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 2021
Paperback ISBN: 9781955086578
eBook ISBN: 9781955086585
First Edition World Castle Publishing, LLC, July 12, 2021
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
Jonas sat in the office and waited for the doctor to finish up with Hailey. He was glad that he’d asked Rogen for help in finding him a good psychiatrist for the child. At only ten, Hailey was having more difficulty than the other kids. Her lack of trust was beyond anything he’d ever seen in his life. Even his brothers, who were both doctors, were worried for her.
The door opened, and Hailey came out, with the doctor right behind her.
“He said I’m insane.” Jonas looked at the doctor, who was laughing while shaking his head. “Well, he might as well have said it. He thinks I’m not telling him everything.”
“Are you?” She shook her head and turned to look at the doctor before looking at Jonas. “That’s all right, honey. Whatever you need to do, I’m right here for you.”
“You say that, but then you bring me here. Why?” He told her, deciding that lying to the kids was going to hurt them all in the long run. “I have my reasons. Why do I have to share them with a stranger?”
“Will you tell me?” She looked back at the doctor, then at him again. “Hailey, have I given you any reason not to trust me? At all? If I have, then you have to tell me what it is. I can’t fix what I don’t understand.”
“That’s what Ms. Tru said. That she can’t fix what she doesn’t understand that is broken. Do you think I’m broken, Mr. Jonas?” He said he didn’t know, that he didn’t want her to be afraid of everything. “I’ll have to think about it.”
When she walked back to the doctor, he got down on her level. Dr. Miser was supposed to be the best child psychiatrist in the world. He hoped so. Jonas really was afraid for his children and their mental well-being.
“I’ll come to see you. But I don’t trust you.” Dr. Miser told her that he was well aware of that. “I know you are. But I’m not going to give you that until I’m sure. I’m not insane—you know that, don’t you?”
“I do. More than you do, I think. You have some trauma that you’re not dealing with well, but I think with time, the two of us can get to some sort of conclusion. I’m not going to make you trust me, Hailey, but I am happy that you’re at least willing to have an open mind about it.” She told him point blank not to put his horses before the cart just yet. “I promise you I won’t. But I do see a lovely little girl that has had more than her share of things happening to her that never should have. Also, you might find this hard to believe right now, but you couldn’t be with a better group of people than the ones you are right now. They wanted only the best for you and your brothers and sister, and they hopefully found that in me.”
As she returned to him, Jonas was so happy when she took his hand into hers. She would do that on occasion, but not often enough for his heart.
As they were making their way to the car, he saw that Rogen was there waiting on them. Rogen was large enough with child that he worried about her just walking around. But like the rest of the men in his family, he didn’t say a word to her.
She asked Hailey how the appointment went. All four of the children were coming to see the doctor now. Even Sarah, the youngest of the children, seemed to be coming along better with his help. The only holdout was Hailey. Tru had told Jonas that he should search her mind for the issues, but frankly, he was afraid of what he might find there.
“It was all right. If you’re here to drop that kid, then I’ll help you. I helped my momma deliver Sarah. I’m not one to faint with blood all over me.” Neither of them said anything to her, but Hailey seemed to realize she might have said too much. “Mr. Jonas said he’d take me to lunch if I didn’t murder the doctor like I wanted to. Are you going to join us?”
“I’d like that. Are you really going to murder the doctor? I have to tell you, he’s a good friend of mine, and while I can understand wanting to murder a doctor, he’s been a good man so far.” Hailey said that for now, she wasn’t going to. For some reason, Jonas wasn’t reassured by her comment, but she got into the car and strapped in. “She’s going to be a lot to handle when she does spill out what she’s holding to her heart. I thought you’d like to know that I’ve talked to Sissy Whitman and her father. There is a sister, Ginger, that is around, but she’s out of contact with most of the world. I’m trying my best to narrow down what it is she does, but she’s off the grid most of the time. How are you doing?”
“Great now that they’re all not sick. I’ve hired a nanny—thanks for the suggestion. Sarah is coming along nicely now that she has her diaper rash under control. Thomas and—” She told him she’d asked about him. “They are mine, Rogen. I find that I can’t function without them around me. I know they’re more than likely going to be adopted by their aunt, but I love them with all my heart right now, and I don’t know what I’m going to do without them.”
“Benny Whitman is in jail. He hit his wife, Sissy, in the face and did some pretty painful wounds to her head. That was only the second time he’d hit her, but it was enough for her to call in her father. You know Heath Morgan, don’t you?” Jonas said he did. “I thought so. Thatcher said you’d done some work for him a few years ago. Sissy is his daughter.”
“I wonder how that will affect whether she is interested in bringing the children home with her. They’re a great deal to handle. I’m sure she can afford the help she’ll need.” Jonas had to turn away. Thinking about the kids leaving him was almost too much for him. “I really love them, Rogen.”
“I know you do. We all do.” He nodded and opened the front passenger door for her to get into his car. “I can’t ride with you—I have my car over there. However, I’d love to join you. I have some things on the burner at home that I need to care for. I’ll meet you wherever you’re headed.”
He laughed as he was getting into the car. If she said burner, he knew for sure it wasn’t on the stove. Rogen had about a dozen computer monitors going at any given time that she worked with. Jonas was happy that she was willing to meet him. People looked at him oddly when he was out alone with one or all of the kids like he was some sort of pervert.
Hailey was getting better about going out to lunch with him. So long as she didn’t drink anything but bottled water, which he brought with them all the time, she was able to eat things that were hot. Pizza, so far, was her favorite meal. Tru had told her that if there were any poisons in the pizza or anything associated with it, it would be cooked out in the oven. It had taken her three times to be able to eat an entire slice. Now, however, she wanted her own personal pizza. He’d never seen a kid like her food to be so spicy that even he couldn’t get close to it because the smell burned his nose. Tru and Hailey w
ould have contests about how hot they could handle it.
They were waiting on their food when Rogen turned to Hailey. “I found out what made the four of you sick that day at the apartment. It wasn’t anything you could have avoided. What I mean is, it wasn’t poison like we thought, but the vitamins that Cindy was giving you each day. For some reason, they were sold expired. They should have been tossed out about a year ago. Not her fault either. The store they were gotten from should have caught that too.” Hailey asked what she’d done about it. “What do you mean?”
“Did you kill them? The people that work at the pharmacy?” Rogen said she’d not thought about it, but if it would make Hailey feel better, she could have them shut down for a while. “No. I don’t want that. But someone should have to pay for making us all sick, don’t you think? Mr. Jonas was freaking out, and then he had to call in his mom. Who I like, by the way. She doesn’t understand me, but she is a nice person.”
“My mom loves you very much, Hailey. All of you.” She nodded but didn’t comment. Jonas asked about the stash. “I was just curious if there was any word on how it was stored where it was.”
Thomas and Bobby had moved nearly five-thousand pounds of drugs from the back of a semi-truck trailer to one that had been sitting on the lot their parents had at one time rented. Having it right there under their noses had been the perfect place to keep it from their father, as his plan had been to sell it all and get himself “better children.” Garry, the kids’ biological father, had stolen it from some very bad people and the kids, worried that it would kill children like them, had moved it, over a period of three weeks, into the trailer sitting abandoned on the land behind their home.
“It’s been stored away. We did it on our own, so there is no trace of it on any books. The thing is, no one has said a word on the streets about it being missing. That’s what we’re hoping for. Some idiot comes along and starts spouting off about how he’s been robbed.” Jonas asked if that had happened before. “Sure. For the most part, bad guys are stupider than fuck.”
“Packer. That’s his name.” They both looked at Hailey when she spoke. “What? Did you think we’d be out of touch with what was going on in our home? Never that. If we didn’t pay attention, we’d be hurt for sure. I don’t know anything more about him, but that’s what his street name was. He would come around the house when Mom was away at some jail, and Dad would tell this Packer guy that he didn’t know shit about it.”
“Do you happen to have any idea what he might look like?” Hailey said he had tats on his face. One of them was an ugly unicorn or some kind of horse. Rogen pulled up her phone and fiddled with it as their food was brought to them. “Is this him?”
The whispered way that Rogen was talking to Hailey worried him a great deal. He didn’t want the kids involved in this. However, he also knew that Rogen and the rest of the family needed help in getting this taken care of before someone else came for them. Also, that even now, they were being guarded with the utmost care. No one would get by anyone in his family to get to the kids.
Hailey took the phone from Rogen and looked at the picture. When she asked if there were more of him, Rogen told her to just flip through the photos there and see what she could find. It was perhaps three or four moments before Hailey handed her back the phone and picked up a slice of her food.
“The man you showed me first is Packer. The second and fourth men in those pictures are always with him. I don’t have their names. He usually just nods at what he wants, and they get it for him. I think he might be some kind of shifter person. One time I saw him get all furry like Mr. Jonas does when he’s all upset about something.” Hailey looked at Rogen as she chewed her food. As soon as she was finished with that, she spoke again. “They carried guns when they were at the house. I helped them move those when we found them. I can’t tell you where they are until I talk to my brothers. We made a pinky promise not to tell without all of us agreeing.”
“Is there anything else the four of you stashed around? I mean, things that Packer or one of the others with him might have mentioned?” Hailey nodded and continued to eat her food. Jonas was honestly too afraid to eat. He didn’t know if he’d be able to keep it down the way that—
“Wait. Did you say Packer got all furry like I do? Or were you just using me as an example?” Hailey told him he was a tiger, just like he was. “Christ. Thatcher can summon him to him if he’s not already told him he is in the area. In fact, he can call him to him anytime he wants. Will that be something you can do?”
“I can.” Rogen kissed Hailey on the head and got up to leave them. “I’m so thankful for you, Hailey, that if there is a reward for this, I’m going to make sure you get it.”
“You can give it to little kids that need it more than we do now.” Hailey eyed him. “Unless you want to take it for yourself, Mr. Jonas.”
“You four earned it. Whatever it is, you should take it for yourselves and use it for college or something. I wouldn’t dream of taking your money from you after all the hard work you’ve done.”
Rogen left them there after waving at the waitress and staff. Not too long ago, he and his family had gotten someone out of this place that was being abused. It was a small world, he thought.
“Mr. Jonas, I have a question for you.” Jonas told Hailey that she should just ask him. “We’ve been around you and your family for two weeks now. You’ve never once hit any of us or lost your temper. And when we need something, even if it’s just an extra blanket, you give it to us. Are you really this nice all the time?”
“I’d like to think I’m that nice. However, as you know, I do have bad days.” She said he’d never taken it out on them. “That wouldn’t serve anyone if I were to do that, now would it? But in answer to your question, what do you think my mom would do to me if I were a mean person and didn’t allow you an extra blanket?”
“She’d beat your head in with a wet noodle.” His mom had said that to him on more than one occasion when he’d been younger. “I’m sort of afraid of her. Not that she’s hurt me or anything, but she could, I think.”
“Mom would die before hurting anyone. Unless they were planning to harm any of her babies. To her, you are all her babies.” She shoved away her pizza, and he was happy she’d been able to eat all but one slice. “If you’re ready, we can head back to the house. I’m to understand that Bobby is going to have my brother come and visit him today.”
“Why do you care?” That gave him pause, and he asked her what she meant. “Why are you so caring, Mr. Jonas? No one else gave a fiddle about us. You’re nothing but a stranger, and you’ve done more for us than anyone ever has before. Why?”
“I have an answer for that, I think. I love you guys. I know you’ve heard me say that to you before.” She nodded. “All right. I tried to get your mom in a place where she could take care of you if she wanted, but I have since changed my mind about that. I don’t think she’d be any better to you than your father was. And I want you four as safe as I can make you. Is that a good answer for you? I can go deeper if you want. But I know how much you hate when I get mushy.”
They were both laughing as they went out to the car. This time when he looked around, Jonas could see the men following them—their guards. He’d never been one for people hanging out with him or around him, but he felt a good deal better knowing they were there. Driving home, he decided he was going to take his mom up on her offer to get him a staff. Having people helping with the kids was nice, but he had a feeling that if staff were there, he’d have a lot less stress in keeping up with things.
~*~
Sissy was just getting home from the grocery store when there was a knock at her back door. The only person that used it was family, and when she opened the door, thinking it’d be her father, she was so happy to see her sister.
“Dad called and left me a message that you were in trouble. Christ, that prick really changed his
tune about being around you, didn’t he?” They hugged several times before Sissy saw that her sister was hurt. “It’s nothing. I wasn’t paying attention to where I was walking and tripped up on a log. Fell against a boulder and broke my arm. How is your face? You look like shit if you don’t mind me saying that.”
“I know. People have been pointing that out to me for the last several days. But I decided that getting back to my life is more important than caring about people pointing and staring at me. How are you?”
Telling Ginger to sit down, Sissy made them both a cup of tea. Knowing that her sister didn’t care for anything but black tea, she made her a cup. Sissy had a cup of Earl Gray, her favorite.
“Great, but for this arm. I would have been home sooner, but I had to finish up the pictures I was assigned to take. Dad told me you were with him, and I knew you’d be all right. Have you pressed charges yet? That little fucker needs to pay for what he’s done to you.” Sissy loved her sister so much and was thrilled to have her with her. She told it like it was, and that was just what Sissy needed. “If you’d go with me to take the pictures to the company that asked for them, you and I can get going on whatever it is you’ve been keeping from Dad.”
“How did you know?” Ginger just laughed and said she’d not known. “You’ve done that to me before, and I can’t believe I still fall for it. Yes, I am keeping something from Dad. And I want you to help me with it. Benny’s sister? Margo is her name. She is out of jail just recently and wants her children back. That’s what caused this last thing with Benny. He didn’t want to go get them because one of them might be black. What a fucked up reason not to want them close by. Anyway, I want to go and get them and bring them back here.”
“You know I’ll do anything for you, but what the hell are you going to do raising a couple of kids?” Sissy corrected her. “Okay, four of them. I’m not saying you can’t do it, but Sissy, that’s a lot of work. What do you know about them? Much at all?”
Jonas: Robinson Destruction – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance Page 1
