Chapter 6

Jack couldn't have been more proud of a place than he was of Jacks Place . In trying to come up with a memorable name, it was Ethan who had told him to just make it simple. Something too complicated would keep people away because they'd think that they served food that wasn't fit to eat. So it was now called Jacks Place, and he loved it.

"Well, what do you think of the place? Is it all you dreamed of?" He didn't know if Bailee was kidding or not, so he didn't answer her right away. "Come on. You have to admit that it's far exceeded your wildest dreams in a place of your own."

"That's very true. However, what I've been trying to avoid is what I'm going to have to pay back to have the place of my dreams." Bailee punched him in the shoulder and laughed. "I kid you not. I'm terrified to look to see what this place has cost. I mean, I know that I was able to get a lot of this stuff secondhand, but even that is a good deal more than I thought it would cost me."

"You were able to save a lot of money by going to the restaurant auctions that got you great deals. All the plates that are here were less than fifty dollars. And that includes the price for the platters and such that you bought. Jack, you got over five hundred plates for a mere twenty-four dollars, and the trays and platters didn't cost you even that much." He'd even managed to get all the tables that would fit in the place, only twenty of them for less than five bucks each. They matched and had been redone not to be so lumpy too. "Have you decided about the artwork in here?"

"Denver has made me some large serving bowls. Lance is right now making me glass vases to put on each table as well as water carafes. The rest of the family has been kicking in to help me out as well. If nothing else, I feel like this has been the biggest family project we've ever done."

Jack walked around with Bailee to make sure that all the places were up to par. Glancing at the clock on the wall, he realized that he was going to be serving his first customers, even though they were family, in about an hour. The kitchen was ready for them.

Everything on the menu had been cooked several times already. It had been scary to do that, just to make sure that there wouldn't be any problems. The shelter had enjoyed the food, too. And then there were cakes and pies that he was giving away to anyone that was close enough for him to hand them one. The grocery store, glad that he was buying directly from them, had offered to sell off the desserts for him that might well have gone to waste. It thrilled him to no end that they were going out of the store faster than he could put them in there.

It was just the kind of restaurant that he'd always dreamed of. Nothing at all like the places that he used to work. Where it would cost the world for a small serving of lamb over a quarter of a cup of cooked rice. He worked there, yes, even for one just like it back home. But he never ate there. It was too costly even for being half price for the employees.

He was serving comfort food. And it would be served in a family-style setting. There were no two tops, tables that would only hold two people, but all of them six tops. If you were a party of two, then you might well end up sharing a table with people you didn't know. Or two other couples.

"So meat is the only thing that they get to choose from." Jack told Bailee that they had a nice variety of meats, too. Counting in that beef, pork, and chicken. There would be seafood when it was in season but he didn't see that being much of a choice around here. Where seafood was something that most families ate daily being so close to the ocean as they were.

At a quarter till six, his family began to show up. Grannie and Grandpa were going to be there too and he was feeling great when Grannie told him how lovely the place looked. He'd even had some of his family art hanging on the walls for sale. Like he'd thought, all a family business.

Ronan and Brook were coming as well, along with the rest of their family. It was a great many people and he was glad that Bailee had suggested that they all sit around the tables and eat what they wanted of the platters as they came out. That way, the servers who were there to help out wouldn't be overwhelmed on their first real night of being a waitress.

He had figured that there would be somewhere in the neighborhood of seventy people on his first night. All of them coming at one time. He'd been all right with the number of people, but he was worried about him being able to keep up. However, he thought that he'd had that under control as well.

Everything that could be prepared had been done. He'd done all the chopping and mixing of things earlier today. Bread, Parker House rolls, and large loaves of bread had been sitting in the warmer for about twenty minutes now. Salads of different kinds were ready in the bowls just waiting for dressing. Even the soup, two different kinds, was set out in the restaurant so that if you wanted it, it was there for them. He only hoped that someone would taste them both so that he knew if it was good or not.

After thanking his family for coming, he headed to the back room. It took him a moment to realize that he was the only one back there and that all bowls and pans were askew on the surfaces. Looking around, he saw the reflection of someone in the lock-in cooler that reminded him a great deal of Shamus. Going to the big walk-in, he yanked the door open just as the man was tying his employees up in a large rope.

"What the hell do you think that you're doing?" He knew the man but couldn't think of his name. "Do you have any idea what is going on here tonight? I'm too busy to fuck around with you. Perhaps some other time I'd get really pissy with you, but right now, I have a dining room full of people and I—"

"I want you to get my mother for me. I know that she's here. Get her so that I can get things straightened out with her." He asked him, knowing full well who he was talking about, who his mother was. "Damn it. How many mothers can there be out there? Shawnie Farley. Get her now."

Instead of engaging with the man, he punched him in the face, using a bit of his lion to help knock the man to the floor. His employees all of them stared at him with open mouths. Didn't they—of course not.

"Get what you need for dinner then please leave here. If you think that you might need it, then take it out. I'm going to—what are you waiting for. Chop-chop." They started moving then.

Getting everything out of the cooler and some of the things that he knew weren't on the menu. As soon as they told him they were ready, he closed the door and locked it from the outside. The fool would either catch a cold, or he'd murder him for messing with his one chance to make a good first impression.

He started filling the bowls with food as soon as they told him that the soup bowls had been removed. They had salad next but he was going to start dishing up so that everyone would get their food at one time. Just as the first family style food was going out, he heard Shamus—he only just remembered his name—start pounding on the door. Ignoring him, he continued on with his work to get the dinner served. In addition to that, he kept up a steady stream of compliments to the people working behind the line with him, as well as the staff on the floor.

"I have two orders for fried chicken if there is any left." They had progressed quite nicely to the main course when Shamus started pounding on the door less and less. "Also, Ms. Brook said that the tea is fantastic and that she'd like to know how much sugar to tea did you put in it."

The staff was coming back with all kinds of compliments. The only complaint that he'd had was about there not being enough mashed potatoes that he'd need a bigger bowl. He made a mental note to ask his brother for larger bowls. Or just double up on the bowls. He would talk to them about it later.

The dessert trays had been set up prior to the meal. There was plenty enough to go around and when someone came back for the second and then the third tray, he took off his apron and joined them in the dining area.

He was embarrassed when they all stood up and applauded. Sitting down with them, he told them to behave. It was just comfort food. When they started handing him notes on the pads that he'd put out for just this purpose, he decided that he'd look at them later. Having a piece of lemon meringue pie, he had a cup of unsweet tea with it. He thought that the sugary taste of the pie was enough for him.

"Oh, before I forget. I have your son in the cooler." Everyone turned to look at him when he told Shawn about Shamus. "He showed up just as we were ready to serve and I knocked him out then locked him in the cooler. I checked on him a couple of times. He's made a mess in the cooler but nothing we can't—why are you looking at me like that? I didn't kill him. Just got him out of my hair for a while."

"You actually locked him in the cooler?" When he nodded, Shawn laughed. "Thank you for that. Your staff didn't say a word about it. I can't believe it, Jack, I never would have thought that you were having any kind of trouble back there."

"Really, I didn't have any trouble with him. He was in the cooler tying my staff up, and I knocked him down and got out of there with everyone. He's awake and making noises, but we pretty much ignored him for the fun we were having. And we were, too. Having a great deal of fun." They laughed with him. "He does seem to think that you've done him wrong, Shawn. I have no idea what he's upset about other than he wanted to speak to you. However, if you want to leave him in there overnight, someone is going to have to hire a crew to disinfect the place. I believe that he thinks that having himself a little fun in there is going to get anyone to do what he wants."

"I'll go and talk to him." Everyone stood up when Shawn stood to go to her son. "I can do this. I promise you if I get in over my head, I'll call out to you."

"As much as I think you can do whatever you have your mind set to, he's really digging himself into having trouble with you. None of us will intervene unless it's called for. I, for one, don't want you back there alone. He's desperate and dangerous." Everyone agreed with Ethan. "Please, just let some of us go back with you in the event that he tries to hurt you. Or worse yet, do something that makes one of us have to kill him."

"You'd do that for me? Kill a man because he'd hurt me?" Every one of them nodded their heads including the women that were there. "I can't thank you enough for that. It makes me feel so good to know that. All right. Some of you can go back with me, but make sure that you only help me when it looks like I'm in over my head. Deal?"

"Deal. But all bets are off if he tries to touch you." Ethan kissed Shawn and turned to the others before speaking again. "I'd like for you guys to remember, too, that he's a human. Anything that we do to him, we have to remember that more than anything. I don't want this place to become a crime scene any more than the rest of you do. This is going to be our go to place when we want to get together from now on. At least if Jack will have us?"

"Of course, I'll have you. Just give me about a week to stock in some food for you guys. I was terrified that I was going to run out of food a couple of times there." Slapping him on the back and laughing with his brothers, Denver and Ethan headed to the kitchen area with Shawn.

"Someone needs to call the police. If we need them, which I'm thinking that we will, then I want to make sure that they understand what is going on before we have to do anything about this on our own." When they disappeared into the kitchen, Jack thought of all the things that he had to do yet before leaving tonight.

"We'll help." He looked at his nephew and smiled. "I loved everything, Uncle Jake. Especially the mashed-up potatoes. They're now my favorite meal."

"Good for you. What was so wonderful about them?" he said that they were mashed. "Good. That's good."

If you ask an eight-year-old a question, you have to expect an eight-year-old answer, he thought with a grin. He loved his family very much.

~*~

Ethan didn't know what the plan was for Shamus, but he'd had just about enough of him. With the daily calls to the house and him telling the officers at the station what he wanted and how he was being mistreated for the way that they were treating him. But tonight, he thought, was the final straw. He felt like Shawn had had enough of him as well. She looked like she was ready to do her son harm for all the things that he'd been up to of late.

Opening the door just as Shamus was pissing on the wall at the back of the cooler, he decided that there wasn't enough cleaning fluid in the world to get that image out of his head. Even if he had to borrow money from Brook, he was going to make sure that there was a brand new cooler put in before they opened up for the public.

"Mother." He turned around taking his time with zipping up his pants. "I came for you hours ago, and that man out there locked me in here for no reason. I demand that you sue him for treating me so abhorrible. There was no reason for him to lock me in here as if I were nothing."

"You were trying to sabotage his restaurant. Not to mention tying up his employees to get my attention. I have news for you, Shamus Philipp Farley. You have my full attention now." He smirked at her, and every part of him wanted to punch the man in the face again. "You won't think this is so funny when I get finished with you. What is it you think I owe you, or are you onto something else now?"

"I want things to go back to the way they were before you came here spending time with that man. You're ignoring even my most petty wants, and I won't have it. You've cut me out of your accounting, my house as well as anything else that I've missed. You're being unusually cruel to me, and I'm sick of it." Shawn told him that she was sick of him as well. "Well, I don't care how you feel. You've been ‘in charge' long enough." The way that he said in charge made Ethan think that Shamus wasn't thrilled with his mother, making him resort to other means to get her attention. "I'm in charge of what goes on under my roof, and I won't allow you to treat me as if I have no rights to your money or things. It's all mine until I say differently."

"I see. So you want to be in charge of your house. All right, I can deal with that. You just let me know where your house is, and I'll allow you to be in charge of it. However, if you say my home, where I'm residing with my husband, then I'm going to do something that I've not done in a very long time, Shamus. You know that I can put you in your place without much in the way of effort."

"What the hell does that mean? Put me in my place? I'm where I need to be to make sure that I don't have to spend the rest of my life trying to pick up the pieces that you've dropped in the name of getting the house back to the way it was. Who cares what it looks like? It's nothing but a— Do you have any idea how much you've spent on that house?" She told him. Right to the penny, Ethan thought. "That's more than I even thought. Enough is enough, mother. You'll not spend another dime on that place, or so help me, I'm going to make sure you're put in a home someplace."

"Fine." Shamus looked at him, then at Denver. When he looked at his mom again, even Ethan could see that the smile on her face wasn't friendly. "Fine, Shamus. You've driven me to the brink and now I'm going to show you what real power it is that I have."

He simply disappeared. Not moving, neither he nor Denver speaking, the two of them watched Shawn as she stood there glaring at the inside of the now empty cooler. Clearing his throat, Denver asked her what she'd done to him.

"I sent him to the house that he grew up in after my grandparents died. I didn't know that I could do that but Parker said that she'd make me have a bit of magic so that I could get this finished once and for all." She turned to look at them both. "He…Shamus will have to work his own way back here. However, I've not given him anything to work with to come here. He's right now plotting my death and that of this family, but I find that not only do I not care, but I could care less what happens to him for the next thirty or so years, either. Can we go home?"

"Yes. Whatever you wish." They ended up in the dining room, where the room was devoid of people. However, the room was set to rights, and there wasn't anything out of place. Going back into the kitchen, he could see that everything there was cleaned up and he had a moment of worry that the cooler wasn't going to be cleaned up as well.

"It's been taken care of it." He asked Parker what she'd done. "It's brand new, and nothing will stain the walls at all in this one. Also, she's made it an endless supply portal on the condition that you use the extra to feed us once in a while. I don't foresee that as a problem, do you?"

"No." Ethan thought about what had happened in the last few hours and wondered if there would ever be a time when there was nothing going on with his family.

A few minutes later, they were headed home. He thought perhaps some things could be right, however. He had four children who were waiting for them when they got there so that they could be tucked in. After reading them two stories and tucking them in, Ethan kissed little Tisha on the forehead when she finally closed her pretty blue eyes.

They still had no word on what was going on with the relatives and he was happy with that. But he also knew that the longer they kept the children, the harder it was going to be to just hand them over. They had most of his heart now. It would shatter if he had to let them go now.

Ethan pulled his pants off with his underwear and tossed them to the floor. He was stone hard, and his cum was pearling at the tip, but he was also exhausted. Almost too exhausted to do much more than get into bed. Pulling back the covers, he was surprised to see Shawn coming out of the bathroom nearly naked. Fisting himself, he watched her pull her panties off and stand before him completely in the nude.

"Oh, babe. I was just thinking that I was too tired to make love to you, but you standing there the way that you are makes me suddenly energized. You're going to have to take me into your luscious mouth soon. I'm ready enough now to come just like this."

She moved. Slid her body toward his like she'd been practicing this move for a long time. It was seamless and sexy. Ethan felt his balls tighten to his body when she asked him to sit on the bed, turn, and spread his legs wide for her when she dropped in front of him.

"You're so thick." Moving his hand, she wrapped her own fingers around him. "And long. I love the feel of you while you're inside of me. It's as if you're all the way to my throat when you fuck me."

"Shawn, please." She'd only touched him a little, but he felt as if she'd scorched his entire body with her words. When she leaned forward, licking the crown of his cock, it was all he could do not to push her mouth over him to fuck her. "Take me, baby. I need to feel your mouth on me."

"No." Her mouth was everywhere, but not for long. Just when he felt his climax rushing to the tip to release, she'd move to another part of his cock. Ethan felt the sweat roll down his face to the bed beneath him. He leaned upward on the bed with his hands behind him. Rocking his hips up, Shawn finally took him into her mouth.

"Christ." He grabbed the bed beneath him so as not to rush her. He wanted to. Ethan wanted to grab her head and hold her still while he fucked her hard. But she was exploring him, touching him in such a way that he knew as much suffering as he was enduring right now, the payoff would be amazing.

Her fingers touched his balls and grazed them twice before she cupped them in her hot hand. It was all it took, the small twist of her fingers around him to have him crying out his release. Watching her take him, fuck his cock with her mouth, knowing that he was filling her with his cum had him hardening again, so much so that he knew he was going to come again. But not in her mouth.

Jerking her from his cock he nearly moaned in pain. But he wasn't going to be able to wait much longer. She reached for his cock again, wrapping her fingers around him just as he pulled her up off the floor. Instead of tossing her onto the bed and fucking her, which had been his plan, he pulled her to him and buried his mouth over her sopping pussy.

She tasted of the sweetest honey to him. Her scent drove his cat wild with the need to taste her, too, and when Ethan rolled her around, pushing her to the bed, he knew a calmness that he'd never felt before. He growled at her when she tried to close her legs to him.

"Let me have my fill, love. You're driving me insane with the way that you smell and feel beneath me." She moaned, spreading her legs for him. Her first climax tonight had Ethan grinning. While knowing that he wasn't going to last much longer, he held out as long as he could for her.

He ate her, using his tongue to bring her twice more before he licked her shoulder. He needed to mark her. Needed more than anything to make her his again and again, he bit down on her shoulder and felt the connection between them more profound than ever before.

After licking the wound closed, not even realizing that he'd bitten her so hard, he rolled over and left her there. If he'd had the energy, he would have pulled her atop him and slept. As it was now, he thought that he was just simply too tired to close his eyes, much less cuddle with his mate.

Waking up once in the middle of the night, Ethan reached for his phone. He didn't know where he was for a few minutes so he was confused when someone at the other end kept asking for Doctor Tucker. When he was able to get things all straightened out, he was given a briefing on the patient that he needed to go to the hospital and see.

Getting up, he showered quickly and was drying off when Shawn joined him. Telling her what was going on, she told him that she thought it was a good idea to get up as well. No amount of convincing had her going back to bed. In the end, the two of them had a nice but light breakfast together before he made his way to the hospital. Being on call surely made it for sleepless nights. But Ethan thought that he'd have it no other way. He loved his job.

A few weeks ago, he thought that he was going to have to quit his dream job when the hospital was figuring out who was going to be in charge of the department. A lot of things came to light, one of them being that the doctor who had been in charge before him had been a drunk. Not him, but his brother had had a run-in with the local surgeon, and it had not ended well for the older man at all.

Just as he was pulling up in front of the emergency department, parking in his own space, he made his way into the rooms that would hold the patient that he'd gotten here for. Taking one look at the man's badly bruised and beaten body, he started barking orders that had the entire staff running around to do his bidding. It wasn't until they were in the operating room that he had a moment to look over the file that had been sent to him.

Backing away from the sterile area, he asked his head nurse to call in another surgeon. That the man on the table was his stepson. He would do it, he told his staff, but he'd rather not. Three calls were made, and since he was already ready to go, Ethan was asked to assist.

The man had been beaten so badly that he wouldn't have known him from one of his brothers. Usually, he never knew the names of the people that he was to work on in the operating room. Only their needs were ever given to him, and that was all. The only reason that he'd been able to know that this was Shamus was the tattoo that was on his right hand that looked like it was a crude adaptation of a house. Which house could only be answered by the artist. Who he thought as Shamus himself.

Once the surgeon came in, Doctor Wilson, he was able to step back and was only there to answer questions. Rarely did anyone ask the second surgeon much, but he was there in the event that something came up.

Shamus coded twice on the operating table. Wilson had been working on putting his skull back together when one of the nurses noticed that there was blood coming from Shamus and dripping onto the floor. Since there was very little that could be done without stopping the surgery, they only hoped that he wouldn't bleed out before they were finished with his head.

After everything that could be done for Shamus was finished, now it was up to the other man as to him living or not. There was a very slim chance that he'd not pass away anyway, even after having him in the operating room for over six hours, but his chances were better than they had been before. When he came out after changing and cleaning up, Shawn was there to meet him.

Holding her in his arms, she told him how much she loved him and that she knew that he had done the best that he could with the other doctor. Wilson had been out to see her before he had arrived and he was happy for that. He'd be able to give her more hope than he had for Shamus, and that was the truth of the matter.