Phillip: Lanning's Leap - Paranormal Erotic Romance (6 page)

Misha told the others what Kendra had said and made his way into the living room again. Things were out of his hands for now, and he, for one, could use a good laugh. Telling the others what the little prick had said, they all laughed for a good ten minutes. Misha hoped that it wouldn’t be the last for a while. He was getting tired of all the stress they’d been under lately. That included their jobs too.

~~~

Dottie sat in the bus station for over an hour waiting for Curtis to come for her. He wasn’t a man that was ever on time, so the wait only made her angry but didn’t worry her. One of these days he’d be on time, then that would be the time that she’d worry. Something would surely be wrong if he was where he was supposed to be when he was told. And heaven forbid he should be early for something.

Dottie looked up when she heard something and there he was. She saw him about two minutes before he saw her.

He had been such a handsome man when she’d met him over forty years ago, but she thought this new and improved Curtis was even better. He was thinner, thanks in part to not having her to cook for him, and now that he was taking better care of himself, he was bigger too. Like stronger bigger. But it was his face that was the hardest to get used to. They had paid to have his entire being altered to keep him safe, and she was still trying to get used to it.

“Hello, my love.” He kissed her soundly on the mouth then pulled her from the seat. “I would have been here sooner, but I got messed up on the time.”

“Sure you did. And I don’t suppose that the fact that you smell like beer and cigars has a thing to do with it.” Curtis flushed, but only smiled at her. “You’re supposed to be keeping a low profile, Curtis. What would I do if you were caught again?”

“No one has a clue who I am. I’ve told you this before. Even my own mom would have trouble knowing me.” She pointed out that she was dead and had been for some time. “She’d still not know me. Anyway, I’m here now and we can get this thing rocking. Did you collect the money like I told you?”

Frowning, she looked at him. Surely he’d messed that up as well. “You said you’d get the money.” Her heart started to race just a little when he shook his head. “You did. Tell me you got it, and then we’ll go and hide from them all.”

“I didn’t get it. And I checked. Just to make sure that I had it right. You got it.” Dottie shook her head and sat down again. “Dottie, the first stash, it’s empty. You got the money, didn’t you? I won’t be mad if you got it. We’ll just laugh about it and go on, like we planned on doing. Okay?”

“No. I never…I never touched it. It was our promise that we’d collect it together. Remember? If the first stash, the one with our identifications in it as well as banking information, is gone, then something happened to it. And that pretty much means that the other monies are gone too. We wrote in there so either one of us could go and get it should something happen.” He sat down as well, and she thought he looked like he’d aged several years in those few minutes. “Who did you tell? You had to tell someone, Curtis. Who did you tell?”

“No one.” He looked sick, and she knew just how he felt. “Did you? Well, that was a stupid question. Of course you didn’t. You lived like a pauper for all those years and didn’t touch it. I’m sure you’d not…someone stole our money, Dottie. Someone took all of our hard earned money. That just isn’t right.”

She supposed they’d stolen it in the first place, so it wasn’t really theirs either. But now it was gone. All of it. She was sure that whoever had found the first stash of money had gone on to get the rest, and neither of them had any idea where it all was anymore. There had been so much of it when they’d been working to get it gathered up for their rainy day. They had scattered it around so much that it had taken her over a month to remember them all and write them down. Then the week before Curtis was to be killed, they’d made a pact to gather it in fifteen years. Just the two of them. But this thing with Charlie had come up with those people and she’d had to contact Curtis sooner. That or they were going to ruin it all. And it seemed that they had anyway.

“We have to think.” She had all kinds of thoughts now and wasn’t sure that much more was going to fit in her head. Dottie wished now that she’d taken some of Charlie’s stash and been done with them both, but she’d loved her husband and wanted to be with him when the shit had hit the fan. “What are we going to do, Curtis? We don’t have the kind of money to pay for the things that I’ve set up for us. The house alone is going to be more than we can do each month, even if we could get a job at our age. I was expecting that money to be there and now that it’s not, I have no idea what we’re going to do.” Millions of dollars. Millions upon millions of dollars that they’d worked for was now gone. In the hands of someone else.

“You got us a house?” He sounded so pleased with her that she wanted to hug him. “What kind? Will I be able to have my own office? And bathroom. You know how I feel about sharing a bathroom.”

She did know but loved him anyway for it. But they’d not be able to move into the house, not without the money. And buying the furniture that she’d wanted wasn’t going to happen either. She’d been looking forward to living in style for so long now that it was a hard blow to know that they weren’t going to be able to even eat well, much less live that way too.

“There was this man, a boy really, who told me that he could read my mind. I thought Sonya told us that no one could do that. That whatever we wanted to be kept private would be that.” He said that he didn’t know but would talk to her. “And how do we do that? She’s the one that comes to us. We don’t know how to find her.”

“I think I might have a plan.” She didn’t point out that his plans were not all that well thought out, and worse when it came to executing them. He was good with numbers, and that was about all he was good for when it came to criminal activity. “We just have to go and get that kid. She will come to us once we have her. Don’t you think?”

“You mean Charlie.” He nodded and grinned. “I’m sorry to tell you this, love, but I’m pretty sure that we’re fucked there as well. For one thing, she’s not a kid anymore. In addition, Charlie is with the people that read my mind. And if they found out about the stash, there’s a good chance they know about you as well. And even if that’s not true, I’m sure that she’s not going to come anywhere near me even if I begged her to.”

They left the bus station and made their way to his car. It was beat to shit and looked like it wouldn’t go two miles, much less start. But when the engine roared to life, Dottie had to smile. He’d provided for them in this at least.

When he told her that he’d gotten them a hotel, she was excited. To be waited on and have her bed made was something else she’d missed, living the way they had. But when he pulled up in front of a drab hotel that looked like it had been old in the seventies, she sat there staring at it. Nothing, it seemed, was going to be what she’d expected.

“It’s not that bad. And we get a free breakfast in the mornings. Plus, when it’s done, I get the leftovers. Been keeping me fed for a few days now.” She nodded but continued to stare at the hotel. “Come on, honey, we’ll get this figured out. You’ll see.”

As she got out of the car with him, all she could think about was how hard she’d worked to get the money. Curtis had done all the actual skimming, of course, but she’d been the one that had put it away. For a rainy day she’d always told him. And when Sonya had told them that watching over Charlie would give them even more, she’d jumped at the chance.

Sonya had told them that Charlie would be important to Dottie’s plans. When Sonya had shown them what she could do, she’d also hinted that the girl would be able to do those things as well. It wasn’t until she and Curtis had fallen in love with the girl that they were told that she wasn’t anything more than they were. Just a human that could mess up Dottie’s plans for the future. They’d never figured out what those plans might have been, nor what problems she might have caused to mess them up. Her love for the child had soured after that. She’d not hated her…she could never do that, but there were times when she thought of what was really going on with her. There had to be something more than just some mislaid plans.

“Do you suppose we might be able to thwart her plans?” Dottie asked him who. “You know, that magical woman, Sonya. She said that we’d be rewarded for watching over the kid. Well, nothing much has come our way. I almost got caught. You had to live like you didn’t have a thing, and I had to pretend to be dead. I know that she said that we’d be healthy and at the time, it was good, but now I’m thinking we might be able to get more out of her. Like some cold hard cash.”

Dottie had just been diagnosed with cancer the year before they got Charlie, and it had gotten to the point where it was the end of her days. Curtis had been so ill with his diabetes that he was going to have to have a pump as well as his left leg taken off because of it. She’d preyed on them. They knew that, but since both of them had enjoyed great health as well as having Charlie in their lives, it was okay. But not now. Things were nothing like she’d been promised. Not a single thing.

“I don’t know how to contact her.” He nodded. They’d never had a means to contact her. “But I might know of someone that can. There was this man at the house. He said that Charlie was his…his mate. Maybe if I tell him what’s going on, not all but some of it, he can help us get to her.”

“Might be worth a try. I have to do something in the meantime, though. I’m…you know how I love my numbers.” She did and smiled at him. “I’ve already gone through about fifty of those puzzle books. But I need more.”

“I know. I’ll contact him tomorrow. By phone. I don’t want them reading any more stuff in my head. Even if it is true, those are my memories and things.” He told her that he agreed. “So, what do we do now?”

When he wiggled his brows at her, she had to sigh. Most women would think that meant he wanted to make love, that it was a come on. Not with Curtis. It was a game. He wanted her to give him large numbers to add, subtract, and multiply. She never knew if he was right or not, but it was what he loved to do. So she started giving him five digit numbers to add up. Sadly, that was the highlight of their evening.

Chapter 6

Charlie tried not to let her mind drift too much. The two men in front of her were arguing about what was said by the other. The man who seemed to have all the answers, though Charlie doubted that he even believed most of it, was going on about how they were sent to take her and that there was nothing that Kendra, the queen, could do about it. Apparently, he also believed that raping her was fine, because they’d been given permission. Charlie was pretty sure that raping might have been preferable to whatever else they had planned for her.

“And Sonya, did she tell you why you were to take Charlie?” The confident man, Toby, frowned at Phillip as if he had no idea why he was even concerned about the answer. Then it occurred to her that he didn’t know her as Charlie about the same time that Phillip must have realized it. “Charleston. Did she say why you were to take Charleston?”

“Oh, yes. Because she wanted her.” As if that was enough for him to do her bidding? “We’re running out of time here. I should warn you that she told us not to be late or she’d make us hurt. Let me tell you that while I enjoy the pain that she inflicts on me when we’re fucking, I’m pretty sure that this will be meaner and not so enjoyable. I’ll have to tell her that you’re the one that delayed us. And she’ll not be happy with you either.”

His name was Toby, Kendra had told them. And the other man, the one that was currently lying on the floor in a fetal position, was Ben. Ben had had a change of heart about all of this and had been begging to be killed quickly. Kendra had told him to shut up, and he’d been curled up with his thumb in his mouth since. The other two men had long since been taken away by the guards. But Toby was the real brains…or lack of brains of the operation.

“I’m sure she’ll understand when I explain it to her. Where was it that you were to meet her? I’m assuming it was on this plane? This area of my world?” Toby nodded at Kendra when she asked and smiled. It was then that Charlie noticed that his teeth were all gold. He was dressed in rags, less than that really, and his teeth were all capped in gold. “Well?”

“Her home. I’ve been there several times. So many…we’re lovers, you see. And once she and I have taken care of the girl for you, you’ll be able to bless our union so we can be one.” Kendra asked him why her approval was needed. “Because you are the queen, for now anyway. I surely wish that you would finally release us to wed. It has been too long in the waiting for me. This time you’ll do as you’ve promised.”

“You mean Sonya told you that the queen was holding your love hostage, and that if you did this to me, you could marry?” When Toby nodded at her, Charlie looked at Kendra. “This can’t be true, is it?”

“No, it’s not. This moron has been lied to. For a long time, I would guess.” Kendra looked at Toby, and Charlie almost felt sorry for him. When she spoke next to him, Charlie could see the dawning as it came upon his face. “You don’t need my permission to marry unless you are royalty. And neither you nor Sonya are, in any way shape or form, royalty. Sonya is only a sorcerer. Someone that has been…she’s not welcome in the castle any longer, and so you know, you won’t be either if you survive this. But what I don’t understand is, if she doesn’t think I’m fit to be queen, why she would seek to have my approval on anything? Especially on something as important as a wedding. Unless she never had plans to marry you. Could that be it?”

“Survive? And of course she wishes to marry me. It’s all we have talked about for decades. She wouldn’t do this to me.” Kendra nodded at Toby but said nothing to his queries. “I have done nothing but work for you. You can’t do this to me. I won’t allow it.”

“
You
won’t allow it?” He nodded and crossed his arms over his chest, and Kendra looked at Charlie before turning back to Toby. The man really was a moron. “You cannot allow or disallow anything, you idiot. I’m the queen. And I’m in charge.”

“You don’t rule me.” No one said anything, so Toby continued. “I might work for you. And help out my Sonya, but you don’t rule us. You’re nothing but a lazy conniving woman who thinks you are superior to the rest of us. No one is better or stronger than Sonya. And she will prove it to you when she takes the Lannings down. You with them.”

Kendra glanced at Charlie and Phillip, then looked back at the man. Guards came in then, lining against the walls two deep, their swords drawn and their armor in full regal fashion. Linyah came up to stand behind her sister, Kendra. They were ready for a war. Phillip pulled Charlie to him. If the shit hit the fan, Charlie decided that she wanted to be close to someone that was stronger than her.

Glad for the comfort of his arms around her, she watched the man. He had to know that the guard had entered the room. They were surrounding them all. But he seemed as unaffected by it as the fact that Kendra was his queen and that she was very unhappy. When he smirked, Charlie wondered if the man was stupider than they had first thought him to be.

“Just so I have this straight. You don’t think I rule you, yet you need my blessing to marry Sonya. She’s at some time told you that in order to marry, you need my approval. Is that right?” He said it was. “And you think to please me by killing this woman and bringing down the Lanning family, which I’m sure you realize is my family—and my entire royal court as well—just to please a queen that you do not recognize nor do you think rules you. You do realize that makes no sense whatsoever, don’t you? I mean, really?”

“You aren’t the ruler, but some lazy sack of a thing that makes us all cater to your every whim. Sonya has told me of the things that you demand of the ones that think you are the greatest thing that has come to us. You are nothing to us. But I do need for you to bless our union. Before we have to kill you.” Phillip asked him what kinds of things Kendra demanded of her people. “She has someone bathe her. Did you know that? She cannot even remove her own clothing without several servants to do it. And when she is in the wrong, which is very often I’m told, she has the person killed. Like she did her physician a few months ago.”

“You mean the one that tried to kill my sister-in-law? That doctor?” Linyah said. Toby nodded and said it was the way things were done when Kendra was displeased with things. “You say that she’s not your queen, yet as she pointed out, you want to please her. What sort of pleasure would she get from having my mate killed? Not to mention, having my entire family brought down? Tell me, Toby…what has Sonya told you about the Lanning family?”

“She said that you do nothing all day but sponge off the backs of our labor. That our kind, including the queen, sees to your needs when you do nothing in return for us. My Sonya would be a better queen. Her magic is powerful and good. While you…all of you are nothing but power hungry grubs that make me sick.”

Phillip moved toward Toby, and before anyone could stop him he put his hands to his head. The scream of pain was all the warning they got before the guard moved as one to protect the queen and Charlie.

Charlie had no idea what Phillip had done to the man. With his hand on his head, his fingers at his eyes and ears, she thought for sure that he was going to tear his face off. When he lifted his hand from him, there was no blood nor bruising, but that didn’t mean that Toby wasn’t in pain from his touch. Charlie watched as Phillip leaned down to the moronic man and spoke quietly to him.

“Do you see that? Can you see what I do when I work? And that is only one day in the lives of my brothers and myself. We work hard, as does Kendra, every day to keep people like you safe from yourselves.” Toby whimpered and nodded. “Does that look like a family that does nothing all day? Do you see one of your kind there that is not related to me? Do you see me having myself fanned with great foliage while I dig in the mire and mud for bodies? Bodies that your kind has put there? No, you don’t. Do you want to know why? Because it’s easier for you to lay blame than to find out facts for yourself.”

“No.”

Toby fell to his knees. Blood poured from his nose and mouth, then his mind, Charlie could see, wasn’t doing well with the information. Kendra moved toward her and gave her a small push toward Phillip. As Phillip continued to talk to the injured man, Charlie touched her fingers to his arm and he looked at her.

“Enough, Phillip. He’s had enough. You can’t teach him anything. His heart and mind are frozen to the truth.” He stared at her as if he had no idea what she was talking about. “Phillip, let Toby go. You’re hurting him.”

As soon as he stood up, Toby fell to the floor. He, too, was now curled up, his thumb in his mouth, as he sobbed that he knew that they had lied to him. Even as they stood there, the guard picked both men up and took them away. Kendra was escorted to a set of chairs not far from them just as her father came into the room. Charlie looked up at Phillip.

“What did you do to him? I’m assuming that you showed him something that you have done.” He said that he had. “I didn’t know you could do that. Didn’t know…I don’t know a great many things, I think.”

“I can help you.” They both turned to Nildale when he spoke. “You’ll need it, I think. To have the knowledge that comes with being what you are. To have it all would keep you safe for me…for us all. I would—and this is because I have come to love you like family—I would very much like for you to be prepared for Sonya when she comes. I have a feeling that she’s going to hurt a great many of us before we catch her.”

“I saw it.” They all turned to Phillip. “I saw what she has planned. It was…it’s in his head. He…she’s going to bring war to your lands. There are others, more races that would like to have all that you are, and when they come—because they will—they’re going to destroy all that you are. Including beheading the royal family for their crimes against their people. Sonya needs to be stopped now or she’ll bring them here. And they think it will end badly for not just your people but all mankind as well.”

“Has she contacted them as yet?” Phillip told Kendra that Toby thought that she had. “I doubt it then, but just to be sure, I’d very much like to figure out what she thinks she will gain from this. And I’ve no doubt that she thinks something is coming her way. And it will, just not what she’s expecting it to be. The nerve of that woman.”

“She hid Charlie from me.” Kendra asked him how. “Sonya had Toby and five other men kill her parents, then kidnap Charlie so that we’d never meet. She’s right, we were to meet first, Charlie and me. And her thinking was that if we didn’t meet and mate, then the rest of the fated relationships of my family would never have happened either. She thought that once the first cog in the wheel was removed that nothing else would go forward. That was her plan. To weaken you as a queen because of the strife between you and Linyah.”

“Good heavens. She’s nuts.”

Charlie laughed. She had no idea if it was what Nildale said, the way he said it, or simply the stress of it all. But she laughed out loud. When they joined her, she felt better for it and leaned on Phillip. Nothing had ever made her feel as good as being with him did.

~~~

Phillip hated to leave the house, but as soon as he returned from the castle, they were called out. Kendra told him that she’d send someone to watch over the families and that they’d be safe while they were gone. He felt better about it, but was still hard pressed to leave Charlie right now.

“There are five people missing this time. Two adults and three teenagers. The car they were riding in was discovered about ten miles from their home. Riddled with bullets we’ve been told, but no blood. The police are thinking that it was shot up after they were out of it. What they don’t know is if it was because the family was already gone when they got there, or if they were leaving a message after taking them.” Misha handed him a thick file as he continued. “The husband is a lawyer. And the police are trying to rule out that this was a crime against him. But the house, their home, had been ransacked pretty messily, and they can’t find his computer. So far they’ve not turned up anything electrical, such as phones, computers, or any other device like that.”

Murph picked up the conversation when Misha sat down. “We’ve had the phones pinged, to see if we can get a signal off them, and we’ve gotten nothing. Either they’ve been destroyed or they’re somewhere away from the family. I’m thinking destroyed. The laptop that the police are most interested in is a company one. The firm that he works for said that Mr. Rainer had access to the entire company, as he worked at home most days. I’ve had someone go in and set up a fire wall, but since the family has been missing for an undetermined amount of time, it’s hard to say if we’ve shut up the barn after the horses have been let out.” She handed him a sheet of paper. “That’s the phone numbers that were received or called out to just before the phone suddenly shut down. Can you look them up for me when we hit the ground?”

“Sure, but I can tell you right now that three of these numbers are a pizza place.” She asked Phillip how he knew. “The number is the same for this company nationwide. See? I’ve called this same number and it all goes to a central location, and their pizza orders are sent to the store closest to you. Doesn’t always work out well, but most of the time they get it right.”

“So someone ordered pizzas. Can you find out how much and where they were taken?” Phillip said he would and called the number. In five minutes he had the manager on the phone for the local office in his town, and he was able to breach some security to get him what he needed. It helped that the guy was a shifter, and they’d been running together since they’d been kids. He told them what he knew as he worked on the other four numbers.