Carter (2 page)

She’s got a dad. His name is Daniel Murphy. Not as bad as Hannah’s mom, but right up there. And you do remember that Murph’s name is Dane Murphy, right? She said she had money when we were younger, but I never saw it in her. And she was at one time a cop, I think, or something like that.
He smiled.
Oh, and you might want to check out a man by the name of Winston James the ninth. He hung with us too. Murph was the only one that could call him Whinny and get away with it.

Why him?
Rider had no idea but told him it was a feeling.
All right then. And did you say her dad’s name is Daniel and hers is Dane?

Yeah. When you meet him, if you ever do, you’ll understand.

Misha said he’d get on it and closed the connection. Rider went back into the hospital to wait until he could see his friend. He thought about the first time the two of them had sat down and had a serious talk.

She’d been in his apartment and reading one of her countless books. She had suddenly looked up at him and smiled. Rider smiled back but sat down hard when she had started talking.

“You’re a leopard, aren’t you? I mean, you try really hard to fit in, but that’s what you are.” He nodded. “Yeah, I thought so. I’m just a regular human, but I bet you knew that.”

“Yes. You’re very smart and you can manipulate things with your mind, but I think only human.” She asked him why he only thought she was. “Unless I taste your blood, I can’t be sure about anything about you.”

She had put out her wrist to him and he stared at it. “Taste it. I know that we’ll have this better connection and all. Hell, Rider, you know that I can read people’s minds now, so you having the ability to read mine if I let you won’t be so bad.”

“I’ll not just be able to read your mind, Murph, but I’ll be able to find you even if you don’t want me to.” She shook her head. “I will. Your blood will call to me.”

“No, it won’t. It might for the first few hours, but you won’t be able to after that. Something about me shields things like that. My dad had this vampire bite me once so he could keep tabs on me. The vamp thought I was dead a few hours later and came to the house to tell my dad. Surprise to him was that I was sitting with Dad in the living room being…talked too.”

Rider had found out later that she’d meant that she was being knocked around. Her dad had been a real bastard when he was around his daughter. Murph had never told him all of it, and Rider had asked her a lot. She’d told him it was because she wasn’t taking his shit, but Rider thought it had been more than that. So he’d tasted her blood.

“You’re not just human, are you?” She’d shaken her head and smiled at him. He had felt stupid, like a small puppy that she’d been proud of. “Well, Miss Know-It-All, what are you then? And why did you have me taste you if you knew that?”

Rider knew that he’d hurt her, and when she started stuffing her books into her bag, he’d watched her. At first he thought she’d just tell him to fuck off, her favorite thing to say when she was upset, but she said nothing as she made her way to the door. He stopped her by shoving her against the door with her body in front of his. He remembered thinking at the time how small she was, how incredibly tiny she was to his grown-man size.

“Please don’t. I’m sorry. You’re…I’m jealous, if you want to know the truth. Of you.” She turned then, and he looked down at her. The urge to kiss her came and left him almost in the same breath. The need to protect her, however, never left him, even though he was pretty sure she could do a better job of it than he could. “I’m so sorry I hurt you.”

“You’re jealous of me?” He nodded. “You have this amazing family. Brothers out the ass that you complain about all the time but love to death. A mom that keeps you in line, and she bakes you cookies to send to you. All you need to do is say you’re having a shitty day and one of them comes all the way here just to cheer you up. And you’re jealous of me?”

“You’re smart, have your shit together, and you have an amazing ability to read people. I’m assuming that’s why you want to be a cop.” She nodded. “You know what you want, where to get it, and you are going for it. If you’d not tackled me that day after class I’d be failing, fucking with my education, and disappointing my mom, who, I would like you to know, is my greatest fan. And yours as well if I graduate with honors, now that you’re helping me.”

“You don’t count your mom as a fan, moron.” He nodded, and he saw the tears fill her eyes. “Rider, I don’t know what I am. Why this shit happens to me. Or why I can do half the shit I can do. And now I know that it’s not because I’m so special, but because I’m not human. I didn’t really know…I had a feeling, that’s all, and now you just confirmed it.”

“You really didn’t know?” She shook her head. “Then you…what did you think you were, Murph? You had to have thought something was odd.”

“I just thought that I was really smart.” When she’d started crying, his heart broke for her. She’d been all of fifteen then. A senior in college at the top of her class. Could do things, amazing things with her mind that people would have killed for, and she was still just a kid well out of her element.

Their friendship had only grown from there. They were inseparable. And he’d learned a great deal about himself and what he was capable of too. Rider found out that he was very smart himself. Then one day she’d found him in the dorm and had told him she was leaving. Her face was bruised and she looked like she’d been crying. Taking her into a room that was empty, she told him what had happened.

“My dad. I know you’ve met him a couple of times here, but he’s not the man he projects in public. He’s a monster.” Rider started seeing things, little things that he’d tried to blow off before. She wasn’t just abused but terrified of her father. “He’s not going to hurt me again. I’m going to leave here and grow up. When I do, he can’t hurt me again. I won’t…there is no way I’m going to help him anymore. It’s just not right, any of it.”

“Go to my house. My mom, she’ll protect you.” He knew that his entire family would. “We’ll make sure that he doesn’t bother you again. I’ll call her now.”

“And tell her what, Rider? ‘Hey, family, this is my really nerdy friend, Murph. She can move objects with her mind and can read you better than a book. Oh and by the way, her dad is coming for her because he wants her to tell him the winner of the next few horse races so that he can add even more money to his accounts. Why he needs more is beyond me’.”

“You can tell who is going to win the horse race?” He’d meant it as a joke, but she only put her head on his chest. “Honey, my family really will help you. I promise you they will.”

“And who will help them when he kills me because I won’t do what he says? I’m a minor, Rider. I know you forget that and all because I’m smarter than you, but he has this unbreakable law over me that will get you and your family into trouble.”

She’d pulled away from him then. And the distance had been profound.

“Call me. Tell me that you’re safe, all right?”

“I can’t do that and you know it. But I will contact you. Not a lot; you’ll have women around you all the time in a couple of years.” Murph had turned her back on him as she continued.
I love you, Rider. I think you’re the best big brother a girl like me will ever have.

He’d heard from her a few times over the years. Most of it had been just that she was fine and that she missed him. Never once did she tell him where she was or what she was up to, but it was good knowing that she’d survived. And now this. He wondered had he not tried to contact her, would she have died that night? He was sure of it, and really sort of depressed about it.

Chapter 2

Carter sat in his apartment and stared out the window. The boxes were there to put up his tree and to decorate his apartment, but he just didn’t want to bother with it. His mom had sent them to him last night. But he didn’t really care if he ever put up a tree again. Carter let out a heavy sigh when his cell phone rang. He knew who it was but wasn’t really in the mood to talk to Misha right now. When it stopped ringing, he counted to ten and knew that Misha would use other means to contact him. Right on cue.

You have to come over to the house before we leave next week. Can we expect you to make it to dinner on Saturday?

I always do, don’t I?
He knew that he’d pissed Misha off, but really didn’t care right now.
Look. I just want to be alone. Is that so hard for you to understand?

Yes, because you won’t talk to any of us to let us help you. And you’re also not sleeping well. You’ve lost weight, and I’m pretty sure that you’ve been avoiding us for some other reason than you just want to be alone.

Carter wanted to tell his brother “No shit,” but didn’t get the chance when he continued.

Tell me what it is that’s bothering you, Carter, or so help me, I’m coming there to find out.

I see her face.
Carter had never told anyone what had happened that day they’d been on the scene.
There was this little girl. She was…I’ve had people die with me there before. Not a lot, but enough to see it happen, you know? Hell, I’ve killed men and women, so I know what it means. But she died in my arms, Misha. She looked up at me and called me Daddy and just died.

Oh, Carter.

Carter heard the sympathy in Misha’s voice and didn’t want it. He was depressed, but he didn’t need anyone feeling sorry for him.

I have to go.

He stood up, not sure where he was going, but he closed the connection between them as best he could. Misha could break through it if he wanted, but Carter decided that he wasn’t going to answer him if he did. Moving to the elevator, he went down and out into the street. He was standing in front of the toy store that his mom had taken them to as children when he realized where he’d gone. His eyes filled with tears that he’d not shed as yet. His heart was so full of pain that he nearly doubled over from it. She’d never have another Christmas. Not another birthday, and Carter was hurting for the lost little girl.

It was almost Christmas, about a month away. He’d not done a single thing. Not purchased a gift or even, for that matter, signed the cards that the company gave out every year that had been laying on his desk. He wondered now why Hannah hadn’t been on him about it. She was on him about a lot of other things.

Carter took a deep breath and went inside. It was late, but the store signs said that they were open later. He ended up in the girl’s toy department completely by accident, and saw two little girls looking at a doll.

Carter knew the looks they had on their faces. It was hunger. Not for food, though both of them looked like they could use a good meal, but for something that they could not have. Their mother was nearby and she had her hands on both their shoulders in a gentle yet defeated way.

Carter had been there…all of them had, a lot as children. Their mother had raised them on her own, their own father only coming into their lives when he wanted something or to knock one of them around. Especially their mom.

He found himself finding a clerk to help him. At this point, he had no idea what he wanted, but he knew it was help. When a very beautiful woman said she could help him, he backed away from her when she got too close. Carter had to think hard about what he wanted to do without causing a scene. Unsure of what would happen, he just blurted what was forefront in his mind.

“I’d like to make some purchases.” She nodded and told him she could help. “That doll for one. Two of them. And I want those little girls to have them.”

She backed up. He had a feeling she thought he was a pervert and if he tried to explain, he’d look more like one. Instead, he pulled out his business card and lied.

“We’re doing some holiday shopping, sort of like a mystery Santa. Each of us are going out and finding a family that would not otherwise get something that they’d really like.” He reached for Misha and told him what he was doing.

“Mr. Lanning, you know we have no way of doing that without getting into trouble. You don’t know them, and their mother will be a little freaked out if you just give them to them.” He knew then that she knew the woman. “I’m sorry, we can’t help you.”

Her headset went off, and he nodded. There were just too many laws to get around to be a nice guy any more. As he moved to the doors again, he was stopped when someone, the woman he’d been talking to, said his name.

“Your mom just called the store.” He nodded, not sure how she would have known, then realized that Misha would have told her. “She verified that you were telling the truth. Not that I think you’d lie about this, but…. Let me start over. That’s my sister and she has nothing. I was more or less protecting her from…from everyone, I guess.”

“I really do want to help them. Not just with toys, but with…what do they need?” She looked back over her shoulder, then at him again. “Tell me. I can help. I need to help.”

“Lana has been trying her best to raise those girls on her own for over three months now. Their dad is a piece of…well, he’s not a nice person. Four months ago he left them high and dry without a single penny to their name. And she’s been evicted as of this morning. She’s not told the kids yet, and this was…I think she was trying to give them something before she had to tell them. I can’t help her. I want to; I’ve offered her money, but it’s not enough. I just don’t have it either. There is no room in the shelters for her and the girls, and she won’t leave them there without her. She’s…I love her, but she’s not going to make it without a great deal of help, not just with a couple of dolls.”

“I understand.” His mind was working hard. “I have an apartment they can use. And while it’s not furnished, I can get them whatever they need in minutes.” She started to shake her head at him. “Don’t do this to me. I have…I need to do this. If not for the mom, then the little girls. I really do need this. I’ve been going through some rough times myself. Not with money, but…it’s the holidays and no one, especially those little girls, should be without Christmas.”

While she went to talk to her sister, he contacted his family
. I need you guys. All of you. I have a family of three that is homeless and without shit to make it with. I’m going to set them up in the apartment complex that I have, and I was wondering if you guys have any extra furniture that you can spare. At least until we can figure something else out. There is nothing in the place, not even a crumb for a mouse.

His mom said she had blankets and three dressers. Misha said that he had some beds in storage that he could give them. The others, Andrew and Thomas, said they had things as well and if they didn’t, they’d go and get them. Carter felt his heart lighten at the help, and he told them the address. Mom said she’d come to meet him at the store and they’d get them whatever they needed.

Lana came to him alone. He was waiting for her to tell him she wasn’t going to take his charity, but she only sobbed and stood there in front of him. He wanted to hug her to him, pull her body to his and hold her, but he knew better. It wasn’t until she reached for him that he did it. Carter held her, wiping at his own tears. He was crying, not for the loss of the child, but for the ones he could help.

“We don’t know…I don’t know how I’ll pay you back, but I will.” He told her it wasn’t necessary. “But it is. I have to pay you back or…I just have to.”

“My family is coming to the apartment to help you out. They’re a bit overwhelming, so be prepared.” She laughed, and he let her go. “I’m really sorry that you’re going through this, but you have no idea how much you’re helping me. I’ve been…things have been…I just needed this, and I can’t thank you enough for your help.”

As it turned out, the girls had not eaten since that morning. At school. They’d had a half day, so he took them out to dinner while his family showed up one at a time. His mom came and sat beside him just as the family was digging into the burgers and fries.

“You did good, son.” He nodded, and she laid her head on his shoulder. “I’m going to take them with me, the little girls. They’ll need something warmer to wear. Hannah is taking Lana grocery shopping, and Linyah is…being Linyah. Her idea is to put a protection around them so that they’ll be safe. She said they’re being hurt by their father even now.”

“I’ve been in a funk.” Mom nodded. “I think that I needed this more than they did. I mean…I really did need this more than them.”

He and his brothers went to the apartment. It was one of the larger ones he owned, and he was just coming down for another load of stuff as Phillip was coming into the parking garage with a full truck. His wink told him that he was having fun too.

“I’ve been to the mall. Did you know that you can buy bunk beds and all the crap that goes with it for nearly nothing? Who knew?” He pulled the first mattress off the truck. “And there was this amazing saleswoman…wow. Anyway, she’s going to help me out later too.”

Carter laughed, and so did his brother.

“And her help, will it involve you waking up in the morning with a naked sales woman beside you?” Phillip said he certainly hoped so. “Good luck with that then. I hope you enjoy yourself a great deal.”

“Oh, I will, and so will she.” He took off the second mattress and gave him three large bags of linens and stuff. “I’m going back for the rest if you’ll just let me put this here. I had more fun there than I’ve had at a mall since I was seventeen and little Ashely Heath worked there at the pretzel shop.”

It took them nearly four hours to have the place set up. One of them had gotten a couch and love seat for them. There were televisions for all three bedrooms as well as the living room. Linyah showed up with her mom, and they set the kitchen up with the help of Mike and Jackson. By the time his mom returned with the little girls and a great many bags, Lana had come in with Hannah and enough food to feed an army.

“This is just too much.” She looked around the apartment twice. “Mr. Lanning, I just thought you’d give us a place to stay for the night. And Mrs. Lanning…she said it was forever.”

“Why can’t it be? I need…I’m not in a position to run this place on my own.” He had been thinking of ways to help them more. Not just for now but long term. “I have a full-time job that requires me to be out of town a lot. I’ve been…it’s been sitting here empty because I just didn’t have the time to look for someone to do this job. I’ll pay you too. And if you work for me, collecting rent and being the landlord, you can live here as long as you want.”

“You don’t know me that well. For all you know, this could be a scam. I could be a mass murderer for all that you know about me.” He looked at Linyah, and she gave him the thumbs up. “I think you should really think about this. It’s a lot to give a stranger.”

“We’re going to be fine, just fine.”

~~~

Murph woke up, but felt fuzzy and out of sorts. She turned to her right and saw a hospital curtain that was so white it was blinding. Closing her eyes, she looked to the other side and saw a man who looked kinda familiar sitting in a chair.

“Rider?” He looked at her but didn’t move. “You’re going to hurt yourself if you sit that way for very long. How long have you been sitting that way, anyway?”

“Just a little while. I was sitting in that chair over there but fell out of it twice.” She smiled at him. “How are you, Murph? You look like shit, in case you didn’t know.”

“Thanks, prick.” He stood up, and she had to marvel at how good he looked. “You’ve grown up. I guess you weren’t kidding when you told me you’d get better with age.”

She moved on the bed and moaned at the pain before she could stop it. But she realized that she really didn’t care when it was Rider. He knew her better than anyone. When she remembered what had happened, she sat up a little too fast and cried out in pain.

“Just lay still, will you?’ She tried to get away from him, and he pushed her back to the bed. “What is it? If you’re worried about someone getting you, no one—”

“My son.” He looked at her and took a step back. “Yeah, who knew? But I have a son. He’s…seriously, how long have I been here? I have to get to him.”

“You can’t move around that much. You’ve already started bleeding again.” He helped her lay back down. “Tell me where he is and I’ll go and get him for you. I’ll bring him back to you here.”

“He won’t come to you. It’s our arrangement.” Murph tried to think what to do. She could leave, but how far would she get like this? But her son was her world.

“Can you call him? Will he…I don’t know, come with me if you tell him it’s okay?” She shook her head. He would run and that would be bad for her. Finding him would be nearly impossible with all the things she’d taught him. “Murph, you’re married?”

“No. His dad is out of the picture and wants nothing to do with him. It’s my dad. I never told him…no one knows I have him but a few people. You now and two others. The people I trust with him.” Murph looked at Rider. “If he finds him, he’ll use him. Like he did me. Max has…he’s like me. Stronger in some things, but like me.”

“He’s not human.” She shook her head at him. “His father, I’m assuming he’s human. Your mate, I guess.”