Orion pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Eleni has belonged with us from the beginning.” He gazed at the other women in the room, his brother’s wives or soon-to-be wives. “I think all of you have belonged with us from the beginning. Our father used to talk about pack. He used to talk to us about how important it was to keep the pack together. I don’t think I realized at the time what he really meant by that.”
As if to underscore Orion’s words, there was a knock at the front door. Jason wordlessly rose from the floor and went to answer it. Eleni held her breath. Was it Tisha or Eleni’s mother there to spoil the whole morning? Was it something worse? Was there now someone serving court documents to the King family? Was Eleni’s personal disaster of a family somehow affecting the Kings?
But Jason returned only a moment later with a huge man on his heels. It was so odd. The guy was very obviously a King. He had the same facial structure and eyes. His hair was dark russet red instead of black or blond, but that didn’t seem to affect the resemblance. His build was heavy and muscular without losing any hint of athleticism. He moved like an animal. In fact, the man did not seem as though he were very far from his animal ancestors at all.
And that’s when Eleni realized who this was. “Gemini!”
He turned and smiled at her. “Eleni!”
She did not want to know how he knew who she was. Eleni had a feeling that, much like Orion, Gemini knew who everyone was. Without getting up off the floor or removing his arm from Kami’s shoulders, Orion offered a hand to Gemini.
“Welcome,” Orion told the other man. “I’m really glad you could come spend some time with us.”
Gemini lowered himself to the floor and lounged on his side with his weight resting on his elbow. “I’ll admit that I was a bit surprised. But it’s not like I have other family to spend Christmas with.”
Eleni smiled at Gemini. “Then we’re glad you could be with us.”
“Yeah!” Kami chimed in. “We’re all a bunch of refugees anyway.”
“Nice. Then I’m in the right spot,” Gemini joked.
The conversations drifted back and forth across the circle. Packages were soon gone and yet everyone still lingered by the tree. Christmas music played in the background and it was almost as though the singers were talking about their little group. The warmth and the obvious sense of family was overwhelming. When Eleni looked around at the group, she felt like she could actually make it through the bullshit with her mother and this entire disaster with Mac King’s last will and testament.
Eleni had no idea how long they had all been sitting there on the floor when she spotted something truly strange coming down the stairs. Her breath stuck in her throat as she struggled to decide if this was the ghost of Christmas past or something worse like a demon from the pit of hell.
“Oh. Shit.” Somehow Jason’s muttered words put it all into perspective. He reached out with one foot and kicked at Orion. “I thought you went upstairs to look around.”
“I did.”
Orion obviously had not yet turned to see the apparition coming down the stairs with what was obviously an expensive duvet wrapped around her shoulders. It appeared there were nightclothes of some kind beneath the duvet.
“Why?” Orion frowned at his brother. “And starting a kicking match with me should be on your short list of stupid things to do. My legs are longer.”
Gemini cleared his throat. “I think Jason is referring to the creature coming down the stairs.”
“You!”
The shout rang through the house. It was shrill and angry and the voice cracked as though the person yelling were hoarse or suffering from some sort of throat problem. Eleni cowered behind Orion now as the thing that was obviously Tisha Olivares-King hissed and spit at all of them.
“Why are you in my house?” Tisha nearly fell to her knees at the bottom of the steps. At the last second she grabbed hold of the newel post and held tight. The thing creaked beneath her weight but held fast. “You do not belong in my house.”
“That is my cue to go,” Gemini huffed as he started to rise.
“No.” Orion’s arm shot out toward his half brother. “Tisha is actually the one that doesn’t belong in this house. And as one of my father’s recognized heirs, you actually own this house more than she does because you’re a representative of the company and you can inherit. So it’s not her house. Not yet anyway.”
Gemini’s eyebrow rose. “Not yet?”
“It’s complicated.” Orion shook his head. “I’ll explain later. But Mother needs to go back upstairs and finish sleeping off her binge. Just like I should warn her that I know she didn’t actually drink the Absinthe.”
“Is that—?” Skye was leaning forward as though she were itching for a camera. “Holy crap, it’s vomit! Is she actually covered in puke?”
“Yes, that would be vomit.” Orion pressed the knuckle of his index finger to the center of his forehead. “Mother! Get your ass back upstairs before I call and have you committed on a seventy-two-hour hold just so we can get some peace and quiet around here.”
“What?” Tisha sounded not unlike a bird squawking just before it lays an egg. “You can’t do that! That’s... that’s…”
But it was readily apparent that Tisha did not know what that was. She was just blowing her anger out on them without anything in the way of a plan or anything else. Eleni still cowered behind Orion. She didn’t want to be noticed. She didn’t want the—
Too late.
“Eleni Ariosa, what are you doing in this house?” The shrillness of Tisha’s voice made Eleni’s ears crackle in protest. “You don’t belong here! I forbade you from being in this house just like I forbade your whore of a mother!”
Whore of a mother? That was rich. Eleni clamped her teeth down hard to keep herself from saying anything in return. She could not say what was on her mind. She couldn’t say anything at all. Maybe that was why it felt like her head was about to blow off.
“Mother!” Orion said sharply. “Don’t you dare speak to Eleni that way! She is my fiancée and the woman I’m going to marry. If anyone belongs in this house it’s her. If you’ve got some ridiculous fight going with her mother, that’s your problem. That doesn’t have anything to do with Eleni.”
“Doesn’t have anything to do with…” Tisha slumped to the bottom of the stairs. She swiped at her mouth with a corner of the duvet. She really did look like a horror movie special right now. It was actually kind of sad. “You don’t get to make that call, Orion King! I am your mother!”
“Yes. My mother. And I’m a thirty-year-old man,” Orion said drily. “You need to get your ass back upstairs. I know exactly what you were trying to do with your set-up. You wanted us to feel sorry for you. You were jealous of our plans and you were willing to do anything to insert yourself in the middle of them because you wanted it to be all about you! I’m sick of that bullshit, Mom! It’s not about you. It’s not about you at all. And at some point you’re going to have to realize that!”
There was absolute and utter silence in the room after Orion made his statement. The words seemed to hang in the living room. And then all at once Zane started to clap. Landry joined in, and soon enough the entire family was clapping. And as if their mockery was too much for her shriveled little soul to deal with, Tisha Olivares-King promptly collapsed right there at the base of the steps.
Chapter Twenty-Three
For just a moment Orion was almost positive that his mother was bluffing. What better way to make the whole day about her than to fake a collapse and force the party to not only stop but also send them all rushing to her side as they struggled to make sure that she was all right?
So when Eleni ran to Tisha’s side, Orion was a bit miffed. He got to his feet but did not go to his mother. Gemini didn’t rise. He leaned back against a sofa and continued to watch the events unfold as though he weren’t exactly sure what he needed to do in this situation. The rest of the brothers were in the same boat. They were all so used t
o their mother’s dramatics, that they could not help but believe that she was faking.
“Tisha?” Eleni knelt beside Orion’s mother and lightly slapped her cheeks. “Tisha, you need to wake up. Tisha?”
The slap of Eleni’s hand against Tisha’s cheeks was rather loud. It kind of suggested that she was actually smacking her. Surely Tisha would not have allowed Eleni to touch her like that. In fact, there was no way in hell that Tisha would have let Eleni anywhere near her. Not when Eleni was tied genetically to Alaina and Alaina was on a list of people that Tisha currently hated.
“I think we have a problem,” Jason muttered. “What do we do with that?”
Orion pinched the bridge of his nose. He could see Devon sucking in a breath and holding it as though he were about to erupt as well. There was no choice. They had to take their mother to a hospital. That was pretty much a given right now.
“Let’s get her in my truck,” Orion suggested. “We’ll take her to the hospital around the corner and dump her in the ER.”
“You can’t just dump her!” Eleni sounded absolutely incensed. “You should call an ambulance!”
Devon shook his head. “You must be joking. You want to give her that kind of attention? It would be a disaster!”
“Attention? The woman is passed out.” Eleni gesticulated wildly at Tisha’s body on the floor in front of her. “You cannot just toss her in a truck and dump her at an ER.” Then Eleni motioned to Kami. “Help me. Please?”
There was no doubt in Orion’s mind that Kami was not amused by the request, but she didn’t argue either. Instead she heaved a giant sigh and immediately went to help. Orion could read the shock on Devon’s face as he watched this play out. Then Skye and Landry followed suit, Landry running to open the front door as Skye grabbed a set of keys from the counter.
“I feel like we should be following them,” Devon mused to Orion.
Gemini snorted. With his arms crossed and his body lounging like a lazy statesman, he looked as though he were watching a play. “I feel like you guys are in so much trouble right now that it doesn’t really matter what you do.”
“Thanks, big brother,” Devon snorted.
Jason folded his arms over his chest. “At the moment I feel like I’m ready for my mother to kick the bucket. It’s wrong. Yeah. But seriously? The woman is a disaster. And now she’s trying her damnedest to drive a wedge into our relationships and our family.”
The women already had Tisha out the door. The sound of an engine rose above the Christmas music in the house. Orion knew that they should all be going to the hospital, but he could not bring himself to worry about it. Not really. This whole thing was moronic. And Jason was right. Mommy dearest was just trying to ruin all of their lives and that was about it.
“What was that you were saying about the house?” Jason wanted to know. He rubbed his face. “We’re all in the doghouse. At this point I figure I’d rather know what’s going on. Is this the meeting thing that I missed yesterday at the lawyer’s?”
“Yes, actually. It was.” Orion outlined quickly for Jason and Gemini where they were at regarding that whole mess. “I don’t think it’s going to be as difficult as we might think. Tisha can’t be happy like this. She’s struggling to force her plan to work, but nobody is cooperating. Not us.”
“And not the Dunlops either,” Devon pointed out. “I spoke with Dunlop the other day and he was getting fed up with what he called our mother’s double dealing.”
Orion felt a bit bad about Tansy Dunlop, but at the same time he was tired of pretending something that wasn’t going to happen. Ever. “Because of Tansy?”
“No. The family doesn’t give a shit about marriage.” Devon’s dark admission was a bit much. “They want the company and they are afraid that there’s something going on in that probate court that’s going to prevent it. Randall kept probing me for information about the proceedings and asking me what the judge might decide. It’s plain he actually believes that all of us are supportive of the sale.”
“Did you tell him otherwise?” Zane asked, voice rising in irritation. “You have to let that ass know that we have no interest in selling our company!”
“I don’t think it’s quite that easy anymore.” Devon’s expression was dark. “We don’t know what deals Mother has made on paper.”
Gemini exhaled a long sigh. “That’s your winning ticket. Sure, it makes a mess. But look what else it does. You’re talking about illegal promises she’s making on paper. That’s a paper trail you can take to the judge and prove that she’s attempting to sell the company right out from underneath you before there has been any judgement about whether or not she can even legally make that decision!”
“What makes someone do that anyway?” Orion grumbled. He was still trying to wrap his head around the notion that their mother honestly believed they were so weak and so malleable that she could make decisions that deeply affected their lives and their financial security without even bothering to ask if they were okay with it. “Does she seriously think she can just tell us to sign here and agree to whatever she wants?”
“Any reason she shouldn’t believe that?” Gemini snorted. He held out his hands. “I’m not trying to pull anyone’s tail here, but you have to think about how you guys have let her walk all over you in the past. Right? Why would she feel like anything was going to change?”
A niggling doubt in Orion’s mind made him feel suddenly nervous about Eleni being anywhere near Tisha. “I don’t think we should leave Mother alone with our women. Just a thought.”
“Not a bad one either.” Jason was already walking toward the front door.
Of course, that was about the time that the first police car showed up in the driveway. Orion groaned out loud and heard his siblings do the same. It was Christmas. Didn’t the Dallas PD have anything better to do with their time on Christmas Day?
“I have one guess as to what happened here,” Gemini murmured. “And you’ll all have to forgive me for slipping out the back door.”
“Go ahead,” Orion encouraged. “At least that will mean one of us isn’t in a jail cell.”
With shocking ease and a smoothness that Orion could not help but envy, Gemini shifted into his wolf form and slunk out the back of the house. No doubt he would pretend to be a large dog in the backyard while the police were on the property. After that he would just disappear back to the ranch on the outskirts of the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.
Must be nice.
“King brothers! This is the Dallas PD, we’re coming in!”
“Wow,” Devon muttered. “It’s like someone told them we’re standing in here with weapons or something.”
Zane exhaled a sigh and put his hands up. “One guess as to who that might have been.”
Four cops came in through the still open front door. Orion did not raise his hands. He held them at his sides. He didn’t understand how it was possible for the police to honestly believe that there was any chance that the brothers had somehow been violent toward their mother. Or perhaps there was just no way of knowing what bullshit story she had told them.
“Hello, gentlemen.” Orion reached for a coffee mug and lifted it toward the four police officers. “There’s fresh coffee in the kitchen. Would anyone like some?”
“Fresh…” The cop lowered his weapon and put it back in his holster. His nametag read Paulsen. Somehow Orion felt like this guy had been in and out of the standard King family drama for a lot longer than he was probably happy about. “I would love some coffee. And then maybe you guys can tell me why your mother just filed a report at Erhart County General saying that the four of you assaulted her and were trying to kill her when your women intervened and took her to the hospital.”
“Divide and conquer?” Zane suggested to Orion with amusement. “Do you honestly think she really believes this will work?”
Paulsen snorted. Devon had already disappeared into the kitchen for coffee. Paulsen looked at his comrades and then back at Orion. “Believe
me, your mother thinks it’s working. And she has a visitor at the hospital who is backing up every wild tale that your mother wants to tell.”
Orion was pretty sure he was going to be sick. “Alaina Ariosa?”
“Gee, how could you guess?” Paulsen said sarcastically. “Between those two I think the entire department is ready to invest in earplugs.”
“So are we being arrested?” Jason wanted to know. “Because I have to tell you that I’m thinking there is not a good Christmas dinner available in Dallas lockup.”
“Unfortunately, you are correct.” Paulsen pulled out a pair of handcuffs and waved them in front of him. “Maybe we could all stop somewhere though.”
“Meaning that you have to take us down to the station,” Orion grumbled. “Let me guess. Our mother was savvy enough to say that we used a deadly weapon.”
“Yep,” Paulsen confirmed. “Which, of course, requires us to at least take you down for processing.”
“What about after that?” Jason wanted to know. “You can look all over the house. I think there are probably guns here, but most of my father’s guns—and ours—are out at the ranch. If there’s anything here it’s for home defense and it’s probably in Mother’s bedroom suite.”
“Got it.” Paulsen waved at one of his colleagues.
“Last door on the right!” Jason shouted after the cop as he ran up the stairs.
Orion gazed at the policemen. “So, back to the procedure. We have been accused, but not charged. Correct?”
“Yes.” Paulsen bobbed his head. He was dressed in a traditional policeman’s uniform. His hat was clamped beneath one arm and he had a very tired expression on his face. “I should have known that the holiday pay wasn’t worth the trouble.”
“How could you know that Tisha Olivares-King would decide she needed a boost to her Christmas that would be certain to make her feel important?” Devon quipped. “Our mother wasn’t the center of our family celebration this year and that’s a bit much for her to handle.”
Billion Dollar Wolves: Boxset Bks 1-5 Page 112