Chapter 6

Elijah - Chapter 6

Elijah wanted to stand in front of her, but knew that on some level if he did, she'd be afraid for the rest of her life. And according to Joe, that was going to be a very long time. So he stood beside her as she walked out of the building and into the path of her stepfamily. Howard drew back to slap her, and he nearly laughed when Noelle grabbed his arm and twisted it so that her stepfather ended up on his knees in front of her.

"What the hell are you doing? Let me go this minute before I have to beat your ass. Not that I won't anyway, but you are going to be hurting worse if you don't." Not only did Noelle continue to hold onto his arm, but she told him to shut the fuck up too. "You will not talk to me that way. And where is my money?"

"Unless you left money with me, which you didn't, then I don't have anything that belongs to you. Do you have a job?" Howard just looked at her, confusion written all over his face. "I asked you if you have a job. Do you? Because that's the only way you're going to get any money as far as I'm concerned."

"You owe me." Noelle said she owed him nothing. "You made me lose my job. What were you thinking when you told my boss that I'd just left you there? You got me in trouble with him."

"You had left me there, you moron. And I didn't tell him anything…you did that all on your own." He called her a liar. "No, when I asked to borrow Noah's phone to call you he heard us. You do remember that, don't you? When you left me, without a word, what was I supposed to do but to try and figure it out? But he let me use his phone, and then he listened in when you told me that you had no use for me other than my check each month. I think that is what you're talking about, right? How you think I lost your job for you?"

"You couldn't have went to anyone else to get a phone?" She said that she could have, but she went to him. "So see? You did that on purpose. You made me get fired, and now you're going to pay me for your stupidity."

"I'm not stupid anymore. I might have been before today, letting you take and take from me, hit me when it pleased you, but no more." When one of the other men with her stepfather moved, Elijah growled low and the kid stopped. "You move again, Ron, and I'll have him take your throat out."

The look on the kid's face was priceless. Elijah had a feeling that he knew just what he was, and was afraid that his stepsister would do just that. But the other one—Daniel, he thought his name was—wasn't that smart apparently. When he reached out his hand and grabbed Noelle, Elijah never got the chance to move. Joe hit him with something, and the kid hit the ground.

"What the fuck are you doing to my boys? You leave them alone, you hear me? They're all I have." Noelle looked at him, and Elijah knew in that moment that she had had enough of these bastards. "Get off me, you fucking bitch."

"I'm going to let you go, but if you ever come around me again, even to borrow a nickel, I will have you arrested. I'm finished with you." He stood up when she let him go and looked at him. Elijah wanted to knock the man into next week, but he waited. He knew just when Howard thought he'd sized him up and found him lacking. Howard drew back his fist, and Elijah spoke through his clenched teeth.

"You do it and I swear to you that you won't be as lucky as the last man who tried it." Elijah watched his bravery turn to fear. He popped his neck as Howard continued to stare at him.

"You think I'm afraid of a stupid mutt? I'm not. And you better bet that when I get you alone, I'm going to show you that I mean business." Elijah grabbed Howard around the throat and lifted him from the ground. He was a heavy bastard, but he let his wolf help. "Let me down."

"You touch my wife, and I will hunt you down and tear you into so many pieces that no one will ever know that you're dead. If anyone were to care." Howard looked at Noelle, then back at him. "Yes, my wife. You touch her or come near her, and that will be the last anyone ever hears from you again. Understand?" Elijah tossed him away from him and watched the man struggle to get up. Noah came to stand by Howard and put his foot on his chest.

"Hello, Howard. It's been a very long time, hasn't it?" Howard called him Mr. Stark and told him that he was glad to see him. "Too bad that I'm not all that thrilled to see you. You have been bothering some friends of mine. And for as much as I love them, I dislike you ten times that amount. Did you know that I've taken young Noelle and her husband under my wing? Well, the entire Calhoun family, really. And when you threaten one of them, then I have to assume that you're threatening me as well. I'm not one to fuck with, in the event that you might have forgotten that."

"Calhoun?" Elijah could see the dawning on his face. "You can't be married to her. She's nothing but a pizza jerk in some dump. They don't even make all that good of food either. Marrying her is beneath you, Mr. Calhoun. Christ, what is this world coming to when not even the rich are following the rules?"

"And what sort of rules are those?" Elijah looked at Trent when Howard didn't answer him right away. "You know something that we don't know?"

"Well, you should know that you should never marry beneath you. I did that once and look what it got me. Stuck with a stepdaughter that just wasn't like us." Elijah asked him what he meant. "Well, sir, she thinks that money should be saved up and not spent right away. I know that some think that's what you should do, save for a rainy day, but not us. We were stimulating the economy, and she was holding us back from that. Then there was the fact that she didn't want to come on the little outings that I put together for us."

"You were going to the company parking lot in the middle of the night and stealing things from people's cars." Noah said nothing but watched them when Noelle told them what he'd been doing. "And when you weren't doing that, you were selling off their computers and stereo's online that you'd stolen from them, and scamming those people as well by lying about sending shit out. So no, I wanted to not be a part of your little outings."

"You stole from the people you worked with? Why? Weren't you making good money working for me?" Howard only waved Noah's question off. "So this was a game for you? You just did it for fun?"

"Of course. It was a blast to see their hangdog faces when they realized they'd been hit. I tell you, I even sold a few of them back their shit at the next garage sale we had." Howard laughed. "Then after she got me fired, we had to do that for real. I really hated it when you put up the big fence around the parking lot. Sure did cut out my business. I don't think that was all that nice of you to do something like that to a man trying to make a living. I don't suppose you can tell me when you're gonna take that down, can you?"

No one said a word. The man had just confessed to theft, mail fraud, as well as child endangerment. He'd berated his former boss for trying to protect his employees, and even talked about making a profit on the things he'd stolen.

"No. I put it up to keep monsters like you from taking things that didn't belong to you." Howard nodded, but said that Noah was just like everyone else. "If by that you mean that I'm honest and want those around me to be so, then I thank you. You should have been in jail a long time ago."

"Yeah, that's not going to happen anytime soon. I have a family to support." Howard looked at him, then at Noelle. "You got you a rich husband now, sad as that makes me that he lowered himself to your level, but you can give me a little more now. I'll expect you to give me as much as you can, starting now."

He put out his hand, as if she was going to fill it for him. Instead of doing that, Noelle laughed. Hard and for a long time. Howard looked as if he might try to hit her, but Elijah took a step to him. When she seemed to have some control over her humor, she looked at Howard.

"You're not getting shit from me. I can't believe that I ever gave you anything, and didn't have you arrested for abuse." He snorted at her. "You think I can't? Well, the police are here now, so I think this is as good a time as any. Officer, I'd like to press charges against this man. He's been beating me up and taking my money for years now. And he kicked me out when I was only sixteen. Also, he just confessed to stealing people's personal things from their cars and making a profit from it."

He was jerked from the ground and held above it. Elijah wondered how they were going to make the charges stick when Noah spoke to the officers. He was guiding the men, pure and simple, and Elijah was glad. Maybe they'd be safe for a little while longer with him locked up.

"Take him to jail. Charges are pending, and he has no use for a lawyer." Howard agreed with that. "Once he is there, he is to be treated fairly but without any kindness. If anyone asks questions, refer them to me."

Howard was still screaming about not paying for a damned lawyer, they were all crooks. That he hated them all. Then he turned to Noelle, and Elijah held her to him as Howard spewed his anger at her.

"You ain't nothing to me and you never were. Why I even bothered to keep you after your momma died is beyond me. I want nothing to do with you. Not ever." Elijah tightened his hands on her shoulders and held her. "You hear me? You are nothing to me and never was. I wish you'd have died when she did."

"Then you'll be happy to know that I want nothing to do with you either." As he was cuffed and taken away, his sons followed him like there was a leash on them that dragged them along with him. That man was the stupidest person he'd ever seen, and he wondered if the boys would ever amount to anything either. Turning her body to his, he held her as Howard was taken down the street with two cops on either side of him. "I should have told him I won that money. That would have made his day."

Elijah laughed with her. He told her that he was proud of her. Standing up to a bully was a good way to take control of her life. Then Trent started to laugh and they all looked at him.

"That turned out better than I thought it would. Very nicely too. I think this calls for a celebration." Everyone cheered, and Elijah felt like a great weight had been moved off his shoulders. "My treat. I've called the others in and they're on their way. We'll have a nice dinner, talk about anything but what just happened or is going to happen, and have fun. Even Sterl said he felt good enough to come in and join us. To me, that's the best news I've heard in a while."

As they made their way to the restaurant, Elijah held onto Noelle's hand. He knew that she was upset, he could almost taste it around her. But she was also feeling pretty good about herself. And to him that was the greatest thing ever. She'd stood up to her tormentor and came out on top. Also, he wondered if she realized that Howard had just confessed to not being in her life, something that was going to come and bite him in the ass when the check was made public.

~*~

"You go on back and tell that husband of hers to give you the bail money. There isn't any reason for him not to help out a man in need." Ron just stared at him. The boy had been doing that a lot lately, like he didn't want to be a part of whatever they were doing. "Do you hear me? I said to go and find Mr. Calhoun and tell him how sorry we are that he's married to Noelle, but he needs to get me out of jail."

"I don't think that's right, Dad. That man is married to Noelle, not to us." If he'd have been at home, he would have hit the boy. "I think we should just go out, find us some jobs, and then pay for our things the right way. I want to go to college, and I can't get a loan without a job."

"What do you want to go to college for? I didn't, and I had a good job until that bitch out there messed it up for me." Ron looked at Daniel and neither of them said anything. "What are you waiting for, an engraved invite? Go on out there and do as I told you."

"No. I don't think I want to. Not anymore. All this sneaking around and taking things that don't belong to us? I don't care for it anymore. I'm not sure I ever did." Ron started away and turned back to him. "You might want to figure you out a lawyer, Dad. I'm done with you. And so you know, I think that what you did to Noelle was wrong. All of it. I'm not going to be doing it anymore."

When he was gone, Howard looked at his oldest son. He knew that he had something on his mind, but Howard didn't have any use for touchy feelings right now. He told Daniel to go out and do what he'd told Ron to do. Like his brother, he was starting to get on Howard's nerves, acting like they got some sort of beef with him.

"I'll be dealing with him once I'm out of here. That girl, she owes me for what she did to me, and she's going to start paying up right now. No more screwing around with her dodging us either. She'll move back in with us and start taking care of us like she should have been doing all along now. I will admit I was wrong about kicking her out. We sure could have used us a housekeeper after your mom died. And I think I've been nice about her so far, and I'm not going to be now. She needs to know her place." Daniel said nothing. "Are you listening to me?"

"Yeah. But I have a question about some things. How is it you blame her for everything? When you lost your job, didn't you lose that because you just up and left her where she didn't belong? And I heard that you admitted to telling her that you only wanted her check; is that right?" Howard said so what. "And when Mr. Stark put that fence up around his property, you said it was because Noelle had told him to do it. That she'd convinced him to make our life harder. Now that I think on that, you never did tell me the real reason you stole all those things from them people. And I asked you too. And the one time you answered me, you said it was to get back at Noelle, but I think you just liked it. You know what? I don't even think she knew what was going on about that either. And the man who cut off our cable, she didn't do that, or a lot of other shit that you blamed on her."

"What's your point? I'm sure you think you might have one." Daniel nodded but continued to stare at him. "Well, when you get around to thinking one up, you tell me. But for now, I need for you to go and do as I told you. And don't think that I'll forget about this when I'm out either. I don't stand for backtalk."

"You don't stand for a lot of things when someone is questioning you, do you, Dad?" He didn't like this and told his son that. "Yeah, well I don't like being tossed around like we got done to us out there either. She handed us our asses, when I have a feeling that she could have had us killed and not thought another thing about it. And all you could do was see how she wronged us, when it was us all along that had been wronging those people. Hell Dad, we'll be lucky if you don't drag us all along with you to prison."

"There won't be anyone going to prison if you just do as you're told." When Daniel started for the doorway, Howard sat down on his bed. This was just stupid. He'd been wronged, and the sooner his boys saw that the faster they could get back to business. There was money to be had around here, and he was going to be just the man to make it.

Howard had seen a load of new construction stuff being delivered just today, and he was sure he could make a tidy profit off it, as well as anything else that might have come in. Then there was the large bulldozer that had been delivered just down the road from the construction stuff. Taking it might be difficult, but he was sure that he could get someone to buy it off him and get it out before anyone noticed. Howard wasn't without a few contacts.

It was perhaps an hour later when his dinner was brought to him. The tray had a salad on it, a small sandwich that looked like it had been smashed a bit before it had gotten to him, and a cola. There was an apple too, as well as an orange. He asked the man who had brought it to him when he was getting his real food.

"That's it for tonight. We didn't know you were coming, so had to get you something from the diner. And from the looks of you, I think you should watch a few things you put in your mouth anyway. You certainly don't watch what you spill out of it." Howard picked up the tray and was ready to toss it back at the cop when he laughed. "You do and you'll be pretty starved when breakfast comes in the morning. If you even get anything. I was thinking you should be more appreciative of what you have."

Howard might not throw it, but he wasn't going to eat it either. This was just cruel. He needed food, not this snack that wasn't even going to fill his belly for an hour. But the longer he sat there, nothing else came to him. No steak like he wanted, no fat potato with all the trimmings, and not even a piece of pie or two for dessert. He picked up the sandwich and examined it.

"Two pieces of bread and three slices of meat? What sort of meal is that supposed to be? Not even a big bag of chips or some peppers on the side for me to munch on." He bit into the sandwich and found that there wasn't even any mayo on it. Howard liked it thick on his sandwiches, along with about half a pound of cheese. Eating it, he tried to ignore the salad, but there was no hope for it. He was about to pass out, he was so hungry. Eating it without the diet dressing that they set on the side, he eyed the fruit like it was a bomb about to go off.

He couldn't remember the last time he'd eaten fruit that wasn't in a pie or on a slab of cake. Even then he'd work it to the side while he filled his belly on what he really wanted. And if there wasn't any ice cream or whipped topping to go on it, he'd get a bottle of syrup and pour it all over his dessert just to make it worth eating.

When the same cop came back to get the tray, he was just lucky that there were bars between them. The comments about how he'd done well with eating all his vegetables before his dessert was just too much. Treating him like a five-year-old was going to get the man seriously hurt. Howard had wanted to get up and beat the man to death with the empty tray and plastic plates. As it was, the fucker had laughed at him for ten minutes, standing in front of his cell while he did it. Howard asked him when his son was coming back.

"Back? I don't think anyone is coming to see you anymore. Ron said that you'd need yourself one of those court assigned attorneys, and Daniel said that he was leaving town and asked if that would be a problem. I told him that so long as he was gone for good, he didn't have to worry about the unpaid tickets."

Howard was still mulling over the fact that his own sons weren't going to help him out when he realized what he'd said. "What do you mean, he's leaving town? He can't do that. I'm sitting here in a cell and he can't just leave me here." The cop said apparently he thought that he could. "You go get him and have him arrested. Put him in this cell with me so that I can teach him a lesson on respect and taking care of your parents when they need you."

"Respect? I'm pretty sure that we all thought that word wasn't in your vocabulary. But about those boys, I'm not going to do that. All of them deserves better than you." As he walked away, Howard wondered what the hell was wrong with people today. "You have yourself a nice night there, Howard. I'll be bringing you some light breakfast in the morning."

"Uppity is what they are. Just thinking on it, I can see them thinking that because Noelle got married to one of them Calhouns that they'd have to toe the line. And instead of doing that, they run off without me." Howard wondered what he was supposed to do until one of his sons came to their senses. "Stupid little shits. And after all I've done for them, too."

Howard hadn't been a good worker, even he would admit that. And he'd made himself much more important looking to his family than he really had been. There were days when he'd nap at his desk or play games online all day rather than do any actual work. But he'd figured, and still did, that if they weren't smart enough to know what he was doing, then it was their fault.

Then this thing with leaving Noelle at Mr. Stark's. He'd figured that she'd just run away, or worse, come on back to the house. He'd taken precautions about that too. Changed the locks, even had a gun by the door to shoot at her should she try to come in. He wasn't going to kill her, just scare her a bit. But she'd called him, something he'd not figured her being smart enough to do. He felt that the ordeal had been finished, that she'd known now that she was no longer welcome in his home. And had spent the weekend drunk and stealing shit for his kids for Christmas.

Then the next Monday, he'd gone to work, even cleaned himself up a bit, and was working on reading through the rules on a game he'd downloaded when Mr. Stark came into his little cubby hole and sat down. Howard had been singled out, he'd thought. Mr. Stark had come to see him.

"I met your daughter on Friday night. She's a lovely little thing, isn't she?" Howard had agreed and wondered what he was to do if he asked her for something. He had no idea where she'd landed her skinny ass. "You should know that kicking her out of your house is something that I don't condone."

"Kicking her out of the...what did she say to you?" Mr. Stark only sat there, and Howard tried to think what the stupid little shit might have said to his boss. "I'm telling you right now that she's not right in the head. She might be pretty and all, but she's not smart."

"Oh? Is that right?" Howard had nodded. "Well, that's too bad to hear. I thought she was very intelligent in her manner and words. And cooperative as well. She let me listen in on the phone conversation that she had with you after you abandoned her at my home."

"She did what?" Mr. Stark had only sat there, that weird grin on his face. "I was only teaching her a lesson on being nice to people. I don't think you might have heard it all."

"I dialed the phone for her. I was right there the entire conversation." Howard nodded, not sure how to salvage things. "As I said, I don't condone that sort of treatment to children. I hope you understand that."

"Yes sir. I do. And I'll make it up to her. I don't rightly know where she is. The stupid girl didn't even come home all weekend." He'd not thought of what she might have been doing at a single time all weekend. Only thought of her when he could almost see her face when she realized that she was on her own. "As soon as I find her, I'll make her understand that she can't be bothering you about this anymore."

"I would suggest that you leave her where she is. I have a feeling that she'd be better off without you and your family dragging her into your little schemes. Oh, and by the way, you're fired, Howard." Howard had stood up then, wanting to hit the man to have him take it back. "These men are here to help you out of my building and the property. You won't be able to get unemployment, so I'd not even bother with that either."

"I can't lose my job. I have a family to support. This is all her fault." Mr. Stark had walked away, and the security guards—three of them—told him to go with them. "I have to talk to him. He needs to see reason. She wasn't even my kid."

And now here he was, sitting in a jail cell for no good reason while his boys were out there all on their own, and that stupid girl, who had caused this entire thing, was living it up with a rich bastard.