Colin: McCullough's Jamboree - Erotic Jaguar Shapeshifter Romance (McCullough's Jamboree Book 1) (4 page)

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Peter returned the phone to the cradle. Then he sat down hard, the floor beneath him unforgiving. Looking up at his son’s face, he tried to focus on what he was saying, but all he could hear was the ringing in his head, loud and persistent. When he felt his head snap around, he looked into the face of his mate. She had smacked him, and he hurt for them both all over again.

“Lauren has been hurt, badly.” Mary joined him on the floor. “I don’t know much other than she’s still alive but in bad shape. Her boss just told me he’s sending a car for us to get on a plane to go to her.”

“When?” He told her within the hour. “All right. We have to get ready to go then. I’ll pack. You call someone in to take care of the farm for us. Call Patrick. His sons are home.”

Nodding, he stood up on wobbly knees and made the call. Just having talked to Mary for those few seconds gave him strength. And a purpose. His Mary was always good at that. His son Pete was sitting at the table when he got off the phone with Patrick, who said it would be no problem to keep an eye on his herd and the buildings.

“She gonna die?” He told his son that he didn’t know. “I’m going as well. I…she’s my sister, and I’m going as well.”

“Of course you are. She’d want you there too.” He had no idea. All he could think about was that Lauren was hurt, and it tore badly at him that once again he’d not been there to protect her. She was…the lost little girl that had come into their life was hurt again. “We need to pack up. Go see to your things for me.”

As soon as Pete left him, Peter sat in the chair he’d just left. Lauren, his daughter. She was his world and not even of his blood. He thought of the first time he’d spoken to her about being a part of his family twenty years ago, he just realized.

“I’m not human.” Her nod had him thinking that she didn’t get it. “I’m a shifter, a jaguar. My wife is as well, and our child will be too.”

“Will you make me go back to them? I’ll do anything you need for me to—clean, cook, take care of everything—if you don’t make me go back there.” He told her that the house had burnt to the ground while she’d been sleeping the three days she’d been out. “So they’re coming here too then?”

“No. Not ever. Mary and I have talked and we’d like for you to stay with us. Be our child. We’d like for you to stay here and be our child.” RaeAnn, her name had been then, didn’t answer him. “We’ll have to make some changes. Your name for one thing. And we’ll make sure that no one knows who you are to them either.”

“All right.” He said nothing but watched her face. He’d never seen someone with such a sad and lonely face before. “You won’t make me go back? I promise you, you’ll never have to worry about me being bad. I promise you, I’ll be the best person you ever met.”

“I know that.”

And she had been too. When Pete was born, she’d helped Mary out around the house and cared for Pete any time they needed her to. When he was older and going to school, she spent countless hours working with him on his homework, keeping him in line, and making sure he knew the value of an education. Even with the age difference between them, they were close and had continued to be close when she’d left for the service at eighteen. Unless people asked or knew that she was human, everyone assumed that Lauren was their daughter and Pete’s older sister. Peter couldn’t have asked for better kids than the two he had right now.

The limo arrived an hour later. After they were loaded into it and on their way, his cell phone rang again. It was the major general again. Peter closed his eyes, thinking this was the call he’d dreaded since he’d called him a bit ago.

“The car will take you and your family to the airport, and from there, you’ll be taken to the hospital landing strip. It’s a military zone, so if you’re armed, I’m afraid that you’ll have to leave your weapons behind.” He told him that none of them carried even a knife. “Good. Once you are in the hospital there will be military personnel everywhere. Ask for me. I’m here now waiting on the life flight to land. Their ETA is about ten minutes. Once they are here, both Burcher and her soldier will be taken directly to surgery. I’m sorry, but there won’t be any time for you to see your daughter before she goes in.”

“How is she?” He told him that he’d not had any communications with the chopper since it left the site. “But you have to know something. Anything.”

“I’m sorry. All I know is that she and this other soldier are on their way in, and that it’s bad for them both.” He asked about the last man. “He passed. His wounds were…they were great, and he was only human as well. But Lauren and one of her men are on their way in now.”

“As is my daughter—human, I mean.” There was no response to that, and Peter reached for Mary’s hand. “You’d tell me, wouldn’t you, if she didn’t make it in? Right?”

“I can only tell you what I know, Mr. Burcher. And the last contact that I had with the medics told me that she was in critical condition, and that they didn’t expect her to make it this far.” There was silence at the other end, but Peter heard a door close and the noises in the background simply stop. “Lauren is the best man I have ever met. Strong tempered, loyal to a fault, and stubborn as hell. If anyone can make it, human or otherwise, it will be her. I don’t want to lose her any more than you do. She’s…we fight a great deal, argue over everything, but she’s the best at what she is. They were…what I’m telling you now is classified. What they walked in on, what happened to them…all I can tell you is that as soon as I find out what the fuck happened, I will promise you heads will roll and I will make them pay for this.”

“What was she doing? What job…she couldn’t tell us anything. Not even where she was. Is that what this is about? Her being somewhere that she shouldn’t have been?” He told him that it wasn’t something he could share with him. “My daughter is dying and you can’t share with me? I shared her with you, you motherfucking asshole. You damned well had better tell me something.”

“She was on a mission that should have been cut and dried. Not easy, never that if they’re called in, but nothing like this should have happened. They were ambushed. Whoever did this, they knew that they were coming in, how they were coming in, and when.” Peter said nothing. He wasn’t sure what to say. They’d been betrayed. “They walked into a situation that should have been cut and dried, but it meant all their deaths. Or nearly so. All those men, all of them are dead but your daughter and one other man. And those two that escaped, I have a feeling that this won’t end here. Whoever did this, they wanted her entire squad dead.”

Peter didn’t have anything to say and closed the connection. Someone wanted his daughter dead. There was someone out there, right now, upset…pissed that she had lived. Who? Why? What had she been doing that would…? He looked over at his wife and held her as she quietly cried. Pete, sitting across from him, wiped at tears as well. Peter didn’t know what he’d do if he lost her. He didn’t know what any of them would do without her in their lives.

As soon as they were at the airstrip, their luggage was unloaded as they were helped onto a large plane. He wasn’t sure what sort of plane it was, didn’t care either, but he knew that this was not the sort of service that people would normally receive when a loved one was hurt. As they were set up on the large private belly of the plane, a woman in a uniform came to ask them if they needed anything. When they declined, she handed them each a badge, complete with their picture on it, as well as a thick file.

“This is where you will be staying. The hotel has arranged service to take you to and from the hospital each day. Food will be brought to you, as will any other things you need when you are not at the hotel.” Pete asked about Lauren. “I’m sorry, sir. I’m not privy to that information. I am a liaison for the army to help personnel in these sort of situations. The president will be calling you this evening. When he does, you are not to tell anyone of your conversation with him, nor do you talk to the press about anything you might see or hear. Understood?”

“The president of what?” The woman, Agent Carols, told him. “The president of the United States is going to call me? Why?”

“He is your daughter’s boss, and he is most upset about what has happened to her and her men.” Peter looked at his wife, then back at the agent. “When he calls you, please keep in mind it will be a private call between you and your family. Please do not share anything he might say to you.”

“We won’t.”

As she continued with the rules and regulations as to what they should expect when they landed, all Peter could think about was that his daughter knew the president, and that he was upset that she’d been hurt. He wondered how that had happened. And why.

Chapter 2

Lauren woke but didn’t move. She had no idea where she was or what the fuck had happened. One minute she’d been trying her damnedest to get out of a building that was supposed to be unoccupied, and the next she hurt everywhere. Ordering her men out…she did remember that, and that…blood, there was a lot of blood. Turning her head slowly, not sure still what had happened to her physically, she could see her dad sitting asleep in the chair and Pete looking out the window. He turned and looked at her, and she wondered what he was doing there too.

“Mom went to get some tea. Dad hasn’t been sleeping well since we got here.” She said nothing at his whispered explanation. “We’ve been here about two weeks now. I thought you were going to sleep right through it all. And so you know, you look like crap. Warmed over crap, as a matter of fact.”

“Hurt.” He nodded and moved closer to her. Everything was blurry, and when he got closer, she noticed how tall he’d gotten. “Tall. Grown up.”

“Yeah, that happens when you leave home for years and years. People around you have to grow up and take your place.” He pulled her hand to his mouth and kissed it. “Do you have any idea how terrified we were when they called us? How no one is telling us anything that happened to you?”

“Sorry, it’s classified.” Closing her eyes, she let the pain wash over her. It was good, the pain; it meant she could feel and that she wasn’t dead. “Where am I?”

“A military hospital right outside of New York. If they told us the name, I don’t remember it.” She did and looked at him again. “We’re supposed to tell them if you wake up. They don’t want us to talk to you about anything. I guess you have to be debriefed or something like that.”

She supposed she would be. It had been…everything about that fated trip had been wrong. So wrong that she’d been on the radio trying to get answers even as the place was blowing up around them. And her men were being shot to shit and dying.

“Don’t leave.” He said that he wasn’t going anywhere. “My men, do you know anything? Did any of them make it out?”

“No. Nothing. There is one guy here with you, but I don’t know a lot about him either. They’re keeping everything hush hush.” She could see that. The army was nothing but one big secret. “Do you hurt? Bad?”

“Yes. Everything.” He didn’t say anything, and she looked at him. He was crying and trying his best not to. “I’m not going to die. I’m too stubborn for that.”

“That’s what that guy told Dad when we got here. He said if someone told you that you were not going to make it, you’d live just to be right. He said that you were ten kinds of stubborn.” She knew who it was without being told: Tony Phillips. “He’s one scary-assed dude. He said you were scarier.”

“I am. Don’t forget it either.” The pain was making itself known to her, and she asked Pete what he knew about her injuries. But before he could answer her, she saw her dad standing over her. “Hi there, Dad. You think they’ll let me go home with you now?”

He started crying, heart wrenching sobs that hit her right in the heart. He kept telling her how much he loved her, needed her in his life, and she could only let him hold her hand while her own battle with tears was falling apart.

Most of her men and those that commanded her would have said that Lauren Burcher didn’t have any feelings, but they’d be wrong. Her family was her life. Peter and Mary Burcher had taken her in and made her a part of something she’d never had before. Love. And family. Then they’d done one more for her: they’d given her a little brother. Pete Burcher was the best thing in the world to her.

Pete left them after a few minutes. He said that he was going to find Mom, and Dad sat in his chair, never letting go of her hand. Dad told her what he knew, which was very little, and that he loved her. And told her over and over again that he was glad to see her awake and that he wasn’t leaving her.

“What happened to me? I know that I’m pretty beat up, but how bad is it?” He looked around the room, then back at her. “Dad?”

“They said we weren’t to tell you anything. Not until they talked to you. Something about you having to tell them what you knew so they could let you share only what they wanted you to. Sounds like a cover up to me.” She told him what she thought of that. “Lauren. Did you learn that language at my knee?”

“No, sir. I learned it when a bunch of bastards tried to tell me that as a woman, I was never going to amount to a hill of beans and that I should give up now.” He grinned at her. “Tell me, Dad. How bad?”

“Shot seven times, they told us. All point blank. Twice in the chest, once in the arm, and twice in both legs. Shrapnel was taken out of your back, your chest, as well as your head. Broken leg, hand, and some damage to your lower back, but I can’t get anyone to tell me what. Your mom can’t get them to let her see your file either, which hasn’t gone over well.” Lauren nodded. She told him she’d take care of that. “I wish you would. She wants to make sure of a few things before they release you. If they release you. They’re not big on giving out any kinds of timelines, are they?”

“No. Welcome to my world. And I’m assuming that they didn’t tell you what happened.” He said that they checked her body when they could to see the extent of her injuries or they’d not even know as much as they did. Not so much as pulling out the padding and looking, but just peaking where they could. “Where is Phillips? Has he been in to see me?”