Fisher: Prince of Tigers – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  “You want that? For me to be proud of you?” Emmie had nodded, her little curls bobbing to the way her head bounced. “You’ll have to help me, Emmie. I’ve been too long in the bottle to just stop now.”

  “You’ve been sober for five weeks, Dad. I’m sure you’re past the point of needing it again.” She put her suitcase down, the one that said she was going places and looked at him with her arms crossed over her tiny chest. “Do we have a deal? I’m not going to have time to make sure you’re going to be alive when I come home from school. Also, if you want me to grow up, you’re going to have to learn some things. Get back on the road too.”

  “How will I watch over you if I’m on the road?” She gave him a look that she’d perfected over the years since then. “All right. You can take care of yourself. But it’s only until we can get back on our feet. All right?”

  “Of course. Whatever you want.” That statement had been the biggest lie she’d ever told him. He realized now that she could maneuver him as well as she did this big rig into places he might not have thought he could go.

  Collier nearly screamed a little when someone knocked on his window.

  “Mr. Rankin?” Collier nodded as he rolled down his window. “Good. You have three stops on this load. All the information is right there on the inventory sheet. Like we said when we hired you, if you do this first job without any trouble, we’ll keep you on to keep delivering for us. All right?”

  “Yes, Mr. Prince. Thank you.” He remembered just then the question that Emmie had asked him to find out. “Why is it you don’t want to hire women? I mean, it’s fine; however you want to do this, but why no women?”

  “You’ll see that you’re delivering to prisons. This isn’t a mandate from us, but the board of directors of each of the jails. They don’t want women in the trucks in the event that some of the men, the ones that will be unloading the trucks, get an idea in their heads that they can overpower one of them and get out. It’s been my experience with my wife and sisters-in-law that they can fight harder than a man if cornered. But I’m not the one in charge.”

  It was a good answer. One that he was sure Emmie would still tear apart. But he did like the fact that the man didn’t necessarily agree with the findings. Putting his paperwork on the seat next to him, Collier pulled away from the dock and onto the road leading out of the new building.

  When Emmie sat down on the seat, she picked up the paperwork. Olivia, he could see, was in the back working on something on the floor. Collier could drive long enough to get them out of town, but his nerves wouldn’t allow him to get them onto the highway toward their first stop. Emmie was looking over the paperwork when he asked her if she thought it was a good run.

  “It is. The pay is better than I would have gotten if it had only been a drop and go at even a larger chain. I know this is donated items for the prisoners, but they’re spending a great deal of money on getting it there.” Olivia told them both how much. The smile that both him and her mother gave her made his heart sing. “Yes, quite a bit. Thanks for asking him about the women, Dad. I guess that does make sense if you think about it.”

  “It does.” When she turned away from him, he saw the scar, one that he was sure his daughter saw every time she looked in the mirror. A scar that had nearly ended all their lives. There was no way he could have lived without his little girl. And then his granddaughter. “I like the fact that it’s a one day and done delivery. That way, we can be home every night and not have to be out on the open road.”

  “Nothing would have happened to us had we had to. We’d have been safe locked up in here overnight.” He knew that in his head, but his heart and nerves thought differently. “Did you take your medication today?”

  “I did. Before we left the house.” She nodded and read over the paperwork they’d been given. “Daughter, do you suppose when this is up and going, you could try and work with me again to get me driving on the highway?”

  Her smile, always something he looked for, turned to him. “Yes. You know I’ll do whatever you want.” He laughed a little, still his little maneuver. “What’s so funny?”

  “Nothing. I was just thinking how Olivia says that now too. She no more means it than you do. Whatever I want simply means whatever you think is best for me. You’ve been the parent in this relationship since you came to me with that little suitcase filled with all your things.” Collier laughed again. “You know, I really thought you’d only been threatening me that day and had yourself an empty case. I nearly sobbed when I saw how you’d packed all your little things so neatly in it. When I asked you about your dolls, you told me if you were having to live on your own, you didn’t have time for frivolous things. Such a big word for such a little girl, I thought.”

  “I’m glad you didn’t test me on it. I haven’t any idea where I might have gone that day. To the barn, I suppose.” She turned away from him again, he knew, so he’d not see the sadness there. “Dad, did you hate me for treating you that way? I’ve never been as scared as I was back then that you’d take drink over me.”

  “I’ve never hated anything about you, love. Never in all my life, since I held you in my arms, has anyone meant as much to me as you do. Then you know what you went and did? You gave me a second chance at being a good person when you laid that little one back there in my arms.” Olivia pointed out that she could hear them, and she wasn’t little. “No, neither of you are anymore, are you?”

  “No. But that doesn’t mean we don’t still need you in our lives.” He drove to their home, a place where they’d pack up what little they’d need, and then Emmie would take over. Before he’d left the Prince Foundation today, he’d gotten permission to stop by his home for a few things.

  They really didn’t need all that much. Just bottles of water, something for Olivia to snack on, as well as some changes of clothing. He was of the opinion that everywhere they went, there had to be something to change into. It had come from his nerves.

  He wasn’t just nervous all the time. It was just what they called it now. Collier suffered from depression. Not just being sad, but major chronic depression, or MCD, which would plague him for days on end if he didn’t take his medication. It was, he knew, getting harder and harder to keep himself in control. But having the little things he needed around him and someone accepting of them was what he needed when things were really bad.

  The clothing was one of them. If he was feeling particularly down, he’d only go and slip on something else. It didn’t have to be much different than what he had on. Even if it was only the color of his pants, he would put them on as his happy clothing. So in changing, his head would associate his putting them on as a change. A change that he could deal with.

  Then there were the games. Collier wasn’t a person that would sit and play games a lot. Rarely before his wife had died had he had time. Drinking had taken up any time he’d had free, or when he should have been working. But now he had three games he would play. A car game, a trucking game, and a game he played at home. They were simple, yet very effective.

  As Emmie drove, he would say his alphabet frontwards then backwards until the need to throw himself from a moving truck passed. That, too, was getting harder and harder to keep in control. He looked at Emmie when she changed lanes.

  “I was wondering if you’d given any thought to the idea of moving.” Emmie looked at him, then back at the road, asking him if he had. “I have. Not as much as I should have, I think, but I have thought about it. Moving into another home, the doctor told me, might be just what I need, or it might trigger something that will harm me. I’m afraid to find out. Are you?”

  “Yes. And no. I think his idea about going to see homes was a good idea. So long as you’re in charge of the actual being able to buy the house. I’m not to influence you in any way about it.” Collier wasn’t sure he thought that was a good idea. He was getting up there, and it would be Emmie that would have
it after he was gone. “There isn’t any rush on it, Dad. You know as well as I that we could stay where we are for the rest of our lives and be happy. But as you’ve pointed out, the house isn’t really big enough for the three of us with only two bedrooms. I have the money to buy us whatever we want. And as Olivia pointed out, we can always add to the one we have. It’s up to you.” She looked at him. “Whatever you want to do.”

  They all three laughed. Olivia came up from the back and kissed him on the cheek. She’d not move around the truck too much when they were on the road, but he was always ready for a quick hug or kiss from them. Somehow it was like getting a supercharge from an electrical outlet when they did that for him.

  They were at the jail by ten in the morning. Like Emmie had backed him in to be loaded up, she did the same when they delivered. This time, he had to get out of the truck to make sure the seals were put on, and that the prisoners unloading the truck only took what belonged to them. Collier watched them carefully, his nerves getting the better of him as he stood there watching the men unload the truck.

  ~*~

  “Damn it, breathe, Dad.” She didn’t want to hit him, but it was that, or they were going to call an ambulance for him. “Dad, if you don’t wake up, I’m going to hit you hard enough to wake you from the dead. Wake up.”

  The slap, more than likely harder than she should have hit him, brought him around. Falling back on her ass when he sat up gasping for breath, all she could think about was what would have happened had she not been keeping an eye on him while he’d been out of the truck.

  “You all right, Mr. Rankin?” He nodded. Dad was staring at her like he was upset. She knew just what he was thinking—that he’d embarrassed her. He’d not. She stood up when one of the people off the dock came down to help her dad up. “You gave us a scare there, sir. You going to be all right now?”

  “Yes. The heat.” It was less than fifty degrees out, so everyone knew he hadn’t passed out because of any heat. “I just get myself nervous and forget to take in as much air as I’m putting out. That’s all.”

  “We’d never hurt you. I hope you know that.” The man, a big guy with numbers printed across his T-shirt, looked at her. “You all right, miss? You looked as terrified as anything I’d ever seen.”

  “He’s my dad.” Emmie had told her daughter not to move when she’d leapt out to get Dad. Glancing back at the truck, she thought of the excuse they’d made up if they were caught with her there. “My car broke down a few miles back, and Dad was good enough to pick me up. I’m not usually with him when he’s out.”

  The man nodded, but she had a feeling he wasn’t buying it. Instead of trying to make her case, which she was sure would make it worse, she got up and went back to the truck. Once he was checked out by their doctor, him telling her dad to take it easy, they were well on their way to the next stop when his phone rang.

  “Mr. Rankin, I hope you’re feeling better.” Dad had put it on speakerphone before it rang. He looked at her when the woman told him that her name was Piper Prince. “I’m not mad, so please don’t take it that way, but I would have liked to have known that you had your daughter with you. It might well have saved me some embarrassment when I got a call from the prison a few minutes ago.”

  Dad had her pull over, and he sat there, sobbing out their lies while she held him. He also told her how they needed this job because of the fact that he was an ill man. Emmie immediately hated the woman for what she’d done to her dad.

  “Mrs. Prince, this is entirely my fault. I wanted to spend some time with my dad, and I sort of talked him into us coming.” Piper told her to call her by her first name and not to lie to her. “Mrs. Prince, I’m beginning to see a part of you that I’m not particularly fond of. And I won’t call you by your given name any more than I would call my dad by his first name. I’ll have him take us home, and we’ll be—”

  “Us?” She looked at her daughter and waited for a moment before she said anything about her. “You have your child there with you. Oh, that must be so much fun for your dad and you. To have three generations in one truck. I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to call the next place you are to hit and tell them that Mr. Rankin has taken ill and that you’ll be driving. That way, they can prepare themselves for you being there. Then when you come back here for the next load, we’ll have dinner together. Your family and mine.”

  “No.” The woman laughed at her answer, or she was off her noddle. Either way, Emmie wasn’t going to get all warm and fuzzy with them. She told her it was fuzzy, not fuzzed. “Are you reading my mind? That’s beyond rude, you know that, don’t you?”

  “I do. I wouldn’t have to if you were to tell me what I want to know. Also, I feel pretty good about the fact you didn’t know I was doing it. I’m getting better at it as I go on. But as for dinner, I’m making arrangements now with the family. I have a feeling you’re going to be stubborn no matter how much I beg, so let me just say that you’ll have dinner with us, all of you, or your father is out of a job. I’ve been looking into things while I have been talking to you, and I know all about your family, Emmie. I’m sorry, but I must insist that the three of you come here so we can talk. That’s nothing that is going to hurt any of you.” Dad nodded but looked defeated. The hatred for this woman was piling up more and more. “Don’t do that. Don’t judge me for something I’m trying to help you with, Emmie. Deliver the other two loads and come back here for dinner.”

  There wasn’t any way she could turn her down when this job was needed. They didn’t need the money. They were doing just fine. But in order to get a home loan if they went that way or even a construction loan, she needed to have some sort of job to prove she could make the payments. Being self-employed, even with making the money she was, there wasn’t any way the bank would lend them money.

  “We’ll be there. It’s not going to be a friendly or a happy occasion for either of us. Just to give you a heads up, I don’t like to be blackmailed any more than I’m sure you would.” Piper asked her if they had anything they were allergic to. “My daughter doesn’t eat meat. Of any kind.”

  “I can work with that. By the way, there is something you need to know. The males of this family are all tigers. They do eat meat. So is your daughter going to be upset if those around her eat meat?” Olivia answered her for herself. “Right. Just you don’t eat it. Good to know. I’m happy to be meeting the three of you. I know we’re going to be the best of friends. In saying that, I’ve sent along a little person to help you three. His name is Pudge. Just don’t squash him when you see him.”

  “I’m sorry. What?” Piper explained how he was a faerie. “Why are you sending us a faerie? This is getting more and more complicated all the time. Why don’t we just call it quits, and I’ll find someplace else to work.”

  “There aren’t any openings for you, Emmie. We both know that. You’re much too smart for the people you work with, and you don’t have the patience to deal with stupidity. I believe you’re smart enough to realize we can help each other in what we both have going on. My family could use a good attorney, and you might just fit the bill in that department.”

  “I’m not a practicing attorney anymore.” Piper pointed out she’d just renewed her license, so that told her she was an attorney. “You’re very informed for someone we don’t know. I want you to stay the hell out of my head.”

  “As I said before. I would if you were more forthcoming than you’ve been.” Emmie started the truck and moved out into the traffic again. She was going to get this shit done, then go to the house and tell them all to fuck off. “I think we’re going to get along just fine, Emmie. Just fine indeed.”

  The next place they stopped knew that she was the one driving. Not only did they make a better time than she had anticipated, but Pudge showed up. He was in the truck, entertaining Olivia when she got back on the road. Her dad had been silent since the phone call ended an
hour ago.

  Emmie didn’t mind the long silences that came with driving a truck. She’d worked her way through college doing this, and was debt free by the time she’d gotten her doctorate in law. Olivia had been her road partner since the day she’d been born, and Emmie got her license to drive the big rigs.

  While her dad dealt with his thoughts, she thought about what had happened since the day she’d been able to escape the monster that held her for those terrible, nightmarish three days when she’d turned fourteen.

  Like any other teenager, Emmie loved to ride her bike. Her dad and she had had a slight disagreement about her birthday that was coming up, so she’d taken off to blow off some steam. She’d wanted to skip it, and he wanted to go all out. Emmie didn’t have the heart to tell him people didn’t like her much, and inviting anyone to her party would be hard as she had not one single friend.

  The man had been trying his best to get a kid into his van when she rode up on them. Hurting the man, kicking him in the nuts, she told the little boy to run. And damn, but he had run. Before she could do the same, she was hit from behind and lost out on the little window of opportunity to get away.

  For three days, he beat the shit out of her. He’d not raped her or even touched her sexually. He was only hurting her because she’d taken away his prize, what he’d called the kid that had gotten away.

  He’d not only not let her go to use the bathroom, which ended up with her standing in her own pee, but he didn’t feed her either. She was nearly too weak when the opportunity presented itself to get away, to make her way out of the basement to the police. The man never once touched her. It was his son that had fathered Olivia.

  He’d found her in the basement when his dad had gone out. She had always wondered if it was to pick up another boy. The son came to the basement that day, cut her loose, and raped her repeatedly until his dad returned. The apple hadn’t fallen that far from the tree, apparently.