Elijah: Calhoun Men _ Erotic Paranormal Wolf Shifter Romance (6 page)

“We need the jobs more than we need automated.” Trent agreed as the two of them gathered up their equipment. “Noelle and Joe are coming over soon. I forgot to tell you when I was talking to Noelle a bit ago. Joe said you knew, I guess. Noelle is a bit skittish and said she needs to talk to you about something. I told her we were working but could use a break, so to come on over.”

Almost as if he’d conjured them, the two women showed up. Joe came to give him a hug and kiss and Noelle looked around. Dad was showing her all the work they’d done to make the building presentable.

“I worked for this man once that was point man for a company that made cereal. I don’t think it was any good, the cereal I mean, but they thought they needed to expand.” Trent asked her what the name of the company had been. “Good Eats. It was a terrible name, but he said they wouldn’t change it.”

“I remember them. They came to us, Elijah and I, when they were having trouble. We told them the same thing…that they needed to change their name to start with. I think they went under a few months later.” She nodded and moved around the room, touching some of the things they’d found in the rooms when they’d started working. “What does this have to do with our building?”

“Oh. He would go to a place to see if it was a good spot, he told me. And while there, he said that he always looked for the same three things before he even sat down with the town. Cost, of course, but that could be worked through. But he said that there needed to be growth room. If they needed to expand, was there room? Could they expand their parking lot without a great deal of extra trouble? The second thing was a landing strip. There needed to be someplace close that a plane could be landed without a great deal of travel for the big bosses. He said for as much as they hated to travel to smaller towns, they didn’t care to spend a great deal of time on the road to get there either.” Trent thought they had both of those covered. His family had a strip that was used by smaller planes when necessary, and could be converted into something public if need be. “The third thing was an expressway. Trucks, if they’re needed, should be able to get on and off the freeway easily and quickly. He said that the empty buildings, lack of paint, or new doors and windows weren’t what he saw, but how the town looked as a place to live and work.”

“There’s a highway not ten miles from here. And the rest we have covered.” When she continued to walk around, he asked her what else. “I think you have an idea, and I for one would like to have an edge when they get here.”

“You don’t have time to finish it, but I would suggest that you put in a couple of bed and breakfasts that cater to the people coming in. Mark said that he knew it was sort of silly, but he loved the Mayberry kind of mentality when he got to a town. One thing that he told me he enjoyed was when he’d walk down the main street and see the front windows of the grocery store painted with specials. And the local schools that way too. He said it told him that it was a town that came together when necessary.” She turned to him then, her face red with embarrassment. “I don’t know why I even mentioned it. I’m sure you know much better than I would.”

“Doubtful any of us would have thought of windows being painted. But I can see the appeal of it.” He looked at his dad. “You remember when we were little and Marshalls had his daughter put the big signs in his window to tell when chicks were in for the spring? And when there was salt in for the sidewalks?”

“I do. Sometimes I’d just go down there to see what she might have come up with.” His dad was warming to the idea. “And you know Mrs. Baker, the one that lives down there on Wilson Street? She’s been threatening for weeks now to open up her house to some people who needed a place to sleep. Why don’t we give her house a nice little once over and have her run it for us?”

Trent’s mind was running full steam ahead. The house could use a paint job, and he knew that her lawn needed to be mowed more often than she was able to take care of. It was on his list of things to bring up at the next pack meeting, that they should be caring better for the elderly. When he asked his dad about getting the place spruced up, he told him he had it covered. Trent looked at Noelle and smiled.

“I need you to come and work for me. For a few weeks anyway.” She was shaking her head. “Not forever. But until we can get some growth in this town. You have a good head on your shoulders, and I have a feeling that you have a lot more ideas than you just suggested to us.”

“I don’t know what you want. I just told you what someone else told me.” He nodded, already thinking of other ways she could help him. “You have that look in your eye. The one your mom has right before she suggests something that I’m probably not going to like.”

“You’ll love it. And on top of that, I’ll owe you. These are ideas that are going to give us an edge we might not have had before. This town needs the business, and you helped me in that area.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Having the pack leader owe you something is a great thing. You will be the envy of everyone.”

When Joe snorted, he turned to look at her. Before he could ask her what that meant, she stiffened by the window. Without a word, he looked over her shoulder and saw the three men walking down the sidewalk. Howard Merrill and his sons were out and about, and no doubt looking for trouble.

“Joe, why don’t you and Noelle stay up here while I go and see what they might want?” She said that she could do that, but before he could tell Noelle that Howard was there, she looked out the window and saw for herself. “I’m going to have Elijah come here to be with you. I want you to wait here for him so that they can’t hurt you.”

“They might hurt you.” He didn’t tell Joe that there wasn’t any way for them to do that, and said nothing when she put her hand on his arm. When she stood in front of him, he waited to see what she said.

“What do you want to do, Noelle? We’ll support you in any way.” Noelle looked up at him, and Joe said her name again. “He will as well. He might not like it. I’m pretty sure he won’t, but he’ll support you in it. Whatever you decide.”

“They can’t continue to run my life.” Joe said that they thought they could. “I don’t want them to think that. I don’t even want them near me anymore. What right does he have treating me as if I’m his automatic bank? I have things I want to buy too.”

“So you want to go and ask him that?”

Trent didn’t think that was such a good idea, but didn’t say it out loud. Instead, he reached for Elijah.

She needs to do this, I think. She has bad dreams thinking of all the ways that her father will hurt us or her again. I think if she could stand up to him, then she might feel better about herself.
Trent asked him if she should do that alone.
Hell no. I’m nearly to her now. I’m coming in the back of the building. I’m just me for now, but I’m going to protect her with my wolf if I need to.

Before he knew it, he was following his wife and sister-in-law down the stairs to where Elijah was just coming in the building. Trent thought that this was going to be epic, if no one was killed over it.

Chapter
6

Elijah wanted to stand in front of her, but knew that on some level if he did, she’d be afraid for the rest of her life. And according to Joe, that was going to be a very long time. So he stood beside her as she walked out of the building and into the path of her stepfamily. Howard drew back to slap her, and he nearly laughed when Noelle grabbed his arm and twisted it so that her stepfather ended up on his knees in front of her.

“What the hell are you doing? Let me go this minute before I have to beat your ass. Not that I won’t anyway, but you are going to be hurting worse if you don’t.” Not only did Noelle continue to hold onto his arm, but she told him to shut the fuck up too. “You will not talk to me that way. And where is my money?”

“Unless you left money with me, which you didn’t, then I don’t have anything that belongs to you. Do you have a job?” Howard just looked at her, confusion written all over his face. “I asked you if you have a job. Do you? Because that’s the only way you’re going to get any money as far as I’m concerned.”

“You owe me.” Noelle said she owed him nothing. “You made me lose my job. What were you thinking when you told my boss that I’d just left you there? You got me in trouble with him.”

“You
had
left me there, you moron. And I didn’t tell him anything…you did that all on your own.” He called her a liar. “No, when I asked to borrow Noah’s phone to call you he heard us. You do remember that, don’t you? When you left me, without a word, what was I supposed to do but to try and figure it out? But he let me use his phone, and then he listened in when you told me that you had no use for me other than my check each month. I think that is what you’re talking about, right? How you think I lost your job for you?”

“You couldn’t have went to anyone else to get a phone?” She said that she could have, but she went to him. “So see? You did that on purpose. You made me get fired, and now you’re going to pay me for your stupidity.”

“I’m not stupid anymore. I might have been before today, letting you take and take from me, hit me when it pleased you, but no more.” When one of the other men with her stepfather moved, Elijah growled low and the kid stopped. “You move again, Ron, and I’ll have him take your throat out.”

The look on the kid’s face was priceless. Elijah had a feeling that he knew just what he was, and was afraid that his stepsister would do just that. But the other one—Daniel, he thought his name was—wasn’t that smart apparently. When he reached out his hand and grabbed Noelle, Elijah never got the chance to move. Joe hit him with something, and the kid hit the ground.

“What the fuck are you doing to my boys? You leave them alone, you hear me? They’re all I have.” Noelle looked at him, and Elijah knew in that moment that she had had enough of these bastards. “Get off me, you fucking bitch.”

“I’m going to let you go, but if you ever come around me again, even to borrow a nickel, I will have you arrested. I’m finished with you.” He stood up when she let him go and looked at him. Elijah wanted to knock the man into next week, but he waited. He knew just when Howard thought he’d sized him up and found him lacking. Howard drew back his fist, and Elijah spoke through his clenched teeth.

“You do it and I swear to you that you won’t be as lucky as the last man who tried it.” Elijah watched his bravery turn to fear. He popped his neck as Howard continued to stare at him.

“You think I’m afraid of a stupid mutt? I’m not. And you better bet that when I get you alone, I’m going to show you that I mean business.” Elijah grabbed Howard around the throat and lifted him from the ground. He was a heavy bastard, but he let his wolf help. “Let me down.”

“You touch my wife, and I will hunt you down and tear you into so many pieces that no one will ever know that you’re dead. If anyone were to care.” Howard looked at Noelle, then back at him. “Yes, my wife. You touch her or come near her, and that will be the last anyone ever hears from you again. Understand?” Elijah tossed him away from him and watched the man struggle to get up. Noah came to stand by Howard and put his foot on his chest.

“Hello, Howard. It’s been a very long time, hasn’t it?” Howard called him Mr. Stark and told him that he was glad to see him. “Too bad that I’m not all that thrilled to see you. You have been bothering some friends of mine. And for as much as I love them, I dislike you ten times that amount. Did you know that I’ve taken young Noelle and her husband under my wing? Well, the entire Calhoun family, really. And when you threaten one of them, then I have to assume that you’re threatening me as well. I’m not one to fuck with, in the event that you might have forgotten that.”

“Calhoun?” Elijah could see the dawning on his face. “You can’t be married to her. She’s nothing but a pizza jerk in some dump. They don’t even make all that good of food either. Marrying her is beneath you, Mr. Calhoun. Christ, what is this world coming to when not even the rich are following the rules?”

“And what sort of rules are those?” Elijah looked at Trent when Howard didn’t answer him right away. “You know something that we don’t know?”

“Well, you should know that you should never marry beneath you. I did that once and look what it got me. Stuck with a stepdaughter that just wasn’t like us.” Elijah asked him what he meant. “Well, sir, she thinks that money should be saved up and not spent right away. I know that some think that’s what you should do, save for a rainy day, but not us. We were stimulating the economy, and she was holding us back from that. Then there was the fact that she didn’t want to come on the little outings that I put together for us.”

“You were going to the company parking lot in the middle of the night and stealing things from people’s cars.” Noah said nothing but watched them when Noelle told them what he’d been doing. “And when you weren’t doing that, you were selling off their computers and stereo’s online that you’d stolen from them, and scamming those people as well by lying about sending shit out. So no, I wanted to not be a part of your little outings.”

“You stole from the people you worked with? Why? Weren’t you making good money working for me?” Howard only waved Noah’s question off. “So this was a game for you? You just did it for fun?”

“Of course. It was a blast to see their hangdog faces when they realized they’d been hit. I tell you, I even sold a few of them back their shit at the next garage sale we had.” Howard laughed. “Then after she got me fired, we had to do that for real. I really hated it when you put up the big fence around the parking lot. Sure did cut out my business. I don’t think that was all that nice of you to do something like that to a man trying to make a living. I don’t suppose you can tell me when you’re gonna take that down, can you?”

No one said a word. The man had just confessed to theft, mail fraud, as well as child endangerment. He’d berated his former boss for trying to protect his employees, and even talked about making a profit on the things he’d stolen.

“No. I put it up to keep monsters like you from taking things that didn’t belong to you.” Howard nodded, but said that Noah was just like everyone else. “If by that you mean that I’m honest and want those around me to be so, then I thank you. You should have been in jail a long time ago.”

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen anytime soon. I have a family to support.” Howard looked at him, then at Noelle. “You got you a rich husband now, sad as that makes me that he lowered himself to your level, but you can give me a little more now. I’ll expect you to give me as much as you can, starting now.”

He put out his hand, as if she was going to fill it for him. Instead of doing that, Noelle laughed. Hard and for a long time. Howard looked as if he might try to hit her, but Elijah took a step to him. When she seemed to have some control over her humor, she looked at Howard.

“You’re not getting shit from me. I can’t believe that I ever gave you anything, and didn’t have you arrested for abuse.” He snorted at her. “You think I can’t? Well, the police are here now, so I think this is as good a time as any. Officer, I’d like to press charges against this man. He’s been beating me up and taking my money for years now. And he kicked me out when I was only sixteen. Also, he just confessed to stealing people’s personal things from their cars and making a profit from it.”

He was jerked from the ground and held above it. Elijah wondered how they were going to make the charges stick when Noah spoke to the officers. He was guiding the men, pure and simple, and Elijah was glad. Maybe they’d be safe for a little while longer with him locked up.

“Take him to jail. Charges are pending, and he has no use for a lawyer.” Howard agreed with that. “Once he is there, he is to be treated fairly but without any kindness. If anyone asks questions, refer them to me.”

Howard was still screaming about not paying for a damned lawyer, they were all crooks. That he hated them all. Then he turned to Noelle, and Elijah held her to him as Howard spewed his anger at her.

“You ain’t nothing to me and you never were. Why I even bothered to keep you after your momma died is beyond me. I want nothing to do with you. Not ever.” Elijah tightened his hands on her shoulders and held her. “You hear me? You are nothing to me and never was. I wish you’d have died when she did.”

“Then you’ll be happy to know that I want nothing to do with you either.” As he was cuffed and taken away, his sons followed him like there was a leash on them that dragged them along with him. That man was the stupidest person he’d ever seen, and he wondered if the boys would ever amount to anything either. Turning her body to his, he held her as Howard was taken down the street with two cops on either side of him. “I should have told him I won that money. That would have made his day.”

Elijah laughed with her. He told her that he was proud of her. Standing up to a bully was a good way to take control of her life. Then Trent started to laugh and they all looked at him.

“That turned out better than I thought it would. Very nicely too. I think this calls for a celebration.” Everyone cheered, and Elijah felt like a great weight had been moved off his shoulders. “My treat. I’ve called the others in and they’re on their way. We’ll have a nice dinner, talk about anything but what just happened or is going to happen, and have fun. Even Sterl said he felt good enough to come in and join us. To me, that’s the best news I’ve heard in a while.”

As they made their way to the restaurant, Elijah held onto Noelle’s hand. He knew that she was upset, he could almost taste it around her. But she was also feeling pretty good about herself. And to him that was the greatest thing ever. She’d stood up to her tormentor and came out on top. Also, he wondered if she realized that Howard had just confessed to not being in her life, something that was going to come and bite him in the ass when the check was made public.

~~~

“You go on back and tell that husband of hers to give you the bail money. There isn’t any reason for him not to help out a man in need.” Ron just stared at him. The boy had been doing that a lot lately, like he didn’t want to be a part of whatever they were doing. “Do you hear me? I said to go and find Mr. Calhoun and tell him how sorry we are that he’s married to Noelle, but he needs to get me out of jail.”

“I don’t think that’s right, Dad. That man is married to Noelle, not to us.” If he’d have been at home, he would have hit the boy. “I think we should just go out, find us some jobs, and then pay for our things the right way. I want to go to college, and I can’t get a loan without a job.”

“What do you want to go to college for? I didn’t, and I had a good job until that bitch out there messed it up for me.” Ron looked at Daniel and neither of them said anything. “What are you waiting for, an engraved invite? Go on out there and do as I told you.”

“No. I don’t think I want to. Not anymore. All this sneaking around and taking things that don’t belong to us? I don’t care for it anymore. I’m not sure I ever did.” Ron started away and turned back to him. “You might want to figure you out a lawyer, Dad. I’m done with you. And so you know, I think that what you did to Noelle was wrong. All of it. I’m not going to be doing it anymore.”

When he was gone, Howard looked at his oldest son. He knew that he had something on his mind, but Howard didn’t have any use for touchy feelings right now. He told Daniel to go out and do what he’d told Ron to do. Like his brother, he was starting to get on Howard’s nerves, acting like they got some sort of beef with him.

“I’ll be dealing with him once I’m out of here. That girl, she owes me for what she did to me, and she’s going to start paying up right now. No more screwing around with her dodging us either. She’ll move back in with us and start taking care of us like she should have been doing all along now. I will admit I was wrong about kicking her out. We sure could have used us a housekeeper after your mom died. And I think I’ve been nice about her so far, and I’m not going to be now. She needs to know her place.” Daniel said nothing. “Are you listening to me?”

“Yeah. But I have a question about some things. How is it you blame her for everything? When you lost your job, didn’t you lose that because you just up and left her where she didn’t belong? And I heard that you admitted to telling her that you only wanted her check; is that right?” Howard said so what. “And when Mr. Stark put that fence up around his property, you said it was because Noelle had told him to do it. That she’d convinced him to make our life harder. Now that I think on that, you never did tell me the real reason you stole all those things from them people. And I asked you too. And the one time you answered me, you said it was to get back at Noelle, but I think you just liked it. You know what? I don’t even think she knew what was going on about that either. And the man who cut off our cable, she didn’t do that, or a lot of other shit that you blamed on her.”