Chapter 13

Randal - Chapter 13

Chris Bentley knew that she was doing wrong, but there wasn't any other way. Rogan was supposed to have been dead by now. Not by her hand, though there were enough times that she wished she had done it. Now, because he'd made such enemies of his siblings, the young woman might not come to Tanner. And that was something that needed to happen. She paced her office until Myra told her to please sit down.

"And what if she doesn't come around? We're all going to be fucked if she decides he's not worth it." Myra said she'd come. "Why? I'd not. He's a prick that should have his balls cut off, and him made to eat them."

"Such violence. She'll come, and once she's here, all will fall into place. You said that yourself." She nodded. "Why do you think we're going to be fucked? A word, I might add, I still do not understand."

"It means, in this case, to be screwed. And we won't, not really. Poor Tanner will be. He's going to need his mate to be happy. And we know that happiness is what I strive for." Myra snorted. "You don't think that's what I want for everyone?"

"I think that you are smitten with the young man. Not in love with him of course, but you do love him a tad more than the rest of them." She did admit that. "And he's got a piece of my heart too. Oh, before I forget, he can sire children now. He asked me to fix things in his house for his mate, so since he was in there, I took it upon myself to fix him as well. Sneaky yes, but it was something that I needed to do for him."

"Thank you." Myra waved her off. "Where is Daegan? I would have thought he'd of been there and back by now. He was supposed to return here, correct?"

"Yes, well, I told you not to hire him. I know that he wanted to do this for you, and the reward that you offered him should he make it happen is great, but he isn't the smartest of the lot." Chris just smiled. "This woman, Giynna, you know what her name means?"

"Yes, of the glen. I think that it fitting, don't you? That she will be someone to come to the family that will spice things up?" Myra said they had a great deal of spice now. "Yes, but Giynna is so.... She takes the term fiery redhead to the highest levels. The perfect person for our young Tanner."

Chris loved the Calhouns. They were a group of wolves that she had come to love and called friends. They had treated her and her family with respect, and had, at one time, called them to help in a way that had not just saved them, but her family as well. Helenia, the she-devil, would have harmed her family too had she not been dealt with when she had. And that, as far as Chris was concerned, was enough for her to be indebted to the Calhoun family forever.

An hour later, Daegan showed up. He told them that he was sorry that he'd taken so long, but he had one thing that he wished to look at before he came back. He wished to see the ocean and the boats that rode upon it.

"The ocean is a beautiful thing. You should have called me to let me know that you were running late. I've worried about you." He said something as he knelt before her, and Chris asked him to repeat it.

"I said that I was afraid if I called you, you would have summoned me back and I would not have been able to see such a sight, my lady." Chris looked at Myra, who pouted. The young faerie had asked to be let go from his services with her and his own queen. He didn't want to live any longer, it seemed. "It was my last thing I wished to do. I do ask your forgiveness, my lady, but as you told us before, we were to take chances."

"Yes, I did. And since you have done as I have asked so well, I shall grant you your wish. You are ready to receive it." He said that he had said his goodbyes and had gotten his things together. "Very well. You are no longer in my service as a faerie."

He stiffened…she could see it in the line of his body. And when he peeked up at her, looking with one eye closed, she nearly laughed. It wasn't what he had thought he was getting, but so much more.

"My lady?" She asked him to stand. "I don't know what is going on. You were to remove my head, correct?"

"No. I said you could be out of my service. I don't know what you thought was going to happen. But you're a good man, and I do hate to have good men killed just because they want to see the world. You will retain some of your magic. Your queen has also asked that you come to see her before you leave, if you wish. She would like to ask another favor of you. Since you are human looking now, you can help us both a great deal." He stood up and touched his fingers to his face and body. "You're happy?"

"Yes. I never…did you know this before I left you?" She said that she'd talked to the queen of faeries before he had left to do her service. "And what would you have done had I not returned?"

"It's not in you to disobey a command nor a favor. That's why we decided to grant you your fondest wish. To live among the humans as one." He giggled, then covered his mouth. "You're happy, and you should be. This is something that the queen and I worked on together. And hopefully, when we need you and you're not busy, you can help us again."

"I shall. You have only to ask." He did a little jig in the middle of the room, and she laughed with him. "I am a man. A man that can do as he wishes."

"You are. And I thank you for your help with this." He bent before her again and she let him kiss her hand. It was one of the hardest things that she had to get used to, people treating her like she was important. "Go on now, talk to the queen. And before I forget, Myra has a place for you to stay while you figure things out, as well as some cash. My family will help you for a little while, just to get used to spending money and working, so heed what they tell you."

When he was gone, she sat down. There wasn't much left for her to do now but to wait. Myra said that she'd go see the woman, just to check her out in a couple of days. It was basically in Giynna's hands now.

There wasn't much to do now that she had her house in order. Not just her home, but her job too, being the queen of witches, the grand witch, she could pretty much do as she wished and make it happen. But the fun of that had gone out a few years ago. Now she did things because she wanted. So long as she followed the rules. And there were a great many of them.

"Myra, I need a vacation." She just smiled at her. "You know where I should be going? I was thinking France. Just to see the spring. Joseph and I need to get away, more than ever I think."

"You don't wish to go to Ireland?" She shook her head. "You could see the worth of the woman who will save the Calhoun family. It might be nice to be prepared."

"No. I don't want to get any more involved than I already am. And that's a great deal more than I should have been." Myra said nothing. "I don't want them harmed in anything, but this, this brother of theirs, he's going to cause trouble even I don't know how to fix."

"But you could, should you wish it." She nodded and thought about the vacation. "You're really not going?"

"No, I'm really not. You go and take care that she goes to Ohio, but the rest of it, I have done all that I can for them." Myra said that she had. "Good, then we're in agreement. You will see to her, and I'll go away for a week or so. I can take care of most things that come up, and if they do, I can just pop in and out to fix it. I'll have fun."

"You sound as if you're trying to convince yourself." Chris huffed at her. "I think you are a wonderful person, and the best grand witch the world has ever known. You go, have some fun, and when you return, we'll work on a couple of other things. Also, you should know that Sterl has agreed to paint the family for you. I think it will make a great gift to them."

"Yes, I was thinking that too. Joseph's family has been the best to me." They all had too. As she closed her eyes, thinking that a short nap was in order, she thought of her involvement in the Calhoun family. "I think in the spring we should have a picnic. After the babies are born there. And invite the Calhouns here. To do something together that has nothing to do with magic or with trouble would be a nice change."

She was getting sleepier, and she had a feeling that Myra had something to do with her sudden need to go into a deeper sleep. But asking her seemed too much trouble, so she let it take her under. She'd been very tired a lot lately.

~*~

Giynna eyed her phone. It had done nothing but ring off the hook for several hours now. And she was ready to answer it when it rang again, but this time her other brother's face popping up. Snatching the phone up, she answered with a less than nice greeting. His laughter made her smile.

"Yes, it's me, and I do have something fucking going on. Does your boss know you talk like that?" She said that he was the one that taught her. "Ah, so it's a good thing. I called to let you know that Rogan is in trouble again. And that Bridget has left him."

"Good for her. What's he done now? Please tell me that he didn't kill her brother. I liked Phillip." He said he did too, but he was not dead. "What has he done now? I'm assuming that he called you first."

Her phone was telling her that she had another call which, like the others, she ignored. Making a mark on her pad of paper, she counted that he'd called her fifty-four times since last night.

"Apparently Bridget had taken a restraining order out against him, and when he broke into the house, someone came along and beat the shit out of him when he wouldn't let her leave. Phillip was injured on the job. I guess he's left the area too." She leaned back in her chair and thought of all the shit her brother Rogan had gotten into since he'd been born. Probably even before that, if it was possible. "He needs one of us to go there as his attorney."

"No. I'm assuming, since you've called me, that he asked you first." He said that he had. "I'm not going to help him again. I'm finished with his ass and stupidity."

"Yes, but I have a plan, if you'll listen." She told him to go ahead, but she wasn't budging on this one. "How about we go there together? It would be a nice way for us to see each other again. And deal with him as a pair. Plus, I've been playing around with a contract too, one that he'll sign or we'll never talk to him again. I doubt it'll work, but I promise you, if you go there to help me, we'll deal with him calmly. And you know as well as I do that we do better when we have each other's backs."

"You're making this very hard, Tyrrell. I have a life here, one that I like very much. My house isn't flawless, which is doubtful I can ever make that work. So I've come to terms with its never going to be exactly what I want. But to go there and help him, it goes against everything inside of me. I hate to say this, but he needs to be put in prison and never thought of again." He told her that he really missed her. "And you think we'll get to visit all that much with him fucking around with us?"

"Yes, I do. We'll make sure of it. And while you're in the States, we'll head to wherever Bridget is. Wouldn't it be nice to see the kids again too?" She looked over at the gifts that she had for them but hadn't sent. Simply because she knew that Rogan would tear them up or sell them. "Come on, you know that you want to."

"All right, damn it. I'll go, but you had better be thinking of someplace really nice to take me out to dinner. And I don't mean that place you love. I want more than just French fries and a burger. Or else." He laughed and said it was a deal. "And you're paying for half my ticket and all my bail money if I have to murder him."

"Deal." He agreed too quickly, and she asked him what was up. "Nothing. I'm just excited to see you again. It's been a long time."

"It has. And while I don't relish the fact that we're going to work with him, I am looking forward to hanging out with my favorite brother." And he was, since the first time and the last time that Rogan hit her hard enough to knock her out, as well as rob her. She'd never forgive him for that, and she didn't think that he cared. "I'll make arrangements and then call you. Do you know of any hotels there in the area?"

"I'll set us both up a place. I'm so glad that you're coming, Giynna. I've missed you a great deal." She told him she was as well and hung up. In a few hours she'd be able to call her boss, but didn't know what to tell him. Giynna hated to miss work, even if she was using her vacation time. And she had a lot of it.

By the time she was ready to call her boss and tell him that she had a family emergency, she was not only packed up but she'd made arrangements to fly, gotten her passport ready, and found a box big enough to send the gifts to Bridget and the kids. Tyrrell had called her back, not only with an address for their sister-in-law, but also the name of the hotel, and told her a car was going to pick her up. She was as set as she'd ever be, she supposed. But she still wasn't looking forward to seeing Rogan.

When she'd been seventeen he'd found her hiding place. Her mother was still alive then, and she had put up with his abuse too before just leaving them. Their father, a man that was more absent than there, hadn't done anything to keep him from hurting any of them, so she had decided that she was old enough to get out on her own. She only wished that she'd done it earlier instead of waiting for her graduation from high school to move.

"Give me some money." She'd told Rogan that she didn't have any to give him. "Which means you have it, you're just not willing to share it. That's not fair, Ginny."

He called her that because she hated it, but this time she didn't let him see her hatred. Turning her back on him, she was only two steps from the door when he hit her. Pain exploded in the back of her head and she went down.

Blood ran down her back as he jerked her up from the floor. She puked on him; the pain was too much for her. And when he tossed her across the room, letting her hit not just the wall behind her but the table and chairs as well, the leg of the chair broke off and entered her leg just below her knee. Screaming now, she knew that he was going to kill her.

Picking up her purse, he took out her wallet and tossed the rest at her. He took her money, all one hundred dollars of the cash that she had in it. Holding the purse to her chest, she screamed at him to give it to her when he stood over her, his fist doubled up.

"Hit her and I'll kill you." She looked at Tyrell and begged him to go away. That was when she saw the gun. "Rogan, you touch her again and I will kill your fucking ass."

Rogan threw her wallet at her and left them. But he hit Tyrrell too, knocking him out before he could come to her. She could still hear his laughter; Rogan's laugh was much like a braying jackass, and she knew that it would haunt her for years to come.

The neighbor who heard the noise had called the police. Rogan would be arrested, they knew that, and it would give them both time to get away. And because she'd planted the money for him to find, she still had enough left to get herself a ticket and go stay with her grandma in Ireland. As soon as she was released from the hospital, she took the very next flight out and never returned. But she would now, to see her brother again and hopefully make sure that Rogan was put away for a very long time.

~*~

Myra put the phone back in the cradle and knew that soon she'd have to go and talk to young Tyrrell. He would have to play along with her plan or his sister would be mad. Well, madder. Pretending to be the man had worked out better than she could have hoped. Not only was she coming to Ohio, but she was going to be mated to the best man she could ever have chosen for her.

Smiling, she pulled her clothing around her to suit her mood and laughed. Balloons were her favorite, and she loved that they were all over her dress. As she made her way to her room, the place where she did her own conjuring, she thought about the bastard Rogan.

Had she known beforehand what he'd done to his siblings, she might have handled things differently. But it was set now, and she was going to keep an eye on them both. There wasn't any reason to believe that once she came to meet Tanner that she'd be safe. It was what she was counting on too. But still, she wanted to make sure that everything was going to go well for them, so she pulled out her book.

It was well after midnight when she had things the way she wanted them. And her conversation with Tyrrell had gone well too. He would do as she asked, for the simple reason he wanted to see his sister as well. Myra was going to take a long vacation herself when this was done. She had no idea where she'd go, but it would be a long one. Laughing, she wondered what on earth she could do after living so many years.

"I'll find something."

She would too. Perhaps make a little trouble for herself too. When she went to her bedroom to read, she wondered, not for the first time, what she'd have done with her life had Chris not needed her. Or the Calhouns. Life, she knew, had been pretty boring, and she was glad for their company.