Trent (9 page)
Tanner loved what he did. It was exciting,
never the same, and he had made a great deal of money at it. Not that money was
everything, but it certainly helped with paying bills and eating. He knew that
he could go to his parents and they’d help him out, but he really wanted, and
needed, to do this on his own. So marking through the help wanted ads, he
decided that tomorrow he’d start looking into fast food. He’d done it before
and it had paid pretty well. Being unemployed sucked.
~~~
Trent came into the house with his arms
loaded with wood and watched Joe as she cooked. They had worked out an
arrangement over the last two days they’d been here together, and it was
working out well. She did the cooking and kitchen clean-up, and he did all the
rest. He wasn’t ashamed to admit that he was doing pretty well as a domestic. The
pay was certainly nice. Going into the kitchen where she was, he moved up
behind her and nipped at her neck.
“You keep that up and we’ll not have any
dinner until midnight again. Last night you wore me out.” He held her hips
while he rocked into her ass. He seemed to be at a constant state of arousal
since he’d met her. Not that he was complaining, but he was worried about
wearing her out. “Trent, back off if you want to eat tonight.”
“I do want to eat tonight.” He turned her
around and lifted her up to sit her on the nearby counter. Going to the stove
again, he turned off all the burners and the oven and moved back to her. “You,
as a matter of fact.”
“You do know that was our dinner, right?” He
nodded and pulled a chair from the table. “What are you thinking you’re going
to do with that?”
“Well, since I know for a fact that you’re
wet, I’m going to sit right here and have myself a little appetizer before I
have the main course. Then when you’ve filled me with your creamy goodness, I’m
going to strip my pants off and fuck you where you sit. Hard and fast until you
scream yourself hoarse.” She leaned back on the counter, and he reached up to
her hips and pulled her pants and panties off. “Spread your legs for me, baby.
Let me have my fun.”
When she opened her legs for him, Trent slid
his fingers into her. She really was wet, and when her juices started to run down
his arm, he leaned in and suckled her clit into his mouth and bit down gently.
Her hips started moving up and down off the counter then, and he knew she was
close.
Fucking her with his fingers, Trent ate her,
lapping at her pussy with his mouth and tongue until he was sure she’d come a
half dozen times. Standing up, he opened the fly to his pants and freed his
cock. He had to be careful now because he was so hard and full, and he didn’t want
to catch himself in his zipper. Sliding his crown into her heat, he watched her
face.
“You love this don’t you? Me playing with you
until you come? Will you, baby? Come with me like this?” Her moan nearly made him
slam forward, but instead he slid his crown into her sheath and fucked her in
short, quick jabs. “I could come like this. Fucking you just enough to make you
scream. You have no idea how much I love to have you tighten around me, make me
feel like you’re milking me with your sheath. Christ, I love you.”
She slid her fingers to his cock and every
time he slid out of her, she ran her finger around him. He was close now—his
balls were full and he wanted to empty himself deep inside of her. Before he
could do just that, she grabbed him in her fist and held him.
“Fuck me from behind. I want to feel you
slamming your cock into me from behind.” He nearly fell back when she gave him
a little push. When she got off the counter and turned around, he ran his hand
down her ass to her gate, sliding his fingers into her heat. “Fuck me, Trent. I
need it hard.”
Moving his finger, he grabbed her hips. When
she moved her hips back, spreading her legs wider, he fisted his cock and held
it at her entrance. The next time she moved back to take him, Trent slammed
forward, taking her all the way to the counter as he did so. He knew for as
long as he lived he’d never get enough of loving her. Physically or
emotionally.
She was crying out now. Each time he pounded
her, holding her tightly as he did so, she moved back. And when she screamed
she was coming, her body bowing up off the counter and to him, he held her to
him as he emptied himself. His body holding hers tightly between the counter
and him, Trent bit down hard on her shoulder and heard bones break.
He came again when she lifted his wrist to
her mouth and bit him. Trent saw stars then, his vision sliding from perfect to
slightly blurry, with brilliant bright bursts of light making his body feel
amazing, and he held her as she drank from him. He lifted his head from her
shoulder, his cock still semi-hard inside of her, and fucked her slowly while
she sealed the wounds she’d created.
When she went limp in his arms, he moved to
pick her up and then carried her to the table and the other chair there.
Holding her, he wondered how he’d ever be without her, or how he had survived
all this time without her in his life. Trent held her to him, stroking her back
while they both recovered.
“Dinner is ruined.” He laughed and so did
she. “I guess we’ll have to have cereal now. I don’t think I can save the cake
either. I was going to surprise you with it. Sort of like a special treat for
making me come so many times last night and today.”
“Having you in my arms is treat enough.
However, if you wanted to bake me up a batch of those biscuits, I’d surely love
that. But only one batch. I have to eat better.” She didn’t move out of his
arms, and he was content with that. They were happy. Hell, he was ecstatic. Trent
was in love, and feeling better every day.
Last night they’d had the fish he’d caught
and the ones she’d caught as well. Trent didn’t know for sure, but he thought
that there had never been a better cooked meal in the world. They’d had small
boiled potatoes as well as green beans with it, and he’d considered himself the
king of his castle. Had he had the strength after making love to her twice
after they’d eaten, Trent might have gone out on the deck and declared himself
king of the beasts. He would have pounded on his chest too. But he had been
just too tired to do anything but doze in the chair that looked out over the
deck.
When Joe got up and worked on dinner, he
pulled his pants up but didn’t bother snapping the top button. He was alone but
for her and didn’t care at the moment. Joe told him that dinner wasn’t ruined
and she’d have it done in about twenty minutes. He told her what he’d talked
about with his brother.
“Tanner was coming up tomorrow night with
Noah. They have some information and Tanner needs for you to help him out with
it.” She said she would. Trent knew that she had a few degrees under her belt,
as well as knowing a few other languages. He had been so impressed that he’d
had her talk dirty to him in French all night until he just couldn’t take it
anymore and pounced on her. “Mom and Dad said we could have this house as a
wedding gift.”
The spatula in her hand dropped. When she
turned to him, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the box that his mom had
told him was at the cabin. She’d planted it for him so that, in the event
things worked out, he’d have it.
“I fell in love with you. I don’t know when.
It could have been when you walked into the bedroom or when you kissed me the
first time.” He got down on his knees and moved slowly to her. “I really have
no idea, but I do love you. With all that I am.”
“You don’t have to marry me.” He told her
that he most certainly did. “Really, I’m content just to be with you. We don’t
need anything to say that it’s okay for us to be together.”
“I do.” He took her hand in his and kissed
her palm before he turned it over again. “I have a ring. My mom, in her amazing
wisdom, made sure that I could have something here to ask you with. I am going to
have to get her something really nice when I see her the next time.”
The ring, he knew, was his grandmother’s. It
had been in his family for a few generations, and he was glad that she’d
thought of it for him. The band alone was a work of art…wolves chasing each other
around the gold. The small diamonds that were a part of each collar around them
had been set deep in the gold. But the large diamond on the top was what drew
attention to it.
The four wolves were on their hind legs and
holding the large stone above their chests. Each of them, using their paws beneath
it, had their chins on the top to hold it in place. His great-great grandfather
had been a jeweler before he’d met his mate, and had fashioned the one of a
kind ring for her. Trent put it on Joe’s finger, and wasn’t surprised that it
was a perfect fit.
“Oh Trent, it’s beautiful. Are you sure you
want me to have it?”
He kissed her hand again and turned the ring
so that the wolves were up. “Johanna Samuels, will you do me the honor of
marrying me? Love me for the rest of my life? Hold me when I’m whiney? Show me
how to relax, fish, and have fun? Will you have children with me, love them
with me, and keep them safe?” He stood up then. “I love you with all that I am
and ever hope to be. I will cherish each moment with you and keep it in my
heart for all time, long after I’m gone. Will you please marry me?”
“I will.” Trent kissed her then, feeling her
emotion like his own. When he lifted his head to look down at her, she smiled
at him and then kissed him quickly on his mouth as she continued. “I love you
too. I never thought I’d feel this way, but I do love you. Short time or not,
you are my heart and soul, and I will never leave you.”
He touched her whenever he could while she
finished their dinner. There was more to tell her. A lot more, but not right
now. They were happy, and he wanted that to last as long as it could. When she
sat a plate in front of him, biscuits and gravy with hash browns and six eggs,
he looked at her.
“You’ve been burning a lot of energy lately.
And I for one would like for you to burn a little more.” She poured him some
juice and sat down with her own plate. “Now, tell me what you don’t think I
need to hear. I can see on your face that you’re keeping something from me.”
“We have to go home the day after tomorrow. One
of my brothers or my dad is coming to get us. Noah is going to wait to talk to
us then, when we get there, about whatever is going on with Ford.” She nodded
and asked him what else was going on. “I have to work, much as I hate to admit
it, and there is this matter with Ford, like I said. He has to be dealt with.
Once and for all.”
“I agree. He’s been a problem for Noah and me
for many years. Not a constant one, but enough that we’ve been keeping an eye
on him with each of his movements. He is not a good person, Max Ford.” He ate
for a few moments before she spoke again. “Tell me when you know something,
please. I don’t want to have to worry that you’re keeping me in the dark. I can’t
live with that, okay? Not to mention, it makes you stressed out when you think
you need to protect me. I’m good with it. All right?”
“Yes. Okay.” He nodded, then continued as he
ate. “I’ve been thinking about my life before…well, before you. I’m not going
to keep the business I have now. I want to sell to Elijah, if he’ll have it,
and try something else. I’m not sure yet, but there are…I want to be a teacher.
History, and then maybe see if I can coach football too. I played when I was a
kid all the way up through college. I want to teach.”
“Then you should.” He felt better already and
asked her what she was going to do. “I have a job. I work for Noah. I know that
he really doesn’t need for me to be his day walker anymore. There are enough
people that can do that now. But I do other things for him…mostly run his
businesses, as well as run a few of his other properties. I have many as well,
things that I have invested in and properties of my own. They belong to us both
now. But I want to do that.”
“Then you should.” She grinned at him, and he
leaned back in his chair to look at her. “Christ, I love you. Where have you
been all my life?”
“Wondering when someone was going to come
along and try to kill my master. Learning to be a poet, architect, a cook, and
a few other things that I enjoy. I took some pottery classes once and painted.
I had to fill my time wisely until you came for me.” Trent laughed, and so did
she. “I love you as well, Trent. And we are going to have so much fun.”
He hoped so. But he had to deal with Ford
first, and anything that might come along with that. He also had to figure out
how to tell his family that he wasn’t going to work at his job anymore, and
that he wanted to be a teacher. Life, he figured, was about to get very hectic,
and he was excited for the ride.
Joe looked at the two pictures of Benny, the
young man, and of Jefferson, the adult. It was the same person. But why would
he come after Max, if that was what he was going to do? There had to be more
than just the fact that he’d been cruel to him as a younger man. The others
were talking around her, but she could easily tune them out. It wasn’t until
TJ, as he had insisted that she call him, sat down next to her that she snapped
out of it.
“You see something there?” Joe told him she
wasn’t sure just yet. “Yeah, I have that feeling sometimes. It’s like you’re
looking too hard at it. Take a break. Talk to me about this thing with my son.”
“Thing? I’m not sure I understand what it is
you mean.” He explained. “You wish to know about him selling his business to
Elijah. I would guess that would be a better conversation to have with him,
don’t you think?”
“I talked to him, but I don’t care for his
answer. I think there’s more. Like for instance, why now?” She said she didn’t
know. “I think you do. I’m not blaming you. I never thought he was cut out for
office work anyway. But teaching? I just never saw that coming.”
“He is very smart, your son.” TJ agreed with
her. “Perhaps he wishes only to teach so that he can be a football coach. He
did mention that part several times. Can he only be a coach if he is not a
teacher?”
“Good question. I have no idea. But I don’t
think Trent is any better suited to being a teacher than…it’s the being inside
part that I think might be hard on him. It’s what he complained about when he
was working all the time. And he needs a job that has no stress. Being a
teacher might get him only part of what he wants, but I don’t think it will
give him what he needs.” Joe wasn’t sure it was the stress that bothered Trent
or the need to be perfect. At any job he did. “He needs one of them jobs that
keeps him out of doors, I think. Like a landscape job.”
“Landscaping? I did that for a while. It is
quite satisfying to see things that you plant grow. Noah and I own a
landscaping business together, and have for many years. It is successful where
it is. But it will be up to Trent to decide what he does. I want him happy.” TJ
assured her that he did as well. “You love your children very much…it shows in
everything you do. Trent respects you as well. That is a part of everything
that he does.”
“They’re my life,” TJ said without any
hesitation and with a great deal of conviction. “Christine and I, we would die
for our children, much like I’m sure your parents would have done for you.”
“My mother was a house servant for a very
wealthy man. When he found out that my mother carried me, his bastard, he took
her into his home and kept her well fed and happy. But when I was born a
female, he fired her, had her return all the good things he’d given her as she
lay resting from my birth. I was put out when I was old enough to care for
myself. There were times when it was difficult to survive during those times. But
I was resourceful and kept myself alive. Then I met Noah, and he gave me a part
of him so that I could live a long and very good life.” TJ told her he was
sorry. “Don’t be. It’s not your fault. It was just the way things were then.
Now people do worse things to children they no longer wish to keep. I have seen
dogs treated with better manners. Haven’t you?”
“Yes. Sadly.” TJ leaned back on the couch
they were sharing. He was a very nice man, and he and his wife had been very
happy that she and Trent were getting married soon. “Do you think it’s possible
that Ford killed this woman and Marshall saw him do it?”
“I thought the same, but there is no way of
finding out after all this time. The newspaper said that her death was suspicious,
but I cannot find where there was any solving of it. If it was indeed murder,
no one seemed to care enough to go and find the person or persons who had done
it, and the case, even after all these years, is unsolved. So I think the lack
of interest had them shoving it under the rug for a time until it was simply
out of their memories completely. She had no family to mourn her, and she had
nothing to leave anyone should they have cared. I think she was cremated as a
way for the city not to have to bury her.”
“But this boy, he found her, correct? Do you
think he might have killed her? Over something he had in his head, like that
she belonged to him?” Joe said that she didn’t think that either. “He was in
love with her, Noah said. You thinking there might have been something there? Not
murder, but something that happened that he saw?”
“I don’t know. I suppose that could be it. As
you said, he was, for all intents and purposes, in love with her. I spoke to
him several times before she was killed. He was simply a nice boy who thought
that he could give her a better life.” Joe wondered now if he might have given
her more than Max would have. “He told me once that Max had tried to hurt her
on several occasions when she wouldn’t allow him into her home. I think perhaps
that might have upset him, but he always just said that she’d handled herself
well but that he’d be there if she needed him. I’m not sure what he meant by
Max hurting her. Even now, I don’t know.”
“So this young man tried to keep Ford away
from a woman that he wanted to rob. There were issues with her and Ford…everyone
that knew them could attest to that. Then Ford was ridiculed, left town, and she
ended up dead a few weeks later.” She told him that was what it looked like.
“But something drove this kid, now a man, to more than likely seek out Ford and
make him...what? Pay for some crime that only Jefferson knew about?”
“That is what it seems like. But it is my
understanding that Noah and Randal are going to talk to him. Tomorrow,
correct?” TJ said that was right but that he wasn’t happy about that. “Noah
won’t let anything happen to your son. You have my word on that.”
“I know that. I mean in the short time I’ve
known the man, I think he’s a good guy. What I worry about is if Jefferson is
no more upstanding than Ford is. What if they’re in this together to get back
at Noah?” Joe had thought of that as well. “I’d like nothing better than to
meet him myself. See his worth.”
“Then you should go as well.” He looked at
her oddly. “You are the patriarch of this family; should they not listen to you
when you ask for something?”
“Yeah, you’d think that, wouldn’t you?” Joe
didn’t understand what he meant, but before she could ask him to explain, he
snapped his fingers as if just remembering something. “The alpha, he wants to
see the two of you. Soon. I don’t think he’ll have a problem with the two of
you becoming mates, but there are things he has to make sure you know. I’m sure
that will be nothing more than you going to pledge yourself to him and what
not. He was…he did seem sort of put out to know that Trent had found his mate,
but I don’t know why. You’d think he’d be happy about it, wouldn’t you?”
“Perhaps he thinks that Trent will want more
now that he has his own family. I don’t know this alpha, nor have I heard
anything about him other than his name is Casey O’Neal.” She knew that the
Calhoun family followed the laws and ways of their pack. It had surprised her
and Noah that TJ had not become the leader of their group when he’d turned
twenty-five. He was strong enough and he was respected a great deal, as were all
the Calhouns. She told him that she’d talk to Trent and see what he wanted to
do concerning the other male.
When she was left alone, she looked at the
police report again. She had seen many such reports given by the police when
she’d been an attorney, but this one seemed to be lacking in a great many
areas.
In the area where it said official cause of
death, there were four things to choose from, yet none were marked. But the
picture of wounds on the drawing of the deceased bothered her most of all.
The drawing was a copy of a non-descript
female. The same kind of drawing was available for a male should they have needed
it. The coroner in this case had marked several places that Sydney had injuries,
but had offered no explanation of how they might have gotten there. For
example, there was a deep puncture wound on her left thigh. All it had was the
words deep and puncture. Then there were the ligature marks on her wrists. There,
too, it only pointed them out without explaining anything about them. Were they
from cuffs, someone holding her, or was there tape residue there? No
information at all. On the right side of her head was a cut, like she’d fallen
or been hit. It looked, according to the picture, like it had run the entire
length of her forehead, yet there was nothing about whether or not it had been
made by a knife or a fall. The scrapes on her knuckles might had been from her defending
herself. And her mouth had been cut as well. Some notes on the body could have
been done better as well, to Joe’s way of thinking.
“Was she raped?” Joe looked at Sterling when
he asked. Joe told him she thought so, but the report hadn’t mentioned a rape
kit being used. “I’ve looked over the entire file, and there is no report of
any kind of tests being made on her…no toxicology or any kind of skin or tissue
searches. To me, and I’m not much of a sleuth, she looks like someone either
raped her or tried. Was she naked when found?”
“No. Her clothing was intact.” She looked at
Sterling again before continuing. “I think perhaps Jefferson cleaned her up
after he found her and called the police. I don’t know why I think that, but I
can see him doing such a thing. He wouldn’t want her to be exposed like that. He
would have wanted her to have dignity even in death.”
“I can see that too.” He picked up the paper
she had been studying and then put it back down. “I have a friend that can go
over these for us. I don’t know when he can look, but I can ask him. As
lay-persons, we might just be looking at a formal report on someone that we
don’t know well. At least I didn’t know her well.”
“That would be very nice.” She picked up the
papers to put into the file when a small sheet fell out. Leaning over to pick
it up, she nearly dropped it again when she realized what it was. “Did you see
this?”
She handed to him, and he looked at her after
reading it. Sterling looked as shocked as she was. “It says she was pregnant, and
that it had been aborted at her death. That she...you think it was Ford’s?”
“I don’t know what to think. But I should
like to speak to Jefferson. I think he needs to explain things to us now. Something
about this says that all of this is revenge and this is the key.” Sterling
nodded to her and stood up. When she did as well, they made their way to Trent.
This was going to be the end of it all, she knew it.
~~~
Jefferson didn’t bother picking up the file
he’d been given…he knew what was in it. Knew every word of every sheet that was
there. He even had copies of things that this person didn’t. Nothing they could
say to him could get him to admit to or corroborate their thinking.
“You know her?” He said nothing to Trent
Calhoun. “Jefferson, we want to help you with this. If Ford did you wrong, we
can help you.”
“I don’t understand why you believe, first of
all, that I need your help or that I have anything to do with these people. Ford
is my partner. A very shady one I’ve come to find out, but my partner all the
same.” Jefferson didn’t look over at the pictures that hung on his walls and
were framed on the shelves that cluttered his office. Why he’d agreed to this
meeting he was still trying to figure out, but they were here and he’d do what
it took to get them off his back. It was too soon for him to be exposed just
yet.
He knew these men, or at least he knew one of
them…the others he knew only in that he’d looked into their lives. Noah, the
only one that he’d met before, had not said a word to anyone upon entering his
home. It made him nervous, him being in his home or anywhere near him for that
matter. He wasn’t afraid of Noah; he had been at one time, but now he was just fearful
that he knew things that Jefferson wished that he didn’t. Jefferson was
terrified that he knew who he was.
“We believe that you might hold a grudge
against Max and are in partnership with him for a reason other than for it to
be beneficial to both of you.” Well, no shit, he wanted to tell TJ, but said nothing.
“We also think that you’re this young man Benny Gibson, a young lad that might
know something about Ford that the police haven’t figured out. About the death
of Sydney Carlin.”
It hurt him to hear her name, ripped at his
heart in ways these men would never, could never understand. He had loved her
with all that he’d been. She might have been older than him, even smarter, but
she had been his one and only true love. And until he was satisfied that
justice was served in her death, he would do whatever it took to make sure her
killer saw the errors of his ways. Even if it was served by him and only him.
Even after all these years, he hurt for her.
She was by far the nicest person he’d ever known, and she had not deserved what
had happened to her. But telling these men what he knew would do none of them
any good. The only person who was going to pay was Ford. And he was going to
pay dearly.
“Benny? That’s your name, isn’t it?” He
looked at Noah, a man who had not aged one single bit in all these years. It
had frightened him a little, seeing the man at his doorstep. And he’d nearly
said no when asked if he could be invited in. When he asked him again about
being Benny, Jefferson shook his head just as Noah continued. “I’m a vampire.
You might not have known that back then, but I’m telling you now. The reason
for this full disclosure is that a vampire never forgets a scent. And I have
yours. You are without a doubt Benny Gibson.”