set to come out at Jazz Devlin’s trial later on.

I was looking for another job when Kitt had another idea. He told me he wanted to set up his own detective agency and he wanted to offer me a job running things.

“No way, Kitt. It’s sweet of you to want to help but…”

“You need a job, right? I just got all that money from my mother, and I want to do something worthwhile with it. I need you to help me.”

“If I had the money to buy in, maybe I’d take you up on it, but…”

“So, take out a loan. I can give you very favorable terms, and you don’t even have to pay me back.”

“No babe, it wouldn’t work. I want to marry you someday.”

His face lit up and he smiled. “Then it will be half yours anyway.”

“Georgia’s not a community property state, so it doesn’t work that way.”

“Well, however it works. I don’t care. I have some new clothes I want to buy and I need to get us both some pretty rings—maybe platinum with diamonds. You can pay half of that. But I want to work too, answering phones or whatever.”

“I don’t know, Kitt. It doesn’t seem right.”

“Why not? Would you give me a job if I needed one?”

“Well, yeah, of course, but…”

“But nothing. It’s the right thing to do, Daddy. And I’m good on the phone.”

“I’ll bet you are.”

“Then will you shake on it?”

I looked at him sternly. “If we do this—and I’m not saying yes—I’m definitely paying you back. With interest.”

“Yes, Daddy.”

“And you’re going to go on an allowance—no blowing all that money on clothes and jewelry. We don’t need platinum and diamonds, Kitten. Plain gold is good enough.”

“Yes, Daddy. Anything you say.”

I looked over at him and smiled. “Why do I not believe a word of that?”

“So can we shake on it then?”

“I think we can do better than that,” I said. And we did.

As time passed and things began to settle down, I realized that I had never gotten around to giving Kitt a Christmas present. And I knew exactly what that present would be.

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