Wait for the Wind Read Online Free PDF Page A

the barmaids like a mother hawk. All he ever need do was cook and help with drinks if she called for him.
    Gathering up the blank canvas and easel, Skye took them into his studio. As he stored them, he felt a sudden wrenching sadness. His chest hurt with a pain that wouldn’t ease. It tore at his soul and brought tears to his eyes. The feeling, the emotion, wasn’t his. He heard a deep sobbing on the wind, calling out for someone or something to ease the ache.
    He went to the window and looked out toward Liv’s, thinking his sister might be in trouble, but what he saw surprised him. On a small spot of shore he’d never noticed before sat Kate. Her pain was so tangible that Skye had picked it up with his empathic gifts. Immediately he rushed down the path from his house to Liv’s. The only way to stop his suffering was to ease hers.
    * * * *
    Kate topped the rise. She was acutely aware of Ryan’s eyes watching her every step. She hoped she’d given him something to think about, but she had ripped open her soul to do it. No one would see her if she ran it out, cried through the pain.
    Her tears streamed like rivers now. Shoes pounded through the grass still soggy from this morning’s rain. Each step became harder to take until it felt like her memories and life itself were holding her back. She ran headfirst into an unyielding form and looked up into lightning blue eyes.
    “Now then, Katie, my girl, what’s got you so blue?”
    Skye. She could trust him. “Your brother is the champion of all jackasses.”
    “Ah, well. I’ve known him to be no different. Here, now.” Skye plopped down in the grass and patted a spot beside him.
    Kate sat down, letting him fold her into his shoulder while she cried.
    “Why do you hurt so badly? It’s killing you, not to mention what it’s doing to me.”
    Skye was as much a brother to her as Liv was a sister. She’d spent more time at their home than hers growing up. His empathic gifts had made it easy to confide in him then. Why should now be any different? “Ryan is home. We had words over the baby.”
    “Allie?”
    “No. He didn’t give me the chance to say anything about her. Allie was a twin, Skye. I miscarried the other child.”
    “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
    “No one does except Molly, and now you.”
    “He can’t blame you for that, Kate.”
    “He’s thought all these years I had an abortion. He believes I killed our baby.”
    “You wouldn’t. You are the most loving, honest person I know.” Skye waggled his eyebrows at her. “You’re the reason my quest for a wife will never be complete. I strive to find a woman like you.”
    His huge grin made her giggle.
    “Oh, you’re awful.” Kate laughed and her heartache eased a little.
    “Yes. I am. So what did happen? You can trust me with it.”
    Kate took a deep breath. “My father beat the hell out of me. I came home from a date with Ryan with an engagement ring on my finger. He was drunk. I was leaving, packing up my things when he came into my room. I was so scared and he saw me cover my stomach. He hit me there, Skye. Broke one of my hands because I was trying to protect my baby.”
    “Oh, honey. I’m so sorry.” Skye tightened his arms around her. It helped knowing he cried with her.
    “I felt something tear inside. I knew I was bleeding, that I would lose the baby. I tried to fight him. I kicked him, hit him with my broken hand, but it didn’t stop him from raping me.”
    “God. Kate. Why didn’t Ryan kill the bastard?”
    “When Mick passed out, I crawled off the bed and out the window. God, it hurt to move, just to breathe. I thought maybe if I could get help, I could still save the baby. Ryan’s house–well, your house now–was closest. I was so weak, hurt. I didn’t want to tell anyone what horror I’d gone through, I just wanted the baby to live. I made it halfway there. Molly found me. She was too late to save the baby.”
    * * * *
    “Ma knew, all this time.” And she’d