As soon as I walked out, leaving Keiran and Q behind with him, the screaming began again. John followed me, claiming he didn’t have the stomach for torture.
I followed the simple directions to a door just down the hall. I put my ear to the door and listened for voices just in case it was a trap. I heard the small sound of crying on the other side and threw caution to the wind.
I tried the knob, but the door was locked so I threw my shoulder against it. Eventually, the door gave way and I burst through. Wood chips fell around me and temporarily blocked my vision of the small bundle huddled on the bed.
“Kennedy?” her crying had become little whimpers. She tried to make herself appear small out of fear. I suddenly realized I didn’t make the greatest entrance into her life.
“Keenan?” I turned towards John, who had a hand held out as if to block me. When he noticed the look in my eyes, he said, “Do you really want her first memory of you to be like this? She doesn’t know you, and she is already scared.”
“Papa?” The angelic yet timid sound of her voice nearly made me come undone. She recognized John and tried to sit up, but I noticed that her movements appeared sluggish.
Had she just woken up?
“Papa, I’m scared and wanna go home now.”
“Oh, sweetheart, we’re going to take you home right now. Your mother has missed you so much.”
“The bad man hurt mama.” She looked at me when she said it, and I couldn’t help the guilty flush that heated my skin. She looked just as her mother described. The perfect mix of her mother and me.
“She’s just fine, angel. She has been worried sick so let’s not waste any more time.” He picked her up, and I hated the way she clung to him. Jealously ripped through me fast and hard. I wanted to take her from him but knew it wouldn’t be a smart move. I was essentially a stranger to her.
“Who’s he?” She looked at me once again and ducked her head to hide against John’s neck. John looked to me for an answer, but I shook my head.
Seeing her in the flesh, I realized I wasn’t ready.
Would I ever be?
“They’ve been drugging her,” John stated as soon as we had Kennedy settled in the car. She fell asleep against the back seat almost immediately.
“How do you know?”
“Her pupils are severely dilated. Her movements are sluggish and her words slurred. She’s very developed for her age and can talk like a child twice her age. Sheldon has done very well with her.”
“Are you defending her?”
“I know what you are thinking of doing. Sheldon is a good mother and you were gone. Do you really think she would have kept her from you if she knew where you were?”
“Yes,” I answered without hesitation. “She would have though she likes to think she wouldn’t have, and if I’m wrong, she will now.”
“With reason, I’m sure.”
“Would you like for me to carry out my promise now so my daughter can have nightmares of your death for the rest of her life?”
“Do what you want to me, son, if it will make up for all the years I—” He stopped and stared off into the distance for a few heartbeats. “If I had known what my absence then and later had been doing to you, I wouldn’t have—”
“I don’t believe it and neither do you. You would have because you were in pain, but most of all, you were selfish and weak.”
Footsteps approaching cut short our conversation, and when I looked back, Keiran and Q had emerged from the house. The blood that lightly splattered their shirts became more evident the closer they came.
“Don’t let Kennedy see your shirts.”
“Damn… a daddy for three minutes and you’re already bossy,” Q joked. Keiran wordlessly removed his shirt, followed by Q.
“What did you find out?”
“He claimed he didn’t know who his employer was. He kept talking about some rich guy who promised them a lot of money to kidnap Kennedy. He said they were promised double if they had to kill her.”
“Did you take care of it?”
“What do you think?” Keiran countered darkly.
“I don’t know what he thinks, but I think we need to call the Feds and get rugrat home soon,” Q interjected.
*
Up until the wee hours of the morning, I had gone through the interrogation process that usually followed a murder.
No, I didn’t act with malicious intent.
Yes, it was self-defense.
No, I was not given information on the whereabouts of Kennedy before acting.
They were all lies that I managed to tell well. I had no idea how Keiran fared given he’d just been released from jail on assault charges and not twenty-four hours later had been located in a house of dead bodies.
By noon, we were all standing on the sidewalk appearing none the worse for wear. Dash was there minus the girls as instructed.
“How is she?” I asked as soon as I was in talking distance.
“She’s fine. Sheldon wanted to take her back to her apartment, but we managed to convince her to stay at least one more night. It was an emotional night for them both. You should have seen them together.”