Hawkins_McCullough’s Jamboree_Erotic Jaguar Shapeshifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  ~*~

  Hawkins read the email four times. Now all he had to do was tell Jamie. Lauren said his name, and he was sure that she’d said it more than once. When she smiled at him, he felt the dread of telling Jamie all over again.

  “She’ll either answer him or not. What will it do to her if we find out that this guy is as off his rocker as Webley was? Remember that crackpot? That guy was fucking nuts all the way to his core.” Hawkins said he was good under pressure, though. “Yes, he was at that. Most of the time I would send him in first to see if anyone else would think he was as loony as we thought he was.”

  “He was a part of that restaurant bombing, wasn’t he?” Lauren nodded, her smile gone. They had lost five men that day. Good men who only wanted a hot meal that didn’t come out of a bag. “You don’t think she’ll be upset that we went ahead and talked to him without talking to her?”

  “No, I don’t. When we were talking the other day, she seemed as if she didn’t give a shit if this man was her father or not. She thinks it might have been a cover to capture her, but I don’t think so. She wants this to be over with one way or the other.” That’s pretty much what he’d gotten from Jamie. That if he was her father, she didn’t care. He’d not spent any time in her life. And if he was, it was too little too late.

  “This email, it’s very telling, don’t you think? I mean, he’s very forthcoming about what he thinks of a good reason to find her, as well as how he found out about her. This will make a difference to her, I think.”

  Hawkins didn’t want her hurt.

  When he’d found the name of the man who owned the building currently, it wasn’t difficult to discover from there that the same person was also searching for anyone that might have been there a long time ago. He got up to look out the window into the yard. The office out here in the barn was massive, and ran with the utmost high quality equipment. Lauren used it to help the president, and the family when they needed it as well. It was small wonder that Lauren had been able to track him down. She had access to every kind of database there was, he thought.

  “I’m going to look for his sons. Just to see what sort of people they are. I’m betting that they’re little goody two shoes that wouldn’t hurt a fly, and probably wear real pennies in their loafers.” Lauren thought that was an excellent idea, and he could hear her fingers running over the keyboard. At her loud whistle, he turned and asked her what she’d unearthed. “Holy shit, Hawkins. These men are the cream of the crop, and I don’t mean that in a good way. They’re fucking nuts.”

  “How so?” She told him what she’d found in only the first search. It was about one called Chad. “So, they went to a wedding that they’d not been invited to and destroyed the cake? Why, does it say?”

  “Because he could, according to this reporter. It also says that there were four men there that night, all of them Penningtons, that trashed the reception so badly that it had to be moved to another venue. They did several thousand dollars’ worth of damage, as well as took the wedding limo out for a joy ride and wrecked it too. Nothing was done to them, apparently, because their father, Marshall Pennington, paid everyone for their crimes. But this reporter says that he saw the elder gentleman sobbing for what had been done.”

  “Do you think that he pays everyone off every time one of them gets into trouble?” Lauren didn’t answer him, and he walked back to where she was sitting. Reading the article over her shoulder, Hawkins noticed that it was dated yesterday. He asked her to wait for him to catch up before she scrolled down. After they both read it, he sat down in the chair beside her desk. “He’s cut them off. Not only that, but he’s had to put in extra security, as well as changing locks on the doors to his homes and businesses. Why would someone put that in the paper?”

  “To let the world know that he is finished with them. Not only that, but as you read, he’s not going to be responsible for anything that they do, destroy, or steal. I guess that’s been a major issue as well.” Hawkins just shook his head. “This attorney, I’ve decided to give him a call. Just to see if this shit in on the up and up.”

  “Don’t.” She asked him why. “I don’t know. Let me talk to Jamie first, and then we’ll go from there. I don’t want to keep her in the dark of all this that we have so far. She needs to know where we are and what we’ve found out. She knows that we’re looking, she just doesn’t know how far we’ve gotten.”

  After asking for all the information that Lauren had unearthed, he gathered it all up and started for the door. He was standing there, just half way in and out, when he looked at Lauren. He had so much on his mind now that he wasn’t sure where to start with it all. Turning around but not leaving his position, he realized that this was how he’d felt about being home. In and out of it.

  “When we get this figured out about her dad or whoever he is, I’m going to take Jamie on an extended trip. Not a vacation, but a trip to see all the places I’ve been without her. I want to see them again through her eyes and not mine.” Lauren nodded. He thought that of all people, she’d understand. “I’m sleeping through the night now. No nightmares where I wake up with a gun in my hand, sweaty, in the dark. I’ve stopped writing in the journals and have been eating better. And it’s all because of her. I cannot, nor will I ever be able to, explain to her what it was like there. And to be honest, I don’t want to. When I think of all the things I’ve done in the name of justice, I want to sit in a corner and hide.”

  “I do understand, Hawkins. And I can feel your pain. Without your brother loving me the way that he does, I think I’d be right there with you, sucking my thumb. But, we’re both all right. A little beat to fuck, and have a few issues with stupid people, but we have someone that loves us, and an entire clan to lean on when we need it.” Hawkins nodded but didn’t move. “What else is it?”

  “I’m finished, for real. I don’t want to be called on to take someone out anymore, to steal back something that the government wants. Nor do I want to be on alert all the time, like I’m just waiting for someone to try and kill me.” He grinned at her. “Okay, the last part might be harder to do, but I’m done working like this. I’m going to be a father, and I’d like to be there for him. I need that.”

  Feeling better that he’d told her, Hawkins went out of the big barn, which had nothing at all to do with livestock or hay, and made his way to his truck. His plan today was to meet his dad and brothers in town and help work on the houses that they had lined up. But he had to talk to Jamie first.

  He told Dad where he was going and what he was going to do, and that he would see him later today.

  You go on now and tell that girl all you know. She has a level head on those pretty shoulders of hers, and she’ll do just fine with the information, whatever it is. He told him a little about what they’d learned. Well then, you tell her that we love her, and if she don’t want to go through with this, then that’s all right too. We’ll take good care of her.

  Hawkins told his dad that he knew that, and was sure that she did as well. Making his way home, he just hoped that he was right—that she’d not care a whit, as Dad said, and that she’d be just as fine as rain when it came to this family. But in his heart, he knew that meeting her family was going to be harder on her than she was letting on. If she wanted to, that is.

  Pulling in the drive, he saw her in the back yard. He had no idea what she was doing, but watched her. She was, simply put, a beauty and a wonder to him. Getting out of the truck, he watched as she turned into her flame and reached out to different trees on the land. She was clear cutting, he realized, and laughed all the way to her. She was very useful too, he thought.

  “I have some news for you.” She cooled herself off and kissed him. He noticed that Jon was with her too. “It’s about your father and his family. Do you want to talk about it?”

  “Not right now, if you don’t mind. Jon and I are seeing if, together, we are a bigger force. Sadly, we’re not able to connect that way. It would have been fun to share some of th
is with him, I think.”

  Hawkins wasn’t sure that he could handle any more power from her, but laughed when Jon pouted. The way he spoke and acted all the time, a person could forget that he was just a kid that had been dealt a nasty blow. Same with Jamie.

  “Later then. Whenever you’re ready. I’m going to go into town and work for a bit with my dad and the rest of them. If you change your mind, let me know and I’ll come here. All right?” Jamie nodded and kissed him again before he left.

  He was all right without telling her now. In fact, he was glad for it, for now anyway. Hawkins wanted all the details that he could gather before he was asked questions that he couldn’t answer. So, asking Lauren to give him all she found as she found it and why he wanted it, he lifted the first sheet of dry wall after getting to the house site.

  Chapter 13

  Jamie read over everything that she’d been handed. Lauren had called her about an hour after Jon left her and before lunch. Walking over there—it wasn’t really that far—she thought about what she’d been told so far about her father and her half-brothers. They didn’t sound like people that she’d like to meet anyway.

  But she would meet them. It was what she knew that she should do. Perhaps she wasn’t his daughter and he was chasing ghosts, but there was a tiny chance, at least in her heart, that she might be. When she got to the fence line that separated their lands, she paused to look around.

  It was beautiful back here in the deeper part of the woods. It was cooler too, and the animals, when you paused long enough, were more plentiful than they were anyplace else. There were wolves running around, and she knew that some of them were shifters, while the rest were natural born wolves. She envied them in that they could blend in so well with similar creatures. She wasn’t like anyone she had ever met.

  The birds were singing and making a loud noise, singing a song that made her feel lighter, her heart quieter, and her soul more complete. Sitting on a nearby rock, she watched the animals at play, foraging for food and simply lying in the rays of sun that streamed their way through the dense trees.

  There were deer and wolves aplenty, but there was also a family of raccoons out taking in the sights. A leash of foxes seemed to be as cautious as the raccoons, but neither of them bothered with the other. It was as if they felt no need to use their differences of prey and meal while in this area of the forest.

  As the animals got used to her being there, more of them ventured out of their homes. Birds were pecking at trees for a meal, while turtles popped their heads out and stretched their necks to get the juiciest green leaves. There were butterflies and insects too, their beauty only rivaled by the rainbows that danced over the stream when the sunlight, seldom showing itself here, peeked through the trees just a little.

  Jamie sat there, watching the animals as families, each of them feeling the same thing that she was as she sat there. A sense of peace. A feeling of calmness. And the love of family. All things that she’d never dreamed of having while she’d been all alone in the world. Then her thoughts turned to her father.

  Whether or not he was the real deal or not, she wondered why he wanted her in his life so badly. Did he want to sell her off? She didn’t think so. When reading the things that she’d been given this afternoon by a courier that Lauren had sent, she thought him to be lonelier than she had been. And just as unloved. Perhaps, she thought, she could help him as the McCulloughs had her.

  Getting up quietly, she finished her walk to Lauren’s to help her with a project and to catch up on the information that she’d been able to find. She hadn’t been sure that it was anything that she wanted—information on a man that she neither knew nor had any connection with. The fact that she might or might not be his child didn’t play into the fact that he was a troubled man.

  Walking into the building with Lauren, she knew what she had to do. But the moment that she stepped inside, she knew that something else had happened.

  “It seems that your half-brothers—if they are relatives at all—have decided that they don’t care for the way that your possible father has finally gotten his ball out of the jar and started to make them adults.” She asked if he’d been killed. “No, but not for lack of trying on their part. They ran him off the road when he was out jogging, and then came back and beat him with a blunt object. I’m thinking bat.”

  “Why would they do that to their own father?” Lauren told her that people had done more for less. “I suppose. But it doesn’t make it right. I’m not naïve enough to think that it never happens, but it seems to be happening more and more, don’t you think? Don’t answer that. Tell me, honestly, what would you do now?”

  “Honestly, I have no idea. But I do know that I would like to know for sure if he’s my father or not. I have a pretty great one now, but my biological parents were dirt. And I mean that literally. They lived in trash, treated me like trash, and were never good role models. I have a wonderful mother and father now, a little brother that I love more than I can explain, and someone that I can lean on when the going gets tough.” Jamie told her that she had heard about how the Burchers had found her. “Yes, they saved my life that night too. Had it not been for them taking me in, I wouldn’t be alive today. I know that. Someone else might have found me, and I wasn’t as mean as I am now. They would have done all kinds of things to me, then killed me and dumped me in an unmarked hole someplace.”

  Jamie wandered around the room. There was more equipment in this one place than she’d seen in a well-stocked computer store, or even a warehouse full of this stuff. While she didn’t know what it was all used for, Jamie knew that Lauren and even Hawk used it for their other jobs. Running her fingers over the computer screen in front of her, she spoke to Lauren.

  “When I was first taken to the lab, they told me that I’d meet my parents and that they’d take very good care of me. I didn’t have a clue what that meant—no one had taken care of me since I was old enough to understand what caring for someone actually meant.” She moved to another piece of shiny equipment, and just looked at it without really seeing it. “My family, as they called them, was a bunch of men in white lab coats that wore guns on their hips like one would a stethoscope around their neck. I was terrified at first, not having a clue what was going on. But then one night, after they had injected me with several different things that day, I realized that I had abilities that I’d not had before.”

  “You showed them, didn’t you?” Jamie nodded and moved around the room again. “They were thrilled, I take it.”

  “Oh yes. They celebrated like it was Christmas and they’d gotten everything that they wanted on their list. But I was locked away in a cage, in the same room with them, as they ate roast beef sandwiches, drank champagne, and ate cake.” Lauren no longer mattered to her. Jamie’s mind had gone back to that day like she was there still. “Cake. I wanted a piece of that cake so badly that I was drooling for it. And when I started crying, wailing for a piece of anything, they banged on the cage and told me to shut up, that their celebration was being ruined by my pettiness.”

  “I’m sorry.” Jamie waved Lauren off. While she hadn’t been able to do anything then, she had made sure that they didn’t know another thing about what she’d accomplished. “What made you stay there if you could have, at any time, left? If you don’t mind me asking.”

  “Where was I to go? The only places I knew were the orphanage and the lab. There was nothing in between. And as far as I knew, they were all like the people that I’d encountered thus far.” Lauren told her she was sorry again. “Don’t. But I’ve also been thinking about this man and his claim that I may be his daughter. I want to go through with whatever it takes to find out. Do you know what I need to do?”

  “Yes. I can contact his attorney and let him know first. Then we’ll take you to Mackenzie or Boyd and get your DNA tested. I can run it for you in less than twenty-four hours.” Jamie told her to do it. “All right. Let me send this email first. He might say no, and there is no point in
going farther if he’s not going to play ball.”

  “Do you think he’ll say no?” Lauren just smiled at her. “Yeah, I don’t think he will either. And for some reason—and I haven’t really given it a great deal of thought on the pros and cons of this—but if it turns out I’m not his daughter, I’m going to help him anyway with his sons. I don’t know how yet, but I want to.”

  “Good. I was hoping you’d say that. But before you meet the idiots that might be related to you, how about you and I take a trip? Just to the hospital that Mr. Pennington is at. It won’t take long to get there. He is out of recovery now, and should be able to talk to you before too much longer.” Jamie asked her if she thought that was a good idea. “I do. And I’ve already spoken to Hawkins, and he’s going too.”

  “Then why are you going? Not that I don’t want you to, but I’m curious.” She told her. “I don’t think they’ll hurt me. I’m stronger than all of them put together. Even smarter, I’d bet.”

  “Oh yeah, you are at that. But I’m going to keep you from hurting them. Because they have hit the top of my shit list. Honey, I don’t even want to get into how many people are on that list, and how many idiots they have passed to get to the top.” Jamie laughed. It felt good after her talk with Lauren. “Okay, Hawkins is on his way, as is a DNA test for you to take now. Then we’ll get going the minute he gets here. I have the nanny here all day in case I had to go out again. This will be fun. Or not. I don’t care at this point.”

  Hawkins seemed to be as thrilled about this as Jamie was apprehensive. There was so much that could go wrong with this. She may not like Mr. Pennington. He could be an asshole. Then again, he could be the sweetest man on earth that had simply been duped. Not just by his sons, but her mother as well, in what she’d done to him in the first place concerning her.

  Getting in the truck with the other two, she wondered if she was making the biggest mistake of her life. No, she thought, that would have been being in the lab for so long. This, seeing a man who she didn’t know, that was child’s play after the life she had led. But the men that were his children needed a swift kick in the ass, and she wasn’t going to take any bullying from them.