Page 9 of Lica

“I know that we’ve not had a great deal of time to talk about what’s happened between us, the sharing of magic. There is some rule about the magic that allowed you to, and Brandy, the magic did allow you to remove his hand to save us. But if it wasn’t justified in what you did, then the wound would have healed up immediately. As it stands right now, it’s an open wound. Not even the best doctors in the world can seal it up so that it heals. He needs to talk to you calmly and tell you how very sorry he is for what he did to make you have to remove his hand.” She asked him if that was true. Not that she would blame him for lying about this to make her feel better, but she would rather he didn’t lie about the magic. “I’m telling you the truth. And it’s because you’re more powerful than he is. That’s something else you should know. You are by far more powerful than any wolf or human out there. You’re the alpha bitch, and he knew it when he came here to challenge me.”

“Then I should have let you do it.” He shook his head, but before he could tell her, she spoke to him. “While I don’t want people, anyone, to cross the street because I’m coming down the same sidewalk, I know it’s because word has gotten around to other shifters, so they know what I did. The cook at my home is a wolf. I didn’t know that until the other morning, but she said that she was so proud to be working for the Alpha and his bitch. Then she told me that all the males and females alike were proud of me for saving the household when James showed up. I don’t think that’s a terrible thing, do you?”

“No. So long as someone doesn’t get it into their head to challenge you. Not that I don’t think you can take care of yourself, but you’ll have to make sure that you’re not alone. Please? If someone harms you in any way, they’ll be dead. And it will not be an easy death either. And it more than likely will not be me. For as much as I’ve heard from the pack about you, there are only about five that wouldn’t lay down their lives for you. Me too, she said, but mostly for you. I’m second only to you because you may someday breed a son or daughter for me. Not my words but theirs.” She paced back and forth, and he watched her. This was only the third time in the six weeks that he’d known about her that he’d spent any time with her alone. He wondered what she was thinking and then decided that it wouldn’t bode well for him to look. So he asked her what she was thinking.

“I would like to carry a gun. I don’t know if I could use it on another person, but if a wolf comes after me, I want to be able to at least slow them down so that I can get away or get some help.” He handed her the one that was in the back of his pants. It was the main reason that he wore a vest, so he could cover his weapon up. “Thank you.” She looked at him. “Aren’t you afraid that I’ll use it on you?”

“No. I don’t think I’m afraid you will. You could, I guess, but according to shifter law, you’re not supposed to be able to hurt me.” She asked him about his parents. “That’s a good thought. My parents hurt one another and us all the time. I think you have a point. I knew, someplace in the back of my head, that they shouldn’t have been able to hurt us. I think that the fates that put them together…You know, I don’t have an answer for that.”

“The fates did what they did to make you into the men that you are today. If not for your childhood and the exact way that you were brought up, I don’t believe that any of you would be the men, good men that you are today.” She looked around and then went to the door. “I’m hungry, and I would guess that our food is there.”

She went into the restaurant, and he stood there leaning against the truck. If he didn’t know any better, he’d say that she complimented him and his brothers. Grabbing the door handle to the restaurant, he went inside smiling. She’d put him off guard again. He was going to have to be on his toes if he was going to hang out with her all that often.”

When he was seated, he was happy to see that the staff was bringing out the food. His sandwich, well, both of them, were hot from the oven, and he couldn’t have been happier. Once the server left them to get refills on drinks, he handed the other gun he had in his pants to Alan. He tried to give it back, and Brandy told him to keep it.

“What would you do if you’re out with Mom and that idiot three-paw comes after the two of you because he wants me?” Lica asked if she was going to call David three-paw from now on. “Yes. I think that’s a good name for the despicable person. I would rather you carry the gun all the time, even around the house, Dad. Having a gun that you can’t get to or use because you didn’t want to carry it means that you’re dead. I don’t want that any more than you’d want for me. Right?”

“Yes. I never thought of it that way. I’m betting your mother will put up a fuss.” Lica asked Alan if she’d be upset if he was carrying. “Oh no. Not her. Debra will be upset that she wasn’t asked to have one as well. My wife, she’s very protective of us. More so than I think a bear with her cubs. No, she’ll be going out and getting herself one as well.”

“Here, let her have this one.” Edmond winked at Brandy when she looked at him. “I have another one at home. Since I’m with all of you, I’ll be good until I get to my other one. But you give her that one. It’s a Glock, so she should be able to kill whatever she needs. Also, I don’t know if Lica mentioned this to you or not, but the bullets are all silver. So they’ll kill a vampire as well.”

Lica laughed. The more he gave thought to the conversation that they were having, the harder he laughed. They were all talking about guns and the creatures they might have to kill with one, like they were on some kind of death squad. And he was having a blast. He might not want or need a mate, but he sure did enjoy her family. They were very cautious and went with the flow like people he’d never met before.

After they were finished up eating, Alan said that he had to finish up some paperwork at the office before he made his way home. Brandy said the same, that she had to read over one more contract that was for a loan before the morning. She had a meeting with their corporate heads at nine tomorrow. Just as she was about to cross the road, she stopped and turned to him.

“This meeting is something that I don’t do all that often. I mean, we don’t load money to people but usually buy stock. But we might, and that’s a big might be lending him the capital to expand. If you’d like to come, you’ll be very welcome.” He nodded and asked her what he should wear. “Do you have a dress suit?”

“No. I mean, I have one, but I don’t think it fits as well as it used to.” She said for him to wear some jeans and a nice white shirt if he had one with a tie. “All right. Do you think that I should purchase a suit for things like this?”

“Yes. All of you will need a few suits. I’ll set up a tailor for you and your brothers tonight.” He asked if they needed it to be tailored. “Yes. If you’re going to a business meeting, first impressions are always the best. Lenord, he’s the man that does my dad’s suits. He might have one he can fix up for you for in the morning but you’ll be all right if he doesn’t. I’ll let the others know when they can be suited up.”

He went with her to her office. It wasn’t anywhere he’d been before, and he was glad that she introduced him as her husband. Ten minutes after she sat behind her desk and picked up her phone, a man by the name of Lenord Salva showed up and took him to the other room.

Christ, he was embarrassed to have to get measured; he thought that man knew every single part of his body and how long it had been. He told him that Lica would never be able to look good in anything but a tailored suit and that he would be the only one who could make him one. Lica had no idea what that meant but he did feel strange when he found out his leg length.

That measurement made him squeak. He decided right then and there that he wasn’t going to tell his brothers about this. He was going to let them learn about it all on their own. And he was going to make sure that he was there when the time came for them to be measured too. Especially Edmond. Edmond didn’t care to be touched. From their childhood, he figured it was going to be a blast watching him answer the question, ‘Do you hang on the left or right’ and see if he knew what it meant. Yes, he thought, this was going to be a lot of fun.

Chapter 5

“What?” Brandy had to pull her eyes away from Lica when he came into her office. Good lord, if he looked this good with well-fitting clothing on, then naked, he’d be, “Brandy, is something wrong with what I’m wearing?”

“No. I just never thought of you in a suit before.” He grinned, and she turned her back to him. “You’re more of a jeans person like I’ve seen you wear since I’ve met you. But Lenord was correct. A suit off the rake would never hang on you, right.”

Embarrassed when he laughed, she went into the conference room off from her office and started putting the files in front of each chair that was set close to the long table. He asked if he could help, and she pointed to where the bottled water was and asked him to put them on the table.

Brandy could only carry about four, maybe five bottles of water to the table. Lica picked up the case in one hand and used his free one to set the bottles where she told him. Then he put out napkins to go under them when he found a stack of them, too. Having him around was going to be helpful in so many ways, she thought to herself. He asked her if she had a moment that he could talk to her.

“I have two questions for you. One, I’m not in a hurry to get an answer, but the second one is, do you want me to have any opinions in this meeting? Am I going to be—not being mean but like a boy toy to you while here? I didn’t mean boy toy. I meant a heavy, someone to keep you safe. The way you looked at me when I got here, that’s what made me think of the—never mind. My mouth got ahead of my head, and I apologize for that. The first question is about getting cameras set up around the ranch to keep an eye on the cattle.” She asked him if he’d ever been to a business meeting. “Just when I get turned down for a loan. The banker here, Howard Slaven, he won’t allow our kind to open an account unless it’s for a business. Even then, he’s very particular about what we take the money out for. I don’t know why but that’s just what he does. I sometimes wonder if he has a list of all the shifters in town and keeps a daily accounting of their accounts. I don’t know, I guess that’s silly.”

“He needs a good swift kick to his head is what he needs. When I was putting money in yours and your brothers’ accounts, he didn’t have anything to do with it because I did it on line. I wonder what he would have said to me had I come in and done it.” Lica told her that he simply wouldn’t allowed her to do it. “So it’s doubtful that he knows the balance to your accounts.”

“I would say that’s about right. And speaking of money, I know that you told me that I didn’t have to come to you for money, but I would very much like it if I came to you when the amount is over a certain dollar amount.” She stopped and turned to look at him, asking him why. “Well, I know nothing about the accounts you’ve put me on. I know you told me that I have as much buying power as I need, but I don’t want you to pull up a statement and flip out because I spent five hundred grand.”

“Okay, I guess I would like to know that. And I’m not saying that if you need it, you don’t spend it until you talk to me. What would that be for? You can do it, but I think you’re right. A heads up would be good.” He told her what he wanted to do. “Yes, that’s wonderful. But we need to set you up a business account for the ranch instead of taking it out of the personal accounts. There is plenty enough to cover a check that size, but it should come out of business for tax reasons.”

“I never thought of that.” She said she’d get him with an attorney today for them to sit and set the account up. “Thank you. And I do appreciate you allowing me to—”

“I’m not allowing you to do anything, Lica. You are, I guess, my partner—an equal partner in all things the same as I’m yours. However, the money is for all of us. You’re also running a business that I know absolutely nothing about. However, numbers I can work with. At the end of this deal today, for example. If, as I said, that’s a big deal, if we lend this company money, it’s going to be in the millions. Seven or eight. Then there is the loan that we’re going to work with that will be nearly that much more to expand his business. While I trust that you’ll use the money for what you say you will, and there is no need for you to worry that I won’t trust you, but this man? I feel something slimy from him. Like…I don’t know. Like, he’s going to get the money to expand, but there is a shiny thing right there in the corner that he really wants, and no one will care if he uses a bit of it for that. It’s happened before.”

Source: www.allfreenovel.com