Phillip: Lanning's Leap - Paranormal Erotic Romance (5 page)

Phillip knew that he was good looking. Women had been at his beck and call since he’d been about ten. The first time he’d winked at a woman she’d actually told him he was much too sexy for a child. Of course, he’d worked on that in the mirror for hours after that. And by the time he was a teenager, Phillip could have any girl he wanted. He’d also realized that sex was more fun than winking had been. Phillip was a womanizer, short and simple. Or at least he had been. Now he was mated and happily so.

Getting in under the hot spray, he realized that they needed their own place. There were things in this bathroom that he’d used before, but none of it was what a woman would use. Thinking of all the things he wanted to do to Charlie when they got their own home, how they would break every room in, he smiled. Then he reached for the towel when he was finished. All he needed to do about that was call the realtor and tell her he wanted the one that he’d looked at a few days ago.

Entering the kitchen, he was surprised to see it empty of anyone but Charlie and a stranger. As he told her who he was, he noticed that Charlie was staring off into the room as if she didn’t know where she was, so he touched her shoulder and she looked up at him. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“I’ve only just been telling her how you two were not meant to meet.” Phillip said nothing in response to the woman as he reached for his brother, only to hit a wall. “Your family isn’t going to come in here until I say so. And we do need to talk. Things are not going as I have set forth.”

“Who are you?” The woman said nothing as she sipped her tea. Phillip touched his hand to Charlie and felt the coldness of it before he reached again for someone to come to his aide. He wasn’t surprised that Nic answered him.

I am unable to enter the house without the owner’s permission.
He asked him what the hell that meant.
The woman that you have in your sights is a fate. Not the three that you know, but another, stronger one that I cannot fight without permission. Permission of the owner of the house.

Phillip knew he was trying to tell him something, but he had no idea what it was. How the hell was Misha supposed to give him permission to come help him if he had no idea how to—? Then it occurred to him.

Will you find my brother Misha and tell him that I might be in trouble and that I need for you to come to my aide?
He said that he would.
Also, I’d very much appreciate it when you come that you bring in all the family. I’m out of my element here.

Very good, young Phillip. You are much smarter than she thinks you are. Do not let her take your mate.
That scared the shit out of him, and Phillip felt his cat move along his skin.
You would do well not to piss her off either. I will help you with that.

Help me with what?
He didn’t get an answer, so he asked again.
You’ll help me with what, Nic?

When Nic and his father were suddenly in the room, Phillip grabbed Charlie up out of the chair and shoved her behind him. Misha walked into the kitchen seconds later, and he was obviously pissed off. Phillip’s cat wanted out, needed to protect them, but one look from Nildale and both he and his cat calmed.

“Sonya. And to what do we owe this displeasure?” Nildale winked at him as he turned to continue talking to who Phillip assumed was Sonya. “You do realize that this is my family now? And that you are no longer allowed to tangle into their lives? What we agreed on was severed long ago when you tried to take my wife into your lair.”

“He wasn’t supposed to meet her.” No one moved, but they stared at the woman. “You know that the order of things is very important, and I told you when he did not meet her all those years ago that things were going to go as I had planned. Now everything is messed up. I do not like to have my plans toyed with.”

“Planned?” They all turned to Phillip when he spoke. “What do you mean, I was supposed to meet her years ago? And what does that have to do with the now?”

“There is an order to things. When you were not where I told you to be, then things were askew. And as I have said, I do not like to have my plans messed with.” Phillip looked at Nildale, who was staring at Sonya as well as she continued. “You knew this. I told you that I was finished with this lineage, and you should have listened to me. They were not to meet at all.”

“I did nothing to bring them together. Perhaps you have made a mistake and they were determined to meet anyway.” The blast of energy took his breath away, and he felt Charlie move to stand beside him. Before he could say anything to her, warn her about…well, about whatever might happen, she looked at Nic and Nildale.

“Why don’t we figure out what she means before one of us—and I’m mostly talking about me—shifts into my cat again and hurts her?” The energy level in the room soared up again, but no one said anything. “Misha, is there a place we can talk? Someplace that we can bring the hostility down?”

Misha was laughing when he suggested they go out to the pool and get in it. Cooling off, he told them, would work wonders. Since it was about thirty degrees outside, Phillip thought his joke in poor form but didn’t comment. Christ, this was just insane. But Sonya started talking again.

“There is an order. Young Phillip was supposed to meet his mate first. Charleston was to be his mate then, not now.” Misha asked why it mattered. “Because I said so.”

No one said anything, but then Charlie started to laugh. Then Phillip did. Sonya sounded like a spoiled child. All she needed to do was stomp her foot and the image would have been perfect. Because she said so? What kind of answer was that?

When Sonya lifted her hand up, Nildale stood in front of her. Her hand lowered, but she looked no less pissed off about something. He moved when she nodded once at him. Phillip had a feeling that they’d all been saved a great deal of pain.

“You know that I do not care for things to be put out of order. I told you that I had a plan for your daughter, and this is not it.” Nildale said nothing, but Phillip could tell that he was angry. “I should just make them all no longer have their mates. What would you do then?”

“You’ll do nothing of the sort.” Misha moved closer to the woman. His cat, bigger than the rest of them, shivered along his skin. “You come near my wife and unborn child and I will kill you. Not easily, either.”

“A child? You are to…Nildale?” He nodded and smiled. “This is not funny. I am not to be thwarted in this and you know it. I will only take back this arrangement, but I want you to know that—”

“You think that only Misha would hurt you for touching his mate? Well I have news for you. If you so much as look like you’re planning to take my Charlie, I will make you suffer in ways that you cannot imagine.”

“Things have an order. When you were to meet her…. Look.” She waved her hand and images of them came up. Their mates and how they had met. It was dizzying to see things moving so quickly, but he could see it all. Even when he was supposed to have met Charlie, though most of it was too blurry to make out well. “This is the way things were to go. First you were to meet Charleston, and as such she would never have gotten ill. The book that you are so desperate to figure out would never have happened. Things would have moved smoothly. Then Misha was to meet his mate. She would have been…it was going to be closer than what he came upon, her death I mean, but he would have been happy with her. No children were to be born of any of you. Then Thomas would have met his mate. Linyah would have taken him to the other realm, and they would have been very happy together as well. Carter would have…he wasn’t to survive his depression. But the others, your other brothers, would have been happy too. But as I have said, there are to be no children.”

As she spoke, images of them continued to blur in front of them until she said their name. But the image of Carter hanging by a rope in the barn took his breath away. Looking at the woman who was telling them that he shouldn’t have been alive, all Phillip could think of was that Murph really had saved his life.

“That’s enough.” Phillip wrapped his arm around Charlie’s waist as she spoke to Sonya. “I have no idea what you think this is going to accomplish, but as far as I can tell, you fucked up and now you’re all pissy about it. I’m here. Deal with it.”

“You cannot talk to me this way. If it had not been for me, you’d be dead by now, along with your parents. They, too, messed up my plans.” When Sonya took a step back, Phillip could see that she realized that she shouldn’t have said that. “Your guardians will pay for this. Both of them will pay dearly for this. No one defies me.”

With that, Sonya disappeared. Misha started cursing almost as soon as Phillip realized that the woman was gone. Linyah and Thomas appeared in the kitchen, along with Sina and several guards. Phillip held onto Charlie as they all started talking at once. It wasn’t until Hannah came into the room, put her fingers in her mouth, and let out a shrill whistle that everyone quieted.

“We’ll do this calmly and without shouting.” To say everyone was surprised at Hannah would have been a gross understatement. But she did move them to the living room where they all sat and waited on some sort of explanation. If there was one.

Chapter 5

“Are you saying that you made some sort of deal with that woman in order to get me a mate?” Misha was glad that he wasn’t on the receiving end of this anger from Linyah. Gladder still that he hadn’t had anything to do with it. She was really pissed off. But Nildale was her father, and as much as he liked the older man, he knew that he’d messed up royally by not telling her what he’d done long ago.

“No. As I have said to you several times now, all I did was ask her to tell me if you had a male in your future. She is the one that said she could arrange it. And if you must know the truth, I didn’t think she’d done it. Not after all that time. I figured she’d had a hard time finding one and given up.” Nildale flushed brightly. “What I meant was, I didn’t think you’d settle for one even if she did find you a male. You can be somewhat stubborn, in the event that no one has pointed that out to you.”

“That isn’t any better, Father.” Misha had to fight against laughing. He knew that if he did it, he’d be hurting. Even Phillip, who had been quiet since Sonya left, was smiling broadly. Linyah was pissed off, and by the look of her, she wasn’t backing off anytime too soon. “So she said she’d arrange for me to have a male, and you just simply forgot about it until now. How convenient for you. But that does not negate the fact that she is threatening Charlie. What does she mean that she’s going to make her guardians suffer? Her parents? The ones that gave birth to her, or the one that she was raised by? And why have we not found either of them?”

“I don’t know.” Everyone looked at Misha as Nildale spoke. “What have you found out, young man? Anything on any of them? I know I gave you little to go with, but I can’t believe that this is so hard to figure out. What are you using to work on it? Magic?”

“Magic, and even Linyah and Nic are stumped. Neither of them can find any memories of a life before Dottie…and so you know, as far as we can find, Charlie’s father is dead. At least the one that was in her life. If he’s not dead, then I have no idea where he is.” He was confused, so he reached into his pocket and pulled out his notepad. It had been as much a part of him as breathing since they’d opened Lanning Search and Rescue, and using it for everything had paid off more for them lately. “According to what we’ve been able to unearth about Dorothy and Curtis Grant, they were model parents and good citizens. Up until his untimely death about twelve years ago, everyone thought that Curtis was a broker. I guess in a way he was. But he was an accountant for the syndicate more than anything. And for a big name such as Welshouse. Then after his death, Dottie moved away and no one heard from her again until Nic did.”

“How did he die?” Misha glanced at Charlie when she asked and looked back at his notes. “I was told that he’d been killed by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Driving home after work or something like that. I never really…to be honest, there are some holes in my memory now. I don’t know if it’s that woman or something else.”

“It’s more than likely her. And I think she’s keeping us from looking into your head for information that is vital. This Welshouse guy is not one to fuck with. As for the way your father died, that’s not true so far as we know from Max.” Misha looked at his notes again before telling her what he knew. “He was, according to the paper, in an accident, but there are some things wrong with that too. The car that he was driving didn’t have any blood in or around it. And his body was never taken to the hospital but directly to the funeral home. Then it was cremated about five hours after he was killed. Or whatever happened to him.”

He wished that Max was there to fill in the blanks that he knew they were going to ask him about. Max had gone to classes an hour ago and had yet to return. He was in his last year of college and all of them were excited for him. Max, at twelve years old, was going to be a hell of a surgeon someday, and Misha was looking forward to telling everyone that he was his uncle. Not that he didn’t already.

“Max said that according to Dottie’s memories of her husband he is very much alive. And so you know, they are actually married, and had been a few years before you came to them. But that, too, is something that we don’t know how it happened.” He closed his little book. “Her mind is blocked to him as well. Now that we’ve met Sonya, perhaps he can get in with the help of the others.”

“This is just stupid. I mean, I don’t even know why there is such a big deal about any of this. She’s lied to me my whole life. Why do I care now that she’s gone?” Misha looked at Phillip when Charlie spoke, and he looked confused too. “What is it?”

“No one told you?” Both Phillip and Charlie shook their heads. “Dottie is after the book. And the reason you’d been targeted about it is because she’s sold you out to the highest bidder, who just happens to be the man that Curtis worked for. Welshouse knows about the book and that his name is in it. Other people, other names in the book, they want it too, before he gets it. Because the holder of that book can control everything.”

“How? It’s just amounts of money that people owed this Murphy guy. And he’s dead. What does anyone care about it now?” Misha stood up and handed her an excerpt from the book. This page was in the back, and it was numbered in a way that had taken them nearly a whole day to figure out. “I don’t know what I’m looking at.”

“It’s what they did to owe Murphy money. Murders. Gambling debts. There are even a few men mentioned in that book that should know better than to get caught at any of this crap, much less doing it in the first place. Senators and lawyers. There are even quite a few doctors there that have been less than above board.” As she looked it over, he watched Phillip’s face too. He knew that he understood the importance of the book and the names that were in it. “The names in that book will be beholden to whomever holds the book because of the simple reason that they’ll be able to hold it over their heads for the rest of their lives.”

“You mean whoever holds this book can blackmail them?” Misha told her it was more than that. “What else is there other than the greed for money?”

“Power.” Misha nodded at Phillip when he spoke. “Not only will the owner of this book have these people in his pocket, but he’ll be able to get them to do things that are well beyond what they did in the first place to get them here. He’d be able to control not just their bank accounts, but anything in their lives. He’ll have it all.”

Charlie sat there for several minutes, not speaking. He knew that her mind was working. He could read hers as well. He didn’t, but the look on her face as she worked through this was scary. And when she got it, not just the importance of the book but also how much it was worth, she leaned back on the couch and stared at him.

“She’s sold me out.” Misha nodded. “And now that she’s gone…she can tell them about you guys and this house. That’s why it’s been so important for you to know what you think I might know about her.”

“Yes. And this thing with Sonya, I’m afraid that doesn’t help either. I’m not sure what she can do, if anything, but it’s sort of adding to the urgency of what is going on.” When Charlie got up to pace, Misha looked at Phillip as he continued. “When you brought them here, did she say anything to you about what she might know? Dottie had to know that this might come out. That she was going to be caught.”

“I doubt it. My…Dottie always seemed to think of herself above such things as rules.” Charlie continued pacing as she told them more about her “mother.” “I’m pretty sure that my father…Curtis had money stashed away for them. I’m not sure, but…it’s one of the reasons that I moved out of the house when I did. I was trying my best to make a name for myself by working odd jobs until the money started coming in, and I had a feeling that when the shit hit the fan that I’d be left holding the bag. Then after I was told he was dead, I thought from the way my mom was struggling that perhaps I’d been wrong about it. But I wasn’t, was I? They had money.”

“And a great deal of it.” Nildale moved into the room as if he’d only been in the hall. But Misha knew that he’d been away and had only just arrived. He was, Misha would bet, trying to ease Charlie into their magic. “I just found out from Kendra that someone has found one of his many stashes. I don’t know money in your world, but I’d say that if he was skimming, then he had his hands in very deep. There is just over ten million in one place that we’ve found. The rest, I’m told, will be easier to find now.”

When Charlie asked why now, Nildale looked at Phillip. He was frowning so hard that Misha worried for him. But their mom came into the room just then and asked to speak to him. Moving into the hall, all Misha could think about was he hoped that this was a mission. He needed to distance himself so that he could think. But as soon as he entered the hall, he knew that wasn’t what it was.

“May I help you?”

The four men standing there had a look about them that screamed armed and dangerous. Whether or not they were legally armed had yet to be established. When his mom moved back away from them he felt a little better, then Rider and the rest of his brothers came in from different directions of the house. He knew then that his mom had gathered her sons to take care of each other, and he was going to kiss her as soon as this was finished.

“We’re here to speak with Charleston Grant. Right fucking now.”

Nothing more was said, and the man looked like he expected Misha to rush right out and bring her to them. When he cocked a brow at him, Misha laughed.

“You might think I have a clue what the fuck you want, but you’d be dead wrong. And I’m not exaggerating when I tell you, you’d be
dead
wrong.” The man asked him if he was threatening him. “Oh no, you have that wrong. I don’t threaten. What I’m telling you is that if you continue to stand there and fuck with me, then you will be dead. I’m not in the mood right now to try to be nice. Not that you have been either, but this is my home and what I do is law here.”

“Mr. Lanning, perhaps we got off on the wrong foot.” Misha nodded but didn’t take his eyes off the first man as the second one tried to clear things up. They were both humans, and if they thought they were going to come into his house and treat him like this, then they were going to be dead humans very soon. “We’d very much like it if you were to have Charleston Grant come here so that we can ask her some questions. It’s very important to our case. Mark here, he’s not had his morning coffee and he can be cranky when that happens.” As a joke, if that was what it was, it fell flat. It was nearly four in the afternoon, not the morning any longer.

“And what case is that?” The man reached into his jacket, but he never got whatever was there out before Rider had him on the floor with his hands behind his head. The man couldn’t have moved unless Rider let him, and he was pretty sure that the fucktard knew it too. Misha leaned down to talk to him when he noticed that the other men had been equally subdued by Andrew and the others. “You might rethink your way of doing things while here. My family is everything to me, and when someone comes to
my
house and threatens
my
family, I get a little testy.”

“Rider, let him go please.” No one moved and wouldn’t until he said it was all right. Turning to look at Sina, he waited for her to continue and when she did, he could see the anger all over her face. “Let the man go so that I can talk to him. Kendra is most displeased with the turn of events here. These men were sent by someone other than her. And she’s coming.”

“The queen is coming? Here?” Sina had a ghost of a smile when she nodded at the first man, but the smirking man looked pleased. Even as the first man turned to him, Misha had a feeling that he’d been the one that had interrupted his family meeting. “You said that this was just a pick up. For her. That the queen would be pleased with us.”

“I never said she knew, only that she’d be pleased. You assumed that all on your own.” Smirker looked at Misha. “You’re going to pay for this. She’s not going to be happy with you.”

“And who would that be?” Kendra looked so regal right at that moment that when the second man dropped to his knees, Misha did the same. But Smirker stood right where he was. Christ, she was one pissed off queen. “I asked you a question and I expect an answer.”

“Sonya…Lady Sonya sent us to get the young woman known as Charleston.” The man looked too pleased with himself. “She said that you had your head up your ass about this, and that she’d have to take care of it for you. You really should learn to listen to those that are there to advise you.”

“Oh really?” The man nodded and smiled. “And just what was she going to do with Charleston once she had her at the castle? I’m assuming that, since you thought I’d be pleased, you were bringing her to me.”

Smirker only shrugged. “She was going to allow me to have her first. Then I was to kill her for you. It is a brilliant plan. If this man would only turn her over to me. You should know that he’s been very uncooperative with me. I think you should simply end him so I can do my job.” Kendra looked at Misha and then at Phillip. “She also told me that I’d be greatly rewarded.”

“You will be. Just not as you were told.” With a snap of her fingers, all four men disappeared. When Charlie came out of the living room with his mom, Misha started to tell them what was going on, but Kendra spoke first.

“May I?” Misha wasn’t sure what was going on, but as soon as Phillip disappeared along with Charlie, he thought perhaps he’d been had. Then Kendra spoke in his mind
. Bearing witness, my friend. They will bear witness for me and when this is finished, I will return them to you. Sonya is going to pay.