Joshua_The Whitfield Rancher_Erotic Tiger Shapeshifter Romance Read online

  “We’ll figure it out. And if we don’t, then that’s all right as well. I’m not as afraid either. I feel calm right now. And it’s because of you, I’m thinking. I’ve never felt that way before either.” He told her that he loved her. “I think I might love you as well. But I’m not sure. I’ve never been loved before by anyone—I love Rachel, but I don’t think that is the same thing as loving you.”

  “No, not at all. But I can live with that for now.”

  He kissed her on the hand and could feel himself being pulled away. For some reason he thought that he’d be right back in their bed, but he wasn’t. He was standing in a room no bigger than a medium sized closet. There wasn’t a door, but bars across the front of it and over the window. And sitting on the bed was Carter.

  He noticed that she wasn’t with him this time, and he worried a little. But when she turned and looked where he was standing, he had a moment of panic. It was then that he saw that someone had shoved a tray into her cell, and she got up to get it. The woman at the bars spoke before he could wonder why she wasn’t eating with the other inmates.

  “Ten more days, Compton, then you can go back into the population. Next time you have trouble with another inmate, you tell me. I’ll plunk her ass. All right?”

  Carter told her thanks and she moved on. He wondered how many times she’d been confined to her room when something happened. As he was being pulled again he looked around at the starkness of the room and his heart hurt.

  This time he was in the bed, Carter curled up next to him. The sun was just making itself known through the curtains, and he wondered at the time. Lying back down, he held Carter tighter and closed his eyes. He was going to have a lot of questions when they finally got up. It might not be early in the morning like when he usually woke, but they were together, and that’s all that mattered.

  ~~~

  Carter sat on the chair that was on the deck and looked out over the back yard. It was beautiful, something that she’d never dreamed of having. The pool was covered now, but she would bet in the summer months it would be warm and sunny back here. There wasn’t any furniture back here either, just the one chair that the new butler had brought out for her when he saw her standing here.

  The door behind her opened and closed, and she could smell the fresh coffee. George had asked her if she liked it strong or weak, and she’d told him where she’d been for the last ten years. Nodding at her, he told her tar. Laughing with him, his wife, Ada, asked her if she could make her up something to eat. She told her whatever they were having was all right with her.

  Picking up the mug from the tray that had fresh fruit and warm muffins on it, she thanked him for both the chair and the food. He nodded once at her, and told her that the elder Mr. Whitfield was going to join her soon. He was in the kitchen.

  She thought it would be Oliver, but it was Ollie, his father. When he brought out his own chair, she told him that Josh had to run into town for a little while, something about the sale of a house that he’d been working on.

  “They only wanted him. And he told me that he’d not do it for anyone else but this couple. They’re expecting their first child too.” Ollie nodded and took one of the muffins as they sat staring out at the trees. “Are you here for a reason? Or just wanted to come for a visit?”

  “Both. I have me a reason, but I did want to come and see you. Josh told me that you were up and about, and I thought I’d come see you and ask you a question.” Carter told him she was glad for the company and to ask away. “You don’t have to answer me if you don’t want to. I have lots of questions that people don’t answer for me. I wonder if they think I’m too addled to remember the answers or not understand what they’re talking about. That’s usually what it is, but I don’t tell them that.” She cleared her throat and he smiled. “I do go on, don’t I?”

  “I really was clearing my throat. It’s a little rough this morning.” She didn’t tell him from all the screams that Josh had made her do, or that she’d been hoarse when she’d first got up. Carter asked him what he needed.

  “Okay. I find myself going to pawn shops all the time. Ain’t usually anything there that I want or need, but I took a look at the jewelry this time. I’ve been skipping that since my wife passed.” She told him she was sorry. “Me too. I loved her like she was my air when I was breathing in and out, and there wasn’t nothing that could have replaced it. But I found this piece of jewelry, and I was wondering if you could tell me something about it. If you don’t want to that’s fine too, but I was curious about it is all.”

  He handed her the bracelet and she held it in her hands. All sorts of memories came with it; the warmest ones were from the man sitting next to her. Ollie had wanted to give it to his beloved, then remembered that she was gone and almost didn’t buy it. But in the end, he bought it because he was going to give it to Eve.

  “The last woman that wore it was elderly. It was given to her by her husband, who passed when he was a very young man. He left her alone in a world full of men who thought that she was too stupid to run an empire.” Ollie asked her what empire. “I don’t know yet. I have to find his string.”

  “I’m assuming that means you have to find people by the way they’re on something.” Carter told him that was right. That she’d never told anyone that before, and was glad that he understood. “You go on there and find out who her beloved is.”

  She could feel the children who touched it, the way they loved how it sparkled in the sunlight. Carter told Ollie everything that she felt and what the faces of the children looked like as well.

  “He loved her so very much. The bracelet was made from a necklace that his mother had. The woman’s name is Bea, and she didn’t care to wear things around her neck. They would tangle in her hair. So, he commissioned for it to be made into three bracelets of different colored stones so that she could wear them all together or separately.”

  “I wonder where the other two are.” She knew. When she passed over one of the diamonds, she could feel Bea’s pain and sorrow again. “Maybe I’ll try and find them.”

  “You won’t, I’m sorry to say. Bea put one of them in the coat pocket of her true love when he was laid out in the living room when he died. He’d had a heart attack at the age of thirty-four. The rubies, for all the love that her heart spilled when he left her.” She heard his sniffle at that, so she continued with the third one. “They had but one child—her name was Emerald, like the sea. Her eyes were the same color as her father’s, the green of the sea she’d been named for. She died when she was six—her little body was found near the ocean that she so loved to play in. Emerald had drowned.”

  “You wove me a good tale there, but it’s about as sad as I’ve ever heard. I was going to give it to Eve to make my son a little jealous, but I’m not going to now.” She asked him why not. “Because of the deaths around it.”

  “You should give it to her anyway. So that the next time the bracelet is touched by someone like me, they can see that among all the sorrow, a wonderful woman wore it and it made her happy.” Ollie just stared at her, and she told him she was sorry. “I just read what was on it. I didn’t think that it would be too sad for you.”

  “You did me a right favor by doing it. I can’t thank you enough. And I think you’re right about giving it to Eve. And I’ll tell her the story about it too. She’ll think that it’s romantic or something like that.” Carter told him that she thought it was as well. “There you go. She’ll love the story that goes with it, and how you and I thought that she should wear it to make happy memories.”

  “You don’t have to tell her I was involved.” Ollie told her she’d know. “Why would she know if you don’t tell her? Don’t, let it come from you.”

  “She’ll know that I’m not the romantic type, and that someone told me the tale anyways.” He stood up. “Thank you very much, Carter. You’ve made this old man very happy by doing this for me.”

  Carter hadn’t wanted to do the bracelet when he�
�d first pulled it out. She was afraid that it would have something on it where she would have nightmares about. Sitting there, thinking about what her and Josh had done last night by going to see her parents, she had to wonder if it was him or was she just using more of her brain to work things out. Knowing the little bit about what she could do had made her afraid to try different things. Now she wanted to play.

  Drinking the last of her coffee, she went into the yard where if she were to mess up, there wouldn’t be anything around that she’d hurt or break. Since she’d never been showy about what she could do, she just stood there quietly and reached out beyond where she was standing for any sign of life. The first thing she touched was the pack master, Nate.

  Do I know you? She told him who she was and who she was mated to. Do you mind telling me how you’re doing this?

  I have this bit of power, and I was stretching my mind to see what else I could do. He told her that was a good idea. I didn’t mean to bother you.

  It’s fine. We’ve lost a pup and I’m trying to locate him. He’s three and wandered off from the playground where he was playing. She asked Nate what his name was. Lesley Luna. His father is Lesley as well. Can you find him?

  I can try. Just tell me how long he’s been missing. Nate told her only about twenty minutes. Okay, so he wouldn’t have traveled far. Let me look.

  It took her five frustrating minutes to find him. He was at the back of the property, and he’d been hurt when he fell down a hill. She guided Nate to him by landmarks that she could see since she didn’t know the area, that’s all she could do. And when Nate found the little boy, he was as thankful as Ollie had been about the bracelet.

  I owe you, Carter. You’ve probably saved his life. There are poachers around, and if they would have come upon him, there is no telling what they might have done to him. She told him there were three strangers on his land now. Guiding him to them, she told him that they were looking for prey, humans to hunt. The same thing that Josh told me about when he was finishing up his house. Thank you. You’ve told me where they’re coming in from as well. Tell Josh I’ll talk to him later.

  Carter kept a tab on the three men. One of them didn’t want to be there—he thought this was all wrong and was going to demand his money back. The second man was excited. He’d never killed a person before, and thought it would be a hoot to run one down and shoot it in the head. It was well worth the five grand that he’d paid the man, Moody, to have the chance. The last man was Moody, and he was nervous. Stretching her wings, so to speak, she decided to speak to the second man and send him images of dead men that had been shot.

  Not knowing if it would do any good, she bombarded the man with image after image. She knew that he was in pain but didn’t stop or slow down. When he moved away from her touch, she had a moment of her own fear, thinking that she might have killed him. But he saw the wolf pack then and turned and ran. She didn’t think he’d be back, despite wanting to run down a human to kill them before she entered his head. It was no longer as appealing as it had been to him.

  Going into the house when she couldn’t feel anyone else around, she stopped by the kitchen again to drop off her plate and mug. She warned them both about people with guns on the property before going into the office to play on the computer. This was the most exciting thing that she’d missed, she thought.

  Chapter 6

  Hazel wondered what the hell had happened. All their tires were slashed up like they’d been targeted by a bunch of hooligans. She asked Lee for the fourth time what they were supposed to do now.

  “I don’t know, Hazel. Christ, how many times are you going to ask me that and have me give you the same damned answer? I don’t fucking know. Even though we have the money to buy the tires, there is the added problem that we don’t have any way of getting the car there to have it done. And the tow truck wants two hundred dollars to put it up on one of them tow things and take it someplace.” She didn’t even ask him if he was going to pay it. He’d better. “He said it would take him an hour to get here. Until then, we have to wait. You didn’t call the police, did you?”

  “Do I look stupid to you? Also, where the hell are all our things? The ropes are gone, so are all the chains. And how the hell did they get the guns out of there without being seen by someone? We’re going to need those too. How did they get in the trunk without a damned key?” When he didn’t answer her, she felt her temper get a little hotter. But he defused it in a second when he reached down and plucked a dandelion out of the cracks of the place and handed to her. “Thank you. I think both our tempers could use a break.”

  “I was thinking the same thing. How about we walk over that to that restaurant and have us a nice breakfast, and then come back here? The wait won’t feel so long if we got something else to think about.” She told him that was a great idea. “Yeah, I come up with them on occasion. Not too often though. I don’t want you to think I’m some sort of genius or something.”

  They had an hour and they were going to make the best of it. But instead of eating there where they could be waited on, they got it to go and took it to the room. It was more enjoyable that way; the food fight that they had in the room was much funnier knowing that someone else would have to clean it up. And right on time, the towing service showed up.

  “Somebody doesn’t like you much.” Hazel heard Lee asked him why. “Well, I’ve seen one or two tires slashed up, but all four of them? They had to have some powerful hate on you. Not to mention, you have any idea how much effort it takes to stab a tire and then slice it? That’s gotta be tiring for someone to do that.”

  They had just thought it was kids having a night out. But she noticed that they were the only ones with tires that had been cut. And all four. Now she had to think who might know that they were staying there, and who would hate them enough to do such a thing. They’d not bothered anyone that she could remember. And they stayed by themselves when they had to go out.

  Everybody liked them. They were the life of any party they went to. And if you got a few too many beers in Lee, he could be made to do just about anything that would bring out a laugh or two from everyone. The first person that came to mind that might hate them that much was Carter. But that wasn’t possible. She didn’t know they were coming after her.

  They had to ride over to the shop that was putting new tires on with the tow guy. It was crowded in the cab with him, him being a fat slob of a person, but she didn’t want to take a cab and then have to pay for it. It was going to be hard enough to get their things out of the hotel room without paying for damages as it was. However, it kept coming back to Carter hating them enough to slash their tires.

  When things were set up with the shop that was putting four new tires on the car, she sat with Lee in the little waiting room and asked him what he thought about it. The first thing he said was, it was kids. But then she pointed out that theirs was the only car.

  “You think Carter knows.” He shook his head. “It’s been a long time since we seen her. She might have gotten some more of those freaky things that she can do. And I don’t believe for a minute that it’s all her mind. She never was all that smart. I mean, look how easy we got her to take the fall for us.”

  “I know, but she’d have to be powerful, don’t you think? Just to come here and slash up the tires. No, you’re worrying over nothing. It had to be kids.” But she could tell that he was mulling it over now. “She might have told someone to come here and do it. Instead of coming here herself, don’t you think? I mean, that still doesn’t figure in how she knew we’d be here nor what kind of car we drove. It just doesn’t add up. No, it was just a bunch of random kids that took turns slashing the tires for us.”

  “But she’s been someplace she could practice that shit she could do. What if, during that time, she was able to develop something else? For all we know she can fly now.” That would mean more money for them, if that was the case. “I’m telling you right now, Lee, we’re going to make a killing off them girls
. I just hope that we don’t have to kill Rachel right off. If Carter is stronger, we’re going to have to do some big time explaining to calm her, so she doesn’t use her shit for hurting us. She won’t kill us, I know that—we’re her parents. But she could hurt us up a little. I don’t like to mention this, but maybe we should pick up something to knock her out. I don’t want her doped up when those people come to have a look at what she can do, do you?”

  “We’ll just tell her that she’ll go back to prison if she hurts us. Like you said, we’re her parents. I know we weren’t around much, and she has to know that we set her up in that robbery. But we killed that cop, and that isn’t going to get us any goodwill with anyone should she say something to them. I’m really surprised that she’s not said anything up to now. She sure had enough time to do something about it, don’t you think?” Hazel asked what Carter could say. “I don’t know, honey, but I’d sure hate to end up behind bars when we have all these plans about making some fast money. What do you suppose they want her for? Those people that we’re selling her to.”

  “A weapon, I guess. All we had to tell them was a few white lies and they believed us. I don’t think they would have cared one tiny bit if all we told them that she could do was move a book around and bend up a spoon. You coming up with the fact that she could lift up cars was about the best, I think.” Hazel laughed as she continued. “Of course, like I said, all we ever knew she could do was lift a few books off the shelf, and after we beat her a little, she told us she could bend some spoons. Not really a big deal, but that was enough to get their attention.”