“I’m turning over a new leaf. Did Uncle Walter tell you that he’s training me to take over when he retires? I’m going to be the next best thing that has happened to this town when he keels over.” Dane asked him if he thought he’d be able to fill his uncle’s shoes. “Nope. I’m not even going to try. I’m going to wear my own shoes. Get it? I’m going to be making things my way.”
“Yeah? Well, don’t get too comfortable in that position.” He didn’t bother asking her what she meant. Dane was always in his shit about one thing or another. When she walked away, he wanted to pull out his gun and blow her fucking head off. She paused at the door to Uncle Walter’s office and looked at him like she knew what he’d been thinking. “Things have a way of working out differently for a great many people, Ricky. You might want to figure out a hobby before too much longer. I have a feeling that you’re going to need one.”
When the door shut with her in the office, he flipped her off and then called her a cunt. Ricky would show her what kind of hobby he would get. At only nineteen years old, he already had a few murders under his belt and had been an accomplice on a lot more. That wasn’t even counting the kids on the bus.
There had been seven that he was supposed to kill, but he’d gotten the timing of the bomb off. At least that was what he’d told everyone. Really, he’d been too excited to wait any longer and had set off the bomb before the other kids had gotten on the bus. Meadow had been highly pissed at him about that.
“Do you know how hard it was to get under that bus to plant that bomb? I did that to make sure that all those kids were dead. Especially your little girlfriend. Christ, Ricky. The only way that I can get what I want is to have the families of everyone on board sue my ex-husband. I want him broke. I want him dead.” He didn’t understand her obsession with having her ex broke, but nodded and told her that he was sorry. “The plan was to have all the families turn to my attorney for Les to be sued. I was going to rally them all because my little girl was on that bus. All because he didn’t help her out when she needed money. Don’t you get anything through that thick fucking head of yours?”
Again, he didn’t understand how that was going to work, but he was let off the hook when he told her how very sorry he was. Ricky had her eating out of his hand, and he couldn’t have been more pleased with what had gone down. On his terms, no less.
Going up to his room, glad now that his mom had shipped him off to her brother, he pulled out the list of shit that he was going to take care of when he was in charge. First and foremost, he was going to take care that Dane didn’t work here anymore. Secondly, he was going to blow this town wide open and make it his own little drug world.
His mom had sent him here four years ago to have him try and get his shit together. The only thing that he’d gotten together was his life of crime. Pulling out his second notebook, he wrote that little tidbit down. When someone wrote a book about him, he wanted them to have the most perfect quotes that he’d ever come up with. Laughing, he put both his books away.
Tomorrow he was going to go over to the Humphreys’ home. They’d never liked him with his daughter. Lower class was what he thought they called him. Not that it mattered to him. He was going to make sure that they were aware that he’d been fucking their little princess, and that she had been pregnant with his kid when she died. She hadn’t been, according to the papers. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t rub that in their faces, along with how much he loved her.
Ricky only loved two things—money and the things that money could buy him. He thought about writing that one down too but knew that he’d remember it. Things that he said, they were right there in his head for him to remember forever. He only wrote them down so that in the event he was put in jail, they’d have his notebook to make sure that they got it right.
His uncle had money, lots of it, but he wasn’t too keen on sharing it with anyone. Especially not him. Ricky supposed that he’d given him good reason not to want him to have anything. Uncle Walter had been telling him for years that he needed some kind of job. Ricky had pointed out that he had one, but selling pot to the kids at the school had put him in a jail cell for a month and a half, with “special” treatment from his jailors. Ricky learned never again to spout off shit to his uncle that his ass couldn’t cover.
Deciding that he’d had enough of hanging around the house, he got himself cleaned up and dressed in a nice but not too nice, set of clothing. Jeans were his choice of clothing nowadays, but he did pair them with a nice silk shirt. He’d nearly gotten caught stealing it, so tried his best to flaunt it every time he could.
He was coming down the stairs when Dane came out of the office. That must have been some conversation she’d had with Uncle Walter because Ricky could hear him on the phone screaming at someone as she closed the door. When she looked at him this time, he could see a hint of something in her eyes that he’d never seen before. Hatred. Pure loathing for him.
“What’s up your ass?” She grabbed him around the neck and lifted him off the floor. Trying not to struggle to show her that he wasn’t afraid of her was futile. Ricky was terrified of her, and he was sure that she knew it. Dane threw him across the room, and he stayed where he was on the floor. “You’d better explain yourself before you get your ass handed to you.”
She stared at him for several long seconds. The ticking on the clock in the hallway seemed to go slower while he waited for her to speak. But when she threw back her head and laughed, like he’d told her the funniest joke in the world, Ricky decided that he’d had enough of this bitch and started to stand. She put her hand on his head and smiled at him.
Ricky knew that Dane wasn’t human. He didn’t know what she was, but when she smiled at him, he could see fangs as they seemed to stretch down over her lower lip. Then her eyes turned the bloodiest shade of red he’d ever seen. Ricky felt his entire body cinch up, waiting for her to kill him. His bladder let go then, and he was sure that he was seconds from shitting himself too.
“I’m not going to kill you, Ricky. Not yet at any rate. But you have fucked up big time, haven’t you?” He nodded, not even sure that he could have said anything different to her. “I’m coming for you. When I do—not if, but when I do—you’re going to regret ever being born. Just like the rest of the world regrets that you were.”
She left him there. He didn’t even see how she’d left him—Dane just disappeared. When he was sure that she was really gone, he got up. Christ, he’d have to clean up again. His pants were wet, and his new silk shirt was ripped in two places. Ricky decided to ignore his shaking hands as he made his way back up to his room. Dane, he told himself, wasn’t that scary.
Ricky didn’t have a car. He’d had one for about a week, but once he started causing trouble for Uncle Walter, it had been taken from him. Sold off too, he’d been told to cover his debt. Ricky didn’t think that was right.
Uncle Walter was his relative, and it wasn’t right to charge someone that was related to you. At least he didn’t think so. Even his mom, who had sent him here, had told him that he might be able to get back in Walter’s good graces if he were to behave. Like that was going to happen. So, now he had to walk everywhere.
The store that he’d stolen the shirt from was closed up. Ricky honestly had no idea what day of the week it was. That wasn’t something that he was really into. When he got up, it was whatever day he deemed it to be. Smiling at the stupidity of that statement, he looked around for something that would tell him what the date was.
Sunday. He’d lost an entire week since he’d killed the kids. The bomb had gone off on Monday morning, bright and early, and now, here it was Sunday again. Ricky tried to remember what the hell he’d been doing all week to have missed shit.
Finding a copy of today’s newspaper in his favorite coffee shop, he grabbed it up with his Danish and coffee and settled down to figure out what he’d missed. Mostly he just read the obituaries, hoping aga
inst hope that someone he knew had passed on and that he’d been the one that had killed them.
He read through the obits and didn’t find anything that he remembered. Then he looked at the front headlines. There was something about the bus on page four, but he didn’t bother reading it. If it wasn’t front page worthy, then it wasn’t worth his time.
Scanning down the page again, he saw a little bit about a mix-up at the coroner’s office. It didn’t mention the bus explosion, but he could read between the lines. Ricky wasn’t stupid. It mentioned that there had been two mistakes recently in identifying bodies at the morgue. It said how they were investigating the circumstances under which the bodies of two young female teenagers had been misidentified.
He wondered why it would matter. It wasn’t as if there would have been too much for them to scrape up off the floor to even bury. He’d stuck around to watch as they took the bits and pieces of the bodies in the back out of the bus. There had been three people sitting back there where Meadow had put the bomb, and they had been blown to nothingness in less time than it had taken him to push the button to make it go off. He decided to go to page four to see what he could find out there.
More of the same shit. They were still investigating the murders. They had some leads that they were running down. It did mention that the envelope that had been taken to the bus by the fucking butler had been a decoy. How they’d figured that one out he had no idea, but it didn’t matter. There was nothing at all to trace anything back to him or Meadow. It was an unsolvable murder. He had nothing to worry about.
After finishing his Danish and coffee, he left the place. No matter how many times he told himself that he had nothing to worry about, he found himself going over each and every thing that he’d done. Nothing. Even the remote control that he’d used was hidden away in a place that no one would ever find it. Ricky decided that when he got home today, he was going to get rid of it. He’d never realized how much trouble he could get into if they found it. To him, it was just a source of getting his rocks off. Every time he saw the remote, he would have to jerk off. It was cool to think that he’d been a huge part of what had gone down.
~*~
Wyatt had two meetings today. One was with the family and the people involved in the bus explosion. But first, he had one with his partners. Wyatt didn’t know which one he was looking forward to the least.
Smiling, he made his way to the offices and wondered why there were no cars in the parking lot when he arrived. He was sure they were going to tell him how much it would cost him to cut ties with them. But he’d had Christian go over his contract again, and knew that they couldn’t do a thing to him. He wasn’t leaving to pursue another firm. That was something that he’d not figured on having put in there.
“I’m so glad you came early.” Wyatt told Millie, their receptionist, that he had come when she told him. “Yes, I know. But I set this up for you. I want you to be aware of a few things before your meeting. I’m going to set you up in the conference room across the hall.”
Moving down the hall with her, he wondered what the hell was going on. When she showed him how to push the buttons on the phone to hear what was going on in the next room, he finally asked her what all the cloak and dagger was about.
“They’re going to have a meeting in an hour. About you.” He asked if he should be there. “You will be, but not so they know. I have loved working with you, Wyatt, since you first started here. But there is shit going on that you may not be aware of. I want you to hear it straight from their mouths. Oh, I called Christian too. I should have thought of that sooner, but he’ll be here—” His brother walked in the door. “Good. Like I said, this phone is set up so that you can hear everything that is going on in the next room. You can speak to them should you want, but I’d wait on that until they’ve said all they want. And you’re going to be in for a big surprise. Also, I’m going to give you permission to record all that you want. It’s something that I’ve been able to do for a few months now. I know this sounds weird, but you’ll understand once they start coming in.”
“This is why you had me park my car across the street.” Millie nodded. “When this is finished, will you come work with me? I need a person on my side.”
“You might have the entire company by the time this is done.” After she left them with tea and a fruit tray, Wyatt thought about what she’d said, or mostly what she’d not said. He looked at his brother.
“I don’t know what’s going on either. She called me late last night and asked me to come here with my tie on. I had to think about that a moment. Millie wanted me to be your attorney. She said for me to bring a recording device, note pads, and pens. Which, I guess, is all right, but I didn’t have a clue why.” Wyatt told him what Millie had told him when he’d gotten here. “They’re planning something that they think is going to have you coming back to work for them. Can you think why they’d care?”
“No. I mean, I do have the option of just getting out. I know that it might cost me a bunch of money, but I’m just not into working here or with any firm anymore. I’m going to open my own practice in town. Like Dad did.” Christian nodded and sipped his tea.
They both heard the men as they made their way down the hall right outside the room they were in. Christian asked him their names, and Wyatt gave them to him as the men spoke. They had told a dirty joke, then talked about a patient that they’d all been seeing. Wyatt was a bit surprised to find out that they’d been sleeping with her.
The voices over the intercom phone were crystal clear, almost as if they were in the room with them. He told Christian their names again when they started talking. It was about the upcoming golf tournament that they were all in, and how they were a shoo-in to win it all. Then they seemed to settle down.
“We can’t allow Wyatt to leave us.” Wyatt felt good about that. But only until Cameron spoke again. “I love just leaving town knowing that he’ll get his ass in gear and take my patients when I have shit to do. I don’t know what we can dangle in front of him to get him to stay, but we need to have our shit together for this meeting.”
“We can sue him. I mean, he’s leaving without enough time for us to figure out someone to replace him. He can’t leave us without us finding a suitable replacement. I don’t think there is another sap out there in the entire world like Wyatt.” They all laughed, and he looked at his brother.
Wyatt was embarrassed. Not only that, but he’d been thinking that these men were his friends. It hurt him to have his brother hearing all this, but it hurt him all the way to his heart that he’d been nothing to the partners but a person they could take advantage of.
I love you. He told Sidney that he wasn’t able to talk right now. That’s just tough shit. Christian told me what was going on, and I’m going to come there and kick their lazy fucking asses to the street. I can do it, you know.
I know you can. But not right now. Sidney told him that she was sorry. I am as well. I thought that this would be just me coming in, paying a large fine for leaving, then going home. But Christian settled that for me, and I could just give my notice and leave without any hard feelings. Come to find out, I’ve been nothing more to them than a patsy. Someone that loved helping people enough that I didn’t mind taking on a little extra just for them. Now I find out that they were using me.
I think you knew that all along, don’t you? Had he? Wyatt didn’t want to think about it. You’ve been dreading going to work for a long time now. You didn’t enjoy your job as much as you used to. I think that in the back of your mind you knew, but didn’t want to think that about people you worked with.
More than likely, you’re right. He smiled and knew that she could feel his humor. How did I get so lucky as to marry someone so smart? I love you so much, Sidney.
We both lucked out on that, I think. She laughed. All right. Now that you have your head on right, I have a couple of questions for you. There is
going to be a huge estate auction next weekend. It’s not far from here, and I’ve already spoken to Allie, who I love by the way, and she said that if we do get anything larger than we can put in the truck, she’ll haul it for us. For dinner. I thought that was a good deal.
It was. What sort of things are at this one? We still have to go through the stuff in the barn that we’ve been storing things in since I was a kid. She said that she and his mother were going there today to have a look. Good. And whatever you want out of it, I’m fine with it. We need furniture.
We do. The bedroom suite is coming today, not tomorrow. I was talking to Tess about it, and she made a single phone call and did that. She’s really scary, isn’t she? Wyatt told her that he thought they all were, including her. Why thank you, my dear. Back to the auction. They’re having a preview the night before. And since you’re the big bad Stanton clan, we can even know the reserve on things before the crowd shows up. I’m not sure that would be much fun, but I told the man that I’d think about it.
I think you’re right on that. Bidding on things without knowing what you might get it for is much more fun. She laughed. All right. How about we make some reservations at a hotel or B&B someplace close and have a good night of it?
I’ve done that. He so loved this woman. Your parents are going to go too, but not until the day of the auction. I think they want to see what all the talk is about. I had no idea that they’d never been to one before.
Wyatt hadn’t ever thought about it before, but he supposed that was right. He was looking forward to having a day with them. As she told him what was going to be at the auction, he listened to her rather than what was going on in the next room.
He’d heard enough, he told himself. No matter what they tried to do to him, he wasn’t going to give in. This was, as they say, war. Sidney asked him about dinnerware and such. He hadn’t even thought of stuff like that, as he’d been eating off paper plates. Then, since Sidney had come into his life, they’d been eating at his parents’ or one of his brothers’ home.
Wyatt: The Stanton Pack—Paranormal Cougar Shifter Romance Page 5