“Are you asking me if they’re black too?” Sissy knew she’d hurt her sister, and when Ginger stood up, so did she. “I’m sorry for saying that. I know what you’re asking me. I honestly don’t know what I can do or not. I’ve never been around children much before. I’m simply stressing over everything I have going on. Please forgive me, Ginger. Please?”
“Don’t say things like that to me. All right? You know as well as I do that I could care less about things like skin color and their sexual preference.” She hugged her again, and they both sat down. “Do you know where the kids are?”
“I do. They’re in Ohio with a family there. It’s not a long flight, but we can drive from here if you’d like. Pittsburg isn’t a long trip but still too much to do in one day. I think you might be familiar with the Robinsons.” She knew that her sister knew the Robinsons and asked her what she knew that wasn’t in the background check Dad had done on them a long time ago when she’d gone to college with one of them. “I think you went to school with one of them, correct?”
“Yes. Dawson. He’s the youngest. A doctor.” She could tell that Ginger was thinking about them. “Can I tell you my opinion about the kids being with them without upsetting you?” Sissy said she wanted her to tell her. “They might be better off with them than you trying to raise them on your own. I love you, Sissy, but as you’ve said, you don’t know a great deal about children. Especially ones that have been around Margo. I can make a call to Dawson, but the last I heard about them, they were taking in children that had been abandoned for a while now.”
“All right. Will you call him? Then if he tells us that they’re better off with them, I’ll believe him. But I’d really like to go and see them. They’re my nephews and nieces, and I know nothing about them other than they’ve been born.” Ginger pulled out her cell phone. “I can’t thank you enough for this. You don’t know how much I’ve been worrying about them.”
“I’d like to speak to Dawson Robinson, please. My name is Ginger Morgan. He and I went to school together.” Sissy couldn’t hear what was being said on the other end, but when Dawson must have come onto the line, Ginger spoke again. “How the hell are you, dumbass? I didn’t think I’d get through to you. I figured you’d be out on the golf course or some other equally stupid shit I’ve heard about doctors.” Ginger told him she was putting him on speaker phone.
“I’ve not thought of you in…well, I’m not going to say how long it’s been. Busy with life. But I do reminisce about some of the antics we were up to. No, not on the course. I don’t have time for that now that I’m working for myself. Holy Christ, Gin. I miss you. Where are you now? Still taking pictures of weddings and grads?”
“No. Wildlife. I just got home and was told that my sister’s soon-to-be ex-husband has some relatives that might be in your care. I don’t know a great deal about them, but the Feds were supposed to have called Benson a few weeks ago to come and get them. I was hoping that my sister and I could come out and see what we can do about this.” Sissy heard the background sounds cut off when a door was shut. “Something wrong, Dawson?”
“I’d say that’s an understatement. How much do you know about why we have them?” Sissy spoke up then and told them she knew nothing more than what someone had told her husband, brother to Margo. “Hello, Sissy. Your sister spoke highly of you while we were friends in college. About the kids…I’m not sure what I can tell you over the phone. If you’d like to come out here, I can arrange that for you, but you’d not be able to tell anyone where you’re headed or why.”
“Is it that bad?” Ginger watched Sissy’s face as Dawson said it was about as bad as he’d ever seen it. “All right. You make the arrangements, and we’ll head that way. Should Dad come with us? I don’t want him left behind if we can help it.”
“You give me your addresses, and I’ll make sure your homes are watched over.” Sissy was starting to get very nervous about this now that it seemed the kids might be trouble. “Bring Mr. Morgan with you too. I’d like to see him again. But just be careful, guys. There is a great deal at stake, and a lot of lives involved that could be endangered should there be any kind of leak out there.”
“Call me when you find out anything. In the meantime, we’ll get going here. Nothing packed, so there is no reason to think we’re leaving. No mail stopped. Nothing.” Dawson said he’d take care of it. “Good. Thanks. I’ll wait to hear from you.”
Twenty minutes after her sister hung up the phone, an officer came by the house. He said he was there to inspect the windows and doors as he’d been asked to do. As soon as he was in the house, the man went through the house and opened the back door, letting several men in with not just guns on their person, but also armor and other very scary equipment.
Ginger was handed a cell phone, as well as a bag. When they were told to stand in the hallway, three men went over the house with equipment, telling them they were to search for bugs and other devices. A camera was set up in the dining room, and they were asked to have a seat. First, however, Sissy was asked to call their dad over for lunch.
Dad was happy to join them. She wasn’t to tell him that Ginger was at her house, nor about the people in her home. Sissy was beginning to see that the kids were in deeper shit than even she thought anyone could handle. As soon as their dad joined them, they were asked to go to the computer monitor and have a seat. Someone appeared there almost as soon as they were surrounded by the men that came with them.
“Hello. My name is Rogen Robinson. I work for the Federal Government. My family and I are protecting the children and want to make sure that when you arrive, you’re as safe as they are.” Dad asked what was going on. “I can’t tell you anything right now, Mr. Morgan. Only that the children are safe and that we’ll make all the arrangements to have you brought to them. As you’ve been informed, you’re just to leave your home the way you entered. Ginger, you’re not on the radar just yet, so when you leave, I’d like for you to go out the back the way you entered and into the woods. The car you drove is no longer parked where you left it, but someone is there you can trust with your life.”
“Since you’re not giving us anything to work with here, you tell me why I should trust you with my family, Ms. Robinson. They’re all I have in this world.” Someone entered the picture with them, and Dad asked Dawson what was going on. “They’re treating us like we’ve done something wrong here, Dawson. You know us. We’d never harm a fly.”
“Mr. Morgan, had you been even the least bit suspicious that the men in the home with you now were there to kill you?” Sissy asked Rogen if that was necessary to tell them. “It is. I won’t lie to you about any of this. I will tell you that the kids are heroes and have been working with us since we brought them here. Once you arrive, you’ll stay with my husband and I, and we’ll explain everything. For now, you’ll do as I asked. The phone that Ginger has is secure. If anything goes wrong on your end, even if one of you are even remotely worried about something, call. The men with you are going to be at your beck and call until you arrive. Trust them as you would each other.”
“And if we don’t?” One of the armed men came into the room then and put the gun to her father’s head. “Are you trying to scare me, Ms. Robinson? I’m made of sterner stuff than having an empty gun to my head.”
The gun was fired at the wall and blew a hole large enough that she could see her side yard. Sissy started crying when Ginger stood up and punched the man that had fired in the face. Then while he was falling, Ginger kicked him in the crotch. He went down much harder than Sissy had thought, but Ginger had always been strong. Ginger then stood in front of the monitor.
“You fuck with my family like this again, and I don’t care who the fuck you’re working for. I’ll hunt you down for the rest of my life to kill you. Understand?” The woman laughed and said she did. “Good. My dad isn’t healthy, and doing shit like that will hurt him. I will not hesitate to pull the gun from
your downed man and kill the rest of them here, even if it means my own death.”
“I like you, Ginger. No, I won’t pull any more tricks on you.”
After Rogen told them again how to leave the house, they did so without any more incidents.
They were on the plane in short order and served not just drinks but lunch as well. It freaked Sissy out a little when they not only had her favorite meal for her but a cup of hot Earl Gray as well. Sissy was even more terrified, thinking of what they did know about her and wondered how much more they knew about her and her family.
Chapter 2
The office she was using was old world, and obviously for a man. Ginger waited for her call to be connected and looked around. The backyard was a place where she thought she could take some really nice pictures. Not that she’d offer them to anyone, especially not the lady of the house, but she’d take them anyway. Finally, Mr. Roads answered the phone.
“I have your pictures right here, Miss Ginger, but I can’t use any of them. They’re marked up with your name all over the front and back of them.” She told him that was so he couldn’t use them without payment. “Payment first? Well, I don’t believe that is what we agreed on. No, I’m sure of it. I would have remembered that part very well. You send them to me without all these markings on them, and I’ll see what I can use.”
“No.” He didn’t speak, so she didn’t either. Rogen came into the office and asked her if she minded. Shaking her head, Ginger waited on the man to come to some sort of terms with using the pictures he’d wanted.
“No? That’s all, just no? I don’t believe I like your tone, young lady. You’ll do as I wish, as I am the customer, or I shall not use them at all. And in addition to that, I’ll blackball you from ever selling your mediocre pictures again.” Ginger just laughed and put the phone on speaker so that Rogen and now her husband could hear. “Did you hear me, young lady? I will ruin you if you don’t play ball with me.”
“I’m not concerned about you playing ball with me or with yourself for all I care, Mr. Roads. There is something else you should be aware of. When you try and use my photos without paying for them, it will eat your computer system alive. I know this because I paid well for it to work that way. Also, printing them will cost you and will only print my markings, as you called them, and nothing more. Good luck with trying to blackball me.”
She hung up the phone and looked at the couple in front of her. There were things she wanted to know, but also things she needed to tell them. Some of it wasn’t all that terrible, but a couple of things she had going on were really bad.
“You want to share whatever you have going on in your head?” Rogen was straightforward, and she liked that. It was still debatable whether or not she cared for the woman on a personal level. “We’ve had you investigated, and there isn’t much out there, is there? I mean, other than you taking pretty pictures for magazines. What is it you’re hiding from us, Ginger?”
“I started out only taking pictures, pretty ones as you called them. But then I started seeing things that very few people get to when they’re out and about. Or I should say things they know what the hell they’re looking at. I work for the CIA as an operative that gets in and out of places on the guise of being a photographer. Not that I’m not making good money on that, but I make more working for the government. My handler told me that I could be as honest with you two as I am myself, which really isn’t saying that much. I’m rarely honest with myself. I tell myself all the time that this is the last shoot I’m going on and end up right back out there the next week. You’re agent 0032.”
“I am. You’re agent 0134. I’m assuming you’ve been doing this about as long as I have.” Ginger didn’t answer her but did look at her cell phone when it rang. Ignoring it for now, she looked at the picture over the mantel, the one of the house they were in. But long ago. “I was going to ask you if you would mind taking a picture of this home the way it is now. I’ll gladly pay you.”
“No need for that. You’re putting us up. For now. What is going on with my sister’s nieces and nephews? I was told they’re coming to see us today, but I’d like the lowdown on them now.” Rogen stood up and asked her to follow her. “You have to take me someplace more secure than this room? I’m assuming you’ve taken care that none of us are carrying any kind of trackers.”
“I didn’t have to. After I figured out who you were, I thought you’d done it.” Ginger said she had. “All right. Also, you’ve come back clean on the background check, what little there is out there for the public to know. What does your family know about what you do?”
“My dad knows, but I didn’t want my sister’s husband to find out shit, so I didn’t tell her. I bet that just burned your toast, didn’t it? Not able to find out shit on someone.” Rogen said it had, actually. Thatcher laughed and then said he didn’t know if he could take any more sarcastic women. “I don’t plan on staying here long enough for you to get used to any of us.”
There was a man down the stairs that looked so much like Thatcher that they had to be related. He introduced himself as Jonas and said he was keeping an eye on the children. When asked why they weren’t with him, he said he wanted to meet her and her family before he brought them over.
“There are a couple of things you need to know before you and your family see them. I’m sure you were given paperwork on them, but I want to tell you some things that might not be there. Sarah is not just afraid of the dark, but she will scream until the lights are back on or pass out from fear. A night light doesn’t cut it—she needs the overhead on when she sleeps.” She made notes on her phone, just in the event this information wasn’t brought up tonight. “While Hailey is getting better about food, she’s still very particular about what she eats. I’ve thought about seeing what it is, but I’ve been taking all the kids to see a doctor to help them deal with the trauma they’ve been dealt. Bobby is the most outspoken of them, but he still is very good at keeping things to his chest.”
“You don’t want us to take them, do you?” He shook his head. “I can understand that. They’re cute little buggers. However, that will be up to my sister. I don’t have any plans of having children, nor do I wish to raise these kids. Not that I won’t love them—I will—but with my lifestyle, it would be difficult for me to even be too friendly with them. The bad guys would make what has happened to them thus far look like a day at the park.”
“Rogen and Tru told me what you were into—” Ginger asked him if he meant Tru Justice. “She’s Robinson now, but that’s her. You know her, I take it?”
“Indirectly. She and Sissy went to school together. I think she came over to the house a couple of times while I was there.” Jonas asked her if she was opposed to him being with the kids when her sister met them. “As I said, this is Sissy’s idea to take them on. Personally, I think she won’t be able to handle it. Not that she’d not try her best, but she’s not had any more contact with kids than I have. Not to mention she has a bully of a husband—soon to be ex—that will use them against her in any way he can. While Benny is a lazy fuck, he’s not opposed to using people to get what he wants.”
“He’s in jail now.”
Ginger asked Thatcher how long he thought he’d be there. There was something about Jonas that made her pissy and horny at the same time. She needed to get laid, she told herself. But then Thatcher answered her question.
“Not long enough if you ask me. Your sister has some stitches in her head from when she fell back when he hit her. Also, she might not know this yet, but she’s going to have a child. I doubt very much she knows that.”
“You can smell that on her.” Thatcher and Jonas both nodded. “I love Sissy very much, but I just don’t see her making this work. I know as I said, that she’d try, but she’s much too…how do I say this? Flighty, I guess you’d call it. She tries, but once she gets bored at whatever project she might be working on, she’l
l move on to something else. And without support all the time, like from myself and my dad, she’s going to fail the kids and herself.”
“I’d like to adopt them myself.” She said she had no problem with that so long as he kept them together. “I’d never dream of separating them. They need each other as much as I need my own family.”
“Is she your mate, Jonas?” They both looked at Thatcher. “Ginger, I mean. Is Ginger your mate? I need to know now before the debate about Sissy taking the kids goes on too much longer.”
“No.” Jonas looked at her, then back at his brother. “If you’ve all you need from me for now, I’d like to get back to the house. Thomas has a doctor’s appointment at four, and he gets anxious when I’m not ten minutes early for it.”
Ginger let out the breath she’d been holding since Thatcher asked his question of his brother. When Jonas was gone, she felt stupid for being in a flitter about a man. He was handsome in a rough sort of way. Tall, over six foot, she thought, since she was six-one herself. Jonas also looked like he could eat a bear, make love to a woman, and never muss his hair. Men like him pissed her off.
She looked at the monitor when Rogen said her name.
“The man you were speaking to on the phone this morning, he came across my feed just before you got here. I hadn’t read over the report before you arrived but finished it up just before I came upstairs. He’s just an asshole that thinks whatever he wants, he should get.” She looked at the man and then the things that were in plain sight around his office. “Mr. Roads isn’t the sharpest tool in the box, as I’m sure you’re aware, and he wanted to have your pictures to compare your style to some others he’s come across. Ones that were given to him by another person he has worked with. I don’t suppose you’d have any idea what he is looking for. Other than a way to make some freebies off of you?”
“No. I don’t. But it’s nothing that I’ve not run into before. But I do have something that I’d like to share with you. A few weeks ago, I was out of the country taking photos of the wildlife there. Monkeys and sloths, for the most part. But there were some things going on that I just happened to fall upon that got the shit shot out of me.” She asked if she could use one of her computers. After being given permission, she pulled up her locked file of photos from that area. “At first, I wasn’t sure what I was looking for. Or what it was, for that matter. But there was something simply off about the shot.”
Jonas: Robinson Destruction – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance Page 2
