Broken Road

Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen

Devil relaxed a bit after they were inside and gave in and gave her father another hug. He had come and that’s all that mattered to her, but his timing hadn’t been the best yet it had changed everything.

   “Thank you for coming, you have no idea how much you are saving me,” she whispered.

   Royal petted her head and sighed. “This is not how I would have liked to meet up with my daughter again, but I shall take what Fate gives me.” He pulled back just enough to glare down at her. “Not to mention the fact that you just ran away, I should lock you in the cellar again.”

   A watery laugh bubbled up between her lips and she smiled the smallest bit. “I would just fight my way out again.”

   “Tell how it is that you are in trouble? You said someone is trying to kill you? Does that man have anything to do with this?” Royal asked with a serious glower darkening his angled face.

   Devil nodded, slipping out of their hug and sat in an old satin chair in the open front parlor. She looked up at Royal then looked away before he could see the hurt in her eyes. “No, he doesn’t, not really anyway. You see they found Wylde a couple days ago and yesterday the Hoss came looking for me thinking I had something to do with it since she had sent me a letter.”

    His brow furrowed this he hadn’t known. “They have found your sister? Well then where is she?”

   Devil gulped air, fighting against the tears sting her eyes. “T-they said she had been butchered like a cow-ww. Bones broken open and t-that they weren’t even sure it was her when they g-g-got there. She has been so ripped up they didn’t t-think s-she had been a human,” Devil said with a sob on the last word.

    Royal stood silent for a moment and asked the question he had been waiting for. “What did that have anything to do with you?”

    “That man,” Devil said shakily, pointing toward where Winthrop was now in the office, “is the brother of Wylde’s fiancé. He was murdered a month ago. Wylde had gotten in some trouble you see much like I had with you, but they wanted to kill her instead I think. I believe, no, I know that this is connected to my biological father. He left behind debt after he died. They’ve gotten everyone else who is connected to him and my family. There is only me and my daughter left.”

   It was a second to late she remembered what she had said and she smiled sheepishly at Royal and his floored look. His jaw slid south, his eyes widened so far that it looked as if they just might pop out of his head. Then she saw it, the fury in his eyes. The same fire he had given her.

   He took a step towards her and asked calmly, too calmly. “Is it that man’s child?”

   Devil held up a finger for him to pause and went up stairs to take a sleeping Lilla out of her crib. Staring at her tiny pink face, she knew she would do anything to keep this child safe. She was her daughter no after all. Devil came back down the stairs with the baby in her arms and stopped in front of her father.

   His awed face when he saw a little fist wave in the air told Devil he was just fine being a grandpa.

   Devil passed a very sleepy Lilla from her arms to Royal’s.

   He looked hopelessly at Devil. “I don’t know how to hold a child.”

   She laughed truly now and smiled gently. “Hold her the way that feels right to the both of you.”

   Royal shifted the squishy pink baby in his arms and smiled when he had her in the crook of his arm and she snuggled against him. He looked at his daughter proudly. “She is perfect. What’s her name?”

   Devil smoothed a hand over the soft, fine hair and stroked the baby’s cheek. “Lilla, after Lily, I guess.”

   Royal’s brow went up. “You guess? Whatever do you mean?”

   “She is my daughter now, but in truth her mother was Wylde. Wylde gave her to me about two months ago if truth is to be told and I adopted her. Her father you can guess is Wade, Winthrop’s brother.”

   It surprised her how easily that the man’s name should slide off her tongue when he had only just yelled it at her not to long ago.

   Mollified, Royal looked to the baby and smiled back at Devil. “You’ve done a fine job. You’ll make a good mother to this beautiful little girl, but I will not deny the fact she looks like you and the man.”

   Devil sat down again and waved him to the chair across from him. She smiled faintly as Lilla cooed at Royal and he squeaked. He gave her a startled look and laughed softly.

   “She likes me,” he said proudly.

   “It would seem so. I’m just glad that you’re here.” Devil wrung her hands together, “I’m not one to worry, I’m sure I might live if it was just me, but now there’s more then just me now. I will not have Lilla living the life I’ve been living, always on the run.”

   Royal leaned forward and took one of her hand in his, he noticed how cold her hands were and how they hook. “You will be safe, I promise. Me and the boys aren’t going anywhere until you two are safe.”

   Then tense left her shoulders and she slumped back in her chair.

   “So what is that man to you?” Royal asked suddenly.

   The question caught her off guard. She had forgotten in the heat of the moment just what her and Winthrop had been doing up stairs and blushed. Not only that she was just wearing one of his giant shirts with not much else on.

   “Well, err; he was letting us stay here until I found a place for us. But he doesn’t know who I really am. I forgot to mention that I was a country sing and a few other things,” she admitted with a blush.

   “Hmmm,” was his only reply.

   Devil sighed knowing full well that Royal knew everything that had happened and resigned to it.

    “Don’t judge me if you don’t know what’s behind it.”

   “I was doing no such thing.”

   Devil raised a brow. “I know you better then that. Anyway it’s been a long couple of days. I think I need a nap.”

    “You do that, I’ll look after Little Lil for now.” Royal settled back with the baby girl in his arms and relaxed like he never had before. It was a miracle, but he knew he would have to take care of the threats towards his family.

   In the eyes of the law he was now legal, but under it? It was a totally different matter.

   Devil walked out of the room and peered in one last time as Royal completely relaxed in the chair and started to hum one of her songs to the baby.

   So he did know about that too, but it wasn’t as if it was a secret when her face was known all over the world. Two weeks, that’s all the time she had left and she hoped it was enough to put everything back together.

   Sighing she rubbed her aching temple and went upstairs to sleep.