Ewing (A Cross to Bear #6)

Chapter 1

Ewing was keeping an eye on the kids while he changed Billy’s diaper. He’d been getting really good at changing the boy’s diaper since he and the other children came to him. But with six kids, he knew that something could change in a heartbeat, and he’d be right back to square one in learning an entirely new set of rules and standards for them all. He thought that this was the hardest job he’d ever held. And the one with the most benefits.

Two weeks ago—he couldn’t believe that it had only been a couple of weeks now. He’d been out taking a walk on his property checking on things and came upon a man stealing his grape starters for the new wine he was planning. At first his plan had been to scare him off, call the police perhaps. But in the end, he’d done so much more than that.

The man, Ben Kinsley, a bastard of a man had two little girls with him that looked like not only could they use a good bath but a good meal too. As soon as he’d spoken to the man, one of the children, Beth, came running to him and hid behind his legs. He and his bear both could feel her terror. It was all he could do not to kill the man where he stood when the other child, another six-year-old, Rachel, came toward him only to be knocked down and stomped on by the bastard. By the time his brothers showed up, he had them both with him and was ready to become their knight in shining armor for anything that they needed.

“What do you ‘pose they’re going to do with us today?” He asked Lily, the most worldly seven-year-old he knew what she meant and what reason. “You said this man is going to decide if we can live with you and your family or not until they find the other kids’ parents. What happens if they don’t?”

“You’ll stay with me, I hope.” She asked him if he was nuts. “Sometimes I think that I am, but we’re doing all right, aren’t we? I mean, nothing bad has happened, and so far, I’ve been able to keep you all alive and fed.”

“Yeah, you’re doing good about that, but I heard that lady in the bathroom telling her friend that you needed a wife and shouldn’t be taking little girls to the bathroom. I don’t know how she expects us to get all our bits and pieces covered up without you there. All she did was lift her nose at us.” He didn’t comment even though he’d heard the woman talking, too. “You think that you’ll get you a wife, and she’ll be all right with all of us?”

“She will.” She eyed him like he was a spot on her new dress. “She will. I know it. And if I do have a mate out there, I’m not going to drop you like a hot potato because some woman has a burr up her bottom about me having six kids.”

“Uncle Mark said that you were a good man. I didn’t want to believe him, but I think you’re the best.” He kissed her on the cheek and told he that he loved her as well. “Don’t get all sappy on me. You know how I hate that crap.”

It was their turn to go in and see the judge. All five of the little girls, each one of them a stair step down from the first child, Patty, who was also the oldest. At eight, she’d been hurt more than most people had their entire lives. Both mentally and physically. Once they were seated, the new rule he’d given them, they sat on their hands and didn’t touch each other. They meant no harm when doing that, not that they were teasing one another either, but some of the children were still healing, and touching one of the many wounds would cause a meltdown. He sat little Billy in his car seat on the seat next to him while he slept through his first nap of the day.

After making sure that the first two children he’d gotten that night were taken care of then little Billy came to him. The infant, only a couple of weeks old then, wouldn’t have made it had it not been for the magic of the women that were in the family nor the bits of blood that he gave the baby too. Billy had been too long without anyone ever caring for him. At four weeks old, he weighed less than the normal nine to nine and a half pounds a one-month-old should weigh. However, he was getting bigger daily.

The next three children, little girls, all of them with blond curly hair and varying shades of blue eyes, were brought to the hospital after finding them in an abandoned home with nothing for them to eat, much less drink, when they too were brought to him. They’d been together since, and he wondered daily what he was going to do without them if the judge told him he wasn’t fit to be a father—a single father to them any longer. The door behind him opened, and he saw his family coming in. He asked Mark, his older brother, what he was doing here.

“You didn’t think we’d let you have all the fun, did you? He hugged them all and was happy when his five sisters-in-law hugged him as well. Ewing was much too busy keeping the kids quiet when the door behind them opened once again, and a group of others came into the room. He told Mark how worried he was. “You’ve got this little brother. Don’t worry. I promise you, you’ve got this.”

Ewing certainly hoped so. There were days that he wasn’t sure he was doing the right thing with these kids. Then one of them would come up to him and hug him, and he’d be all right until the next near catastrophe came along to have him worrying once again.

There really had been some near misses, too. Once, when he’d decided that he needed to just pop into the shower and get ready for the day, one of the kids decided that they’d simply make breakfast for the rest of the kids that were up. It was a mess, and he was still finding batter on walls when she’d burnt her little finger on the stove. No one had ended up in the hospital, nor had anyone had him arrested so he wasn’t sure what kind of disaster he was waiting on to befall them all.

After standing up and then having a seat when the judge entered, he realized that they weren’t the only ones in the courthouse today to get things cleared away. Making sure that the girls were all right, he thought about the work that was getting more behind every day at home. Ewing wondered if he’d been smart or not in asking the faeries to help him with his grapes. These were the faeries that his family took care of and they would be able to get all the grapes tied up to the wires that held the vines up. He usually did all the work himself in a day or two, but there just hadn’t been any time for much more than the kids in a while. When one of the kids poked him, he turned to look where she pointed.

“Do you know that man?” He grinned and told Harper that he was the president. “Of what? He sure does dress fancy.”

“The United States, honey. Pay attention. This might be good for whoever he’s here for.” She rolled her eyes at him, something that he was getting fairly familiar with, having little girls in his home. It could mean one of several things, but he thought that the one being used right now as that he was in over his head. Again. He didn’t particularly care for that look but since he felt like that most of the time, he didn’t disagree with her. Ewing was asked to stand, and he was barely able to get up before his beautiful little girls stood up as well in their seats.

“You’re not gonna hurt him.” He told Beth that he had this. “I don’t care who he is. He’s not gonna hurt you. You’re all I gots.”

“You have all those children surrounding you as well as the family here behind you, isn’t that right?” The Judge, Fred Hartman, asked Beth to sit down, but she was on a roll. “What’s your name, little girl? I should have it here, but I don’t…can you please tell me your name, honey?”

“Beth Carter Cross, but I don’t like the Carter part.” The judge told her that he could understand that. “No, you can’t. No body that wasn’t with us can understand the stuff that we’ve had to do because our parents weren’t fit to have a puppy.” Then Patty started talking.

“I was going to do this my own way after we voted on it last night—” Patty glared at Beth. “Anyway, we voted and we don’t want to ever leave here without Mr. Ewing. He’s been so good to us that I’m about to pop a button or two. And you know what? I have buttons to pop. We didn’t have not a single sock when we were trapped up inside that nasty house. None of us even had an idea that we’d be around the next day the way those people kept bringing us in and out cages.” She leaned down when Lily spoke to her then Patty looked at the judge. “I’m supposed to tell you that we want to adopt Mr. Ewing as our daddy. I know he’s not but he sure did take us into his house that day. He even says that he loves us. Nobody ever said that to us before him. We get to have baths and food and he even took us all out to a restaurant. I don’t know that he’s going to do that again, but up until that lady yelled at us for hogging up the bathroom, it was going right well.”

Ewing laughed, and so did the judge and the president. But it was Shippley, Mr. President, that started speaking.

“I don’t know that I could have said it better myself, young lady. And I heard about the woman yelling at the lot of you. I think I might have been more upset with her than Ewing was.” Patty asked if they could stay. “That’s not up to me, but this judge right here. And if it matters at all, I couldn’t recommend anyone better for the job than Ewing here. He not only has the patience of a saint with them but also the backing of his family to do right by these children. If my opinion matters, that is.”

He didn’t know who was more impressed with the vote of confidence, the judge or himself. But Patty apparently wasn’t satisfied with that answer and told him to tell her what she had to do to get to stay with him. The judge cleared his throat, amused that things were going in this direction, Ewing thought.

“We’ve had very little luck in finding your parents, Miss Patty. I also have it here that Miss Beth and Miss Rachel’s parents are all no longer with us. Young Billy…well, it looks like his parents have no desire to raise him either. The only ones that I do have a bead on are Miss Harper and Miss Lily.” He looked at Patty before going on. “I’m going to talk to you as you’ve been talking with me, young lady, and tell you that all you children will continue to live with the Cross family, Ewing as the main person that will answer for you until such time as we can get to the bottom of the mess that is the families in this thing. Does that mean that he can adopt you today? No, I’m sorry, it does not. But I do know that as soon as I know something, you will as well.”

“Can we call him daddy?” The judge looked at him just as he was wiping the tears off his cheeks. He told her that would be up to Ewing but he’d bet he’d not mind. “He’s the best, Mr. Judge. The other night…well, I had me an accident. I was having a bad dream, and he was right there for me. Didn’t cuff me upside the head like my parents would have, and didn’t take away none of my food. He just helped me to clean up and while I was taking a shower, he made sure my bed was clean and dried off so I could go back to sleep. He never one time said anything to anyone. I won’t go back to that other kind of house, Mr. Judge. I’ve…we all love him so much and want to stay with him forever.”

He held Patty while she sobbed to him about how it wasn’t fair. That people shouldn’t have children if they were going to be mean to them. For five minutes, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room. He himself was hurting so badly for the children that were in his care that he might well have run off with them if anyone was coming for them.

By the time the adoption paperwork for the other four children was completed, they were all exhausted. Billy was doing the best, he supposed, since he seemed to be able to sleep through just about anything but the girls. His girls were so tired even the prospect of having lunch with their favorite uncles and aunts wasn’t enough to pull them out of their funk.

He hoped that tomorrow would be better. However if anyone asked, he wasn’t counting on it. Ewing had to leave the kids with a sitter for a few hours later this evening to go to the vineyard and check on things. It was a test of sorts to see how much work he could get done without them there to distract him.

He was so happy that he’d found a friend in the Applegate family through their daughter Pauline Dixon, whom he’d met at the hospital. The family provided him with endless hand-me-downs as well as advice that he couldn’t get from his family as he was the only one that had all girls but for Billy and the only one with an infant. Just then, he decided that he needed a good long nap.

~*~

Liza asked again why it was her that had to go to the Cross house to babysit. She still didn’t have an answer, but she was willing to bet that no one wanted to do it because the kids were brats. She said as much to her older sister, Pauline.

“I’ve told you this several times, Liza. They’re wonderful children, and they have a good father in Ewing.” She told her that they probably had all the gizmos in the world. “Doubtful any of them have much more than the clothing on their backs. Why are you being such a bitch about this? Christ, I would have loved to have been able to babysit a rich man’s kids for a couple of hours and make the kind of bucks he’s talking about.”

“He’ll more than likely sue me or something if one of them gets a simple splinter.” Liza knew she was being a bitch, but she had wanted to go to the mall with her friends, not babysit. Besides, there was a cute guy at the movie theater that she wanted to get to know, too. She looked up when Shelby, the second older sister, came into the room. “I have to sit for the Cross kids.”

“Good for you. I hear that poor Mr. Cross hasn’t been out doing anything since he got them. They’re supposed to be these really nice kids, too.” She said that it was also more than likely a lie concocted because they had money. “Oh, grow up. You’re sixteen. Get your head out of your ass and go sit the kids. You might enjoy it.”

“Doubtful that anyone would enjoy watching six kids with money.” Shelby asked her if she was pissed off because they had money. “Yes. I’m betting that he only pays about ten bucks an hour for me to go there. I will miss out on fun at the mall and be made fun of because I’m stuck there. I need to get away from this family. Why would anyone think that it’s all right to volunteer anyone for a sitting job when they know that I have a life.”

“You’re sixteen, as I said. You’re not entitled to a life just yet. Mom volunteered you because you said that you wanted money this summer. Well, you’ll get it this way.” She stomped her foot while leaving the kitchen, where her sister was laughing at her. “What are you going to do when he gives you fifty bucks? Complain about that, too?”

“I’ll go.” She looked at her sister Megan when she came into the kitchen. “Mom said that you were being a brat and that since you think you’re too good to go babysit for the nicest family around, I’ll do it.”

“Really?” She nodded, pulling off her sweatshirt in favor of the warmer weather. “Really, and for truly, you’ll do this?”

“I said that I would, didn’t I? Besides, it will be the perfect way for me to get out of the house and make a few bucks for my next quarter in college. I’m sure that you would be mean to the kids simply because you don’t want to be there.” She told her sister that she would not. “Sure you won’t. Like you weren’t mean to Clay when you watched him for only fifteen minutes. However, if I make some really good bucks off of this, I’m going to rub it in your face for all eternity.”

“Good. I’m so glad that you’ll do this for me.” Liza was making plans even before she pulled out her cell phone to call her friends. One of the girls had an older brother, Devlin, who was going to be dropping them off at the mall, and she couldn’t have been more happy. She didn’t even feel guilty for her sister taking over the dreaded job because she was going to have herself some fun. “Can I borrow ten bucks in case we can go to the movies?”

No one in the house would lend her even enough money to get her a cola while the others had pizza at the mall. Family sucked, and she would be so thrilled when she was old enough to leave home.

Liza only had a couple more years, and she’d be free. Once she was, she wasn’t ever coming back to this stupid town, even for funerals. Well, maybe for a funeral, but nothing else. They all sucked as far as she was concerned.

By the time she was picked up, she’d made enough phone calls to let everyone know that she’d been set free. Posting selfies of herself on the web had her doing kissy faces to her followers. Getting into the car, something else that she was going to own soon, they were all headed to the one place where she could be free and herself.

The mall around here wasn’t the one that the tourists liked to visit. It was a little more run-down than the one just outside of town, but it was a place that didn’t cater to the stupid and boring people who came to the park a million times a year. She was excited too that the movie theater guy was sitting in one of the big seats outside the movie place and was smoking a cigarette.

“Here, have a hit.” It wasn’t a cigarette at all but some pot. Telling the guy—he was even more handsome this close that she didn’t want any had her friends and Vance, the guy, making fun of her. She didn’t want anything to do with drugs. Her family would kill her if they found out, and she knew that they would, and she’d never be able to go out again.

“Come on, Liza. Just take a little. It’ll get you all relaxed.” Liza was good at ignoring peer pressure. Simply telling them no had worked before, but this time, it was in front of Vance. Shaking her head she could feel her resolve waning and wondered if she was going to be able to say no all night. “You’re a big baby. What are they going to do, smell it on you? By the time we’re headed home, you’ll be all right, and we’ll have had a good time.”

“No.” She finally walked away, her heart pounding in her chest enough to make her feel like she was in trouble. Vance came to sit next to her, and he told her it was all right. “I just don’t want to get into trouble. You have no idea how hard it is to have so many sisters and brothers, and they know your every move. Just stop it. All right?”

When she looked at him, he blew smoke in her face. For a few seconds, no more, she felt good, but that soon wore off, and she felt a pinch to her arm. Turning to yell at the person who had hurt her, she was falling off the chair and onto the mall’s dirty floor. The syringe in his hands made her so terrified that she didn’t know what to do now.

“You just had to keep saying no, didn’t you? Stupid bitch. You’re not going to fuck up my ability to make a little more cash.” She could hear voices; however, she wasn’t able to respond to them. Her mouth felt nasty, and her entire body felt like it didn’t belong to her. “We’ll have to carry her. She’s too fucking stupid to just do what others told her. Put them in the trunk with that kid Devlin. Moron. Thought he could take me on when we knew what we were doing. As for this bitch,” The kick to her ribs had her crying out. “Put her in the trunk, too. It’s all she deserves for making me have to drug her up.”

She was helped to the car by being dragged. Liza could see the other girls that she hung out with. Each of them, too, was being dragged out of the mall. Terror like she’d never felt before made her sick to her stomach, and just as she was getting her feet under her, she felt another pinch to her arm, and she was out.

The next time that she woke up she was in complete darkness. Knowing on some level that she was in the trunk of a car didn’t make her feel all that much better about her situation. Being where she thought she was made her ill again. The smell of someone who had puked was close to her, and she couldn’t move with the weight of something or someone atop her. Trying to get to her cell phone, she nearly sobbed when she found it in her pocket. She couldn’t get it to her mouth, now with all the weight on her, so she dialed what she hoped was 911 so she could get out of there.

“Ewing Cross.” She started to hang up but didn’t know if she’d get to call anyone else. Pulling the phone as close to her as she could get it, she could see that she had about eleven percent battery left. “Hello? Is anyone—”

“I’m about out of battery. I’ve been kidnapped from the mall. I think that there are…I don’t know. Three people with me. Can you call my mommy for me?” Feeling stupid because she’d called her mom mommy, she tried her best to concentrate on what he was saying to her. “I’ll babysit for you forever if you get me. Please, Mr. Cross. Can you find me?”

“You said you were at the mall. Which one?” She told him. “How did you get there, and do you know if the car you’re in is the one you arrived in.”

“One of the girls with me, she’s been puking so that’s all I know about the car.” She looked around the best she could. “One of the tail lights is just a hole in the car. I don’t know what that means, but if that helps.”

“Can you hear anything? Is it a rough motor? Can you hear other cars? Does it feel like you’re going really fast?” She didn’t know and started crying. “Pay attention to me.” His voice was hard like she’d pissed him off, and so did what he said. “Listen. What do you hear?”

She was smashed up against one of the girls she had been with, and it felt like she wasn’t breathing. Of course, she couldn’t tell, not where she was, but she hoped they were all right. Listening to pay attention to her surroundings, she could hear car horns as well as the swishing of something going by her super-slow. She told the man that.

“Good. You’re on a back road and not the highway. Where were you in the mall? How did they get you out of there without you fighting them?” She told him that they’d been at the movie end of the mall and that a man by the name of Vance was the one who had given her something. “All right, that helps. I’m almost there now. Just keep calm. I know that you’re a shifter, but I don’t know that I’ve ever known what.”

“Cougars. My mom isn’t, but my dad and most of my brothers and sisters are. I’m going to die, aren’t I, Mr. Cross? I was so stupid that I just wanted to leave my family, and now I might not see them again.” He told her to behave and that he was pulling into the mall parking lot now. “I’m not there. I tried to tell you that. They took me out—”

“I’m trying to get your scent.” She felt stupid as soon as he told her what was going on. “My sister has some dogs that will be able to find you faster, so I’m calling her now. Don’t hang up. I’m also going to call your family.” She nodded, then remembered that he couldn’t see her. “Hang on. And no more thoughts of dying. I’m working on it. Just…don’t hang up. If I don’t hear from you or we get lost, I’m going to find you.”

She didn’t ask him if he was going to find her alive or not but did worry about that. She also told herself that she wasn’t going to go to the mall without her family ever again. If she ever got to go to the mall, that was. She was being whiney and hated herself for that.

It seemed like forever before she heard from Ewing. But before she could ask him how the search was going, the trunk opened up. Putting the phone in her blouse, the only place that she could think to put it and closed her eyes against the flashlight that was being used. She didn’t know what she was going to do but she hoped that she could get a message to Ewing like this. If they caught her with the phone, they’d surely kill her.

“One of them is dead already. Didn’t I tell you not to give them too much? Now we’ve lost out on about two grand. Fuckers. He might not even pay us at all if we don’t do what he says.” She nearly sobbed but didn’t speak when she was jerked out of the trunk and tossed onto the ground. “He’s going to be pissed off. We were told to get him three girls and now we’re down to two. I’m not taking the shit for this either.”

As the men were talking, she heard from her sister through their link. Liza nearly cried again when she spoke to her but Pauline told her to just try and act like she was still out.

“There were three of you in the car when you left for the mall. Do you know who the other two are?” She told her sister their names and that Devlin was brother to Tally, her friend. Liza told her about one of them being dead, but she couldn’t tell who right now. But told her the names, as well as Devlin Hamilton, was the driver. “Good. His car is a piece of shit. Can you see the car enough to tell me if it’s the same?”

“It’s not.” She lay there and looked around while the men were still talking to each other. “One of the guys is Vance Tetters, I believe. He works at the movie place. I swear, Pauline, I didn’t do any drugs. They put something in me from a shot. I’m so scared that they’re going to kill me, and I was so mean to Mom. Will you tell her how much I love her? Please?” She was told to be still as she was talking with the Cross men. “Are they gonna find us?”

“I hope so.” That wasn’t very nice but it was more than she deserved right now. Telling her not to tell her mom had Pauline telling her to be still again. “All right. Can you see the license plate of the car? If not that, then can you tell me what color the plates are?”

“Tennessee. I can’t see the last numbers, but the first ones are 908. It’s not the car we were picked up in.” She liked being able to help her sister. If for no other reason than they’d find her body quicker. Liza didn’t want to die, but she didn’t want to be eaten by the other animals around the park while dead, either. “There are four men. I thought there were only three at first, then—” She told her not to tell her anything that she didn’t need. Like there were four men but not to tell her that she thought there were three. “I’m afraid.”

“I know you are, honey. We’re doing…” When she stopped talking, it terrified her. “They have the scent of the car. Just stay put.”

She didn’t ask her where she was supposed to go, but she didn’t move either. When the next body was pulled out of the truck, she could see that it was Devlin, the guy who had driven them to the mall. And he looked as if he was dying or dead. They had beaten his face in, and he looked like a deflated mask at Halloween.

“Listen to me. The Crosses are using dogs to find you. If you hear them barking, I want you to tell me immediately. All right?” She said she would. “Good. Now, I want you to tell me what you can see? Anything?”

“Nothing. I’m afraid to open my eyes for too long because they’ll see me.” Liza didn’t want to cry, but she did tell her sister that she was going to die again. “I know it because I’ve been stupid thinking that because I was a cat, I couldn’t be hurt. Now, because I never listened to you guys in telling me to pay attention to things around me, I’m going to die.”

“Are you finished whining? If you do that again, I’m going to beat your ass when you get back here. You have a sleuth of bears, a pride of cougars, and a bunch of magical people looking for you. Now shut up that kind of talk.” She told her she was sorry. “The magical begins are having trouble finding you because they say that you’re lying on something or a large outcropping. Can you kind of move around so that they can pinpoint where you are?”

She moved just enough to gather the attention of the men. Just as she was telling her sister what was going on, she was hit in the face by one of the men. She thought that she wasn’t out for all that long as they were still kicking her when she came too. Liza didn’t hear the dogs barking, and that depressed her so much. She didn’t want to die but at least hoped they’d have her body home. Then they found her cell phone when it fell out of her blouse. She knew that it was the end for her.

The first bit of pain from her body being beaten took her breath away. After that, she never felt another thing.