Fated Absolution (13 page)

“Frank! Frank, come back here. What is this?”

It was full of pictures. Naked pictures. Naked pictures of the landlord, and holy Moses he was…he was in bed with Frank. She quickly stuffed them back in the envelope and put them in her backpack. Her mind was spinning, and her stomach was jumping.
Why on earth would he
give these to me
, she thought.

Bob Turner, slum lord extraordinary came around the corner just as Frank disappeared into the next apartment. He had the police with him. Shit, shit, shit!

“Ah, Ms Harm, you can be on time for this, but not your rent I see. I’m so glad to see that the young people of today have their priorities straight,” Bob snarled at her as he came toward her. “Officers, I want this woman arrested for nonpayment of rent, destruction of property and being a pain in my ass.”

“You can’t have someone arrested for being a pain in the ass, if that were the case, you’d of been in jail some time ago. Ms Harm, my name is Captain Wolff. Is this man correct? Are you behind in your rent?”

“Wolff. As in Alpha wolf?” She looked him in the eye and waited for his answer. Instead, like his relative, he did something else. He dropped a little of himself and let her see his eyes change. Just for a second, but it was enough.

‘Mother fuck. I am so going to get me some garlic and silver shit tonight.’ Her voice was low, but she was beginning to realize that all of them seemed to be able to hear a friggin pin drop when they wanted to.

David threw back his head and laughed, startling the man with him and Bob, who took several steps back from him.

“I have some…I may have something that will clear this up. If I could please have a moment with Mr. Turncoat, err I mean Turner. If you could just step this way, I sure the nice…hummm…policeman has better things to do.” He followed her into her room and she handed him several pictures from the envelope and waited.

“Son of a fucking bitch,” he shouted loud enough for the building to hear. You fucking cunt, where the fuck did you get these?” His face was red from anger, but nothing else. She would have been mortified if someone had had pictures of her like some of those, but he was just angry that she had them.

“I’m very resourceful.” She heard David laugh again. Hearing. She’d have to try and remember that one.

Bob walked back into the hall and out of the building. David shouted at him to stop and to ask him what he wanted done now and he yelled that he could fucking shoot her for all he cared and that he wasn’t fixing the fucking door ever.

Bob left the building and David sent the other officer with him to get the car and turned to look at Maddy when they were alone. Maddy had a feeling whatever wolf-boy wanted wasn’t going to make her day any better.

“I have a message for you Ms Harm. Bradley is my brother and he said to call him or me if you have any more problems here.” He handed her a business card with both their names on it and surprise-surprise, a wolf on the front of it.

“Thanks, but I think I can handle myself.” She looked down the hall to make sure they were still alone. “Let me ask you something though. Are all the…you know, others like you guys bossy like this? I mean, everytime I turn around one or all of them are telling me where to live, what to do, where to work. Frankly, I’m sick of it. I told them I would help them out and all I’ve gotten is headaches for my troubles.”

Her head was hurting. She didn’t get any sleep last night, she’d thrown up all of her breakfast and she had given blood last night. Massaging her temples she looked at him expectantly.

“Yes, but I guess they figure, as do I that we protect those who work for us, and paying you to do a job makes you a part of that group too.” He turned then and was headed for the stairs.

“Well, you can tell your brother and whatever else he is, that I don’t want his or any of their help. And as they aren’t even paying me they need to back the fuck up or I’ll press charges.” She walked back into her room and didn’t even have the satisfaction of being able to slam a door.

“I can give you a quarter percent over what you owe, including back taxes and mortgage.” It was only twelve-thirty in the afternoon and every part of her body hurt.

Mr. Simon was her second appointment of the day. And hopefully just one more before she could go back and take a nap before work. She didn’t think she could hurt in any more places without being in the hospital. And her head was throbbing like a jack hammer was being used.

“I can’t go any less than ten percent. I know you have all the figures, the amount I owe.

You have to know that I have to make something off this fiasco.”

He looked anything but calm. Three days ago when she’d made this appointment he all but told her to go to hell. But now he was polite, cordial even. She gathered up her things and slipped on her jacket.

“I’ll just wait thanks. In less than three weeks the bank is going to take it and sell it to me for whatever they can get me to agree to. You do know that if they don’t make enough on the sale that you’ll still be responsible for the differences, don’t you? I may even get it cheaper.

Have a good day.” She shook his hand and then turned to leave.

“One percent.” She could hear the desperation in his voice now and almost felt sorry for him. Almost.

“Half, and that’s the best I can do. The bank says it worth less than the mortgage and taxes together. I need to make a profit too. It’s in your best interest to sell now, Mr. Simon.”

“Deal. Damn, remind me never to owe you money. What do we do now?” Relief was evident on his face. She had told him that with her buying him out, he could keep his credit rating and come out ahead, and she was sure that had played a large part in this deal.

“I’ll contact you tomorrow morning and we can meet at the bank. They’ve already agreed to pay off the taxes for you from your account. It’ll have to be as soon as the bank opens, say around seven-thirty. You aren’t my only appointment in the morning Mr. Simon, so if you have any questions, please have them ready then, all right?”

The deal with ‘Butt and Buns’ she’d made on her first appointment of the morning, a now debunked gym and pastry shop was being settled at eight in the same bank. She had had no trouble getting him to take what she’d offered and had had more fun at this meeting. Or she would have it she hadn’t been so ill.

“I own two more buildings in that area,” Simon told her as she started to gather up her now signed forms. “Want to get them for the same deal?”

They worked for another hour, and by the time she left his office she had purchased his three buildings and four others from acquaintances of his, all at the same rate of exchange. She was smiling as she pulled up in front of the Con Building. The building was going on the market in a few months she’d heard and was disappointed it wasn’t in the area she needed it to be in.

Her appointment with Con didn’t go as well as the others had. Having not being able to strike a deal with Mr. Con that made either of them happy she left him with her business card –

well her name on a index card and told him when he needed the money to give her a call. She didn’t expect him to call her but she would get the building.

“Mr. Duncan, could you have Mr. MacManus call me at
‘Puss n’ Boots’
when he gets up? Tell him that I’ve made deals on eight of the buildings and he’ll need to meet the parties at the two different banks in the morning.” She had called the house knowing that the large vamp wouldn’t be awake yet. Or so she had hoped.

“Miss Harm, I believe his Lordship has arisen. Would you like to speak with him now?”

She didn’t particularly want to, but this way he wouldn’t be just showing up unwelcomed at the bar again she figured.

“Sure. I guess.” She waited for a minute, wishing she’d of just left a message.

“Ms. Harm, you wanted to speak with me?” She knew that he was still pissed by his tone when he came on the line. She was much too tired and way too sore to care about either.

She relayed all the information about the buildings and what time and where the appointments were.

“Those eight building are less than ten million. That’s considerable less than you first assumed,” he said in a tone that was entirely different than the snobby one he’d been using when he’d come to the phone.

“Yeah, well, I’m a cheap bitch,” Maddy told him still not sure if she liked him. “Can you make those times or not? A Ms Patterson is going to be the one we’re dealing with. She is also in charge of another five of those buildings and is willing to deal with you for them. She can be tricky, just a heads up.”

“Yes, I’ve met Ms Patterson. She’s a member of Bradley’s pack. I don’t think we’ll have too much trouble with her. But I am aware of her being tricky.”

Maddy was quite for several seconds, thinking. “You know, I’m beginning to think no one is who they seem. Between wolf packs, bloodsuckers and magical queens, my life has gone from a ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ sort of life to one like ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ change. With the nightmares and threats to my life, I’m ready to call it quits.”

“What threats on your life? Is Kyle aware of them?” She could hear the tone in his voice and she just didn’t have the energy to deal with him too.

“Just some things going on that I’m dealing with. Nothing for you to be concerned with.

I’m a lawyer, things like this happen. I gotta go, I want to try and take a nap before I go in tonight.” She hung up, not carrying if he was finished or not. She was exhausted, her body ached and she wanted to crawl back into that big bed with Kyle, not that she would admit that to anyone.

She didn’t get her nap, not only that, but she didn’t get anything to eat either. When she got back to her room, all of her things were gone. The door was now fixed and the whole room had been cleaned, cleaner than when she moved in. Maddy stood in the center of the room for five minutes just looking around. That’s how Marie and Frank found her.

“I got your stuff, Girlfriend. Me and Frank, we picked it all up from the street and put it in some trash bags we done had. It’s in our room. Most of the picture glass was broked. Stupid bastards coulda maybe been a little easier on it. They comed last night late, we’s so glad you weren’t here to see it. They just comed in and tossed it right outta the winder. Whatcha gonna do now?” The entire time she was talking she was patting Maddy’s arm.

“I don’t know. I just don’t know.” She shouldn’t have pissed him off, but done was done her Grammie used to say. “I have to go to work. I…did you know them? No, don’t tell me. You shouldn’t have involved yourselves. Turner could get to you next. Will you keep my stuff until tomorrow? I’ll…”
I’ll what
, she thought. Clime Two hours later at the bar she was no closer to her
‘I’ll what’
than she had been before. It was easier to think now that she was alone. Doing things by habit, she started pulling out the fruit to cut up for drinks and set things up for tonight at the bar, her mind on autopilot.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
The voice came out of nowhere and the knife slipped into her arm. Blood poured from the cut immediately and she knew she was in trouble as it gushed from her wrist.

She turned around, thinking to confront Kyle for scaring her and to give him a piece of her mind, but she was alone in the bar. She could see that she’d locked the door even from where she was.

“Where are you, you stupid bastard? You made me cut myself. Come out!” She grabbed a bar towel and wrapped it around her arm, blood soaked through almost as fast as she wrapped.

She was beginning to get dizzy. Dizzy and more than a little scared.

“
I’m not there yet. I’m speaking to you telepathically. You can do the same. I thought we
agreed you weren’t working there anymore…why do I feel you’re in pain? What’s happened to
you?”

“I told you I cut myself. I…I think I need help. I…I’m bleeding fast. Oh shit, I’m bleeding to death.” Maddy crumbled to the floor.

By the time Kyle pulled up in front of the bar, the police and ambulance was already there. David and Bradley were just outside the bar waiting for him. Neither man looked all that thrilled with him. Well, he wasn’t happy with himself either.

“Where is she? Is she all right?” He tried to rush the men but they held him back.

“She’s lost a lot of blood, but otherwise is fine. She’d cut the artery in her wrist. The other girls didn’t show up until ten minutes after we’d gotten here. If you hadn’t of called us there’s no doubt she’d be dead. How did you know?” David asked him.

As all paranormal mates, they couldn’t cause harm with intention to their mates. These men would know that. They would know that he hadn’t caused her harm and that whatever he’d done to hurt her had been an accident.

“I startled her I think. I barked at her through our link, she didn’t know. Shit, this is my fault, I didn’t think.” He’d nearly gone mad with worry when the link was cut off. As soon as she’d lost consciousness, he’d lost all contact with her. All he knew was that she’d been hurt and that she was getting weaker.

They were wheeling her out of the bar when he looked up and he rushed to be with her.

She was still unconscious, and he could feel her heart beat was slow but steady. He could smell her blood and his body reacted to it, not with hunger, but with a need to heal her. There was also the sharp smell of medicine and the medical team who had been touching her. It was everything he could do not to snarl at them to get away from her and let him have her.

Kyle started to go with her when they took her to the hospital, but the medic told him that as close as she had been to dying, they wanted to the extra room to work, just in case. He agreed and said he’d follow them. David and Bradley rode in the cruiser behind Kyle so he wouldn’t have any trouble if he was caught speeding. Kyle had just started the Hummer when Aaron and Sara materialized beside him.

“Is she all right? Duncan said you needed us here. I’ve never been so scared in my entire life.” Sara even looked worried as she hugged him. “Duncan said that you left because Maddy had been hurt but he didn’t seem to know how what had happened. He was nearly frantic. I thought I was going to have to put him to sleep then read his mind to understand. We have to call him as soon as we know anything.”