She worked on her list of new words for most of the rest of the day. Tomorrow was Saturday, and she was hoping to be getting in some good ones before she was released. There wasn’t any reason to hold her much longer, she reasoned with herself—she’d only been trying to snatch her grandson. That made her giggle.
There were any number of swear words that she could use, and Glenda thought of all the ones that she could pair with them to make them worse. While there were a few that she’d never use—they’d get you killed if you did—she wasn’t shy about slamming a bunch of them together to make herself some usable ones. This, Glenda thought, was going to be epic.
Glenda entertained herself the rest of the day, and by the time her dinner tray came, she was in too good a mood from having armed herself with words to use that she didn’t care what they gave her. But the roast beef over mashed potatoes and fresh bread had been a welcome treat for her. It didn’t lessen her need to use her new, reserved special language for the cops, but she ate well.
Lying in her bed that night, Glenda thought of what she was going to do to get her and little Ryan out of the country. She had no money, not even enough to make a phone call. She had been informed yesterday that her house had been foreclosed on. While she wasn’t surprised by the move, she was upset about it. But she didn’t show that it had the attorney that had told her. Instead, she just waved him off.
Then there were the added financial issues that she had with supplies for her soon to be son. Diapers were expensive, she’d bet. Not that she’d had much in the way of a reason for shopping for them lately. Then there was formula and bottles, clothing, as well as just everyday shit she was going to need for him. She didn’t have a car or a seat to put him in, and she knew that would get her arrested faster than calling someone an ass wad wanker.
Thinking of all the things she could get for the two of them, she thought of the big houses that the Winchesters lived in, and it occurred to her that she could ransom little Ryan. Of course they’d not get him back, no fucking way, but that didn’t mean that they didn’t have to fork over some money.
The more she thought of this idea, the better it became. The two of them would have traveling money. She’d have enough to make sure that he had whatever he needed. And with enough money, she could hire herself a nanny, just in case she wanted to go see a movie or some shit. She could even afford to go out to eat at some swanky places too.
By the time the lights were turned off, she had thought of and discarded about a dozen different amounts to demand. It would have to be enough to hurt—and by hurt, she meant make them bleed. Especially Jazzie. Damn, but she had it, thought Glenda. She had a good plan. All she had to do now was to figure out how to get the baby and get hidden away.
“Yeah, like that’s going to be a piece of cake.” Then she thought of Jazzie and how much she’d pissed her off over the years. Not just for murdering her boy, but for just being around when Glenda would have liked nothing more than to kick her ass.
After finding out the baby was coming, the bitch not telling her until she was almost four months gone, Glenda had tried to be nice to her, but she wasn’t having it by them. And she’d already kicked Ryan out.
Sitting up quickly, knocking not only her blanket to the floor but her flat pillow as well, it occurred to her that she could kill two birds with one stone. Well, kill Jazzie, ransom little Ryan, and get some cash.
Killing her wouldn’t be that big of a deal. And she’d be assured that she didn’t come after her too. Glenda wasn’t worried about the man. He was, after all, a pussy. And to her way of thinking, he’d be thrilled to get rid of someone else’s kid. Winchester had told her that he loved little Ryan, but he might have only been saying that to get some pussy. Yes, this new plan was going to work. And with having Jazzie, she could make her suffer in ways that she’d only dreamed of. She might even have to take a little of her anger out on her pussy. That way, even in death, nobody would want her.
Getting up to retrieve her things to sleep in, Glenda danced around the cell. It would have been more fun to have been able to laugh and scream about this new plan, but when lights were out, you had to keep things quiet.
By the time Sunday morning rolled around, she not only had a terrific plan, but she’d also come up with a place to hide Jazzie and little Ryan—her old house. She even had a storm cellar that could be used, and nary a soul would be able to hear Jazzie if she wanted to scream with joy.
When her tray was brought to her for breakfast, she almost asked the cop if she liked it when a plan came together. Glenda was giddy with excitement and needed to tell someone. But so as not to be arrested even before she got this going, she kept her mouth shut. It was just as well—the vomit sniffer just walked away.
She wasn’t thrilled with her new special language either.
Chapter 7
Tyler filled out the report that the Wolf Council wanted on the incident that had happened the other day. He and Caleb were to give their own accounting as to why they’d had to kill two wolves and then turn out their families. It had to have been one of the hardest things he’d done, making the families get out of their homes.
The two men, both of them ex-cons, had been stealing not only from where they worked, but also from the pack. But that hadn’t been the worst of it. That had come out when they’d gone there to see what was going on, the reason for the theft.
Caleb and he had gone to the first house without telling anyone. He knew that Caleb could pretty much enter any dwelling on the property, but he rarely did. But that day, they’d both been walking up to the house when they smelled the drugs. And not just a little of them either.
They’d been making meth. Seventeen people, all humans, had been kidnapped from their homes and chained to the floor, where they had been made to work. Two of the workers had died, their bodies still chained, and their bodies not even covered up. That pissed Caleb off. But when they’d gotten to the back part of the shed where they’d been working, they found that five of the children of the workers had been brutally murdered, along with three of the wives. They too had been chained up, with a long chain that held each of them in a line and then hooked into the wall. Caleb had been so angry that he’d pulled the chain, hook and all, out of the wall and had concrete rain down on him. Tyler had stood back while he summoned, harshly, for the two men to be brought forward.
Caleb, as pack leader, had a great deal of magic. And when he summoned, really only a word stating that he forced the two men to heel to him, they came. With the dust still in his hair, the chain hanging from his hands, he lashed out with it and hit both men in their bellies as he let his wolf go.
Tyler had been hurt when one of the women, wife of the man in charge, had attacked him. Turning on her, letting his wolf deal with her, she had stabbed him three times before he was able to rip her throat out. It was kill or be killed by then.
In the end, he’d been shot, stabbed, and injected with some of the shit they’d been brewing before both men were dead. Their wives, both them, had also been killed, and the children, six between the two couples, had been taken to the hospital.
They had called the police—there was no way around it since the humans were badly hurt or already dead. Neither he nor Caleb were asked about the bloodied mess around the building, nor did they ask about the people who had been running the operation. Tyler was glad; he wasn’t sure that he could have explained it to them without getting angry all over again.
Angry. Such a mild word for how they’d felt. Tyler knew that for as long as he lived, he’d not forget the smell and the way that the men had treated the humans. This was the sort of thing that they’d thought would never come into the pack.
“I provide money for those that need it. There are jobs all over the town now for anyone that needs one. I do realize that I can’t ever pay as much as they would have been making, but they had to know that I was going to find out. I mean, what the fuck were they thinking?” Tyler wasn’t required to answ
er, so he didn’t. “Those children, the pack children, they’re going to have to go outside of this pack, I’m afraid. They will never trust us to raise them, not after what happened here today. I just don’t understand this.”
Caleb did, Tyler was sure of that. Greed. It was what most of the people in prison had ended up there for. There was never enough money. Never enough things. A shiny item would be just what they wanted one moment, and after getting it, any way that they could, it was no longer of interest. Then they’d just toss it away. Tyler had seen this same thing in every country that he’d gone to lately.
After the mess was taken care of, the dead taken away to be identified and then buried, he and Caleb had made sure that the men that had died, also the ones that had been forced to work, were taken care of. Families were given money, funerals paid for, and even some help with mental issues that might arise later was taken care of.
He looked up when Caleb said his name. The anguish on his face was almost too much for him to see. And his brother had been crying too. Being an alpha was harder on someone then he thought anyone knew.
“How about we finish these up after dinner? I could use a good hard run, how about you?” Tyler said that he’d love that. “Good. I had thought about calling in the rest of our brothers, but to be honest with you, Tyler, I would like for it to be just us. I need to get this out of my system before Quinn comes home.”
The women were setting up the auction. They’d all been gone since seven that morning, and Tyler had been disappointed that Jazzie had been gone when he woke. But having Joey sleeping next to him, that made it all worthwhile. He simply loved the little man, and watching him sleep was something Tyler enjoyed a great deal more than he thought he might.
Getting naked, they were both in the woods in minutes. The snow was firm and the air crisp. And the smells—wood burning in a fireplace somewhere, the smell of the wild and shifter animals running on the land—it was all perfect for a day when they were just trying to forget something as horrific as the two of them had witnessed.
They ran in the woods, mostly just running hard until it was almost too dark to see. Jazzie had contacted him once and he told her what they were doing. She told him that she loved him and that she’d see him when he was better. That was what he needed too. The support that came with having a mate.
The children have been placed. I was surprised at how quickly it happened. They’d only just laid down by a lake that was something that they’d played in as children. One of them, the oldest boy, he’s going to have issues. I don’t think that he’s taken it too well that this has happened. Not that he blames his parents—no, that trouble is placed right on my shoulders. I’ve been thinking of my own children a great deal since this happened. And I have a favor to ask.
No. Caleb just looked at him. If you’re going to ask me to take your children if anything should happen to you, then no. I want to remind you that you’re an immortal, not some wolf with nothing to fall back on. You want to step down? Fine, I’ll support you. But do not ask me to care for your family. I just.... Please Caleb, I just don’t think I could handle that right now.
Caleb laid his head back on his paws and said nothing more about it. They did talk about Christmas, the gifts that they’d gotten for their parents, and anything else that didn’t have to do with the events of yesterday, nor the recent conversation.
After a while, they made their way back to their parents’ house, where they’d been working. Mom met them at the door, dressed to the nines as she called it. Kissing her on the cheek after Caleb did, they asked where she was going.
“Your dad is taking me to dinner. I’m so surprised—I thought he was joshing me.” She gave a little laugh and told them how she’d asked him three times if he was kidding or not. “Then he comes to me about half an hour ago, tells me to get all dolled up, and that we were going to paint the town blue. I didn’t even have the heart to tell him that it was paint it red. The old poop.”
Gathering up their paperwork, they both left the house when their parents did. Tyler thought that he could move right through the questions now that he’d been able to clear his head, and was glad as soon as he got home that Jazzie had gotten the tree out of the box.
“I swear to you, this is much harder than I ever thought it would be. Some sadist ass wipe wrote these instructions so that you cannot figure it out, and the number that they give you for help isn’t working. I bet I know why. Every person that bought this sucker is calling them to complain.” She took a deep breath and they both looked at Joey when he garbled at them. He was enjoying his walker even though he couldn’t reach the floor yet, and his sippy cup was now on the floor. “I swear to you, if his first word is a curse word, I have no one to blame but myself. That’s all I’ve been doing since I pulled this sucker out of the box.”
It was nearly midnight when they finally got the tree set up. No ornaments, however—just the tree up. He too had cursed a few times at the instructions, but they’d had a good time with it. But the twelve-foot tree looked amazing in the front hall. They only had three more to put up, all of them shorter—for the living room, the family room, and a smaller one for the dining room.
Tyler had ordered ornaments over the summer. Some of them he’d not even taken out of the box yet, mostly because he’d been so busy taking care of his homes. Their homes, he thought of now, and wondered if Jazzie would like to come with him and take Joey on the next trip. Ash was good, of course, and he was glad that he’d hired her. But things were forever cropping up. He would bring it up in the morning.
The next morning they were going to the courthouse. Jazzie wasn’t taking Joey, fearful of Glenda—not that he blamed her. But as they were walking out the door, Rayne came to talk to Jazzie. After they told her where they were headed, she asked if she could hang out with them for a little while. Jazzie asked her as soon as they were in the car if it had to do with a ghost.
“Yes.”
Nodding once, Jazzie looked at him. He didn’t know what was going on in her head—he could have checked, but thought he’d wait until she told him. And if she didn’t, he’d only look if she looked upset. But Jazzie seemed to be all right with Rayne simply saying yes, and they made their way to the courthouse to hopefully end this with Glenda Scott.
The room was called to order and Glenda was brought out. She was dressed in an unflattering orange jumpsuit, as well as chains on her ankles and wrists. Tyler knew that she’d been causing trouble at the station house, but whatever she’d been up to, they’d decided that she was a flight risk.
After getting her settled in her seat, a court appointed attorney came to sit beside her. But Tyler noticed that he was about as far from her as he could get and still be at the same table. He wondered what that was about when the room was called to order.
The judge read over the file that had been handed to him. Tyler knew that he’d already seen it, and more than likely knew it by heart, but he didn’t lay it down until Glenda started talking. And what she said, to a sitting judge, made him cringe.
“Listen here, you douche noddle. I have shit I have to get done, and you’re pretending that you’re trying to decide what the hell any of those papers say. I’d like to get this done. I’ve been caught, served my time, and now I want you to let me go.” Judge Harper laid the file down and looked at Glenda over the dais he was sitting at. “Don’t give me that look. I’ve been harassed by bigger shitheads than you. Just do whatever you think you have to do and let me go. I would like to see my grandson, little Ryan.”
Glenda turned and glared at him and Jazzie. It might have been funny, her looking like she was going to hurt them, if not for the chains on her. When Judge Harper asked Glenda why she thought that she should be freed, she just snorted at him.
“No, do tell me, and the rest of the people that have come here today, why you should be released and why on earth you should see your grandson. And I have met the little man, and I do believe that his name is Joey, not little Ry
an.” She told him that it would be when she had him. “And how, pray tell, do you suppose that is going to happen? It is my understanding that you were seen leaving the hospital on the day he was born with him in your arms. If not for the security that is on every baby in the nursery, you might have made it out with him. But instead, you put him on the floor and took off running. Also, you’ve been heard making plans on how to kidnap him. Why don’t you just leave the little boy alone? He is very happy where he is.”
Tyler hadn’t known that. And if the look on Jazzie’s face was any indication, she hadn’t either. If not for the small bracelet that had been on Joey, the child would have been gone. Taking Jazzie’s hand in his, he decided that he didn’t want to think about what might have befallen Joey. Instead, he held onto Jazzie and listened to the judge and Glenda.
“Yeah, but I didn’t get away with him, so that shouldn’t count. Even though I know you’re going to say it does, think about what happened to me that day. I lost my son because of that bitch back there. She murdered him as surely as she has no beating heart.” He looked at them and Tyler shook his head. “Don’t let him tell you that she didn’t do anything. He wasn’t even fucking there. How the hell would he know? But I can tell you right now, she was guilty of it. She killed him as surely as if she’d been driving that car.”
“And how do you come to this conclusion, Ms. Scott? From what I’ve read about the accident, your son was high on coke, and the woman with him was performing fellatio on him as they were going well over a hundred miles an hour.” Glenda asked what that was, and the room burst out laughing. “Oral sex. And when they were found, I was told that there were enough drugs in the back seat and trunk that he could have supplied nearly all of Ohio with it. In this state, we have enough trouble with opioids. And in the event you don’t know what that is, it’s drugs.”
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