I figure that we’ll need a great deal of plates. Not for every day, but for when your family comes over. He told her how many he thought they’d need. No, you have to think about down the road on this. You all have mates now, and there will be more kids coming along. Then they’ll marry and have kids. We’ll need to think huge.
I don’t think I want to think that far ahead. But we’ll pick out some pattern, and you can order as much as you think we might need. Christian touched his hand, and he nodded. I have to go, love. It looks like we’re set to go next door and kick some fucking asses.
You go get them. If they don’t see reason, then turn into your cat and eat them all. I like that idea. He told her that he loved her very much. And I love you, Wyatt. When you get home, and after this meeting with the others, you and I will shift and go into the woods. I might not be able to be anything for very long, but I’d love to play with you in the woods.
It’s a date.
As he moved to the hallway, Millie was there to meet them. After kissing her on the cheek and telling her that she had a job with him, she cried a little. Holding her until she got herself under control, the three of them entered the room.
The men were acting as if they’d only just gotten there, shaking hands and asking about their weekends. Christian told him to allow him to do the talking, and he did. Wyatt had other things to think about right now. Like how he was going to run his mate down and make love to her in the woods.
Christian handed out paperwork that he’d brought with him and started telling the men what was going on. Whatever happened now, Wyatt simply didn’t care. He was going to be out of here and moving on with his own life. It was something that he should have done years ago.
Chapter 5
Dane was glad to see everyone here. They had moved the meeting to the large warehouse that the family owned to make sure that there was plenty of room. All she could think about right now was how much this was going to hurt a great many people. Even Sams, who had provided the food and drink for the meeting, was going to be devastated about the news that she had for him. When the meeting started, Dane introduced not just herself, but the three federal officers that had come to explain things to them as questions came up.
Brayden and his family were there, as well as the Mackenzie family. They were still in mourning, and she hated what was going to be said about Meadow. But she had a feeling that they knew most of what was going on anyway. Or at least that Meadow had been involved.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I want to let you know how profoundly sorry I am for what you’re about to learn. I would like you to meet my sister-in-law, Sidney Stanton. She’s going to run the entire story in the newspapers all across the United States as soon as day after tomorrow. Some of what you’re about to hear is going to be crushing to you. Some of it will hurt you badly. But believe me when I tell you that every aspect and thing we tell you has been researched and verified several times.” A man stood up in the back. He told the crowd that his name was Eugene Humphrey. “I’m so sorry for your loss, sir.”
“My wife is still in the hospital, so I’m here alone. But I got a call from the coroner’s office just yesterday telling me that the body of my daughter had been identified as the wrong person. Then they told me that they were continuing to run more tests. What happened there?” She didn’t know how to tell him, in a non-offensive way, that his daughter’s body was too badly burned to identify easily. But he seemed to understand. “I know that there was an explosion that was very near to where she was. But that woman that drove the bus do you think she made them sit in assigned seating as she was told to do?”
Agent Curtis stood up and spoke to his question. “It is my understanding that your daughter was in the assigned seat, Mr. Humphrey. There are no rules on which part of the seat they’re required to sit in. I’m to understand that the two girls that were seated there would swap out seats regularly—one by the window, then the other.” Mr. Humphrey asked about the tests. “I don’t have that right now, but if you’d like to meet with me after the meeting here, I can shed some light on whatever questions you might have concerning the autopsy.”
When the older gentleman sat down, Agent Curtis nodded for her to continue. Turning to the crowd again, she thought of just starting at the beginning, then going from there. Her first plan had been for her to talk about what they’d found out. Dane thought this way might be better.
“Four years ago, Bryn Dell Mackenzie started working for a company called Alliance. During that time, she was trained and then put on a route. She was in charge of picking up seven children at first, but later in that same first year, she lost one due to the family moving away.” One of the women stood up and asked why this was important. “Everything that I tell you today is important. As for how many kids were on her line, it’s important because Bryn had been assigned the richest children that went to the school that contracted out Alliance.”
“My son was murdered on that bus. You’re telling me that it had to do with the fact that my family is in a higher tax bracket?” Dane simply told her yes. The woman sat down. It was a shock to most of these people; she thought that money did matter to some people.
“Bryn was targeted, along with the children that were on her bus that day. The bomb was supposed to go off when all the kids were on the bus, but the person in charge of that part of the plan set it off too soon. That is the reason that two of the children were not on the bus at the time of the explosion.” No one said a word. Dane didn’t look at Mr. Humphreys. She just couldn’t. “An hour ago, everyone involved was arrested and taken into federal custody. I can give you the names and their involvement, but I’d rather you hear the way things went in the correct order.”
Brayden stood up, and everyone looked at him. When he cleared his throat, Dane sat down. She didn’t have any idea what he was about to say, but whatever it was, she was glad for the break. Dane thought that this was perhaps the hardest thing she’d ever done.
“I wanted everyone here to know that my family is providing mental and physical help to anyone that needs it. My brothers, Wyatt and Colton, can meet with you at any time you wish to help you with this tragic event. Even my father, Denny Stanton, has come out of retirement to be there for anyone that needs him.” He started to sit down, then stood again. “Also, my mom said that if you want to come over for some scones and tea at any time, her door is always open.”
There was a little laughter, and Dane stood up again. This time she was going to just get it over with. They needed to know what was going on, what the paper was going to say, as well as what everyone was doing to make this shit have an ending.
“Les Mackenzie is here with his family. He and his children came here to be with Bryn in her final minutes. They’ve stayed here to help with this investigation. Sadly, this involves his ex-wife more than it does anyone else.” No one moved as she turned to the monitor behind her and clicked on the first picture. “Meadow hated her ex. She didn’t care for the fact that he could and did still help the children that he raised as his own. Bryn had found out that neither she nor any of her siblings were actually children of who they had assumed was their father. That pissed off Meadow too. The fact that Bryn knew and had, she thought, told her father. Also that he continued to help them, knowing that they weren’t his.”
She clicked on the next picture and glanced in the direction of Walter. “This young man here is Ricky Sams. He had a part in this plot too. He was to find out the schedule of the bus that picked these children up. His job was to get close to one of the students—in this case, it was Porsche Humphrey.” She showed one picture of the two of them together and then moved on. “According to the personal diary that we located of young Porsche, she and Ricky had been seeing each other for several weeks. In that, he was able to get the schedule as well as make his way into the house. This is what got the butler killed.
“Abram had decided to retire.
He was asked, by Ricky, to take an envelope to the young girl in return for a great sum of money. Abram had no idea what was in the envelope, we think—otherwise he might have mentioned it to his employers. It was a letter to Porsche from Ricky telling her that he didn’t want to see her anymore. That, in his words, they were finished.” There was crying from the direction of Mr. Humphrey, but Dane continued. “Ricky Sams was there the day of the explosion. He was the one that set off the timer, then stuck around to watch the entire thing go down from as close as I am to the wall behind me. Yet he did nothing to help Bryn get any of the children off the bus.”
There was more talking this time, but she wasn’t asked anything, so she continued. “Meadow Mackenzie planned and executed this entire operation to make sure that her ex-husband paid. How was he going to pay? Well, her plan had been to get all the parents of the murder together, and as a group, sue him. Her payment would have been for her daughter, Bryn. She hoped that she could, in her own way, have all the families blame Bryn for what had happened, and then all of you sue him until he was broke.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” The man in the back stood up. Sidney told her that his name was Anderson. His child had been in the back with the girls. “This is all over money? My son lost his life because of some stupid bitch wanted to make her ex suffer? I can’t wrap my head around that. I just can’t. My son was only sixteen years old when he was killed. I know what happened out there. Bryn helped as many victims off that bus as she could have, even going so far as to help with the dead. I’m sorry, Mr. Mackenzie, for your loss too, but that girl, she had nothing to do with this, and I can’t believe that this woman would have thought that she’d be able to pull this off. She killed my son in order to ruin someone else. What sort of sick fucked up shit is that?”
“People have done worse for less, sir. I know you don’t want to hear that, but in my line of business, I see it all the time.” She was glad when no one asked her what she did for a living. She wondered what they would say if they knew that she worked as a hitman for a man who was thought of as a mobster.
There were more details that she let them know about, but not anything that was earthshattering, apparently. For the most part, everyone kept quiet during the rest of the meeting. When her part was over, Dane sat down and rubbed her belly. Soon, she told her little boy, soon they’d be out of this mess.
Dane was past her due date by four days. She didn’t mind so much, but Brayden was getting on her last nerve about it. Every time she said something or even moved a way he didn’t think she should, he would go all dad on her and make her sit down with her feet up. If he told her to do that one more time, she was going to make him sit down. But he’d have to because she’d put him in traction. Laughing to herself, she looked around the big room. There were more things than these people knew that was going on, but she couldn’t tell them about it. There had to be something for the attorneys to know first.
The federal guys and she had decided that it wasn’t necessary for Porsche’s family to know that she was carrying their first and only grandchild. The extra testing was going on, but all her family would know was that they were making sure that they had the right remains returned to them. Even the diary that they’d found hidden away would never be something that they’d know about.
Porsche hadn’t been a nice person—not even a little nice. She’d hated Bryn, and thought of her as some hick. Little did the girl know that Bryn had two PhDs, as well as a minor in chemistry. She was one smart cookie. The second diary had been filled with hateful things about staff that worked for her. She also had some terrible things to say about her parents, things that they didn’t need to know about.
Nor would they find out until later that Abram had confronted Ricky about the letter that he’d taken to his charge that day. Had asked him about what it had said, and what part it had played in the bombing. Abram had been killed when Ricky thought that he was going to make trouble. Abram had left his own letter, saying that if anything happened to him, it had been Ricky Sams. He also told the police who received the letter what he’d been asked to do that day.
Dane hadn’t thought that Ricky would have been the one to blow the bus up. She thought for sure that Meadow would have been front and center for that. But when she went to his room to find the remote the day she’d scared the little shit, Dane found that Meadow hadn’t touched the thing at all. At least on the outside.
Somehow she’d managed to put the thing together. Meadow was the one that had put the bomb under the bus. The surveillance cameras at the lot had not only caught her putting it on the bus but also blowing the kid that worked the gates at the place. He, too, had been arrested for manslaughter for his dereliction of duty at the time of the crime.
There were others involved. Some of them were in for the long haul, others would be fined. Most of the work had been done by Meadow, and the last she’d heard about the woman, she’d been screaming that she’d been framed. Whatever, Dane thought.
After everyone started standing, she got up too. The pull in her belly had her pausing. Looking around for Brayden, she saw him talking to Mr. Anderson. The first time that she might need the bozo, and he was across the room talking to someone. Moving as much as she could without drawing any attention to herself, the next pain nearly had her going to the floor.
Panicky now, she looked for someone, anyone, to tell her that this was false labor again. She’d been to the hospital twice now with the same thing and knew she wasn’t going to do that again. Not until the kid was hanging on for dear life as she waddled her way to the hospital. She looked up when someone said her name and wasn’t the least bit surprised to find Sidney there.
“Need some help?” Dane grabbed her arm just as the next pain took her breath away. “I’d say that you’re about ready to have this kid. Want me to take you to a room where you can? You’re never going to make it to the hospital if these are true labor pains.”
“I have plenty of time. It’s my first kid.” When her water broke, all she could do was stare at it. “Was that supposed to happen?”
“Yes.” The shrill whistle that came from Sidney impressed Dane. She wanted to be able to do that and have an entire room stop what they were doing to look at her. “Brayden, you’re wife has popped her cork. Wyatt, Colton, one of you get your shit to the office. We’re having this kid right now.”
She felt herself being picked up and nearly screamed at the person to be careful. Brayden looked like he was going to fall apart, so Dane bit the inside of her lip so as not to freak him out more. When she felt the softness of something under her, Dane closed her eyes. But the pain took her breath away, and she let go of the scream with all that she had.
~*~
Wyatt handed the newborn to Sidney as he finished up with Dane. It was a fast delivery, one of the fastest that he’d ever been in on. After Wyatt took the little man to Colton for him to check out, Dane finally came around enough to speak to him. Nicely this time, he hoped.
“I’m guessing that I owe you an apology.” He only grinned at her as he lifted her up to have the bedding under her changed. “I could hear myself saying those things to you, but I swear to you, it wasn’t me.”
“I’ve done this before.” Dane asked him if he knew how many times. “I do, as a matter of fact. My nephew there was the four hundred and twelfth baby I’ve had the pleasure of bringing into the world.”
“Is that why you got to be abused by me? You had the most deliveries?” Wyatt told her what Colton had said to him. “Ah. I guess when you’re a head doctor, you don’t need much training on the other end of the person. Is he all right? Brayden, I mean? He passed out, didn’t he?”
“Nope. If you want to know, he was very helpful in trying to keep you calm. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Brayden so calm and relaxed before. Especially after you called him every name in the book. None of them nice.” Sidney came back over after cleaning up
the mess that they’d made. “You’ll be happy to know that you didn’t scare off my wife on having children either. You, my dear sister, are not a nice person when you hurt.”
“How would you like to see our son, Dane?” Brayden had a bundle in his arms, and Wyatt backed away. “No. I want you both to be here for this. We had an entire conversation about the two of you while Dane...when she was in a better frame of mind.”
They were all laughing when the rest of the family joined them. The office was much too small for this many people, but Wyatt thought it was perfect. Brayden and Dane had to name the little man yet, but he figured that they’d get around to it eventually. Just as they were headed out the door to tell the people there that everyone was fine, Dane called him back.
“We’ve decided that with all the help and love that surrounds us, we needed to name our son for it. Sidney, you took charge when I was too stupid to know I was in labor. Or I was wishing very hard that I wasn’t. Wyatt, you kept me calm—well, as calm as you could with me beating the shit out of you and cursing at you like a sailor.” Sidney said she wanted to learn a few of the names she’d called Wyatt. “I’ll get with you later. We’ve decided to name our son Brayden Sydney Wyatt Stanton. Of course, the Sydney part is spelled differently, but you guys get the idea.”
Wyatt was touched. More than that, Dane had brought him to tears. Holding onto his Sidney, he cried a little over the honor they’d bestowed on the two of them. Of course, Colton wanted to know where his name was. Mom laughed.
“Colton, honey, I don’t know if you remember this or not, but today is your birthday.” He frowned, then started laughing. Mom shook her head. “I guess with all this going on, we are all right with missing a few things. But having Brayden born on this day, it seems the circle of life is being fulfilled. We have so much to be happy for today.”
Wyatt: The Stanton Pack—Paranormal Cougar Shifter Romance Page 6
