In a Stranger's Eyes Read online

  “Hey,” Raith whispered as he rounded the desk to stand behind him. His strong hands began massaging the kinked muscles in October’s neck, and Raith bent to kiss the top of his head. “Is everything okay?”

  “Enforcer Tanaka was killed in the mountains.”

  “I’m sorry, Tober. Were you close?”

  October shook his head. “I knew him, of course, but we weren’t

  close.”

  “It’s still hard to lose someone like that.”

  “Yes, but that’s not the real problem.” The guard’s file lay open

  on his desk, glaring up at him. There was a lot of information there, but his eyes were constantly drawn to one word on the page. “Kaito.” Raith’s finger paused in their ministrations, and he leaned over October’s shoulder to peer down at the document. “Kaito Tanaka, age four, only child,” he read with a hint of sadness. “Where is the boy now?”

  “ I believe he has a nanny who stays with him when his father is away on assignment. When I received the news, I had him brought here. He’sdownstairs with some of the staff.” How in the hell was he supposed to explain to a four-year-old child that his daddy wouldn’t be coming back?

  “Does he know?”

  “Not yet.” It couldn’t be avoided forever, and the longer he put it off, the worse it would be for everyone, himself included. “I’ll talk to him after we meet with Leader McCarthy.”

  “I’ll deal with Nicholas. Go talk to the kid. You won’t be able to concentrate until you do.” Raith kissed his temple and stepped away with a lingering caress down the back of October’s neck. “Come find me when you’re ready. We’ll be down on Hell Alley.”

  Hell Alley was what the Enforcers called the row of stone, mausoleum-like holding cells on the east edge of the property. There were twenty-four structures in all, twelve on each side of a narrow pathway, and each held only one prisoner at a time. It really looked like a family cemetery more than anything, and October was just morbid enough to find that appealing when he’d designed his version of a paranormal prison.

  “Watch your back.” His instincts screamed at him to send guards with his mate, but it was a short drive to Hell Alley, and there would be Enforcers waiting for him once he arrived. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  “Take your time. Nicholas is cool, and he’s actually a nice guy. He’ll understand.” Raith paused with his hand on the doorknob, and looked over his shoulder as though he wanted to say something more. He stood that way for only a second, though, shook his head, and exited the room.

  October sat for a few minutes more, dreading the task ahead of him. Worrying about it wasn’t going to make it go away or any easier to deal with, though. Still, he wasn’t looking forward to what he had to do.

  There were probably others more suited for the job, but as the leader of Snake River, he felt it was his obligation, even if the recipient of the news was only four. He’d encountered a lot of death in his time, watched numerous children left orphaned, but it had never been his responsibility to find suitable homes for those little ones.

  Kaito wouldn’t be an easy placement, either. Like himself, Kaito was a hybrid with a mixture of both vampire and werewolf blood. Enforcer Tanaka had been very upfront with him when he’d come to the coven, but he asked that October not divulge the information to anyone. Knowing how bigoted some of their kind could be toward anyone different, he hadn’t hesitated to agree.

  If Kaito was to be placed in a home, however, his new guardians would have to know of his lineage. The information would come out eventually, and it had the potential for disaster if he wasn’t one hundred percent honest. Unfortunately, it didn’t make finding the child a home any easier.

  Knowing he couldn’t put it off any longer, he rose from his chair with a grunt, smoothed the wrinkles from his slacks as best he could, and ran a hand through his hair. “Stop stalling,” he growled at himself. “The kid doesn’t care what you look like.” The self-directed pep talk did little to soothe his nerves, though.

  He’d worked damn hard to become the ruler of his own coven. Never again did he want to fall under someone else’s authority or fall back into the person he used to be. However, there were some days when being in charge just sucked.

  * * * * “Oh, that poor child,” Nicholas McCarthy said when Raith explained the situation and why October couldn’t meet them right away. “We completely understand. No need for apologies.” “Do you want to be with him?” Nicholas’s mate, Jonas, asked. In truth, that was exactly what Raith wanted. Not only did he want

  to be there to support his mate and help him through the difficult conversation, but his thoughts kept straying to Wren. He could only imagine how heartbroken his nephew would be to hear that one of his parents had passed away. It pulled at his heartstrings, and though he’d just talked to the boy a few hours ago, he had the urge to pick up the phone and call him again.

  “Go on.” Nicholas clapped him on the shoulder and gave him a little shove. “We’ll have a chat with my brother until you get back. I doubt I’ll get anything out of him, but I’ll try.”

  “Are you sure?” After a fair bit of complaining, he’d finally been given a job in the coven. He hadn’t even technically begun the task yet, and he was already shirking his duties. “It shouldn’t take long.”

  “Man, we’ve been there,” Jonas answered with a slow nod. “If it takes all night, that’s fine. We can always try again tomorrow. Some things take precedent, and caring for your mate is one of those things.”

  “Agreed.” Nicholas leaned into his lover’s side and smiled. “It’s not like Phillip is going anywhere. Don’t worry about it, Raith. We get it.”

  “Thank you,” he answered reverently. “If I’m not back in an hour, give me a call.” Without waiting for a response, he took off at a jog toward the SUV. “I’ll send another car for you,” he called over his shoulder before sliding into the driver’s seat, starting the engine, and punching the gas.

  After a near mishap that involved a raccoon in the road and almost taking out a lamppost, he arrived safely, pulling to a screeching halt in the drive right outside the front door. Once inside, he paused before entering the kitchen, taking just a moment to calm his breathing and compose himself. When he felt slightly less frantic, he let out the breath he’d been holding and stepped through the doorway.

  He wasn’t sure how he knew that’s where he’d find his mate . Maybe it was because he was used to most important conversations being held in the kitchen. More likely, it was the metaphysical link between them that usually drove him nuts. It was a little disturbing to always feel like he had another presence with him. This time, he wouldn’t complain.

  Two steps into the room, however, Raith had to stop and bite the inside of his cheek. His big, important mate sat side-by-side with the small boy, and both were huddled over the table with crayons in their hands and the most intent looks of concentration.

  Forgotten bowls of half-melted ice cream were pushed to the other side of the tabletop, and little Kaito still had a bit of the chocolate syrup on his face. How he’d gotten it in his hair, Raith would never know, but after living with Wren, he understood that where kids were concerned, anything could happen.

  “Am I interrupting?” October jerked his head up and dropped the green crayon as though it had burned him. “Oh, hello, Raith. I thought you were busy.” His eyes darted to the discarded bowls, and he cleared his throat. “We were just, um—”

  “Hey, hand me that red one,” Raith said, cutting his lover off and pointing to the box of crayons as he slid into the chair opposite of Kaito. “Is it okay if I color with you?” He’d also learned from his nephew that it was very important to always ask and not just assume because he was a grown-up he could do whatever he wanted.

  “Yes,” Kaito answered with a smile that could charm the stars down from the sky. “We have ice cream.”

  “I can see that.” Raith winked and motioned toward the boy’s hair. “I think some
little monster is going to need a bath.”

  Kaito wrinkled his tiny nose and shook his head quickly so that his long, inky black hair whipped around his face. “I don’t like baths.”

  “And I bet you don’t like broccoli or bedtime, either.”

  “Nope.”

  Gods, Raith hadn’t realized how much he missed Wren. There was only about a year difference between the two, and while both were small for their age, Kaito was positively petite. Didn’t anyone ever feed the kid?

  Glancing toward October, he gave a mostly imperceptible tilt of his head toward the boy. He wondered if they’d gotten around to discussing anything important during their coloring and ice cream. It was great to make the child feel comfortable and safe, but at some point, he’d notice if his father never returned home. As much as October would probably like to sweep it all under the rug, it just wasn’t possible.

  “I think Raith is right. We need to get you cleaned up and ready for bed.”

  Kaito looked up at Octoberas though he’d just announced that there was no more chocolate left in the world. “It’s still early!”

  “By the time you have a bath, pick your new room, and read a bedtime story, it won’t be,” Raith responded when October appeared to be floundering. Apparently, the man wasn’t accustomed to hearing the word no.

  “I get a room? A real room? Do I gotta share it?”

  “Have to share, and no.” Raith reached across the table to ruffle Kaito’s hair. “You don’t have to share with anyone. So, when is your usual bedtime?” he asked, fishing for some information about the kid’s father.

  “Whenever someone tells me to,” Kaito answered, and the brat actually rolled his eyes as though Raith wasn’t very bright at all. “Can I have bacon for breakfast? Do you got any pets here? How many are you?” He held up four fingers and waved them toward Raith. “I’m this many.”

  Reaching across the table, Raith lifted Kaito out of his seat and placed him on his feet while he did his best to answer the child’s questions. Of course, he never got more than a few words out before Kaito was asking his next question—or four or five.

  Raith didn’t know what was going on, but since October hadn’t corrected him, he had to assume that Kaito would be living in the main house until they could find suitable guardians for him. He kind of looked forward to having the kid around.

  Though he hadn’t had much experience with kids before Wren, he loved the hell out of the little shit, and he’d found that dealing with the young ones was something he was actually good at. It probably had to do with the fact that he was just an overgrown kid himself, but whatever. The way Raith saw it, most people took themselves way too seriously anyway.

  As he listened to Kaito jabber on about a wide range of topics, Raith found it odd that he never once mentioned his father. It wasn’t like he expected all conversation to be about Enforcer Tanaka, but there hadn’t been even a subtle reference to the guy. The fact that Kaito had said “someone” put him to bed hadn’t escaped his notice, either. Something definitely wasn’t right.

  And as soon as he got the little vampire down for the day, Raith was going to find October and grill him until he spilled everything.

  Chapter Six

  While Raith attended to Kaito, October took the SUV down to Hell’s Alley to find his guests and apologize for his rudeness. As Raith had predicted, Nicholas was incredibly understanding about the entire situation, saying he knew full well the challenges of being a good leader.

  Thankfully, he wasn’t upset that they wou ld need to postpone the interrogation. After a bit of persuasion, he even agreed that he and Jonas would take one of the guestrooms in the main house instead of returning to the private jet they’d secured from The Council for the trip. On the whole, it had gone much better than October had anticipated.

  With Nicholas and his mate settled into their temporary quarters, October sought refuge in his own bedroom. The muscles in his back felt tight enough to snap his spine while his head throbbed right between his eyes.

  “What the hell am I going to do?” He never liked to speak ill of the dead, but if the information he’d received earlier in the evening was true, Enforcer Tanaka was a despicable bastard. If he hadn’t already met his demise, there’d be one more prisoner down on Hell’s Alley.

  With a heavy heart, he undressed in a sluggish daze and flopped down on the dark purple comforter spread across his mattress. He wasn’t omniscient, and there was no way for him to know every single thing that happened in his coven, but he should have known about this.

  The door opened with a muffled swish across the floor, but October couldn’t drudge up enough energy to move. “Did you get him in bed?”

  “Yeah, he’s down for the count,” Raith answered as his footsteps plodded towardthe bed. “So, do you want to tell me what happened?”

  With a defeated groan, October rolled to his side and looked up at Raith when the man eased down on the mattress beside him. “If I say no, are you going to drop it?”

  “Nope.”

  Of course not. “When I sent Gideon to pick up Kaito and bring him here, he found the boy in the basement of the house. There was no one else there, and it appeared that he had been alone for days, maybe longer.”

  “What about the nanny?”

  “There was a cot, a bathroom, a refrigerator stocked with water and hot dogs, a couple of books, a sketchpad, and some crayons. That’s it. Apparently, there is no nanny. Tanaka just left Kaito on his own when he departedfor assignments.” The anger still boiled in his blood, but the sadness of the situation overshadowed his fury. “How does someone do that?”

  Raith didn’t appear at all startled by the news. “I don’t think it was just when he went on assignments, Tober. The whole time I was getting the squirt ready for bed, he never once mentioned his dad. Doesn’t that seem a little strange to you?”

  He had thought it was a bit odd that Kaito hadn’t shown much reaction to the news that his father had died. If what Raith suggested was true, Kaito’s indifference made much more sense. “When I told him that his dad died, he just looked at me and blinked like I was speaking a foreign language. Then he asked if I wanted to color with him. I thought maybe he just didn’t understand. After all, I don’t have much experience with children.”

  “Kids are smart. They get a lot more than most adults give them credit for, and I’m sure Kaito understood perfectly.” A long sigh fell from his lips as his fingers began working through October’s hair. “I think we’re going to have to talk to him.”

  “I was afraid you’d say that.”

  “He might be a little scared at first, but he’s the only one who can tell us what was really happening in that house.”

  October had a horrible feeling in his gut that he didn’t want to know the full extent of what Kaito had suffered. “Does it really matter? It’s over and done with. Maybe we shouldn’t bring it up at all.”

  “You know better than that. If we’re going to find him a home, we need to know what happened.” He didn’t sound any happier about the prospect than October felt, but he did have a point. There could be ongoing issues that would need to be addressed, and they couldn’t place Kaito in a foster or adoptive home without informing his new guardians.

  “I see what you’re saying, and I agree, but this just doesn’t make any sense to me. Why would Tanaka do that?”

  “Maybe he was ashamed of what Kaito is,” Raith answered with a shrug. “You said he didn’t want you to tell anyone. It could be because he was embarrassed rather than a safety issue.”

  Shifting closer to his mate, October rested his head on Raith’s thigh and closed his eyes. That explanation hit a little too close to home, and his heart broke just a bit more for Kaito. “I should have known about it. I should have done something to stop it.”

  Raith actually laughed at him, but it was quiet and without much humor. “You can’t save the world, babe. You can’t control it, either. Bad shit happens. That’s the way lif
e works. We deal with it, and we move on.”

  It was the pot calling the kettle black, because October was certain Raith had yet to let go of the “bad shit” that had happened to him. However, in the interest of not making his headache even worse, he didn’t comment on the hypocrisy of the statement. Instead, he chose to focus on the part where he was a control freak.

  “I don’t need to control everything.”

  Raith snorted. “Yes, you do.”

  “I give you control.”

  The snort turned into a chuckle. “Just because you let me put my dick in your ass does not mean I’m in charge of anything.”

  “Very eloquent, draga.”

  “I don’t need fancy words to get my point across.” He eased off of the bed, and October’s head fell from his thigh to bounce against the mattress. “And my point is this. The universe will not implode, and the Earth will not stop spinning if you don’t take everything that happens as a personal failure.”

  His head hurt, his brains were going to leak out of his ears, and the last thing he wanted to do was get into a debate with his lover, especially when he didn’t feel that any of the accusations even warranted a response.

  Rolling to his back, he threw one arm over his face to block out the light and breathed deeply while Raith continued pacing the room. Why couldn’t they ever just have a normal conversation that didn’t end with one or both of them getting pissed off? “Fuck it,” he mumbled. “I’m too tired to be mad.”

  “What? I’m not trying to make you mad.” Footsteps shuffled across the floorand a hand landed on October’s elbow. “All I’m saying is that sometimes people screw up, and that’s on them. There is no way you could have known what was happening to Kaito, and you shouldn’t blame yourself. You’re doing the right thing now, and that’s what matters.”

  Long fingers curled around his wrist and pried his arm away from his face. October blinked several times, but eventually gave up and kept his eyes closed. The soft light from the single lamp felt more like staring directly into the sun on a cloudless day, and the pain in his head intensified until his stomach rolled with nausea.