Phoenix Inheritance (5 page)

“He's right. You're Batman. The superhero without powers.” Renee smiled, broke the hug and took Charlie's hand. “We should get moving.”

Right, right.
There was that little thing called a snowstorm. But once they were inside…Batman, the superhero without superpowers? Hell, for the charge to his ego alone, he needed Renee.

“Good boys!” Renee whistled for the dogs and waved her hands. “Home,” she ordered them.

The dogs barked once and set off. They followed, though their pace was slower due to the wet leaves, sticks and branches already littering the ground. Charlie kept his hand under the lump sticking out from his jacket and that slowed them even more. Several times, Daz had to lift Charlie over some fallen limbs. During those times, the lump under his coat didn't move.

Damn well behaved for a cat, Daz thought, and hoped it wasn't injured. Daz fell back a few steps behind them to monitor Charlie's progress. Renee said something to their son that Daz couldn't hear.

Charlie laughed, a perfect, beautiful sound.

My family, Daz thought.
My family.

And yet, he was the outsider. He'd prided himself on taking responsibility for Charlie, even after the breakup with Renee. But he'd missed being present for much of Charlie's first two years because of being stationed halfway across the world from Renee. No, not just stationed. He'd volunteered for a mission that caused him to miss Charlie's birth. It'd been necessary. His duty. But…

He'd been playing catch-up ever since. Charlie had been easy to re-bond with. Renee had been a completely different story. It probably would've helped if he'd told her he loved her.

But he hadn't, and, like his steps over the fallen branches, he'd treaded carefully with her ever since, wanting to keep their relationship at least friendly for Charlie's sake.

Mistake, he thought. He should have tried to win her back a long time ago. Renee the geek was the most interesting woman he'd ever met, with her SAR work, and her love of travel, and her ability to have fun. Not to mention that she was totally fearless in bed.

He'd played the field and pretended it didn't matter so long as he got to spend time with Charlie. But no one measured up to Renee. Other women just seemed dull.

Ahead of him, Charlie said something about the cat and Renee muttered “Damned feline” under her breath. He smiled again. Despite the snowstorm, the cold, his aching arm, and the weight of the coiled rope in his hand, he'd never been happier.

He'd been there for them. He'd done it right this time.

Wood splintered behind them.

“Faster, Charlie!” Renee yelled.

Daz instinctively put up a hand, as if it could stop a heavy tree branch. Several feet behind them, a huge white birch hit the ground.

Charlie froze. Renee skidded to a halt.

“It's gonna hit me!” he yelled.

This was no time to freeze up and panic. “Nah, it's already down.” Daz scooped Charlie up, careful to avoid the cat lump. “Want a ride?”

“Sure!” All the fear was gone from his son's voice.

Daz shifted Charlie to his back. His son wrapped his legs tight around Daz's waist.

“Lead the way, Renee.”

“Eat my dust.”

The joke was definitely for Charlie's benefit because her face was far more serious.

Daz gave up looking around and concentrated on keeping Renee and the dogs in sight. The falling snow soaked through his pants. He wondered how the cat was getting on with Charlie bouncing around back there and hoped that he wouldn't suddenly get clawed in the back of his head.

They broke out of the forest into the backyard. Renee slowed to wait for them. He waved her on. “Go, go, we're right behind you.”

She ran, the dogs at her heels. He followed. “Hold tight, Charlie!”

He was breathing heavily by the time he skidded around the side of the house into the open garage. A cliff rescue plus a jog through a blizzard was plenty to get his heart pumping, even more than his workout this morning.

Gasping out breaths, Daz slid Charlie off his back. His son instantly ran over to his mother for a hug. Daz felt like doing the same. Renee released Charlie and ordered him over to the safety of the entrance to the house.

“Daz, move away from the garage door so I can close it,” Renee said.

“We could all load up in the van and head out. That'd be safest, and I could take us to a place immune to falling trees and power outages.”

“You want to
drive
in this storm?” She shook her head, throwing off bits of snow that clung to her hat. “No way.”

She was right. Too late for his idea of them holing up at the Institute. Damn. “Okay, you're right. But hold off on the door and let me get my stuff from the van!”

He ran back out into the storm, yanked open the van's back door, grabbed one duffel stuffed with a change of clothing and another duffel with assorted emergency supplies, slammed the door shut and ran into the garage.

The second he reached the garage bay, a thunderous crack echoed behind him.

Daz turned.
Holy shit.
An enormous oak tree was slowly tipping over, pulled sideways out of the ground by the weight of the snow on its branches. Wood creaked. Dirt and snow around the roots spit and scattered, pushed aside by the monstrous roots coming out of the ground.

The entire thing was headed straight for his van, right where he'd been standing.

“Daz, back away! I have to close the door right now!”

He backpedaled. The automatic door came down far too slowly for his comfort. Wet leaves thudded onto the roof of the van. Wood splintered in great cracks and creaks. Through the clear panels of the now closed door, Daz watched, transfixed.

Metal crunched as the tree slammed into the roof of the van. The windshield glass shattered outward, and its shards splatted against the garage door, making a metallic ping. Daz flinched and backed up farther to where Renee and Charlie stood. He dropped the duffels and reached back blindly for Renee's hand. She took it, gripping him hard even through their gloves.

With one last heave, the tree settled. The van was basically cut in half, the middle flat against the driveway.

“Whoa,” Charlie said into the silence.

“Yeah.” Close, damn close. He should never have taken the time to grab his duffels. “Guess I'm not going anywhere for a while. Thanks for the save, Renee.”

“Sure, no problem.” She squeezed his hand once and let go. But her voice shook, giving the lie to her casual words. Hell,
all
of him was shaky. His giddiness from the rescue was gone, replaced by the realization that they'd cheated death today and maybe the danger still wasn't over.

“Are there more trees that size around here?” he asked.

“No. I don't think so.” She shook her head. “That was the biggest one near the house.”

“Good.” He caught her gaze. They were all lucky to be alive. He swallowed to clear his throat, not sure exactly what to say but knowing he should say something.

The dogs picked that moment to shake themselves furiously, ridding their coats of the snow and ice.

“Hey, watch it!” Daz said as a chunk of snow splashed his already wet pants.

Charlie giggled as the dogs shook snow onto him.

Renee tugged off her soaked hat, shook it, and laughed. “I wish I could get dry like that.” She stomped her boots, knocking off the snow. “Whew. Let's go inside where it's warm.”

Charlie imitated his mother's stomping, then sat down on the steps that led up to the interior door and unzipped his jacket. Finally, the lump moved. The cat's face poked out, alert.

It was a pretty cat with dark gray stripes against darker fur with gray eyes. It stared at them with an unreadable feline expression.

“That's a good boy, Odin.” Charlie scratched one of the cat's ears.

“How do you know the cat's a boy?” Daz asked.

“He told me.”

Renee rolled her eyes. “Finish getting off your gear, Charlie.”

Daz took off his gloves, brushed the snow from his hair and shoulders and looked for somewhere to put the coiled line.

“There's just enough room on the work bench,” Renee said, answering his unspoken question. She pointed to a half-cleared table in the back. Flashlights, water and cans of food took up most of it.

“Is there gas somewhere for a generator?” he asked.

“Stored outside in the shed. If we lose power, I can turn the generator on with a switch.”

“Good disaster preparedness.”

“Thanks.”

Charlie, coat and boots now off, set the cat down. The dogs came sniffing over but the cat, not being stupid, decided to hide behind Charlie's legs rather than deal with animals three times his size.

“Inside,” Renee said.

The dogs went first, going through their door. Charlie quickly followed, scooping the cat back up as he went inside.

“Whew.” Renee turned to stare at Daz, her eyes full of gratitude, her face showing absolute, total approval for the first time in years. Renee had always been hard to impress.

“Thank you doesn't cover what you did,” she said, unbuttoning her coat.

“‘Thank you' is plenty good enough for me.”

“I'm sorry about your van.”

“No worries. It's insured.” He shrugged. He'd smash a whole truckload of vans if she'd keep looking at him like that. She was wearing one of her geeky T-shirts again. He didn't recognize the superhero but he liked the bright colors. Princess Sparklefists. Hah.

“I'll give you a ride wherever you want to go once the snow clears.” She pointed to her pickup parked in the other garage bay.

“Again, not worried about it. But you are stuck with me for the duration or until we can get a tow truck here to get that mess out of the driveway.”

“If you can handle that, I can.” She smiled and shucked off her boots. The coats went on a coatrack, the boots neatly below.

Okay, how to keep this good feeling between them going? Daz spotted the small woodpile to the right of the door. “Want me to start a fire?”

“Yeah, that would be great.” She halted in the doorway, halfway inside already. “A warm fire would be perfect after today. Thank you again.”

They were about to be trapped together in this house for hours, maybe even a couple of days. This was the best chance to patch things up with her, if he could find the right words and do the right things.

“One roaring fire, stat.”

“Great.” She went inside and he heard her say something to Charlie.

He loaded his arms with kindling and a couple of logs and stepped into Renee's house, the first time he'd done it with the intention of staying. All the previous times, he'd only stayed a few minutes to pick up Charlie.

He passed through the mudroom that contained the washer and dryer and into the living room hallway. To his right was the kitchen, where Renee and Charlie were talking. He wasn't much of a decorator but he could see the care that had gone into making this a home. Charlie's homework papers covered the surface of the stainless-steel refrigerator and Renee's pens sat in a handmade holder that was obviously Charlie's work.

Daz took his load of wood into the living room. Photos of Charlie alone, with his mom, and with friends and family decorated the end tables. It seemed everyone was in those photos except him. Ouch.

He set down the wood and opened the flue above the fireplace. He glanced out the picture window as he placed the logs and kindling in the best configuration to catch. Nothing but white outside, with a few dark shadows that likely represented fallen trees or storm debris.

They were trapped in a snow globe.

But the company was good.

He struck the matches, waited for the flames to catch, and listened to Charlie and Renee talking in the kitchen. The kitchen was open to both the hallway and to the living room on the other side, so he could hear them clearly.

“Charlie, meet my eyes,” she said.

She must have knelt down to put them face-to-face. She'd told Daz more than once that was the best way to get Charlie to pay attention.

“Yeah, Mom?”

“Running after Odin today was really, really dangerous, Charlie.”

Yes, insanely dangerous. Renee was being calmer about it than he would be.

“Why was helping that cat so important?” she asked.

“I dunno,” Charlie mumbled.

A pause. “I'm not going to yell at you, I'm trying to figure out why you did it so it doesn't happen again.”

It better not happen again, Daz thought.

“I swear, I won't go near the cliff again.”

Charlie's voice shook a bit. Good that he was a little freaked by what happened. Maybe he actually would think twice about running off again.

“What if Odin wants to go back outside and you give chase again?”

“He won't run away, Mom! He said he likes it here.”

Another pause. Renee sighed. No wonder.

“You did run off, Charlie. You can't do that again, okay? Next time, you could be really hurt.”

“I won't run after Odin again because he won't run off again. That's a fact.”

“Just tell me next time when you get the urge. I'll help you work through it so we can do what needs to be done safely.”

“Would you have let me run after the cat?”

“Remember? I offered to get the kitty myself,” she said. “We'll work together on it next time, okay?”

“Okay.”

Renee was very calm, considering. Daz remembered his panic the day at the zoo when Charlie had run off and tried to climb into the wolf den. A fence had stopped him that day. But not everything could be fenced away from Charlie. When Daz had pressed Charlie about why he'd run off, Charlie just said the wolves wanted him to come closer so they could all talk to him. That was the same excuse he'd given Renee about running after the cat.