Jorden: The McCade Dragon –Erotic Paranormal Romance (3 page)

Chapter 2

Emma wasn’t positive what to do with all her spare time. And this gardening stuff wasn’t doing anything for her but give her a pounding headache. Going to the garden to see what was in the plot to match the picture books that she was using to figure out what was an herb and what ones were weeds wasn’t helping either. She liked using fresh herbs when she cooked, but who knew they were this much work? When a shadow fell over her, she looked up from her book and smiled at Jorden and Gavin.

“I have to go into town to look at a shipment. It wasn’t supposed to arrive until sometime next week, but it’s here now. So I might be a little late, as there are two boxes of things that I didn’t order. I don’t think.” She nodded to Jorden, who looked out of his element. “Gavin said that he doesn’t mind staying at the house by himself, but I do. Maxwell and Abby are off today, so he’d be really alone in the house. I don’t suppose you could keep an eye on him for me? Just until I can get things squared away for a sitter or something. Do ten year olds need sitters? I have no idea.”

Gavin rolled his eyes but said nothing. She had had the pleasure of talking to him a little last night when they’d gone to Jorden’s house to talk to the young man. He’d been quiet and polite, but he had also been overwhelmed. Emma knew just how he felt. She told Jorden that he could stay with her and not to worry about him.

When Jorden left them, she moved her project to the umbrella table near the garden plot. As much as she wanted to quit, she was determined to name at least four of the weeds or herbs in her garden before she did anything else. Gavin joined her at the table, but still hadn’t said anything.

She had several leaves of the things she had found in the garden spread out in front of her. Three books were stacked up, as well as the open one in front of them. Emma thought she looked like a loon, or like she was going to conduct some kind of cooking experiment that involved a mishmash of everything. When he asked her what she was doing, Emma smiled at him.

“I’m trying my best to figure out if I have to start over in my garden here or if I have what I need for the kitchen. I don’t suppose you know anything about herbs.” He said only what he’d read. “More than I know, then. It’s hard to figure out from a picture what things are, isn’t it? I think this is marjoram, but I’m not sure.”

He touched his fingers to the tiny leaf and took it to his nose. When he sneezed, she laughed and told him that she’d done that a lot over the last few hours. Wendell, the cook, came out with not just tall glasses of iced tea, but a plate of her cookies as well. Emma offered them to Gavin.

“It’s oregano, not marjoram. Can be used for the same dishes, but oregano is stronger and has less of a bite to it.” She set it aside and marked it on her Post-it notes. He picked up the next herb she was clueless about. “Nasturtium. You can eat all of this plant, including the flower and the leaves. Do you suppose that the people coming here for Mom will hurt you guys too?”

Emma paused in writing the name of the plant down and looked at Gavin before speaking. “Yes. I mean, I don’t know that they’ll hurt us, but they’ll try. They did when I got here with the ring. Mostly it was my mother; she wasn’t a nice person, but there are others, the dragon told us. There was a lot going on that had nothing to do with the ring really, just a lot of greedy people making it harder on everyone.”

Gavin nodded and picked up the horseradish that she’d been able to identify. When he said nothing more, she handed him two more little leaves. One she was sure was peppermint, the other something like it but sweeter.

“This is peppermint, but this is chocolate mint. I guess people can put them in ice cubes and then in tea. I don’t think I’d care for that.” Emma nodded then took him to the area she was working in. “You’ve got most of them. Lambs ear is an old herb used during wars to soften the bandages on the soldiers. You should plant some marigolds around your garden to keep the pests out.”

“I will. How do you know so much about herbs?” Gavin said nothing but did sit down in the dirt and start pulling weeds. Emma watched what he was leaving compared to pulling, and decided that she needed more help than a book. Sitting next to him, she noticed that his shoes were new, as was the rest of his clothing. Jorden had been shopping, apparently.

“I’m smart. Like off the charts smart. Mom had me in this special school, but I had to leave there after the money from my dad’s estate stopped coming in. I know she tried to make the payments, but it was just too much.” Emma said nothing. “I don’t tell her anymore how bored I am in school. She cried at night, and that hurt me all the way to my core.”

“I know that to be considered genius you have to score at least a one forty. You said off the charts. What is your score, Gavin?” He pulled several more things out of the ground. Emma had a feeling he was trying to figure out if she’d believe him or not and changed the subject. “When I first moved into this house, Kenton had no table and chairs and only a mattress on the floor. While I was thrilled to have a lovely home like this, I fell in love with the kitchen. You see, I love to cook and he lets me.”

“I doubt that anyone lets you do anything, Mrs. McCade. You seem like you just go ahead and do what you want.” She wasn’t sure if he was being rude or not; it was still hard for her to tell sometimes when someone complimented her. “My mom is like that. She’s really mouthy at times, Grannie says…said. But I love her, so I don’t get in her way when she gets like she can.”

“She take on someone that you were having trouble with?” He nodded and stared at the tree line. “I’m betting that she was all over them about it, too. And she didn’t like the way it made her feel afterwards either.”

“No, she didn’t. Mom is a wonderful person, but she gets all intense when she’s upset. She told me later that she wished that she’d been calmer, dealt with the teacher better, but all I could think about was how protective she was and how proud I was of her for standing up to the guy.” Emma asked him what the teacher had done. “When I was tested for how smart I was, he was the proctor. There were several of us in the room taking the test, but I didn’t screw off like they did. I took the test, and then when I was done, I got up and laid it next to him. He’d fallen asleep, you see, and he felt that someone, namely me, should have awakened him at some point. I didn’t think that was my responsibility; and besides, when I do things like that, I get labeled as a nerd. Thanks but no thanks, I guess.”

“I see. And since you’d done so well, he figured that you’d cheated. And even if he didn’t think that, it was a way to get back at you. He sounds like a shit.” He nodded. “The other kids, did they score as well? I’m betting not.”

“No. Not as well. Good, but not as well. I scored a perfect. No one else came close to that.” When he continued to stare at the tree line, she looked too. There were deer there, several of them, as well as a wolf. Emma knew he wasn’t wild, but one of the pack that roamed the area for Kenton. “When I was asked to take the test again, this time at the college, he was there again. This time.... He should have known there were cameras in the room with us, I think. And when he laid his head down and fell asleep, I simply finished my test and left the room like I had before. And since I was the only one taking the retest and he was being watched, he got caught. When he woke up.... He wasn’t a nice person.”

“Did he change your answers? Why that fucking bastard. Where is he? Someone needs to teach him—” Gavin laughed, and she smiled back at him. “I’m a little protective of you as well, I guess. Did the little shit lose his job?”

“He did, and his nose was broken and he had to get stitches in his forehead when he hit the wall behind him.” Emma laughed. “Like I said, when she gets that way, I get out of her way. I would suggest that anyone should if she’s on a path.”

They worked for a bit more before she invited him inside to have something to eat. Kenton had told her this morning that he’d be home early, and they were going to have a light dinner then go see a movie. She wasn’t sure what he’d want to do now that they had company. But when he came in the house, he acted like it wasn’t any big deal to have a kid changing their plans, and had Gavin help set the table for them. Emma started on dinner for them while the two of them talked.

“I’ve had a long conversation with Dragon today. By the way, your mom is aware that you’re here and that her grandma passed away. Dragon told her for us. She also said to tell you that she was coming as soon as she got some money.” Emma asked if they could send her some. “No. If we do, they’ll be all over it. She’d have to show some sort of identification to pick it up, and her driver’s license would give her away. We have a feeling that they’re just waiting for someone to claim to be her, and then it’ll be over. Dragon has a plan, he told me, to help her get here. She needs money and he’s going to help her get it.”

Emma wasn’t sure that she wanted to know, but Gavin did. And when Kenton told him that what she was doing was illegal but her only means of getting here, she could tell that he was upset about it. Kenton told Gavin that he thought she was a good person and had had bad things happen to her, so this was the only way to help her.

“She won’t like it, and if she’s agreed, then she must be scared.” Kenton just glanced at Emma. Whatever had happened, he’d tell her later. “Do you know who gets the earrings when she gets here? I’m guessing that like the ring, it goes to one of you guys.”

“Yes. But that’s not how it works with this. We don’t take whatever is brought to us, Gavin. Your mom won’t be able to remove them, just as Emma wasn’t. Nor will she be able to leave once she’s here.” He nodded but stared at his burger when Kenton continued. “Like Emma, she’s a part of the dragon, and when your mom meets with one of my brothers, to be his mate, then she’ll live with him.”

Gavin didn’t say much for the rest of the meal. He wasn’t rude, but she could tell that some of his good mood from earlier had somehow gotten sucked out of him. When she asked him if he wanted any cake, he declined and asked if he could just read. The library was opened for him and he sat in one of the big overstuffed chairs when he found something. Emma wasn’t surprised to see that he’d picked a book well beyond his age.

As she and Wendell were cleaning up, she tried to think what might have saddened Gavin. Emma thought for sure he’d be happy to know that his mom was coming here, but he was depressed. When Kenton told her that Jorden was on his way, she nodded, distracted.

“He said that he’s eaten.” Again, Emma nodded. “He also stopped off and had sex with nine hookers before he got in his truck and ran them down. I think there might be an inquiry about it, but you know Jorden, he can charm his way out of most anything.”

“I’m sure that he used a condom and hopefully he can get the blood off his truck before coming here. And for the record, I’m paying attention to you, but I’m also thinking. It is possible to do both.” He pulled her into his arms. “What happened at dinner? We had a lot of fun this evening, and now he looks so sad.”

“Maybe he got to thinking of his grannie and it hurt him.” Could be, she thought, but Emma didn’t think that was it. It had to do with his mom coming here. “Jorden has spent the most time with him, perhaps he can get it out of him.”

Emma wasn’t sure it was going to be any easier for Jorden. Whatever was going on in Gavin’s head, he’d let them know when he was ready. Or, she thought, when he figured it out on his own.

~~~

Jasmine sat in the chair, but said nothing to the groups around her. Her grannie had died, and she’d not been there with her when she had. When the announcer said that the next race was up, Jasmine didn’t even bother looking at the tickets in her hand. So far the dragon had predicted every horse race correctly, and she was pretty sure she was going to have more than enough to get to her little boy. Maybe she’d have enough to get him some new shoes. His old ones were sort of worn out.

When we have finished here, perhaps it would be a good time for you to go to the little shop and purchase a bag to put your things in.
She told him she’d do that. Not that she had all that much to put in the bag; everything she’d had after sending Gavin to the McCades was now in a dumpster, no doubt. She’d read about the break-in at the hotel yesterday where she’d been staying. When the men hadn’t been able to find her at the auction, they had gone back to her hotel and trashed it. Everything she had had been destroyed.

She was glad now that she’d not used her actual name when checking in, not that it had done much good, apparently. But somehow they’d found her resting place and had destroyed the few things that she’d had with her, and even the room. She’d hate to have to pay the bill for that damage. The place looked like a bomb had gone off in it from the pictures that she’d seen on the news. Jasmine wondered what they might have done had she been there. It was scary to think about.

My lady?
She told the dragon that she just needed a minute.
The race is over. It is time that we move on. Once you have made your purchases, we’ll take the tickets and claim your winnings.

Standing up, she tensed when he told her to stand very still. He’d told her just this morning that the people were looking for her harder now, so she would need to do whatever he told her when he did. She wondered if it was because they were getting desperate or that she was getting that good at hiding from them. Whatever it was, she was terrified out of her mind. So when he said that things were back to normal, she did have a moment of terror, wondering if things would ever be normal again.