Page 12 of Wrangler

Chapter 6

Wrangler felt fucking fantastic. He did hurt in a couple of places that gave him a bit of a pause when walking—the bottom of his feet were so sore it was like he’d pulled a muscle in them—but he was wondering if any of his brothers who had mates felt the same way. Not that he was going to ask them, but still, it was a heady feeling having the best sex of your life with your one and only true love.

Waking up this morning, not only was he alone in his bed but the place where Amber had slept. Well, they neither one had gotten too much sleep, but it was cold there, like she’d been gone for some time. He found the note just as he was going to reach out to her.

“Dearest Love, I got a call from Wills, and he wanted me to come in and bring him something to do. I’ll pick him something at the store on my way in. I love you so very much, A.”

That was when he found out that his feet hurt. Walking to the bathroom had him thrilled that there was no one around to see him limping like an old man. After getting a nice warm shower and getting dressed, he made his way to the kitchen just in time for rolls to be coming out of the oven. They were delicious.

Now, he was on his way to the two buildings that they had earmarked for renovations. After they were finished up, they were planning on renting them out for people who were only in town for a few days while trying to fill in the spots around town for businesses. He was enjoying the process, something that he’d never had the chance to be up close and personal with before and was glad that the man in charge didn’t seem to mind that he was asking a great many questions.

He’d been contacted twice by his brother Nash and a couple of times by his brother Weston as well. He had gotten permission to sit in the mayoral seat that had been vacated recently, and he needed for him to come to his new office and help him move the desk around. Hathaway had had his desk facing the opposite wall where the bathrooms were like he needed to have the toilet close by.

“I was going to have it facing the window so I could look out when I wanted. But that would put my back to the doors, and I don’t want that. Besides, before I fired Ms. Peashaw, she told me that it was good that I wanted it that way. I could look down over the minions that were the townspeople. Why would anyone take a job if they didn’t like it?” Wrangler told Weston that he didn’t understand people at all. “Me either. I’m finding myself spending less and less time with humans every day.”

“I didn’t mean just humans, Weston. If you’re going to be mayor, you’ll have to spend a great deal of time with them. They outnumber shifters by at least five to one. Are you going to be all right with that?” He told him that was the reason that he was doing this. “To hang out with humans?”

“Yes. I figure that the likelihood of my mate being human is going to be pretty good. I need to hang out with them, as you said, so that I don’t scare her to death by being a snarling animal around them. Plus, I think that I could really do some good being mayor. At least for the time being. Things that we want to get done, that have been on our books for a while, won’t have to be stuck in a file where no one sees them because they believe that we treated our mother poorly.” He told him what Peashaw had said to him the other day. “The same thing to me. The bunch of old bitties can kiss my ass for all I care about their opinion about our mother.”

After getting the furniture around the way that he wanted it, the two of them went to the local department store to get the other things that he would need. One of the most important things that he wanted was a large calendar so that he could mark his progression in getting things done with deadlines.

Amber brought them by some lunch when they were at the office again. She was cleaning out Peashaw’s desk and found things that they put aside for the FBI. They didn’t know if they were important to them or not, but none of them wanted to take any chances. While she was sitting at thedesk, making notes on what would be needed in hiring a secretary, the phone rang. Without thought of who it might be, Amber picked up the phone and answered it withWeston Sheppard’s office.

She put it on speaker when she winked at him. “Who the hell is this? Where the hell is Helen?” She asked him who Helen was. “My damned wife. Not that it’s any of your business. But…did you say this was the office of Weston Sheppard? One of them Sheppard boys?”

“Yes, sir. Weston has been assigned the task of holding the office until election time again. The FBI has given him access to the office and the things that were going on here before.” The man cursed for three minutes. However, he didn’t seem mad about it. “I don’t know what I can do for you, but I won’t allow you to talk about my brother-in-law that way.”

“You misunderstood. I’m thrilled beyond—damn, but that’s the best news that I’ve heard in about fifty years. Hot damn…So Helen has been fired—my ex-wife, you should understand, I’m assuming as well?” Weston spoke up and said that she sort of quit and got fired. She didn’t want to work for him. “No, she’d not. Had her head so far up your mother’s ass all the time I wondered who’d be coming home to me some nights. No, that’s wonderful news. Yes, sir, that’s the best news ever. What is your first agenda, Weston? I bet you’ll get it done, too, won’t you? You’ll have the support of myself and my businesses too. And now that you’re in office, maybe I can get the plans that I’ve been trying to get through done, too. I have a manufacturing plant that I want to break ground for. I’ll only hire locals for the construction and for the working of the plant. We’ll be distributing glass, any and all kinds of glass containers. Divorcing my wife made it so that I couldn’t get shit down while Hathaway was in office. Dirty man, too. Taking kickbacks on every flipping—oh, you have no idea how happy you’ve made me. I’m doing myself a little dance right here in my office. I’m so happy. I need to set me up a meeting. With all you boys. I think we can bring some life back into this old town in a short amount of time, too.”

They spoke to Mathew Peashaw for another hour. Amber kept answering the phone, assuring people that Weston was on top of things and that, yes, Peashaw had been fired as well. It seemed to them that no one cared all that much for either person in office and Wrangler was thrilled that he could be there with his brother when he was being made to feel so welcomed.

“I’m sending over a woman to answer your phone. I’m assuming that you’ve not hired anyone as yet.” Weston told Mathew that it was Wrangler’s wife who was answering the phones. “That’s another thing that I love about you Sheppard’s. You work well together and get things done. Your daddy, rest his soul, he might have been a better person if he’d taken his cues from the six of you. Don’t get me wrong, I liked your daddy. But he wasn’t much of a get-going kind of man. I hope I didn’t upset any of you.”

“We’re coming to terms with that ourselves, sir.” All of them had realized if their dad had been a stronger man, they might well have been in a better position to face the world than they were right now. “I’d appreciate your help, Mathew, but I have things going on here. I don’t want anyone to think that we’re playing favorites.” The man laughed, telling him he was brilliant for thinking that.

“I’m going to love doing business with the six of you men. And your wives. Yes, siree bob, I’m going to be happy with the way things will be going. And I don’t mean my way though I’d like that, no, I’m talking about getting the town back up on its feet and jobs around for anyone that wants one.” He could hear someone talking in the background. “Helen just came over. She’s making all kinds of threats to the lot of you. Nothing to worry about. She’s just mad because you never did do your sainted mother right. She was a fucking cunt if you ask me. Sorry if you don’t feel that way, but I hated her from the moment I met her in second grade. And it only got worse as we grew older.”

After setting up a time to have a meeting with the other man, Weston was handed a handful of messages from Amber. While she told him that she loved helping out, she wasn’t sure of enough of the rules for meetings and didn’t care to be screamed at. Mostly it was their mother supporters that said that the boys, as everyone called them, were out to mess up or even fuck up their town.

“I was able to blow off most of the bull shit that was said about your mother, but some of it was about mine as well. Which reminds me, they have a court hearing in the morning. My dad said that he’sgoing to represent himself, but my mother is going to have an attorney. I don’t really care which they do but I have a bad feeling about what is going to happen.”

“Why?” She told him that she didn’t know, but she didn’t think that it was going to be a simple thing like throwing the book at them for an identity thief. “There are other things as well that they’re going to be tried for. One of them is not taking care that your brother had a proper upbringing. They’ve been committing fraud for several years by stealing people’s credit card offers in the mail. You understand that, don’t you?”

“Oh, I understand it but I’m still not sure that it’s going to come out the way that we hope it will. Something, I don’t know what is coming to bite us all in the ass.” He didn’t like her feeling that way. He knew that she’d been sleeping poorly since their parents had been arrested, and having her worry made him worry as well. “You being there with me, all of my new family, will certainly make me feel a good deal better than just going at it alone.”

Holding her in his arms, he told her that he would forever have her back. She held onto him and when she asked him if he thought that Wills should go with them tomorrow, he pulled away enough to lift her chin up so that he could see the tears running down her cheeks.

“As much as I would like to tell you that I don’t think that he should be there, I believe that, in my opinion, he should be able to make that decision on his own. He knows what they’re like and what they’ve been up to better than I do, so telling him no might hurt his feelings. I think I’d like to see that they get what they deserve.” She asked him what if they didn’t. “Don’t borrow trouble, honey. If they don’t, then we’ll make sure that they do the old-fashioned way. Take them out with the leap.”

She laughed, and he joined her. But Wrangler had never been so serious about something in his life. If they didn’t get justice the human way, they would get it his way. Archie had already told him that he’d make sure that the family was safe. He hoped that he’d make sure that it didn’t come back on them either.

~*~

Wills didn’t sleep a wink that night. Now, here it was seven in the morning, and he was sick to his stomach. His nerves were about shot, and all he could think about was that he was going to be facing his parents today and he wasn’t at all thrilled about that. Even though they’d be in handcuffs, he didn’t trust them any further than he could spit. Which he couldn’t do all that well either.

Once the judge had come out and sat down, he made sure that he was snuggled closely to his family. His sister on one side of him and Wrangler on the other. He was about the best brother a kid could ask for. With his hand still bandaged up, he made sure to keep himself still so he didn’t hurt himself more. He’d already broken two of the stitches out and had to return to the hospital to get them fixed. He didn’t want to do that again. It worried his sister something terrible.

“I don’t want any shenanigans going on in my courtroom today. There will be no cursing, no getting out of line, or I swear to you that I’ll dismiss the charges against this couple quicker than anyone can say another word.” Wills looked at the people in the room, and most of them were nodding. “I don’t understand why this has become an issue anyway so we’re going to do this and do this quick. Now, if everyone is in agreement, let’s get this finished.”

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