Chapter 9

Scott - Chapter 9

George was just leaning back in his chair when someone knocked. This was going to ruin his nice buzz, he just knew it. So telling the person to go away, he was on the phone, he closed his eyes just as the door flew open. There stood Chloe and a man he'd never seen before.

"So have you decided to come back to work for me? I don't know, Chloe, you left here without notice." She told him he had dust on his nose. Wiping it off, he felt his temper take a nasty turn. "Listen bitch. I told you to go away. If you see something that you don't like, it's all your fault. Go the fuck away."

"I'm here with the new owner. And he wants to make a thorough inspection of the place." He asked her if his dad had gotten the place finally. "No, dumbass, he's never going to get this place."

"Well, then, I'm telling you that you can't come in." She just looked around and he realized that she was already there. "What I mean is, you're not doing anything without my dad here."

"That's what we're hoping for." He didn't understand that but reached for the phone. He was sort of hoping that she'd tell him they'd come back some other time; he wasn't keen on calling his dad right now. "Call him, George. We have better things to do than to wait all day for you to make a decision."

His dad was really pissed at him. Yesterday he'd not come to the computer store at all, which meant that it hadn't been unlocked for anyone to go inside. He didn't understand what the big deal was. They never had any customers coming in now anyway.

"Because, as I have told you several times before, if we don't keep the appearances of having a business there, then that fucking bastard Calhoun can close us down. I've mentioned to you before how important it is that he doesn't close us down, haven't I?" He had, but George still didn't get it. "If you can't be bothered to go to work, then I will find someone that will. And pay them for the shitty job that you're not doing."

So here he was, snorting his last stuff until he could find his friend and dealer. Hopefully someone would come in and need some work done so he'd have the cash to pay him without digging into his briefcase. He had often wondered if he could sell off the shit here for the cash and let his dad think he was working. George didn't think anything here was worth much anyway. Not even the building.

The place was a dump, and there was something going on with the electric too. It kept blinking out when he turned on his coffee pot and cooked his snacks in the zapper. The bathroom stopped up a lot, the doors were all loopy and didn't close well. And the air only worked sometimes. He looked at Chloe when she said his name. He'd completely forgotten about her.

"Call your dad, George, so we can get this over with. Tell him that we're starting without him too." George nodded and picked up the phone. There was no hope for it, his dad was going to be pissed.

"Chloe is here. She said that she's come with the new owners. I didn't know the place was for sale." His dad cursed long and loud. "I'm guessing by your anger that you didn't know it was either."

"What the fuck is she doing there now? Ask her." George already knew that and told his dad. "What do you mean, they're there to inspect the place? They can't do that without notice. Tell her she has to get the fuck out of there now."

Before he could relay the message to her, she laid a paper down in front of him. He read it over twice before he had to tell his dad. And that didn't improve his mood one bit.

"There is no such law." George told his dad he was looking right at it. She'd been kind enough to print it out for him. "Bull shit. You tell her that I'm on my way and that she'd better not touch a fucking thing."

The phone slammed down in his ear and George sat there. Chloe and the man were already starting, going through the office next to his. George looked around his own office and tried to think what might be there that would get him into trouble. He'd brought his briefcase in just this morning, having finally given permission to the staff at home to clean his room.

George had no idea what had gone wrong with his dump he'd taken on his dirty laundry, but it had gotten all over his carpet and his bed before he'd had to find help. His room was cleared of things that he didn't want the staff to find, but most of it was here now. And he was pretty sure that it was more than he wanted to get caught with. Especially all the cash.

Standing up, he took out his gun and put it in his pants pocket. Picking up his briefcase, he was out the door and into the parking lot even before he thought of what he was doing. Getting into his car, he tried to think. His head was buzzing too much for him to keep all his thoughts in any kind of order, so he started his car and sat there. He looked in his case only to find that he'd left some very key things in the building.

"I left my notes." He started to laugh, suddenly finding everything to be just hilarious. "Dad is not going to be happy when he finds out my plan."

The notes were his plans for not just what he wanted to say when he was informed that his dad was dead, but the payment plan that he'd set up to pay off his killer. He knew that paying a man that killed for a living was important. George did not want to end up on the wrong end of his gun. Then there was the insurance policy that he'd taken out on his dad, as well as the unpaid bills that he'd taken to carrying around with him so no one would be the wiser. His dad might hire someone to kill him when he found them. He wouldn't put it past his dad to do something like that.

There were also his written out thoughts on the night that his dad had come into his room. His diary was there. It was the one that he'd been given when he'd stayed at the last clinic, and had his thoughts as well as things he'd done since he'd been let out. He thought of the day his dad had come to him, telling him that he'd killed Mike Davis.

George had written down as much as he could remember that was said that night, but he knew there were things missing. He also wrote out how his dad had seemed manic, maybe even a little drunk as well.

His dad had told George that he'd just killed a cop. At first he'd thought his dad was saying that he himself had done it, that he'd been the one driving the car. But he'd been blaming George for it. Telling him that in a drunken state, he'd hit a cop and killed him. And no matter how many times George told him that he'd been there all night, his dad had insisted that he'd just gotten home.

"Do you have any idea what this is going to cost me if it gets out? How much damage control I'm going to have to do to get you out of this?" George begged his father to tell him he'd fix this. Even though he had no idea when or how it had happened. He'd been too stoned, he'd told him, to even leave the house. Or so he'd thought. "You were out, damn it. I know you were. How else was the car you were driving damaged and covered in blood?"

"But I didn't do a damned thing, Dad." That had earned him a slap to the face, and then his dad had hit him over and over until George had to run. He'd left with his gun that he had now and nothing else. Not even a credit card or cash. It had taken two days for his dad to let him back in the house, and since then, George had been careful never to drive again, not unless he had to.

The very next day after he was home it was all over the news that Officer Davis had been killed and that it looked like a case of hit and run. George watched every news report for a week after, even going to far as to record them so he could make sure his name was never mentioned. Then the other morning, he'd found the note.

"I didn't do it." His dad had paid off a man by the name of Casey. There was a bank note for it, and in the memo part it had accident. There was blood on the note, along with instructions that when he got rid of the car and wiped it down, he was to return for the rest of the money. He knew his dad well enough to know that had George killed a cop, he would have let him hang for it. George knew then that not only had his dad done it, but he had paid to have the car destroyed as well.

As he sat there he thought of all kinds of things that his dad had blamed him for. The disappearance of his mom was just one of many things over the years. There was also this woman that he had no idea who she was, but his dad had told George he'd killed her. He even showed George the pictures of her dead body. It had sickened him, now even more so since he knew that his dad had done it. Done it all.

He knew that Cybil wasn't his real mother; hell, he'd been almost her age when she married up with his dad. Only five or so years had been the difference, but she was much smarter than he knew he'd ever be. She made sure he knew that he was a child of an affair. That he'd never amount to anything because his mom was a whore. No amount of trying to prove himself to her, that he could be better, would change her mind. He supposed that he'd not tried all that hard, but she still shouldn't have left the way she had.

When his cell phone started to chirp, a ringtone that he knew was his dad's, George laid the phone on the other seat. Whatever his dad was going to say to him, he didn't want to hear it. It was more than likely something else that he'd done wrong. George watched as a cruiser flew past his parking spot. No doubt his dad sending in the police to make sure that Chloe was stopped. He doubted very much it would stop her. Chloe was pretty determined. He'd noticed that right away.

George had had to hire her. His dad had told him it was his penance for killing her father. George hadn't pointed out, yet again, that he'd not done it, but he'd hired her all the same. She was a good worker and was kind to the people that worked there…even him on occasion. George had actually enjoyed going to work at the beginning, knowing that she'd be there. Where he could hear her soft voice. Watch her work with the other employees when they had trouble getting the job done.

Then his dad had told him that she was spying on him. He'd even shown him video of her snooping around the building. Going into areas that had been closed off for years. When she'd been down in the basement, his dad had screamed at him for hours about that, like he could have stopped her if he didn't know what she was doing until that moment.

His phone made a noise signaling that he had a message. It took him several tries to get the password correct, and he had hoped that he'd get locked out and not be able to hear it. But on the third try, he got it open.

George listened to the voice mail that his dad had left him. "There is no hope for it, son. You're going to go to prison. They'll find out soon enough that you killed that man and the others, and you'll go away for a very long time. No dope will be there to keep you company. You should come in now, come here and confess. It's the least you could do after all I've done for you."

George pulled out his gun. His grandma had given it to him so long ago now he could barely remember her face. She'd told him that there might be a time when he'd need to use it. That he was to point it with authority and to pull the trigger like he meant it.

"No pussy footing around, Georgie my boy. You use it like a man." She'd been the only person he'd allowed to call him that. He'd been her Georgie boy, and would be forever, he supposed. He thought of her now and wondered what she might think of him.

"I'm such a failure." He wasn't going to change that fact. He'd been a fuck up since the day he'd been born. Even then, as a kid, he'd known that he wasn't going to amount to anything. His dad had told him that over and over. Cybil had too, in her nasty way. Nor would he ever be loved again. "I wish you were here, Grannie. I really do."

Turning on the radio, he listened for a moment to the man's voice. He had no idea what he was talking about, but found some comfort in his voice. But as he fingered his gun, he knew that no matter what, he was going to go down for the murder of that cop. And he'd not done it. Instead of waiting for the killer to do the job of taking out his dad, George decided that he'd take care of things on his own.

"I should have taken care of it long ago." Turning off the radio, he sat there thinking of his grandma. Point it with authority and pull the trigger like you mean it. Touching his fingers to the gun that had meant so much to him, he nodded once. Picking it up, he turned it over in his hand. Then he put it in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

~*~

Anastasia stood by the door while they looked around. Scott wasn't sure what he was supposed to be looking for, but he did poke around at a couple of boxes that were wet. He wondered if there was a leak, and decided that it wouldn't have surprised him. The place really was falling down around their ears.

"We have to make it look good." Nodding at Chloe, he told her that he wasn't sure how to go about making it look good. "Yeah, this place is nasty."

They heard running feet above them and he wondered what was going on now. Twenty minutes ago William had shown up with his attorney, and he'd been informed that they could indeed go through the building without interference from him. William sure could string a bunch of curse words together, Scott thought with a laugh.

"Guys? You might want to come up here."

Scott could hear the concern in Anastasia's voice, and he was suddenly afraid. They'd done nothing to the basement that would require them to have a crew come in, and he was afraid that they'd failed. As they made their way up the stairs, he could hear sobbing. Then William was cursing. As soon as they entered the room where he was, he launched himself at Chloe. Scott just barely got her out of the way before William could hurt her.

"This is all your fucking fault. You did this."

Scott wasn't sure what was going on and looked at Anastasia for help.

"We found George about five minutes ago. He's dead." Scott looked at William, and before he could ask him why he'd killed his son, she continued. "It looks like a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. We're treating it as a suicide for now, but no one is leaving here until we are sure."

George was dead? He wondered what that would do to their investigation. Then he felt horrible. The man had killed himself, and here he was thinking about his own work. He told William he was sorry for his loss.

"You should be sorry, you mother fucker. This is all your doing. You and that fucking family of yours. He was a good boy and you guy drove him to this." Scott said nothing; there wasn't any point in it, he thought. "I'm going to own your asses for this. See if I don't. And all that I've done in trying to protect him, all my hard work to keep him safe is over."

"What sort of things were you protecting him from? I mean, he was a grown man. Responsible for his own actions." Chloe didn't take her eyes off William, and he wondered what she was up to. "You and him, you guys protected each other, didn't you? I mean, he knew shit about you, you about him. Sort of a partnership, wouldn't you call it?"

"He was my son. I don't know what you're getting at." Chloe just shrugged and started away. "No, you get your skinny ass back here. I want to know what you mean by that. Tell me."

"I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but you are not my boss any longer. Not that you were ever here, but you don't get to tell me what to do and when to do it." She looked over at Scott and smiled. "You can, but he can't. Right?"

"Yes, that's right." He had no idea what she was doing, but he'd play along with her. "In fact, I was thinking that we need to finish up what we were doing before being called away. I'd like to get this inspection over—"

"You'll do no such thing. I want you to get the hell out of my building." Scott pointed out that it was his building. "No, it's mine. I work here and it's mine to do with as I see fit. You'll stop this nonsense right this minute."

Chloe left the room and he followed her. Scott wasn't sure if William would come after them or not, but didn't worry about it. With Anastasia there, he figured she'd keep them safe. As they made their way to the basement again, he was surprised to see his brothers, all of them armed with sledge hammers. He asked them what they were doing.

"In about two minutes, there is going to be a water main break in here." He asked Trent if he was going to make it. "Nah. We all are. It'll be fun. Wait and see."

As soon as the first bit of rock breaking sounded around the room, he heard someone running again. Even before he could tell his brothers to watch out, he heard the gun go off. Scott had turned to slam the door shut to keep them at least slightly safer when Chloe fell into his arms.

"Christ." Trent knocked him back; he looked down at his mate and saw the blood then. She was covered it in. He looked at Trent when he slapped him. "Did you hear me? I said shift. You have to start the conversion now or she's dead."

His wolf seemed to understand the urgency more than he did and took him. As soon as he was fully wolf, his counterpart threw back his head and howled. Scott was helpless to help him in this, so told him to hurry.

Blood filled his mouth as he bit into her belly. Whimpering a little, Scott calmed his wolf by telling him he was the only one that could save her. The second bite was to her leg, and that was when he noticed that Trent had shifted as well and was biting Chloe in all the same area's he was. They were working together to save her.

I'm stronger. If we don't hurry this along, we'll lose her. Thanking his brother, he told his wolf to hurry again. As they took turns biting into her flesh, he tried not to think about what they were doing, but instead thought about what was going on upstairs.

He could hear his mom and dad crying. William screaming. His grandda and grandma were there as well, and they were offering support, blankets were ready, and they had a car ready to take her home when they were finished. Then Anastasia was there, offering up her own blood.

"I'm sure that if the vamp were here, he'd do the same. But she's my friend and has been for many years. Let me help." Nodding, Scott moved back. Not too far, but enough for her to get to Chloe. "My blood is richer than yours, so it'll help save her while she converts."

As soon as Anastasia cut her wrist and put it over Chloe's mouth, he saw the fae shift. Wings appeared at her back, her face elongated and became shiny. He realized it wasn't shiny, but sparkling. The woman's entire body was covered in gems and stones so small it looked like she was covered in glitter. When she looked at him, he saw the changes in her face as well.

Her eyes were dark, almost the color of old amethyst. Her lips as red as roses in his mother's garden. When she laughed, he looked at her face, her wings distracting him and his world for a few moments.

"You really didn't think I looked like a human, did you?" He shook his head. "You may speak to me now, wolf. My blood is hers now, and as you are mates, you are afforded all the things that she has."

Will she die? Anastasia said no, not any more. I should have done this sooner, changed her. She has some of the powers that Joe gave us when she came to the family, but not all. This is not the way that I wanted her to become mate to my wolf.

"Had you not been here, with your brother, she would surely have died. You're a good man, Scott Calhoun, and I'd be happy to call you friend as well. But you should know that you and her, you will have more than that now. Chloe has been.... I told you once that she saved me. I wasn't kidding when I told you that. Her body was broken when she gave me her blood. I think she thought that to save me would have been her last act on this earth. But to give freely as she has done numerous times, my kind has rewarded her."

How? Anastasia stood up then, her body back to the human she'd been pretending to be. What do I owe you? I know that you said she was your friend and that you wanted to save her for that reason, but I must give you something. A boon, I think you would call it.

"Very good, young pup. Yes. I will take one thing from you. But for now you must take your mate home and let her rest. She will be up to her old self soon, and you will need to keep her calm for a bit longer."

When she went up the stairs, he realized that Trent was still there, staring at the woman as she made her way up the stairs. He turned to him with the most comic look on his wolf's face.

Did you see that? He nodded, taking his body back so he could take Chloe home. When Trent followed him, he asked him again if he'd seen that.

"Why would I not? Sheesh, Trent, you're such a dork at times." He heard his brothers laughing and found that he loved that sound. He wanted to hear it more often, have them around him a lot more. All of his family. "Trent, I've come to a decision. I'd very much like to take you up on your offer to become your enforcer."

"Now you answer me? I asked you that four weeks ago. You told me to…I think your exact words were to go fuck myself." Scott said he'd changed his mind. "And who do I have to thank for this change of heart? The fae? Or was it your mate?"

"No. I decided all on my own. I want to spend more time with my family. I've been avoiding you guys a lot lately, and I think this is the best way to do that. Besides, my mate here is going to be the chief of police as soon as I can talk her into it, and I'll have to keep busy or go nuts."

Scott took her out to their car and laid her on the back seat. Just as he was trying to figure out how to buckle her in, Noah appeared. He offered to take her home for him and put her to bed. Scott hugged him, and as soon as Noah wrapped his arms around him, Scott felt the entire day weigh him down.

He started crying like a child, babbling about how he was a crappy mate, how he'd failed her the first time he'd had to help her. And through it all Noah held him. When he'd cried himself out, he stood up and apologized to him.

"No need for that, Scott. I've been a little down myself of late." He helped him pick up Chloe, whose heart was sounding stronger all the time. "I'll just run her home, then I'll see you there. Oh, and before I forget, you have a guest. I think him to be your new cook."

Scott was still standing there when his mom came out of the building. The fire department had been called in, she told him, and then she asked about Chloe. He told her what they'd done.

"Good for the two of you. Now, if you could manage to make me a grandmother again soon, I'll be as happy as I can be." He kissed her on the cheek and got into his car. But she wasn't done with him yet, apparently. "Scott. Are you really going to work with Trent?"

"Yes, ma'am. I think I am." She nodded and told him it was about time. Scott was still laughing about her expression when he told her he might take over the pack from him. He'd never do that, but he loved keeping her on her toes.

By the time he was pulling into his driveway, he was feeling the day again. Not as overwhelmed as he had been, but exhausted now. He thought that he could sleep for a week. He might do it while Chloe recovered. Then he was going to have to talk her into her new job.