Vince's Place

by Sandra R Neeley

  Janie glanced over her shoulder at Daisy and smiled when she saw her daughter dancing from foot to foot, much the same way Bam did when he was excited about something. They were very much alike, Daisy and her Uncle Bam.

  “Yes, you may watch Scooby while you eat. Go ahead and sit at your table in the living room, I’ll bring it to you.”

  “Yay!” Daisy shouted and ran for the living room, her little bare feet slapping the floor as she went.

  Janie cut up Daisy’s French toast, then picked up the plate and a glass of milk and headed into the living room.

  Daisy sat at her red, plastic, Little Tykes play table, the remote control aimed at the television as she flipped channels looking for her favorite cartoon, Scooby Doo.

  “Here you go, baby,” Janie said, placing the plate and glass on the table in front of Daisy.

  Daisy quickly stabbed a piece of French toast with her small fork and stuffed it into her mouth. “Fank you, Mama,” she said, grinning while dancing in place.

  “Here, let me find Scooby for you,” Janie said, picking up the discarded remote control for the television. She didn’t realize she made another face at her sour stomach flipping until Bane, coming in the front door and pausing to knock mud and sleet off his boots, brought it to her attention. “You okay, heart?”

  Janie was looking for the right channel and answered absentmindedly. “Hmm? Yeah, I’m good.”

  “You sure? That face you just made didn’t seem to say I’m feeling great.”

  Janie finally found the cartoon Daisy wanted and set the remote down on the little red children's table Daisy liked to play and eat on. “Think I ate too much popcorn and chocolate last night. My stomach just doesn’t feel right.”

  “Can I do anything?” Bane asked.

  Janie shook her head. “No, I’ll be okay. Just remind me not to mix chocolate and popcorn again any time soon. Have a seat, love. I’ll bring you your breakfast.”

  Bane, having kicked off his boots, walked over to Janie and kissed her. “I can get it.”

  “I already have it ready. Just have a seat and I’ll bring it to you.”

  “You going to join us? We can all try to guess who the bad guy is on Scooby this week!” he said, partially to Janie and partially to Daisy.

  “Yes!” Daisy shouted, munching on a piece of sausage patty.

  “I think I’ll pass on the food, but I’ll have a cup of coffee with you,” Janie answered.

  Bane took a seat on the end of the couch closest to Daisy. “Hey, how come you got food, and I don’t?” he teased.

  “I cute,” Daisy said, without cracking a smile.

  Bane barked out a laugh just as Janie came back into the room with his plate and two mugs of coffee.

  “What’s so funny?” she asked.

  Bane, still chuckling, explained. “Daisy says she has her food first because she’s cute.”

  “Well, you know, she is pretty cute,” Janie agreed, handing Bane his plate and mug.

  A commercial for wildlife conservation came on, and Daisy stopped with her fork halfway to her mouth. “Daddy?”

  “Yes, ma’am?”

  “Finds warm?” Daisy asked.

  Bane smiled at Janie. They were well aware their daughter had the softest heart of all their clan. “Yes, baby. Your friends are warm. That’s what I was doing out there in all this nasty weather. I was making sure they had feed to eat, and the fire pit is stoked and going, and there are blankets and shelters of limbs placed around in the tree line. They are all just fine and there are places for them to get warm.” They’d noticed that an array of animals — both wild and stray domestics, were drawn to their place. It didn’t matter the time of year or the temperature outside, they always had animals drawn to their home.

  And they came for one reason - Daisy. Daisy practically communed with the animals. Her Bear was a healer, just like Bam’s, but she had a special connection with the animals. So every morning, Bane went out and made sure the feeders were full, and the water troughs they kept around the place were full. If it was winter, he made sure the ice on top of them was broken, so the animals could get to the water inside. He knew the wild ones could and would fend for themselves. But Daisy loved to help take care of the stray dogs and cats that turned up, so it was only a small step further to put out food and water for the wild ones, too. He doubted seriously that any of the wild creatures took advantage of the blankets she insisted be left outside, but he bought them at the Salvation Army, and they barely cost anything at all. Besides, it made his daughter smile, so it was worth it. He’d found more than a couple of cats and a dog or two comfortably resting around the fire pit he usually kept going — it cost him nothing but some fire wood, so when he was able to, he kept the fire going as well.

  “Warm?” Daisy asked again, finally continuing with her breakfast.

  “They were. And everybody’s fed, too,”

  “Fank you, Daddy,” she said. Then she broke into a high-pitched squeal and a giggle when Scooby ate the whole giant sandwich instead of sharing with Shaggy.

  Bane started on his breakfast, with Janie sitting beside him, her feet tucked beneath her on the couch while she sipped her coffee.

  He could tell she wasn’t herself, but she seemed to be just fighting a sour stomach from too much junk food the night before. Bane looked over at her as he took a last piece of sausage and held it up on his fork. “You sure you don’t want a bite?” he offered.

  Janie looked at the sausage. Her eyes rounded and her forehead creased. She shoved her coffee mug at him and darted off the couch at a full run headed down the hallway and toward the bathroom. No sooner had she made it to the toilet then she emptied the contents of her stomach.

  Janie was on her knees trying to catch her breath as her stomach clenched and unclenched, preparing for another episode, when she suddenly felt Bane’s hands on her. He gathered her hair in one hand and gently rubbed her lower back with the other as he leaned over her, waiting for her to finish, so he could clean her up and get her settled back in bed.

  Janie gasped, trying to get herself under control after she started dry heaving.

  “Shh, it’s okay. Calm, my heart. Slow, steady breaths. I’ve got you. Take your time,” Bane said soothingly.

  Janie nodded and sank back to sit on her heels and try to regain control of her body. “I must have picked up a bug or something,” she finally managed to say.

  “Maybe,” Bane said. “Sit here for a minute. Let me get a cool facecloth for your neck.”

  Bane helped her sit on the toilet lid and soaked a facecloth in cold water. He wrung all the excess water from it and came back to her bathing her neck and forehead with it, finally folding it and placing it beneath her hair around the back of her neck.

  “You feeling a little better?” he asked.

  “Yes, thank you. I’m sorry I got sick,” she said, the fatigue clear in her voice.

  “Don’t be ridiculous. Come on, let’s get you into bed, and it’ll be Daddy and Daisy day today.”

  “I’d rather be on the couch if you don’t mind.”

  “Whatever you want,” he said, helping her to stand and patiently waiting until she felt steady enough to walk.

  Bane got Janie to the couch, then covered her with the afghan they kept there tossed over the back. “I’ll be right back,” he said, then hurried to their bedroom to get her a pillow. Bane was back almost immediately, tucking it under her head. “Here you go, my heart.” He kissed her temple and handed her the remote.

  “No more popcorn and chocolate for you,” he teased, as he straightened.

  “Why?” Daisy asked distractedly as she finished her breakfast and picked up her plate to bring it to her Daddy.

  “Because it made Mama sick. She ate too much of it,” he explained.

  Daisy laughed. She laughed so hard she bent over and crossed her arms across her own little tummy.

  “What is so funny? It’s not nice to laugh when somebody’s sick,” Bane chast
ised gently.

  “Bant do’d it,” Daisy explained.

  “What?” Bane asked, freezing on his way to the kitchen.

  “Bant,” Daisy insisted, taking the remote from the couch beside Janie. “P’etty Ponies?” she asked.

  “Who’s Bant?” Bane asked, putting the plate down on the floor beside him in his rush to get to Janie.

  “In ‘dere,” Daisy said, pointing the remote at Janie’s stomach.

  Bane and Janie shared a wide-eyed look and Janie sat upright, her heart rate picking up, and Bane’s own stomach was doing flips.

  “He’s in Mama’s stomach?” Bane asked, placing a gentle hand on Janie’s belly and cupping her stomach, just where her womb rested inside her.

  Daisy nodded slowly, grinning at them both, her little eyebrows raised as though she was giving away a huge secret.

  “A son?” Janie whispered.

  Bane nodded, his eyes glued to Janie’s stomach.

  “I had no idea,” Janie admitted.

  “A son,” Bane repeated.

  “Bant,” Daisy insisted.

  “Bant?” Bane echoed. Then he looked at Janie. “Is that even a name?”

  Janie shrugged and swiped a hand at the tears in her eyes.

  Bane sat on the edge of the couch and gathered Janie in his arms. “I’m so damn happy,” he said, grinning ear-to-ear.

  “Me, too,” Janie said, placing her hand over his where he’d replaced it over her stomach.

  “I love you,” Bane said, staring into Janie’s eyes.

  “Love you, more,” Janie whispered, laying her head on his shoulder.

  Chapter 18

  Natalie hurried to the nurses’ station and signed herself in.

  “You’re late!” one of those already on duty told her.

  “I know, I know. I’m sorry, I just lost track of time,” Natalie responded.

  “With a man that looks like that, looking at me the way he looked at you,” the nurse said, pointing her pen at the security camera that was pointed at all times at the employees’ entrance, “I’d still be wherever it is you came from.”

  “Mmhmm,” the other nurse agreed. “Girl, what are you doing here? Take yourself back to your man!”

  “I have to work today,” Natalie said, grinning and blushing. “I’m on the schedule!”

  “You got to have a cough or something. Don’t you have a fever starting?” her friend teased.

  “Obviously, she’s fine,” Dr. Fuches snapped, having followed Natalie from the employees’ entrance.

  All three nurses sobered quickly.

  Dr. Fuches glared at them, then settled his eyes on Natalie. “A word, Nurse Salvaggio?” Dr. Fuches didn’t wait for Natalie to answer him. He spun on his bootie covered Italian loafers and stalked to his office.

  “Wonderful,” Natalie mumbled.

  “He’s just in a snit because you won’t go out with him, but you’re late because of that gorgeous piece of man that dropped you off,” her friend whispered.

  Natalie grinned, her nose wrinkling up a bit with her smile. She looked down the hallway in the direction of Dr. Fuches’ office, then back at her friend before conspiratorily whispering to her. “He is pretty, isn’t he?”

  “Pretty? Girl, that man could tell me when and what for, whenever he chooses!”

  Natalie laughed and hurried off down the hallway to Dr. Fuches’ office. She stepped into the office and closed the door behind her.

  “Have a seat, Ms. Salvaggio,” he said.

  “Really? You call me Natalie all the time. I rent a room from you, and now suddenly I’m Ms. Salvaggio?”

  “This is business,” he replied. “Why are you late?”

  “I lost track of time. I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.”

  Dr. Fuches allowed his eyes to drift up and down her body. “You cannot work in those clothes.”

  “I’m aware. I have an extra set of scrubs in my locker. I’ll change and get right to my duties.”

  “Consider this your unwritten warning. Do not let it happen again,” Dr. Fuches said coldly.

  Natalie’s face became a mask. She had always had a terrible habit of wearing her emotions on her face. It took her years to master smoothing her face into no expression at all. “Of course,” she replied. “Is that all?”

  “That will be all,” Dr. Fuches replied.

  Natalie turned toward the door and reached for the knob to let herself out as she neared it.

  “I was worried about you. Your car was left in the parking lot overnight. You didn’t answer your phone, and you didn’t come home last night. If the security footage hadn’t shown you leaving with some strange man willingly, I’d have called the police.”

  Natalie stopped with her hand still on the doorknob. She looked back over her shoulder. “I’m sorry you were worried. I wasn’t aware you were expecting me. And after yesterday, I needed a break.”

  They stood there glaring at one another.

  “Who is he?” Dr Fuches asked.

  “I’m sorry?” she asked.

  “The man you left with last night. The same one who dropped you off this morning. Who is he?”

  “That’s my private business,” she said calmly.

  “Do you even know him?” Dr. Fuches asked. Then he softened a bit, realizing he was asking things that were none of his business. He was just so irritated that he’d planned to work his way into her life for months with no success, and this man showed up out of nowhere and spent the night with her. “He could be dangerous, Natalie!”

  “I’m sure he is,” Natalie answered. “But not to me. He’s my…” Natalie stopped, confused as to what she should call him. She couldn’t say he was her Mate — these people didn’t know about shifters. He wasn’t her husband, and she didn’t have a ring, nor did he ask her to marry him, so she couldn’t say he was her fiance’. “He’s my boyfriend,” she finally settled on.

  “You work fast. Yesterday you didn’t have one,” Dr. Fuches said condescendingly.

  Natalie smiled, her expression cold and her eyes piercing, reflecting her rising temper. “When it’s right, it takes no work at all.” Satisfied from his eyebrow raise that she’d put him in his place, she yanked the door open and hurried through it on her way to the women’s locker room.

  Natalie quickly changed out of her new clothes and stowed them with her purse in her locker. Decked out in her spare set of scrubs, she clipped her employee ID tag to her shirt pocket and hurried out of the locker room to start her duties.

  All day long she wore a bright smile. Whenever she had a moment to focus on herself, she thought of Vince back in the suite waiting for her. Her stomach would do little butterfly flips when she thought of finally getting back to him. She still felt like she was in a dream. Vince, the male she’d been pulled to so inexplicably, had declared she was his One true Mate. He’d claimed her, and she’d claimed him. Standing up from the table in the break room, she gave a soft little squee before continuing on her rounds.

  “Life is good!” she said aloud to herself and started down the hallway.

  <<<<<<<>>>>>>>

  Vince let himself in the suite he was sharing with Natalie and locked the door behind himself. He dropped the bag of clothes he’d bought for himself on the couch and called out her name. “Natalie?!” He didn’t expect her to be there yet, and was only hopefully calling out for her. But, you never knew — maybe she was missing him as much as he was missing her and took off early to be with him.

  He only stood still for a moment, and when there was no answer to his call, he walked over to the mini-fridge and took out a beer. He popped the top off it and walked back over to the couch, flopping down on it and picking up the remote to scroll through the cable channels they offered.

  Vince took a couple of sips of the beer and set it on the coffee table. He stretched out on the couch, resting his head on one of the throw pillows and settled in for a nap. “’Least I can catch up on my rest,” he mumbled, while still flippin
g channels right before he settled on one and allowed himself to drift to sleep for a quick nap.

  An hour later Vince slowly came awake. The buzzing of his phone waking him from a deep sleep. He reached for his phone and blinked his eyes, trying to focus on the numbers there. It wasn’t a number he knew. He swiped the green arrow on his phone to accept the call and answered in his business what-the-fuck-do-you-want voice.

  “Hello,” he snapped into the phone.

  “Vince?” came a familiar whispering, teary voice. “Vince, please. I need help!” the voice hissed.

  “Brandi?” he asked, going on alert, sitting straight upright.

  “My husband came for me. He forced me into his car. We stopped for gas, and he left his phone in the car while he’s paying the cashier inside.”

  “Get out and run!” he yelled, getting to his feet.

  “I can’t. He’s got me handcuffed to the door handle.”

  “Where are you?” he growled.

  “We’re on I-10, in Baton Rouge. Headed west. He’s taking me home, Vince. But he’s raging, and he’s got a gun. I fought him when he tried to force me into the car. My eye is swollen shut, but I’m okay.”

  “Where is home? I’m coming, Brandi. What’s he driving?”

  “Black Jaguar, 2019, the windows are so dark you can’t see in. To Marfa. Marfa, Texas.”

  “What about the kids?” Vince asked.

  “They’re not here. I’m not sure what’s going on, but I’m scared.”

  “I’m coming, hold on. Do what you have to to appease him. I’m…”

  “He’s coming!” she rushed out.

  “Brandi? Brandi?!” he shouted into the phone. But it was no use; the line was dead. She’d ended the call.

  Vince snarled uncontrollably as he grabbed his keys from the coffee table. He glanced around the room, his mind not working clearly as he tried to function through the fury he felt at Brandi being beaten and forced into a car at gunpoint by her estranged husband. His eyes landed on the pen and pad the hotel supplied near the phone beside the couch. He grabbed the pen and scribbled a quick note.

  His Lion was raging inside. He’d promised to take care of Brandi. She wasn’t his Mate, but she was his friend. He’d given her his word that he’d watch over her. And that was just what the fuck he was going to do. He dropped the pen to the side table and snatched his wallet off the couch, the bag of clothes beneath it got caught in his hand as well. He stalked out of the hotel suite and didn’t even wait for the elevator. He ran all the way down the stairs, jumping in his truck and squealing the tires as he rushed out of the parking lot on his way to get to the interstate. No mother-fucker was going to manhandle a woman he’d promised to protect. The bastard would pay for this.