Rodney: Marshall’s Shadow – Jaguar Shapeshifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  I don’t know how to answer that. There is a great aunt that might take them, but I’m doubting the courts will allow her to. She’s in her late sixties. Also, Belinda, the mother, has a sister and a brother that I know of. The brother is in the service, married with four kids of his own. The sister is off the grid. I’m not sure where she is, but I’ll find her. He asked her what off the grid meant. She’s a ghost. No working social security number, no address. No job that I can find. She doesn’t have any credit cards, no utilities. There is a post office box number for her in this town that I’ve found, but according to the people there, Belinda is the one that gets the mail out of it and goes through it. Then I guess she sends it to another P.O. box in another state. So far, I’ve found nine more of those that someone sends off to another address. Could be she’s in the service as well and being moved a great deal, or she’s hiding from someone.

  But you don’t think that’s the case, do you? Either of those ideas? Harris told Rebel that for some reason, it didn’t feel right. I remember my mom telling us if it doesn’t feel right, then it’s not. With you, that would go double. What is it you think she does?

  What I was doing.

  Well, there was a lot to be said about that, but they were pulling into the hospital now, and he no longer had the time to speak to her. After telling her what he was doing, Harris told him she’d get back with him.

  Sheila met them at the nursery department. She was going to assist Rebel in whatever she needed to do with the little girl. Adaline had shown up too, but she was working in the overcrowded emergency room, and he told her that if she didn’t mind, it would be good for her to help out. There had been a wreck on the highway just out of town, and they weren’t sure what to expect yet.

  The little boy had been quiet since he’d given out his first lusty cry. After getting him cleaned up better, then diapered, he looked to be doing well. The five stitches in his thigh were photographed, then sent to the police, along with his paperwork as to what had happened to him. By the time he was finished up, Rebel came to see him.

  “She’s doing fine now that she’s had a bottle. Belinda’s doctor has been notified, and he told me what the plans had been for the children when they were born. It was just a staff employee, he told me. Belinda didn’t have a preference, he told me, other than someone who would be kind to the babies.” He asked her if she thought Belinda knew she was having twins. “She did. And she purposely kept that part out of her conversations with Todd. Also, she was running when she went into labor. The other two were going to be staying at a neighbor’s home until she could come back for them. That was the reason Todd’s name was never put on the certificates. So he couldn’t claim them in the event she was able to get away. I have an idea what I want to do with some of the money Harris is going to give us for projects. I want to purchase the old high school and turn it into some sort of home for pregnant women. There won’t be a mention of how we’ll help them get out of a bad relationship or help them get away. It would just be a clinic of sorts to help mothers have a safe delivery and leave the place when they are able. There will be daycare as well for other children, so they can run as well.”

  “I’m sure it’s not as simple as that, but I think that’s an excellent idea—especially the daycare part for the other children. I’ve run into trouble with that a couple of times when the mother couldn’t find a sitter for them, and they had to sit in the waiting room alone. Mostly because the father couldn’t be trusted to take care of them. Terrible situation to get into if you ask me.” She smiled at him. “Once word gets out that we’ve assisted in only one of the women and her children getting away, no one will allow their pregnant women to go there.”

  “I’ve thought of that too. I’m working on that as we speak. The police could help us, and I know Harris would as well if we ask. I want this to work.” He said he did as well. “Good. That’ll be all we need. Cooperation.”

  As he set up the care for the twins, he thought of very little else but the woman dying like she had. To be carrying a man’s child and him thinking she had any say at all over whether it was a girl or boy. Men needed to have a lesson in how that worked. Telling them that the male was the parent that contributed the chromosome that decided that part would perhaps save a lot of fights between a man and a woman. Then he thought that no one would believe him, especially not the type of person that would believe that the woman had the determining gene.

  Heading down to the pediatrics floor, he picked up the file on the girls. They were both hurting, he’d been told, and had needed stitches, but they were in generally good health. After getting a good meal into their bellies, the nurses on duty said that they’d gone to sleep on their own. He was glad. Rodney wanted to be able to save everyone he worked on. It had taken him a very long time to get it in his head that there wasn’t any way to save them all. It didn’t mean that he didn’t try, but it was an impossibility that he wished was different.

  Chapter 8

  James watched his target as they moved all around the restaurant. He wasn’t there to end her life, such as it was, but to get her to a safe house, then go to his own home. There were all sorts of things she was going to be charged with, one of them treason to her own country. When someone sat across from him, he nearly snarled at his sister. Instead, afraid of her, he just ate his soup like he’d been expecting her all along.

  I’m here to take over. He didn’t bother looking up at her. The link they shared had it so that they’d have to never speak out loud if they didn’t want to. Someone has called your boss and said something has happened at your house, and you need to be transported home. Billy broke his leg in a fall from the bleachers at the football field at home.

  By the way she worded it, he knew that not only was there nothing wrong with his son but that she’d already checked it out. When a bowl of the same soup he was sipping was set in front of her, she did what he’d done when he’d gotten his. Paige not only checked it for poisons but also smelled it to find out as well. When she pushed it away, he did as well, and unlocked the clip on his gun and put his hand on it at the ready.

  Why were you called, do you know? She shrugged. Something she knew he hated, and she did anyway. What’s going down here? Anything I’ve done, or you?

  Both of us, as a matter of fact. She was eyeing the room, and he didn’t bother looking too. Something he’d learned a very long time ago about his little sister, she was fucking good at her job. So was he, but he was too cautious, as he’d been told by her several times a day. There are two geeks over by the door. They’re trying their best to blend in, but they’re not fooling anyone. Their language is too perfect, and they’re dressed like peasants. Peasants can’t afford bottled beer or the food they’re eating. Not at the same time, anyway.

  Glancing in that direction, he took in as much as he could in the way of information. She was right, as usual—they were trying hard to blend. Also, he noticed that four other men were watching them and making no bones about how they didn’t like them being there. He thought they were KGB but doubted he was right on that. The Soviet Union had nothing to do with this area, and the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti weren’t the type to carry knives when guns were going to be needed.

  “I think they’re Feds. It would be just like them to come in and fuck up my day when I had such plans for the evening. Getting laid is far more fun without having someone firing over your head in a sleezy hotel room. Don’t you think?” He just grunted at her. When she smiled, he wanted to laugh with her, but one of the Feds moved. “They’re just going to walk right up to us and give all our hard work a day off too. Mother fuckers. Why is it that one hand, them, never knows what the other hand, us, is doing? Oh well. I’m going to bounce before they get here.”

  Sure enough, the man came and sat down in the chair his sister had only just vacated. Not removing his hand from the gun he had in his hand now, James looked around the room
and then into the eyes of the man he was going to have to kill if he had fucked this up for him. Asking him in Russian what he wanted, the man didn’t even know the local language.

  “I asked you what the fuck you’re wanting by coming in here. You should be sitting behind a desk and pushing shit around that you think you might be doing correctly. What do you want?”

  “I have a message from my boss that I’m to tell you.” He didn’t bother with asking the man who his boss was or even what the message might have been about. Wanting him gone, he looked slightly over the man’s shoulder and into the eyes of his sister. The gun she put in the back of the Fed’s head looked like she was trying her best to make it stay there forever.

  “You’re in my seat, moron.” She spoke French to him. Even he could see he didn’t have a clue on how to answer her. Then she tried any number of other languages she knew, which in his estimation was about all of them. “Who the fuck would send you into a war zone without you knowing a single language other than English? I am taking a fucking big chance here in thinking you might well know that one, but who the hell knows? What is it you want, jerk off? You have less than five minutes to tell me.”

  He didn’t even get that long. Someone darkened the door to the shabby little shithole they were in and tried to kill everyone in there. James grabbed the woman he’d been there for when she’d been shot and let his sister fend for herself. He knew as well as Paige did that she had a better chance of getting out alive than anyone else. James was running down the row of houses behind the restaurant when he heard from her next.

  “Is she dead? Should be, I’m thinking, for all the shit she’s caused here.” He leaned against the tree with the girl still on his shoulder and laid her on the ground. Checking her pulse, he told Paige she was alive. “Good. The Feds are all dead. Not only dead, but they were stupid enough to have worn their badges around their necks so anyone could see what a prize they got by killing them. I’m going to call their CO. Their commanding officer, or whoever the fuck is their boss, should have known better than to send idiots like this here. What did he want?”

  “Don’t know. Don’t care. Where are you?” She told him. “How the fuck did you get up there? I’m assuming you know people that know people.”

  He laughed when she did, but he knew that to be true. Had it not been for Paige, he would have died a long time ago. As it was now, even getting injured was only a quick shift away from not being an issue again.

  Paige had joined the service two weeks before he had. They had both gone through boot camp at the same time, but he hadn’t seen her after the first couple of months there. James had thought she’d flunked out. But it had been her excelling in so much of the shit they had been teaching them that had gotten her looked at for more serious work than just a man with a gun.

  I need for you to do something for me. He told her anything. You still have a couple of contacts back home? I mean, someone you can trust more than you do me?

  I don’t trust you at all, so that’ll be easy. When she didn’t laugh, he asked her what was going on. I read the Fed’s mind. You check in with your contact and let me know what they tell you.

  Should I be worried? She told him she was calling the CO of the other men. Not at all answering his question. Really? Is that necessary, you think?

  I do. I’m hoping the Fed was wrong, and this was just another attempt to get you alone. He was beginning to worry now. When Paige told him to get back to her, he did something he’d never done in all his life—reached out for another person other than his sister.

  Mr. Marshall? My name is James Avery. Can you give me some answers about what is going on there? The man broke down. James, unsure of what was going on, knew it had to do with his other sister and her little family, and he sat down. The car that was going to meet him here pulled up and took the woman away. What’s happened? Tell me, please?

  Your sister, Belinda Avery, she passed on a few days ago. James didn’t know what to say but did ask if it had been Todd. Yes. She was carrying his children when he beat her and those little girls of hers. My grandson—you might remember, he’s a doctor—did all he could to save them babies. She had herself a little girl and a boy. Todd, he’s in jail for attempted murder and murder. More to that, but I’m not privy to it right now.

  She’s really dead? Mr. Marshall said he was powerful sorry about it but that she was gone. Had been buried just today. I can’t come home right now. I will, but I’m out of the country. I’ll send my wife and family there to get things taken care of while I’m working on coming home. Thank you for getting her buried. Who’s caring for the children?

  My family is right now. We didn’t want them to be put in the system. Not that they might not end up there anyway, but for now, they’re safe as hens’ eggs in a nest. He loved the way Mr. Marshall had spoken. You get yourself home here, and we’ll hold off as much as we can. The house and its contents are being locked up. The murder, it happened at the house, you see. The little ones, the other two girls, they’ve been knocked around too, but they’re going to be all right. I don’t suppose you know where your sister is, do you?

  I’ll find her. Mr. Marshall told him that would be good. I’ll be home in a week or less if I can get enough strings pulled. I haven’t any idea if my sister will or not. She travels to a beat of her own drums.

  Yes, while I don’t remember her much, I know all about someone doing their own thing. You let me know if I can help you with those there strings, James, and I’ll see how hard they need to be pulled. All right? He told him he’d be fine. You will be. I know it. I’ll see you when you arrive. And let me know when you figure out your wife and family. We’ll be putting them up, too, so you don’t have to worry about that.

  After closing the connection, he sat there for a little while longer. Belinda was dead. Murdered by a man that all of them had hated. Now she had four children too, ones he’d never met in the first place. Looking up when a shadow fell over him, he saw Paige. Putting out her hand, he let her help him up from the ground. James started to tell her what he’d found out.

  “Not here.” Nodding, he followed her through the town for what seemed like miles. When they happened upon a house just outside the city limits, the two of them went in, and he was startled at not only how lovely the little home was but that it was air-conditioned. Looking at Paige, he asked her what was going on. “This is one of my hidey holes. Might as well be comfy when the bad guys are after your ass. Don’t you think?”

  “She’s gone.” When she nodded, he wondered who she had spoken to but didn’t ask. Paige, like him, had contacts all over the world. Knowing about a sister in bumfuck Ohio, would be an easy thing to check out. “I’m going home. After I speak to Sara, I’m going to follow her there to find out what happened. Butch Todd killed her.”

  “He won’t be anything anyone has to worry about soon enough.” James didn’t bother asking her. It would do him no good and only serve to piss her off. “I can’t leave yet. I have two things going at once here, and I have to see them through. I don’t know what I’d do there anyway but to kill Butch. He’s going to die anyway, but that’s all I can offer you at the moment.”

  “I understand.” He did understand, better than most did, about his sister. “I was going to call Sara. Perhaps she can get us there and back without any issues.”

  When Paige left him standing there, he looked around the room. This was a room for a woman who didn’t kill for a living. It was soft—the earth tones of the room suited his sister well. When she returned with a handful of money, he asked her where she’d gotten it.

  “My stash. I don’t get paid by check, as you know. I don’t have a bank account other than the one that is in town for Belinda to use when she needed it. So I just stash it here. Other places too, but it’s here when I need it.” He looked at the stack. There were ten bundles of one hundred dollar bills. “It’s a hundred grand. Just use i
t instead of your credit card. That way, no one will know where you’ve gone when you leave here.”

  “I could buy my own plane if this is all real.” She didn’t take the bait, nor did she give him any shit when he asked her how he was supposed to get around with this much cash. “What is it, Paige? I’ve given you ample lead way into busting my chops, but you’ve not bitten.”

  “The men that were sent to find you. They were sent by Harrison Parker.” James sat down hard but didn’t say anything. “She’s in the FBI now. I called to speak to someone in charge of the two idiots that were here, and they told me that would be Agent Marshall. It didn’t take me long to find out who she was.”

  “Marshall? You mean she’s connected with the Marshall family of jags?” She only had to nod, and he felt blindsided once again. “How the hell did she get that gig? For that matter, how did we not know about this before? I thought we had enough tags on her to keep her in our sights forever?”

  “I don’t know, to be honest. I didn’t talk to her, but I could have. I should have, actually.” She looked at the doorway into a part of the house he couldn’t see into. “I will, as a matter of fact. But here. Where I know she can’t find me.”

  He didn’t have to ask her what she meant. James knew Paige well enough to know that if she told you no one would find her, no one would. Ever. He knew too that even if a person were walking right over her, they’d never know she was right there beside them until it was too late. Looking at the money again, he wondered what was going to happen next. Because something was always about to go down while they were dealing with bad situations in their line of work.

  By the time he was ready to go back onto the streets, he not only had a way back to the States, but he had two months off with pay. Whoever his sister had contacted on his behalf, they had fallen all over themselves getting him home. James asked her if she was going to be all right.