Lincoln_The Manning Dragons_Erotic Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  “He has been dealt a great deal in the last months.” She told Daniel that she understood his attitude. “His father would beat him should he have heard him talking to you thusly. He was not kind to you.”

  “And who can blame him? He is a man trying to make his way in the world, even after all this time. Nay, I don’t blame him at all. Mistrust, whoever it is placed on, it is a good thing when trying to keep all those that you love from being harmed.” Petunia sat beside her and she put out her hand of flowers that she’d picked. The faerie took one and started to nibble on it while she continued. “What would you have done if he had welcomed me with open arms? He still believes that I am the one that killed their beloved father. It’s normal. Especially for Cooper. He, until recently, hated all humans and what they brought him. It only stands to reason that he would be leery of me.”

  “He should not be, that is all I’m saying.” Standing, she started for the hill again when she felt the earth speaking to her. Waiting till she understood the lady of the earth, she moved to go back to the house. “Run ahead for me, Daniel, and tell his lordship that he needs to come to me now. There is trouble brewing.”

  He flew to the house, and she feared that he’d not return with the man. Not only did he come out of the house and toward her, but his queen did as well. As soon as he was near her, he scooped her into his arms and took her to the house. Such muscles the man had, and today she was grateful for them.

  “I’ve heard from the earth.” He told her to hush, that he needed to make sure she was all right. “I’m old, Lord Cooper, very old, and need to speak with you.”

  “Why are women so stubborn? I will get you some juice, then you can talk.” She told him she could speak while it was being brought to her. “All right then, tell me what you heard.”

  “There is a man coming—his name is Walton. He wants the child so she can tame the dragons.” Cooper asked if he was taming them or that she could lure them. “I can’t tell. He only thinks of it that way. The child is friends with one. I cannot see his name.”

  “Waco. But she didn’t train him. She befriended him, and he her. In fact, he protected her.” Sadie said that was him. The earth had only said that he was her protector. “This man, he tried to kill her when she was trying to get away from him. Her mother and unborn child as well. Ginger has since given birth, but the little boy was shot in the process.”

  “Yes, yes, but he comes here. You mustn’t let him have her.” He said that he wouldn’t. “But he’ll use whatever means necessary to take her from her home. You must keep him from harming her.” Carson asked why it was so important; not that they’d not keep her safe, but why this child. “Because she really can train them.”

  ~~~

  Lincoln watched Grace as she painted on the canvas. It was erotic the way she moved back and forth, how she chewed on the end of her brush as she looked at her progress. He even thought the way she stood was sexy. He had it bad for his mate, and he found that he didn’t really care who knew it.

  “Will you stop looking at me like I’m a side of beef?” He laughed when she did, but she put her work down. “Don’t you have something to do that isn’t in here? I have to get at least six paintings done in a month, and you’re distracting me.”

  “I could go, but I don’t really want to.” She told him to make himself want to. “All right, but I hate it. I love watching you work.”

  “I never thought I’d say this to you, but I don’t want to see you again until supper. Go away. I really do need to work.” He kissed her on the mouth but only a small peck because she pulled back and threatened him with a wet paint brush. “I mean it—don’t return until I need you or call you to supper.”

  He left. Lincoln didn’t want to, but he knew that, just like him, she had things to do. Instead of going in the house, as that was where he was headed, he decided to find one of his brothers and see if they’d keep him from being bored. The greenhouse project no longer needed him to be there.

  Lincoln had hired Ginger. There wasn’t a doubt that he would, he supposed, but she had taken all the worry out of his job and made it easier for him. Not only that, but she had come up with a map of the entire project and where there were empty spaces, as well as who was now paying a yearly rent as opposed to month to month. Then after talking it over with Cooper, he hired her to manage the entire project and walked away. Not nearly as difficult as he’d thought it would be. Now he needed to find something else to do.

  What are you doing right now? Xavier told him he was playing a game of chess with Foster. I need something to do. I don’t suppose you have a project that might need help, do you?

  You could paint walls at the building on Tenth. I did such a poor job of it that they sent me home in shame. Which I suppose is good. I didn’t care for it anyway. He didn’t think he’d like it any better and told him that. You should contact Lucas—he’s got several things going on right now, and you could get on his nerves like you did Grace’s.

  She told you? Xavier said that he’d asked where he was, and she’d told him she’d kicked him out. I was bothering her by thinking of all kinds of ways I could take her against her new equipment. Yesterday we got a pug mill. It has nothing to do with dogs, believe it or not. As well as the makings of a raku kiln. Grace told me that she loves to work in clay to get inspiration. I have no idea. Anyway, I’ll contact Lucas.

  Instead of reaching out, he simply walked to his house. It wasn’t that far, and he needed to burn off some energy. He’d think that as much sex as he was having, he’d be exhausted all the time. But the opposite was true. He was much more energized than ever before.

  His brother was on the phone when he was let in the house. There was as much going on inside as there was in Grace’s work area. When Lucas finally hung up, he growled loudly then sat down hard in his chair.

  “You ever have one of those days when not a damned thing goes your way?” Lincoln told him all the time. “Today is one of those for me. Alan is on vacation.”

  “Oh Christ.” He nodded. Lincoln wanted to laugh, but in his current mood, Lucas might hurt him. “I came to see if I could help, but I can’t do Alan’s job. No one can. I can’t believe you allowed him to go.”

  “I know. But he deserved it. And I do have to let him occasionally. I think I’ll make it more enticing next year. If he stays, I’ll double his check for the two weeks.” He asked if he was going to be gone that long, thinking of all the shit the man did for Lucas. “No, thank goodness. Just one. And I promised myself I’d not bother him unless his new computer was on fire.”

  “How many times have you called him?” Lucas only grinned. “That bad, huh? Has he threatened to quit yet? If not, I’m sure you can at least call once or twice more.”

  “I knew he did a lot for me, but I am at a total loss here. I don’t know the filing system as well as he does. And I came up with the way to do it. I haven’t any idea how to get into my calendar. And I’ve been tempted to send him my appointments and have him put them in from there. But he did tell me the last time I called, if I did again, then he would erase all my contacts and I’d have to start over. No quitting yet, but he is threatening me.”

  Lincoln laughed. “Tell me what you need and let me see if I can get things going for you. I know enough about computers that I don’t mess up too badly.” Lucas was shaking his head. “What is that for? I need something to do.”

  “Not with the system, thank you very much. He really would quit if I did anything wrong to it.” Lucas leaned back in his chair. “He did do some things for me before he left. I am a sort of free man for the whole week. Alan didn’t make any appointments, so I could work on the sixteen proposals that have been on my desk for two weeks.”

  “Now that is something I do.” He handed him half. “I meant help, not do them all.”

  “I have to get these done, seriously. There are four businesses right now that could use our help. And if you could research some for me, it’ll make it easier to come to a
decision.” He nodded and looked at the first name. “Thanks, Lincoln. And just so you know, Grace said I was to make you stay here for at least four hours.”

  “What did she do, contact you all?” Lucas said pretty much. “I’ll have to make her pay. I can think of hundreds of ways to have her make it up to me.”

  “Yeah, well, for now, research.”

  He worked on the first for ten minutes before he heard the phone ring again. Lucas said he’d turn the service on after it hung up. As he dug deeper into the man who wanted a loan to keep his building afloat, the more intrigued he became about the man’s lies.

  “This guy is so full of shit. I’d be tempted to loan him the money just to see how he squirms his way out of paying us back. He’s very creative with his needs.” Lucas asked how. “He said that he has a sick mother and that she’s drained his accounts. But on page two, he tells how she had died several years ago and that her illness wiped him out. Then on page four of his letter to you, he tells how his mother is in fine health, and was willing to help him without pay until he gets back on his feet.”

  “You can put that in the hell no pile. I had one I was looking at yesterday that said right out since we had all the money in the world, he didn’t feel the need to have arrangements to pay us back. He said that he thought it would be nice to have a long vacation once in a while, and that we should want him to. Happy employees, he said, make a happy boss.” Lucas stood and got them both a bottle of water. “People amaze me at times. Where do they come up with these things? I can see them lying in bed, thinking of ways to not borrow, but not to take the money and run away with it. I filed it with the other one.”

  They both worked for two hours. It was actually sort of fun. They talked over the proposals for several of the buildings downtown, as well as the storefronts asking for help to get their business up to code or simply looking better. All in all, they turned down all but one asking for a loan, and three for improvement money.

  “Thank you. Christ, I need to just look them over when they come in instead of piling them up until they’re overwhelming. I say that, but we both know in a few weeks, I’m going to have another stack needing the same information.” Lincoln told him it was his pleasure. “How about some lunch? My treat since you kept me on target today. I might even make some brownie points with Alan when he gets back. In four days, sixteen hours, and twenty-three minutes. Give or take a few minutes.”

  There weren’t a lot of places to just have a fast lunch in town. One of the many proposals—this one they kept in the keeper pile—was to put in a little place that would serve sandwiches and soup during lunchtime hours. Lincoln thought that he could get behind something like that. It was his favorite kind of lunch treat.

  “The woman that wanted to put in a yarn shop, did you know that she is the same person that wanted to put in a fabric store several years ago?” Lucas said that he didn’t. “I think there might be something going on there. Nothing nefarious or anything like that, but I know for a fact that she makes quilts for extra money, as well as knitting. Perhaps she’s hoping to have a store so that she can buy her product at wholesale.”

  “You think that’s all it is?” Lincoln told him that it was as good a reason as any. “Then what do you think would help her? Because as surely as we’re sitting here, I know you have a plan.”

  “I do, as a matter of fact. Why don’t we have a vendor shop? Where people could have a section of that big warehouse downtown that has been empty for years. They can display it any way they want, put out their things, and sell them. It wouldn’t take much to get the place ready. A few pieces of tape to mark off the areas, after we clean it up, anyway. Then we find people that would fit in it and let them have at it.” Lucas asked about rent. “Do we need to go there? I mean, for now, can’t we just help the town out by letting them have a permanent place to sell some things for a little extra cash?”

  “We’d have to have something, or we’ll have people spreading out and there won’t be room for anyone.” He said he could see that too. “All right. How about we charge something like five bucks a square foot? That’s not too much. A ten by ten space would be fifty bucks. And then if they have trouble making that, we could work something else out.”

  “I like that idea. Are you going to head it up?” Lucas pointed out that it had been his idea. “All right then, it’ll give me something to do for the moment. Did you hear that Ginger took over the greenhouse project? I was glad to hand it over.”

  “I don’t think she’ll take on another for you, so you should really find someone else to put on it when you get it set up.” He said he was good at starting it, just not long-term stuff. “Yes, I’ve realized that about you over the decades. Not to say that you don’t have good ideas and they usually make us money, as well as others too. But you need to have a project manager that will take over when you get it organized.”

  “That’s a great idea. Someone that I can trust, for sure. Thanks.” As he started away after their meal, he turned back to his brother. “Watch out—Walton is on the loose, and they can’t find him.”

  “I am. I’ve already put in extra security at the house Ginger is staying in, and I have all the right people at the greenhouse, grocery store, and daycare where Mattie goes.” He thanked him. “You might want to think about getting your guard up too. With Grace being Ginger’s twin, he might just be stupid enough to try and take her instead.”

  He’d not thought of that. And while they were similar in features, they were nothing alike personality-wise. Ginger was like the girl next door. Grace was the one that joined a spitting contest and usually came out the winner. Lincoln would never tell her that, but that’s the way he felt.

  Chapter 6

  Walton knew his family attorney’s name, but not how to get in touch with him without getting into hot water. The newspapers, as well as the television news, were saying that he was armed and dangerous, and that if he was encountered, they were to not engage but to call the police.

  “Armed and dangerous. I have a gun, yes, but I’m not dangerous.” He hadn’t killed his parents, as the news was saying. Nor did he bathe himself in their blood as the tabloids were plastering all over their front pages. He was just trying to get his son. “Okay, so I did try to kill Ginger and her daughter, but that wasn’t dangerous to anyone but them, right?”

  He had always been the type of person to talk to himself. Even when he was kid, he’d ask himself questions, work out the answers, and go with his thoughts. It had served him well over the years, and he thought that it was a good idea since he was much smarter than most of his friends. Hell, than most people because he worked things out before making a final decision.

  The attorney for the family was hard to reach. He wasn’t sure, first, the name of the firm that he worked for, just that it had a few names on their front door and he was one of them. Nor did he know what office the man might work at. That was important for him to know, because apparently, they didn’t know where their employees were and expected the clients to keep tabs on them.

  When he was going through his dad’s wallet, he found not only more cash slipped behind the picture area, but also a business card. It had not just the firm’s name, but also the man’s. Howard Taylor even had his personal number on the back of the card. Walton thought about starting there but didn’t want to piss the man off before he asked him a few questions.

  “Mr. Conrad. I certainly didn’t expect to hear from you. What is it I can do for you?” He said that he’d not killed his parents. “Yes, I’m aware of that. You mother did it. Murder-suicide is what it was. But you were there in the room when it happened, and the police would like to have a word with you. Not to mention, you’re out of jail when you’re not supposed to be.”

  “This has all been a mistake. I didn’t do anything wrong. I know that I threatened Ginger, but I didn’t hurt her. And she lied to me about the baby or I would have taken better care that he wasn’t hurt.” He asked about having her tied to
the bed when he wanted to have intercourse with her. “How did you find out about that?”

  “I’ve spoken to her, with her attorney present. Your father had some plans to help the girl leave the country soon.” He asked why he’d do that. “I wouldn’t know, sir. I was just your his attorney. What plans he had for the child, I don’t know. And we’ll never know now.”

  But Walton was pretty sure that he did know. And not only that, but whatever his plans were, they were still going to be executed. They were going to take his kid and sell it off, or have it killed. Rather than seeing him or his father raise it, they were going to take him out of his hands.

  “I need to know when you’re reading the will.” He said that if his name was in it, he’d be notified. “What do you mean, if? I’m their only son, of course I’ll be in it.”

  “Your father told you over and over that he was not leaving you a dime, Mr. Conrad. If your name is in the will, as I have said, then you will be notified by this firm. Until the police are finished with the crime scene and your poor parents are properly buried, you’ll just have to wait, I’m afraid.”

  “How can I get some money until then?” Mr. Taylor asked where he thought it should come from. “My estate. My father has left it all to me as his only child, and I’d like to get some money from it so that I can live. The police are all over the house.”

  “With good reason, I’d say. Your mother slit your father’s throat, then her own. And there you sat doing nothing for either but to steal from them both. Even your poor dead father; you took his wallet from him as he bled out. Have you no shame?” He said that he didn’t when he was running. “I don’t know what to tell you, young man. I would suggest that you turn yourself in before you get in any deeper. Barring that, I have nothing else to advise.”