Chapter 9

Trent - Chapter 9

Noah opened his eyes. The room was pitch black, but he, like most of his kind, could see movement in the darkest and deepest inkiness. But when someone or something entered his lair, he could see better than at any other time.

Rising up slowly, he kept track of where the human was that had dared to enter his domain. Moving off his bed, lifting himself up by his own magic, he hovered above his bed enough that he not only knew who was there, but also that the man had brought a gun. There was no silver in the casings, nor was there any on the person himself. But there was something—more than likely a stake made of the purest walnut—in the man's hand, held at the ready.

Are you all right? He smiled when he felt the touch of Trent in his mind. I have no idea what's going on right now, but I can feel something from you. Danger, I guess. My first instincts are to come and save you, but I have a feeling I'd just be in your way.

I have a visitor in my room. He knew that he should tell the wolf to come to his aid, but for now Noah was going to try and deal with this fool on his own. I have no idea why Max thinks that being here is going to go well for him, but for now I shall see what he has to say. You are not here, are you?

No. We're at my house, packing up my stuff. It was so late when we got finished, we decided to stay here. I'm going to come there and—

Oh no. Don't do that. I have this under control. He has no silver on his person, and the stake he has, while expensive, will not penetrate my flesh. Again, with age comes a great deal of magic, and walnut is something that I have guarded myself against. Noah watched the man knock against an end table and hastily set it to rights. He's never going to be any good at sneaking the way he's fumbling around in my rooms. Dispatching him will be a great pleasure.

He wouldn't, of course. There were many reasons why the man would walk out of here on his own, and one of them was that Noah had no idea who he had told about coming here. Not to mention who might be waiting for him to come out when he was finished. Noah was thinking about how best to approach the man when Trent laughed.

Joe said to tell you that he could fall down and break his neck. Trespassing is a horrible offense, and that alone could get him arrested. Noah laughed as well. We're up now should you need us. And we'll be at the house when you rise tonight, Joe said to tell you.

Fine, I'll expect you then. For now, I feel I must pay attention to the man here. His stake, while a fine one, can't kill me, as I said, but it will hurt me. He thought of the changes that he'd made to his household, and knew that the couple he'd hired would be most upset with him if there was a mess to clean up. When you come this evening, bring along your family. I have a need to travel for a while, so I'd like to say goodbye.

Actually, Noah had been able to ward himself off all sorts of manmade things over the years. Stakes, while capable of killing a younger vampire, wouldn't destroy him. There were a lot of other things that would kill someone younger than him, but he wasn't worried about that. The only thing that he'd been unable to keep himself safe from was olive tree wood. And he didn't smell that on the man now.

Finally, his curiosity got the better of him, and he lowered himself to the floor to confront Max on his grounds. But he did keep himself at a safe distance, just in the event that the man was smarter than anyone thought. Noah thought that was giving the man a great deal of credit where it wasn't deserved. He was in the lair of a vampire.

"You should have a very good reason for being here." His voice was purposely low, and he barely managed to keep himself from laughing when Max not only knocked the end table over and broke the lamp that had been sitting on it, but upended the chair it had been sitting near as well. "Max? Or should I call you Benson? Either way, you had better explain how you got inside of my home."

"Where is she?" Noah asked him who he was talking about. "That woman. Joe, or whatever the hell her name is. I want you to tell me where she is. I know she's at your beck and call. Bring her around to us now. I want to see her."

"With her mate, I would assume." Max looked confused. Turning on the light, Noah waited for both their eyes to adjust before he continued. "You came to my home looking for Joe? Whatever reason you have for wanting her had better be worth your life, because that's what it's going to cost you for being here."

"You think you scare me? Well, you don't. I've come prepared." Noah disarmed the man and moved back to his seat before Max knew what he'd been about. He put the gun on the bed, a safe distance away, and the stake, which was cheaply made, in the wall behind him. It was a show of force, yes, but he'd made his point well, it appeared. As he stood there looking at his empty hands like a moron, Noah took that time to look at Max.

He'd been through a great deal, it appeared. Not only was his suit mussed up, but his hair looked like something had moved into it and built condos. And his tie, usually so straight and clean, now looked as if he'd been using it as a napkin, as well as something to keep his face mopped. The man was a mess, and Noah could smell the fear on him.

"What did you just do?"

Noah said nothing, his mind working out how the man had gotten into his house instead of what he'd done to him.

"I came here to talk to Joe. Where is she? We have business to attend to."

Noah reached into the man's mind none too gently and raped it. He found out a great deal from the search, and the reason he was there in the middle of the night. Sitting down and leaning back in his chair, Noah commanded Max to sit. He did, right on the floor.

"Do you have any idea what I am? I'll save you the trouble of trying to figure it out. I'm a very old and powerful vampire whose lair you just entered. I don't have the energy or the inclination to argue with you on the finer points of breaking and entering, but coming here to kidnap my child is going to get your throat ripped out." Max claimed that people knew where he was. "No one knows where you are, and if you had bothered to tell anyone, no one would care. You are simply on your own. As you have been for quite some time. Now don't lie to me again. I won't tolerate it."

"You claim you're a vampire. And I'm just supposed to believe you. I don't, in the event you care. But my business is with Joe. She owes me." Noah said nothing, knowing exactly what Max thought Joe owed him. "As for kidnapping her, I don't know what you're talking about."

"Of course you do. You think that because you came in here without anyone being the wiser that you can do as you damned well please about getting Joe to go with you. She's told you no before, Benson or Max or whatever the hell you're calling yourself now, and I'm sure she will do so again. Joe has a mate now." Noah knew that, although Max said that his business was with Joe, his intentions were to take her from Noah and use her to finance his way to Europe to get to his funds. "The money is gone, you know. All of it. I could tell you where it's gone to, but I won't. I think it will be more fun for all those involved for you to find out on your own."

"What do you mean it's all gone? I have millions of dollars in those accounts, and I aim to get it. Once you pay me for getting Joe back, I'm going to get out of here and never return." He was never going to return—he had that much right—but as for the money, not only was it gone, it had been put into a nice fund for the victims of senseless crimes. "Tell Joe to get her ass down here and I'll be on my way."

"Do you seriously think that I'd just call her down to my lair for you to kidnap?" Max looked confused again. "I told you already, she's not here. She and her mate have gone to their own home and shan't be returning."

"Shan't? What the hell does that mean?" Noah started to explain. "I don't really care. And you make her come with me. I need to get out of here. Someone has been calling me and saying things that…well, I don't care for it. So I'm not telling you again to get that bitch down here."

"You've been getting calls? About what?" Noah didn't know what Jefferson was doing about calls, but apparently it was working. Max was about as scared as he'd ever seen a human be. "Someone has been haunting you, Max? About what deed this time? I'm sure there are plenty to choose from."

"Never you mind. None of them are true, but they have to stop, and they will as soon as you pay me to give you back Joe." Max sat there looking at Noah expectantly. "Well? When are you going to call her to me?"

"I'm not, and I have no idea why you think I would. The police are looking for you." Noah had no idea if they were or not, but it got a reaction from Max. "Yes, they're wondering about a murder that happened long ago. A woman had been living alone when you were there. If I remember correctly, you knew her quite well."

"Cindy? So what about her? No one is going to miss a tramp like her. I did her family a favor by doing what I did. Or if you're talking about Addie Mae, then that's another one that no one cares about." Noah said nothing, but did reach out to Trent again to tell him the names of the two women. "I've been waiting here patiently, Noah. Where is Joe?"

"Gone. And I was referring to Sydney Carlin. You remember her, don't you, Max?" Max's face paled and he stiffened. "I can see that we've touched on a memory. Is that who you've getting calls about? Poor Sydney, who you raped and left dead on her living room floor? Why? Because she wouldn't give you what you wanted?"

"That was all your fault and you know it. She was mine and you told her to stay away from me, that I wasn't good enough." Noah asked him how it was even possible that it was Noah's fault. "You told her to make me look bad, and that I was a crook. Then you had her family come after me. Did you know that they ran me out of town?"

"Sydney had no family, Max. Whoever ran you out of town wasn't her family. Perhaps it was the people who liked her and not you. But you had to go and kill her, didn't you? For no other reason than you'd been found out." Max stood up then and began pacing across Noah's room, and Noah let him. The man was obviously unhinged, and Noah was going to get as much information as he could out of him before he let him go. "What about her haunts you so much? Could it be that she was going to have a child and you murdered it as well?"

"It wasn't mine." That sounded to Noah like a justification rather than a confession. "All she had to do was marry me and then give me all her money. It's not like she spent any of it. What the hell did she think she was going to do with it?"

"There was no money." Max told him he lied. "No, I don't lie, and there was no money to speak of. She was living in the brownstone that belonged to another, and she was working for pennies a day, almost, just to keep food in her belly. The only thing she had in her whole life was her goodness, and you took that from her."

Max continued to pace. Noah told Trent to contact Jefferson and let him know that Max was running scared. It was time the man was brought down, and he wanted Jefferson to be the one to do it.

All right. But are you okay? Max is off his rocker, his butler said. The guy that works for you, Michael I think Joe said, is a friend of his, and he said that in order to get their money, they took some things of value from the home. There's not much there, I guess. He'd have to have a talk with Michael and see what else his friend said. Oh, and Joe said to tell you that you should also mention Benny by name. Not anything about him, but just that Benny misses his friend.

Good idea. Keep him on his toes until Jefferson gets here. Noah asked if they were coming there. I think you should both stay where you are. It's a lovely night. You should go out in the woods with your lovely mate.

We're there now. Noah nearly laughed at the man's tone, like he'd had his candy taken from him. She's very worried about you.

Tell her that I'm fine. And he was too. All right. I have to lay groundwork before Jefferson comes and saves the day. You two have a lovely evening. I shall speak with you both tomorrow.

"You've never gotten in touch with Joe. I need her to get her ass down here and help me out. It's the least you can do for me. The two of you have been fucking me over for years, and now it's time I got a little payback." Noah asked Max how he thought he owed him anything. "You shouldn't have done that to me. I would have been a very rich man had you just kept your nose out of my business."

"Benny misses her too, you know." Max's entire demeanor changed. He'd been pacing back and forth, his body seemingly lax in his movements, but now he was stiff as a rail and his face was blood red. "You do remember him, don't you? The neighbor of the woman you raped and murdered."

"That brat caused me more trouble than you did." Before Noah could ask him how, he continued as if he'd been waiting for a chance to spill his guts to someone. "Always right there. Peeking around the corner when I was trying to get her to open the fucking door or to come out when I told her. He was forever telling me that she wasn't home, when I knew that she was. I had to have him hurt a few times just so that I could go out on a date with Sydney."

"You never dated Sydney. The one time you were seen with her was when she was out with someone else and you came and pushed your way into her table. What did you do to young Benny?" He could feel his anger taking control. One thing that Noah always prided himself on was his control, but he was losing it now. "Tell me."

The compulsion took Max to the floor, and Noah had to back off a little or kill him. As he lay there screaming in pain Noah pushed just a little harder. Finally, when his nose and ears started to bleed, Max spoke.

"I had him tied up and raped." Noah staggered back. "The fucking little shit was driving me crazy and keeping me from getting any from her. So I had him get a little of his own. When you all had me run out of town, it took every penny I had to get back at him. And now that he's taken care of, I'm working on you. Bring Joe to me now."

Noah's anger was profound. Just as he was lifting his hands up to deal with Max, Noah heard someone behind him. Turning to see the man there, he knew in that moment that whatever Jefferson had planned for Max, it was going to be no more than he deserved.

"Hello, Benson. Remember me? I'm Benny Gibson." The howling started. Not from Jefferson but from Max. His need to get up from the floor to harm the younger man was making him sicker. Noah looked at the two of them and went to the door. This was out of his hands.

~*~

Joe sat on the tree limb and waited for Trent. He'd gone to get their clothing and told her to stay where she was. To be honest, she wasn't sure she could go far anyway…he'd worn her out again. Noah had told her what had happened to Benny as a boy.

"Noah is at the cabin now." She nodded, telling Trent that she'd spoken to him as well. He handed her her pants and she began the process of pulling them on while he watched. "He said that he left the two of them in his house. Do you suppose that Jefferson will kill Max?"

"No. I don't know why I don't think so, but I just don't think that Jefferson has it in him. But then I had no idea what Max had had done to him when he was a child. Had I known…had I known, Max wouldn't have been a threat to us all these years." Trent handed her his shirt, and she pulled it on and sat back down on the wood with him. "So much has happened since I met you. I'm looking forward to things being normal. Do you think it will be?"

He said he didn't think so. "But we have the cabin to run to when things get bad. Oh, and Scott is going to buy my house, and Mom and Dad are going to help him get some furniture. I should have taken more care to get things for it, but I was never really comfortable there. And Elijah has three new clients that will help him save his money for buying me out. So while they're not normal, they're looking better, don't you think?"

"You did tell him that it wasn't necessary that he buy the house from you, didn't you?" He said that he had, but Scott wanted to own it, not be given it. "Are all you Calhoun men so stubborn? Or is it just you boys?"

"Have you met my parents at all? I mean, they are the very definition of stubbornness. I'm pretty sure we got it honest." He sat down on the ground in front of her and smiled. "I love you, Joe."

"I love you too. Very much so. I don't know what I would have done had you not come into my life." He said that she would have survived. "Yes, but I'd not be happy. I don't think I ever was. Safe, yes. Even glad to have someone in my life like Noah, but happy was something that I never allowed myself to be. It was easier to just be ready for someone to disappoint me rather than give my heart to them."

"When I was younger, about twelve, my dad and I went up to the cabin. Just the two of us. Anyway, while there, Dad told me about meeting my mate and falling in love. He said that it would change me in ways that I'd never be able to comprehend then, but that when I grew up and found her, I would remember his words and know that he was telling me the truth." Joe started laughing. She had no idea why, but she bet that TJ had told his son the honest truth and scared his oldest boy. "He said that I'd have to learn to share my things, pick up after myself, and to know that nothing that I owned before was going to be mine again. All that I had would be hers, and I'd willingly give it to her."

"What did you say to that?" Trent took her hand in his, the one that had his family ring on it, and kissed it. When he pulled her down to the ground with him, holding her tightly in his arms, she kissed his arm and let him hold her. "Trent? What did you say to him?"

"I told him that if I ever found a girl that wanted to take my stuff, I'd run fast in the other direction and never look back. Mind you, all that I owned at the time was a stack of girly magazines that I was sure that no one knew about, a fifty-cent piece that my great-grandda gave me when I was eight, and two comic books that I treasured more than I did my own family. So sharing my wealth seemed the most ludicrous thing in the world to me."

She turned in his arms and looked up at him. He was leaning his head on his hand and had the most boyishly charming look on his face. Tracing his lips with her fingers, she thought of all the times that she'd been alone, really alone, and wondered if she'd ever want that again.

"TJ told me that when we take over the pack, we'll have to be stern and hard on them at first. To show them that we are there to help, but not to be run over. But we'd have to be gentle, too, as they have had a hard time with their lives since Casey took over." Trent nodded. "I don't know how to be a pack alpha with you. I know very little of your kind, and other than the few things that your mother told me about being a wolf in a pack, I don't know all the rules yet."

"I know. Mom is looking for a charter book. I'm not sure who wrote it or when, but I know that there is one. As for being a pack alpha with me, you're going to be perfect at it. I have all the faith in the world in you." She started to ask him why, but he kissed her on the mouth and sat up. "There is someone coming. Pack if I don't miss my bet. Just stand beside me and we'll see what we can figure out for them."

As soon as she saw the three men, she knew that there was going to be trouble. Not sure what it was, she felt the need to protect Trent from them, but knew that to do so would make him look less in charge and more like a henpecked man. Instead, she stood at his side while the men spoke.

"We been told you're in charge." Neither of them spoke, and Trent took her hand in his and gave her a tight, quick squeeze. "Did you know that there aren't any jobs for us in the pack? No jobs means we have to go elsewhere to find them. We're wanting you to let us go."

"All right. You're free to go." None of the three men moved, but they did look confused. "I'm not going to hold anyone here that doesn't want to be here. I have plans to bring jobs to the pack and the area, but if you think you can do better elsewhere, then by all means go ahead and pack up your family and go."

"We was thinking we'd leave them here while we looked." The second man who spoke looked like he was sneering at them. "You can take them on like they was your own. That's what a pack master does when his men need to find work."

"No. You leave them behind and I'm well within my rights to kill them all." The first man looked at his buddy but didn't comment. "It might be better for them if you take them now in the event that when you find work, you find a pack that will put up with your bullshit. I don't have time to explain to the council that I've had to kill off three families right away. As I said, I have plans for jobs, but I won't have time to work on that when taking care of a family that you're basically abandoning."

"What do you think of this? Your mate killing off women and babies without a care in the world. You gonna let him do that?" The third man pointed at her when he spoke. "You gonna just let him kill our families when we leave? You got any kind of heart in you that would allow a man to kill off a family?"

"First of all, I don't appreciate you trying to pit me against my mate and your alpha. And, really, did you expect less of him? You've known him his entire life. And his family. Did you really think that they'd not follow the rules and regulations of pack law because you think there is something better out there?" The man flushed a little, and she took a step toward him when he lowered his head. "When you speak to me, you look me in the eye. And while you're at it, you straighten up and act like a man about this. Because as surely as we're all standing here, you know what the law states. You thought when you came here that he'd beg you to stay, that he'd offer you just about anything to keep his pack the way it is. It won't be the same, not so long as Trent is in charge. There will be jobs here, so if you want to leave, that's up to you. But you leave one member of your family, and I will help him kill them."

She wouldn't, and she was sure that Trent wouldn't either. But they had to do this, make a stand against bullies, or they'd do this to them forever. And forever for them was just that. A very long time to be pack masters of this group.

"You ain't no better than Casey was."

Before she could think about it too much, Joe slapped the man, hard enough to knock him back into his buddies. When he started to rise up, she pointed her finger at him and he stilled. Her power nearly vibrated off the end of her finger, and she waited to see if she'd have to use it on him. When he didn't move, she spoke in a low hard voice to him.

"Move and I will tear your head off. If you think I can't, then say something like that to us again." He sat down, then curled into a fetal position. When she looked at the other two men, they were bowing as well. Joe looked at Trent, not really sure what was going on. He just winked at her before turning to the three men.

"You boys get back to your homes and stay there until you hear from me. In the meantime, I want you to pull out your pack laws and read them over. A great deal will depend on you knowing them well." After they left, Trent looked at her and smiled. "Christ. What were you just telling me about not being any good at this? You nearly made them wet themselves. Me too, as a matter of fact."

"He insulted us." Trent nodded and pulled her to his body. "I don't think I like being in charge. It sort of goes to your head for a few seconds."

"So long as you know who's in charge at home." She told him he could be in charge everywhere. "No, darling, it's you. You're in charge at home. I love you."

As they made their way back to his house, she wondered what was in store for them now. Something good, she hoped. She wanted a good thing to come their way.