the room taking them all in, I also noticed the plants she had lined up along the windowsill and scattered around the room. There had to be at least ten plants in there. I should have picked her for a fucking greenie, though, with the vibe she had going on. Kree was into herbs and crystals and talked in what felt like another language half the time with her discussions on star signs and moon phases and shit. Also, she’d been known to speak her mind occasionally, but usually she was too fucking soft as far as I was concerned. But fuck, she was the best damn bartender we’d ever had, so that was all that mattered to me.
“Haven’t yet,” she said, her voice firm. “What’s so urgent that you need to barge into my home at nearly ten on Christmas night?” The hint of fire I heard in her voice surprised me, but it shouldn’t have. With everything I knew about her, I knew she would go to the ends of the earth to protect her home and everyone in it. Someone forcing their way in—even someone she vaguely knew through work—wouldn’t be something she’d be comfortable with.
“I’ve been talking with Zane.” Her cousin.
She stiffened at that and blinked once, but full fucking points to her for maintaining her cool. “And?” Even her voice didn’t waver.
I reached into my pocket and pulled the envelope out that I’d brought with me. Dropping it on the kitchen table, I said, “He told me what’s going on.” Lifting my chin at the envelope, I said, “That’s for you, and I don’t want any of it back.”
Frowning, she picked up the envelope. It was when she looked inside it that her carefully maintained composure finally shattered. “Fuck, King,” she said as she looked from the envelope to me. “I can’t accept this. It’s too much.”
I scowled as she tried to hand it back to me. Shaking my head, I said, “No, it’s not. You need it. I don’t.”
She opened her mouth to argue, but a little voice carried through the air, calling out to her. “Mummy, I don’t feel so well.” A moment later, a boy entered the room, coming straight to her and wrapping his arms around her legs.
I knew his name to be Tommy, and his age to be four. I also knew his father to be a cunt who Tommy and his younger sister, Mara, needed protection from.
Kree crouched low and took Tommy’s face in her hands. Concern etched her face as she said, “Do you feel like you might vomit, baby?”
He nodded his head. His face was so white I figured she probably had less than a minute before he made good on that. She figured it, too. Scooping him up in her arms, she hurried out of the room with him, leaving me alone while trying to soothe him with love.
My fucking gut tightened at the image of mother and child.
Fuck.
I raked my fingers through my hair.
Fucking Christmas.
If I could wipe this fucking season off the calendar, I fucking would.
Ten minutes or so passed before Kree came back to me. Anguish covered her face. “I can’t accept that money, King.”
“Why?” I challenged her.
“It’s too much. There has to be at least five thousand in that envelope.”
“Ten thousand,” I corrected her, ignoring the way her eyes widened in shock. “And you still haven’t given me a good reason.”
She swallowed hard. “I don’t want to owe you.” Wrapping her arms around her body, she added, “I never want to owe anyone ever again.” That was when her voice cracked. I knew the reason for that, too, but I didn’t bring it up. Kree struck me as a proud woman; the last thing she needed was me throwing her past in her face when she was trying desperately to leave it behind.
I picked up the envelope and placed it in her hand. “Take it and don’t fucking argue with me. We both know you need it. I’m not going to mention it again, and you don’t owe me,” I said with force. “And one other thing, I’m switching your shifts around at work so that you don’t have to work as many nights anymore. Those kids need you at home.”
With that, I stalked down her hallway, not waiting for her response. My body crawled with the need to get out of there as fast as I fucking could.
Good deeds weren’t my fucking thing.
I rubbed the back of my neck again, feeling the beginning of a headache forming.
Motherfucker.
I needed to screw my way through tonight and fuck this tension out of my body.
Hell, I needed to fuck my way into oblivion and forget every-fucking-thing about Christmas.
King & Jen / King & Kree
This takes place during the time in Devil’s Vengeance when King discovers Jen’s betrayal.