Dean: Marshall’s Shadow – Jaguar Shapeshifter Romance (Marshall's Shadow Book 2) Read online

  As he left the house, Hunter thought that his dad was wrong on that score. Bella was only good for one thing, and that was to be the scapegoat when he needed her to be. But he also knew that his dad had gotten stupider. The fact that he believed every word that came out of Hunter’s mouth just went to show just how dumb his father was.

  Hunter had been playing his father and sister against one another since he’d been old enough to figure some things out. First and foremost, Bella was very intelligent. Not just that, but she could make money. Easily.

  When she’d been just a kid, she’d figured out a way to make money by mowing lawns. At thirteen, she’d been able to get her own mower, as well as a weed eater and other yard equipment to carry along with her mower and little trailer. By the time she was fifteen, she’d been able to pay for a nice used truck that she’d never let him drive. She wasn’t even able to drive it until a year later. Stupid to pay for something that she’d not been able to use, Hunter had always thought.

  Bella had gotten out of school earlier too. At sixteen, she’d graduated an entire year before he’d been able to. It didn’t help that Hunter had had to repeat a few grades and didn’t graduate until he was almost twenty. But there she was, taking college classes on how to run her own business on a computer that she locked up every time she walked away from it.

  It just occurred to Hunter that Bella had always been selfish about her things. Not that he ever wanted to share with her. But she had nicer things and didn’t allow anyone to mess with them. The day she turned eighteen, not only did she move out of the house Hunter still called home, but she moved not into a shabby apartment, but a house that she’d been able to purchase with her own money.

  That, too, was someplace he could never go to. While he had an idea where she lived, the actual address was something that she’d never share with him. He supposed she was smart on that score. He would have fucked that up for her if given the chance.

  Now, at twenty-three, not only did she have her own car, a home, as well as a fat bank account, Bella also had a multimillion dollar business. Hunter would see the little signs in all kinds of yards and businesses, stating that Booth Landscaping was caring for this property. The only reason he knew about her bank account was because he would read about her being one of the wealthiest women in the entire state. More than likely, the article had said, the country.

  Pulling into the front lot of her business, he was detained. He was forever detained there. Really, what it meant was, they were asking his sister how badly she wanted to make him gone. He’d never been on this lot, and he was reasonably sure he never would be. Bella actually had wild dogs roaming the place after it closed down. He knew that because he’d tried to get in at that time, and had nearly had his ass torn off by them.

  “She said to tell you that you need to go back and suck up more to your father. She’s busy.” He hated that the entire company seemed to know that Hunter didn’t care for him. “Miss Booth also said to tell you that you’re not getting money or a job, nor are you going to get in to steal from her.”

  “What a thing to say to her own brother. You tell her that I have a message from our dad.”

  The man not only went into the booth to talk on the phone to Bella, but he closed the door. Hunter could see him laughing like it was a huge joke on their part to have a good time with him. Being her older brother had counted for nothing to her, and he was frankly sick to death of it. Before he could pound on the door and tell the man he wanted the fuck in, he came out with his hand on his gun. Fucking shit. Had she ordered him to shoot her only brother?

  “Miss Booth said for you—”

  “I know who the fuck she is. You don’t have to keep saying her name as if I haven’t any idea that my sister is here. What the hell could she say to me that has you ready to blow my head off?”

  “Miss Booth said that if you don’t leave here now, she’s going to have me drag your dead body into the lot and let the police know that I had to kill you for trespassing.” The man leaned down to the window. “You go on and try to run the gates, Hunter, and I’ll have you dead before you cross your front tires over the electric eye that will lock you down.”

  Terrified that he’d do just that, he slammed the car into reverse and hit the gas. He got no more than three inches before his entire body was slammed forward, then back. Whatever he’d hit, he was sure that it had killed him.

  Getting out of his car, he held his head where blood was making it impossible to see what it was that had rammed him from the rear. Looking at the large truck, one of the kind that he was sure could pull a house down the road, Hunter was satisfied that he’d at least done some damage to it.

  “What the hell? You hit me.” The man, a huge monster of a guy, got out of the car, and Hunter revised his thought about the truck and the house. This man would need this type of truck to pull him around. “Did you even look in your rearview mirror before you backed up like you did?”

  “You hit me. I was trying to see my sister, who owns this business, and you rammed me.” Hunter loved the way the lies just slipped from his mouth like piss did from his dick. “What did you think was going to happen to your truck when you came up on me so fast? My sister isn’t going to be happy about this.”

  “Your sister doesn’t give two shits about you.” The guard again. That mother fucker needed to keep to his own business. “Hello, Mr. Marshall. Miss Booth is expecting you. If you’d like to go on ahead there, the man on the other side will take you to her now. I’ve already called the police, and I’m making a recording of the entire incident as we speak to hand over to them. Obviously, it was this man’s fault for being too afraid to even drive properly.”

  “You have no idea what you’re talking about. I wasn’t the least bit afraid of you.” Hunter tried to shut his mouth, but again, things were flowing faster than he could stop them. “I was sitting still when he drove his excuse to compensate for his tiny dick into my car.”

  The man didn’t even pause as he made his way into the gate to the waiting golf buggy, leaving him there as if he was going to be the one that took the blame on this. Hunter looked at the guard that was standing there with his hand still on his gun.

  The sirens sounded just as he was trying to figure out how he was going to get home. As soon as the two cruisers pulled up, the cops came out of the cars, hiding behind their car doors with their guns drawn and yelling at him to drop to the ground. Hunter put his hands up but refused to drop like he was some sort of animal.

  “Are you insane? Do you have any idea how much it cost me to clean this suit? More than I want to spend again.” He put his hands down. “Now listen here, you have no right to arrest me. That other man, he hit me.”

  “Moron.” The guard walked by him and handed the police something. “He backed into Mr. Marshall’s truck after arguing with me about going inside. It’s all on that recording for you.”

  Hunter found himself arrested and getting in the back of the cruiser before he could think how to lie himself out of this mess. Just as his neck was being bent so that his head wouldn’t get hurt on the doorframe, he looked at the building and saw his sister standing there.

  His tongue was so tied up when he saw her that he couldn’t speak—not to yell at her to come to help him or anything else. Standing there, with the sun behind her and leaning against one of the many trucks, the vision that she was made him realize just how gorgeous Bella had become.

  He supposed that she was when she’d been at the house earlier. But then she’d been dressed in a pair of sweats and a dirty T-shirt. One that had her name on it. Looking at her now, he could see that she’d not only cleaned up, but she’d dressed up too. The skirt hung just mid-thigh, slick tight and black. The blouse she was wearing was a bright white. The slimness of it made her look curvy and grown up. When the hell had that happened?

  Hunter never got a chance to ask her that, or any of
the other million questions that were going through his head. Almost as soon as the door was shut, he found himself being taken to jail. Unfairly too, he thought.

  Chapter 2

  “You all right, Miss Booth?” Bella turned and smiled at the gentleman that had had the misfortune of meeting up with her brother. “Don’t worry about the truck. I have insurance on it. I’m sure that it’ll be fixed in no time.”

  “I’ll loan you a car should you need one to get around.” He told her that he paid for that service with his insurance. “Then please allow me to pay your deductible. It’s doubtful that Hunter has any insurance on his car, much less to cover someone else’s car. I’m terribly sorry about that. I hope it doesn’t leave a sour taste in your mouth for my company, Mr. Marshall.”

  “Not at all. And please, call me Shep. I’m hoping that we can do business with your company for a long while.” She hoped so as well. Bella told him that he could call her Isabella or Bella, as others did. Not that she needed to ramp up her business. Most of the time, she had more than her crew could get done before deadlines, but she wanted to expand again, and that took more capital than she had at the moment. Money was no problem, but having the extra work and capital in the form of jobs on her roster was much better looking to the banks. Bella would take out a loan simply because she knew that it helped the economy. “I’ve read a great many reviews of your company. I also heard that you started from nothing and worked your way up to where you are now.”

  “I did. I wanted to distance myself from other companies that did lawn service by offering a little something more. I do have a lot of houses that I work with, doing their lawns and trimming trees. But with this next expansion, we’ll be able to take care of the entire property inside and out, should they be the type of company that wants to put greenery in.” Shep told her that he and his wife owned several homes that they were hoping to have looking friendlier. “I can do that for you. And your wife mentioned that the downtown area was looking a little drab. It wouldn’t take us long at all to make it look as festive or as nice as you wish for it to be. Holidays can be done up for the main street as well if that’s something that you’re looking into.”

  “I like the way you’ve made it bright with flowers in this drawing. This is great for what you’ve done for it winter months too. It’s still full of color with the greens and the lighting so that it doesn’t look dreary. I never even thought of the main drag in town. It certainly could be made to look nicer than it has in recent years.” She thanked him, telling him that was what she’d been going for. “The other buildings around this one? I was wondering…. If asked, would you do the same for them? My brothers all have homes that they’re either building or upgrading. My brother Dean, he’s working on the home that we all grew up in to make it independent of all the utilities. Our home is a working home that rarely, if ever, needs to get groceries or such from the store.”

  “I can work with them should they want that. I’m winding down my planting season now and getting lawns ready for the upcoming fall and winter. During that time, we usually plant our flowers that we’re going to need, as well as order any of the trees that we can’t start in this climate. They grow well here but take a longer season to root, so I have to wait on them.” He smiled at her. “I don’t want you to think that I’m blowing smoke up your pant legs, Shep. If we work together, you’ll find that I’ll tell you what needs to be said, not what you want to hear. If you and your company can’t do the same for me, then perhaps this isn’t going to work.”

  He laughed, and Bella held tightly to her temper.

  “When you meet my wife, you’re going to realize that the two of you are exactly alike. She wouldn’t know how to fib about something if her life depended on it. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.” She was glad to hear that. Not that she thought that she was anything like his wife—Bella had heard that Harrison Marshall was a ball buster. “I’d like to invite you to dinner tonight if you’re not too busy. My wife is away at one of the job sites today, or she would have been here with me. I was told if you met my criteria, then we were to hire you. I very much like what I’ve seen so far.”

  “I’m glad to hear that.” Bella shook his hand, feeling a small tremor go up her arm as she did so. Thinking it was something akin to carpet electrical shock, she told him that she was sorry. “I’ve decided that when I upgrade my offices, I’m going to take out all the carpets and put in something more durable. Wood sounds good. If we have to cut trees down to make room for landscaping, we make sure to plant two trees elsewhere to help the land.”

  “I like that idea as well. It’s good to hear that you give back to the environment as much as you improve it.” He put all the papers and drawings back in the large file that she’d pulled them from. “The man outside, the one that hit my truck. He told me that he was your brother. Is that right?”

  “It is.” She didn’t want to share more than she needed to, but would, should it come down to her losing out on this job.

  “Is he going to be a problem?”

  “To you? No.” Since he didn’t ask for anything more, she didn’t elaborate. “As you might well know, my father owned and operated Fletcher Lawns. There will not be a conflict of interest from him.”

  “You said that he owned it. As in he no longer does.” Bella nodded. “You’re very close-mouthed about things. Should I be worried about that?”

  “No. My personal life is mine. I have made it a habit of keeping things that I have to deal with to myself. As for my father’s company, as of eight o’clock this morning, I paid his back taxes for the last couple of years. Plus, the payroll that he’d not been able to meet without me stepping in. The bank decided that I’d be a better owner, that’s all.”

  She could tell that he wanted more information but didn’t ask. For that, she was glad. When they went over the time she was to show up at his home, and he gave her the address, she was ready to change into something more comfortable and get to work.

  Most days, she’d be working right along with her crew on a job site. But here lately, it had been more important for her to keep up with Fletcher Lawns. People were complaining, and she’d had more than one job that her father’s company was working on come to her about finishing his work. At first, she’d done just that, finishing up the job and even improving on the things that had been done on the property. All her father did was lawns, as she had done at first. Mowing people’s yards had been a way for them both to make money. But, unlike her father’s company, she’d improved with the times. Trimmed trees. Done sidewalk work. Even going to downtown businesses and taking care of the plants and things they would buy from her.

  He’d never seen her as a threat when she’d started out with her used tractor and mower. In fact, she was sure that he thought that in no time she’d be working for him, doing the same thing that she was doing now, only under his thumb. The same thing that he’d thought that Hunter would do. Only instead of working for the company that her father had, Hunter would run it. But never her.

  “Women aren’t the yard sprucing up sort of people.” He told her this when she’d gone to him after getting her first big job. “In a few weeks, I’ll come over to your job and take it over. It’s hard work, mowing lawns, carrying out the clippings, and hauling around the mowers. You get a few of them to come to me, Bella, and I’ll give you a little bonus for it. You’ll see. You’ll work the grounds, and I’ll pay you the same as I would a man. I promise you.”

  After that, Bella never went to her father again. Not for a thing. Then about two years ago, she noticed that his men, all his men, were coming to her to apply for jobs. As that began to happen more and more, Bella took a hard look at his company.

  Not only were there complaints about unfinished work, but also shoddy workmanship, or the wrong lawn being mowed. Tree limbs weren’t picked up and mowed under, which was something that she did for free. The fertilizer that
was used had burnt the lawns. Everything that could have been easily taken care of wasn’t.

  Hunter had taken over the company about five months ago. It was too late by then to save it—not with the equipment being repossessed and men walking off the job for not being paid. There was also unrest about when Hunter would show up on a project and have someone take whatever equipment was there for a price. Selling off what didn’t get taken by the bank was making it hard for Fletcher Lawns to make taxes, payroll, and a great many other things. Now that she owned it, she’d make sure that all this was taken care of pronto. Hunter would never set foot on her businesses again.

  Bella wondered if her father was aware of anything that was going on. She was sure that he was aware of her business growing—there wasn’t any way for him to have missed that. The only part of the paper that her father read was the business section. She’d been featured in the paper several times since she’d turned seventeen, and had grown larger than his company.

  Sitting at her desk after she changed her clothing, she pulled out the paperwork that she’d been going over since the bank had given it to her this morning. It was the records of the last six months of work that had been contracted for by Fletchers, and details on each of the five jobs as noted by her assistant. Jamie Luna had not found a single yard with anything even remotely started on. Nor were there any signs that it was ever going to be done. The one place that Fletcher had started on about six months ago, when the spring was just beginning to thaw, had grass growing up around the swing set in the back yard that was nearly four feet tall.