Taryn laughed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She was perhaps the only woman who didn’t fear him. She’d spent a week with him up at his cabin, back when she was na?ve enough to believe that she could outrun the far-reaching protective hand of her husband and his family. Kane had kept her safe. He knew she would never divulge his deepest, darkest secrets, though.
“So... speaking of... what’s up with Aidan’s sister?” came Maggie’s voice.
Kane’s senses were on full alert, though outwardly he appeared to be dozing right along with the kids.
“Is it true? She’s the woman from the jungle?”
Kane felt Taryn’s eyes on him before she said carefully, “Kieran says yes and Shane confirmed it.”
“What else does Kieran say?”
“Not much to tell, apparently.”
“Well, that tells you something right there, doesn’t it?” stated Nicki. The other women murmured in agreement. Kane inwardly shook his head. He would never understand female logic.
“What about Rebecca? What does she say?” asked Maggie.
“What about her?” asked Lexi. “You’d have more luck extracting details from Kane than you would from Rebecca.” She sighed. “Aidan says every time he asks her about it she changes the subject. Says she doesn’t like to talk about it.”
Kane silently cheered Rebecca for having the skill and strength to keep her private life just that. It wasn’t easy with this bunch. He knew she had told Aidan a few basic facts – she had informed him right afterward, which he appreciated – but had left out much of the details. There was some part of him that liked the fact that he shared something with Rebecca that no one else knew about, a little secret that was theirs and theirs alone.
“I heard Shane talking to Sean about it shortly after they came back, though,” Nicki said quietly. “From what I heard, it was pretty bad. Apparently she was travelling with a group from Catholic Relief Services, and they were all killed.”
“Aidan said sometimes she cries in her sleep,” Lexi said, her voice little more than a hushed whisper. Kane really had to strain to hear her. “But when he tries to talk to her about it, she shrugs it off.”
“She’s protecting him,” Maggie said. “She doesn’t want her brother to know what she’s been through. Lord knows he worries enough about her the way it is.”
Kane’s gut clenched at the truth of her words. He’d been there in the jungle, had seen first-hand what she did. But that was one incident out of possibly hundreds, he realized. What else had she seen? What else had she been subjected to? He knew what it was like to hold that kind of thing deep inside. To keep those memories locked tightly away, to pretend that everything was right with the world so that the ones you cared for weren’t hurt, didn’t worry so much.
Ever the agent, Nicki inquired, “What do you know about her?”
“Next to nothing, really. Seems really nice. Very quiet. I haven’t seen her outside of the shelter.” Taryn looked at Lexi. “You know her, don’t you? From before you came to Pine Ridge?”
Lexi shook her head. “Not well. She was a couple of years older than Aidan and I. By the time I started working for the family she was already pretty much off on her own. I got the impression she was somewhat the black sheep of the family.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well,” Lexi bit her lip, “they didn’t talk about her very much. Once I remember seeing a family portrait and asking about her, and the subject was changed rather quickly. Aidan said it was probably better if I didn’t bring her up again in front of his parents because it upset them, but he didn’t go into a lot of detail.”
“She seems... different.” The back of Kane’s neck prickled, a protective urge building up inside of him. Hell yes she was different. And he thanked God for it.
“Aidan says she’s been travelling with a series of convents and relief organizations overseas for the last twelve years, providing disaster relief as well as food and medical supplies to the poor. That’s bound to shape your karma, don’t you think?”
“It explains the kick-ass job she did here with the flood. Michael said she was a Godsend, said he didn’t know what he would have done without her.”
“Maybe we should, you know, try to bring her into the fold. What do you think?”
“I think it’s a great idea,” Maggie said cheerfully.
“And I think Aidan would appreciate it, too,” Lexi added. “I know he worries about her spending so much time at the shelter by herself.”
After a brief pause, Nicki spoke next. “It might work, but she might feel kind of awkward. I mean, the rest of us share the common bond of being married into the family.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Taryn vaguely, and Kane felt her eyes on him again. “I wouldn’t worry too much about that. Now, who’s got some ideas?”
*