Finn: Xavier’s Hatchlings ― Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance (Xavier's Hatchlings Book 1)

by Kathi S. Barton

  Not helping them with the building, first of all. They’re only going to be pouring more money into the building until one day there’s just going to be too much work needed. Milo said he thought it was happening now. I agree. As a not for profit foundation too, I was thinking we need to get them into something bigger and in better shape.

  Finn asked his brother to hang on a moment, Rachel had an idea. “Can the faeries be trusted to build the building they’ll need and not go overboard?” Finn told her they had to be shown what was needed. “Okay. But it will have to be built on the outskirts of town. I think I read someplace about boundaries not being close to schools. Since there is one at each end of this town, we have to build out. Can they do it?”

  He told Milo what Rachel said. That’s brilliant. I’ll talk to my faerie right now. He’ll be able to gather people up when the timing is right. Do you have an idea of what is going to be needed to start this? Finn told him he didn’t, but he’d find some information on the Internet. Good. Tell Rachel I love her for this.

  Finn and Rachel went into the house and to his office. Tomorrow her things were going to be delivered from her house to here. Chad was going to be using the sub levels of the house as his own until he decided what his plans were going to be. The faeries had fixed it up for him to have his own entrance too. Finn made himself a mental note to find a faerie for Chad. And soon. He should have thought of it when he first realized Chad was going to be related to him.

  For the first time in ages, Finn felt as if he had a purpose. It wasn’t like he didn’t have a job to do, or things to fill his time. But it had felt as if he was just filling a void anyone could have filled. Today, with the help for the halfway house, his blood was stirring in a way he’d never felt about work. He was excited as he’d ever been.

  The Internet proved to be very helpful after they figured out what wording to use to bring up buildings. They decided a hotel-like setting would be the best to use, simply because the rooms would be private, as well as having a bathroom for each of the rooms. After they figured out what they could build, Milo also told the group in charge what sort of amenities would be needed, as well as things not to put in each room. Such as no television—for now. Also, a cutoff switch for each separate room to make Internet connections on a day to day basis.

  Milo joined them for dinner later. He, too, was excited to have something to work on. Finn was sort of sad his parents had left already. It would have been fun to share the excitement with them. After the building was built—sometime tomorrow, Lily, Milo’s faerie, told them—they would take the people running the place to the new working building.

  “You do know this is going to have people coming out of the woodwork for us to help them too.” Milo shook his head when Finn told him good. “You don’t understand. Every crackpot in the world is going to be wanting us to fund stupid projects. Like someone going to the moon, or something equally stupid.”

  “I hope we won’t be taken by someone wanting to go there, but we’ll handle it well and tell them to look elsewhere. Then if they don’t take our advice, we’ll take care of them with our dragons. Look at it as a win-win situation for us.” Milo asked him how he came to having the dragons take care of them. “You see, they’ll be out of our hair. Others will notice how the dragons took care of the crackpots and never bother us again. Also, our dragons will be happy for the fun time they have. See?”

  “You’re insane. You know we can’t kill people just because they want to scam us.” Finn jokingly asked him why not. “Because we’ll have to explain why there are so many burn places in our yard to the authorities, for one.”

  “I’m not worried about us getting in trouble over a few scorch marks.” Milo asked him why he wasn’t. “Aunt Carson will have our backs.”

  He and Milo laughed hard about Aunt Carson having their backs. She’d be pissy about what they did, but only because she’d not been able to do it herself. Their aunt was scary when she was in a mood. Which, to him, was nearly all the time.

  ~~~

  Sandra was going to the courtroom today to figure out her fate, she supposed. Feeling like she’d been in the ugly jail cell for years rather than a few days, she was glad to be out of doors, even if it was only for a few minutes. Inhaling deeply as they passed her from the building to the awaiting van, Sandra realized how much she missed being able to come and go as she pleased.

  Having plenty of time to think, she knew her husband was being influenced by Rachel in this divorce thing, as well as locking her out of her home and the business she had claimed as her own. How she’d done it was a mystery to her, as she had told Chad several times he was to stay away from Rachel. She was a money hoarding bitch.

  Putting those thoughts aside, for now, she stood up when told to as the judge entered the room. Why? Why on earth did people stand up when a man, no different than any other person she knew, came into the room? Whatever, she supposed. However he got his jollies was fine by her.

  “Ms. Smart, are we going to have any trouble today?” She told him she hadn’t caused any trouble at all. “I suppose you having to be taken away before things were settled wasn’t anything but an everyday occurrence to you. But in my courtroom, you’ll do as you’re told, or I’ll find you in contempt of court. I’ll have you confined to the jail until your trial is over. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Crystal. However, I would like to point out, I’m not being treated well at the jail. I have my own cell now, finally. But my commode is sitting out in the open without any kind of privacy. I want something done about it.” He told her she was in jail and not allowed to have luxuries. “Taking a piss in privacy isn’t a luxury, but a necessity. I need to have some sort of dignity given to me.”

  “Again, you’re in jail, not a hotel. You’ll live with the consequences of your actions. Now, we’re going to go over the information I have here on the docket today, and you’re going to keep your mouth shut. Also, and I should have told you this earlier, there will be no more cursing while in here. The vulgarity of you speaking in such a way is beneath the laws we govern with.” Sandra rolled her eyes so he could see how she felt about his rule. “Do you wish to remain here or not, Ms. Smart? I’m in no mood to deal with your shenanigans today.”

  “Yes, I want to stay. But all these rules are making it so I can’t tell you when you’re wrong about something.” He asked her what she was talking about. “The facts are I’m not divorced. No one came to me to sign paperwork for it, so it didn’t happen. Another thing is, I’m unable to get into the restaurant I own or the house I shared with my husband, because of Rachel Merkel, or whatever her last name is.”

  “Her name is Rachel Manning, wife of Finn Manning.” She rolled her eyes at him again. “You just sit there and keep quiet. I’d like to have your trial set up as soon as possible so you don’t have to come in here and ruin my day.”

  “You mean if I sit here and not say anything, you’ll set up my trial, so I can defend myself against these people? Do you mean I can get out of a jail cell I should never have been in in the first place?”

  The judge told her it would wholly depend on the evidence and where it took them. “But you’re not going to be released to roam around. I want you to be aware of everything expected of you right now. You have to have a home to go to so we can monitor your every move.” She asked him if it meant someone was going to the bathroom when she had to take a piss. “Ms. Smart, the more time I spend around you, the more I realize why your husband wanted a divorce. No, there will not be any monitoring of your bathroom visits. The monitor will be there in the event you try and leave the yard of the house you’re staying in. Do you understand what I’m saying to you? If there isn’t a home for you to go to, you’ll be required to spend time in the jail to make sure you’re unable to flee the state. Also, if you curse one more time, I will charge you.”

  “All right. I’ll be quiet. I want you to know I don�
�t like being told to shut up. It’s beyond rude for someone to tell another person to hush.” She sat down and folded her arms over her chest. “Well, get going. I have things to do today, and sitting around this room while you get your heads out of your collective asses isn’t getting me any closer to being free.”

  “One hundred dollar fine for Ms. Smart for cursing.” She thought he was joking, but the man who had been talking to him all along wrote it down on a smallish notebook he took from his pocket. “Let’s get this thing going, shall we?”

  Her attorney stood up to try and get her the best deal, whatever the hell that was supposed to mean. When you do nothing wrong, why did there have to be deals made?

  Glaring at her attorney, she wondered why on earth someone would name their kid Bartholomew Henderson. He looked like he was still in high school, but had told her he was going to do all the talking. Yesterday when he’d come to the jail to talk to her, he told her she should just plead guilty and let them fine her.

  “That’s the same thing as saying I did this shit. I didn’t change the locks on my house. Nor did I close down the restaurant. This is just bullshit.” He told her the places weren’t hers at all, and it was trespassing. “Not in my own places, it’s not trespassing.”

  “Ms. Smart, the restaurant and the house didn’t have your name on them. Up until recently, the house was in your ex-husband’s name.” Sandra told him they weren’t divorced. “Yes. You are. The restaurant belongs to your sister-in-law, Mrs. Manning.”

  “It’s mine because I was running it.” He asked her if she had an idea who was taking the money from the nightly sales if it wasn’t her. “I don’t understand what you’re trying to say to me. I took money from the deposits. As the manager of the place, it was my right to take home an entire side of beef if I wanted to. Me taking money from the place shouldn’t even have been brought up. What business is it of anyone’s if I took the money?”

  “Because, as I’ve been trying to tell you, it’s not your money. Also, and you should really think on this, it’s more than just the missing money. There is also a fraudulent case against you for your claims of owning something you don’t. You can’t go around telling people you own a place if it’s not yours.” Sandra had told him it should have been hers all along. “It’s not, so don’t bring it up again.”

  Here she sat, on an uncomfortable chair, trying to keep from screaming at the people who were working hard at her having to stay in jail. This was just stupid, she thought. No one was on her side, and it was pissing her off royally.

  Stewing in her own misery, Sandra tuned everything else out of her mind. There was some planning she needed to get done before she was set free from jail. Then there was the fact she’d been divorced while being locked up like some sort of criminal element. There had to be a law about how it was supposed to work.

  Thinking about the first time she’d met Chad, brought on more things to be pissed off about. He’d been at a party of one of his friends. Sandra couldn’t remember if it had been his birthday or someone’s at the party. Either way, she’d not cared for him one bit. Sandra thought it was perhaps because he was so indifferent to the woman he was with. After finding out it was his sister, Sandra set her sights on him.

  He had money, she’d heard. Asking anything about Chad Merkel, the first thing people said was that he’d been born with money coming out his ass—not anything she’d ever seen while married to him. Chad would pinch a penny until it turned back into copper just to squeeze its worth from it. Sandra smiled when she thought of her calling him names all the time.

  Now she’d been told he was not only wealthy, but a millionaire to boot. This was why she was so upset with him. Withholding information about money was just plain wrong. They’d had a nice relationship with him paying all the bills and her keeping what money she made at her restaurant.

  But, it hadn’t been enough for her while working there. There was no way she’d have been able to eat at the very place she owned. Also, her car had been broken down more than it had been working.

  Christ, she thought, the problems with having barely enough money flowing into her pocketbook had been staggering. It was the reason she’d taken to keeping out a little of the deposit each night she worked. Times when she’d been really low on spending money, Sandra would hit the restaurant about the time they were closing up and take the bank bag to the bank herself. She remembered the first time she’d just not taken the money to the bank. Sandra kept all the thousands of dollars for herself.

  It had been one shopping spree after another after the first time. Sandra had been surprised Chad seemed to be oblivious to her new clothes, not to mention the beautiful diamond bracelet she’d gotten for herself. No matter what she did to have him notice something to cause a fight with him, he would just walk away.

  “Bastard.” Everyone in the room looked in her direction. It took her a few seconds to realize she’d spoken out loud. “Sorry. I forgot.”

  Paying more attention now as to what she said, Sandra thought again about Chad. He’d been a loser since she started dating him. They had gone out to nice places while dating and had a lot of fun when he wasn’t upset about her spending habits. Even after he caught on she was having affairs, he’d been a decent person about it.

  Where did he get off thinking he was divorcing her? Or thinking he could when the two of them were no different now than before? It just didn’t make any sense. She had thought for about five minutes it was because he’d finally figured out there was money to be had, and he didn’t want to share it. However, it didn’t seem like something he’d do. Chad was anything but a deceptive person. And while she didn’t like him, hadn’t ever loved him, he’d been a real stand up kind of guy who any woman—well, almost any woman—would love to have. But she couldn’t talk herself into loving or liking him. She didn’t like his home boy ways, or his shucks and darn way of getting upset with her. She wanted passion. Anger. Maybe even a punch or two from him.

  Fighting was another thing he never got right. Chad never got physical about anything. She’d hit him square in the face, and he’d just flinch and walk away. She’d seen the back of Chad more times while fighting than she had when they were in the same house. He was, she thought, a pussy.

  Her attorney touching her on the shoulder, alerted her to her surroundings, pulling her from her musings about a man she shouldn’t have married. Of course, she had known before the wedding that he was a sap, but today, this week, it was getting harder and harder to imagine what she’d seen in him in the first place.

  Looking around to see what everyone else was doing, she didn’t know what she was supposed to do, so sat there waiting. They were packing up things to leave, it looked like. It wasn’t like her to tune everything out when thinking. Today, she supposed, was an off day for her. She needed to watch herself.

  “What’s going on?” Her attorney looked pissed off. “What the fuck is up your ass now? I didn’t say anything.”

  “No, you didn’t. Even when the judge asked you, several times when you wanted to go to trial. Couldn’t you have torn yourself from whatever you were doing for a moment? Now it will be November instead of now.” He laughed as he plucked lint or whatever only he could see from his jacket. “I guess you know what that means for you, don’t you?”

  “No. I don’t. When are they going to uncuff me? I have to—”

  “Yes, we all know, you have shit to do. Well, it’s my pleasure to tell you that you’re going to be in jail until the hearing. You’re considered a flight risk, not to mention, several times over the last few days, you’ve been recorded telling the only other inmate at the jail how much you hate Rachel Manning, and how you were going to break her neck when you got close enough.”

  “They can’t use a private conversation against me.” The boy in a man’s body just stared at her. The two guards who had brought her to the courthouse were waiting behind the man.
“You are not going to be taking me back to jail. You said you’d get the best deal for me. This isn’t a deal at all if you ask me. You fucked me over.”

  “No, Ms. Smart, you did it all on your own when you decided to embezzle money from a place you didn’t own. No matter how many times you say it is yours, you’re still going to be wrong every time. Mrs. Manning is pressing charges. The police station is pressing charges. Hell, it wouldn’t surprise me if the entire town said you did something to them. I’d believe them too. Simply spending the last few days with you is making me second guess my lifelong dream of becoming an attorney.” He stood there for a few seconds longer before speaking again. “You should use your tactics on teenagers about texting and driving. I’m betting you’d scare them straight without much in the way of threats. I’m sure they’d do it just to make you shut up. You have a good day, Ms. Smart. I’m going home to my wife and children, and won’t think of you one bit.”

  “Wait. I’m not going back to the ugly cell. You promised me a good deal, and I don’t know where you’re from that you’d think this is a good deal—it’s not. Now, you tell them all to come back here. I will not spend any more time in that place. I don’t like it.” The kid just laughed as he walked away. The two people taking her back to the jail cell approached her. “You touch me with those leggings again, and I’m not going to be responsible for how you’re going to look when I’m finished.”

  “You can do this two different ways, Ms. Smart. You cooperate, or you don’t. If you pick the first one, good for you. The second one is going to put you into a world of hurt.” The big burly man laughed at her. “We come out on top either way. However, you’re going to be pissing yourself all over this nice floor.”

  “Try it. I dare you to try anything against me.” He pulled out what looked to her like a gun. “Are you going to kill me with your gun? If so, I want you to know it’s going to take more than a bullet to stop me from hurting you back.”