Carroll: Morgan’s Leap – Leopards Shapeshifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  “What the hell are you doing here?” She asked Blanche who they were. “That one there is the FDA person I was telling you about. The other is Morgan. She’s been the one fucking up our plans to make sure we have better gardens than she does.”

  “You have a single tree, and it’s sad looking. The other one is in need of some major watering, as well as being put into the soil. The poor things. Nothing more than that. Even the herbs you have in your yard were sickly. Now we know why. You’ve been pouring chemicals into the earth and making this entire area sick with it. You should be ashamed of yourself.” Rachel asked Morgan why she even cared. “Because every part of this earth is precious. When you mess up one place, you hurt all the areas around it. The birds that land in your trees, the insects that are eaten by the birds. You’ve damaged a lot of creatures with your actions.”

  “Who cares? It’s not like I’m in anyone else’s yard. And even if a little of this shit did leak down into the neighbor’s yard, what did it do? Nothing. They have flowers and trees that shade their land. You should grow the fuck up, lady. No one cares about a little patch of earth that hasn’t anything going for it.” The man that had shown up first ordered her and Blanche to be arrested. “What the hell? What for?”

  “You just admitted you did the damage to the dirt here voluntarily. Even if that’s not anything that will stick in a court of law, it’s enough to get you out of here while we do some serious looking around. Like for a gun. Do you happen to know where it is? It would save us a lot of time and effort if you told me.” Rachel looked at her sister-in-law, then at the shed that she had put the gun in. “Well now, isn’t that just about the nicest thing. Officers, I think we might have some telling evidence in the shed over there.”

  “Wait just a damned minute here. Wait. I had nothing to do with her shooting at that woman over there. She said she wanted her out of the picture, and I just went along with her because—well, I just did. We’re family.” Rachel was jerked around and taken to the cruiser. Things were not going according to plan, and she was going to take care of that shit right now. “I’ll give you all the money you want if you just let me go. There isn’t any way whatever you have on me is going to stick. The people around here are afraid of me. And rightly so. Just let me go to get a good head start, and you can have whatever you find in the way of cash in the house.”

  “Are you trying to bribe me?” She said she was only offering him an opportunity. “Which I guess is one way you’d put it. But no, I don’t want to let you go. Nor am I going to be afraid of you.”

  As she was being read her rights, Rachel kept asking why she was being arrested. This was getting old. The only reason she had stayed in this little town was because it offered her a free place to live while sponging off Blanche. People didn’t understand how hard it was for the elderly to be alone. Oh, she thought, that was a good one. She was going to use that as her defense when they took her to court. Rachel was still thinking about how to make herself seem less like she was a strong sixty-year-old and more like a feeble-minded elder when the woman from the neighboring farm came over to talk to her.

  “I want you to know that once you’re out of jail, you’re going to have to move on. This land will take a while to heal, and we’d just as soon you do not live here to mess it up again.” Rachel asked her what she was supposed to do then, laying the feeble on as thick as she could. “I could care less. But you will, from now on, tell the truth about everything asked of you.”

  The feeling of dread came over her, along with the knowledge that the woman’s last words were not just her asking her to be truthful but saying she would have to be that way for the rest of her life. Staggering to the cruiser, she sat down and looked at the officer, then at the woman.

  “She hexed me.” The cop laughed and told her that she more than likely did just that. “I don’t want to tell the truth. No one wants to tell the truth all the time.”

  “In most cases, I’d have to agree with you, but in this case, where you’ve pissed off one of the nicest, most generous people I know, I’m thinking she’s out to make sure you don’t get out of jail none too soon.” They both watched as Morgan, or whatever her name was, moved to where Blanche was standing. The same look, the look of dread, fell over Blanche’s eyes when Morgan walked away. “Yes, ma’am, I think this is going to be a good day for a great many people. At least some closure for some. Did you kill your husband, Rachel? I’ve been wondering that since he came up being shot while out hunting. Your husband never hunted a day in his life, and there he was, shot in the head by some unknown. Were you the unknown?”

  “Yes. He was in my way of getting things just the way I wanted them. Then I found out the fucking prick had changed the beneficiary of his insurance that I was counting on to his cousin. What the hell would make him do that?” It hurt her to answer him. The truth be damned. “Don’t talk to me. I don’t want you to ask me another damned question. Do you hear me?”

  Rachel sat in the back seat, plotting. She didn’t know how to make any of the ideas she had running through her head work—she couldn’t even lie to herself now. When the cruiser Blanche was in took off, she sat there thinking of her lot in life. And again, not being able to lie, she knew whatever came her way, it was simply because she’d caused it. Her life right now was a train wreck, and there was no getting out of the way of it.

  The station house was ready for her, it seemed. Not only was she given a cell of her own, but she also didn’t see Blanche anywhere. Not that she wanted to see her or to even talk to her. Telling her the truth would piss her off, and Rachel was sure they both had enough to deal with at the moment. Sitting on the cot, she looked around and saw a bug or something sitting in the high windowsill. Standing up, she nearly hit it when he spoke to her.

  “Isn’t it just grand that there is even sunshine coming in here to greet you? I mean, I know you didn’t go out much, but it’s a glorious thing to have sunlight streaming on your face when you’re down. Don’t you think?” She asked it who it was. “You know what I am. You’ve killed enough of my kind to know we’re faeries. And since you murdered my mate, I’ve been given the job of keeping you company. Lady Morgan said, so long as I don’t harm you, where people can see at least, I could torment you as much as I wanted. I think I’m going to enjoy this a great deal.”

  The first thing he did was start to sing. It wasn’t so bad at first, hearing that old bar song that counted beer bottles backwards. But after he did it for what seemed hours, he started the fucking song over. Starting at one thousand and going again and again.

  “Please, will you just shut up?” He didn’t. In fact, Rachel was sure that he was singing louder. “Shut the fuck up.”

  It was dinner time when he got to what she hoped was the last number. Her head finally got the reprieve that she’d been wanting. Then he started singing a ditty about a lovely bunch of coconuts or some shit. Christ, she was going to kill someone if she ever got out of here.

  Chapter 6

  Morgan put the book down that she’d been reading. It had been so long since she’d had any time to pick up anything to do for herself. It had taken her eyes a minute to remember how to read. That, she thought, was pretty sad. When Leslie came into the room and sat down across from her, she waited him out. Of all the boys, he was the biggest thinker. And took the longest time to come up with an answer.

  “I’ve been thinking about the land the couple owned. I was told downtown that you have already purchased it.” She said the people at the courthouse had contacted her that morning. “Yes. That’s what I was told. I’d like to have it. The house and the little bit of property that surrounds it. Unless you have something else in mind for it.”

  “No. Other than razing the house, nothing. What did you have in mind?” He said he was going to build himself a store. “Sounds good. What sort of store? I mean, things from here to resell, or were you thinking something less meat and
potatoes?”

  “I want to be able to have a resell store, but nothing to do with what we have here. It would be a place that someone looking for a sink or some kind of cabinet could go and get a good price on it. I know there are hardware places online that people can get that from, but these won’t be new items. It will be things I can either pick up cheap or something that someone no longer wants and just tells me to come and get it.” Morgan told him that was a great idea. “I have three of the faeries to help me. They have the ability to fix electrical things without any fuss. I know it’s cheating, but I think it will help a lot of people that just don’t have the means to get something brand new.”

  “The money you make from the sales, what are your plans for that? You must have this all worked out, knowing you.” He told her. “Good. I like that too. Using all the money to purchase more things is a good way to keep things in inventory. One of the things I know people have trouble getting is a washer and dryer. Those are needed in just about every home I know of here.”

  “Jake, he’s one of the faeries, told me he knows where things are being dumped. Things like washers and dryers. We could do a cleanup kind of action while we’re fixing things. Also, he said he could work on cars. Give someone a leg up by giving them transportation.” Morgan was liking his plan more and more. But she wasn’t going to help him. She needed to let them take things off her plate, not add to it. Smiling at him, she told him what she’d been thinking. “Good. I wasn’t going to offer, but I do feel better with you knowing you aren’t going to help. I love that you’re more rested and less stressed than you’d been before. You seem so much more relaxed.”

  “I feel it too. I love Hanna helping me out. She does fuss at me when she thinks I’m overdoing it. But she does it in a way that doesn’t make me feel like she’s being bossy.” Leslie said she was bossy to him. “Because you, my dear boy, are afraid of her.”

  “I am. And of you too, if you want the truth. Not so much afraid, but I don’t want to disappoint you. I think all of us are, a great deal, afraid of disappointing you in some way or another.” She said that was very sweet of him, but she’d never felt disappointed in any of them. “I find myself feeling like I’ve messed up sometimes, not with you, but in general. Also, I’m a little afraid of my mate coming along, and she’s going to be a disappointment to all of us. It’s like having Hanna here has set the bar for the rest of us. She’s going to be hard to match, don’t you think?”

  “No matter what sort of person she is or how much she is or is not like Hanna, we’ll all love her because she loves you. Leslie, she is going to be your other half. The only way we could not like her if she was to harm you in any way. Physically or mentally. I don’t see that happening, however. Do you?” He said he didn’t. “Good. The project you have in mind is a very good one. Noble, I’d say. Helping out the others as we have over the years will come back to us tenfold. That’s one of the reasons I was to be your mom, you know. To teach each of you how to blend in with those around you, and to help you understand that helping people less fortunate than you is something that will always be welcomed.”

  “Thanks, Mom.”

  Leslie left her soon after. Getting up, she went to the shelves to find herself something else to read. There were plenty to chose from. Some of them had been in the house when her parents had died. Those, she knew, were nothing that they’d ever read, but only for show.

  The knock at the door had her getting up again. It was almost too much to be this relaxed, she thought with a grin. Opening the door, she was surprised to find someone there she didn’t know. Anyone coming onto this property had to know just how to get past the gates and needed to be invited. She hadn’t done either for this person.

  “May I help you?” The girl, woman she supposed, looked at her. Morgan could tell she was confused. Dazed even. Asking her again if she needed anything, the woman looked at her, terrified.

  “I don’t know who I am. Or how I got here.” Helping her into the house, Morgan could smell fresh blood. As soon as she got her to sit on the couch, she called in her boys. Hanna was the first to arrive. “Do I know you? I seem to think I should, but— I can’t remember anything. Not even how I got to the door.”

  “Her mind is blank. There isn’t even a memory of her walking up the stairs to your door. And the wounds on her look like something was burnt into her flesh.” Morgan told her it was from shock treatment. “You mean they still do that?”

  “I don’t know. But that’s what I’d say happened here.” Marley brought with him a black bag. He’d been dabbling in being a full-time doctor for a few months and had pulled out his working bag at some point. She told him what she and Hanna had figured out. “She got here without any alarms being raised. That concerns me.”

  “I should have told you this earlier. Tellus was here a couple of days ago and put in reinforcements. She didn’t want anyone here being hurt with those women running around.” Marley helped the woman roll to her side so he could have a look at her wounds. “You’re right. These have been made with some sort of electrical probe or something similar. They were more than— Look. There are marks on the back of her head as well. That would explain the total loss of memory.”

  After getting her settled in one of the bedrooms, two faeries were chosen to keep an eye on her and answer any questions she might have if it came to that. On their way back downstairs, Marley told them both what had happened with Tellus. She had not just reinforced the perimeter, but she had reinforced the magic that made it so no one with ill-will could enter without a long and painfully slow death. While it wasn’t likely that was what had happened to the younger woman, it could have been. Calling to one of the faeries, she asked them to see what they could find out about the woman.

  “I’m going to go too. As my leopard.” She asked Carroll if that was necessary. “I think it might be. I’ll be able to track her movements since she came onto this land. I could see if she walked through the gate or was transported here in some other way. There are any number of things that would explain how she got here. Not why, but at least we’d have an idea of how.”

  “All right. But be careful.” He kissed her on the cheek, then Hanna when she told him she’d kick his ass if he got hurt. Morgan was beginning to see why the boys were afraid of their sister-in-law.

  Hanna spoke in softer tones, never raising her voice, but she did make her point when she did. Even when she smiled while saying it, there wasn’t any doubt she meant what she said. Morgan would bet anything that Carroll knew it too. Smiling to herself, she asked Hanna if she wanted to wait here for Carroll.

  “I would like that. Also, I have a couple of things I’d like to ask you. Nothing earth-shattering, but about this bit of magic I discovered I had this morning.” As they were headed down the stairs, Flan, another faerie, stayed outside the room the wounded woman was in while Hanna told her about the magic. “I can pull from the earth. Nothing surprising there. I think that is where most of this comes from. But when I touch something deeper in the soil, like a tree with long deep roots, I can almost see what is beneath it, like the bugs and stuff that burrow there. Also, I can tell if the roots are doing well. Then if they’re not, I have the ability to give it a little of myself to heal it.”

  “That doesn’t sound all that problematic.” She told her there was more. “Okay, you’re a lead me along the path. Good. What is the problem then? I’m sure it’s all right.”

  “The trees talk to me.” Morgan had thought that was what she was going to say. But it seemed to upset Hanna more than she thought it should have. Before she could tell her it was good to be able to speak to the trees and other things of nature, she continued. “There are seven people on your land right now that are digging into the soil. The ground, who talks to the trees, said he doesn’t know what they’re looking for, but it’s hurting the earth to have them leaving their trash and other things lying around. Gasoline is also bein
g used to dig.”

  “Do you know where?” She told her that with a map of the land, she could not only tell her where they were but what they were doing at that very moment. “How long have they been there?”

  “This is their second month. I asked why no one had reported it before now, and I was told there hadn’t been anyone to speak to the trees before. I think I told you I can talk to all the animals, didn’t I?” She nodded, wondering what could possibly be going on out there. “Well, one of the animals that lives on that end of your property is coming here, so I can get as much answered as I can. Apparently, I’m the go-to person now when there are issues with the earth and things growing around here.”

  “Are you upset?” Hanna shook her head and said she was more freaked out than anything. “I would think I’d be as well. When is this animal set to arrive?”

  “He’s in the yard now.”

  Going out back, there stood the biggest buck she’d ever seen. Morgan would bet that he had forty points to his rack, and it was his pride. To be living here and not being harmed would account for the size of his rack.

  “Do you want anything answered by him? I was just going to let him tell me what he’s found. By the way, he is called Bucky. His father, older than him, of course, is Buck. He’s even bigger than this one is.”

  Hanna spoke with the buck, and Morgan wondered if she knew she was speaking whatever language the buck was speaking. To her, it sounded like gibberish. Grunts and sounds that only another animals could understand. But apparently, the buck could not only understand what Hanna was telling him but also had a good grasp of what was going on at the other end of the land. She wanted to ride out there right now and see what it was about but didn’t.

  Morgan used to charge right into whatever was going on and damn the information that might help her when she got there. In the years since then, she’d learned there were always two sides to every story, that things were not always as cut and dried as they seemed. Her favorite one was, nothing was ever as simple as it was being told to her. There were turns and corners all over the place. Navigating them was what she’d learned from working here on this land.