Chapter 5

Trent - Chapter 5

Tanner looked over the paperwork in front of him. It was a timeline of events that led straight to the man who was still trying to get in touch with Trent. He looked at Noah when the chair that he was sitting in creaked. He'd not said a single word since he'd come by Tanner's office earlier this evening, asking to speak to him, and handed over a thick file with the names Cartwright/Ford on it.

"Do you have any questions? You do look like you might have a couple hundred." Tanner nodded, then shook his head. Noah laughed. "I have kept track of the man over the years, knowing that someday he'd raise his head just enough for me to cut it off. Snakes…that's the only way that you can kill them properly, you know. You should also know that Joe kept these notes for me, and she also has a law degree. Several others, as a matter of fact, but she might be able to help you when you need someone. She's that good."

"She's been around." Tanner flushed when he realized what he'd said. "What I meant was she's old. Christ, that's not right either. What I mean is...I have no idea what I mean."

"Yes. Joe has been living a long time. I'm assuming that was what you were trying to say." Tanner told him it was. "As I was saying, Joe has been keeping the notes that you see here. Most of them are done by hand, but I do believe she might have transcribed them for easier reading. You should ask her. When she watches over me during the day, there is little for her to do, so she has become an expert at a great many things."

"What happens with her now?" Noah asked him what he meant. "I mean, she's Trent's mate. I don't know what her plans are now, but I'm sure she's going to want to spend more time with him. Do you need a watcher?"

"Are you volunteering for the job? And it's ‘day walker,' not ‘watcher.'" Tanner told him he was, actually. "I don't think you'd be cut out for it. I don't doubt that you'd keep me safe, but for the most part Joe was only my day walker because I wanted her to be safe. Had I not taken her in, she would never have survived the times she was born to. Times then were…let's just say that I kept her as safe as she did me. More so if you want to know the truth. But as my day walker, you'd have to lead a very solitary life. Wolves aren't cut out to be alone, from my experience. I think that is why Joe was so good at it. She cared as little for humans as I did at the time."

"She is part of a pack now. I mean, as you said, we're not ones to be alone. She won't...will she continue to work for you?" Noah told him that it was up to her, but her watching over him wasn't as necessary as it had been before computers. "I would imagine that they've done a lot for your kind. Alarms alone would have come a long way from when you were born."

"They have. As have a great many things." Noah glanced at the file before leaning back on the seat he was in. "Did you know that in a blink of an eye, things could change that would make your hair turn white? Say, the invention of cars for example. One night I was walking along a dark road and this monstrous sound came from behind me. Turning, I saw these two eyes, great shining things that had my heart pounding and me thinking the gates of hell had opened up, and I was surely going to die for my terrible crimes against humans. As I leapt into the grasses along the road, this monster that was nothing more than a car with lights in the front of it drove by me. I lay there for several minutes, trying to wrap my mind around what had just happened. It didn't occur to me until I was home that I could have simply left the area before it got me…I was that terrified."

They both laughed. Tanner could actually see Noah being afraid of such a thing. His grandda, a man who was older than dirt when Tanner was born, had told them over and over about how things had changed too fast for him and his grandmother, and they'd moved to the mountains long ago to be alone. He decided to call them for a visit soon.

Tanner knew that he was avoiding the work in front of him. He needed to process, and he couldn't do that sitting with the paperwork in front of him. He had had to leave the firm he was at recently because it had been too much for him to sit behind his desk all day and not be allowed to roam the halls like he wanted. They apparently frowned upon that and had stifled his mind when they'd confined him to one place for too long. It was leave the well-paying job or go insane. Well, insaner.

"You think that she and Trent will make a good pair?" He knew that wolves mated for life. But there were some things that the two of them would have to overcome that normal wolves didn't even encounter. "She's an immortal, she told us. What happens to her should you get hurt or decide that you want to wash the stench of humans forever off your life?"

"You do have a way with words, don't you, young Tanner? I do believe I like that about you. You are…refreshing and fresh. I think I'd like to hire you. But are you asking me if when I die she will join me? No. She's her own person and can do what she wishes. If you are asking me if, should I perish, would she as well because of the bond we have, that answer is also no. I have made her what she is so that if anything should happen to me, she could go on with her life as she had before. But a good deal better off." Tanner nodded and glanced at the paperwork, then away again. "Trent is an immortal too if they have exchanged blood. Which I'm sure they have, knowing the nature of the wolf. He will not age and grow old and die, leaving her behind."

"Does she know?" Noah told him she did about herself, but not about Trent, at least he didn't think so. "And are you planning to tell them? Because I'm pretty sure that...."

He looked at the paperwork again, sitting down now that what he'd been searching for hit him. He started moving the timeline around. There were two of them here…one was for Ford, the other for his partner, Jefferson Marshall. Tanner started talking as he made the things line up.

"Jefferson only came on the scene about three years ago. An otherwise unknown in the business world, he seemed to have his shit together and enough funds to buy his way into about anything. When he met Ford, he had just been widowed, or so he said in the interview he gave right after joining Ford." He nearly had it the way he wanted, but there was something he was missing. As he continued, he looked through the file regarding Ford. "Ford is a thief. Not only that, he had his hands in a great many pots that seemed to just belly up about the time he was leaving; or in some instances, he'd already left the company. But since Marshall joined him, he's been pretty stable. Not really a standup guy, but someone that seemed to know his business. It wasn't until Elijah and I started working on this project that he and Trent were going to do that we discovered that on the surface he was a good guy, but in the background, he'd not changed one bit."

"You think they're connected somehow, in the past?" Tanner didn't answer Noah. He was missing the thing that connected the dots. As soon as he found it, he laid the picture down on the timeline about four years before Ford had met Marshall. "Sydney?"

"She was the key. Sydney Carlin is somehow going to figure in with this deal they have going. And I'm pretty sure that Ford hasn't seen it yet. Because if he has, he's not really thinking that Jefferson is any sort of threat. Do you know what happened to her after you left her? I mean, that day or a few days thereafter?" Noah picked up the picture of the woman he'd known about ten years ago. "According to this file, she died not long after you were there, within about three weeks. But the article about her doesn't say how. And as far as I can see, there is no obit either. It was as if no one cared enough to even run that. I thought she had a great deal of money?"

"There was never any money. But she was a lovely thing. We had nice walks. Sydney knew what I was, I think, but she never mentioned it and neither did I. We were just friends. She knew Joe as well. Perhaps she would know. We left the area right after Ford was run out of town…might have even been the same day. We were headed out anyway, so I can't remember that timeline very well." Tanner watched the man in front of him and knew he was trying to remember something big. "You might want to try and find a boy...well, he'd be a man by now, but his name was Gibson. I'm not sure of his first name other than I think it started with a B. Brad or Ben. Something like that. He lived in the brownstone next to hers. Younger than her by a few years, but he was infatuated with her. Gave me some trouble once or twice so I had to have a little talk with him. Joe also talked with him, a number of times as a matter of fact. I think they became friends of a sort. Joe could be helpful in answering any questions about him."

"You talked with him how? Did you force him to not see her any longer?" Noah said no, it was just that he explained he had been worried about a single woman living alone and had befriended her, and that was it. "And you don't think he might have hurt her?"

"No. Like I said, he was sort of in love with her. He was a good boy. I don't remember a great deal about him other than he was a slightly overweight, nerdy type that had a great deal of computer knowledge even back then." Tanner made a mental note to see what he could find out. "He did talk about Ford. Only he wasn't Ford then. He was Cartwright. Benson Cartwright. Hated the man on sight, as he had me at first. He might have seen Ford coming and going from Sydney's place and thought the man might hurt her, as he had thought I would. Gibson might be one to talk to as well about what happened to Sydney, other than the fact that she died. I, like you, think there's a connection."

"When you told me about the night that Sydney left Ford, you said that you told her to go home and call her friends. Did she do that? And how exactly did you do it?" This time Noah got up to pace. Tanner had an idea what he'd done to her, but he wanted to be sure. "Would she have felt guilty about what she'd done to Ford?"

"I did force her to do those things, as you've guessed. It wasn't hard, however. She didn't really trust him as much as Ford thought. In fact, I don't think she liked him at all and found him to be a nuisance. He thought her to be stupid, and that was the sort of woman he preyed on. Still does, as far as I can see. But would she have felt guilty? I don't think so. She was level-headed, smart, and had a good eye for art and saving her money, what little she had of it. I think Ford thought her to be rich. And she did carry herself that way, but she had nothing more than her rent and food money most of the time." He stopped pacing and looked at him. "I keep coming back to the young man that lived next door to her. There was something there, but I never looked into it. Something about him that keeps tugging at my memory."

Tanner got up to get his laptop. He had a desktop computer he used mostly, but he wanted to continue this with all the files in front of him. Putting in the name Gibson and the year with the street name, he hit on it almost immediately.

"He found her body. I mean, that's what the paper says here. His first name was Benny, not a nickname but his birth name. At the time of her death the paper says he was seventeen. And Miss Carlin was only twenty-four." Tanner did a quick image search on his name. "Fuck me. It's him. It's Jefferson Marshall."

He showed the picture to Noah, who sat down hard on the couch. "That's it. That's the tug. I remember the boy turned man. I mean, I can see it as clear as day now. Benny, yes that's it. He really hated Ford then. Fuck. Do you think Ford knows? Of course not. If he did, he'd call him out or kill him. Death would be what I'd do. But why now? I mean, it's been about ten years. Why do you suppose he's taken so long to do whatever it is he has planned?"

"You said yourself that Ford changed himself. Why, we don't know for sure. It could have been because of you. We both know that he's been hunting you down by way of Joe. He didn't know until last night that you had figured it out. So why is Jefferson after him? Because you know as well as I do that there is no way they just happened to hook up." Tanner looked at the picture and thought the man to be a little nerdy. Much like he supposed he'd been as a child, but more so now. "He's after Ford. For something. And I'd bet it has to do with Miss Carlin."

"No. They did not just happen to hook up. You're right, I'd bet anything on it that he's after Max for something. But what?" He got up to pace again. "We need Joe here. She has a better mind than most people I know. When are they set to return?"

"Well, that could be a problem." Noah asked him why. "Mom told me this morning that Trent has asked to buy the cabin off them. He and Joe want to live there for the rest of their days away from the city."

"Well fuck a duck and watch it waddle." Yeah, Tanner thought, that about summed it up. "I guess we will have to go to them then. When can you be ready to leave?"

They made plans to meet up tomorrow night and then Noah left. He also left behind his paperwork. Tanner knew that he should go to bed, but he had to find a job. Not even his parents knew yet that he'd left his paying job, and he was quickly running out of excuses and money to support himself. Pulling out the paper, he started going through the help wanted pages looking for just about anything right now. But without much in the way of experience as a trucker or a layperson, he wasn't really qualified to do much of anything but be an attorney.

Tanner loved what he did. It was exciting, never the same, and he had made a great deal of money at it. Not that money was everything, but it certainly helped with paying bills and eating. He knew that he could go to his parents and they'd help him out, but he really wanted, and needed, to do this on his own. So marking through the help wanted ads, he decided that tomorrow he'd start looking into fast food. He'd done it before and it had paid pretty well. Being unemployed sucked.

~*~

Trent came into the house with his arms loaded with wood and watched Joe as she cooked. They had worked out an arrangement over the last two days they'd been here together, and it was working out well. She did the cooking and kitchen clean-up, and he did all the rest. He wasn't ashamed to admit that he was doing pretty well as a domestic. The pay was certainly nice. Going into the kitchen where she was, he moved up behind her and nipped at her neck.

"You keep that up and we'll not have any dinner until midnight again. Last night you wore me out." He held her hips while he rocked into her ass. He seemed to be at a constant state of arousal since he'd met her. Not that he was complaining, but he was worried about wearing her out. "Trent, back off if you want to eat tonight."

"I do want to eat tonight." He turned her around and lifted her up to sit her on the nearby counter. Going to the stove again, he turned off all the burners and the oven and moved back to her. "You, as a matter of fact."

"You do know that was our dinner, right?" He nodded and pulled a chair from the table. "What are you thinking you're going to do with that?"

"Well, since I know for a fact that you're wet, I'm going to sit right here and have myself a little appetizer before I have the main course. Then when you've filled me with your creamy goodness, I'm going to strip my pants off and fuck you where you sit. Hard and fast until you scream yourself hoarse." She leaned back on the counter, and he reached up to her hips and pulled her pants and panties off. "Spread your legs for me, baby. Let me have my fun."

When she opened her legs for him, Trent slid his fingers into her. She really was wet, and when her juices started to run down his arm, he leaned in and suckled her clit into his mouth and bit down gently. Her hips started moving up and down off the counter then, and he knew she was close.

Fucking her with his fingers, Trent ate her, lapping at her pussy with his mouth and tongue until he was sure she'd come a half dozen times. Standing up, he opened the fly to his pants and freed his cock. He had to be careful now because he was so hard and full, and he didn't want to catch himself in his zipper. Sliding his crown into her heat, he watched her face.

"You love this don't you? Me playing with you until you come? Will you, baby? Come with me like this?" Her moan nearly made him slam forward, but instead he slid his crown into her sheath and fucked her in short, quick jabs. "I could come like this. Fucking you just enough to make you scream. You have no idea how much I love to have you tighten around me, make me feel like you're milking me with your sheath. Christ, I love you."

She slid her fingers to his cock and every time he slid out of her, she ran her finger around him. He was close now—his balls were full and he wanted to empty himself deep inside of her. Before he could do just that, she grabbed him in her fist and held him.

"Fuck me from behind. I want to feel you slamming your cock into me from behind." He nearly fell back when she gave him a little push. When she got off the counter and turned around, he ran his hand down her ass to her gate, sliding his fingers into her heat. "Fuck me, Trent. I need it hard."

Moving his finger, he grabbed her hips. When she moved her hips back, spreading her legs wider, he fisted his cock and held it at her entrance. The next time she moved back to take him, Trent slammed forward, taking her all the way to the counter as he did so. He knew for as long as he lived he'd never get enough of loving her. Physically or emotionally.

She was crying out now. Each time he pounded her, holding her tightly as he did so, she moved back. And when she screamed she was coming, her body bowing up off the counter and to him, he held her to him as he emptied himself. His body holding hers tightly between the counter and him, Trent bit down hard on her shoulder and heard bones break.

He came again when she lifted his wrist to her mouth and bit him. Trent saw stars then, his vision sliding from perfect to slightly blurry, with brilliant bright bursts of light making his body feel amazing, and he held her as she drank from him. He lifted his head from her shoulder, his cock still semi-hard inside of her, and fucked her slowly while she sealed the wounds she'd created.

When she went limp in his arms, he moved to pick her up and then carried her to the table and the other chair there. Holding her, he wondered how he'd ever be without her, or how he had survived all this time without her in his life. Trent held her to him, stroking her back while they both recovered.

"Dinner is ruined." He laughed and so did she. "I guess we'll have to have cereal now. I don't think I can save the cake either. I was going to surprise you with it. Sort of like a special treat for making me come so many times last night and today."

"Having you in my arms is treat enough. However, if you wanted to bake me up a batch of those biscuits, I'd surely love that. But only one batch. I have to eat better." She didn't move out of his arms, and he was content with that. They were happy. Hell, he was ecstatic. Trent was in love, and feeling better every day.

Last night they'd had the fish he'd caught and the ones she'd caught as well. Trent didn't know for sure, but he thought that there had never been a better cooked meal in the world. They'd had small boiled potatoes as well as green beans with it, and he'd considered himself the king of his castle. Had he had the strength after making love to her twice after they'd eaten, Trent might have gone out on the deck and declared himself king of the beasts. He would have pounded on his chest too. But he had been just too tired to do anything but doze in the chair that looked out over the deck.

When Joe got up and worked on dinner, he pulled his pants up but didn't bother snapping the top button. He was alone but for her and didn't care at the moment. Joe told him that dinner wasn't ruined and she'd have it done in about twenty minutes. He told her what he'd talked about with his brother.

"Tanner was coming up tomorrow night with Noah. They have some information and Tanner needs for you to help him out with it." She said she would. Trent knew that she had a few degrees under her belt, as well as knowing a few other languages. He had been so impressed that he'd had her talk dirty to him in French all night until he just couldn't take it anymore and pounced on her. "Mom and Dad said we could have this house as a wedding gift."

The spatula in her hand dropped. When she turned to him, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the box that his mom had told him was at the cabin. She'd planted it for him so that, in the event things worked out, he'd have it.

"I fell in love with you. I don't know when. It could have been when you walked into the bedroom or when you kissed me the first time." He got down on his knees and moved slowly to her. "I really have no idea, but I do love you. With all that I am."

"You don't have to marry me." He told her that he most certainly did. "Really, I'm content just to be with you. We don't need anything to say that it's okay for us to be together."

"I do." He took her hand in his and kissed her palm before he turned it over again. "I have a ring. My mom, in her amazing wisdom, made sure that I could have something here to ask you with. I am going to have to get her something really nice when I see her the next time."

The ring, he knew, was his grandmother's. It had been in his family for a few generations, and he was glad that she'd thought of it for him. The band alone was a work of art…wolves chasing each other around the gold. The small diamonds that were a part of each collar around them had been set deep in the gold. But the large diamond on the top was what drew attention to it.

The four wolves were on their hind legs and holding the large stone above their chests. Each of them, using their paws beneath it, had their chins on the top to hold it in place. His great-great grandfather had been a jeweler before he'd met his mate, and had fashioned the one of a kind ring for her. Trent put it on Joe's finger, and wasn't surprised that it was a perfect fit.

"Oh Trent, it's beautiful. Are you sure you want me to have it?"

He kissed her hand again and turned the ring so that the wolves were up. "Johanna Samuels, will you do me the honor of marrying me? Love me for the rest of my life? Hold me when I'm whiney? Show me how to relax, fish, and have fun? Will you have children with me, love them with me, and keep them safe?" He stood up then. "I love you with all that I am and ever hope to be. I will cherish each moment with you and keep it in my heart for all time, long after I'm gone. Will you please marry me?"

"I will." Trent kissed her then, feeling her emotion like his own. When he lifted his head to look down at her, she smiled at him and then kissed him quickly on his mouth as she continued. "I love you too. I never thought I'd feel this way, but I do love you. Short time or not, you are my heart and soul, and I will never leave you."

He touched her whenever he could while she finished their dinner. There was more to tell her. A lot more, but not right now. They were happy, and he wanted that to last as long as it could. When she sat a plate in front of him, biscuits and gravy with hash browns and six eggs, he looked at her.

"You've been burning a lot of energy lately. And I for one would like for you to burn a little more." She poured him some juice and sat down with her own plate. "Now, tell me what you don't think I need to hear. I can see on your face that you're keeping something from me."

"We have to go home the day after tomorrow. One of my brothers or my dad is coming to get us. Noah is going to wait to talk to us then, when we get there, about whatever is going on with Ford." She nodded and asked him what else was going on. "I have to work, much as I hate to admit it, and there is this matter with Ford, like I said. He has to be dealt with. Once and for all."

"I agree. He's been a problem for Noah and me for many years. Not a constant one, but enough that we've been keeping an eye on him with each of his movements. He is not a good person, Max Ford." He ate for a few moments before she spoke again. "Tell me when you know something, please. I don't want to have to worry that you're keeping me in the dark. I can't live with that, okay? Not to mention, it makes you stressed out when you think you need to protect me. I'm good with it. All right?"

"Yes. Okay." He nodded, then continued as he ate. "I've been thinking about my life before…well, before you. I'm not going to keep the business I have now. I want to sell to Elijah, if he'll have it, and try something else. I'm not sure yet, but there are…I want to be a teacher. History, and then maybe see if I can coach football too. I played when I was a kid all the way up through college. I want to teach."

"Then you should." He felt better already and asked her what she was going to do. "I have a job. I work for Noah. I know that he really doesn't need for me to be his day walker anymore. There are enough people that can do that now. But I do other things for him…mostly run his businesses, as well as run a few of his other properties. I have many as well, things that I have invested in and properties of my own. They belong to us both now. But I want to do that."

"Then you should." She grinned at him, and he leaned back in his chair to look at her. "Christ, I love you. Where have you been all my life?"

"Wondering when someone was going to come along and try to kill my master. Learning to be a poet, architect, a cook, and a few other things that I enjoy. I took some pottery classes once and painted. I had to fill my time wisely until you came for me." Trent laughed, and so did she. "I love you as well, Trent. And we are going to have so much fun."

He hoped so. But he had to deal with Ford first, and anything that might come along with that. He also had to figure out how to tell his family that he wasn't going to work at his job anymore, and that he wanted to be a teacher. Life, he figured, was about to get very hectic, and he was excited for the ride.