Category: Romance

Elam Dragon Saviors Release Blitz & Winner Announced 3/21/16

Kathi BartonLeave a comment
Ariannona has but one simple task to complete and the long journey she began 3000 years ago will be ended. Her reward? She was promised that she would see the king and queen again.

Elam’s not sure what to think about the beautiful woman coming back to the house with his counterpart Casdon. She has a message for Casdon alone, and the message itself makes no sense to Casdon. One thing is clear though, she is Elam and Casdon’s mate.

Ariannona expects to die once her message is delivered, and isn’t happy to learn that the former king and queen tricked her to get her there.

A dragon hunter is still loose on nearby lands and none of the dragons are safe, especially Casdon. He’s taking shots at anything he sees moving.



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  Robin  Dennison 
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Prologue
“And you’ll do this for us? For me?” The king wasn’t so sure he wanted to trust her. Ariannona had been known to be somewhat flighty, and while she was a good person most of the time, he knew that she had bouts of behavior that got her into trouble. Anthony looked at Eve when she cleared her throat. She had to do this; life needed to be taken care of.
“What he’s trying so hard not to do is tell you that we think you a bit off your head. But we know that it is only a front, is it not?” Eve smiled at him as she continued. “Anthony, she needs to know that we’re not taken in by her ways. Try not to be so kingie and tell her we trust her.”
Before he could voice his concerns, Ariannona spoke again, eyeing him like she knew what he was thinking. “You’ve asked me here for a favor. But you’ve yet to tell me how I will be able to do this. My lady, I know not of some of the things you’re telling me.” Anthony thought that she’d done it on purpose, adding the title to his lady wife. She wanted them to think that she’d forgotten that they were king and queen. “I’m but a person. No real magic, nothing to show for what I’ve been able to conjure. You know as well as I that though I am a witch of good standing, I’m not all that powerful. What you’re asking me to do is well beyond my realm of knowledge, as I have said. Several times now.”
“Come to me, Ariannona.” Instead of doing what his lady wife commanded her to do, the witch took several steps back. “I wish to give you a gift, one that will help you with the task I have set before you.” Her head was shaking hard now, as if she knew what was coming would change her forever.
And it would. Their hope and that of their children depended on this woman to do just what they told her. Asked of her. When she took another step back, Anthony had to fight hard with his frustrations. She had to do this.
“I have no wish of your magic, my lady. It is all that I can do to keep my own powers safely behind my teeth. And you know as well as I that I have been in trouble enough with it.” Anthony nodded, knowing just how hard it was at times to keep your true self hidden. “And this thing you wish for me to do? I don’t understand. You wish for me to visit your children, to give them a message, when there are no children of you. Or so we have been led to believe. And if there are said children, why are you not giving them the message on your own? There are many things that are not answered, and many more questions coming to me that I fear the answer to.”
Anthony looked at his wife. Their children, six wonderful sons, had been born just that morning. They were hidden deep within the mountains to keep them safe. He and his lady wife knew that in a short time all that they were would be taken from them if things continued, including their lives. When Eve nodded at him, he got down off his chair and moved to stand with young Ariannona. There were spies everywhere, he knew this. It was going to be their downfall.
“They are born. Six of them. They are hidden well but will be harmed, more than likely killed, should we announce their arrival.” Ariannona nodded and he did as well. Tears, useless ones that he’d shed too often of late, filled his eyes and he continued. Emotions did not set well with a king, but a father could shed them freely. “Our lives will be taken, as will the castle, and without the help of a few magical beings as yourself, they will not have the tools that they’ll need to care for each other. Much is at stake, Ariannona. More than we have time to explain to you now.”
“And you think that I can take it to them. This message and favor you ask of me.” Anthony nodded and kept an eye on his wife as she moved to stand behind the young witch. “You think…you said that your life will be taken with the castle. How is that possible when it is as magical as you? When the walls are forged of the greatest stones? Your men, they would die for you. Some even have.”
“And they will, all of them. The castle will be great again one day, the magic restored with each new stone. But without your help, I’m afraid that all will be lost to all of us.” Ariannona nodded and looked around the great hall. He wondered what she was thinking, what she might see that they had missed. “We need to give you a part of ourselves so that you can give them our message.”
“And this part of you, it will give me what?” Anthony looked at his Eve, and she smiled sadly at him. “I don’t think you’re allowed to give me more magic. I have to earn that. And I am not able to do much because I’m not strong, like others. And to be honest with you, my king, I’m not so sure I’d like to be stronger than I am right now.”
“You will have the gift of immortality. And of some magic that we can give you. Mostly knowledge. And as you get older, more will come to you naturally.” Ariannona nodded and looked at Eve as she explained. “You must work hard while you wait for them. Stay out of trouble too. And when you do find them, I shall ask that you tell them how much we loved them.”
“It will be long in coming, this message that you ask me to give to them. And a favor of some worth that you think I should take to them that you would trust me with it. That’s why I need this gift; I will need the immortality in order to pass it to them.” Anthony nodded when Eve did. “I think you jest with me. I don’t think you tell me a falsehood, for I know you to be true. But this cannot be right. I think you have chosen the wrong person. Perhaps…perhaps you should ask Helena. She is a much stronger witch than I. Or Caroline. I know that both are used to magic and are very powerful.”
“They have their tasks to do. And neither of you are to interfere with the other’s set upon path. You may talk, converse, but never engage in any of their magic that might have to do with the castle or the people there.” Anthony thought that was a good way to put things and admired his wife. But if only Ariannona could kill the witch, things would be so much the better even now. Well, that wasn’t to be either. Things needed to progress. As they were set to do.
The door to the chamber they were in was banged upon. When Ariannona turned to look, he and his lovely bride of centuries past touched the younger woman at the same time. The ploy worked. She was distracted and they moved. Time was running short and they needed her to help them.
Her scream tore through him. He knew that it wasn’t pain…well, perhaps a little of it was, but mostly it was the magic that filled her up that had her screaming. Magic that she would need to keep alive, and a message, the favor that they asked of her to give to his son. A son he’d never meet.
Pain entered his heart. So much was going to be lost to them. He wasn’t a man who dwelled much on what he could not control, but this, this was something that would pain him until his last breath. His children would never know him. He’d never see them grow into men. Anthony would not even lay to rest near his own beloved.
As they laid Ariannona gently to the floor, her body quiet now that they were no longer filling her needs, they watched her carefully as her body took on a different look. He’d known it
would happen, that she’d change, but he’d not known that it would do this to her. The magic would take as much as it gave to her.
Where her hair had been short, chopped no doubt by her own hand, it grew out long, well past her hips, he’d bet. And instead of the dark color that it had been, it was now white. Not a gray that it might have been with age, but as white as the snow that covered the ground even now. When she opened her eyes without moving, he could see the change in her eyes too. Gone were the brown they were before. They were the most startling color of silver that Anthony had ever seen. Magic danced in them even as she lay so still, almost in death. But he could see the snap of her anger even without her words.
“You did that a-purpose.” He nodded. Still she hadn’t moved, but they watched her. “I feel…I think to say I feel good, but it’s so much more than that, isn’t it?”
“You are of a good health and have much more magic, not in all things but a good deal more than you had before. Or would have ever had should you have lived out your normal life.” She asked him how long that might have been. “You would have been gone from this world today, as soon as you had stepped from the castle if you had told us no. It was the reason for the urgency.”
Ariannona sat up slowly. He did not reach to help her, his own magic still there to share with her, but she seemed to understand and did not scold him when he did not. She was standing tall. He nodded to her when she ran her hands down her tattered clothing and it changed as she did. She would learn what she could do quickly now, her body humming of the power within her.
The clothing was gone, in its place a dress of white…as white as her hair had become. The only show of color on any of her was her lips, and they were as blood red as she was white. He laughed when Ariannona snapped her fingers and a single flower, a beautiful blue rose, appeared. After sniffing the fragrant flower, she put it on her shoulder, over her heart, and looked at them.
“You have given me a great deal, more than you wished, haven’t you?” Eve, his queen and hers, nodded. “And this favor. What is it that you wish for me to tell your sons?”
Anthony nodded. It was done. And in a few thousand years, more than he could think on, this woman would be as important to his sons and their counterparts as she was to them at this moment. As Eve told her what she was to tell them, Anthony moved to his chair. His sons…as before, all he thought of was the loss.
He’d never see them grown, not even see them born. He and his wife, they would not see them darken the skies with their wings, not see them find their way in life. Not be there to guide them should they need it. Anthony would miss holding them in his arms, seeing them take their first steps, their first flight. They were going to miss it all if things, as they stood now, were not to change. He looked at Eve when she sat beside him. The woman, Ariannona the witch, was now gone.
“She will be a fine addition to them.” He nodded, his heart too tender to speak of it. “Perhaps all of this perpetration, it is for naught. Perhaps the other will not bring us to ruin.”
“You know as well as I that it is set in motion. That when the new storm blows, things will be out of our hands. People, our people, will rise against us. We will be no more. I know not when, but we do know that it will happen. I only wish that you could live, to be there with our children.” She told him what she’d been saying for centuries, that she could not live without him. “I love you, my wife. With all that I am.”
“And I love you, he who holds all that I am.” She laid her head on his shoulder, and he held her. “My heart breaks for them all. I know that…while we have done all that we can to help them, I still think we have missed more than we can know.”
“We will put others in place. People, dragons that will know what we have tried to do and the why of it.” He felt her nod and wrapped his arm around her tighter. “I shall miss them, all the people here, the ones to come and the people we are begging for help.”
“Jacob and Sally, they will be good to them. Care for them while we cannot. We have chosen well in them. You think?” He nodded. Just as she was to tell him more, things she had said to him over the last weeks, a storm blew into their windows and over their bodies. He was sure that Eve could smell the black magic as well as he could. “It has begun.”
“It has.”
There was no hope for it now. Things, as they had seen, were now coming. Their deaths, while not how they would die but that they would, had been shown to them. He held her while the storm, a great monster of a thing, blew around the castle walls and into their broken hearts.

Kenton The McCade Dragon Release Day & Winner Announced 3/7/16

Kathi BartonLeave a comment
Emma Gentry felt like she was losing her mind. From the time she had picked up the pretty ring to examine it, she’d been hearing a voice in her head. When she ran from the demolished building, she’d slipped the ring on her finger so that she wouldn’t drop it, now she couldn’t get it off. She was in dire need of medical attention, but the voice wouldn’t let her stop to get help. There were others looking for the ring and would kill her for it. Emma was on the run.


Kenton McCade was the doctor in the family. When found Emma in his office treating a badly infected wound on her leg, he had to help her. The infection had spread and she was near death.


Kenton and his brothers were dragon shifters born without the ability to shift into their other half. The magic, it seemed, lay dormant in a sleeping dragon that was tied to six pieces of jewelry. When the ring found its way to Emma, her touch had woken the sleeping beast. When Emma touched Kenton’s sigil on his chest, he shifted to his beast for the first time. But the beast from the ring would not be complete until all the jewelry found its way to their rightful dragons….


Emma was still on the run…they need her to survive…but Emma trusted no one…
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Chapter 1
“I need you to tell me what this is worth.” Emma looked up at the man that held out a little box to her. If it was in her power, Emma would gladly have punched him in the nose. But she also knew that he’d hit her back, and it would be ten times more painful than anything she could do to him. “Now, Emma. And he said for you not to dally. He needs it now.”
“So, you do it. I’m in the middle of something else you told me to do.” She knew as well as he did that Bart could tell the worth of an item almost as well as she could. Not quite as good as she could; practice had made her better and faster at it. But they’d both been trained to know how to do it. “I’m in the middle of—”
She should have known better. Whenever she pointed something obvious out to her brother, he would resort to violence if he didn’t care for her answer. Which was usually all the time. Emma wondered if she’d ever learn and doubted it. Now she found herself on the floor with her mouth bloodied and her head hurting. Not the first time for that either.
He put the box on the desk, then pulled out his gun and laid it on her desk with it as if that was all he needed to make her comply. The punch to her face had done that pretty good, she thought. Emma wished she could pick the gun up and blow his fucking head off. Instead, she lifted her hurting body up and got back to her desk. Emma didn’t even bother wiping the blood off. He’d just hit her again to show he could.
Picking up the small box, she opened it. Inside was a small blue bag, tied at the top with an equally blue string. There were no markings on the bag or the box, but she knew quality when she felt it. And this bag wasn’t it. She started to ask Bart what kind of joke this was when she realized that he’d not answer her. He’d more than likely do what she’d wanted to do to him and shoot her. She’d be dead and he’d be standing over her demanding that she get up and do what he’d told her to do. There was no love lost between the two of them, and hadn’t been for a very long time.
Dumping the contents out into her hand, she was first surprised at the weight of the ring, then at how big it was. But the ring itself was what had her holding her breath. It was simply the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. The work on it—and there was a great deal of it—had been done with a steady hand and an even better eye, for the art looked to her like the person who had made this loved the person who was to receive it. For a second she wondered if she would ever have someone love her that much. She looked up at Bart when he snorted at her. He looked pissed.
“It’s just a band. Nothing but a damned gold band that is worth less than my fucking shoes. I wonder if it’s even gold plated. Fuckers.” She looked at the ring, then back at him as he continued. “Fucking bastard said it was worth millions. It’s not even worth the box it came in. Why the hell do I even bother with robbing people if they’re going to lie to me about what I’m taking? Huh? And then to have fought so hard to
keep it? As if it was worth his own life? Dumbass probably believed that it was worth the money I was told it was.”
“Are you kidding me? This isn’t just a band, dumbass. This is a work of art.” She started to show him, but Bart picked up his gun and slid it back into his holster before slamming his hands down on the table, his face level with her. She leapt back from him. Which, she supposed, was what he had wanted her to do anyway. Then he laughed at her. “Don’t hurt me, Bart. Please? I’ll tell Daddy.”
“Like he gives a shit about you. I mean, look where he has you working. In the basement of a piece of shit building that has nothing to go for it but a toilet that is ten feet away.” He snorted again. “Go to him, Emma, see if I’m not right. And when he tells you to go away, I’m going to come back down here and blow your fucking brains out for bothering him. We have more important things to do than to listen to you whine about how badly you’re being treated.”
After he left her, she put the ring back in the little bag and started working on the chains that had been tangled up when Bart had simply tossed them into a bank bag. He’d told her when she asked him that it wasn’t his job to make sure that things were neat and tidy, that she would be out of a fucking job if he did. She estimated that she had about ten hours in untangling the chains so far and she wasn’t any closer to getting them straight than she had been before. Emma was pretty sure that he’d done it on purpose. It was something he loved doing, making her job more difficult.
Her father and brother had dumped her down here six years ago, pulling her from college and telling her that she had to earn her keep. Of course Emma hadn’t seen her father in all this time. Words, harsh and mean, had come from him via her brother. She was going to have to find another job soon. This one just wasn’t making it for her any longer. Of course, she blamed that on Bart too. He took money from her cash envelope every week, and he was taking more and more all the time. He called it a living tax. If he didn’t get it, she didn’t live. And she believed him too.
The ring called to her. She knew that was silly. Rings or other things didn’t talk, but she could almost hear it telling her that it didn’t belong to her and that she needed to return it to the owner. She would love to do that, but she wasn’t going to. Not that she’d have the chance to get out of this place with the thing. Being patted down and wanded every time she left would have made it impossible, but she knew that if found out, she’d be dead. Emma looked over at the desk next to hers.
Sebastian Logan had been her friend and co-worker, and the nicest man she’d ever known. Polite, hardworking, and a man who had loved his family more than he did his own life. And it was what had gotten him killed.
A diamond ring had been brought in a month ago. Bart, of course, had deemed it unworthy and had told her and Sebastian they could have it. She’d thought it was pretty but thought that Sebastian could sell it for a few dollars, and knew that it would help out in their situation. His only child was sick and that money would have gone a long way in helping him. So he’d taken the ring home to sell.
He’d come in the next day, saying that he’d gotten enough to buy a prescription that was much needed, and they had both sat down to work. An hour later, Bart and his
friend, Mark Whitaker, had come in to question Sebastian about it. Apparently a fence that they knew had mentioned that Sebastian had brought it in.
“You said I could have it. You told us it was worthless and that we could have it. Tell him, Emma. Tell him he said that.” Bart, of course, denied that, and even told Emma that their father wanted to make an example of Sebastian. Bart had pulled his gun free and had killed her friend right there in front of her, despite her begging him to let it go.
Blood had sprayed over her face and clothing. Bart had set Mark in front of her for the rest of the day while Sebastian was lying in his own blood, and told her that if she wiped her face he would put the blood back. But this time it would be her own.
All Emma wanted to do was get out of there and be her own person. Live her life as she wanted on her own terms. As soon as she could save enough money to get away, anyway. Looking at the ring again, she wondered what would happen if she were to get it to its owner. What sort of reward would there be? Because at the rate she was saving money, she’d be too old to run when she did manage to get enough to go on.
At ten after twelve, she pulled out her lunch. It was only a jelly sandwich; the peanut butter had run out a few days ago. Emma wanted to cry about what her life had become, and knew that it was as set in stone as the sword was that she’d read about so long ago.
“Put that shit away. I want you to look this over.” She only glanced at the paperwork that Bart had tossed in front of her. Her lunch time was her time, not his. She’d told him that before. Not that it mattered, but she had told him. “Now, Emma. I want to get it to Dad before the end of the day, and you fucking around is gonna make me late.”
“I’m eating. And in the event that you missed that part, I’m entitled to have one hour for my lunch. So come back when I’m done.” He drew his fist back and she tilted out her chin. “Hit me, and see if I don’t go home because of it. Go ahead, Bart, knock me around and you’ll never get this.”
“He wants it now.” Emma took a bite of her sandwich and said nothing. “You fucking cunt. You think this is going to win you any points with me? Who do you think is going to run this place when Dad finally kicks the bucket? You? Not fucking likely.”
He slammed his fists on the table again, a thing he did when he wasn’t winning an argument. Well, she’d had a shitty day so far, and right now she really did want him to hit her. She would go to her father this time.
Sweeping everything off her desk in his fit of anger, he stood over her, watching. Emma reached for the little box and the ring that had fallen out of it by bending over and leaning under her desk. Just at that moment an explosion rocked the room. There wasn’t time to think, not even to wonder what Bart had done now.
Emma felt it singe her arms and legs even as the ring slipped over the tip of her finger. She and the desk went flying back; she felt it hit her several times as heat poured into the room with her. Screams filled the air…not just hers, but her brother’s as well. Then everything went black.
Wake up. She felt rather than heard someone telling her to wake. The pain over her body told her that she’d be better off just letting things fade out again, but the voice in her head…it felt like it told her again to wake up.
“I hurt.” The voice, calmer now, told her that she’d be better if she got up and moved. “I don’t think so. I think I’m broken.”
You are not broken. Not too badly, that is. Come on now, get out of this place before the others come to find you. She had no idea why that would be a bad thing when the voice spoke again. Should they find you, then all will be lost. Come on now, Emma, you must get moving. Moving will be good for us both. No one must find you here with me.
“Both? Who is here with me? Hello?” No answer. But then she thought there shouldn’t be because as far as she knew, there was only one of her. Giggling hurt a little, so she tried to tell herself that she really did need to move.
Every time she moved something off her, there seemed to be tons more atop her. Wood and bricks. Glass surrounded her, and it seemed to be in her as well. The desk, she knew, had more than likely saved her life. Had she been sitting at it instead of nearly under it, she would have been killed. She did pause a moment to wonder if Bart had made it, but found that she really didn’t care. Bart was on his own for now.
The debris was thick around her too. Papers were everywhere, most of them still smoldering. The chair that she’d been in was a broken mess imbedded in the wall above her head.
Once she cleared herself of what she could to move, Emma could see the street beyond. Whatever had blown up had taken out the five floors above her sublevel work station. Gingerly, she made her way to the opening, only to be stopped by the voice again
No, no, not that way. Go to the back of the ruin. I’ll guide you. She turned then, not even sure why she was listening to the voice instead of common sense, but she was hurting too badly to argue with herself right now. There were people out there in front of her. She had no idea what she’d find behind her. But she made her way out the way the voice told her.
It seemed to take her too long to get out. Falling twice, she bumped her head again and had to lay there for a long time to let the dizziness stop. Emma was sick too, her belly not liking the way her vision kept going in and out all the time. And she knew that the long gash in her leg wasn’t good. The blood pouring from it was thick with dirt.
As soon as she was out of the building, she lay back against the one across from it and looked at where she’d been. There was no way she should have survived that, and she was sure that anyone else in the building hadn’t. Emma wondered who besides her brother and her were there, if anyone. And again, she wondered how the hell she had survived.
The building had been one of the oldest downtown. At five stories, it had once been the home to a textile company that had gone under in the twenties. Her father had acquired the building, along with several more, a few years ago, and had taken this one to use as an office of sorts. It was a front, like most of her father’s businesses, Bart had told her.
Emma didn’t know. Her brother never put her dad in the best picture when he talked about him. He was ruthless, a murderer, and even a thug when necessary. If he was as Bart said, he had changed a great deal since her mother had died a few years back.
The building now looked like it had never been there. A deep hole—a crater, she figured it would be called—was where it had once been. Nothing had survived on either side of it either. The two buildings that were used as storage units for whatever her father had acquired were leveled. Even the one across from the building had suffered some major damage. Emma watched as the first firetruck pulled up in front of the mess.
Your father is dead, I’m afraid. She nodded at the voice, then regretted that immediately. Your brother is alive, but he is badly burned. He and another man, his bodyguard, will be pulled from the wreckage soon, but they will not mention you are here. But they will come for you now. The others will come.
“Who will? Why?” The voice told her that it was because of him. “Him who? I don’t know anyone. I don’t date, I’m not allowed. I don’t even know why I have this voice talking to me. Do you? Am I…I don’t know, am I dead too?”
You are not dead, Emma, but they come for me. And the rest of us now that I’m awake. There will be more coming now that I’ve been found. She stood up then, determined to go and see if someone could patch her up. You do and they’ll kill you where you stand.
“Why? What did I do? This was…it was more than likely a gas explosion.” The voice told her she knew better. “No, I don’t. I don’t know a damned thing. For all I know, I could be lying there dead in that thing and this is all a dream.”
I’m not a dream, Emma Gentry. I am part of the dragon in the ring. Emma stopped moving and looked down at her hand. There it was, the ring. Just on the tip of her finger. When you slipped it upon your finger, I knew then that you were the one to carry me. The one that would take me to my owner. You will, won’t you? Take me home to the one that awaits me? The rest of me will follow now that I have found you.
“No. In the event you didn’t notice, I’m out of work, no money, and I don’t even know what is wrong with me that I can hear you talking to me. I’m hurting, injured, and you won’t let me go and find someone to fix me up.” He told her that she was the one, and that he would see that she had such riches if she did this for him. “The one what? I’m just a woman trying to get along in this world my family brought me into. Can’t you just leave me alone? Please?”
I can keep you safe. And if you promise to take me to my owner, I will help you in ways that you will need. I will, as I have said, make you a queen that will never have to worry for money again. I am but a part of the whole. A dragon that must be brought together with the other pieces of my set. Emma just wanted to take a nap. Forever. No, you will need to keep moving. The man that your brother stole me from, he will come for you because of the ring. He will want you dead because of the ring.
“Why?” He didn’t answer her and she realized that she’d been asking that a lot to the unknown. “Fine. I’m going to do this for you, but you’re going to have to do something for me. I want you to not do a damned thing for me unless it’s to guide me. I
know better than most that nothing in this world comes without consequences. So tell me where to go and nothing else.”
Nothing? She told him again that she didn’t want to owe him anything when this was done. All right. But I think that you will come to regret that soon enough.
She already did. Moving in the direction that he told her, she felt like she’d broken more bones than she knew she had. While he told her that she needed to go north, Emma told him that she needed to go to her home. There she’d get cleaned up and retrieve the last of her funds. She had no idea where she was going, but wherever it was, it wasn’t going to be a free ride. Emma thought that whoever was coming for her would think she was dead long enough for her to get out of her apartment to rid herself of the voice.
Emma knew on some level that the voice was her own. There simply wasn’t any way for her to be talking to the dragon of the ring. She wanted out and this was her subconscious getting her there. So what if the world thought her dead? She was fine with that as well. Emma Gentry was dead as far as she was concerned too, and she’d have to come up with a name that would work. As she showered and changed, cleaning up as much of the wounds on her body that she could, Emma thought of what her life would be now.
“Anything I want.” She smiled at herself and winced. The cuts on her face made even doing the simplest things hard. She did worry over the wound in her leg, but at least it was clean, and the bleeding had stopped as well…for now. As she moved out of her home, she looked around. There was nothing there, not one thing she would miss. This Emma was dead.
~~~
“Twenty-four dead and several dozen more injured in the blast that is still under investigation. There was some talk of gas leaks, but that was ruled out when it was said that the building called Shipley Textile was the epicenter of the explosion, and there were no gas lines to that building.”
Baldwin Franks wanted to throw something at the television but refrained. He was a man that prided himself on control. But the newsperson was not giving him the answers that he craved. He wanted to know if Bartholomew Gentry and his son had survived, not the dozens of nameless fucks that meant nothing to him. When the news anchor paused, pushing her finger to her ear, he wanted to scream at her that no one believed that she was listening to a fucking thing, but then she turned to the scene behind her.
“There is news just in that Mr. Bart Gentry, Junior has been pulled from the wreckage, along with another man by the name of Whitaker. That is all that we know right now. Mr. Gentry is the son of Bartholomew Gentry, Senior, a man who owned a great many of the buildings in the downtown area. Mr. Gentry and his son have been under a great deal of scrutiny for the last several years, starting with the death of the senior Mr. Gentry’s wife, Anderson Franks Gentry, some years ago. Mr. Gentry, Senior’s body, along with five more, was pulled from the building about an hour ago, I’m told.”
Baldwin leaned back in his chair as the anchor continued about the things she had little to no real information about. Gentry Senior was dead. Baldwin thought that they both should have been dead, but was sure that the man who’d survived, a man he’d come to hate more than anything, would land on his feet. Or in this case, flat on his back. The sooner the entire family was dead, the happier he’d be. They’d killed his little girl.
He looked over at his man, Steward Jefferies, and told him to get someone on it. Steward’s phone rang before he could answer Baldwin.
As the other man listened to his call, Baldwin thought of all the ways he’d wanted to make both Gentry men suffer. There had been times when he’d had Bart in his sights, but something would always come up. This time he knew he’d taken drastic measures, but the man was just where he wanted him. It was way past time to kill Bart, and he was going to be the one to do it, even if he had to do it in front of a bunch of cops.
When Steward hung up, he looked pale as he leaned back in his chair. Baldwin was almost afraid to ask him what it was, but wasn’t going to seem as if he cared. He not only was in control of things around him, he also never gave the appearance of caring much about it.
“Apparently Emma Gentry isn’t dead, as we’d been told, and was in the building when it blew.” Baldwin nearly screamed out his frustrations. Would this family never fucking end? “So far they’ve not found a trace of her in the number of dead, and she’s not on the injury list, either, that they can find. I don’t…someone saw her climbing out of the sublevel of the basement just as the police arrived. I have a man on it.”
“How do you know it was my granddaughter and not some rat climbing out of her hole after a night of fucking whatever had a dick?” Steward stood up and went to his briefcase. Pulling out the file that was on top, he handed it to him. “What is this?”
“I told you several days ago that there was rumor that Emma was alive and hiding out somewhere. We could never confirm nor deny that information, so you told me to keep on it. I had someone follow her and she lives…lived in a poor neighborhood that catered more to the people that her father worked with than his type of wealth. There wasn’t any reason to believe that she was this person, due to her living conditions, and I nearly tossed it away as just that, rumors. But then we got a picture of her just this morning. I forgot until just this minute that I had it.” Baldwin looked at the picture and felt his heart twist up in his chest. “They have some of her DNA that I’m running, but so far I’ve not heard back. But the girl in this picture looks like your daughter Anderson, doesn’t she? I don’t know why she’s been hiding out the way she has, but I intend to find out.”
“Yes.” Baldwin looked at the blurred picture of the woman. Even with the poor quality of the picture, he knew that it was her. “Call them up, rush it. I want to know now.”
He looked at Steward when he said nothing. There was more, he just knew it, and when he got the information, his well-controlled temper was going to detonate. He told him to tell him.
“The ring was in the building.” The fucking ring. The motherfucking ring was there and not where it was supposed to be. Which was with him. “Bart, the younger, took it from the courier this morning. Killed him and three other men while they were en route to us. He took not just the ring, which was the most valuable piece, but he also took the money they were bringing here. I’m guessing that it, as well as the cash, was in the building when it went up. I’m going to have his home searched, of course, but I’d not hold out much hope. The kid, for all his stupidity, seemed to know just when to lay low.”
“Why wasn’t I told about this before now?” Steward told him that he’d only just found out too. “And how do we know that it’s him? And not some random fuck that is going to die too?”
“He left you a note. Well, not you, but the person he was robbing.” Baldwin asked him what it said. “It says thank you for the money, that he really did appreciate it, and that when you sent some more this way for him, to make sure that you made the pick-up easier, as in boxes and not suitcases.”
Baldwin was happy to know that Bart had no idea what he’d found in the ring. Few ever would, and when he had all the pieces, he’d be the wealthiest and the strongest man in the world. He had only to find all six pieces to make that happen.
The legend, one as old as the earth, had fallen in his lap some time ago and he’d been searching for the pieces since. He and two other people, enemies of his, were the only ones that had an inkling as to what the jewels were really for.
“Kill him.” Steward nodded and asked about the girl. “Her too. If she is Gentry’s daughter, then she’s just as guilty for killing my daughter as the rest of them.” No witnesses were the only way to ensure that he got what he wanted in this.
It hurt him to say that, almost as much as it had when he’d been told that his lovely little girl, Anderson, had been killed when they’d thought she was her husband in the car. But the entire family needed to be purged from the earth, and if he had to murder his own flesh and blood to do so, then he would. When Steward left him, Baldwin picked up the picture again and looked at it. It was as if he were looking at his little girl again before she’d been pulled into the life of crime with her husband.
Anderson had been…well, willful didn’t begin to cover what his little girl had been. She had a mind of her own, and damn the person that had any other opinion than hers. Even he had butted heads with her from time to time, and had, in the end, decided that it was easier to give in than to fight with her. That was how she’d ended up married to his worst enemy. Bartholomew had been a thorn in his side then, and had been placed on his list of ones who needed to die when his daughter had called him from the accident she’d been in that night so long ago.
“Someone hit me. I think…I’m hurt badly.” He asked her who’d done it, his mind not fully awake when the call had come to his home in the middle of the night. “Bartholomew. Help me. I don’t know yet what’s going on, but I don’t want to die.”
Baldwin could hear the sirens then, the men coming to rescue his little girl, knowing that it was going to be too late for her. She told him that she was sorry that she
couldn’t hang on for him. Then the line had gone dead; his little girl was gone from him forever.

Colin McCulloughs Jamboree Release Blitz 2/22/16

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Colin McCullough gets the phone call that all military families dread?his brother Hawkins has been shot. Colin only wants to thank Hawkins’s commanding officer for saving his brother’s life, but he can never seem to get past the guards in the hospital’s hallway to personally thank the man.

Major Lauren Burcher is all Army and head of a special task team usually sent in to clean things up. This time, her team is ambushed by friendlies, and Lauren and her best man Hawkins McCullough barely make it out alive?they were set up. Someone wants them both dead.

Another attempt on Lauren’s life in the hospital fails miserably, and when Colin scoops her up in his arms to place her back in the hospital bed, he finds a gun pointed at his forehead at point blank range. In that moment he realizes this bad-assed scary woman is his mate.

Lauren wants no part of this mate business. Relationships get messy and this jerk is bossy as hell. And Lauren doesn’t take orders…she gives them. But it will take all of them, his family and hers, to keep her and Hawkins alive….

 

 

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All Romance

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Prologue
Run. The single word screamed through her mind over and over while she lay hidden in her hiding place under the bed. They were at it again. Her parents never let the setting of the sun go by without hitting and screaming at one another, usually both. Sometimes her as well.
At twelve, RaeAnn just wanted to be safe. And even as young as she was, she knew other families weren’t like hers. She wished every day that she’d not been born…at least not to these people.
The door to her room slammed back against the wall and startled a small whimper from her. Putting her hand over her mouth, she tried her best to not make another sound. Even breathing hard would bring her pain from them. The dark shadow could be either of them. Both her parents had a large build, long hair, and thick, mean hands.
“Girl!” her father screamed. “Come on out here. See to your mother so we can go to bed. You hear me? I said to get your skinny ass out here and fix her face up. It’s bleeding from some kinda cut.”
RaeAnn wouldn’t help either of them by coming out of her hiding place. She’d learned her lesson the hard way about giving aid to one or both of them. Once she’d done what they wanted her to do, they’d find some little flaw with it and would knock her around until she was in worse shape than they had been. When the bed over her was suddenly gone, she held her breath harder, hoping that he’d not come any closer to her hiding place.
RaeAnn had skipped school over the course of several weeks to make this hiding space for herself, working until she was too exhausted to go on most days. Her parents were gone, no doubt to find somewhere that was giving something away, or digging through the dumpster to find a few thrown-away things that they could sell for a quick buck or two. They worked harder at that than they ever had at a job, she thought. But it was long enough for her to have gotten all the work done she needed without them knowing what she was about. Her hidey hole was perfect, so long as they didn’t come too far into her room.
She’d taken up the floorboards. Most were rotted anyway and had been easy to remove. Then she’d dug out the dirt, just enough that she could use old bricks that had been stolen long ago to shore up the floor of the hole. Then she’d taken the dirt and filled old pop and beer cans to make up the rest of the walls around her when the bricks were gone. The place beneath her bed had less wind coming in than the room that she slept in, too.
“Girl, where the fuck are you?” He stomped into the room deeper, holding the dripping knife he had in his hand like he still meant business. Still she didn’t move, even when a drop of whatever was wet on the knife dripped down on her cheek. RaeAnn knew that it was blood, his or her mother’s, but she didn’t move an inch to even wipe it from her. It was simply too dangerous right now.
He was standing on the last solid board before he got to the ones she’d had to makeshift to get her place ready; the first of many that she’d not removed to hide because it had been too solid for her to move without any tools, which she supposed was a good thing. One more, even half a step, and he’d be on top of her. His weight would crash upon her when he broke through to her.
Run, her mind screamed at her. Run now! But even if she did, there was no safe place for her to go. No neighbors that would offer her help, and certainly no one close enough that she could get to before one or both of her parents caught up with her again. Living in the middle of nowhere as they did, and using a long since abandoned house, there were little to no luxuries for her to use as a source of comfort.
No power and no heat. Water for some reason was plentiful, but it was ice cold even in the dead of summer, and even colder when there was snow on the ground, as there was now. Its source, as far as she could tell, was an underground well. A long hose from it to the house had given them at least some way to clean themselves…if her parents ever tried, that was.
They used lanterns for light mostly, but there was seldom money left over after beer and pop was bought to supply them with much more than a thimbleful of lantern oil. Candles, mostly birthday ones and some scented ones that would stink up the place rather than improve on the odors, would be what she’d do her homework by.
“Where is she?” Her mother stood in the doorway, her hulking frame blocking out the little moonlight that came in through the broken window in the living room. “She run off again?”
“Don’t see her, do you? Fucking moron. What the fuck is wrong with you? Ain’t you done heard me calling out for her to come and help you out? She’s not in here now, is she?” Her mom called her father an asshole and they were at it again. This time in her room.
As they tumbled out, their fists hitting whatever was close enough to them, she heard them grunting in pain. Nothing was safe. RaeAnn cried silently as they continued to fight. Nothing in her room was worth worrying about, nor was there anything that she treasured.
It wasn’t long before the silence became enough that she knew they’d either killed each other, which she prayed would happen nightly, or they’d finally tired themselves out. RaeAnn didn’t move. She wasn’t stupid enough to think that the coast was clear just yet. Another ploy that she’d been caught in. She would wait them out, even if it took all night.
RaeAnn must have dozed off at some point. Her room was deadly silent, the place bright with the sun. There wasn’t any sound coming from the rest of the house, so she moved her body first, trying to work out the sore places before she stood up. If she had to run, she wanted to be as ready as she could be.
They were gone. She could see that now. Lifting herself out of the hole, she could see beyond to the other room. The shack was only the three rooms, not even a bathroom inside the place other than a commode that rarely worked and the hose that was brought in from the well in a curtained off area in the living room to wash-up with
when it was necessary. RaeAnn did a wash up every day, but she knew that her parents did only when it was too much for them to sleep together. Moving out of the house, she kept an eye out for them.
She had no coat or shoes that she could put on despite the cold weather. They were both somewhere in the house, she knew that. But she could only use them when she was going to school, and had to remove them both and turn them in every day to whoever was there when she got home. It was like the library, she thought…only on loan to her until she could no longer wear them. Which was pretty much where she was with both pieces of clothing now.
Not bothering to grab up anything, RaeAnn made her way out of the house and took off at a run toward the woods. She had no idea what was this way. The bus picked her up about a mile from the house in the opposite direction, but she figured that this was her best bet at getting away. This time, RaeAnn thought, she was staying away from them.
Her feet were hurting when she’d gone no more than an hour from the house. But she didn’t stop. Stopping now would get her caught, so she kept her eye on the mountain in front of her—her guiding light, so to speak—and kept going. She’d make it or die, which was a good possibility right now. RaeAnn was cold and starving, but she was freer now than she’d ever been.
It had been dark for some time when she came upon the barn. Cows and a bull had been in a field that she’d gone around, and she’d kept an eye on the massive bull that seemed to move along with her but yet never came at her. When the barn’s light went off, RaeAnn stood by the tree she was nearest as a few deer moved, then the light flickered on again. As she watched, the light went off and on twice more before the deer moved on, and she knew they were the cause of it.
Slipping into the barn had been easy. It was a good deal warmer than it was outside, and the snow had just begun to fall again. Several inches blanketed the ground already, and RaeAnn knew that she was making the perfect path for her parents to find her. But right now, she was too hungry and hurting too badly to care if they found her or not. She moved to the bales of hay and lay down on the parts that were broken off. RaeAnn knew that she should keep moving, but decided that she could do so better if she had a little nap.
~~~
Peter kissed his lovely wife on the cheek as he made his way out to the barn. They had a lot of things to do today, and one of them was to put together the new baby bed that had arrived just yesterday. In three months they’d be parents, and he was as tickled about that as he could be.
As soon as he opened the barn door, he knew something was wrong. A girl was standing at the feed bin to one of his prized cows, talking. And she was eating the feed and telling the poor cow staring at her that she was so sorry, but her belly was too empty for her to not take what she could. Peter cleared his throat as gently as he could, and fell back when she came at him with a pitchfork. As it was, he was pinned tightly against the barn wall as she stared at him with more fear than he had.
“I’m not gonna hurt you.” Nothing, just that…it took him a few seconds to realize that she was fevered. “You need me to call someone for you? I can. My wife is just in the house and I can have her call your parents for—”
“I won’t go back.” He nodded, not sure what she meant, but right now he’d agree with her if she told him he was a woman. “I won’t go back. Please don’t make me.”
“All right.” He reached for his wife and told her what was going on. He also told her to bring her medical bag. He thought the girl was sick and his wife might be able to help her before he called the police. “My wife is coming out now. She’s a doctor and can help you.”
“I don’t want to go back there. Don’t make me, please.” The door opened and he didn’t look to see if it was his wife or not. The girl still had the fork at his chest, and he knew that if something startled her, he’d never see his child being born. “I won’t go back.”
“I won’t make you. You just have to let me go now.” He looked her over, trying to see if there were any other weapons on her that he needed to know about, and saw the blood on her bare feet. “Where are your shoes? And coat?”
“It’s not a school day.” He had no idea what she meant by that, but she continued before he could ask. “I can’t have them unless it’s a school day. Please don’t make me go back.”
“Put that down right now.” Peter closed his eyes when Mary spoke harshly to the girl. “What do you think you’re doing? I said put it down.”
The glazed look turned from him to look at his wife. Peter wanted to knock the fork away, but he knew that being stupid right now would get them both killed. The girl’s hand started to tremble and the fork came closer to his chest.
“I don’t want to go back.” Mary told the girl that she wasn’t going anywhere, that she needed to put the fork down. The girl looked at it like she only just realized that she had it, and it lowered to the floor. “I can just go now. I can just leave and you don’t have to worry about me coming back. I’m not going back there again.”
“Come on now, you just sit right down and let me have a look at those cuts.” Mary spoke softly now as she took the fork from the girl completely and handed it to him. “Peter, go on up to the house and run a bath…well, make that a shower. And find me something that I can soak her poor feet in.”
Nodding, he didn’t want to leave his very pregnant wife with this child, but she seemed to have things under control at the moment. There was something very off about the girl and it frightened him, not just a little. But Mary told him she was just fine and for him to put the kettle on too.
“I don’t think we have time for tea, Mary. This girl tried to kill me.” Mary only patted him on the cheek and told him to go on now. He was in the house filling the kettle before he realized she’d out moved him. Again.
Ever since he’d met her, thinking her well out of his league, she’d been out moving him. He’d say something and she’d sort of agree with him, but he’d end up doing it her way anyway. Usually she was right…well, she was always right. Like them buying this
farm and raising cattle. Some of them big things, others not so much, but she’d bring him around to her way of thinking before he knew what hit him. She was good at that.
When he went back out to the barn, the girl was asleep. Mary told him she’d given her something for pain, and her exhaustion and starvation had taken her under. He looked at the girl now and could see that wherever she’d come from, it had been a long hard way.
“I don’t think she’s eaten a proper meal in a good long time, if ever. And she kept telling me that she’d not go back. I was wondering if you’d do me a favor.” He knew what she wanted and he wasn’t going to do it. “We have to know if they’re in worse shape than she is. What if someone came to wherever it is she was living and killed her whole family, and she got away?”
“That’s pretty farfetched, even for you.” She did that smile thing again, the thing that made him fall in love with her the moment he’d first seen her. Even before he realized she was his mate. “You want me to go and find where she’s been and see if her family is dead. They could be the ones that were abusing the poor thing; you know that, right?”
“I do.” He started peeling off his shirt. “When you get back, I’ll have you a thick stack of pancakes and some bacon all ready for you. And if you run into trouble, you can call me and I’ll come and rescue you.”
“I don’t care for you much right now.” She laughed, and he bent to pick up the girl when Mary started to. “I’ll take her in the house, but I want you to stay away from her until I get back. Promise?”
“I’ll try to keep away from her.” As they made their way into the house, his burden, he just realized, was lighter than most of the animals they had on the property. Peter decided that he didn’t mind so much that Mary was smarter than him. He loved her that much. He asked Mary how the girl had fared this long. “She’s been starved, Peter. And I don’t think this is a recent thing. Look at her feet and hands. She’s been running for a long distance for some reason, and it frightens me to think she was out there all night without anything to keep her warm or fed.”
“I’ll go and see what I can find.” He laid the girl on the bed and then looked at Mary. “Don’t let her hurt you, love. You’re all I have in the world.”
“We’ll be fine, I promise.”
Peter let his cat take him. His jaguar was glad for the change and stretched twice as he made his way to the kitchen to leave. Again he told Mary to be careful, and she promised him she would. Peter had the girl’s scent, but he only had to follow the footpaths in the snow to find where she’d come from. The blood mixed with the wet falling snow was like a calling card for his cat.
He’d gone perhaps five or six miles when he came upon the building. He was sure that the girl had come from there. Her scent had let him right to it. But to call it a home…Peter was sure that his falling down shed at home had fewer holes in the roof, and the wood would hold out a bit more of the cold too.
Peter didn’t get any closer to it than ten feet because there were humans inside, but he knew that he had to eventually. The scent was fresh blood, and he needed to be
assured that no one else inside was hurt. He was sure, as sure as anything he’d ever felt, that the girl at his house had spent if not her whole life there, then the biggest part of it. His heart broke for her.
The loud voices were violent in nature, and he knew that the sounds coming from the house were people fighting, not just verbally but physically as well. As he made his way closer to the house, he kept an eye out for anyone coming out of the falling down building. Peter didn’t want to get in the middle of anything that was going on right now.
The child had come from this house; he knew it when he crossed over the broken steps onto the porch. There was no doubt about it. And the scents also told him that the people living there had had contact with her. They were related, the three of them, and he was pretty sure that the girl was running from them. As they fell out of the house and into the yard, still hitting each other, Peter made his way into the house through the broken door at the back of the wrap-around porch that had seen better days.
Peter nearly left again, thinking that this could not be a place where people were living, a home. Or what was left of one. But he made his way around the bigger room and found that the girl had been in there a great deal. Then he made his way to one of the other rooms that shot off from the larger one in the middle.
It was hers. He knew that from how strong he could smell her. The bed was broken and shattered against the wall and the floorboards had been ripped up at some point, and he knew that was where she’d hidden before leaving. Peter looked around the room and could see that while it was dirty, it was better kept than the room he’d just left.
There were no pictures on the walls, no girly things to indicate that a child lived there. The bed had a threadbare blanket on it, and no pillow to speak of. The mattress was thinner than his overcoat that he wore in the fall, and the neat stack of clothing in the corner was small and pitiful even for a child. Not even a dresser to put things on, much less inside of it. He moved to the deep hole and looked inside.
Haven. That was all he could think of when he saw what she’d done. Because to Peter, there was little doubt that she’d done this to keep herself safe. Looking around again, he tried to imagine living there. Hearing those people still screaming at each other in the yard, he could not fathom how a person could stand this every day of their life. Moving back through the bedroom, he looked into what he thought was used as a living room.
A couch that was held up on one end with a cinder block sagged dangerously in the middle. The person who chanced sitting there would spill out onto the floor if they weren’t careful as to how they sat. No television graced the walls, and that was when he realized there was no hum of power in the house. The heat, too, was off, if there had ever been any, and he was chilled when an errant breeze blew through the open door.
A curtain was hanging across an area in front of him. Moving slowly toward it, testing the floors as he went, Peter was almost afraid to see what was there; the bathroom, or a makeshift one. A commode sat over a too large hole in the floor, with no plumbing to speak of, and that thought made his belly slightly ill. A hose hung from a
hole in the wall with a dirty towel next to it. The dripping water was freezing in a long stream beneath it, and looked as lethal as any knife or tool he had at his home.
Backing out of the room with the toilet and to his right, he moved through the curtain into another bedroom. A mattress on the floor looked as flat as a board, and probably no more comfortable. Several pillows of varying thickness, from paper thin to almost an inch thick, were at the head of it. Against the walls, all the way around, were piles of junk.
Broken games, torn books, heaters that had been torn apart—for parts, he assumed—and tossed aside instead of dealt with were in the trash. Newspapers that were yellowed with age. Boxes of dented canned goods that he knew were bad even from where he stood. Open bags of chips and popcorn were spread everywhere. Candy bar wrappers and junk food galore littered nearly every available surface of the nasty floor, along with dirty stacks of clothing, stiff with dirt and filth.
Cardboard, like in the other two rooms, covered the windows. There was a little plastic on one of them, but it had long since broken free of the push pins that held it there. It flapped in the wind much like the pretty flag that his wife had in the yard that had their last name on it. Burcher.
Peter? I can feel that you’re upset. What did you find? He didn’t want her to know, but knew also that keeping it from her would eat him alive. He told her what he’d found and who the people were the girl was hiding from. Oh, that poor little thing. To live like that. What do you think we should do?
Peter wanted to tell her that he was going to kill them both, tear their throats out and leave them for the rats and buzzards to fill their bellies on. The feeling was something that he’d never had before, not in all his twenty-seven years. But he also knew that he’d regret it, even if he felt good about it now.
Don’t call the police. Don’t tell anyone that she’s there. And if she wakes and tells you that she’s not going back, you assure her that she isn’t. Not so long as I’m alive she won’t. He heard the couple on the lawn again and moved to the window to get a good look at them. These people deserve to die out here. Where no one will know who they are. And they don’t deserve to have that little girl. People like them should be…Mary, I want to kill them both where they are.
Come home to us. He said he was on his way and looked at the kerosene heater that burned in the living room. The heat, what little the heater was giving off, was being whisked away by the cold that blew through the house like it wasn’t even there. He moved the pillow that had fallen to the floor just a little closer to it. To his way of thinking, if they found it, great; if not, what were they out? Nothing as far as he could see. As he left the house, he decided that he hoped they didn’t find it. He thought they should suffer as much as the child had that was in his home.
“Where is that fucking girl? RaeAnn, damn you girl, when I find you, you’re going to hurt for a damned month this time.” Peter paused to listen to the man yelling again. “RaeAnn Richards, I’m going to beat your ass again. See if I don’t.”
You won’t, Peter thought as he moved out of the broken window. The flame started to flare up just as he heard the man outside stomping his way up and onto the porch
before hearing the jingle of keys somewhere. Hiding deep in the trees, Peter watched the man make his way to a part of the yard he’d not noticed to the big car that had been covered with dead branches and trees. As soon as the engine roared to life, Peter knew that by the time they returned, the house or whatever it was would be gone, and so would all traces of the girl he and Mary were going to raise as their own.
Peter made his way back to his house. He was feeling better about what he’d done to the house with every step he took. It wasn’t fit to live in, he thought, and now that it was gone, perhaps the people there would move away and forget they had a little girl. Although he was pretty sure they’d done that already. After shifting to his human side and dressing, Peter kissed his wife and told her what he’d done.
“Good.” He cocked a brow at her, thinking that she’d be at least a little upset with him over it. “Damned people. They should be horsewhipped.”
His wife never cursed, and to hear her to do so now made him realize that something more had happened. He asked her about it and she burst into tears. Taking her to the bedroom where RaeAnn still slept, he watched in horror as she pulled back the blanket that laid over her and showed him what she’d discovered.
“They branded her. Who does something like that? They put a hot iron to her skin and burned it. Just like she was one of our cows.” He ran his finger over the newly burned skin and felt his heart break. “There are scars on her back too. Like they’d beaten her with a whip. And her feet, they’re going to take a long time to heal. The poor thing. I don’t want to let her go, Peter. We have to keep her here and safe.”
“We are. We will.” He heard the sirens screaming by the farm and smiled. He knew it would be a total loss, and he was even more glad he’d done it now. “Her name is RaeAnn Richards. When she wakes up and is feeling better, I’ll have someone fix up the paperwork with her a new name and identity on it.”
“Good. She’ll be a Burcher and we’ll love her as our own.” Peter hoped it would be that way, but for all they knew the girl was just as bad as her parents. Then he thought of the hole she’d made.
“She’ll be a good girl. And we’ll make sure she has what she needs too.” Yes, Peter thought as he held Mary, she’d be a good addition to their family. Now he had to figure out how to tell her that her new parents were jaguars

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cormac HARRISON AMBUSH book two Release Blitz & Winner Announced 2/8/16

Kathi BartonLeave a comment
Cormac Harrison, Mac to his family and friends, has a good thing going. He has a brand new home, a successful business, and is truly happy with the direction his life is heading.


Andi Collins can’t seem to catch a break. The last time she’d encountered her father, she’d ended up in the hospital. Now, Stormy Harrison, is giving her a break and helping her get back on her feet. So when this big handsome man tells her that she’s his mate she’s scared to death.


Mate. She’d heard the term before. And what it meant. She would belong to him. Not just him, but whoever he wanted to sell her to. Andi reached for the door handle, thinking that rolling from a moving car would be better than being passed around like a napkin at a banquet hall.


“Don’t do that.” He reached for her hand just as she touched the handle. “Please, just listen to me and I’ll explain.”


“I don’t need you to explain. I know what mate means. My friends at school, they told me what happens when you become a mate to men. And what they didn’t tell me, my father and aunt explained the rest. Mates use you, and then when they’ve had enough, they pass you around to all the other men they know. I won’t have it.”


The car suddenly stopped. Her seatbelt cut into her neck, and she nearly hit her head on the dash it stopped so abruptly.

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Chapter 1  
“It says right here that this is the way we are supposed to do it. Not the way you’re showing us. I need for you to back away from the equipment and let me do it my way. That’s what is going to work,” Elton grumbled. Mac wondered if he found Stormy and asked her to shoot this man, if she would do it. Of course she would, he thought. And would smile while doing it. “You can’t tell me that your way is better when I know better. You’re just trying to mess things up for me.” “Oh, but I can and I am. There is nothing saying that we can’t improve on the way this line is run. And this way, the way that you’ve been doing it up until now, is why this business is losing money. And losing money is the best way for them to close down and for you to be out of a job.” The man only huffed at him, pointing out yet again that the instructions said that his way was the most efficient way. “Yes, it might have been, fourteen years ago when you had this equipment put in. But short of putting in an entire new work line, you’re going to have to trust me on this. I know better.” “So you say, but I’m under the opinion that you don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know why you were hired in the first place. You know nothing about this production line, and as soon as I can convince my bosses—and I will—that you have this all screwed up, we’re going to go back to doing it the correct way anyway.” Mac stood up straighter and felt his cat run along his skin. “You can get huffy with me all you want, but I know what is best for this company. I’ve been working here since their father opened the doors, and I’ll be working here long after they’re bored with it and go about their business.” Mac said nothing, but moved away from the man as he pulled out his phone. He had to talk to someone who was reasonable, and dialed the first number on his phone. When Storm answered, he had to smile. From the sound of her voice, she wasn’t having any better of a time than he was.  “Did you know that when you put a box on the line that there are all kinds of infrared lights that can read not only what’s in the box, but even where the fuck it’s supposed to be going? That the system is specifically made to do just that?” He told her he did, as a matter of fact. “Well, smart ass, did you know why it’s not working here at Ship It? The reason why we were called in to fix it?” “The machines aren’t calibrated? The lights are too bright around it to let it be read properly? There are any number of reasons for it not to work.” She snorted at him, something that he’d come to love about her. It conveyed so much, her snort. “Why is it not working at Ship It?” “They turned it off. I mean, like they just went to the line, tore out all the wiring, and then turned it off at the computer system when it kept telling them that it didn’t work. Not only that it wasn’t working, but also exactly where it wasn’t working. And now you have to ask me why they would turn off a multimillion dollar piece of very important equipment when they advertise that that’s what they use to get your packages to you on time?” He started to laugh, telling her he had no idea. “It didn’t 
match their uniform shirts that they’re required to wear when they work. The red—and this is no fucking lie—the red clashed so badly with the orange shirts that the owner’s daughter complained. Because she picked the color and hated the way it looked when the boxes went by. How fucking stupid do you have to be? I’m not kidding you. It’s a good thing you made me leave my gun at my house when you sent me here. Otherwise, we’d be calling in the big time lawyers that I’d need for a lawsuit. Someone would have been dead about ten minutes ago. What’s up with you? Did you tell them what they have to do to improve their work situation?” “Pretty much the same thing you’re running into there. This guy in charge while the family is still learning the ropes said that his way is right because that’s the way they’ve been doing it for years. I’m pretty sure that this guy doesn’t even own a computer or a smart phone. It wasn’t the way he was raised or some shit.” Mac moved to his temporary office at the plant and began gathering his things. Time to meet up with the family soon, and he had to get back home anyway. “I’m going to take the next flight out after I get finished with the family. If they want us to come here again, it’s going to be when that guy is gone. Or they’re fucked.” “Good luck. And don’t forget about tomorrow. I have that meeting with my attorneys and you have to sign the paperwork on the building we’re buying there.” He nodded, then told her he’d be there. “Also, my friend is going to start working tomorrow, too, full-time. If you have a minute, go by the Home Cooking and see if she’s settling in all right for me. Riordan and I won’t be home until day after tomorrow, as we have to swing by the White House for a minute.” He thought of that. Swing by the White House like it was right on the way home from the grocery. Stormy would even be able to go on up to the family residence once she was there, and hell, more than likely she and Riordan would be having dinner there with the president, and maybe even a drink or two.  “I’ll take care of it for you on this end. Where am I meeting the attorneys for the building? And I can’t tell you again how much I hate that you’ve done this. I could have just gotten a loan for it on my own. You didn’t have to buy it for the shop I have in mind.” She snorted again and he smiled. “I wonder if when you have children that’ll be their answer to everything you ask them, too.” “More than likely. But since your mom and dad are telling me now that they’re going to be baby-sitting every chance they get, I’m pretty sure that your mom will get them out of the habit. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to not tell them to do it around her as much as they can. You know, just for fun.” Mac didn’t doubt that for a single minute.  Mac had to meet with the new owners of one of the oldest toy firms in the downtown area of Atlanta. They’d been shipping out retro toys for the last several decades, getting them cheaply and helping fill a lot of stores opening up with their new line. But they were behind in their shipment dates, so much so that they’d called him to see what was wrong with their line. It only took him ten minutes of working the line to know what the problem was. But Mac had worked for the two weeks he said he would. The bottle neck in the entire operations was due to one man.  
He was shown to the office of Byron and Noreen Stokes as soon as he entered the building. “We were hoping to see you before you left. I understand that you’ve been working on getting our lines right. I hope it wasn’t too much trouble for you.” Byron smiled at him. “Elton Coltrane called a few minutes ago. He said that you’d left there in a huff and that he didn’t think you’d figured out anything. I’m pretty sure that you’d be a little more professional than just leaving when you couldn’t find what was wrong. I’m sure you tried.” “Is that what Elton told you? That I didn’t find anything wrong?” Bryon looked at his sister and then back at him, nodding. “I see. Well, I am a professional, as you said, but if you have some time, I’d like to go over my findings with you.” “Of course.”  Mac was led to a large conference room with a table big enough for his family to have dinner at. Noreen was the younger of the two siblings, but Mac knew that she was the one with the business sense while her brother was the one with the big ideas. Which blended well with the two of them. She’d also been the one to talk to him all those weeks ago. He handed them both the printouts that he’d brought with him. “I want you to know that I’m impressed with your line of product and your pricing system. The receiving department is top-notch as well. The way you bring in the goods and catalog them means that anyone coming into this building can pull up a number for the product and go right to the warehouse to find where it is. You have a good team of inventory control as well.” Noreen said that her father had always been a stickler for keeping things organized. “It shows in your work here. The line is good. A little outdated, but will run you for a few more years before I would recommend that you replace it. I would suggest that you put in a labeling system that also runs your lines. That way when you have a box go to the store, you can be assured that that’s where it went.” “Why do I think that the ‘but’ you’re about to tell us is going to be costly?” Mac told him not at all. “The way that Elton talked, you were disappointed in the way things were going here and that he thought you were going to tell us it was a lost cause. He seemed to think that you were under the impression that we should just close up and be done with the entire thing. We can’t do that, if that’s what you’re going to say. Our father built this company on nothing but a handshake. If we can make it work, that’s what we’ll do.”  “I see. You paid me to give you the truth. And I think, in detail, you were told that I’m a man that seldom beats around the bush about things. And if you can’t handle that, we won’t be able to work together, correct?” Again the two of them looked at each other before nodding. “All right then…you want this company to prosper and continue to be a viable company, then fire Elton. I mean, not tomorrow or next week, but today, this minute.” “Really? Elton? I mean, I know that he’s sort of set in his ways, but he’s been working with us since Dad died. Seriously, I don’t think we could have gotten this far without him. And I know that my dad thought a great deal of him. I mean, he did have 
his issues with him, but he’s been working here for all of our lives.” Mac nodded. “I don’t even know if we can fire him. I mean, he and Dad were good friends, and he’s been at all our birthday parties since…. I’m sorry, Mr. Harrison, but I think you should reconsider that suggestion. He’s a good man and works very hard.” “Fine.” Mac stood up and gathered his things, including the paperwork that he’d given them. As he was putting everything back into his briefcase, he told them what he was going to do. “There won’t be any charge for me coming here other than expenses, and my secretary will see that you’re given a full accounting of—” “Wait. I mean…you’re just going to stop there? You’re not going to suggest anything else for us? You were there for two weeks. Surely you had to have found the real reason for our production lines to go so slowly.” Mac told them he had, it was Elton. “You mean to tell me that one man, a single man, is responsible for us losing sixty-four percent of our production time line?” “No.” Mac pulled on his jacket and picked up his things. He could tell that they were relieved, but it was going to be short lived as soon as he spoke again. He almost hated to tell them. “Elton is responsible for eighty-six percent of your slow down. And if he’s not taken off the line and forced into retirement, then you will lose more every day until you fail. And you will, at the rate you’re going.” Mac was nearly to the door outside when he heard someone call his name. It was Elton. Mac had had enough of the man for one day, so went out to get in the car and go home, but Elton followed him. And the man looked like he had received his Christmas bonus as well as a tax refund all in the last ten minutes. Elton walked up to him as he waited for his car and put out his hand to shake it. Mac just looked at it, then at the man he’d left hanging. “I could have told you that they’d not do anything about me. I’m sure that you told them that it was me that was hurting things. I’m their go-to man when they need answers. And they don’t know shit about what I do or what goes on down on the line, and that’s the way I want it. I’m not going to let them change a damned thing, just so you know. When they fail—and I’ve no doubt that it’ll be sooner rather than later—I will own a nice business.” Mac didn’t look at the couple that walked up behind Elton, nor did they speak. He did, however, ask Elton what he was talking about. “The will. I know for a fact that it states that once the business closes down that all the original members of the staff will be able to purchase the company for what the fair market value is. And when this is done, the fair market will be considerably less than what it is today, don’t you think?” “So you want this company to fail. After all the work that Mr. Stokes put into making this a valuable firm for his children, you’re going to let it fail so you can take it from them.” Elton smiled and nodded. “And what are you going to do with it once you own it? Call in some help and get it up and going again? That’s not very fair of you, now is it?” “Their daddy left them all the money. All of it. He didn’t even consider us people who did all the work for him.” Elton laughed as he continued. “There was a time I might have been willing to get things going in the right direction, but they called in 
professional help instead of asking me what the fuck was wrong with things. I could have told them that, don’t you think?” “You mean that you shut down the lines four times a day when you want to take a nap? That you have been known to sabotage the boxes before they were loaded on the truck so that the customers would be pissed enough to cancel orders?” Elton nodded. “I guess you have a hard heart there, Elton. Whatever will you do now?” “Do? I won’t have to do anything. They kicked your ass out, didn’t they?” Mac said nothing, but he knew that Noreen was pissed off. Byron moved back, heading to the building. “What are you going to do, Mr. Harrison? I’m sure that this is a blow to your little company too, isn’t it? Not being able to make this work for them. But I’m glad to see you leaving with your tail between your legs. It does my heart good to see another firm fail. It’s what I live for.” “I think I did all right here, if you want to know the truth, Elton. Just fine indeed.” His limo pulled up just as security was coming out of the building. “You, however…I don’t think you’re going to be cashing in on anything. You have a good day, Elton. I’m sure that things are about to look…well, differently for you.” Security was talking to Elton as his car pulled away. Mac could have gone back in, he supposed, talked to the Stokes about the rest of his findings, small things that he was sure that they would find once Elton was gone. But he wanted to go home. Now. He had a new home he was having fun in, a new sister in Riordan’s wife that was working with him, and he wanted to go and see his mom and dad. ~~~ “You find her yet?” George Collins looked up at his son, Jim, and felt a twist that touched his heart. How a man could have such an idiot for a kid, he thought. A moron that didn’t know shit from anything. He wished now after all these years that he’d taken his sister Hester’s advice and just left him somewhere. Now he was too old for that shit and he was stuck with him. “That bitch that called the law on me, thinking that I had no rights to my own daughter, will be next. I don’t cotton to being treated that way by nobody. You hear me?” “Yes, sir, I’ve been looking. If they stowed her away, they sure ain’t saying much. Aunt Hester, she’s about to have ten kinds of fits over this. She said you should have taken better care not to get caught.” George nodded. He sure should have. “When she comes down here, I’m telling you right now heads are going to be split if she don’t get her way. She said for you to get home.” His sister, Hester Casey, was a force, she was. He loved her to the end of time, but she was a mite on the scary side when she was upset. Even when she was in a fairly good mood, he tried his best to keep away from her. George was afraid of her, plain and simple. Not just a little either; she’d beaten him so badly he almost couldn’t lift up his beer when the mood struck her. “You tell her that you got this. Tell her that I’m okay and that once we get Andi back home, we’re gonna chain her to the floor like she done told us we should have months ago. She might not have any money coming in, but we’ll have food cooked for 
us.” Jim asked him how they was gonna have food if Andi didn’t work. “You just let me worry on that, fool. I don’t rightly know just yet, but I’ll get it figured out.” Six months ago they’d had their welfare cut. Not just him, but Hester and Jim too. The government got it in their head that they had to work some for the money. Hell, if he wanted to work, he’d find him a job. But so far as he was concerned, when you start paying somebody for not working, you can’t just up and take that from them. It just wasn’t the way that things were done in his family. None of them had found gainful employment yet, whatever the fuck that was, and he wasn’t about to go look for it either. Not that Jim could. He was as stupid as they came. But George’s family was on a protest. They weren’t gonna find them a job until the government got their shit together and put things back the way they were. George had been stuck in jail for three days now. He was getting food regular like. Not nearly as much as he wanted, but he was getting it. No beers either. They had some fool rule about that. Why a man couldn’t be enjoying his leisure was beyond him. He looked up at his son and wondered if it was too late to do something about getting rid of him. Probably.  “Dad, they said you might be going back to jail, the one real far away. That having that gun was against the rules. I thought you said to me that rules don’t work on us. That we was special or something.” He told Jim he wasn’t gonna go nowheres so long as he was breathing. “But if you do, what’s gonna happen to me? I can’t be living with Aunt Hester. She don’t like me none. I was thinking when we find Andi I might go see if she’ll let me stay with her. She’s gotta be nicer to me than Aunt Hester is, don’t you think?” “Nobody likes you, son. You’re stupid and you ain’t worth the sex that we had to make your ass. Your momma, God rest her lazy-assed soul, she done should have known better than to birth you and that ignorant daughter. Now look at me, stuck here and nobody to help me out.” George stood up and glared at his son, who backed away. “You find Andi, tell her to get her ass down here and tell them folks that she fell again. And that the gun was hers. I ain’t going back to jail. I ain’t, you hear me?” After Jim left him to have another look for his sister, George thought of his lot in life. He wasn’t stupid, but he was lazy. He’d admit that to anyone who asked him. And he didn’t care much for his daughter or his son, but he’d been given them and he had to suffer with having them. His wife, he’d tolerated her some, but she’d given him Jim and then a useless daughter, then up and left him with them like he wanted to be taking care of them for the rest of his life. Hester…well, Hester was his big sister, and he knew better than to mess with her. “Mr. Collins?” He nearly missed hearing his name and stood up in his cell to see who might be thinking he was a mister anything. “Are you Mr. Collins? George Collins?” “I am. What you want? In case you missed it, if you’re selling something, I ain’t got me no money. If you’re lawyering up for somebody, can’t help you there. I don’t rat out my buddies.” The man said nothing. There was something about him that just told you 
that he was untouchable, and that had George moving back when the man walked up to the bars. “What is it you want of me?” “I’m here to tell you that Andi Collins is off-limits to you and your family. She’s in a good place, and you’re to stop harassing her from now on.” George just stared at the man. “And if you’re caught within one foot of her, I’m going to bring a hell down on you so hard you won’t be able to lift a hand to bring whatever shit food you eat to your mouth.” “You can’t tell me what to do with my own kid. I know my rights. I brought her into this fucking world, and she’ll do as she’s told.” The man said nothing. “Who the fuck do you think you are, anyways? I know she ain’t bringing the law down on me. ‘Cause if she can afford you, in your expensive suit, then she’d better be getting her ass down here and bailing me out. I’m her daddy, damn it.” The man only stared at him. George wanted to flip him off, his favorite pastime when things didn’t go his way, but he had a feeling that if he even lifted his hand to do so, then he’d be hurting bad. Worster than he was right now. “Stay away from her or pay the price.” As the man walked away, George could feel his bravery coming back to him. But before he could open his mouth to curse at the man, he was standing in front of George with his hand around his throat, lifting him up off the floor. The man changed. Not just his body but his face, and even his fingernails at his throat seemed to bite deep into his neck. George looked into his eyes then; they sort of captured him. The man’s eyes had darkened to an almost black, and George felt his bladder just let go when he saw the fangs there on his lip. “Stormy said that if I wanted, I could play. I might just yet anyway. Would you like that?” George shook his head. “Too bad. Go near Andi again and I will kill you. Not a threat, you dumb fucking idiot, but a promise. You know that I’m telling you the truth too, don’t you, moron?” “Yes.” George wanted to cry. He knew something, a feeling of fear like he’d never felt before. “I won’t bother her no more.” “Good. See that you don’t.” As he was dropped to the floor, the man straightened his suit sleeves and then his tie. “You might want to tell your son and that sister of yours to behave too. I’m not in the mood to have to come back out in the sunlight to wipe this family out of their miserable existence. And you’d do well to remember that if I have to come back, you will be dead. Understand me?” George nodded. Long after the man had left him, George stayed on the floor. Lots of things were going through his mind as he lay there. The man had had fangs. He wanted to think that was just a figment of his addled head, but he had a feeling that they were as real as rain. And the man had lifted him up like he was nothing more than a bothersome flea. George knew that he was big. Not muscled—those had never been a part of his body in any way—but just plain fat. When he was younger, he’d been heavy. As he grew, so did not only his waistline but his entire body. George figured he weighed a good four hundred pounds. And the man had lifted him up with a single hand. But the 
longer he lay here, just thinking and letting his mind wander, the less and less of the man he could remember. “I gotta stay away from my daughter. I don’t know why, but I gotta.” Nodding to himself, he stood up. He’d pissed himself…not the first time. But this time he could almost smell the fear in his urine. “Couldn’t get off the floor, that’s all. Happened before, when that chair of mine wouldn’t lift me right. Can’t be nothing more than that.”  He knew that there was something there that he had to remember besides not bothering Andi again. Fangs? Nobody had fangs except them people faking it, like he’d seen on television. He also had a feeling that he’d been flying too. But that wasn’t right either, was it? Sitting on the bed, unmindful of his wet pants, he frowned. When he thought of Andi again, he felt a little pain in his head when he thought of making her ass pay, but it went away after a minute or two. “She’s gonna pay. That she is.” Nodding, stretched out on the bed, he felt sticky. And when he moved around, the bed groaned. It was scary there for a minute. The bed he was using creaked a bit more than he liked. Sitting on the side of the bed, he pulled off his pants and underwear and took them to the sink. He’d get more later, but these were just stinky. Laying them on the sink, he went back to his bed. He had some thinking to do. 

Willow The James Children Chapter Four 2/2/16

Kathi BartonLeave a comment

Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000039_00072]

 

~Chapter 4~
Willow avoided him completely on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday, she had to take the morning off to have the stitches removed and didn’t get to work until after eleven. By the time she’d caught up on her mail and fielding calls from vendors, she was nearly five hours behind. At six o’clock, the last truck left the lot and she was on the first floor covering seams with mud on the newly hung drywall. She’d thought about Robert all week and wondered for the hundredth time what he’d been about to do. Kiss her? She certainly would have let him at that moment and gotten angry with herself all over. No matter how appealing it was, kissing her employees was out of the question. If it ever was a possibility. She snorted to herself and turned the volume up on her book. It was nearly eleven when she got to her house. Exhausted and dirty, she stripped down to her boxer briefs and bra in the kitchen and tossed the whole load in the washer. One more day, she thought. Then she’d have two days off in a row. Then she remembered her dinner date with her parents. “Fuck, fuck fuck.” Standing in the kitchen listening to the washer fill, Willow wondered if she could get out of it. She was running ideas through her head when her phone rang. It was one of her parents, as they were the only ones with this number. “Hello, parental unit. How’s it hanging?” She smiled when her father sputtered on the other end. “You ever check your messages, young lady? Your mother has been frantic.” Willow smiled bigger. Her mother didn’t get frantic, her dad did. “I’ve been having a torrid affair with the milk man and he keeps strange hours. He had to keep me a secret from his wife and eight kids.” Willow burst out laughing at her dad’s “smart ass,” but he went on without any more comments about her mom. “This dinner thing tomorrow night, I’ll expect you here on time and without a stitch of flannel on. Ghastly attire you’ve gotten into the habit of wearing.” There went her hopes of getting out of it. “I had a dress made of just that material too. Now what will I wear? Maybe if you’re really nice to me and tell me the name of the man mom and you have set me up with this time, I’ll know what to wear.” She had a number of clothes that would deter even the quickest hands. Her dad snorted, a nice habit she’d taught him to do. “Your mother has two set up. Well, one from each of us. Miscommunication or some other stupid reason. I distinctly remember her telling me to invite young Nathan, but now she swears that she didn’t. That ugly boy Taylor is coming too.” Willow laughed. “He’s not ugly, Dad. He’s unique.” Boy was he ever. “Willow, the man has the biggest ears I’ve ever seen. Why, in a good storm, a wind would pick him up and he’d be on the space station in a matter of minutes. And that laughter…sounds like a bull horn going off.” Willow did agree about the laughter, but could only laugh more. She loved her parents very much and was a daddy’s girl too. She and her mom had been best friends since she’d discovered, at age ten, that her mother hid a wicked sense of humor and a sharp wit. They had never had the usual problems most families had. Willow even enjoyed the company of her older brother Alexander.
“So,” she stretched out the word. “I suppose you’d probably prefer it if I didn’t marry Taylor. And since Nathan won’t have me, then I guess I’m safe for the night.” Willow waited for the explosion and wasn’t disappointed. “What do you mean he ‘won’t have you?’ Why that man would be damned lucky if you gave him the time of day. Won’t have you—why, men would be lining up if you’d pay them the slightest attention. Why won’t he have you? I’ll tear him apart for saying such a thing.” “Because, my dearest defender, I don’t have the equipment he prefers in a sexual partner. And I’m pretty sure he has one. A partner, I mean.” The silence at the other end was profound. She opened the icebox and waited while she tried to remember the last time Marta, her housekeeper, friend, and cook, had bought groceries. Marta Priest was due back tomorrow, thank goodness. Willow had missed her while she’d been on vacation. But putting up with Willow, she figured the woman needed a break. The house seemed incredibly empty and not just of food, but also Marta’s sage advice and her smart-assed answers. Marta was the daughter of Willow’s parents’ cook, Shasta. Her dad, she knew, was sorting thought the information no doubt trying to figure out a way to still marry her off. She knew he wouldn’t care about Nathan being gay. That had nothing to do with either their friendship, or hers to him for that matter. But he would try to salvage something out of this. “Willow, honey, where do you get—never mind. I’m sure as your father I just don’t want to know.” The heavy sigh made her smile. “All right then, we’ll just be a bunch of friends and family getting together. Your brother is going to try and make it in, but he said he couldn’t guarantee anything at this point. And you stay away from that Taylor boy. I won’t have you getting with child by him. Birthing one of his children with those ears could kill you.” Willow hung up a little while later after her dad went on then about her brother and how her mother despaired of the day he’d have a baby. She didn’t even tell him that Alex having a child would be harder than her birthing Taylor’s kid, but let it go. She was too tired to even open a can of soup, had there been one in the house to do so. She was trudging up the stairs to her bedroom when she decided she’d go to the store Saturday on her way home if Marta didn’t. Pulling a small pad of paper and a pen to her as she laid down, she made a note of things to get. She hated shopping for food almost as much as she hated to do laundry. Which was why, she thought with a huge yawn, she had about seventy pairs of underwear and that many t-shirts too. She fell asleep with the pen still in her hand along with the pad of sticky notes. When she woke the next morning at four, she was covered in sticky notes and ink blotches. As she stripped off her sheets, she made herself a mental note to buy pencils and then discarded that idea almost immediately. It would be just her luck she’d end up with lead poisoning if she slept with a pencil. After taking a long shower, she made her way to the closet. Willow had purchased the house at an estate auction. Her parents had helped her get the loan. Even with all her money and a job, the bank didn’t want to loan money to a then seventeenyear-old kid. But she had paid the loan back on time and had also been able to get a second loan on her own since then. The house for the most part had been in great shape. The lawns were the worst she’d ever seen, but she’d enjoyed bringing them back to life. All the bushes had to be pulled up and instead of replacing them as the local nursery had suggested, Willow planted bulbs and perennials and flowering fruit trees. She had made the cover of Architectural Digest last fall for her grounds alone.
The yard in the back had been useless so Willow had had a large in-ground pool put in along with a pool house and a little cottage for Marta to live in. Willow spent a great deal of time in the back yard in the warmer months and even the cooler ones since she’d had the pool heated. Willow simply loved the outdoors. The third floor of the house was finished, as it was where her room was. The original house had had four bedrooms on the third floor and six on the second with a single bathroom per floor. Now after three years, there was a master suite complete with fireplace, sitting area, and an office. Both bedrooms had massive bathrooms as well. The master bath had a large shower stall, as well as a sunken tub. She loved its jets and when she was able to use it, lit candles to set all around the glass block shelves that formed the outside wall. The toilet and sink were separated from the tub by another wall of glass blocks. She’d had to order the porcelain in the room, as it was a dark cobalt blue, so that the sink, toilet, counter top, and tub all were dark against the blue and white tile of the floor. The shower stall was surrounded in the glass and some had been filled with a blue gas that seemingly moved inside. As one stepped back toward the bedroom, there was a closet complete with dresser that sat back to back to each other. They split the room in half and divided the closet perfectly. She hadn’t wanted to put in two dressers, but her mother pointed out that if she ever sold the house to buy something bigger or something to play with, she would have a better chance of selling it for a couple. Willow loved her bedroom with its twelve foot ceilings and top to bottom windows. The two outside walls both had two each. Since there was no need for a closet in this room, Willow built the headboard into the wall and made sure it had all the comforts she wanted, including the size of the custom mattress at one and a half the size of a regular king. The small end tables pulled out and there was a gun safe behind one and a fire proof safe behind the other. She had them both filled with her things. Most nights when she came home from work, it was all she could do to put the gun back in the safe because she never left the site until well after dark. There was a gas fireplace in the wall directly across from the bed and a sofa and two wing backed chairs as well. There was also a work area, though Willow never used it, but it had been a suggestion from her dad and since she let her mom talk her into the double dressers, she went with the workstation to appease the man. He had blustered for days about it. The other bedroom, only marginally smaller than the one she slept in, had the same type of headboard, but there was no bed. She used that room strictly for storage and nothing more. After she was dressed, Willow went to her office. The second floor had taken her the most time. It had been her plan to reduce the number of bedrooms down to two as well, but had taken out two of the rooms and added baths that each set of bedrooms shared. She’d taken out the smallish closets and replaced them with large walk-ins that were well-lit and spacious. The bedrooms were finished for the most part. Carpet had been taken up and the floor sanded and finished. But the woodwork, wide ceiling molding, and overhead fans needed to be hung, and the furniture, all antiques, had to be put back in place. Most of it was in storage in the garage. The first floor had a grand entrance with wide double doors and stained glass windows down either side of it. The parquet floors replaced the worn tile and Willow had talked her parents into the beautiful chandelier she’d wanted for the ceiling last Christmas. There was a huge living room that was devoid of anything—not even pictures on the wall. She didn’t spend any time in there so was in no rush to furnish it.
The dining room was big enough to hold the cherry and walnut table she’d bought with its fourteen chairs and the massive hutch that held some of her collection of snowmen. She didn’t use this room much either. There was her office, which had been the first room finished, and she thought it reflected her tastes perfectly. A hodgepodge, her mother had called it, but Willow loved it. This room was as big if not bigger than some living rooms, though smaller than the two bedrooms in the house. The computer desk had been custom built by her and stained and polished by her dad. The desk was a rich cherry and shone brightly in the sunny room. The wall over the desk and down both sides held shelves and a filing cabinet each. The shelves were overflowing with books of all kinds, styles, and genres. Willow was an eclectic reader and her books reflected that. Alongside signed first editions were dog-eared paperbacks as well as comic books and magazines. She simply loved the written word. The kitchen was mostly complete and would be as soon as Marta told her what else it needed. Willow didn’t cook, hated the task so much so that she would gladly live off pizza and take out before she’d ever try her hand at it. She and her dogs spent most of their time when she was home in the family room off from the kitchen. By just after seven, she was just finishing up with her last email when someone knocked at her door. Not expecting anyone or anything, she went to the door and opened it, ready to blast anyone who dared bother her on a Friday morning. With a squeal of delight, she launched herself into her brother’s chest. ~o0o~ Jared wandered through the house the realtor was showing him. This one, like the other four he’d been through, wasn’t what he wanted. He wasn’t sure what that was, but this wasn’t it. He came down the stairs no longer listening to the man…something Jones was clattering on about the houses charms. Jared had a mental list. Number one on the list was a large kitchen—a large, working kitchen. One he could move around in, entertain if he wanted, and to make love on the counter if Willow was in the mood. The realtor, William, Jared suddenly remembered, bumped into him when he suddenly stopped. Willow in the mood? Where the hell had that come from? “You all right, Mr. Stone?” Was he? No and hell no he wasn’t all right. He tried to shake off the uncomfortable shaft of desire that had him burning with a sudden need for the prickly woman. He’d had the most incredible vision of her wrapped around him as he pounded into her heat on the top of dark green counters. Jared turned and looked at the man. “This is nothing like what I gave you to find for me and we both know it. If you take me to one more overpriced house you are trying to get rid of then I will find another realtor. Go over the list again and contact me when you have some that I will consider. I have neither the time nor the patience for this. Understand?” This was not how Jared wanted to spend his Friday night. “Yes, sir. I’m sorry, sir. But the market has been—” Jared cut him off with a raised brow. “Of course,” William went on. “I’ll set you up for more of what you had in mind next week.” “This weekend if possible.” Jared walked out the front door and got into his car. He’d had enough. Monday morning he was going to confront the woman and tell her she was fired and to fire that Talbor. It was the surest way of getting her out of his system. And his dreams. That made
him think of the dream he’d had of her last night, the one where he’d done all sorts of decadent things to the lovely Miss James. Slamming his hand against the steering wheel, he growled in frustration. And when he got home, he was calling every woman on his phone and exorcising Willow from his mind. He was frustrated, that was all. He needed to get laid. Somehow, as he pulled into his driveway, he knew that wasn’t it at all.

 

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Christopher By Kathi S Barton Release Day & Winner Announced 1/25/16

Kathi BartonLeave a comment
Christopher hadn’t been with Rembrandt’s group long. With their combined efforts there were fewer and fewer monsters to fight. His mate had died a long time ago, so he volunteered to go with Skylar to look for some “newbies”. When they arrived at the warehouse the new ones were acting very strange.
Kate had been scouting out the building when a large crate just suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Curiosity had her standing in the shadows when she saw two warriors come up the stairs and approach the crate. When they became aware of her presence, the man shifted into the largest cat she’d ever seen and pinned her to the floor with his large paws.
Kate was more than any of them had bargained for, and Chris soon discovered that Kate was his true mate, that the other woman never was. And when they fought together they were downright scary.
With their enemies Ward and Nolan dead, there was no one left to keep Benton, the huge monster they’d created, in line. Benton had lost his mind a long time ago, but one thought remained constant…he wanted Rembrandt dead….

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Chapter 1  
Christopher sat on the cold concrete and leaned his back against the hard wall behind him. His body temperature had finally leveled out, but not enough that he could go without some sort of fan or other form of cooling agent to keep himself from roasting all the time. He looked over at the woman who sat next to him. She was covered in as much blood and gore as he was. The battle, like most of them, had not been a pretty thing. And they seemed to be getting worse all the time.  Usually he would simply do his job and then go back to his room. He was spending a great deal more time out and about with the rest of the people in the house, but for the most part, he loved being alone. But Chris really enjoyed talking to Vicki…he thought she was a hoot. “The next time the alarm goes off, I’m going to hunt it down and tear it apart.” Chris said nothing as Vicki sat there with her eyes closed and continued. “I swear to you, as soon as this crap is done, I’m out of here and finding a nice warm beach to lay on for about ten years. I’m going to eat ice cream for every meal, and wear a dress with high heels when I fucking want to. Which I might add, I have never wanted to before now; but that’s not the point, is it?” “Do you think it will?” She asked him what he meant without looking in his direction. “End. Do you think this will ever end? Because I have to tell you, it doesn’t feel like it on most days.” Of late he’d been feeling like it was the same shit every day. Get up, fight, shower, eat, and then go to bed, only to have to do it all over again the next day. He knew that there were fewer and fewer of the monsters, but they were no less vicious in their pursuit of trying to kill more people. And that was another thing. There were fewer and fewer humans around as well. “Hector wants us to find some newbies if we can.” Chris looked up at Skylar when she spoke, and wondered not for the first time if any part of her body wasn’t tatted up. He was pretty inked up himself, but most of his had been there before any of this had gone down. Skylar even had them on her face and neck. But for some reason, he still thought she was beautiful. “There is a new project going on across the way. Who wants to go with me?” “I will.” Chris stood and helped Vicki up as he turned to Skylar to ask her how they were going. Her wings spread out and he backed from her. “I’d rather take a car if it’s all the same to you. Nothing against your flying ability, but I would rather just drive.” “And how would that be fun for me?” He nodded and found himself wrapped up in her arms and soaring dizzily into the deep blue of the sky. “Are you getting along any better, Chris? You seem to be less inclined to stay in your room. I’m glad for that. It’s fun having you around more.” He wanted to ask her why she cared, but they were currently several hundred feet in the air if he were to piss her off. Which, he supposed, he’d managed to do more often 
than he liked to think about. But right now, she would more than likely drop him on his head. “I don’t really mind being here. But….” He couldn’t put into words how much he hated what he was doing. He was pretty sure that she got it, but he didn’t know how to convey it to her. “I was famous once. An entertainer, as you know. Women would throw themselves at me. Panties, bras, sometimes even money. Men too, but that wasn’t going to happen. And now look. Not only am I pretty much just a normal person, no one cares much that I was once considered the most sought after male in the world.” “Whine much?” He only winced at her words, still not comfortable enough with the rest of them to be his usual self. His old self would have flashed her his smile, winked at her, and told her that was what made him so irresistible. “Nate and I had a conversation about you the other day. He thinks you’re a blowhard. Whatever did you do to him to make him hate you so much?” “Breathed? I don’t know. Now there is a whiny person. He’s not coming out of his room for anything, is he?”  Before he could ask her what the two of them had talked about—or actually argued about—they were landing. Chris looked at the malefactors and wondered why someone would do this to humans. He’d heard the stories, but he knew that there had to be something more than that. When they entered the building where a small group of them were, Chris thought that they’d made a mistake about them being here. But then he saw the groups as they walked around like…. Chris turned to Skylar when it occurred to him what he was seeing. “Have you ever played one of those first person shooter games?” Skylar said that she had played on her phone a few times, but not lately. “Yeah, no cell service. But when you’re playing and have to leave the game—I don’t know, to take a piss or something—when you return, your guy will be walking straight into a wall, his feet still moving as the monsters or whatever are clawing at him or blowing him to bits with their guns. That’s what they look like, a game version of sleep walking.” They stood watching the dozen or so of the monsters do just that…walk into a wall and continue moving their feet toward some unknown place, but staying where they were. One of the men, walking around rather into things, had a large gash in his head where his head kept hitting the fire alarm signage just where his head was. Over and over the guy would do this until he was dead, Chris supposed.  Chris moved toward them just as a creature moved from between two of the pillars holding up the other floors. Neither he nor Skylar moved as the thing, just as clumsy and stupid as the malefactors, moved about the room. Chris thought he might have been an adherent at one time, but now he’d lost some of his color and he was no longer in charge. As he knocked a desk over and then tripped several times when he tried to stand and keep moving, neither Chris nor Skylar moved to help him. As soon as he got to whatever he’d been working his way toward, he stopped and turned, almost as if he were a solider on a march and he was at the end of his area. “Why didn’t he trip into the desk before? I mean, it’s obvious that he’s been doing this same thing for a while. Why hadn’t he tripped up before?”  
Chris started to tell Skylar that he didn’t know when it occurred to him. “He’s making a circle. See? Judging by the footsteps that he’s made in the dirt on the floor, the circle’s getting smaller with each of his trips around the room. It looks like he started out on the perimeter, then tightened his circle an inch or so with each pass—or I guess square, because of the room—more each time.” They both watched him and the people in the room as a second thing occurred to Chris. “Do you hear that? That small hum, like there is power somewhere?” As they spread out, looking for the power grid like those they’d been destroying every time they heard one, Chris moved to the second floor and paused. He’d learned a great deal over the last couple of weeks working with these people, and one of the things was always to be thinking outside the box. But the one in front of him, as big as a nice sized SUV, had him pausing and wondering what sort of shit was about to go down now. The box was addressed to him and Skylar. Skylar came up behind him and asked him what he was doing. “I don’t have a clue, but all I can think about is that movie that had the big lamp leg in it. Remember that movie?” “Yeah. Christ, I love that movie. We should see if we can find it somewhere while we’re out. I bet Remy hasn’t ever seen it.” Chris said nothing. Remy was one scary mother fucker, and the man seemed to exude strength all over his body. To think of him watching that movie, eating his beloved popcorn, was just too weird. “What should we do?” The handwriting was old world, the script on it something that he’d seen Remy use when he had to make notes on something. The man would take an hour to write out something that Chris would have just scribbled on a piece of paper. Remy told him that to do something right was to take your time with it. You never knew who was going to look at it. Chris supposed Remy was right, but there were times when he just wanted to take the paper from him and write the note himself. This looked like it might be from Bob, another old world guy. “You think this is part of the gifts that Bob said would come to us when we needed them?” Again, Chris had no answers and said that to Skylar. “Well, do we open it? Leave it for another day or what? I’m not all that keen on getting my ass kicked by whatever is in that thing, are you?” The big dragon had left them a letter a while back. Well, not them, but Leo and Jamey. It had said that when they needed it, something would appear. But this thing wasn’t addressed to his workmates, but to him and Skylar. He glanced at Skylar when she asked him again if they should open it. “I don’t fucking know. You’re in charge.” That got him a hard knock to his head that hurt like hell. “I’m all for having enough shit going on. If we open that, and I’m not saying that we should, what’s to say that it’s not filled with some more of these things that plan to eat our faces off?” “You are no longer allowed to come with me on these things. You are one freaked out cat.” He felt the cat stir along his skin and Skylar smiled at him. “What if there is a gorgeous young woman in there that will satisfy your every desire and then some?” 
Chris felt his heart twist up. He wasn’t going to find his other half. He’d done that already, and she was now dead. Thanks to him. But before he said something that would get him knocked on his ass this time, he moved toward the huge crate. Whatever was in that thing couldn’t be as bad as losing your mate. There was a note attached to the top of it, and he knew immediately that it was indeed from Bob the dragon. The handwriting couldn’t have been from anyone but him. Not that he could read the script there, but he knew it was from him. Pulling one of the bright orange straps off the top of the box, he handed the note to Skylar and put his sword back on his body. Things had gotten shit weird when he’d gotten here. He’d had tats before, but nothing like he’d gotten the day after arriving. He and Remy had been in the sublevels of the compound, sparring. And when Remy had—he wanted to think it was innocent on his part, but he wasn’t sure—but when Remy had put out his hand to help him stand up after being knocked on his ass, the most incredible pain had taken him to the floor again. That was when he discovered the sword at his back and the guns, big ones, on different parts of his body. The lid, like the crate, was made of wood. And when it slid off the opening, he moved back while the dust settled around them. It occurred to him, too late, he realized now, that he more than likely should have thought this through a little better. “Nothing?” He wasn’t sure and told Skylar to stay back while he checked. “In the event you didn’t notice, I’m as strong as you are. And I can fly out of the way if the thing really does try and eat our faces off.” “Yeah, I noticed all that. But if this shit is going to kill one of us, I’d rather it was me so you can go back and warn the others. I really don’t care to have to explain to Remy that I let you fucking get your ass handed to you.” She took a step back and told him she was sorry. Chris turned to look at the crate again, thinking he needed to get a grip on his temper. “So am I. But please, just stay back out of the way in case there is something in here that has bloodletting on his mind.” Moving closer to the crate, he looked inside. It was dark, which he supposed he should have counted on. But that was all he could see. Just an inky blackness that suddenly made him think of his heart. As he peered harder inside, his cat, never very friendly to him anyway, snarled at him.  “Do you suppose he knows something that you don’t?” Very possible, and he told Skylar that. “I see. And do you normally ignore him when he might be trying to tell you something? Or do you feel, like most men, that you know more than your counterpart?” It was right on the tip of his tongue to tell her to fuck off. He knew, somewhere in the back of his mind, that not only would it piss her off more than she seemed to be right now, but that it would also get him in trouble with Remy. The man was very protective of his mate. Just as he was thinking fuck it and started to tell her off, a sound…a low keening sound…came from the depths of the darkness of the crate. ~~~ Kate watched the couple as they stood by the crate. It had arrived…well, arrived might have been the wrong term for how it had gotten there, but it had appeared 
sometime in the last twenty minutes. The thing, like the people downstairs, had just sort of come into the building like it had every right to be there. She’d been hanging out, sort of living here, for a month now when she couldn’t get back to her place before it was too dark out. It was quiet, and the things on the lower levels never ventured up here when they came around. But today this crate had arrived, and then the creatures below, almost at the same time. The sound that had emitted from the box had been there before too. Kate had even gone close enough to the crate to see if someone, a person, was inside, but all she heard was rumblings and an occasional bump on the wall. She had wondered what it was, but not enough to open it and see. The man opening the box made her want to hide deeper in the shadows, just on the off chance that it wasn’t going to be a nice wedding gift for the two of them, and instead something that would most assuredly kill all of them. Kate moved back further when she saw the man stiffen. Then the sides of the crate fell away. “What the fuck?” Kate moved out of the shadows again—not close enough that she thought they could see her just yet, but she, too, was curious about the contents of the box—when the woman yelled and stepped back. What she wasn’t prepared for was the man shifting into a big black cat. He seemed to know she was there even before Kate could think that the cat might come at her. As she turned to run, the cat, bigger than any that Kate had seen in the zoos when they had existed, came after her. Kate knew about paranormals and other shifters being big, but this cat was much larger than even them.  She knew in that moment that he was a different kind of shifter, and she didn’t want him close enough to touch her. But by then, it was too late. When she was pinned to the floor, his big body over hers, she was terrified that he was going to hurt her. He couldn’t kill her, she knew, but pain was pain. She looked up when a shadow moved over her face. The woman was there, and she looked amused for some reason. When she knelt beside her, Kate saw that like the man, she was tatted well beyond what she thought of as a social norm. “I’m Skylar. This lug on you is Chris. And you would be?” Kate said nothing. “Ah, the strong silent type. Okay, I get it. But he’s not going to let you up until we get some answers or whatever is in that box comes out and tears us a new ass. But hey, it’s completely fine with me.” Kate could have gladly gotten up and murdered her. But Skylar only stared at her as she stood over her. The man, the cat really, growled low and Kate looked at him. Even as a cat, he had the most incredible eyes. They weren’t the dark color that she’d seen on cats. Shifters usually had the same color of eyes as their other bodies did. Browns usually, an occasional green or blue if the shifter had been turned. But Chris had blue eyes. Just as blue as the oceans she’d seen over her lifetime. And as she watched them, Kate was sure that she could see large animals, some of them as ancient as she was, moving in them. With a shake of her head, she tried to think how to get out of this mess. “We have movement.”  
Kate was suddenly free. The cat, Chris, had moved off her, but not away. He was close enough that she could touch him, his dark fur touching her arm that he was closest to. Her fingers burned to run all over him for some reason. But when the noise started again, she looked over at the crate as the couple was doing. A bundle of cloth inside the crate moved. She supposed it might have been moving all along, but since she’d been on the floor, the building’s walls below them could have caved in and she’d not know it. Well, she would, but that wasn’t the point right now. When it moved again, the cloth falling away, the first thing she thought of was that it was a tiny paw. The second was that whatever it was, it wasn’t alone in the blanket that fell open. Then it occurred to her what it was. Well, what they were. Puppies. There were about ten or so of them, and they came bouncing out of the cloth on the floor and toward them like they’d been ordered to do so. As soon as they were near her, Kate couldn’t help it…she pulled one of the little creatures to her face and it licked her. “Chris, I’d very much like for you to be a man again.” Kate wondered at the tense sound of Skylar’s voice, but was too excited to have the wiggly puppies coming to sit all over her legs. She could see now there were eleven of them. Eleven roly poly little balls of fur. “Remy is coming. He said to stand down until he and the others get here.” Stand down? They were puppies for heavens sakes. But when one of them went to stand by Skylar, she moved away from it like the thing was going to tear at her leg. Kate wondered if the woman had ever had a dog in her life. Laughing, she called the pup back to her and loved on him to sooth his hurt feelings. “Why would they be in such a big box?” They both looked at her as she stood up. “The box came this morning and I wondered about it, but as it wasn’t addressed to me, I didn’t bother opening it.” “Who are you?” Kate wasn’t going to answer that. She of all people knew enough about magic, and there was little doubt in her head that these two were covered in it, and that names were kept close. “I’d really like for you to tell me what the hell you have to do with all this.” “I had nothing to do with them. Are you afraid of them? Because I’m pretty sure that you can pretty much squash them if they look vicious to you or something.” Kate reached down and picked up the one currently sitting on her foot. “They do look like they might rip your throat out, don’t they? Do you suppose they have something more than just their milk teeth? Perhaps they have five inch long incisors that will tear at you too. I know, you’re afraid of their claws. Let me see…oh yeah, I can see how these little things could tear into your flesh while they chew at your throat.” “I don’t like you very much.” Kate shrugged at Skylar, not really carrying if she did or didn’t. There were a lot of people that didn’t like her, and right now, having this woman not liking her might be a blessing. Kate put the dog down and headed for the stairs.  “Where the hell do you think you’re going?” 
“Home.” She didn’t stop as she made her way down the stairs. They’d try to follow her, but she doubted very much they’d be able to for long. Kate had powers of her own, and she wasn’t the kind of person that many would fuck with.  As soon as she was on the lower level of the building, she paused when she looked at the creatures. She heard rather than saw the big cat come up behind her. He didn’t move to knock her down, but watched her as she kept an eye on the creatures. “There is something wrong with them. They’re not like the others, are they?” He said nothing, but moved to stand closer to her. Kate moved away and he stayed where he was. “I don’t mean the fact that they’ve been changed into something, but there is something else here. Like they’ve had their brains sucked out for the most part and they aren’t able to function. Just look at them. Someone has hurt them other than just being the creatures they were.” The man that was walking into the wall fell over. His head had a large hole in it, and a part of his brain was still hanging on the sign that had at one time proclaimed there was a fire extinguisher below it. It had long ago been taken by someone, she guessed. Moving to the door, avoiding the creatures, she was just going out the door when a huge man landed in front of her. Remy, she’d bet, and she started to back up enough so that he’d not touch her. But she fell backward, the cat behind her getting caught up in her feet, and she went down. And for the second time that day, he landed on top of her. “Get off me, you moron.” The cat didn’t move, but Remy laughed down at them both. “You think this is funny? I don’t. Call off your animal and let me go. I have places to be.” The movement out of the corner of her eye startled her. Just as the big bird—or whatever the fuck it was…the thing—came swooping down, she reached her hand up and grabbed Remy by the leg. Pulling it out from under him, Kate lifted her other hand and blasted the creature just as it put out his claws to no doubt grab up and kill someone. More than likely her. No one moved as the big bird like thing screamed in pain as it died. His feathers, if that was what they were, burned brightly, the gaping hole in his chest bled badly, and she knew from experience that it wouldn’t last that much longer. Kate looked at Remy when the big cat finally moved off her. “You know what that is?” She told him she’d seen them around as she stood up. “And you have some sort of power that makes it so you can kill them. What are you? Who are you?” “There’ll be one more. They travel in pairs.” The sky darkened over her head and they all looked up when she did. “That’s his mate, I think. The male attacks first. Not sure why…he’s the weaker of the two. Then the female will come in and take whatever is left after he…he kills his prey. Usually humans. They don’t touch the other creatures.” “Malefactors.” She asked him what that was. “The creatures. The ones that are walking around now. These are a little…I’d say slower, but I’m not sure that’s all it is. What do you know about them?”  
Skylar spoke before Kate could. “She said she knows nothing. But they’re being drained again. And here, this is what Bob sent us.”  The little puppies were now in a box that Skylar handed to Remy. They scrambled out and were all over him when Kate decided that she’d had enough cuteness for one day, but before she could move to take off, the big cat stood in front of her. “I don’t want to have to hurt you.” The cat yawned and Remy laughed behind her. Kate turned to him then. “Tell him to leave me alone. I saved your ass. I don’t owe you anything.” “No. You do not, and I thank you for saving me. But for some reason I have a feeling you saved your own butt and not mine. Is that true?” Kate said nothing, but felt her fear of this man double when he stood up. Even having a puppy in his arms did not lessen how much she was afraid of him, nor lessen the fact that she knew that he’d try to kill her and never put the little dog down. “I’d very much like for you to say you’ll come back to the compound with us. I have many questions for you.” “No.” He nodded, and before she could guess what the hell was going to happen next, she felt powerful arms around her and she was soaring up in the sky. Mother fuck, Skylar had her, and she wasn’t going to be happy when she figured out what Kate was. “I won’t stay there. Wherever there is.” “Maybe, but now that I have your scent, you won’t be hard to find again.” Kate didn’t tell her that it wasn’t going to work either, but held on as they made their way across the city. It was different seeing this city with someone carrying you. The only time that Kate had this view was when she was flying herself.  As soon as they landed, Remy and the box of puppies did as well. There were children in the yard, and as soon as the little dogs tumbled out of their temporary home, the children—about a dozen of them—came running. Kids and puppies went together like they were meant to be. As soon as she was let go, Remy took to the sky again to no doubt get Chris. Kate looked at Skylar. “I won’t stay.” Skylar nodded and turned to the building. Kate stood where she was, not really feeling the need to chase after the woman and tell her again that she wasn’t going to stay. Things were…they weren’t out of her hands. She would give them what information they might want about the bird things, but that was all. Nothing else was any of their business. 

Trent: Calhoun Men By Kathi S Barton Release Day & Winner Announced 1/11/16

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Calhoun Men 

Trent 
Elijah (Coming May 2, 2016) 
Scott (Coming Soon) 
Sterling (Coming Soon) 
Randal (Coming Soon) 
Tanner (Coming Soon) 


Johanna, better known as Joe, had been a day walker for her only friend, Noah, for centuries. An immortal with eight hundred years under her belt, she had become proficient in several languages and occupations. When her friend Noah talked about meeting the sun, she had every intention of following in his path. 


Joe had only gone to the Calhoun’s office to catch a ride to the estate. When she entered, it took her breath away to see the younger man on the floor and no one doing a damn thing to help him. 


Trent Calhoun had forgotten how to have fun. Diving into his work was what kept him happy. At 33 he had no life, so when he had a heart attack, his doctor said to change his ways or else. 


When the gorgeous woman stumbled into his hospital room, Trent thought his dad was up to his old tricks again―that was until he caught her scent…. Now, because of his wolf, he’s face to face with an angry vampire…. 

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Happy Reading 
Kathi S Barton 
Prologue  
1224 AD Johanna, Joe to her few friends, moved as quickly as she could to the heap of trash that had been put out only moments ago. It might have been filled with nothing more than a few scraps of food, but it would be enough to fill the hole that seemed to be forever in her belly. And maybe if she was lucky enough, she’d find a pair of shoes with only a few holes in them, or a coat. But before she could get close enough to see, she saw Abraham and another man. It did not look to her as if they were friends. At first she thought they were having relations. It wouldn’t surprise her if they were. Abraham would do most anything for a bit of coin or food. She did not care for the man overly much, but she would help to keep him safe even if the man didn’t seem to think he needed her. But before she could move around the two of them, she saw that Abraham held a man at knife point. The man he held she did not know, but she did know what he was. A vampire. There were plenty of them about now, feeding on ones such as herself and Abraham when they needed food. While she knew very little about his kind, she did know that he would kill the man that held him if he only moved just a little. Looking into his eyes, she spoke to him. “Please do not harm him.” The man stilled in his slight struggle to look at her. “He is only hungry, as are the rest of us, and would otherwise leave you alone.” “He has a bit of coin, Joe. More than we could have a fine meal on. I’ll share it with you should you help me. I promise I will this time.” Joe looked at Abe and shook her head. “You just stand there and I’ll slice his throat and we’ll find us a meal, you and me.” “Abe, this man has done nothing to you save come to this place of death and sadness. Let him go before he hurts you.” To the man, she spoke again. “Please. Do not harm him. He is not a nice person, but he is all that I have here.” Blood moved down the handsome man’s throat, staining the collar of his white silk shirt. Joe knew that just the cost of his shirt would have fed her and Abe for many days. His small nod was all she needed to let out the breath that she’d been holding. Looking at Abe again, she took a step toward him, speaking softly, her hand guiding his away from the throat of the stranger. “You don’t want to kill him, Abe. Should you do that, the food that you eat from this will taste bitter and will make you sick for a long while. You know this.” Abe growled at her, telling her to go away. “I cannot and you know that. Should this man kill you for what you have done, then I will have one less person that I know here, and I have so few now. Please, let him go so that you and I can go to the dump that is still warm from the house.” She didn’t think he was going to do it. He looked determined, his face set. When his belly growled, hers did as well. It was a sound that she was sick of. When Abraham 
stomped his foot at her, she wanted to remind him that he was a grown man and that he should act like one. “I need a fine meal, Joe. I was never meant to be like this. I am a great man.” She’d heard the stories before. He’d come from a grand house, the servant to a great man. But it was, like other stories she’d heard in her life, a lie. A fabrication of something that was a dream to him, a way to make him seem more important than he really was. But his lies, like his stories, had long since given her a headache. Joe had given up on dreams. They were useless without any way of making them a reality. “I will make his death quick if that would make you feel better.” “Nay, it will not and you will know it.” Joe glanced at the man, who watched her carefully. “Allow this man to go about his business. Perhaps he will give you a coin or two for your troubles. Would you let him go for that?” “I should have it all.” Joe shook her head and told him to be reasonable. “I am not going to let him go without all his coin, Joe. You cannot ask me to do such a thing. It has been years since—” “Then I will quit you.” He looked at her then. “I will no longer come to your aid should you become ill again. I will not give you a part of my blanket when I have none to share with even myself. You will be on your own. And you know that no one else will help you either, Abe. You have made many enemies here.” Taking the last two steps to the two of them, she put her hand on Abe’s hand again. When he didn’t fight her, she moved the handmade silver blade from the man’s throat, but did not look at him. As soon as he was free he leapt from them, then fell to the ground. Joe stood in front of Abe. “Please don’t harm him. He is starved.” The man held his neck and nodded while blood poured from between his fingers. She knew that he would die soon. No matter what he was he should get himself healed or he would bleed out and die there as the sun came up to take him. “I will trade myself for him.” “Send him away.” The voice was cultured, hard, and full of hate. Her fear of the man, now that he was free, doubled. “Send him away, Joe, and come to me.” Nodding, she turned to Abe and then back to the man. “Coin. Do you have a coin or two that you can spare to give to him? I should hate to have lied to him.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a very beautiful change purse. She could tell that it had been made with a fine hand, and that the beading work alone was done by someone who loved their job. If only she could have such a job. Shutting down that thought, she reached for the three coins in his palm and took only the two that she’d promised Abe he could have. The man grabbed her hand before she could move away. “Give them all to him.” She shook her head and turned to Abe. Giving him the two gold coins, she turned back to the man when he said her name. “Why did you not take the three of them, if only to have one for yourself?” “I did not say that I would take one for myself. I do not lie. No matter how hungry I am.” He nodded, his face pale now. “What do I need to do to help you?” “You would still come to me, even with your friend safe?” She told him that Abe was not her friend. “Then pray, why did you save him?” 
“I did not want him dead by your hand. I do not want anyone dead by your hand. Your kind have been killing us off for years, and I should like to be able to think I have saved one. Even if it was just Abe the thief.” He nodded but said nothing more. “What do you need of me?” “You know what I am, so you know what I need.” She nodded and moved closer to him. “Come to me. I should like to have you drink from my wound if only to draw some of the poison that Abe has put inside of me. The silver of it even now is racing in my veins to kill me.”  He was weaker than she’d thought. But she knew that even in his weakened state, he could still kill her. Once, not long ago, she’d seen one of his kind tear a man’s head off even with a stick protruding from his belly. And then he’d stood and pulled it from him as he drank greedily from another that stood too close. Moving to sit on the ground near him, Joe leaned into his neck and could smell his soap. Not that she’d had any chance to have such a thing. She tried her best to make her way to the river at least once a week, no matter what the weather was, to clean herself and her clothing as best she could.  As soon as she put her mouth over the large cut, he curled his hand in the back of her head and pulled her tightly against him. His blood didn’t taste as she’d thought it might. There was a coppery tang to it, but it was warm and filled her belly nicely. Trying not to think of what she was doing, she lifted her head from his neck when he lifted her and fitted her over his lap. Her legs on either side of his hips, she was in a position that she was sure was going to get her raped if not killed. “I shall not take what is not freely given to me.” Nodding, she watched his eyes as they darkened. “If you are coming when I drink from you, I will not need as much to fill me to heal. Do you know what I am asking you to do?” “You wish to have sex with me?” He nodded, then shook his head. “I do not understand you. Should you not like to have sex with me? I am free of diseases. Not that I wish to have it with you, but I did give myself to you in Abe’s place.” “I only wish for you to come for me. Have your pleasure as if we were having sex.” Joe still had no idea how that worked. “And I am aware of your body. Not only are you free of anything that would kill you, but you are a virgin as well. I would guess you have had to work very hard to keep yourself in such a state.” “There are not a lot of men that wish to touch someone such as me.” He asked her why. “I’m not what is considered a very well-endowed woman. I am…too skinny, and most think me a boy.” “You are not a boy, and that would not stop most men that I know should you have happened to be one.” He watched her face and she felt herself heat in embarrassment. “You are very strange, Joe. A human that would help a vampire even though you know that it could cost you your life.” “I have not much of one anyway, my lord. This is all that I have.” He pulled her body to his again; this time she could feel his hardness. “You wish me to come, but as you have said, I have no knowledge of how this will work.” 
“I will do the work, little one. You will be my savior and I will give you pleasure.” His laughter made her hurt with anger, but he only pulled her to him again. “I should like nothing more than to show you the delights of having me inside of you, but if I do not feed from you soon, I will still be here when the sun rises. Tilt your head for me and I shall bring you to peak. Your blood will be much stronger and tastier for it.” Tilting her head as he had directed her to, Joe felt the heat of his breath on her. When his tongue lapped at her pounding pulse, she put her hands on his shoulders to hold on for the pain of what he was going to do. As surely as she was sitting atop the man, she knew that he was going to kill her. The bite was gentle, almost like a deep kiss. And when he drew deeply on her throat, taking her blood into his mouth, she moaned before she could think that he’d hear her. As he pulled her to him again, she could feel his hardness getting thicker, his manhood touching something deep within her even though she was as dressed as he was. When he commanded her to come, Joe found herself rolling her hips up to his body, riding him, she supposed. The feeling that he was giving her, the way that his hardness kept pressing against her womanhood, made her hold tighter to him. She knew that something was going to happen and it was going to tear her apart. As soon as she felt it take her, the feeling that she’d been reaching for, her scream of release—for that was all she could think of it being—nearly had her sobbing. ~~~ Noah drank deeply of her. She tasted like a fine wine to him, her blood spiked with her release as well as the virginity of her body, something he’d not had in more years than he could remember. As she rode him faster, coming again and again, he knew that he could take her, slam his cock deep within her and she’d let him. But, like her, he’d made a promise, and Noah prided himself on his word. But to have her, all of her, was making him greedy for more. When she went limp in his arms, he knew that he’d taken too much from her weak and starved body. And the numerous releases had taken their toll on her. He had to save her, even if it was from herself. Sealing the wound at her throat, he looked at her. She was pretty in a too thin sort of way. And the fact that she believed that men thought her a boy had him thinking that she had something inside of her that kept her from harm. But someday, and he’d bet soon, she would run out of whatever it was and she would be as dead as most of the humans in this part of town. Laying her beside him on the ground, Noah stood up and took to the skies to free himself of the stench of the man who had held him. He should have killed the man, and it had been his intention. But he’d heard her coming toward them and had paused to see if she’d be a tastier meal. When she pleaded so prettily for the man’s life, not only had Noah been impressed, but he’d been curious as well. Especially when she’d told him that the man was not her friend. Going back to the place he’d left her, Noah did the only thing he could do…he picked her up in his arms and took her to his home. 
“My lord.” His butler and friend Michael looked at the woman, then backed away from her. She did smell, but not as badly as he’d smelled many times before. “You have killed her? And why, pray tell, have you brought her body here?” “Nay. I have brought her here because…well, I’m not sure why I have. But I should like to have her fed and well bathed. She saved my life tonight.” Michael looked at him, then at the girl with a new kind of interest. “Had she not taken my blood into hers to drain the poison of silver from my body, then fed me, you would have been without a master and I would be like the dust that is now on my boots.” He carried her up to the second floor. Michael was asking him what had happened, and he told him everything. The man had been in his service for many years and there was nothing that the man did not know about him. He was, in a word, his friend. His only one, he supposed. Noah didn’t know why he’d never been into nests of his kind. But as soon as he was able, he’d left his home, the one his father was the lord of, and set out to find his own way. Never once had it occurred to him to gather his own bunch of vampires to live and be with him, preferring to be in his own home with servants that he trusted. That had been nearly five centuries ago, and in all that time he’d lived alone but for the five people in his household. Each of them humans at one time, and as loyal to him as he was them. “I shall have someone come and bring her something clean to wear. Perhaps we can borrow a few things from the cook in the meantime.” Noah nodded as he lay her on the large bed, looking bigger for the fact that she was so tiny.  “She is very tall, is she not?” Yes, Noah thought, she was very tall, but still very small in that she was thin. Much too thin. “I will have the cook make her something to eat. It will be strange, my lord, having her here.” “It will be.” Pulling the blanket up and over her body, it occurred to Noah that he’d never said she was going to live there, but now that it was said, he realized that had been his intention all along. To help her as she had him. “Michael, what do you suppose we should do with her? She is…she is very protective of anyone, even me.” “I should think she’d make a wonderful day walker for you, my lord. You know that the household would do anything for you, but it would lessen our burden a little should we have her to do that job for us.” Noah only looked at his friend with a cocked brow. “I am not saying that we do not love doing it, but she needs to have a job and this would be a good one for her. I have not met her, but I would be willing to bet that she will need a purpose or she will not stay.” It was funny that Michael would know that about her. She would, too, need a job to keep her busy, or she’d think she was taking advantage of him. Or him her. And he might need her again, just to replenish himself. But he’d never spoil her. That was not his to take, and he would never do that to her. Tempting as she was, he was a man of honor. 

Willow The James Children Chapter Three Grab this for FREE !!!!!!!!!!1/10/16

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~Chapter 3~
Jared was ready to begin work by Monday. Actually, he’d decided to head out when he returned to Ohio on Sunday afternoon. He was surprised when he got there that there was a truck in the parking lot. He could see someone in the site trailer, but didn’t know who so he parked on the street and walked around the yard and building shell. The walls were in, but only some of the interior wiring was finished on the third floor office building. Jared knew from the weekly reports that the electricians were due to bring in extra crew to finish the job by the end of the week. Bricking off the outside of the façade was nearly done with just one more wall nearly to completion. Going in through one of the boarded up doors, he stepped into a large, open area. The building was slated for a single company and the drywall was being put up to make the individual rooms on the lower floors. Most of the first floor wasn’t finished so he walked to the stairs to go to the top floors and make his way down. He smiled when he got to the second level. Stone prided itself on the way they finished a building. The crews would finish the top floors first then work down and out. He noticed that the upper floor, the topmost level, was just awaiting mud work on the seams of the hung drywall. In the four rooms up here, two of them had been painted and of those, one had the ceiling completed. Jared was touring the second floor when he was stopped by a deep, hard voice. “You got a reason to be hanging around a closed construction site? ‘Cause if not, then I suggest you get the fuck outta here.” Jared turned around slowly. He didn’t know the man behind him and didn’t know what the man might have pointed at him, like another bat or a gun. Jared was surprised to see two people standing there. One was the man from the bar; Conley, if he remembered correctly. The other was Willow. His first thought was that she looked exhausted, then he noticed her face. Christ, she was bruised. He caught himself before he went to her. Then he really took a better look. She was taller than he remembered at about five-foot, ten inches. She was also very beautiful. Even with her bruised eye and lip, she still looked like every man’s dream, both sexy and innocent at the same time. Her eyes were clear, a shade of blue so light that he knew they were as unique as the woman was. A small patrician nose and high cheekbones gave the impression of a model, but for some reason, Jared knew she’d scoff at the notion. Willow’s hair was pulled back again; its rich, dark color looked blue-black under the harshness of the bulbs hanging from unfinished fixtures. Today she had on just a t-shirt and jeans; the flannel, he realized now, had hidden a great deal of the woman. Full breasts strained the shirt and her muscled arms looked like she was a working foreman rather than an office one. Her jeans hung low on her full hips and curved over her thighs like a second skin. Tears at the knees and one at the thigh were not from some manufacturer’s idea of what worn jeans looked like, but from actual work. Jared found himself wanting to ask her to turn around so that he could see if her ass looked as good as he remembered. Conley clearing his throat had Jared look back at him. He knew in that moment that the other man knew just where Jared’s thought had been. “I start working here tomorrow. I’m Jared Robert.” He reached for his wallet, suddenly glad he’d had new identities made with his partial name on them. “Miss Kensal set it up. I was just seeing where I’d be working.”
Conley took his driver’s license and with a quick glance, handed it to Willow. She looked, but made no comment as she handed it back to Jared. “I’m Will James, the foreman here. This is my second in command, Thomas Conley.” She cocked her head at him. “You were at the bar last weekend…Monday, in the back room when…” She looked up at Conley. “Yeah. I’d just come home from another job. I’m here to fill in work until the job is complete. You should have been notified sometime last week that I was coming.” At least he hoped so. “Yeah, got it Friday. Work begins here at eight on Monday, Robert, not Sunday afternoon. You’re lucky no one shot you. Conley, show Robert the lay of the land then both of you get the hell off my job site. I got shit to do and I don’t need a babysitter.” Willow looked pointedly at Conley and he smiled back at her. “Okay, boss. But you’ll call if you…you know.” She nodded at Conley and left them standing there. Jared and Conley stood watching each other until they heard the board move back over the opening again. It was quiet for a full minute before Conley spoke. “She ain’t gonna like that you lied to her. She’s real big on honesty.” Jared didn’t say anything, but was shocked. “You and I met about five years ago at a company function. You here to fire her or to congratulate her?” A man that got to the heart of things. Jared liked him instantly. “Neither, for now. I’m here to work, like I said, and to see what’s going on. We’ve gotten a few…quite a few complaints about her.” Jared studied the man standing before him. “Are you going to tell her?” Conley looked down the stairs before answering. “Nope. Not my place. But I won’t help you either. Don’t come to me about information on her. I won’t help you either way. But know this, if she asks me, I will tell her.” Conley looked down the stairs again. “If you want my opinion, I think sending in a spy for your old man is about as low as it comes. I’m sure you know your way around your own site, Robert.” And with that, he left. The same dirty truck was in the lot the next morning. There were any number of others there, a car and two motorcycles as well. Jared wasn’t sure which vehicle was Willow’s or Conley’s, but he parked next to a truck that made him wonder if the driver lived it in. There were enough fast food wrappers and cola cans that he was sure they could fill a large land fill. With a shake of his head, he went to the trailer where several men and Willow were standing. It was just past seven-thirty. “…Sherman on floor two. I want those walls primed for Wednesday A.M. when the painters get here. Viktor and Jacobs, you’re to get the ceilings done on the top floor. There are…” Willow looked down at the clip board in her hand before she continued. “Seven on the second and the entire entrance this week. If you have time, I want you to begin the second floor as well. There are some more lights that go in there that the owner had decided to add. This is Robert, Jared Robert, and he’ll be with Thomason and Ruby on the set of the stone in the main entrance and office of the president. The rest of you get the drywall hung. Anything else?” “You didn’t assign me nothing, boss.” The voice was heavy with scorn and he had sneered her title like it was a dirty word. Jared turned to see the man behind him. He knew who he was, Talbor. The man had both his eyes still blackened, but probably not as bad as it had been. Jared wanted to laugh at the squat man, but didn’t want to get off on the wrong foot this early in the job.
“Have you finished the clean up?” Willow didn’t look at her list for him. “I told you on Tuesday and then Wednesday that was your job until it was complete. I was told I had to work you. Doesn’t mean I have to find you something constructive you can fuck up. Now you—” “I ain’t no fucking maid service. You put me to work inside, out of the sun, or I’ll tell my daddy that you ain’t complying to the arrangement.” Jared, as did everyone else, turned back to the man. “You ain’t fucking gonna get away with this soon as Stone finds out what I have to tell him.” Willow laughed at the man’s threat. “You ever get tired of that same litany every time you don’t get your way, Talbor? Your daddy bailing your ass out all the time? Clean up or I’ll cite you for failure to do your job.” She walked away even as he kept the insults up. The men didn’t say anything either, but simply went to their assigned jobs. Jared wasn’t sure if she had told them not to speak or they just didn’t care. At this point, he wasn’t sure what to think either. He followed the two men who went into the building to the main hall. Laying stone was usually left for a mason on a building site. Jared had been taught how to lay the stone when he’d still been in high school and knew that it was on his application that Willow had received from Sarah. He was really good at it too. He knew from the file on the men working here that both the men he was working with were masons and they wasted no time getting set up and to work. The sub flooring had already been sectioned off into four even squares with a snap chalk line. It started at the middle of each of the four walls and met in the center of the room to form a large X. It would be the starting point for them to work with. Ruby set Jared to work spreading the mortar after he asked Jared if he’d ever done it before. Jared had the thin-set mortar spread over about a four foot square area. The mortar needed to be in a combed pattern so they could follow the lines in the floor to keep the lines straight. As the men began laying the design of colored stone tile, putting spacers between each one to keep an even grout line, they began to talk. “You gonna be replacing one of us or you just here to fill in? Got my hopes on the first part so long as it ain’t me, you understand.” Ruby sounded like he hailed from the Deep South. There was a soft cadence about his voice that was soothing and funny at the same time. Jared knew he was from Atlanta and that Thomason, the other man, was from California. “Nah. Just helping out. I’ve been out of town for a while and this gig came up so I jumped on it.” his cover story was as close to the truth as he could give without giving away who he was. “I was missing home so I thought what the hell.” The men worked in silence for the most part after that. Twice he heard Willow’s voice and once he’d caught a glimpse of her as she strode by the room, but she never stopped to speak to them. He was impressed that she didn’t micromanage her people, but for a reason he didn’t want to think about, was aggravated that she didn’t. They were breaking for lunch when he saw her again. She was directing a delivery truck to one of the many site storage units. It was a tractor trailer loaded with drywall and buckets of what he assumed was plaster. He watched her as she walked over to a forklift and strapped in when the truck was parked. As she began to unload the heavy pallets, Jared felt someone come up behind him and wasn’t surprised that it was Shawn Talbor.
“She’s a fucking bitch, you know. Thinks her shit don’t stink. I fucking hate her.” his voice was low but full of hatred. Without turning around, Jared asked him, “Then why do you work here? Seems to me there are plenty of other construction companies around you could sign on with. Most or all of them would welcome someone from Stone Construction.” Which wasn’t true. Word was that Stone was difficult to get hired on to, but if you left on your own, you were either stupid or retiring. Jared knew that they paid top dollar and treated their employees with respect. The answering laugh sent a chill down Jared’s spine. “’Cause it would make her day. I’ll stick around. ‘Sides, Daddy said if I play my cards right, I’ll have her job before much longer. But she’s been fucking that old man Stone for years and got herself buried in like a tick. Only reason she got this far is ‘cause she gives good head.” Jared didn’t turn now because had he done so, he would have killed the man. His parents were the most faithful people he knew and his father had never had an affair. He knew this because his mother told him that as long as he was alive, then she knew this for a fact. She claimed, and Jared didn’t doubt her, that no one would ever find his body if he even thought about having one. “Course you can ask any man here about that too. ‘Specially Conley. Them two been going at it for months. Heard tell she prefers married men to the single ones. Why I don’t stand a chance with her, not that I’d touch some man’s seconds.” With that and his maniacal laughter, he left Jared to go to the lunch wagon. Jared ate with the other men. Willow emptied the flatbed while they did. Most watched her; a couple of them wandered over then came back. Jared wondered if they set up duties or offered to help. He wasn’t sure why what Talbor said bothered him so much. It wasn’t as if he was dating her or anything. After lunch, he went to the upper floors before going back to work on the tile. The second floor had been less than a quarter finished with hanging the drywall last night. Today all but one wall was hung and it was being done now. Willow was setting a screw to the last one as he stood watching her. ~o0o~ Willow had a set of headphones on and was listening to a book. She didn’t particularly care for music, but needed something to drown out the constant hammering and other things going on. It really was too bad the book wasn’t working. When she got the last sheet into place and the last screw set, she turned to get her pail and trowel. She was startled to see the new guy there. She pulled off the headphones. “Something I can help you with, Robert?” She looked around and found they, for the most part, were coming along. “You just looking around again?” He’d been leaning against the doorjamb, but straightened now. There was something about the man that made her nervous. It wasn’t his height, though that was impressive at about sixfoot-six. It was something…manly, she thought, that made her feel weird. He looked like one of those guys on the cover of one of the books, Shasta, her mother’s cook, read. She called them bodice rippers and the men looked like they could take on the world. “No,” he said as he moved closer. “I was just wondering what you’re doing. Didn’t see you at lunch and thought maybe you had a picnic or something up here.” Willow wanted desperately to back away, but stood her ground. “No, just me. I don’t usually stop for…shouldn’t you be on the tile job?” Anywhere but here, she thought.
He reached up and plucked at her hair and showed her the plaster he’d removed. “We’re waiting on the stone to be delivered. Supposed to be on the way.” Willow nodded as she watched his fingers roll the plaster between them. His fingers were incredibly long and so slender. She couldn’t help but think about them touching her. And her skin heated. This man worked for her. She looked up at his face when his fingers stopped moving. It was a beautiful face, strong jaw line, straight, narrow nose. The stubble on his face was dark and begged to be touched to see if it was soft or hard. His eyes were a dark brown, like hot cocoa made with melted dark chocolate rather than with cocoa. His hair was a warm brown and curly at the ends. He wore it long and he had it pulled to the nape of his neck in a pony tail that was probably six inches long. His voice, when he spoke to her now, was dark, low, and made her body tingle. “How’s your mouth, Willow?” He ran his thumb over her lower lip and asked her again. “Fine. Sore. I’ve had worse.” She took a step back then another when he stepped toward her. “You should go back to work.” Her own voice was like nothing she’d ever heard before. She didn’t know what he might have said, but a shout from the lower level had them both back apart. Willow had never been so glad for the noise in her life.

 

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Kathi S. Barton Author
#free
#darkfantasy #erotica #romance
http://smarturl.it/willow
amazon UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/…/dp/B007H4C…/ref=sr_1_22_twi_kin_1…
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Willow The James Children Chapter Two

Kathi BartonLeave a comment

Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000039_00072]

 

FREE
Kathi S. Barton Author
#free
#darkfantasy #erotica #romance
http://smarturl.it/willow
amazon UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/…/dp/B007H4C…/ref=sr_1_22_twi_kin_1…
Smash Words https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/169818
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~Chapter 2~
Jared woke at ten in the morning. He was groggy and a little disorientated, but came awake quickly. He was out of the shower and dressed by ten-thirty, waiting on breakfast. He decided he needed a house, or at the very least somewhere he could have his own kitchen. He thought about where he wanted to stay and realized he could move into his parents’ house while he tried to figure it out. He would have all the comforts without all the strangeness of it all. He made a mental note to clear it with his dad when he spoke to him tonight. Jared had planned on going to the site on Monday of the next week. That would have given him four days and the weekend to sort out living arrangements and set up appointments with Talbor and Will James. Jared smiled when he thought of “Will.” His father had assumed she was a he. So had Jared, actually. But he was a she, and a very lovely she at that. When she had left the bar, he thought about following her home, but three men that had left when she did made him rethink that. Jared wisely thought he could handle one man, but three? Well, he wasn’t that stupid. Besides, he had her file on his desk. Picking up the file now, Jared skimmed over her impressive records and degrees. Not only was Miss James qualified to do her job, she might be considered over-qualified by many. Then he picked up the file his dad’s secretary had handed him at the airport when he’d landed yesterday morning. “We have had numerous letters from Ranch, a former site foreman, and the city council. Mr. Talbor is claiming that W. James is not bringing the building up to standard and that the men are a nuisance in the city at nights. We also have a letter…we quite a few from one of our employees stating that W. James is forcing all the men to have sex with him in exchange for extra pay.” Jared smiled at that. He didn’t care about anyone’s sexual preference, but Talbor was claiming that Foreman James was forcing them to do so. Mr. James might have raised a brow or two, but Jared highly doubted there was a man alive who wouldn’t feel it a great honor to have to sleep with Miss James. But that accusation was just one of the many things on his list of things to check out. His cell phone was ringing when he was leaving the hotel. His mom. “So, how is the jet-setting Stone boy getting along? Seduced any women yet? Or should I just ask how many?” “It’s only noon, Mom. I’ve only been able to move through the hotel staff so far. But I have a request for them to bring in the older babes later, just for an aperitif.” Jared laughed when she huffed at him. “How are the beaches? Enjoying yourself?” “Yes, but I miss you. Come down for a visit this week. We’ll go on a clam bake. The neighbor’s daughter is visiting and she is a pretty single thing.” Jared wondered what his mother would think of Willow and frowned. He didn’t care what she thought of her. He was here to do a job, not date the help, even if she was very beautiful. Deciding to ignore her not so stubble hints at matrimony, he asked her about the house. “Of course stay there. I’m sorry I didn’t think to tell you to stay there anyway. The staff is still there…mostly anyway. Beard is there and I’ll tell him to hire what you’ll need to fill in.” He could hear her clicking a pen to make herself notes as she continued. “I’ll call her when we get off here. How’s it going otherwise? Have you gotten any sleep?” “I’m fine. I have some things I need to work out at the site. Then I have a couple of things I’m going to have to do at the office for tomorrow. Dad said he left things in the air about the
foreman and for me to handle it as I saw fit.” Jared threw the file on the seat next to him. “Mom, who do you know who would be able to do some research on a couple of people?” “Sara Kensal is your father’s lawyer. She would know most everyone we do. If it’s social background, maybe I can help. Who is it?” Jared debated. He figured his mom would have heard about Shawn Talbor. He’d been on a campaign to have the foreman fired for over three months, according to his dad. But it was Willow he was actually wondering about. His mother would know if she’d been in trouble on a site before and anything she might have done before Stone. He decided to hold off on Willow and get what he could about the Talbors. “Shawn Sr. is on the city council. He’s a pompous ass, if you ask me. About three years ago, he thought it would be a good idea to cut the city bus drivers pay by one third. He didn’t tell them and when they got their next check, they were in an uproar about it.” His mother laughed. “They drove the buses to his house and parked them all over his lawn when he wouldn’t return their calls. My goodness, that was funny.” Jared could almost see his mom sitting at her little desk telling him this story. He smiled at the thought. “And Mrs. Talbor? What do you know about her?” The sobered reply came immediately. “She passed on several years ago. Some say she killed herself, others said she died of a broken heart.” Like her humor, he could see her in sorrow too. He decided to change the subject quickly. He moved on to his trip to come there and see them. Toward the end of the call, he asked his mother about his plan in dealing with the situation here in Ohio. “I’ll just show up as an employee. I’ll have Sara set it up that I’m to be hired on. I believe getting both sides of this would go better in the long run. If what you say is true about the Talbor family, then maybe the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” “If you show up as Jared Stone, you think anyone is going to connect the dots? Not all of them can be as stupid as this Talbor is,” his mother said. “Go by Jared Robert. It’s still your name and it’s common enough that no one will give it a second thought.” Jared was glad he’d told her about it. He would never have thought about changing his name until someone asked him for it. Then he would have been stuck. “Okay. Then I’ll start this Monday. I’m going to move my stuff over to the house today when I get back.” he tried to think if he was forgetting anything. “Mom, thanks. I’ll see you in a couple of days. No matchmaking while I’m down there, all right?” She huffed at him again. “It’s my right to be matchmaker. And until I’m holding Jared the sixth on my knee, I’ll continue to do so. I’ll see you in a few days. I love you, Jared, be careful.” The rest of his day was filled with moving his things to the house, making arrangements with a realtor, setting up appointments with the people he’d need to see at the firm, and packing for a few days at his parents’ house. Jared had been in Paris for the past eighteen months overseeing a huge construction site there. The mall they were building had been riddled with one issue after another—shorted supplies and not enough staff to complete the job were just a few of the problems. Jared had been sent over to see what the real problem was. He’d found more than they’d bargained for. The foreman was a thief. Not just with the Stone supplies, but even a ring of house thefts had been linked to him and almost half the crew. Jared caught on to it the second day he had been there.
Then they were behind schedule, which put them over budget. By the time he’d gotten there, walls should have been up and foundation poured for flooring. Half the walls up had to be torn down and redone. And none of the foundations were worked enough to even begin the pouring process. It had taken the first five weeks just to get a crew organized and another ten weeks of working seventy hours just to get back on track. They were way over budget now, but going to finish on time. The foreman was in jail along with seven of the crew and indictments for another five. The man he’d left in charge was going to do a great job. Jared decided he was going to enjoy a few days with his parents and forget work and everything else. ~o0o~ Tuesday morning, the city inspector, the city councilman, Talbor, and his son were on site when Willow pulled up at seven o’clock. She was half tempted to just start her truck back up and go home. When she got out, all of them approached her. She didn’t even slow as she walked past them. “Gentlemen, Talbor.” She didn’t really think any of them were even close to being gentlemen, but she said it anyway. She didn’t stop walking until she was inside her office and shut the door in their faces. Then she turned the tab to lock the door behind her. Leaning against it, she realized that other than leaving at night, it was the first time the lock had been engaged since she’d been on this site. Ignoring the knocks, then the pounding, she set about opening her emails and forwarding on to the company attorney anything she didn’t know what to do with. Sarah Kensal usually handled all of it anyway. At three minutes until eight, someone unlocked the door and came inside. “Morning,” Tommy Conley said when he walked in. “Got yourself quite a crowed out here, boss. You gonna hide—mother fuck. Is that what Talbor did to you last night?” Willow had been surprised herself when she’d gotten a look in the hand mirror that Shannon had given her when Willow had woke up. Her lip was swollen and the eight tight black stitches stood out in sharp contrast against her fair skin. Her eye had four stitches across the brow. Shannon had put them in when Willow had been asleep or she wouldn’t have allowed her to do it. Willow’s eye was puffy, but not as swollen this morning. However, she couldn’t put ice packs on it so she was sure it looked bad again. “Talbor has a nice right. Hopefully, he doesn’t look any better this morning.” Willow hadn’t really looked at him when she’d gotten out of her truck. She had just wanted to get away from them as soon as possible. She stood up now to go out and talk to them. Conley stopped her with a hand to her arm. “You’re gonna have to take him back, aren’t you?” She nodded. “That fucking sucks, you know that, right?” Yes, it did. But she wasn’t going to lose her job over an asshole like Talbor.

 

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Nolan Bentley Legacy Book Three By Kathi S Barton Release Day & Winner Announced 12/14/15

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Nolan finally had a practice of his own, and soon his brother Burke would be leaving the hospital and joining him. Now, if the rest of the family would mind their own business, Nolan would be much happier…or not. He was sulking over his dilemma when his nurse told him he had a patient, a hurt kid who wasn’t doing much talking.


Rylee nearly collapsed with worry when she found out her nephew had been hurt. She wasn’t sure if she was cut out to be a parent. She loved her nephew, Shane, dearly and had taken on his care when her sister died, but how she’d missed the warning signs was beyond her. He was being bullied at school daily and she knew nothing about it until he’d been cut with a knife.


“I didn’t know.” Her entire body sagged at her confession. “He said he had it handled. And I thought he did. It’s my fault he’s beaten up like this. I should have…I’m not any good at this parenting thing.”


Nolan reached for her just as Shane moved on the bed. He wasn’t sure what the kid could do, banged up the way that he was, but as soon as Nolan touched her, he knew what she was to him. Her body, warm and strong, leaned into his even as he buried his nose into her neck. Christ, his body screamed at him, she was his. Licking her throat, tasting her, he could hear her moan, but when his head was jerked up by his hair, all he could do was stare at her.

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Chapter 1
Nolan looked around his new office. He’d never had one of his own before. The
other practice that he’d been working for had a community one they’d all
shared…several doctors using the same computer in the same small ten-by-ten room.
This was his and his alone. Burke, too, would have his own office when his notice was
up at the hospital. For now he was working just a couple of hours a week to help Nolan
out. And his office was going to wait, he told Nolan, until he could really devote his
time to it.
The walls were decorated with just Nolan’s things. It was a small thing to be happy
about, he supposed. His diplomas were there, along with his awards…and there were
plenty of those, as he’d always been a hard worker. Plus, he’d been able to bring in
pictures of his family…his mom and grandparents. The photo of his father in his
uniform about a month before he’d been killed had a prominent place on his wall, along
with some of the things that he treasured above all else, such as smaller pictures of just
him and his father. And his brothers too, the ones that were currently pissed at him.
He supposed if he was honest with himself, he was the one that was pissed. He’d
needed their help, yes, and their support on the project that he’d been trying to get up
off the ground for months now. Nolan knew that he’d of gotten it there, but the fact was
he was too broke to go on and would have lost it all if they hadn’t sat him down and
told him they were going to help him, in any way they could.
“But I can do this.” Even Garth, the money maker in the family, shook his head.
“You just don’t understand. This is something that I want to do, and I don’t want you
taking over.”
His mom, the best mom in the entire world, had given him the most disappointed
look he’d ever seen. His heart broke then, and that had made his temper lash out at the
entire family. But his pride had won out on making things up to his mom.
“Fine. Go ahead and take over. Like you do everything else. It wouldn’t be the
Bentley clan thing if you guys didn’t have your two cents in it too, now would it? And
that’s what bothered you so much.” He started to get up and leave them to their
“intervention,” but his mother stood up and ordered him to sit. “I’m not ten. You can’t
treat me this way.”
“You are my son and I will treat you how you act. Sit down.” He sat, but he’d been
a little more than pissed. Holding his temper had always served him well, but right
now he wasn’t trying all that hard. “How much money have you spent on this amazing
project?”
“Everything.” There was no point in lying to them. They all knew, he was sure.
“But it was worth every penny, and I’m going to put more into it when I have it.”
“Good.” Her answer surprised him. “You think that I’m not proud of what you’ve
done? Do you think…well you do, don’t you? You’ve proven that, haven’t you? Do you
think that any of us would want you to not be able to make this dream of yours work?
That we’d just let you fail at something that you’ve worked so hard at?”
“I don’t want your help. I can do this on my own.” His mother only sat down and
pushed an envelope at him. “I’m not taking your money, Mom. It’s what we all worked
for so that you’d be set for the rest of your life.”
“I am set. I have my sons here. And their families. And this isn’t only from me. We
all put money in here.” The envelope was pushed at him until it was right at his
fingertips. “Take it or not. It’s entirely up to you. But if you fail at this—and you will,
because you’re not letting us help you when you need it—then I do not want to hear a
single word from you. And your father’s name on this place will be a terrible legacy to
him should you not let your family support you as he did us.”
She’d gotten up and moved to the door, her last sentence stinging him the hardest.
When they’d all left him, even his two nieces, he sat there for ten more minutes before
he got up and snatched the envelope up before going to his car. He’d not been back
home since.
“Doctor Nolan?” Nolan looked up at Loraine Bean, the nurse that had worked for
him at his old practice and had begged to come and work for him here. “There’s a
patient here that needs some attention. He didn’t have an appointment, and I can’t get
anything from him. I think he’s been hurt pretty badly.”
Nolan stood up and told her to take him to the examining room, that he’d be right
there. She nodded but didn’t move.
“I don’t think…he’s just a kid, not much bigger than my own son. About thirteen or
so. He won’t even tell me his name.” Nolan paused in pulling on his lab coat to ask her
what the boy had said to her. “Nothing other than to show me his arm, and I came to
get you.”
“Show him in and I’ll be there in a moment.” She nodded again and left. He wasn’t
sure what was going on, but he would help the child. Going down the hall, he tried to
think what would have happened, and realized he was probably making it a great deal
worse than it was.
Entering the room, he looked at his patient. The kid turned to him, and two things
struck Nolan at once. The kid was afraid of him, and he was human. The scent of blood,
strong and fresh, made Nolan’s cat make himself known. Nolan decided to go slowly.
“My name is Nolan Bentley. I’m the doctor who is going to look at you.” The kid
nodded, and Nolan sat on the stool while the kid sat on the big exam table. “What is it
you’re here to see me about?”
The kid peeled the dishtowel from his forearm. Nolan could see that it had been
bleeding a great deal. The towel, like his sleeve, was soaked through, and he was
wincing as the skin was exposed. Someone had cut him, badly and deeply.
“Can you tell me what happened?” The boy said nothing, but stared at him. “I can’t
help you unless you help me. If you were cut by a fence or something like that, you’d
need to have a tetanus shot first. Then I’d have to make sure there was no rust or
anything in the cut. If it was a knife, I’d have to know what sort of knife. Were you
cutting chicken and the blade slipped? Maybe you got hit by a piece of falling glass. Or
you—”
“Knife. A switchblade.” Nolan nodded and pulled on some gloves. “I’m…he tried
to take my money. Not that I have much, but I worked for it. He’s bigger, so it’s not like
I didn’t try to protect myself, but…he’s bigger.”
“I don’t blame you.” Nolan rolled a table with all the things he’d need to stitch him
up toward them and had the kid put his arm over it so he could look at it better. “It’s
going to need about twenty-five or so stitches. But it will need to be cleaned out first.
What does the other kid look like? The one that hurt you. Other than big, I mean. Did
you get some good licks in yourself?”
“He just left me there. I don’t think he’s hurting though. He’s a known bully and
has a gang that hangs with him. I might have hit him a few times, but it was just luck,
not anything more.” Nolan told him what he was going to do, and the kid just watched.
Opening the wound up, he could see that while it was very deep, it had cut no major
veins or tendons. But it was going to be sore for a while.
“Do you have a parent or guardian you can have my nurse call?” When the boy
didn’t answer him, Nolan stopped looking at the wound and looked at him. “I have to
make a call to her or the police. If she’s the one that did this to you, then I can get you
some—”
“No. She’d never do that…it’s not her. It’s the man that thinks he can boss her
around a lot that I worry about.” Nolan frowned, wondering what sort of life this kid
had. “He’s a real douche canoe. And no matter how many times she tells him to back
off, he’s right up in our face. And she’s not my mom, but my aunt.”
“All right. We’ll still have to call her. This guy, does he live with you two?” The kid
shook his head hard. “Then I don’t understand how it’s going to be an issue with her
being called.”
“They took the car last week because money is so short. We knew they were going
to. It’s been hard on us since my mom passed away a few months ago.” Nolan felt his
heart break for the kid. “Aunt Rylee has been working hard, but not having a car, she
won’t be able to get here now. Plus, the buses don’t run that late on her second job.
Walking home at night is dangerous, but she is trying really hard.”
“And what is your name? For the records. And if you give me her address, I can
have someone go and pick her up and bring her here.” The kid was shaking his head.
“No one will hurt her or you now that you’re here. I swear that to you.”
“I know that. But she’s…she’s not very…she’s been under a lot of stress. And she
freaks out really easy. Not badly, but…last night she cried for two hours because she
didn’t have the money for me to go on this class thing. I told her it was okay, but she
is…she’s weird about that sort of stuff. She’s this really…she was in the army when
Mom called her, and she was so…Mom said it was army life, but she was so hard. But
now she’s sort of…I guess squishy. Cries about stuff that’s okay, and then gets all
blown up when things are an injustice, as she calls them. I really love her, but she’s
weird, like I said.”
“I see. Let me get her address and I’ll have my mom go and get her. She’s
understanding about this sort of thing.” The kid still didn’t seem convinced, and Nolan
had to admire him for protecting his family. “She’s going to have to find out sooner or
later, I’m afraid. You can’t just hide something like this from her. She’ll be more hurt if
you do, I bet. My mom would be.”
“All right, but don’t say that I didn’t warn you. Her name is really Rylee McClure.”
He also gave him the address. “My name is Shane. Shane Cole.”
The phone in the examining room was there for him to use, but for the life of him he
had no idea how to contact his mother on it. She had a cell phone, he supposed, but
whenever he needed her he would just reach out to contact her through their link. He
did that now.
I need your cell number. She laughed and gave it to him. Okay. I need to call you. Will
you be able to answer me?
Yes. I’m assuming this is for someone else’s benefit? He told her it was and why. I see. Go
ahead and call me then. I’m with Reggie and Chris. The three of us were going to go to the
grocery, but this will be fun too.
He called her and explained again what he needed. Giving her both their names
and the address, he could hear his sister-in-law in the background laughing. Reggie was
talking to one of the babies, he knew from the sound of her voice, and was telling them
how Uncle Nolan was a doctor woctor. Whatever the hell that meant. Hanging up a few
minutes later, he sat back down on the chair and started cleaning the wound out while
talking with young Shane.
~~~
The doorbell nearly scared ten years off her life. Rylee had had her head in the
dryer, trying to find the last sock that had been there when she’d put it in the stupid
thing, but now was missing. She not only bumped her head, but was pretty sure that
the sock was eaten, again by the stupid machine. She was still rubbing her head when
she went to the door and peeked out the side glass.
It wasn’t Mike, thank goodness. But whatever the two women were selling, she had
no money for, nor did she have time for their spiel. Opening the door, she could see
Mike coming out of his townhouse next door and staring at them like he wasn’t going
anywhere until he had all the information she did. The nosey prick was driving her
nuts. Just as the elder woman opened her mouth to speak, Mike cut her off.
“You said you weren’t going to be home tonight. You never told me about no
company.” She ignored him for the two women. “I don’t think you should be letting
them in. They look shifty to me. And if you got no plans, then you can go with me to
the movies like I told you we could. That boy of yours, he can stay home. I don’t like
him either.”
Her temper nearly got the better of her. Rylee hated Mike Packer and wanted to
murder him daily, but lately, since her sister had died, he’d been making a total ass of
himself, bugging her and telling her what she should and shouldn’t be doing. And
when her car had gotten repossessed, he’d been all over that like white on rice. He
insisted that he be the one to drive her all over town, going so far as to send cabs that
she’d call for away when they arrived at her house.
The younger woman spoke before she could. “Fuck off, buddy. We’re not here to
see you, so go the fuck back in your house.” Well, that took religious zealots off the list
of who they might be, Rylee thought with a grin. The older woman tisked at the
younger one, who did not look the least bit repentant when she said she was sorry.
Mike made his way back into his house, but his door, forever opening and closing like a
damned revolving door lately, stood open just a little.
“Are you Rylee McClure?” Rylee told her she was, a finger of fear going down her
back. “I’m sorry, my dear, do you think we could go inside? Your neighbor seems to
think this has something to do with him.”
Mike’s door slammed shut and the older woman smiled at her. For reasons she
could not understand, she liked them both. And when she invited them in, she knew
that she’d be as safe with them as she would with her gun pointed to whoever might be
coming for her. A strange thought, but lately a lot of things had been strange.
“Do you have a child…nephew…by the name of Shane…I don’t remember what
Nolan told us his last name was, do you, Chris?” She told her. “Yes, that’s right. Shane
Cole. Do you know him?”
Her vision began to blur and her heart…she actually looked down at her chest to
see if it had fallen out of her chest. She could not lose him too. He was all she had in the
world now that…when the room began to tilt, she heard the younger women cursing
and thought perhaps she’d like to learn a few of those words soon. Before she knew it,
she was on the floor with her head between her upright knees.
“Just breathe, young lady. It’s not that bad. Or so he said.” Rylee asked her who.
“My son. He’s a doctor. A very good one. And your nephew came to his office a little
while ago and had to be looked at. I don’t know a great many of the details, but I do
know that if anyone can keep him safe, it will be my son.” Rylee wondered if she
thought this was helping, because it wasn’t.
“Gracie, you’re not helping her. She’s scared to death that he’s hurt really badly.”
Gracie, the older woman, Rylee assumed, asked her to talk to Nolan and find out. “I
have a better idea. Why don’t we just take her to him? Like he wanted us to. She might
feel better to see him even if we were to tell her he’s just fine.”
“Oh. Yes. That’s a good idea. I think the man next door…did you smell him?” Chris
must have answered because Gracie continued as if she had. “And what was he
wearing? No man should be out looking like…well, he just rolled out of the barn after
mucking it all day.”
Rylee laughed. As she pushed gently against the hand holding her down, she was
freed. Looking up from her position on the floor, she smiled at the two of them. Then
the door opened again and a woman holding two babies came in too. One of them was
screaming her head off.
“Here.” A baby was handed to Chris, and then the screaming one was shoved in
her arms. “Where is your bathroom? I have to go now. I thought you said you’d only
be…where?”
Rylee told her down the hall, but kept her eyes on the little girl in her arms. Christ,
she was beautiful, and the way her little lips puckered up like she was going to let go of
another healthy scream made Rylee’s heart melt.
“Hey there, little one. Don’t cry. Mommy will be back in a second.” The little girl
just stared at her. Her cheeks looked so downy soft that Rylee had to touch them.
Adjusting her in her hands, she ran her finger down her cheek and marveled at not just
the softness of it, but also how warm she was.
“Her name is Alexis. And this is Anna. They’re my granddaughters.” Rylee looked
at the baby that was now in Gracie’s hands and could see that they were twins. “She
likes you.”
“I never held a baby this tiny before. When Shane was born, I was away and…. Oh
my God, Shane. Can you take me to him?” The baby started to cry again but hushed
once Rylee started talking to the adults again in a calm and quiet voice. “I don’t have a
car anymore. And if I call a cab, I think that Mike will intercept it again and I’ll end up
in his car. I’ll give you some gas money. I don’t…well, not a lot of gas money, but I
managed to find ten dollars in the dryer today. I was going to take Shane out for a treat,
but….” She closed her mouth when she realized she was babbling. Not a habit she’d
developed until recently. Gracie just smiled at her and stood up.
“We were actually sent to get you.” Handing the baby back to her mom when she
returned, Rylee asked for a minute to get something on. She ran to her bedroom and
changed in record time, and put on her jacket as she made her way to the living room
again. When Gracie asked her if she was set, they left with Rylee making sure the doors
were locked three times before she walked down the sidewalk.
“You need a safer place to stay.” She looked over at Chris, who was sitting in the
front with Gracie as she drove. “That man next door, he’s going to hurt you if you
don’t.”
“I don’t think he’ll hurt me now. A couple of weeks ago he tried that crap on me
and I put him in his place. He had been backing off until today. I think he might need
another show of force.” Gracie laughed, but Chris didn’t look convinced. “He’s
harmless for the most part. And when he gets out of line, I put him back in his place. I
have…I can carry and I do now. I don’t care for it, but I have to protect us.”
She asked what they knew about Shane. Chris answered her, but Rylee had a
feeling that she was still worried about the neighbor. He really wasn’t that bad, but she
knew how to handle him when he was.
“Nolan said that he’s been cut on his arm with a knife. I don’t know the extent of
the wound other than without someone there that can authorize him to work on it, he
has to wait. Shane told him that you no longer had a car.” She waited for someone to
tell her she should work harder to keep her things, but none of them said a word about
that as Chris continued. “He isn’t much of a talker, is he?”
“No.” Rylee wanted to tell them that was her fault too. He’d been so depressed
since his mom had died, but she was having so much trouble shaking her own
depression about Shelby dying that it was hard for her to talk to him about his own. She
also knew that there had been some trouble at school, but again, he’d not shared much
in the way of information, only to tell her that he had it handled. Obviously not.
As they drove her to the nicer part of town, she realized that they knew her name,
but other than first names, she had no idea who they were. She started to ask them
when the car turned into a nice office building parking lot and the engine was turned
off. They all turned to her.
“I’m a little scared.” Gracie told her that was understandable. “I’m not…it’s been
hard on us. For the last few months, it’s been really hard on us. We can’t seem to get a
break. To be telling you this…sharing…I’m not sure why I feel I can, but I’ve not had a
great deal of friends over, and those that do come over are more interested in why
we’re so broke. I really hate people.”
“Not all people are like your so-called friends. And so you know, we trust you as
well. But you need help. We can help you.” Rylee shook her head at Chris as she
nodded. “We can and we will. You will need us as much as we do you. Go inside and
we’ll be in soon. Nolan is on the phone right now with his brother about something,
and Shane is with the nurse. Nolan will help you too…he’ll need to. His nurse is
waiting on you to fill out the paperwork.”
The sharp intake of breath from Gracie had Rylee looking at her. But she was
staring at Chris, smiling. There was something there, something that she felt like she
needed to know but wasn’t sure she actually wanted to know it. Before they could tell
her that something else had happened, she got out of the car and made her way to the
front door alone. The nurse was standing at the door like she’d been waiting on her and
let her in.
“Hello, I’m Nurse Loraine Bean. Your nephew is in the office right now. I’ve given
him something to settle his stomach…nothing more than a little soda. Nolan Bentley,
the doctor, is on the phone.” Rylee nodded. “Can you please fill out this paperwork? All
it’s staying is that you give him permission to put stitches in his arm.”
“Can I see him first? I’d feel so much better if you’d let me just make sure that it’s
him. I know it is, but I have to see him.” The nurse smiled and nodded. “Thank you.”
“No problem. He’s a good boy once he starts to talk to you. It took Nolan a little bit
to get him to open up. I think they’ve been talking manly things, because when I come
into the room, they quiet up again.” The room where she was taking her had the door
closed. “As I said, Nolan had to step out for a moment. But you should just go on in and
talk to Shane to help him relax. Then we can get the paperwork finished up. Nolan can
work on him when he gets back.”
Nodding and taking a deep breath, Rylee opened the door and moved into the
room. Shane was sitting there with his head leaning against the wall and his arm
wrapped up in a gauze-like material. There was a kit nearby him. She was sure it was
the sterile dressing and equipment used to work on him, so she was careful not to touch
it. He started sobbing as soon as he saw her.
“I’m so sorry they had to come and get you like that.” She told him it was fine. “I
thought I could take care of it on my own, but I messed up. He had a knife and I didn’t.
Not that I’d use one, but Nolan said I’d need to learn how or I’d just cut myself more.
And he cut me up before I could even think that was what he was going to do…the boy
did, not Nolan. I’m really sorry, Aunt Rylee.”
“Oh, honey, it’s all right. I’m just glad that you’re all right. But who did this? This
kid that’s been giving you problems, he took a knife to school?” He nodded, still crying.
“You should have told me, Shane. We’ll work this out. The doctor, is he taking care of
you all right? He’s not hurt you?”
“No. He’s really cool. He never told me I was stupid for taking him on when I did.
Said that I should have told you so you could have done something smarter. I like him.”
Rylee nodded and hugged him again. “Aunt Rylee, I know we don’t have the money
for this and I told him that. He said that I was his practice patient.”
“Practice? How long as he been a doctor? Surely he’s not just out of med school?”
The door opened just as she asked, and she turned to see a very tall, extremely
handsome man in a lab coat come in the room. “You’re the doctor?”
“Yes, but not Nolan. He had to leave. I’m his brother, Burke. I’m a doctor too, as a
matter of fact. And we’ve both been at it for some time, I assure you.” She felt her face
heat up, but she sat on the edge of the bed near Shane when he asked her to. “Nolan
said that you’ve been cut with a switchblade?”
“Yes. This older boy at the school, he said that he wanted my money, and since I
don’t have a lot, he got a lot of blood on him for nothing. And I think I might have hurt
him a little too.” She was surprised to hear the man say good, but before she could say
anything to him, Shane continued. “Nolan said that I should have told my aunt the
truth from the start and it might not have gotten this far.”
“More than likely not. When my brothers and I fight, we are usually pretty rough
about it. One time when my brother Micah and I had this huge fight, my mom hosed us
down with the kitchen sink thing. It sure made us pay attention when she told us to
take it outside next time.” Shane laughed, and Rylee could see the woman she’d met
doing something like that. “Okay, young man. How about we get you put back
together? Ms. Cole, you can stay or not, but the nurse is going to give him something to
relax him a bit.”
As soon as she nodded to Shane that it was okay, the nurse wiped a swab over his
arm and stuck him. In minutes, he was closing his eyes and was asleep in no time. She
looked at the doctor, worried, when he stood up. She stood as well.
“Nolan seems to think there is more to this than a cut arm. He asked me to have a
look when you got here so that…he didn’t want you to think that we had done this to
him when he came in this way. I assure you, we’d never harm him. May I?” Nodding
again, she moved back out of his way when he stood over her nephew and watched the
doctor lift Shane’s shirt up. “Just as he said it might be. I’m afraid he’s going to need
more than some stitches, Ms. Cole. He’s going to need the hospital.”
She could only stare at the bruising on his ribs and the blood from several other
cuts that seemed to stretch up to his throat and shoulders. When Burke pulled up
Shane’s pant legs too, she could see where he’d been kicked, his legs scraped and
bruised a great deal. Sitting down again, she had started to cry when someone was
suddenly holding her. Sobbing into the shoulder of Mrs. Bentley was the best thing that
had happened to her in months. Being held like this made her cry harder.