Rodney: Marshall’s Shadow – Jaguar Shapeshifter Romance by Kathi Barton (i wanna iguana read aloud TXT) 📗

thought Belinda knew she was having twins. “She did. And she purposely kept that part out of her conversations with Todd. Also, she was running when she went into labor. The other two were going to be staying at a neighbor’s home until she could come back for them. That was the reason Todd’s name was never put on the certificates. So he couldn’t claim them in the event she was able to get away. I have an idea what I want to do with some of the money Harris is going to give us for projects. I want to purchase the old high school and turn it into some sort of home for pregnant women. There won’t be a mention of how we’ll help them get out of a bad relationship or help them get away. It would just be a clinic of sorts to help mothers have a safe delivery and leave the place when they are able. There will be daycare as well for other children, so they can run as well.”

“I’m sure it’s not as simple as that, but I think that’s an excellent idea—especially the daycare part for the other children. I’ve run into trouble with that a couple of times when the mother couldn’t find a sitter for them, and they had to sit in the waiting room alone. Mostly because the father couldn’t be trusted to take care of them. Terrible situation to get into if you ask me.” She smiled at him. “Once word gets out that we’ve assisted in only one of the women and her children getting away, no one will allow their pregnant women to go there.”

“I’ve thought of that too. I’m working on that as we speak. The police could help us, and I know Harris would as well if we ask. I want this to work.” He said he did as well. “Good. That’ll be all we need. Cooperation.”

As he set up the care for the twins, he thought of very little else but the woman dying like she had. To be carrying a man’s child and him thinking she had any say at all over whether it was a girl or boy. Men needed to have a lesson in how that worked. Telling them that the male was the parent that contributed the chromosome that decided that part would perhaps save a lot of fights between a man and a woman. Then he thought that no one would believe him, especially not the type of person that would believe that the woman had the determining gene.

Heading down to the pediatrics floor, he picked up the file on the girls. They were both hurting, he’d been told, and had needed stitches, but they were in generally good health. After getting a good meal into their bellies, the nurses on duty said that they’d gone to sleep on their own. He was glad. Rodney wanted to be able to save everyone he worked on. It had taken him a very long time to get it in his head that there wasn’t any way to save them all. It didn’t mean that he didn’t try, but it was an impossibility that he wished was different.

Chapter 8

James watched his target as they moved all around the restaurant. He wasn’t there to end her life, such as it was, but to get her to a safe house, then go to his own home. There were all sorts of things she was going to be charged with, one of them treason to her own country. When someone sat across from him, he nearly snarled at his sister. Instead, afraid of her, he just ate his soup like he’d been expecting her all along.

I’m here to take over. He didn’t bother looking up at her. The link they shared had it so that they’d have to never speak out loud if they didn’t want to. Someone has called your boss and said something has happened at your house, and you need to be transported home. Billy broke his leg in a fall from the bleachers at the football field at home.

By the way she worded it, he knew that not only was there nothing wrong with his son but that she’d already checked it out. When a bowl of the same soup he was sipping was set in front of her, she did what he’d done when he’d gotten his. Paige not only checked it for poisons but also smelled it to find out as well. When she pushed it away, he did as well, and unlocked the clip on his gun and put his hand on it at the ready.

Why were you called, do you know? She shrugged. Something she knew he hated, and she did anyway. What’s going down here? Anything I’ve done, or you?

Both of us, as a matter of fact. She was eyeing the room, and he didn’t bother looking too. Something he’d learned a very long time ago about his little sister, she was fucking good at her job. So was he, but he was too cautious, as he’d been told by her several times a day. There are two geeks over by the door. They’re trying their best to blend in, but they’re not fooling anyone. Their language is too perfect, and they’re dressed like peasants. Peasants can’t afford bottled beer or the food they’re eating. Not at the same time, anyway.

Glancing in that direction, he took in as much as he could in the way of information. She was right, as usual—they were trying hard to blend. Also, he noticed that four other men were watching them and making no bones about how they didn’t like them being there. He thought they were KGB but doubted he was right on that. The Soviet Union had nothing to do with this area, and the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti weren’t the type to carry knives when guns were going to be needed.

“I think they’re Feds. It would be just