Waking up, she found herself alone on the mattress. She’d been covered up, but Wyatt was nowhere to be found. Hearing his voice, Sidney got up and went to find him as she wrapped the sheet around her body. It gave her the giggles when she realized that his sheets had a cartoon character from long ago on them. Sidney found Wyatt in the bedroom down the hall. He didn’t look all that happy.
“I know what you want, but I’m just not going to take the job. I think that as a grown man, I should be able to make those decisions on my own. Don’t you?” He saw her, and she went to his open arms. As soon as she hugged him to her body, he seemed to relax a great deal. “Look, Mr. Patterson. The offer is nice, but as I’ve said to you several times now, I’m not looking to become a private doctor for anyone at this time. I’m sorry that I can’t help you. But I’ve found my future wife, and I’m happy just where I am.”
The man was still speaking when Wyatt closed the connection. He didn’t say anything for a long time, just held her in his arms as he ran his fingers up and down her spine. It was so relaxing that when he finally spoke, Sidney was startled awake.
“I’m going to quit my practice and figure out what I want to do with my life. I’m not sure that it’ll be anything more than opening my own practice right here on this property, or even a place downtown. But I’m not going to go back to being a doctor on a timer to see his patients.” Sidney looked up at Wyatt, just realizing how much taller he was than her. “You might have to support me for a while—not really. We have plenty of money if neither of us worked again. But I have to figure things out.”
“Good for you. You even sound like you feel better about your decision. But I have to ask, what did this Patterson person want with you working only for him?” He told her. “So this man is one of those extremists and wants you around to make sure that he doesn’t kill himself when he does crazy things. That idiot should be put in a padded room. I did a story on one of those kind of people—and it’s women too—who get some sort of rush out of coming within inches of death every day. That is not anything that I’d want to ever do.”
“Even though we’re both shifters, it’s not anything that I’d find fun in either. But this is the second time he’s called me. I think the guy needs professional help more than he needs a full-time doctor.” He lifted her chin up so that she could see him. “How did you sleep? I slept like the dead, and have never felt so wonderful waking up as I did with you laying on top of me. By the way, you hog the blankets.”
“I most certainly do not.” They both laughed, and he kissed her on the nose. “We should probably find me something to wear, then get a shower. I guess we have dinner with your family again tonight.”
“Yes. Unless you’d rather stay here. Though I can’t imagine why you would—as you’ve said, it’s a tad barren.” He looked around the room. “I did order us a mattress. It’ll be here tomorrow. Also, I want you to think about clothing. It worked for me, but I have no idea what might or might not work on you. Dane, it seems, is spreading her powers to all of us without much contact.”
When they figured out that she could dress herself, she stripped down again to get a shower. It was sort of strange having no curtain. With both of them in the stall, it didn’t take them long to get the entire room soaked with water. They also had a great deal of fun.
Making love in the shower didn’t help matters either. And the fact that they had to share the towel that he had made her think that he’d been living here less than he thought. She couldn’t help but laugh at him when he tried to give her the towel, and he used the hand towel to dry off. Sidney hadn’t laughed this hard about much of anything in a very long time.
Since they had both walked to the house, they had to walk to his parents. The sun was shining brightly, and she had a feeling that it would be a hot and muggy night. When they arrived, some of the older grandkids were in the pool having a good time, and the adults were sitting around the new deck enjoying them.
Wyatt had to answer his phone again almost as soon as they arrived. Sidney decided to wait on talking to Mackenzie about what she had found out. They seemed to be having a good time with the family. Sidney didn’t want to bring them down again. It was much too nice of a day.
“I have to run into Columbus. I’m not on call, but the hospital can’t get ahold of the doctor who is. He’s a part of the partnership that I’m with.” He kissed her on the mouth, then kissed her again before looking at his dad. “Dad, I’m going to sell out my share of the practice. I was wondering if, for the time being, I could please use your offices here for a few months until I figure out where I want to put my own place.”
“Yes, of course. I was just telling your mom that I should close it up. The only people that need me now are a few kids that hurt themselves and don’t want their parents to know. Yes, son, you go ahead and make use of it. Then when you want, you can take all the equipment with you. Should save you a bundle.” Wyatt thanked them and kissed her again before he left. Denny looked at her. “He’s having a rough time of it, I’m thinking.”
“He is. I think the call he got this afternoon was the deal-breaker. This, I think, will be good for him. I have a feeling that he might be helping out some people that he might have to hide for a while too. He’d be good at that as well.” Denny said that they’d help as well. “I knew you would. You’re a wonderful family. You help when you need to, yet stay back most of the time while the person gets their head on right. Thank you for that.”
“You are part of the family now, Sidney. You’ll learn that we rarely stay out of anything, but we mean well.” They were still laughing when they were called into dinner.
Sidney did wonder what Wyatt was going to do about food when Lucy told her that she’d fixed him up a couple of sandwiches. Making a mental note about having sandwich fixings around for when Wyatt was called away, she decided that she was going to love being the wife of a doctor.
~*~
Wyatt cleaned up for the surgery and had to calm himself several times. Talking his cat down wasn’t any easier than talking himself down. The two of them wanted blood, and now. The woman that he was putting back together today shouldn’t have been hurt. But her family apparently was sick of her being around. They’d decided to take care of her on their own.
“Wyatt, you didn’t tell your mother who you came here for, did you?” Wyatt told Mrs. Austin that he’d not told anyone. “Thank you, dear boy. You always was a good one. Just like your daddy.”
“Mrs. Austin, when I’m finished here today, I’m going to move you to a safe place. All right?” She started crying, and her tears hurt his heart. “Also, I’m going to have to make sure they know that messing with a grand dame like you is dangerous to their health. There is no reason for this.”
He wanted to put her under so that she’d not hurt as badly, but he also wanted to hear who, if she knew, had done this to her. Wyatt had a feeling it was her youngest son or his son. They were the worst of the worst of them.
“He just came at me, Liam did.” The grandson. “He said that I should just die and get it over with so that him and his daddy can have the house. It’s not going to them, I tried to tell him, but that, as you can imagine, didn’t go over that well.”
“No, I’m betting that it didn’t.” She put her hand on his sleeve, and he stopped the nurse who was coming to put another gown on him. “You just rest now, and when you wake up, you’ll be as safe as I can make you. You can count on that.”
When she was under, he had to take several deep breaths before he could make the first of many cuts in order to sew her back up. Liam had beaten her up first—that was evident by the cuts and bruises on her face. But when Liam took a ball bat covered in wire to her—something that he’d seen on television, he’d told Mrs. Austin—it had torn her up all over her body. He didn’t know if she could have survived had not one of the granddaughters called the police.
First
of all, I love you. He smiled behind his mask when he heard from Sidney. I can see in your mind that you’re going to take care of this kid. You just let me handle that part, and you will keep your license. If it makes you feel any better, your sisters are going to help me.
Thank you. I love you, as well. Grinning now that he felt more relaxed and in a better frame of mind, he started to sew together the worst cuts on her legs. What is the second thing? I’m assuming that there is another because you said first.
There is. I’ve taken it upon myself to order us a bedroom suite. As much as I enjoyed myself on the floor and against the wall, I have a feeling that I’m going to be a little pissy if we have to do that again tonight. I could be wrong, but you should be happy that I’m not making you lie on the floor first and me on top. She paused then, and he could almost feel her humor. Although now that I think on it, that might not be such a bad idea either.
Off and on throughout the surgery, she spoke to him. Twice she asked him about furniture, and one other time she asked him if there were plates in the house. Apparently, she was going to fill their home. Wyatt was all right with that.
He was glad that she was taking care of him. Never once did he tell her that he needed something from her, but she could feel his anger and would talk him down, so to speak. Wyatt thought that if she’d been around for his entire career, he might have loved being a doctor more.
It took him over three hours to stitch up Mrs. Austin. Before he could leave the operating room, however, his brother Christian and Dane showed up to take pictures of her wounds. They were careful with her as they turned her this way and that. He started to ask Dane what was going on when she shook her head at him, then winked.
When Mrs. Austin was in recovery, Wyatt sat at his desk, making notes on the surgery. He had an office here, but he didn’t have much in the way of personal items around. He wondered if he could get a good picture of him and Sidney together to put in his new offices. After closing up the file, he was just leaning back in his seat when he decided to write up his letter of intention of leaving the firm he was with. Of course, he wasn’t even sure what to write.
“I find that if I write up all the pros and cons of something like this, I can have a better frame of mind of what I want to say.” Brayden sat down across from him as he spoke. “I’m here to talk to you about what happened today. Sidney is just fine. Smart girl, too, so you know. You’ll never be a suspect on anything.”
“She killed him?” Brayden said that she’d not had to. “But Liam is dead, right? She had him killed. I don’t know why I’m so nervous all of a sudden. I was going to take care of him myself after today.”
“Are you calming down? Or are you revving up again?” Wyatt told him to just tell him what happened. “All right. But I want you to know that this is second-hand information. Not that I don’t think it’s absolutely true, but I want you to know that first—”
“You’re stalling. Why?” Brayden told him that Mom was coming. “Mom? She killed him? Christ, this is a nightmare. Just fucking tell me what happened.”
The pop to the back of his head had Wyatt standing up and hugging his mother. She was safe. Brayden had already told him that Sidney was, so he hugged his mom for both of them. When he told her that he loved her, Mom sat down. She looked pleased with herself.
“That young man and I had a do in at the grocery.” Brayden told Mom it was a run in. “Well, whatever it was, we had one. I only asked him about his grandma. I didn’t even know who you were taking care of. So when he told me that she’d fallen down again, I lit right into him. I guess I’m a little smarter than I thought because he started accusing me of getting into his business.”
“You figured out that it was his grandma and that she needed to be treated again.” Mom nodded and said that Dad had taken care of the poor old thing several times in the last few months. Wyatt had figured as much when he saw the other wounds that had been stitched together. “How did it end up with him being dead? I’m assuming that you were using some of the defensive moves that Allie showed you.”
“I didn’t need to. He pulled out his gun and started waving it around like a big dummy, and when he fired it at the ceiling, he then pointed the gun right at my head. Like I was going to stand for that. But I didn’t have time to do much more than think about one of them fancy moves. One of the men in line with us shot him in the head. Just like that. Bam, he was dead.” Wyatt thought his mom’s description of what had happened was a little watered down, so he looked at Brayden. Mom continued speaking then. “His daddy came in then. Oh, how I dislike that man. Allie came into the store then to see what was taking me so long. Oh, bother. I forgot to get the milk while I was there. Let me just write that down.”
Wyatt wanted to tell his mom to get on with it but was afraid that she’d hit him again, this time hard enough to crack his noodle. He was saved from having to beg her to hurry up when Sidney walked in. She sat right on his lap and kissed him on the mouth.
“Did your mom tell you that I had to kill Mr. Crusty?” He asked her who that was. “I don’t know his name. All I could think about was that crusty crab thing on television. His face was so red with anger when he figured out that his little boy was killed. Christ, Wyatt, the kid was far from little, and he was one hamburger and fries order away from having a stroke. But anyway, he picked up his boy’s gun and started after your mom. I didn’t even know who he was until the police told me. Burl Austin. That was his name.”
“You’re telling me that this wasn’t the plan.” Sidney said that they’d been on their way to the house when his mom needed to stop at the store. “Yes, she told me. For milk. Brayden said I’d not be involved. Were the police talking that I might have been?”
“Oh, no. I don’t think so. But they knew where you were when you left the house. I guess one of them had called you in to tell you about Mrs. Austin.” He nodded at his mom. “When the police showed up to take Liam in for hurting his grandma, they found him dead. Not by me, sadly. But I guess they’d told Burl out in the parking lot that she’d been sent to the hospital, and they needed to ask him a few questions. It must have made him angry, and he came in to get his son. I don’t know all the details, Wyatt, but Cora won’t have to worry about those two anymore. Isn’t that a good thing?”
Wyatt looked at Brayden when he started laughing. It was really surreal how all this had gone down, and no one was going to be blamed for killing them both. They had pulled the gun first, and no one was going to be coming back on him when they ended up dead anyway. Wyatt joined his brother in laughing. It was that or be jealous about how he’d not been there when all this went down.
When Mrs. Austin was moved to her room, Mom decided to stay with her, just to be there for her when she was told about her son and grandson. Wyatt thought that Mom would be the best person for that job, as she and Mrs. Austin had been good friends for years.
By the time he was ready to go home, Dane had told him that she’d been given all the paperwork that he and Sidney had found for her. And that she had a good frame of mind what had gone down and why.
I swear to you, Wyatt, this shit came from the mind of a genius. Either that or a very disturbed person. The dots to connect them all is so curvy that even I had to think of ways to make it clear in my mind. He asked her if the Humphreys were involved. No, not directly. But Meadow Mackenzie is right there in the middle of all of it. Damn, but she nearly got away with this.
When are you going to take action? I’m assuming that you’ll be talking to Sams as well. She told him that he had helped her figure it all out. This is going to be a shitstorm, isn’t it, Dane?
You have no idea how much of a storm this really is going to be, Wyatt. And Sidney is part of their plans too. I’ll gather everything up and tell you all what I have tomorrow. I have a job tonight, involving Sams’ nephew. I have to put him in storage, so I can have him arrested as well.
He knew that if Dane said it was going to be bad, it was going to.
Making his way to their home, he was beyond happy to find Sidney there waiting on him. Tomorrow they’d have a bed and dressers. It made him want to get the rest of the house finished up too. It was time to be a real homeowner, he thought.
Chapter 4
Ricky was feeling pretty good about himself. So far, he had been able to fuck the prom queen, so to speak, then watch her being blown to bits with a bunch of other skanks. Something about knowing that she was on the bus when it went up made him hard as stone whenever he thought about it.
“What has you so happy?” He looked at Dane when she spoke to him. The bitch had been hanging around his uncle’s house since he’d been a kid. Ricky didn’t care for her all that much. He would have sworn she was butch, but recently she’d gotten married, he’d heard—to a man, of all things. “Cat got your tongue?”
“No. Not at all. I just feel like, for the first time in a long time, things are going my way.” She didn’t say anything. That freaked Ricky out as well. The way she would look at him sometimes like he was a bug on a rock. “Why are you here? I thought that you’d be hanging out with your family for dinner or some shit.”
He didn’t really believe that she was going to have a baby either. She looked ready to pop if someone was to stick a pin in her. She put her hand over her fat belly and rubbed it, and for some reason, Ricky wanted to kick her there. But he backed away from her when she growled at him.
“They’re having dinner now. I’m here to talk to your uncle about something. I heard him say you have a girlfriend now. Good for you. You’d better be treating her right.” He wasn’t treating her any way, he wanted to scream at her. She was fucking dead, thanks to him. “Ricky? Are you all right? You’re not being a smart ass to me as you usually are. What the fuck is wrong?”
Wyatt: The Stanton Pack—Paranormal Cougar Shifter Romance Page 4