Nolan (5 page)
“As of right now my client is going to get a
guard outside this room.” When one of them started to speak, Joey simply raised
his head. “You argue with me and the conversation I’m going to have with your
chief is going to be one you’ll never forget. And believe me when I tell you
that you’re going to regret your actions today. You are going to wish your name
had never come up to come here. Get out of here now.”
As the two of them shuffled out, Joey turned
to Nolan. He could see the look in his eye now and it did not bode well for the
bad guy. Nolan looked at Rylee when she spoke.
“Why? I mean, it’s a done deal, right? This
person is going to be suspended or whatever, and Shane will be all right.” Joey
was shaking his head, as he was. “No. This isn’t right. They can’t do this to
him. To us. Tell me you’re kidding.”
“I wish that I was. And the school isn’t
going to be your biggest concern right now. Walter’s father has said that if
his son isn’t treated well, then he’ll take care of the little fuck that…sorry,
but he’s going to come after you as soon as he can.” Joey glanced at Nolan before
looking back at Rylee to tell her the rest. “The school is suspending only
Shane for now, but I know someone on the board that has taken a great interest
in this.”
Grandda laughed before speaking. “Yeah, my
Katie. You don’t want to mess with her and family. She’ll…she can be a mite on
the mean side when she’s all riled up, but once it’s family? Well, I’d hate to
be them.” He looked at Micah. “You gonna tell on them cops to that alpha? Have
them brought in for disrespecting your family?”
“I’ve already spoken to him.” Nolan wanted to
ask how that had gone over, but Micah only shook his head. “Things are taken
care of in that regard.”
Rylee looked at him and Nolan wasn’t sure
what to tell her. When she sat down, he could see that she was feeling defeated.
When she spoke, he knew she was.
“How is this even possible? He’s the injured
party in all of this.” She looked up at him. “He’s bigger, an adult, and he had
a switchblade at school. How the hell is any of that even right, or them saying
that Shane is the bad guy in this?”
“I don’t know, love, but I intend to find
out. Joey is going to help too. And as much as I’d like to tell you that I
think you can handle Victor yourself, I think that you’re going to need all of
us to help you. And I know you’re going to hate this, but I think it would be
best if you moved in with me.” She nearly fell leaping up from the chair, all signs
of defeatist gone and the angry woman in her place.
“No fucking way.” Shane, behind her, started
laughing. Even Grandda did after a couple of seconds. Before Nolan could ask
her to listen to him, the door behind them burst open and there stood Victor
Simpson and his fucking bastard of a son.
~~~
Micah stood up and moved to the door. He knew
this man…hell, they all did. He was one of the meanest men that ever walked the
earth, and it looked as if the apple hadn’t fallen far from the tree with the
son. He came into the room like he owned it, and Micah was ready to show him
that he did not when Rylee moved to stand by him.
“Your son hurt mine.” Micah had thought that
Shane was her nephew, but said nothing. “What the hell are you going to do
about it?”
“Do? I don’t think I understand there, little
lady. You mean this scuff between the boys?” He laughed, but no one was fooled
by his good old boy look. Not even Rylee, it appeared. “Well now, darling,
we’re going to settle this like adults. You pay off the little hospital stay
here that your boy there caused, and I’ll just pretend none of this happened. You
know how boys will be boys. And this isn’t nothing more than that. You just
tell me how you want to pay for the damages and the hospital bill and we’ll be
on our way.”
There was a long pause, and Micah thought
that she wasn’t going to say anything when she fanned her face with her hands
and smiled. “Oh good. I thought for sure you were going to call me your
sweetheart or some other bullshit name before you got to the fucking point.” Victor
looked at Micah as if he was confused. Micah said nothing. To be honest, he was
enjoying this too much to say anything right now. “And as for your damages, as
you called it, I’m not paying shit to you. As a matter of fact, I was going to
have my attorney come to you about paying off Shane’s. Good of you to save us
some time.”
“Now see here. I’m not paying a dime to you.
That boy of yours should have been locked up instead of pampered in the bed
like he didn’t do anything wrong. Just look at my boy. He’s been hurt and
humiliated enough without you dragging a lawyer into this.” Rylee snorted. “You
might want to take it down a bit there, girl. I’m a big man in this town.”
“You are at that. What do you weigh, three,
three-fifty? I’m betting that you haven’t pushed that bulk of yours away from
the table before your platter was empty in years.” She looked him up and down,
and Micah had to put his hand over his mouth and bite hard on his hand to keep
from getting himself hurt from laughing at either of them. Victor looked like
someone had poleaxed him. Twice. “And have you looked at that son of yours? And
so you know, males over eighteen aren’t boys in this country, but full-grown
adults, and he needs to be treated as one by the law for breaking it. Not
pampered like you think my Shane is getting.”
“Where is this paragon of goodness you call
your nephew? Perhaps I want to hear his side of this story. Doesn’t mean I’m
going to change my mind, but I need to see right now what kind of kid you’re raising.
And don’t think I don’t know all about you either. I had you investigated,
Captain Rylee McClure. You might have to take another job or two before I’m
done with your ass.” He laughed at her when she took a step forward, and Micah
looked at Nolan. In that moment Micah was proud of his brother more than he’d
ever been. He didn’t move, and it looked to him like he was relaxed. Just on
the outside he was sure, but for all appearances, Nolan was letting her handle
this. For now, it seemed. “Well?”
Everyone turned to the bed. Micah kept an eye
on the Simpson men, as did Nolan, but everyone else was staring at the bed. Victor
turned to Rylee again and asked her if she was kidding.
“No. That’s my nephew.” In seconds she had
turned from the bed and just blurred into action. She had flipped Simpson up
and over her shoulder and to the floor in one fluid motion. Micah had never
noticed the long knife she held at Victor’s throat, and had no idea where it
had come from. No one moved. Not even Nolan, who looked as if his cat was ready
to attack. When Rylee spoke, her voice bespoke calmness and control of her temper.
In no way did Micah think she was either. “You ever threaten me again or my
status as his aunt, and I will hunt you down and show you what a real man is in
the form of Captain Rylee McClure. I am not without my own means of making you
pay, and I’m reasonably sure that my way is going to hurt you in ways you
cannot even fathom.”
When Walter moved to no doubt hurt Rylee,
Nolan came up behind him and put him to the floor by bending Walter’s arm up
behind him and nearly to his shoulder. It was a good move, as Walter couldn’t
have moved without breaking his arm.
“Well now. This is going well, don’t you
think?” No one answered Joey as he pulled things from his briefcase. He, unlike
the rest of the room, wasn’t hiding his good humor. “Mr. Simpson…Victor…I
wanted to let you know that as of this morning, I have filed charges against
your son in the attempted murder of my client. Also, the school board has…well,
after a long talk with my mom and grandmother, you are no longer a part of the
board. It amazed all of us how much you had them under your control. Not
anymore. Also, you should know that your bank accounts have been frozen in the
event that you try to run or have your son try to run to avoid the other
charges that are coming your way. It just tickled me to no end to have heard
about all the reports of threats from you and your son that have come out in
the last twenty-four hours.”
“Nobody better be talking, or so help me
they’re gonna be sorry.” Joey laughed, and Micah wondered just how many other
complaints there were. “You let me up from here, girl, or so help me, I’m going
to make it ten times harder on you than I first thought.”
“Fuck you.” Shane laughed on the bed and his
aunt turned to him. “I hear you repeating any of these curse words and I’ll
wash your mouth out with lye soap. And trust me when I tell you, that is not
going to make you any better.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Shane looked at Grandda when he
leaned in to speak to him. In seconds they were moving to the bathroom, and Grandda
was standing outside the door. It was time to move, and Grandda was making sure
that Shane was ready when they did.
“Now Mr. Simpson. I’m going to lift my body
off yours and you are going to let me. If you don’t, you’re going to die.
That’s not a threat but a full-out promise. I can cut you in ways that will
make you beg for death, or end you right fucking now. Do you understand what
I’m saying?” He called her a lot of names, and it wasn’t until a small drop of
blood trickled down his throat that Micah realized that she could and would hurt
Victor without a backward thought. “Do you understand me?”
“You’re going to pay for this. And money, not
that you have shit, is not going to be what I’m going to take from you.” The
knife went deeper and the blood started to flow quicker. “Yes, I understand
you’re going to get up. Just get off me, cunt.”
“That’s Rylee. Or McClure. Mostly that’s what
my men called me. Don’t call me cunt again, Victor, or I will hurt you.”
She moved slowly and he didn’t touch her.
When she was by Nolan, Micah moved quickly, putting his hand around Victor’s throat
where the knife had been. The man wasn’t talking now, not that he could have,
but Micah could see fear in his face, not the contempt that he had shown for
Rylee. No matter how misplaced it had been.
“You touch her or anyone in my family again,
and I will ruin you.” Victor had started to turn blue before Micah let up on
his windpipe. “I’m not going to ask you if you understand me. I’m hoping that
you do and just don’t give a shit enough to come after me and mine.”
Walter was released too, but he didn’t move
to help his father up. It was comical the way the man had to maneuver to just
get to his knees. Then it took him another few minutes to stand up, his breath
coming in hard short bursts. When he turned to Rylee, she grinned at him like
she knew just what he was going to say.
“You’re dead. Do you understand that, you
fucking cunt? Dead.” As he turned she said his name. Micah wasn’t sure what she
was going to say to him, but when she reached down and grabbed him by the balls
and lifted him up with her hand, gripping them tightly, he screamed like a
little girl.
“You want to rethink that line of thought,
you worthless piece of fuck. I’ve been trained to kill a man as quietly or as
loudly as I can. And the screaming is from my victim, not from me.” When she
let him go and he moved back, Rylee spoke again. “Either of you come near my
nephew again and you’ll never see me kill you.”
As soon as the Simpson men were out of the
room, Rylee dropped to her knees. She didn’t move, even when Nolan moved to
stand near her, other than to lean her head on his leg. Nolan looked at Micah.
“Can we come stay with you until I can work
out somewhere to live, as well as some security?” Micah nodded. “Thank you. We
should leave now. I don’t think…he’s going to come back as soon as he can think
beyond how painful his balls are right now.” He looked down at Rylee, who had
not said a word since the Simpson’s had left. “Remind me never to piss you
off.”
Her laughter made everyone in the room relax
a bit. Shane came out of the bathroom dressed in his bloodied clothing and went
straight to his aunt. These two, Micah realized, were going to need a great
deal before this was finished. And he had an idea that his mom was going to
love every minute of this story when he told her and Reggie.
Reggie showed the two of them up to their
rooms. She wasn’t really sure where Nolan was going to be staying while they
were here, but she assumed with Rylee. She already smelled like him, so she had
been confused when he’d dropped them off earlier telling them he’d be back.
When Rylee turned to her, she could see that the woman was as confused as she
was.
“What’s going on?” Reggie asked her what she
meant. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, this is an amazing house, but I don’t know
what the hell…heck I’m doing here. Or for that matter, why you’re treating me
like a long lost friend that you’ve not seen in ages.”
“You are my friend. I know you’re aware of
what we are—shifters—but do you understand that you’re Nolan’s mate?” The nod
and the shaking of her head didn’t surprise Reggie one bit. “Yeah, I know just
how you feel on that part. I sort of kinda knew what a shifter was, but not that
they were too. And when I found out that Micah was not just my mate but…well,
the Bentley men can be a bit to take sometimes. They’re very bossy.”
“So am I. But that doesn’t answer my
question.” Rylee sat on the bed, then hopped back up when Gracie entered the
room. They’d been introduced before at her house, and now Gracie was handing
her a stack of clothing. “What’s this?”
“Nolan just called to ask me to see if there
was anything I could lend you to wear. But Chris was here and already had a few
things for you. And so you know, we’ve found something for young Shane to wear
as well. Poor thing had nothing but a bloodied shirt to put on. Oh, and Burke
has looked at him and he’s going to take a pain pill and lay down. Shane, not
my Burke.” Gracie sat on the chair. “I think I can answer your questions too. And
Chris will be up. She’s a witch, darling, so please bear that in mind when she
talks to you. Not that she’ll change you into anything…I’m not even sure if she
can, but knowing her, she—”
Reggie cleared her throat, and Gracie just
grinned at her. Chris entered the room then with Katie, her grandmother-in-law.
Reggie wondered how they looked to Rylee. A bunch of women here to gang up on
her, or a friendly family gathering of the women folk? Either way, they could
be and were more than likely very overwhelming.
“We’re panthers.” Chris looked at her when
Rylee sat down. “I’m sorry, should I have been gentler with that?”
“No dear, you did fine.” Gracie moved to sit
next to Rylee. “I’m to understand that you’re aware of shifters. And that you
know Mrs. Jacobs. Nice woman. She’s a patient of Nolan’s…did you know that?”
“No. She’s been sick for…what am I doing
here?” Gracie glanced at Reggie before answering Rylee. “I understand that that
bast…that man is going to try and exact some revenge, but I can take care of
myself. It’s money that I have issues taking care of.”
“Well, you are Nolan’s mate, first of all.
Not that that isn’t a great thing, but there are things going on that you need
to be made aware of. Do you know much about Victor Simpson?” Reggie thought
about what Micah had told her about the meeting with the Simpson men and
laughed a little. “His son isn’t much better, I’m told.”
“I don’t know either of them other than what
I figured out on my own today. They’re not nice men.” Chris laughed, and Rylee turned
to her. “You’re really a witch?”
“Yes. Very much so. And you should know that
I can read your mind too.” Rylee took that better than she might have under the
circumstances. “Also, you should know that the moment you entered into this
relationship with Nolan, you became what he is. Not the panther part of him,
but the rest.”
“The rest?” No one answered Rylee, but she
got up to pace. “My nephew, he’s going to have to be made safe above anything
that prick might…that man might do to me.”
Reggie thought it was funny that Rylee
immediately curbed her language. When the monitor in her pocket made a noise,
she excused herself and stood up. Gracie said she’d go too, and they left to
get her daughters. Reggie both hated and loved nap time. She missed them while
they were down, but needed them to take a nap so she could rest too. They were
such a joy to have, but exhausting. When she and Katie came back, each of them
with one of the girls in their arms, it looked as if the other women had gotten
no further than they had before she’d left them.
As Rylee paced the room, Alexis and Anne were
played with. Reggie was sure that Rylee would have a lot of questions, but for
now, she seemed to be content to walk off her frustrations. When she stopped
and turned to her, she felt her cat stir at her skin.
“You’re not going to shift, are you?” The
fact that she was aware that she might have shifted startled Reggie. She’d been
told that only another paranormal could tell that, and maybe a few humans. When
she told her that she wasn’t, but her cat was a little nervous, Rylee nodded
before continuing. “I’m guessing that one or all of you know what Shane and I
have been going through?”
“Yes. Joey told Micah what he’d been able to
find on you when he took the case, and he told us so that we’d be better
equipped to help out. Nolan also talked to Mrs. Jacobs at the hospital. About
your ex-brother-in-law. David Cole is on our list, too.” Rylee snorted at her. “You
don’t believe me?”
“Oh, I believe that you know about some of
the stuff we’ve been going through, and maybe Chris knows a lot more, but what you
don’t know is that I’m a total screw up at this parenting thing.” Gracie asked
her who told her that. “Shane. Not so much in words, but have you seen what
that bas…that guy did to him? Beat him up, and I went on like nothing was going
on.”
“You cannot fix what you’re unaware of.” Again,
Rylee snorted, at Katie this time. “My husband does that. I would think that
you taught him, but he’s been doing it a good deal more and more lately. I
don’t care for it any more from you than I do him. If you have a comment or
something profound to say, then please do so. But we have work to do and we
need your help to get it done.”
“I’ve spent the last eleven years of my life
in the service, ma’am. I have said more things, done more than that, than most
people do in a lifetime. And right now I’m trying to be a mother to a
motherless boy and doing a really shitty job of it.” Rylee stretched her neck
and it popped twice before she looked at Katie. “Had I a single clue what the
hell I was doing, none of this would have happened and we’d be living out our
lives on the edge of disaster without the Bentleys being aware of it.”
“Oh no, that’s not true. Sooner or later you
and Nolan would have met.” Chris smiled at Rylee when she asked her how. “The
fates. They have a hand in most of our lives, and more in that of a shifter. You
were meant to be his mate, and no matter how much you would have tried to avoid
it, you still would have been mates.”
“And if I hadn’t been there, you’re saying
that something else would have brought us together?” Chris nodded. “Well, I
call it bullshit. I think everyone has choices, and mine is to be without a
mate.”
“Yeah, well, it’s a little too late for that,
my dear.” Katie stood up and laid the baby on the bed before looking directly
at Rylee. “You are doing a wonderful job, my dear. And Shane knows that. He got
hurt. It happens. But he’s not dead. Dead is very hard to fix.”
No one said anything, but Reggie knew they
were all dealing with their own form of grief. All of them at some point had
lost someone they loved. And losing Micah, her son, had been hard on Katie and his
mate, Gracie.
The pacing began again, and Reggie wondered
what sort of things were going on in Rylee’s head. When Chris touched her mind,
she smiled at the other woman, knowing that she had heard her mind asking.
She’s afraid for Shane. And for Nolan. She
has it in her head that he’s going to hear something that he’s not going to
like and throw them to the wolves, so to speak.
Reggie asked her if
she loved Nolan yet.
No. They’re not at that part of their bonding, as you
know, and she’s not going to be that easy to convince, I think. Army life has
taught her to mistrust a great deal more than you and I take as the truth. Shane,
she feels, might be better off without her.
That’s ridiculous.
Chris told her it
was no more so than her being able to read others’ minds
. But you can do
that. It’s not the same at all.
But it isn’t to her.
Reggie could see her
point in that. But there was no way that that kid down the hall was any better
off without her.
We have to do something.
We are. We’re here for her.
They both turned to
Rylee when she stopped moving. Reggie was almost afraid to ask Chris what she
was thinking now. But Rylee spoke first.
“Nolan is at my old place. He just asked me
what I needed from there. Is that normal?” Gracie told her that he’d want her
to have things that were hers to make her feel better. “Yeah, I got that part,
but he’s speaking to me from my apartment. Not here in the room with me, but
from…I think I need a drink.”
Miss May came in a few seconds later with more
than just the tea trolley loaded with an assortment of cookies, scones, and tea.
She also had a large bottle of Kentucky’s finest. Reggie thought for sure that
Rylee was going to just drink from the bottle, but she poured it into the glass
that Miss May handed her from her pocket.
When she poured enough in the glass to fill
it up, Reggie laughed. It was going to be fun watching this woman tame Nolan.
Because as much as she loved the mild mannered Nolan, this woman was going to
shake him to his very core.
~~~
Joey looked around the large spacious room
he’d been set in. There were things in this house that he was sure might have
been here longer than his family had been around. He looked at the painting
over the mantel and had to smile. The man there was a notorious rake and had
been wonderfully flamboyant at it. He knew a great deal about the Cole family
now.
“He’s my great so-many-times-I-lost-count
grandfather. Terrible husband, but the women loved him. Almost as much as men
hated him for it.” Joey turned to look at the grand dame Mrs. Cole. “I don’t
usually entertain men I don’t know, but I talk to your grandmother all the time
and thought I should meet with you. What can I possibly do for a man such as
yourself, Joseph?”
Joey felt his face heat up. He wasn’t one to
be embarrassed easily, but she’d done it with a few words and a sexy wink. He
knew that she was in her late eighties, but he would bet anything few knew that
fact.
“I’m here on behalf of your…I would guess
your great-grandson, Shane Michael Cole.” She asked him to sit when she did.
The butler came in with a silver tea service with a C on the front of it. When
he’d finished serving them, he left them alone.
“I don’t have any grandsons. My…whatever
David is to me in a long line of disappointments, he only has daughters. And
they’re not worth the sweat it took him to plant them in that equally
disappointing wife of his.” Joey sipped his tea and asked her about Shelby
Cole. “Shelby? I’ve not…that girl was also a sad disappointment. That boy, it’s
not his, he said. Had her sign off on something or another to say so.”
“Do you believe him?” It was a chancy
question and one that could very well get him thrown out even before he began
this. “I believe that not only is Shane his son, but that David has made his
life and that of his mother up to and after her death very difficult. There are
things you might not be aware of that I have information on.”
“And if he is? What does he want? In my will,
I suppose? Does this child have plans to ruin David?” Joey said nothing but
reached into his briefcase and handed her paperwork. “What’s this?”
“DNA reports on Shane. Also, you’ll find
pictures of him. I see the resemblance and I think you will as well. There is
also a transcript of the conversation that David had with his wife, Shelby,
while she was still in recovery after Shane was born. The hospital has the
original and the recording if you don’t believe me.” Joey handed her another
thick file as well. “He sold the house that they were to have after the divorce.
And should she sign the paperwork stating that she’d had several affairs while
married to David, he promised her a monthly settlement. There was never any
money given to her or her son. Of course, she hadn’t had any affairs either.
She was as loyal to David as he was at having the affairs. Copies of all of
those, including the ones she did sign, are in that as well. When she wouldn’t
play ball his way, he took more from them. David is—and I think I have a good
case for this—directly responsible for her not getting the treatment that she
needed, and the added stress shortened her life considerably.”
Mrs. Cole said nothing but looked through the
file. He knew when she got to the pictures of the boy, and knew that she could
see how they looked alike as well. Meanness had made him include a copy of not
just Shane’s birth certificate, but also a copy of the death certificate of his
mother, as well as copies of the still unpaid bills that had mounted up over
her illness, including the cost to bury the young woman. He had been surprised
by the amount of money that Rylee had been settled with, and wanted to help her
out even more.