Elijah: Calhoun Men _ Erotic Paranormal Wolf Shifter Romance (2 page)

Neither of them said anything for several seconds. Then TJ laughed, and looked at his son when Trent asked him what was going on. His dad was still laughing as he explained to Trent.

“She won the big one. The forty-million-dollar jackpot, didn’t you, love?” She nodded and dug the tickets that she wanted to cash in from her bag. “Holy milk balls, Trent, she’s the winner that they’ve all been looking for.”

She looked at Trent when he asked her if that was true. “Yes. I won and I have to turn in my ticket or it’s going to go away.” He took the envelopes that she’d put into the plastic bag she used as a purse most of the time. It was all she had to carry it around in, and felt silly for it being so mundane. “I read about your firm at the library and everyone said that you can be trusted. I don’t want anyone to know who I am.”

“All right, let me look a few things up here. Just...I have to call in our attorney to help me get this right for you.” She shook her head, but he said it would be fine. “It’s my brother, Tanner Calhoun. Did you read about him too?”

“Please don’t make fun of me.” She wanted to snatch her things back from him, but he stood up again and she sat still. “I’ve never hurt anyone. I work and keep to myself and don’t bother any of them. But they come and take whatever I have on me and then beat me for it. I’m not sure what they’d do about this money. More than likely kill me.” She looked at them both before speaking again. “I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want the money.”

When he sat in the chair next to her, she whimpered. Men, big ones, scared her. Trent didn’t move, but TJ got up and walked out of the room. She had no idea what he was going to do, probably call the police now that they had her tickets, but she didn’t care. She wanted to go back to her place.

“You say your family takes your money and they hurt you? Have you ever called the police? Filed a report on them? We can do that now if you want, Noelle. I can do it for you.” His voice was soft, full of something that she’d never heard from anyone when they were talking to her. Compassion. “Tell me so that I can find them and beat the living shit out of them. My wife, Joe? She’ll have to visit me in jail, but I think she’ll think it was worth it to see you safe.” She laughed when he did. “There you go. See, I might be big, but I’m as gentle as a puppy.”

“My stepfather is Howard Merrill. My stepmother wasn’t any better. Her name was Gloria Merrill, but she died a few years back. I think she was in a car accident or something. I can’t afford the newspaper all the time.” She looked at Trent and felt...she wasn’t sure what she felt except no longer afraid, for some reason. “He thinks I made him lose his job. I guess in a way I did. But when he lost his job, he lost everything else too. Like my government money. He didn’t get his pension either, which I suppose is the way it should be with him being fired and all.”

“You think that he’ll try to take your money that you won.” She nodded, then shook her head. “Ah, so you think that he’ll take your life while he’s at it.”

“He will. Like I said, he feels that I owe him for some reason. He’s not been happy with me for a long time.” That was an understatement. “I have a place that I’ve been living in for a while. But I want my own home. A yard. I really want a yard.”

“I understand that more than you can imagine. I’ve talked to...had my dad talk to Tanner, and he’s on his way in. He works for a friend of ours, but he said he’d help us out. I know investments better than I do the letter of the law for this sort of thing. And my wife is coming in as well. She said that she was going to come by today, and she should be here soon. I want to try and get this worked out for you so that you can get you a house as well as be safe.”

“I know what you are.” He said nothing, and she looked at her hands in her lap. “I know that you and your family are wolves. I can’t always tell what a person is, but I can tell when someone isn’t human. I am, but I know that you’re not.”

“No, I’m not. Are you...is that why you’re afraid of me? Is your stepfather a wolf?” She shook her head and told him that her family was human as well. “But one of them hurt you, a wolf or some other shifter.”

“Yes.” He didn’t pry, and she didn’t feel it was necessary to explain. He was going to help her get her money, and that would be the end of their relationship. “There are other tickets too. Not as much as the big one, but I’d like to have that money as well. It’s what I can pay you with.”

“I’m not going to charge you for helping you, Miss Alexander. I think you’ve been hurt enough.” She wanted to cry, to beg him to hold her. There was something so comforting about him that she wanted to let him take care of her. But she knew better than to trust that kind of feeling. “Tanner is here. I don’t want you to be alarmed when he comes in. He has a tendency to not knock, but to come in like he’s been shot from a rocket.”

The door to the office slammed back against the wall. The man who came into the room was talking, as if whatever conversation he’d been having with Trent the last time he’d seen him was still going on. He spoke to Trent about changes in the market and how he was getting his office set up slowly. He looked at her and stopped talking.

“Well, hello there. Aren’t you about the prettiest little thing?” She shook her head and felt her fear double. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to embarrass you. But you are very pretty. I’m Tanner Calhoun. Trent said you need someone to advise you on some lottery winnings.”

When he sat down on the edge of the desk, she had a feeling that Trent had told him to back off. Tanner grinned at her before he asked her about the ticket. She knew then that she might be able to do this. These men wasted no time in getting to the point.

After he was shown the ticket, he asked her a lot of questions about it. The other tickets, mounting to just under ten thousand dollars, were given to the secretary to verify. Tanner said it wasn’t as if they didn’t trust her, but they wanted to make sure they weren’t going to have any problems when they were taken in. The big ticket was put in a safe so that no one could take it from her now that a few people knew about it. A copy of it was made for her to keep, as well as a receipt stating that they had it in their safe for her.

“Does your stepfather have any idea that you’ve got any money? I mean, from your winnings? Did he lend you money for anything? Pay your rent somewhere, or any of your bills? At any time, did anyone help you out with a bill or something?” She told Tanner no, that she didn’t tell anyone. “And your bills? You paid those with your own money, nothing ever coming from him?”

“I’ve made sure that I made my own way. I’ve never been on welfare either…I promised myself that I’d be independent as much as I could. And my stepfather was better at taking than he was at giving. Never the tickets. I never had them on me when they, my stepbrothers or him, found me.” She looked at her hands again. “My stepbrothers weren’t like that when I lived at home with them. They were spoiled, but they never bothered me. I’m still not sure that they do this because they want to.”

“I’m sorry about that. No one should treat anyone badly, especially not a female. But knowing that about him makes it so much easier now. And the fact that you bought it after you left home and were out of his care means he has no claims on it at all. Those are things that I want to keep from happening.”

For the next hour she went over the paperwork. By the time she was finished, not only was she exhausted, but she was also richer. The money from the tickets had been taken all over town and cashed in by different members of the family, so that nothing was ever going to come back on her. She’d never had so much cash on her at any time in her life. And then Joe, Trent’s wife, showed up.

“Hello, Noelle. It’s been a very long time.” Noelle looked at the door, then back at the woman who had been there the day she’d been kicked out of her family. “Don’t. Please don’t run. Noah will be so happy to see you.”

“He won’t.” Joe said that he would. “I hurt him that day. He might...he’ll want to hurt me back.”

“No, he won’t. He looked for you for years after you left. And he’ll be glad to see you, I promise.” She looked at the door again, wondering if it was too late to take it all back. “I know your scent now, Noelle. You won’t be able to hide again. But I promise you, Noah never wanted you hurt by this either. I’m not sure how you think you hurt him, but I’ve spoken to him. He’s glad to know that you’ve come back around.”

Terror like she’d not felt for a very long time skimmed along her skin. Her hands hurt from clenching them. Her head hurt from trying to sort through all the things that were running through her head. She’d hurt Noah because her father had been an important man in his business. Howard had told her that when and if he ever found her that Noah would make her pay for making one of his best employees have to be fired.

The door opened again and she screamed. She had no idea who might have come in or why, but her terror was too much. And when someone grabbed her, Noelle lost whatever hold she had on her fear, and the darkness swallowed her up.

Chapter
2

“I don’t suppose you can tell me much about her.” Elijah had come into his brother’s office to see a woman falling apart. He supposed that they had it under control, but when she looked at him and screamed, it was all he could do to hold onto his wolf. Then he grabbed her before she fell to the floor. Trent didn’t answer him, so he looked at his dad. “Dad? What was she doing here today?”

“Won the Power Ball and came in to see you about getting it cashed in. I guess the fates have a way of working things out for us.” Elijah wasn’t so sure about that. He looked at her again as she lay on his couch in his office. “You wanna tell me again how you don’t think she’s your mate?”

“Dad.” Trent looked at him when his dad laughed. “Why don’t you go and see what the progress is on the ticket? And see what Joe has to say about this girl. The fact that Noah and Joe know her makes me think that there might be more to this story than she even knows. This stepfather of hers, we need to find out as much as we can about him as well. We don’t need him coming around trying to stir up trouble for her or us.”

His dad was still laughing when he left them. Elijah didn’t want to talk to Trent…he just wanted to sit there and think. Right now there wasn’t much going through his mind but the fact that she was his. But he needed to think about what he was supposed to do with her now.

“You want to know the story?” He said that he wasn’t sure. “All right. I’ll tell you what I know for sure. As you know, she won the Power Ball a few months ago. And since she only had six months to claim it, she came here to have you work on how to make it happen. All she wants out of this is…well, other than to be safe, she wants a house with a yard.”

“I think she can afford it. But I have a house for us.” When Trent didn’t say anything, he looked at him. “What? I do. You know that I bought one a few years ago. I don’t live in it but occasionally. I have one that we can live in together.”

“I’m not sure you get it yet. She wants her own home, with her own things with her own yard. I think this is a dream of hers.” Elijah said he was right; he didn’t get it. “Would you like to know what her address is?”

“What does that have to do...? Yes, where does she live?” Instead of answering him, Trent handed him a sheet of paper. It was a form that they had new clients fill out to put contact information on. “No phone, no cell. And this address is...Christ.”

“Yeah, I thought that would ring a bell. The place has been set for demolition for about six months now. But she is using it as her home. At least her address. She might only be telling us that so we can’t find her.” They both looked at the couch. Then Elijah looked at the rest of the form.

“She works. It says here she makes pizza for the local pub downtown. That’s not far from where the building is. Have you sent someone to look to see if she resides there?” He said that he’d sent Scott. “And what did he find out? Anything?”

“Don’t know. He said that he was taking pictures and that he’d be in shortly. I have no idea why, but that’s what he said.” Elijah nodded and wondered if she was living in one of the apartments there. “He made it sound as if she’s not the only one that uses it as a home place.”

“So she’s basically homeless.” Trent said it would seem that way, or she was off the grid. “Because of this family that she has. Do you think that Noah knows who they are? That he might have some information on what happened to her?”

“You could just ask me.” Elijah stood up when she spoke. When she sat up, she swayed a little, and he moved to help her. He’d never seen anyone dizzy while sitting before, and worried that she might not be eating well. “I’m all right, thank you.”

Elijah sat on the couch with her. He knew that she was nervous—hell, so was he—but his wolf was happier if he was closer to her. When she glared at him, he smiled. He kind of liked her show of temper.

“I live in the building you were talking about, and I pay rent. I’m not sure why you’d think I was homeless.” Elijah looked at Trent and then back at Noelle. “What is it now?”

“We own that building. Well, I do. But I don’t have any tenants in it that I’m aware of.” She nodded. “No. I’m not sure what’s going on, but I’m not renting it out. We’ve had it in the works for a few months now to tear it down and build some much needed condos in its place.”

“But I pay rent to a company by the name of Windshield. They said that all the utilities were included and that trash pickup was also there. There are times when that’s late, but we get it in our rent.” She looked at her hands and frowned. “There are seven of us living there. I did wonder why no one else had moved in. But we’re all paying nine hundred a month to stay there.”

“I’ll have Joe look into it. She can find out things faster than anyone I know.” Trent got up to leave then and paused at the door. “You’re not going to get to go back there, I’m afraid. Whoever is collecting rent from you is going to go to jail.”

After he left, Elijah watched her. She was beautiful, he thought, her skin as pale as porcelain. Her dark hair was freshly cut…he could see small hairs on her shoulder and her neck. The thought of licking her there had him thinking of other places he wanted to taste her. He realized that she was saying something and asked her to repeat it.

“I said, what am I supposed to do now? I don’t have anywhere to live.” It was on the tip of his tongue to tell her that she could live with him, but he thought that he should take it a little slower on that score. “I have money, but not enough to buy me a house yet. And the money from the big ticket might take a little bit to get as well.”

“Tell me about your parents and how you know Joe and Noah. And so you know, he’s a friend of ours. And if Joe said that he’s not mad at you, then I would take that as gospel. He’s a good man.” She nodded but didn’t say anything. “I want to help you. I need to do this for you.”

“You told your brother that I was your mate. I heard you say that when I was...before.” He nodded and asked her if she knew what that meant. “Some. Not a lot. I know that you think I belong to you, but I can’t. I’m not really the belonging to someone type.”

He laughed. “And what sort of type would you say you are? And so you know, I think you’re perfectly suited to belong to me.” He watched her face redden, and he wanted to touch the skin to see if it was as hot as it looked. “Talk to me. If you don’t, then I’m going to pull you into my lap and hold you.”

“Don’t do that, please. I have...I have some soreness.” He asked her why, and she shook her head. “My stepfather worked for this company called Specktron. I’m not really sure what they do, but Howard, my stepfather, was one of the office men. Again, I’m not sure what he did there, but Noah Stark owned it. He told me that Noah had needed him there, that when he’d been fired it had been a big blow to his company, and that it was going to be years before they would be able to recoup the losses. I’m pretty sure he was full of shit, but Noah was angry that day.”

“It’s a company that goes to job sites, tells the person what it would cost from high end to low cost to do the job. Mostly it’s buildings for big corporations. But they also look at land in different states and see what sort of tax breaks might come with building in certain areas.” Elijah had just used them recently to see about a project he was going to look into helping out. “Noah owns several companies like that. Why do you think he’s mad at you? If anyone, he was more than likely mad at your stepfather for whatever he’d done to you. I’m assuming that he was fired because of something that had happened and Noah knew about it.”

“It was at his house that my...that Howard, Howard Merrill, decided to leave me.” When she got up to pace, he let her. Not that he had it in his mind to stop her, but he wanted her to feel comfortable around him. “I knew they were going to do it. Not there, but that they were going to kick me out. I’d heard him talking to Gloria one night. But Noah had this party, a Christmas thing that he’d invited all his workers and their families to. I was sixteen then, and had never been to such a lavish place before. Noah had been making the rounds…Joe was with him. I think she was telling him who was who. He didn’t come to the offices a lot…I guess because of what he is.”

“Yes. Noah is a vampire.” He tried to equate the man he knew now to one having a Christmas party. He was sort of a recluse, Elijah thought. “Had you ever been to one of his parties before?”

“No. But that doesn’t mean anything. I mean, I didn’t go a lot of places with the family after he married Gloria.” Elijah was going to look into this as soon as he had enough facts. “Anyway, I was sent to the kitchen to see if Gloria could have something for her headache. I think I knew then that this was going to be it. And when I came back to where they’d been, they were gone. Even the van that we came in wasn’t in the lot any longer.”

“How did you involve Noah? I’m assuming that you did.” She nodded and leaned against the wall. Elijah could see that she was still hurt by what had happened to her. And he didn’t really blame her. “Noelle?”

“I went to find him. Him specifically. I think because he was really kind to me when we got there. He fussed over how...he said I was pretty. I’d not had anyone tell me that before.” He started to tell her she was beautiful, but she spoke again. “I asked to use his phone. He unlocked his cell phone and handed it to me. But he didn’t move away, just stood there as if he wanted to make sure that I didn’t run off with it. When Howard answered the phone, he took the phone back and put it on speaker phone and nodded at me.”

~~~

Noelle remembered the conversation like it was only a few minutes ago. Howard had barked in the phone, asking who was calling him. She’d told him it was her.

“What is it you want from me now, Noelle? I think, by leaving you behind, we’ve made it clear that we don’t want you around us anymore. Hell, you’re not of my blood or my wife’s. The only reason we kept you this long is that we were afraid you’d die if we kicked you out, and someone would cut off that check of yours.” She asked him what check. “The government pays us to care for your ass, believe it or not. And that money is going to go a lot further without you there sucking it dry. Not that you got much of anything anyway, but there was enough going in your belly that we had to give you. Now that you’re older, we figured that you could fend for yourself or not. It really doesn’t matter to us.”

Noah had her ask if he was making enough at his job. “I don’t understand. I thought you said you made good money working for Mr. Stark. You were even planning a long vacation with us.”

He told her not her, never her. “And yes, I make great money working for that man. But there is always room for more, don’t you think?” She asked him what she was supposed to do now. “I really don’t care. But you’re to never darken our doorstep again. Never mention us as being your family, and if I find out that you did, then I will hunt you down and make you hurt worse than I did before we left today. If I were you, I’d leave that house now before Mr. Stark finds out what sort of person he has there. A homeless bitch that no one cares for.”

When the line was disconnected, she’d stood there. It wasn’t until Noah had touched her that she’d screamed. The belt marks on her back were still raw from the day before when Howard had beaten her because of Ron’s grade card. Not that she was sure how that had been her fault, but it never seemed to matter to him if she’d been involved or not. But she hurt when he touched his hand to her back. Lashing out, something that she’d never done before, she hit Noah in the face and bloodied his nose.

“I ran after that. I don’t know where I thought I was going to go, but I knew that he was a powerful vampire and that I’d just hurt him.” She looked at Elijah, who had said nothing while she told him what had happened.

“Noah fired him after that.” She said that she wasn’t sure how long after, but Howard had blamed it on her. “I would have killed him had it been me.”

“Noah?” He said no, her stepfather. “You don’t even know if I’m telling you the truth. No one else believed me when I told them that he was hurting me. The police even told me I was lying.”

“I believe you. And I’ll take care of him. And the police for that matter. I have a few friends on the force, and I’ll get to the bottom of that as well.” She asked him why he’d even want to bother. “Because he hurt you.”

“That’s no reason.” When he stood up, she stiffened. “Don’t hurt me. Please? I’ll leave, but please don’t hurt me.”

“I will never harm you.” His fingers moved down her cheek to her throat, and she shivered from the gentleness of it. “You’re so beautiful. I know that you understand what I am, what we are, but do you know what you are to me? That you’re my mate?”

“I don’t have to be. I can just...I’ve been alone for a very long time, and I can be again.” She watched his face when he smiled. “You look beautiful when you do that. It makes me think that you’re used to getting your own way when you smile like that.”

“Usually. But I don’t think my considerable charm will work on you, will it?” She shook her head and was surprised when he laughed. “Are you going to be like this our entire lives, Noelle? Not letting me win any arguments when I try to charm you?”

“You are very handsome and a flirt. But I’m not as easy as some of the women you know. I do think you get away with things you do because of that.” He asked her why she thought that. “I don’t know. But I bet you have women falling all over you to do whatever you want, no matter the bullshit you sling around.”