Page 3 of Wrangler

“I don’t know who I am. Or who you are, for that matter.” Carrie told her that she couldn’t tell her. That she’d have to figure things out on her own. But she did write down a note that she was going to pass to Archie when he came to her. “Where am I?”

“What’s the last thing that you remember?” She looked as if she had to concentrate, and that worried her. With the head wound that she had, it would have been a quick death, but not without a lot of blood. “I can’t help you. You have to do it yourself.”

“I was going to work.” Archie joined her in the room, and she handed him the note. When he left her there, telling her that he’d check, Carrie waited on the woman. “There was something going on at work. Usually, I’m the first one there, but tonight…I don’t know what happened. My name is April Mendoza. I’m a stocker at the grocery store in…there was a man there. He shot me. He shot me in the head. I’m dead. Aren’t I? He killed me.”

“The police are there now. The man is dead as well. He went to her place of work to find out why she was having an affair.” April nodded, telling Archie that was right, that she’d been working when he came in and killed her. “He shot her, then shot himself.”

The man, April’s husband showed up about the time they were figuring out what had happened. He was upset. Not because he’d killed his wife but because he’d not gotten to kill the man that she was having this supposed affair with. He was badgering her when he arrived until she raised her hand up to stop him.

“You murdered your wife.” He said that she was having an affair. “She wasn’t. Even I could tell that, and asking her about it got me the correct answer. You cannot badger her either. She’s told you the truth, and if you persist in this line of bullying her, I’ll send you away.”

“You would take her side in this. All you women, you stick together when things aren’t the way that you want them.” She told him that he wasn’t making any sense. “See? Right there. You’re taking her side, and I won’t have it.”

Carrie snapped her fingers, and the man disappeared. She looked at April before sending her on her way as well. The shooting at the grocery store in the next town over would go as a murder-suicide, and the couple would be thought of as having a rough patch due to money issues. The affair, whichthere wasn’t one, would never be brought up as a problem.

Carrie made her way back to the bedroom and decided that she was going to take the emergency clause out of ghosts coming to her home. There was nothing that couldn’t wait until tomorrow that she couldn’t deal with. Besides, cooler heads might prevail by then.

Chapter 2

Amber didn’t want to go shopping with the other women. She didn’t even want to hang out with them. They were too much for her nerves. But she was wearing her last pair of panties, and Wills was still wearing the clothing that he came here in. He’d been wearing them since the beginning of the month when she’d found them in the lost and found at work. She looked at Carrie when she said her name.

“We can do this online if you wish. The only issue that I can find for doing that is you don’t know your size. I mean, we can guess, I suppose, but wouldn’t you like to pick out something that made you feel pretty?” She snorted at her. “You don’t think you’re pretty? Or you don’t want to go with me? I find it hard to believe that someone at some point in your life pointed out to you that you’re a beautiful woman.”

“Usually when they’re trying to get into my pants.” She heard the low growl and turned to look at Wrangler as he stared at her. “Well? What was that for? You have something to say to me then use your words. Don’t be using your growls and grunts to get your problem out to me. I’ll smack you around if you do.”

“I don’t like the fact that men wouldn’t get to know you better by talking to you.” She asked him if that was what he was saying with the growling. “No. But I figured that you’d be less pissy with me if I said that instead.”

“Don’t lie to me, Wrangler. Please. Enough people have lied to me all my life, and I don’t know that I could take it from you.” When he stood up, Amber backed away from him. He told her that he’d never hurt her. “Yes, I’ve heard that before, I’m sorry to say. And I’m trying my best to get used to having you around. It’s a bit nerve-wracking at times. To have someone there all the time when I’ve had no one for a great deal longer.”

He didn’t say anything, but he did cock his head. She’s learned quite by accident that when he did that, he was speaking to someone. This morning, when she’d seen him do it, he was talking to his older brother. She didn’t know who it was just now. When he smiled at her, it made her smile back at him.

“The house is finished.” She asked him what he meant. “I explained about the faeries, didn’t I? How they want to please us all the time?” She nodded. “Well, they finished the house. I just heard from Beau. He said that he’s jealous of all the things that are going on with the property that I own out there. That we own, I mean.”

“I don’t own anything.” She asked him if she could go, and he put out his arm as if she was going to take him on a ride or something. Amber asked if Wills would like to go as well, and she was told that he was already there as he’d been hanging out with Beau and Jameson this morning, so he knew what was going on. “He’s acting like we have nothing to be fearful of. Like none of our life was all hit and miss for a long time. I worry about him.”

“He knows that he’s with my brothers and that they’d die before they allowed him to be hurt. Also, the faeries know too to be on the lookout for people wanting to take him or even to harm him.” He looked at her with the strangest smile. “I’d like for you to be that less worried and stressed but I also don’t want anything to happen to you. If you’re watching all the time, however, for the other shoe to drop, you’re going to be old before your time.”

She didn’t like his wording of that, telling her that she was going to be old before her time but he was right. Amber was stressed all the time and hadn’t even been able to sleep well the last two nights for fear of someone coming for them. When Wrangler suddenly stopped moving, she ran into him. Asking him what was happening, he turned to her and put his hands on her shoulder.

“I don’t know how it happened.” She nodded at his whispered voice. “The couple over there,the ones that are looking in our direction. Are they your parents?”

She didn’t want to look and told him that. With a short nod, he pulled her closer into his body and wrapped his hands around her waist. It was then that she knew he was turning her in a direction that no one could see her. Especially not the couple that he’d been talking about. Peaking over his shoulder, she nearly sobbed when she realized that it was indeed her parents.

“All right. We’re not going to move from here for now. I have two faeries that are going to go to them and see if they can figure out what they’re doing. Or how they got here, for that matter.” She told him that she was afraid. “You’re safe right here, Amber. I wasn’t lying to you. Even though I’d never do that, I can’t anyway. But I won’t lie to you and say that I have this. I’m winging it so that I know you’re not harmed.”

She saw Carrie and Sunny coming toward them as they stood there. Nash was coming up behind her parents, and Weston was going to them from the other side. When both men stopped, she’d only just realized that the little people, the very ones that she’d met this morning, were flittering above her parents and watching them.

“Wills? Is he safe?” He told her that he was in their new home, looking around and being as safe as he could be. “Good. We’ll have to tell him that they’re around so he will know, too…how did they get here? They don’t have any money? Nothing to travel in? How the hell did they find us so quickly?”

“I don’t know, but I plan to find out. Just don’t move from my arms.” She nodded and held onto his shirt front. “I have you, Amber. You’ll not be harmed by them today or any other day if I can help it. But you have to believe that I’m going to keep you safe. Both of you.”

She knew the moment that they were out of sight. Wrangler’s arms relaxed, and the little people, the faeries, came back to them. Before she could find out the information that she desperately needed, she was swept up in Wrangler’s arms again and put into an awaiting limo.

“We’re headed to the house.” She nodded, worrying about Wills then. “Your brother is fine, but he wants to see that you are as well. Once I get you to the house, I’m going to come back here with my brothers and we’re going to get you some information. For now, please stay in the house where you can’t be hurt. No one with ill will can enter the house at all. You are the safest there.”

“What about you?” He grinned. It was charming, his look, but she wasn’t in the mood right now. Telling him that, she was happy to say that she’d embarrassed him a little. Enough, she hoped that he’d take her seriously from now on. “Just don’t take any stupid chances with them. They’re evil and will kill you if you get in their way. I know this.”

“We’ll talk about that when I get back. Just…the faeries are going to try and distract you. Allow them that. They stress too much, too. Let them take you through the house, and it’ll be fit to live in when I get back.” She asked him what he wanted in the home. “For you to be happy there.”

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