Slade (The Protectors #6)(4)
“What are you doing here?” Janie ignored Jill’s question, looking nervously between Jill and Slade. “You need to leave, Jill. You’re not welcome here.”
Jill looked up at the house and saw her mother looking out the living room window. Her hand automatically went up to wave, but the curtains shut and her mother disappeared. Anger and hurt made her want to strike out, but when her eyes went back to her sister, all she could see was Seth looking at her confused.
“Where’s Dad?” Jill tried to keep her voice void of any emotion, but she wasn’t successful with keeping the anger out of her gaze.
“Why?” Janie took a step back. “He’s in no shape to see you. You’ll only upset him and his heart can’t handle that.”
“He’s cutting firewood,” Seth spoke with the innocence of a child.
“He just had a heart attack and he’s out cutting wood?” Jill’s eyes popped open. “Where in the hell is Trevor?”
“Oh, Jilly, you said a bad word.” Seth covered his eyes, instead of his ears.
“Sorry, buddy,” Jill replied, but her eyes never left Janie. “I asked you a question. Actually, I’ve asked you several which you haven’t answered. As soon as I’m finished with Dad, you and I are going to have a long conversation.” Jill turned to head in the opposite direction of the house toward the woods.
“My fiancé is going to be here any minute,” Janie warned, her voice shaking. “You better leave. He’s very protective of us. He doesn’t like your kind.”
Jill stopped suddenly, but didn’t turn around. “Then he’ll get along fine with this family, won’t he,” Jill hissed. Seth called out to her, but she kept going because she didn’t trust herself not to plaster her sister against a wall.
“You okay?” Slade’s deep voice in the quiet woods just beyond her house startled her.
“No, not really,” she replied. Her head down, she let her feet carry her to where her dad was. She had played in these woods as soon as she could walk. It had been her escape. She knew every tree, rock and trail for miles. “Just doing everything in my power not to kill my sister and…eat her,” she spat in disgust. She still couldn’t believe her sister, who she had been pretty close to, could tell their little brother she would eat him. Feeling anger burning up through her body from her toes to the top of her head, she lifted her hand, aiming it toward a small tree without stopping. The tree uprooted in one fluid motion, and as she flicked her hand, it flew a few feet before smashing into another one, then to the ground with a large crash.
“Nice.” Slade raised his eyebrows impressed.
She didn’t answer as they broke into a clearing. Her father sat a few yards away on a fallen tree, sipping water from a bottle. Hearing their approach, he dropped the water and stood in surprise. “Jill?”
Jill didn’t stop, just kept going. “What are you doing cutting firewood?” Jill frowned as she marched toward him, her arms whipping around at all the cut wood laying on the ground. “Are you crazy?”
Her father, looking pale, sat back down heavily. “Jill?” he said again, his eyes glancing toward Slade, then back to Jill. “What are you doing here?”
Stopping in front of him, she placed her hands on her hips. “I’ve come to see you.” Her voice had calmed, somewhat. “I heard you had a heart attack and wanted to see if you were okay.”
He looked away, shaking his head slowly. “Why?”
Jill dropped her hands from her hips, her arms falling to her sides. His frailness scared her. Her father, who could do anything in her eyes, her hero still, even after everything, looked older than his forty-so years.
“Because you’re my dad,” she whispered past the lump in her throat, praying he would reach for her and hug her like he used to do when she felt lost. She was a daddy’s girl and losing him had devastated her; seeing him like this, knowing she could lose him forever would destroy her. “And I love you.”
His eyes shot to hers in shock. “How can you love me after what I’ve done?” He stood as he spoke, his pale face flushing red with anger. “I never gave you a chance. I kicked my baby girl out when she needed me most, but your mother…”
“I know.” Jill took a step closer, still hoping for that hug, praying for it with everything she had. Any kind of affection, she didn’t care; she’d take it. Yeah, she was that desperate. Like an abandoned dog begging for scraps, she was begging deep down inside for a scrap from the man who had been her life. “She was afraid of me, still is. But I would never hurt my family. Well, I might bite Janie, but other than that everyone else is safe.”
Her father’s head snapped back, but a small smile tipped his quivering lip and then the moment she prayed for happened. He reached for her and she flew into his arms, careful not to crush him with her strength. “I’m so sorry, Jelly Bean.” He pulled her away to get a good look at her and gave her arms a squeeze. “I should have come looking for you. It’s been eating me alive knowing what I did to you.”
“I’m fine now, Dad.” Jill pulled him back into the hug, not ready to let go just yet. She felt him wobble. “Dad?”
Slade was there in a flash helping her ease her father down to the tree. “Mr. Nichols, are you having any pain?”