Quinlan: Foster’s Pride – Lion Shapeshifter Romance (Foster's Pride Book 3), Kathi Barton [management books to read TXT] 📗

estate, and any money in the bank when I kick the bucket, she’ll get a part of. Which I’m thinking will be long after you’re dust in the ground. By the way, you’re not going to be buried on my land either. You’ve done enough to it to last several lifetimes.” Robin said he wasn’t being fair. “Fair or not, that’s the way I’ve decided to do it.”

When Robby stood up, she did as well. Cass told them he had some things he needed to go over with Robin before he left, and they were to meet him in the cafeteria. She and Robby were about halfway there when the older man broke down. She knew he was having a hard time with this, and she was hurting for him.

“He actually said it wasn’t fair. Like him killing off people was fair to them.” She stood there while he blew his nose and sniffled. “I should be used to his crap by now, but I tell you, it just makes me happy his mother isn’t here to see him like this. She’d be more hurt than I am.”

“He’s lucky Cass hit him before I did.” Robby laughed and hugged her. “How about we go and have us some pie? I think pie cures everything going wrong. If they were to have a meeting between two opposing countries, serving them pie would be just the ticket.”

“I think you might be right on that one.” He moved along the hallway with her and stopped when he laughed. “Perhaps that’s what happened to Robin. He told me when he was little that he just couldn’t stand pie. I guess I know why now. Damned kid. Who doesn’t like pie?”

They were still laughing when they picked out their dessert. They each had four pieces, and the plan was to taste them all. Just a taste. But in the end, they ate each slice and enjoyed every sinful bite. When Cass joined them, he didn’t have much to say that was good, she supposed, but he did look upset for a while. Then Robby bought him some pie, and he looked better.

Perhaps she was right. Pie did make things better.

Chapter 8

Cass sat down next to the man he’d come to respect a great deal over the last few days. Robby Quarter was not only a good man, but he was very troubled. The word had come to him that there was a child out there that belonged to Robin, and Robby had jumped at the chance to go see the child and mother. Not that they had DNA proof it was his child, they did have a whereabouts for it that the two of them had followed to where they were now.

“I’ve spoken to the principal of the school the child might be attending, and she told me if it’s who she thinks it is, they’re in financial trouble. Also, if this is Robin’s, there are twin boys, not a single child as we were looking for.” Robby looked at him with so much hope in his eyes that it hurt Cass to have to tell him the next part. “The woman, their mother, is working several jobs and sleeps while they’re at school. I have, with my own money, deposited two hundred dollars. Even if she’s not who we think she might be, I have to help her out. She really is in trouble.”

“I’ll pay you for that. Yes, you’re right. Even if it’s not Robin’s children, they shouldn’t have to go without. What do we do now? I mean, I’m guessing we don’t just go up to her and tell her who we are.” Cass said that was exactly what they were going to do. “Oh. I guess I figured you’d be a bit on the squeamish side. That’s not true. I’m a lot on the squeamish side of doing this. I don’t know what I’d even say to her about all this.”

“You tell her the truth. That you have only just found out about her. However, I’d start by telling her that Robin is in prison and that he won’t be getting out. From the stories I’ve heard about Robin, it might well be the reason she’s living here and not closer to anyone she knows.” Robby also knew the sadistic things Robin had done to women. Things he’d also done to men that, in Robby’s mind, had been horrendous. “Robby, we don’t have to do anything but make sure this woman has money to feed her children and pay her bills.”

“Where do we go from here, Cass? I’m not going to have done all this only to sit by and wonder if they might need me. As I said before, this is the only hope I have right now that makes me feel as if I’ve not been a complete failure as a father and a man.” Cass told him he wasn’t even close to being a failure at anything. “Perhaps not now, but I worry. Robin might well have had something wrong with him all along. I don’t know. But I do know this family might need me, and I want to help them.”

“I understand.” He handed him the paperwork he’d gotten at the school board. “This isn’t much, but it’s the best I could do until we get the rest of the information back. And talk to the mother. She’ll be able to give us everything you want if she wishes. Otherwise, I’d advise you to help from a distance. We don’t want to piss her off and have her bring charges against you for being a stalker or something along those lines.”

The pictures he’d been able to collect showed two little boys, aged nine, playing in the yard. There were also infant pictures of them, as well as a couple of school pictures Cass had been able to unearth. Robby was staring at the two little boys lying in a crib at what he assumed was a hospital.

“I