“They won’t. I have a couple of deep caves I thought you might want to use. That way, I can hit you over the head with one of the stones so I can fix you up.” She stopped and stared at him. Asking him if he’d just made a joke, he looked like he was thinking on it. “I guess I was. I don’t usually go for jokes when I’m upset. And I am. So is my cat. So, shall we get going?”
“I should talk to Parker. Your family, they’re being really good to me and my family, and I need to tell her off. I won’t, just so you know, because I’m not stupid, but I should.” Quin didn’t move toward her or even order her to do what she had said. “You’re weird. I know I might have said that to you earlier, but you are weird. Not like Hi-Man weird. Because he is too, but just strange.”
“Hi-Man?” He laughed. “I didn’t know you called him that. You know Cass too, I’m to understand. What do you call him?”
She told him. “He was so uptight in college. I thought joking around with him would get the rod out of his fucking ass. I don’t like this one bit, so you know. Just because I’m willing to go to your house, it doesn’t mean that I’m going to lay down and spread out for you. Get it?” He laughed, and she didn’t know if she wanted to punch him in the balls or laugh with him. “I’ve had a really terrible few days. I can’t tell you about it—it’s my job, you see.”
“I will never tell anyone, not living or dead, what you share with me. On my honor as a brother to the king of lions.” She was impressed that he didn’t hesitate in telling her that. And for whatever reason, she believed him. “You tell me about your day, and then I’ll tell you how I had to go to a farm to kill all their animals because they were too fucking poor to come to see me before it was much too late to save them.”
“I’m sorry.” He nodded and then sat down on the ground. She joined him, but not close enough that he could touch her. Rogue didn’t know what she’d do if he were to show her some kind of emotion along with hers. “They were, for all outward appearances, a normal family. They had two lovely children and an infant. She was only three days old. I wonder what sort of sins—because what else could it have been about an infant?—would cause them to murder her like they did.”
“People—humans, for the most part—don’t have a lot of logic most of the time. Shifters either, but most of the ones I know usually have other means of taking care of their bad days. I run. Far and fast.” He picked up a stone and bounced it on his hand, front then back. Front then back. “My father was one of the first group. He was a son of a bitch right up until the day he was killed. Tell me the rest, Rogue. I want to help you.”
She could see the crime scene now. Every time she closed her eyes, it was there. It was why she came home today instead of tomorrow, as the police and Feds wanted her to. She needed her nieces and nephews. Needed her sister to hold her and tell her it was going to be all right. But she’d met Quin and Parker instead.
“The little boy was at the bottom of the bed when he was murdered. The father killed him. Took a chainsaw and ran it from the top of his small head to his groin, splitting him in half. He was still lying there when I arrived, like some morbid art project that was still wet. The little girl must have run because one of the parents hit her at the doorway to the closet. She was killed before she was split open the same way.” She thought about what she was going to tell him next. About finding the baby like she had. “The people I work with, they know I don’t do well when there is a child involved. I do the work anyway because I’m good at what I do, but they couldn’t have prepared me for this. No one, not even after being told, would have been ready to see that the baby had been cut into four pieces. Her small body, barely formed, was strewn around the bedroom like they swung her from the fan above.”
She started crying then, hard sobs she’d been holding inside since she’d found the room. Her body ached with the need for justice. Her heart hurt so badly Rogue was sure it would never mend.
Quin picked her up then. Held her in his arms as he moved them across the yard. He never once told her to stop crying. He didn’t make fun of her either, as she had expected. All he did was hold her tightly to his chest and in his arms as he moved them to a place where he could sit down. There, once she was tightly consumed by his compassion, Rogue let go of all the fears, the pain, all of her sickness of the human way of dealing, and cried loud, long and painfully.
At some point, she must have fallen asleep. Waking but not moving, she watched as Quin spoke to someone she couldn’t see. It occurred to her that she was listening in on his conversation when he looked down at her with a grin.
“It’s all right, Mrs. Barclay. She’s awake now. Go ahead and make us some dinner if you don’t mind.” The lady laughed and said she’d do that, and Rogue heard a door behind her slide shut. “How do you feel? I have this terrible crick in my arm, so don’t move. If you do, I’m going to whimper like a kid, and then how will I be able to be all macho and manly with you?”
“Tell me where it hurts, and I can try and ease off it.” He pointed to his shoulder, and she moved her head just enough to see him wince. “I’m sorry. You must think I’m some sort of fruit cake for sobbing like this, then putting you in pain when I just fall asleep like I don’t have a care in the world.”
“I didn’t think that at all. I would say—though I don’t know you well enough just yet to be sure—that you’ve been holding that in for some time.” She nodded and inched her way off his arm more. “I’m not going to ask you why you do it. I completely understand loving a job that makes you ill one moment then will take you to the halls of hell the next. You told me you were good at it. I think you’re better than good at it. You’re the best there is.”
“I don’t know that I’m the best, but I do help close a lot of cases.” She moved off his arm and to the floor of the deck. When he stretched his arm over his head, she heard it pop twice before he smiled at her again. “Your family must think I’m the worst kind of person.”
“No. But I have been talking to Parker. She wants you to talk to her. Parker doesn’t understand what you meant when you said she would go to the press again. I’m not taking sides, mind you, but she is genuinely confused at that.” She told him what had happened. “I don’t think it was her.”
“So much for not taking sides.” He pulled her back to him when she started to rise. “She did it. That’s what I was told at the newspaper. Parker told them I was a flake. That I took other people’s ideas and claimed them as my own. She nearly ruined me when she did that. It took me a long time to even want to face people again. Parker—”
“Was in prison for the last eight years.” Rogue asked him what he’d said. “She had been falsely accused of killing her father and was in prison for the last eight years. She only just got out right before meeting my brother. She’s looking into it now to see who would have pitted the two of you against each other. Did you know her before all that happened?”
“No. I mean, I’d heard of her. Who wouldn’t have heard of a witch? I have to admit, I never believed it. Is she? A witch, I mean?” He said she was the strongest witch there ever was. “Figures. She’d be the one that would be able to turn me into a frog. Will she?”
“No, not now that you’re a part of my family.” They both turned when Parker spoke behind them. “I’d like us to start again, you and I. To be honest with you, Rogue, I didn’t know anything about you and your secondary job until I started looking into what you said to me. Hell, I didn’t know you at all before that until I heard you were coming here. Imagine my surprise when I saw that not only were you a famous artist, but you worked for the Feds as well. Then I found the articles about how I had told a tabloid about your stealing work and forging your name on it. Why didn’t you tell them you only signed your first name, and there wasn’t any way that you did the art they were talking about?”
“I didn’t want to put it out there that someone hurt me.” Parker said she was stupid fo
r that. “Thanks. You the welcoming committee here, or do they have more people that can insult and knock me around?”
“Just me for now.” Parker laughed when she smiled at her. “I am sorry, Rogue. I had no idea that someone did this to you. It didn’t hurt me one way or the other, as I was already in prison, but I promise you that I’m looking into it right now. I’m also helping Cass with your sister’s money. That was terrible what they did to her.”
“Missy Tyler.” Parker asked her what her maiden name was. “Let me think. I don’t know for sure, but I think it was Storm. Or Stormy. Lily would know. Why do you ask?”
“It helps. All the little bits and pieces I can weave together help me take a clearer picture of the person I’m trying to figure out. Like, is she Missy or Melissa? How does she spell it? It’s not a precise thing, digging into her past, but it helps me focus on her when I have everything in a neat row.” Parker and the rest of them went into the house when they were called to dinner. “I’m a witch, you’ve heard that. What you might not know is that I can find and work with people that I don’t have to touch or meet. But it doesn’t do me much good to find them if it’s the wrong person. Or if I don’t have the kind of information that helps me look for what I’m searching for.”
“I have her address.” Parker laughed and said that would certainly narrow it down. “Yeah. My sister and Mark Tyler lived there with their kids up until his death. I liked him. He was ambitious, friendly, and he treated his kids with respect but with a firm hand. Much like Lily did with Gabe.”
“Where is Gabe’s father? Is he in the picture?” Rogue told her that Lily and Ben were just kids when she found out she was going to have his baby, and they separated as friends. Then he got married himself. “So he’s not wanting to take Gabe.”
“No. Don’t jump to conclusions that make people look bad. That’s my job. Ben takes him once a year for the summer. Not this year, however. Not because he didn’t want to, but he couldn’t. His mother got very ill and had to move in with them, which I guess is just as well. I don’t think Lily would have been able to afford to send him anyway. It was her turn to buy the tickets.” Rogue thought about it. “I’m not sure how well she might be getting along in this without the kids. Having them all around her is what gives her the strength she needs to get going every day.”
They enjoyed a nice dinner. There were thick steaks to eat, something she didn’t indulge in too often, and a wonderfully tossed salad. Rogue loved salad and would eat it exclusively if she was given the chance. But she also knew she needed the protein and mixed meat with her salad intake when she could.
Rogue realized that no one brought up anything heavy at dinner. There was no talk of jobs, money, or the impending things coming up with Lily and her family. As soon as they were seated in the living room, however, they spoke of everything. Not just the good, but the bad things as well.
It occurred to her that this was their way of letting off steam. While she held Pete, the cutest little guy she’d seen in a while, she thought of the things that had happened today. And suddenly, it didn’t seem so bad. It was, she thought, but it wasn’t weighing on her as it usually would.
Looking over at Parker, she saw the other woman wink at her. She wondered if Parker had anything to do with the stress being easier to handle. Whatever it was, her or the family around them, she was going to take it. It was the first time in a very long time she felt like a person and not consumed by a lot of things she really had no control over.
Of course, she still had to deal with Quin and what he might want from her. But she had a feeling he wasn’t like most males she knew. Not all men, but even humans wanted more than just wives—they wanted someone to do things for them. But neither Quin nor his brothers seemed the demanding type. Rogue supposed that time would tell. She was looking forward to seeing what came from this deal as his mate.
Chapter 3
Missy wanted to find Lily and beat the ever-loving shit out of her. What did she think to gain by taking her back to court? Nothing, that was what she was going to get. Not one damned thing. It would take money to come after her, and she’d made sure the little twit didn’t have any.
“Did you hear what I said to you?” She waved her hand at the butler that had been there since she and Mark had lived there. “All right then. Since I know you can’t stand to have things repeated to you, you have a lovely day, missus.”
When he stepped out of the room, she let out a huge sigh of relief. Missy didn’t like dealing with people. Actually, she didn’t care for anyone but herself, and sometimes she couldn’t even stand herself. Getting up to pour herself a drink, the grandfather clock chimed. Smiling, she drank the drink down, considering it her breakfast.
The phone rang somewhere in the house. Why there was a house phone in this day and age was something she never understood. But when it went unanswered, she wondered at that. Then there was an insistent ringing at the front door. Again, it didn’t get answered.
Vowing to go after the one that was supposed to do that for her, she opened the door and nearly fell off her heels when the door opened much easier than she thought it would. While she was trying to gather up her composure, the person on the other side of the door laughed. That was when Missy looked in her direction.
“Deliveries are to be made at the back door. Remember that the next time or I’ll have your job.” The woman said something, but Missy didn’t understand her. Asking her to repeat herself got her more laughter.
“I said, you’d better be looking for some sort of job, so when you’re kicked out of here and have to repay the money you took, you’ll have something to fall back on. Are you Melissa Strum Tyler?” Nodding, she realized that this person knew her maiden name when even she barely remembered it. “Here you go. You’ve been served.”
The packet—there was no other word for the thick envelope—hit her in the chest. The woman hadn’t moved to give it to her that she’d seen. Not only that, but as soon as Missy looked up from the thing she’d been given, the woman was gone, like she’d never been there. Had it not been for the thing being in her hands, she might well have believed it was all a drunken aberration.
“Not that I’m drunk. It is only nine in the morning.” She really didn’t have any idea of the time. The stupid clock only chimed every fifteen minutes—for all she knew, it could have been nine in the evening. “Why does it get dark sometimes in the evening, and other times it doesn’t? Stupid weatherman.”
Taking the envelope to the living room, she laid it on the table with all the other mail she’d been getting from the mailbox the last few days. Her attorney had advised her to keep everything in one place, so she was. He’d also sent her a certified something or another, which she ignored as well. He more than likely was reminding her again to keep her shit together.
When she started to get hungry, she called out for Carl. Carl didn’t like her. She didn’t care for him either, but since he was being paid to wait on her, she tolerated him. Yelling again, hating that her voice sounded slurred, she finally went to where the staff hung out and entered the kitchen.
Missy didn’t know what she had expected to find when she entered the only room in the house that she’d never made a habit of going into. But finding all the cabinet doors open, showing the empty cavernous shelves, she wondered if there was something she should be aware of. Was there a delivery of some kind coming in? But the cabinets were devoid of even the simplest of things. Not that she had a good idea of what she should have found in cabinets, but there should have been chips or something, she thought.
Looking around for something, an order that was coming or a note to tell her what was going on, she found an envelope with her name on it. Opening it up, she smiled when she saw that it was written out to Mrs. Tyler. Then she got to the body of the letter.
Mrs. Tyler. We have decided to take what you owe us in past wages from the household. There i
s no reason for you to call the police, as they were here when we took what we felt was owed to us. We did try, on several occasions, to talk to you about this, but you refused to listen.
She’d just see about that. Taking out her cell phone, she was dismayed to find that she had no service. Missy wasn’t sure what was going on, but she was going to get to the bottom of it right now.
I’m to inform you that you should read the paperwork you received via courier yesterday. In it, you’ll find the information you’ll need about your banking, as well as any outstanding payments that haven’t been paid. There was a happy face drawn there that she thought was highly inappropriate. You have a good day, Mrs. Tyler. This couldn’t be happening to a better person if you ask me.
“Well, that was nice.” She laid the letter down just as the lights went off. Getting up to turn the switch back on, she clicked it several times before she concluded she’d blown a fuse. “Like I have any idea how to go about changing a fuse.”
The rest of the house was just as dark. Going to the living room where all the paperwork she’d received over the last week was laying, she started sorting out things that were personal— it bothered her that there were so few of them—past due and final notice. Then she came to the thick thing she’d gotten just this morning.
Opening it up, she not only broke one of her nails, but she also got a papercut. The stupid thing was sealed up like it held national secrets, she thought. Once she was able to get a tissue on her bloodied finger and tape on her nail, she began reading what had been the cause of so many things she’d have to take care of today.
It read like instructions in putting something together. Not only that, but it was like it wasn’t in a language she even understood. It was in English, but it read like— “A divorce paper.”
Getting to a better place where she could spread things out, she put the paperwork on the dining room table. There it was, she saw—she was being sued. Not only that, but her bank accounts had been frozen, all her credit cards had been cut off, and even any kind of vehicle she might have driven was no longer there for her to use.
Quinlan: Foster’s Pride – Lion Shapeshifter Romance (Foster's Pride Book 3) Page 4