“Tell him.” Connie looked at her brother, than back at his wife. “Tell him the whole of the story, or I will. And you have to believe that I’m pissed off that you didn’t say something sooner. To think that all he’s told me is how you two were doing so well, when you’ve not been doing so for decades. Tell Connor, so we can fix this for you.”
“I don’t...I just don’t know what you’re talking about.” But she did, and when Connor told her to tell him, Connie began to sob. “We’ve lost everything that we had. There was a mine deal that we were trying to block because it would take down the mountains around our home, but we were sued by the company, then the city, for obstructing projects that were going to bring a great number of jobs to the town. It wasn’t Spencer’s fault, but he’s been taking it so hard that I can’t get him to be involved in anything anymore.”
“It is too his fault, and you well know it. And to hide his shame, he’s been hiding away in your home until you had no recourse but to move to those same mountains that you wanted to protect, until they started blasting them out from under you. Why the fuck didn’t you tell us? Or at the very least, Connor? Do you have any idea how much help we could have given you?” Connie looked at Connor, not at all happy with the way his wife was talking to her. “Had I been there when this shit was going down, you would never have been sued, nor would you have lost your home to pay the tax that they put on you.”
“He just stopped working. I had no idea that when a dragon is depressed, because that’s what he is, they can’t produce gems. And worse yet, because he was depressed, I couldn’t either. I have no idea why that rule even exists. Someone should work on those antiquated rules soon. The gems were what we used to get us through the harder times. But the hard times kept coming without anything to replace the gems.” Connie looked at Roxanne and glared. “You are rude and mean. I was going to tell him in my own way what was going on.”
“No, you wouldn’t have. You’d not have had enough time.” Connie asked the wretched girl what she was talking about. “Right now your husband is thinking of ways to kill himself. He’s already begun the search for someone to buy his body after he’s gone. It’s a little more difficult than he thought it would be, because no one believes in your kind anymore. As for me being rude? What would you rather have? Me being a bitch or a dead husband?”
Thankfully the B&B had not asked them for any means of paying for the room, or they’d have had to stay with her brother. Now that he knew, she thought that they’d end up there now anyway. Crying, she went to her room to find her husband. He was sitting in the open window of the room they had rented.
“Spencer? What are you doing? Come away from there.” Spencer told her that he was all right. “No, I don’t think you are. Come away from the window before you fall.”
“Not that it would do me a bit of good, I’m afraid. It’s not nearly high enough to do much more than hurt me some. Why did you come back here? I thought you’d be gone for some time visiting with your brother.” Roxanna pushed by her and went to her husband. “Who the hell are you?”
“Your worst kind of nightmare. I’m going to push you out of this window hard enough that it’ll kill you. That’s what you want, isn’t it? Also, your sons are here. I’ve invited them along so that they can see what a coward their father is.” Connie wanted to slap Roxanna, and would have had it not been for Connor holding her back. “Tell me, are you ready, Spencer? Have you thought this all the way out so that you leave this world to eat your children and wife alive? Because as surely as you die out there, there will be people, hunters, that still believe that you’re real, and will come after your wife and kids. They’ll want a piece of the real thing, the living dragons. You need to get your head out of your fucking ass and think about the shit you’re doing right now.”
“I suppose you would tell them to come after me, wouldn’t you?” Roxanna said that she would, that she saw no point in wasting a good dead dragon to pick over. “Get yourself away from me. I’ll not have you here talking to me in such a way.”
“What the fuck do you care how I talk to you? You’re going to be dead in a few minutes anyway. Right here in front of your family that you’re going to piss away.”
Spencer reached for Roxanna and missed. But it knocked him against the window frame and had him falling out the window and grabbing for the ledge. “Help me, you bitch. I’m falling here. Help me inside, or so help me I’ll—”
“You’ll what? Hit me? Why the fuck do you think I’d allow that? Besides, we both know that once you draw back to hit me, Connor is going to kill you anyway. You see, that’s one thing that you don’t know—I’m his wife.” Spencer looked at her, then at Connor. When Connie’s brother nodded, Roxanna continued. “You’re a pussy. Did anyone ever call you that before? They should have. A grown assed mother fucking dragon is giving up all his shit so that he doesn’t have to face the fucking world anymore. Well boo hoo for you, you cock sucker. You could have done this at home instead of coming here and hurting all the people around here.”
“How is my death going to harm anyone around here?” Roxanna pulled Connie’s husband to safety, then punched him directly in the face. It had him falling back, but Connie was so relieved that he was no longer dangling from a window. “Christ, what the hell is wrong with you to hit a man when he’s down? I’ve ruined their lives. Don’t you see that? I’ve lost them everything that we had.”
“Did you? I don’t see it that way. What I see is a man who thinks that he’s lost it all, and is willing to end his life rather than to ask his brother-in-law for a favor. Or me. I’d not ask me right now if I were you. I’d probably hit you again.” Spencer sat there, sobbing about his lot in life, and Connie began to see how he was being a pussy. So was she, for allowing him to do this. “Get your lazy fucking ass up off that floor and pack your shit up. I’m not going to tell you twice. As of an hour ago, all your debt was paid off. By us. And you’ll notice that I didn’t say that you owed me anything. Nor do I ever want you to pay us back. You’re Connor’s family, and as far as I’m concerned, as far as both Connor and I are concerned, what we have is for you to use too.”
“Then why were you willing to help me kill myself?” Roxanna shrugged. “No, you’ll tell me why you were so willing to help me along in front of my children. I demand to know.”
He was suddenly up off his feet, dangling from the height. Roxanna must have cut off his airway too, because Spencer was struggling to breathe. When she turned to her, Connie felt the power of being in charge coming from her. Some of it even seeping onto her.
“You have anything to say to your husband, Connie?” Did she? Connie had no idea, but she did want to do something. “He’s been letting you deal with this entirely on your own. No help with the people trying to take more from you. There was no help from him while you tried to keep your children from knowing what was going on. By the way, they know. They’re not stupid.”
“No, they’re not.” She looked at her boys. “Why don’t you two get us packed up and ready to leave here? I think, if we’re still welcome, we’re going to be staying with your Uncle Connor, and your very special Aunt Roxanna. Roxanna, could you please allow my husband to breathe? I’d like to hear his answers to a few of my questions.”
He dropped to the floor with a thud, but he didn’t get up again. For that she thought that he was a smart man. Roxanna would have surely knocked him on his ass again should he even look like he would. With a hug from her brother, the two of them were left alone.
Almost as soon as the door behind them closed, she could hear Roxanna talking to her sons. They weren’t stupid, and she should have known that. Looking at her husband, she sat on the floor across from him and slapped him hard.
“You have every right to do that to me.” She told him that he was damned right in that. “I should have been there more for you. I should have stopped wallowing in my own self-pity and helped you with
everything. I can see that now.”
“You nearly killed yourself. Left me behind, Spencer. What do you think would have happened had you found someone that would have picked over your body? Do you think, just as Roxanna said, that they’d not think about me and the boys? That they’d just leave us alone after they’d found you?” He said that he’d not thought about that. “Of course you hadn’t. You were a selfish prick that would have left me worse off than we are now. How could you do that to me?”
“I’m sorry, love. More sorry than I could ever be able to make up to you.” He didn’t move, except to take her hand into his. It was the first time he’d touched her in so long that she cried. “After the first few days of staying alone, I thought that you preferred it. No, that’s not right. I knew that you needed me, but I just couldn’t get my head to work out why you’d need me. Then as the days turned into weeks, then years, I realized that I was safer in my own little world. Until I heard you talking to the man who had taxed us. Him telling you that we had lost everything that we had.”
“I had no one to turn to, Spencer. I had to keep up the appearance of things being all right for our sons. Fat lot of good that did me. They knew all along.” Spencer rubbed his bloodied nose and busted lip. “She hit you harder than I did, I think.”
“She did. I wonder if she knocks Connor around that way.” Then Spencer laughed. “He’d be so happy that she was there for him that he’d allow her to do it. Not that he’d let her take on what I did to you. Roxanna would have been up in my face right away, dragging my sorry ass down to face the music, as they say. She’s scary, don’t you think?”
“Yes, but she meant well. She made me realize how much you were doing just as she said you were. Leaving me to deal with everything. I should hate you for that, but I can’t. I love you more now than I did before.” Spencer pulled her to him and sat her on his lap. “Oh, Spencer. I’ve missed you so much. Please, don’t ever do that again. I need you more than I do money or the castle. Not to say that I didn’t need the money, but having you by my side instead of behind me is what I needed most. Do you understand?”
“I do. While I’d like to tell you that I’ll never do that again, I don’t know. But I have a feeling that you won’t allow me to get that far again, will you?” She told him no. Never ever again. “I love you, Connie Wayfair. So much it hurts my heart to think of what I was about to do to you.”
“When you were hanging out the window, I have to admit at some point I wanted her to drop you on that stubborn head of yours. To think of what you were about to do—” Spencer put his hand over her mouth, then kissed her. “I love you too. Now let’s go and pack up our things before Roxanna does. I have a feeling that your things might not survive the job if she’s in charge.”
They were both laughing when they came out of the bedroom. There was no one in the room, but an envelope on the bed. Picking it up, she read what was there to Spencer.
“My dear family. We have the boys so that we can get to know them better. You two have a nice dinner out alone, and we’ll keep them. There will be a car out front in an hour for you to get around in, and then to bring you to the house when you’re ready. The hotel has been paid up for the night should you want to stay one more day. I love you both so very much.” Then it was signed Connor and Roxanna. “There are credit cards here with our names on them, as well as the name of the restaurant where reservations are made for us. This is too much.”
“Never for you, my love. Now that I’m getting my shit together, as I was told to do, we might have to do this more often, just the two of us having a nice date.” Spencer picked her up in his arms and swung her around the room. “And, if you’ve a mind to, we’ll find us a place to stay and make this our home. It’s where we should have been all along. With family and friends. I’m including Roxanna in that too, but she still scares me a great deal.”
“Yes, me also. But so long as you behave yourself and get your—what did she call it? Get your head out of your ass, then she won’t have any more reason to knock you around.” Connie didn’t care if she did if Spencer needed it again. “Perhaps I’ll have her teach me how to be like that. It might be good for us both.”
Spencer was groaning about her being like Roxanna when she reached out to her brother, thanking him for teaching them both a lesson in family.
I love you, Connie. And believe it or not, so does Roxanna. Just remember that when you talk to her about this. Connie said that she would. I’m so glad that you’re here with us now.
I am as well, little brother. So very glad that I’m here with you two as well. As she was getting dressed to go out, thinking about the sexiest thing she could, she laughed. I don’t think I’d wait up for us tonight, Brother. We have some things to talk about.
Closing the connection, she could still feel his humor. Connor was her best friend and brother. She thought that Roxanna might become her best friend too, before all was said and done. It was going to be very nice having family around again. She’d forgotten how lovely it was to have her brother there where she could speak to him when she wanted to.
~*~
The party was in two hours. Connor hadn’t even decided what he wanted to wear to it. All he could do was think about having his sister close, and that Roxanna was his wife. That, and that his friends would be here to help him celebrate.
Of course, their marriage license had been filed a while back. They’d not had a ceremony, nor had they done anything special to mark the day. Both of them were working when the news came to them that it was finalized. He couldn’t believe that he’d not taken Roxanna out on a single date before now to be just with her.
“Is that what you’re wearing? I hope the fuck not. I’m never going to be able to get through this if you’re only in your boxers.” He pulled Roxanna to him and kissed her. “As much as I’d like to forgo this whole thing, I was warned by no less than ten people that if we’re late, then we’ll be in deep shit. I didn’t take much from the rest of them, but Lady Anna looked like she might shift and make that happen. Then Devon told me that his grandmother’s dragon is stronger than you, simply because of her being related to him. Is that true?”
“Yes, I’m afraid it is.” He backed away from Roxanna. “However, when this is done, I want to find you naked in our bed so that I can have my way with you.”
“You’re on.” She asked him what he was wearing again. “I’m thinking jeans and a T-shirt. The people that have shown up already are dressed like that. I never thought to ask when I was told that this would be going on today.”
“I’m just glad that Devon was willing to have this in his home and not ours. There are a great many more people coming than I thought we’d invited.” Roxanna told him that Anna had done that one. “Then I guess we shouldn’t complain too much. She can be as bad as you are when she’s pissed off. Did I tell you about Connie and Spencer?”
“Yes, they’ve found a house to rent for a few weeks.” She was standing in front of the window looking down at Devon’s driveway. “There are two more people coming in that are dressed in jeans. That settles it, I’m wearing jeans too. I don’t want to have to try and figure out a dress at this late date. I hate heels too.”
“They did find a house, but Spencer thinks he’s found himself a job too. He’s going to be teaching if he gets the job. I guess he did a little of that when they were first married.” Roxanna asked why he was working when they’d had their funds replenished now. “A bored dragon is one that gets into trouble. And since Spencer is still fighting with his depression, he’s decided, with the help of Connie, that he isn’t going to be idle anymore. I think she bullied him into it, don’t you?”
“I do. Good for her. Hamilton and Harry are enrolled in school.” She turned to look at him. “Please don’t make me name our kids like that. I know that we can’t change them once we get them, but if we’re given infants, then I refuse to name them with ma
tchy names. Connie and Connor. Hamilton and Harry. They sound like a couple of law firms. I don’t care if they have fanciful names, just not matching ones.”
“I agree with you on that one.” He was in jeans and a shirt when he wrapped his arms around her. “I love you very much, Roxanna James. Now that we have family around, I’d like for us to look into bringing children into our lives. I think that it would be fantastic to have a few running around.”
“You were terribly sad when Harry and Hammy left.” He laughed at the name she’d given Hamilton. “Yeah, I call him that. He thinks it’s a hoot. And he loves me. Harry too, but Hammy thinks that I’m the best thing since sliced bread.”
“So do I.” After kissing her again, they made their way down to the party. “I plan to show you that several times when we return to this room tonight.”
Devon had had them spend the night at his home so that they could get things ready. Not that they’d been needed—the faeries were forever looking for a way to celebrate something. The house showed their enthusiasm too.
There were flowers everywhere they looked. And so much food that the large tables that had been brought in were groaning from the weight. Drinks were being handled by the two bar stations on either side of the house. The patio had been opened up, and a large heated tent was keeping it warm for them all. Just looking around at the décor made Connor wish that he’d thought of this sooner.
“Those lights are spectacular. How the hell did they get so many of them this close to Christmas?” Connor told Roxanna that they weren’t lights at all, but the faeries that had been looking for a job. “Oh, Connor, look. They’re spelling out our name in lights.”
He watched as the faeries spelled out that they were Lord and Lady James. That they’d been married for a few weeks, and that they were in love. The red heart, he knew, was some of the magic from the queen of faeries, always happy to help them out when there was something going on. Connor took Roxanna’s hand into his.
Connor: House of Wilkshire ― Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance Page 11
