Walker (Bowen Boys) (11 page)

Conrad stared at him. The man had balls,
he’d give him that. Before he could comment or tell the man that he was wrong,
dead wrong, there was a gun at the back of his head. Slowly, he raised his
hands until the gun no longer felt as if it was embedded in his skull rather
just resting there.

“You’ve made a serious mistake. Do you
know who I am?”

The cop nodded and the gun banged him
slightly.

“You’re going to regret this more than
you can—”

“Not as much as you are.” He nodded and
the man behind him jerked his arms behind him. “You should have followed your
own rules there, buddy. Right now, you’re going to be sitting in my jail cell
until someone comes for you or sends me written word that you’re okay to let
lose. But not before I tell them what a nasty piece of dung you are.”

Conrad was shoved in the back of the chief’s
cruiser and he noticed that Nestor was put in another one. Someone was going to
pay for this and he hoped the hell he got to be a part of the payback. He
started to tell the man driving that he was with the CIA when the man turned
and looked at him.

“You say a word, one word, and I have
full permission to let you go in the woods yonder and let the big cats have at
you. You should know that one or more of them owes me a huge favor.” Conrad
didn’t speak and the driver turned back to the front.

Cats owed him a favor? And who gave him
permission to let him go that way? Conrad looked out the window and watched as
the biggest cat, he was sure it was a panther, he’d ever seen came out of the
woods and sat watching him. When he nodded at him, it was all Conrad could do
not to piss himself. It looked as if the monster was smiling at him.

Conrad let that image keep him company
all the way to the jail and in the cell. He knew that others were talking to
him, but his mind was too busy working through what he had seen. By the time
they had come to bring him dinner, he had convinced himself that he’d seen
nothing but a large house cat and those animals were so stupid that they didn’t
know if they needed to smile or run for the woods. It was time to make his
phone call. And he knew just who he had to call.

~~~

George walked into the house and nearly
turned around again. Khan looked like he could and probably would bite a nail
in two. Then swallow it for good measure. He smiled at Corrine, the love of his
life, and sat down.

“Where the hell have you been? I’ve been
trying to reach you all damned morning.”

George nodded.

“What the hell is that supposed to
mean?”

George suddenly snapped. Khan may be
leader of this family, but he was still his father. He stood up and shoved his
son against the counter. When he started to stand, George hit him in the chest
with his fist. “Stay right there. You may be in charge, but I’m still your
father, you overgrown shit for brains. I go where I want and do what I need to
keep my family safe. If you got your head out of your ass for ten minutes, you’d
see that Walker is going to be with this woman whether it’s here or not. And to
be honest, I had hoped you’d see that as well.” When Khan opened his mouth,
George glared. He might be old, but he was still a mean motherfucker.

“What your father is trying to say is
that neither of them had a choice in the matter. What’s done is done and the
sooner we accept that, the sooner he’ll come home.” Corrine stood up as she
continued. “What Roseann did to you was horrible, but—”

“He won’t bring that human in this house.
Not if you want me to remain.”

 George took a step back.

“I mean it. It’s the human or me.”

“Khan, you don’t—”

Khan cut his mother off quickly. “I do
mean it. Humans aren’t going to be welcome here. Not so long as there is breath
in my body. I will not allow it, and if Walker wants to come back here, he’d
better not have his mate with him.”

George pulled Corrine back when she
started forward to Khan. His heart broke for his son. George nodded once and
turned with his mate to walk out of the house. He had to find some way to fix
this and he wasn’t sure how.

“He’ll do just what he said, won’t he? He’d
rather break this family up than see that Walker had nothing to do with who his
mate is.” George held her close as they walked along the path to their own
home. “I can’t stand this. None of it. George, what are we going to do?”

“I don’t know, love. I really don’t. I
never knew that Khan’s heart was so cold that he’d do this to one of his own
brothers.” George opened the door and they both went to the back deck to sit. “I’ll
try and contact Walker again. See what he wants to do.”

George went to the kitchen to get his
phone. He had asked Terrance to help him out if anyone came looking at the girl’s
house. He knew after the team that had come out and had left that someone who’d
been responsible would come to see too. Terrance had called him last night when
he’d heard that some big shot was in town. He had agreed to let him hang around
and now he was glad that he had. The man smelled evil.

“Walker, someone from Washington showed
up today to see Lynne’s house. He smelled of something that crawled from under
a rock.”

Corrine nodded and giggled. “Tell him
that little man smelled of fear.”

He looked sharply at his mate.

“Of course I followed you. Did you
really think I wouldn’t? You get into entirely too much trouble on your own.”

He thought he’d deal with her later and
smiled. His son was talking and he had to slow him down before he understood
him. Something about her running off without him.

“She thinks I’m going to leave her just
because of what she does. I’ve told her it’s too late for that and that I’m
going with her. I want to beat her ass right now.” George laughed at the
background noise on Walker’s end. “I swear to Christ…I have to go, Dad. She
needs a lesson in manners and throwing things.”

He closed the phone and looked at
Corrine. “I believe they’ve mated. And she sounds like she can hold her own
with him. She was using language that I’m sure she didn’t hear from a sailor.
It’s pretty colorful.”

“Good. Then maybe she can hold her own
with Khan. Because we both know that’s what it’s going to take. Someone like
her to whoop his ass a time or two.”

When his phone rang again he answered it
with caution. Marc was the one son that he knew could have a level head, and he
wasn’t surprised when he seemed to be overly calm about what he wanted to know.

“So, Walker is no longer allowed on our
land. What do you suppose is going to happen to them now?”

George asked them who.

“Lynne and Walker. I know they can live
on their own and all, but I don’t want my brother to not have any contact with
me. Nor do Sebastian and Dylan.”

“And Reed, what does he think about all
this? Is he siding with his brother? Or hasn’t he made up his mind yet?”

“Can’t find him. He said he was going to
get answers and he left here before I could talk to Khan. I guess he heard the
argument at the house and confronted Khan after you left. I’m not sure what
happened, but Khan is nursing a bloodied lip and Reed was limping. But if the
dining room is any indication, I would say that they had a few words and they
aren’t in agreement.”

George threw back his head and laughed. Reed
was the baby, but he had learned to fight dirty. Having five older brothers had
given him that much. Plus, the boy just didn’t know when to give up. He handed
the phone to his mother when she asked.

“Yes, dear. Your father and I would like
to be kept in the loop.” She paused for several minutes. “Oh, I like that idea.
Yes, I do. Let us know what we can do to help.”

She closed the phone and handed it back
to him. Before he could ask what was going on, the phone rang again. This time,
the number was unknown.

“Will you please tell your moronic son
that I don’t care if he’s Godzilla himself, he is not strong enough to go with
me when I hunt the fucktard down that made me blow up my own fucking house? I
swear to Christ, he’s more stubborn than I am.”

George started to laugh, but held off.
The woman was pissed enough as it was. “I’m assuming this is Caitlynne McCray,
or is it Bowen now?”

“It’s McCray, thanks. Why would you…I
see, it’s one of those panther things. Once you fuck someone then every other
panther knows. Do I have to be careful of the zoo now?”

George laughed, unable to help himself. “No,
the zoo should be fine for you. I’d avoid the wolf cages, as well as the
smaller animal cages, though. They can smell him on you and you know all about
cats and dogs.”

“Right. You really don’t think I visit
the zoo, do you?” She took a deep breath. “I sort of accidentally knocked him
out. Do you know how long he’ll be down? I have to get going.”

Her scream had him jerking the phone
from his ear. He assumed that Walker was awake now. They were fighting and he
wished he was there to cheer the girl on. When he heard someone cry out, this
time he was sure it was Walker. Damn, but that girl was going to do just fine. Suddenly,
she was back on the phone.

“I swear to Christ…come here and get
him. I can’t…what the hell is wrong with him anyway? Doesn’t he get that I’m
going to get him killed?”

George thought maybe he didn’t. He asked
her where she was and when she told him, he told her he’d be there soon. He
looked at his mate and asked her what to do now. He handed her the phone when
she reached for it.

“Hello, Khan. This is your mother. I
need to borrow the SUV, please. And I want you to stay out of my way when I
come to get it.” She paused. “I don’t want you to come with me. I’m quite
capable of going to pick up Walker all—no. I forbid you to…suit yourself then.”

He stared at her for several seconds. “Why
you sly devil you. You did that on purpose. You knew he’d come with…what’s he
going to do when we get there and Lynne is still with him?”

“He said she couldn’t come on the
property. He didn’t say anything about him going to where she is.” She stood
up. “Come on, and try to act a little more fragile, please. We want him to have
to help with Walker, don’t we?”         

Chapter Nine

Walker glared at her again. The nerve of
her… “I want you to uncuff me right this minute. I will not be sitting here
like this when my father shows up.”

She ignored him as she’d done for the
past hour. He watched her as she packed up her bags. She’d checked every gun in
her bag and then refolded her underwear twice. He knew she was trying to piss
him off and he was really going to beat her ass when he got loose.

“You can sit there for five more
minutes. Your mother, a very nice woman, by the way, said they’d be here soon.”
She sat on the bed in front of him. “You know this is for the best, Walker. We
can’t be seen together or he’ll go after you.”

He wanted to roar at her, but didn’t. The
car pulling up out front made him think his dad had borrowed the bigger van to
bring him home. He jerked at the handcuffs again. The knock at the door had him
glaring at Caitlynne again when she opened it up.

Khan stood there for several seconds
just looking around the room. Caitlynne stepped back and still he didn’t move.
Walker looked around the room, seeing it for the first time.

The bed was broken; the mattress was
tossed off its frame. The pictures were hanging crookedly and there were parts
of broken frames everywhere. He could see the shower curtain was torn off most
of its hooks and the toilet seat was broken. He looked at his mom when she
laughed.

“Good sex, or did she have trouble
convincing you that you aren’t going with her?”

Walker flushed and his dad walked in the
room with a whistle.

“Both. Hello, Mrs. Bowen. Thanks for
coming and getting him. He’s a bit—”

“You did this to her?” Khan thundered
toward him when suddenly Caitlynne was in front of him. “Get out of my way,
human. I’ve no—”

Khan ended up on the floor on his back
and Caitlynne held a gun to his head. “Move and I’ll shoot you. I’m fucking
sick and tired of you treating me like I’m some piece of slime you had on your
shoe.”

“Don’t kill him, dear. You have enough
of a mess to explain.”

Walker looked at his mom when she spoke.

“Come on, Khan. Tell the nice girl
you’re sorry she kicked your butt and we’ll take Walker home with us.”

“I’m not going anywhere she isn’t. I’ve
told her this several times and…would you mind getting off my brother? My cat
wants to kill him for touching you.”

Caitlynne looked at all of them before
she turned to look at him. She didn’t look very happy and he didn’t blame her.
This had not gone as he had hoped it would. She moved off Khan slowly and never
moved her gun off his head. When she stood, Walker noticed the blood on her leg
and the large stain on her thigh. She’d opened her wounds again.

“Let me go, Caitlynne. I have to see to
your wounds.” He heard a noise and started to turn toward it when he was
suddenly on the floor and Khan was being held down by Caitlynne.