Ian: McCray Bruin Bear Shifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  Becky was tempted. It was getting chilly outside. The only warmth she’d been able to get to was the heating light over the chicks. She looked at Cybill and wondered what she’d do if she told her what she knew about her father.

  “I don’t care who you are, Becky. You’ve not hurt the chicks, so I know you can be trusted. I don’t know why, but that’s what I feel. But I want you to be safe and warm. I know just how you’re suffering with all this. I told you, we’ve been where you are now, and I want to help you.” Nodding, Becky hoped that Cybill didn’t get hurt when her dad found her. “You’ll be safe too. I promise you. My family is the best there is.”

  Getting into the house was much easier than she thought it should have been. But Cybill promised her they were going to be all right as she led her up the stairs to her bedroom. It was a very pretty room. There were pictures on the walls, as well as a set of bunk beds. Becky had wanted bunk beds in her room since she’d seen them at a friend’s house. It seemed so long ago now.

  “I’m Cybill McCray. I’m going to be sixteen next month. I think having a birthday in October is sort of sad. I can have a party, but it all has to be indoors. No pool or anything like that for me.” Becky told her a little about herself. “I know your name. At least I think it’s yours. Your father, Peter Hightower. Isn’t he being indicted on several charges of racketeering?”

  “Yes. Do you want me to leave?” Cybill asked her why she’d think that. “I don’t know. When people hear what my name is, they sort of clam up and stop talking to me. My dad, he’s had people killed for less. I’m almost ten. I forgot to tell you that.”

  “I knew you were younger than me. It’s fine. All right, tell me where your mom is, and I’ll have someone get the police there.” After telling her about a barn they’d been staying in, Cybill picked up her cell phone and called someone named Meadow. After closing the connection, Cybill smiled at her. “My Aunt Meadow is this freaking smart woman. All the people in this family are like that. But Aunt Meadow, she knew you were here. She asked that you stay here, and she’ll take care that your mom is found, and no one knows who she is until they can get things fixed up. I don’t know what that means, but you can trust her.”

  “I don’t trust anyone. My mom said it would get you killed.” Cybill said she understood, then showed her where the bathroom was, as well as let her pick out anything she wanted to wear from her closet. “Are you sure about this? I don’t want you to get into any trouble. Sneaking around isn’t something that will make people trust you. I know because that’s what happened to my mom and myself.”

  “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.” The voices coming from the hallway made Becky want to run. Cybill told her it was her aunt Demi and her sister. Things were going to be fine. “I wouldn’t lie to you about this. You have my word that things are going to be all right for you. My sister is the nicest person in the world. So are the rest of the family.”

  Becky held the clothing she’d been given close to her body. They were really loud, the two women, but they didn’t seem to be mad at her. After them talking over her head for what seemed hours, she was told to take her shower, and they’d talk when she came out. Becky was torn. Would they turn her over to her dad? She hoped not. Becky didn’t want to ever be back with him again.

  The shower was heaven. Washing her hair three times was such a treat that she knew she’d have to replace the shampoo after she left. When she finally made herself get out of the stall, she pulled on clothing that smelled wonderful in its freshness, Becky figured they’d tell her to speed up and get finished. However, when she came out of the bathroom, the room was empty.

  Going down the long staircase, she could hear the laughter coming from one of the rooms. Following it, she entered a room filled with people. Backing out, Cybill took her hand and brought her all the way into the room and introduced her to her family.

  Lucy smiled at her and told her to have a seat. They were all going to help her. Becky didn’t know what to think, so she sat but kept her mouth shut. She no more trusted these people than she had her dad. And she was supposed to trust him.

  “Your mom has been taken to the hospital, where they’ll take care of her for us. She is now only a Jane Doe until we figure out what caused her death, as well as how much your father knows. We’ll have a nice quiet funeral for her in a few days for you.” Becky started crying at Demi’s words. Just having someone be this kind to her was something she’d missed when her momma had passed away. “You stick with us, Becky, and we’ll make sure you’re taken care of. I’ve contacted a friend of mine who is going to notify your aunts after we find out what we can from you about them. They’re not going to be told anything about you other than you’re safe. Can they be trusted to not tell your father anything?”

  “They’re my great aunts, really. On my mom’s side. My aunt Josephine, she’s trustworthy. But Momma told me she’d not trust Margaret any further than she could toss her. She thought my momma should have been happy that a man would marry her. Aunt Margie was in love with my dad before he found my momma.” Lucy asked her about her mother’s death. “My father had people watching us all the time. I mean, we couldn’t go to the mall without having three or four people with us. When we were ready to run—we’d been planning it for weeks—she was shot by one of them. I thought it was getting better, but without food and a safe place to stay, she didn’t make it.”

  “I’m so sorry about that.” Becky nodded. “I’ll have my friend, Mr. Shoe, find your aunt Josephine then. I’ll talk to her when he gets me a number. You can tell me where you think she lives when I call him. It might narrow down the search. But for now, I wanted to ask you about the book. Meadow knows you have it and where it is, but we don’t want to take it from you. It’s yours, and it’s going to remain yours until you trust us enough to share it with us.”

  “Do you know what the book is?” They all nodded. “My momma only told me it was going to save her life and mine. It got her killed. That’s all I know. She told me to protect it, but not to be killed for it. She died trying to leave my father, and I’ve no one left.”

  “Don’t say that.” She looked at Cybill when she spoke. “Don’t say you’re all alone. We’re here for you. And we will be forever if you’ll allow us.”

  “I just want to be safe.” It was too much for her, and she started crying. “We’ve been running and hiding out for so long now. Then every time we got to someplace we felt like we were safe, someone would come along and tell on us or something. I just want my momma back and for things to be normal. I’m so tired of not having food and a shower. It felt so good to be cleaned up.”

  She knew she wasn’t making much in the way of sense. But being held by Cybill while she sobbed out her nonsense was about as good as being held by her momma. Even having all these people around was better than she’d had it in a long time. For some reason she didn’t understand, Becky felt really good for a change.

  They talked for a long time. Becky was having trouble staying awake, and when Cybill moved off the couch beside her and put a pillow on the seat, Becky laid down and knew she wasn’t going to be awake for very long. As sleep settled over her, Becky thanked Cybill for helping her. If she answered her, Becky had no idea.

  She’d had the dream before—the one where her father was sitting in his office with his men with him. Neither Becky nor her momma were ever allowed in the room when he was having a meeting. But that day, Becky had been looking for a pencil sharpener and had nearly gotten caught in the room when they entered. Hiding behind the couch against the wall was all she could find to keep from being hurt for intruding.

  “Did you get rid of the bodies?” Her father had a loud voice. It was rough too. Momma told her it was because someone had knifed him once in the neck, and it never healed right. “If this comes back to bite me in the ass, I’m going to make sure you remember who is boss.”

  “I pr
omise you, no one knows where they are.” She thought the man’s name was Douglas, but she wasn’t sure until her father called him that. “There are some things I should tell you, though. I think the police are looking for them now. They asked me a lot of questions when they came to my house.”

  “The police were at your house? Why am I just now hearing about this, Douglas? You should have told me first thing. You know how much I hate being in the dark about things like this.” This was her father’s “I’m going to hurt you” voice. He’d used it on her more than once. “What did you tell them? Are they aware of how they were killed?”

  “I don’t think they know where they are.” Father asked the man if he was sure or did he just think so. “They never mentioned that they knew where the bodies were. Just that you had them killed. They wanted me to tell them that. I didn’t.”

  “I don’t believe you.” She didn’t either. The man looked to her like he was sweating bullets. But all she could see was his face, and nothing more from her position behind the couch. “You told them everything, didn’t you, Douglas? Do you have any idea how much that is going to cost you?”

  The man’s head just exploded. Blood and other things that she didn’t want to think about were all over the wall behind the man. His head, laying back at an odd angle, seemed to be flooding the floor with his blood.

  Becky had her hand over her mouth, or she might have screamed out loud and been shot too. Her father had killed Douglas. Shot a hole in his head with the gun she knew was in his top drawer. As her father spoke to the other men in the office with him, she watched as Douglas was pulled from the chair and put on a big piece of plastic.

  The plastic was delivered once a month to the house. She’d never thought about what it was being used for until now. Once a month, a huge shipment would come in and be set in the barn. Becky didn’t want to think about the number of bodies that were being wrapped up with it.

  She kept herself still until the room was emptied. Even then, she counted to a thousand twice before she thought she could move. Becky was going to go out the back door to this office and never return, she thought. But she couldn’t have left her mother. Not for anything.

  Her father had made two phone calls about getting someone in to clean up the mess. They were going to arrive by midnight, he told his men, and they were to be out of the house. When she thought she could get up and out of the room, she was nearly to the door when she decided to cover her bottom.

  Pulling out her new cell phone, she took several pictures of the dead man. Then she took pictures of the room. As the last picture, she took a picture of the gun that was back in her father’s desk. As she was leaving the room, Becky turned back to the dead man.

  Becky watched a lot of crime shows. She was looking for some of the people she knew her father had killed on the shows. It never happened so far, but she had learned a great deal from them. Knowing from them that blood could be traced using some kind of light, she decided to take a couple of samples of it and the room for the police, should she ever be brave enough to go to them. Momma had always told her the police were in her father’s pocket. She knew what that meant for sure.

  After taking a little bit of the blood from the wallpaper, she cut a small corner of the rug and put them in an envelope. Picking up the gun with a tissue, she put it in one of the many tins her father had saved that held money. Run money, he had told her momma. When she decided she might need the money too, Becky took some more of it from the dozen or so tins around the room. Either he’d notice and think the cleaning crew did it, or she’d be dead before her next birthday.

  “Where is it?” Opening her eyes when she heard the voice, she looked at Cybill. The room was dark now, but there wasn’t anyone else around. “You talk in your sleep. If you tell me where the money and gun are, I’ll have my sister get it for you to keep.”

  “In the barn where my mom was.” Cybill nodded and stood up. “Are you going there now?”

  “No. You and I are going to have supper. I waited for you. My sister, Jilly, she said that if you wanted to be alone tonight she’d sleep in my room and you could have her room. We all want you to be comfortable.” Becky told her she’d rather sleep in the room with someone. “Good. We’ll bunk in my room. Is there anything else you need to tell me? I know how having trust in someone is hard. You just wait if you have to and tell us what you want.”

  Becky was overwhelmed by the help she was getting. More so that none of them seemed to care that she was the daughter of a nasty mean man. She hoped her aunt Josephine would be able to help her. She was the only hope she had of never going to live with her father again.

  ~*~

  “Joey, there’s a call for you.” She turned and looked at the man she’d hired just yesterday to answer calls for her. “He said it’s important he speaks with you now.”

  “Tell him to fuck off.” Turning back to the work she was doing, she knew that Harvey, her secretary, wasn’t going to last the day if he didn’t stop bothering her with little shit. “Well? Did you tell him?”

  “No. He said he’d have to have the police come here if you didn’t want to hear what he has to say. I’m not sure telling him to fuck off is such a good idea.” She stomped toward him. “Don’t hurt me.”

  That stopped her dead in her tracks. She’d never hurt anyone. Joey knew she had a volatile temper, but she never hurt people. Telling Harvey she was sorry for snapping at him, she picked up the phone and gave the idiot who called her today all she wanted to in the way of anger.

  “You had fucking better have your ducks in a row, you uneducated couch potato. I’m working, in the event no one told you. What the fuck do you want?” His laughing wasn’t something she thought was helping. “I’m hanging up now. If you ever call here again, I will—”

  “Your niece, Rebecca Hightower, has been murdered.” Joey slid to the floor, her legs suddenly no longer strong enough to hold her up. She asked the man if her husband had done it. “At this point, we’re only assuming he did. Not that he was the one that pulled the trigger, but I think you understand what might have happened. Her daughter, Becky, is staying with my family. Becky told me I wasn’t to trust your sister, Margaret, with any information.”

  “No. Don’t call her. She and Peter are close. I think she is still having an affair with him despite him being married to Rebecca. Where are you?” Ian told her his name as well as where they were. “And Becky? Is she hurt too? It wouldn’t be any sweat off his balls to kill his own child.”

  “She’s fine. Scared out of her mind. The doctor told us she was dehydrated and malnourished. We’re taking care that she is getting plenty of food and water. Rebecca is tagged as a Jane Doe for now. The police are friends of the family and have taken precautions to make sure no one knows of her death or that she was found. Becky told my daughter that her father would kill us all if he were to find us helping her.”

  “More than likely, he would. He’s not the best of people to be around.” Joey thought of all the things she knew about Peter. “I’d like to come and see Becky if you think it’ll be safe. I don’t want her hurt either. She and Rebecca have been through a great deal while she was married to that fat fuck.”

  “You certainly have a way with words.” She laughed with him. “If you don’t mind me saying so, I thought that with you being Becky’s great aunt, you’d be—at least sound a little older. You can’t be much older than Rebecca was.”

  “We’re all three the same age. Margie and I are twins. Rebecca is my older brother’s daughter. He was only sixteen when he got this girl, Sheila, pregnant. Mom had just found out that she was going to have us. It was a race, Mom used to tell us, to see who delivered first. We were born a day earlier than Rebecca. My brother committed suicide about a week after his child was born.” Ian told her he was sorry. “Me too. I have no idea why I’m telling you this. You more than likely have a lot of things going on there t
oo. Anyway, I’m not going to be coming there until I hear from you. Also, call me on my cell phone from now on. If you call and I don’t answer, it’s because I’m working. But I will return your call if you leave me a message.”

  After giving him the phone number, she told him she wanted to speak to Becky if she could. Ian told her he’d make sure she called her back when he returned home tonight. She was staying with his wife and her sisters.

  “Christ, man. How do you live in a house full of women? You must be the most patient person in the world do be able to do that.” Ian laughed, and she had to smile. He had a good laugh, one she thought she’d like to hear more often. “Just keep me updated, please. And when the time is right, I’ll tell my sister. She’s a pain in the ass most of the time, so I won’t subject you to that. Also, if you could tell Becky, I love her, that would be great. Thanks for telling me, Ian. I’m sorry you’re involved in this. But I do appreciate you taking care of Becky for me. She’s the best thing Peter ever did.”

  After hanging up, she sat there on the floor, wondering what she was supposed to do now. If it were up to her, she’d hire someone to kill Peter off, then live a very happy life behind bars. But she’d made a promise to Rebecca that she’d not kill him or hire anyone to kill him. She’d feared for her life.

  “Joey? Am I fired?” She looked up at the Harvey and realized she had to be a nicer person. When a man older than her was afraid of her, then she was most certainly doing shit wrong. She told him she was sorry. “I knew you said no phone calls, but when he told me the police would be involved, I thought it best that he told you instead of the police showing up. That really would have upset you.”

  “It would have. You did the right thing in that.” She told him again she was sorry. “I’ve been under a great deal of pressure with this work. I don’t want to mess it up, and with all the stress of that, I tend to be snappish. I’ll work on trying not to make you fear me in the future.”