Jimmy knew that he was feeling sorry for himself. He hated that about himself lately, but he was in just too much pain to care what others thought of him right now. Making his way back to the camper, he showed the picture to Lisha, and pointed out the man that Rogen had married, as well as Jamie.
“He’s a tall young man now, isn’t he?” He sat down, the breakfast that they’d had, even lite as it was, weighing heavily in his belly. Lisha ran her fingers over the children. “I wouldn’t have known either of them had it not been for you pointing them out to me.”
“I had the same trouble. I did sort of recognize Rogen, but I would never have Jamie. The man she married, it says that he’s a doctor. I’m happy for them both, aren’t you?” She nodded and got up to clean up the mess that they’d made. “Lisha, what do you want to do about this? Go see them or not?”
“I don’t know. Do you think it would be easy to get a phone number for them? Just to see if we’d be welcome? I don’t think we will be, but you never know.” He said that he could try the hospital where they were. “All right. I’ll drive the rest of the way. I wouldn’t imagine that it’s all that far, would you?”
“No. I can look it up on my phone.” He pulled out his phone and looked up the city that the newspaper said that they lived in. “Lisha, we’re less than a hundred miles from them. I’ll see if I can find a hospital near them.”
It only took him ten minutes to find out that there was just one hospital close to where they lived. And it was a huge one too. He waited until they were driving before he called the number that he had for the main offices and waited on hold for only a moment before a cheery voice asked him if she could help him.
“Yes, I’m looking for a Doctor Thatcher Robinson. Could you please see if he’ll call me back today, please?” She said if he held on one moment, she’d see if he was in the hospital. Before Jimmy could tell her that he just wanted him to call back, giving him enough time to get his heart rate lower, he was on hold again.
“Dr. Robinson, how may I help you?” He shuddered a little, and the man at the other end said his name again before talking. “Is this an emergency? Do you need an ambulance?”
“No. I’m all right. Right now anyway. Nervous, as you can imagine. Well, you might not be able to because—” He cleared his throat. “Yes, get on with it. I’m Jimmy Hall. You married my daughter recently.”
“What is it you want, Mr. Hall? If you’re thinking to disrupt their lives again, I’m telling you right now, you’re going to regret it.”
Jimmy started crying, babbling too. The man at the other end just waited until he was in more control of himself.
“I’d like to tell her and Jamie that I’m sorry.”
~*~
Thatcher went to see his parents. He had something that he wanted to talk to them about, and he thought that of all the people that he needed help from, they were his best bet. His mom was the only one home, and she was working on a crossword puzzle when he joined her in the living room. She asked him what had happened.
“Nothing. Not yet anyway. I have a dilemma. I got a call from Jimmy Hall this morning. He wants to tell Rogen how sorry he is.” His mom put the puzzle on the side table and looked worried. “I haven’t told her yet, and I told Hall that I’d get back to him. That I needed to think if I wanted her to know. He seemed to understand, but he cried a great deal.”
“Do you think that’s what he really wants? To just tell her that he was sorry? I swear to you, son, if he hurts either of them, I’m going to take him out.” Thatcher told his mom that he did believe him. “Then you let her decide. And Jamie. They’re both stronger than anyone realizes, I think. But in this, I think that they need to be made aware of him and his wants, and that they need to make that decision. But you tell Rogen that we’ll be there with them when and if they do.”
“He’s dying.” Mom asked if that were true. “I’m not sure, but I believe him on that as well. He only has a few weeks, more than likely less than that if his symptoms are right that he told me about. Hall has stage four soft tissue sarcoma.”
“Oh no. That poor man.” Thatcher waited while his mom sat there. “Why did you come to me first, Thatcher? Surely you know that you have to tell Rogen and Jamie.”
“I do. I don’t want to, but I know that I have to. She’s so happy, Mom. I don’t want her to be depressed about this. Or be guilted into seeing him. I wanted you to tell me how to word this so that she’s not thinking that I want her to see him.” She asked if he did. “Yes. I don’t know why, but it might be good for all of them if they spoke once more. He doesn’t want to be a part of her life; he told me that several times. But he just wanted to tell her that he was a horrific parent and that he was sorry.”
“That would be hard. On you as well as Rogen. Jamie, I don’t think he’ll be up for seeing them. He doesn’t think that they should be alive. They tried to kill that young man and did in fact change the course of his life by what they did.” Thatcher said that he knew that too. “Honey, in your heart, what do you want to say to her? You have to have some idea.”
“I do, but wording it might be an issue with her. She’s very bitter about them. And as I said, she’s so happy right now.” Mom told him to do it, tell her just like Jimmy had told him. “I thought that was what you’d say. I even took notes while I was talking to him. Just in case I needed to refer to them when I’m telling Rogen. I hope this goes as well as I’d like for it to, for her sake and Jamie’s. I love that kid like one of my brothers.”
“Your father and I were just discussing that this morning. I’ve adopted him in my heart, and so has he. He’s not really that slow, is he? I mean, he does have a childlike way about him, but he’s very smart. I’m betting that has to do solely with Rogen helping him.” Thatcher said that she still worked with him every day. “Good for her. All right, son. You let me know what she says after you tell her. And you make sure she knows that I’m here for her, whenever she needs me. Poor darling. To have gone through so much and still come out on the high end of the stick. You did well with finding her, Thatcher. You couldn’t have done better if I had picked her out for you myself.”
Thatcher went home after telling his mom that they’d be over soon for dinner. Jamie had taken to eating out at restaurants with Thatcher’s mom and dad almost nightly. It was good for all three of them. Jamie didn’t let them sit on their butts at home, and Jamie got to have fun.
Rogen was working when he got there. She was buried deep into something, as well as and had a headset on. He didn’t bother her with telling her he was home but watched her work. It was small wonder that she was trusted with this job. Rogen knew her shit, and she didn’t take any shit from the men and women that worked for her.
“You do see that. It’s right fucking in front of you. And as big as a barn. Again, it’s an Oldsmobile, dark blue with four bald tires. You tell me again you can’t see it and I’ll come there and shove it up your ass.” He could tell that wherever they were, there was a great deal of sand, and it was hot. “That’s it. Give the soldier a prize. Plant the tracker on the back near the gas tank. He’s still bitching about his bill.”
He could almost hear the person at the other end but was not sure what they were saying. Rogen turned just enough to see him and winked. Thatcher blew her kisses. She wrote on a sheet of paper that she was going to be there for a little while longer, and did he want to take a run afterwards. Nodding that he would, she went back to work.
“He’s coming out now. Make yourself one with the building.” He could see the people on the monitors. She had about four of them going right now. One inside the restaurant, and two on the street level of the place. It took Thatcher a moment to realize that the fourth one was inside the Pontiac that they’d planted the tracker on. “The tracker is working. I have him now. Get your ass out of the car; he’s coming. Once he leaves the area, you guys can go back to your unit. He must have slipped by me when I was looking around in the restaurant. Sorry guys.”
/>
She watched the car for several moments, but also the people as they walked away. One lingered, and she drew the camera closer to his face. It wasn’t anyone that he knew, but she must have. Rogen told Private Jones to get his ass in gear.
The explosion took Thatcher’s breath away. He’d not heard all of it, but enough to know that it was close. Rogen tossed her headset off and put her hands over her ears. She was cursing up a shit storm when he asked her if she was all right. It was then that he realized that the Private Jones was simply gone—there was nothing left of him but his rifle and one boot.
Before he could tell her to shut things down, she was moving from the place she was at to the monitors that were down at the other end. She was moving the curser so quickly that all Thatcher saw was blurred blues and greens. When she had whatever she’d been looking for, the cameras stopped.
When Rogen called out for an air strike it surprised him. She not only directed them where to go by giving them the longitude and latitude, but she told them what the man was wearing and what he was doing.
“He’ll be packed and out of there in about four seconds. If you don’t get him there, I don’t know if I can keep him under surveillance.” He heard the man answer her at the other end. He told her that they were in sight of the location and were firing in one second. The building that the man had been in disappeared and the low flying jets zoomed by without another sound. “Job complete. Make sure you mark the area too. It’s not a place they might use again, but we have to clean out the nest.”
He had an idea what she meant but didn’t ask. When she picked up the headset again and hung it on the hook by the computer, she turned to look at him. She looked pained, worried even, and he asked her to come sit on his lap.
“You need to be down here with me all the time, I think. When you hold me like this, it makes me feel better. I hate having to guide them to kill someone.” He asked her if it had been necessary. “Yes. He killed an American soldier, and he’d continue doing so if he wasn’t taken out. It’s bad enough that the man that we’re tracking needs to be taken out as well, but that isn’t for me to say. They have an idea that he’s got bigger bosses. How was your day?”
“I heard from your father today.” Not the way that he wanted to tell her, but she didn’t move except to stiffen up. “He wants to meet you and Jamie. I talked to him for a good hour, and he only wants to tell you both how sorry he is for being a shitty parent.”
“What did you tell him?” Thatcher told her that it was up to her if she wanted to see him. “You’re not going not make me? You’re not going to say, ‘It would do you good to finally end it with them’?”
“No. I won’t tell you that. I think it would be good for you to be able to tell them off, but no, I’d never make you do anything.” She got up off his lap and he felt chilled without her warmth. “He’s dying. He has stage four soft tissue sarcoma. Cancer all over his major organs as well as his brain. He doesn’t have long left.”
“Why did he call you?” Thatcher told her what Jimmy had said, how he’d just wanted to leave a message, but they put it through. “Did he mention my mother?”
“Yes. He told me that he was teaching her to read while they drove. And that they’re eating better, though he did mention it was too late for him, and they were getting out more. I even asked him how they got here. Jimmy told me that he wanted to talk to you about that as well. Both of us. Do you think Jamie will want to see them?” She said probably not, but she didn’t know his mind. “Me either. I told him that I’d get back to him about it. That I wasn’t going to talk you into anything, nor was I going to tell you to do it.”
“You think I should? I’m not asking for you to tell me what to do, just a question.” Thatcher told her that it couldn’t do any harm for her to speak to them. “And if they get out of hand? Or want more from me than I’m willing to give?”
“My mother said that she’d take them out for you.” Rogen laughed, and then asked him how she knew. “I went to her. For my own peace of mind. I didn’t want you to do this unless you wanted to, so I asked her to show me how to tell you without coming across as demanding that you did it.”
“Thank you for that.” She paced a little bit more and then sat down. “I think they have bank robbery money. I’ve traced the money to a couple that robbed the bank and killed three people. Not my parents, but somehow they ended up with the truck that was used. Not somehow—they stole it. And so far as I can trace it, the people that did the deed have no idea who it is that took their truck. Because it was stolen, they can’t involve the police either.”
Thatcher laughed. It was funny, really. They robbed a bank, stole a truck to get away, only to end up with nothing. And a couple of people that probably needed it to see their children took it and had been living it up since. He told Rogen what he’d been thinking.
“No, they’re not living it up. I don’t think so anyway. The only money that has shown up from the robbery is two one hundred-dollar bills. One was used to buy food, the other for camping. I’ve found out that they’re in a camper.”
“You knew they were coming.” She said that she’d hoped they weren’t, but yes, she had an idea. “And I would assume that you’ve thought about what you’d say to them? If they showed up?”
“No. I mean, I did until you told me that he was dying and sorry. I don’t know if I believe him on either thing, but I want to talk to Jamie first.” Thatcher thought that was a good idea and told her. “Will you be there if I do want to see them?”
“I promise you, Rogen, I will never leave your side. This I promise to you.” He hugged her and told her that he loved her. “Also, I wanted to warn you that the newspaper has a picture of us on our wedding day. I didn’t think that they’d be able to print that without our permission.”
“Free press. And it’s fine. I got a copy of it, and I’m thinking of having Jamie frame it.” She smiled at him, and Thatcher felt his heart melt for her. “I’m going to keep my men on standby, just in case this goes badly.”
He would never play poker with her. Right now, like a lot of the time, he had no idea if she was joking or not. Morgan said the same thing. She was just that good at keeping her face neutral.
Chapter 8
Lisha didn’t want to get out of the truck. They’d not been able to park their camper anywhere, so she had it with her. Even Jimmy, who was sleeping more and more, wasn’t aware that she’d made it all the way to Rogen’s home. Sitting there, trying to decide what she should do, she finally got out just as someone came out of the big house.
They stared at each other for several minutes. It was Rogen; she knew who it was from the picture. Jimmy had cut it out of the paper and hung it on their refrigerator. It was silly, she supposed, but they had nothing else of their children. When Rogen came toward her, the big man came out too, but he never left the porch. Lisha was glad. If Rogen was going to cuss her out, she didn’t need others to hear it.
“Hello, Mother.” Lisha couldn’t help it. She broke down. Sitting on her knees in the gravel, she cried hard. It had been so long since she’d heard those words that she thought never to hear again. “Where’s Dad? Did he decide not to come?”
“No, he’s resting. He’s not well. We know that it’s not right to be riding back there while we’re driving, but he’s been so ill.” Lisha looked up at her daughter. “You’re beautiful. I’m sure that your new husband tells you that a great deal.”
“He does. And that he loves me. Something I never heard from you.” It was no less than she deserved, and Lisha stood up. “Thatcher’s family is here. They want to meet you.”
“And you, Rogen, do you want to talk to me too? I know that we were never good people, and we’ve come to terms with that, I think. Coming to see you, we only wanted to tell you how sorry we were. You never did anything to us, but...I’m messing this all up.” Rogen told her that she was doing fine. “We stole this truck and camper. I mean, we knew what we were doing, but we only had o
ne thought, and that was to get to you and Jamie.”
“He’s not coming to see you. I’m not even sure that he wants to see either of you.” Lisha nodded and looked away from the pain in Rogen’s eyes. She had caused this, and there was no doubt in her mind that she was getting just what she deserved. “Why don’t we get Dad, and then we can go in the house? That way we can talk.”
“All right. He’s usually out by now, when the camper stops. He must be nervous.” She went to the back to the camper and tried the door. It was locked. “He’s ever done that before. I guess he forgot. Your dad, he forgets a lot of the time. And he’s in a great deal of pain. Let me just get the keys.”
The keys were in the truck and she got them. Her hands were shaking so badly that she wasn’t sure that she could open the door. When she finally got it open, still babbling to Rogen, Lisha went in first. She found Jimmy still sleeping. Lisha told Rogen that he was still in bed, that it wouldn’t be a moment.
She saw the letter on the table that was addressed to Rogen. There was also one for her on the microwave. That scared her more than anything. Jimmy had written to her as well. Hurrying to the bed where he was, she shook him several times before she realized that he was dead. Jimmy had died.
Screaming out her pain, because she was in so much of it, she called for Rogen. Her daughter was gone, and Lisha knew that she wasn’t going to be with her right now. But her husband came in and asked her to move back. A doctor, Lisha remembered. Rogen was married to a doctor.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Hall.”
It was all she had to hear to know that her life partner, her best friend and lover, was really gone. In that second, Lisha blacked out. Jimmy was gone, and she didn’t want to live any longer.
When she woke up, she was in a lovely bedroom with a quilt laying over her. There was someone in the room with her, an older woman that was working on the newspaper. Lisha asked her where she was.
Thatcher: Robinson Destruction – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance Page 9