“What about the police? Should we let them know what’s going on?” Lucian shook his head at Gannon. “Why not? I mean, they have guns and a force to call on.”
“We have bears. And the less people who know about this, the better. I mean, we trust us. I sort of trust the police, but I would bet my life on my family rather than the police in something like this.” Demi told him he was right. “But I do wonder about the doctors. Should they know?”
Moses came in, telling Demi she had a phone call. When she left to answer it, Moses asked if they needed anything else. The man was unflappable. He and Bea just rolled with the punches as if they did this sort of thing daily.
“We’re fine, thank you.” Moses nodded, then turned back to them all as he was leaving the room. “Yes? Something else happen? Please tell me that it’s not bad.”
“No, sir. But I would like to tell you that in the sub levels of this house, under the basement, is a shelter. It’s been there since before the war. The family’s wealth and other items were hidden down there when the war was being fought around this town.
Even the women folk, my father told me, were hidden down there in case someone tried to take one of them.” He smiled. “My father also told me that he and the coloreds, what he called himself, hid down there for a time too. It was part of the underground railroad at one time. Shall I have it cleaned up and stocked, just in the event we need it?”
“Yes, please do that. And if you’d make sure that there are sleeping bags down there, enough for my family and your and Bea’s family as well, I’d appreciate it.” When he nodded and left, Lucian looked at his family. “I want every one of you to go find the
entrance to the place below and make sure you know how to get to it in a hurry. I don’t want anyone hurt if it comes to that.”
“Mom and Dad too.” Lucian nodded.
When Demi came back in the room, she was white as a ghost. Having her sit down, he handed her the small glass of amber liquid that Madden handed him. Demi drank it down in one gulp.
“They’re dead.” He didn’t want to ask her how. He had a feeling that he knew.
“The doctors. And their families. They were all killed not an hour ago. Not like the
Spring family was, but one was a car accident while the other was carbon monoxide poisoning. They’re all dead. We’re all on our own here.”
Lucian sat with his wife while the rest of them sat quietly. They were in over their heads again. Not like before with just money woes, but with a mass murderer coming to hurt them. Because he would before they’d allow this person to get Meadow.
“Go into town. Bring her back here.” Madden and Pierce stood up. “It doesn’t matter if you’re slick about it. He must know that she’s here. The only thing we have going for us right now is whether or not he knows what you guys are.”
His brothers left. They were told to bring back Meadow, as well as anything that she had there, things that had been brought with her that she might miss or need. Demi started telling them things that they’d need to do. Treat it like we’re about to be kidnapped, she told them.
“No one goes to town alone. We all stay here too. I know that you have jobs and businesses that you’re working at, but this has to be first.” Lucian asked what he could do. “There are guns in the locked storage room in the basement. It might not get to be a gun fight, but we have to be prepared. Also, there is a button down there. It’s bright green. Push it.”
“What does it do, honey?” She told him that she’d explain when he got back. All the way to the basement, all he could think about was that someone was going to be fried if they tried to breach the fence.
When he returned, Josiah had come from the dealership.
“Call Jamie and tell him that I need you here. He’ll understand that something is wrong if I need to call in the family.” Josiah said that he’d do that. “Also, you’ll need to stay here too, Josiah. I don’t want anyone out where this guy can try and use you against us. He will, I have a feeling. Especially if he starts to get desperate.”
By the time his parents were back with Meadow, things had been set up. The green button did electrify the fence, and the gatehouse was now closed as well. Demi handed them each a badge that would get them in and out, but only with their fingerprint. She showed him how to set them up with the computer. It was going to be difficult, Lucian thought, to get Meadow with all these precautions they were taking.
~*~
Josiah nearly fell back when he saw the woman getting out of the car. She was beautiful. Long blonde hair that was braided and hung down her back. Her hands and face, from what he could see, were as delicate looking as she looked. And when they
started helping her into the house, carrying her up the stairs, he stared at her for several minutes before someone hit him in the face.
“We can’t get her in the house if you’re going to stand there with your tongue hanging out.” Demi glared harder when he didn’t move. “Did you hear me? Get the fuck out of my way.”
“She’s afraid.” Demi told him that they all were. “No, of you. Not afraid really but scared all the same, and she’s my mate.”
“No fucking shit?” He didn’t know how to answer that in an affirmative way, so just moved out of the way and then knelt in front of her wheelchair after the door was closed behind her. “Josiah, are you sure? I mean, I don’t know the how of it, but could this be just that you’re worried for her?”
“No, she’s my mate.” He put his hand on hers and pulled his back when she did.
“She doesn’t like to be touched, does she? Gonna make it kind of hard for us, don’t you think?”
He was nervous too, and making jokes was his way of dealing with it. Or talking too much too fast. Putting out his hand, he wanted to tell her who she was to him, but he only waited, telling her what was going on instead of what was on his mind.
“He told my brother that you saw him. Saw his face.” She turned and looked at him, and Josiah was startled speechless by the color of her eyes. “You’re very beautiful, and the color of your eyes reminds me of the coldest ice on the pond by our home.
They’re not blue, but not gray either. Just beautiful.”
He wondered if she could understand him. No one had told him the extent of her injuries, only that she didn’t talk and that she wouldn’t walk, even though the muscles in her legs were worked every day. When she finally put her hand into his, Josiah felt like he’d won the grand prize at work. She didn’t smile or look at him, but Josiah was all right with this for now.
“We’re going to protect you here. This is my brother and his wife’s home.” Demi said that she’d been here before. “Really? When? I mean, surely that will help, won’t it?”
“I don’t know, Josiah. It was a long time ago. She came here for Christmas a few times with her parents. I wouldn’t have remembered her except for seeing the color of her eyes. I think her father’s were the same color.”
Meadow looked at Demi and then back at him. It was the first time that he felt like they’d made a connection, their eyes locking in some sort of understanding of each other.
Josiah told Meadow everything that he could remember from Lucian, and he didn’t try and sugar coat it. She was his mate, and while he couldn’t lie to her, he wasn’t going to have her not be aware of what was going on. Wheeling her into the living room, he sat on the floor in front of her, needing to be as close to her as he could.
When Moses said that dinner was ready, he sat with Meadow in the living room.
None of them knew what she ate or how she ate it. Was she able to get a shower alone?
Dress herself? The only persons they could ask were dead.
“We’ll just have to learn this as we go, I guess. I’ve never taken care of anyone in a wheelchair before, so this will be a first for all of us.” She looked away from him, and his heart hurt a bit. But she was looking at his mom, who had a tray in her hands. “Are you hungry? I am too. Let’s see what my
mom brought us.”
“She’s a lovely little thing, isn’t she, Josiah? My goodness, and to have gone through too much to get to you.” He’d not thought of it that way and told his mom that.
“Well, she has to be strong. I mean, someone tried to kill her, and did her entire family.
She might need you to help her, but I’d stay out of her way if she has it in her head to take care of business.”
Meadow watched him as he put the tray over her lap. He started to stand and help her get up in the chair better, but she did it on her own. That was when he saw the scars on her arm, the ones on her wrist as well. She was looking at him when he turned to look at her face.
“I’m sorry that you were hurt like this.” She didn’t say anything but did continue to stare at him. “When I find this guy, I’m going to rip his head off and feed it to him. Just so we’re clear on that. Unless, of course, you want to do it. I’m all for that as well. You’ll see that our parents raised us to think that if someone involved can do the job, male or female, then they should be the ones put in charge.”
She ate her mashed potatoes first. The gravy she scooped off and set it aside. There were green beans, which she ate too, but not the broccoli nor the carrots. The sliced ham was eaten, but not with her fork. Instead she picked it up with her fingers and ate it that way. Josiah was laughing when she pushed the corn onto her spoon and ate it with the gravy that she’d set aside.
“I’ll have to remember that. No broccoli or carrots, and you like gravy over your vegetables, not the potatoes.” Josiah handed her his ham sandwich to see if she would eat it too. It took her a moment to figure it out—her hand, the left one, didn’t work nearly as well as the right.
Dad bought them in pie later, and a glass of juice for Meadow. She had to use a straw—again, her hand did not work well enough to hold up a heavy glass. Josiah thought about holding it for her but knew that she’d tell him to fuck off if she could.
Josiah had a feeling that she’d been doing for herself for a long time now.
He also figured out that she didn’t care for sweets, at least what was brought to them. No apple nor cherry pie, but she did eat the whipped cream off one of the slices.
And when he set an orange on her tray, Meadow looked at it as if she hadn’t any idea what it was.
“When we were little, there wasn’t much money at home. All our gifts were hand made by my mom, and we did the same for the two of them.” He started to peel the orange for her, just to give her a taste if he could. “At Christmas we each got an orange, a rare treat for us, and an apple in our stocking. Mom still does that to this day, an apple and an orange at Christmas. Can you smell it?”
She didn’t answer him, of course, but she did take a small bite of the fruit. When she opened her mouth again, he put small pieces up for her to take from him. He didn’t
want her to get it all over her. Sharing the fruit with her, he told her about himself, what he was doing, and the house that he’d just gotten.
“It’s being renovated now. I have to think if I want an elevator in it or not. If we don’t have one yet, we’ll have one put in. I’ll have to ask Demi and Lucian, of course— they’re helping us out with the work being done on the house.” He thought about his car too, and that it was much too small for a wheelchair. “We’ll go shopping for a bigger car when this is over. That guy, he’s going to get his ass kicked all over the place when he gets around to coming here.”
“I’d like to show her a picture, Josiah. There are six pictures in her file, all of them men that were talked to after the murders. And since she couldn’t be asked, no one ever pointed the finger at anyone else but her.” Demi handed it to him. “She’s doing things with you that she hadn’t before. She would never let anyone help her, and she wasn’t to be touched. You’ve done both in the few minutes that you’ve been together. If you’d show her the picture, we’ll see who we might be dealing with. I’m only going to show her one at a time, however.”
He looked at his mate. She was staring at Demi in a familiar way. Josiah had a feeling that’s what she did to everyone she first met, trying to place them in her mind until she either trusted them or didn’t.
“This is a picture of one of the men that might be coming here, Meadow.” She looked at him. “I’m going to show you a picture of someone. I don’t know what you’ll do if this is the man you saw in your home that night, but it would help us to know who we’re dealing with, all right?”
Nothing. But it was no less than he expected. Slowly he raised the picture up from in front of him to let her see a little of it at a time. When he had it upright, she only stared at it then turned away again. Josiah thought that could mean anything. He looked at Demi, asking her about what sort of reaction she was expecting.
“I have no idea. But I guess I thought that if it was him, she’d be afraid. Or at the very least show fear on her face.” Josiah said that might not happen either, even after showing her all of them. “No. It might not, but we have to try. With a name, we can certainly figure out what sort of person we’re dealing with. If he has a record or not.
What his MO might be like on other murders. He was just too good at the murders. It was too planned for him to have never done this before. Right?”
“I guess.” Meadow put out her hand and Demi handed her the picture again. But she looked at it and put it down before putting out her hand again. Demi put the next picture in her hand. Neither of them said a word. “I don’t think that’s him either. And I think that she understands us more than that doctor told us she did. He seemed to think she was sort of brain damaged. I don’t think so.”
“I think you’re right.” The third picture got a reaction, but not what they had expected. Demi told him that it was of the doctor, Doctor Judson Little. Meadow had smiled. Then the fourth and fifth picture got no reaction. “Last one. It doesn’t mean that it’s the last one I’ll show her, but the last one in her file. A Doctor Little gathered these up, the file said, when the trial was over.”
Meadow screamed. It brought his entire family running when she did that. Her tears tore at Josiah, and he tried to hold her. But she wasn’t having any of it. He was ready to give up on trying when his dad said that he had to hold her, to show her that they would never harm her. So, fighting his way past her fists and hands, he put his arms around her, lifted her from the chair, and held her in his arms.
Sitting with her on the couch, he held her until she calmed down. It hurt him to have done this to her, but at least it was over. Demi said that they had a name now, one that they could work with, and it would go a long way in catching the bastard. When he wrapped a coverlet over them both, Josiah talked softly to Meadow, telling her how sorry he was that he’d done that. He stopped when he heard her whispering.
“Don’t move, you fucking cunt. I will kill you like the rest of them if you do.” Josiah called for Lucian via their link and told him what she was saying. Demi and he came in with a recorder and handed it to Josiah. “You should have seen them bleeding. The blood will be on the walls for the rest of your very short life, do you hear me? When I’m finished here, I’m going to rob this house of everything here. Then set it on fire. You never know what sort of DNA I might have left behind.”
“She’s talking about the murderer. He talked to her.” Demi said that it appeared so.
“Do you think that he talked to the rest of the victims? That he didn’t care if he talked to them because he knew they were all going to die?”
“He didn’t burn down the house.” He looked at Meadow when she spoke to him.
“He didn’t burn down the house because someone knocked on the door. He was frightened off. Someone scared him into leaving me there to die. I wish that he’d killed me.”
Meadow started crying, and he held her tightly in his arms. She was aware, his mind told him. Not only that, but she was remembering things since she was shown the picture. Or, she remembered all along and now trusted that she was going to
get help.
Either way, he wasn’t sure this was a good thing. Now she would be able to point the finger, as everyone had wanted her to do from the beginning.
“I don’t want you to die, Meadow. You’re my mate. Do you know what that means?” She shook her head and he smiled. “I’ll tell you, but you have to look at me.”
She did, and he was slightly afraid. Meadow didn’t like to be told what to do.
Laughing, he told her that he was only joking, but he did like looking at her. She laid her head back on his shoulder then and said nothing more.
“You’re my other half. My wife, by our laws. I won’t make you do anything, ever, that you don’t want to do, but I will protect you with my life. All my family will.” She looked at him then and told him that her family hadn’t been able to protect her and her little brother. “No, and I’m profoundly sorry about that. But we’re bears, and we protect what is our family.”
“I lost them all that night. Everyone that meant anything to me. But Danny, he was only six years old. He’d be fourteen now if that man hadn’t killed him.” Josiah said he wouldn’t wish for her to die. “I’m alone. No matter what you say, I’m all alone, and everyone believes that I killed them all.”
“I don’t.” Meadow looked at him, and Josiah could see that she wasn’t sure to believe him or not. “I know that you didn’t kill them, Meadow. My family believes that as well. And we’re going to make sure that the world knows it too.”
“How?” Josiah told her that he didn’t know, hadn’t a clue, but he’d do it. “I don’t know why he did that to us. Why? Why would he kill my family? They were good to everyone.”
“I don’t know, honey. But I will promise you this. When we find him, and we will,
Lucian: McCray Bruin Bear Shifter Romance Page 17