This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
World Castle Publishing, LLC
Pensacola, Florida
Copyright © Kathi S. Barton 2021
Paperback ISBN: 9781953271815
eBook ISBN: 9781953271822
First Edition World Castle Publishing, LLC, February 22, 2021
http://www.worldcastlepublishing.com
Licensing Notes
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews.
Cover: Karen Fuller
Editor: Maxine Bringenberg
Prologue
“Joey, there’s a call for you.” She turned and looked at the man she’d hired just yesterday to answer calls for her. “He said it’s important he speaks with you now.”
“Tell him to fuck off.” Turning back to the work she was doing, she knew that Harvey, her secretary, wasn’t going to last the day if he didn’t stop bothering her with little shit. “Well? Did you tell him?”
“No. He said he’d have to have the police come here if you didn’t want to hear what he has to say. I’m not sure telling him to fuck off is such a good idea.” She stomped toward him. “Don’t hurt me.”
That stopped her dead in her tracks. She’d never hurt anyone. Joey knew she had a volatile temper, but she never hurt people. Telling Harvey she was sorry for snapping at him, she picked up the phone and gave the idiot who called her today all she wanted to in the way of anger.
“You had fucking better have your ducks in a row, you uneducated couch potato. I’m working in the event no one told you. What the fuck do you want?” His laughing wasn’t something she thought was helping. “I’m hanging up now. If you ever call here again, I will—”
“Your niece, Rebecca Hightower, has been murdered.” Joey slid to the floor, her legs suddenly no longer strong enough to hold her up. She asked the man if her husband had done it. “At this point, we’re only assuming he did. Not that he was the one that pulled the trigger, but I think you understand what might have happened. Her daughter, Becky, is staying with my family. Becky told me I wasn’t to trust your sister, Margaret, with any information.”
“No. Don’t call her. She and Peter are close. I think she is still having an affair with him despite him being married to Rebecca. Where are you?” Ian told her his name as well as where they were. “And Becky? Is she hurt too? It wouldn’t be any sweat off his balls to kill his own child.”
“She’s fine. Scared out of her mind. The doctor told us she was dehydrated and malnourished. We’re taking care that she is getting plenty of food and water. Rebecca is tagged as a Jane Doe for now. The police are friends of the family and have taken precautions to make sure no one knows of her death or that she was found. Becky told my daughter that her father would kill us all if he were to find us helping her.”
“More than likely, he would. He’s not the best of people to be around.” Joey thought of all the things she knew about Peter. “I’d like to come and see Becky if you think it’ll be safe. I don’t want her hurt either. She and Rebecca have been through a great deal while she was married to that fat fuck.”
“You certainly have a way with words.” She laughed with him. “If you don’t mind me saying so, I thought that with you being Becky’s great aunt, you’d be—at least sound a little older. You can’t be much older than Rebecca was.”
“We’re all three the same age. Margie and I are twins. Rebecca is my older brother’s daughter. He was only sixteen when he got this girl, Sheila, pregnant. Mom had just found out that she was going to have us. It was a race, Mom used to tell us, to see who delivered first. We were born a day earlier than Rebecca. My brother committed suicide about a week after his child was born.” Ian told her he was sorry. “Me too. I have no idea why I’m telling you this. You more than likely have a lot of things going on there too. Anyway, I’m not going to be coming there until I hear from you. Also, call me on my cell phone from now on. If you call and I don’t answer, it’s because I’m working. But I will return your call if you leave me a message.”
After giving him the phone number, she told him she wanted to speak to Becky if she could. Ian told her he’d make sure she called her back when he returned home tonight. She was staying with his wife and her sisters.
“Christ, man. How do you live in a house full of women? You must be the most patient person in the world to be able to do that.” Ian laughed, and she had to smile. He had a good laugh, one she thought she’d like to hear more often. “Just keep me updated, please. And when the time is right, I’ll tell my sister. She’s a pain in the ass most of the time, so I won’t subject you to that. Also, if you could tell Becky I love her, that would be great. Thanks for telling me, Ian. I’m sorry you’re involved in this. But I do appreciate you taking care of Becky for me. She’s the best thing Peter ever did.”
After hanging up, she sat there on the floor, wondering what she was supposed to do now. If it were up to her, she’d hire someone to kill Peter off, then live a very happy life behind bars. But she’d made a promise to Rebecca that she’d not kill him or hire anyone to kill him. She’d feared for her life.
“Joey? Am I fired?” She looked up at Harvey and realized she had to be a nicer person. When a man older than her was afraid of her, then she was most certainly doing shit wrong. She told him she was sorry. “I knew you said no phone calls, but when he told me the police would be involved, I thought it best that he told you instead of the police showing up. That really would have upset you.”
“It would have. You did the right thing in that.” She told him again she was sorry. “I’ve been under a great deal of pressure with this work. I don’t want to mess it up, and with all the stress of that, I tend to be snappish. I’ll work on trying not to make you fear me in the future.”
“I thank you for that.”
She nodded, then stood up. When he went back to his desk, she went back to her workroom. Being a clothing designer wasn’t as glamorous as people saw on television and in movies. It was difficult work trying to keep one step ahead of the people in the same industry. Not to mention having an idea what colors would be hot when the next season rolled around. Not that Joey put that much stock in the trends.
Joey designed for the everyday woman. No puffy sleeves for her. Nothing made of taffeta or silk for this line. She did design clothing for evening wear, but her meat and potatoes were the things that women wore every day to work or even for shopping—sturdy clothing that stood up well to time, washing, and the seasons.
“If you were to ask me if I’d wear that color, I’d have to tell you no. What is that called?” She looked over at her best friend and the woman that had given birth to her. Her mom was her partner too. Joey told her mom the color. “Pumpkin pie? You have got to be kidding me. If I had a pie of that color, I’d think it had turned. What are you going to mate it to?”
“Purple.” When she picked up the paisley print she’d been searching for before the call came in, she hung it on the board in front of her next to the pumpkin pie. She knew it would work, but she still wanted her mom’s opinion. “What do you think? Too much?”
“No. I think it works well. I can see this in a shirt and the pie in a pair of shorts, or even a nice pa
ir of pants. I know you hate the word slacks, but that’s what I was thinking of when I saw it. I really do like it.” Nodding, she put the two colors on the plate with the design. “I have a feeling you’re avoiding telling me about the phone call.” Joey nodded but didn’t look at her mom. “What is it, baby? Does it have to do with Rebecca?”
“She’s gone.” Mom nodded but didn’t say anything as the two of them spoke quietly. “Becky is all right. Staying with a family in Ohio. I can’t go there until they figure out what to do about Peter. I’m also not telling Margie.”
“No. She’d be all over that. Crowing to the winds that she is going to be the next Mrs. Hightower. The two of them should have married, to begin with. Then it would have been over with for this family. You know as well as I do that she would have cut ties with us so quickly we’d need a birth certificate to prove she’s related to us.”
It was nearly nine that night when she heard from Becky. They talked for over an hour, and Joey felt so much better for it. She was being watched and taken care of. Also, she’d turned over the book and all the other things she’d collected in her young life to be put in the family safe. Joey wasn’t sure how good of an idea that had been, but there was little she could do about it from here.
After hanging up with her niece, she was ready for bed. But a call from her sister, of all people, kept her up for the rest of the night.
“What happened today at work?” She asked Margie what she was talking about. “You. You got an important phone call that sent you to the floor. What is it? Rebecca again? If you know anything about her, you’d better be telling me, Joey. You know she’s run off again with his child.”
“How would I know she’s run off? And the last time I remembered, Rebecca is a grown woman and can run off without people knowing about her whenever she wants. Are you having me spied on?” Margie said she was. “Why? What could you having me spied on do for you? I run a design shop, Margie. What on earth do you think you’re going to find out by doing that?”
“You never know. I did find out you were upset, didn’t I? Were you going to call me and tell me about it? Doubtful. When did you become so secretive, Joey? It’s not a good look for you.” Joey asked her sister when she’d become so paranoid that she had to have her watched. “When you started not taking my side when it came to Peter. He’s a good man, you know. You should have more respect for him. All those things the paper is saying about him are lies, and you’d know that if you were to get to know him a little.”
“I’m not even sure why you’d think I should care what his life is like. As for what the papers say, your little spy should have told you I don’t have a newspaper delivered, nor do I own a television.” Margie told her she told her that. “Goodbye, Margie. I don’t know where you got your information, but I’m not discussing my personal life with you. Call off your spy, or I will. And press charges.”
It was a woman. Joey decided she was going to take measures she’d never thought she’d have to with her own family. Making two phone calls, she felt better for taking a stand. In the morning, only a few hours from now, she was going to do what she should have done long ago, start keeping an eye on those that worked for her. Joey had been slacking on a lot of things of late. Well, no more.
Chapter 1
Pierce looked over the file that he’d been handed just yesterday after sleeping for another five hours. It was about the Shepherd’s store. As a part of the first time he went to a place that he’d been assigned, the health department would do an inspection as well as a complete background check into the people, and books were done separately from him. The reports usually got to him while still there. According to the letter accompanying the file, there were too many issues for it to have been submitted in a timely manner. Frowning, he opened the file while watching Demi wander around his office.
“For the record, I like that you do this. However, don’t have them sent to me until you have gone over it. Some of that shit isn’t anything I want to think about when I’m looking at what I might want for dinner. Yuck.” Pierce laughed at Demi. “I kid you not, Pierce. Thinking of a watermelon exploding in a Gaylord box was too much. But to have pictures? Christ. Just sick. But tell me, what do you think the issues were that made the report come in so late?”
“The thing is, it happens a great deal with watermelon.” He looked over the report. “They scored well. Clean bathrooms. Employees wash their hands. The only thing they got below a perfect score on is the parking lot cleanliness. I think the guy was looking very hard for something to be wrong, and that was what took so long. He was disappointed. There are a couple of things on my end. I’m not thrilled about the way they deal with the things that are out of date, nor what they end up doing with most of the food that is close to expiring. Couldn’t you donate that to some kind of home before it’s supposed to be going bad?”
“I honestly thought that was what they were doing. Not that it matters now, I suppose. I went there before this showed up. You’re right about the lack of customers. Also, the markup on things was too much. Just as you pointed out.” He told her what the management had told him about dynamic pricing. “Well, he priced himself right out of business. I did go by the other two places. You were right about them as well. Too close, and not even trying to compete with each other. I think a little healthy competition would benefit both.”
Putting the file away, he watched her as she roamed around the room, sitting down only to hop up and over again. He was glad she’d come by, but he knew this was more than a follow up meeting. Pierce thought it was the baby she was carrying. She asked him what he knew about Hightower.
“Nothing more than what was in the paper recently. I have spoken to him on occasion when in the Shepard store. The man demands that people shop for him, then has the cart brought to him to approve of the things in it. However, he’s being accused of a lot of things I have no doubt are true. Not that I believe his version of what happened to his wife, but as far as witnesses, there aren’t any. His daughter is supposedly out there, as far as he knows. I no more think, even knowing she’s safe, that her mom would have sold her to someone to hurt him than I think he’s a nice man. He has been accused of doing most of the hurting. Why?” Demi didn’t answer him right away. “Has the little girl or Meadow told you more since yesterday?”
“Both of them, as a matter of fact. One of them is that there is a book. I’ve seen it. I don’t understand it, as it’s written in some kind of code, but I’ll get it.” Pierce told her he had no doubt at all she’d get it. “I’m going to be a mom. I know you know that, but just the last few hours, I’ve been wondering what the hell I was thinking.”
“You’ll be a wonderful mom, Demi. I know you’re worried about being like your mom was, or even your brother and sister. But I’ve seen you around the other kids in the family. You’re great with them. And I also know my parents think you are going to be as well.” He laughed a little. “I think Ian’s daughters are picking up a few things from you.”
She smiled at him. “Meadow is loving having Jilly work with her. I have to admit, it’s fun seeing that little bit of a kid working a torch like she does. It’s only the little stuff that she’s doing, for now, clean up and such, but Meadow cannot believe how much she’s getting finished by not having to do that.” He asked her about Cybill. “Oh my, if there was more of a girly girl than that one, I don’t know if I’d want to meet her. She is so frilly, don’t you think?”
“She does have a style about her. But smart too. Both of them are.” Demi told him how Jilly had tested out of all her high school classes and some college. “I heard that. But she doesn’t want to celebrate it. I can understand that as well, not wanting to be the center of attention on things. I’ve always had a difficult time with that as well.”
When she sat down again, he watched her face. It was nearly as unreadable as Meadow’s. But the way her body stiffened on occasion made him th
ink she was— Then it hit him.
“Are you in labor? Now?” She nodded at him. “Christ, woman. I’m not going to have to deliver your child, am I? Where is Lucian in all this?”
“He’s on his way here to get me. I just needed some calmness before I went to the hospital. I knew you’d give it to me.” He wasn’t at all sure how to take that, so he just stood up. “Don’t go all macho on me, Pierce. I need the fucking calm before the storm rolls in.”
“Yes. All right.” He tried his best to be calm looking. Inside he was a royal mess. Nodding and asking her if she needed anything, he nearly wet himself when she asked him if he could do a delivery. “Don’t. Please, don’t even joke about that shit.”
“I was joking—sort of. I forgot to time them, so I’ve been doing that. They’re about three minutes apart now.” Pierce had no idea what that meant, so he screamed for Carol, his cook. After he told her what was going on, she sent him to find some blankets, as well as to boil water. It wasn’t until he was in the kitchen with every pot he could find on the stove that he realized he’d been played. He turned off all the burners and went to the living room, where he expected to find them both laughing their asses off.
“Well? Are you going to just stand there or help me, you moron?”
Well, he should have known she’d be cursing up a storm while in labor. As soon as his brother arrived with their parents, Lucian carried Demi up to one of the bedrooms and laid her on the bed. Pierce stayed in his living room, not saying a word to anyone. Dad, however, was having the time of his life.
“I know I got me a whole bunch of grandbabies, some of them not so much a baby, but this is the first one born to the family. I’m a little bit excited about that. Have you called the others in?” He asked his dad if he should. “Don’t know, to be honest. I would guess it might take a while. Don’t know a thing about birthing with a human. Do you?”
“No. I guess I wasn’t at school the day they talked about humans having a bear cub.” Dad told him not to be a snarky, smart aleck. “She was in my home in labor, Dad. I think I have a right to be snarky, don’t you? What if Lucian hadn’t made it? What would I have done?”
Pierce: McCray Bruin Bear Shifter Romance Page 1