Aaron's Kiss Series Boxed Set (Books 1 - 7) (40 page)

~CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE~

Several days later, Colin and Shade lay in the crypt of the sublevels of their new home. Most of the furniture had been taken out only that evening and construction crews were to begin first thing on the following Monday.

Most of the people in Colin’s realm were leery of the new master and his mate, having heard about lightning coming from his fingers and lasers from his eyes. But they hoped that everyone would be all right once things settled.

“Are you sure this is what you want? I mean, I won’t have him hurt again. I want him to be happy.” Shade had her head on his chest and Colin was stroking her bare back.

Colin smiled down at her, and then kissed the top of her head. “I’ve never been surer of anything in my entire life. I want this, I swear to you.”

They had been talking about this for days now, ever since they had moved into their new home. Brent was being released from the hospital in a few days. He’d had to spend this week in the care of others because they couldn’t locate his mother after he’d been found wandering about the streets in a daze. David Wolff had picked him up and brought him there, telling everyone a different story than the one that he knew had happened. Shade and Colin had gone to see him every day he’d been there.

“Let’s go tell him. Right now.” She jumped out of the bed and was pulling on her robe even as Colin moved to grab her.

“Love, its three o’clock in the morning, I’m pretty sure we should wait until at least a little later in the day. Besides, we need to get things ready. There’s so much we have to do…” His heart constricted as he watched her face crumble. She was not being manipulative; she was crushed. “Okay, in the morning then, I swear. First thing.”

~~~

”Brent, we’d like to talk to you about what happened in the cave. We wanted to tell you that your mom...she is…” Shade looked to Colin.

Shade didn’t have any idea how to tell a little boy his mother was dead and that she had actually been the one who had killed her. Shade was also afraid once she told him, that he would never want anything to do with her again. And that would indeed crush her. She loved him as her own and she wanted so much to bring him home, to their home, with them.

“Brent, son, your mother was not a very nice person.” That was an understatement, thought Shade as she frowned at Colin. She wanted to get to the good part. Oh, she so hoped it was a good part.

“It’s okay, Mr. Colin. I knowed my mom is a bitch. Everyone knowed it. Mrs. Orting said my mom would make a preacher cuss up a tornado. I don’t knowed what that means. But she looked so mean when she sayed it, I just knowed it was bad. She let them bad men hurt me and Becca. I don’t wanna sees her no more.”

Shade couldn’t help it, she burst out laughing. Leave it to a kid to know just how to put things into perspective. She sobered slightly as Colin answered Brent.

“Yeah, well, that’s not a nice word. True, but not nice. Here’s the deal, kid. Shade and I want to take you home with us. We want to keep you as our kid, but only if you want us to. There’d be rules and stuff. You’d have to clean your room and things like that. And I’d have to demand that you’d eat three meals a day and make sure Shade does too.”

Shade watched as Brent sat down and began playing with the blocks they had gotten for him yesterday. He didn’t say anything for a while, just drove his car around. When Shade started to say something more, Colin stopped her with a small shake of his head.

Brent never took his eyes off his car he was building as he asked, “What about you? You gonna eat too? And I don’t gots a room to clean and no toys but this one to play with so that’ll be okay, I guess.” He drove his car over to where Colin’s hand was resting on the table.

“I’ll eat some, but not as much as Shade will need to. She forgets sometimes. You know how girls can be? And you’ll have a room. Actually, we just bought a house so you can have your pick of any room you want. You’ll go to school too.” Colin touched the little hand now driving the car up his arm. Shade held her breath.

Ever since Becca had died, Brent wouldn’t let any man come near him, and he would scream if one touched him, even if it was innocent. She was afraid that Brent would start to scream again as he had when the police officer had taken him from the hospital after he was hurt in the cave. But he didn’t; he just looked up at Colin.

“I...I never had a daddy, Mr. Colin. Never in all my whole life. My mamma was a bit…bad person. Her and that other lady, they hurt me a lot. I don’t wanna ever never go back to her. If I comed to live with you and Shade, will I haveta, go back to her, I mean?” He reached up and carefully touched the sigil that was on Colin’s neck.

It had moved when Shade’s had, moving to rest over their jugular. Every time he bit her on it, the bond between them grew, as did the powers that Colin now had. Also, their sex had gotten more intense and more frequent, as if they couldn’t get enough of each other. She blushed when she thought of how many times they’d made love before they’d left the lair this morning.

Shade cleared her throat several times before she could speak. Her heart was in there clogging it up, she thought.

“No, Brent. You’ll stay with us forever if you want to. Your mother isn’t ever coming back for you. I promise.”

Shade watched as Brent traced the trunk of the tree with his small fingers. He did this several times before she realized what he was doing. “Brent, what do you see there? What are you touching?”

“The pretty tree. I was petting the little bunny. Can I get a tattoo too, when I live with you?”

Colin and Shade both answered “no” so quickly that they startled both them and Brent. His grin told them that he was kidding with them.

“I wanna live with you. Forever and ever and ever. Can I called you Mom and Dad like those kids in that other place did? I’d wanna do that real bad, Shade, please?”

Shade pulled the little boy to her breast and hugged him tightly to her. She glanced at Colin and he looked as if the entire world had just bowed before him.

“We’d love it if you called us Mom and Dad, Brent. You already feel like our little boy.”

Meet Kathi Barton

I woke up one morning and decided to give play time to the people in my head who were keeping me awake. Little did I know that they would be so relentless and want their time right now! I wrote for the pure joy of it and to entertain my family and friends. But mostly it was to get more than an hour of sleep without a story playing out. Of course, the more I write, the more they want. So…well, as a result of sleepless days (I work through the night as a gun toting grandma – nope not a vigilantly but an armed security guard) I have lots of stories written.

Hello! My name is Kathi Barton and I’m an author. I have been married to my very best friend Sonny for at times seems several lifetimes – in a good way, honey. And together we have three wonderful children and then the ones we brought into the world - Paul and Dale Barton, Jason and Wendy Barton and Danielle and Ben Conklin. They have given us seven of the greatest treasures on Earth. They don’t live at home seven days a week! No, seriously, seven grandchildren – Gavin, Spring, Ben, Trinity, Sarah, Kelly and Kian.

Table of Contents

Natural Magick

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or person, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

WCP

World Castle Publishing

Pensacola, Florida

Copyright © Kathi S. Barton 2011

ISBN: 9781937593629

First Edition World Castle Publishing November 1, 2011

http://www.worldcastlepublishing.com

Licensing Notes

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews.

Cover: Karen Fuller

Editor: Brieanna Robertson

Dedication

To all the nerds in my life, this means you Paul. I want to thank you for your help with this one. Sometimes you were a little too “helpful”, over my head I mean, but you kept the systems straight and the computer online. I love you son. Thanks so much, Mom.

Also to all of those who just love a good steamy romance. Thanks to everyone. I hope that you enjoy this third book in the series of Aaron’s Kiss and stay tuned for the rest of them. This story is one of my favorites and I hope you love it as much as I do. Kathi

CHAPTER ONE

“Mr. Bartholomew, what did you think you were doing when you did this? You’ve been caught tampering with the alarm and security system for Mackey Corporation, twice. As much as I hate to tell you this, they are willing to drop the charges if you show them how you managed to circumvent their very expensive system in —it says here in less than fifteen minutes. Is this right?” He turned to his bailiff to confirm the time. It was apparent that the judge was not amused. It was said that he hated hackers and hated young smart-assed ones more. And this company wanting the help of a criminal was not the way the law worked, in his exalted opinion.

“That’s not correct, sir. My client is a female.”

The public defender had had it pointed out to him just this morning, and was unthinkingly glad to have someone else make the same mistake. As soon as he heard the woman next to him snicker, he knew he had made a tactical error.

“You really think that this is the time or the place to point out that instead of a boy, your client is a girl? What possible reason could I care what his or her gender is? We are here because that person standing next to you hacked into a company’s system and tampered with it. A company, I would like to point out to you, that she does not work for.”

Judge Lucas was known for his short fuse and his even shorter temper when it came to hackers. And it was just their luck that they drew him today of all days. Pete said nothing as she stood there with her court appointed lawyer.

“No, sir, I don’t. I apologize for that. My client is willing to work with the company and show them what she was able to do.”

The judge glared. Pete Bartholomew smirked. It was fine by both, it appeared, that there was no love lost between them.

“Fine! Case dismissed. You have five days to comply with the company’s request. Next case. And you.” He jabbed the gavel toward Pete. “Get out of my court room.”

~~~

“When can you come by and show us your work?” Jacob Sailor wanted to get this over with as soon as possible. He was waiting outside the court room for Pete when she exited. He was the one who had recommended the security firm that had been hacked into by this twit, his brother-in-law’s firm, to be perfectly honest.

“I can be there now, or in the morning after eleven. I have another job until ten and can’t be there until then.” Pete answered him with a smirk.

“Another hack job you have to correct?”

Jacob was royally pissed. He didn’t want to be here, not with her and certainly not in this courthouse. It gave him the creeps for some unknown reason. His boss, Mr. Mackey, had not been happy about how easily the new system had been broken it to, and in less than fifteen minutes after it had been demeaned complete and operational. The whole system had taken nearly a year to write and another six months of glitches to work out before it was finally working. Then minutes after it was installed, the entire company’s bank records, financial statements, profit and loss, everything was captured. At least she hadn’t done anything with the information. She had just emailed the entire package to the president with a little note telling him he had been hacked and how easily it had been done.

“Nah, this one pays. You should really try and curtail your gambling online on the company time there, Mr. Sailor. Its company time you’re screwing around with. You’re not going to be able to borrow much more against your 401k, and everyone else’s.”

Jacob stuttered for a few seconds, shocked that she had that information, and that she was also correct. He looked around to see if anyone else heard her then realized that no one would care. He was a well-dressed rich man and she was…well, she wasn’t.

“You just mind your own fucking business and I’ll mind mine. What I do with my money isn’t your concern. You’re just lucky no one is putting your ass in jail like I suggested. And be warned that I still have the ear of the president, hack.”

“Whatever. Remember, fuck-tard, what goes around can come back and bite that tight ass of yours. So which will it be, now or later? No sweat off my back.”

He watched Pete as she looked around the hall, probably looking for a fast trick, he thought. She looked...well, bored came to mind. As if she didn’t have a single care in the world. Probably didn’t, he thought, living off other people’s money she had stolen, no doubt. He stiffened again, remembering her comment. That’s not what he was doing at all. He was investing the company money, not stealing it.

“Tomorrow morning, and don’t be late. I have a full schedule. I don’t want to be waiting on you all day to show up.”

Jacob realized he needed away from her before he gave in and simply backhanded her hard across that smart mouth of hers. He might have, too, if he wasn’t afraid she’d hit him back. Women like her usually used violence when they were confronted with someone smarter than them. He straightened up, knowing he was the better person for not hitting her when she so richly deserved it.

“No problem. See ya in the morning, Jakey boy.”

Before he could correct her on his name, she turned and walked away. Insolent bitch! Well, he would show her in the morning. He would make her wait on him until he was good and ready. Petty? Of course it was, but he was a petty sort of guy.

~~~

Pete was at the office of the Mackey Corporation at ten-thirty the next morning. She hadn’t dressed up. Her jeans and baggy flannel were clean; her black high tops were scuffed but laced up tight, and clean as well. She went directly to the reception desk and told the woman the who, what, and when of her visit. Shelia asked her to wait, as Mr. Sailor was in a meeting. She gave Pete a little smile as if to say, “He told me to say that,” and then winked.

Forty-five minutes, later Shelia called Mr. Mackey.

“Ms. Bartholomew has been here nearly an hour and Mr. Sailor has yet to come and get her. I don’t think he’s being very professional.” She turned her back to Pete to continue to speak into the phone in lowered tones. “He told me to say that he was in a meeting. I don’t think that’s where he’s at. He called her the ‘hacker extraordinaire.’ What would you like for me to do?”

Shelia had been with the company for many years, working her way up through the ranks as her father had told her to. “If you want to learn a company from the inside out, then start with the bottom rung of the ladder,” he had told her. So she had, and now she sat at the front desk to learn that part of the job, and her daddy, the one and only Mr. Karl Mackey himself, was quite proud of his little girl. And no matter what Pete had done, she had caused the company no harm, but had saved them a great deal of embarrassment if the records had been sent anywhere but to her father. Shelia also believed that Jacob Sailor was an ass.

“Don’t let her leave, honey. I’ll be right there. If Sailor shows up, well, I want you to keep Ms. Bartholomew there. All right?”

“Of course, Mr. Mackey. You know you can depend on me.”

Less than two minutes later, Karl came around the corner to receive the young woman.

“Ms. Bartholomew, I’m Karl Mackey, sorry to have you keep waiting. Come with me, let me show you around. Shelia, when Sailor finally decides to grace us with his presence, please tell him that Ms. Bartholomew is in a real meeting and we are not to be disturbed.”

~~~

Karl had asked Sailor what Pete would require to show the tech team what she had done to break into their system, and Sailor had responded that she just needed a computer. It became apparent that Sailor had not bothered to ask or get any information. He had just assumed. Karl was beginning to see that this was the way Sailor did most of the things he had been assigned, half-assed.

“We can get you whatever you need to work with. There are ten techs that want to meet with you, pick your brain so to speak. Let me introduce you to them then let’s get you started. I’m sorry; I didn’t catch your first name.”

“Pete, I go by Pete.”

When she looked at his face, almost daring him to make a comment, he left it at that. She had a pair of dark sunglasses on, but Karl knew that she was looking him in the eye. He had a lot of friends who had to wear sunglasses during the day and didn’t think anything of her doing so now. He was impressed with Pete already and Karl Mackey was not a man who was easily impressed.

At six o’clock, Karl went to the third floor conference room to see how the meeting had gone. He’d been tied up all day in one meeting after another and hadn’t had time to go anytime earlier. He’d just gotten off the elevator when he saw one of his people still at his desk. He told Karl that he’d not seen any of them all day and thought they might be still at it. He believed that they were still in the conference room on the fifth floor. Karl looked at his watch to make sure he had not misread the time as he took the elevator up. It turned out the intern was correct, all of them were still deep in conversation and looked to be nowhere close to wrapping up when he opened the door.

There were large post-it sheets hanging on the walls and doors. Several white boards had been brought in and were covered in, well, he didn’t know what the hell it was, but it looked complicated. The ten people who were in charge of his IT lab were frantically taking notes and making adjustments on their laptops. Pete was sitting on one of the long conference tables with her feet in the seat of one of the chairs, throwing a ball up in the air while talking a mile a minute, seemingly oblivious to the fact that they were hanging on her every word. When he cleared his throat, all eyes, including hers, turned to him.

“Good evening. I had thought we’d have wrapped up by now. Have you run into problems?” Karl asked the room in general.

“Oh shit...sorry, Pete, ma’am. Oh, no sir, she showed us the glitch in the system and we fixed those already about…” He glanced down at his watch and looked as amazed as Karl had been when he realized that it was almost six-thirty. “Almost six hours ago. I didn’t realize it was so late.”

Daniel Scott had been in charge of the security lab for the Mackey Corp for nearly ten years. Karl thought if she could make him, of all people, lose track of time, then he needed to take a closer look at this girl and maybe what she could offer all the holdings in this company.

“Then this would be...?” He encompassed the room with all of the papers and notes lying around.

“She was showing us other glitches, fixable glitches in a few other systems we have running. Payroll, for one, and a couple of the camera programs running the outside security that needed a boost as well.”

“Great. That’s really...wait, payroll had a glitch? What kind of glitch?” He looked over at Pete with a questioning look.

Pete walked over to one of the computers and pulled up his entire payroll roster in a matter of a few key strokes. He wasn’t even sure he could do it that quickly and he had been doing it for years. He thought he might have to take a few lessons himself if she was that good.

“See this? It’s your left over decimal. It doesn’t really add up to much per check, but over your entire payroll yearly, it’s about four million dollars.”

“Please tell me that you haven’t tapped into that one as well.” Karl was suddenly nervous, very nervous. She had been caught hacking into his system and here she was in his payroll now and to the tune of four million dollars. Small cells and bars flashed in his mind.

“I’m not a thief, Mackey. If I wanted to get to your money, I could have taken it days ago, no weeks ago.” Pointing to Daniel, Pete continued. “He can show you the rest, and I’ve showed them how to change the passwords and how often to do it. By the way, Jacob Sailor had his brother-in-law install your security system, right? I tapped into your system to let you know that he isn’t using standard procedures and he’s a fucking thief. I fixed your payroll, but you may want to check with your accounting department. A lot of money can be moved in two weeks. And your boy Jakey? He has a major gambling problem and is using the company’s 401K as his personal bank account.” She gathered up her things and started toward the door.

“Ms. Bartholomew, I’m sorry. I was wrong about you, very wrong. It’s been a hell of a week and I may have...if you will, I’d like to extend you a permanent job if you’ll take it. We could all use someone like you on our side.” Karl was humbled. He had insulted the girl and she had still made sure he knew about Sailor and the rest of the inner workings of their flawed system. He didn’t run across a lot of honest people in his line of work and even less of people who would help him after he had insulted them.

“It’s Pete, and no thanks. I believe I have fulfilled my required services by the law, Mr. Mackey. If there is nothing else, then I’m going home.” She didn’t turn around when she answered him. But being what he was, he could smell that she was upset, pissed really. And he didn’t blame her.

“Ms...Pete, thank you. Yes, of course, you’re finished, and you’ve more than fulfilled the terms of our agreement. I’ll be sure to call the judge first thing in the morning and let him know what a valuable asset you were to us today.”