Carlton made himself busy work as he thought about what this might mean for him. The lying aside, the problem was her pointing out that he didn’t care if they caught the killer or not. Not that he wasn’t going to kill her would be murderer, but he could never tell her that part. Nor the people working for him.
When his phone rang again, he picked it up on the first ring. Barking out his name as he usually did, Carlton heard someone speaking before he realized once again that he wished the hell he had caller ID on his office phone.
“Mr. Parkerville?” He said that was him, but he was captain. “So you say. Did you know that Connor Noble was involved in the crime committed against Officer Rowan Bronson, as well as her father, retired Officer Rudy Bronson? We have been going over the security camera footage from that night, and it shows not only the deceased Roger Jackson but also that Noble was in the home using a weapon on the two people I mentioned. It has also come to my attention that Mr. Noble was in your office not an hour ago, and you had a long conversation with him. You and the young man have been seen together on numerous occasions, as a matter of fact. Can you tell me what your conversations with him were about? The ones you had the night before the attempted homicide, and also this morning?”
Carlton felt his balls tighten up to his puckered ass and had to adjust himself twice before he could sit properly. Clearing his throat for what he thought was the tenth time, he asked the man who he was and who he worked for.
“Mr. Parkerville, I believe you should be more concerned with the heat that is going to come down on you if you can’t answer a few questions put to you. What did the conversation go like that you had this morning? That should be fresher in your mind.” He asked again who he was talking to. “I guess you’re going to try and play hardball with me. All right. In about ten minutes, there will be two agents dressed in suits coming to get you. Once they are there, I would suggest—highly suggest—that you cooperate with them without asking too many questions. They are armed and have my permission to shoot you should you give them even the slightest bit of reason to do so. I’ll see you in about twenty minutes.”
When the line went dead for the second time in as many minutes, he looked out at the bullpen. There was the officer—he could no more remember his name than he could that of his cousins spread out all over the United States right now. But he was sitting on the corner of his desk, arms crossed over his chest with a huge grin on his face.
Before he could call him into his office and ask him if he’d made the call, he disappeared. Not just stood up and walked away again, but simply disappeared. No poof of stars or whatever the hell magicians used to make you think they’d used magic. He just was no longer there. Going into the bullpen, the place where his officers met up several times a day, he asked Officer Stem, a name he did know, where the man had gone.
“Who?” He looked around the office and then back at him. “It’s just been me and Ricky in here for most of the morning. Oh, we heard the call you were on with Rowan. For some reason, it was on the speakers around the building. That really was a shitty deal you gave her. I mean, she’s one of the nicest people I have ever worked with, and you’re just going to shove her being shot to fuck under the rug? This might get me fired, and I think that would be preferable to working with a man like you, but she should have been running this office over you. At least she wouldn’t have given up on one of us being shot up. And her daddy? I knew Rudy. There wasn’t a nicer man than him.”
“I didn’t shove anything under the rug. And don’t think I didn’t notice that you’re changing the subject. Where is that officer that told me I had a phone call?” Carlton remembered the man saying that Rowan had tried to call him and looked at his cellphone calls. “Ha. I knew it. He lied to me. Saying that Rowan had called my cell phone when she’d not done any such thing. See?”
He nearly shoved the phone into the man’s nose he was so excited to know that he’d been right. Then he realized that Ricky was staring at him now too. Backing away from the two of them, he nearly pulled out his gun when two people, one man and one woman, came into the bullpen and asked if he was Carlton Parkerville.
“Yeah, that’s him. You arresting him?” Carlton asked Stem why they’d be arresting him. “I don’t know, Captain. For being an asshole. Yeah, I said that. You were going to sit on your ass and do nothing when one of our own was nearly killed. I think you might should have been arrested a long time ago.” He looked at the two people in suits. “Hey, if you don’t have any cuffs to take him, you can use mine. I don’t mind one bit having to purchase myself another pair.”
“Are you going to come with us quietly, Parkerville? Or am I going to have to take this man up on his offer of taking you away in cuffs?” He said he’d go with them, but it was all a mistake. “Yeah, sure it is. And this man here thinks you should have been arrested long ago. I wonder what you did that would have him thinking like that.” He looked at Stem. “There will be another officer coming in to take over Parkerville’s duties. See that you give her the same courtesy you would any fellow officer.”
“I will. You don’t have to worry about that.” Stem looked at him after shaking the man’s hand. “I sure hope you get fired, sir. I hope they get you on every little thing you’ve ever done.”
He was going to fire that man as soon as he returned. If he returned. Carlton began to think he might never see the light of day again if what he’d done over his lifetime ever came up. Christ, he was so fucked right now he wished he had done drugs. At least he might feel a little less stressed about all this shit.
~*~
Micky wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do to help Toddy, but she was sure it was going to be much easier than she was thinking. Right now, she was thinking she had to put some kind of vacuum on his wound to suck the shit out of him. Then there was the thought of—
“You’re thinking way too hard on this.” She nodded at Toddy. “Just put your hands on my back and see if that works. I don’t know, but it’s not like I have a great deal more time right now. I also think that putting a vacuum to my back would do more harm than good.”
“I’m nervous.” She glared at him. “Are you in my head? Looking at my thoughts? Get out of there. Whatever is in there is no concern— Can I do that too, you think? Read minds, I mean?”
“If you take this iron out of my body, I’ll follow you around for the rest of my life and read others’ minds for you.” She told him not to be a smart ass. “I’m not. I’m only hanging on by a thread here, Ms. Prince. I really would like to have— Holy fuck, that feels wonderful.”
It was all she’d had to do, put her hands around the wound to have the iron, a great deal of it as it turned out, come from his body. When the wound sealed up on its own, Toddy laid down on the bed and closed his eyes. She asked him what he might need now.
“Juice. Lots of it. Also, if you could please ask Peaches to make me something with red meat in it, I’d be very happy.” She started out the door, then remembered something she’d been taught this morning. Thinking about a glass, she saw one appear on the table next to Toddy and then fill with juice. “You’re learning quickly. Thank you, Micky. I’m in your debt for the rest of my life.”
She didn’t know about all that but left him lying there as she went to find Harley. He’d been on the phone when Toddy had shown up, and she’d taken him to a room that Bubbles and Pop had fixed up for her. The brownies had helped her with getting Toddy up on the bed that had appeared in the room. Well, assist wasn’t really what they’d done. One second, Toddy was stumbling into the room, the next, he was up on the bed with his bare back to her.
“Toddy is resting,” she told Harley when she entered the office he’d been using. “This room isn’t like it was earlier today. What has changed?”
“You did it, I’m assuming.” She asked him what he meant. “You were thinking that there needed to be more windows in the room, I imagine,
and when I was sitting here, looking out the set that was here before, they enlarged, and I could see everything better. I love this idea. I have no idea why I didn’t think of it before.”
“Because you’re a man that is set in his ways, I would suppose. How did things go with the captain? I’m still not sure why you had to have Rowan call him first, but I’m assuming it has something to do with past deeds.” He told her what Rowan calling him had done. “Oh. So she got him thinking about what he’d done to get where he was now. And that way, you could read his mind better. What would have happened had he not thought of anything? Or if he’d not done anything wrong? Would that have been something you would have been able to find out too?”
“Yes. But he’s a murderer. Not that he thinks of himself as one, but he has murdered or had someone else murder seven people. The previous captain of the station house he’s working at was just one of them. Not to mention, he’s the one that hired the men that went into your sister’s home.” Micky asked him about the drugs or guns the men had been after. “Carlton told them there would be a great deal of guns in the home and that if they killed Rowan, they could have them. I don’t think he knew your father lived there with her, or they might well have done things differently. He warned her. Your dad yelled out to Rowan when the men broke into the house. That was why she had on her vest and her weapon out.”
“Dad being killed saved her life then.” Harley nodded. “Now, what happens? I know you somehow made it so the conversation with Rowan was put on a speaker throughout the building. I can see where that would be helpful. But where is he going now?”
“The Feds just now picked him up. Thanks to your brother being a part of their team, they were willing to do anything he needed in the way of taking Carlton down. I guess he’s never played nicely with the Feds, and it’s coming back to bite him in the ass.” They both turned to the doorway when Rowan spoke. She asked Harley if Carlton had really killed her father. “He did. Indirectly, but he was just as responsible. And for reasons that boggle my mind. He wanted to be remembered as the man that brought down the killer of his best officer. Not that he cared for you, but that would have been a feather in his cap that he would have proudly worn. I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right. I suppose. I liked him. So did our dad.” Rowan sat down. “Was Noble there? I mean, both at my house that night and in his office this morning? I know you’d not lie to me about this, but I have to tell you, with that sort of intel, a lot of shit going down around the town I lived in would have been easier to solve.” He said he’d been in both places. “I don’t know who would have told you that, but I do appreciate everyone’s help in this. All my family does. You’ve gotten the killer off the streets and into the hands of justice in less time than I would have thought. Thank you for that.”
“It’s good that you just brought that up. I have someone here that would like to work with you.” Rowan looked at Micky. They’d spoken about her not going back to work this morning. “Not for work, Rowan, but now that you’re my family too, you will need a faerie. His name is Slice. Don’t ask me where they get their names. I think they just hear something and figure that’s a good name. Anyway, he’ll be with you at all times. All of your family will have one that will be with them to keep them safe.”
Picking up Rowan’s hand, Micky held it out so Slice could sit down on her palm. He was a beautiful little person, dressed all in dark green from the top of his head to his shoes. When his wings began to flutter, her sister laughed.
“And what is it you can do for me, Slice? I would also like to know how to repay you for just being my companion.” He told her what he liked, then what he could do for her. “Dress me? I’m not sure I can….” Rowan looked at her. “Dress me?”
“He means he can help you by making sure you wear the best clothing. The dressing part will be his magic too. Just think of something you’d like to wear, and you’ll have it on.” Rowan was suddenly in a lovely blue skirt and matching jacket, with a white silk blouse under it. “You can make yourself comfy too, Rowan. Think of sweats and a T-shirt. Warm socks.” The suit was suddenly swapped out for the comfy clothing, with the name of her college on it.
“Oh, this is wonderful. I love this part of us getting along.” She danced around the room, careful of Slice, who was hanging onto her ear now. “This is going to be so helpful when I get home from someplace. Did I tell you I’m not going to be a cop anymore? I’ve had enough of people shooting at me. Oh, I love this.”
She kissed Harley on the cheek and turned, pulling out her gun at the same time when someone growled behind her. Micky turned as well and smiled at Toddy. He was looking much better, she thought.
“Harley, you’re my best friend in the entire world, but you need to push the woman away from you. Now.” While Micky thought she had an understanding of what Toddy was saying, he couldn’t have said anything to have pissed her sister off more. “She’s my mate.”
“Yeah, I got that.” Rowan, never one to be afraid to confront anyone she thought was being a jackass—what she usually called everyone—got up in Toddy’s face and slapped him hard on the cheek. Harley was laughing as he continued to speak. “Toddy, I’d like for you to meet my sister-in-law, Rowan Bronson. By the way, she’s meaner than a rattler when she’s pissed.”
“You’re my mate. You will stay away from other men.” This time she punched him in the face, not only knocking him back but flipping him head over ass as she made her way to the man. “What the hell is wrong with the women in this household? Why the hell did you hit me? Twice?”
“I know what a mate is. However, if you ever in your very soon-to-be short life ever tell someone to shove me away like I’m some unwanted trash heap, I will give you much worse. I carry a gun, and I’m not at all afraid to use it.”
He told her she couldn’t harm him. He was her mate. Rowan pulled out her gun and fired three times into Toddy’s chest, each time asking him if he was right about her not harming him. When Micky told her to stop, Rowan looked at her with a glare in her eyes.
“He’s already been hurt today. If you’d be so kind as to let me heal him, I think you’ll also figure out that the two of you are immortal. Right, Harley?” Harley didn’t answer, but she wasn’t worried. The shots to Toddy’s chest should have killed him, but all he did was lay there and stare at Rowan. Micky smiled at Toddy. “I don’t think I’d be so rude to her next time you wish to make a point, Toddy. She can and will hurt you worse than she has already.”
Putting her hands on his chest, it freaked her out a little bit when the bullets popped out of his wounds and rolled to the floor. The blood that had been staining his shirt seemed to dry up and disappear as soon as she pulled her hands away.
She was still sitting there when Harley finally found his tongue. “Toddy, Toliver Coal, is an ancient. As in, he’s very old and one of the first shifter bears ever to be made. He is a good friend of Aurora’s and had been given immortality long before today. Iron, I was told, was the only thing in the world that could kill him. I’m betting now, however, that even that will no longer do anything to him.” Micky looked at her sister as Harley continued. “He has never had a mate before. His only contact with mated couples has never ended well. His own mother ended up killing his father when he wanted to kill Toddy when he was a cub to take his mother again. It was mating season, and she wouldn’t allow him to mate with her because Toddy was too young to leave on his own. As his father had wanted them to do.”
“He nearly did kill me too.” Toddy stood up with the help of Rowan, but he didn’t move. Taking off his shirt, he turned around, so his back was shown to the room in general. “It’s gone, isn’t it? The scarring that was there since I was only a few months old. His curse to me was that I would never be without a reminder of the day he killed me. Mom attacked him then. Both of them fell over the hilltop we were on, and he rolled to his death on the rocks below.”
�
�I’m so very sorry.” He nodded at her and looked at her sister. “I’m sure Rowan will be too as soon as she gets her head out of her ass. She’s like that sometimes. Too stubborn to see what is right in front of her when she needs help. You will keep her safe, won’t you, Toddy?”
“With every fiber of my being.” He smiled at Rowan then. “However, I do believe she’ll be the one protecting me in the future. Thank you, Rowan, for coming to me at a time when I needed someone to keep me from ending my life.”
“Why?” Toddy asked Rowan what she meant as they left the room. If he answered her, Micky didn’t hear it—she was looking at Harley.
“You do know that your entire family is immortal now, don’t you?” She told him she had figured as much when Toddy didn’t die. “Yes, well, I guess I should have told you sooner, but I had no idea that she’d…did she really shoot him, or was that something my mind made up?”
“She shot him three times.” She went to stand next to him and put her arms around his waist. “I think the two of us need to have a meeting with the rest of my family. Also, Roone will need to be told that Carlton has been arrested.” She looked up at him. “I’m slightly freaked out here. Did those bullets really pop out of his wounds?”
Harley was still laughing as he led her to the kitchen. His brothers and their families were joining them for dinner tonight, and she was wondering if there would be enough room if her family joined them too. Before she could figure out how to get so many at the table, however, the dining room expanded, along with the table. It looked to her like it was too large, but she didn’t care. The Princes were in for a surprise when they saw her family all together. They were fighting Irish men and women. Dinner together would make their heritage come out.
Chapter 3
Harley was loving this. The dining room was so loud he was sure they could outdo a football stadium full of people right now. While not coming to blows, he was thrilled to watch Micky’s family make their point about whatever it was they were talking about just as vehemently as his brothers were. Mom and Dad, who surprised him most of all, had gotten into some good arguments right along with the rest of them. Harley could not wait until the holidays.
Harley: Prince Of Tigers, Book 5 Page 4
