Colin: McCullough's Jamboree - Erotic Jaguar Shapeshifter Romance (McCullough's Jamboree Book 1) (20 page)

Looking at the information in front of him, he only had to scan the first page to know he was so fucked. And so was Garth. Laying the file on the desk, he looked at Burcher. It was over.

“I want a lawyer.”

Chapter 11

Lauren heard the door open and close behind her, but she didn’t move off the deck chair. It had been a long last few days and she just wanted it to be quiet. It wasn’t as if she didn’t want to talk to anyone. She just wasn’t in the mood for anyone else telling her that she and Hawkins were heroes. Neither of them, it seemed, felt that way. In a way, she felt sort of dirty.

“That was my mom. She wants to know if you and I would like to come over for dinner tonight. I told her that I’d get back with her.” Lauren nodded at Colin. “Can I do anything for you? By the way, I’ve taken the phone off the hook and told our new staff that we don’t want to be disturbed short of the house burning down.”

“Good. And no. Even if I knew where to start in getting help, I have no idea what sort it would be. There are so many thoughts going through my head right now, it feels like a washing machine. Things are getting tumbled around too much for me to think about any one thing right now.” He sat down and pulled her onto his lap. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. You’ve done a lot the last few days, and no one appreciates that as much as I do. My family is safe, you’re safe, and we’re not hurt or dead. To me, that’s a good day.” She leaned into his neck and inhaled deeply. “Lauren, talk to me. I want to help you somehow.”

Looking out over the woods, she knew the exact spot where the house had been that she’d been a child in. She’d not grown up there—her parents had seen to that—but she had been there. She thought about them.

“My biological parents were nothing like yours. I mean, other than the cat thing, they were human, but they were cruel not just to me but to each other as well. And daily I would wonder if they were going to kill each other or even me. At times I almost wished for it.” He didn’t tell her he was glad that she’d not done it, whatever it might have taken for her to end her life then, but held her in his arms. It was better than any words he could have said to her. “The week before I escaped, I had been hurt at school. Nothing major, just…well, to be honest with you, I was too weak to fight off any kind of infection and I had cut my leg somewhere. More than likely at the house, and it had grown septic. My parents came to get me, still dressed in their nightclothes, and demanded that I be put back in class. That no matter what, they didn’t want me at home and couldn’t afford a doctor anyway. Then my father asked them, right then, if there was going to be any compensation for them driving in there on a fool’s errand. I knew then that I had to get away from them or die.”

“I talked to Peter the other day about you and your parents. He said that he was there before it burned to the ground. He’d gone there to see if anyone else was around, in the event that they might have needed saving. Peter said he was shocked by the living conditions that you were subjected to. That no one, human or not, should have been living there the way things were.” Lauren just nodded. She knew that Peter had burned the house down around them. She’d figured that out a few weeks after she’d been living with them. He’d literally saved her by destroying what she’d left behind. “What happened, baby? What was set in motion to get you out of there?”

“The school nurse wasn’t a very good one. She wasn’t even a nice person, to be honest. Every time I was sent to her office, she would pull on these gloves and not even touch me with them on. She said that I should bathe once a day, and that it was my own fault that I was so dirty that other kids wouldn’t play with me.” Lauren laughed. “What she didn’t know, or didn’t care to find out, was that there was only running water in the house when the creek wasn’t too low, that even flushing the commode was a chore in that gallons of water had to be brought in to do it. And the few times that we had hot water, it was because the sun had baked the hose that ran from the well and into the house. Otherwise, it was as cold as mountain water could be. But that day, she told my parents that they didn’t deserve to have me as their child, or any child. And my father told her she was right, that if she wanted me, then I was all hers. She gagged at the thought.”

“She needed to be horsewhipped.” Lauren smiled. She’d heard Rich say that on occasion when he was upset about something. “Is she still in the system? Because if she is, then I’d really like to have a few words with her myself.”

“I don’t know. I would imagine that she is. Even then she was considered ahead of her time in that she thought all kids should have their eyes examined, as well as fluoride treatments. Neither of which I participated in. My parents didn’t sign the paperwork.” She thought about his original question. “Why I left then.... I guess you could say that terror prompted me into leaving. My parents had been fighting, nothing unusual about that, but this time I was in my room, reading a book. I was nearly out of light when I heard the first gunshot. Then the second one cut the candle I was using in half; it was that close to me. The third one creased my cheek.”

“Christ.” Colin tightened his hold on her, and she felt loved by it. “And there was no one to help you, was there? No one to come and take you from them?”

“No, no one. I suppose there were grandparents at one time. I’m not even sure who they might be. I know that at one point they were receiving money from one of them, but that cut off when my biological father got arrested for shoplifting. He always said that there was no reason for him not to steal it if they were going to leave it unattended.” Her parents would dumpster dive as well as steal. And she knew that at different times in her younger life, both of them had spent time in jail. A few times she’d been left on her own when they were both arrested. “Colin, I need to talk to you about my career. I need…I would like to go back and finish my time there.”

“I understand that.” She thought there was more to his answer and asked him. “No, there is no ‘but.’ I really do understand. And according to Tony, you are very close to retiring, and that will be good for you as well.”

“They want me to take a desk job. I’ve thought about it and I might. It would be nice to be home nightly and have weekends off with you.” He laughed a little. “What was that about?”

“You made it sound like we’d not be spending any time through the week together. And I have news for you: we’ll be spending a lot of time together.” She said nothing, wondering what the hell she was going to be doing with herself once her service was up. “I’d like to talk to you about children.”

“I don’t know anything about them. Other than Pete, I’ve never spent a great deal of time with them.” Her body stiffened at the thought of being around children, and she was pretty sure he knew how scared she was of it. “Perhaps we can ease into that for now.”

“There is a couple that I know that are having twins. And they’re getting a divorce. It’s not a nice, easy one. A nasty one, they’re both saying, and the children would be tossed back and forth between the two of them and at times, and because I know them both, the kids would be pawns in their plan to hurt the other. The woman is putting them up for adoption, and the father is okay with that. I think this is the best decision that the two of them have ever made.” She sat up on his lap and looked at Colin. “She’s only about three months along and willing to sign them over to us the moment they’re born.”

“You already talked to her about it?” Colin told her he had not, but that Gab, his friend, had talked to him about who he knew that would take them and care for them. “But they don’t know that you want to take them?”

“No. And it wouldn’t be just me. It would be us both raising any children we might have or adopt. And if you’re not ready for that, that’s just fine with me as well. I know of a couple of other people that they can talk to. And since I know that the children will be safe with either of them, I’m okay with telling them we’re not interested at this time.” She leaned back on his chest and asked him why he thought they could make this work, having children in the house. “I’m out of work right now and could easily be a full-time father while you finished up your time. Larson has taken over all the projects I was working on, and is loving the freedom of making his own choices and decisions. We have enough money and resources that it wouldn’t be financially straining on us. I’m not…well, since meeting you, I’m not insecure with the knowledge that women, most of them as a matter of fact, can do a job better than me. And do more.”

“But babies. You know anything about them? I don’t.” He said that he had the greatest resource around: his mom and dad. “Yeah, she and your dad did a great job on raising you guys. Even with what they had to work with.”

He tickled her, and she laughed with him. As they settled again, she thought about children, these kids, and what bringing them into their life might mean. Being a parent was a big deal. She thought maybe she might rather face a firing squad than try and figure out a kid’s wants and needs.

“They’d know that we’re not their real parents. As soon as they’re old enough to know. I’m assuming that they’re not cats, right?” He said they were humans, so they would know. “I’m not saying yes to this, but what would your family think? I mean, first of all, they won’t be cats, as you said, and I didn’t have them for you.”

“I doubt very much my parents would care if we picked them out of the garden so long as they could babysit a lot. My brothers would be thrilled to know that there are babies in the house. And if they’re girls, we’d have built-in protectors when they dated. If we let them date. Also, as their mom, I’m sure you’d be teaching them the best ways to protect themselves and how to hurt a man when they don’t think no means no.” She would teach them how to protect themselves in all situations, not just dating. “If you don’t want to adopt them, we can wait and have some of our own.”

“Adopting sounds good. I mean, I’d really like to have children too. Just not yet. I only have four and a half years to go to get my twenty-five. Then I can retire with a lot better package.” He didn’t mention, and neither did she, that she was able to have that all now because of what she’d done recently. “And then there is the matter of trial for Williams and Irvin too.”

They were both in prison, along with nine other men that had been mentioned in the information that they’d gotten from the offices of the two men. Joe had had a separate home that he worked and played in, one that not even his wife knew about. Everyone was still trying to figure out how he’d gotten in and out of the residence without anyone knowing. Lauren was sure that more names were going to be added to the list of people involved in this.

Butch Daily, the cohort of the two men, was facing more charges as he’d been found with an arsenal of weapons and other weapons of mass destruction in his home when they’d caught up with him. He was in federal prison awaiting other charges that came up when his prints were put into the system. His list of aliases was as long as his rap sheet. Butch had also been there when she and Hawkins had been shot, and had thought, like the rest of the world, that she and Hawkins would never make it back to the States alive.

“I love you, Lauren.” She looked at him and realized that as much as he loved her, she did him even more. “Whatever you want to do, wherever you need to be, I’m here for you. You are my world.”

The two of them sat there for a little while longer. The phone in the house rang a couple of times. Colin’s cell phone vibrated in his pocket too. Neither of them, it seemed, wanted anything to do with the outside world at the moment. Then Colin laughed and sat her up a little.

“My brother Dustin is on his way over. He has a project he wants to talk to you about.” She asked him what it was. “He and Dad renovated this building downtown, and they want to turn it into an after school place for older kids. He wants to talk to you about it.”

“If he wants me to paint or something like that, I’m his man, but I know shit about after school stuff.” Colin laughed and said that wasn’t it. “Then what possible reason can he have for asking me for help?”

“Most of the kids are bullied. Some of them are the bullies. He wants to bring you in so that you can teach them the right way to protect themselves, and to put the others on the right path. I think it’s called it a scared shitless approach. He said that a few of the kids could use some outlet for their pain. As in their parents are hurting them and they need to learn to keep themselves safe from them.” She knew that pain, and stood up to go to the railing. “He seems to think that you might know a few people, retired servicemen, who can come in and give a hand too. Mentoring program, so to speak.”

“You mean have a bunch of foul mouthed men who served their country come in and talk to a bunch of teenagers about what they’re going through? I think most of them would rather go back overseas and fight again.” She knew that she would. “I’ll ask, but don’t expect any big deal made out of it.”

Colin stood up then too and came to stand beside her. He was forever touching her, running his hand down her arm to her hand, hugging her before moving on. It was comforting and loving, two things she would never have thought of herself looking forward to.

When the doorbell rang, Colin went in to answer it. Almost as soon as he was gone, Victoria appeared. She wasn’t really there—it was the brightest part of the day—but she did look like she was. Lauren asked after Tony and saw the change in her friend’s face immediately.

“He’s well. And feisty. He has big plans now that we’re together. I think he is retiring as well from the service.” Lauren didn’t mention what she and Colin had talked about, but told her that she was happy for them both. “I have come to ask a favor of you. It’s not a big one, but one that only you can help me with.”

“Anything, you know that. I owe you more than I could ever repay.” Victoria said the same was thought of her. “I’m just so glad that we met all those years ago. Our lives might have turned out differently had we not.”