Nah. Then Josiah would bitch about me lording it over him. You know? That I didn’t have to marry a debutante to get my credit rating up. She told him to behave. I am. But I have to walk to the airport now. It’s not that far, but I should get going. Thank you, Meadow. I really appreciate you having money so that I could get home in a reasonable timeframe.
I love you, Gannon. I’ll pick you up at the airport. I don’t want you to think that this is over, either. You are going to have to figure this shit out before I have to beat it into your head.
He told her that he loved her as well, and they closed the connection. Gannon just wanted a nap and for this day to start over. He didn’t think that either of those things were going to happen. Oh well, he thought, he’d figure something out.
Chapter 3
When she opened her eyes, everything that had happened between her and the McCray man washed over her like scalding water. She looked to her right and saw her brother sitting in one of the chairs that were the same in every hospital she’d ever been in, the same ugly pattern. She was sure it had the same comfort zone, which was none. Mel was even sure, when her brother shifted on the seat, that there was a nasty piece of foam that would bind up and tuck itself into an inconvenient place in his crack.
“Are you going to say anything or just lay there and stare at me?” She told him what she’d been thinking about. “Yes, well, it isn’t the most comfortable chair that I’ve ever sat in. You scared the crap out of me, Mel. Please don’t do that again.”
“I’m sorry. I feel like I have to say that to Mr. McCray as well. He was only trying to—Did he tell me he was my mate or something like that?” Daniel told her that he’d told him that she was. “Well, that shit isn’t going to fly. I don’t need a mate. Not to mention his kind likes to breed like rabbits, and that’s not going to happen with me. You should tell him that.”
“He knows. Mel, you were hurt by a bear at the school. You never said a word about that to anyone. Why?” She turned away from him. “Mel, you treated that man horribly, when all he was trying to do was keep you from running into a burning building. I know that he had some broken ribs. Not to mention—”
“Then don’t. Don’t mention it to me, Daniel. I didn’t ask for any of this. Not the shooting. Not him being around. I was doing just fine until some jackass came into my high school and decided to fuck me up. I don’t understand why he didn’t just kill me like he did the others. Why didn’t he? He tossed me around that gym like I was a play toy, and he was going to get the most enjoyment out of his time there. Then, before you came in to keep me alive, he pulled out this giant knife and sliced and diced me like I was nothing. Well, I am nothing. To anyone.” Daniel told her not to talk like that. “Why not? You have something profound to add? Did they somehow find a miracle that will take away the constant pain that I’m in? Have they come up with something that will take away the terror that I feel every time I hear a loud bang? Or so when I see a bear that I won’t run away in fear? Will they be able to replace the damage that was done to me so that I can someday be a mother? I doubt very much that that’s happened. What do you think?”
Her brother stood up, and she could see the pain that she’d caused him. Before she could tell him that she was sorry, he turned to the door and paused. He was going to leave her. Daniel was going to walk out that door, she thought, and right out of her life.
“You’re selfish. I never realized that until right this minute. You want to die, Mel? Then I guess there is shit I can do about it. Go ahead, leave me. But before you do, you’re going to tell my children that you’re a fucking coward, and you’re going to take the easy way out.” She told him she was sorry. “That might have been good enough before—before I found out that you were holding things back about your being hurt—but not anymore. I could have been helping you. All of us could have been. But you’d rather suffer in silence. Well, not so silently, have you? I’m going to Ohio in an hour. You can come with me or not. I’m not going to try and talk you into something anymore, Mel. I’m not trustworthy enough in your eyes to know the truth, apparently, so you go ahead and do whatever it is that will make you feel better.”
When he left her there, Mel tried to tell herself that she’d wanted all this long ago. To be left on her own. To be able to kill herself if she wanted. But the pain in her heart was too much to bear the lies anymore. She didn’t want to be alone. Mel needed her family more than she did anything else.
The door opened, and she hoped to see her brother coming in so that she could beg him for his forgiveness.
“Your brother said that you might want to leave. Is that right?” She nodded and asked the nurse if she’d been released. “You’ve never been a patient here. What I mean is, Mr. McCray called and told us that you were only resting here. That you’d just witnessed your home burning down. He insisted that when you woke, you’d be all right to leave. Would you like for me to take you down to the lobby, Ms. Austin?”
“I think I can manage it.” She pulled the light sheet off her body and looked at her hands. They were painful now. “Did he mention anything about my being burnt?”
“Yes. He said that you assured him that you could take care of it.” Mel had said a lot of things to the man. “Would you like to see the doctor? If you would, then I’m going to have to have you admitted. That would be the only way that you could see him.”
“No. I’ll take care of it.”
She got up and looked for her clothing. When the nurse handed her the bag that was under the bed, she went to the bathroom to change. The nurse was gone when she came out.
Wondering how she was going to get to the airport, Mel made her way to the lobby. There were a lot of people there, none of whom she knew, of course. Instead of making anyone come for her, she went out to find herself a taxi. Instead, she found her name written on a piece of cardboard and a man dressed in a gray uniform.
“I’m Melody Austin.” He nodded to her, even going so far as to tip his hat at her. Then he handed her a cell phone. “Do you know who I’m supposed to call?”
He didn’t answer her because the phone chirped about then. The face that appeared on the front of it wasn’t anyone that she knew. Answering it, she heard the woman laughing at something and wanted to hang up. But Mel knew that somehow this woman was going to help her.
“I’m sorry. My husband can be such a goof. My name is Meadow McCray. I’m sister-in-law to Demi. The man there with you is my driver. Well, not my driver, but he’s the man that I hired for you to get your ass to the airport before the plane leaves. His name is Charlie West. You should ask him for identification. Go ahead; I’ll wait.” The humming coming through the phone was annoying. But when the laughter started again, Mel asked the man for some identification. “Good girl. Now, this is what is going to happen. You can tell me to fuck off if you want, but it won’t do you a bit of good. I can, even from where I am, make you do things that will blow your gasket. Get in the limo and get to the airport.”
“You’re very rude, aren’t you?” Meadow thanked her. “Why would you even begin to think that was a compliment? It wasn’t, in the event you needed someone to clarify that for you.”
“You’re going to be a part of this family soon enough, Mel. Whether you want to be or not. So resolving this shit you have going on with Gannon, will make it so that one of us doesn’t have to kill you. And believe me, when I tell you, we will.” Mel looked around for another way to get to the airport that didn’t have her beholden to this bitch. “Again, thank you. Yes, you might want to remember that for future thoughts. I can read them all. In fact, I can get right into the nitty-gritty of things and find out every detail you have about today when you hurt Gannon. There is not a nicer, sweeter man alive, and you reduced him to leaving his mate alone in your time of need.”
“I’m not even going to discuss this with you. It’s frankly none of your business.” Meadow told her th
at she was making it her business. “And what happens if I stay here? I don’t finish the job that I started for your family? Not that I can anyway. I’ve lost it all. I have ten doors done that were in storage, or you’d not even have those. There would be more, but every time I speak to the other female McCray, she has changes. Changes that make it so that I have to modify every door that I had finished previously. Do you have any idea how much that is costing me?”
“What do you mean, it’s costing you? You gave us a price, and we’ll be paying you for that. Plus, I think there was a deposit put down too.” Mel explained to her what she’d been doing, and the quoted price on the contract, as she was helped into the limo. “We never meant for you to eat the extra cost. Christ, I’m sorry. Look, you get here, and we’ll get this worked out. As for what you lost in the fire, that’s been taken care of as well.”
“I don’t need your help. I’ll get this taken care of.” Meadow told her that it was already fixed. “While I have no idea what that means, you can’t know what I lost in that fire any more than I do. A lot of that equipment I had in there was specially made. By me.”
“You get here, and we’ll work this out. Gannon is on his way to the airport, but he’s not riding back with you. He said that he didn’t want you throwing him from the plane at ten thousand feet.” She said that she’d never do that. “Really? Then you might want to think about some of the things you said to him when you were beating him to shit at the fire. I’ll see you soon, dear sister. And when you get here, you’d better be nice to the elder McCrays, or I will murder you. They’re the nicest people you’d ever want to meet. And we all love them.”
Indicating, Mel thought, that they didn’t much care for her. That was fine. She didn’t care much for the family as a whole, either.
The phone was disconnected, and Mel handed it up to the driver. Charlie told her that she was to keep it, and this wasn’t from him in case she needed to be yelled at once again.
“Do you know these people?” He said that he didn’t, but he’d been called in to work for them. “They’re very rude if you ask me. And bossy. I wonder how many times a day they’re told that. Surely it amounts in the millions, I think.” He laughed, and she leaned against the window. While Mel could be rude herself—well, she was rude when it suited her—she’d never talk that way to a stranger.
Thinking that she’d teach them a lesson or two when she got there, she told the driver to stop when she saw Mr. McCray walking alongside of the road. When they stopped, she watched as the man stared at the limo as if he’d never seen one before. Charlie got out and went to speak to him as she waited. The man had to be insane to walk all this way without so much as a hat on. Didn’t he know how hot it was right now? Mel didn’t either, but surely it was too warm to be walking around in the afternoon sun.
Charlie got back in the car, and she noticed that McCray started walking again. She asked Charlie what was going on.
“He told me that he’d rather walk. It’s only about another two miles to the airport. He’s right about that. The fact that he’s close, he told me, makes him think he’s making good time.” She asked him to stop again when he started up the car. “Miss, I think he can handle himself. He told me to remind you that he is a bear.”
“Well, there isn’t any reason for him to be a stupid bear.” She got out of the limo and stomped her way to Gannon when he turned to look at her. “What the fuck are you doing? Are you trying to be a martyr? Get in the fucking car. We don’t have to speak to each other if that’s what you wish.”
He moved toward her, halving the distance between then in seconds. Mel, terrified all at once, backed up quickly, falling on her ass. While he towered over her, she had her arms up to cover her face and whimpered. It was such a quick, gut reaction that it took her a few moments to realize that not only had he not touched her, but that he’d stopped moving too.
Putting her hands down at her side, she looked up at him. There was anger there, a great deal of it. It seemed that it was all over his body, not just his pinched face. Lifting her chin up to show him that she didn’t care what he thought of her, Mel wondered if he’d put out his hand to help her up. It was him that had made her fall.
“You can’t even stand for me to be close to you out in the open. What will you do if I were to get too close to you in a vehicle? Jump out into moving traffic? Or would you shove me out to the side of the road? Either way, with you being so terrified of me, I think that we’re better off if we stay as far from each other as we possibly can. Don’t you?”
She didn’t answer him. It hurt her for some reason that he was right in his comment.
When he turned this time to go, she let him. Getting up, she stood there watching him walk away and seemingly having not a care in the world. Turning to get into the limo again, Mel realized that tears were streaming not just down her cheeks, but her nose was watery as well. Getting in, she found a box of tissues on the seat beside her and knew on some level that letting him walk away from her was going to be the worst thing she’d ever done.
Are you all right? Instead of answering who she thought was Meadow speaking to her in her head, Mel started crying harder. It felt as if her tears were coming straight from her heart, wringing every last bit of her sorrow from there. He’s fine, you know? And right. If you can’t stand to be around him, Mel, you’re better off just leaving him to fly home alone.
I don’t know what I’m to do. Meadow told her that they’d help her. I don’t fucking know why I’m so afraid of him when he’s a man. He’s never even so much as touched me, except for a moment when I was hurt. The man hasn’t yelled at me for being a pussy. He’s never even risen his voice about how terrified I am of him.
He wouldn’t either. Gannon would understand about demons more than most. I don’t know why that is, but since the first time I met him, I always thought that he was holding something from all of us that is painful for him. Mel asked her why she’d never looked. I’m afraid that once it’s set free, whatever it is, he’d never forgive me for barging into his fast held secret.
But it’s okay for you to barge into my life. Meadow told her something that she knew to be as true as anything anyone had ever told her before. Her secret was killing her. I wasn’t sure if it was real or not. No one else ever mentioned a bear to me. Or that they were tossed around like I was when he was there. I thought that I’d dreamed it all up somehow.
All the other people that had any contact with him are dead. I’ve checked to see what I could find out. When you get here, we’ll talk about it. I want you to know that I’m doing everything that I can here on this end to find out who the man was, as well as seeing into other schools that he might have targeted. He had inside help, Mel. You have figured that out, haven’t you? She asked her what she meant. You were there on a Saturday. You were decorating on a Saturday morning for a dance that night. The venue changed, correct? The place where you were going to have the dance had a fire, and it had to be changed. There had to be someone on the inside that not just allowed him into the building while you were there, but also let him know about what rooms were being decorated.
It was in the paper. That’s how he could have figured it out. Meadow told her that was true, so who let him in? I don’t know. I mean, there were people in the offices cleaning up, but they were killed. Right? I mean, it would have to have been someone in the office that did that.
Or someone gave him a key to bypass the security lock. For all we know, he could have said he was there to help. That’s what I’m betting on. I can’t see him killing off his inside man. Or maybe he did. I don’t know if we’ll ever know who helped or how he was able to get in. Mel thought of that and knew that Meadow had to be right. Someone had planned for them to be killed. But who? Why? We’ll talk when you get here. All right? Don’t worry about Gannon. We’ll help you two.
~*~
Daniel didn’t know what to say to his s
ister. His mind was blank on what he could say to her after all that had been found out this morning. She knew more than she had ever told him. Daniel felt like he’d failed her. That her trust in him had never been as deep and untroubled as his had been for her.
When she told him about the thing between her and Gannon that had happened on her way here, Daniel didn’t say anything to her about that either. Whatever had happened to her, the rest of what she was holding back might make it so that they’d not be able to work with the McCrays again. And Daniel genuinely enjoyed the other family. They had become what he thought of as friends since the beginning of this project.
“I’m so sorry for what I said to you at the hospital. I deserved what you said to me. More, if you ask me. I’ve been wrong for not telling you what I remembered about the incident at the school. You’ve been nothing but kind and good to me, Daniel. Even going beyond what a brother does for a sister.” He looked at her and realized that she’d been crying heavily. “You were right about me being selfish, too. I’ve been nothing but a drag since this thing happened. I’m also, I believe, responsible for you and Vicky getting a divorce.”
“No, you had nothing to do with that. We were on the outs even before you were hurt. I mean, all the rest is true, but that’s on her.” Mel smiled at him, but he could see that she was still struggling with the pain. “I should have been a tad more compassionate about how I said all that to you as well. I…I’m sorry, but I won’t take it back, not unless you will finally tell me what happened there. Not just bits and pieces this time, Mel, but all of it.” She nodded and told him that she would. “I’m going to hold you to that. And, really, I want you to talk to my children. They know that you’re hurting. You should tell them how much pain you’ve been in. I think, of all the people you know and I know, they would understand your pain more than most. Just because they love you more than anything in this world.”
Gannon: McCray Bruin Bear Shifter Romance Page 4
