Wrangler (Sheppard’s Shadow #3)

Chapter 8

Weston was just getting used to the phone ringing all the time when it finally stopped.

So now that he had someone to answer it for him, he was able to concentrate on the things that were on the desk that the FBI had left for him to go over.

The woman that he’d hired was someone that he liked.

Her name was Belinda Watson, a jag like he was, only she told him she was dark to his lighter colored one.

Once she was vetted, all her paperwork coming back clean, but for a ticket that she had when she was sixteen, she’d been working out great.

Last week, the two of them had figured out Ms.

Peashaw’s crazy filing system and had finally got it so that the two of them could find a file when they wanted it instead of trying to think like the older woman did before he’d fired her.

As it was, the FBI had picked her up and had been questioning her for the last several days.

Weston had always had a thing for numbers.

He had enjoyed it when the balance sheet came out to be right on the money.

If it didn’t, he wasn’t opposed to sitting for days on end trying to figure out why it didn’t.

That was why he was spot on with how much money he had all the time.

But it was Nash’s wife, Sunny, who figured out they were overspending on a great many things when she’d married his brother.

But working with the kind of numbers that were before him it was slightly daunting.

There were millions of dollars unaccounted for, and he’d been asked to see if he could not only find the money but to see what it was spent on.

He knew where a great deal of the money was now in a bank overseas that had just under six million dollars in the account.

The FBI had told him that the money would be coming back to the little town but they didn’t know when.

“The money was earmarked for the school improvement fund.

Also, there was a great deal of it missing for the police station to not just have a new jail put in but also bulletproof vests as well as up to date handguns for the men.”

He asked if he could start on some of those projects now that they knew where the money was.

The man was shaking his head before he even finished asking for it.

“I’d wait until it’s in the bank if I were you.

It might take a while for it to funnel through the system before it gets here.”

He asked him how long that might be.

Again, the man was shaking his head before he was able to finish the question.

It sort of pissed him off, but he knew better than to argue with a man with a gun.

“So, in other words, the town might never see it.”

The man didn’t say anything but stared at him.

“I see.

So we’re basically starting from scratch here.

Even though the money has been there all along, all I can do is hope that it someday shows up for us to use.”

“If ever.”

That wasn’t very helpful and as of two days after that, he was still working the money.

Then, yesterday, he was told that there would be some money coming their way, not from the FBI but from Sunny.

He’d complained to Lily when she’d come for a visit a couple of days before that about how he wasn’t going to be able to do anything if the money didn’t come to the town.

He might not even get paid, they’d told him.

So suddenly now he was getting a windfall for the town that he was going to start using right away.

He hoped before anyone would realize that it was there.

That was advice from Archie, and he was going to do just what he said.

“Mr.

Weston, there are three people in the reception area that need to talk to you.”

He asked Belinda if she knew what they wanted.

Not answering him right away made his belly jump, and then she closed the door.

“They’re here to tell you that the playground equipment is no longer safe for the kids to use.

That’s not it.

There is no playground equipment out there yet.

These people are going to see if they can get you to pay the fines and hire someone they know to bring you up to code.

They don’t have anyone in line to do that. They mostly want the fine money. It’s quite a bit of money.”

He loved having a sifter in his office.

The fact that she was a dark jaguar made him feel pretty good, too.

She had made a connection with him when he’d hired her and now he was fielding calls before he had to come to the phone.

It was working out perfectly for him and his job.

The men, three of them as it turned out, were led into the office.

Belinda was there as well.

She was going to be his backup, but as far as the men knew, she was going to be taking notes on the meeting as she’d be his witness to anything.

“You don’t need anyone taking notes, Mr.

Sheppard.

We have all the paperwork right here for you to sign, and she can go over it later if she wants.

The fine for the playground equipment is going to be ten thousand dollars.

We can recommend someone that can come out and spruce it up for it—if it’s salvageable, or you can outright pay for better and funner equipment right now, and that will be something that you can take off your plate.

And like your predecessor, you get your twenty percent cut in what we walk away with.”

The man doing the talking sat in the big chair across from him.

They were from Hathaway’s time here, and he had been wanting to toss them out since he’d been in office.

“I see.”

He took the paperwork and pretended to look it over while he reached out to his brothers.

Nash said that he was with one of the agents now and that he’d alert him to the things that were going on in his office.

“There are cameras here now, so maybe they can look and make sure that neither Belinda nor I are hurt.”

“They’re on it, little brother.”

As he was turning the pages of the paperwork, he kept asking questions about the playground equipment.

It didn’t take, but a couple of those before the man who seemed to be in charge was getting pissed off.

“We’re playing ball here, Mr.

Sheppard.

You’re not playing with us.

Either okay the bill of sale, or we’ll have to go out and tear up the little kiddies playground right now.”

Weston smiled at them and told the man that that would suit him better.

“What do you mean? We will do it.

I swear to Christ, we’ll go out there and rip us a couple of kiddies off the playground stuff to make our point.”

“You should have done your homework before coming here.

There isn’t any playground.

There hasn’t been since…gosh, I don’t think there has been any out there for at least ten years.”

Belinda corrected him and said it was when her brother was going to school there, and he was in college.

“Okay, twelve years then.

Thank you, dear.

Would you go and put that on our list of things to take care of?”

When she stood up to leave, she was pushed back in the chair by one of the nontalkers.

“She ain’t going nowhere.”

Talker looked at him with a gun now pointed at him.

He was more worried about Belinda than he was himself, so when Talker put the gun to his forehead, he slapped it away with his great paw.

It was something that he’d never thought of doing before.

Not only did he remove the gun from him, but his hand went flying with it.

There had been a short scream, and that was when he noticed that both the nontalkers were lying on the floor with a pissed-off she cat atop them.

It took Weston a few seconds to catch his breath so that he could stand up.

“Belinda, are you all right?”

She said she was just fine and dandy.

“Good.

I’m going to need a minute.”

Weston turned to the talker, who was screaming about his hand being gone and that he was bleeding.

“Will you shut the fuck up? I’m trying to think right now, and your caterwauling is getting on my last nerve. Shut up.”

“You cut my hand off, you mother fucker.

I’m going to kill you.”

Weston pointed to where the gun was with his hand still holding it and told him to go for it, but he’d never make it.

“You have to do something here.

I’m bleeding to death.”

“Like I fucking care.

You came in here thinking that I was an easy target and got your asses handed to you.

By a woman, no less.

One that I will be grateful for the rest of my life.

Belinda, put yourself down for a raise.

Will you remember that?”

She laughed and told him that she would for sure.

“Good.

Good.

The FBI are on their way and I have to tell you, I never dreamed that this job would be so lively.

Or I guess deadly would be a better way of putting things.”

His morning never got any better until the FBI left with the three men.

Well, two and one of them on the way to the hospital.

It wasn’t until he was able to send Belinda out for a couple of double meat subs at noon did he felt like they were making progress.

Once the paperwork was put through, not only did Belinda get her raise, but the playground where this whole thing started was up for repair, with the schoolyard getting the much-needed upgrade getting taken care of as well.

By the time he was leaving for home, he’d gotten about half of what he’d wanted done and he was all right with that.

“I have two questions for you.”

Weston asked Archie what they might be.

“This isn’t one of them, but did you know that Belinda has three sisters and two brothers?”

“Yes.

I mean, they don’t work for me but she did tell me that she came from a large family.

So do we.

What’s the problem.”

Archie told him that they’d never pledged to him.

“Oh, that I have the answer for.

None of them live around here.

The closest ones are Rogen and Taylor, who live in the Cincinnati area.

The others live in North Carolina.

That’s where they’re from.”

He did ask him if Belinda had.

“Yes, she did.

That’s what made me ask.

Okay, then the next two questions should be easy for you.

One of her brothers, Calhoun, I believe his name is works for an advertising company that does designs for ads for newspapers and magazines.

I was wondering if he would like to come here and work with Beau.

He’s wanting to branch out his role as an advertising agent—you know, he does jingles and things like that.

The two of them would make a great team.”

Weston asked his brother why he would come to him about that.

“I don’t know.

Does Belinda—I guess what I’m asking you is do they seem close? I like Belinda.

Do you suppose that she’s the only one in the family that is nice?”

“Let me tell you about my morning.

And how not only did she leap in to help me out, but she stayed her cat until the FBI showed up to take the men away.

She’s a hard worker and seems to have a head for what we’re doing here.

I’m telling you this because I have a feeling that they’re all outspoken, and they don’t have any trouble telling you no.

Nor do they stand back when they’re needed.”

Archie told him that was a good indication.

“I think so as well.

However, I know too that they all have good jobs.

I don’t know their names, but one of her brothers is, as you know, into advertising.

Two of them are farmers and they make a good living at that.

Then, the other two sisters are into construction.

I don’t know what they do, but apparently, they do it well because they are sought after all over the country. Don’t quote me on this, but I believe they own the company, the two of them. It’s called Two Watson Construction. They go by TWC.”

“Good information.

Okay, my second question is…you’ve already answered it.

I was wondering if they used any kind of construction company that would be willing to come here and work without men and women to see if we can get some work done on the leap building as well as fixing up a few roofs with some of the older people in the leap too.”

He told him that he didn’t have an answer about that.

“Just knowing that they know something about construction will help me a good deal, even if it’s only to recommend someone to work with us.

Thanks.

How’s things going now with you working on the town?”

“Good.

So far we’ve been able to put us in a nice filing system so we know how to find things.

Peashaw had things filed by their addresses.

It took us two days to figure that one out.”

The two of them talked about this and that, and once he had to take a call, Archie said that he’d talk to him later.

As he was finishing up the proposal that he was going to use to get someone out to have the school inspected, he was worn out.

The stress of the job wasn’t as bad as he thought it might be, but it was something that he was going to have to keep an eye on.

He didn’t want to be too stressed out so that he had himself a heart attack or something worse.

He enjoyed the walk to his place.

Weston had been looking over plans and the other houses that the faeries had built and was happy that he was going to wait.

He didn’t care for steel and shiny, what he called modern home but since it was going to be for his mate, he didn’t care what it ended up being so long that she was happy.

He hoped that she’d be happy with it anyway.

Going into his apartment, the one that he’d had since before his mother had been killed, and looked around the place.

It wasn’t dirty.

He’d been someone who was neat about his things like he was with numbers.

Things had a place and that place is where he put it when he was finished with it.

But the things in the place were secondhand.

All of it.

He was fearful of spending money on something that would get him caught by his mother or grandfather, and that would be painful for all of them.

His mother had believed in equal punishment for everyone. Even if they had nothing to do with whatever was going on. He decided right then and there that he was going to find him a newer place and toss everything out that had been bought with fear in his heart. It was going to be a new beginning for him. Much like it was for his older brothers. Out with the old, in with the new.

~*~

Rogen was putting the next sheet of the sheetrock up on the wall when her sister contacted her.

Smiling before she even spoke, Rogen picked up the tape to fix the seams in the wall before she moved on to the next wall.

As usual, her sister started out the conversation like they’d been talking all day long.

“I have a clothing bonus as well as time paid for lunch.

Not to mention the vacation I was telling you about last night.”

She told her that was great as she lined up the last of the tape that would hold the wall together until the plaster dried.

“There’s medical, too, but I don’t know that I’ll use that all that much with me being a cat and all.

Today was proof that I might need to bring more clothing to work in case something happened and I had to shift.”

Pausing, she asked her what had happened there.

Rogen felt better after hearing all the details about the men coming into the office but she still didn’t care for the fact that she was literally in the line of fire with this job.

She wouldn’t tell her to quit working but decided that she was going to make sure her boss understood that if anything happened to Belinda, there would be a world of hurt brought down on the boss.

The room was finished by the time she was finished speaking to her sister.

Belinda was happy.

It had been a very long time since she’d heard her laughing and having a good time.

When her husband had been killed a few years ago, all of them despaired of her ever recovering.

Not only had Benson been killed, but their two children had been as well.

It had been a fire in their home that had not just taken Belinda’s family but everything in the house as well.

Some items that she would never get back.

“Whatcha up to?”

Rogen looked up at her sister Sandy and asked her how the other rooms were going.

“I have two of the main rooms finished up, and they’ll be painted tomorrow.

That was a great idea that you had about the fans blowing directly on the walls.

It’s saved us about a week of getting this house finished.”

“I spoke with the owner the other day, but I didn’t mention that we’d be finished early.

I believe that it would give the woman more things to think about changing in the house.

I can’t believe how much rework we’ve had to do because we told her that we had a day extra.

No way am I telling her that we have a week.

What’s up with you now?”

Sandy sat down on one of the large spools of wiring that had been being used for a table.

“Is it that bad? What can I do for you? Slay some dragons? I will, you know.”

“Danny wants me to quit working and stay at home more with him.

I don’t know how he expects money to be coming in when he doesn’t have a job.”

Sandy put up her hand to stop what Rogen knew was going to upset her.

“I know.

You told me not to marry him, but I was lonely.

Not only that, he was working when I first met him.

He’s so different now.”

“I don’t think that he’s any different but just more vocal about it.

What did you tell him about the partnership that the two of us have?”

She didn’t look at her but did tell Rogen that he knew that if she quit working, the company would go only to Rogen.

“I told you that was going to be the only thing that saved you.

What did he have to say about that?”

“That he thinks you should have to buy me out so that he can—and he actually said so that he could have some extra money for the things that he does.

The only thing that he does is spend money on those toys he’s playing with.”

She finally looked up at her, and Rogen could see that she’d been crying.

“Benson told me that I needed to get with child, and that would make you back off.

I don’t know how he thinks that’s going to happen.

I’ve told him several times that I can’t have his child, but he insists that I’m lying because you told me to.”

“Want me to have a talk with him?”

Sandy told her that she didn’t want to have to visit her in jail again.

“That first time was all on him.

It even came out in court that he drew his gun on me first.

I wish more and more that I’d ended his life rather than spare it.”

“Don’t kill him, please? He’s not worth it.”

Nodding, she noticed on her sister something that she’d not noticed this morning when they were having breakfast to start the day.

She moved her sister’s hair out of the way and then started cursing.

“I’m not even going to lie to you and say it was my fault.

He backhanded me right before I left for work this morning because I didn’t want him to go with me to breakfast.

All the two of you would do is fight and—where are you going?”

“I’m calling the family.

Enough is enough.”

She waited for Sandy to tell her not to do it, to not involve the family, but when she picked up the phone, too angry to reach out to them, Sandy told her that Toby and Leanord would be working the fields and not hear her calling.

That was all the okay that she needed to get Benson taken care of once and for all.

After talking to all her brothers, she called Belinda later.

She didn’t want to upset her at work, and whatever they planned for the man wasn’t going to include her sister.

Belinda was fragile, and no one wanted her to be brought back down to where she was several years ago.

Once she got her on the phone, it was only a matter of minutes before Belinda told her that not only was she going to help with Benson, she might well be the one that killed his fucking ass.

“I didn’t think you’d want to be a part of it.”

She asked her why not, Sandy was her sister too.

“She is, and I didn’t mean to imply that she wasn’t.

But you’ve had a rough few years and are just now getting up on your feet.

I didn’t want to bring you down again.”

“This is just what I need.

To help her the way that you all helped me.

We all know that if not for my family, I wouldn’t have survived.

Just losing my husband was bad enough, but my…I lost everything, or so I thought.

The rest of you wouldn’t allow me to wallow in my self-pity, and I couldn’t love you anymore for it.”

Rogen told her that she loved her.

“And I love you too, Rogen, with all my being.

But I want him out of her life, especially since he’s knocking her around.

Let me ask you something.

Do you think it’s the first time he’s done it?”

“I didn’t ask her.

I don’t think that I want to know.”

Belinda had to put her phone down to answer the door.

She thought about hanging up but when she heard the man’s voice in the room with her sister, she did reach out to figure out if she was in trouble or not.

Apparently, it was her boss coming by to tell her that he was going to go back into the office tonight so that he could take tomorrow off.

Rogen thought that was nice of him.

“I might have to take some time off too.

One of my sisters is being beaten up by the man that she’s married to.”

He must have asked if he was a shifter because Belinda answered that.

“No.

Sandy was feeling lonely one night after coming to my house with the kids around her and Benson came around making her feel special.

Then about a week after they were married, he not only quit his job but he started spending money that they didn’t have.”

Rogen thought that she was telling the man a great deal about their soon to be ex brother-in-law, but she’d never met the man nor did she trust easily.

When her sister came back on the line, she started out with a plan to get Sandy away from Benson for a few days so that no one would blame her when he came up missing.

“And by that, I mean dead.”

Rogen laughed, telling her sister that she’d never would have thought that she had that in her.

“I’d like to think that I’m as strong as you are, but no one, not even our brothers, can outdo you.

But I will help.

And here’s my plan.”

After telling her that Sandy could come up here and talk to Weston, her boss, then she could stick around and help out his shadow when it came to training his people.

That was where Weston was going to be headed in the morning with his brothers Nash and Beau.

After Sandy came here and worked for a while, you guys can do whatever is necessary to get him out of her life.

“And what do you think your boss is going to say when he figures out that Sandy just happened to be around your boss when her husband of eleven years comes up missing.

Didn’t you tell me that one of them was a shadow alpha?”

She told her that was a brilliant idea.

“Now, what have I said? I don’t know if you realize this or not, but you talk a great deal in riddles.

What did I have an idea about.”

“That they go there.

Oh, this is great.

Archie is a great man and a wonderful leader.

I was actually thinking about joining this one here rather than have to pay part of my check to the one down there every week.”

Rogen asked her what she meant.

“Since I’ve been here, I’ve been billed weekly a fine for not living with my shadow.”

“He can’t do that to you.

You told me, too, that you pledged to the leap leader there.

Didn’t you?”

She said that she had but didn’t have to pay any fees because she worked for his brother.

“That’s not right, honey.

Let me look into things here, or you can talk with this Archie person and find out if that’s true.

How much is it that you’ve been paying?”

She told her.

“Holy Christ, Belinda, no wonder you were having so much trouble with keeping your lights on.

That’s about half of what you make, or close to it.”

“Close.

I guess I never thought that after all this time, I’d be cheated, so I just paid the fine and went on with my life.

I wonder if now that I have a better paying job if he’ll try and get more out of me?”

Rogen told her to look into it and to make sure that she wasn’t being told that she didn’t have to pay the dues and then find out later that she did.

“I have that in my paperwork.

So I know that’s true.”

Rogen didn’t know what to believe now.

As they were talking about the plans that she had, and it was a good one too, she decided that she was going to go and talk to their leader and find out about this.

Then she thought that was a good way to get herself killed and decided to go to Belinda and find out from her boss.

Since he wanted help, she was going to get as much from him as she could.

No mother fucker was going to take advantage of her little family and get away with it.

It just wasn’t right.

She and Sandy finished up working on the house they were working on.

It was a big payday for them, but only if the woman who owned the house would quit changing her mind every three days.

As it was now, they’d had to move the two outside doors over to make room for one more.

Then there was the kitchen that had to have a bigger refrigerator as well as a six-burner stove that she could have her staff using.

That had taken four more days of work just to get the kitchen looking like she wanted it.

And she didn’t want to get started thinking about how there was no carpet in the bedrooms four times then she wanted it back.

They’d not had it laid as yet, knowing that she was going to change her mind before things were wrapped up.

Telling the woman that the carpet that she wanted, a bright white for the children’s rooms, was on back order so that she’d not have to change it out again and again.

Even the thought of having a white carpet in a kid’s room gave her the willies.

Toby had four kids of his own, and each one of them could tear up anything white in a matter of minutes and not even get themselves dirty in the process.

She was home packing up when she heard back from her sister.

The entire Sheppard family was coming to them to talk business and to meet their leader too.

Rogen wasn’t sure about that and told her sister that but it was a done deal.

They were coming and were going to help take care of Benson, the shithead.

She wanted to knock the shit out of him now, but she would wait on the bigger team coming.

If they fucked up, she’d find a place to bury them as well.

All of them.

She was just glad that she didn’t have to work outside with the woman.

The lawn company had threatened to quit a dozen times and the place still looked like a dump site for construction site debris.