Page 12 of Brewster

“What are you talking about? I’m not stupid enough to turn around and see nothing behind me so that you can close the door in my face again. That other guy did it, and I won’t allow you to do that to me again.” Brew told him to suit himself. She came around the door when Brew asked her to. “There you are. I sure hope that you’ve made your final wishes known. You’re going to be taking care of me the rest of your life.”

“If I’ve made my final wishes, that means that I’m dead. So how would I take care of you for the rest of my life if I’m dead? Not that I have any plans to do anything for you, but you just said something that makes no sense at all. Again.” He told her that he knew what he said and he wanted the money they’d agreed on right now. “We didn’t agree on anything, you slimy bastard.”

One of the wolves, she didn’t know them by sight, came up and lifted his leg against Daniel’s pant leg. As the liquid sprayed all over him, the other wolves, there were six of them laughed. She thought it was quite funny, too. Just as she was going to engage with him again to piss him off more, he was gone. Nothing was left on the front step but one of his shoes and the hat that he’d had on his head.

Stepping out into the evening, she looked both ways to see where he’d gone. It didn’t occur to her that the wolves hadtaken him. But in the distance, she could hear howling, and she suddenly knew where her uncle was.

The door shut when she stepped into the house, and she looked at Brew. Landon had gone back into the house, and she didn’t want to think about what had happened. Walking into Brew’s arms, she was held by him while he spoke to her.

“He’ll never bother you again.” She nodded. “You don’t understand, love. He might not be dead as yet, but before the wolves leave the field that they’re in, Daniel will be no more and no one will grieve over his passing. I have an attorney going over his estate, and once that is all taken care of and his clothing is found, they’ll make sure that you are given what is left of his estate. There is very little of it, but it will be yours.”

“I don’t want it.” Brew nodded as if he understood her. “Can’t we just set up what little there is to go to some church or something? Not in his name but just so that I don’t have to deal with it or him anymore.”

“As you wish.” He continued to hold her, and she loved his warm arms around her. “My friends have all gotten back to me, and they’re making plans to come here. I’ve heard from Sirous that Yosef is in a mood and might well be better off not having much to do with him until later. He’s always been a bit of a grouchy person, but he’s gotten worse since he’s been alone. I was told that there was not even a house to his name anymore. Sirous is coming by train, and he will make his way here when he arrives. He said that he has plenty more things to reflect on before he ends his life. He’s making no bones about it that he wants to die.”

“We’ll just have to change his mind when he gets here.” Brew told her good luck with that. “You don’t know what I can do to make him feel like he needs a new outlook on life. I’ll give it to him, and he’ll thank me for it.”

“I hope that you can. I’ve lost a great many friends by thembeing killed. Sirous is closer to Yosef, but he and I have been in contact with each other more than the others. Yosef, as I said, can be a very temperamental man when it suits him.” Calla told him that she’d fix him right up. “I know you can try love, but you don’t know him the way that I do.”

“I’ll get him wishing to have met me sooner. You’ll see.” He kissed her on the nose, and she told him about the market in Zanesville. “Hattie and I are going, and you should, too. You might find that you enjoy it as much as we do.”

“I enjoy anything and everything about you, my heart. I shall go so that I can make sure that you have the best of times. I’ve been to it before, last summer into fall, and I remember it being a good place to see the beautiful flowers in bloom. I believe at one time, we gathered our pumpkins there as well.

Chapter 6

Rance hung up the phone. It wasn’t something that he used all the time, but he knew the numbers when they came up on the handset. Thinking about the things that Brew’s mate had told him made him believe that things were about perfect for the couple. Then he thought of his own life.

His parents were both deceased. Rance had no brothers, no sisters. The one uncle that he had had gone rogue about a decade ago and had been put down. He’d never had a mate, no good friends nearby, and the worst part was, the few friends that he did have, other than Brew, were thinking about offing themselves so that they’d not have to be bored with life or go rogue.

His uncle Joe, unlike the other men in his life, had lost his mate. She had gone out for a few hours, and just as he was expecting her to return, her death was felt by the family. His own heart had shattered. Losing someone who was close, especially to a vampire, having spent thousands of years together, it would make a man lose all sense of control.

Joe had gone on a killing spree that was talked about for years after. Even now, occasionally, someone would write about the Great Bleeding as if it had happened only a few days ago. He’d killed nearly three dozen humans. Slashing their throats, leaving them to bleed out. He had killed entire families, single adults with family nearby. It was nothing for him to go into a home and pick and choose the ones that he thought had slighted him and kill them while leaving a bedpartner beside them living. It was one of the reasons that Rance had remained a recluse.

Not finding his mate meant that she couldn’t be killed. There were other factors involved in his reasoning to stay out of sight, but that was the one that he would tell people about when asked.But Brew had found his.

Calla had called him just now. She’d told him that he needed to come to the house to celebrate life. Calla had also told him that if he didn’t show up that she would come for him, and as she had recently figured out, she was the queen of his kind, and she wouldn’t make it easy on him. For some reason, he believed her.

There was something else that he believed about her. While she’d not said anything, she had indicated to him that she would beat his ass if he decided not to do what she’d asked—it wasn’t really a question, but if he didn’t do what she wanted, he was going to be hurting no matter how she put it.

“We’re having a nice wine-tasting party next month.” He told her that he only drank reds. “Good for you. We’ll have reds and whites, all the colors, and if you only drink the one color, you’re going to have a great deal to choose from. However, being here is important to me. Do you understand what I’m saying to you, Rance?” He told her that he did.

“You want me there. However, I don’t know what is going to be going on in a month, so I don’t know what I’m doing.” She told him that, of course, he did. In one month, he was going to be at Brew and her home, tasting wine. “You don’t understand. I have—”

“No, it’s you that don’t understand. Now, as I was saying, we’re having a lovely wine-tasting party, and you will need to be dressed up. Black tie. I hope you have a tux. If not, then we can figure one out for you. If you bring a date, he or she will need to be in black tie apparel as well.” She laughed. “I almost forgot. If you bring someone who wants more than just wine, we’ll have small plates as well. Lots of things that I’ve been playing around with since we came up with this plan. So you don’t have to bring a date that needs to only drink while here.”

He tried once again to tell her that he had no plans of going to a wine-tasting party or any other kind, but she cut him off,telling him of the other parties they were going to have, not giving him any dates. Just telling him that once he moved to this part of Ohio, he’d be close enough that he’d not have to stay with them unless he wanted to.

After hanging up over an hour ago, he still was thinking about how he’d been bullied into going to Ohio by a mate to his best friend. And not only that, but by a human as well. When his butler came into his office, he asked him if he was all right.

“I don’t know.” He told him what had transpired with the phone call. “She’s very pushy, I believe, and I’m actually looking forward to meeting her.”

Bradford laughed. Rance told him that had she been a salesperson, he might well have purchased all that she was hawking and wanted more from her. They both agreed that they’d never get on her bad side as she might well hurt them, even for being as old and magical as they were.

“I should like to meet her myself, your lordship. She sounds like someone that your father would have enjoyed talking to.” He agreed with him and smiled. “So when are you leaving? I’m assuming that you are leaving here soon?”

“I have a month to appear, and then I don’t know what will happen.” He laughed again. “She threatened to come here and take care that I showed up on time. Bradford, she seems to think that I’m going to be staying with her and Brew in their big house before getting one of my own to live nearby them. Isn’t that the strangest thing?”

“It ‘tis. So shall I begin closing up the house for you? A month isn’t all that long to be able to move yourself and the household there. Or will you be keeping this place as another rental?”

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