Joshua_The Whitfield Rancher_Erotic Tiger Shapeshifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  Again, Hazel wondered if she’d gotten any stronger. That worried her enough that she was thinking of ways to get Lee to go to her instead of both of them. If he got hurt, then she’d still be able to go after the money when she got Carter to go with one of the buyers for her. And if she did hurt her dad, then maybe she’d feel badly enough that she’d cooperate with her. Laughing, she thought of Carter doing anything that they wanted her to. She was ten kinds of stubborn.

  When the car was ready, they left and headed to the hotel. Their things were packed up, so all she had to do was run in, get their suitcases and stuff, and they’d be on their way. But the maid had already been in the room while they were gone, and she’d taken their luggage after cleaning up the room. They were so fucked right now.

  “Why would she do that?” Lee sat with her in the car after she told him what had happened. “I mean, was there a note or anything?”

  “Oh shit.” She pulled the envelope out of her pocket and handed it to him. “I thought it was a bill or something, because the room had been cleaned up of our mess. You think it’s telling us where our stuff is? Because that would be nice to get going.”

  He opened it up and then handed it to her. It said that they’d taken their things to the office and to get them, they’d have to pay for the room as well as the damages that had been done to it, totaling sixteen hundred and fifty dollars. She looked at Lee when he started cursing.

  “For that much money, we can replace all our shit.” He reminded her that their extra cash was in the luggage. “Mother fuck balls, Lee. Now what do we do? We’ll need money to get to them girls. After that, we’ll be home free. This is really starting to piss me off with all these extra costs. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that Carter were doing this to us. I know, I know what you’re going to say. There ain’t any way that she could know that we’re coming. But something is slowing us down, and I don’t like it.”

  The uneasy feeling that she’d had yesterday morning returned. Hazel didn’t know what had caused it, the last time or this one, but it was something that made her head spin a little as well as her belly lurch. Her momma would have said that she’d stepped onto her own grave. But Hazel wasn’t that superstitious. Instead, she thought that it was the uneasy feeling that maybe things were not going as perfectly as they’d hoped they would. She looked over at Lee when he started talking.

  “They got us over a barrel with this. We need to get going, but we can’t go without the money. And the money is where our luggage is. They want money, and in order for me to get it and pay them for it, I’m going to have to show them where our cash stash is. I don’t like that at all. Mother fuck, this is some messed up business we got going here.” She said that she was sorry it was coming to this. “Yeah, not your fault. I should have had you stay here until I got back. Then we’d be all right now. Live and learn. I just console myself with knowing that when this is done, we’ll have all the money and luggage that we need. And then some.”

  Lee went into the front office while she stayed behind. They had been heading out west, where she knew that Rachel lived. But somehow the two of them had ended up in Ohio, and that was even closer than they’d been thinking that they’d have to travel. Like an omen, she thought, and smiled.

  It took him nearly an hour to get the situation taken care of. He’d had to prove that the money was in the luggage so that they’d let him open it. It was a nightmare, but at least they were on their way now. And good riddance to this little town.

  They were perhaps fifteen hours from Ohio when they finally pulled over for the night. They thought about just staying in their car for their last night on the open road, but Lee really wanted a bed, and she could never deny him anything that he wanted. Besides, he’d been doing all the driving, so she paid for a room for one night, and they were settled in by the time the pizza was delivered.

  “No food fights this time. It was fun, but also costly.” She laughed when he did. They really had messed up the room from before. But there wasn’t any way that she was going to believe it was sixteen hundred dollars, and said that to Lee. “It matters little now. We’ve paid it, have our things, and we’re nearly there. If we get up really early tomorrow and get on the road, we can be to that place she’s staying by supper. Tomorrow, we snatch Rachel and then bring Carter to heel. After that, free sailing.”

  “Free sailing.” Hazel looked at her email that they’d set up just for this business, and saw that she had three emails. After reading the first one, she told Lee what it said. “They want proof that she can do these things before they give us the rest of the money. How the hell do we do that? Other than taking her to them, she’s not going to perform for us to record her. I guess we’ll have to take her to him and hope that he doesn’t try and rip us off.”

  “You’re right about her cooperating enough for us to record her. It’s doubtful we could get her to do much of anything other than to come with us because we’ll have Rachel at gun point. And that might be difficult.” Lee laid back on his bed as soon as he ate the last slice of pizza. “I’ve not even thought of how we get her to them. We should have gotten us a van or something with a cage in the back to keep her out of our way. Damn it. How about we tell him where to come? Once we get Carter, that is. That way he can deal with her on his own.”

  “I like that idea. That way we have the cash, he has the monster, and we get to take off and find us a little island to buy.” That uneasy feeling came over her again. This time she told Lee about it. “It makes me dizzy and my belly churns all up. I don’t know what it is, but when I think of this plan, I get that way. Do you suppose Carter is doing this to me? To warn me off from her?”

  “I bet it’s just heartburn. Did you eat the last time before you got that way?” She told him she didn’t remember. “I’m betting that’s it. We just had some spicy pizza, and that’s all it is. No worries on this. We have this in the bag, love. You’ll see. We’ll have no trouble. Did you hear from the other party that we were dealing with?”

  “They’re going to pass on it. Assholes. I could have been talking to someone else by now.” She looked at the last email and frowned. “It’s from Rachel. Why would she be emailing me after all this time? And for that matter, how did she get our email address?”

  “I don’t know. Perhaps she wants to get in on this too. No, that can’t be it. She doesn’t know what we’re doing just yet. See what she has to say, and I’m going to close my eyes.” Hazel read over the short email, then read it twice more before she wanted to be sick. Running to the bathroom, she threw up all her dinner and gagged several times before she was able to answer Lee. “What did she say? Christ, you scared me to death the way you ran in there.”

  “It was from Carter. She said that we’d better have our wills made out properly, because once we come there, we’re going to be dead.” Her belly churned again, worse than it had before. “Oh Lee, how did she find out? And why would she say something like that to us? We’re her parents—she can’t kill us.”

  “Well, she seems to think so.” He read over the missive before he looked at her again. “Were you planning to answer her?”

  “I wouldn’t even know what to say to her. I mean, she just threatened us. Is she allowed to do that after just getting out of prison?” He said that the charges were dropped against her. So it was like she’d done nothing wrong. “Still, there is no cause for her to be going on like that. Doesn’t she realize how scary that is? I would turn her into the police if I knew anyone there. That’s just not right. And when we get her, I’m going to tell her that too.”

  “I’m going to email her back and let her know how she made you feel.” He started typing. “I’m telling you right now, Hazel, that girl is going to regret messing with you. I’m going to make sure she understands that I’m the boss of her no matter how old she gets. And she’d better remember that too. Damned girls. I wish we’d never had either of them. Of course, we’d not be basking in money soon, but they’re no kids
of mine if they mess with you.”

  Hazel read it over before he sent it and felt better than before for them taking a stand. Lee was right, there wasn’t any cause at all for her to be saying those things to her. Not at all. And the sooner she got her head on right, the better it would be for her. Hazel was just glad that when this was over, she’d not have to think about her anymore. Either of them.

  After getting her shower and laying out her clothing for in the morning, she went to bed. Tomorrow they’d have this thing over with, and then Carter would be out of their hands. And Rachel would more than likely be dead if she had anything to do with it. The girls had been up her ass about one thing or another for years. And having Carter arrested for the robbery had been her biggest joy. But now she was out, and things could go badly for her and Lee. But she wasn’t going to think of that right now. She was going to think positively from now on when it came to coming out on top with this.

  ~~~

  Josh read the email three times before he just couldn’t sit any more, he had been laughing so hard. “They actually threatened to ground you for telling them to back off? How stupid are these people?”

  “What I got a kick out of was how I made my mother sick by saying such hateful things to her, and I should be ashamed of myself.” Carter was laughing too, having been in on the fun that they’d been having since yesterday afternoon. “They’re planning on selling me off to the highest bidder, and I’m a terrible person for threatening them. Yes, they are pretty stupid. And the fact that they still think they can control me makes me ill.”

  Carter looked over at Dylan and thanked her again for getting the email address. “It was my pleasure. And I’ve gotten permission from my boss to tell you how I got it. We’re the one that she’s selling you to. Or at least one of them. We’ve backed out for now, but in a couple of hours we’re going to say that we’ve changed our mind and will be doubling our price for you, Carter. That is, if they can get here to get you. They’ve run into more problems again. Poor people, they can’t seem to catch a break, it seems. This should get them in a tizzy, and those kind of emotions usually mean they’ll fuck up.”

  “I don’t understand what they’re doing wrong. I mean, other than selling off my sister. But you’d think they’d wonder how they were going to do that if she’s able to do the things that she can.” Josh nodded at Rachel’s question; he had been wondering the same thing. It wasn’t as if she was this weakling or something. She was a powerful being. “What can you arrest them for if they just take their daughter with them when they leave? I’m not saying that either of us will go with them, but what is it that they’ve done to anyone here?”

  “They’re dealing in human trafficking for one thing. And here is the list of things that we were told that Carter can do. They think that she can move smaller things, nothing as big as the truck she lifted, several times. They said she can also make things fly. I’m assuming that stems from her lifting something up, but I could be wrong.” Carter pointed out that she’d only been a teenager when they’d seen her last. “That’s what we’re hoping for. They don’t know you anymore. Also, they don’t mention you being able to read something once you touch it. Nor do they say anything about you being able to see into the future. Henry and I think that with you being stronger than you were before, they’ll be so surprised that they’ll make mistakes. And so far, they’ve made several.”

  Rachel asked what they thought was going to happen when they arrived. He knew the answer to this one, he thought, and answered for Dylan. She told him he was more than likely right on that too.

  “Kidnap me? Oh, I see—they think that’ll make Carter do what they want. And then what do you suppose they’ll do with me once they have her? If they get her.” No one answered, and Josh wasn’t ready to tell his new sister-in-law the answer to that question. “Tell me. I have a feeling that I’m not going to like it.”

  “They’re going to kill you. No witnesses.” Rachel looked at Carter as she continued to explain what they all thought was going to happen. “They’ll not want to leave any witnesses behind, is my thinking. And having you dead and me gone means that there isn’t anyone that knows about the robbery and that they’d done it. Because of the fact that we’re close, they’ll assume that I told you what really happened, even though I didn’t tell you anything. You figured that out on your own.”

  “You only said that you hadn’t robbed the bank.” Carter said that she hadn’t. “No, I knew that from the start. But how did they do it? I mean, doesn’t robbing a bank require some skill at it? That’s what I think anyway.”

  “It does require skill. And we think this wasn’t their first robbery. There are three bank robberies that we can assume that they committed. But this last one, there was an off-duty police officer in the bank and he drew on one of them.” Dylan handed them a picture of the officer as she continued. “Your father shot him in the head when the shot that he took hit your mother in the arm. It wasn’t a wound that stopped her for long, but we found their DNA on the money that they’d left behind.”

  “Why didn’t anyone look at that before they put my sister in prison?” No one answered her, but Josh had a pretty good idea. And when Dylan told her why, he was right.

  “They were not there to take the hit, and your sister was a close enough match to your mom that they just went with it. Even though witnesses said that the couple that robbed the bank was older, more mature, they arrested Carter and closed the book on the robbery. It was more convenient for them to have her arrested than to let the robbery go unsolved. Their way, insurance claims could be made. The man that was killed, his family was also compensated by the bank’s insurance.” Rachel said it was unfair, and Dylan shrugged and continued. “I’m sure that it happens a great deal. Not like this was run through, but it happens.”

  Carter began to pace, and when she suddenly stopped, Josh stood up. She’d been nervous all day, and it wasn’t until a few hours ago that she told them that they’d be there tonight. That was why they were all at Evan’s house, so that they could be protected by Dylan and her men. Sunny was pissy about not being able to help, but they didn’t want the baby hurt. She said that she’d get over it, but she wasn’t all that thrilled with being left out of it all. Josh had to laugh every time he thought of Sunny trying to look all mean, when all he could see was a maternal woman with a big belly.

  “They just crossed over the state line to here.” Dylan sent two of her men out to make the phone calls. Josh wasn’t sure what they could be about, but he knew they were safe in her hands. “I’ve been thinking about this for a couple of hours now. I think I’d like to deal with them before they try and take Rachel.”

  “How would you deal with them?” Josh had a feeling he knew the answer, but he wanted to hear it from her. “You can’t kill them, if that’s what you’re thinking. That would haunt you for a very long time.”

  “No it wouldn’t. They’ve not been a part of my life since before I left home. And I have no love for either of them. Spending all that time in prison, it gave me time to think and reflect on what they’ve done to me and why. I don’t have anything for either of them. No love, no respect. Nothing. To me, they might as well be strangers. But, I’m not going to kill them. Unless it comes to them hurting my sister—then all bets are off.” Josh asked her what her plan was. “I will show them what I am. All of me.”

  No one said anything, but he could tell they were all thinking how bad that could be too. Only he knew that she and him could sort of travel together, and what they could do while someplace else. There were other things that she could do as well that no one had known about but him now.

  Carter could manipulate memory, yes. But she could also make it so that they could see things that weren’t there, as well as hurt when she told them to. But the scariest thing that she did, at least to him, was that she could throw balls of fire, as many as she wanted. Like she had an endless supply of them. He was sure that she did too.

  He
had told Dylan about the ropes and chains that the Comptons had purchased. He only said that Carter knew that they’d gotten them. Carter had told him that her parents knew the things were missing, but didn’t say much about it. Josh also mentioned guns, but they no longer had them. Josh thought that Dylan might have an idea that he was stretching the truth a little, but she didn’t ask, and he didn’t say any more. Instead, they all knew that now they were without the basic equipment that was needed to kidnap and hold someone against their will.

  “And when you show them your all, what do you think is going to happen then? I have no problem at all with you killing them both—they’re more than likely going to be spending a great deal of time, if not life, in prison anyway. What is it you’re hoping will happen by you showing them what you can do?” At Dylan’s question, Carter looked at him and he nodded, telling her that he was with her every step of the way. “Carter?”

  “Rape their mind and erase every bit of knowledge of Rachel and me. Let them think that they’ve been on this mission of theirs all along on information that they’ve read in one of those magazines at the end of the grocery aisle.” Dylan asked her what that would do. “Hopefully drive them insane, where they’ll need to be locked up for the rest of their days. I don’t trust the prison system. I was there for ten years, and I know firsthand what can happen to them. Nothing. All the stories that you see on television are, for the most part, untrue. I want them to suffer. And badly.”

  Rachel cleared her throat, and everyone turned to look at her. Josh was afraid that she wasn’t going to like this idea and try to talk Carter out of it. But when she stood up and went to Carter, hugging her tightly, he watched the two of them.

  “Kill them or make them insane, I don’t care anymore. But if they hurt you again, I swear to you, Carter, I will hunt them down and do as much damage as my puny little body can do to them.” Carter told her that she loved her. “And I love you. I’m so glad that you found Josh through all this. He’s made you almost the sister that you used to be. Almost. You still have some way to go, but I love having you back any way I can get you.”