Page 5 of Ewing

“I might have done something that is going to bite me in the ass.” She said that Mark had told him that she was Ewing’s mate. Then he congratulated her. “Ewing is the best of the Cross men. Loyal to a fault and a great man to have in your corner. I don’t know that I’d be all that happy with you either if you were to talk about me behind my back. Are you on your way back here?”

“I can send the paperwork to you if you plan on firing me. In fact, I think I’d like that better than facing anyone right now.” He asked her if she thought that he was a vindictive man. “No. But I know how much the Cross Bears mean to you. And I’ve royally pissed one of them off by being stupid.”

“Mark told me that you were a bitch to his little brother. Also, outspoken, and you didn’t have a single clue what you were dealing with, but, again, he said you were making stupid assumptions.” She told him that she had. “Send the paperwork to me so that I can get that squared away and then you spend the next week fixing this with Ewing. I don’t care if you declare that you love him from the highest mountains down there; I want this resolved in a week, or there will not be a job to come back to. You’re right in saying that I’m fond of the Cross men. But what you did was uncalled for as well as something that I never expected out of you. Fix it.”

The silence at the other end of the now-dead phone was deafening. She’d fucked up royally and didn’t even know where to start on fixing things. He didn’t say that she had to be a mate, but she did have to fix this thing with him.

After finding a place where she could not only fax the paperwork to the president, she also found an overnight courier service that would have the signed document in DC today. Girthing up her loins, as her father used to say, she went to find one of the family members to find out how to get in touch with Ewing. She had an idea that it was going to take more than an apology to make this right, but she’d do what she needed to do because her job meant everything to her.

Instead of finding one of the bears, she found the mates to the others. Thinking that they’d understand where she was coming from, the five of them were especially cold to her when she said that she needed to find a way to contact Ewing.

“Why? So you can take a bit more of his heart out of him? He’s a good man, and you made him hurt.” She told who she thought was Jamie, Mark’s mate that was what she was going to do, to fix this. “How do you propose to do that? From where I’m standing, and, correct me if I’m wrong, but you’re only doing this to keep your job. Correct?”

“Yes, well, that’s part of it. Did you have careers that you didn’t want to leave when you met up with your other halves?” Each of them said that they didn’t want to work anymore after finding one of the Cross men. “Well, good for you. I’ve been working for the president for the last few years, and I worked hard to get there, too. I’m not going to be giving it up without a fight either.”

“It’s doubtful to me that you’d have to put up any kind of fight. These men, though I guess you think that you already know them, aren’t like other men. Nor shifters. When they tell you something, like they’ve got your back if you need them, then they won’t step in until you say you do. As for working for the president, the eleven of us do as well.” She wasn’t getting anywhere with these women and told them so. “Good for us then. You’ll be careful where you tread, my dear. There is no telling what will pop out at you in the best of times.”

In the end, she had to call the president to get an address for the other man. Not only did she need that, but apparently, no one would give her a lift to his house, though they were all headed there now.

Stomping her feet to head out of the hospital she’d been sent here to be in, Trinity thought of all the things she was going to do with her free time without any children around nor a big handsome bear of a mate.

It took her eight hours to find a car to rent. It might have been less time but it only just occurred to her that she could rent a car rather than just assume that someone could take her back to the Cross homestead in their car. Sometimes, she never saw the trees for all the forests that were in her way.

Vowing to make sure that she kept records of everything that she’d had to do because a man got his feelings hurt was beyond measure to her. Stupid fucker. Turning up the stereo in the car, she knew that it wasn’t to drown out her signing but to make her heart feel better about what she’d done. To a near stranger, no less.

It was nearly midnight when she pulled into town. You’d never know it by the way that the park entrance was busy, nor with all the restaurants’ colorful signs lighting up the way so brightly either. It was as bad as Vegas, she thought, a town that she didn’t care for any more than she did having to talk to Ewing again.

Finding a hotel proved to be just as difficult. It was high season, whatever the hell that meant, so all the hotels were full. Even finding one off the beaten path seemed to be something that was out of this realm of possibilities. She was about as pissed off as she could be when she was told that she should have made reservations. Again.

“I’m here on business.” Well, she was sort of. “I need to find one of the Cross men in the morning then I’ll be able to leave. I only need a room that has a shower and a clean change of clothing.”

“We don’t have clothing here. But there are plenty of places along the strip where you can get yourself a nice T-shirt and some shorts. If you’re looking for any other attire, then I’m afraid that you’re going to be out of luck.” With a wink, she leaned into her face. “If I had me a chance to go see one of them Cross men, I’d wear very little and say less than that. The last one, Ewing? He’s the best of the lot if you ask me. He’s been taking care of those kids like he gave birth to them all on his own.”

“He doesn’t have any help with them?” She told her that once in a while, one of them would go to the house and let him take a shower, but mostly it was just him. “I’m to understand that he has a great deal of money too. Why doesn’t he just find someone to live in with him?”

“Oh, he’s not like that. Like his brothers, if they have a responsibility to someone or something, they go all out in taking care of it. I’ve never known a one of them that wouldn’t stop. Even when they were rangers on their way to work, they’d stop and change a tire or something. And at Christmas time, they give away tons of toys for the drives and candy too.” This didn’t sound a bit like the man that she’d conjured up in her thoughts about him. In fact, it was the exact opposite. “They were devasted when their grandparents died. The mister was killed in the line of duty. He was a volunteer here at the park and the missus, she simply couldn’t live without him and passed on that very night. Sad story but true.”

“Do you have a number for any of them? I don’t want to just pop by to talk to Ewing.” She asked her if she had lunch yet. “No. It’s barely…well, I forgot about the time change. No, I’ve not had breakfast nor supper last night, now that I think about it.”

“He’s over at the diner. The one just about a block from here. The kids are with him, so he might be too busy to talk to you. He just loves those little kids.” She asked for directions and was out the door before she remembered that she’d not had a shower yet either.

Oh well, the sooner she was able to get back to her perfect life, the better. She didn’t want children, and she didn’t need a mate. As soon as she walked into the diner, she knew that her perfect little apology to Ewing wasn’t going to be so perfect after all.

There were police in the little place holding onto one of the children she’d seen with Ewing yesterday. The child, she couldn’t have been any more than six or so, was screaming her bloody headoff. The baby was crying, and Ewing was in the headlock of some very upset man. Going up behind the man who was holding Ewing, she jerked his arm around, freeing her mate. The police freed the little girl, and she came running to her. Not her dad but her. Picking her up, the little girl was a mess of tears. She asked Ewing what was going on. As calmly as he could, she could tell he told her that the man that was in the police custody said that he was going to take his prize back. He did that quote thing with his fingers so she had an idea that he didn’t think that his daughter was going to be a prize to anyone.

“Mr. Anderson here said that he bought and paid for Patty, and he was either going to get his money back or take the child. I, of course, offered him his money back, but he told me that he’d changed his mind.” Ewing let out a long breath before continuing. The baby was still crying, so he picked him up in his arms and snuggled him for a moment. “Patty isn’t going with anyone. She’s my daughter, and I told him that. But he said that if he didn’t get one of them, then he was going to kill me and take them all, including Billy here.”

“Are you pressing charges?” He just glared at her. “Look, buster, I didn’t want to do this, but it was either, but I had to save your ass so I could get back to my job.”

“Yes, I’m pressing charges. May I have my daughter back, please?” She sat down at the table where all the plates had been dumped on the floor and around the restaurant walls. Picking up some of the silverware, she smiled at the waitress when she came to the table. “What are you doing?”

“Can we have this cleaned up, please? Or better yet, I’ll help you clean it up if I can get some food. I’m starving. Is there another place that we can have a seat?” The waitress told her that she had the mess and a table just for them. “Thank you so much. And I’ll pay whatever it costs extra for this needing to be cleaned up, too.”

“You go on with yourself now. I got this.” Taking the hand of one of the little girls, actually she’d taken hers, Trinity made her way to the other table to have a seat. The other two girls and the car seat with the baby in it again were brought over by Ewing. Patty, the one who had been nearly kidnapped, was still crying, so she took her to the bathroom to get her cleaned up. The other two girls, she didn’t know their names, came with her to keep a watch out for the bad man again. Somehow, the child had ended up with syrup all over her head.

“Dad won’t ever take us out again after this. And we were being so good.” The middle child, she was told her name was Harper rolled her eyes before continuing. “People just suck if you were to ask me about it. I think that I’ll just live and die on the mountain and never come to town again.”

“That doesn’t sound so good.” She told her that she didn’t know the mountain. “True. I’m assuming that you live in a log cabin or something.”

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