Riordan (4 page)

again. Had specialists come in and talk to her about a different lifestyle that she’d have to adapt

to. There would be no more walking without a limp they told her a few weeks after she proved

them wrong about her getting around. She’d have to have a walker if she was up and about for

more than a few minutes, they told her, and damned if my girl didn’t make them shove that up

their collective bottoms, too. But her body will betray her in the most difficult times now. The

only thing they got even half right was that she’d be hurting…not just her body, but her mind,

too. She still sees something that haunts her nightly. Or maybe it’s something else that comes to

her at odd times.”

“When?” She looked away when he asked, so he asked her again. “How long ago did this

happen to her? I’m thinking not long at all. She’s hurting badly for someone that might have

been out for a long time, I think.”

“Fourteen months ago.” He nodded and helped her pack up the things on the table. The poor

girl just lay there on the floor until he asked if they needed help getting her to bed. “We can

manage, Mr. Harrison. We’ve been caring for her since she’s been home. And the longer that she

lies there, the more the drugs will work throughout her system. She’s going to cry again when we

get her up from there. But she’ll rest easy tonight. Not well, but easy.”

In the end, he took her up the flight of stairs for them. She wasn’t very heavy, and the

staircase was wide enough that he could hold her without crushing her to his body. But Ordan

knew that she was hurting no matter how gentle he tried to be with her.

As he lay her on the tiny bed, a cot really, Ordan looked around. No pictures adorned the

walls, and he didn’t see a television. The bathroom door was open, and he could see that her

toiletries were laid out in a neat row, her towel folded beneath them. The kitchen had a single

bowl in the drainer and no sign of a coffee pot or any other counter-top sort of things. He saw no

canisters like his missus had, no plants in the window, and he couldn’t see a single rug or other

personal item anywhere. He didn’t even have to ask to know that she’d more than likely been

living here since she’d gotten released, and that she preferred it this way…no clutter in her life.

Much like his own son did. Ordan had to smile to himself when he thought of the two of them

together. It was going to be a sight to behold, he just knew it.

“I’ll have to share with my wife what…she’ll need to know because of her scent. But I

won’t tell anyone else what I’ve seen or heard.” Sally told him thanks. “If she needs anything,

and I do mean anything, give me a call.”

He wrote down his home and cell phone numbers and gave them to the woman. But as he

left, going to his car with a huge bag of breads and cakes, he knew they’d only call if it was an

absolute emergency. And even then, it might not happen.

~~~

Riordan had a dozen red roses and a dozen yellow ones on the seat beside him. A tree in a

balled bundle was in the back of his truck, as well as a flat of his mom’s favorite flowers. He was

going to grovel. He was willing to do most anything to get into his mom’s good graces again. He

had fucked up royally with her.

It had taken him the better part of the day on Sunday to realize that she wasn’t going to call

him and tell him to come for dinner. It was nearly seven o’clock when his belly told him that it

was either go get something to eat soon or he was going to have to eat the left over left over’s

from last week’s dinner for his own supper. He ordered a pizza and beer to have instead of the

pot roast and new potatoes that he’d known they were having for dinner on Sunday.

On Monday he’d waited all day for his phone to ring to ask him to come home to make up.

That was when he realized how badly he’d messed up with his mom.

When he’d gotten up yesterday morning, he called his office and found not only no

messages from his mom, but his brothers hadn’t called him either. Usually when he had to miss a

dinner because of work, they would send him pictures of what he’d missed, as well as pictures of

them all together having fun without him. There wasn’t a single one this time. He’d called the

office just to see if there was an outage or something as he headed to the office yesterday. Now

today, he was going to his mom’s instead of to work where he should have been.

“Good morning, sir. I have some messages for you. I have cleared your morning for you as

you asked me to last night. Also, your father said that he was going to come in and talk to you,

and then a little bit ago, he called back to say that he’d changed his mind. He sounded upset. Is

he all right?” Riordan assured her he was just fine. “I have three meetings for you first thing after

lunch. Then there is the dinner thing you have with Miss Applegate.”

He’d forgotten about that. Riordan would have to break that off with her. He had a mate

now, and dating Isabell would be a waste of time. Things were going to have to change a lot now

that someone else was going to be demanding some of his time.

“Call Miss Applegate and tell her that something has come up. And if you could, would you

send her out a…no, make that two dozen roses. Sign it the usual way.” She told him she’d do

that now. “Also, could you do me a favor and look and see what you can find on a bakery called

simply The Bakery? I’ve looked, but all I can find is that it’s under new ownership. I had no idea

there was even one there until Sunday.”

“I can do that if you’d like. Would you like me to run the owner down as well? See what I

can find there for you?” He told her that would be helpful. Riordan knew that she’d have

everything there was to be had on this shop by the time he got to the office this afternoon. “Oh,

sir, Mr. Mac was in this morning. He said he’d catch you later. I think he had something for you.

I’ve cleared you an hour with him after lunch.”

Mac wanted him? His brother was busier than he was most of the time, and was rarely in the

offices. He was the hands on kind of guy, the one that got them the businesses and helped to

calm nerves when it was evident that the business they were working for was going to have to be

closed. As consultants, it was hard to tell someone that had been in business for more years than

he’d been living that there was nothing they could do to help them.

Mac was his next younger brother by seventeen months. His real name was Cormac, named

after their grandfather who had died just before Mac had been born. Mac was a great deal like

the old man had been, or so their mother was fond of telling them. Where most people would

find sadness in closing a business, Mac, like his grandda before him, would find the brightness in

it. He was a forever optimist. Riordan liked to think of himself as a realist. It was what kept him

grounded.

Aedan was born two years later and was an Irish twin to Darcy…meaning Aedan had been

born January first the same year that Darcy had been born November thirtieth. And even though

a few months separated them, they were as close as twins in nearly everything they did. For the

company, the two of them ran point. Riordan had no idea why they called it that, but the two of

them would go in first to a business that had called for help, work the lines or whatever was

being done, and see if there was a way to help that way. Usually they could see a problem within

days.

Liam worked in the office with Riordan. He would be the good guy to his bad. And lately it

had seemed to Riordan that Liam was covering for him a great deal. Riordan’s temper had been

volatile to the point where he would skip meetings altogether rather than have everyone pissed at

him for days on end. Liam was really good at calming the members of their staff.

Their baby brother, Ennis, had decided that he wasn’t interested in becoming a part of

Harrison Consulting. When he’d entered college, he decided that the firm would get along just

fine without one more Harrison working for it, and so he had become a doctor. And from what

he’d heard from Mom, he was a hell of a doctor, too.

Riordan’s phone was ringing as soon as he pulled into his parents’ driveway. He stopped the

truck and turned it off before answering the call from Christina Smith, his secretary. She was

talking with someone else when he answered, and he tried to hold his temper. It was one of his

biggest pet peeves about people. If you call him then be ready to speak when he answered.

Christina started talking just before he was ready to hang up.

“I’ve found out about The Bakery. I had no idea where you meant until I saw the article

about it when I did a search. There’s not much about the owners themselves, but I managed to

find out a great deal about one of them. Her name is Storm Browning.” The name meant nothing

to him, and he told her that. “I’m sending you the link to your phone. You should read that

before I go much further. I don’t know why you want this information, sir, and I’m not one to

pry. But if you plan to close this place down, I want you to know that I will quit right now.”

“Why would you think I have intentions of closing the place down?” Then it occurred to

him. “Mac told you what happened the other day, didn’t he?”

“He did.” While she was as professional as she always was, he could hear the anger in her

voice. “And I, for one, would hope that you learn to curb your inner cat before you go in there

again and have an entire platoon on your ass.”

The phone didn’t slam down, but it might as well have. He held onto his temper for as long

as he could until he had to move. Leaving everything in the truck, including his phone, he got out

and stretched. He needed a run and a hard one. Taking off his shirt and tie, he laid them neatly on

the seat and then kicked off his shoes. As he made his way barefooted to the woods behind the

house, he tried to think of where in the last several weeks he’d gotten so…so angry.

He knew that he’d been impatient at work, and short with a few people that he’d had to go

back and apologize to. Then there were times when he’d snapped at his dad, his brothers…even

his mom. And when he’d tried to think why, what had set him off, all he could think of was how

pissed he’d been, but no reason for it.

His pants were off by the time he was in the dark woods. The thought of letting his tiger take

him made him feel better already. As he moved deeper into the wooded area, he pushed aside all

thoughts of his work life, the woman, and everything else that didn’t have to do with where he

was and what he was doing right now. Leaping forward, he shifted into his cat even before he hit

the ground running.

He had no idea how long he’d been out there before he got back to his truck. The tree was

out of the back end, as were the flats of flowers. When he picked up his phone, he saw that he

had ten messages and figured if it was his family, they knew how to reach him. Pulling on his

shirt and tie, he made his way to the house with the flowers he’d gotten for his mom. The butler

told him that neither of his parents was home.

“Did they say where they were going?” He told him that they hadn’t. “I wanted to talk to

Mom. I don’t suppose she said when they’d be home.”

“No, sir. They did not. Mr. Harrison left at his usual time, but the missus left not long ago.

She had the gardener take the things from your truck. Mrs. Harrison is not in the habit of leaving

like she did, so I do hope there is nothing wrong.”

Riordan did as well. Making his way to work after handing the flowers over, he reached out

to his parents. His dad said that he was too busy to chat right now, and his mother told him she

wasn’t speaking to him. Riordan went to his office with a heavy heart. He didn’t like his parents

being upset with him. But his day was full, and he thought about going over there after work if

he was able to get off early. He didn’t anticipate that happening after having the morning off, but

he was going to try. Even Christina wasn’t at her desk when he arrived. This was going to be a

shitty day all around.

The room was dark when she woke up, but Storm had a feeling that she wasn’t alone. One

of her aunts had to be with her, as they usually were when she had a bad time of it. Moving

slowly so as not to wake them should they be resting, a moan escaped before she could stop it.

The light flaring made her cry out; it had startled her into a small jump.

“I’m terribly sorry. I didn’t think.” Storm tried to see who it was that was speaking, as the

voice didn’t sound familiar. “I’m Briana Harrison, but most people call me Bri. I haven’t the

slightest idea why they do that, but Ordan does and that’s all right with me. Why is that name all

that much shorter than…? I’m sorry. Can I get you anything?”

“My aunts, where are they?” It even hurt to talk, so she cleared her throat a little and tried to

sit up. “Where are they?”