Gannon: McCray Bruin Bear Shifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  There were two other women besides her getting their hair done at the same time. The women doing the cutting or coloring on the other two had high opinions of themselves, Vicky thought, until she heard them talking about the food card, which she’d heard of but never had. Then they talked about support from their lovers. Vicky didn’t know why, but she didn’t think any of them were doing without sex while their baby daddies, as they called them, forked over some heavy cash.

  “I tell you, had I known that I could have been better off without my Randal on my ass all the time and him having to pay me, I would have divorced his ass sooner. And being that the kids are in school all day? Well, it’s like not having them around very much. I tell you what; it’s the easiest three hundred dollars per kid I ever made. And I got me some nice housing too. The government gave me a four-bedroom house with a two-car garage just for me being a single mom without a job. I don’t even have to apply for the card anymore. It gets loaded up once a month with enough money on it for us to have steaks a few times a week. Then with the leftover money on it, I get to do something fun with it. No more standing in line with just enough food for Randal to eat while I have to cook it. We can all have something fine to eat.”

  “You get that much a month? That’s good for you. I was getting plenty for me to have some good eats until my oldest two, the twins, turned eighteen, and I had to cut them loose. I had to prove they was still in school for the last few months. But as soon as they finished up, they took it right off my card. Like I don’t have to feed them still.” Vicky couldn’t remember exactly how old her oldest was but knew that she couldn’t be eighteen yet. Close, but not too much. “Did you hear about Lisa? Her deadbeat baby daddy hadn’t been paying her a thing for his two kids. She went down to the offices there and told them she needed help. They found old David and had him paying her back support for all the years that she’d been without help. I’m telling you, the system can be harsh when it wants to, especially when you have no idea how to work it. But there are times when you can make you a river of money and not have to do a damned thing to get it.”

  As she sat there, trying to remember everything they were saying, she thought about living with Daniel. He’d been such a sap. Knowing that the kids weren’t even his, he still loved them like they were. Vicky thought that was when she decided that she couldn’t stand him anymore. Because he didn’t care that she’d been fucking around on him, even in his own bed, and he kept loving the kids anyway.

  Then there was his sister. Mel. Melody Austin was the meanest, nastiest bitch there ever was. It didn’t matter to her what kind of agreement Vicky and Daniel had about the kids, Mel had to stick her fucking nose into it and give her shit about it. She was also pretty sure that Mel had made the kids love her more than they did their own mother, just to be a fucking cunt about it.

  But the last straw had come between her and Mel when she wouldn’t allow Vicky to go with her to meetings that she had with that rich fuck, Mr. Springs. All she’d needed to do was let Vicky tag along so that she could have gotten in good with the man. It didn’t matter to Vicky that he was married and had a family, something that Mel brought up every time Vicky mentioned the meetings that she was going to. It also didn’t matter to her if he wanted the affair or not. Vicky knew ways of getting money out of rich fucks that not even the best romance writer knew how to put in their books. And there didn’t need to be any kind of slime exchanged between them for him to be paying her for a kid or two.

  She had heard that the fucker and all his family was dead now. Good riddance, she thought. Some guy had gone in and killed everyone that was there, including the dog. Vicky remembered that some kid had been left. She thought her name was Meadow or some shit like that.

  She’d been setting men up since she’d had her first brat. The men were still paying her hush money for her not telling their wives that they were the father. She had ten of those checks coming to her monthly. Even though none of them had fathered one of her children, they still paid her to keep it off the books, they told her.

  She’d lost a couple of the checks coming in recently. Two of the men that had never slept with her had ended up on the wrong end of a gun when Vicky had threatened to go to their wives a few too many times. Men were so stupid. And easy to screw with too.

  Vicky had herself a nice bank account, a beautiful home that she’d decorated herself, a new car with all the crap on it that a person could get, as well as things, luxuries, she called them, that even the other rich bitches had. Vicky was getting her cake and eating it too. All because she was smarter than any man she’d met.

  Burning down Daniel’s home had really been an accident. She meant only to scare him into coming to the courthouse with her. She didn’t know all the ins and outs about getting alimony from him, but she did figure that if he was with her when she applied for it, she’d get a check right then. Vicky could never have enough money. And getting it from the sap she’d been married to for a few years made it all the sweeter.

  All she’d meant was to threaten him by pouring gas all around the bottom part of the house. Just enough that he’d realize that she was serious. She had no idea that the fuck wasn’t there, nor were the kids until she accidentally dropped her cigarette on a stream of gas back to where she was standing.

  She’d been far enough away from it that Vicky thought it would not matter if she had herself a smoke. But when she dropped the butt to smash it out, it had hit that little bit of gasoline and raced all the way to the house. It was burning before she could get far enough away so as not to get burnt.

  The dog had caused her a scare. The mutt had startled her by barking up a storm when she’d been walking through the house, trying to find a match or a lighter. It had taken her a good ten minutes of looking through the fridge, then the medicine cabinet, to find something to shut him up. The dumb animal was dead before she found not just matches, but one of them lighter things as well. She’d over drugged him. Vicky wondered why they had a dog. Daniel didn’t seem to care that she’d not let him have one when she was living there. She didn’t want to have the thing barking all the time when she had men over, and the fucker would have too.

  Not that the dumb thing wouldn’t have died anyway. She’d left him in the house when she’d caught the house on fire. When the fire started crawling up the siding on the house, she knew that she had to get out of the way before someone called the police. Hiding in one of the garages across the street, Vicky got to watch as the place was nearly to the ground before anyone started putting it out.

  Then she saw Mel. Had she known that Mel was in the back of the house, she would have started there, and the fire would not have been accidental. Vicky hated her. And she was sure that the other woman hated her just as much.

  For a long time, she was sure that Mel thought that she’d caused the shooting at the school. She’d not done it, but there were times that she wished she had. There wouldn’t have been any survival for the kid. Vicky would have demanded that he kill her first before having his fun with the rest of the kids that had been taken out. Oh well, she told herself, live and learn.

  “May I help you?” The man behind the counter was saying the polite words, but Vicky could see that he’d turned his nose up at her. She could buy and sell this shit ten times over. “Are you looking to have a room? I will tell you that they’re very expensive.”

  “No shit. And if I wanted a room, I could well afford it. I’m looking for someone that may be staying here. In fact, I know he is. This is the only place left that I’ve not checked, and so he has to be here.” The man—Robbie, his name tag said—told her that unless she was sure he was there, he couldn’t help her. “I don’t want to see him, cock sucker. I just want to see if he’s here. I want to be able to keep an eye out for him so that the two of us can talk. His name is Daniel Austin. He’s my ex.”

  “We have no Austin staying with us. If you’d like, I can find you
a room at a different hotel.” She glared at him and told Robbie to look again. He did. “As I said, there is no Austin staying here at all. Now, if there is nothing else, I think it’s time you left.”

  “You son of a bitch, you’d better not be fucking with me right now. Where else would he be staying if not here? All the other hotels in town were very helpful in telling me—nicely, I might add—that he wasn’t there. Now you have really pissed me off. I’m going to write a review about you that will bring your score down to zip. Do you hear me?”

  “Yes, ma’am. I believe that the entire hotel lobby has heard you. I would even hazard a guess in thinking that the people at the pool would have. Now, I’ve summoned the police, and they are here now. If you’d be so kind—or not, I don’t care at this point—but you should go with them quietly, or they’ll rough you up.” He looked her up and down. “Although, I must say that it looks as if you’ve had a rough night of it already.”

  “Why you—” Her arms were jerked up behind her, and she had her head slammed against the counter. Robbie just stared at her as she was read her rights and told to stand still. “I’m going to get you, you mother fucker. You just wait and see.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” Robbie looked over her shoulder and smiled. It was a brilliantly white smile that made her think of lightning storms in the summer. “Next?”

  Vicky would be back. She would make sure that he was on duty and put him in a world of hurt for this. Damn it. Why didn’t he just tell her that Daniel was there, and that would have been the end of it? The little fucker was going to pay. That was a promise.

  Chapter 6

  Gannon watched as Mr. and Mrs. Austin fawned over the children. He had no idea why, but he thought that they were doing it for show. Holly looked confused. Dan looked around as if he was trying to find someone to save him, and Mary wouldn’t leave his side. Not even when Mr. Austin asked her to give him a hug.

  “They’re just shy, I guess.” Mrs. Austin looked around the room and then pinned Gannon, it felt like when she looked directly at him. “You must be someone working with my son. He’s always been very generous with people that needed a hand up.”

  “I’m sure you’d like to think that, but Mother, I work for him. All the McCrays. Mel is here too. Did you see how she’s looking?” Mrs. Austin did greet her daughter, but it was more like she wasn’t sure what to say to anyone. “Mother, what is going on here? You were told, not less than ten times, that we were all right. There was no reason for you to cut your trip short and come here to check us over.”

  “You’re my son. What a thing to say to me.” She laughed, more like a titter of one. She looked at Melody. “I wanted to make sure that everyone was all right. You know how a mother worries. Well, perhaps you don’t, Mel, darling, but you must know that I worry.”

  “That’s quite enough.” Gannon surprised himself by stepping forward after Mrs. Austin said that to Melody. “The house that you’re currently standing in is mine and Melody’s. The limo that you rode here in was the family’s. If you can’t say nice things to my future wife, then I would appreciate it if you’d keep your mouth shut. I was under the impression that you and your husband were a nice couple, that you’d come here with open arms and good feelings. So far, you’ve made the children as uncomfortable as I’ve ever seen them, and insulted everyone in the room, with the exception of my parents. If you do that, I swear to you that I will tear you apart without a second’s hesitation. Behave or leave. That is entirely up to you.”

  Demi patted him on the back as she moved around him to stand in front of Mrs. Austin. “My name is Demetrius Morgan McCray. My grandmother was Millicent Morgan. You might well remember her. I remember the two of you.” Gannon didn’t know what was going on right now, but when Melody took his hand, he held it tightly. “You’re not here checking the welfare of your children and grandchildren. Sam Austin lost his job several months ago, and you’ve been trying to keep one step ahead of bill collectors. You landed here because you read that your son and daughter had hit it big in working a large job for us. Isn’t that right?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Mr. Austin, Sam, moved to stand next to his wife when she spoke. “I’ll have your ass for this. See if I don’t own you and your grandmother’s riches before the end of the day.”

  Ignoring her, Demi looked at Sam again. “Sam, what the fuck did you think was going to happen when you started embezzling money from the company, mine and my husband’s company, to the tune of forty million dollars a year? Did you really think that no one would notice?” Sam paled to a sickly white color. “You don’t have a pot to piss in. You even owe money on the trip here, hoping, I suppose, that your son would pay it off and give you some money. You didn’t think to ask Mel, because you haven’t had any faith in our Melody ever coming out of her shell, have you?

  Sam broke down. Simply fell to the floor and sobbed about how he’d tried to pay it back. That he’d been working two jobs to make some extra money that would go to that, but Melody, his wife, wouldn’t stop spending.

  “Shut up, Sam. We don’t owe these people a thing.” Demi just crossed her arms over her chest and stared at the elder Melody. “You think you’re so smart, don’t you? Well I have news for you, young lady. The money is gone—every penny of it. We don’t, as you so indelicately put it, have a pot to piss in. And yes, it was me that spent it. I saw no reason whatsoever that we had to live near poverty level when the bosses—you, I guess—were living it up on our backs. So I took it from the accounts and never had a single qualm about it.”

  “Near poverty? I see. So the company paying for your housing, the cars that you drove around, as well as the credit cards, were you living near poverty. Not to mention, Sam was bringing home a nice six-figure income that had nothing to do with all the other perks that the company gave you.” The woman actually lifted her chin up, like she thought that whatever was going on right now was all right. “I’m pressing charges against you, Melody Austin. The police have been listening in on the entire thing. My goodness, I need to thank you for confessing everything without me having to beat it out of you.”

  Gannon felt his Melody squeeze his hand before she let it go. Her mother was being cuffed and spoken to when she walked up to her mother and slapped her across the face. Hard enough, Gannon noticed, that she stumbled enough that she nearly fell.

  “You monster. How could you do that to Dad? When Demi told me what was going on, I thought that it had to be a lie, that you’d never jeopardize your lifestyle like that. And that’s not all of it, is it, Mother? You even got the kids’ social security numbers and used them to get yourself even more credit, while Dad was working three jobs to try and repay some of what you’d taken.” Daniel looked shocked about that. He stood beside his sister and asked his mom if she’d really done that. “She did. Holly has a credit score of less than two hundred right now. Dan’s is only a little better at three, and Mary, thankfully, is all right because Mother didn’t have the correct number when she applied for credit in her name. Demi showed me all the applications that were taken out in their names. She’s also working on getting them reversed.”

  “I don’t like you.” Mary moved toward her grandma Austin and kicked her in the shin. “You’re not a nice person. I don’t like you anymore. My aunt Mel is the best in the world, and you were mean to her too. You go to jail, and I won’t ever see you again.”

  Mary put her arms around her grandda and helped him stand. Dan was with her as the elder man was led to the library by his grandchildren. Holly just stood there, glaring at her grandmother as if she could burn her with her eyes. When she finally spoke, her voice was low, but no less filled with anger.

  “I hope that you’re proud of yourself. You turned an eight-year-old little girl against you. Mary is the sweetest person I’ve ever known, and you made her hate.” Holly stood right in front of her grandma. They were nose to no
se, Holly an inch or two taller than the elder woman. “I never thought that I’d have to say this to another human being, but I do believe that you’re worse than my mother. Neither one of you deserves any of us in your lives. For so long as you live, Melody Austin, I will never speak to you, of you, or see you again.”

  Holly made her way into the room where her sister and brother had gone. Gannon had never been as proud of anyone as he was the three of them. When the police were taking the older Melody away, she wanted to know why Sam wasn’t being arrested too. Gannon had figured that out all on his own, but was glad that Demi told her.

  “Because he was never involved in your theft. He didn’t even know what was going on until you were nearly sixty million dollars in the red for what you stole from the company. Then, he not only tried to work it out so that he could pay it back by going to his boss about it, but he also agreed to give up his pension as well as all the perks. But you didn’t care for his way of dealing with it, and you kept right on taking until you nearly drove him over the edge. There was nothing that the company could do then but to fire him. Thanks wholly to you.” Melody said that he never wanted to have fun. “Not your kind of fun. He, unlike you, is a good person with a good heart. I doubt very much you ever had one once you got a taste for the money you took. It’s really too bad. Sam is going to have a job, his pension back, as well as more perks with his new position—again, thanks wholly to you. Now that he’s gotten rid of the bad baggage—you, in case you didn’t get that—he is free and clear of all the wrongdoings. Thank you for that.”