Marc (2 page)

Marc knew that he’d lost his chance at
love a long time ago, as did his family. The female, Sonya Deed, a teenager he
knew, had been his mate but had been killed in an automobile accident when
she’d been seventeen and him only a year older. They didn’t love one another
and had only kissed, but it had been enough to break his heart and close it off
even after all this time.

“Look, Khan, talk to her. She might
surprise you. I’m willing to pay for the cruise myself if you just let them
know what you want to do and ask them for her input. They might surprise you.” Khan
shifted in the seat and glared. “You can be grouchy with me all you want, but
you know I’m right.”

“Monica said the same thing. She said
that when they came back and saw the house, they might move away and not live
in the area again. She said that’s what she would do if I was highhanded like
that with her.” Khan got up to pace. “You’re right. Not that I’ll tell anyone I
said that, but you are. I’ll talk to them tonight.”

After he left, Marc picked up the phone
and called his sister-in-law. “Well, Mon, it worked. He’s going to talk to them
tonight. Good job in giving him hell.”

Her laugher made him smile. “He might
live a bit longer if he would just listen to me on occasion. I tell you that
man is as stubborn as Caitlynne is on a good day.”

He agreed with her and told her he’d be
over on Saturday if the case he was working on looked any better. “It’s an odd
one. The woman was killed and someone tried to make it look like a big animal
did it.”

“Probably her husband. I’m sure you
checked, but see if she had any insurance on her. I’ve been tempted to do the
same with Khan lately.” He told her that he had and there was nothing out of
the ordinary there.

After they hung up, he went back to his
meeting room and looked at the file. The husband was their first suspect, but
he wasn’t even in town when it happened, and the house had been ransacked too. Marc
knew that the only way he was going to get his solved was if he went there and
looked around himself.

“I’m going to go to the crime scene for
a couple of weeks, maybe. Will you be all right until I get back? And I swear
to you I’ll hire the first person who looks like they can answer the phone when
I get back.” Mia glared at him when he told her. “I have been trying to find
someone you like.”

“I know you have.” She stood up and
stretched her back. “I’m so tired all I want to do is lie down on this desk and
sleep until I go into labor. I’ll keep looking while you’re gone and if I find
someone, you can interview them when you get back.”

“If you find someone, hire them. I trust
you. And you know what package and insurance whoever you hire will get, so go
for it. Like I said, I trust you.” She nodded. “And if she’s single and pretty,
make sure you tell them what a great boss I am and how much fun I am.”

She snorted. “Like you’d even ask her
out. You’re like a hermit. It’s work, home, and work again. How you going to
meet Miss Right if that’s the only places you go to see women?”

“I saw the woman I want and you got
married to Jake. My loss is his gain, I suppose, but I think I see you more so
it works out.” He grinned when she slapped his arm playfully. “Besides, I don’t
have to get up in the middle of the night when the babies cry. I can just hear
about it.”

“You will meet someone someday, and I’m
going to be the first to tell her what an ass you are. I’m sure after seeing
you for ten minutes she’ll know that too. But there you have it.”

He went to his car and left the lot
twenty minutes later. He knew that she saw the sadness, but he couldn’t help
it. There was just too much romance going on around his family right now and he
couldn’t take it. He loved them all, but he simply needed to get away.

Chapter 2

It had been three days of job hunting
and Jonny was starving. She walked past dumpsters and thought about digging
through them.  She wasn’t at that point yet, but she was very close. Walking
back to the apartment, she watched a woman get out of her car with a large bag
of food and thought about rolling her for it. Or maybe just scaring her enough
so that she’d drop it and run. Then she turned around.

She was pregnant and huge with it. Jonny
hadn’t had a great deal of contact with pregnant women, but this woman looked
wobbly and she wondered if she was going to make it inside. When she walked
toward her building, Jonny thought she was going there, but she turned toward
the one next to her at the last second. That’s when the big truck flew past
them.

Jonny was at her side, catching her,
before she could think not to. Had she not gotten to her in time she would have
fallen on her belly, and surely that couldn’t have been good for the baby or
the woman. She latched onto Jonny so hard that she was sure if she hadn’t been
a supernatural that she would have had a bruise. As it was now, she’d just have
a small mark for an hour or so.

“He nearly…I was falling and…I need to
sit down.” She helped her into the building by using her keys, and then led her
to sit in a chair. When she looked particularly pale, Jonny put her head down
as far as it would go and not crunch her up with her belly.

Jonny left her sitting there and went to
find a bathroom. She found one, as well as a nice kitchen, and wet some paper
towels there and took them back to the woman with a glass of water. The woman
took them gratefully and smiled when she’d taken a sip.

“I was concentrating so hard on what I
had to do when I got back here that I didn’t even see you or that truck. You
saved me. I can’t thank you enough.”

Jonny nodded and realized that the scent
of food was making her cat stir. She had to get out of there now or steal the
woman’s lunch. She stood to leave. Her belly took that moment to announce that
it was empty.

“I have to go. I’m sure your husband
will be able to help you back out to your car now if—”

“Please don’t go. I’m the only one here
and I’m still a little overwhelmed by what nearly happened.” Jonny looked at
the door thinking that she’d just watch her from the other side until someone
came. “I’ll feed you.”

“I don’t need your charity.” The bark of
her words embarrassed her. “I have to go, miss. I’m sure you’re going to be
just fine now.”

“You sit down right now.” There was a
command there that she couldn’t ignore. The woman was human but she sounded
like she was used to getting her way, so Jonny sat down.

When she nearly tumbled out of the
chair, Jonny stood up and helped her. The woman really was a bit unsteady on
her feet as Jonny helped her back to the tiny little kitchen.

“I’m going to sit in the kitchen with
you while you eat this meal. I’m so upset right now that if I tried I’d be sick,
and throwing up is not very comfortable in any state, but this big, I can’t
hardly sit on the commode, much less puke in one.” She started for the door and
stopped to hold onto the desk. “Lock the door again, will you? I have to sit
down again.”

Jonny did as she asked and helped her to
the kitchen. She wanted the food more than anything, but she wasn’t going to
eat it. She had to find something soon or she would be stealing money to
purchase it. She owed the man with the shop more than she’d wanted to right
now.

“I’m Mia Bowmen. In case you didn’t
notice, I’m going to have a baby in a couple of months. Twins actually. Do sit
down.” Jonny sat, and the bag of food was shoved in front of her. “If you don’t
eat this I’m going to throw it out. You will be missing a great meal too. Roast
beef sandwich with Swiss cheese and a dill pickle. There’s also potato salad
and some cheesecake in there.”

Jonny’s stomach rumbled louder. She
reached for the sandwich that the woman had unwrapped as she spoke and took the
first bite. It was like heaven in her mouth. She was halfway through the twelve-inch
sub before she realized that she was being handed a fork and the salad. She
nearly moaned at the taste of her favorite way to have potatoes. She was eating
the cake when Mia spoke.

“When was the last time you ate?” Jonny
flushed and looked at the crumbs on the table, all that was left of her lunch.
“You just ate an entire meal in less than ten minutes, so don’t shy away from
me now. When?”

“Five days ago. I left where I was. Then
I’ve been looking for work since. I don’t have any identification, so I can’t
get a job.” She nodded at her. “I’ll pay you back for this. I’m sorry that I
made a pig of myself, but….”

“You were hungry. Don’t worry about it.
And I’ll be honest with you now because you were with me, it was my husband’s
dinner, not my lunch. I ate mine at the deli. But he won’t even miss what he
didn’t know he was getting.” She stood up and got three bottles of water out of
the refrigerator. “I’m looking for someone to take my place so I can go on
maternity leave. Can you type and answer the phone?”

“Yes. But I don’t….” Jonny looked at the
table again instead of the nice woman. “I can’t work for you. I have to find a
job that I can get paid in cash. I can’t…I can’t be found.”

“You let me worry about that part. I’m
in charge of this little office. Marc may think he is but I run the place.
What’s your name, or is that going to be a problem too?” Jonny nodded. “Okay, I
have to call you something. How about…Joan? Joan Savior?”

“Why?” Jonny looked confused. “Why are
you helping me? For all you know I could be some kind of mass murderer and want
to work here to hide until the next job is complete.”

“You could be, I suppose, but I doubt a
mass murderer would have helped a rotund woman who nearly got knocked on her
ass by a semi. And you were honest with me. You didn’t have to be. You could
have let me fall, then kicked me when you passed me.”

“No I couldn’t have.” Mia smiled, and
Jonny flushed again. “You’re going to hire me and pay me under the table because
you nearly fell and feel grateful. In the morning, you might feel differently.”

“I doubt it. Come on, Joan, let’s get
you trained.” They walked back out to the desk after cleaning up. “You now work
for Bowen Investigations. The owner is Marc Bowen, and he’s about the best boss
in the world. And he’s cute. I’m not sure if anyone would call him handsome,
but I am married to the most handsome man in the world.”

After giving her a note pad and a pen,
Mia went through the entire office. She didn’t once wobble and Jonny had a
feeling she’d been had. She wanted to ask her about it but she didn’t want to
make her mad. She had a job and it was going to keep her off the grid so that Roy
wouldn’t find her.

At five o’clock Mia was telling her how
to turn the phones over to the service. “You’ll need a cell phone and I’ll have
it for you tomorrow. Sometimes when it’s an emergency the service will call me
and I can call Marc. He trusts my judgment on when to call him. I do if I can’t
decide if he needs to be called or not. Sometimes it’s nothing, but there are
enough times that it’s something. He’s okay with the occasional blunder.”

After locking down the office, Jonny
turned to her. “My name is Jonny Thomas. I’m being chased and I can’t go back
there.”

“Thank you. You don’t know how much it
means to me that you trust me with this. I won’t tell anyone and we’ll keep
calling you Joan. Your paperwork will be just enough that you can get paid, and
from there we’ll work something else out.” She handed her some money and Jonny
backed away. “You have to eat. I’ve taken it out of petty cash and you can pay
it back when you get your first check. I assume you have somewhere to stay
that’s safe?”

She nodded. “I’m living in an empty
building. I’ll…as soon as I can I’ll find somewhere else, but for now this is
all I can do.”

“You’ll be safe, that’s all I care about
right now.” She locked the door and turned to her. “I’ll be in at eight-thirty
tomorrow morning. The rest of them will be in around nine or so. Marc won’t be
back for a couple more weeks unless he can figure this case out. I’ll see you
tomorrow then?”

“Yes, I’ll be here. And thank you for
everything.” Jonny watched her walk to her car and she moved up the street. She
walked past her building and to the next block before she went down an alley
and returned. She never left or came back to her building the same way twice. Careful
of the streets and watching for Roy, she entered her building and went up the
stairs before she took out the money.

Five hundred dollars. She’d given her a
fortune. Jonny was dancing around the room when she realized that she could go
and get some food for herself. Not to mention some of the basic needs of her
living there. She needed soap and shampoo. The cleaning solution she’d been
using was hot to her skin and her body was drying out from it. Her hair, too,
needed something more than the dish detergent she’d found. She counted out the
money again, and leaving all but two hundred dollars of it, left to find a
store.

It took her nearly an hour to find a
Wal-Mart. She spent ten minutes trying to find the right shampoo, having so
much fun that she nearly left after getting it just to go and wash her hair. Then
she got the rest of the things on her list, including a large backpack to carry
things in. She got her a plate and silverware, along with a single pan. She
wasn’t much on cooking but might want a cup of tea sometime, and she could heat
up soup too. When she left she’d filled the pack and had three bags as well.

Putting things away was also fun. She
was careful when purchasing things to make sure she could leave them without
problems if she were found. The place didn’t have electricity, but it did have
hot water and a gas stove. Keeping things cold was a problem, but she hadn’t
bought anything that needed to stay cold, so she thought she’d be all right. By
nine she was putting her twenty-two dollars in her stash and went to bed.

~~~

Reed watched the girl while she worked. He
knew that she was a panther and figured she knew he was one as well. She never
said anything to him about it, and he, too, let it go. For now. Reed knew that
no one in Marc’s office knew he was a cat and figured that was fine. When Mia
had called him last night to ask him to come by and set up access for her new
employee, as well as a cell phone, he’d been happy. He wasn’t sure what to
think now.

“She’ll need to have it programmed like
mine is with all the numbers. Can you do that for her?” Reed nodded at Mia. “She’s
going to do just fine, I think. By this time next week I can be at home and
getting ready for the twins.”

“You think she’ll be able to handle this
on her own? She doesn’t look all that sure of herself.” He knew he was making
her nervous but didn’t know why. “She looks terrified out of her mind.”

“She’ll be just fine. And don’t you go
scaring her off either. I need this, Reed, and she’s going to make it happen.” He
nodded at her and smiled. “I like her. A great deal, and she saved me yesterday
from falling. She didn’t have to do that.”

She’d told him how she’d come to meet
Joan twice now. He didn’t want to sound suspicious but it just sounded
too…well, it sounded like she’d been at the right place at the right time too
easily. He decided to have Caitlynne run a check on her.

“I don’t know what’s going on in your
mind right now, but I swear to you if you run a check on this girl I will make
you pay.” He looked at Mia, shocked. First, because he swore she’d read his
mind, and second that she’d threatened him.

“I have to know that my family will be
safe, Mia. She’s working for one of my brothers. What if she tries to hurt one
of them? You know that they’re always coming in and out of here.”

“Please don’t. I’m begging you not to
look up anything.” She looked around before continuing. “I think she has a
husband or boyfriend looking for her and she’s terrified he’ll find her. You wouldn’t
believe what she looked like yesterday when I offered her this job. She was
terrified when she told me she’d have to find work that paid in cash.”

“She didn’t ask you for the job?” She
shook her head. “Well, that doesn’t mean she didn’t plan that either. But if
after this week she doesn’t do anything stupid, I won’t have Caitlynne look,
deal?”

She nodded. He just hoped that he hadn’t
made a huge mistake. He finished the phone and set up the computer. He was
sitting close to her, showing her how to change her password to something she’d
know when he realized two things.

Joan had never been near another
panther, male or otherwise, besides him, and she was much smarter than she’d
let them believe. She knew how to run a computer as well as he did. Whoever was
chasing her wasn’t a boyfriend or husband, but someone else. He could also
smell her fear.

“Have you registered?” She looked up at
him when he’d whispered to her. “With the local male, have you registered?”

“Registered? I don’t understand? I have
to register with someone to work here? Mia said so long as I never went on
cases that I’d be fine in the office.”