“You were in contact with a bear, as well as a fox at some point recently. I can smell them on you.” Nodding, she let what he was saying to her roll around in her mind. “I don’t mean to spring this on you now, but you’re also my mate. Do you understand what that means?”
“Yes. Somewhat. I’m an attorney or was one in Ireland. I did a couple of cases with a mate who had supposedly killed his mate or children. I got a book on shifters from the pack leader that helped me win the case. Also, a bear case. Bruin, I think they’re called.”
“Yes. We know a few bears. The pack leader in our town is a good friend of the family as well.” She thought about what he was telling her when Thatcher sat down with them. He had brought them a large platter of food and three forks. “This looks amazing, Thatcher. Did you make this?”
“Yes. It’s an Irish breakfast. I’m not sure about the black pudding, but I put it in here to try. I had to look it up. It’s not legal to sell or even to have in the States.” Caitlynn explained why her da served it. “Okay, I didn’t know that. Good idea to take regular sausage, and dying it black is a good way to get around that. And it’s doubtful that anyone here would know the difference. Your dad is a smart man.”
“He is. Will he be all right?” Dawson told her he would be better than he had been before. So would she be. “Why are all these people coming into work? I’m sure you had something to do with that too.”
“Yes. I can’t tell you any more than that until we get to know you better. But I will tell you that nothing we’re doing is illegal, nor will it come back to bite you in the ass.” Thatcher looked at her with a sort of cocky grin. “I can tell you that my wife, as well as the wives of my other brothers, works for some very important people. And that they’ll make sure things are done in such a way that nothing will be able to hurt you or your father again.”
“They accused him of killing my ma and unborn sister. Da would never do anything like that.” Neither of them so much as blinked. “Do you believe me or not? Now would be the time to tell me that so I can take care of him.”
“I don’t know anything about that. Nothing other than what my wife told us.” Caitlynn nodded and looked around her da’s restaurant to give herself time. “Rogen, my wife, told us that this place is going to be torn down in a couple of weeks. I’m sorry about that. You seem to be doing really well here.”
“We were. I came home to help my da move to someplace else. He loves being in the kitchen. He told me it makes him not have to think about things much. I think he just likes tasting the food as he cooks it.” She looked back at Dawson. “My da, he’s all I have in the world, and I’d move the earth to make sure he’s safe and cared for. He didn’t mean to shoot me. He gets these night terrors that make it so he sleepwalks.”
“Thatcher told me he’s taking a lot of drugs, both prescribed and over the counter. I think he might be making himself ill by taking a couple of combinations of drugs that he shouldn’t be taking. Did you know that?” She said she hadn’t. “Also, I can set him up with someone to talk to about his nightmares. There are things that might be contributing to him having them that he’s not being treated for.”
“He doesn’t see a psychiatrist. I tried to get him into one, but he’s not a citizen yet, so they won’t set him up. It’s been hard on him, too, with getting his medications. No insurance or any kind of help from anyone for the same reasons.” Dawson said he’d take care of that for her. “You’re just willing to jump right in with both feet and help out without knowing a thing about us? Why is that? Not to mention, I know nothing about you.”
“You’re my mate, as I told you. And I’d do anything, including taking a bullet for you should that be necessary. I wish I’d been in a position to do that for you earlier, but I think this works so much better for us.” She asked him what his version of us meant. “Whatever you wish it to be. I have no intentions of rushing you into anything. And I’d never tell you to do something you wouldn’t want to do on your own. I’m very laid back and easygoing. I’m a doctor that works with my brother. I have a few charities I work on as well. I have money, or I should say we have money. Everything I have is now yours. And whatever you have is also yours. I have five brothers, one of them being Thatcher. Five sisters-in-law that are married to them. Parents that I love deeply and profoundly. Nieces and nephews as well.”
“What is it you’re not telling me?” Dawson asked her what she meant when Thatcher got up to guide the men that were cleaning up into the back room for something to eat. “I don’t know, Dawson. What sort of skeletons do you have hidden in your closet? Is there another wife? Never mind, that doesn’t work with shifters. I feel like that rabbit going down the hole, and I’ve no idea what I’m going to fall into next.”
“I don’t know that I have any skeletons in my closet. But I can and will have Rogen look for you. As for the rabbit hole? I’m feeling the same thing. I’ve never had a mate before. Hadn’t even thought of having one with the way things are going right now. I am happy about it. Excited to see what the rest of our lives turn out to be.” She asked him about children. “I don’t have any, as you might well know. However, if and when we have any, that would be entirely up to you, as it is your body.”
“You’re too nice. No one is this nice.” He told her he thought she was looking for trouble. “More than likely, you’re right on that. I’m working last night, and two men show up at the door. My da shoots me. You and your brother turn us into tigers, and now I find out I’m a cat. I think under the circumstances, I’m allowed to be looking for the other shoe to drop.”
“I suppose you’re right.” A young man dressed in jeans and a tee came to sit with them for only a few seconds before he left a note behind and left them. She asked Dawson what it said when he put it back on the table. “Your father is loaded up and on his way to my home to recover. You’ll stay there too, should you wish. I’m not there often, as I’m working a great deal nowadays. But I won’t share a room or a bed with you until you say so. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to—I do, very much so—but I won’t. The note also says that anytime you’re ready to go, we can leave the restaurant in good hands.”
She stood up and felt something run over her. Dawson put his hand out to steady her, but he didn’t touch her. She had a feeling it was the cat in her but didn’t comment. There was just too much other shit going on for her to worry about being a tiger right now.
Getting into the back seat of the car, she was surprised when Thatcher sat in the passenger seat, and Dawson drove. Looking out the window at the restaurant as it grew smaller and smaller, the lights dimmer too, Caitlynn wondered what the next phase of her life would be. And decided that she wasn’t going to let some overgrown housecat ruin her life. She had it just the way she liked it.
The trouble was, she liked Dawson too. Very much. She didn’t think she’d ever met a man like him and likely wouldn’t again. Lying back on the seat, she let herself fall asleep. It was her superpower, her dad had told her. To be able to fall asleep no matter where she was or how she was positioned. Sleep was the best way to deal with things, she thought.
Chapter 9
Brooke didn’t care for this. Not that she knew how to do it differently, but she didn’t like people taking chances, huge ones, in this case, that might get them killed. Or if it turned out to be nothing. It couldn’t be nothing, her mind told her. There were body parts all over the place. Brooke looked at Rogen when she said her name.
“It’ll be fine. You’ll see. Tru is there on-site, and there are about two dozen people that work for me that are going to be there in the event that shit hits the fan. It won’t, but they’re there in case it does.” She supposed that being in the computer room with Rogen was about the safest place she could have been. But she still worried. “The building is right there where you said it would be. All kinds of people are interested in seeing what the fuck is going on. Once we breach th
e door, it’ll be a piece of cake to see what is going on and putting an end to it.”
“To it or the people in there?” Rogen told her it would be both if it turned out they were working on their own. “Otherwise, you’ll keep them until they give up whatever information they have, then kill them?”
“No. They’ll end up in prison. Killing them for helping won’t get us anywhere. I like to give people a second chance.” Brooke just cocked a brow at her. “Okay, I’m not into second chances, but I’m working to improve myself. A kid will do that to you, I guess.”
A voice echoed around the room when the speaker clicked. “I’m to tell you that we have a hit on the owner of the land and building. He’s been dead for nearly thirteen years.” Rogen asked who was in charge, then. “His son, the best we can tell. He’s been using the land as well as the property for some time now. There is a field of pot growing not ten minutes walking distance from where your men are.”
“That was Winnie Donaldson. She’s a good friend of mine, and also the person I report to. You will, too, when you get your head out of your ass and help us.” Brooke told her she thought she was helping. “Nah, this is old shit you had. I mean full-time. The perks are great, and you get to see the world. With your ability to blend into any situation with your camera, it makes it nice for us. And the fact that you have a press license makes it all the better getting in and out of shit.”
Rolling her eyes at the other woman, she looked at the screen when she did. Rogen was hard to get to know. All the women were hard-assed and hard to know. But she was beginning to see a side of them that she was sure few saw. They were mush when it came to the children in this place.
Thatcher came down with some glasses of tea, as well as two gallons of the stuff he put in the fridge.
As Rogen guided the men into position, she listened to Thatcher talking to her in low tones about what she was doing. When she saw something on the screen, she stood up and said for them to wait. The order was put out there that no one was to move as a family of four walked by some of the people hidden on the ground. They moved within two inches of one of the men she could see the outline of on the monitor.
“Christ, that was close.” She agreed with the man on the monitor when he began to move toward the building when the all-clear was given. “We’re leaving two behind to make sure there aren’t any more visitors. Thanks for catching that.”
Rogen winked at her, and she kept her eyes on the things that were surrounding the red outlines of people on the ground. Then the door was opened—such a mild word for the door exploding inward—and the windows broken in by the men entering the place.
There was a great deal of noise, along with the flash of lights that could be seen from the windows.
“Three Caucasian men inside working on what appears to be human remains.” She nodded when Rogen looked at her. “There is a bandsaw in here that was being used when we entered, as well as a shit ton of large trash bags.” The man in charge on the ground said nothing for several minutes. “They’re stashing the clothing of the victims in them, it looks like. I have identification on the men here.”
As he took pictures of the IDs of the men, he sent them from his phone to Rogen. As she looked them over, so did Brooke. “Do the faces of the people match the men in there?” Rogen asked them what she had. “Okay, the man named Fletcher Parker, can you let me see his face? Or something along those lines?”
His face suddenly appeared in front of her. The face, as clear as day, took up four of the monitors in front of her. She stared at the face for several seconds, then asked for the faces of the other two men. Rogen asked her what she saw.
“I don’t know yet. I need to think on it.” The other two men’s faces seemed to ring a bell with her, and the work being done in the building resumed. It wasn’t until Rogen was clearing the men to burn the building that she remembered something. “Wait. The first man, Parker. I remember him now. I’ve seen him in the town a couple of times when I was there working on getting into the country. He was known for having a hidey-hole in his business. It would contain things like money, credit cards, as well as passports. The other man, Liston, the second person you showed me, that’s not his name either. He went by Morgenstern or something like that. He owned a butcher shop in town. Christ, now that I think on that and finding this, I’m so glad I didn’t get anything from there. I don’t remember the third man, but I have a feeling he has something to do with them in the food industry. Perhaps a restaurant or something.”
“Found them. Six passports with different names on them, as well as money.” The man showed them what he’d found and where it had been found. “You might also be interested in knowing there is paperwork that is used to put on meat when it leaves the country. Kinda sickening if you ask me, but I’m not a meat-eater.”
The men worked the room over again, finding not only things that had been stashed but a great deal more money than they’d thought. It was Tru, going into the building after them, that found the letters. There were six in total.
“They’re addressed from the two of you. I can open them if you wish, but I’d rather bring them back to you.” Rogen agreed. “I’m bringing the cash with me, as well as the other stuff that was found. The men, I believe, were working for themselves. It looks as if, from the identifications that we found, they were killing tourists that were in town on vacation. Hell of a way to end your free time. Also, and I find this particularly funny, they have a diagram on the wall where the bandsaw is, telling how to cut the bodies up to look like what might be considered steaks or loins. Just around the back of this place is a large cast-iron cauldron that seems to be used for rendering fat. I don’t even want to think about what that might have been used for.”
“Are they saying anything?” Tru said she hadn’t heard them but did ask the man behind her. He told her that since they’d broken the door down, all the men had done was get on their knees with their hands laced up on their heads. “Why are they smiling? I mean, would you be smiling if someone broke down your door and pointed guns to your face? They look so happy.”
“You’re right. Let me do something here and see what I can snap out of them.” Whatever she did, there was no camera on them. When Tru came back online, she was showing her face, and Brooke could just make out the men on the floor behind her. One of them looked to be dead. His neck was broken. “Their father runs the town. They think they’ll be out before we can process them. I’m thinking they don’t understand what the hell they’re up against with us. I’m having them taken to the plane now to bring back to a base that can deal with them. Good call, Brooke. You more than likely saved us a great deal of paperwork on this one. Thanks.”
Rogen thanked her too. Thatcher handed her a candy bar, and she peeled it open while she thought about what she’d just done. She’d been helping her sisters-in-law out was how she was going to think about what had just happened. There was no way she’d been instrumental in any of the shit that had gone down. Brooke just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
She looked up when Jonas said her name.
“I must have zoned out for a minute. Where did everyone go?” He told her they were celebrating upstairs by ordering Chinese food. “I could eat that. Are we invited?”
“Yes.” Jonas laughed. “I brought the kids with me when they called to tell me that you work for them now.”
“I don’t. I was helpful to them, but I don’t work with them. I’d like to think that way for the time being.” He nodded. “What else did I miss? I’m assuming there was more if they’re celebrating.”
“Yes. The government in the town where they were working has been arrested. Not just the father of the three you helped get, but several others that had a hand in what was going on. The restaurant, as well as the butcher shop, has been closed down. Rogen made sure the reason for the shutdown is printed in the local paper, as well as a sign put on
each of the doors stating that they were using human remains as their products. I think that will be very telling in a couple of days. The third man, he was only there to help them get the stuff processed. Just as guilty, but he wasn’t related to the other two.”
“I saw him in the places the other two were in. I didn’t connect him to them as he was wearing different hats, literally, at the time. What will happen to them?” He didn’t say anything. “I guess I don’t want to know. What do you know about Caitlynn?”
“She’s taking care of her dad right now at Dawson’s house. I’ve not met her, but Thatcher said she’s a good person.” Brooke nodded. “What’s wrong? Something is there, and I’d gladly help you with it. Tell me so I can be your knight in shining armor.”
“Your dad says that all the time to your mother. I don’t know what’s going on with me today. I should be thrilled, but I feel like I’m sort of the oddball out. The others work with Rogen. She’s begged me to work too, but I don’t know. She’s very intense, and I thought I’d just as soon not get into a fight with her over anything. I don’t think Rogen plays fair, do you?” He told her he wasn’t going to answer that. “Yes, I can understand that too. She’s very good at breaking into homes without leaving this office. Anyway, I was hoping Caitlynn and I could sort of make our own group of helpers. Not on the scale that the others are on, but more local things.”
“I can get behind that. What is it you had in mind?” Brooke told him she didn’t know right now. “There are a number of charities I have going on right now. So does Dawson. Maybe you and Caitlynn can work with us on a few of them.”
“I’d like that anyway. I was thinking of trying to bring more businesses to the area. There are a great deal of unemployed families around that could use a boost. I know your family has the food drives, as well as helping the schools with supplies. But I think having a job would go a long way in making sure their kids know there is more to life than just handouts. Does that make sense?” He told her it did. Very much so. “Anyway. I have a lot of contacts I worked with. Mostly they’re businesses that are expanding to other areas that aren’t here. I can talk to them. I’d have to learn what is here for them to use, but I don’t think that would be an issue.”
Jonas: Robinson Destruction – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance Page 12
