Wesley: Bishop’s Snowy Leap – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance (Bishop's Snowy Leap Book 3)

by Kathi S. Barton

  “That’s a very nice thing, both the house and inviting us to stay. However, I can’t imagine your mate would be all that keen on you having an elderly man and two single women in your home.” He told Penny that only one of them was single. “I don’t understand. You said your mate will be there too.”

  “She will be. If she wishes. I just think you guys will be safer in a big house that your other family doesn’t know about than the ones you live in now.” Penny looked at Emmie, then back at him. Then she asked him if Emmie was his mate. “No.”

  It took her several seconds to figure out what he was saying. She stood up and sat down a total of three times before she glared at him. He thought her adorable when she told him he wasn’t funny but wisely kept that to himself.

  “You could have just said that when we were at the bank.” He said he’d not figured it out until they came in here. “Why the roundabout way of telling me? Is this your way of doing everything? I will tell you right now, I don’t think you’re the least bit funny.”

  “You’d not be the first person to tell me that. However, I was working up to telling you. I didn’t want to just blurt it out and have you toss your salad in my face.” Penny glared harder. “You really should stop that now, Penny. You’re even more beautiful when you’re pissed at me. Not that I don’t blame you, but you are my mate, and the offer of you three staying with me stands. Things are going to get nastier as the next few days go by.”

  “I, for one, would love to live with you, Wesley.” He thanked Mr. Joe without taking his eyes off Penny. “Those boys of Wendy’s aren’t going to take too kindly to the reading of the will. Scratch that. I think the only one that will care is James. And you know as well as I do, Penny, that when James is pissed off, so are the Donnelly boys. They feed off each other.”

  “I don’t want to. I will, but I really don’t want to.” Wesley nodded at Penny. “I mean, I really don’t want to live with you, but I’m thinking you’re right. We’d all be safer in a house rather than an apartment, or even Grandpa Joe’s home. It’s not very big either, and we’d be falling all over each other in no time. I’ll live there, but I’m not going to sleep with you.”

  “All right. I can understand that. We barely know one another, and I won’t take advantage of you. I have some furniture in the house. Holly, Raven’s grandma, sold her house to my brother, and she had a great many things still in storage. After Chandler got what he wanted, the rest of us took what was left. I gladly took the other bedroom suites to be in my home. The others, my brothers, took the things for the living room, feeling they’d be in there more than they would in any of the other rooms.” Their subs were brought to the table, and he dug into his as he continued. “I have a live-in cook as well. Her name is Caroline. She’s a member of my brother Sawyer’s leap and needed to have a place she could call her own. Her family was all gone, moving away to have better paying jobs. I was lucky enough to have a place for her to live in on the property.”

  Wesley answered all the questions put to him. Most of them were from Mr. Joe, about his planting in the spring, as well as his helping the others around town. He told them about the tractor and the attachments he had been trying out and loved.

  “They just gave you a tractor worth more than a house for nothing?” He told Penny what had happened that he ended up owning it. “Okay, I guess I can see a company doing that. Having a farmer that no one knows trying it out and then telling others would make for good cover. Congratulations on that. I have to admit, I do miss having fresh vegetables all the time. Grandma always had fresh food from her little garden. What she didn’t eat, she’d put up. Do people still do that?”

  “My mom does. Jellies and jams mostly. Here in the last couple of years, she’s been donating what she can’t put up to different people around the town. You’d be surprised how far a couple of rows of green beans can go when you’re as good as we are about taking care of our gardens.” He realized then that just the other day, he’d been bitching about having a mate to his brothers and him only being a lowly farmer. However, right now, he thought he had the best job of all. His mate was into fresh things as much as he was. “Today I was going to put the tractor and the implements away until early spring. I was even able to put in a garden for my mom this year, and decided to grow some fresh peas in the early spring.”

  They talked all through their meal. When they brought the check, he was more than happy to pick it up and pay. He noticed that all three of his lunch guests put down money for a tip. Being glad they’d not put too little on the table, he still added more to the bill when he paid.

  “Where is your home? I have a feeling it’s close to your parents’ place.” He told Penny it was, but it also had a large barn and a place for him to play around in. “I’m not sleeping with you, Wesley. I’m not easy, and I won’t put out just because you’re keeping my family safe.”

  “I wouldn’t have it any other way, Penny.” She cocked a brow at him. “I’m serious. I don’t know you anymore than you do me. I’d like to take our time, get to know each other before we go right to the making love part.” She said she might not ever want to have sex with him. “So long as you’re happy, then I will be too.”

  She snorted at him when she walked away. They walked to the new home, his first time seeing it in the daylight, and he was glad now that he carried around the keys to the place. Wesley handed the second set to Penny, so she could come and go when she wanted while here, he told her. Wesley was thrilled when she didn’t toss them back in his face.

  The house looked beautiful with the new walls and the hardwood floors all shiny from their treatment. Every room they explored, he was just as pleased with it as they seemed to be. The kitchen, where Ms. Caroline was making a list, had been updated recently, and a pantry had been put in. Penny seemed to be more impressed with the kitchen area than she had been about the indoor pool.

  “I love to bake. Would that be a problem for you, Ms. Caroline?” When the older woman looked at him, Penny answered her unspoken concern. “He claims I’m his mate and that we’ll be living here with him. No hanky panky, but we’ll be safer here, I think.”

  “If Wesley says you’re his mate, then you can count on it being true. You couldn’t find you a better family to be getting into either.” Penny thanked her. “Now then. Yes, you come on in here and bake all you want, mistress. I’ve never been known to bake all that much, but I’d surely like to have the smells coming from here. You just give me a list of what you need, and I’ll order it with the rest of the kitchen stock-up.”

  While they worked on the list, he moved into the living room and looked around. There was a great deal of open space in this area, and he hadn’t a clue how to fill it. While he didn’t watch all that much television, he would like to have a nice sized one for this room. He thought it might be necessary for the sheer size of the room so you could see it.

  “I don’t have to move in here with you, Wesley.” He turned to look at Emmie and asked her why not. “Well, you have a new mate, for which I’m so happy for you both, and Grandpa Joe living here. I’m not related to either of them, as you know. Also, I have been hiding out on my own for a very long time.”

  “There isn’t a single reason I can think of that would make me want to have you not move in here with us. And you are family. I know Mr. Joe thinks of you as his great-granddaughter as much as he does Penny.” He smiled at her then. “You know my parents. If they found out I was shoving you out to live someplace in the woods as you wanted that first day, Mom would take me to the woodshed in a minute and make me change my mind about being too old for that particular punishment.”

  “I don’t want to be a bother to any of you.” He assured her she wouldn’t be. “All right then. You will tell me if I’ve overstayed my welcome. Right?”

  “I promise you, Emmie, I don’t have a doubt in the world that you’re going to be as much a part of my family as you
are to Mr. Joe and Penny. Besides, I think with you here, Penny will feel more comfortable. And believe it or not, I want her happy no matter what.” She mentioned her brothers. “Don’t you worry about any of them. I’m going to have the police, as well as my family, making sure you’re all safe and sound. I just ask that when you do go out, don’t do it alone. Nor to go out without telling us where you’re going and when you’ll be back. I don’t want to have to worry that they might have hurt you when you’re in my care.”

  “You’re a good man, Wesley. And a good friend. I hope you can make sure they’re not going to harm any of us. I have a feeling they won’t just hurt us the next time but will try and kill us. Especially Grandpa Joe.” He asked her why. “Because Grandpa Joe is a very wealthy man. More so than anyone in this world gives him credit for.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind when we’re out.” He hugged her back when she hugged him. “Thank you, Emmie. Without you being the bank manager, it might have been years before I met Penny. I owe you a great deal.”

  “Pay me back by making sure she’s safe. And happy. I know you will, so I’m not worried about it, but I don’t want her to be hurt or sad.” He said he could do that. “See that you do. I love both those people more than I do anyone else.”

  Chapter 2

  Dutch looked around for his sister. She was supposed to meet him at noon. It was now two minutes till the hour, and she wasn’t there. If a person showed up on the dot, or even five minutes till the time they’d agreed on, he would consider them late. He despised people who showed up on time or late. And she damned well knew it.

  “I’m here.” She sat down across from him and smiled. “Whatever it is, Dutch, I’m not buying into it. In the event you don’t know what that means, I’m not bailing you out. I sort of like you being here. I’m not going to find you an attorney and pay for it. Or, for that matter, I’m not going to do anything for you. You’re on your own.”

  “Are you finished spouting off shit you think I’m going to want you to do?” She smiled at him, and had he not been cuffed up like an animal, he’d have hit her square in the mouth. “You will do what I tell you on all that shit, Emmie. You will bail me out. Today, as a matter of fact. You are going to find me an attorney. A good one too. Not those pieces of shit that the state turns over for people to use. And you will do whatever I tell you, or you’ll face me.”

  “Technically, I’m facing you now.” Another grin and his anger was nearly making him blind with the need to hit her. “But besides me not helping you out, I’m going to press more charges against you simply because—and you might not believe this—I’m getting a backbone where you’re concerned. You and Butch have hurt me for far too long, and I’m putting my foot down. No more, Dutch.”

  He tried lunging at her, and all he did was scoot the table more in her direction. It also pulled his shoulders since he’d been hog-tied to the stupid thing since before she’d gotten there. He didn’t even make any sort of impression on her when he growled. That usually had her cowering in the corner someplace. This time, all she did was laugh at him. Christ, he hated his sister.

  “If there isn’t anything else, Dutch, I’m going home. I have so much to do today.” He told her she wasn’t going anywhere and to sit her ass down. “No. I’m not your whipping girl anymore, and I do what I want. It’s freeing to have someone in my corner. I never had you there. You should have been, you being my brother and all. Also, if by chance you ever get out of here—upright, that is—I will move away to where you’ll never be able to find me.”

  “You go on thinking that, bitch, and that’ll be the day.” She asked him what the hell he was saying. He didn’t know either but wasn’t going to allow her to make fun of him. “You know exactly what I mean. You try and hide from me, and I’ll find you without any trouble.”

  “Yes, well, whatever. You barely have enough chain to squat, so you being able to hurt me isn’t even a scary thought in my head.” She moved away from him and then came back. Laying a small white envelope on the table, she laughed. “That is for you to do with as you wish. It’s the phone number of the county seat. They’ll be able to find you an attorney much faster than you can. As I said, don’t call me again, Dutch. Nor do I want you to have the people here do it. I’m finished with you.”

  He continued to scream for her to get back there as he was being taken back to his cell. Fucking cunt was going to get it, just as soon as he could get out of there. However, he wasn’t so sure that was going to be as easy as he’d hoped. The cop that had picked him up at his grandpa’s house yesterday said he had seven outstanding warrants for him, as well as having a gun on him when he was arrested. That was a violation of his parole, and they didn’t take too kindly to that.

  Dutch was what they called a three striker. No matter how small the crime this time, he was headed back to the big house. And he’d not be getting out for good behavior. Not that he had ever had that happen to him, but it had been nice to dream about it.

  Once he was back in his tiny cell, he thought hard on how he was going to get out of there. There were plenty of options, one of them being just what Emmie had said—in a body bag. Or not upright, she’d told him. He wasn’t too keen on that one, so he moved to the second option.

  This one was riskier. It involved him getting a gun and shooting his way out. That would have him ending up on the shit end of cops coming after him. Cops didn’t care for you shooting their own kind. They had this kind of pact, he thought, where all the cops around the world would kill your ass simply because you had the nerve to kill a cop. Because as surely as he was sitting there, the only way he could think to get them off his back was to die himself. Again, he didn’t want that to happen.

  Dutch could escape, he supposed, but he wasn’t sure how that was going to fly either. This place might give the illusion of being a shitty jail, but they had the most advanced equipment he’d ever seen. Even the locks on the cell doors were complicated. Not only were there locks on them that used a key, but there were electrical things that he didn’t understand how to work.

  When his tray of food was brought to him, he watched as it was scanned for a bar code on the top, then the one he assumed that was on his cell. After that, it was pushed under the bars. There was always a second person with the food cart. He or she would hold a gun on him until the cart was moved to the next cell, like they were terrified that he might shove the tray back to them or something. Whatever their reasons, they weren’t taking any chances with him getting the wrong food or getting out altogether.

  Dutch began eating his food, which really wasn’t all that bad. It was better than he’d gotten while in the bigger prison. He’d been able to pick out his lunch from the three that were being offered—the same with breakfast and dinner. He glanced over at the privacy curtain, they’d called it, that was near his toilet. Even though it was clear, he closed it every time he had to use it.

  He knew James was there too. They’d spoken a couple of times since he’d been brought in. James had a to do at the bank and hadn’t been able to get his mom’s money out of the bank. Which wasn’t right either. Dutch just knew that his sister had something to do with James being arrested. He’d not put it past her to have something to do with him being there too.

  When one of the cops came down the hall, he wondered what was going on. He knew James had been fucking pissed at Emmie, but surely they couldn’t add shit onto him on account of her—could they? Emmie should have been smothered in her crib a long time ago, Dutch thought. But the cop stopped in front of James’s cage.

  “You got yourself a visitor, James. You want them to come back here or want me to tell him to go away? Up to you. If I have to take you to him, you’re going to be jacked up like you were before.” James told the man that was a shitty thing to do. “If you say so. I don’t have time to go behind you and wipe your ass, either. Tell him to come or go? It’s up to you.”

 
“Tell them to come back then.” James cursed the man under his breath. “Mother fucker. He probably could have told him what he wanted, and that would have been the end of it. Now I have to sit here and listen to some fuck and be bored out of my mind.”

  “Emmie was in earlier. She was spouting off shit that she claims she’d not going to be doing for me. I set her ass straight on that.” James told him how she’d been in the bank earlier and had been the one to tell him he wasn’t getting any money. “It’s your momma’s money, right? How can she do that? You don’t have to worry about that, James. I’ll take care of her when I get out of here.”

  ~*~

  The man sat down across from James. He was well dressed, his suit looking like it cost more than Dutch had made on his last heist. As soon as he pulled out a small notebook, James asked him what the fuck he was there for. He told him his name before he started speaking about why he was there.

  “I was sent here to tell you the gist of the will of Wendy Harold. I want you to know that while you weren’t mentioned in the will at all, your sister wanted to make sure you understood that—”

  “Hold on there. What do you mean, I wasn’t mentioned in the will? I’m her son. The oldest too. I’m going to be living in her home as soon as someone gets their head out of their ass and lets me go. I have plans for that place.” The man, he thought he said his name was Brooks something, said the house and its contents were not his to use or to sell. “Then who the hell did she leave it to? Tony? If that’s what she did, I guess it’s all right. Why are you shaking your head, no? There ain’t no one else around that she can leave everything to. Unless she left it to my niece. And that ain’t going to happen.”