Ewing (A Cross to Bear #6)

Chapter 2

Ewing watched the people in the emergency room. There were three families here that needed to be and several others that were here for support. He refused to think that they were here out of some morbid curiosity. It was going to be a difficult few months ahead after this, and he was glad that he had his kids with him for a quick hug or just someone to talk to.

“How many other kids have they found?” He looked at Mark from across the room . “I know you have contact with someone on the force. I just want to know that this is much bigger than what we were first made aware of.”

“Ten more females and two more males. For the most part, they’re like the kids that we have here now. Their bodies are so mutilated that it’s going to be difficult to make any kind of identification. As it stands right now, sixteen kids are missing, with just the two males that they’ve found already. So we still have several female teenagers missing if you count the ones that were brought in tonight.” Mark started cursing, and he didn’t blame him. His thoughts were that this couldn’t be any more terrible. “Devlin was the oldest at seventeen. You remember him, don’t you? He borrowed your car to take his driver’s test. Libby Hamilton, his sister, is just a year younger than him. Then there is Pauline’s sister, Liza Halloway. And Pearl Duncan, who turned sixteen on the tenth.”

Liza was the child because she was just too young to have been killed like she had, and was the girl that he’d spoken to—was it only last night? Devlin had been beaten to death. His brain had been exposed from the treatment done to his face and head. Libby had been torn apart. They’d tied her small body between a tree and the car and then jerked it into pieces, tearing her into so many parts that he wondered if anyone would be able to recover her entirely.

Pearl, the youngest of the four kids, had been mutilated with what they discovered was a towing chain. It looked to them that they’d taken turns using it like a whip on the child until there was nothing much left of her to be able to say that she was a human, much less the pretty little redhead that she’d been. But it was Liza that had taken the most beating.

When they came upon her body first, it was all he could do to keep his belly intact. They’d cut her up into so many pieces to form the word ‘bitch’ that he knew for the rest of his life that he’d never forget her. And in her mouth, really just her jaws because her teeth, as well as her skin, were gone, there sat her cell phone. As if they knew that she’d been talking to one of them all along. It had been too late to save any of the teenagers, but almost as soon as he and his brothers were on site, they shifted into their beasts and took off after the men who had dared do this to a bunch of mall kids.

“Mr. Ewing, can you tell me what happened to my son? They won’t tell us anything other than he’s…he was only seventeen years old. And his sister just barely turned…What am I supposed to do now? They were all I had in this world.” While holding onto Mr. Hamilton, he could feel his body shaking with his emotions. “They were just kids, and they tell me that we’re going to have to bury them quickly as nothing can be done for them. Why? I ask you, why did they do this to my children?”

“I don’t have an answer, Mr. Hamiliton. I wish I did but I’m sorry that I don’t.” He nodded and pulled away, his face pale and his hands shaking. “Why don’t I get you a cup of water. You have to be strong for your family, Mr. Hamilton. They’re going to need you in the—”

“I don’t want to go on, young man. I just don’t have it in me to go on.” Holding him again while he guided him to one of the many chairs in the room, he sat with the elderly man until his wife could be found.

Ewing wanted to say that he knew the grief that they were going through. Losing someone to a senseless act, but he didn’t really think that his losing his grandparents was anywhere near what losing a child was like. He wanted to scream for all the injustice in the world.

“Are they dead?” He looked at Mrs. Halloway, and he nodded. “Good. One less thing that I’d have to worry about. Did you know these monsters? Have you encountered them or their like before?”

“No, ma’am. But they were monsters.” She nodded and looked at him again. He could see her falling apart. While her body looked strong and ready to take anything on, he could see the deep depression in her face that would linger there well after the men that had killed her daughter were nothing but dark soil in the woods. “Ms. Hamilton, if not for your daughter, we wouldn’t have been able to bring any of them home. Not your child nor the ones that we found later. She was brave for what she did. Using her cell phone is more than likely what caused her death so quickly. Liza told her sister and me that she knew she was going to die, yet she was so brave.”

“Pauline told me that she told her the same thing. That she didn’t want to die, but that didn’t stop her from helping out you fine agents. I’m going to miss her so much.” She cried softly, and it hurt him deep into his soul. “She wasn’t a good girl. Lippy when she had a mind to. Smart, but she never let herself shine. But she was my lippy brat, and I’m going to have a tough time going on without her there with me.”

He held onto her hand while they sat there. Neither of them spoke but he did hand her tissues when she needed them. Looking around the large area, he was glad that Mark had suggested that they come here after finding the bodies and the men. There was no more they could do out in the field as they were all retired from the park, but it didn’t bother them when the park’s personnel asked them for assistance.

By midnight, he was about as exhausted as he’d ever been. Ewing still had to go home with the kids, get them into their beds, and then be up when they were up for the day. He knew that he’d have help in the way of the faeries, but right now, all he wanted to do was to sleep for about a thousand years, pushing out all the memories of the last twenty-four hours. He kept telling himself that his grannie would be proud of him and grandda would be patting him on the back like he’d invented children and their troubles.

“Mr. Cross?” He felt himself still looking around for his grandda when someone called him that. Mr. Ewing usually worked for most people, especially when they were pretty close in age, as he thought he and the woman standing in front of him was. “Are you all right?”

“I’d like to say yes, I have this, but I don’t, so no, I’m not all right. Are you?” She told him that she’d had better. “What can I do for you? Hopefully, it won’t be too much, I’m dead on my feet.”

“I’m with the office of the president, and he asked me to see you.” Nodding, telling her that he would do anything for the man. “He just needs you to sign off on the paperwork for the upcoming election campaign. I guess you’re donating all the wine for the event.”

“Yes, I am. He told me about a thousand bottles.” He nearly fell into the woman. “I’m suddenly not feeling very well. Could you help me?”

He didn’t know where she was leading him, but he was glad when the two of them finally stopped. Just as he was ready to beg her for a pillow and a blanket, he was lying on one of the hospital beds and being covered up. Telling the woman that he had only a few minutes that he needed to get to his children before he closed his eyes.

~*~

Trinity watched the man sleep. He didn’t smell like he was drunk. Nor did he smell like any drugs. And she’d know that smell since her brothers were doing it all the time. Moving the curl of hair that fell over his forehead, she thought that he had a handsome face, one that she could wake up to—

Stepping back from the man, she told herself that she didn’t know what she’d been thinking. There was no way that he could be her mate, not for her. Leaning into his throat, she nearly came with the scent that hit her. Not only did it hit her nose but all of her senses seemed to have woken up as well. She’d found her mate.

Leaving the little room that he’d sort of fallen into, she found his brother, Mark. He’d been the one who had told her where to find Ewing. Now, all she wanted to do was to get on the next flight out and never return again.

“You look like you’ve had a fright. What’s happened? Did you find Ewing?” She nodded, then shook her head. She’d found him all right but didn’t want to. “Are you all right, Trinity? You’re looking a little tense.”

“He’s asleep. He told me that he couldn’t—he has kids?” She didn’t know how that was possible if she was his mate. “How many?”

“Six at last count.” Trinity felt her head swimming and had to hold onto something. Reaching out to the door jamb, she looked up at Mark. He had six children? “They call him now when they have a stray child, and he takes them in.”

“They’re not his then?” Mark told her that he’d already adopted four of the children but was waiting on information for the other two. “He’s married then?”

“No. He’s not married. Just a wealthy single guy who takes in children when they need him. You didn’t answer my question. Are you all right? You seem a little, I don’t know, scary. Did he say something to you? I hope not. He’s been on the go for the last…gosh, about two weeks now. What with the kids and the bodies tonight. He has a vineyard, too.” She didn’t want to be here but didn’t know what to do either. “You’re his mate. Aren’t you? I mean, that’s the only reason that I can figure out why you are worried about him having kids and not being married. Am I right?”

“Yes. He’s a wealthy man, you said. I have…I have my own money. I can’t be mated right now. You’ve no idea…well, you might have an idea what is going on, but I don’t…I’m flustered.” He told her that he could tell. “Don’t make fun of me. I’m trying my best here to not freak out. I have a job that I love, and he’s going to expect me to drop everything and—I don’t know if that’s what he’s doing to do, mind you, but my father did that to my mom. As soon as I was born, she had to stop her career, a good one too, and stay at home to be a mom. She never wanted that, and I don’t either.”

“Are you finished?” They both turned to the voice that was behind her. It was Ewing, her mate, and he looked about as pissed off as she’d ever seen anyone before. “I was tired and only needed a power nap. I’m going home.” He looked at her. “You can go to hell.”

As soon as he left, she felt the weight of what she’d said to him weighing on her heart. She’d been out of line and rude. She no more knew what he was going to do than she knew what she would do. Looking at Mark, she decided that he wasn’t going to be too much help as he was looking at her with a cocked brow and a tight face.

She had to find him again and have him sign off on the paperwork that she’d been sent here to do. Now he was pissed off—with good reason, and she was going to lose her job because she’d pissed off the only man in the world that would have had her back if she needed it. Or she hoped that he would.

Finding him in the hallway near the elevators, she watched him with the little boy he had in his arms. He was a cutie, with chubby little cheeks and pink poised lips. When he smiled at her, just like that, she was in love with the little man. When he got into the elevator, she did as well.

“I need you to sign off on this, please?” He couldn’t do it with the child in his arms, so he told her that she’d have to wait. “I can hold him for you.”

“I don’t want to get in the way of your career, Ms. Adamson.” He handed her the baby and signed his name in the right places. When he started to take the baby back, she turned her back on him and glared. “Will you give me my child?”

“You’re angry, and I’m sure he’ll be able to feel it. I know that I can.” As he shook himself of his anger, literally shaking his body, she took the opportunity to look at him. Christ, he was a great-looking man. “I’m sorry for my words. My assumptions. I’ve been working on my career for a long time and I don’t want to have to give it up because of children. I never wanted any.”

“Well, goody for you.” He took the little boy, but not before she was able to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. “I’m going home. To my home. I didn’t ask you, nor will I ever ask anyone to give up their lives simply because I thought that adopting the little people in my household was much more manageable than falling in love with a—what are you anyway?”

“Bear.” Ewing told her that he got that part, but what did she do for a living. “Oh, I’m an attorney. I work for the president.”

“So do I.” When the doors opened on their own, he stepped out into the empty hallway and turned to her. If he were to slash her throat right now, it would be no more than she deserved. “Next time you want to make an assumption about someone, you should really take the time to watch them first. There is no telling what sort of information you might find out.”

“Dad?” When he turned to the voices in the room behind him, Trinity could see that he had smiled. The little girl holding the door open was smiling up at Ewing. “Are we finally going home? I miss my bed.”

The door clicked shut, and when she heard the lock engage, she wanted to shift into her bear and tear it from its hinges and toss the man out on his ass. Like that would do her a bit of good, she thought. Pulling out her cell phone, she called her boss.

“I might have done something that is going to bite me in the ass.” She said that Mark had told him that she was Ewing’s mate. Then he congratulated her. “Ewing is the best of the Cross men. Loyal to a fault and a great man to have in your corner. I don’t know that I’d be all that happy with you either if you were to talk about me behind my back. Are you on your way back here?”

“I can send the paperwork to you if you plan on firing me. In fact, I think I’d like that better than facing anyone right now.” He asked her if she thought that he was a vindictive man. “No. But I know how much the Cross Bears mean to you. And I’ve royally pissed one of them off by being stupid.”

“Mark told me that you were a bitch to his little brother. Also, outspoken, and you didn’t have a single clue what you were dealing with, but, again, he said you were making stupid assumptions.” She told him that she had. “Send the paperwork to me so that I can get that squared away and then you spend the next week fixing this with Ewing. I don’t care if you declare that you love him from the highest mountains down there; I want this resolved in a week, or there will not be a job to come back to. You’re right in saying that I’m fond of the Cross men. But what you did was uncalled for as well as something that I never expected out of you. Fix it.”

The silence at the other end of the now-dead phone was deafening. She’d fucked up royally and didn’t even know where to start on fixing things. He didn’t say that she had to be a mate, but she did have to fix this thing with him.

After finding a place where she could not only fax the paperwork to the president, she also found an overnight courier service that would have the signed document in DC today. Girthing up her loins, as her father used to say, she went to find one of the family members to find out how to get in touch with Ewing. She had an idea that it was going to take more than an apology to make this right, but she’d do what she needed to do because her job meant everything to her.

Instead of finding one of the bears, she found the mates to the others. Thinking that they’d understand where she was coming from, the five of them were especially cold to her when she said that she needed to find a way to contact Ewing.

“Why? So you can take a bit more of his heart out of him? He’s a good man, and you made him hurt.” She told who she thought was Jamie, Mark’s mate that was what she was going to do, to fix this. “How do you propose to do that? From where I’m standing, and, correct me if I’m wrong, but you’re only doing this to keep your job. Correct?”

“Yes, well, that’s part of it. Did you have careers that you didn’t want to leave when you met up with your other halves?” Each of them said that they didn’t want to work anymore after finding one of the Cross men. “Well, good for you. I’ve been working for the president for the last few years, and I worked hard to get there, too. I’m not going to be giving it up without a fight either.”

“It’s doubtful to me that you’d have to put up any kind of fight. These men, though I guess you think that you already know them, aren’t like other men. Nor shifters. When they tell you something, like they’ve got your back if you need them, then they won’t step in until you say you do. As for working for the president, the eleven of us do as well.” She wasn’t getting anywhere with these women and told them so. “Good for us then. You’ll be careful where you tread, my dear. There is no telling what will pop out at you in the best of times.”

In the end, she had to call the president to get an address for the other man. Not only did she need that, but apparently, no one would give her a lift to his house, though they were all headed there now.

Stomping her feet to head out of the hospital she’d been sent here to be in, Trinity thought of all the things she was going to do with her free time without any children around nor a big handsome bear of a mate.

It took her eight hours to find a car to rent. It might have been less time but it only just occurred to her that she could rent a car rather than just assume that someone could take her back to the Cross homestead in their car. Sometimes, she never saw the trees for all the forests that were in her way.

Vowing to make sure that she kept records of everything that she’d had to do because a man got his feelings hurt was beyond measure to her. Stupid fucker. Turning up the stereo in the car, she knew that it wasn’t to drown out her signing but to make her heart feel better about what she’d done. To a near stranger, no less.

It was nearly midnight when she pulled into town. You’d never know it by the way that the park entrance was busy, nor with all the restaurants’ colorful signs lighting up the way so brightly either. It was as bad as Vegas, she thought, a town that she didn’t care for any more than she did having to talk to Ewing again.

Finding a hotel proved to be just as difficult. It was high season, whatever the hell that meant, so all the hotels were full. Even finding one off the beaten path seemed to be something that was out of this realm of possibilities. She was about as pissed off as she could be when she was told that she should have made reservations. Again.

“I’m here on business.” Well, she was sort of. “I need to find one of the Cross men in the morning then I’ll be able to leave. I only need a room that has a shower and a clean change of clothing.”

“We don’t have clothing here. But there are plenty of places along the strip where you can get yourself a nice T-shirt and some shorts. If you’re looking for any other attire, then I’m afraid that you’re going to be out of luck.” With a wink, she leaned into her face. “If I had me a chance to go see one of them Cross men, I’d wear very little and say less than that. The last one, Ewing? He’s the best of the lot if you ask me. He’s been taking care of those kids like he gave birth to them all on his own.”

“He doesn’t have any help with them?” She told her that once in a while, one of them would go to the house and let him take a shower, but mostly it was just him. “I’m to understand that he has a great deal of money too. Why doesn’t he just find someone to live in with him?”

“Oh, he’s not like that. Like his brothers, if they have a responsibility to someone or something, they go all out in taking care of it. I’ve never known a one of them that wouldn’t stop. Even when they were rangers on their way to work, they’d stop and change a tire or something. And at Christmas time, they give away tons of toys for the drives and candy too.” This didn’t sound a bit like the man that she’d conjured up in her thoughts about him. In fact, it was the exact opposite. “They were devasted when their grandparents died. The mister was killed in the line of duty. He was a volunteer here at the park and the missus, she simply couldn’t live without him and passed on that very night. Sad story but true.”

“Do you have a number for any of them? I don’t want to just pop by to talk to Ewing.” She asked her if she had lunch yet. “No. It’s barely…well, I forgot about the time change. No, I’ve not had breakfast nor supper last night, now that I think about it.”

“He’s over at the diner. The one just about a block from here. The kids are with him, so he might be too busy to talk to you. He just loves those little kids.” She asked for directions and was out the door before she remembered that she’d not had a shower yet either.

Oh well, the sooner she was able to get back to her perfect life, the better. She didn’t want children, and she didn’t need a mate. As soon as she walked into the diner, she knew that her perfect little apology to Ewing wasn’t going to be so perfect after all.

There were police in the little place holding onto one of the children she’d seen with Ewing yesterday. The child, she couldn’t have been any more than six or so, was screaming her bloody head off. The baby was crying, and Ewing was in the headlock of some very upset man. Going up behind the man who was holding Ewing, she jerked his arm around, freeing her mate. The police freed the little girl, and she came running to her. Not her dad but her. Picking her up, the little girl was a mess of tears. She asked Ewing what was going on. As calmly as he could, she could tell he told her that the man that was in the police custody said that he was going to take his prize back. He did that quote thing with his fingers so she had an idea that he didn’t think that his daughter was going to be a prize to anyone.

“Mr. Anderson here said that he bought and paid for Patty, and he was either going to get his money back or take the child. I, of course, offered him his money back, but he told me that he’d changed his mind.” Ewing let out a long breath before continuing. The baby was still crying, so he picked him up in his arms and snuggled him for a moment. “Patty isn’t going with anyone. She’s my daughter, and I told him that. But he said that if he didn’t get one of them, then he was going to kill me and take them all, including Billy here.”

“Are you pressing charges?” He just glared at her. “Look, buster, I didn’t want to do this, but it was either, but I had to save your ass so I could get back to my job.”

“Yes, I’m pressing charges. May I have my daughter back, please?” She sat down at the table where all the plates had been dumped on the floor and around the restaurant walls. Picking up some of the silverware, she smiled at the waitress when she came to the table. “What are you doing?”

“Can we have this cleaned up, please? Or better yet, I’ll help you clean it up if I can get some food. I’m starving. Is there another place that we can have a seat?” The waitress told her that she had the mess and a table just for them. “Thank you so much. And I’ll pay whatever it costs extra for this needing to be cleaned up, too.”

“You go on with yourself now. I got this.” Taking the hand of one of the little girls, actually she’d taken hers, Trinity made her way to the other table to have a seat. The other two girls and the car seat with the baby in it again were brought over by Ewing. Patty, the one who had been nearly kidnapped, was still crying, so she took her to the bathroom to get her cleaned up. The other two girls, she didn’t know their names, came with her to keep a watch out for the bad man again. Somehow, the child had ended up with syrup all over her head.

“Dad won’t ever take us out again after this. And we were being so good.” The middle child, she was told her name was Harper rolled her eyes before continuing. “People just suck if you were to ask me about it. I think that I’ll just live and die on the mountain and never come to town again.”

“That doesn’t sound so good.” She told her that she didn’t know the mountain. “True. I’m assuming that you live in a log cabin or something.”

“Get real. We live in a big house with lots of stairs and bedrooms. Dad said that we have all that room, so we might as well enjoy it. We also have a pool, but it’s not open right now. Dad’s been waiting until we get swimming lessons before he’ll do that.”

The three little girls talked around her. They were polite and she only just realized that they weren’t related. Not by blood, anyway. As she was getting Patty’s hair pulled up into a messy bun, they were ready to go back to their food. So was she.