Aedan: Harrison Ambush – Erotic Tiger Shapeshifter Romance (10 page)

“Yes, in the event that he gets stupid, or perhaps stupider. That way I won’t have to explain to them why he’s come up gone. Did the little fucker really think that he could pull this shit on me?” Joe just laughed. “All right. I want to get this dealt with now, so we’ll have dinner in the restaurant here in the hotel and talk to him, man to asshole. Then if he isn’t going to work out, you can take care of him tomorrow. No body. All right?”

“It’ll be like he never existed. What about his dad? You want me to do anything about that shit?” Otis thought about it and said no. “Got it. We’ll just let him hang himself out on this one. I think they’re pretty close to losing the home anyway.”

Otis had seen that too. Fourteen months behind on the house, more than that on the taxes. He wondered how that had been missed when he did the search on the kid at first, and asked Joe about it.

“The house is in his maternal grandmother’s name. Didn’t know that until I did this search and asked for it. I think that was about the time that he started wanting to be a bigger fish in your ocean. Could be that he figured once you found out, and he knew that you would, he’d want to be so deep in the family that you’d not be able to make him go away. That and that your daughter is in love with him.”

“I doubt that Dorothea is in love with anyone but herself. This wedding and all the trimmings is just something to show off with, nothing more. He was just the person who made it happen for her.” Joe wisely said nothing. “Let’s get this shit going so I can concentrate on Nikki and her death. I need to make sure that she’s no longer a problem, and this will just be a minor distraction for us.”

As they headed to the hotel, Otis had a feeling that this was only the beginning with Nikki and her grandfather. And that before this was all over, he was going to wish very hard that he’d taken his money and run the first time someone mentioned a wedding.

Chapter 8

Grandda watched her like she was a bug on a board with a pin in it. She wasn’t sure that she felt any different than that. It was weird not being in so much pain that it took your breath away, living in a house that was as big, if not bigger, than both grandda’s house and her own put together, and having more money than she’d ever thought possible because Aedan had put her name on his accounts, as well as the deed to the big house. Walking the length of the room, she thought perhaps it was at the very least one and a half times the size of a couple of semis.

“You’re making me crazy. Either sit your butt down and talk to me or go outside and walk. What’s the matter with you anyway? You got your bra on backwards?” Nikki just stared at him. “You’ve been pacing this room like you’re trying to wear a furrow in it to plant yourself a garden. Tell me, or so help me I’m tying you to that chair.”

“We had sex.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she felt her face heat up. “What I mean is, we’re bonded, like his people.”

“Okay, first, I know you had sex. Christ girl, you look like the canary that had the whole honey pot. Secondly, his people? He’s a man for the most part, not some tribe that lives in teepees and rides horses along the fence line.” Nikki sat down. “Did he force you? I’m thinking not on account’a him still being up and around and all. And I’m pretty much sure that he’s a better man than that. Even if he was giving me some doubts at first. I’m assuming that the two of you worked out his having his life messed up like one of the pasta salads. Right?”

“Yes, I guess we did. And no, he didn’t force me into anything. When he said he was going to heal me, things got hot.” She glanced at her grandda and he was smiling. “You can’t possibly think this is a good thing. We’re being chased by a madman and they could all get hurt. And even with the help of their tigers, they can’t outwit a bullet. You know this.”

“I’m doubting that entered your mind when you were being healed up by him. No more than it did his. And what do you think you can do on your own that you’re not going to be able to do with all of them standing behind you?” Grandda snorted. “Most of them have a better gun than I do, and they all know how to use them, thanks to that Stormy. By the way, she’s kinda scary, don’t you think? Anyhoo, back to guns. Not that they all carry, mind you, but they could, and I’m betting will so long as Adkins is out there.”

“They don’t have any experience with men like him.” Grandda said nothing. “Storm does, I guess, and maybe Riordan. But the rest? They’re fancy dressed businessmen who don’t have a clue what sort of creeps there are out there.”

“You think not? Well, not to hear them talking about it. I’ve never seen a group more organized in keeping their family safe than these people. That dad of theirs? He’s got a good head on his shoulders too. Told me right off that even though I’m ex-cop, that I should really try and listen to his Stormy.” Nikki had been told the same thing. “I think you could do a whole lot worse than hooking your horse to this family, Nikki. They don’t argue quietly, but they sure do come together when they have to.”

“Adkins is going to hurt them. We both know that.” Grandda said that he did, but they were better at taking it then he or she might be. “Because of what they are. Yes, they’re tigers, but as I said, a bullet can kill them just as quickly as it would a human.”

“Yes, it can hurt us. But we can shift and go on while you have to suffer until you get better.” Aedan came into the room with them and kissed her on the mouth before sitting down. Too close to her too. When she tried to scoot away from him, he simply picked her up and put her on his lap. Before she could move off him, embarrassed to no end, he rocked upward and she felt his erection. “Now, as I was saying. We can shift and heal from most wounds before you could get to the hospital. Which reminds me, we’ve confirmed that the van that was outside the hospital was indeed Adkins and his man Joe. The van is parked in front of the local hotel right now and we put a tracker on it. They won’t be going anywhere in that thing that we don’t know about. Also, there are people working in the hotel that will let us know when something happens.”

“Hot damn, I knew you was gonna get this taken care of. See, baby girl, he’s already taking care of his woman.” Grandda stood up and started walking around. “If I sit for too long, my body just about turns to stone. Anyways, we got nothing on him now. I got me a few friends in the bureau, but that Storm, she said to hold off for a bit. Said she’s got herself a whole passel of help that she’s got working. Is she really that Browning person? The one that the paper wrote about?”

“She is, and don’t talk to her about it. She gets a little touchy sometimes because people only remember that about her. Not her delicate ways or her softly spoken words.” All three of them laughed and Aedan hugged her to him as he continued. “Storm has some people in high places that she’s working with. And Howard let her know that you two are related to him.”

“He’s my son. Don’t let that get around much either. Hard to be undercover when you’re popping up in the news all the time.” He started pacing again but slower, careful of where he placed each foot. That was when Nikki realized that no one had healed him. “Adkins is going to be desperate now that he knows where we are and that we’ve gotten all the wagons in a circle. Thinking he might be taking his time for the moment, but he won’t for long.”

“Why would he do that now that he knows that you’re both here? Wouldn’t he just, I don’t know, come after you quickly to finish this and get out of town?” Nikki wasn’t sure how to answer that for Aedan. There was plenty that would piss Adkins off if he found out just a part of what she had on him. But Riordan and the rest of the family came into the room, and the ones that she’d not met already were introduced to her and Grandda.

“You asked a good question there, Aedan, and if you don’t mind, I’d like to share with you what my Nikki and I have on him.” He nodded at her and she told him to continue. The Harrisons needed to know everything they were dealing with. “Adkins and I tangled up before. Mostly it was his informants at the station house, but he had a few others in his pockets too. Some of them deeper than others, but for the most part, there were not that many government people around that didn’t have some sorta in with Adkins and his crew.”

“You mean that he was paying them off or blackmailing them.” Paddy told Storm that it was a little of both, but mostly just paying them. “Yeah, no different than in my line of business. Some people are just too fucking greedy for their own good.”

“You got that in one. But this here feller, he decided that being sixth in line for the king job in the city wasn’t enough, and he started making headway into taking a little more. Nikki and I have been gathering what we could for the last few years. And it’s all on a drive we got put in us.” Grandda sat down and pulled up his pant leg. She showed them her arm. “There isn’t enough to convict yet, close but no cigar. He’d be out in no time, and no less like a wet hen for it. Plus, we’d have to be careful who got this stuff. We have to keep it from falling into the wrong hands. Most of this was gotten by Nikki when she was undercover.”

“And he found out.” Grandda told Riordan they weren’t sure how that come to light. “I do. The partner that Nikki had, the handler. He was starting to be blamed for the amount of shipments that were being intercepted by the Feds. So he tagged you. Wasn’t sure myself what that meant until Storm told me. But he got just enough information to go to Adkins and turn you in. That was just a few weeks before you were shot.”

“There were four of them, men that were following your every move and reporting it back to him. Once he had that you were making some calls to someone—lucky for you they never figured out it was your grandfather—they knew that you were the mole. Or assumed you were. You were too tricky for this handler, so when he turned you in, you were blamed for other things as well. Most of them were to cover shit that he’d been doing. Two days before the shooting, he went to Adkins and struck up a deal.” Nikki asked Storm how she knew this. “Your handler wrote out a long, very detailed accounting of every meeting he had with Adkins, as well as a few recordings he had, and put them in a safety deposit box that was to be opened if he came up missing. They were found after his body was. Apparently when you disappeared, Adkins took his temper out on this guy.”

She started thinking, her mind going in several directions at once. Looking at Aedan, she let her mind settle, focus on something else besides what was going on in her head. It would come to her, whatever was there, but she had to wait for it to find her.

When you look at me like that, all I can think about is having you spread out on our bed naked.
Her body warmed up, and her nipples hardened in her bra. When he growled at her, the sound of it like a caress on her skin, she nearly reached for him when someone laughed.
Perhaps we should think of something else.
Then it hit her.

“Adkins future son-in-law, Robert Trevino, is in debt. To his ears about now.” When they stared at her as if they had no idea what she was talking about, she looked at Storm. “He’d be able to shed some light on movements. Let us know when Adkins returns home. How many people he sees around the property. That way we can keep an eye on the household, see when they start to scatter. It’ll tell us when he’s ready to act.”

“I have people at his home, in it too. But you’re right, the closer we have someone to him, the better. Problem is, Trevino isn’t in house. Not for the last few days. And according to the intel we’re getting, the household is in a tizzy about something.” Nikki said it was the wedding. “Okay, that makes sense. The wife and daughter, they’ve been going to bakery after bakery, as well as a few catering services. We’ll get some people around for that too.”

“He’d be here.” She asked her grandda why he thought that. “That’s where I’d have my future son-in-law should he be joining the family. Get him right in the thick of things so if he does the nasty to someone other than my daughter, he’d have firsthand knowledge of what might happen to him if he’s caught with his pants around his ankles and the woman he’s banging ain’t my precious.”

Storm laughed. “You know, I like you, Paddy. You have a way with words that makes me think you might have been a blast to be around when you were a Fed. Don’t have a lot of use for them for the most part. Dressed up dolls most of them, but you might have been fun.” Grandda told her he’d been able to shake a few nuts out of the garden before. “Yes, sir. I do think I’ll enjoy working with you.”

So in the end it was decided to see where Trevino might be. And if he was here, they may or may not be able to use him, but it was something they could fall back on. When dinner was called they all joined together in the dining room, but she noticed that no one spoke of anything but family and what was going on outside of this crisis. She looked at her grandda, who most of the time would help her with a case well into breakfast the next morning when she needed. With his wink, she looked at Aedan. This was what a family, a normal family, was like, she supposed.

~~~

Nikki was nervous. So was he, but he was used to the house, she wasn’t. As she made her way around the room again, he sat down on the chair that had been in the house when he’d bought it. The bedroom suite had been his in his old place, but he loved this chair and had kept it in here. Waiting for her to speak, he thought of the things that had been discussed tonight and what plans had been made to keep everyone safe.

“I’m guessing that you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth and spit it out when it wasn’t gold.” He wasn’t sure why she sounded angry, but told her that yes, he’d been born with money. “I don’t have any. I mean, there was some in a savings account, but I think we’ve run though that while we’ve been on the run. Grandda also has money in that old beater of his, but that is running money.”

“You don’t have to worry about money if that’s what you mean.” She said nothing, but picked up a framed picture of his family taken at Riordan’s wedding. “I work hard. I’m a partner in the family business that goes to companies that are struggling and tells them how to get things back under control. Sometimes that means telling them that there’s no hope, but we exhaust every other avenue before we get that far.”

“Do you buy them up, make them work for you, and fuck the others working there?” The anger was nearly palpable this time. “Like those men who buy up orphanages and toss everyone out on the streets?”

“No, usually we make the youngest work for us, putting the bullets together that we use to kill off the ones that are no longer any use to us.” She turned and looked at him. “No, we don’t buy companies, nor orphanages, and make them work for us. Would you mind telling me why you’re so hostile to me?”

“I don’t know.” She set the picture down and moved to the dresser that he’d cleaned out for her. “I don’t have any idea how to be a person you would want to date, much less be around. I can’t stand fake people, not that your family is, but you would be hanging around with ones that are. Especially since you have aspirations of becoming the next governor.”

“I also am thinking about pursuing the White House. Would that bother you so much?” She only shrugged at him. “Are you pissed off at me for some reason? Or does the fact that I have money piss you off?”

“How much do you have?” He told her. When she nearly dropped the vase in her hand, he stood up. “You have a billion dollars. Right now, you could call someone up and say I need you to buy me a mansion, and you’d not have to finance it.”