Finn: Xavier’s Hatchlings ― Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance (Xavier's Hatchlings Book 1)

by Kathi S. Barton

  “What happened at your home, Chad? I’m assuming the two of you had a huge fight.” When Chad glanced at Finn, not answering her, she smiled. “This is my mate, Finn Manning. He is taking the two of us out to dinner tonight, and we’re going to have a nice conversation with him and his brothers. If he can get them to come. I have a feeling we’re going to need as much back up from them as we can get. By the way, he’s a dragon.”

  When they shook hands, she got up to stretch. Leaving the two of them in the living room, she went to the bathroom. Rachel just needed a minute to gather herself. The things Sandra had said to her hurt her heart to the core. She could only imagine the things she’d said to Chad to have brought him to her door. Washing her face and running a quick brush through her hair, she figured she was as ready as she could be. Coming out of the room, she saw Chad standing there waiting for her.

  “I’m so sorry, Rach.” She nodded and hugged him back when he pulled her into his arms. “I’ve left her. I don’t think she heard that part when I stormed out of the house, but I can’t live with her anymore. I want you to know, too, I hadn’t any idea she was stealing money from the restaurant. I’ll make sure it’s returned to you.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Okay? I’m just glad this is coming out now, and you’re going to be all right. You are, aren’t you, Chad?” He said it was difficult, but he was going to make it. “You can stay here with me. The house is certainly big enough, as Sandra pointed out.”

  They were both laughing as they made their way to the front door. Finn was there, and when he smiled at her, she felt the warmth of it all the way to her toes. Taking his hand into hers when it was offered, Rachel sat in the front seat with Finn as Chad rode in the back.

  “My brothers are going to meet us there. I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve told my mom what was going on with Sandra as well. They’ll take care that nothing happens to either of you while she’s out there making trouble.” Rachel asked if she thought she would. “I would count on it, especially after she finds out that Chad is living here with you. You will, won’t you? It might be the safest place for the two of you right now.”

  “She already asked me, and I think you’re right.” Chad told them both he was sorry. “I never realized any of the things she said today. None of it. But when I think back on things, especially after my parents died, I can see things that I never thought of before. Like the extra money she always claimed she had. I’ve never seen any of it. I haven’t any idea where it might have gone either.”

  “As I said, don’t worry about it. We’ll get through this, and things will be the way they should have been.” Chad said he didn’t think it would ever be again. “Well then, they’ll be as normal as we can make them. Is that better?”

  When they pulled up in front of the restaurant, Rachel was startled by the size of the men that hugged Finn. Their poor mom must be nuts to have had more children after the first one was born. And she’d find out, apparently. Their parents were on their way here tomorrow to meet her and her brother. Rachel was suddenly terrified of making a good impression.

  Then she realized she didn’t care if they liked her or not. She was who she was, and they’d better not say a word to her. Laughing to herself, she wondered what a dragon would do to her if they didn’t like her. Whatever it was, things were about to get real for Sandra Merkel. And for the life of her, Rachel couldn’t make herself feel sorry for the other woman.

  Chapter 4

  Sandra loved having the house to herself. She had no idea where moron had gone, but she didn’t care at this point. Things were beginning to progress the way they should have a long time ago, and she was happy for it. Even not having any money tonight didn’t bother her overly much. Soon she’d have that big house Rachel had, and things would be perfect.

  Just as she was turning off the television, having watched all the programs she wanted, her cell phone rang. She didn’t know why the police were contacting her at nine at night, but she hoped it was to tell her that Rachel had been killed in some terrible way. Answering it with a hopeful heart, the officer asked her to state her name and address, please. For verification.

  “Mrs. Merkel, this is to inform you that the restaurant Merkel’s Mark has been closed down as of closing time tonight.” She asked him what the hell he was talking about. “I’m getting there. As of this evening, after all the employees were clocked out and gone for the night, the owners of the restaurant closed the doors until further notice. I’m also to tell you that your keys no—”

  “What the fuck are you talking about? I own that place. I’ve been running it for years.” He asked her if she did indeed own it, or only ran it. “It’s the same thing. I’m the one in charge. No one is going to change any locks on it either if that was what you were going to tell me. I’m telling you right now, if the locks have been changed without my permission, I’m going to be owning your pension and everything else you bought with your blood money.”

  “Mrs. Merkel, if you have solid proof that you are the sole owner of the restaurant, then we’ll gladly hand you the keys. But Ms. Rachel Merkel is the owner, with her fiancé, and they have shut it down. As of right now, the place is closed indefinitely.” Her head was hurting, she was so angry. “Do you have any questions for me at this time?”

  “Yes, I want to know who the fuck you think you are for closing up something that doesn’t belong to anyone but me.” The officer told her he didn’t have anything showing she owned even a percentage of it. “My husband does. And he’s not going to be happy with what this woman has done. You are to open it back up right now, or so help me, I’m going to go down there and make you.”

  “I’m not terribly worried about what you may or may not be doing to me, Mrs. Merkel. I have it on good authority that things will not be going your way in the very near future, so you might want to get used to this feeling.” He laughed, and she saw red, she was so pissed. “You have a good evening now.”

  Slamming the phone down on the table, she was pissed even more when not only did her phone break, but the table did as well. Cheap shit. That’s all she’d been able to get since marrying the moron, cheap shit to have in this equally cheap house.

  Having no way to call Rachel to ask her what was going on, she decided to make her way to the restaurant. If her key didn’t work, she was going to make sure she shoved her keys up the ass of that fucking bitch. Going to the garage, she pulled open the door to find that her fucking car was gone. Chad had taken her only means of transportation.

  “Mother fuck.” If felt pretty good to be able to scream. But it did her little good in getting things to go her way. It wasn’t that far, but walking to the place in the middle of the night was dangerous. Then she smiled. Dangerous for who? Certainly not her in the mood she was in.

  Walking did help her to cool off a little. Not that she couldn’t ramp up her mood again, but for now, she was calmer. As soon as she got to Merkel’s, she did indeed get pissed off again. The cops were still there, and they looked as if they were having a grand party.

  Going up to the first one that turned her way, she drew back to punch him in the face. It was the voice, the low voice behind her, that not only had her stopping her flying fist but turning slowly toward the man.

  “You must be the famed Sandra Merkel. If you hit that man, not only will you end up in jail for the rest of the night, but perhaps into the morning. Certainly, until the judge decides to see you. Why are you here?” She asked him what his part in this was. “My part? I guess you could say that I have a vested interest in this place. My brother and future sister-in-law own it. My name is Theo Manning.”

  “What sister-in-law? And why should I give a shit why you think it should matter to me?” He told her who the woman was. “No. I don’t think so. You’ll have to come up with a better lie than that. Rachel isn’t going to marry anyone. First of all, she doesn’t date. Secondly, she would have mentione
d it to me had she found someone stupid enough to marry her. That’s a lie, and you know it.”

  He shrugged. “Think what you like. I know I’m telling you the truth.” Sandra wanted to hit him too, but she was slightly afraid of his size. “You’d do well to get your ass back to your home and wait until you’re summoned. You will be too, I’m sure. But for now, I want to make you understand that this place, like the others, that Rachel and Chad own will be guarded by armed men, and you should consider them dangerous.”

  “Who the hell do you think you are, telling me stuff like this? Are you threatening me? If so, I’m going to have the police here arrest you for threatening me.” The officer she’d planned to hit told her that Theo had not threatened her, but was giving her fair warning. “All you men here, what do you do when you’re not threatening helpless women? Suck each other off? Sounds like something you’d all be doing.”

  Sandra knew she might have taken a step too far, but when they all laughed, she looked around. What the fucking hell did they think was so funny now? Stomping, making her way to the man who had threatened her, she looked him right in the eye. Well, as well as she could with him towering over her. Working up a little spit, she was ready to launch it when he smiled at her.

  “You do, and it will be the very last thing you ever do in your very short and miserable life. I will kill you if you spit on me.” There was no point in looking around for help. They were laughing again and telling the big powerful looking man to do it anyway. “That wasn’t a fair warning or a threat. It was a promise. Would you like to test me on it?”

  “You’re going to pay for this.” She had started back toward her house when she turned to the men there. “One of you needs to give me a ride home. It’s late, and someone might want to harm me.”

  “If it were anyone that knew you, Mrs. Merkel, I would say there are any number of people out there that wish to hurt you.” The officer, she didn’t know his name, smiled at her as he went to the cruiser that was still in the parking lot. “If you’d like to have a seat, I’ll be right with you. I just have to make a phone call.”

  “I’m right here. You’re going to take me home right now or so help me, I’m going to own all your jobs.” He asked her how she was planning to do that. “I’m going to call the mayor and tell him what a shitty job you’ve been doing here. Crime is at an all-time high.”

  “Actually, crime is down by fifteen percent since the Mannings moved to this area. I don’t know the precise reasoning behind it, but we’ve not had so much as a pick and go at a garage sale. In the event you might not know, it means someone picked up an item that didn’t belong to them and walked off with it.” She told him she knew just what it meant. “Good. Like I said, other than what you’ve been up to, things have been pretty quiet around here.”

  “What do you mean, what I’ve been up to?” No one said a word. “I asked you a question. What do you mean by that statement? I’ve done nothing illegal. Not one thing.”

  “Are you ready to go on home now?” She asked about the phone call. “I got my answer. Things are set up now. You get in the back there, and I’ll take you to where you came from.”

  Strange wording, but she didn’t care. Right now, she needed a way to take care of some business. First of all, she needed to order a cell phone. Thinking about the list of things she had to do, Sandra wondered if she’d be able to get any sleep at all tonight. Looking at the clock on the dashboard, she couldn’t believe it was well after two o’clock in the morning.

  By the time they were pulling up in front of her house, she was fit to be tied, as her mother used to say. There wasn’t a person who she could depend on to help her out of this mess, either. Especially not her husband. He was on her list too. Chad was going to figure out where his loyalties lie, and he’d better not be picking that awful woman, Rachel.

  “Hello, Sandra.” Startled, she looked up to see not just Rachel on her front porch, but Chad and some other man as well. “What’s up? You here for any particular reason?”

  “Yes. A better question would be, what the hell are you doing here? And Chad? Where the hell is my car? I went to use it when the police called me, and it was gone. I’ve told you a thousand times, we need a second car. That’s the first thing we’re buying when this mess is cleaned up. Me a new car.” She pulled out her keys and went to the door. “You never answered me, Rachel. What the hell are you doing at my—our home at two in the morning?”

  “Changing the locks.” Sandra sort of heard what she said, something about locks, but her keys weren’t working at the moment, so she didn’t pay any attention to her. “It’s not going to work, Sandra, no matter how much you fiddle with it. I told you, we changed the locks. Or Chad had them changed. There will be a—”

  “Give me the key.” Chad backed away from her, shaking his head. “Give me the fucking key, Chad. I’m not in any kind of mood to fuck with this tonight. I don’t know where you get off changing the locks on anything, but this is my house, and I will not be locked out of it too.”

  “I don’t want you in there.” She just stared at him. “I’ve filed for divorce as well, Sandra. I’m not going to put up with your shit anymore. I heard what you said to Rach. I heard every word of it.”

  “So? What right does that give you to try and lock me from my home?” He said it wasn’t hers anymore. “What the hell does that mean? Not that it matters. You’re going to give me that key right now, or I’m going to knock the shit out of her, Chad. You know that I will too. I’ve done it to you before.”

  “You hit him? You hit my brother?” Sandra told Rachel to stay out of this. “You’re a piece of work, aren’t you? Not that it matters, but Chad sold the house to me tonight. It just so happens that I have friends in high places, and all the paperwork has been filed, and I’m the one that you have to deal with.” Glaring at Chad, Sandra asked him why he’d do that to her. “I did it to you, Sandra. After talking to you and letting Chad hear all about how you didn’t really care for him, we talked about a great many things. One of them being this house. You see, we don’t trust that you’d do right by him, so we took matters into our own hands.”

  Turning to Rachel, she wondered what anyone could see in this woman. She was stiff as a board, unfriendly, and she didn’t have a lick of sense. The man behind Rachel laughed. Sandra asked him what he thought was so funny.

  “You. For a moment there, I thought you were thinking of yourself when you were describing the person in your head. But then I realized you were talking about Rachel here. She’s beautiful, first of all. And the most friendly woman I’ve ever had the pleasure of falling in love with. Also, stiff? Not so much. Rachel has been very helpful to those she loves. I’m hoping with that statement, you understand she doesn’t care all that much for you.” Sandra asked him how he knew what she was thinking. “I would think that was obvious. I was reading your mind. Rachel will be able to do it as soon as she has more practice. I might even pass along that little bit of magic to Chad. I think he’d fare better if he knew just how people felt about him. Although, most people like him a great deal. You? Not so much.”

  “Like I care what people think about me. And I don’t know how you were guessing my thoughts, but you stay away from me.” The man told her he didn’t have to be close to her to read her thoughts. “Stop that, you fucking bastard. My thoughts are my own. One of you is going to give me the keys to my home, or I’m going to call someone to come here and burn the place to the ground.”

  “Officer, you heard her. She threatened to burn down my sister’s new home.” Before she could even think what Chad was saying, she was cuffed up and on the back of the cruiser being searched. Sandra knew she was being felt up and struggled to get away from the man, but he only kicked her feet wider apart and finished molesting her. Turning around when he finished with her, she glared at the cop then looked at Chad. He was standing right in front of her. “You’ve bitten off more t
han you can chew, Sandra. I’m so glad I was able to see the little world you’ve made for yourself fall down around your ears.”

  “You’re not going to divorce me, Chad. Do you want to know why?” He smiled and nodded at her. “Because you’d be fucking lost without me. Not only that, but you also don’t have the balls to stand up to me in a courtroom. Because I plan on telling them every little detail about our sex life. I’ll be telling them how you can’t get it up most of the time, and that you just fuck like you’re rocking a chair. In and out, in and out. No pleasure for me at all.”

  “Really? You’re going to blame me for our sex life?” He leaned in close enough that she could hear his whisper. “It was you that kept me from having a hard on, Sandra. ‘Do this.’ ‘Don’t touch me there.’ ‘Get out of my way, and I’ll do it myself.’ It’s hard to keep up with all your demands and have a hard on too while having you naked around me. You just keep on doing yourself right into prison.” She was still screaming at him when she was put in the back of the cruiser again. “You have a nice night there, Sandra. Try very hard not to get into too much more trouble while you’re in jail.”

  Sandra didn’t know what was going on, but she was going to take care of it as soon as she got it figured out. Before they were out of the driveway to her home, the cop that was driving told her there would be an officer around the home and the restaurant until her trial was taken care of.

  “What am I going to trial for?” He just laughed. “Fucking morons. You know that it’s a sure sign of insanity when you laugh at things that aren’t the least bit funny, don’t you?”

  It didn’t stop him. He laughed off and on all the way to the station. As soon as they stopped and he got out of the car, several more cops came out of the building. They were surrounding her as if they were protecting her. She asked one of them who was out to get her.