“I know you do. But you never let it get in the way of what you’re doing. You do the job, and once you’re done, there are never any rocks left unturned nor any paperwork that you’ve not gone over.” Boyd knew this about her too. When he’d been looking up something to do with one of his patients, she’d helped him find not just the information on the disease, but also how to compare it to other findings that he’d been able to unearth on his own. “It’s a job you’d never have to leave your house for. I’d have your office set up with whatever you needed, and it would be updated and replaced as necessary. You could set your own hours, and there are bonuses, not from me but from the people I work with when a case is solved. Not the reason that I do this, but it does help a lot of people when the money is used for other things around the town.”
“You’re not a nice person. I’m sure that you’ve been told that plenty of times before. But I think that you should know that I am in agreement with them.” Lauren smiled, just as he thought that she would. “All right. But on a temporary basis. If I can’t work with you or you me, then we part ways as...well, whatever relationship we have now. Deal?”
“Yes. Deal. And you’re going to enjoy working for me. I’m a pushover.”
Everyone at the table burst out laughing. He did as well, thinking that this was either going to be a monumental mistake or the best partnership ever formed.
As they made their way into the large family room, Boyd thought of all the Christmases that he’d had in this very room. They were all memorable to him. And mostly due to the fact that every year since they’d all been babies, their parents had been taking pictures of them with all their gifts. Then the picture would be made into an ornament of some kind and the year added to it. This year was going to be too large to use, but Mom had said that she had plans for it. Boyd knew that whatever she did it would be epic, and just as memorable as the ones that hung on the tree every year.
He and his brothers had gone together this year and gotten their parents a trip. They’d been saying that they were going to take one since he’d been out of high school. They had gotten them gift cards to use for restaurants and the cruise, as well as made sure that they were set up in fine hotels with fantastic restaurants at every port the ship docked at for the night. The look on their faces when they opened the box was worth every penny of it, he thought.
~~~
Reilly was glad to have her dad at the celebration, even if it was only for the day. He was being extremely careful about what he did and how much he did, and she was glad for it. She didn’t want him to have any setbacks so that he’d not be able to get out of the hospital soon.
Sitting next to him after all the gifts were opened, Reilly knew that she’d been luckier than most. Her father could well have been killed that day had it not been for Boyd and Lauren looking for homes. She could have been easily killed too, by the same madman when he’d pushed her, thankfully, empty car into the traffic of the highway.
Her heart broke when she thought of all the families that had been hurt by Ross. And it would be harder on them this time of year to have a good holiday. Or, for that matter, have one in the future. So many lives lost due to one man.
When Dad put his hand into hers, bringing her out of her thoughts, she looked at him with a smile. He kissed the back of her hand and told her that he loved her.
“I love you too, Dad. I’m so glad that you were able to come here today. This is the best family that we could have hitched our posts to, don’t you think?” He laughed with her. “Did you talk to Jon?”
“Yes. And I did take him up on his offer. But we’re going to wait for a few more days before we trade blood. The trial is set for the new year, and Lauren thinks that it will go better if I’m not completely healed when it starts.” She told him that she understood. “I never would have thought that they could try a dead man for crimes. I’m still not clear on why that’s important, but Hawk pointed out that people needed someone to blame for this, and it was good that it was going to be done. I, for one, will be glad when it’s over and things can get back to normal.”
There was no normal, as far as she could see. Looking around the family that had taken them both in, she thought about what they were. Not human, any of them, thanks to Jon. And they were going to live forever too. Normal went out the door the first time she’d met Boyd and found out that he was her other half.
The children were put down for naps, at least the ones small enough to need them. If she was honest with herself, she thought she could do with a snooze too. But there wasn’t time for that right now. Clean up had to be done, and the boys, as Bea was forever calling them, had a kitchen to clean up. Boyd even did the dishes at home, saying that he enjoyed doing it.
Leaning back on the chair that she was in, she watched the twinkle of the tree lights as they bounced around the room. The fireplace was a gas insert, but it was no less beautiful. Reilly was looking forward to making their home theirs. Putting things around the house that was a part of their lives to blend in well with the things that were there. Making it personal was what Boyd had called it. The house was perfect for them, they just needed to put their stamp on it now. Reilly didn’t think she’d ever been this happy before.
There was something about sitting around a large fire in the fireplace with tattered paper and ribbons all round that made a person count their blessings. The family was sitting in small groups, talking about what they were planning or what they’d received. She had gotten so many gifts that she knew she’d be weeks putting them away. And Boyd had asked her to marry him. Nothing could be better than that, she thought with a yawn.
When she woke, the room was cleaned up and her dad was sleeping too. Looking around the room as she sat up, she smiled when she noticed that the room was empty but for the two of them. But she could hear them—the game or whatever they were watching seemed to be sparking some heated debates.
Just as she was about to stand up, Lauren came into the room with the president. “You’re awake. I’m glad. I need to speak to you about something. I do hate to bother you today, but this is important.” Jarvis said that he had something he needed her to do as he continued. “There is some trouble, I’m afraid, but I need to have all my ducks in a row before I make a decision on this. It’s important too that you know that I’m glad that you’re going to be working for me. It will make all of our jobs much easier.”
He handed her a thick file as he sat down. Reilly noticed that Lauren had left them, closing the door behind her as she went. Opening the file up, she looked at Jarvis when she saw the first picture there on the top.
“Where was this taken?” He told her that was what he wanted her to find out. “And these bodies, do you know who they are?”
“No. Other than what I’ve been told in the demands that were put to me. They say that they’re one of the families that I’ve been using as informants, but there is something off about the picture. Lauren has looked it over, and while she had some insight on it, she can’t tell me anything more about it than that they look like the couple and their child, but she can’t be positive. And you know her well enough that she’d need to know one hundred percent that it was them before she acted.”
She laid the four pictures out on the long table and looked at each one of them. There was something off about them, but what it was she couldn’t see it right now. The next thing in the file was the demands.
It was handwritten, or so it appeared. But she could tell right away, by the font and the way that the words were put to the paper, that it was just that, made to look like it had been written by someone’s hand. Putting it aside, she asked Jarvis some questions as she went.
“How did this come to you?” He told her that it had come via email. “And did you open this, or was it brought to your attention by someone on your staff?”
He didn’t answer her right away and she looked at him. Reilly didn’t know him well enough just yet to know if he was stalling or thinking. Then he asked he
r if she could please wait a moment, Lauren was going to set her up on the clone that she had of his computer at the office.
Lauren came in a few seconds later with two men and Hawk. When he stood at the closed door, she felt a finger of fear. Just as she was going to tell them she didn’t want to do this, Lauren told her to look. The computer was running a video of the people lying on the same floor as in the pictures.
“I snapped the pictures off the video. As you can see, they’re in their own home.” Reilly was handed a picture of the family sitting in the living room that they had been supposedly killed in. They were laughing and holding each other, posed for the camera she supposed. Setting it aside, she watched the video twice before asking if that was all. “No, we have the letter that you have in your hand. It was a picture too, but he also had the original delivered to him via one of the staff this morning. These are only copies of these things. The real copies are being studied by the Feds.”
Reilly started moving things around on the table as she went back and forth to the computer. She never spoke to the people in the room again. In fact, they could have been gone for as much attention as she was paying to them. When she asked Lauren what she saw, she told her, in detail, what she had seen in the video and the pictures.
“There aren’t any pictures on the mantel. Also, I don’t know if this is important, but the time of the year is off.” Reilly said that she’d noticed that as well. “Yeah, the jammies are wrong for this time of year. Also, the mother has her wedding band on the wrong hand.”
“No, the picture has been reversed. See the buttons on the man’s jammies? They’re on the wrong side. So is where the fire implements are placed.” Lauren said that she’d not noticed that. “I’m sure that you would have. Also, did it say how they were murdered, if they were?”
“You don’t think they were murdered?” Reilly told her what she thought. “They’re not dead? How did you come up with that?”
“Okay, here is what I’ve seen. Aside from the reversal of the picture and jammies, there aren’t any decorations of any kind. No tree. There are no lights reflecting off the skin, and it’s much too staged. When I was a child, I had special Christmas jammies that I only wore that night. These kids are not only in summer things, but they’re not any kind of cute things kids seem to love.”
“Okay, I see that now. According to the letter, they were killed last night. So that is wrong. What else? And Christ, you’ve not even opened the computer and you’ve found more than I have.” She took her over to the computer then and showed her what she’d been running. “Where did you get that program? I need it.”
“I wrote it for this kind of thing. The video is cut together from several others. In addition to the mantle being undecorated, the kids are younger in the video than they are in the picture. The mom has had her hair done too. I can get into her calendar too, if you don’t care if I put another program on here.” Lauren told her to do it. Reilly went to her purse and pulled out the thumb drive that never left her person. “While it’s downloading, there is something else you should see. The video. The parents are breathing.”
It wasn’t much, the movement of their chests, but if you were watching carefully, you’d catch it once in a while. The kids weren’t, but that didn’t bother her overly much. Reilly pointed out that neither of the children were facing the camera.
“Why is that important? Not that I don’t believe you, but why would that be something that you’d point out to me?” She told her what she thought. “So, this entire thing is staged. Going so far as to put nose cannulas in for the kids to be able to breathe. Why? Are they in on this? Is the entire thing a ruse to get the president to make.... Christ, that’s it, isn’t it? They want him to make this announcement to discredit him.”
“That’s more than likely it, but without more details, I’m not sure enough to let anyone run with it. If you give me a couple of hours, I can have some of it for you.” Lauren told her to take her time. “I’m going to need something else if I’m going to be doing this. I need a more secure network. I can build it, but I’ll need untraceable equipment.”
“You’ll have it. I had no idea that you could write programs and build networks, Reilly. How did that get by me?” Reilly just looked at her. “Ah, so that’s going to be something I have to find out on my own. I have to admit, I didn’t have any idea you were so brilliant. I knew you were smart, but not this good.”
“I’m better.” Reilly felt her face heat up when Jarvis laughed. “I’m sorry. I’m not usually so snarky about myself.”
“You are, but we’ll just keep that between the two of us.” Lauren asked her what else she needed. “You know you can have whatever you want. And it will be untraceable. I’ll make sure of that myself.”
After giving Jarvis the list, Reilly worked for another two hours. The equipment that she’d requested was brought to her, and so was the printer that she wanted. As she worked through what she was finding, she kept asking herself why. Why would these people, or the people that were making the pictures, go to so much trouble to discredit the president? But in the end, that wasn’t hers to find out. She was the information getter in this, not the solver.
By the time dinner rolled around, she had everything that she could find out and handed it to Lauren, with the stipulation that she not tell anyone about it until she read it over. She had never done anything like this before, not really, and she didn’t want to have any mistakes. Lauren was still laughing about that as she put the file in a safe. The two of them sat down and pretended that they’d not just worked on a murder of sorts.
“How did it go?” Reilly winked at Boyd and told him that she’d gotten the better of Lauren for once. “Don’t let it go to your head. I’m sure that even as we speak, she’s plotting to get back at you.”
Reilly didn’t doubt that one bit. It was going to be fun working with her. She wasn’t under any delusions that she’d win a lot with the other woman, but it would be fun when she did. Passing the potatoes to Hawk, he winked at her. This family was going to keep her on her toes, she was sure of it.
Chapter 12
Boyd entered the small room with his file and noticed that the little boy he was seeing today was asleep. Lowering his voice to talk to the woman who held him, she looked up at him and smiled brightly.
“He’s not been sleeping well. And I bring him here and he just falls asleep. I don’t even know why.” He touched his fingers to the little rosy cheek and was startled by what he felt when he did. Running his hand over his tiny head, he tuned the mom out while she went on about how exhausted she was with him not sleeping.
He reached out to Mac and asked her if she had time to come in and see the little boy. As soon as she entered, he took little Ryan from his mom and handed him to Mac. She looked at him as soon as she touched him.
“He’s a little underweight, I’d say.” Mac looked confused, but she didn’t say anything other than to assess baby Ryan while she held him. “I can also see that he’s not sleeping well. Dark circles are not just for new moms, are they?”
It occurred to him that she wasn’t feeling what he was and took Ryan back in his arms. Boyd looked at the mom, trying his best not to look concerned, and told her that they’d like to weigh him and do some blood work. He’d bring Ryan right back when they were finished.
Leaving the room, his mind started working on what to do for the small child. The touch had given him so much. More than he might have gotten if he had just examined the child. He’d have to talk to Jon when he saw him again, and find out just what he’d given him when they had exchanged blood that day.
Boyd was sure that before the blood exchange, he would have sent the baby home and been done with it. And in as little as a month the little man would have been dead. Letting out a breath so that he could center and calm himself, he looked at Mac.
“Jon, he gave me some of his blood. At the time I thought it was a lot, but I was doing something and didn’t get around to asking
him.” Mac nodded but said nothing, apparently waiting on him to get to the point. “As soon as I touched my fingers to his face, I could feel the tumor pressing against the back of his eyes. It’s not large, about the size of a pea right now, but it’s hurting him in ways that he doesn’t understand.”
“Where is it? Can you tell me that?” He pointed to his eye and explained to her what he had felt then seen when he’d held him. “And you don’t think it was there before? I mean, when he was in here last.”
“I don’t know. I didn’t— What do we do? If we leave it, he dies. But how do I continue with a more thorough examination when I’d have to tell her what happened?” Mac told him to let her handle it. But in the meantime, she was going to make arrangements to get him examined at the hospital. “All right. What do I tell the mom?”
“Boyd, you know what to tell her. Why are you freaking out?” Why was he freaking out? He looked at her and then down at the sleeping child. “He’s in a great deal of pain, and exhaustion is more than likely why he’s sleeping now. Tell her so we can get permission to operate if that is indeed what you saw.”
“I did see it.” She said that she trusted him, but they had to act now, not when he wasn’t freaking out. “I’m not freaking out.”
Mac just cocked a brow at him and he took little Ryan from her. All the women in his family were like that. They didn’t have to say what was on their mind, just do one of those brow things and the men were ready to hop to do whatever they wanted. Boyd decided he wasn’t going to allow any of his children to do that. It would annoy their own children when they had them. Or spouses. He was babbling in his mind, and snapped that kind of thought closed in order deal with the problem right now.
“Mrs. Shelby, I’d like to run some more tests on him at the hospital, such as extensive blood work and a few x-rays. If he’s not sleeping well at his age, then there is cause for them.” She asked if there was anything wrong with him. “At this point, I’d rather be cautious than not. He’s a little fella and we need to find out the best way we can what’s wrong with him. And since he’s not able to tell us, we have to look until we’re sure that we’ve done our jobs for him.”
Boyd_McCullough’s Jamboree_Erotic Jaguar Shapeshifter Romance Page 14