Free Landon: Justice Series ― Erotica Paranormal Romance by Kathi S. Barton Page B

you will ever be. And my salary kept us in food and clothing when you weren’t working. Which was most of the time. You bastard.”
    When he drew back to no doubt hit her, Landon started to step in, but Mrs. Phillips put out her hand and hit him first. Some ghosts had the power to cause pain, but Landon seldom saw them use it on each other. When Randall went tumbling back, Mrs. Phillips moved to the left side of the line where others were started to fill out, and stood there with her chin held high.
    It was a long afternoon. And Landon for one thought that it would go a good deal faster since Mrs. Phillips was telling everyone that would listen what her husband had done to her and her children. Because to her, he’d hurt them as much as he had her and Jacob when he’d killed her for no reason at all.

 
    Chapter 5
     
    Kari held little Aster and tried to figure out what she was doing wrong. Every time she moved her arm, even to try to get the kinks out of it, Aster would scream like it was her job. She supposed it was in a way, but Kari was hurting because she felt like a failure.
    “Can I help?” Kari looked up at Dillon and wanted to crawl under the bed. “I could hear her. She sounds really pissed off.”
    “Steele had to go and take a phone call, and she started to fuss. I’ve been doing okay with her until...she hates me, I think.” Dillon said that wasn’t likely. “I can’t make her stop crying. I’ve tried everything the nurses told me.”
    “Yeah, sometimes they like to stretch their lungs.” Dillon asked to hold the baby and Kari said yes. As soon as she was in her arms, the baby started to fuss less. And more so when Dillon started talking to her like she was an adult, not in that stupid baby voice that Kari had always hated. “My goodness, what’s all this fuss about? You’d think you’ve never been in the world before this.”
    Kari watched her with her daughter and tried to study each movement. When Aster quieted down, she kept talking to her in the low tones, but was saying the silliest things. Kari asked her what she was doing.
    “She doesn’t care what I’m saying to her, just that she hears it. Sometimes, they just need a little distracting until you can get your own bearings straight.”
    Kari nodded as Dillon laid the baby on the bed, still talking to her. “I changed her diaper and tried to give her that sucky thing. Which I hate, by the way.” Kari sat up on the bed as Dillon checked Aster’s diaper and then pulled off her gown. Kari had been stripping down too since she’d woke up, and could see that the baby had a fine mist of sweat on her as well. Why they had the room at this temperature was beyond her.
    “The pacifier will come in handy soon enough, I think. But get one that’s not so ugly. Pretty girls need pretty things, don’t they?” As the baby was stripped down to her diaper, she started to close her eyes. When the nurse came in to check on them, she told Dillon to put the baby’s clothing back on. “No. I don’t think so. Her mom is hot, so she is as well. And when they’re hot, like she is, then they’re going to fuss until someone does something about it. You don’t like it, then we can find someone who will.”
    As soon as the nurse left in a huff, Dillon handed the baby to Kari. As Aster settled in her arms, Dillon did the same in the chair next to her. Aster was soon asleep, her pretty little lips puckered as if she were still nursing. Kari looked at Dillon with tears in her eyes.
    “I don’t know what I’m doing.” Dillon said that no new mother does, but you deal the best you can. “But how did you know she was just hot? I mean, screaming at me doesn’t really narrow it down.”
    “No. But my grandmother used to tell my aunt, if you’re hot or cold, then the baby is. If you’ve checked all the normal things and the baby still screams, then it’s physical. Check for hot first, then a pin sticking them. Both, by the way, are easy to fix.”