Fisher: Prince of Tigers – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  Homer called the jail at six-thirty to tell them to have Piper at the courthouse at eight. He even told them to take her by her trailer so she could clean up and get fresh clothes on. Homer felt so good about what he was about to do that he said he’d spring for breakfast for the officer and Piper.

  Leaving word at the little hotel, the only working hotel in town, for the family to be at the courthouse at eight, Homer said to tell them if they were late, he’d find them in contempt and put their asses in jail. Mentally rubbing his hands together, he was as excited as he’d been in decades.

  Homer had everything ready to go at seven forty-five. Piper arrived at ten till the hour. Her family showed up at eight right on the dot. Homer made a point of looking at the clock when they started bickering about the time.

  “You’re the ones that had Piper arrested. When I’m involved in such a thing, you can bet I’m going to make things convenient for myself instead of the fools that waste my time.” He banged his gavel on his dais and told them to sit down and shut up. “Now, do the two of you have an attorney?”

  “I wasn’t aware that we’d need one.” Homer asked them if they thought they knew what they were doing, suing their sister for the inheritance from their mom. “She took our mother’s home right out from under us. Then she told us she’d already sold it. We weren’t informed of any of that. Not to mention, she sold all the household items. Where does she get off doing something like that?’

  Homer asked Piper if she’d notified them. “I did, Your Honor. If you have all my receipts, you’ll find where I sent them each a certified letter two weeks before I put it on the market. Also, three months prior to Mom signing the house over to me, I sent them another certified letter telling them not only why she’d done it, but also offering them the opportunity to purchase the house from her for us.”

  “See? She just took it from us.” Homer pulled up the receipts he’d found in the file that held all the receipts. “I didn’t sign for anything from her either.”

  “According to the receipts here in my hand, you both signed the attached receipts. The courier not only wrote on here who had scrawled their names, but also what you were wearing when you did.” He looked at the two siblings. “Are you still going to tell me you didn’t get notified? It also says he has a recording of the two of you if there is still any question about you not receiving it. Shall I call the company and have them bring us over the video of you?”

  “That won’t be necessary.” Louis glared at his little sister. “This doesn’t negate the fact that she took our home from us. My sister Mary and I had plans for our two fifths each of that money.”

  Homer asked Piper why they were thinking they got two fifths. “Their thinking is that, as they’re married and I’m not, they should get a larger portion than I do.” Homer burst out laughing before he could stop himself. “I’m not entirely sure about their math myself, but that’s what I was told.”

  “I see.” He didn’t really, but looked at his notes and laughed a little while recalculating the totals to reflect their two-fifths. “Give me one moment here, if you please. I’m going to figure out how much things should have come to. Piper, did you also care for your dad when he fell ill? I believe you did. Didn’t you, child?”

  “Yes, sir. I was fourteen when he had his stroke. My sister and brother had already left home by then. I had to finish high school online, as I couldn’t leave them alone. Dad was a handful on his best days. After the stroke, he was meaner than a rattlesnake.” The little bit of laughter was sad coming from Piper. “Your Honor, I only asked for help from them when Dad was sick. Mom wouldn’t allow me to bother them anymore when they didn’t help with Dad.”

  “She was already living there, Your Honor. It would have been a waste of our time and money to have a nursemaid come in our home when she was already there. Don’t you agree?” Homer told Mary he did not agree. “Well, it’s too late now. They’re both dead and gone, so it’s nothing we can worry about now. We just want our share of what she got.”

  “Oh, but there is something you can worry about, young lady. I’m going to give you a running total of where the money went from Piper working, the social security that your parents received, as well as the sale of the house.” He had his deputy hand the three of them what he and his wife had come up with last night. “Now, let me go over these numbers for the three of you.”

  Homer had all the income written on the first page he’d given them. At first look, it seemed that there should have been more than enough money for a small family to live on. Piper did make good money. There was also the addition of the sale of not just the home, but the sale of the family car and the furniture that had filled the home. The car that the two of them, Piper and Mary Margaret, had depended on was forty years old and ran like it. He was glad to know that at some point, Piper had purchased a truck and paid it off to pull the camper they’d been living in for the last several years. Homer put the old car in the assets column as valued at twenty-five dollars. He was probably padding it too much, but in the end, it wouldn’t matter.

  “You see right here, Your Honor? She no more needed to sell the house than she did the furniture. She is going to owe us a great deal more than I thought.” Homer told Louis to hold his water. “Hey, I don’t mind at all now that I know she’s going to have to pay us more than we thought. This is so worth the extra night in the hotel for her bullshit. Hell, I won’t even charge her for what that cost us now.”

  Almost giddy now, Homer had the debt part given to them. Once they were looking at it, he started telling them the numbers he’d come up with. He’d made a call last night to find the going rate for full-time live-in care for someone. He knew that Piper would never have calculated that as something to charge her family for, but damn it, they’d started this.

  “Now, the way I see it, this young lady here is entitled to reimbursement for her time, as well as the nursemaid service she did for the two of you. And since you’ve decided you wish for two fifths of the estate….” He laughed at their expressions. “The way I have it figured out, you—you and your spouses, I mean—owe Piper nearly a hundred thousand each. Now we can take care of that here, or I can put you in a cell until such time you can pay—”

  “What the hell are you talking about? I am not paying her shit.” Homer told Mary to watch her mouth. “You old fool. She’s supposed to be paying us, not the other way around. It’s her that stole our mother’s house and sold it.”

  “Yes, she sold it because there was no other choice but to do so. It was that or your mother wouldn’t have lived as long as she did. Part of that money paid for her to have the medicine to help her day to day. The money from the sale paid for her to have treatments when it was needed.” He looked at Piper, realizing he’d hurt her in doing this. “I’m sorry it’s come to this, child. I truly am.”

  “I did the best I could under the circumstances. Mom and I had each other. I was able to be at her side when she took her last breath. We got to laugh and cry. If I had to do it all over again the same way, I’d do it. Simply because I was there when she needed me.” Homer hurt because Piper was sobbing now. “She was my world and I hers. We had to do what we needed and never let it take us apart.”

  “What would you like to do about the rest, honey?” She said that if the other two wanted to pay her, she’d not take it. It would be too little too late. Homer looked at the other two. “What do you have to say for yourself? I think you should be ashamed of yourself for the way you’ve treated your sister.

  “Nothing. She’s lucky she lives here in this little town, or we’d be the ones in the right.” Telling Rocky to get Piper out of here, he was happy that she hugged her niece and nephew before leaving. “So, she gets off scot-free, does she?”

  Homer dismissed the case and left the two idiots there to figure out their own crap. Once in his office, he sat down and shook his head. No one would believe what he
’d just witnessed. He didn’t much either.

  Chapter 2

  Fisher didn’t care so much for the way the man in the courtroom was treating his wife. But, as he was nothing more than the person that had found the body, he didn’t give two shits what happened to the man after this. Murdering his longtime lover because she’d gotten knocked up—his words, not Fisher’s—was still against the law.

  “Mr. Prince? There’s a phone call for you. I’m to tell you it’s important but not life threatening.” He stood up and moved toward the back of the courtroom. “It’s your uncle.”

  That stopped him in his tracks. “I don’t have a living uncle. Who did they say it was?” The bailiff told him they’d not given him a name, other than he was his uncle. “As I said, I don’t have a living uncle.”

  Fisher reached out to his family as he made his way to the office where he could use the phone.

  I’m with Mom and Dad, and they’re just fine. Dad is talking to Mom about who it might be. I know they had brothers, the two of them, but Dad thinks they’re all dead by now. He thanked Bryant. Are you going to talk to this person?

  Yes, but if you’d not mind keeping an open line, I might have some questions as to who this person is. I haven’t any idea what it could be about. He picked up the phone just as the others said they’d be nearby too. He was glad they weren’t blowing this off. “Hello, this is Mr. Prince.”

  “This is Homer Parkerson. I’m sorry to have pulled you away from what you were doing, Mr. Prince, but I didn’t think he was going to allow me to speak to you by just telling him I had a favor to ask of you.” Fisher asked him what was going on. “I was the sitting judge on a domestic case a few weeks ago. The girl, I guess a woman, was being sued by her halfwit sister and brother. Now, I want you to know I don’t usually say things like that, but they’re idiots of the highest order. Anyway, they’re at it again. This time it’s about the insurance money that— Not that it matters, but they’re after her again for things they think should be theirs. Nary a time in the last ten years have they done squat for their poor mother, leaving Piper—that’s her name—there to do everything on her own. Now they want to come after the insurance money that went to paying off the rest of the bills that were incurred in caring for their mother. Bunch of losers if you ask me. Can’t even find a single redeeming quality between the two of them.”

  “I’m not sure how you think I can help you, Judge, but if you need me for anything, I’m willing to help.” He told him what he wanted. “Do you think she’s in Ohio now?”

  “I don’t know for certain, but she’s driving this old camper that she and her mother fixed up. It’s all she has in the world, you see. And a truck she purchased a while back. She works from it too, I’ve heard. The camper, son, not the truck.” Fisher told him he understood, then asked again what he could do for him. “She was in the Smoky Mountains a few days ago. I’m not keeping tabs on her, but she sent me a postcard from there, telling me she appreciated my judgment call about her family. Sorry bunch of idiots.”

  Fisher laughed, then told his family what was going on. He told them too that the judge didn’t seem to care for this woman’s family any more than the sister did. The all clear was given, and he went back to the phone call. Asking him what he could do for him had the judge laughing.

  “Well, now, I have a friend that knows you, young man. Says that you can find things no one else can. I’ve taken the liberty of sending you some of the paperwork she worked on while her mother was ill. It was used in the courtroom, and as the judgment was never taken care of, I still have it in the file. It’s only been touched by me and her. I was hoping, from what I heard about you, that you could figure out where she is and tell her to be on the lookout for them. I don’t know that they’re dangerous, but with humans you just can’t tell.”

  “What are you, if you don’t mind me asking?” He told him he was a bird of prey, a hawk. “Mr. Parkerson, I’d be happy to take care of this for you. As soon as I get the paperwork, I’ll see what I can tell you about her.”

  “I’d need you to find her for you to tell her. I don’t know if you’ve ever been an attorney or not, but I can’t be finding her and telling her to hide out, because the case against her—those idiots again—hasn’t been closed as yet. This girl, she’s got nothing. Less than nothing if you want the truth of it. The camper she’s been living in for the last several years is older than she is. It’s a good one, I’ll tell you that, and they’ve taken care that it’s safe, but that and her job are all she’s got.” Fisher didn’t want to run down a person for any reason, but he told the man he’d do it. “I can’t thank you enough for this. She’s a good girl that has been taken advantage of. She’d not see it that way, taking care of her mother and father when they were ill. But those idiots would chew a bone near gone if they thought they could make a buck or two off it.”

  “Why?” Judge asked him what he meant. “Why are they pursuing this? Going after their sister when it’s obvious to everyone that she hasn’t anything they can take from her? And why didn’t they help her out with the care of her parents?”

  “Couldn’t tell you.” He told Fisher how the father had fallen ill when Piper had been no more than a teenager. Then after he died, she stayed on to be with her mom. “Then she up and got the cancer—sad thing that. They were starting to get things paid up, and then this happened. Piper was with her every minute too. From what I heard, at the hospital, she called her family several times to give them updates on her health. But all she ever got was their machine. Confounded people. Who does that to their own momma? Then when she passed on, they were even bitching about how the funeral should have been done up by them instead of Piper. I’d have hit them in the mouth if I’d had the chance. I still might before this is over.”

  “I’ll find her and tell her what is going on.” Judge Parkerson told him he’d pay him anything he set for it. “There isn’t any worry about that, sir. I haven’t been down south for a few years now. I’m thinking I might enjoy that.”

  When arrangements were made on how to get back in touch with the judge after finding the girl, he told him he’d leave as soon as he got the paperwork. Fisher thought about how families were so mean to one another and thanked his lucky stars he had one of the best.

  As the hearing he’d been working on had been put off until next week, he made his way home to find that the paperwork had arrived already. Fisher didn’t open the file until he changed out of his suit and put on something more comfortable to wear around the apartment. He had finally figured out where he was going to put his home, but he’d not thought too much about what sort of house he wanted. Probably something huge, he supposed. Even if he wanted small, the faeries would take the building he wanted and put it together, and make it larger just because they didn’t understand why someone wouldn’t want lots of room.

  The file inside the envelope was marked with dates and names. He loved the neat print the person who had written it had. When he touched the red cover to the folder, he felt the jolt of a connection right away. It took him several seconds before he realized he was getting more than he usually did from an item.

  Her face was there for him to see. She was a beautiful woman. Fisher could even see the lines of worry on her forehead, the only mar to her face. Also, she was stressed out. While it wasn’t late in the evening yet, she was in the camper and laying on the bed. That was when he realized she’d been crying. Everything in him wanted to leave right this minute and find her.

  Suddenly, she sat up on the bed and looked around. Who’s there? He was worried that her family had found her. Who’s in here with me? I can feel you. Tell me who you are right now, or I’m going to shut you out.

  My name is Fisher. Is that who you feel? She looked around again before lying down. Can you hear me?

  Yes. What do you want? And how did you do this? Fisher explained to her what he’d heard from the judg
e. I heard from them today. I should have changed my cell phone number, but that costs more money than I have at the moment. They think that Mom’s insurance should have been divided into five parts.

  Do you have more family than them? The judge only mentioned a brother and sister. She explained to him how she wasn’t married, so she only got a fifth. That’s stupid.

  Yes, well, that’s them in a nutshell. Mom and I barely had enough to live on, and they think I had it easy. Living at home while caring for my mom should have been great for me, as I was living there rent free. Fisher again didn’t understand humans. I’m not, you know. Not totally human. I mean, I used to be, but I got a little boost from a friend of mine. That was the only way I was able to work and take care of Mom all the time without getting ill myself.

  Vampire? She said that was it. I’m sorry you had to do that. I’m sure your mother appreciated you very much. I know my mom would have.

  She was my world. We made a lot of good memories. Fisher told her that was a wonderful thing, memories. So now that you’ve told me about them, does that mean you won’t bother me again?

  I don’t know. I have sort of enjoyed talking to you. I’ve never been able to do this before with someone. Mostly, however, I find things that aren’t anything more than a watch or some other piece of their lives. Most of the time, I’ll be honest with you, I hate doing it. Lately I’ve been taking on the extra work because I’m bored. She told him she’d not been bored in a very long time. Yes, well, I’ve been around for a lot longer than you have. Like decades and decades longer. I’m a black tiger, the first of our kind.

  There really are black tigers? Fisher leaned back in his chair and told her how they’d been born the first black tigers because the queen of the earth, Lady Aroura, wanted them around to help others like them along. What a wonderful story. I’m not sure I believe it, but it is a wonderful story.

  Fisher laughed. Why don’t you think it’s a truthful story? I mean, is it that I’m a black tiger, one of the first, or is it that I know the queen of faeries? She told him both. Fisher could already feel she was less tense than she’d been. I was coming there to rescue you. Be your knight in shining armor. But I guess you really don’t need me around now.