Trent, page 3
“Your family?” Joe said nothing, but she knew that the rest of them, all the Calhoun’s, had joined their patriarch. “I had no idea that she walked in those circles, TJ. I was just going to tell her that we’re ready for her to come and work for us now that we’ve gotten some things straightened out. With your son there helping us with the loan he said we could have, we’ll be able to afford her.”
“You’ve yet to unhand her. And we’ve been about as polite as I think we need to be on this.” This was from the man that she’d knocked down, Elijah. “Let her go, or the only thing saving your life will be the fact that we’re this close to the emergency room.”
She was let go, but shoved just hard enough to nearly fall when she staggered. Elijah put his hands out to stop her descent to the floor. As he held her to him, three of the others, their names escaping her memory right now, stood between her and Max, and his sometimes bodyguard, David.
“For some reason, and this could just be me, I’m thinking that she doesn’t want to work for you. Is that right, Joe?” She nodded at Elijah. “See? She doesn’t want to work with you either. And I’m pretty sure my brother and I have made it perfectly clear that we have no desire to help you out. Not now and not ever. Now, I think you should move on your way and leave us on our own.”
“Can’t blame a man for trying, now can you? I’ve heard nothing but good things about how Miss Samuels can turn a dime into a buck. Besides, I thought you were gonna talk to that brother of yours about our business. I went by the offices and saw them wheeling him out, and came here to see if I could offer up some assistance. I had no idea that you knew Joe here. I’ve been after her to work for me for years now.” No one said a word, and Joe moved back a little more, freeing herself from Elijah, only to be pulled closer to Mrs. Calhoun. “I’m still a little in the dark as to why we’ve all decided this won’t work. All we had left to do was sign off on some papers and it was a merger made in heaven.”
“I’ve already told you that we’ve decided against it. That should be enough for you to move on. It was for us.” Max looked at her, and she could see the hatred in his eyes. There had been no time when she’d been going to work for him. And Joe had no idea why he’d said that to them. “Unless you have business elsewhere on this floor, Ford, I’d really like it if you left us on our own. We’re here for our brother and not to explain to you about why no means no.”
As soon as Elijah turned his back on the man, it was as if the rest of them had some sort of inner connection, and they all turned as well. Max tried to talk to her again when they moved back into the small room.
“You talk to that boss of yours before—”
That was as far as he got before she was pulled into the room with the rest of the Calhoun’s. Simon stood near enough that should Max have tried anything, he would have been thwarted in his efforts.
Max watched her as he made his way to the elevator, glancing back over his shoulder every few minutes. She wasn’t afraid of him, but she was afraid of what he might try to do to the Calhoun’s and to Noah.
Max had changed a great deal, but she knew who he was. Not only that, Noah did as well. A man could change himself whenever and however he wanted, but his scent would forever be the same. She knew who he was because Noah had smelled him on her when Max had accosted her the other day when she’d been in town for groceries. She thought about Noah now, and decided he needed to have a heads up on the fact that Max was trying his crap again. Not to mention, he was trying to insert himself into the Calhouns’ lives as well.
The man Ford is threatening me and you. Again. Noah asked her where she was. Mercy General Hospital. One of the people that I have been helping had a heart problem, and I was there with them. The Calhouns. You heard Meggie talking about them. Max knows them as well, but they do not know him as we do. He is expecting them to finance something for him. That can only mean trouble for the pack. They are a good family, and I hate to think of what Ford can do to them.
Meggie wasn’t her aunt, not really. Joe had no living relatives. And had she any when she’d been younger, they had all long since died. Meggie was the descendant of the sister of Michael, the man that had worked for Noah as his keeper longer than Joe had. They all had been watching over the family for generations, and when Meggie had started working for the Calhouns, they knew the family inside and out before she ever made their first meal for them. She had always been a firm believer, as had Noah, that they cared for their own.
I will be there soon. The wolves, are they as good as we have thought? A pack that might be open to me coming to see them? She told them that they were. You will please warn them that I will come by soon. I know that I need no permission to visit there, but I should ask that you tell them. I don’t wish for any hard feelings even before we begin.
I will. They saved me, I think. Noah asked her how, and she told him what happened. They had no reason to do that, Noah. They owe me nothing.
You think no one owes you anything when I know for a fact that I owe you my life several times over. She told him she loved him, and to her that was reason enough to risk her life for him over and over. Yes, child, and I you, but there is the added fact that you have saved me a great many times.
After telling him where they were in the big hospital, he told her that he’d come soon. She turned to the family and tried to think how to tell them he was coming. The best way, she’d always found, was usually the simplest. Just straight out.
“Have you heard of Noah Stark?” Most of them had and Joe nodded. “He is the man that I watch over when he needs me to. I have been his for a great many years. We have been...friends. He should like to come here and talk with you. All of you.” She explained that they both knew Max Ford, and they might want to listen to him. “Noah is a good man.”
“He’s a vampire, isn’t he?” Joe nodded again at Mrs. Calhoun’s question. “I thought so. I’m also assuming that you’ve never applied for a job with Max Ford. Nor have you any intentions of doing so. At least I hope not. That man stinks of being a cheater and a liar.”
“No. I have never wanted to work for anyone but Noah. I’m his day walker. And have been for many decades.” She watched their faces. “We have spoken of.... He will be moving along soon anyway, and when he does, I shall be going with him. But he comes here now to speak to you. He does want me to tell you that he will be here soon and that he wishes for you not to be upset with him.”
“If he’s an enemy of Fords, then he’s a friend of ours.” Joe said nothing. Noah didn’t make friends easily, and he seldom had enemies. If he did, they didn’t last long on this earth. He dealt with men who tried to harm him and his just as he did most things…swiftly and without any regret. And Max had made himself an enemy of her boss. “When will he arrive?”
“I have.” They all turned to the doorway and Noah smiled at them, not even bothering to hide his fangs as he usually did. “The Calhouns. I have heard a great many things about your pack. It is my pleasure to finally meet you.”
Chapter 2
Trent tried to focus on what the doctor was telling him, but for the most part his mind was stuck on two words: heart attack. He’d had a mild heart attack, and he would have more if he didn’t turn his life around, and soon. He looked at his dad when he snapped his fingers in front of his face.
“He’s talking to you. Are you listening?” Nodding, Trent looked back at the doctor. He still didn’t have a clue what he was talking about, so he looked at his dad again. “He’s telling you how lucky you were that someone was there that could help you. Been up to any of us standing around with our thumbs up our collective bottoms, you’d be a goner about now. He was just telling you what sort of changes you’re gonna make or you’ll be dead. And you will make changes, boy, or so help me...I can’t do that again.”
“Mr. Calhoun, I never said that. All I was saying was had he not have the proper care right when it happened, he’d be in worse shape than he is.”
Trent nodded. He knew that much. Someone had performed CPR on him when his heart had been in an irregular rhythm. And by them doing that, he’d been able to live, keep oxygen to his brain and his heart pumping like it should have been. Trent looked at the doctor and wondered if the man would just shut up a moment and let his mind grasp what had been said to him.
“Trent?” He looked at the doctor, just realizing that he might have closed his eyes for a moment. They were giving him something powerful, he had to admit that. Usually, meds didn’t even faze his kind. “Trent, I need to talk to you about this. I sent your father away for a moment so we could talk.”
“He can be a little much.” Doctor Sawyer nodded and smiled. “Am I going to be all right? I mean, right now I feel sort of loopy if you want to know the truth.”
“We’re giving you some pretty heavy doses to keep you calm. You don’t have a lot of that in your life, do you, son?” He told him that he’d been trying to keep himself in shape. “That’s not what I mean. You’re fit and in good shape basically, but not your mind or heart. You need to...I was going to say relax, but it’s more than that. You need to talk. To someone that isn’t a family member. Blow off steam to someone you can trust. Run as your wolf when you need to. Get out of the office more than you do. Go out on a date.”
“You mean get laid.” The doctor smiled. “My father. He said something like that to me the other day. I’m not sure he’s the right man to suggest something like that, but he did. He’s only been with my mom forever. He doesn’t understand how hard it is out there for a man like me to date.”
Dating and going out with a woman for the sole purpose of getting laid wasn’t the same thing. Dating meant you liked the woman; at least that’s the way he equated it. You took her to dinner, a movie, or even something as simple as a boat ride. The kind of women he usually went out with wanted no more to do with marriage and long-term relationships than he did. Trent wanted it, wanted it all, but he’d been working too hard to even think about that lately.
“No, I would imagine that it’s not. But you need to. Not just to get laid, as you said, but to get away from work. Go fishing with someone. Where there is no cell service. Let your wolf have more time in the woods. Regain that feeling of being one with nature. You’ve lost that along the way of becoming a great man.” Trent started to tell him that he and his wolf were just fine, but the doc looked around the room with a quirked brow. “Don’t bother telling me that you’ve got this, Trent. You just had a minor heart attack at thirty-three. You don’t have shit together but your business, and that’s killing you.”
The doctor stood up and moved toward the door. Trent lay there for several seconds before he called him back. “Am I really going to be all right now? If I get my ass together and do what you say, will I be okay?”
“Yes. But you have to make some major life changes, Trent. Starting today. No more eating what you please. I’m to understand that you had nearly a dozen biscuits before this happened?” Trent nodded, embarrassed. “You can eat what you want in moderation. And if you have fun, you can do more of that sort of thing. In moderation. You do remember what that is, don’t you? Fun, I mean? When was the last time you went on a vacation? Not a business trip where you ate at restaurants because it was convenient, and slept poorly in a hotel. A vacation where you did site seeing, ate at some place you might have read the menu over first. Went to a museum because you wanted to.”
“I don’t remember.” He nodded at him. Trent didn’t think he understood. “I just bought a house. Increased our business by nearly triple, and took on two companies that I’m going to have to walk away from because I don’t trust the man at the other end. That’s a lot of leg work.”
“Do you have people working for you?” Trent told him that he had a few hundred. “And they can’t do this for you? They can’t take over some of the stress and strain for you? If you don’t delegate, Trent, you’re going to be pushing up flowers and out of work permanently.”
He lay there for a long time after he was left alone, just thinking about everything and nothing at all. Trent didn’t delegate, not even to his own brother, who had been begging him for more involvement in the business since he’d partnered with him. Trent even did his own payroll, when he knew there were companies out there that could do it in half the time and for very little cost when compared to how much time he spent on it. He was, in a word, stupid.
Someone came into the room a few minutes later. Trent had closed his eyes and didn’t look up when the person cleared their throat. It was a female, that he knew, and that she smelled of medicine. When she touched his arm he felt her warm fingers as she grazed them over his elbow, but he still didn’t look.
“They just checked my blood pressure a few minutes ago.” Nothing. Opening one eye, he looked at the woman standing just a few feet away from the bed and realized his mistake. Sitting up in the bed and looking at her, his first thought was that she was gorgeous. The second was to wonder who she was there for, because he was a lucky guy. “I thought you were a nurse. Is there something I can help you with?”
“Your father sent me to see you.” He nodded, wondering what his dad was up to now as she stepped closer to him. “He said that I should introduce myself.”
Her scent made his wolf snarl at him. When he moved along his skin, tearing at him, Trent only had a moment to try and control him before the woman took two steps back. His wolf snarled at him again, and Trent tried to calm him. The women turned to the door, her face full of fear, and Trent leapt from the bed to stop her. She was his was all he could think about.
Before he could touch her, or whatever he intended to do, he found himself lifted up by his neck and his airway being cut off. The huge fucking vampire in front of him looked ready to tear his throat out when he snarled at the girl to run. The door opening and closing had his wolf nearly take him.
“My mate.” The man stared at him for several seconds before he lowered him to the floor. He didn’t let go of him just yet, but his talons were no longer biting into his skin. “She’s my mate. I have to get her.”
“You’ll do no such thing.” The sharp shake had Trent fighting dizziness, but then he was let go. Staggering, he nearly fell, then was lifted up and laid in the bed by the vampire. “You frightened her, and she called to me. In all my years of being with her, she has never had a reason to call out to me in fear.”
“I need to touch her.” Trent didn’t just need to touch her…he had to or he’d die. And the need was making him hurt. Then he looked at the man and thought for a second. “She.... My dad did this, didn’t he? Sent her in here and made me think she was.... This is some sort of joke, isn’t it? She’s not really my mate, and someone is just playing tricks on me again.”
“I don’t think she would find this funny. Do you?” Probably not, but he didn’t say that to the vampire. “Noah Stark, at your service. And if she is your mate, you will have a great many things to explain to her. Me as well, but more importantly her. I love her, you see, and I will not see her harmed. Not again, and certainly not by a man that thinks to claim her.”
~~~
Christine had no idea what had happened to her son since he was released from the hospital, but she was sure that whatever it was, she could fix it. She loved her sons more than she did her own life and hated to see one of them like this. Sad, lonely...depressed. Even having his favorite things made for him didn’t seem to make him come out of it. When TJ, her husband of nearly forty years, came into the office with her, she knew that he had seen it too.
“The doctor told him to take on a new life or die.” Christine knew this as well. And she thought that her husband might want to do the same. Well, “want” might have been the wrong word, but he needed to take some precautions as well. She could not live without him either. “He’s moping around like he’s lost everything. I don’t know what to do for him.”
“He needs to go home.” That much was apparent. He was her son, and she loved him to death, but he needed to go home and begin whatever he was supposed to be doing. And away from her too, she realized. “I can’t help him...well, I can, but I think that’s not doing him a bit of good. He needs to make his own way in this. We can’t do it for him.”
“I think you might be right.” She was always right, but didn’t point that out to her husband just now. It was a joke between the two of them and had been for some time. “He needs a good talking to first. When you going to do that?”
“Me?” TJ nodded. “I see. And this talk, will it be along the lines of him getting his ass in gear and getting out of our house? Or did you want me to be harsh with him?”
“Just get his dander up a little. You can do that. All he does is look at me like I’m not even there. I don’t like that.” No, Christine thought, her husband would not like being ignored. “You suppose he might need me to set him up again?”
“You do and I will leave you.” She knew what TJ had done in hiring a date for Trent. He swore to her that he’d had no idea, but she wondered. While she loved her husband, she worried about where his mind was at times. “I’ll talk to him and then we’ll go from there. He needs to get on, not sit around here where I’m waiting on him hand over foot.”
Christine made her way to the deck, where her son was currently sitting, after asking Meggie to make him a sandwich. She’d missed the young girl, Joe, a great deal the last few days, wondering if her being there might have brought her son out of his funk. Just someone to talk to or to argue with. Christine didn’t care at this point.
Trent had been on the deck off and on since he’d come home from the hospital three days ago, and she wondered if he was going to move back in with them. He couldn’t. Not now. The doctor had told them that he needed to move, do things for himself. And living with them wouldn’t get that for him. As soon as she sat down, Trent started talking.
