Nolan (13 page)

Shane liked the big barn and all, but the
horses were scary. Not all of them. There were a couple that he could touch,
but for the most part, they were skittish, Walter had told him, more afraid of
him than he was of them. Shane supposed that was true, but he didn’t care for
anyone or anything not trusting him. When Mr. Cole got out of the car and the driver
pulled over to the barn, Shane watched his father closely.

“I’ve come here to see if we can get along.
My grandmother, your great grandmother, has it in her head that you’re the
cause of my being a pain in her ass right now. So you’ll come along with me,
and we’ll pretend we’re good friends now.” Shane didn’t say anything but backed
up to almost over the fence when he stepped too close. “You’ll listen to me,
boy, or so help me I’ll…I’ll take away your phone.”

“I don’t have a phone. And even if I did, you
wouldn’t get it. And I don’t want you as my friend any more than I want you as
my father.” He looked confused. “What are you doing here? My aunt and Nolan are
working, but there is an entire staff around if you try to hurt me.”

“I don’t want to hurt you, not yet at any
rate. I don’t want you at all, but I won’t hurt you if you do what I tell you. If
you refuse to cooperate, there will be hell to pay. I need you to like me right
now. My grandmother has taken me out of her will, I think, and if you and I are
together and act like we like one another, perhaps she’ll change her mind. I
need that money. You don’t. Just do as I say and I’ll give you…I’ll pay you to
come along with me. Ten bucks. How about that?” Shane said nothing, but wondered
what the heck the man was talking about. “Come on, we’ll go over to her house
right now and show her we love each other.”

“I don’t love you. I don’t even like you. You
aren’t anything at all to me.” Shane saw Walter come out of the barn and stand next
to him, but didn’t say anything. “You should just get back in your fancy car
and leave me alone. I don’t want anything to do with you. And if Nolan or the
others knew you were here, I think they’d be pretty mad at you too. Just go
away and leave me alone.”

“Don’t you think that’s what I want? Christ,
kid, I’d just as soon you were out of my life completely, but here you stand as
a monument to the worst mistake I ever made.” That hurt, but not as much as his
next words did. “Getting caught trying to get your stupid mother to do what she
should have done without any problems was really dumb, don’t you think? And
your mom? Why the hell did she not just do what she was told? My life would be
so much better if she had just listened. But I didn’t kill her, like that aunt
of yours is saying. I was—”

“I think it’s time you left.” Walter had
moved closer to him and stood up to Mr. Cole when he told him to go away. Shane
knew that look from Walter. It was one that you never wanted to see directed at
you. “This is my little brother, you fucking piece of shit, and if you come any
closer to him, I’m going to use all my skills as a bully and mess you up. He’s
asked you to go away, and I think that’s really good advice.”

Shane wondered if his aunt was paying Walter
to say those things, and realized that she’d not do that. Whatever Walter was
saying, he was saying it because he wanted to. That alone gave Shane more
confidence in what was going on. He looked at Mr. Cole again.

There was something very unstable about him, and
Shane didn’t want anyone to get hurt by him. Didn’t want either him or Walter
to get hurt, as a matter of fact. When Mr. Cole told Walter again to get on
back in the barn where he belonged, Walter finally looked at Shane.

“Go in the house.” Shane shook his head at
Walter and told him he wasn’t leaving him to be hurt. “Go in and call the
police, and then call your aunt. This man is nuts. And when he comes at us, ‘cause
he will, I’d rather you didn’t get yourself hurt by flying fists. Mine in
particular.”

“You won’t hurt me on purpose. But I’m not
leaving you out here to deal with him on your own. He’ll hurt you. He’s like
what you were telling me your dad was. An ignorant bastard that hurts because
he can.” Walter stared at him for several seconds before he nodded and looked
at Cole again.

That was when Shane noticed that some of the
hands he’d met earlier today were now standing near him and Walter. The big
man, Mr. Ted, had a whip in his hand, and Shane noticed that another man had a
shovel. He was leaning on it, but Shane had a feeling that he could use it like
a good weapon if it came to that. Miss May, the cook from the big house, was
standing on the steps with a phone at her ear. Allen Black, a man that he’d met
a few days ago, was leaning against the big limo. They were looking like they
were relaxed, but he would bet all the money he had in his pocket, all
forty-six dollars, that they’d attack if needed. Mr. Cole was a dead man if he
tried anything. He looked around too, as if just noticing that they were no
longer alone.

“What the hell have you done, kid? This was
just going to be me and you. These people are going to make it hard for me to
get you to come with me, don’t you think? I just wanted to take you to my
grandmother’s, but now you’ve gone and made me mad. I’m not a nice person when
I’m all riled up, so you know.” Shane told Cole that it didn’t matter to him if
there were nine thousand people there telling him to go with him, he wouldn’t
anyway. “But you don’t understand what you’re costing me. Or you just don’t
care. Your mother was like that. So long as she had the little things in life,
she was just fine. Well, I wasn’t. Not with her and certainly not with you. My
life is on the shitter because you were born. The least you can do is help me
get it back together. Then you can go on hating me for all I care.”

Something that his aunt had told him a few
months ago came to him then. She told him that hating wasn’t worth the energy
that it used up in your body. What was worth it was revenge. Then she’d tickled
him.

“Mr. Cole, I’ve told you that I’m not going
with you. Now I’d very much like for you to get out of here and never come
back. I’ve got my own family now. And soon they’re going to adopt me, so I
don’t even have to have your last name. So I’ve no need of you in my life.”

Cole’s face changed then. He went from being
angry to…Shane thought he looked insane. Or in this case, more insane. When he
came at him, Mr. Cole did, running like he was a linebacker in a big game,
Shane braced himself for the pain. A thought popped in his head in that moment.

The big vampire that he’d met several nights
ago was suddenly just there. He had no idea why he’d thought of him, but when
he did, he knew…just knew that the man could feel his fear. And when nothing
happened, he opened his eyes and looked around. Cole was no longer there. Not
even…he wasn’t anywhere where Shane could see him. He looked around at the rest
of the people there to see who had attacked the man before he could hurt him.

Walter was sitting on the ground, his nose
bleeding. Miss May was walking toward them with a large towel in her hand, but
she looked calm enough. Mr. Black was talking to the limo driver, and the rest
of the men were moving back to where they had been. Shane sat down next to
Walter and watched as Miss May helped him with his bloodied nose.

“What happened?” Walter looked at him, then
at Miss May as the towel was held to his face. “Did you…I don’t know, fall? And
where is Mr. Cole?”

“You took care of him.”

Miss May said that Walter was to bring her
the towel when he was finished with it, and kissed him on the head when she
left. Shane was more confused now than before.

“You have some very powerful friends.” Shane
supposed so. Micah had a lot of money, and Chris and Joey seemed to be made of
it. His own aunt had some all the time now that she was with Nolan. But
powerful? He didn’t understand. “I don’t think that guy Cole will be bugging
you to go with him again. He’s just…wow, he’s gone.”

“Where?” Shane hated feeling stupid, but
right now he did. And clueless. Asking Walter what he meant by “gone” made the
man laugh. “This isn’t funny. He might come back and get us.”

“I don’t think so.” Before Shane could ask
Walter what he meant by that, a car pulled in the drive, spitting rocks and
dust everywhere. Aunt Rylee was running toward him even before the engine was
off. Then Nolan was coming.

The hug felt like she was trying to squeeze
him in half. And he thought a hug had never felt better in his life. Before he
could catch his breath when she let him go to hug Walter, Nolan had him in his
arms. Shane had never been hugged by a man before coming to this family. Now, Grandda
or Grandma would hug him daily. Aunt Rylee did all the time, but this hug, this
one from Nolan, felt special. And he knew he’d never have another one from him
that would compare to this one. It was a hug of love and support.

“You all right?” He nodded, and Nolan looked
over at Walter and asked him the same. “You boys, you…it was scary not to be
here, but I guess you handled it all right.”

“I don’t know what happened to him.” Nolan
asked him who. “Mr. Cole. He was here one minute and running toward us like he
was going to hurt one of us. Then…then he was gone.”

“Shane?” He heard his name and they all
turned to the barn. There wasn’t anyone standing there, and he felt himself
moving closer to Nolan. “I can’t come out there again, I’m afraid. Once was
about all I can handle in one day.”

The laughter was forced, even he could tell
that, but the voice, he didn’t know it. It wasn’t until the man came out of the
shadows that he realized who it was. Moving slowly to Barron, he could see that
he was hurting a great deal.

The closer he got to him, the more he could
see. His face was blistered, with pus dripping from some of the open wounds. His
eye was swollen shut, his mouth looked lopsided, and his right ear…it looked
like it was gone.

“Don’t be afraid of me, please. I don’t know
what I’d do if you were. But know that all of this, this damage to me, was
worth it to see you unharmed.” Shane assured him that he wasn’t hurt, but also
told him that he wasn’t afraid of him, just concerned. “Good, good. I like you
very much, and I could not just ignore your calling to me. This will all heal,
I promise you.”

“I called to you?” The man nodded, and Shane
could see that the burns on his face were also covering his hands and arms.
“You don’t look so good. Is there anything I can do to help you?”

“You are such a sweet boy. But no. I need
more than you can give me. But I would not take from you even if I needed it
more than life. To do so would be…the connection between us would be greater
than you can imagine.” He looked to Shane’s right and smiled. “Hello, my dear.
You have a wonderful young man here. I do hope you know that.”

“I do. Let me help you, Barron. You know that
I can now.” He shook his head at Aunt Rylee. “Please. You’re very hurt. And
from what I have gathered, you saved them both by doing what you’ve done. I
can’t…you saved my sons for me.”

“I would do it all over again for them, and I
shall be well soon. But due to this unfortunate incident, I will need to ask
you to put off my helping my grandson. I do not have it in me, I’m afraid, to
do so now.” Nolan moved closer to Barron and let out a low growl. “Young man,
if you wish to harm me, you will not have much of a fight, I’m afraid.”

“What did you do to him?” Barron took a step
back from Nolan, and Shane felt his fear. He wasn’t sure how he felt it, but he
did as surely as he was standing there. Nolan wasn’t threatening him, but
Barron was afraid all the same. “Will he come back?”

“Nay. He will never come back, not in any
lifetime. He intended to harm them, kill them both, and I’m afraid I let my
fury at him do things that are better left unsaid. Both your sons would have
been killed should he have ever touched him.” Nolan looked at him and Walter
and then back at Barron, thanking him. “No need for that, my good man. I have
grown fond of the young men here. And since we have a connection, slight as it
is, when he was afraid and thought of me, it was the only thing I could do. You
need only to know that David Cole is no more.”

Shane knew in that moment that his biological
father was dead. And for the life of him, he couldn’t generate any kind of
sorrow. When his Aunt Chris walked by him, he thought for sure she was going to
hurt Barron, and Shane moved to protect him by standing in front of him. He had
no idea what he could do to save a vampire from a witch, but he’d try. But she
stopped him with a smile.

“I won’t harm your friend. I’m going to help
him should you allow me to do so. I can, like no other, give him what he needs
to survive this. Because, contrary to his words, he is in worse shape than he
says. And he knows it.” She turned back to Barron. “You will take what I offer freely
or, so help me, I
will
hurt you, Barron.”

“I cannot. To do so would be…you know what it
would mean between us.” She nodded, and Shane moved closer, trying to figure
out what was going on. “Your mate, he will be connected to me as well.”

“We’re aware of what this means, Barron. But
you saved my nephews today, and for that we owe you. For what you did for this
family, I would give you more should you only let me.” Barron looked at him as
he pushed to stand beside him. “Do you think that Shane would want you to
suffer? Or Walter for that matter? You saved them at a great cost to yourself.
We’re all indebted to you.”