Carroll: Morgan’s Leap – Leopards Shapeshifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  “Buck said they’re digging around the mountain looking for shiny stones. He doesn’t know what sort of colors they’re bringing up, but he is sure that some of them are green. It’s about the only color he’s familiar with.” Hanna laughed. “I was just thinking we need to have classes with the animals to tell them things they’re never going to learn by being whatever they are. Anyway, they’ve been there for a few new moons. And they come and go off the property nightly. He has followed them out of the land to the edge of the property, but no further. I think we should send out a troll to move them along. And if that doesn’t work, then we call the police. Buck said we should get whatever it is they’re finding, as they’re very excited when they dig it up. Do you think it might be emeralds and diamonds?”

  “At one time, long ago, it was speculated that there might well be a diamond mine around here close by. As for emeralds, I wouldn’t know. But I’m sure if you can picture one of them in your mind, you can ask the trees to find out what it is they’re digging up.” Hanna told her she was brilliant and kissed her on the cheek. When she put her hands to the tree next to them, she told her what he was saying. “They do have emeralds. He thanks you for the visual. Buck said he’d think of what other things they were bringing up and let us know.” Morgan was enjoying this. Not having the people on her land, but the way things were being broadcasted to her, so she wasn’t forever having to be on top of things. When Hanna smiled at her, she started smiling back. “The troll showed up just now, and it’s mayhem there. Not only are they throwing today’s finds at him, but also their bottled water and anything else they can touch. They’re armed too, apparently, but aren’t shooting. That’s good. I think it would only piss him off more and get the troll hurt too.”

  In less time than it would have taken her to get to the other side of the property, the people were gone, their mess cleaned up, and most if not all the gems piled into a neat pile. Hanna asked her what she wanted to be done with the gems.

  “I have no idea. It’s not like I knew they were there. Why don’t we have them brought here? We’ll see what they’re worth and go from there. Leslie is starting up a new project, and perhaps he can use whatever money we can get for them for his startup.” Hanna thought that was a great idea. “Thanks. I have them on occasion.”

  Even having them brought there was a good deal easier than she thought it would have been. The faeries were so happy to gather them up that they even made a bag the gems could be put into, then carried by the lot of them. She and Hanna were in the kitchen, enjoying a nice cup of tea when Carroll joined them still as his cat.

  She was tossed out of a moving vehicle about two miles from here. Her coming up our drive was unnoticed because she had been coming through one of the gaps in the fencing. I’ve had a couple of faeries take some of the others with them to go along the fencing and see if there are any more gaps. She didn’t bother anything as she came through. Nor on her trip up to the house. She is correct, however—she has been dazed like this since she was literally tossed from the car. Carroll went to their home to change and then returned with some things he’d picked up. “I don’t have any idea what these are from, but they look like receipts. Not from anywhere I can make out.”

  Morgan picked one of the pieces of paper up. “This is for gasoline. I had no idea it was getting so expensive. But it’s one from about twenty miles north of here.” Carroll said he’d go and figure out what he could. “Take one or more of your brothers with you in the event you need back up. Not that I don’t think you can take care of yourself, but we have no idea what we’re up against right now.”

  “All right. Will you stay with my mom? I don’t think anything will happen here, but I’d feel better if the two of you were together.” Neither of them answered Carroll, but he seemed to be satisfied with that. When he was gone, Hanna looked at her with a strange smile.

  “I don’t know if he’s being overly protective or just trying to keep us out of trouble. Not that I think I cause him too much in the way of trouble, but we might not ever know what we can do when we get our minds made up about something.” Morgan really liked this girl. She was honest and refreshing. Especially since she’d been around men most of her life, Morgan was enjoying having another female around all the time. “I think when this is all over with the Mission sisters, you and I have to go out on the town. Stir up some trouble and see what we can get ourselves into. I’m not a partier or anything like that, but it might be fun.”

  “I’d like that.”

  The young woman joined them while they were arguing over what sort of ice cream went with pie. Hanna said whipped cream went on pie, ice cream on cake. Morgan found herself disagreeing simply for the sake of arguing.

  The woman sat down and asked for something to drink, and Hanna got it for her. “How are you feeling?”

  “I don’t know. But I do know my first name. It’s Venetia. Other than that, I don’t know. Bits and pieces come to me, but nothing I can figure out. How did you know my mind was empty?” Hanna explained to her what she’d done. “Do you think you can see my memories now and perhaps make sense of them?”

  “I can try.” When Hanna got up again and gave a glass of juice to Venetia, she sat back down. “You work in a law firm, I think. You might have just been there, but you seem to not be intimidated by the place. I can’t tell which one, but I can see there are all kinds of law books in the room you remember.”

  “That’s right. I do work there. I was there in the morning. What’s the date?” Morgan told her. “Yes, three days ago. I was going someplace else that day. This is nice. Thank you for your help.”

  “No problem. We’ll take it as we go. My husband is looking around for more clues right now. He is going to see what happened when you were dropped off.” She said she didn’t remember that. “It’s all right. Don’t force anything. It’ll come when it comes.”

  Morgan talked to the two girls, enjoying their company more than she did anything. Finding out information was vital, but Morgan thought it would be terrible news and she’d lose her new friend. She’d never, in all her life, dreamed of having a girlfriend to hang out with, and right now, she was enjoying the two that were here today.

  ~*~

  “What sort of news have you heard? I mean, any dead bodies lying alongside the road? Venetia was nothing but trouble from the moment we hired her. I told you she wasn’t like her father. I doubt she was easy even as a child. Nope. Nothing at all like him.” Benson told him he was sorry, but he thought they could recruit her. “Fat lot of good that did us trying. She was working for the Feds from day one. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she wasn’t even an attorney. But her knowledge of it is off the charts good.”

  “I’ve spoken to her mother.” He did quotation marks when he said mother, and Colton had to smile. Betty had been a suitable helpmate for Venetia’s fake father, Sheppard after his wife was out of the picture. Then when he’d stepped out of line one too many times, he’d been taken care of as well. It had been easier still to slip in a father figure like Sherman before Venetia had any memory of her biological parents. Sherman would have done anything they asked of him at the time, and they played that card whenever they needed someone killed or even put away.

  Venetia’s mother, someone they didn’t know well, had been killed the night they killed Roman. All they knew about her was that she’d been a real beauty—so was her daughter—and that she’d had a bit of magic. No one seemed to know if Venetia had gotten any of it, and Colton liked it that way. The less of that shit going around, the better.

  “Betty is saying once Venetia left the house that morning, she never heard from her again. I’m assuming she’ll have to go as well. Betty has been a great asset for us, you know.” Colton asked if the police had been called yet. “No. She was leaving town, and it’s not occurred to anyone yet that she might well be hurt. I thought that played well into giving us more time.” />
  “She has, and you’re right. She has to go. I’m worried now she’s attached herself to the kid. She’ll not want anything to happen to her if we find out she’s a squealer. Sherman, he was a good Joe right up until the time he wasn’t, then there was no stopping him from doing stupid shit. He never could keep his mouth shut when it was necessary. It was a right shame that he had to go and get himself a mistress.” Colton laughed. “Turned out she was the smarter of the two of them. Figured out quicker than he did what we were doing here.”

  Other than making money hand over foot, they were bringing in all kinds of shit without using any of the usual channels to make it happen. Colton couldn’t remember the last time he’d been in a courtroom to work. And he was sure Benson hadn’t been around them much either.

  They were buying drugs and reselling them, which took up a great deal of their time. Bringing in illegal aliens that were needed to repackage their dope was another full-time job. They’d have to be trained, then slapped around a bit to show them who was boss. Also, they had a nice little thing going with the prostitution ring that was growing larger by the day.

  “I called the locals when I was leaving the town we dropped her body in. I told them I thought I saw a body on the side of the road. When asked how come I didn’t stop, I told them I was terrified of being involved.” Benson laughed. “They bought it all. Even the part where I said she was didn’t seem to be breathing. She wasn’t when I kicked her to the side.”

  “Too bad that had to happen. I mean, Venetia sure was a looker. I had big plans for her. You did use your little lesson learner on her, didn’t you? I don’t want to know how much fun you had with it, but you did burn any memories she might well have had about us, right?” Benson said he had, and he did have fun. “Yes, I suppose you would. However, we do need an attorney to make us look legitimate. While she was a looker, Venetia fit the bill. But she had to get her nose into things that didn’t concern her. Just like Honey, Sherman’s mistress did. Who the hell names their kid after bee shit?”

  “Who knows if that was even her real name? But she’s gone now, so we don’t have to fuck with her either.” They were running low on people they could trust. Mostly it was the people that were supposed to be working for them. However, there were a few still coming out of college that could be brought in. Colton just didn’t want to have to fuck with it. “We should watch the news. I don’t know if they’ll put anything about Venetia on the news here, but it’s hard to tell.”

  They both watched it at the bar down the street. The place made a mean sub, and he was just generous enough to pay for his and Benson’s dinner. Nothing was on the news, but that really wasn’t a surprise. They were an entire state away from where the drop had been made.

  Just as he was getting ready to pay up and go home, a tall man came into the bar with three of the biggest men he’d ever seen.

  “They look like models. Don’t you think?” Colton nodded. “They’re probably lost or something. No one just comes in here without a good reason. It’s our place, you know.”

  “I doubt they’d care. Look how they carry themselves like they know they’re all tough and shit and don’t give a shit who knows it. I’m betting cousins or something.” Benson said brothers. When they sat down at the bar and looked around, Colton felt his balls tighten up around his ass when one of them pinned him with his eyes. “Do we know them?”

  “I don’t think so. That does make me wonder what you did to him in another life. He looks like he could murder you where you sit.” That’s the exact feeling he got. And he didn’t like it. “Why don’t we get out of here and get home? I have some stuff I have to take care of in the morning, and it’s going to take most of that time up.”

  Just as they were walking past the men, the one that had come in first turned to face him. There wasn’t even a hint of a smile on his face. No look of any kind, as a matter of fact. This was a man you’d not play cards with or any other game of chance. The man stopped him by putting his foot out.

  “Venetia is still alive.” Benson asked him what he’d said. “I said Venetia is still alive. In fact, she’s talking to the police now. It’s really too bad you didn’t get out of your car and check on her before leaving the scene of the crime.”

  “Colton?” Colton, feeling exposed, angrily told the younger man to get out of his way. He didn’t know what he was talking about. But Benson didn’t move, and the man looked at him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, young man. Leave us alone. We don’t know a Venetia Hamm.”

  “I never said her last name. You should have left her alone. And her father. Not the man who raised her, but the one that sired her. Have you all your ducks in a row, Mr. Colton Henderson?” The man laughed. “I’d say you should seek a better attorney than you are. You’re going to need to have your will properly made out and filed. I’m coming for you.”

  Colton was out the door and in his car before he felt like his asshole could sneak out a fart. Not to mention that his cock coming unstuck from his balls was a painful reminder of the man searing him with a look. Christ, it was like talking to the devil himself in there. Looking over at Benson, he asked him if he’d been hit—his nose was bleeding.

  “So is yours.” Looking in the mirror, he saw the three men behind him, in the back seat of all places. But when he turned, he didn’t see anything. “What the hell was that? They knew too much, Colton. Way too much for my happiness. And how do they know she was still alive?”

  “That’s the least of our problems. He knew my name. He also knew that Venetia wasn’t Sherman’s daughter.” Colton was scared shitless. He didn’t know what the hell was going on or how this man knew so much, but he wanted answers. “Go back to where you dropped her and see what you can find out. Maybe she’s really dead, and he’s just fishing.”

  “He knew her name too. Christ, and I gave him a clue that I did actually know her.”

  Colton wasn’t going to think about how much the man had told them in a few short seconds. Like he’d— Suddenly, he stopped thinking and looked at Benson.

  “What? What did you figure out?”

  “He’s like her dad. Venetia’s father. He read our minds. And while he got some information from doing it, we can rest assured he’s not all that good at it yet. He hurt us when he did it. People who are good at it, you don’t even know they’re doing that shit. So whatever he got, it’s just the surface stuff.” Benson said he didn’t know what that meant. “He wasn’t able to get deep into our minds. He could only rape our minds, I think it’s called. From now on, we’ll be careful about that. We should be able to feel him when he tries again. At least that’s what Roman told me. We’ll have to think of stupid shit. Like the ABCs or math things. That will mess him up.” At least he hoped so.

  Roman Burgeon had been something, but not human. He would never tell him what he was, not even when he took his life. He wouldn’t even tell him who he’d been talking to about their business. Since he was dead and the wife out of the picture, the baby was there for Colton to steal. His plan had been to sell her off, but now that he thought about it, Colton was sure the baby, even back then, wouldn’t allow him to do that. It was like she knew she had to grow up and hurt him in some way. He wished more and more every day that he’d just killed her too. He might have been better off than he was right now. Damn it all to fuck and back. He hated shit like this.

  Chapter 7

  Hanna sat at the little table waiting on Blanche to be brought out so she could talk to her. There were others visiting their family members here today, and she took note of the ones that were genuinely innocent and the ones that should have been sent to a bigger prison well before landing in the jail here.

  The things she could do with her magic now was empowering. Not only did she figure something out daily, but she was getting a handle on the powers she needed to help Morgan out the most. Carroll had told her yesterday about th
e upcoming street fair the town was having and the things his family would be involved in. She was sort of glad Blanche, as well as her sister-in-law, weren’t going to be around to mess it up.

  Apparently, over the years, the Mission sisters would set up a booth of their own and hand out pamphlets. Nothing that anyone wanted—they were just more of the same things, saying that the town was going to come to ruin because of Morgan and her leap. Hanna laughed a little, thinking of the different versions she’d heard as to why Morgan had called her land “leap” and not ranch or any of the other names that she could have used. Some knew the meaning, but very few of them cared.

  “What do you want?” She’s missed Blanche being brought to her and smiled at the other woman. This was going to be difficult for the older woman. At least she thought it might be. “I don’t want to see you. You and that other bitch have caused me enough trouble as it is. Why don’t you just go home and leave us decent people alone?”

  “Yesterday, when you and Rachel were picked up, you were brought here. Rachel was taken to the hospital sometime in the middle of the night. She was suffering from chest pains, she told the officers.” Blanche sort of slumped in her seat as if she knew what was coming next. “The doctors did all they could to save her. She, as I’m sure you know, was a diabetic and had heart problems. Carrying around that extra weight had made her heart work too hard. She passed away earlier this morning. I’m sorry for your loss.”

  She didn’t say anything for a while, just sat there staring at her. Hanna was sure she wasn’t seeing her but thinking. When she blinked several times in a row, Blanche finally started speaking.