“I didn’t do anything, you old poop. Your wife has it about right in calling you that, as far as I’m concerned. I can and might just change your name to Poop Robinson.” Thatcher put Jimmy in his mother’s arms. Rogen watched as she began to peel some of the blankets off her burden. “Meggie, I’d like for you to be the first family member to meet James Robinson, mine and Thatcher’s son.”
No one moved as Jimmy, tired of being held so stiffly, screamed his head off. She knew what that meant too. When they’d brought him home they’d tried their best to wrap him into one of those swaddle things, and he pitched a fit. Now they rarely covered him at all.
“Oh my goodness, Thatch! It’s a little boy. Our grandson! Look at him. He’s perfect.” Meggie had him down to his diaper and onesie. Thatch reached over and barely touched his finger to his little toes. “He’s beautiful. Is this what you were talking about as a surprise? If not, I can’t think of a single thing in the world that would be better than this.”
“There is actually one more thing. We’ve been asked to adopt another child. But since Morgan has found his mate, I wanted to see if it was something that Anna wanted to do this time around. The little girl at the hospital was abandoned legally, and is a tiger, as we all are.” If she’d not been looking right at Anna when she spoke about the little baby needing a home, she might have missed the look of hope on her face. It was dashed almost in the same blink of an eye when total disappointment laid there. “She’ll be as safe as Jimmy will be. This I can promise you. No one will get past all of us to either baby.”
“We love each other, Anna. And while I want to do this with you with all my heart, I want you to answer the question. She’ll be both of our responsibilities. I wouldn’t put all the pressure of raising a child on you anymore than I think you would do to me. I promise you that. But I won’t put you into a position without you agreeing to this. It’ll be a big responsibility for us both.” Anna looked at her when Morgan did. Rogen was sure what his next question would be. “What do you know about her? I’m sure you know more than the hospital does.”
“I do. Her parents are both deceased. Accident. Great grandparents thought that they could raise her on their own, but as you can imagine, it’s a little too much for them. They’re both in their mid-seventies. Her name, if you’d like to keep it that, is Marie Renee Broadway. She’s six months old and just beginning to crawl. Grandparents are out of the picture too, as they wanted nothing to do with the union because they didn’t care for the male mate.” Morgan asked about him. “Good person, from what I could tell. Held down a good job until he was killed. They were on their second honeymoon, ten year anniversary. The mother was an attorney. There is a substantial insurance policy that is hers when she turns twenty-one. Not a single skeleton in their closet that I could find. And you know me well enough to know that I looked hard.”
“We’ll take her.”
After Anna agreed to adopt the child, Thatch whooped it up so loudly that he woke up Jimmy. While Meggie was trying to comfort her grandson, Thatch was still whooping it up. “Another grandbaby, Meggie. Did you hear that? Two of them in one day. I’m a man having the next best day of my life.”
“And what do you consider your first, Thatch Robinson?” He told her that it was marrying her. “What about these boys here?”
“Oh, love, because they’re a part of you, they are right up there at the top of the list with you.” He winked at her, and the boys that he called his sons laughed. “I love you, Meggie dear.”
~*~
Noah pushed his way through the mall with his cart rolling behind him quickly. They would be closing in about ten minutes, and he had to find himself a place to hide before they did. He’d spent the night in several malls before he’d gone to prison, so he knew this was a sure bet for getting himself a nice place to sleep. The place that sold furniture and bedding was his target.
“Can I help you?” The security guard startled him. “I asked if I could help you, Mr. Hayes. We’re closing in about five minutes, and I’m afraid that I’m not going to allow you to stay here in the mall.”
It occurred to him that the man knew his name. How that was possible was bothering him enough to want to hit the man until he put his hand on his gun. Mall security guards didn’t wear real guns, his mind thought. Just as he was going to jump the man, knowing that he’d not harm him overly much, the guard grinned at him.
“I’m not a guard of this mall, Mr. Hayes. If you’re thinking that I am, then you’re going to be dead before you reach for me.” Noah just stared at the man. That was twice that he’d called him by name. “Now, I think it’s time you left.”
“How the hell did you find out my name? I’m surely not on any list or shit. I’ve not ever been in this here mall before.” The man said nothing. His badge proclaimed him as Stafford. “Officer Stafford, is it? Well, I’m not sure where you got your information, but I was here to get me some...some sheets. Why did you think that I was going to sleep here?”
“Because I have people that are a good deal smarter than you are watching out for people like you. Your sister, she was very accommodating in letting my boss know that you’ve done this sort of thing before. Including going so far as to trash up the place before the doors opened up. Ring a bell with you?” Noah asked him how he knew his sister. “We have a mutual friend, as a matter of fact. I was told by my boss that when I see you, I am to run you off. If that fails, which I’m hoping you do try and get around me, I’m to blow your fucking head off. There would be no one questioning me on whether it was justified or not either.”
Noah looked around. He noticed that they’d drawn quite a crowd of onlookers now. He wasn’t going to panic—that wasn’t his style. Panicking people were stupid people, and Noah thought that he was as smart as any dumbass cop. Noah wanted to inch his way into the store and get lost in one of the changing rooms, but another cop, with his hand on his gun too, came up behind him, blocking his way from getting more than a foot into the store.
“Now, you’re going to take your little cart and get out of the mall before I have you arrested or shot. I don’t care how you float with this, but either way, you’ll not be sleeping in this or any other store in this mall.” Noah asked again how he knew his sister. “I don’t. Not at all. But she has a friend, as I said to you, that can pull some mighty strong strings, and that got me after your ass. Are you going to leave on your own or in a hearse? As I said, either way is good with me.”
“I have never been treated so terribly in all my life. And I just got out of prison.” He looked around for someone to come to his aide. He could tell right away that he was on his own this time. “This is tailgating, I hope you know that. Once I’m out of here, I’m calling my lawyer.”
“You go right on ahead and tell them you’re caught tailgating. I’m sure that will go over well with them. But you might get more action from your supposed attorney if you tell him or her that you’ve been targeted. Which won’t work either, because that’s not the way I’m doing this. I was sent your picture to watch out for. I was informed that you’re a black spot on society, as well as a thief. In this case, it’s sleeping in the mall and using the bed you had no intentions of purchasing.” Stafford laughed again. “I was told that if you didn’t believe this information came from your sister, then I’m to tell you that you hate being called Junior. Do you, Junior? Do you hate being called Junior?”
“You mother fucker.” He nearly jumped at the man’s throat, but the guns being pulled on him, both in front and behind, had him take note that he’d never survive this if he did. “Where is she? Where is my sister, Anna?”
“Home, I would guess. With her husband. Also, I’ve heard that they’re going to have themselves a little girl soon.”
That was news to him. Anna had gotten married? And had a brat? Noah told him that he lied. Pulling out his phone, Stafford showed him a picture of not just his sister, but a m
an standing next to her. And Christ almighty, he was a big fucking man. The second picture showed just Anna giving him the finger.
“She sure has a real hatred of you. I’d say that you must have done something stupid—or stupider, in this case—to have made her upset enough to tell me to kill you even if you blinked the wrong way. I’m not going to do that, of course. But I guess now that I think on it, I can understand her being pissy with you. You have two minutes, Mr. Hayes, to get out of the mall, and never return or I’ll arrest you for trespassing.”
“I’ll have you know that I’m going to sue your ass when I contact someone. I might even take a hit out on you for this shit.” Stafford asked him if he was threatening him. “No, I’m making you a fucking promise. You just—”
He didn’t even get to finish the rest of his promise to the cop before he was snatched up by his legs and dragged right out of the building. All he could think about was wrapping his hands around Anna’s throat and smashing the life out of her and that brat of hers.
As soon as he was outside, he realized that instead of it getting cooler out, as he’d thought it would, it was hotter. Not only that, but the humidity was so thick that he was soaking wet all over his face and neck before he could manage to get up off the sidewalk, where he’d been tossed.
Noah had always been a sweaty person. If for any reason he’d be outside just checking out the yard, he’d be sopping wet, from his forehead to the back of his knees. Noah would be wiping that shit off him every ten seconds. That was why everyone thought he was lazy. He was, but mostly, he hated the feeling of sweat all over him. Of course, the great thing about it was that when he was back inside, the air conditioner, when they had one, would cool him right off. Even a fan would do the trick.
Finding other means of getting in out of the heat was proving to be harder than he thought it should have been. There weren’t no empty buildings around that he could easily break into. Noah noticed that a lot of empties were being boarded up, like they didn’t want anyone coming in to get themselves a nice place to sleep. He wondered aloud what this world was coming to.
Noah finally found him a dumpster that had just been emptied out, and made him a cleaned up place in it. This was what he did in a pinch, and was now glad that he’d not mentioned to anyone what he did. It smelled bad, but he was sure that he did too, so it was all right for the night.
Pulling out his big notebook he’d gotten in prison, Noah added what he’d done today. One of the docs that had worked with him told him that it would help improve his mind if he were to keep a list of things that he had to do daily. Somehow that had gotten screwed up in his head to him writing down things that he had done, not things that he needed to get done. It had been an entire month, a habit by then, before someone told him he’d been wrong.
“Well, he sure ain’t gonna be telling me shit like that again, will he?” Noah’s soft laughter rang around the metal box he was in. “He’s not gonna be telling nobody what they did was wrong without himself a tongue. Ain’t that right?”
When the rain started to pelt him like it was pissed off at him for some reason, he had to close up the lid. Not only did the closing of the box make it hotter than hell in the thing, but it also made it stink worster. He thought about his sister correcting him on that when she’d been living at home with them all. Kept telling him that weren’t no word.
“Daddy uses it. So does David and Bud. There ain’t no way that it’s not a word when most people use it.” She said no one used it but them, so that wasn’t a good comeback. Then she just moved away from him before he could show her what it felt like to correct him and insult the rest of them.
Most of the time he never understood a word that came out of her mouth. Anna would correct them when they were trying to tell her something. He wondered if she did that on purpose, just to get them all addled up about something.
You’d get out about two words, then she’d tell you that you said it wrong. Or used it wrong. It’d nearly take all day for you to get a just sentence out with the way she worked a body. She was like a starved dog with a piece of meat. Anna would keep picking at you all the time, until you just wanted to slap the shit out of her. Which really, he didn’t need an excuse to do, but it sure made him feel better when he had one.
Curling up in a ball, Noah tried to get himself some sleep. It was hard. After a bitty bit, he had to open the lid up because of the stinky smell, as well as the heat making him feel like he was on this side of Hell. Getting out proved harder than it had been before prison, and he pushed that off as they were making the dumpsters taller.
“I surely ain’t getting too old for this shit.” He had to think a minute on how old he was. He had to figure it three times before he settled that there was something wrong with his cow-u-lations. “There ain’t no way that I’m pushing forty-nine. No way in hell.”
The more he thought about it, the less he believed it at all. If he was forty-nine like he thought, then that would make his daddy nearing seventy. David would be forty-seven, and then old Bud would be hitting forty-five. They couldn’t be into their forties like this.
Trying not to think about how old he was, he centered more on how much time he’d lost by being in prison. Long enough to know that he’d missed out on the best years of his life. Prison had taken away his youth, he told himself. What a cock sucking deal.
Making himself another note, he was going to find him a phone and call up either his daddy or one of his brothers. Surely they’d know how old they were without him having to figure it out all wrong. Yes, sir. That was what he was gonna do. Find him a phone and call up his family. The only thing that Noah knew for sure was that he’d been away in prison when he’d first heard about momma having herself a little girl.
“Why in God’s good graces would she want to get knocked up with a girl?” He supposed nobody might have told her about having a kid when she was too old to poop one out. “They’re all dummies. I should have been there to help her get rid of the thing. I’m sure that’s what’s wrong with Anna. She’s touched in the head.”
When he thought that the dumpster was cooled off a mite, he climbed back in. Falling in on his head surely did hurt, but he didn’t care. Now he had himself a nice place to sleep. Of course, his cardboard was wet, but that might well cool him off a little too. Lying down, Noah thought of the shit he was going to have to do tomorrow.
Chapter 4
Morgan had never held a baby before that he could remember. If he had, he was sure that it hadn’t been as terrifying as it felt right now. Christ, the ones in the nursery that they’d seen were the tiniest things he’d ever seen. He asked Anna if she wanted to hold it first.
“If you don’t stop calling her an it, I’m going to make it so you can’t hold her ever again. Her name is Marie. Say it. Marie.” He grinned at her and said her name. “Dammit, what is taking them so long to get here?”
“They’re making sure that she’s fit to be taken home. Checking all her nooks and crannies to make sure they’re giving us a healthy baby.” Anna glared at him, telling him that she was a baby, how many nooks and crannies could she have. “I don’t know, love. But I do know that you’re going to be a great mother.”
“I hope so. I just wish now that I’d thought this through a little more before agreeing to it. What if something happens and I drop her or something?” Morgan told her that she was a cat. “I suppose, in your insane logic, you’re telling me that you think she’ll land on her feet. What a stupid thing to say. No wonder you didn’t date much.”
“Who told you that?” She said his mother had. “My mother, as much as she likes to think she knows about me, doesn’t know shit about my dating life. I could almost forgive her for that, but I’m sure she told you, too, that I went to my junior and senior prom without a date. It was because I couldn’t ask all the women I knew to go with me.”
“Oh sure, that’s what happe
ned.” Before he could tickle her, something that he’d only just found out she hated, a nurse came in with a small crib in front of her. “I thought you forgot about us.”
“Good gracious no. We have been so busy down here today. I think that we’ve had twelve deliveries. These little girls are just doll babies.” Morgan heard what she said, but apparently Anna hadn’t. “Here you go. Aren’t they just the cutest little things you’ve ever laid eyes—?”
“There are two of them? I thought.... We were told that there was a little girl and her name was Marie Renee.” The nurse nodded at Anna. “Then are you showing us the wrong children? I’m confused.”
“No. I don’t know what happened about that. But this little one is Renee, and her sister—identical twins, by the way—is Marie.” Anna was handed Renee and he took Marie. “I bet I know what happened. You just wait here a minute and I’ll find out for sure.”
This time she did return in a minute. Mary was armed with not just a bottle apiece for the babies, but also diapers and wipes to change them with after, she told them. After making sure that the babies were getting their bottles, she explained what had happened.
“We had this new girl working the desk. I said had, because she only lasted about a day. You’d not believe the mess ups that she made in such a short order of time. Anyway, I bet that’s what she did. Told you their names by mixing up that they were twins. The man that came in earlier for a set of twin boys, he was sure fired up about not getting two for the price of one. His words, not mine. I’m kind of glad that he didn’t take him.” Mary looked at the two of them with a look of disappointment on her face. “You’re not going to take them now, are you? I’m so sorry to have wasted your time on this. I could just brain that girl for—”
“We’ll take all three of them.” Anna looked at him like he was nuts. He probably was. Morgan was sure that he’d regret this as soon as he had to feed all three of them at once. “If we don’t take them, someone like two for the price of one guy will take them, and there is no way I’d be able to sleep at night wondering what he was doing to them.”
Morgan: Robinson Destruction – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance Page 4
