Page 10 of Wrangler

“You tell them that I said that they’d better, by god. I’m not messing around with them. I want out of here, and there ain’t no reason that they can’t be making my stay here better than it is now. A nice thick blanket would be nice, too. You tell them that.” He told the man no again, enjoying watching his face turn several shades of purple while he worked with his mouth to form words. “I know who you are. You’re one of them Sheppard bastards, ain’t you?”

“Not that I’m aware of. I am a Sheppard but not a bastard. My parents were married when I was born. All six of us, as a matter of fact, were born during their marriage. It might not have been a good one, but it’s legitimate. So that makes us legitimate children of theirs, not bastards. Was there a point to you asking me if my parents were married?” He called him a bastard again. “Either I’m not explaining things right, or you haven’t any idea what a bastard is. Shall I look it up for you? It won’t be an issue. Here you go.Bastard is a term that can refer to various topics, such as illegitimate children, people, films, music, books, and more. I didn’t know that part. Also, here’s one.The meaning of BASTARD is a child born to parents who are not married to each other.That’s the one that you were referring to, myself and my brothers, I take it.”

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” He asked him what he meant. “What are you going on about. I know what bastard means, damn it. Why are you spouting things off like you—do you think that I’m stupid or something?”

“I’m not going to give you an answer to that, I’m afraid. Not that you can reach me. I did put my chair far enough away from you so that you can’t touch me, but I don’t want you to toss anything at meeither.” He asked him why he was here. “Oh, that’s easy. I want you to stop calling my wife and son my family if that suits you better. They’re not going to help you, and that’s from them, not me. There will be no candy bars brought in. No nice blankets. Unless, of course, it’s to wrap your cold dead body in if you continue to annoy us with your calls.”

“They ain’t neither one your family. Where do you get off claiming that they’re yours? They’re mine, much to my shame.” Wrangler having a great deal more fun than he thought he should have been told him that he had the proof that he was married and that Wills was his son. “You’re a liar. They ain’t no more your family than you are to me.”

“You’re wrong about that as well. I’m your son-in-law. Like you, it’s much to my shame.” He asked him when he was going to start acting like he was his son-in-law and helping him get out of jail. “Help you? Oh, that’s not going to happen, I’m afraid. I like you right where you are. At least we don’t have to keep looking over our shoulders all the time to see where you are.”

“You don’t have to look far when I’m stuck here.” He grinned, loving how confused the man looked when all he was doing was talking to him. “Why are you looking for me anyhow? You neither one seemed to want a thing to do with me when I was out and about. See there. That’s the reason that I need to be out of here. So I can keep an eye on you. Just so you know, I’m going to get them kids of mine back. There ain’t no reason that they can’t be helping us out now that they’re in with some money. You got a lot of it I hear tell.”

“Yes, my wife and son do as well. That doesn’t mean that you’re going to get any of it. Not ever. Unless, of course, Amber wants to hand some over to you. But I’d not hold my breath on that happening. Or perhaps you should hold your breath. That might be kind of nice to have you out of the way permanently.” The confusion on his face was delightful to him. It made him laugh, and for the first time since hearing from the man, he was excited about just fucking him up by simply having a conversation with him.

Then he remembered that he needed to go and see Patsy. She was giving the officers here a hard time, and he was going to see if he could put an end to her ways as well. Putting an end to the two of them was sounding better all the time. But it wasn’t up to him yet, and he only had to wait three more days before the judge came into town.

He was excited about a great many things that were going on around the little town. Weston was going to ask to be put in the mayor’s vacated position since the man and his entire family had left town in the middle of the night. They’d not even taken their furniture nor any of their large ticket items.

They left a boat, camper as well as a couple of cars that no one had known that they had owned. He didn’t look for them to get too far, however. The FEDs had locked them out of their accounts and made sure that they didn’t have any credit cards that worked either. He’d heard that they were finding all kinds of things that the family had been involved in that wasn’t above board. It would only be a matter of time before they were all in prison. After they were gone and the money returned, some things that they’d been working on might well start to happen in their little burg. He thought that it was well past time that some of the buildings were redone or taken down, too.

Patsy was a mess when he made his way to the other end of the cells to talk to her. He’d had enough of William calling him a bastard, and his good humor started to wane a bit when he told him what he was going to do with Wills, or Junior as he called him, and Amber when he was set free. He really believed that he was going to be able to convince the judge that he was only getting what he deserved in the form of payback from his kids since he’d raised them to be what they were today. Hopefully, the judge didn’t think along the lines that the other man did, or they’d all be fucked over.

It was more of the same with her. However, she was more vocal about what the kids should be doing for her. And what she was going to do to them once she was set free. Her idea was to throw William under the bus, as the saying goes, and then move in with him and Amber. There was no way in hell he wanted anything to do with the other woman other than to see that justice was served and she went to prison with her husband.

“Since you’re related to me you’ll pay for us to get a good attorney. Not one of your brothers,either. I want someone that knows what they’re doing.” He said that his brother wouldn’t represent her anyway. “Good. Then we can see eye to eye about that. Also, I don’t want to live in some small part of your home. I want to have my own set of rooms where I can come and go as I please. Actually, I think that I’d rather have my own big house. But it has to be bigger than yours is. I don’t want you to think that just because you’re going to buy me a house that I’m going to be stuck paying on it either. You’ll make sure that I have the finest shit around. I’m sure you don’t want people thinking that you’re laxing in how you treat your family, do you? It’s the least that you can do, considering that you’ve fucked everything else up for me.”

“No, you’re wrong about that. The least that I can do, and what I am going to do, is not do anything for either of you. There will be no special treats for you nor William, and once you’re away in prison, I’m going to have a good old fashion ‘you’re gone party’ that might well last for weeks.” She told him that he was going to do what she wanted. “And what are you going to do to me if I don’t? I’ll tell you what you’re going to try and do and that’s nothing. You’re going to prison with William, and that will be the end of it.”

“If it comes to that, and I’m not saying that it will, you’ll do right by me and make sure I have everything that I want. Including my own cell with a comfortable bed and some pretties to put around so that I can at least feel better about being in prison.” He explained to her that she was in prison, and there would be no favors for her that he’d pay for. “You fucking bastard.”

He started to explain to her about him not being a bastard but he didn’t want to go into that again. His good mood playing with William was gone now, and all he could think about was going home and being with Amber and Wills. Just as he was standing up to leave, he heard from Wills.

“I don’t want to alarm you or anything, but I’ve been hurt. I don’t want to tell my sister because she’ll freak out. Again. I was doing that avocado thing and cut my hand up bad.”He asked him where Amber was.“In her office working. I don’t want her to take me to the hospital because she’ll drive like I’m dying or something. So can I call an ambulance or something?”

“I’ll contact my brothers. Not that I don’t think that they’ll freak out either, but they’ll be able to be calm with Amber.”He was able to reach Nash, and he said that he was just pulling into his driveway.“Nash is in the driveway and is coming into the house. I’ll have him take the two of you to the hospital, and that way, you’ll be able to stay calm and not have to worry about your sister freaking out. And if I were you, I’d not tell her that you thought that she’d freak out. You might hurt her feelings.”

“Yeah, you’re right. She’s already upset about the way things were left undone with the house that her parents lived in. They’re not mine…you don’t care. I’ve washed my hand up, and I hear the doorbell. I sure hope that it’s Nash. I’m beginning to feel lightheaded.”Worried now, he made small talk with the boy to keep him from passing out.

Nash was able to get to him just as Wills passed out. He told him that it was bad and that he’d meet him at the hospital. He was going to call an ambulance to get him help sooner.

Going straight to the hospital, when he left the jailhouse, he pulled into the emergency department just as the ambulance was pulling in. He didn’t know what to do but held onto Amber while they wheeled Wills into the trauma bay.

They couldn’t be in the room with them, but he was so glad that Sunny showed up and was able to get Wills’s wound to stop bleeding so that he’d not bleed out. He was immortal, but losing that much blood wouldn’t bode well for the young man. The rest of Wrangler’s family showed up just as Wills was taken to surgery.

“Why didn’t he call out to me?” Before he could answer, Amber answered her own question. “He was worried that I’d be irrational, and that would scare him too. I’ll have to tell him that having an ambulance pull up in front of the house without anyone telling me about it freaked me out more than I think him cutting his hand would have. Is he going to be all right?”

“He’s going to be just fine. Sunny said that once they were able to get his wound closed, he started to improve. They’re giving him plenty of fluids to help him replenish his loss of blood. Also, since he was brought in by the squad, he fared much better than he might have if Nash would havedriven him in his car. She suggested that once he was in his room that I give him a bit of my blood, too. I don’t know what it will do for him, but it will be powerful enough to help him out.”

“I want you to change me.” He started to tell her that he didn’t know if that was possible. He didn’t know that much about shifters changing their loved ones. “And I want to have a baby with you. I talked to Pancake and he told him that we should start soon if we were going to have a million babies. They’re very literal, aren’t they?”

“You have no idea. He told me that you were ovulating now. As soon as you’re ready to have a child, I can impregnate you.” She said that they’d have to have lots of sex so that they could make lots of babies. “I have been waiting for you to tell me that for days now. I’m hard enough right now that I’m fearful of breaking something.”

They both laughed, just as he had hoped that she would. If it wasn’t for them worried about Wills, he’d find them a dark place and fill her with his child. She turned and looked at him when they heard from the staff that Wills was doing much better but still sedated. They could only see him for a few minutes at a time, and he told her to go first. He needed a few minutes to get his head on straight. He couldn’t wait to have lots of sex with Amber, even if they didn’t have a baby right away.

~*~

They left Wills at the hospital so that he’d be watched over all night. She didn’t care for leaving her little brother there, but it was needed after he lost so much blood. The hospital staff was going to monitor him for a couple of days. One of the surgeons came into the lobby with them and showed everyone there how to take the large seed out of an avocado. She’d seen it done both ways and was surprised that more people weren’t hurt by trying to chop the blade of a knife into the seed.

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