Fisher: Prince of Tigers – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  “What makes you think she’s going to get any of it in the first place? After all she’s put us through in the last few weeks, I’d say we should just cut her out altogether. I mean, she did sell off the house without giving us a part of that money.” He’d not even considered that. “She should have thought of us first thing, Louis. We’re the only family she has. Now she’s out there someplace spending our mother’s money as if she doesn’t have a care in the world. I’m telling you right now, that if she’s spent it all, I’m going to kill her. I’m not joking around about that either. She’ll be dead.”

  Louis believed her. And if she didn’t do it, he was going to. Just last week, he’d put a hundred-thousand-dollar policy on his sister and made himself the beneficiary. He was going to get his money one way or the other. And he really did prefer to get it legally, after she was dead.

  ~*~

  The drive was much better this time. It was light out, which made it so he could see some of the scenery. Fisher had talked to Piper on the way down, but having her seated right next to him was so much more enjoyable. He could see her expressions as well as hear her laughter. It was well worth losing sleep on the way down just to be with her now.

  “I’m so excited to see how this is going to work out for me as an office. Just knowing I can still work is such a relief, since I wasn’t sure I could continue. Thank you so much for helping me sell my truck. That was much easier than I thought it would be. And I promise to pay you back every penny for the camping pay off.” He didn’t tell her again that what he had, she did too. It had upset her so much she’d cried. That hurt his heart way too much for him to want to do that again. “Peter said my office will be easy for them to set up. And he’d make sure there were plenty of views I could see while working. I wonder how much of a distraction that will be.”

  Fisher didn’t need to answer her. She was rambling and didn’t require anyone to comment. It was, to him, something he’d never witnessed before—a person emptying their head of all thoughts until they felt they could slow down and speak normally. He realized she was quiet. Glancing at her while he drove, he asked her if she was all right.

  “I am. I was just thinking about meeting your family. You said they were excited to do that, but what if they don’t care for me?” He told her if he loved her, then they would. “I don’t know what being in love with anyone would be like. I mean, I loved my parents, but I haven’t been on a lot of dates to know the difference between wanting sex or just wanting to be with a person.”

  Fisher couldn’t help it, he burst out laughing. When she laughed as well, he smiled at her. Taking her hand into his, he kissed the back of it and held it while he drove one handed for a few minutes. He needed to think of the right words to say to her before speaking.

  “I’m in love with you. I have been since I first understood you were my mate. You make me feel good about myself. I don’t have a very high self-esteem. Not really.” He glanced at her again. “I understand about you not being sure of the feelings I have for you. I can only hope you have the same for me someday soon. I will do my best to show you in so many ways that I love you. Daily. Hourly, if need be. Also, along with that, I want you to know that my parents and the rest of my family will love you as much as I do if they don’t already. They’re so excited to meet you I wouldn’t be surprised if they were planning a big dinner for when we get home tonight to welcome you.”

  “I hope so. I mean, as I said, I’ve come to this with a great deal of baggage. You’ve taken care of one of the issues I had. I’m ever so grateful for you to have done that. I thought I was going to have to write off Mr. Alexander’s money as a loss.” He told her it was his profound pleasure. “Wow, that is a great deal of pleasure. I wish we could have sex soon. I know that we’ve tried to several times, but people keep coming around. It was wonderful that Peter was able to tell us that my brother and sister were coming around. I can’t believe we got packed up that quickly and were on the road in less than ten minutes.”

  “I want to have sex with you too. But I really want to make love with you. I find that much better than just having sex.” She told him she wouldn’t know. Laughing again, he pulled off the highway to get gas and asked her if she wanted anything while he was out. “I mean, it’s going to be a very long ride from here to home. Perhaps you can pick us up some snacks or something to munch on.”

  Handing her his credit card, he wasn’t sure she was going to take it. When she did, putting it in her purse, he made sure she didn’t see his sigh of relief.

  While pumping the gas, he heard from Harper. She had a lot of information for him that she’d been looking for since the last time he spoke to her.

  First of all, the house you guys are going to be living in is amazing. I was by there yesterday, and I’m in love with it. Even Bryant thinks it’s a perfect match for you. Okay. I’ve been doing some research on the family. The sister, Mary, isn’t so much in the hole with money, but she’s been stealing it from her husband’s company for some time now. Not millions, as I thought, but hundreds of thousands. She has a serious gambling habit that is going to get her into deeper trouble than just with her husband. Mary owes some seriously pissed off people a lot of dough. He asked if her husband had found out yet. Yes, just a couple of days ago. I didn’t have anything to do with it, but he figured it out when his partner called and told him they might not be able to meet their payroll without dipping into their own savings accounts. I guess after talking to their daughter, he’s been trying to reach Mary for the last couple of days. He is not a happy camper.

  No, I doubt he is. What about her brother? I’m assuming he’s in a bit of trouble himself. She said he was being hunted by the Feds. The scam he was running. Yes, you told me about it. What’s changed? I’m assuming something has.

  Yes. And you’re not going to like this any more than you did a couple of months ago when you figured out others were doing the same. Both of them have borrowed against their children’s college funds. I told you that. What I didn’t tell you was that they’ve also taken out credit cards in both their names, as well as a couple of loans, none of which have been repaid. So far, Rachel has a credit score of about two hundred. Peter’s isn’t a great deal better at only two thirteen. They’re screwed as far as ever being able to purchase a home unless they can prove they had nothing to do with their parents doing this to them. It’ll be a hard sell, I think.

  Is there a way their creditors can be paid off? I mean, if we make a deal with them that we take care of this, will they back off from trying to hurt Piper, you think? Harper told him she didn’t have any idea. I’d like to resolve this without bloodshed. If you could find out what you can from someone, I’d like to have a meeting with the four of them: the family and their spouses. Otherwise, someone, if not both of them, is going to jail. I’d like nothing better than to have it so we’re not looking over our shoulders for the rest of our lives.

  I’ll see what I can do. Mostly, the best you can hope for is that after paying them off, they don’t get into this kind of trouble again. However, I don’t think that is going to keep them out of jail. Especially Louis. He’s been scamming people, and paying them off might lessen his jail time, but it’s not going to negate it. Fisher told her he understood that. Good. I’ll see what I can find out and tell you when you get home tonight. I’ve had someone go through the house for you and fill it out. Your mom was happy to do it. There will be magic on the cabinets as well as the fridge that will keep it filled with the things you wish. If you ever want that to stop, just tell Peter.

  I’ll talk to Piper about it when we get home. I think she’s taking this very well, but that might be just a little too much. Harper laughed. She’s coming out of the store now, so I’ll wait for you to give me the rest when we get home. As it stands right now, it should be around four when we get there. We left as soon as we heard her family was coming to talk to her.

  Be careful.
I don’t know what sort of crap they’re going to try, but I don’t want either of you hurt. Okay? He promised her he’d be as careful as she was. That’s what I want to hear. I’ll figure this out and get back to you about it. Have a safe trip.

  Fisher thought about the meeting between Aurora and Piper. He’d not asked about it, not even to know how they had come together. It was her story, and she’d either tell him, or she’d tell him it was none of his business. Fisher had an idea she’d be a great deal more vocal about it if she didn’t want him to know.

  He could look, he supposed, but that just didn’t seem right, on so many levels. There were so many things he wanted to do, to show her, but he figured overwhelming her once again wouldn’t be helpful in the long run. It would be, he hoped, better if he simply waited until she asked.

  “I got us some juice. I haven’t any idea why I would need it, but Peter told me I needed to start drinking more of it all the time.” He got into the truck when she did. “Did you know Snowflake and Peter are related? He said they were from the same spring. I had to ask what that had to do with anything. They were born in the same spring when the queen needed more faeries for the world. I think that’s kind of sweet. What happens if she misses a couple of flowers? I mean, it does happen, right?”

  “It does. Those faeries grow up to be bigger than their siblings. Most of them go into the real world—not that being with the queen isn’t real—but they work in places like the courthouse and other places to make sure paperwork is filed when it needs to be. Like our birth certificates are updated all the time by one of them, just so no one will realize we’re as old as we are.” Piper told him that was a wonderful idea. “They have other functions. Some of them are forever keeping an eye on children born to a family that isn’t making it, or if there is violence there. We, as magical creatures, have managed to save a few of them. Not nearly as many as we’d like.”

  “That’s wonderful.” She looked out the front window of his truck as they pulled onto the highway. “That’s how I met Aurora. I didn’t know who she was at the time, other than someone who would bring food by when Mom and I were running low. A couple of times, she even picked up Mom’s medication and brought it to us. When Mom died, I called for her, over and over, to come and stay with me. To be there for me. But she never came. She didn’t even bother telling me why she couldn’t be there with me. She just didn’t come around anymore.”

  “Is that why you were so upset with her?” Piper told him that it had been. “Did she tell you why she’d not done as you wanted?”

  “She didn’t know. The hospital, she told me, is many levels of metal and concrete, so she’d not felt Mom’s death as she might have if she’d been at our camper. Mom loved the outdoors, and she’d spend as much time as she could sitting out in the sun. That was how we met her. Aurora told us she’d been out walking and came upon us. It wasn’t until she showed up at the camper last night that I even knew she was magical. I just thought she was just a woman who enjoyed the outdoors as much as we did. I didn’t know how right I was until now.”

  The two of them spoke all the way back home, mostly about how he’d become what he was now, a cat that could shift into a man. How he’d been around for a long time, and how he had money. She told him she didn’t hate her brother and sister, but she didn’t like them at all. They had not just done her wrong, but mostly their parents. Just going on as if they’d not raised them or kept them safe and fed all the years they were growing up.

  Fisher learned a great deal about her. She’d not had it very easy, but she told him she’d never trade getting to spend time with her parents in their final days for any reason. As soon as they stopped for gas again, he told her they could get some lunch and take a walk. Fisher wanted her to see his cat, something she’d been asking him for since they started out. He just hoped he didn’t scare her too much. But he also knew that now was not the time. He’d show her his true self when they were home.

  Chapter 5

  Paddy hung up the phone and sat staring at it as he thought of all the things he wanted to say to his wife. She’d ruined them both financially, as well as him mentally. This was putting such a strain on his mind that he’d been popping pain medication for his headache since he’d spoken to his partner three days ago. Mary had a great deal to answer for.

  When he’d first found out that she’d been skimming— Not even close to what she’d been doing, but for now, calling it skimming made him feel better. But she’d been skimming money from the business bank accounts for months without either him or his partner knowing. Charlie said he’d suspected that was what she was doing, but with the huge merger coming up then, he’d forgotten to look. By the time he had looked, it was well into bankruptcy territory. Without going public about the loss to their company, there was no way they were going to be able to hide this for much longer.

  “Mr. Benton, there is a man by the name of Bryant Prince here to speak to you. He said it’s very urgent.” Paddy told her to tell him he was out. “I’m afraid that won’t work, sir. He told me he knows you’re trying to contact your wife and the reason behind it. I wasn’t aware you were trying to contact Mary, sir. I could have done that for you.”

  “It’s all right, Connie. Just tell Mr. Prince I’ll speak to him. Send him in.” It startled him to see such a large man come through his doors. For whatever reason, Paddy had it in his head that this was one of the many people his wife owed, and he was here to kill him for the money. When the man smiled, Paddy felt no relief from it. “May I help you?”

  “No, sir. I’m going to help you. At least my brother is. His name is Fisher Prince. And while that means nothing at all to you, he’s going to be marrying your sister-in-law Piper soon. He wants to assure you that he’s going to help you in any way he can.”

  Paddy laughed and asked if he was going to lend him three-hundred-thousand dollars. Instead of answering him, the man reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out what looked like a checkbook. Asking him who he was to make the check out to, Bryant filled out the amount and signed his name to the check as he waited.

  “I was joking.” Bryant said Fisher wanted to do this. “I can’t take money from a stranger. I don’t care who he says he’s marrying. I don’t even know how you figured out I was in trouble here. Is it already out in the papers?”

  “Not that I’m aware of, no. I found out from your wife in an indirect way, but she’s the one that took the money. Fisher and our whole family wants to help you out, so perhaps Mary will stop pursuing Piper about money that no longer exists. The money is gone from her mother’s estate, sir. It went to pay all the bills that were acquired when Mrs. James was ill. They lost the house and cars, along with any chance of either of them getting the sort of health care that was needed.” Paddy asked about the money they sent to Piper. “I wasn’t told there had been any money sent to her from anyone in her family. I can check on that. But I’m sure that had there been any, Piper would have mentioned it. I don’t know if you’re aware of this or not, but Mary and Louis have been chasing Piper all over this end of the United States to get the money they feel is due to them. Four fifths of whatever was left. They seem to think that since Piper lived at the home, she doesn’t deserve any proceeds from the money. The brother and sister seem to think that because they were married and had families, they should get a share for both them and their spouses.”

  “That’s ridiculous. Why would I think Piper shouldn’t have gotten anything she wanted out of whatever was leftover? She did all the work and gave up her life to make sure that Mary and Louis didn’t have to worry about their parents.” Bryant told him that wasn’t the way he’d heard it. Paddy laughed. “After today, sir, I’ve no doubt at all that my wife is trying to get something for nothing, and would blame it all on her sister. What is the story she is telling Piper? Who I like, by the way. Never seen a person so opposite of her siblings.”

  “Both Louis and
Mary seem to think Piper should have stayed home with the parents, as she was already living there when the father became ill. Then after he died, it was left to her to care for her mother too. Money wasn’t as tight as it was at the end. Begging for money from Mary and Louis had become a lost cause. From what I’m to understand, neither of them even came to visit their mother in the ten years after their father passed. They were even late to the funeral. It’s not my family, but I would think they’d just leave her alone for all she did for them when there was no one else.” Paddy had known there was more to the funeral than Piper giving them the wrong time just to be mean. He asked Bryant how much he knew about his wife. “I know she and Louis are in Tennessee at the moment. That was the last place Piper was before she started making her way to her home with my brother. Louis has purchased a gun. I’ve no idea what he plans to do with it, but he has it. They started home, Fisher and Piper, to avoid any trouble from them. Fisher wanted me to come here and see if you think paying back the money Mary took will be enough to keep Mary away from Piper.”

  “I wish I could tell you something you want to hear, Bryant, but I just don’t know anymore. She has a problem. And I don’t know if you paying the debt she made for my company will keep her from doing it again. It would be deeply appreciated, but I think she’ll continue with what she has in her head no matter what I do on my end.” Bryant handed the check to him. “I don’t know if taking this is a good idea.”

  “You’ve been honest with me, Paddy, and I’ll do the same for you. If she hurts even a single hair on Piper’s head, she will be ended.” Bryant stood up, and Paddy did as well. “I take being related to Piper very seriously. She makes my brother laugh and smile. And they’re in love. But if Mary doesn’t stop with this and gets to the point of harming one of my family, I’m afraid there will be nothing I can do to save her.”