Bryant: Prince of Tigers – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  “Yes. Yes, I do. Like just this morning. I got in the shower, and when I turned off the water and reached for the towel, the entire room was flipped around. The colors were all different, and we had a linen closet in there. I just nodded and went on.” They were both laughing as he went to the yard to call out to Aurora.

  The yard was so green it hurt a little. The flowers in the planters around the front porch were in full bloom, and long tendrils of vines were hanging down almost to the dirt. Like at his parents’ home, there was a brick sidewalk up to the front of the house with tiny flowers, rather than dirt or sand, between each block. He loved the outdoors, and having his home sitting here, beautifully ready for any kind of entertainment, or even to just sit out and hear the animals in the late evening, was something he was very proud of.

  Closing his eyes, Bryant thought of the lovely queen. She had been around a great deal more in the last days, talking with Harper and the other Wilson children. She was also helping Harper with the magic that she’d received. He had as well, but he was already used to having it, so it didn’t freak him out as much as it seemed to freak out Harper.

  “I’d not tell her that, if I were you.” He smiled at Aurora, and told her that he had no death wish and wouldn’t do that. “She’s a lovely girl, your mate. Are you happy, Bryant?”

  “I never thought I’d be this happy.” Aurora sat on one of the rockers, and he sat with her. “Harper takes pictures in the wild—you knew that, didn’t you?”

  “I did. We are excited to see the book when it comes out. She will have to sign me a copy so that we can all enjoy it more. Now, what can I do for you, my dear cat?”

  Bryant explained to her what they’d figured out. Showing her the picture, it was easy for her to see the exact location where the picture was taken as well. But since she wasn’t able to interfere with human issues, she could, she told him, get help for them.

  “He will be most cross with me for telling him to come here. But then again, he’s been idle these last few months, so perhaps he might enjoy being around your family. I certainly do. You remember Jack Winhall, don’t you?”

  “The former vice-president? I do. He’s been doing a lot of work with the environment and global warming. I’ve not seen him in years.” She said that she had, only just last week. “Is he still aging himself? I’ve never seen a person so obsessed with making himself look older.”

  “He has been playing with other things with his magic as well. One of them is the preservation of a couple of species that are nearly gone. I will give him a call. See what he can do to help you and your family.” She disappeared, then returned with a man nearly as old looking as a corpse. “I think he’s gone too far. Do help him, Bryant. Perhaps he just needs to meet a woman. That would certainly make him sit up and behave himself.”

  “I don’t need a damned woman, Aurora. Having you bothering me is quite enough, thank you very much.” Jack looked at him. “If you’re going to look like this all the time, Bryant, perhaps I can take some lessons from you. Damn, but you’re a fine looking man.”

  “Thanks. I think. And so you know, I’m spoken for.” They both laughed at that, and Jack joined them on the deck. When a table and four glasses appeared filled with lemonade, he figured that they were about to have company. “I have a mate. She’s doing some work with some of your projects, I guess.”

  “I know her. Beautiful young woman. You’re her mate? Neither of you could do any better, I don’t think.” Harper came out of the house with a handful of pictures, as well as a notebook. Not at all like the dozen or so they’d gotten from the safe. “Harper Wilson, how the fuck are you?”

  “Jack? Christ, did your chair finally break under all that bullshit that you have? I’ve never seen a bigger blowhard than you are.” They hugged tightly, and Bryant laughed when another rocker appeared. And almost as soon as it was there, it was replaced with a regular chair. He’d forgotten that Harper didn’t care to rock. “What brings you here? Dinner isn’t for a few more hours.”

  “You have never had respect for your elders, young lady.” She snorted, and Jack laughed. “The lady queen here tells me you have some information for me. I’ll take care that it gets taken care of, child. You can bet on that.”

  “The police are acting as guides for these poachers. And sometimes, from what I gathered from my sources, they take the tusks while the bull is still living. Sick bunch of mother fuckers, if you ask me.” Harper handed him the picture as she told him about the phone call she’d made. “I’m thinking that sooner rather than later, something is going to blow, and there is going to be a major system crash there. We need to act now.”

  “I’d say that you’re right. But then, you usually are. All right. Give me about an hour. When I get it taken care of, I would like very much for you to wait on selling these pictures.” Bryant asked Jack what he meant. “She’s going to have to give these pictures, the one of the poachers, to the newspaper. I can take care of that for her. I have to say this, however; you do know this is going to make you a bit less popular for a little while.”

  “I don’t care right now.” Harper looked at him. “I’m seriously thinking about opening a shop in town. Taking some kiddy pictures with their dogs and have some off time. This being on call all the time, it’s for the birds.”

  “Good for you. Also, I’ll make sure that you don’t get any credit for this find, all right? I know how you work the system when it comes to having people know who you are. That should help out a bit.” Jack looked at him. “A long time ago, you told me that you were going to save everything that you got in order to sell it when you were old like me. Do you still have that crap?”

  “The furniture and other things? You know me, Jack. I never toss anything that I might still be able to use. Why do you ask?” He told him. “I don’t know, Jack. Why would someone want to put it in their home? I mean, I can see one or two pieces, but all of it?”

  “I’ll have some people that I trust go through it with you. Some of it, by now, might be worth some cash. Not that you need it now, but there is never a time when you should turn it down.”

  Jack left with Aurora a few minutes later, after taking time to see the barn that they’d put things in over the years.

  “Are you all right?” She nodded, then shook her head. “Anything I can do to help you out, honey? You look exhausted. Not only that, I don’t think you’ve been sleeping all that well either.”

  “No. I would very much like to sit down with this cash we have here and divide it up.” Bryant said that was fine with him. “Good. I’m going to talk to my family again, see if they’re going to object to having some of this. If so, I want to divide it equally between your brothers, parents, and my aunt. She might object too, but I have a feeling that she’s planning to move here, and I’d like for her to be able to take that cruise that she’s been talking about.”

  “She must have said something to Pops and Mom. They’ve been talking about it as well. Mom is having a good time putting up the things from our combined gardens. And the fruit.” Harper said she’d had some of his mom’s apple cranberry jam. “That is by far my favorite thing of all time. She also makes this relish with zucchini and green tomatoes that will knock your socks off when you put it on a hot dog.”

  Bryant went into the house with Harper. Almost as soon as she sat down on the couch, she was asleep. Covering her up with a soft blanket, he went to make a few phone calls. There was something he could do for Harper, and it was going to make her smile.

  Chapter 9

  Mark straightened his tie again. He was nervous, as nervous as he’d ever been. Being called before the franchise firm that owned the rights to his cable company was something he’d not planned on doing today. Well, any day, as a matter of fact.

  The call had come at six-thirty last night. There was no telling them to fuck off; the woman on the phone had told him, not asked, that he was to be at the meeting at eight-thirty sharp, and to bring his last two financial re
cords. He was to also bring his employee roster. He’d not been sure what that was, but when the email came with all the items he was to bring, there was an explanation of everything.

  Thinking about the last paperwork he’d gathered of his financial records, he’d not realized that not only the cable company that Bryant had worked at showed that he was the best at his job, but apparently he’d been holding up all his companies. Out of the six that were still open, he figured that Bryant was making about half of all his sales. And that was saying a lot, as he had about three hundred people that were supposed to be working for him. He’d take care of that number, to make sure they understood he was in this to make money, as soon as he was done here.

  “Mr. Shaw, the directors will see you now.”

  He knew this was the woman that had talked to him last evening. She had a voice that would make a person shiver like nails running down a chalkboard. But this wasn’t the time to get pissy with anyone. Thanking her politely, he entered the room.

  “Mark, I’ve been doing a bit of research on your businesses with my name on them. What the fuck have you been doing?” No, “Have a seat, would you like a drink?” Just both barrels hitting him as soon as the door closed behind him. “Sit down and hand over the paperwork. And for your sake, do not try and fill in the silences with chatter. I cannot stand a person trying to save their job by excuses when it’s probably too late.”

  Too late? What the fuck did that mean, too late? He’d done just what they said, Mark and had even been twenty minutes early. The paperwork was all there. Why call him in here if there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of saving his job?

  The woman that entered the room a few minutes later, he knew. It was the bitch who had gotten him arrested when he’d been trying to talk Bryant into coming back to work for him. And then Bryant entered the room.

  If he’d not noticed the woman, he might not have known Bryant. He had on an expensive suit and tie. His hair, usually unruly and dark, was pulled back behind his neck in a neat ponytail. It perfectly suited the man, as well as making him seem years younger.

  Clearing his throat just to make sure they knew he recognized them, Bryant spoke.

  “Hello, Mark. You’ll be happy to know that my wife and I have bought out the controlling interest, as well as your contract for your call centers. In addition to that, we’ve also called in an auditor to make sure that we’re not buying something that is already out of reach to bring back up to par.” He asked him what the fuck he was talking about. “I don’t know how to explain it to you any other way. You’re more than likely going to be terminated, I would imagine. Also, with you losing your job, we’ve decided that you’re going to have to move out of the house you’re in. From what I was able to figure out on my own, you’ve been charging your payments to the company, and since they’ve made more than half the house payments for it, we’ve taken possession of it.”

  “You can’t do that.” He looked at the other people in the room. “He can’t, can he? I mean, he worked for me. Sucked up all the overtime when it was there. Won contests that he always traded in for cash. Christ, this is a joke, right?”

  “I’m afraid it’s not. I’ve known Harper here for a great many years. She took my daughter’s wedding pictures for me. And every year since, she’s been there for us to take a family portrait. She’s not one to mess with, young man. And it seems that you have shit in her oatmeal by harassing her husband. You really screwed up with this family.” Mark didn’t remember the man’s name, and since no one else had introduced themselves, he was at a loss as to what to call any of them. “You should have been a better boss, Mark. I’m sure that you’re figuring out what I already knew. Bryant Prince is about the best there is at talking to people. Because of that ability, he’s become somewhat of a closer, if you know what I mean.”

  The man stood up, and in seconds, it seemed to him, Mark and Bryant were the only two in the room. Bryant had loosened his tie and pulled off his jacket. When he’d done that, Mark couldn’t have said. He had been too busy wallowing in his own misery.

  “How could you do this? I don’t mean to me, we’ll get to that. But how the fuck could you have gathered up enough money for you to have been able to buy me out? Did you start dealing drugs or some shit?” Bryant only laughed. “Seriously, what the hell did you do to me?”

  “I did nothing to you, Mark. You fucked up your own life all by yourself. As Mr. Augustus told you, you should have been a better employer, as well as man. You aren’t, I’m just figuring out. Did you really think that you could get away with charging your lifestyle to the company to claim that it wasn’t making a profit?” Mark told him it had been working until he had to get a burr up his ass. “So this, your failure as a businessman, it’s my fault too. I see. Well, I guess, as the saying goes, it sucks to be you.”

  “You can’t fire me, Bryant. I mean, how will I live? I’ve no other job that I can do that well.” Bryant pointed out that stealing from the company was not a job skill. “Shows how much you know. I was good at it. No one caught me in all the years that I’ve done it.”

  “Regardless, you’re not going to be able to return to your lifestyle at my call centers. I’ve put a guard at each one of the places we now own. Your badge, as of the moment that the call was made to you last night, has been disabled. In addition to your home being taken from you, so have your company credit cards. The bank accounts that you have, all of them, have been sealed, and you’re not to touch the money until such time as you pay back what you owe.” Mark again asked him how he was supposed to live. “Frankly, I don’t care. You were willing to and did fire me when I told you that my family needed the money to make ends meet. Now that I have a little more leeway in things, I can see that not only were you a bastard about a great many things, but you have also been cutting payroll down to cover your losses at the tracks.”

  “I love gambling. So what if I lost a few hundred bucks?” Bryant corrected him. “There is no way that I owe a quarter of a million dollars. You have that wrong.”

  A sheet of paper was pushed toward him. It had all the days he had been at the tracks in the last year, as well as how much he’d bet and lost. It was only for the last year, and he’d lost that much. He couldn’t fathom how much he’d lost over the last fifteen years of gambling. Pushing the paper back to Bryant, he said that it proved nothing.

  “Perhaps not with just your lousy gambling habit, but when you put it all together, it does prove a great deal. Mostly that you aren’t cut out— Let’s just say it…you’re not a very decent human being.” Mark just stared at Bryant. He’d never heard him say a terrible thing about anyone. “I just never had the opportunity to be able to not care what I say to people, so long as it’s the truth.”

  Mark left after turning in his keys to everything that he thought he owned, as well as his badge. They all knew that it didn’t work, so why they needed it was beyond him. Going out to the parking garage, he looked for his car where he’d parked it, and realized that they’d not wasted any time. Taking his car from him meant that he had no way of getting home, wherever that might be from now on.

  Mark knew that he had about six hundred dollars on him. It was, he supposed, all the money he had in the world at the moment. While he was contemplating the cheapest place he could go get something to eat, he realized that he was no longer going to be able to cash in his retirement fund either. He wished right then that he’d thought about putting money in an account that they’d not be able to find. Christ, he was such a dumbass.

  The police were at his home when he got there. There was a bag on the front porch that he’d never seen before, and when the cop standing there saw him, he brought the bag to him. It was heavy, and his thinking that it might have money in it was short lived when Officer Bonner spoke.

  “Bryant said we were to find you something to wear around. He also gave you some cash so that you’d not starve between jobs. I don’t know who would hire you after this hits the paper, but the
re you have it.” Paper. He’d not thought about how this was going to be public. His mom was going to have a cow. But then, she’d always told him that he’d never amount to anything. “Also, Mr. Shaw, there is a court ordered hearing on your behalf in ten days. I’m going to hand the subpoena to you now. I have on a body camera, so you will be recorded when taking it from me.”

  “Yes, all right.”

  It wasn’t this guy’s fault that he’d fucked up. So signing the form and taking the paperwork, he didn’t even bother reading it. Putting it in the duffel bag, Mark was resigned to the fact that he was so fucked right now, he’d be lucky if he could enter a grocery store and not get arrested.

  Mark used to run four miles every day—he’d loved being in shape. Today, the walk from the meeting to the house had worn him out so much that he felt as if he needed a nap. Right now, on top of everything else, he thought that taking a nap on the road where he could be run over sounded like a wonderful idea.

  Moving toward a hotel that was outside of town, he passed a pizza joint. They were hiring. There was an added note on the sign that no experience was necessary, but would be helpful. He’d eaten pizza before. How hard could it be? Slap a little cheese on some bread, or whatever it was called, and voila, it was finished. Going inside, the scents and the hunger he was feeling seemed to have tripled in that moment. After going to the counter, a burly man asked him if he had an order.

  Explaining that he was there for the job, the man looked him over like he was sizing him up. Asking him questions as he answered two questions from the back, the man told him that he’d need better shoes, shorts, and that he’d supply him with one meal a shift, all the drinks he wanted, and what the pay was. Minimum wage was a far cry from what he’d been making before, but he took the job. Christ, how far had he fallen, he thought as he sat at one of the tables with a bottle of pop, the man called it, to fill out the necessary paperwork.