Prince of Shadows by Susan Krinard

Kieran looked away, stalling for time to remember “I’ve been moving around a lot.”

“That was always your way, wasn’t it?” Her hard smile returned, brittle with a wealth of pain. “I see you’re traveling with someone now.”

Kieran glanced toward the phone booth. He could no longer hear Alexandra’s voice, and she had left the booth.

“I can’t blame you,” Lori continued. “You’d have been crazy to come back here after they drove you out. Crazy to come back to someone like me.” She tossed back her hair. “But the two months you were here meant something to me. You understood better than anyone.” She swallowed visibly. “I’m glad you made it, Kieran. I really am.”

Made it. Kieran closed his eyes, trying to summon up the past. “How are things with you now, Lori?”

“You really want to know?” she asked, her voice bleak. “I wish I could tell you that things are different. That I’d been smart. But I wasn’t.” She shrugged. “You told me to go, but I didn’t. And then I found out I was carrying Kevin. I didn’t know what to do after the fight, after you left town. So I stayed.” She looked at him through heavily caked lashes, eyes glistening. “But you don’t need to hear my problems. You did what you could and got into trouble for it, and I didn’t listen.”

Kieran felt the memories begin to come. “I left you, he said heavily.”

“You didn’t have any choice.” Lori held his gaze. “They were all Jerry’s friends. They ran you out of town, and they would have killed you if they’d had the chance.” She scrubbed her hand across her eyes again. “You made it. That’s all that matters.”

“What happened to you… when I was gone?” She looked away quickly, and her hands gathered up the loose fabric of Kevin’s jacket. Her little boy turned and hugged his mother’s legs.

Without a word Kieran stepped toward Lori and touched her chin, drawing her gaze back to his.

“Jerry hurt you again.”

“Yeah, you could say that.” She leaned into his palm. “He was pissed off. And I was too scared to leave.”

Jerry, Lori’s husband. Images were filling Kieran’s mind at last: this nondescript Saskatchewan town on the side of the road; a darkened bar, loud voices, violent conflict. Just like in Merritt. One of the places he’d remembered as a vague dream, a place he’d passed through on the way to nowhere.

But there had been someone here. Someone he’d known. Cared for. Someone to make him stay for a time.

And an enemy. Lori’s husband, whom he’d fought because of her.

And failed. Somehow, he had failed.

Kieran dropped into a crouch before the solemn little boy. “This is your son.”

“Kevin.” All the harshness had left her voice. “I wanted to name him after you, but I knew Jerry would take it the wrong way.”

Kieran felt his muscles clench. I wanted to name him after you. The child was about five years old, with black hair. A handsome little boy.

He offered his hand to the child. Kevin pushed back against his mother’s legs, eyes still wide and wary.

“He’s shy,” Lori said. “Don’t take it the wrong way.”

Kieran looked up, his heart like a stone in his chest. “Is he mine?”

She was long in answering. In the brittle silence Kieran knew it was possible. More than possible. He had known Lori—well enough. Found in her an outsider like himself, an antidote to his own formless hunger. He’d lingered in this town, listened to her problems. Comforted her in the only ways he knew.

He might even have loved her…

“I wanted him to be,” she whispered. “More than anything in my life.”

Kieran dropped his hand between his knees and looked up at her. “Lori…”

“It’s over now, isn’t it?” she said suddenly, all the harsh bitterness back in place. “If you’d ever given a damn about me, you could have sent a letter. Something. But I guess that was too much to expect.” She jerked her head toward the store. “You’ve got your life, and I’ve got mine. I’ve got plans now. I don’t need your help anymore.” She grabbed Kevin’s hand and pulled him with her. “I was just on my way out anyway.”