Rather than argue with the man anymore, he packed up his things, including the spreadsheet that he’d made out for the man, before simply leaving the room.He could still hear the man yelling at him about leaving the paperwork for him to go over and knew then that he was planning to invest without his help.Bastard.
It wasn’t that he needed the money.He didn’t.But it had been fun for him to dig deep into the corporate world to look for investments for the man.Now, he’d just take his own advice and invest and perhaps show the man what he’d been missing.
“Did you smack around Mr.Dunlap?”The humor in her voice told him that she’d not believed a word from the old bastard.“He said that when you didn’t have any investments for him that you slapped him around and told him that you’d kill him if he didn’t invest.While I don’t believe a word that he said, he did have a good story to tell me.I just hung up on him.How’s it going?”
“Just great.I’m on my way to the deli to pick up things for Rubens.I hope that still sounds good for you.”She told him that it did, as she’d never had one before.“I find that hard to believe.I’m not saying that you’re lying, but with all your travels, you’ve never had a Ruben?That’s not right, you know that, don’t you?”
The two of them were winging it this week.Pie had had a family emergency and had to leave them for a few days.He didn’t pry into what it could have been, but he was worried about it when another brownie showed up to take over her duties as their cook.
Glass, her name, wasn’t the best of cooks so they had her making bread for the entire day while she was there.Not that she was any better at baking than she’d been at cooking, but they had to give her something to do so that she’d not feel as if she failed them.The little people were very hard on themselves when they didn’t need to be.That was why Brad and Becka had moved to the other world to keep them busy.Not only that, but he’d heard that they have an awards banquet each month for the faerie that got the most done in one month.So far it had been working out well.Having them working on a daily schedule also gave them a home life that most of them had never experienced before.Which was sad to him.He was enjoying his home life more and more of late.
He picked up the things that he needed for dinner.Making his way to the freezer section, he was ready to pick up some tater tots.Now, that was an invention that he should have invested in.They were the best things since he couldn’t remember what.Just pop one in your mouth and you have a flavor explosion of taters.Not potatoes, he’d been told, but taters.Marshall also picked up some raspberry sherbet.Meggie’s favorite after dinner treat.
“You’re Mr.Morton, aren’t you?Pack alpha?”He didn’t answer the young woman.That kindof shit would get you killed.“I’m sorry.But I’d like to take refuge in your pack, please?My husband, ex-husband, is gunning for me, and I can’t go back to that sort of life.”
He reached into her mind and knew immediately that she was telling him the truth.The way her eyes darted around, he was sure making it so that no one could catch her off guard.Pulling out his keys, he told her where his car was parked and the make and model.
“I can’t.I mean, I would love to, but I have children.Two of them.I need to get them so that they’re safe, too.”Just as he was telling her to get her children and they were safe, too, a shot rang out, and she fell into his arms.“My children.”
“Hush now.You have to be still so that we can save you.”She shook her head and moaned slightly.“Don’t close your eyes.I’m here for you.I’ll give you a bit of myself—”
“No.Please.I’m worn down.Take my children.Safe word is television.They’ve never had one.Isn’t that sad?”He told her that she was going to be just fine to hang on.“Take them to raise as your own.Please?I can die in peace knowing that they’re safe.”
When she closed her eyes, he laid her gently on the floor as a crowd started to gather.The man striding toward them had his gun pointed at them, and he knew that he was the man that had killed her.And he was a wolf, the same as the woman had been.
“Is she dead?”He said that she was.“Good riddance to her.Where did she put my…damn it all to fuck and back.She didn’t tell you anything, did she?Whatever it was, it was a bald-faced lie.Damned woman.Well?”
“Well, what?”Marshall reached out beyond where he was to get some help.“I’m going to kill this fucker where he stands, but we’ve gathered quite a crowd here.”
“I’m coming.Don’t do anything…You know what, kill him now, and I’ll clean up when I get there.”Lauder was there just as he was ripping the throat out of the man.It was too quick, over too soon, that he didn’t suffer as he’d seen in his wife’s mind, but he knew that she was going to rest in peace.He’d agreed to take her children and he hoped that Meggie was on board with it.
Stanley Jameson looked as if he’d killed himself after killing his wife, Lila Jameson.It was what he found in the man’s mind as he was bleeding out on the floor.No one would see a man who had lost his head but someone who regretted what he’d done and killed himself with the same gun that he’d ended his mates.Christ, he just realized that he needed to find the kids quickly.
She’d not told him where they were, so he asked Lauder if she had any idea.She took him to the back of the store and found the little kids huddled in the corner of an office.He had no idea what he’d been thinking of when she’d told him about her children, but finding an infant girl and an about two-year-old little boy startled him.Picking up the little boy when he put out his hands for him, he reached out to Meggie and told her what he’d done.
“Well, of course, I’m not upset with you.Bring them…never mind, I can do that popping thing.I’ll be there soon.”She not only popped into the room, but she was ready to take over momma duties right away.“Oh, you darling little girl.Come to me, and I’ll be your momma.She’s wet and I’m thinking hungry.While I’m here, we’ll get some things for them to use tonight.Tomorrow, we’ll get whatever we need.”
“I love you so much, Meggie Mine.”She smiled at him, but he could see the tears in her eyes.“Oh honey, don’t do that.We’ll both be soggy here in a minute.Come on, let’s get my cart and fill it up with things we more than likely don’t need and take them home.”
There was a diaper bag with the children.It had not only their birth certificates but also diapers and a change of clothing for the little boy.He didn’t seem confused about what was going on, but he did call for his momma.Before they were finished shopping, Tad, the little boy, was sleeping on his shoulder, and little Emma Lynn was resting well with her binky and a clean change of diaper and clothing.
By the time they were home, both of them, as exhausted as the children seemed to be, they’d made online purchases totaling a staggering amount of money.Since they were new to the parenting thing, he knew too that they’d gotten more things than they needed but really they didn’t care.
The house faeries had taken care that the children had beds to sleep in.The rooms, too, were decorated according to their gender.He thought like they’d done, they overdone themselves with the décor, but he found that he didn’t care either.It made the little ones feel needed.And he knew too that they were going to take as good of care as their mother would have wanted.
He laid his head on the pillow so grateful for Lauder being able to make it so that he hadn’t been involved in anything that went on.He didn’t have to give a statement either, as he was supposed to have been on the other end of the shop.No one said a word to him when he walked out with his receipt as well as two children and a wife that he didn’t come in with.Happy that he was home, he laid his head on his pillow and completely zonked out.
Emma woke up twice during the night.The first time, he’d gone to take care of her needs and was glad that he’d gotten the box of diapers out so that he could see how to change her.After giving her a bottle and putting her to bed, he went to check on Tad.
It scared him at first when he wasn’t able to find him.But once he turned on the light, he found him under the bed sleeping.He couldn’t imagine a terror so badly that you felt the need to sleep under the bed rather than on it.Pulling him out from under the bed, he put him back in it.But not before cuddling him a little.
He didn’t talk much.Tad could jabber on, but he didn’t really say much in the way of words.There were a few of them, along with the jibberage but he understood him enough to know that he was wondering after his mom.Telling him that she was gone was the only thing that he could think of.He also told him that his dad wasn’t coming to get him.Ever again.This hurt his heart, too, knowing that someone so little could be worried about his own father harming him.Sadly, however, it didn’t surprise him.The way that some people treated their children was terrible.
The second time that Emma cried, it was Meggie who went to get her.Closing his eyes after she left, his plan had been to get up and see about Tad.But he must have gone into a deeper sleep than he had thought of himself doing, and he woke up with the sun streaming into the windows and alone in the big bed.
After getting a shower, he headed downstairs.He could hear laughter and it brought a smile to his own face.Going into the warm room, he laughed when he saw Pie, so happy to see her and Meggie holding little Emma.
“She’s only four months old.Did you catch that?”He told her that he’d not.“Yeah, me either.Not that I know that much more about a four month old than I do a ten year old, but it’s been kind of fun learning what I could off the internet.Pie has been helpful as well.I just wish my grannie had made it to see them.She would have been out of this world happy with them.”