Andrew: Lanning’s Leap: Erotica Shapeshifter Romance (Lanning's Leap Book 5) (9 page)

Murph kept a close eye on Laci as they stood in the lobby of Carter’s apartment complex. Since she’d called her twenty minutes ago and told her what was going on, she’d been quiet. Eerily quiet, and not even Andrew seemed to be having any luck at bringing her out of it. When the pharmacy was surrounded, Murph walked over to her and pulled her chin around so that she had to look at her.

“You can do this. But if you can’t, I can have my men go in and bring them out one at a time.” Laci said that she had to do this. “I understand, but my men can handle this.”

“I know that they can. But without them trying to kill me, you said they’d walk in a few hours. You needed more.” Murph wished that she hadn’t said that but couldn’t take it back now. “I want them gone, from here and from my life. This is the only way. Besides, you said I’d be safe now. That even though they could hurt me, they couldn’t kill me.”

“You will be very safe. You’re an immortal, but you can still get hurt.” Laci nodded and looked at the elevator. Murph had sent one of her men up to the apartment where her aunt was being watched. “You did right by putting her to sleep. Had they gotten word on what we were doing, there’s no telling what they might have done to the people inside.”

“Killed them, you mean. Just as they had the people in the grocery store.” Laci stood up, a look of hard determination on her face. “I’m going in now. The man behind the counter, he’s with you? I mean, he’s going to know what I’m doing.”

“He does. The only people in the store as of right now are my men and the bad guys. Once you get in there, go straight to the counter and tell him what you’re there for. An account set up in the name of Jeanie Wintermute.” Laci said she understood, but Murph wanted to be sure. “When the shit hits the fan, you’re to get behind the counter and stay there until I come for you.”

“About my aunt. I need to know, Murph. She’s going to go away, right?” Murph knew what Laci had been through in the last months and felt sorry for her. “She’s tried to have me killed five times now, and that’s attempted murder. So she’s going to go to prison for a long time, right?”

“Yes. When this is done, myself and some other men are going to go up there and wake her. Then take her to jail. Once there, she’ll have several chances to tell her side of the story. There are men coming from each place that you were set up to be killed. They’ll want to talk to her about the deaths that she was a part of when things went sour.” Murph looked at the building, then back at Laci. “They’re not going to hurt you again, Laci.”

“No, not physically they’re not.” Murph wanted to hug her to her. Laci was about the sweetest person she’d met, and this shit wasn’t right. As she made her way to the building, one of her men going in at the same time, Murph looked at Andrew.

“She’s going to be able to close this behind her when this is over, don’t you think?” Andrew said he hoped so, but he wasn’t sure. Murph nodded. It was her aunt after all. “My dad, he did a number on me. I still find myself, even after all this time, wondering what I did wrong to make him hate me so much.”

“He was a prick and a bastard. To you and Max. I, for one, am glad that he’s gone.” She said she was as well. Murph looked at the building again and started toward it. Andrew called her name out and she turned back to him. “I love you, Murph. You’re the best sister a man could have. I just wanted you to know that.”

She was nearly to the door when she heard the first shot. Hurrying now, she made her way into the building to see that Laci was out of sight, but her men were being shot at. Hoping the girl had done what she’d been told, Murph opened fire. Killing the first man she saw, Murph made her way to the counter where she hoped that Laci was.

Two of her men were down but not dead. Three of the guys that they’d been there for were down as well, one of them dead. As she made her way to the counter, she saw a man and nearly shot at him when he put his fingers to his lips. Murph was so shocked by the move that she stood there and watched as he went behind one of the shooters and snapped his neck and let him fall. Murph heard her name and looked to her right.

“Don’t shoot him. He’s helping us.” Murph nodded at Laci and moved to stand where she was hiding. Not where she’d told her to go but close enough, Murph thought. “They were ready for you. I mean, almost as soon as I walked in the door, they were all over your men. I think they knew this was going to happen.”

She watched the men from her position near Laci and could see that she might have been right. But when one of the men walked up behind her unknown helper, she shot him in the head. The man gave her a thumbs up as he moved on.

“Do you know him?” Laci said nothing, and she looked at her. “Laci, who is that man? Do you know him?”

“His name is Cyrus. I summoned him to me today when I felt his pain. I think that his other master hurt him and I could feel it.” Murph wondered how the hell that had happened but before she could ask, Laci continued. “He was hurt or I might not have helped him like I did. But it was that or have him die.”

“You fed him.” It wasn’t a question, but Laci answered that she had anyway. “Do you have any idea what you did when you did that?”

“I saved his life, he told me. And he said that he owes me. I don’t want him to owe me. To be honest, I think what he did for me with the envelope should have made us even.” Murph had heard about that and had a new respect for the man. He moved in the direction of one of her men, and she nearly told him to back off when he broke his neck as well. Murph watched in stunned silence as he made his way to her. She never lowered her gun when he stood in front of her.

“They were aware of you coming here today. Each man has a mental picture of you and of young Laci here. That man, the one I killed for you, he was your leak.” Murph asked him how he knew. “He is a friend of my maker. Or who I thought was my maker. I think there is something more to that as well, and I will find out, but for now, I am at your service. My name is Cyrus. You’re Doran, I believe.”

“I am.” She glanced at Laci and she said she didn’t say anything. Not that she knew what a Doran was to tell him. She looked back at Cyrus. “How did you know to come here? Or for that matter, how are you here in the daylight?”

“I think that her blood is that powerful.” They both looked at Laci, who was red in the face. “She summoned me as well. I don’t think that just anyone, especially not a human, as I was led to believe that she is, has done anything that kind for me in a very long time. I owe her my life, I think.”

“None of us are what we let people believe we are.” He nodded and bowed before standing again. “This master of yours, or whatever he might be to you, is he going to come looking for you? Do I need to bring in the troops?”

“I would say that is a good idea anyway. There are more men out there than this. Sonya has provided Martin with a seemingly endless supply of money and magic.” Murph asked Cyrus what side he was going to be on when the storm came through. “I am wherever Laci needs me. Now and forever.”

The building was brought to order by the men that had been on standby about an hour later. She’d only lost one man, and he was the man that Cyrus said was her leak. She thought perhaps he was right, too, when several hours later she noticed that his bank accounts had a huge influx of money over the last twenty-four hours. Plus, he had a stash of guns in his house and garage. Even his car had had enough guns and ammo in it to have taken the entire town out. Whatever he’d been up to, it hadn’t been to help her department out.

And the deeper she dug into his life, the more she found out about Richard James. The little fucker was selling her out to a great many people, not just Martin and Sonya. He’d contacted newspapers, as well as a couple of labs that he thought might want a piece of her and her son.

So now she had to be on the lookout for men in white coats to come for her. It wouldn’t be the first time, nor did she think it would be the last. But this time she didn’t have the added mess that her father added to the equation. Murph let her son know what was going on and told him to be extra careful.

You as well. Kendra and I will be back in a few days. The hiking has been fun, but I think she’s about done in with it. We have one more trip to make before our vacation is over. Then we’re heading back for good
. She told him how much she missed him.
And I do you too, Mom. Tell everyone to be safe and we’ll see them on the flipside
.

The baby took that moment to kick her, and she rubbed her hand over it to give her all her love. As soon as she was calm, Murph went to find her husband. She needed him and knew just where to find him.

Chapter 8

You might want to come to the cable office.
Andrew rolled to his back and tried to think beyond the fuzzy exhaustion in his head. He asked Rider why he needed to go now.
Your office has been broken into, and your personal things have been destroyed. Also, and you’re not going to believe this, the man responsible for it is sitting at your desk as we speak trying to clone your computer. When asked by the security team you have there, he said that you were told this would happen.

Andrew sat up and reached for his pants. He hated to wake Laci, but as soon as he stood up she turned on the light and asked him where he was going. Andrew relayed to her what Rider was telling him.

“He’s there with him?” Andrew said that he was watching him on the cameras they had in the offices. “And Blair is just waiting for you to come there and catch him?”

“I think he believes that he’s in the right and that I shouldn’t have done this to his office. He made it clear the other day when I was there that he was going to use my office regardless of what I did to keep him out.” When he was dressed, she told him she was coming as well. “I think you should stay here, naked and waiting for me.”

“I think you should stop thinking with your dick. I’m going.” He left the bedroom when she told him to. Rider was giving him a blow by blow accounting of the actions of the man. So Andrew went to his office to wait for Laci and pulled up the cameras on his own computer.

What’s he doing now
? Rider laughed and told him.
So he’s trying his best to get past the locking system I have in place and is pissed because of it.

What I think he’s mostly pissed about is that you’ve fixed the filing cabinets. I have to admit, I thought it was pretty smart of him to have the drawers all welded shut so you’d not be able to figure it out. But to have opened up the back of them, turning the files so that they were in the correct direction was brilliant.
Andrew had thought so too when he’d been able to step back from it and think.
What’s the plan? And so you know, I’m keeping a copy of this to show around to the family. This guy takes the cake.

Blair had not only made it so the filing cabinets in his office were impossible to open, but he’d also made it so that if they were tampered with, there was a secondary locking system in place. If the code was put in improperly or not at all, the back of the cabinets would have a steel drawer come down over the files and lock. He’d almost locked himself out of the cabinets when the cabinet had been pulled from the wall. Lucky for him, his chair had been in the way and he’d only pulled it out a couple of inches. John had noticed the grooves before they’d done more damage to the stupid filing cabinets.

He watched the man for another ten minutes, waiting for Laci to come down. When she entered the office, he told Rider he was going in and to make sure that he kept an eye on him.

I will, but you make sure that he doesn’t hurt either of you. There is something seriously wrong with that guy. And he talks to himself
. Andrew pointed out that he did the same, and Rider laughed.
Yes, I do, but I don’t answer myself. Nor do I have arguments. The really sad part is I don’t think he wins many of them.

Now that was insane. As they made their way over to the cable company, he asked Laci what she had planned for the day. He’d made arrangements with Rider and Carter to go junk hunting about a month ago, and she’d told him to go on and have fun. And Max had decided to go along with them, just for the fun of it.

“I’m going to go over to the antique store after this. They still don’t have a name for it just yet. Max asked me to think about it, but I have no idea.” Andrew told her she should give it some thought. “I will. But I have to see if I can do the job first. I know a lot about antiques, it was one of the many jobs that I had when I was still at home. And I can sell pretty much anything that is put before me, but I don’t want to mess up. Max said that I’d do a good job and that’d be great for him. I think knowing something about the piece will be a lot more helpful.”

“You’ll be great at it.” Laci leaned her head back on the seat as he continued. “We have a shipment coming in today. And Charlie is going to need some help with a big lot she has coming in today as well. Her building has finally been emptied out at where she was before and that stuff is being brought to her new place to work. I don’t know what it is, but I’m assuming by what Misha was saying that it’s a great deal of inventory that will need to be sorted and stored.”

“Your mom said that her and Hannah were going to work for her. I think her baskets are beautiful. The one that she did up for Hannah and little Kelly was gorgeous. I could never think of something that put together. I’m more of a give me a plan and I can do it person than a person who just knows how things should be arranged.”

“I’ve seen some of her things too. And I’m just as amazed. You should see her whip up a batch of soap. It’s like watching a well-organized orchestra playing. And at the end, she has these little bars of the most wonderful smelling stuff.” As they pulled into the parking lot, he turned to her. “You don’t have to go in. I can handle him on my own. Why don’t you go over to the shop? I know you have a key.”

He could tell that she wanted to. Not so much to go to the shop but to not go in and confront Warren. Andrew was actually looking forward to it. Now that he had the list of names of the people that had been getting a portion of Laci’s money, he was ready to confront the man on all levels. He saw Anderson, Carter’s attorney, pulled in next to him. It was show time.

“Okay. I want to look around on my own anyway. I just want to make sure I’m doing the right thing.” He knew that Laci was but didn’t say it to her again. Instead he kissed her and watched her as she moved across the street to the building three blocks up from here. He knew that she’d be all right, but he still worried about her.

“You ready for this?” He grinned at Anderson when he spoke. “Yeah, you look every bit of the cat that you are right now. And I’ve been warned by Misha that I’m not to let you shift and kill the man. I haven’t the slightest clue how he expects me to do that, but I told him I’d keep an eye on you.”

“Thanks for coming out for me. I really appreciate it. Especially as late as it is.” Anderson told him to wait for the bill. Even as they made their way to the door, Nic appeared beside them. “Christ, don’t you have a warning light or something? I nearly pissed myself.”

“You will need me around, I think.” If Nic said you might need him, the likelihood that you did was high. “I have been looking into some things. And while this man has no idea who Sonya is, he has been in contact with Martin the vampire. Oh, and I have found out that Cyrus is not his child. That is the reason that Laci was able to call him to her.”

They moved into the building and down the hall to his offices. There was only a few working this late at night. Most of them were even nodding off at their desks. The number of customers using this company over the larger one was small. Andrew had a feeling that by the end of the year he was going to have to close up. It just wasn’t feasible for him to keep it running without much income. He was already making plans to turn it into something else anyway. Not what to use the building for, but just not a failing cable company.

Andrew stopped when they were about halfway down the hall. His door was gone. Not open, which was what he had expected, but gone. It lay on its side down the corridor from his office, and he noticed that the doorknob had been shot off. He moved into the room just as Warren was trying to get the cabinets to move from the walls.

“Those are stationary now. I think you will need more than a little help to get them away from the wall. Though why you would think you should is beyond me.” Warren turned to him, his face screwed up in anger. “You were told to stay out of my office and off my computer.”

“And I told you, several times as a matter of fact, that that doesn’t work for me. I use this office and the computer when you are not here.” Andrew crossed his arms over his chest and said nothing. “You have also tampered with my computer and the ones in these offices. I demand that you return them as they were. As well as these files. Were you not told to leave them alone? They are of no concern to you.”

“They are because I said they were.” Warren snorted at him and sat at his desk again. “You shot the door open. Why the hell did you do that? When, as I have mentioned several times now, you were not to be in my office.”

“I also told you to give me a key. Why must you keep making this hard on me? I know what I’m doing and there is no reason for you to be barging in on my things making changes that have nothing to do with you.” He looked at Anderson. “What is he doing here? I don’t care for strangers in my building.”

“It’s my building and this is my attorney. Warren, I’m going to have to ask you for your badge. I haven’t any idea how you got in anyway. I know for a fact that I disabled not only your badge but your sign-in as well.” Warren didn’t move. “Did you hear what I—?”

“Yes, yes, I heard you prattling on. You have no idea who you’re messing with here, do you?” Andrew asked him to explain. “I run things the way I want them here. Not you. And the sooner you figure that out, the better things are going to be for you. As for how I got into
my
building, I got in here because the people who work here know who’s in charge. They also know what will happen to them if they don’t do as I say. You’ll learn your place soon enough or you’ll be gone as well.”

“You go on thinking that. Where is Laci’s money?” Warren said he had no idea who that was. “You knew her as Beth Summer. And she told me all about how you knew her real name. Where is the money she made in commissions for the last six months?”

“I would imagine that it’s been spent. And if you want to know if I took it, then I’ll tell you that I did. So what? She was a liar and had no rights to it anyway. The people I gave it to weren’t making enough to make ends meet and I helped them out. She was still getting a part of it. I suppose she complained to you about it.” Andrew told him that he’d discovered it on his own. “Oh well, good for you. But it’s not like I took it all from her. What was she going to do with it anyway? It’s not like she had a place to live where she had rent due like these people did.”

“You do know that by taking her money you made it impossible for her to have a home or even enough food to eat. Not to mention that it was against the law, and that by doing so you will be brought up on charges.” Warren said that wasn’t his doing and he wasn’t going to take the blame for her stupidity. “But you did take her money. Seven grand of it, as a matter of fact.”

“The money went to a good cause. If she needed more, she should have worked harder for the rest of us.” Andrew looked at Anderson when he laughed. “You should have seen her face when I told her what was going to happen. She learned her place fast enough. And as I said, it wasn’t like the money was all going to me. Some of the people that I gave it to really needed it. Why, one of them was able to afford a new car with that money. I do wonder when she’s coming back however. The money has sort of slowed since she’s been gone.”

“She won’t be coming back here to work. She’s my wife.” Warren laughed. “You think it’s funny that I married her?”

“No, I think it’s funny that you thought you had to marry her. In my experience, women like her, they’ll give it away for nearly nothing. Perhaps you should have cleared that with me before you said your vows. I could have saved you a great deal of money.” The hand on Andrew’s arm was the only thing that stopped him from leaping at the man. And when he continued spouting his free but useless advice, Andrew looked at Nic.

“He is not worth it. You know that, don’t you?” Andrew nodded. “He’s hanged himself now. The rest, as they say here, is gravy for the police. Young Murph has been listening in with your brother Rider. They are coming here now.”

As soon as Murph walked in the door, Warren stood up. He was telling her about the things that Andrew had done to his office and to his computer while he was turned and cuffed. The complete look of shock on his face was evident when he realized that he was being arrested. Then Murph began reading him his rights.

“Shut your mouth right now. I am not going to stand for this. And you have no reason to arrest me. That man there, he’s the one that messed with the natural order of things in my office. He should be put away forever. Get these things off of me this minute, you hear me?” Murph started reading him his rights again when he pulled away from her. “You cannot be seriously thinking I did anything wrong here. I am ruler here.”

“Ruler? Well, okay then. Ruler Blair Warren, you’re under arrest for breaking and entering, destruction of private property—” She was still reading off the list of shit he’d done today as they left his office, an officer on either side of him.

“Want my advice?” He told Anderson he would take anything he had to offer. “Close up. Sell what you can, but I’d not open my doors here again. Not as a cable company anyway. There is going to be bad blood here from now on. Even those that didn’t care for Warren and his rules aren’t going to be sticking around for much longer anyway. This place is dead, and they can see the writing on the wall even if you can’t.”

“I was thinking the same thing.” Anderson told him he’d take care of it for him. “Not the building. I want it for another project. I have something in mind for it.”