Chapter 7
Scott - Chapter 7
Randal watched the children as they ran and played. There were times that he wished he could join them. Not only in their fun, but their innocence as well. Children, he thought, had all the right answers. From how to stop fighting to simply the ability to get along. Randal saw the principal coming toward him just as the kids were being lined up to go inside.
"Mr. Calhoun, there's an officer here to see you. He said that your dad has been hurt and that you need to come with him to the hospital. I'm so sorry. You go on ahead now, and I'll take care of your class." Randal reached for his brothers and was told that their dad was just fine. "Your father is such a wonderful man. I do hope he's all right."
"Mrs. Carter, my father isn't hurt." She said that the officer said he was. "No. I just spoke to my brother not three minutes ago, and he would have mentioned that Dad was hurt."
He could almost feel sorry for her when she looked at him, confused. Randal asked her to please take the kids inside and he'd find out what was going on, explaining to her it might have been a mistake all along.
"Oh, of course. They might have gotten the wrong person. I'll just see to them, you go and straighten it out. I do wish you'd reconsider taking over here, Mr. Calhoun. I do. My retirement would go so much better if I knew that the school and the children were in good hands." He told her they'd talk later as he made his way toward his room with her. "He's in my office, just so you know. I wonder how they'd mess up the name like that. Could be causing someone a lot of grief."
"Yes, they might well be." As he made his way to the offices, he told his family what was going on. Or what he thought was going on. Joe told him to wait while Chloe asked him to go in and talk to the man.
He won't be able to get you out to his car unless you let him, right? And there are witnesses in the office too, I'm assuming. Randal said that there wasn't any way, unless he had one of his family. Everyone is counted for, so that's not it. I'd go in, play along with him, and I'm on my way there. By the way, Randal, are you afraid of guns?
Hardly. He opened the door to the office and was startled to smell blood in the receptionist area. I think he's making things a little easier on himself to get me out of here. I think Molly has been hurt.
If you don't see her, then I would assume that she's dead. Stand in the lobby where I can see you when I come in. He told her he'd try. Good, that's all we can hope for right now. I'm about a block from you.
"Hello, Randal. I've come to get you over to the hospital. Your dad and mom have taken a little bit of a tumble. They're going to be all right, but I was sent to get you." He told Chloe what the officer was saying. "Your boss said she'd take care of the kiddies for you."
Chloe told him to engage, but not to leave unless it meant his life. Randal asked if he could hurt the officer and she told him only if it came to that. Without witnesses, the officer in question could cause a lot of trouble for him…not that he cared, but he said he'd not unless he had no choice.
"You said my mom and dad both are hurt? Do you know what happened?" The officer—no name badge present, so he didn't know what to call him—said that there had been an accident at the mall. "The mall? I didn't know they were headed there today. Thank you for coming to tell me. I'll go on over there—"
"Your brother, he didn't want you to drive." Randal nodded and sat down in the chair usually meant for unruly kids. "If you'd come on with me, we can get there in no time at all. I've got my car right out front."
"I just need a minute." The officer tried to help him up, but Randal knew that he outweighed the guy and that his wolf wasn't happy about being touched. "Just wait. You said that it was just a tumble and they'd be fine. I just need a minute."
"Well, shit." He looked up at the officer when he cursed. "I told him this wasn't gonna work. Get the fuck up."
The gun at his head hurt. Randal had told Chloe he wasn't afraid of them, but that was before he had one pointed at his head. As he stood up, was actually jerked up from the seat, he heard a small popping sound just as the man fell. He looked at Chloe as she stood in the office doorway with her gun out.
She said his name twice before he could focus on what she was saying to him. Randal sat down again and saw the blood begin to pool around the head of the now dead officer. Chloe said his name again.
"You killed him." When he didn't look at her, he felt her fingers dig into his chin and his head jerked around. "He was going to kill me. I think right here in this room. I would have been dead in another few seconds."
"I'm afraid that's true. But you have to focus for me. If you pass out, I'm going to be so fucked. I told your mom that I'd make sure you weren't hurt." Randal wanted to tell her that he didn't need her to be so honest right now, but she moved to the principal's office and came back quickly. "There is a woman in the office back there that has been murdered. She has a name badge of Molly. He killed her to get you out of here in the event that you didn't play nicely with him."
"Why?" Chloe only shrugged. "You've been telling me the truth since you got here, don't stop now. Why was he going to take me? And why me?"
"You are the most trusting of the Calhoun men. You're a teacher of small children that would do anything to keep them safe, including go with a man you don't know with a gun to your head." Randal didn't like that he was pegged and told her that. "I don't either. It means that they've done their homework and knew, I'm sorry to say, that you were the weakest link in the family next to the women. Next time, and there will be a next time, they'll go after the next weakest of them. More than likely Noelle."
"Because she is breeding." He said that they'd not know that unless they had been following her. "Then why her?"
"She doesn't carry a gun. Doesn't seem to have any kind of violent nature to her. And she comes and goes pretty much as she pleases. Elijah is working full time, and she is left alone for the greater part of the day. Not that family isn't close, but she doesn't have someone with her at all times. Sterl is around her, but he usually leaves her alone to run errands as well as pick up furniture that the two of them bought. All they'd have to do is pretend that they have a piece to sell, lure Sterl away, and bam, she's alone again. At a time they can control." Randal looked at the dead man again. "He would have gotten you to call the house, tell us to come for you in exchange for something he wants—not necessarily what they need, but something—and then he would have blown a hole in your head as soon as you hung up."
"What's the difference between what they want and not what they need?" When she didn't answer him, he looked at her. "Please tell me. I'm terrified that the next time you won't be so close to save my ass."
"What they need is for everyone to back off. Me for looking into the death of my dad. Your grandfather in getting them out of the building." He asked her how that would work if they knew who they were. "Criminals, for the most part, are stupid. Not that a lot of them don't have college educations, or for that matter a good sense of what needs to be done when. But after a time, when they're not caught at whatever it is that they're doing, they get cocky. That is when they make mistakes. I would imagine that William thinks since no one has questioned him on the disappearance of his wife that he's pretty much free and clear of that murder. And his son too. Except for me. I'm not sure that either of them know that I'm looking. If they did, I'd have been killed a long time ago."
"So this, it was for the building. And their plans to keep my grandda out of there." She nodded at him. "So what do we do now? I mean, so far as they know, this guy has gotten me, taken me to wherever, and is making me play ball." He heard the sirens and looked at her again and asked her what she was going to do.
"First of all, you cannot say anything about me. You're going to say that you came in here and found this man dead, along with the woman in the other room. The principal will say that when she left, both the man and the secretary were alive. You'll have no gun residue on your hands, so that will rule you out." He asked her if she trusted the police. "Nope, but by the time they're ready to charge you, which they will, my buddy will be here. You just have to sit tight and tell them you know nothing. Just keep saying you don't know a thing until help arrives."
"Your buddy the Fed." She nodded. "And how will I know who he is? And is he trustworthy?" She was laughing when she moved from where he was through the doorway and out into the hall. As she made her way out, he asked her again. "Chloe? How will I know who he is?"
The police came in with their guns drawn seconds later. He was ordered to stay put, then told to get down on his knees. And through it all, he kept saying he didn't know what had happened.
Everything went according to Chloe's plan, right up to and including him being charged. No one seemed to care that Molly was murdered, but they were upset that one of their own had been shot and killed. And worst yet, that Randal had no idea what had happened to him. His parents and grandparents were saying they'd meet him at the jail just as a very beautiful woman showed up. She winked at him, and he knew in that moment that this was why Chloe was laughing when she left him there. It wasn't a man at all, but a woman.
"My name is Anastasia Sexton, agent for the Federal Bureauof Investigation. I'll be taking over the investigation of this crime." The chief of police, a fat sloppy man named Bob Miles, pushed his way to the woman and demanded to know who she was. "I just told you. Anastasia Sexton. Do you need me to write it down for you to look over later? And, as I said, I'm with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. You've heard of them, haven't you? We're the big boys, in the event you didn't get that part too."
Randal had to hide a smile. Anastasia was speaking slowly for the police, like she thought them simpletons. Which, Randal thought, they were. When Bob said he was in charge, she just walked by him and asked Randal if he was all right.
"I am now. I thought for sure I was going to jail." She winked at him again and told him that Chloe had his back. "You're her friend. She said you were coming. I'm ashamed to say I thought it was a man coming."
"I get that a lot, sadly. Yes, we're friends. And have been for a long time." He figured that would be all he got from her, and was surprised when she smiled at him. "She saved my ass more times than I could tell you about. Not just out in the open forum, but also literally saved my ass."
"Chloe is a good person, and she saved me from being shot on sight today, I think. She's going to marry my brother, Scott." Anastasia nodded, but said nothing as Bob and his men came to where they were standing. "What are you, anyway? Not human, so that'll help. Because I think Bob and his men…I think they mean to run you off. I'm assuming that you know that they're not on the up and up."
"Yeah, he can try. But I have a mouth on me that will scare off a drunken sailor on leave. You just stand back. He might get too mouthy and I'll have to put him down." She looked at him. "That's what you do to mad animals, don't you? Shoot them in the head?" Before he could agree or disagree with her, Bob shoved his large body between them and started talking.
"I want to know by whose authority you have to come in here, into my district, and think to take over a crime against one of my own men. This man here, he's going to my jail, and he's going to answer my questions. You hear me, girly?" Anastasia just stood there and said nothing. "Now, I'm glad you are seeing things my way, and if you'll just move that pretty little body of yours out of the way, we'll take him in. Go on now, you just go on over there and stay out of the way of my men."
Randal was standing right next to her when she moved. He'd been looking at Bob and his men when it happened. He was pretty sure that even if he'd had a camera out, recording every second of the last few minutes, he would have missed it. Covering his mouth so it wouldn't be hanging open, he surveyed the little office.
Bob was pressed against the wall with his arm jerked up behind his back, while his men, all three of them, were down on the floor, curled up and holding their cocks like they'd been kicked hard, as well as nursing their other wounds. One of them, Randal could see, had a broken arm. Another of them was bleeding from his nose and mouth. Randal looked at Bob, who was screaming his head off about being in pain. He supposed he was, the way Anastasia was holding him there.
"Shut up." The compulsion was there; he'd never felt it so strong before, and felt his own mouth snap closed. When Anastasia asked him to call an ambulance, he pulled out his phone while she continued to talk to Bob. "What part of ‘I'm taking over this crime scene' did you not understand? I was pretty sure that I'd made that perfectly clear. I even went so far as to tell you that I was with the FBI and that I was one of the big boys. By the way, that was pretty sexiest calling me a girly. I might have to bring you up on charges of sexual harassment. That is, if you survive this. Then you had to go all show-boaty and come over here and act like a big man. You know what, I've had bigger turds flushed down my toilet than you. Now, we're going to do this again. I'm taking over the investigation of this crime. Do you have a problem with that?"
"Yes, you mother fucking, cunt, I have a—" The scream coming from Bob was loud enough to make glass rattle and his ears hurt. Bob was sobbing now, big fat tears rolling down his cheeks as he threatened Anastasia again. "You're going to pay for that bitch, see if you don't. I'm the law around here, and I'll say when you're going to—"
There was no scream this time, only the thud of Bob hitting the floor. Randal had no idea what she'd done to the cop other than dislocate his arm and shoulder, but since he was still breathing and his heart was still beating, he didn't care.
Others were showing up now, their guns drawn as they surrounded the building. He was afraid now, not for him, but the others in the building. Reinforcements meant more idiots to fire at him. When he thought about the children in the rooms, he turned to Anastasia and asked her what was going to happen.
"They won't be harmed, none of them will. I've had a few people take them out the back of the building and to safety. Now it's your turn. Randal, it's time you left before someone gets seriously hurt." He nodded and moved to the hall and to the back of the school. When Anastasia said his name, he turned back to her. "I'm fae. And please tell Chloe that I'll see her soon."
~*~
Scott was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that Randal had nearly been kidnapped and then killed. By the police. In his school. Scott looked at Elijah when he sat down next to him. His family had been doing that for the past few hours. Coming to just sit by him. But he had a feeling that Elijah had something to say.
"I'm to tell you.... No, that's not right. I'm to inform you that should you like to talk to your mate, you'd better do it now." Scott asked him why. "I think she has it in her head that she's going after the Flynns. Alone."
"No. I talked to her. She said she'd back off and let the professionals handle it." Elijah asked him when that had been. "This morning. Before all this shit when down. Why?"
"I think she's changed her mind since then." Elijah nodded to the group standing by the front door. "Did you know that she has friends in very high places? And that these friends all seem to think that they owe her in some way?"
"Randal said that the agent that is taking over the police department is fae, and that she would see Chloe later. He told me that she said Chloe had saved her ass a few times. I wonder what she did." Elijah said that he'd met her too and that he didn't know. "I'm in over my head here."
"You think? Why is that?" Scott looked at the nine people that had shown up at his house about two hours ago. "Them? I think they're here to help with this crap, not get in your way."
"It's not just that. I think that I can't protect her like I want to. Or how I should. If anything, I think she's the one that's going to be doing the protecting. I never would have thought that from the beginning of this. But damn, she's good." Elijah just laughed. "I don't think this is the least bit funny."
"I do. Christ man, do you think that Trent thinks he's in over his head?" They looked at their older brother now. He seemed to be enjoying all the hoopla that was going on around him. "Joe could and has easily taken care of him for months now. She has more money than he does, or ever thought to have. They have a vampire living in their sub levels that doesn't seem to want anything from them but friendship. And she's much stronger than Trent will ever be on his best days. Yet there he sits, acting like he's got a handle on everything. And then look at me. Noelle has no special powers, not really, but what she does have is me wrapped up around her little finger. I can and do protect her, but she takes care of me in ways that no one will ever be able to understand. I'm calmed by her. I feel better than I have in decades simply because she loves me. And I'm going to be a father. You have no idea how that can make a man feel until you know that someone you created is going to call you Dad."
Scott knew all this. Hell, he'd been thinking of all kinds of ways that he could stay out of her way when she was working. And she was working too. But in a way that you'd not notice unless you were paying attention. Like just a bit ago.
Anastasia had wanted to appoint one of the officers that didn't seem to have any kind of ties to the things going on in the stationhouse. Chloe had simply pulled up his bank records, and they could see that very large sums of money had been hitting his account on the tenth of each month, then disappearing the required twenty-four hours later. When the bank was called, they said that not only had the man in question set it up to go overseas, but he'd made sure that his wife hadn't been on the signature card. That in all their books made him a bad cop. Someone somewhere was paying him off, and he wasn't sharing with his family.
Then there had been the peek into Bob's house. Noah had done that for them, simply because Chloe had mentioned that Bob might have something there that would help them figure out who was to be trusted. Not only had they found out that all the men and women that worked there were on someone's payroll, but that a lot of them had criminal records when their real names were looked into. When Chloe joined him on the couch, he picked her up and sat her on his lap.
"Thank you. I think I needed you to hold me for a bit." He told her he needed it as well. "I just found out that George has hired a hitman to take out his father."
"I'm sorry, what?" She told him what she'd been able to find out so far. "So, he's going to have his dad killed because he thinks he is going to be rich? Do you suppose he knows that his dad buried his wife in the basement of the business he works at? And perhaps someone else?"
"No, I don't know why but I don't think so. I think if he had known, he'd be blackmailing his dad. I have your brother Tanner looking into finding out who his mom might be. If she's alive, then she might be able to shed some light on a few things." He asked her what. "Well, for one thing, how did William end up with his son? And why did she have a relationship with William when it's obvious that it didn't go all that far? I'm assuming for now that she's out there, but I doubt it."
"Why is that important?" Chloe told him that maybe the girlfriend knew about the death of the wife. "You think so?"
"No, not really. I think, like her son, if she had known she'd more than likely either be in the big house with him or he'd be paying her off to keep her quiet. I can't see that happening. They're too broke, for one thing, and if she was out there, which I'm doubting, then she'd be coming around when he stopped paying her, if he ever did." Scott held her, thinking of how her mind worked. "You think I'm nuts."
"No, I think you're brilliant. I would have just assumed that she was out there and didn't care. But you put a spin on it that makes me believe that this Flynn guy is scarier than we thought. Not only has he killed a few people, but he's covered up a few murders too. He seems to be going to great links to keep us out of the building as well, so I think once we get in there, it's going to fall apart for him. Too bad we can't just go there and dig up the floor anyway." She sat up suddenly. "What did I say?"
"It's a rental." He nodded. "According to the law, the owner of the property can go in and inspect it at any time."
"Yeah, so?" Scott wasn't getting it, but he loved seeing her so excited. "Grandda wouldn't know what to look for if he was to go in, and I'm pretty sure that you'd have to have some kind of clue to dig up a basement floor, right? And to be honest, even as a wolf, I'd not feel good about him going in there alone."
"He won't have to be alone. He can take in anyone that he wants to help him look around." She jumped up off his lap and did a little dance. He laughed so hard, he nearly missed what she said. "I'm going to get to go in there and mess things up."
"Mess what up? And you're not going in there alone. Not if I can help you." But she was going to the others still huddled together. When one of the people standing there yelled "hot damn" he figured that whatever the plan was, it was going to be executed.
Standing up, he went to find his grandda. "I want you to sell me the building that you're renting to the Flynn's. I'll sell it back to you, but for now, I'd like to buy it from you."
"Why?" He told him what Chloe had told him. "All right. I can see that you'd want to be there with her. I'll sell it to you for a buck. And when you guys have finished up with this mess, I'll buy it back if I want it still, and we'll have a party when we tear it down. Because as of the moment we find that poor woman's body down there, I don't want to have another thing to do with it. You know that just ain't right."
"Yes, and I'm sorry, Grandda. There are all sorts of monsters around. But as for the building, it's a deal." He handed his grandda the dollar and they went to find someone to notarize the sale. Other than the filing, which would be done in the morning, he now owned the Flynn Computers building. And he was going to help his mate take down a couple of bastards.
He just hoped she thought what he'd done was a good idea too. Scott was afraid that pissing off his mate could have dire consequences. She was sort of mean when she wanted to be. He thought of ways to tie her down to talk to her, and had to adjust his cock. Yes, sir, he thought he was going to make sure that she couldn't hurt him when he talked to her.