The Bobcat's Tate (20 page)

Donny scrambled up on top of the counter, and yelled at the top of his
lungs.“Hear ye, hear ye,” he shouted, although he didn’t need to. Every eye in the place was on him. Even the cook and the servers had stopped to stare at him, riveted.

“You don’t know me. I am Donavan Robinson, and I am privileged to be the brother of the best sister in the world,
Lainey Robinson. A few years ago, I was acting like a real jerk, getting arrested, driving drunk, vandalizing things for the hell of it, getting in bar fights. I was out on probation when I stole money from the account of one of my parents’ clients.”

“Donny, no!”
Renee wailed. She turned pleadingly to the crowd. “Donny didn’t do that. Lainey did. She even admitted it. She confessed to the police.”

“My parents made her take the fall for me,” Donny yelled. “They told her I’d go to prison if she didn’t say she’d done it
. They promised her she wouldn’t have a record, and then they came here and tried to use it against her, because they knew she’d never turn me in. I’m done living a lie, and I’m going back to Philadelphia to clear my sister’s name and take responsibility for my crime.”

“
Donny!” Lainey held up her hand in protest, but he shook his head.

“This is what I have to do
. This has been eating away at me for years. I owe your boyfriend a debt for helping to convince me to finally make things right.”

“Tate, what did you do?”
Lainey asked in astonishment.

“I flew to Philadelphia to get to the bottom
of this,” Tate told her. “I know you’re not a thief. Deep in my bones, in my soul, I knew it. I tracked down the district attorney in your case yesterday, and he told me his suspicions, and then I found your brother and told him what your mother told me.”

“I can’t believe you’d do thi
s to me,” Renee cried out, her face flushed red with fury. My own children. Everything I did, I did for you. Donny, I kept you out of jail!” She turned to Lainey. “And you! You could have married one of the oldest and most respected names in the country, and finally, I would have been proud to show you off in public.”

“Mother, we’re done
here,” Donny said. “It’s time for you go home.”

Renee
spun around and stomped out, with a furious-looking Miles trailing sullenly at her heels.

“I hope you’re not mad at me for interfering,” Tate said
to Lainey, “But I couldn’t let you go through life with the label of a thief.”

“Mad?
” Lainey’s eyes were brimming with tears of happiness. “That was the most romantic thing anyone’s ever done for me.”

Lainey
threw her arms around Tate’s neck and kissed him passionately. Her lips melted into his, and she pressed against him as he circled his arms around her waist and crushed her into his broad, solid strength.

After a minute
, Donny spoke up. “Hey, I’m your sibling, I’m two feet away from you, and for the record, you’re grossing me out. Get a room.”

Lainey
pulled back, smiling.

“By the way, speaking of romantic, that bobcat’s proposal was
the most epically lame thing I’ve ever seen,” Tate said. “When I propose to you, and it’s coming soon, I can promise you that it will blow his proposal out of the water.”

“He’s going to marry her!” someone in the crowd yelled, and suddenly the room erupted in cheers, and
Lainey was crying.

Through her happy tears, she saw Marigold standing on the edge of the crowd, giving her two thumbs up.

“All I ask is that you don’t hold the wedding until I get out of jail,” Donny said. “I want to be there.”

“Done,” Tate agreed, and he and Donny shook hands.

“Another Alpha wedding!” Marigold shrieked, and the crowd erupted in cheers again.

Lain
ey swayed, leaning into Tate. She was dizzy with relief. It was over. Her parents no longer had any hold over her. They’d played their last card, and lost. She was free.

“All right, now that we’ve got that settled, there’s one thing I need to do, and it’s really important,”
Lainey said.

“What’s that?”
Tate’s arm tightened around her shoulders, and she leaned into him, loving the feeling of warmth and strength that rippled through her.

“I need to buy a very dear friend a double stack of flapjacks.”

* * *

The boarding house was abuzz when
Lainey and Tate and Donavan pulled up to the front door. Alma and Emma and Imogen were waiting for her on the front porch. Marigold had arrived before Lainey, because Lainey had stopped to deliver the order of flapjacks to Myrtle.

“Mint juleps for everybody
.” Marigold was holding a tray with a pitcher of mint juleps and a half-dozen Mason jar glasses.

“Hear, hear
,” Lainey said. “I second the motion. Shall we take a vote? Unanimous? Good.”

“
I’m so glad you two worked things out,” Imogen said. Lainey was getting used to Blue Moon Junction; she was no longer surprised that Imogen already knew what had just happened less than half an hour ago. She would have been surprised if Imogen hadn’t known.

“I should
probably head into town myself,” Imogen continued. “This is a day full of big news.”

“Why, what else?”
Marigold asked. “Did I miss something?”

“
Remember that psychic that Aurora Sinclair hired? Rainbow Moonchild? She’s coming to town today, and she’s going to announce where Portia is located.”

“Oh, that,” Marigold said with a look of contempt.
“That woman with the national column? She’s a total fake. Take it from a real psychic. She’s well known in the psychic community. Human, not witch, not psychic, no powers whatsoever. Anyone with real power can sense it when we’re near somebody else who has it, like this faint crackling, almost like static electricity. She has none.”

“How does she stay in business?”
Lainey wondered.

“She’s showy and she has charisma.” Marigold’s nose wrinkled in
distate. “She’ll blow into town and say something like, the missing woman can be found near a swamp, when the whole county is full of swamps, so it’s like, no kidding. Then she’ll charge a fat fee. Then she’ll let the cops do all the work, and she’ll claim all the credit.”

“Nonetheless, it’s news, so I need to be there,” Imogen said
. “She’s making the announcement in half an hour.”

Tate sighed. “That’s going to be a big headache for Loch, because whatever the psychic predicts, the Sinclair family is going to expect Loch to follow up on it.”

“You should go help him, then,” Lainey said.

“I just got you back
. I don’t want to leave you behind.” Tate flashed mournful puppy dog eyes at her, and Lainey felt an overwhelming wave of love and affection flowing through her. He was hers. All hers. Forever.

“
I’ll go with you,” she said. “This is important. Mint juleps can wait. My God, I can’t believe I just said that.”

“Seriously, what?
Who are you?” Marigold peered at her suspiciously.

“Well, just a sip
. I won’t drive. I’ll go in Tate’s pickup truck.” Lainey grabbed a mason jar and took a healthy swig before setting it back down on the tray.

“That’s a sip?”
Tate asked as she followed him to his truck.

“Yes, and darn it, I want a to-go cup, but I guess that wouldn’t be legal.
The whole open-container thing. And you’re a cop and all.”

“Yes, we wouldn’t want me to have to bust out the handcuffs.”

“Wouldn’t we?” Lainey grinned wickedly. Wow, Marigold’s naughtiness was apparently contagious. Well, there were worse things she could catch.

Tate put his hand on her thigh as they pulled out of the parking lot
, and squeezed affectionately. “I had no idea you were such a pervert. Lucky me.”

When they pulled up in front of the sheriff’s station, they were greeted by Loch himself
. He stood outside the station waiting for them, and he looked worried.

“What’s happening?” Tate asked.

“I was just about to call you. We picked up Frank Sinclair, over at the Beaudreau mansion. Odd thing, he seems…I don’t know. He seems as if he’d been drugged or something. Not drunk, I don’t scent any alcohol on him, but he’s slurring his words and babbling and his pupils are dilated. We’ve got a doctor on the way. He’s coming out of it now, in his cell. I thought you might want to talk to him, put the fear of Alpha in him. Or maybe it’s time to issue a Challenge.”

Frowning, Tate followed Loch into the holding section, with
Lainey at his heels.

Frank was fully awake when they got there, staggering in his cell, his clothes ripped as if he’d tried to shift, his eyes wild.

When Tate got to the jail cell, Frank rushed over and grabbed the bars.

“You’ve got to go
find her,” he cried, his voice thick and slurred. “Now. Go!”

“What the hell are you talking about?
You’ve been told to stay away from my sister and stay out of this county.  Do you realize I’d be within my rights to issue a Challenge right now?”

“Megan! He took Megan
,” Frank howled. “You’ve got to find her. You’ve got to go.”

Loch quickly unlocked the cell door, and he and
Tate rushed in. Tate grabbed Frank by his neck and lifted him completely off the ground. “What are you talking about? Who took Megan?”

Loch grabbed his arm as Frank’s face turned
purple. “You’re killing him, you jackass. Let him talk.”

Tate dropped
Frank to the ground, and Frank wheezed and gasped, staggering back and clutching at his throat.

As Frank struggled for breath,
Tate quickly dialed Megan’s cell phone. It went straight to voicemail. Panic clutched at his chest as he dialed Kyle’s number.

“Where is Megan?” he demanded
. “I can’t get ahold of her. Frank Sinclair is saying something about somebody taking her.”

“
What the hell? I don’t think anybody took her…she said she had to go to the bathroom a little while ago, asked me to watch the kids. She hasn’t come back yet,” Kyle said, sounding worried. “Oh, crap. Wait. It’s been half an hour. I didn’t notice. Schuyler ran off after Megan, said she had to go to the bathroom, too. She isn’t back yet, either. I’ll have everyone start searching for them.”

“Call me as soon as you find her,” Tate said, and hung up quickly
.

He swung back to Frank
. “What the hell is going on?” His voice was a threatening growl, his eyes glowing red with rage as his thick, black claws shot from his fingers and his face went hairy.

“That man took her
. The one she was trying to fall in love with, because you said we had to break up.” Frank was leaning against the wall for support, slurring his words.

Fury ripped through Tate, and he pushed forward, grabbing Frank’s shoulders and pinning them against the wall. Frank’s head lolled, his eyes rolling in his head
. “Make sense! Who took her? Give me a name.”

“The actor
. The older guy. You said she had to break up with me, so she told me she was just going to make herself fall in love with someone else. She’s been seeing him for weeks now. That scumbag. She was at the mansion, and I followed her into the woods, and he said something about how she had to go with him, and she said no…I don’t remember, she was yelling, something stung me…” He made a loose, flapping gesture with his hand, and Tate saw a small dark spot of blood on Frank’s jeans, like he’d been jabbed with a hypodermic needle.

Tate’s vision swam with rage and panic.

“Hamilton Hooper. I’m on it. Putting an APB out now.” Loch sprinted from the room.

H
amilton. That bastard.

He’d been hanging around the grounds of the
Beaudreau Mansion, volunteering to help. Megan always found a reason to disappear when Hooper was on the grounds. Why hadn’t Tate noticed it sooner? Because he’d been so preoccupied with Frank, thinking that it was Frank that Megan was sneaking off to meet.

Megan had come to town several weeks ago to meet one of her cousins. She’d come home wearing tiny diamond stud earrings, and Tate had worried that Frank had brought them for her. Now
, he realized that she’d gotten them at the jewelry store. Hamilton had very likely bought them for her then.

Tate rushed out of the room, and found Loch in his office
. His phone rang. It was Kyle.

“Have you found her yet?” he asked.

“No. We looked in all the bathrooms, and we’re looking throughout the building and the grounds. Everybody’s looking for her and Schuyler, but nobody can find them.” Kyle’s voice was shaking with panic and anger.

“
I’m with Loch. We think Hamilton Hooper took her, and we’ve put out an APB. Keep looking.” Tate hung up.