ROMANCE: Lion Protector (Paranormal Shifter BBW Military Romance) (Shapeshifter Alpha Male Short Stories Book 2) (65 page)

Chapter 6

“I can’t do this anymore.” There was silence after Cole’s comment. He looked at his father angrily.

After his night with Claudia he knew he had to stop. He couldn’t go on the way that he was. He had a wife to support and love and that meant stopping.

“Did you hear me? I am not doing it anymore.” His father finally turned around and looked at Cole. His father was an old, but strong man who liked his alcohol even stronger. He looked at his son with a disappointed look on his face.

“You know you can’t do that.” The father said with a serious look. He didn’t seem like he was up for the idea of negotiating.

“Like hell, I can!” Cole yelled back and got closer to his father. “I am not doing it anymore. You have my word.” Cole said determined as he crossed his arms and looked at his father.

“Oh is that so?” There was a sinister look on his father’s face. Cole looked at him, unamused. He didn’t like his father’s tone of voice and felt like something was amiss.

“It’s not worth the money or the trouble.”

“But isn’t it worth the safety of your sister?” The father asked before he poured himself a shot of whiskey. Cole’s eyes grew in surprise.

“Liv? What have you done to her!?” His voice was angry.

“Nothing… yet.” Cole clenched his jaw as he looked at his father. He didn’t think anyone was capable of being so cruel. “But if you stop, then I will be forced to take certain… precautions so that you continue again. Now you wouldn’t want me to destroy your sister’s pretty face now would you?” Cole could feel his anger growing, but he kept it in check. He couldn’t let his sister get hurt just because he couldn’t control himself. He looked at the monster before him and barred his teeth.

“Now you know, as well as I do, that this
service
you provide me is a very important one. It brings in a lot of revenue and we need it for the business to survive.” Cole looked at him quietly. There was no point in responding to a man without a heart.

“Besides… if you do anything to upset me then I have
means
of getting to that pretty wife of yours. I hear you two are finally acting like a married couple.” Cole’s veins throbbed in his neck as he heard the mention of Claudia. He felt sick to his stomach.

“I swear if you touch a hair on her head, then I will be the death of you old man.” His father chuckled as if amused with his son’s threats. He then looked in his drawer and pulled out a piece of paper. He handed it to his son who grabbed it angrily. He looked at it and shoved it in his pocket before leaving. It seemed like he couldn’t escape the lifestyle he had come to adopt.

*****

“I can’t do this anymore.” Claudia’s voice was emotional as she looked at her sister. They were together in Evelena’s home. Evelena’s husband was off working at the railroads for the rest of the day and they had the house to themselves.

“What do you mean Claudia? We can’t just stop!” Claudia’s sister looked at her.

“I… I just can’t… I want to go back to living an honest life. I don’t want to live like this anymore!” Claudia’s eyes burned as she held back tears. Her hat shook as she started to tremble. Her mind wandered back to Cole. She couldn’t spoil the relationship she had just created with him. She cherished it too much to ruin it.

“Please… Claudia… think of mother.” Claudia’s face dropped. She thought back to her mother in Boston and shuddered.

“I know… you think I don’t know? I think about her every day… but I don’t know if I can keep doing this…” She sounded like she was about to cry. “I don’t know if it’s worth it anymore.”

“How can you say that Claudia… this is mother we are talking about… if we don’t do this for her… then who will? You know father is too old to provide for her now and it is our job to do it.” Claudia looked at her sister. She knew she was right but still her skin crawled thinking about everything she had done.

“We will just do it one more time.” Claudia looked at her sister before getting up. She walked outside. She felt faint and needed the fresh air. She couldn’t go on living like this but what choice did she have? Her family depended on her. She never meant for things to be like this, but at this point they were in too deep to back out now.

She looked at the town and Evelena walked up behind her gently placing a hand on her shoulder.

“Claudia.” Still Claudia kept quiet as her confident manner faltered a bit at that moment. Would she be able to do go through with it one more time? As Claudia looked at her sister, Evelena presented her with a letter. Claudia saw it was from their mother.

She looked down at the messy handwriting and took her time reading the almost illegible words. By the end of the letter, she found herself in tears. She wiped them away quickly before looking at her sister.

“Okay. One more time but that’s it.” Evelena nodded.

“One more time, and then we can go back to Boston for good.” Claudia looked at her sister as she felt a knot form in her throat. Claudia knew this had been the plan from the start but now that she felt closer to Cole, would she be able to leave?

Chapter 7

“I have to go back to Boston.” Claudia looked at her husband. She was trying to keep her emotions in check as she told him the news. “My mother is very sick and my sister and I want to go take care of her for a bit.” Cole looked at his wife a little surprised.

“Oh, I am sorry to hear that.” Cole said politely, as he mourned inside. He had just gotten closer to his wife and now she was leaving. Who knew how long she would be in Boston. He looked at her and tried to give her a reassuring look. “Everything is going to be okay. You go on to Boston, it’ll be alright.” He said softly before kissing the top of her head.

Claudia had to do everything she could to stay calm. She didn’t want to expose herself at such a critical moment. Cole had to believe that she was just going to Boston and nothing else. He couldn’t suspect her or it would all end badly. She gave him a small smile before kissing his lips and whispering, “I’ll miss you.”

Cole smiled and hugged her. It had taken a while for them to truly fall in love, but now that they did it felt amazing. He kissed her head again and said, “Have a safe trip, okay?” Claudia nodded before going to her room to pack. She didn’t want to leave, but she didn’t have any other choice. Her family depended on her.

They kissed one more time before she left. He watched her go. The house felt empty without her, but he knew he had no right to keep her from her sick mother. He would just have to live without her for a while. There was nothing he could do.

Sighing, Cole went to his room and got ready for another day at work. He had to take down the gold-train thief in order to get his good name back. So he got dressed and waited for the hour when the train would arrive. He would go to the train station and guard the train waiting for the criminal to arrive. He wasn’t sure if they would hit in broad daylight, but it was worth a shot. His reputation depended on it.

When it was one o’clock and Claudia was well on her way to Boston Cole made his way to the train station. When he got there the train was already stationed. It seemed like it was ahead of schedule. Cole made his way for the conductor.

However, when got close to the front cart he heard people speaking. There was a gruff male voice he does not recognize that he assumed belonged to the conductor but speaking with him was a soft feminine voice that he swore he knew.

Cole decided to get closer. As he did and as the conversation continued his eyes grew in surprise as he realized who the voice belonged to. Evelena. But shouldn’t Evelena and Claudia be well on their way to Boston by this point? Cole was confused as he moved closer to the conductor cart and took a peek inside. As he did he saw none other than his wife’s sister standing there with the conductor. But why would Evelena be talking to the conductor?

Suddenly, Cole realized what was going on and ran toward the carts holding the gold. He didn’t want to believe it, but it was the only thing that made any sense. As he ran down the length of the train he didn’t see anything and was confused. Maybe he was mistaken.

However, just when he was about to walk back to the conductor cart he heard the tell-tale sound of gold coins falling on the ground. He rushed toward the sound and realized that the criminal was on the other side of the train tracks. He quickly jumped from one side to the other and was met face to face with none other than his own wife.

“Claudia!” Cole yelled out as he approached her. There was anger in his face. How could his own wife do this? What would the town say when they figured out that the sheriff’s
wife
was the criminal stealing countless gold coins from the gold-trains?

He would be the ridicule of the town. He looked at his wife who was still bent down trying to pick up the gold coins she had dropped. He grabbed her arm harshly and forced her up.

“Cole… please… I can explain.” Cole looked down at her angrily. To think that he thought he loved this woman. He didn’t love anything short of a criminal. He could feel something like vile build up in his mouth. He was trying to contain his anger before he did something he regretted.

“I hope to hell you can or I am going to end up putting my own wife in prison!” His voice was full of malice as he looked down at her. He was in a state of shock.

He then roughly looked inside of her pockets and found countless gold coins.

“What the hell were you going to do with all this? Am I not good enough to provide for you? Why do you have to steal?” He asked harshly before emptying her pockets. Cole had never been this harsh with her before and for the first time in her marriage she felt a little afraid of her husband. What would he do to her now that he knew her secret?

She looked up at him without an answer and this just made him angrier. He clenched his jaw and tightened his grip around her arm even more. She flinched in pain before he started to pull her. He was going to bring her home and get to the bottom of this if it was the last thing he did.

Chapter 8

The couple finally got back home and Cole roughly pushed his wife into the couch. He would get answers out of her one way or another. Claudia looked up at her husband and could see the anger in his face. She didn’t want to upset him but, who wouldn’t be upset at a time like this? But she had to make him understand, one way or another.

“Claudia, you are going to tell me right now what the meaning of all this is.” His voice was cruel as he looked at his wife and paced around the room. He ran his fingers through his sweat soaked hair and stared at her.

“Well go on now. Or do you want to admit that you are a thief and that I am going to have to go out and tell the town that
my
wife is a criminal? How do you think that would make me look as the sheriff?” Cole seemed to be getting angrier by the minute and Claudia would have to do something if she had any hope of salvaging their marriage.

“I have a good reason.” Cole looked at her skeptically, but Claudia continued. “My mother, she is very sick. She has a rare disease and they want a lot of money for her treatment. My sister and I had to get the money somehow… we didn’t want to steal, but we didn’t have a choice.” Claudia suddenly reached into her pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. She handed it to him. It was her mother’s letter.

He grabbed it and read it over.

“So your mother is doing better because of the money you sent over to her?” He looked at the letter and then at his wife and sighed. His wife wasn’t a bad person. She didn’t have a bad heart. She had been doing bad things with good intentions. He looked at her with something like understanding in his eyes.

“Claudia… I haven’t been completely honest with you either and I have been a bit of a hypocrite with you just now. I had no reason to treat you the way that I did and I am sorry. I hope you can forgive me.” Claudia looked at her husband and rubbed her arm where he had bruised her. She could understand his anger, but when had he been dishonest to her?

“I need to confess something.” He finally said, looking down and toying with the tassel of his hat. “You know the murderer running throughout the town?” He asked his voice low. Claudia looked at him with her eyes big.

“You don’t mean?” Cole nodded his head shamefully. “It’s true. I am the murderer who is terrorizing the town.” Claudia couldn’t believe it.

“But why?” She finally asked. She couldn’t understand why her husband would go around killing people. At least her crime didn’t hurt anyone. Cole sat down with his head in his hands, hiding his shame.

“My father. He has a lot of debtors who owe him a lot of money. He forces me to go out and kill these people and take their money so that they pay him back.” Cole was on the point of tears as he confessed this. Claudia looked at him, a little skeptical. This didn’t make any sense.

“Wait… what do you mean he forces you, how can he force you?” Claudia asked as she walked up to him. She needed to know the truth. They needed to be honest with one another once and for all.

“He threatens me by threatening Olivia… and you.” Cole said looking up at his wife with red eyes. There were tears streaming down his cheeks now as he admitted his own weakness to his wife. He couldn’t even stand up to his own father.

“Threaten how…?” Claudia asked with a hint of fear in her voice.

“He would hurt you both…” Cole admitted as he looked down in shame. He wasn’t even good enough to protect his own family. Claudia frowned before hugging him. He had murdered those people to protect her not because he was some cold-hearted killer. She looked at her husband with new eyes before gently hugging him again.

“I’m so sorry…” Cole finally said as he pulled her tighter to his chest. They both started to cry as the realization of what just happened kicked in. Claudia shook her head.

“Don’t apologize… we are both victims here… neither of us wanted to do what we did… but we did it for the people that we loved… I don’t think you are a bad person… but your father is.” She said softly looking into her husband’s eyes.

He looked down at her and gently cupped her face. He would never have thought that she would forgive him. He leaned down slowly and kissed her lip gently. She kissed back and they held hands. They stayed like this for a moment.

“But we have to get out of the town. We can’t keep living here. Sooner or later they will discover the truth.” Cole looked at his wife and nodded.

“You’re right. We should leave right away.”

“We can go back to Boston and start a new life there” she suggested as she looked at him. He smiled and nodded.

“Does that mean I get to see snow again?” They both smiled at the comment before packing their bags for their new life.