Thatcher: Robinson Destruction – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  When Rogen was allowed to pick Jimmy up, she looked at him with complete terror in her eyes. A woman who could guide a missile to a specific place was terrified of a nine-pound baby. Looking down at him, Thatcher realized while he wasn’t terrified, he was a little scared. Thatcher’s hands could cover his entire head, and he was afraid of crushing him.

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake. I can see why she’s a little nervous, but you, Dr. Thatcher? You’ve had peoples’ brains and hearts in your hands, not to mention those two little Conrad children, and this baby is intimidating you?” Nurse Sally picked up the baby while still fussing at him. “What are you going to do when he’s ill? Send him to another doctor? If I hear you doing that, I’ll come take him away from you.”

  “He won’t. I promise.” Rogen took Jimmy from Sally and held him in her arms. “Oh, he’s not as heavy as I thought he’d be. I don’t know what I expected, but nine pounds sounds like a lot for a baby.”

  “It is. They usually come out being around seven to seven and a half pounds. But we get them in larger and smaller.” Rogen was given a tiny bottle and a rocker to sit in. “Go on, Mom. Feed him his very first food.”

  Rogen cried the entire time he took his bottle. It didn’t take him long to suck it down, and when she tried to burp him, he laid his little head in the crook of her neck and breathed deeply. He could tell she was like him in some ways—a cat. When she was ready to hand him over, Thatcher sat in the rocking chair and held him on his lap.

  “Look how tiny his fingers are. And hands.” He pulled away the blanket he was wrapped up in and showed Rogen his feet. “All his toes and all his fingers.”

  “I love his little fat knees. They’ll not be this scar free when he gets a little bigger, I’m betting.” Rogen touched her fingers to his cheek, and he tried to take them to his mouth. “He acts like he’s still hungry.”

  “You gonna be an on a schedule or when he’s hungry sort of parent? Either way is fine. Just when he’s hungry and you feed him, I’d still make a note on the time. Too much will make his belly hurt, and too little will not make him a happy camper.” Thatcher looked at Rogen, and they decided to let him be his own gauge of when he was hungry. “Good for you. Whatever you did was going to be the right way, because he’s your son. All right. When you guys are ready to get out of here, I can show you how to get him in the car seat and anything else you have questions on. But I’m thinking that when your momma finds out you have a baby in the house, Doctor Thatcher, she’s not going to give you a minute’s peace until she can babysit for you.”

  Thatcher was amazed that anyone had children if they had to learn how to buckle a baby into a seat, then into the car. He was a fucking doctor with a doctorate in medicine, and he couldn’t get the sucker to work no matter what he did. Finally, he let Rogen do it.

  “I’ve seen these things before, and I looked them up on the Internet for the best one.” In less than two minutes she not only had him buckled into everything, but the tarp like thing was covering him and the seat. “It’s not a tarp, Thatcher. Stop calling it that.”

  “Well, that’s what it looks like. I have one like it on the back of my truck. It snaps on and everything too. I think I could have handled that part, anyway.” She kissed him and told him that she knew he could. “I have no idea why, but I think you’re humoring me.”

  They drove home going the back roads. Neither of them minded, but it took them a great deal longer than it should have. As soon as they pulled into the drive and were carrying all the baby stuff into the house, Thatcher leaned against the post.

  “Holy fuck, I’m a father.”

  Instead of going inside, they got back into the car went to his parents. Neither of them could wait. And why should they have to? As soon as they pulled up in front of the house, Thatcher went inside. He wanted to check the mood of his parents, sure that this would brighten up their moods anyway.

  “What’s up, son? Did Rogen kick you out already? I knew that I loved that girl. Oh well, Thatcher. You can’t stay here—” Dad looked at him then at Rogen, who was carrying everything. When Thatcher took the baby seat away from her, his dad stepped back a few steps. “Thatcher, is that a baby you got yourself there?”

  Mom came in too then, drying her hands on a dishtowel. When she saw what he had, she stood back with Dad. It was almost comical, like they were afraid of him.

  “Yes, Dad, it is. A son. We just adopted him. His name is James Thatcher Robinson. Jimmy? I’d like for you to meet your grandparents.”

  Dad leapt forward. Mom came at the seat, crying. And once Jimmy was free of the seat, Mom, Dad, and the baby disappeared further into the house. Thatcher looked at Rogen when she laughed.

  “I guess whatever mood they were in, it’s better now.” They followed the sound of cooing. “I do hope they don’t talk baby talk to him, Thatcher. I hate that crap.”

  He didn’t point out that she’d been cooing at him since they picked Jimmy up, but Thatcher wanted to enjoy his child a little more. Rogen would hurt him, there was no doubt about that. Putting his arm around her, they watched his parents with Jimmy. Now they only had to tell her mom.

  Chapter 13

  Anna didn’t like the people in her lab class. She didn’t care for a lot of things, she thought with a small laugh. But they all knew that she was smart and hated to have her in the same class as them. With her grades, there wasn’t any need for a curve for the others to do better.

  Not that she understood that. Why was someone being rewarded for not giving something their all? She worked hard. Anna had learned to do that from the start of her life. Nothing was for free, and people sucked the life out of you if they could. Not to mention money. God, would she ever have anything more than enough to squeak by on? More than likely not.

  “All right class. It’s about time for us to end fall semester. I know that some of you have signed up for some of the classes offered during the winter months, and a couple of you have asked to be my assistant in the coming terms. The list is on my door.” Professor Long was a shit hole, and she didn’t care at all for his teaching methods. Nor did she care that he tried to corner every female in his office. Anna figured that she was just too old for him, thankfully. At thirty and in college, she thought she was a rare breed. “Miss Hayes, I’d like to see you for a moment. Could you please come to my office?”

  “No.” She wasn’t afraid to tell him no. He was her teacher, not her father. “I have another class, and I don’t want to be late.”

  The rest of the classroom filed out quickly then. Long sat on the corner of his desk when it was just the two of them. And when she started for the door, he did as well and locked it. Then he pulled down the shade.

  “You have been avoiding me all term. That’s not very nice of you.” She shook her head and told him that she was leaving. “Not until I tell you so, you’re not. We have things to…discuss, you and I. Don’t you like me? I could say that I’ll help you with your grades, but you don’t need that, do you? And also, if you correct me once more in this room, I’m going to make life very difficult for you.”

  “If you don’t want to be corrected, then get your shit right.” She looked at the door then back at him as he slinked his way toward her. “Mr. Long, you should be aware that I have taken care that I’m not helpless. Not only have I taken self-defense classes, but I’m carrying a gun with me at all times.”

  “There aren’t any weapons allowed on campus, Miss Hayes, I’m sure you’ve been made aware of that.” She didn’t answer him, her mind franticly reaching out to any one she could find close enough to help her not have to kill this man by tearing his throat out. “You and I, we can have so much fun together.”

  “No. I want you to back off and let me out of here.” She put her book on the first table she came to; her purse, nothing more than a pack around her shoulder, was put there as well. “I will kill you if you hurt me. I’m not shitting you. I’ve put up with enough bullies in my life that I’m not going to put up wit
h a piece of shit like you.”

  He hit her, right in the face, with his fist. Anna went down just as someone answered her call.

  Hello? Who is this? Why are you contacting me?

  My name is Anna Hayes. I’m a tiger that is in this area under condition of going to college. I’m in room twenty-seven in the Waldo Building. Professor Long is going to rape me. He’s already hit me enough to knock me on my ass. The man told her who he was and that he was close. Please hurry. I’m—

  This time his fist hit her in the belly. She not only couldn’t talk, but she couldn’t breathe either. Now he was on top of her, his greedy hands tearing at her clothing and her skin. Anna wasn’t going to be able to hold onto her tiger for much longer when she felt something coming, someone stronger than her. The she blacked out.

  When she tried to open her eyes, all she saw was darkness. That made her panic, and a voice, soft and cultured, asked her to please lie still. Then he started talking to her, telling her where she was and what had happened to her body.

  “Professor Long? He was trying to rape— Did he rape me?” The man said no, he’d tried but he never got that far. “I hurt. Everywhere. I’m a cat—you are too.”

  “Yes. I’m Doctor Robinson. Everyone here calls me Doc Dawson.” She asked him to please tell her what Long had done to her again. “All right. But I’m going to tell you also that this is the third time I’ve told you. I want you to try and remember now. It’ll make me feel better about the head wounds that you have. You have a concussion and several hundred stitches in your head. I don’t know what he hit you with, Miss Hayes, but he must have hit you several times. Your jaw is cracked, but nothing a shift won’t heal. However, I’d rather you didn’t for a while. The police will need to see you as you are.”

  “Is he dead? Or the man that came to help me. His name was Robinson too. Was it you?” He said it was his father. “Did he get hurt?”

  “Just a little, when he fell trying to get to my brother. Morgan, he’s a professor at the college too, is the one that did the actual saving. But my dad, he’s loving it. A damsel in distress called for him to slay the dragon.” Doc Dawson laughed a little. “I’m going to take the bandages off your face when the police show up again. Anna, they’re going to take pictures of your wounds for the trial. All right?”

  “He’s not dead then.” The doctor said that he was. “Then I don’t understand. Why would they try a dead man?”

  “Because of the people involved in his death. And I can’t tell you any more than that right now. But the police are here now. I want you to remain calm with them and tell them what you remember. Not what I’ve told you, all right?” She told him that she would. “Also, my sister-in-law, Rogen, she’ll have a couple of questions for you as well. Nothing major, but she’s very much into details. Oh, by the way, is there anyone that I can call for you? Even after you shift, you’re going to be sore for a week or so. As I said, he hit you in the head several times.”

  “No. Please don’t call anyone for me.” Anna wasn’t sure how to explain to him that she wasn’t welcome at home any more, and even if she was, it was doubtful that she’d go there. “I’ll be fine. I have a nice apartment, and I’ll be fine.”

  “We’ll see. All right. I’m going to allow them to come in. If they get too rough for you, just ask for Rogen—she’s here for you too. All right?” She nodded again. “Good. Now, I have to go and see to other patients. None of them are as calm nor as pretty as you are.”

  When he spoke the next time, it wasn’t to her but to the police, and a woman who she assumed was Rogen. As soon as the door clicked shut, they bombarded her with questions.

  “Hang on a fucking minute. You’ve had a couple of hours with this. I just woke up.” There was laughter from the woman, and it made her feel stronger for some reason. “One at a time. And if you irritate me again, you’ll have to ask your questions of me with one of you in here at a time. I have a splitting fucking headache, and a man just tried to rape me today.”

  “Yesterday.” She turned her head to the woman. Anna couldn’t see. Her eyes were swollen shut and they hurt when she tried to pry them open. “You were hurt yesterday. You’ve been in the hospital for an entire day now. I was going to tell you that I had your back in here, but I think you can handle these guys pretty well. Go on, keep them in line and do what you need.”

  “Ms. Hayes, my name is Andrew Keen. I’m with the local police. I’d like to ask you if you and Mr. Long had a relationship before yesterday.” She told him no. “You’ve never been to his house, never been on a date with him? Nothing?”

  “No. Why would you ask me that?” There was silence. “If you don’t answer me, my mind is going to make up all kinds of things, and I come from a very scary background. Tell me why you’d think those things. I’d heard about him, the way that he’d have someone come to his offices to talk. But it’s never been me. I thought—I guess I thought I was just too old for him.”

  “No, I don’t think that either. He had some pictures of you. In his office and his home.” She said she never posed for pictures. “These aren’t that sort of picture. There are some with you coming out of a coffee shop. You eating a Danish on a park bench. There are quite a few of them.”

  “How many?” This time it was Rogen that answered her question. “Several hundred? Are you fucking with me right now? Several hundred? Why would he—? Holy shit. He’s the one. It was him.”

  Pictures were taken then. They were of parts of her body that she couldn’t see. But she could feel the tearing of stitches, the pull of muscles that were hurt. And when someone asked her if they could see the bottom of her feet, she asked him why.

  No one said anything to her for several seconds, then she heard the door open and close. She wasn’t sure that she wanted to be alone right now, but she thought she might have sickened them. Then Rogen spoke, not to her but to the police officer, Keen.

  “I told you that she would understand.” Rogen laughed. “All right, Andrew, ask her what you want to, and I’m going to ask her the rest. That way we can wrap this up and be out of her life.”

  “Ms. Hayes.” She asked him to call her Anna. “All right, Anna. I’m going to tell you things that are straight up true. Then when you’ve had enough of me, Rogen is going to fill you in on the rest. However, when you leave here, you cannot under any circumstances tell a soul what she is going to brief you on.” Andrew asked if that would be all right. She said yes. “And the bottoms of your feet would be covered in bite wounds. First as a human, which we couldn’t understand until today wouldn’t match his. He wore false teeth over his own. And of course, we couldn’t see those of his wolf.”

  “Wait a minute. Did you say brief me? Brief me on what? I don’t understand. What happens if I tell someone?” Rogen answered that she’d be as dead as Long was. “I see. And I believe you too. I don’t have any idea what is going on. Nor did I encourage or tease him into doing what he did to me.”

  “We believe you. You’re not the first one, as you know. There have been seventy-five complaints about Long. All of them from young women, all whom dropped out of school as soon as Long was proven to have not been the man who had raped them. He is a shifter, wolf, and before he could be examined, he’d shift and—”

  “He’d be clean of all the wounds he might have had. The women. Did he take pictures of them as well?” Rogen told her not that they could find. “I don’t know if you need it or not, but I have a list of women that I know he’s been with. I mean, I’m a cat, as you know, and when he’d come around me, I could smell them on him.” She said that it was in her notebook in her back pack.

  “It’s in evidence, but I’ll make sure that I get it. Anything else you can remember or have done?” Anna told Rogen that she carried a gun on campus, she’d been that afraid of him. “Good for you. I think I’m going to like you, Anna Hayes.”

  After a few more questions, Andrew left them. Anna’s head really was pounding, and she laid her head back on the
pillow behind her. Rogen asked her if she wanted anything for pain.

  “No thanks. I don’t react well to them, and I don’t take much because I don’t want to be in a position that might get me killed.” Rogen said nothing. “What have you found out about me, Rogen? I have no idea why, but I think that you’re one of those people that does research on other people. We can cut the bullshit, and you can just ask me whatever it is you want to.”

  “As I said, I like you, Anna.” She didn’t even bother saying anything. After this, it would be important that she moved on. “I did research you. In depth and completely. Also, you’re right, I am one of those people that finds the messiest dirt on people and lays it out for others to use. On you, however, I found not so much dirt as the shit being heaped up on you.”

  “You got that right. I’ve had a rough childhood and a rougher life. I’m not a full-blooded Bengal, as you more than likely know. I just turned up as one when my parents had me. They told my parents that it might have been several generations back that a cat was in their family, or just recently. That’s all my dad heard, and he kicked my mom to the curb, and me along with her.” Anna laughed, feeling the bitterness of bile come up to the back of her throat. “But he forgot that Mother was the breadwinner, and the person who had parents that were wealthy. Good old Dad decided that she could stay with him, be his fuck buddy, but nothing more. He actually called her that instead of Ruth, her actual name.”

  “You have three brothers as well.” Anna started to nod but stopped herself and verbally told her that was right. “Noah Jr. In prison for robbery with a weapon, murder in the first degree, as well as possession of a hand gun when out on parole. David, and he’s my favorite idiot of all time, murdered a young woman while she was out with her friends. Then when he realized that he didn’t have gloves, he took her credit card and bought them for himself, and a candy bar. He signed the card with his own name. Then there is Buddy. Goes by Bud. At sixteen he was the driver of the car that was used in a drive by shooting. Six people were killed and two more injured. This moron of the highest degree then takes his car to the car wash down the street from his house and tells one of the people there that he just made an easy six hundred bucks for driving the car.”