Gerard (3 page)

Calling to the guard to have her taken to his home, he hoped to Christ he wasn’t making the biggest mistake of his life. Or that of his family if she decided to take some of her anger out on them. But he had a feeling that once tamed, she was going to be a hell of an ally.

Chapter 2

Gerard watched as the shelves were filled. Items too large for the shelves were simply placed in the middle of the mill. He’d agreed to oversee this part of the new operation that his family was getting into, and wanted to make sure that everything was just the way he wanted it. When Aunt Georgie and Palmer walked in, he went to greet them and show them around if they had time. But the closer he got to them, the more he could see that something was wrong. Even his cat was a little on the nervous side when he got to them.

“Everything is fine.” He nodded but peered over his aunt’s head to look at Palmer. He nodded that she was telling him the truth. “We just had a few things going on at the jail and I had Palmer come to get me. We were going to pick out some new carpet for the library anyway.”

Palmer was in love with Gerard’s aunt. Any fool could see that. She kept telling them all that he wasn’t her mate, but Gerard wasn’t so sure about that. He could see the look in his aunt’s eye every time they were together, and how she looked when another female got too close to Palmer. If he wasn’t her mate, they were making a good show of it being true anyway. There was no hope if these two couldn’t be mates, not for any of them.

He asked about the jail. After he was told the story, he still didn’t have any idea why his aunt was upset, even after she told them Emma was saved by another cat and left for the bathroom to “freshen up.” As soon as she was gone, Palmer smiled at him.

“Nothing really is wrong. She’s fine. I think what has her worried is that girl. The one that saved our Emma.” Gerard asked if Mason was pissed off. “No. I think he thought it was funny too. This woman is so headstrong that I think she might even have my little Holly beat on her stubbornness. But neither he nor Emma seemed upset about that. I think they like her, despite all the hoopla. Now he’s got her under house arrest, so to speak, and she’ll be working for him for a time. Her father is the one that has me worried. You might have heard of him. Ernest Benjamin.”

“No. Should I have?”

They both turned when Aunt Georgie could be heard behind them. She looked better. Her face was free of worry, and he smiled at the fact that she was fussing at one of the workers about their language. She would curse up a storm if she was mad enough, but that didn’t happen often. So whatever the man had said that she was glaring at, it must have been bad. The guy was on his knees begging her to forgive him.

When that was finished, he talked them into going to the office in the back so he could find out what was going on. He was sure it was going to be more than he wanted to know about a stranger.

“Ernest Benjamin, Ernie to those that know him, is the worst kind of person. He and his wife—I can’t remember her name right now—were into drugs, murder, and mayhem. You name it and they had a part in it, I’m sure. He’d been married three or four times in the past, but one thing or another led up to their death…until he married a woman that by all accounts was worse than him. Anna—that’s her name—had a baby, and only because I know how the mating thing works, they were suited to each other in more ways than just their inability to stay on the good side of the law. But it turns out they had a wonderful child. Susan Benjamin.” Gerard asked if it was the woman at the jail. “Yes. Their daughter. And the exact opposite of them in every way possible. But then something happened. I’m not entirely sure what led to her being arrested for the murder of three people a few years ago, but they broke down her apartment door and beat her up pretty badly before she got to jail. Knowing a little about your kind, like I said, had she resisted arrest as they said she did, she could very well have killed them, but she only let them beat on her until she was unconscious. That’s another thing that has me thinking that this girl is more than a little stubborn. I would think you’d have to have great control over your cat should you be hurt, right?”

“Yes. A great deal. Are both her parents cougars?” Palmer said he didn’t know because her mother was dead; a fight in prison had taken her life. “So, this Susan person was in prison but now out. Do you know why, and what this has to do with the trouble at the jail?”

“She was exonerated. All charges were dropped, and they gave her a nice little cash settlement in exchange for her not suing them. I’m not sure what went on there, but I’m having it looked into.” Gerard almost felt sorry for whomever was going to be on the chopping block when Palmer found his man. He was ruthless and a little scary when he was pissed off. “Anyway, according to Mason, she wasn’t aware that she had to answer to him while here, or to report to him. I’m thinking that because of Emma liking her and all, he’s making up this thing about her having to pay back some sort of fine for not reporting to him.”

“No. He can do it.” Palmer nodded, but Gerard explained. “She should have known about reporting to him, and even if she didn’t, fighting him and Emma should have gotten her into hot water. There could have been some pretty hefty fines that went along with it too, but I guess he’s not going that route. But what I don’t understand is why they care.”

Neither Georgie nor Palmer did either. When the next truck came to the loading dock to be unloaded, he left them with the promise that he’d be home for dinner tomorrow. He had to be on the ranch tomorrow anyway. That was why he was working so hard to get this place set up today. It was going to be a long day at the Double Deuce for all of them.

~~~

They’d gone together and bought the Mitchell ranch, as was the plan. No easy feat, since the man refused to take what they were offering. So when the bank came in, he’d lost it all anyway. When foreclosure was on him and his family, he had barricaded himself in the house with his family with a shotgun and refused to move out. It had ended badly; Mitchell and his oldest son had been killed. The wife and her two daughters had moved away just last week. They seemed to be thrilled to be free of the ranch and the man who had owned it. Once it was settled that they’d had no part in the police being called in, they left so quickly that they’d left everything behind. The house needed to be cleared out, as well as all the barns and out buildings.

“How many cows you got yourself now? I think they’re all pretty and stuff when they just stand around in the grass. You think they don’t mind the rain none?” He nearly snarled at the man when he spoke behind him, startling him and his cat. He didn’t look familiar, so Gerard didn’t answer him. When he smiled, it was like looking at a big boy in a man’s body. He looked sort of…off, and not very friendly. “You not going to tell me?”

“I don’t know you at all, so telling you private information isn’t going to happen.” The man grinned again. “How did you get in here? We’re not open for business just now.”

“I got my ways. I know this place pretty good. It’s part of my family history. You know?” He turned and looked around the stockroom before looking at him again. “Yeah, this place looks real good. It would be a real shame should it go up in flames, don’t you think? I like fire.”

As the man lit his cigarette and then blew the smoke in Gerard’s direction, Gerard reached for the men in the building with him. There were only two others, but they were wolf and would come to his aide now. As they told him they were coming, Gerard told Mason what was going on. Then Jace joined in the conversation.

Do you know anything about him?
He told his brothers that he didn’t know him at all.
But he’s threatening you? Right there, just telling you that he’s going to burn the place down?

Gerard had to smile. Jace still had no idea how ruthless men could be sometimes. Well, maybe he did, but it was funny when he was reminded of it again and again. Mason had a better handle on that sort of thing, but Jace liked everyone and everyone seemed to like him. Gerard told him that he wasn’t coming out and saying it, but close enough.

We’re coming. Don’t do anything stupid
. Gerard asked Mason to define stupid.
Don’t kill him. We have enough shit going on right now without you being in jail when we need you here.

But maybe I want to be in jail instead of cleaning out a house that means little to me.
Mason laughed, and Gerard felt a little better.
Hurry. I have two men here with me, and I’d just as soon none of us got hurt.

Gerard realized he might have missed something the man said when he just cocked a brow at him. “What are you doing here? And what the hell do you think you’re doing threatening me?” The man only laughed and looked to Gerard’s left, then right. He knew that the other two had shown up to stand there, but he was worried that one or all of them was going to get hurt. “I asked you a question, jackass. What are you doing here?”

“You and your family, they got no right to be taking over things that don’t belong to you. My brother told me that. I mean, I’ve been sent by someone that wants to make an example of you all, and he doesn’t care who is hurt when he does it. He said that I could help him.” The cigarette was flipped at him, but Gerard didn’t flinch. Instead he ground it out with the toe of his boot and looked at the man. “This place don’t belong to you. You know that, right? You stealed it from the people who owned it.”

Gerard repeated what he’d said to his brothers. He knew they were getting closer, but the man moved around him to the other end of the dock and where the other two men were standing. He supposed he could have done something then, but he didn’t want to hurt anyone if he didn’t have to. When the man looked into the big truck and turned to him, Gerard felt his cat move along his skin.

“Come back here and I’ll kill you.” The man only laughed and spit on the floor between his feet. “You will regret that.”

“Why would I regret spitting on the floor?” Gerard didn’t say anything…he had a feeling the man was a little slow, but maybe it was an act. “Well, I guess you gotta do what you gotta do, as my dad used to say to me. He’s dead, you know? I think that my brother did it, but I don’t know for sure. He can be really mean when he…I should be quiet now. He don’t like it none when I’m too talky.”

He jumped off the loading dock and moved away. Gerard felt his cat again and calmed him with the knowledge that the human had left them a calling card. Leaning down to the dirt, he rubbed his fingers into the spit and took it to his nose. Then he offered it to the wolves with him, and they all took the scent into their noses. The man was as good as right beside them now.

“Called in the alpha. He was in town so he’s coming by.” Gerard nodded at Dave, the wolf that had come from the front of the store to help him out. Jamie, the other man with him, only grinned when he glanced at him. But Dave spoke again and it sent a chill down his back. “He said that he’ll not get within ten feet of this building or any of the other ones so long as he has breath in his body.”

“Can you ask him to send a few men out to the ranch houses too?” Dave said it was already done. “Good. I’ll let my brothers know, but I think that we’ll try and keep things close to home for a little while. I don’t know what this guy thinks he’s about, but I’m going to find out what I can about the guy who ran the mill before it went under. I don’t think it was him, but he knows him, don’t you think?” They both agreed there was something there, but neither of them could figure it out either.

Garth Vance had skipped town right after the banker, Nigel Rogers, had been caught. His story of being insane hadn’t stuck with the judge any more than it had with any of them. And Clark, their lawyer, had been the first to figure it out. Vance had not been seen or heard from since the Feds had come in and taken over the buildings. It wasn’t until recently that they’d said the mill and the bank could be reopened, but with restrictions, one of them being that the Feds had to approve the men that were running the places. Gerard had been asked to step in and help them out. He was glad for the work, as he didn’t think ranching was really in his blood.

After his brothers showed up and were given the man’s scent, the three of them began looking for ways that the man might have gotten in. They found the basement doors weren’t the only places showing signs of a break-in, but the windows all along the main floor had been tampered with too. Mason called in a security team to get cameras and a better locking system, but Gerard wondered if they were shutting the barn door after the cows had been put out to pasture. He didn’t want to think of what it would do to have this place go up in flames.

They worked until nearly one in the morning making sure the place was as safe as they could get it. He made it to the house just as the sun was coming up, and didn’t stir when he smelled the bacon frying in the kitchen down the hall.

~~~

Susie knew that she had to get up from the bed, but she was hoping that if she didn’t move she could pretend, at least for a little while, that everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours had been a dream. A bad one but a dream all the same. But lying there, she knew, would solve nothing. Sitting up, she looked around the room she’d been shown to last night when she’d gotten up from the couch.

The room she was in was nice. Probably the nicest one she’d ever be able to stay in again. At least for the next month anyway. The people she was staying with, Mason and Emma Douglas, had ordered her to stay with them and said that she’d be working for the ranch until the end of her sentence. She was pretty sure they were making that part up, but since she had no idea if they were lying or not, she’d told them she’d do what they said. And Susie was honest, despite what others might say about her. Getting up and moving to the bathroom, she snatched up her bag and took it in with her. It was all she owned in the world right now.