Kaleb (Samuel's Pride Series) (12 page)

“I know.
But can we wait until we get this crap with Lipscomb finished? And I’d very much like to see if I can find anyone in the department that wasn’t in with him.” She sat up and looked around. “I guess my clothes are toast.”

“I have something in the woods you can put on.
I usually leave things there when I want to run or need to run. I think you can wear my shirt.” She watched him walk away from her and laughed at the fact that his entire back was covered in dirt, twigs, and rocks. When he moved to a tree and rubbed against it with his back, she realized how much of a bear he really was. Forty minutes later, after putting on something that fit, they were sitting in the kitchen with Tomas and his wife having a nice luncheon.

“My
lady, I have a friend that works in the mayor’s office. I can make a call to him to see where he stands. It might help you deal with what is going on if you knew you had an ally.” When she told him it would be fine, he went to the phone and called. Ten minutes later, he sat down. “I do believe you’ll be pleasantly surprised. The mayor is not only in your corner, but he has set up a taskforce to look for you. Someone from his office is to call you back within the hour.”

Thor looked at Kaleb and smiled.
“They miss me.”

~~~

Ansell answered his phone without thought to why it would be ringing in the middle of the night. And when the man started speaking on the other end, Ansell had to ask him to slow down twice before he finally shut up.

“Now calmly tell me what the hell you’re talking about. What do you mean the mayor is at the Jonas house? When the hell did that happen?”
Ansell reached for his robe and pulled it on as he waited for an answer. “I’ve asked you a question and while I can understand that I said to shut the fuck up, now is not the time to be obtuse.”

“He showed up about two hours ago. I never thought
it was him until I realized the plates were different than that Payne guy’s. When I got up close and personal with it, that’s when I saw it was the mayor’s. He even has a sticker on the side advertising who he is.” Ansell cleared his throat once, and Ernie laughed. “Sorry. I’m calmer now. As I said, I thought it was Payne. He comes over a lot and when I moved closer to see if I could get a look-see, what do I find? He all cozied up on their couch having a drink and laughing. Right now they are still in the dining room, but from what I can tell, they’ll be moving to the inner part of the house soon.”

This was not good.
Sweeney had it figured out that he needed to end the mayor, that he had too much sense to let this go. And when Sweeney had mentioned that Thornton had gone on this spree of killing other cops and men, the man had shut him down faster than he’d seen before. And he was untouchable, too. As many times as he’d tried to pin something on him, he came out smelling like a fucking rose every time. And now he was with the one person who could put Ansell at the scene of a crime.

“Kill her.
All of them. I want them dead now.” There was a pause. “There a problem, Craig?”

“Yeah, you might say that. This house has a protection
around it. I know you think what I’m going to tell you is fucked up, but I swear to you the minute I step within five feet of the house, I can’t move. And when I tried to shoot at the hedges just to test that out, the bullet just stopped the same distance to the house as I can walk up to it. Picked up three casings that never made it to the greenery around the house.”

“You’re telling me that there’s magic there?” The man didn’t answer. “What the fuck are you smoking? Or are you drinking on the job? If you
can’t do this, then perhaps I’ll find someone else that can.”

“Good luck with that. Like
I’ve been saying to you, I can’t get anything to the house to cause any of them harm. I’m just letting you know.” Ansell wanted to throw the phone across the room but waited to hear what other nonsense Craig was spinning. “You might want to know that the police are gathering together, too. My informant at the precinct said that there’s an all-call out. Meaning that every available officer has been called in. But no word on as to what the hell they’re being called in for. But I would simply just blow the house if I were you. I understand you’re good at that.”

Ansell ignored the jab about how he left his affairs. It was none of his business anyway
, but the other worried him. An all-call, the mayor at the cunt’s house, and a house he couldn’t get to. Things weren’t just fucking up. They were right out there where he needed to get out of town or end up in jail fucked. Picking up the briefcase that had sat near his bed since yesterday, Ansell moved to the door.

“I want you to stop now. Get out of town. If they’re aware of what’s going down, then it’s a safe bet that they know
someone is out to get the bitch.” He nodded to Dewitt as he went to the garage. It was way past time to get the hell out of there. “When you get settled elsewhere, I want you to give me a call. All right?”

Silence
. It wasn’t just the kind where you think you’ve been hung up on or the call dropped, but profoundly noisy in the background with no voices. When the scream tore across the receiver, Ansell wanted to hang up but was so caught up in the events that he couldn’t see that he waited on the line. A shuffling noise alerted him that someone was going to speak.

“You’re next.”
Chills raced down his spine as the man on the other end of the phone spoke. Ansell dropped his phone and pulled out his gun. Whoever was coming for him was going to have to come through his gun, and Ansell was going to shoot first. A hand on his shoulder had him turning and firing at the same time.

“Sir?”
Dewitt had his suitcase in his hand as he dropped to his knees. The blood seeping down the front of his shirt had Ansell grabbing him to ease him to the ground. Dewitt coughed once, and blood poured from his mouth as he stared up at him. “I don’t understand.”

“I’m so sorry
, my friend. I thought you were someone else. I had no idea…I’m so sorry.” Ansell knew he was dead a few seconds later. Closing his eyes, Ansell sat there holding his hand until he heard the first explosion going off in the house. He barely made it to the garage before the rest of them went.

Pulling out of the now burning garage
, Ansell looked in the rearview mirror as he sped away. Things had taken a turn for the worse and he was pretty sure that whoever was on the other end of his cell had not just killed Ernie, but truly was coming for him. He planned to be far away. If, he realized, there was ever going to be someplace that was far enough away. Ansell had a feeling that he was dead no matter where he was.

Then it occurred to him.
She’d done this, the fucking cunt that hadn’t died when she should have. It was time to make her pay. And even if he had to get himself killed, which now that he’d thought about it was highly likely, he was going to end the bitch. Taking a turn at the next light, he was passed by several fire engines. By the time he’d made it to the Jonas house, he had a plan. Going in full tilt was the only way to make this happen.

Chapter 1
2

“What do you mean, you killed him?” Kaleb tried to think how to answer Thor’s question without pissing her off more. It wasn’t a hard question, but she seemed bent on being mad about this, and he couldn’t for the life of him think why. He was glad now that the mayor had left ten minutes ago so he wouldn’t see her in a snit.

“I knew he was on the property and I went out to confront him. But then I heard him tell this other person that
he should blow up our home. And I’m fond of this place. You live here with me, and so does our staff.” She took a step toward him, and he could see she was madder than before. “You wanted him to blow up the house?”

“I wanted to find out who else he might be working for. I wanted to question him about how he found us and who else knew. I thought it would be wonderful to see if anyone else has it in their head to blow our home.”
He’d never thought of that and told her so. “No shit. Damn it, Kaleb, now what? Have you called the police?”

“They won’t find him.”
She stared at him for several seconds, and he felt the need to explain. “There won’t be enough of him out there for anyone to gather up and take to the morgue. When what I consider mine is fucked with my boar takes over. He wasn’t happy with him being so near his mate.”

“You tore him up?”
Kaleb thought about explaining to her that his boar had, not him, but he was afraid she’d hurt him. Again. When she was riled like she was now, she could be a little on the violent side. Taking a step back from her, he started to tell her what else he’d done. He put his hand on his chest where she’d hit him not five minutes ago.

“I might have warned the man he was talking to that he was next on my
to-do list.” She took a step toward him, and he put up his hands. “I love you.”

Kaleb had meant to say that in a different way
, but he’d been nervous. His plan was to give her the ring that was currently sitting on his desk and beg her to marry him. She’d said yes, but he wanted her to have the ring he’d had made for her when she said so again. But now it was all messed up.

“I have a ring this time. It’s on the desk.”
He moved to the desk and nearly dropped the box twice before he could get it in his big hands. “I had this idea to make love to you in front of the fireplace and have you all sated and naked and then ask you again. Tell you then how much I love you and would forever.”

She didn’t say anything nor reach for the box when he held it out to her. Kaleb decided that he’d tell her the whole thing.
But the look in her eyes had him rethinking that. Instead, he dropped down in front of her on one knee and opened the box.

“You do this now?” Kaleb was startled by the anger in her voice.
“You propose to me now when I’m in a pissy mood. Is this the way you think you can get around me? Distract me for a while and you think I’ll forget that I’m pissed off. Well, it won’t work.”

“I never thought it would.”
When he saw her tighten her hands into fists, he took her hand into his and kissed it. “What I mean is, I love you with all my heart. I never thought of those things about the man out there because all I could think of was protecting you. I know that you’re all bad-assed now, but there is still a part of me that says, ‘she’s mine and I have to make sure she’s okay.’ I never meant for you to be put into a position that makes your job more difficult.”

“I don’t like it when I don’t know what’s going on. It’s why I never do Christmas.” That shocked him. He loved the holiday and all it meant.
Kaleb thought briefly of last Christmas at Samuel’s house and how much fun they’d had. “If you do this again, I’m going to be really pissed at you.”

“Duly noted.” He kissed her hand.
Then opening the box, he showed her the ring he had for her. “I told you this was what I wanted for you. Opals to match the creaminess of your skin, emeralds to go with the temper I’ve seen you have, and sapphires to compete with the fire in your eyes when I make love to you. Do you remember me saying that to you?”

Thor nodded
, and Kaleb slid the ring onto her finger. The opal was the centerpiece. It had taken him the longest to pick out this stone from all the others. It was almost pure white with the smallest stream of gold through it. The emeralds were dark and old. He’d found them centuries ago when he’d been in another country. He’d nearly forgotten about them until he’d been trying to find the gold he’d had melted down to form the band. And the sapphires were the richest blues and silver he could find. Their color and clarity had been, in the jeweler’s opinion, the most gorgeous he’d ever seen. All Kaleb could think of was how much they reminded him of her.

“This does not get you out of trouble.” He smiled and pushed the ring to her knuckle and kissed it.
“You’re not going to get this back if you change your mind.”

“Never.”
He stood up and pulled her into his arms. “You really need to start believing that I’m not going to let you go. I’m in love with you and I’m yours.”

“Sire,
mistress.” They both turned to look at Ana, who was hovering just over their shoulders. “There is a problem. Should you like to turn on the television?”

Kaleb reached for the remote and flipped it on. Before he could ask Ana what station
, he found he was on the right one. The fireball was massive.

“The reporter is saying that it was a bomb. Several.”
Calina sat on his shoulder when he sat on the couch. “I think it was set.”

“You think it was set?”
Ana smacked Calina on the shoulder. “You think a bomb was set in a house in the middle of a residential area. My goodness you’re brilliant. Perhaps you could be a consultant on the police force. With your ability to tell the obvious, they’d never have to leave the offices.”

Kaleb had to bite his hand hard. It never seemed to stop between the two of them.
Calina would say something that she more than likely thought very profound and Ana would cut her to ribbons. He nearly lost it when he looked at Thor and could see she was having a hard time not laughing as well.

“You know I never know if you’re being sarcastic, said no one ever to you.”
Calina sniffed hard at her friend. “You could just say something like ‘Calina, that’s very brilliant of you, but—’”

“I’d never say the words
‘Calina’ and ‘brilliant’ in the same sentence. Unless it was something like, ‘Christ, Calina, you are amazingly, brilliantly stupid.’”

“Ladies, perhaps we could—
” They cut Thor off with a flutter of their wings. It wasn’t long before they were both out of the room and who knew where. He looked at Thor when she spoke. “Well, they do give us a great deal of entertainment, I guess.”

He couldn’t help it. Kaleb started
laughing so hard that he had to stand up to breathe properly. And every time he looked at the small dusting of sparkly dust on the sofa arm, he would go into more peals of laughter. Christ, he hoped this was the setting for rest of his life. He’d live to be a million if this was what he had to look forward to.

Sitting back on the couch
, they sat down to watch more of the news. It was assumed that, like Calina had pointed out, it was set. The bomb killed at least one man, and he’d been outside the house when the explosion occurred. Nancy, the onsite reporter, said that it looked to her as if he might have been shot, but the police were looking into that.

“I’m betting it’s not Lipscomb.” Kaleb had to agree with her.
They simply were not that lucky. “And I’d bet anything that the man outside the house wasn’t supposed to be there. He more than likely was leaving, too. Did you notice the luggage?”

Kaleb
hadn’t but was impressed that she had. “It could have been Lipscomb’s. He might have been in the blast, too, and blown away, leaving behind his underwear.”

She laughed as he’d hoped she would. When her head leaned against his shoulder Kaleb closed his eyes. This was a part of his life that he’d never thought to have.
And now he had it all.

“When I was a young boy
, I’d been mean. Well, not really mean but a little more on the side of going that way than not. My mother despaired of me ever living past my tenth year. She thought me of what now is called a hoodlum. And the day I met the witch, I had made her cry.” It still bothered him even after all these years to think what he’d done to her. The tears had hurt him more than any switch his father could have taken to his hide. “She’d made this sweet bread for my brother’s birthday and I’d knocked it off the table in a rage. I’d never been so sorry about something in my life, not then or since. She never said anything to me but sat down and cried. When I went to comfort her, she’d asked me politely to go outside and play. I ran to the woods to hurt something.”

“You found a witch instead.” He nodded.
“My mother cried a good deal when she was alive. But it was hard for me after a while to feel much for them. She never tried to leave him, not once in all those years. I asked her once if she loved him, and she told me not ever. Why would she…? I guess I’ll never know now. What did the witch to do you? Did you upset her, too?”

“No.
I was angry. So mad at something that I wanted to destroy anything I could get my hands on. It wasn’t until years later that I realized the only person I was mad at was myself. And by then it was too late. But I’d heard her crying, too. I’d thought it was my mother, but when I found her, I nearly left her where she lay.” Kaleb closed his eyes on the painful memory. It was, too. His heart still bled for what he’d done to the one person who had loved him above all others. But he’d thought to make amends with someone else.

~~~

“You’ll not hurt me, young boy, or I’ll harm you in ways that you’ll feel for decades.” He’d come out from behind the tree he’d been hiding behind and looked at her. “You go on back to your house and get your father. He’ll know what I’m about.”

“He’s dead.”
He wasn’t, but Kaleb and his family had been telling people that for so long that he didn’t think of him in any other way but dead. He’d left them years and years ago. “I can help you. I’m the man of the house now.”

She’d laughed at him
, and he had started forward to show her a thing or two about him being manly, but he stopped when he saw the blood. There was so much of it he wondered if there was something else with her.

“I’ve
been helping her, but I don’t think it’s doing me a bit of good. And I can’t leave her either.” Kaleb nodded and stepped toward her, taking off his shirt. When she took it from him, he bent down to help her put it over the body of the child he’d just noticed. “You cannot be touching me without me telling you it’s okay. Do you understand me?”

Kaleb had nodded and told her he wanted to help her.
“I won’t hurt you. I swear to you. Let me help you and take you to my mom. She can sew anything up. Last week she made me new clothing.”

“I bet she
did. But it’s not sewing I be needing. It’s only help and a few things from the earth. Do you think you can do that for me? Get me the ingredients that I ask for?” Kaleb nodded and stood up. That’s when he’d seen that the body was that of a little girl. “She’s none of your concern. You just look at me.”

He was sure
she was dead, but when the little girl looked up at him, he felt something move over him. The witch said something to him, but he didn’t hear her. It was the child, all torn up, that had his full attention. When the witch snapped her fingers at him, he looked at her.

“She approves.”
Kaleb had no idea what that meant back then, and there were days when he still didn’t. The child had been mauled by a wolf and she was going to die if he didn’t hurry with his task. It took him nearly an hour of running around the forest to get just what she needed from him.

By the time he made it back to them
, the girl had her eyes closed again. The witch, who hadn’t been hurt at all, was standing over a small fire and putting the things he’d already brought to her in a pottery bowl. He handed her the last three items and stepped back.

“You still wanting to help me?” She hadn’t looked at him when she spoke
, but Kaleb nodded all the same. “It’s powerful magic that I’m using. Something that will save her if it’s not too late.”

“I said I’d help you
, and I will.” She looked up at him and seemed to look deep into him. Kaleb remembered thinking that she was looking at his soul, but at the time knew that was impossible. But now he knew that she’d done just that.

“I need your promise and your blood.” The promise part was harder for him than anything.
Blood he could do, he thought, but he’d never kept a single promise in his life. “You’ll do it still.”

“I will.” And he knew deep in his soul that he would
, too, even at the risk of his own death. “I’ll keep your promise and give you my blood. All of it if you need it.”

He’d been sincere
, too. Kaleb had no idea what she wanted from him in a promise, nor how much blood she needed. But when he glanced at the child again, he knew that she would be worth it.

“Give me your wrist then.” He put it out there and noticed how dirty he was.
Taking it back, he wiped it on his equally dirty clothing before offering it to her again. “You’re sure?”