Free Bless The Beauty by Stacey Kennedy Page A

be—what is important. If this life you have now pleases you, than I am content with that.”

    I smiled as happiness coursed through my body and leaned forward to bring my face close to his. “You know you are perfect, right?”

    He grinned, haughtily. “Yes, I do know this.”

    I shook my head at him, laughing. Classic, arrogant Kellen. How I missed his confidence. “So what’s the plan?”

    “Make the call—if we find out this is the hospital, we’ll take Chase with us to go and talk with this Doctor. But first we’ll take a quick trip to see Mistress Ellery to claim him.”

    “We?” I repeated. Did I hear him right? Was he really that accepting of all this? I couldn’t believe my ears.

    “He is important to you,” Kellen replied with a smile that showed he just enjoyed shocking me.
    “If I claim him too, it will give him a stronger protection.”

    “You think he could be in danger?” I hadn’t even considered that a possibility.

    Kellen glanced away from me for a moment. When he met my gaze again, there was guilt in the depth of his eyes. “I am a shield again, Hadley.” His look was firm and serious. “You know what that means.”

    I did know. It meant danger of every sort. I hadn’t wanted to go back to the memory of all the times I found myself in precarious situations before I left Kellen. But it was those reasons he loved and thrived on by being a shield. The only reason I never put up a stink about it was because Kellen was a strong protector. I never was in serious danger.

    Now, things were different and the idea of bringing Chase into this world was very unsettling.
    “Have you been in danger recently?”

    Kellen let out a self-righteous laugh, then his grin settled. “Not likely. If I happen to piss someone off and they know my bride has a consort, they may use him as an act of revenge. If I claim him too, it is more likely they won’t.”

    The thought of anything happening to Chase sent a shudder straight through me. Just as that settled, I felt entirely grateful Kellen would offer this. No matter how long we’d been together, he could still surprise me. “You would really do that for me?”

    “Darling…” Kellen arched a brow, “I would lay my life down for you. This is not putting me out by any means.”

    I could only smile in return, unable to explain how I felt about this with words. I was beginning to remember why I loved Kellen so much. The man didn’t have a selfish bone in his body. I knew he was now, and would always be, a better person than I could be on a good day.

    Resolved to get back to the matter at hand, I picked up the phone and dialled the number. Only two rings in a soft voice answered, “Aurora Psychiatric Hospital, how may I help you?”

    “This is Special Agent Hadley Sloan. I am working a case with the Milwaukee Police Department, and wondered if you at some point had a patient there by the name of Chad McKinney.” Silence filled the line. “Hello?”

    “I’m sorry,” the woman’s voice said in a soft tone. “I suppose we should have expected this call.”

    My dead heart leapt into my throat. That was just the response that I’d been hoping to hear over the past hour. Her response, though, irked me. Why wouldn’t they offer their help on the information they had on him? Damn, mortals could be so annoying. “So, he was a patient there, then?”

    “Yes, ma’am.”

    I let out a long deep sigh, relieved that we had gotten somewhere. “We need to come and speak with you immediately.”

    “But it is the middle of the night. Dr. Peterson, who treated Mr. McKinney, worked the day shift today. He will be sleeping now.”

    “This cannot wait until morning.” Not only because this was urgent, but also because I couldn’t go out in the daylight to talk to him. We needed to act now. As it was, we were going to lose some time going to Mistress Ellery’s.

    This choice was the only one we had. Kellen had enemies that would love to