Chapter 7

“It’s all rubbish.” Marshall asked the elderly man what he meant. He had shown him where to invest and how much. He’d even gone so far as to give him a booklet on investing. “I mean, it’s all rubbish. Who else will be taking their bit and nibble out of my money?”

“I don’t understand what you mean. There will be fees—” he shouted ah-ha and said that he knew it. “Yes, you did. We spoke about the fees that you’d have to pay when you first asked me to set this up for you. Along with the fees, when you make money, I’ll take a percentage of it, less than three percent, because you’re a friend of my wife’s.”

“I don’t like paying fees. I’m putting my honest to god money into these companies that you suggested, and I should get more than the dividend. Some of those places still charge me an arm and a leg to go there even though I told them I was an investor. That’s not right.” He eyed him hard. “You know what? I’m finished here. You just go on home without your percentages, and I’ll sit here with my money just like it is and you’ll have to cry in your milk because you didn’t get my three percent. And I don’t think that’s even fair, being how I made all the money in the first place.”

Rather than argue with the man anymore, he packed up his things, including the spreadsheet that he’d made out for the man, before simply leaving the room. He could still hear the man yelling at him about leaving the paperwork for him to go over and knew then that he was planning to invest without his help. Bastard.

It wasn’t that he needed the money. He didn’t. But it had been fun for him to dig deep into the corporate world to look for investments for the man. Now, he’d just take his own advice and invest and perhaps show the man what he’d been missing.

“Did you smack around Mr. Dunlap?” The humor in her voice told him that she’d not believed a word from the old bastard. “He said that when you didn’t have any investments for him that you slapped him around and told him that you’d kill him if he didn’t invest. While I don’t believe a word that he said, he did have a good story to tell me. I just hung up on him. How’s it going?”

“Just great. I’m on my way to the deli to pick up things for Rubens. I hope that still sounds good for you.” She told him that it did, as she’d never had one before. “I find that hard to believe. I’m not saying that you’re lying, but with all your travels, you’ve never had a Ruben? That’s not right, you know that, don’t you?”

The two of them were winging it this week. Pie had had a family emergency and had to leave them for a few days. He didn’t pry into what it could have been, but he was worried about it when another brownie showed up to take over her duties as their cook.

Glass, her name, wasn’t the best of cooks so they had her making bread for the entire day while she was there. Not that she was any better at baking than she’d been at cooking, but they had to give her something to do so that she’d not feel as if she failed them. The little people were very hard on themselves when they didn’t need to be. That was why Brad and Becka had moved to the other world to keep them busy. Not only that, but he’d heard that they have an awards banquet each month for the faerie that got the most done in one month. So far it had been working out well. Having them working on a daily schedule also gave them a home life that most of them had never experienced before. Which was sad to him. He was enjoying his home life more and more of late.

He picked up the things that he needed for dinner. Making his way to the freezer section, he was ready to pick up some tater tots. Now, that was an invention that he should have invested in. They were the best things since he couldn’t remember what. Just pop one in your mouth and you have a flavor explosion of taters. Not potatoes, he’d been told, but taters. Marshall also picked up some raspberry sherbet. Meggie’s favorite after dinner treat.

“You’re Mr. Morton, aren’t you? Pack alpha?” He didn’t answer the young woman. That kind of shit would get you killed. “I’m sorry. But I’d like to take refuge in your pack, please? My husband, ex-husband, is gunning for me, and I can’t go back to that sort of life.”

He reached into her mind and knew immediately that she was telling him the truth. The way her eyes darted around, he was sure making it so that no one could catch her off guard. Pulling out his keys, he told her where his car was parked and the make and model.

“I can’t. I mean, I would love to, but I have children. Two of them. I need to get them so that they’re safe, too.” Just as he was telling her to get her children and they were safe, too, a shot rang out, and she fell into his arms. “My children.”

“Hush now. You have to be still so that we can save you.” She shook her head and moaned slightly. “Don’t close your eyes. I’m here for you. I’ll give you a bit of myself—”

“No. Please. I’m worn down. Take my children. Safe word is television. They’ve never had one. Isn’t that sad?” He told her that she was going to be just fine to hang on. “Take them to raise as your own. Please? I can die in peace knowing that they’re safe.”

When she closed her eyes, he laid her gently on the floor as a crowd started to gather. The man striding toward them had his gun pointed at them, and he knew that he was the man that had killed her. And he was a wolf, the same as the woman had been.

“Is she dead?” He said that she was. “Good riddance to her. Where did she put my…damn it all to fuck and back. She didn’t tell you anything, did she? Whatever it was, it was a bald-faced lie. Damned woman. Well?”

“Well, what?” Marshall reached out beyond where he was to get some help. “I’m going to kill this fucker where he stands, but we’ve gathered quite a crowd here.”

“I’m coming. Don’t do anything…You know what, kill him now, and I’ll clean up when I get there.” Lauder was there just as he was ripping the throat out of the man. It was too quick, over too soon, that he didn’t suffer as he’d seen in his wife’s mind, but he knew that she was going to rest in peace. He’d agreed to take her children and he hoped that Meggie was on board with it.

Stanley Jameson looked as if he’d killed himself after killing his wife, Lila Jameson. It was what he found in the man’s mind as he was bleeding out on the floor. No one would see a man who had lost his head but someone who regretted what he’d done and killed himself with the same gun that he’d ended his mates. Christ, he just realized that he needed to find the kids quickly.

She’d not told him where they were, so he asked Lauder if she had any idea. She took him to the back of the store and found the little kids huddled in the corner of an office. He had no idea what he’d been thinking of when she’d told him about her children, but finding an infant girl and an about two-year-old little boy startled him. Picking up the little boy when he put out his hands for him, he reached out to Meggie and told her what he’d done.

“Well, of course, I’m not upset with you. Bring them…never mind, I can do that popping thing. I’ll be there soon.” She not only popped into the room, but she was ready to take over momma duties right away. “Oh, you darling little girl. Come to me, and I’ll be your momma. She’s wet and I’m thinking hungry. While I’m here, we’ll get some things for them to use tonight. Tomorrow, we’ll get whatever we need.”

“I love you so much, Meggie Mine.” She smiled at him, but he could see the tears in her eyes. “Oh honey, don’t do that. We’ll both be soggy here in a minute. Come on, let’s get my cart and fill it up with things we more than likely don’t need and take them home.”

There was a diaper bag with the children. It had not only their birth certificates but also diapers and a change of clothing for the little boy. He didn’t seem confused about what was going on, but he did call for his momma. Before they were finished shopping, Tad, the little boy, was sleeping on his shoulder, and little Emma Lynn was resting well with her binky and a clean change of diaper and clothing.

By the time they were home, both of them, as exhausted as the children seemed to be, they’d made online purchases totaling a staggering amount of money. Since they were new to the parenting thing, he knew too that they’d gotten more things than they needed but really they didn’t care.

The house faeries had taken care that the children had beds to sleep in. The rooms, too, were decorated according to their gender. He thought like they’d done, they overdone themselves with the décor, but he found that he didn’t care either. It made the little ones feel needed. And he knew too that they were going to take as good of care as their mother would have wanted.

He laid his head on the pillow so grateful for Lauder being able to make it so that he hadn’t been involved in anything that went on. He didn’t have to give a statement either, as he was supposed to have been on the other end of the shop. No one said a word to him when he walked out with his receipt as well as two children and a wife that he didn’t come in with. Happy that he was home, he laid his head on his pillow and completely zonked out.

Emma woke up twice during the night. The first time, he’d gone to take care of her needs and was glad that he’d gotten the box of diapers out so that he could see how to change her. After giving her a bottle and putting her to bed, he went to check on Tad.

It scared him at first when he wasn’t able to find him. But once he turned on the light, he found him under the bed sleeping. He couldn’t imagine a terror so badly that you felt the need to sleep under the bed rather than on it. Pulling him out from under the bed, he put him back in it. But not before cuddling him a little.

He didn’t talk much. Tad could jabber on, but he didn’t really say much in the way of words. There were a few of them, along with the jibberage but he understood him enough to know that he was wondering after his mom. Telling him that she was gone was the only thing that he could think of. He also told him that his dad wasn’t coming to get him. Ever again. This hurt his heart, too, knowing that someone so little could be worried about his own father harming him. Sadly, however, it didn’t surprise him. The way that some people treated their children was terrible.

The second time that Emma cried, it was Meggie who went to get her. Closing his eyes after she left, his plan had been to get up and see about Tad. But he must have gone into a deeper sleep than he had thought of himself doing, and he woke up with the sun streaming into the windows and alone in the big bed.

After getting a shower, he headed downstairs. He could hear laughter and it brought a smile to his own face. Going into the warm room, he laughed when he saw Pie, so happy to see her and Meggie holding little Emma.

“She’s only four months old. Did you catch that?” He told her that he’d not. “Yeah, me either. Not that I know that much more about a four month old than I do a ten year old, but it’s been kind of fun learning what I could off the internet. Pie has been helpful as well. I just wish my grannie had made it to see them. She would have been out of this world happy with them.”

“I’m sorry, honey.” She waved him off and said that she’d gone peacefully, and that was all that she could have hoped for. “I believe that she was happy in her final days as well. Living here with us, she certainly seemed like she was.”

“She was. When I spoke to her that night, after dinner, she told me that she was as happy as she’d been before when she’d first met her husband. Grandda wasn’t the best of men, and I think that she was relieved that he died so young. Sad but true.” He agreed with her and cut up the pancake that Tad was shoving into his mouth. He had a sippy cup, too, and he had to laugh that it was covered in faeries.

After breakfast with the kids, the two of them helping with the major cleanup of Tad’s food all over the floor, the four of them made their way to the living room. He’d not thought of how much the little people could do for them, so when the furniture arrived along with some clothing for the kids—thankful once again for them having tags on the things that they had on, their rooms were set up for them and Tad was quietly playing with some of the things that had come on the delivery truck.

The two of them enjoyed having the kids there. Of course, it was only the first day but he found that he didn’t mind. Their adoption paperwork had been filed, and no one was the wiser that they actually belonged to the woman in the morgue.

Her name and not her mates were added to the pack. Even though it had been added posthumously, she was a member of their pack. The pack, too, had been great about allowing her to be buried on pack land. There was no one to contact, they’d been told, so there would be no dispute about who the children should have gone to. He loved it when something went well. In his experience, things rarely went the way that you’d hoped.

~*~

She hadn’t been caring all that much for her retirement. So, being as bored as she was, Meggie decided that she was going to wait tables. She didn’t know which was worse. Waiting tables or front-line combat. And she was leaning towards combat as being the better of the two.

“Hey there, girly.” She smiled at Mr. H abersham. He was who she worked for at the pizza place. “Come and sit with me a bit. I have to talk to you about something important.”

“All right. I wanted to talk to you, too. I don’t know that I’m cut out with working in the public.” He laughed. And when he slapped his knee for the second time with his good humor, she smiled at him again. “I take it that’s what you wanted to talk to me about.”

“It is, it is. You waiting tables had a few of the men…well, let’s just say the way you handled those kids the other night is really good for them but also not so good for business. What did you say to that Murphy boy anyway.” She told him. Of course, that had him laughing again. She had a feeling that Mr. Habersham was always a good-humored man. “Well, now, that’s a different kettle of pepperoni. Isn’t it?”

“He was badmouthing his so-called girlfriend. Telling the kids with him that he was getting laid every night. I knew he was a virgin and knew that he was blowing smoke up their asses, as you’re so fond of saying. Not wanting to embarrass him about his nonexistent sex life, I told him that saying those things about the sweetest girl that I knew was going to get him into big trouble when she heard about it.”

“I heard tell that he didn’t expect you to call her up. My goodness, she was spitting mad when she came here to confront him. Goodness gracious, that was fun.” She asked him if he was firing her. “Something like that, I guess. You don’t need the money and there are some kids out there that this is their first job. I think you’d be more suited to recruiting rather than putting little boys in their place. I do believe that I’ve not had as much fun as I have in a good long while. You’ve only been working here a week and I’ve been entertained daily with the goings on.”

“I’m sorry about that.” He told her not to get so worked up yet. “It’s all right, Mr. Habersham. I should have thought of other kids needing a job.”

“I want you to sit right still with me for a minute. It’s about all it will take for you to realize that your being here is a good thing, too. Just now working like you have been.” Mary Carter came into the restaurant and made her way to the back to get her uniform. She didn’t notice anything different, but the elderly man told her to wait.

That’s when she noticed it.

Mary was being beaten. She could tell the way she walked, the way she winced when she had to bend over. Everything about her seemed to scream pain. Just as she was going to go up and help her, a man came in. He smelled the same as Mary did. But no blood on him. Once he was seated, Mary rushed over to him, right in the middle of taking an order for another couple, and asked him what he wanted.

“Large pie. And you know what else I want. Get to it.” Mr. Habersham said that she was using her break deal for him and that whatever else he got, she’d be taking it out of her tips.

“She ain’t entitled to a large anything. Just a personal pizza for herself. But he gets a large and she ends up paying for it. I’ve been putting it back, the money that she gives me, and it’s purt’near a hundred dollars. Not enough to run on but enough that she can get her a meal or two while running.” She asked him if she was to help her out with that. “Well, now, I won’t be telling you what to do. But it sure would make me sleep better at night to know that she’s got herself a new start and all.”

“Does this happen a great deal? Women working for you that need to run.” He said he was the only place in town for women like her to be able to work while their other half, whatever they were can keep an eye on them. “I see.”

And she did, too. Every time that Mary’s husband snapped his fingers, she dropped whatever she was doing, even delivering food to a table to do his bidding. Meggie could tell that people were upset over the way she did things, but not one of them asked her why.

“I’ll do that. Do you think this will be an ongoing thing? I don’t want to have to draw my gun on a couple of shits to get her safe.” He told her that was the only one he had at the moment, and he would know about it, and that he’d help her out as much as he could. “I’ll need a key to the back door. Also, do you have someone to fill in for her that can come in?”

Almost as if she knew that she was needed, Betsy Crock came into the place with her uniform on. She also ignored Mary’s boyfriend when he told her that he needed a refill on his beverage.

He handed her a set of keys, telling her where they went, and then he slipped her an envelope. It was filled with the cash he’d been saving as well as another set of keys he told her that was to his old beater that was out back.

“I only got the one car, so you’ll have to figure that out soon, Honey. If I were you, I’d call on those other women to get her out of here, too. She’s going to have a baby, and I don’t want her getting beat up so that she loses it.” She asked him how long he’d been planning this. “For a few weeks. I like the fact that you didn’t have too many questions and just agreed to do it. You are, aren’t you, honey?”

“I am, and you knew that too. But I won’t need your beater. I’m not saying that I won’t need it in the future, but I don’t need it today. I’m going to have her taken away and with enough money to start fresh like you suggested.” She told him that she was going to the back room, and for whatever reason, she wasn’t the least bit surprised to see Robin there waiting for her. “You know what’s going on?”

“Nope. Do you?” Meggie told her that they were going to get women out of sticky places. “I’m all for that. I was a prisoner for decades with no help. I want to be your forever partner in this.”

The plan was that when she came back to the back room, Robin was going to make herself resemble Mary. Meggie was going to take Mary out the back door and get her away that way. Robin, a vampire of considerable age like Hamish was going to be able to take care that the man didn’t know anything for a bit so that Mary would have a head start on leaving.

As soon as she was back in the kitchen area, Meggie told Mary that she was leaving and she only nodded. The relief on her face was enough to spur her on to do this a good deal more. It was sad, too, that something like this had to be done.

Giving her a credit card, one that had her name on it from magic, Meggie told her that it had two grand on it. That she was to never come back here and to live out her life.

“I can’t thank you enough for this help.” She told her she could thank her by helping someone else who was in trouble. As soon as they were outside, Warren, Robin’s mate, introduced himself and told her that he was going to take her someplace. “What about Henry? He’ll not give up on looking for me.”

“He’ll never know where you are if you don’t ever contact him.” Warren winked at her. “The other women are jealous that you’re doing this. Especially Rosie and Ruby. But Rosie said that she’d be a go-to doctor if you needed it.”

“I’m sure that we will. I don’t want to take the chance this time since it’s all last minute but I want to have a place for women and men to go that might need medical care where no one will find them.” Warren wrapped his arm around Mary and they both disappeared. Wherever she was, Meggie hoped that Mary had a good life.

Going back into the restaurant, she was surprised to find that Henry was laying on the floor with Robin’s foot on his back. Going to the other woman, hoping that she hadn’t been hurt, she told her what happened.

“About the fifth time that he snapped his fingers I finally went over and asked him what the hell he wanted. He didn’t answer but snapped at my face again, asking me about someone named Mary. I told him that I didn’t know anyone by that name, and he hit me. He actually hit me and thought that I’d be all right with that.” Robin winked at her. “I feel all a flutter about it. He slapped me like I wasn’t a person.”

“Where the fuck is Mary?” Robin told him what sounded like a lot of times before that she didn’t know who that was. “You’re wearing her goddamned sweater, ain’t you?”

“No, I’m wearing my sweater…you know what, I’m not going to justify to you what I’m wearing. Oh good, the police are here.” After Robin gave an award-winning performance on how she was so distraught about being hit, Henry was taken away in cuffs, screaming about how Mary had better get her skinny ass at the jail and bail him out. It was, in his mind, that she was the reason he was there in the first place.

After Henry was gone, the people at their tables applauded. While they didn’t seem to understand why they were clapping, she and Robin left the restaurant and headed for their own celebration.

“I’m so jealous of you for thinking this up.” She told Ruby that she’d not had anything to do with the planning of it but had winged it. “Well, you got it done, didn’t you?”

“I did, but I was terrified. We need to come up with a better plan. I mean, we can tell our husbands what we’re doing, of course. But I think that we just play it down so that someone doesn’t come gunning for us for keeping their spouses safe. And children. Remember, we have two at our house right now that are orphaned because of domestic abuse that ended up killing the two of them.” Everyone knew about the children and had been bringing gifts to them, too. “We also need a destination list. Not for them, I don’t think they should know where they’re going until they get there but a list of places where they can blend in and not be noticed. Busy cities, I’m thinking.”

“Perfect. Warren took Mary to Tennessee. He told me that taking her to the park would be the perfect place for her. He also set her up with a place to live that she’ll live in until the baby comes. That is part of her rescue. She is going to pass it on, us helping her out and she’ll help others.” It was Lauder who said they’d have to be more organized, too. That she had been afraid of all of them getting hurt. “Well, I think that it went perfectly. And don’t forget that we have that place where I stayed too for so long. I mean if we run into trouble or they need more medical care, they can be housed in the area where I lived. It’s nice there now without anyone around.”

By the time they were finishing up dinner, the men had joined them. Hamish had a handful of prepaid cards that would be helpful and told her that while it wasn’t a great deal of money, it would be more than enough for them to set up their places and not get caught.

Becka was going to make it so the women that they helped would never remember their faces or their names. They wouldn’t even be able to remember much about the way that they’d gotten away. Just the basics so that it wouldn’t come back to bite any of them in the ass. Meggie thought that she liked that idea the most.

On their way home, she heard from Mr. Habersham again. He told her that he had a list of women and two men that were going to need their expert help. And that he’d heard from Mary.

“She’s so happy. She told me that she was going to have a pizza for dinner then she was never going to have another one. Mary told me that he’d ruined that for her, but she wanted to celebrate, and that was all that would deliver to her.” Meggie asked him a little about each of the women. “I’ll have to get that for you too. I didn’t think about them having kids around. I’ll make sure you get that information, too. Also, I was thinking that I’m going to do some digging before I hand over these names. For all I know, they could be pulling a fast one on me, and that would get these old bones into trouble. I don’t need that none.”

“No, you don’t. I’ll have Lauder run these names just to make sure that they’re on the run from someone else. It would also help me if you were to tell me about the abuser, too. Like, does he carry a gun?” Mr. Habersham said that he’d known that he’d picked the perfect person for the job. “Thank you. I’m really glad that we were able to get Mary away and have just as much success with the rest of them.”

She hoped so, too. Going home after being gone most of the day, she fed Emma her bottle while watching Marshall and Tad playing around on the floor. Meggie thought that this was the perfect thing to come home to. Family and love.