Lee: Emerson Wolves—Paranormal Erotic Wolf Shifter Romance (10 page)

“I demand that you leave me alone. I have no use for you or your kind.” He laughed at her. “I’ve done not one thing to you. Not one. I’ve been living my life the way I want, and everyone here believes they can come in and intrude on my plans. I will not have it.”

“Well, that’s just too bad. And as for you not harming me? No, not me personally. But I did tell you to leave them alone, didn’t I? The Emersons are more like family to me than anyone has ever been. And they have never asked for anything in return. You demand and demand, and then when that doesn’t go your way, you hurt. Why is that?” Kimberly said nothing. “Answer me.”

She knew what he was doing. Using his mind tricks on her. Kimberly wanted to say that it didn’t affect her, but she knew that it wasn’t anything she could control. Nor was it anything that she could buy. To have such power over someone would be a wondrous thing. But when he demanded that she answer him again, she had no choice in the matter.

“I have no idea what you want to know. I should have the things that I want and in the way that I want them. Why anyone else would want things their way is beyond me. It’s the way things should be for the good of those around me, and everyone should simply give it to me or do what I say. How am I supposed to make sure that things are done the way I want them if people are forever thinking their way is the better way? I am Lady Kimberly Leta Schroeder, and I will have it go according to my plans or there will be trouble, mark my words.” He laughed. A loud boisterous laugh that had people turning their heads to look at them. “Stop that. You’re making people stare at us. I do not want anyone to know that I have been detained. It’s bad enough that I’ve had to waste time here that I should be spending at home, but Kimber will soon know that she was wrong in even trying this.”

“Detained? I’m thinking you’re more than detained, Kimberly. You’re here for the duration.” He snapped his fingers, and a chair appeared behind him. As he sat down, she wondered what else he could make appear, and he grinned. “I will not let you go, so don’t even bother demanding anything of me. I won’t lift a finger to do a thing for you…not now, nor in any foreseeable future, if you have much of a future. I like you just where you are.”

“I did nothing wrong. As soon as I’m out of here, people are going to pay for this. You mark my words. I should not be treated this way.” He asked her why. “Because I am Lady—”

“Fuck that shit. You aren’t lady anything. And you’ve never been further than the United States, no matter what little stories you make up. You gave yourself that title when someone snubbed you at a party once you returned from that little stay you had to endure when you tried to hit that cop. That didn’t go over well for you either, did it?” Kimberly shook her head. “Sit down and shut up. I don’t have a great deal of time right now, and you’re lucky that I don’t just kill you to end this shit. As I have pointed out, I am not in the best of moods.”

“You can’t kill me. I’m not going to allow it. I know my rights and I’m not allowing you to do any such thing.” He laughed again. “I demand to know why you think that I should be here. Then I want you to get me out of here. I’m not in a very good mood either.”

“You killed James Walden for one. And the family that was having lunch in the same café when the man drove up on the walkway to get to him. Oh, you didn’t cause the accident that took their lives, but you paid a man to do it for you. Yes, you were not involved in those murders or the two after, but when you pay someone to do the killing for you, you are just as guilty. You might not think so, but the law is very clear on that.”

Kimberly knew all this.

“So? They were only a casualty of what was needed for me to have my plans put into motion. Had Kimber been with him, as she should have been, then I would not have to work so hard to get her to come to heel. Everyone that was involved was paid. And as much as I hated to do it, I have made sure that the driver of that car was well paid for his part in this as well.” She smiled then. “And that brat wouldn’t have been born either had the two of them been killed. Do you have any idea how much that thing has ruined things for me? Just a simple thing, that’s all he had to do, but Kimber had stayed home with a sick head. She is ruining my plans every time she takes a breath.”

“Good for her. More people should ruin your plans. There would be less death surrounding you when you go to trial. Oh, and then there is the husband of your niece. That was very bad of you, Kimberly. The man was only asserting his rights as the husband of a very wealthy woman.” Kimberly only nodded now. She had no idea where he was going with rehashing things that she knew about. “What did you do to him? Or should I say, what did you do to the two of them?”

“Camden was a problem from the start. You should have seen him. Trying to get my Leta to do his bidding instead of mine. What did he think was going to happen when he told me that he was moving me out of my own home and I was never to return? Did he really expect me to simply wish him well? Then he said he was taking over the running of her companies. They were my companies. I had built them up. My father should have left them to me, not some sniveling halfwit that had no more idea what to do than a brat would.” Kimberly thought of the man that she’d come to despise. “I had no idea they were even seeing each other. Leta was leaving my house and running off with that man nightly. Then when she was caught with him she told me that they were married. Married. Like that was something special.”

“It was to them.” Kimberly snorted. “So what did you do to him? Then her? I heard that you had her put in a home across the country after her husband was dead. She was a grieving young woman, and you shipped her away like she was nothing more than day old trash. But that didn’t work out so well either, did it?”

“No it did not, and you well know it. But he had to go. What more is there to say on that? You would have done the same if he had come into your home demanding things his way. Then after I sent her away, hoping that while she was there they’d do something, anything about her state of mind, they informed me that she was with child. A child? What was I to do with a brat? And no matter how much I offered, they refused to have it aborted. Said that she was too far along and that it might kill her. So? One less thing for me to have to contend with. As if they had any say in that whatsoever. So she came here with a babe in her arms and an attitude that bordered on insolence. And no matter what, that child never left her side.” Smiling, she thought of Camden’s last moments. “That fall from the stairs, however, was very well planned. It was a lovely sight to see. Sometimes I go back up to the place and think of him tumbling over and over down the stairs.”

“So you pushed him down the stairs.” Kimberly shook her head but smiled. This was a fun game, having someone try to figure out all her plans. “But you did have something to do with it.”

“Absolutely not. I did loosen the rug just a little, and if he tripped over it, I had nothing to do with it.” Kimberly looked at the vampire in front of her. “I’m sure that you’ve done worse than what these people here think to accuse me of. I’m just a woman trying to get ahead in the world. And to make sure that things are just the way they should be for me. What is the harm in that? None. I will rule my own house, not some upstart that thought that he knew more than I did in the running of my money.”

He stood up and so did she. Kimberly might have enjoyed talking to him for a little while, but he was still a monster and she didn’t trust him. She actually trusted no one but herself.

“The difference between the two of us is that while I have done things I’m not proud of, I’ve never fucked over one of my family. Nor, and this is where you have screwed up big time, have I been caught.” Steward stepped back and pointed to the camera that hung pointed at the two of them. His smile, one that showed all his teeth, made her cringe back again in fear, a feeling that she was as unfamiliar with as she was saying she was sorry for something that she’d done. Not that she ever apologized for anything she did or said. “And, unlike you, I’m not going to prison for it. Goodbye, Kimberly. May you rot in hell.”

Kimberly stood there for several minutes after he’d gone, trying to work out what this all meant. What had he meant, prison? She wasn’t going anywhere but home. Moving to the front of her cell, she yelled for someone to come to her now. As they all moved around the room, some of them sitting at their desks, others just talking on the phone, she saw Kimber coming toward her. And with her, the young man from this morning.

“It’s about time. Come have them unlock this door and take me home. You and I have a great deal to discuss, and for once you are going to obey me. I’ve had a terrible day and I’m in a sour mood. Unlock this door and let’s begin.” Kimberly stepped back and watched for one of them to do her bidding. “What are you waiting for? You heard me. Get me out of here and then take me home. I don’t know what you were thinking, but I will not stand for this kind of treatment again. This is no way for you to treat me after all that I’ve put up with from you.”

“I’m afraid you’ll have to get used to it. And as for the things you’ve done for me, I think you should say the things you’ve done to me. And there has been a great deal, hasn’t there, Kimberly? But I’m only here to tell you goodbye and good riddance.” Kimberly started to ask Kimber what she was talking about when she continued. “We found Mother’s will. We also found the paperwork on the house, as well as your notes on the former mayor and police chief.”

“You were snooping in my things? How dare you. You are to bring my things back to me this minute. I will not stand for this, Kimber. You have gotten on my last nerve of late, and I’m finished with trying to be nice to you. You’ll do as—”

“You were being nice to me? When? I’d very much like to know one time when you were nice to me.” Kimberly glared at the man when he laughed. “I asked you a question, Kimberly. When did you think you were nice to me? Because not once in all my life have I a single memory of you being anything but the mean person you are today.”

“You’ll call me by my proper title or nothing at all. And you’re not dead, are you? Believe me when I tell you, it was not for lack of trying on my part.” The moment the words left her mouth, she looked around the room. She’d been loud, but it was Kimber’s fault. She’d been a bad seed from the beginning, and now she was trying to make her say things that she shouldn’t. “Get me out of here and I’ll talk to you. I cannot believe that you’ve taken this thing between us this far. I’m in charge, Kimber, and the sooner you realize that, the better things are going to go for you.”

“You and I are finished. I will not come to see you again. I won’t listen to your lies, and I will not have you around me ever again. You are nothing but a hateful, mean woman who wants things her way, and damn what other people might want or need.” Kimberly nodded. “You actually believe that, don’t you? That you should have everything your way simply because you want it.”

“Yes.” Kimberly frowned. “And why shouldn’t it be? I’m the one that has had to work and plan things to come out the way they have. Do you think that had your mother been left in charge things would have gone well? No, they would not have. And your grandfather, my own father, he was a fool and would have given every penny to anyone that asked for it. Mother was no better. They had to be dealt with or I’d be nothing but a pauper by now. And this is how you repay me? By treating me like I’m nothing?”

“No, how I’m going to repay you is this. I’m going to take all the money that you have, and I do thank you for that, and give it to my daughter and any other children that I have. They can do with it what they want. They can spend it on coloring books and crayons if they wish, or go to college with it. I don’t care. And when it’s all gone I’m going to dance a jig. Because that money has done nothing for me but cause me heartache and pain. And you, Kimberly, are not going to be able to do shit about it.”

“You’ll do nothing of the sort. That is mine, all of it. I worked harder than anyone in making it work for me, and you’ll not give it to that brat. Or any other monsters that you have with this thing. Get me out of here, Kimber. Right now.” Kimberly watched the two of them walk away. They were actually going to leave her here. “Kimber, come back here now. You hear me? I said to come here now and have them let me go. I have things I must see to.”

She stood there for another ten minutes. She knew it had been that long because she could see the clock on the wall near the doors. No one bothered to come to let her out, nor did anyone come to see if she needed anything. And she needed plenty. Sitting back down again, she sat there and tried to think what she’d done to deserve this. What had she done to Kimber that would make her think she could treat her, Lady Kimberly Leta Schroeder, this way?

“She’s an ungrateful brat is what she is.” Leaning back on the cot, she sat there for several more minutes, trying her best to figure out what had gone wrong with the world. First there were her parents, then her own niece, and now this. The entire lot of them was going to pay when she was out of this place. And she knew just who to get to do it too.

Ben Conklin was a man to get things done. She’d liked the man. A great deal. He could bend and scrape when she needed him to, and the two of them had made a great deal of money. Her more than him, but he’d been a good ally to have. Along with the sheriff. Sheriff Barker had been helpful at getting rid of bodies, too, should it come to that.

The longer Kimberly sat there, the more she realized that no one was coming for her. And not only that, no one here cared. As her meal was brought to her and no one would change it out for something more palatable, she came to realize something else. There wasn’t going to be any help from any of them. If things were going to happen, she’d have to make them happen for herself, just as she normally had to.