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

a little wobbly, as well as his hands. And sitting on them hadn’t done a thing to calm them. Landon looked at his grandda when he said his name.
    “You all right, boy?” He said that he was, but that was a lie and they both knew it. “I’m telling you the truth, Landon. Just like I did all those years ago. You did nothing wrong, other than to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Them idiots that were there on the stairs, they caused the fire themselves, and when they passed you on the landing, they were headed up to see about their drugs. The second blast, the one that took their lives, that’s what caused the fire to spread like it did.”
    “They killed themselves, and all this time they’ve been haunting me as if I had done it to them. They played me. And you said that Mother and Father knew this? They knew all along that I didn’t have a thing to do with the fire.” Grandda nodded, his face full of sorrow. “How did they figure it out, or how did they find out? Not from me. I assumed...believed them when they told me it was my fault.”
    “The police and fire marshal then, they found the lab on the upper levels. Those boys had been doing some pretty big business from there, and most of the campus knew it. Didn’t say anything because they figured it wasn’t hurting them at the time. Then when you were in the hospital, that policeman that was there with you when you were in surgery, he told your parents about the lab and the point of origin for the fire. They knew then, even before you were out of recovery, that you were as innocent as they come. They just...I’m guessing that they needed something to hold over you, and that worked out just fine for them.” Landon picked up Dillon, who was sitting next to him, and held her on his lap. He’d never been a hugger before, but needed her touch more than he did his next heartbeat. He explained to her what his grandfather was saying. “I’ve been trying to tell you this for so long, you have no idea what a relief it is to have you finally listening to me.”
    Landon wasn’t sure why he was now, other than he had been asked by Steele to listen to his grandda, that things needed to be cleared up before they could deal with all the other stuff, such as Dillon’s father coming for her. He had no idea how this tied in with what had happened at the hospital today, but his feelings for his parents had gone downhill with every word his grandda had told him. Not that he’d had a great deal of respect for them before, but now, right at this moment, Landon thought for sure that he hated them both. He looked up at his grandda when he started pacing. It was sort of nauseating watching him pace. It was hard, and without regard to what he was walking through.
    “There’s more, isn’t there?” His grandda paused and nodded, and Landon closed his eyes. When Dillon wrapped her arms around his neck, he told her he didn’t think he could take much more of this. “They have been holding it over my head since I was nine years old that I was a murderer. They even told me how they’d worked hard to keep my name out of the paper so that I could have a life. That I owed them. The other day, when I went to see them, Father actually told me that he would bring it all up again if I didn’t do as he said and...and marry this other woman.”
    “You don’t owe them shit; you know that, right? They aren’t worth the lint in your pocket for all that they’ve done to you.” He laughed and held her tighter to him. “Landon, do you know why they did this? Why they thought to control you? They couldn’t have been planning this marriage. There has to be something...something a great deal more than just holding this over your head for shits and giggles.”
    “Yes. They hated the fact that I refused to do what they wanted. It’s because I could see Grandda. I mean, from the very start, I could see him. It wasn’t until I was sent away to boarding school the first time that I