“I showed her how to get up on her knees last night.” Olivia did that, showing Michelle what she could do. As soon as the baby did what Olivia was doing, she crawled right across the room to her. “She’s scary smart, isn’t she?”
“She is. But then, so are you. I have something I’d like to talk to you about. Training Michelle doesn’t have to be a full-time job for either of you. I don’t think you understand how much time you have to help her along.” Olivia told her she didn’t want to mess this up. “You won’t, honey. I know that. But I think you should just work on one progress a day. Think about what I’m saying here. She’s going to be a regular baby in no time. Aurora said that after she hits one year, she would grow up like a normal child. So, in fourteen years, your age now, she’ll be just as you are. Aurora will still be around, and her daughter will be a teenager. Much too young, I’m thinking, to take over her duties.”
“What if she’s going to leave earlier?” Emmie didn’t know why she thought this, but she told Olivia that with her training, she had to come into her magic as well. That would take some time. “It is sort of exhausting training her all the time. I can’t imagine how you did this when you had me at this age. I have magic, and I’m still worn out all the time. My respect for you as my mom has gone way off the charts.”
The hug was needed by them both, but it was the words that meant more to her. Emmie didn’t think there was a child in the world more deserving of this job than her daughter. When Michelle started giggling at Olivia, Emmie watched the two of them. They were having fun.
“She wanted her to be more in touch with people. Remember her saying that?” Olivia said she did, between bouts of giggles from them both. “Having fun and interacting with others will do that for her. Michelle will know that having fun while working is all right. I think that is what Aurora was talking about when she said she wasn’t good with people. She doesn’t know how to have a little fun.”
“I think you’re right.”
Blowing on Michelle’s belly, Olivia laughed as hard as she ever had before. Having another child in the house was bringing so much laughter that she decided to sit awhile and watch the two of them. Taking out her phone, she took pictures of the girls to send to Kylan. He’d gone out earlier that morning to take care of a couple of things with Bryant.
“There is some trouble at the nursing home again. About a decade ago, we put together this fundraiser to put a new roof on the place. Things seemed to be going well until last week. Or that was when my mom decided to visit there as she used to do. She noticed that the people were not out and about as they usually were.” She asked him if the same doctor was in charge of this one that her dad was going to be going to. “No, thankfully. But that doesn’t mean they’re not doing the same thing to their residents.”
They had wanted to put her dad into a nursing home setting to be doped up all the time. She couldn’t do that, and after ordering the doctor to tell them why he was doing this, they found out he was getting a kickback. Emmie didn’t want to think about having those poor people comatose all the time.
After she and Olivia fed Michelle, the two girls went to the living room to watch some television. Emmie thought Olivia seemed less stressed than she’d been before. She was working on a better schedule now, and both of them seemed to be having a great deal of fun. That, Emmie thought, was what childhood should be like.
Putting together a proposal she’d been asked to do for a new playground for the grade school, Emmie wondered what sorts of things her kids would be playing with when they were old enough to go to the grade school. While Olivia was much too old for playground equipment, she knew she’d more than likely take Michelle there to have some fun. Even her little brother when he came along.
The phone was ringing when she was finishing up the paperwork. Not answering it in favor of working, she let the staff take care of it. Their new butler came into her office a short time later with a tray of small sandwiches, as well as a tall glass of what appeared to be juice. She asked him if she was about to have company.
“You are, miss. One of the teachers at the elementary school has asked to see you about the changes that are going on. She told me she will only take a few moments of your time. And as Lady Sara is also a part of the school board, she is coming as well. The children have had their lunch and are currently taking a nap. I have taken a picture for you.” He handed her a photo of Olivia on the floor with Michelle laying across her back, asleep too. She nearly sobbed at how adorable they looked together. “We are not getting as much done today. The two of them have certainly gained our attention.”
“Mine too. You should have seen them upstairs before we came down. I have to make myself stay in here to get even part of my plans for the day done.” Sara came into the office first. She left her things in the office and went to see her girl. They hadn’t told anyone about Michelle yet, so when she squealed in delight, Emmie made her way into the living room where the girls were now awake. “Sara, we have a little girl named Michelle. We were going to tell everyone tonight. I’m glad you get to know first.”
“Oh, Emmie, she’s just beautiful. Olivia, she could pass as your own sister. The two of you look so much alike.” They did, Emmie just realized. More so than they had even yesterday. She wondered if that was by design. “I have to tell you, I’m so happy for all these little girls around. They’re so much more fun to buy for than little boys. Not that I don’t love them, but boys are just boring when it comes to dressing them up.”
The three of them played around on the floor while Emmie finished sending the paperwork to Harper. She was in charge of the school projects. In addition to telling her an outline of the work she’d done, Emmie told her about the visit by the teacher that was coming by. Instead of answering her by the same email, Harper called her.
“They want a new kitchen for the staff. I have it in my head that they have a better looking kitchen than the cooks do to cook for the children. Exactly what is it they want? The world?” Emmie asked her the last time she’d been there. “I don’t remember. I have my faerie working on another project for me. Could you please send your Pudge over and figure out when the last time the kitchen was updated? It would help me a great deal.”
“I can do that. If you’d like, I can have him set up come cameras in the room too. They’re putting them everywhere nowadays, and no one should be surprised that they’re in the kitchen. Pudge is very tech savvy.” Harper said that would be a great idea. “All right. I’m sending him now. Are you coming over here? We can view what he figures out together when the teacher gets here.”
“Good idea. I’m on my way.”
Sending Pudge to the school, she made sure he understood that he’d have to stay there until the cameras were looking at what she wanted to see. As soon as he had the first one in place, she thought Harper was wrong about the update. The kitchen looked about as old as the fifties. Or even before.
Pudge put cameras in each place she wanted, even down the hallway from where the kids came in the door. It was surprising to her that no one had thought of doing this before. She would have thought that cameras would have been the first thing they put in after all the school shootings.
Pudge had nine cameras set up by the time Harper showed up, at the same time Miss Caroline arrived. While Emmie showed Harper what Pudge had set up so far, she spoke to Miss Caroline about what she wanted from this meeting. Sara joined them about the time she was talking about the kitchen for the teachers.
“I have the receipts for the kitchen overhaul that was supposed to be done a few years ago. From what I can tell here, new stoves, refrigerators, as well as new pots and pans were updated. This was only in the last eight years, from what I can see on the receipts. I wasn’t here then, but my husband and boys saved every little piece of paper that things were written on regarding this.” Sara handed her the paperwork she had. “But from the look of things in the school
now, I’d say that someone didn’t do their part of the job.”
“The high school is also supposed to be all new in the way of appliances.” Pudge was asked to go to the kitchen of the high school to have a camera put in there. As before, the equipment was all older than eight years. “I wasn’t here then, but the rest of the staff have said they couldn’t remember when things were updated. I can see here where it says they were delivered to the grade school and that the custodian was responsible for installing everything. I don’t know who that might have been back then, but the team that cleans up for us now is a group called Will Clean. I can check, but I don’t think they were here then either. They just don’t look old enough to be out of school, much less working back then.”
Emmie knew better. Her own mother-in-law looked like she could pass as her sister, so looking her age wasn’t anything to go by. Looking up the Will Clean company, she discovered it had been working for the county for the last fifty years. That, however, didn’t seem right either. Digging deeper, she found a lot of information that didn’t ring true.
Laying out everything she had on the company for Sara, she called Buck to come over and answer the questions she couldn’t. While he was on his way, not only did Bryant show up but also Kylan. It took them nearly an hour to get to the bottom of the company, then to figure out what happened to the school upgrades.
“The company Will Clean is run by Nathan’s group.” They didn’t mention that it was a wolf pack, so she didn’t either. Looking down at her notes, she explained what she could figure out about it saying it worked for the county. “They have been working for the county for the last fifty or so years, but it only started out as snow removal to the schools, public buildings, as well as the main roads through town.”
“I think all they had way back then was some shovels and a few dozen men doing it. Sidewalks were cleaned up by them. I don’t think that was the name then. I think it was something else, like Wolf.” She told Buck what she’d found out. “That’s it. Luna Cleaning.”
“They were also responsible for office cleaning. They did such a good job the banks hired them as well. They’re still using them, it looks like.” She pulled up the signage they had used back then. “Okay, so they’re branching out, and each time they do, they do a little adjusting to the name of the company. Five years ago, they started cleaning the schools. They weren’t in charge when the update was done eight years ago. Do we know who was?”
Olivia joined them a few minutes later. When her daughter sat on her lap, Emmie started to ask her what she was doing, that she was much too big to be on her lap. But Olivia put her hand over hers and spoke to her about what had happened to the man and the equipment. Emmie asked her how she knew that.
Don’t freak out, okay? Michelle told me. She spoke to me through a link we share. Like a baby would be able to— If it’s all the same to you, I need to calm down. But I wanted you to know what she told me. Mr. Allen, the man in charge of the renovations, bought the equipment with the schools’ money, then sold it off. He also kept the money that was paid to him to do both updates.
Olivia left Michelle there with her dad and went out of the office. Emmie couldn’t help it, she laughed until she was crying. The baby, the one that had been created yesterday, had solved the mystery for them. Mr. Allen was going to be in big trouble when the police caught up with him.
Chapter 7
Roone kept his mouth shut and his hands on his steering wheel. Being pulled over was hard enough on cops. This was why, whenever he had to deal with the police, he was cooperative and polite. Besides, his sister would have his head if he even got smart with her, much less one of the fellows in blue.
“Mr. Bronson, do you know why we pulled you over?” He told the man he did not. He also explained to him that he had a license to carry and that his gun was in a holster at his back. He also had his identification there for him to look at should he need to. “Thank you for that. I can see there that—”
The other officer called for the one at his door. When he asked if he would mind waiting for just a moment, Roone said it was fine. Not moving still, he looked over at his cell phone when it rang. Telling the car to answer it—one of the best inventions of all times, he thought—his sister was talking to someone with her. Knowing better than to interrupt her, he waited for her to finish so she’d talk to him.
“Why is your name coming up over the scanner?” He told her where he was and what was going on. “They’re looking for a man who robbed the store down the road from you. Are you headed to my house?”
“I am. I was.” He heard her talking to someone else again. “You do know that I’m right now pulled over, don’t you? I mean, at any minute, he could come back and wonder who you might be talking to when you called me, Rowan.”
“I’m helping you. Shut up.” He loved her, very much, but there were times when he’d just as soon strangle her. “Roone, have you been to see grandma lately?”
“Grandma? No. Not lately. What are you doing?” She said she was helping him. “By asking me about grandma. Who, I might point out, has been dead for ten years. Either help me in a way that actually helps me, or let me hang up on you.”
“I’m working on it.” Roone could hear her clicking on her computer. When she spoke this time, he knew she was talking to one of the cops behind him. Whatever was going on, this wasn’t a simple pulling over because he had a taillight out. Or whatever was going on. “Grandma has only been dead for nine years. Not ten. I’m fixing something here for you, so you’ll have to wait a few more seconds. Anyway, I was wondering if you ever visited her grave. I want to do that with you tomorrow.”
“Anything you want. So long as I don’t end up in jail.” She said he’d be all right. “Thanks. What’s going on, Rowan? I’m starting to get a bit nervous.”
“The license plate number that was given to the police is yours. Off by one number, if you can believe that. I’ve sent them a snap of the video from the robbery to prove to them that they’ve pulled over the wrong man. Also, that you’re my brother, and you would know better than to do something so stupid as to rob a store.” He said he did know better. “Good. Okay, I have to speak to them, so hang on a second more. I’ll pick you up at eight, and we can have breakfast at the diner on Maple.”
Rowan and he were twins. Sharing a birthday wasn’t the only thing they had in common. They were both in law enforcement. He was an FBI agent, and she was a local cop. Well, only because she’d not taken her exams to put her in charge of the unit she worked with all the time. The call he’d been on with her disconnected, and he was fine with that.
Two weeks ago, he’d been on an arrest and had been shot. He’d been on medical leave since then. Rowan had been making sure he was all right by calling him daily, sometimes several times a day, and he’d been going to her home for dinner every night so she could check him out. They were about as close as two siblings could get, he supposed.
“Mr. Bronson, I’m sorry about the mix-up. Your sister, she’s a good egg. We like working with her.” He thanked the man and told him she was good to have around. “I hope you’re getting around better too. We all heard about you being shot.”
“Yes. I’m going back to work on Monday if I can get by Rowan. She’s a little protective of me.”
The officer laughed and told him to have a good night. Thanking him, Roone put his license and other things away while the police were still behind him. Their lights were off, so he knew they’d be leaving soon. He wasn’t in any hurry either.
Twenty minutes later, he was pulling into Rowan’s driveway. Getting out, careful of the snow and ice, he made his way up to her front door when he heard something. Pausing, he felt his body tense up as he listened to his surroundings. Thinking he’d imagined it, he started to knock on her door when he heard it again.
It was faint, but he heard someone screaming. Leaning his head toward Rowan’s fr
ont door, he listened with every fiber of his being. This time, he heard it louder. Pulling out his gun, he bashed in the front door. Pulling out his phone, he made a phone call he thought he’d never have to make, especially at his sister’s home.
“I need backup at 24 Stillman Lane. Officer down. I repeat, officer down.”
He made his way into the living room and felt for the pulse of his dad. None. Keeping his mind on finding the others he knew should be in the house, his heart hurt for the suffering his dad had obviously endured.
Moving on, he found his way to the kitchen and saw blood all over the floor and the front of the sink. Bloody handprints marred the wall. The refrigerator was open, and blood was inside it too. He also noticed in passing that the back door was broken and glass was everywhere on the floor. Moving down the hallway toward the two bedrooms and office back there, he heard the police pulling into the yard.
The first bedroom was a mess. No bodies that he could see, and it didn’t appear to him that anyone was lurking behind the door. This room had no closet, so he was spared looking there for anyone. Waiting in the hall until the police entered, he identified himself as an agent and his name.
The second bedroom was his dad’s room. He’d been staying with Rowan for the last several months. Mom had died some time ago, so it was working out for Rowan and their dad to be close. This room was a mess. More blood on the bed as well as walls. It looked to him like whoever it was, they had been searching for something.
“Agent, have you found Rowan yet?” He shook his head at the whispered question as the cop backed him up at the door to the office. As soon as he entered the room, the cop right at his side, he found his sister. “Christ.”
He was sure she was dead. Going to her body, he felt a faint pulse and looked where she was bleeding from. The two shots to her chest, one in her shoulder and one in her leg, made him realize she’d lost a great deal of blood.
Kylan: Prince of Tigers – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance Page 10
