Darin: The Pride of the Double Deuce - Erotic Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance (5 page)

“There are. But we decided that at some point we were going to run into a kind of situation that you just mentioned. So Darin thought we should have separate dining areas. The third floor is set up like this one, with a temporary bar as well as a dumbwaiter to take the food up and down. He also had a heat room put in, a place to put the food while it’s being readied to serve.” Jessie looked at Darin. “Tell them about the sixth floor.”

“It’s really not that big a deal. But we made it into a sort of working dining area. There are projector screens on three of the walls that hide away. Also, while the dining won’t be as extensive as the other two places, there is a bar that is much larger that also can be used as a buffet if necessary.” Mercedes noticed that he never once said I did this or that, but said we. When he turned to her, she smiled at him. “Really, I’d like to know what you would do differently.”

Mercedes looked at the table and decided to go with it. “The flowers are too much. In order to see around them, you have to dodge them. Perhaps if you were to make a flat display or none at all, you could put the tall vases around the room with lighting.” When he wrote it down, she felt silly.

“This is good. Yes, you’re right. I have been trying to see Aunt Georgie at the other end but wasn’t seeing that it was the flowers. And I do like the more lighting idea too.” Jessie was writing things down. “What else?”

“The salad dressing is okay, but the lettuce is weird. What happened to the green stuff we had today?” Mercedes started to tell Bonnie that was rude when Georgie agreed with her. “Can you have different kinds? When Mom and I went out for my birthday one time, they brought us three different kinds in little bowls.”

As ideas and comments were tossed around the table, the chef came out to hear them too. The dessert cart was also brought out, and she could see that someone had gone to a great deal of effort to make a large yet beautiful variety of things to choose from. Mercedes had the lemon tart and a blueberry buckle when she was told this, too, was a taste effort.

“I like the tart, but the buckle is my favorite.” Truman told her that the pack alpha-bitch had made them. “Excuse me?”

“That’s what they’re called. Her name is Julia Sexton. Her husband is Paddy. I heard you saw him today.” She remembered the big wolf and nodded at Darin when he spoke softly to her. “Mason is the oldest of us boys, so he’s our leader. And we’re called a leap. Or sometimes an ambush. And since Mason is our leader, that makes Emma his bitch. It’s not meant to be mean. It’s just what we’re called.”

“I don’t care for it.” Darin nodded and smiled at her. “What are you called? I mean as a brother, what is your title?”

He leaned into her throat, and she felt her body heat up, her pussy swell with need, and the dampness made her squirm on her seat. And when he nipped at her earlobe, it was all she could do not to moan. Darin took her hand in his, and when he curled his fingers into hers, all Mercedes could think about was being naked with this man, feeling him touch her body. Making love to him in a soft and loving way. And when he pulled away, she gripped his hand tightly in hers and looked at him.

“I’ve never...what was that?” Her voice was low, full of some emotion that she had no name for.

“Just me. Tasting you.” It was on the tip of her tongue to beg him to taste her again. Everywhere. But someone down the table said his name, and he turned to them. Mercedes was glad for the break.

“It gets better.” Mercedes looked at Holly when she spoke. “The sex is fantastic. And all consuming. But they really do love you with all that they are. And family isn’t just a word to them, but an actual way of life when it comes to being together. Any of them would die for the other without a moment’s hesitation.”

“He’s a cat. A shifter.” Holly nodded. “So are you, they told me. And you’re going to have a baby by one of them. Aren’t you afraid of what it will be?”

“No. It’s not like that, and that’s a good question. Up until they’re older, they’re just a baby like all of them are. They’ll heal a lot faster. Never get ill, and they’re stronger too.” Holly rubbed her belly, and Mercedes wanted to do the same. “Children born to this family will never feel as if they don’t belong. And ones brought in, like your daughter, will never feel as if she’s not an equal part of this crew either. Darin will love you like no man ever has, protect you and Bonnie as he said he would, and you will never have a family quite like this one.”

“I don’t want to be a part of this or any family. I’ve had my fill of relationships.” Holly only nodded. “You think you can convince me. Or he does. But I’m not going to fall for anything anymore. I don’t have just me to take care of, but my daughter as well. And now my dad. I won’t be hurt again by a man.”

“And you won’t.” Mercedes said nothing but watched them around the table. Truman was teased about things, and like the rest of the family, he took it and gave back as well. When they were asked to rate their dinner on a scale of one to ten, she was almost afraid what they’d tell him. Mason started it out.

“I have to give you an eight. I loved the steak, but I think that the baked potato could have been a little more. Maybe, I don’t know, with chives or bacon or something. It was somewhat boring.” Truman nodded, making his own notes. “There wasn’t any bread either.”

“Oh shit.” When he ran to the kitchen and returned with an armload of baskets filled with breadsticks, everyone laughed and took some of it. “I had it out on the table earlier, but took it off so that I could serve it with the warmed butter. Completely forgot it.”

“These are delicious. So now I’ll give you a nine. But I stand on my decision about the potato.” Mason snagged two more pieces of bread when Holly spoke.

“I liked that there were pitchers of water on the table. And lemon slices hanging on the side of it should you want them. The steak was wonderful and, like Mason, I think the potato was sort of a little boring. Not boring, but sort of normal. Also, I absolutely loved the salad, but again, I think you could have given more choices, as Bonnie said.” Holly looked at Mercedes. “Other than the flowers, what did you love or hate about the dinner?”

“I personally love baked potatoes. And would have enjoyed bacon on it, and sour cream. Chives? Not really. But some real green onions would have been great.” Truman explained the lack of onions. “Oh. I never thought of that. Onion breath in a conference room. Good thinking then. The dessert trolley was a wonderful touch, with so many varieties that it was difficult to choose from. If I were you, I’d put two on a plate or when someone picks, encourage them to have a second one. That would win me over.”

The rest of them had ideas and small things that they said might have needed to be improved upon. All of them were kind about it, always had positive along with the negative. Georgie suggested lowering the volume of the background music. It had been a little loud. Logan said that the wait staff needed to be friendlier and not quite so stiff. Even Bonnie suggested that they have maybe a veggie tray on the table for those of them that couldn’t wait for more food.

“For you, my dear, I will do that. I don’t care for the green and leafy myself, but I am sure that as a human, you would.” She smiled at him, and Mercedes realized it had been a very long time since her little girl looked that happy. “And I will dig out the dressing servers. Do you have a suggestion on those as well? I am open for anything.”

“Not that stinky stuff that Mom likes. Bleu cheese is nasty. But I was thinking French. I love that. And maybe something...I don’t know. I just like French.” Truman wrote down what she said, and Mercedes smiled at them. “Mom and I went to this really fancy place for her birthday one time. They had hot croutons. They were really good. I could have just eaten them. But they had this white cheese on them that the waitress cut up on it, grated I mean. That was really good too.”

“Fresh croutons.” Everyone agreed that might be a nice treat. “And I was thinking on the potato situation. I had this recipe for twice baked ones. They have bacon and cheese already in them. Would that be better, you think?”

By the time they were ready to go, Truman had found several things that he wanted to try in the future. It was agreed upon that they’d be his testers for future dinners and anytime he wanted to send something to them. Mercedes decided that if she stayed here too long, she’d need to go on a major diet. This job might prove to be very fattening.

Chapter 5

Darin wanted to take her home with him, but he also knew that would be a huge mistake. First of all, there was Bonnie to think of, and secondly, she didn’t believe in him. Not the cat part, but as a man in general. He was going to have to tread slowly or have her run. When he walked her to Mason’s car, he stood by while her daughter was put in the back seat, then asked to speak to Mercedes for a moment.

“I was wondering if you’d allow me to kiss you.” She shook her head. “All right. Then how about if you kiss me? I’ll keep my hands to myself, I promise.”

“Funny. But I don’t want to get into something that will hurt me or Bonnie.” He nodded understanding, of course, but wanted more. “You and your family are really nice, Darin, but I’m not alone in this.”

“No, you’re not. And while I understand, I can still hope, can’t I?” He wanted to touch her, bring her into his arms and tell her that everything was going to be perfect. But he knew better. Somewhere out there was her ex, and he was going to be a problem for them. “I’ll see you tomorrow then. I have to be here early, but I was going to go by the ranches on my way in.”

“I have to go into town too, later in the afternoon tomorrow. I want to look into the school that Mason suggested. He said it was safe.” Darin told her it was. “Why does he feel that it’s safer than the one that she was at before? I mean, it was a private school and I trusted the staff there.”

“This school is run by the pack for the pack.” Mercedes backed up and he felt her fear. “No, don’t do that. You were doing so well before. But the pack, a pack of wolves, knows who she is and who you are. You know of Julia, and Bonnie seemed to enjoy talking to both her and her sister Candace. She’s a teacher there as well. They’ll protect her as you would, lay down their life for her and the other children, because they know that children are all we have for our future.”

“Easy words to say, but I don’t want her taken.” Darin assured her that no one would dare go there with any intent to harm anyone or they’d pay for it with their lives. “And why is that? What makes you think that they’d kill for a stranger?”

He wanted to tell her that it was patrolled by the best men there were. But he knew also that she’d not believe him. So Darin put his fingers in his mouth and whistled. No one moved as the pack that kept them safe at all times came out of the darkness. When she curled her body around his, Darin held her as he spoke.

“This is what would greet them should they try to take even a backpack that didn’t belong to them. Paddy and his pack are around all the time. As some of our leap is around when they are out and about as humans. No one will see them unless they want them to.” Paddy came up to her and sat down. “He wants to taste your skin. Not hurt you, but should you ever need him to find you, he can.”

“He did that to Bonnie. Today when they were in the yard. He licked her hand.” Darin wasn’t there, but he said that had been it. “I don’t understand any of this. I’m overwhelmed and feel like at any moment something terrible is going to happen.”

Darin took her hand in his and put it out for Paddy. When he licked it, the big wolf took off and he turned Mercedes so that she faced him. His body was close enough to her now that he could feel her heat, smell her arousal, and touch her should he like, but he only stared at her.

“Touch me.” She shook her head but didn’t move away from him. “Feel my pulse and know that it beats for you. I want to taste your flesh. Feel your pulse as it beats under my tongue. Bite you hard enough to draw your flavor into my mouth, drink from you in a way that has you screaming out my name in pleasure. I want all of that and more. But I won’t. Not until you’re ready. Not until you tell me you want me.”

“I’m afraid.” He said that he was as well. “But you’re this big bad cat. You can take on a man and be done with him. I’m only me and Bonnie, and I’m terrified that you’ll hurt me.”

Stepping back from her was the hardest thing he’d ever done. And when she stood there, he took another step back. His cat was pissed, running along his skin painfully. Shaking his body, he smiled at her.

“I live on the McBride ranch. I’m not sure if I’m going to change the name or not, but that’s where I am should you ever need me. And I don’t mean just sexually either.” Her face heated up, and he could see it glowing in the moonlight. “I’m not ever going to lie to you, but I have to go now. I need a good hard run with my cat.”

“I’ve never seen your cat.” He only nodded. “I might not ever be to the point where I want to have sex with you. I’m not even sure I like you overly much.”

Pulling her into his arms, he kissed her, giving her all the pent-up sexual frustration that he could. When he let her go, he was pleased to see her stagger back. He was unsteady himself. Without a word, he turned on his heel and walked away. Darin thought perhaps it was the most difficult thing he’d ever done or ever would do again.

Stripping down to his pants, he kicked his shoes under his truck and let his cat take him. His pants would be ruined, but at the moment he didn’t give a shit. The woods were calling to him almost as hard as his body needed Mercedes.

He ran for about an hour. He knew that both Logan and Gerard had tried to contact him, but he wasn’t in a good place right now, and he had to do this or hurt someone. One of his brothers might have fought him for a couple of rounds, but he needed more. Sitting on the edge of the pond, he heard someone coming up behind him and was surprised to find Landon walking in the dark woods.

“If you don’t mind, I’d enjoy sitting with you for a spell.” Darin laid his head down on his paws, and Landon sat down beside him and curled his arm around his waist. The two of them had exchanged a little blood so they could talk when they needed to. “You know, I sometimes wish I had been a big cat like you boys. Not often, mind, but a few times. I might have killed my son though, and that kinda makes me glad that I’m not.”

You wouldn’t have been able to live with yourself had you done that. You’re a good man, Landon.
Landon said he wouldn’t have been able to stand it at that.
What are you doing out here? I thought old men like you went to bed with the sun.

“Don’t be an ass.” They both laughed. “I came out here to see if you were all right. Mason said that girl is your mate. I thought the two of you would be breaking in that new house of yours.”

She doesn’t trust me.
Landon nodded but didn’t say anything for a moment.
I’m not sure what to do to have her trust me. I’m a good person. I’d never hurt her or Bonnie.

“That other man, her ex, he done a number on her. I heard something about it. Had me a private eye, are they still called that? Anyway, I had me one of them private dicks go out and find me out a few things. Want me to share with you?” He wasn’t sure and said so. “This’ll help you, I think. And I want to help you, Darin. Of all the boys, you Douglas boys, I find you to be the closest to me. Like the son I wished I had.”

They sat there, the two of them, in silence. Darin wasn’t sure what was going on in Landon’s mind, but he knew that it had to do with his son. Dirk had tried to kill his own father before he’d died. It had been a horrific time, dealing with the son of the man he’d come to love. Remembering something that he’d thought of last week, he told his dear friend.

Mason and I were a few years older than Emma and Dirk. But we knew him. Not a lot about your daughter. She sort of stayed to herself. I thought then she was being a snob, but I think she was just different than the rest of us. Better.
Landon just leaned on him more in answer.
One afternoon I was walking toward the ranch when I saw Dirk on the side of the road. He wasn’t hurt or anything, just sitting there. Like he was waiting on someone. Then this little girl comes around the street corner where he was.

“Please don’t tell me he hurt her. I’m not sure I can handle that today, Darin.” He assured him that he hadn’t. “All right then. You tell me your story. Then I’ll tell you mine.”

The little girl was pushing her bike. The chain had come off or something. I don’t remember that part. But Dirk stood up and helped her with it. He didn’t hurt her or tease her for having a broken down bike, but helped her out and then held onto her bag while she rode it up and down the street. I think he was making sure that it was going to work for her.
Landon sniffled, and Darin continued.
When they were both satisfied that it was all right, he helped her put her bag on the handle bars and she drove off. Dirk moved in the opposite direction, looking back once in a while until she was out of sight.

There was more to the story, but Darin wasn’t going to tell him that. How several days later, on the same street corner, Dirk had tripped her up. Not just knocked her off the bike, but had bloodied her arm and nose too. And when she cried about what he’d done, he’d kicked her twice and told her to fuck off. That part of the story more suited the type of person Dirk the Dick had been, but Landon wasn’t going to hear that from him.

“Thank you, son. You have no idea what that does for me. Knowing that somewhere in his heart he was a good boy. And that I’d not failed him completely.” Darin told him he hadn’t failed him at all. “Nash Crosby is a mean son of a bitch. I mean, you might have guessed that, but you’ve no idea how bad he is. And he wants that little family of yours to heel to him. He’s coming here. He knows she’s here.”

Mason has someone tagging him. I guess he’s been asking around where she lived to find out as much as he can.
Landon said it was more than that.
What do you mean?

“He’s killed two people. The man that lived across from her, the one he had spying on her, is dead. Hanged in his own bathroom by his own guts. And a woman that worked in her office. Milly someone. I don’t think she was able to keep whatever information she might have had from him. He did a number on her and her poor body.” Landon shivered as he continued. “He also knows about her daddy, and that she’d lied to him about his whereabouts. Smart girl, your mate. She kept him in the dark for a long time. But now he’s powerfully pissed off.”

We’ll protect her. You know that, don’t you
? Landon said that he did know that. Better than most.
What else? I’m sure there’s more.

“Yes.” Landon stretched out his legs and was quiet for a moment before he told him the rest. “He’s got him a crew. Men that are as mean as Dirk was, but more controlled about it. My buddy said that these men that are coming with him, they’re not like regular criminals but hardened ones. Man by the name of Bends keeps them in line and is the right hand to that feller, Crosby. Don’t rightly know his first name, but it’s in my notes at home. These men are the kind that’ll tear your eyes out of your head should you look at them wrong. Or even if they think you looked at them wrong.”

He leaned over then and pulled a thick envelope out of his back pocket. He laid it in front of him, and Darin was afraid to ask him what was in it. As they sat there, quiet again, Darin thought of the kind of person Dirk had been and wondered how these men could be any worse. Landon rubbed him behind the ears as he continued.

“He has no use for Bonnie. A boy might have been different for him, but with her being a girl child, he’ll kill her right off if he can’t find any use for her. Or he’ll use her a little to get to the mom, but she don’t have to be alive for Mercedes to think that he has her.” Darin said nothing, his body stiff with fear for the two of them. “He’s hurt her before, the little one. Broke her leg trying to get her to get out of the car when he’d found her ride to and from school when she was younger. Just snapped it like it wasn’t nothing more than a bothersome thing to get what he wanted. Had the police not been called...well, I don’t even want to think about what he might have done to her. Or her momma to get her back to him. He’s a might on the possessive side, but I think it’s a tad more than that. Not that he loves her, but simply because he feels she belongs to him.”

I have to talk to her. Tell her what we’ve found out. Make her understand that we’re going to be here for the two of them.
Landon said that was his best bet.
And I have to try and make her understand that she’s only as safe as she can be if she lets us help her.

“I’m not saying that it’s gonna be an easy job for you. Nope, I don’t think it’s gonna be, but I will tell you that you’d better move fast. He’s coming here and he’s not going to stop until someone stops him. Permanently.” Darin agreed with him. “You get your stuff together, son, and I’ll be here should you need me. You know that. But these old bones are hurting a little, and I need to go to my own warm bed and wife.”

After Landon left him, Darin sat there for an hour or so more. The sun was just coming up when he made his way into his house. There wasn’t much point in him going to bed, but he did shower and get ready for his day. The envelope was on the bottom of his bed when he realized that he hadn’t looked at its contents. Opening it up, he realized something else. He was going to need help. And a great deal of it.

But first he had to speak to Mercedes. Darin was sure that it was going to be harder to talk to her than it was getting ready for his first customer today. Christ, he thought, he was going to be so fucked.

~~~

Mercedes watched the ponies. They were the most gorgeous creatures she’d ever seen. They were wild and tame at the same time, and she wanted more than anything to walk up to one and touch it. Susie had told her that first she needed to be accepted by the big guy, Bride, as he went by. But Christ, he was fucking huge.