Larson: McCullough’s Jamboree – Erotic Jaguar Shapeshifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  “I’m just concerned about what will happen to the baby. Any of them could be hurt by this.” Jon said he’d be with whoever was taken. “Yeah, but I don’t want you hurt either.”

  “Tell me the plan.” Lauren started talking and told her what was going to happen, what was in place when it did, and where Jon would be during this entire thing. “What if he is hurt?”

  “I can’t be hurt.” She asked him why not. “Because I’m a true immortal, as are you. The entire family is. Not young Sam yet; though he will be when I touch him, but I’ve not as yet.”

  She wasn’t sure how to take that. Nor exactly what that meant to be a true immortal. But for now, she’d let it go. There were more important things to talk about than whether or not she was going to live or die.

  “But you will fix him. And soon, right?” Jon assured her that he would as soon as they were done talking. “All right, so they’re going to take Sam, we think, and demand money. Between the taking and me kicking their asses, what is supposed to happen in the meantime?”

  “They will only take him long enough to demand money. After that, I’ll move in with my men and we’ll get the baby back. Then we’ll go after Harley and his partner.” She asked why he had to demand money first. “Because it makes it a longer sentence when he tries to get money from someone rather than just the taking it. Trust me, there are fine points to all sorts of laws, and this one is the best we can do, for now.”

  “But you have more that you can get them on.” Lauren said that she did. It was making it stick that was the hard part. “So, you don’t have what it takes to make them as guilty as they really are. Is that what you’re saying?”

  “Sort of. We can get them on theft of the money from the company. But without Tom here to testify that the money wasn’t given to Wells by Tom or his wife, then he might get away with it. Then there is the actual murder of Tom and his wife. We can’t get him on that at all, so far. We have the note from the dead men who we presume killed them, but that doesn’t leave us with anything close to what we could have if he had mentioned names.” Virginia thought this sounded as full of holes as some of her plots before she read her books again. “Kidnapping will get them both behind bars once they ask for money, and then we can work on them individually to see if one will flip on the other. And I think that this Dusty person is our man.”

  “Why him? I mean, they both seem to be just as guilty as the other.” Lauren told her what she knew. “So you have the smoking gun on other murders, and you’re going to use that when all is said and done.”

  “Yes, and we need to talk to you first about how this is going to work with Sam. Then I need you to talk to Larson. I don’t think he’s going to be as easy to convince this is going to work as you were.” She asked her why not. “He’s a numbers man. One that likes to see that things go according to plan. And they will, but only so far. We know that a child will be taken, but not which one. We also know that they’re going to demand money. Not how much or how they’re going to call us about it. When Larson hears about this, he’s going to want to see it all planned out to the letter and think that the bad guy will follow it.”

  “I think he already knows what is going on, Lauren. He’d been listening in on conversations for the last few days. So, keeping this from him, it’s going to be hard, don’t you think?” Lauren said she’d known that, but it was the execution that she was not telling him about. “Then I don’t understand how you thought I’d be easier to convince.”

  “Because of what you do for a living. You write books and you have plot twists, things going wrong. You move over them, fix them when you want to enhance the plot, much like I do when I have something going on.” She asked if she thought Larson could do that. “Maybe, but this is too important, too close to coming to an end to wait and find out. We need to be ready now, not in a couple of days.”

  It seemed plausible that this would work. The details, while scary, had the makings of a good story. But she wasn’t sure that using little Sam, who had already lost so much, was a good idea. She looked at Jon when he said her name.

  “I will be with him at all times. They’ll never know it…they’ll never suspect that he’s got anyone with him.” She nodded, then thought of something else. “I can see in your eyes that you’re going to turn us down, aren’t you?”

  “No, I’m not, but I think I have a plan that is going to make everyone, including Larson, happy. You be him. Be Sam.” He looked at Lauren and she burst out laughing. “I’m not trying to be funny here, but what better—?”

  “Oh no, you misunderstood. I think that is brilliant. I only wish I had thought of it. Yes, this will work. And since Jon can be anything and do anything, he’ll never be harmed, and he can relay any troubles to us as they come along. I love it.” Lauren was barking orders to someone on the phone when she looked over at Mac, who smiled.

  “You surprised her, again. She’s really good-natured about it when someone comes up with a plan better than hers, and she’s good about giving credit where credit is due. You did good.” Virginia nodded, but wasn’t sure what the hell was so funny about it. But if it kept Sam safe, she was all for it.

  So, while the plan was reworked, she took Jon to see Sam. He was so beautiful when he slept, and she loved watching him, but there was work to be done too, and she knew that if she stayed in his room all day, she’d not be doing so well in the literary world.

  “I need only to be a baby, as I’m sure that neither of them has seen him. But I will be as close to him as I can get.” She nodded, and watched him as he picked the baby up, not waking him at all. “He is so tiny, isn’t he? I mean, I know that babies are small, but he seems to be so much smaller than the babies that Lauren and Colin have.”

  “They’re older than him by a few months, and I’m not sure that my cousin didn’t have some issues when she was pregnant with him too. Plus, with a baby, they change almost daily. I don’t know what sort of changes are supposed to happen, but I’ve been reading about them. I’ve never been around them before.” Jon said that he hadn’t either until coming here. “You don’t mind doing this, do you? I don’t want you hurt either.”

  He touched his fingers to her cheek, then touched Sam. She felt the power of his touch to her as if she’d been set in some kind of vibrating machine. When he looked at her, she could almost see other creatures in his eyes, and asked him about it.

  “They’re all there. Few can see them unless I allow them to. The school that I’m going to, they allow me to be whatever I feel like so long as I don’t hurt anyone. I would never do that, but I like rules.” She said that she did for the most part as well. “I should like for you to have a drop of my blood in your system. That way you can heal much quicker, and you’d be able to protect little Samuel better if the time would ever come.”

  “Do you think it will?” He said that he did, but not what or when. “Then I’m all right with that. I don’t know much about you, nor this family, but I love Larson, and know that he trusts you all. So, in order to be all that I can for all of them, if it only takes a few drops of your blood, then I’m all for that too.”

  “Thank you. And we love you as well.” She nodded and asked him what she needed to do. “Just prick my finger with the needle there. And when you do, lick the wound and all will be well.”

  “All right.” She did as he asked her to do and stared at the blood that was welling up on his finger. “I’m afraid, if you want to know the truth.”

  “You should be. Forever. But this, it will make you stronger.” She nodded and licked his finger. The power of his blood washed over her until she was dizzy with it. “Careful there. You don’t want to have to tell your mate that I hurt you, now do you?”

  When the baby was put back in his crib, they left his room. There was a monitor in the room and in the one that she had been in. Before leaving, she saw that it was off. Looking up at Jon, just realizing how tall he was, she asked him about it.

  “In the event that y
ou turned into a cow or something, I didn’t want the others to see you.” She asked if she might have. “I don’t think so, but you never know about things like this. I’m still figuring things out on my own.”

  He left her there, at the doorway to the nursery, while she thought of what he’d just said to her. Could she be a cow? Not that she wanted to be that particular animal, but the thought of shifting into something bad-assed really was exciting. Virginia made her way down the stairs thinking about all the things that had happened to her since coming here. Life, she realized, sure did have a lot of plot holes. They were explaining the plan to Larson when she returned to her office. She noticed that no one mentioned the first plan at all. Probably a good thing, she thought.

  ~~~

  Larson loved where his office was in town. However, today he wasn’t looking forward to it as he usually did. He was going to his office for the first time in a few weeks, and he was actually sort of nervous about it. Like when he was in school and he’d not go for a couple of days for some reason. Going back would cause him a little unease. But he’d not been in his office since, he thought, about the time he’d been notified that Tom and Donna were dead. He sat at his desk as he thought about what he was doing here.

  It wasn’t to close up the office, like his first plan had been. Spending time at home, working on the yard and being with Virginia and Sam, made him dread having a job that took him away from them. And really, he could do his job from home just as easily as he could do it from the office.

  But as Lauren pointed out, no one was coming to his home to talk business, and inviting others into his home was almost as bad as having them know his personal phone number. It would and could get them into deep shit, as she put it.

  He needed to protect them, both Virginia and the baby. Sam was as much a part of his little family as his brothers were, and he had fallen in love with him from the start. And soon, in a few weeks, he was going to adopt him when he married Virginia.

  When his phone rang he didn’t bother answering it, knowing that the service was still on, but he did open up his computer and started looking through the emails that had piled up. Again, he could have done this from home, but there were no distractions here and he needed to concentrate on work for a bit. There was too much going on right now, and he was overwhelmed.

  When one of his family reached out to him, Larson paused in answering an email. He knew who it was, but was almost afraid to hear what Hawkins had to say to him. He was laughing when Larson asked him what he wanted.

  Why is everyone so suspicious when I talk to them? Is it my personality, or maybe the fact that I carry a gun?

  Larson laughed when he did. I think it might have to do with the fact that not only do you know how to use that gun better than most do, but that’s not all you carry on your person. I think I saw a thin wire, as well as several knives on the table when you were home last. Hawkins thought it was his charming way of talking to people. You go on believing that, and I’ll sell off the bridge I have at home in the drawer. What’s up?

  What do you know, if anything, about money laundering? I mean, in the sense that I don’t know how it’s done. Larson asked him if he was doing that. No, but I have an idea that someone is, and I want to make sure that I have all the facts before I go in and be my charming self, and kick the shit out of them.

  Family? He said never. Okay, to launder money you need bad money, and in that I mean that it’s tainted with some bad deed, like drug money. Or even money that they’ve stolen. It usually has some sort of tag on it, such as some serial numbers that might be on a list. Or funny money, as in counterfeit. Which does this one fall under?

  Counterfeit, and perhaps some drug money too. I’m thinking that he needed to make a deal go down, and printed his own to make sure that he had enough. I think he figures that the people that he got the drugs from won’t be able to have him arrested because they’d have to tell what they bought. Larson told him not necessarily. You mean that you can have someone arrested for dealing in counterfeit money, even though it was used for a drug deal?

  Yes, that’s the way some people catch the bad guys. Then when the counterfeiter is arrested, they have a direct line to the dope guys too. Hawkins laughed. I know, it seems that you’re damned if you do and if you’re caught. Is there something that I should know about this?

  Nah, just something that I’m working on. I’m not in country, so I figured that if I had to do some fancy footwork on this, I might as well have all the information I can get. By the way, I was wondering if you’d do something for me. Invest my last bonus check into something long term. He said he could do that. Anytime. I want you to also do some of your magic on some other money that I have. It’s not a great deal, but I can invest it into some things around town. Like, I want a place where people can learn self-defense from some of my buddies here.

  I like that idea. I think I might even have the perfect place in mind for you. Larson told him about the old grocery store that had come up on the market. It has an open plan in it so you can work. There are offices too that you might need, as well as running water and a kitchen, if that is something that you want to work with. Bathrooms can be added, as well as more showers. I love that. I’d like to go in with you on it.

  Deal. Here’s something that I’m going to share with you. And don’t tell Mom and Dad just yet…I want to surprise them. But I’m leaving the service earlier than I thought. Jarvis will still use me like he does Lauren, but I’ll be home for good for the most part by Christmas. That was only in a few weeks or so. I just don’t enjoy this as much as I used to. It’s too political.

  Larson thought it was political even before his brother joined up, but as he didn’t have a lot to do with it, he held his opinion to himself. As they talked about what he wanted done to the building, Larson made notes. He was as excited as he’d been in a while about any sort of project.

  His phone was ringing as he made his way back from the bathroom. He answered it this time, thinking that he could take a couple of calls while he was there. Just as he was ready to take notes on the call, he heard laughter and felt his skin crawl.

  “Hello, Larson. It’s been a while.” The voice was Harley, he knew that from the calls he’d been listening to for Joe. “I want you to know that there are no hard feelings now about the shares that you stole from me.”

  “I didn’t steal anything from you, Harley. I did my job and that’s all I did.” Harley laughed again. “What is it you think to gain by calling me today? I assure you that what I did for Tom and his wife was done correctly.”

  “I’m sure you think so. But alas, I have no money, nor did I have anything to do with their murders.” Larson told Harley he’d said that before, but later he’d said he’d killed them both. “No, I think you might have misheard me. Or that you made it so that it sounded like that. That sister-in-law of yours, she can be quite good at doing things to suit herself.”

  That was what Lauren had said he’d do…blame any kind of confession that he’d made on her. Well, he didn’t care. Larson knew that Wells had done it, and the sooner the man was behind bars, the happier he’d be about it.

  “Yes, so I’ve heard. You never told me why you called me. And I don’t believe for a moment that you’ve called to tell me that you’re going to back off and leave me to myself. What did you want?”

  “First, I want my money, and for you to keep the police out of this.” He asked him why he’d do either of those things. “Because, my dear boy, things could happen to that nice little family of yours. And I’m not worried about you recording this. I know for a fact that you are, and like I said before, that girly of yours, Lauren, she can do whatever she wants to make someone look guilty. Can’t she?”

  The laughter was still ringing in his head long after Harley hung up. It took every power that he had to simply put the phone back in the cradle it was in without smashing it against the wall. Sitting in his chair, wondering what the fuck was wrong with the world, he ba
rely moved when Jon walked into the room.

  “Go away, please. I’m in no mood to be nice, and I’d really hate to have to explain to my mate what happened to me.” He asked him what he meant. “Because if you sit there, telling me that things are going to work out, I may have to slug you. Then you’re going to do something equally harsh back at me and I’m going to be hurt.”

  Jon laughed, and that just pissed him off more. Larson wasn’t even sure what he was so angry about, but he was and he glared at the phone again. Jon told him to look at him. And when he did, all he could think about was that he was in over his head here.

  “I’m not going to hurt you. However, as Mom is forever telling me, violence never solved anything. But Aunt Lauren says that it can sure go a long way in making you feel better. So long as the other guy knows what he’s up against. Do you suppose she meant I should tell them what sort of being I am?” He said that no one would believe him until he acted. “Yes, I suppose that’s true, but I am here for a reason. I would like for you to teach me how to be an investor.”

  “I’m thinking of closing up shop for good.” Jon asked him why he’d do that. “I don’t enjoy it much anymore. I mean, I’ll do it for myself and the family, but I don’t like being in the position that I’m in now.”

  “You have a knack, Grandpa says. You can turn a sow’s ear into a golden arch. I’m not entirely sure what he means by that, but that’s what he is saying. He can be a little hard to understand for me at times.” Larson laughed and told him he was hard to understand for all of them. “But I love him dearly. I love you all. However, I would like to understand what you do better.”

  So, for the next two hours, he told Jon what it was he did and how he made money off of each one of the sales he did for other people. Jon was getting good at predicting things as they looked at the computer, and when they were finished, needing some lunch, they walked over to the little diner in town and saw the for-sale sign had been removed.