This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
World Castle Publishing, LLC
Pensacola, Florida
Copyright © Kathi S. Barton 2020
Paperback ISBN: 9781951642914
eBook ISBN: 9781951642921
First Edition World Castle Publishing, LLC, July 6, 2020
http://www.worldcastlepublishing.com
Licensing Notes
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews.
Cover: Karen Fuller
Editor: Maxine Bringenberg
Chapter 1
Parker didn’t move when the warden came to stand in front of her cell. She’d learned a few things while being incarcerated. One of them—and it hadn’t taken her long to figure this one out—was that she was never in the right. Also, in this case, she wasn’t to talk or move toward the cell door until they said she could.
“Miss Carter?” She turned and looked at the speaker from her position on the floor. Carter had been doing push-ups when she heard the footsteps coming toward her cell. “I’m to tell you that you’re going to be set free today. They proved you didn’t kill your father.”
She was sure it was a joke. For the last eight years, she’d been saying she’d not killed him. It had been tempting, on a daily basis, to get rid of him. However, she’d not been the one who murdered him.
Standing up, she saw Warden Peck back away, as if she could reach him through the bars she’d come to call her front door. She could, actually, not just reach him, but leave the jail without anyone knowing. However, Parker didn’t. Without a word from her, she was handed a bag as well as a checklist. Inside the bag was the bloodied clothing she’d come here in, as well as her possessions. Not much of it would do her any good now, but she stripped down right there and pulled the jeans and shirt on while the men turned their backs to her.
“You could at least have waited until we were gone to do that.” Standing back when they asked her if she was finished, she waited as they unlocked the cell door. “There is some paperwork we have to have you sign. Also, because you were wrongly accused, there will be some money coming to you. Do you have any questions so far?”
“No.”
She followed the three men, two of them guards she’d had extraordinarily little to do with since arriving here eight years ago, and was taken into a smallish room where her attorney was waiting, as well as two people she’d never thought to see again—her aunt and uncle on her father’s side of the family.
“They have it in their heads that you didn’t kill my brother. I still don’t believe it, but then they never asked me for permission to let you out of here, where you belong. But I told them that you’d be back. Soon too, if I know you well enough.” Parker said neither of them knew her. “I know you well enough to know that even though they said you didn’t kill him, you were a part of his death. I’ll always believe that of you.”
As they said their piece, however incorrect they were, Parker kept her mouth shut. She wasn’t what they thought she was—a person with very few morals and no sense of the laws of the land. Instead, she was an immensely powerful being—mostly, she reasoned, because of her mom.
Few people, including the few she’d shared a cell with over her time here, had any idea what she and her parents were. As she waited for the paperwork, Parker thought of the things she was going to have to do when she was out. First and foremost, she had to figure out how she’d ended up in here.
Given a few minutes alone with her only living relatives, Parker wondered why they had been called. Or, for that matter, why they’d even bothered with her at all. It wasn’t until she was given the first thing to sign that she knew. They were supposed to be helping her acclimate herself to the outside world.
Signing her name to the places marked, she didn’t bother asking questions. She might get some of them answered, but not to her satisfaction, that she could count on. Standing up, she was asked to sign the list stating that she’d received all her belongings from when she was arrested. Parker had a feeling she was going to have to figure out her own way home. Aunt Mae and Uncle Raymond left her standing by the open gates to her freedom.
“You can press charges if you want. They’re supposed to keep you in their home for a few weeks.” Parker told the guard, Mary, she didn’t want to be around them. “Yes, I guess I can understand that. They were at your hearing, the one where it was figured out you couldn’t have killed your dad. I never heard such language from anyone in my life as I did when your aunt started screaming at the lawyers how you had to be guilty. She’s a piece of cake, isn’t she?”
She and Mary had gone to school at the same time. It was funny to her that Mary had gone into law enforcement and been on the opposite side of the cells. Mary and her brother Thomas had gotten into more trouble before breakfast than a hardened criminal would in all his life.
After Thomas had been killed, gunned down by a man who thought he had been having an affair with his wife, Mary had taken a good look at her life and changed. Not once in the ten years he’d been gone, had Mary ever slipped back into her dangerous role. Parker had been with her when the news came that Thomas was gone. It had hurt the two of them more than it had when her father’s life was taken.
“Do you know what you’re going to do now, Parker?” Shrugging was answer enough for her friend. “I’m going to miss having you around. Honestly, it’s what made me want to come to work every day. And I’ve been making some money off the investments you’ve been having me do for you. Do you have a way to get to the halfway house, or do you need a ride?”
“I’ll walk.” Mary told her it was a good ten miles. “I’ll walk. It’s not that far.”
It wouldn’t feel like it either. Parker had been into fitness as well as self-defense since before they’d arrested her and had been able to keep up with it after being put in prison. There was a nice treadmill she thought no one but her used in the fitness room. Weights too. Even in the time allotted to her for being out of doors, Parker had walked the fence line every day she could. It was the only reprieve she’d ever had from being locked up.
Mary had been taking care of little things for her since she’d been assigned to a cell. She’d also been helping her out with her investments, as well as a few other things. Nothing to do with the crime she’d not committed, but things like her home, her car, as well as money she got each month from her stocks. Without her helping, Parker would have been in serious trouble. No money, no home, and especially nothing to support herself while trying to find gainful employment—something she’d been told she had to do before she’d left the prison.
Walking to town was soothing to her body and mind. There were things she kept thinking about, like the list of shit she had to take care of because she’d been locked up for so long. Mostly little things, but there were other things too. Her craft, her father had called it, didn’t have to be hidden away any longer. A lot of the magic she’d been gifted when her father was killed had grown with each day, it seemed to her.
Witchcraft had been in her family since well before even her father was born
. Dad had told her it had been dwindling out, their magic because a lot of the older generations had married nonmagical people—just as his sister had done. But Parker seemed to have gotten the lion’s share and then some, Dad had told her. Aunt Mae neither believed there was any magic to use nor that anyone in their family had ever practiced it. Aunt Mae was an idiot.
Her mother, a witch with hardly any magic, had been married off to her dad just so they could have her. It had never been a secret that her mother didn’t love her dad. Parker thought she made up for it by loving her so much. Since she’d been born at home, everyone present knew Parker had more magic than her mother would ever have. As it turned out, more than her father did as well.
“Need a ride?” Shaking her head at the car moving along with her, the man laughed. “Come on, honey. You know you’ll have a good time. I’ve been told you were just let out of prison. You have to be hard up for a real man between your legs.”
She didn’t have to ask him if it was her aunt who had told him to find her. Parker knew it for a fact that one or both of them had paid the man to come for her. The two men in the car smelled like her relatives. As she continued to walk, she snapped her fingers, and the man and his passenger swerved off the road and into a ditch. They’d not be killed, not if they stayed with their car. Lucky for them, the fresh air and the nice walk had put her in a wonderful and forgiving mood. Parker left them to their new dilemma as she reached out to her aunt and snapped her fingers again.
Having her aunt and uncle embarrassed was the best she could do without them being in front of her. Not that she couldn’t do something from a distance, but she wanted to see them suffer—at least a little. When Parker dealt with her relatives, she wanted them to know who was turning their life upside down.
Besides, having her dress split up the back was no less than Aunt Mae deserved for wearing a dress two sizes too small. Her uncle was embarrassed too, but all she’d done to him was make sure he was present when Aunt Mae’s dress fell to the floor. People shouldn’t have to see that much flesh without it being a porn movie.
Reaching town at a reasonable hour, Parker found a restaurant and asked for a seat in the back. Her credit cards were still good, her credit rating better than it had been before she’d been put behind bars. Ordering herself a large diet cola as well as a large pizza, she looked around the room and the people there having dinner.
Much had changed while she’d been away, but most of it wasn’t new to her. Mary had helped her keep up by bringing her magazines monthly, as well as a newspaper daily. It wasn’t forbidden for her to do that for her, but it was sort of frowned upon. Parker owed Mary a great deal for her help. And she’d pay her back too.
As her pizza was set in front of her, a police officer sat too. He didn’t take her pizza, which surprised her, but he did introduce himself by telling her his name. Captain Donny Franklin told her he’d heard she was headed this way.
“Do you have any plans of sticking around?” Parker told him she was only eating her dinner. “I’m not going to ask you to keep moving. I’m not even going to point out you should be with your aunt and uncle. If they were related to me, I’d have kept my distance from them too. Mary Cunningham is my cousin. She said you were an all right person.”
“I have a home here. One that I owned before I was arrested.” He said he knew that. That just today, he noticed it was being cleaned up and aired out. “I wasn’t the one that killed my father.”
“I know that. I knew that before you were taken away. But they don’t ask cops what their opinion is before they arrest someone. I’m sorry you had to go through that. I knew your dad. He was a terrible man. I’m sorry if you think differently, but for some reason, I don’t think you do.” She nodded, putting down her slice of pizza. “Don’t let me ruin your meal, Parker. I only came to sit with you because I’m aware of you and why you’re here. There are a few things I want to talk to you about. But it’s fine if we wait.”
“I don’t need a job. “ Donny said he was all right with that, and he knew that she had some money. “Yes. Not as much as I’d like, but I can live off it for a while. Until I can get myself some income.”
“There is a construction company here in town. It’s been here for some time, but it’s owned and operated by Brook and Ronan Foster. I think you know Ronan.” Nodding, she told him that he was a year older than her. “I thought so. Mary said you should go and apply to work for them. Not that you’re considered an ex-con, but Brook has a habit of hiring those sorts of people to help them get a foot into the working world. She’s a good person too. We’ve never had any kind of trouble with their employees for as long as I’ve been an officer.”
“Brook Garrett?” Donny said that was her. “I knew her parents. Not so much her. They were killed.”
“Yes, both of them were by the same couple. The Quarters.” Parker knew who they were as well. “They’re both in prison and will be for a long time. Bethy is married now, with the cutest little boys I’ve ever seen. Twins. Married to a man whose name I can’t remember right now. He’s not been around here much so far as I know.”
Parker didn’t know why he was taking her down memory lane but let him talk. When offered a piece of her pizza, he took a slice. Parker ate with him. As he told her other tidbits she couldn’t understand why he was sharing with her, she didn’t pay much in the way of attention until he mentioned Carmilla Foster. Carmilla had helped her out a couple of times when she’d been hiding from her parents.
“She’s living with her mother-in-law over by where Brook used to live with her family. All the Fosters live right around there. Do you remember them?” Telling him no seemed to make him have to tell her everything about them too. “Ronan has retired from the police force. He was going to be a part of our crew, but he’s now the king of all lions. Pretty nice set up for them if you ask me. Don still teaches. He’s really good at it too. My kids have been in his classes. They liked him. Quin is the town vet. It was a little touch and go there for a while whether or not he was going to find a place to open his practice, but he’s got it going now. Cass is the attorney for the family. A good one too that you can depend on. Keegan, he’s running some of the businesses for Brook and Ronan. I guess she’s pretty wealthy. Then there is Loman. He’s always been a loner and hasn’t changed all that much. He’s living here too when he’s not out taking pictures of endangered animals or just things in general. What are you going to be doing, Parker?”
“I’ll have to report to you because my relatives aren’t going to help me.” He said he’d figured that. It was another reason he’d come to sit with her. “You said you knew my dad. So you know about what I am.”
“Yes. It’s not common knowledge just so you’re aware. I know, and a couple of the other cops know. Mary told me. The others? I don’t know how they found out. Your aunt and uncle, they don’t know, do they?” Parker said she thought they didn’t believe what she was. “Figures. They never mentioned it when they came by the office yesterday to tell me you were getting out. Since I already knew from Mary, I tuned them out when they were talking to the boss. I think they would have said something about you being a powerful witch. Don’t you?”
“Yes. Anything to make me stand out.” Donny asked her if she’d like to help him out when he needed it. “For solving crimes? I suppose. So long as you don’t make a habit of it.”
“I won’t. I know you’re a loner.” When they polished off the rest of her pizza, he took the bill when it was laid on the table. “This was sort of a business meeting, so I’ll pick up the tab. My wife, so you know, has been hired to work at your home. She’s looking forward to getting to know you.”
“I’m not good with people.” Donny simply nodded. When Mary came in and joined them at the table, Parker had to breathe slowly so as not to overwhelm herself. She wasn’t kidding when she told him she wasn’t good with people. Parker didn’t particularly like them at all
. Especially when there were too many of them around her. “I have to go.”
Neither of them stood when she did. Mary would know, and more than likely Donny too, that she’d been in confinement for six of the eight years she’d been locked up. Parker had to save Mary and a lot of other guards once, and that got her special treatment from a lot of the guards inside. She never had to share her space with anyone. Nor did she have to be outside when anyone else was. It would have been dangerous to the others. Not her—she was too strong to be caught off guard—but from anyone gunning for her to take what her father had wanted from her that day. That was what made her a danger to herself. People would get themselves dead if they tried anything with her.
Parker made her way to her home. There didn’t seem to be anyone there, as all the lights were off, so she let herself in via the back door and made her way up to what had always been her bedroom. The master suite was the perfect size for her to spread out should she need to when casting spells or practicing.
There was a note on the bathroom vanity. Picking it up, she read who was going to be working in the house with her as well as what her job was. She supposed Mary had made sure she had this note. Parker could only hope that Judith Franklin was going to be all right with a witch in the house. The name would also keep her from having to fumble around for a name when she met her.
Parker couldn’t make herself relax enough to sleep. Pulling the sheet off the bed, she dragged it and her pillow out to the wrap around second story deck and laid out there on a lounger. The slight breeze and the sounds that only living in the country could bring a person helped her to fall asleep.
~~~
Don was happy for the summer months. Not that he changed up his schedule all that much when he didn’t have classes. He still rose at the same time and went to bed when it was barely dark out. However, tonight he was having some trouble relaxing enough to make himself sleep.
Shifting into his lion, he roamed around in the fields behind the houses along the area he lived in. He knew if one of his brothers were out and about, they’d join him. Don would be just as happy if they were all cozy in their beds and left him to his own.
Donahue: Foster’s Pride – Lion Shapeshifter Romance (Foster's Pride Book 2) Page 1
