“No. Not that we remember seeing.” The little girl was standing next to who Steele assumed was her mom when Charlie answered him. “Suppose she could have when she…after she was done, but didn’t see nobody that night.”
“If you’d let me touch one of you, the way you are now, maybe I can get something more. Perhaps she left behind something on you that will let me see more of what happened to you all.” Charlie put out his hand, but Steele shook his head. “I’m sorry, but not you. You’ve been…you’ve been dealing with this for too long. I need someone who is still unsure what has happened.”
It had to be the child. He could see that she was still not understanding what had happened to her. Yes, she could see that her family was all hurt, but it hadn’t occurred to her that all of them were as dead as she was. Steele knelt before her, careful not to frighten her.
When she shied behind her mom, Aster told him to let her do it. He watched his sister, someone that had been gone longer than this little girl had been alive, and let her take over for him. Her smile was as beautiful now as it had been the morning she’d left him and been killed.
“My name is Aster Bennett. Your name is Meggie, right?” The little girl nodded but didn’t move from her mom. “I’m sure this is all very scary to you. It was when it happened to me, so I know all about being afraid. But my brother can help you all. Would you let him?”
“She hurt me. I didn’t do anything wrong, but she still hurt me.” Aster nodded and Steele knew that this was costing his sister. She loved children as much as she had life. Her love of them had been what had gotten her killed that day. A simple act of kindness had led her into the path of a semi, and she’d been killed just like that. “I don’t want anybody to hurt me again.”
“And they never will, honey. Not ever again.” Steele felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up at Kari. She could see as much as he could, but not the injuries. His wife was a necro as well, but not as strong as him. No one was as strong as he was. “My brother is going to help find that bad woman and make sure that she never hurts anyone again. But you have to let him touch just a part of you. I swear to you, it won’t hurt you one bit.”
The little girl stared at him, then looked up at her mom. The woman had suffered greatly at the hands of Ellen; not just her body, but her face as well. It was the same for the other family members that Ellen had killed. The women of the household had suffered the most.
“He won’t hurt me?” Aster assured her that he wouldn’t, not for anything. “And he’ll catch her? She hurt my doggie too. I love Shep, and he needs to be taken to the hospital soon.”
Steele only moved forward when little Meggie did. She was terrified, he could see that, but she was brave too, and he told her that. His touch to her cheek was just to assure her that he’d not hurt her, but he got more than he’d bargained for. The little girl had seen it all, her entire family being killed, before she was murdered too.
Chapter 2
Addie watched the men in the house. They were bringing in more and more equipment all the time. And the woman who was with them seemed to be in charge, but the guys didn’t seem to realize it, not yet at least. Addie thought the woman was a great deal like Joel in that she simply expected you to do as she wanted, and fuck your opinion. He’d been like that with her every time she’d spoken to him.
Joel had told her right after her father had told her that she was marrying him what he expected of her as his wife. She had only sat there listening to him because it never occurred to her that he was serious. All she could think of was he was having fun with her. Something she would never have guessed he’d be doing, because as far as Addie knew, Joel didn’t have a funny bone in his body. But she learned quickly enough that he was not only serious in his rules, but he wasn’t going to let her have any say in anything, or she’d feel his wrath.
The slap had taken her breath away…not that she’d never been slapped before. Her father would hit her just because he felt that, while he’d not heard that she’d done anything wrong, it was his duty to make sure that she never did. But Joel had hit her when she’d spoken, as he said, out of turn.
“You will obey me, Addison. There will be no more of this temper of yours when we are wed. I simply won’t tolerate it.” She just stared at him with her hand on her cheek. “And don’t think that tears will move me. There won’t be any little bobbles or gifts to appease you either. I’m not going to apologize for keeping you in line, ever. When you mess up, I’m going to be swift in showing you how you’ve done so, and expect you to never mention it again. To anyone.”