Skin Walkers: Monroe (2 page)

Chapter
2

As the
Humvee eased to a halt in front of the neat little ranch-style house, a black lab sidled down the porch and sniffed the vehicles tires before ambling away in disinterest.  King pulled the keys from the ignition, but before he could open his door Monroe halted him.

“Wait here.  I don’t want to give this guy the impression that I’m attempting to intimidate.” 

King smiled at Monroe in the rearview mirror.  “Us?  Intimidating?”

Monroe’s lips
quirked as he shook his head and exited the car.  He pulled his charcoal colored, wool, blazer together to button it as he purposefully ascended the two wooden steps leading to the front door.  He raised a gloved hand to knock, but didn’t get the chance.  Instead, the door jerked open leaving Monroe unprepared for the angry beauty that stood scowling up at him.

“Can I help you?”

Monroe smiled politely, enjoying the angry fire that blazed in the dark brown eyes that frowned back at him.  He let his gaze slide down the petite frame of the raven-haired beauty.  Her long straight hair was as dark as her eyes and hung in glossy waves to her trim waist.  Her olive complexion and high cheekbones hinted at native ancestry.  Monroe finally allowed his eyes to settle on the full pink lips that formed a succulent frown. 

“I’d like to speak with the property owner if he’s in.”

The woman, wearing form fitting worn jeans and a red button-up blouse, crossed her arms over her ample chest, “Yes,
she
is.”

Monroe tossed a cursory glance o
ver her head before dropping his eyes back to hers.  “I was informed the property owner was a Mr. Eddie StCloud.”

The woman pursed her lips before spea
king, “Not Eddie.  Edie.  It’s short for Eden.”  She uncrossed her arms impatiently, “Look, what can I do for you Mr. StoneCrow?”

Monroe’s eyes
lit with a spark of interest at the fact that she referenced him by name without him having introduced himself. 
Done her homework I see.
  “Eden?  Well, Mrs. StCloud, might I speak with your husband or father, or whoever runs this property.”

Eden’s eyes darkened as she lowered her head, her lip curling derisively.  “
My father is dead, and there is no husband. 
I
run this property, and, unfortunately for you, I’ve run out of patience.  Good day Mr. StoneCrow.” She stepped back and began closing the door as she spoke, “I’m late for work.”

Monroe’s firm hand on the door stopped
her from closing it in his face.  “Clearly, I’ve offended you Ms. StCloud, but I’m afraid I can’t afford to let the issue rest another day.”

Eden frowned at his hand on the door.  “And what
exactly
is your issue?”

Monroe pulled his hand back and straightened his jacket, “It seems the laborers on my site are
having difficulty gaining access to my land.”

Eden’s eyes
flicked to the road then back, her lips curling in satisfaction.  “Is that a fact?”

Monroe’s lips
thinned.  Clearly, she was not only fully aware of the trouble she’d been causing, but she was amused by it as well.  “The easement is Court ordered, angel.  You can fight it all you like, but if I have to take your pretty little ass to Court, I will.”

Eden’s
smile vanished, her cheeks flaming at the insult, “I am a far cry from being an angel, and don’t threaten me with legal action.  Been there done that!  I’m not intimidated in the least, and if you can’t keep those fucking morons you call laborers on that road and off my property, I will put a bullet in somebody’s not-so-pretty little ass.”

Monroe couldn’t help the smile that
tilted his lips.  The action was rare and felt odd, but this little spit-fire was entertaining as hell.  Regardless, he had a job to get done, and she was interfering.  “We’ve got more heavy equipment coming through.  There may be damage to your road, but it’s nothing I can’t have fixed once the job’s done.”

Eden crossed her arms over her chest
again, her disdain for the man growing by the second.  “Has it ever occurred to you, Daddy Warbucks, that you can’t simply buy your way out of everything?”

Monroe tilted his head.  “No.  It hasn’t.”  With that he turned and
strode back to his waiting ride before he stopped to toss over his shoulder, “And angel?”

Eden stood seething in her doorway.

“Feel free to call me daddy anytime?” 

Monroe’s
condescending smile didn’t go unnoticed before Eden slammed her door.

When Monroe eased into the backseat of the
Humvee, King started the vehicle and maneuvered it down the mountain. 

“How’d it go?”

For some odd reason, Monroe couldn’t seem to wipe the stupid grin from his lips.  “Great.”

“Great?”  King frowned at him in the rearview mirror.  “She didn’t seem to
o happy.”

Monroe’s grin widened into
a broad smile, “She wasn’t.”

King had to jerk the wheel
and did so just in time to keep them from driving straight into a tree.  He’d been too focused on CEO StoneCrow’s expression in the rearview mirror.  It was so rare to see Monroe smile that when he did it was typically with terrifying consequences.  King couldn’t help but wonder if he’d be asked to pay the woman in the cabin a visit.  He pitied anyone who made an enemy of Monroe.

Chapter 3

Inside her cabin, Eden leaned against the closed door and cursed under her breath.  “What an arrogant ass!”
 

Although she’d been expecting it, she’d still been dreadi
ng the confrontation with Mr. StoneCrow for weeks.  She knew he’d confront her, especially after the difficult time she’d been giving his laborers.  She expected the sarcasm, the threats, and the air of superiority.  What she hadn’t expected were the looks.  When she’d thought of the infamous Monroe StoneCrow, she’d pictured a shriveled old weakling who was used to getting his way.  While Monroe clearly was used to getting his way, he was anything but a shriveled old weakling. 

Eden bit her bottom lip and drew her brows together in
a scowl.  He’d been handsome.  More than handsome. 
He was actually quite yummy!
  She exhaled harshly. His looks were demoralizing.  It wasn’t enough that he was rich, powerful, and encroaching on her peaceful existence, but to look like that…it was downright unfair! 

His
perfectly styled hair was dark, as black as her own.  Eden ran a hand through her satiny locks. 
Nah, his hair was definitely darker.
His raven colored hair only made his sky blue eyes all the more vibrant.  His teeth were perfect and whiter than any teeth she’d ever seen, and his expensive suit, tailored so flawlessly to his massive frame, left no doubt in her mind that he had a body that was chiseled by the gods. 
So unbelievably unfair!

Her eyes swung to
the clock that hung on the wall over the empty fireplace causing her to shove off the door. “Shit!”  Late again.  Not that it mattered.  Where she was going, there was no time clock or supervisor to complain, but it was a matter of personal pride for Eden to be mindful and prompt with regards to her work-schedule. 

“Micah, I’m going to work.  Keep an eye on your brothers and sister.”  S
he retrieved her hunter green Wildlife Department parka and shoved her arms into it before crossing to the fridge and yanking out her sack lunch.  She walked quickly to the front door, jerked it open, and whistled.  “Come on Zena!”

The graying black lab moved gingerly through the front door, not concerned in the least that Eden was in a hurry.

With the dog curling up on the rug securely inside the cabin, Eden turned to eye the tall teenage boy who walked out of a back bedroom.  His hair was gelled into a mohawk that this week was a vibrant purple. 

Eden felt guilty leaving Micah to have to look after
Ransum, Cole, and Peyton, but she had to get to work. 

“I got it,” Micah
sullenly responded as if reading her mind.

“Okay,” Eden huffed, “but if Peyton starts feeling
sick again call the office and have them contact me and I’ll come home.” 

Just then
two young boys, one with red hair and one a blonde, came rushing toward the door.  “Mama, Mama,” they chimed in unison.

Smiling she bent to give each of the boys a quick hug and peck on the forehead before standing.  “Listen to Micah okay.”  When the two boys nodded
her heart melted.  “And be quiet so Peyton can get some rest.”

“Don’t worry,” the red-headed Cole beamed, “we’ll take care of her.”

“Yeah,” Ransum chimed in.  “We’re good at it.”  He turned and pointed to the dog, “We take care of Zena all the time.”

“Yes you do,” Eden beamed.  “Alright
gotta go.  Be good boys.”

“
Bye,” the two younger boys waved wildly.

“
Bye Eden,” Micah didn’t even look up from his i-phone, too busy texting girls to be bothered with manners.

It
amazed her that even after two years she was reluctant to leave the kids alone. 
Two years?
  It felt so much longer.  She felt as though she’d known the children her whole life and she loved them as if they were her own, but they weren’t.  Two summers ago, some asshole had abandoned them in the forest.  She’d stumbled upon their camp when she’d been checking for illegal game traps.  When she’d asked Micah where their parents were, he refused to answer.  Eden checked the cooler that had been sitting next to an empty fire pit and saw that it housed just a half gallon of water, a roll of bologna and a half loaf of bread. 

When
Ransum and Cole had scampered out from the tent, she checked it to discover little Peyton inside burning up with fever. 

The children had been a
bandoned by their parents and left in the forest to fend for themselves, or die alone as the case would have been if Eden hadn’t found them.  She’d gotten them to the town’s hospital as quickly as possible.  She’d spent the entire next two years fighting for custody after she’d discovered that Child and Family Services had intended on separating the children by farming them out to separate foster homes.  The kids had been through enough.  They didn’t deserve to be separated too.  After a lengthy, and costly, legal battle, and an exhaustive search for the children’s parents, Eden was awarded custody.

Neither Peyton,
Ransum, nor Cole ever spoke of their parents and Micah refused to divulge any information, and Eden didn’t force him.  It didn’t matter now; she would be whatever it was they’d need. 

Quickly locking the door behind her, Eden
descended the steps and strode to the tan Chevy assigned to her by the Department.  Climbing inside she kicked on her four-wheels before steering onto the snow covered road and heading north.  She’d be crossing Monroe StoneCrow’s property, and unlike him, she was afforded the opportunity to traverse anywhere she liked by commission of her position.  Like many other Game Wardens in the state, Eden was also a reserve Deputy Sheriff.  Even without the designation, she was expected to patrol her assigned district, which is where she also just so happened to reside.

It was a mile from her front porch to the invisible line that separated her property from that of
StoneCrow Industries.  Crossing from her property line onto Monroe StoneCrow’s land sickened her every time it was necessary.  It was another mile drive up a winding road to the work site that was buzzing with activity. 

The site was a desecration.  Eyeing the area, Eden had to clamp a hand over her belly and tighten her lips against the nausea
that overwhelmed her. 

What had once been a quiet
, thickly wooded patch of Montana forestland was now a bulldozed swath of muddy frenzy.  Her eyes flitted to a large field that blossomed with hundreds of multi-colored wild flowers in the summer.  It was her favorite location on the mountain.  A place she’d take the kids every summer to play and picnic and to take their individual pictures as they sat nestled in the blanket of wild flowers.  She told them it was their own personal piece of heaven.  The children had loved the idea, but now her favorite place in the entire universe was flattened down and buried beneath a pile of crated stone, which had been brought in to build the structure that would be a hideous addition to Monroe StoneCrow’s already vast StoneCrow estates. 

Eden pulled her truck to a stop on the road and put the gear in
park to shake her head and stare at the mess that lay before her eyes. 

When she’d learned the land had been purchased by an industrial CEO Eden had nearly choked from the shock.  It had taken multiple calls and visits to the County office to convince her that Mo
nroe StoneCrow had no designs on turning this piece of property into some unsightly

commercial
or industrialized zone.  He’d purportedly purchased the area with intentions of expanding his already existing three hundred and thirty six acre wildlife preserve and rehabilitation facility.  While the idea secretly delighted Eden, she grew less and less convinced of his intentions with every visit to the work site.

She watched the f
oreman barking orders into his cell while behind him, a small skid steer hauled a small load of frozen earth from a sizeable hole now forming in the center of the site. 

She’d studied the plans
, and the substantial residence that was to be erected in the center of the property made no sense.  It was too large for the minimal staff required to, adequately, man a wildlife preserve and rehabilitation facility.  Several cabins were also set to be erected dotting the property.  When Eden brought the cabins to the attention of the commission, she’d been waved off.  No one seemed to care that multiple small residential properties had no place at a preserve and rehabilitation facility.  But she cared. 

So far she’d been the sole proponent to
the expansion at StoneCrow Estate’s.  She wasn’t opposed to the preservation, protection, and rehabilitation of wildlife, but it was clear to her that Monroe’s intentions didn’t lay there regardless of the rhetoric he’d been blabbing.

Eden sighed as she put her truck in gear and took the road that led around the work site and up into the forest.  She made a mental note to attend the next scheduled commission meeting
regarding the property.  She had more questions and this time she wouldn’t leave without some answers. 

She exhaled, trying to force her thoughts from a
too handsome Monroe StoneCrow as she drove her truck along the bumpy forest road. 

In her line of work if you weren’t paying attention accidents were prone to happen, and they weren’t the
type-the-wrong-word or mail-the-wrong-form kind of accidents. 

She eyed the snow-covered road as she skirted a particularly narrow pass with a straight 200 foot drop down a rocky ravine.  Napping on the job out here could get you killed, and if the terrain didn’t get you, the
wildlife surely would.

Today
, she was heading up the mountain to check on several suspicious reports that had come in over the past few days.  When Robert at dispatch had radioed her a few days earlier to let her know that Dorothy and George WhiteEagle had called to report a panther sighting, she knew there had to have been a mistake.  Dorothy and George were probably the only two people that knew the area better than Eden, so she’d asked Robert if he’d made a mistake.  “You sure?  Neither Dorothy nor George would confuse any of our local wildlife with a panther.”

Robert
assured her he’d heard correctly.  He’d even questioned George himself to ensure the old timer hadn’t accidentally used the wrong word.  “I asked him if he meant mountain lion Eden, but he was adamant that he and Dorothy had seen a black panther.  You don’t think ol’ George is going senile do ya?”

Eden maneuvered her truck over
a slope of wet rock, her brows furrowing as she scanned the area slowly.  A day after Dorothy and George’s report, a couple of hunters reported seeing a gemsbok.  Robert thought it had been a prank call until the two men showed up at the Wildlife Department office with what Robert claimed was “photo proof”. 

A smiled tweaked Eden’s lips as she drove.  Modern technology was advancing so quickly.  Anything could be photo-shopped, and all you needed was a sucker to take the bait. 
Poor Robert.
 

Still, the
gemsbok photos were surely a joke, but it didn’t explain Dorothy and George’s black panther.  Often stray dogs would meander up the mountain, and Eden could only assume that a dog is exactly what George and Dorothy had spotted.     

The two-way radio on her dash crackled before
there was a long whine and finally, “Edie?  You copy?”

Eden snatched up the receiver, “Morning Robert.”

“You on your way to the WhiteEagle’s?”

She smiled, “How’d you guess?”

Robert’s voice was tight, “I just figured.  Anyway, we’ve got a bit of a problem.”

Eden instantly sobered, “What’s wrong?”

“Well…”

Sensing his reluctance Eden urged, “You better spill it before I get out of range.  What’s going on?”

The line crackled for a few moments before Robert spoke, “We’ve got a complaint here about a landowner up your way.”

Eden’s brow furrowed, “
Which land owner?”

She vaguely made out the sound of papers shuffling in the background. 
“Appears to be a dispute over right-of-way.  Easement issues.”

“
Our department doesn’t handle that.”

“
I know,” Robert sighed, “but it wound up on my desk all the same.”

“Well,” Eden prompted again, “
who’s the land owner.”

There was a slight grin in Robert’s voice then, “Well paperwork states Eddie
StCloud.  Any relation of yours?”

Shit!
  Eden didn’t respond immediately.

“Ed
ie you there?”

“Yeah, I’m here.” She chewed on her bottom lip a moment.  “Put the report in my box, and I’ll take care of it when I get to town.”

“Edie...”

“Just do it Rob.  I promise I won’t shred the damn thing.”

“Alright,” he answered reluctantly, “but if Richard asks, I’m saying I never saw the damn thing.”

Now, it was Eden’s turn to smile.  “You let me worry about Richard
and
Monroe StoneCrow.”