Page 29 of Beau (Sheppard’s Shadow #5)

When it was time to go back into the courtroom, he noticed that Allison was missing.

Apparently, she’d caused some trouble with the judge and had been sent back to jail for the duration of the day.

Thankfully for him, he’d gotten his questions out of the way before she’d left.

He didn’t know what the others were going to do.

As it turned out, they had plenty of evidence to turn over to the court system and witness statements, too.

He was impressed with the others who were sharing the table against the woman and told them so when he had the chance.

They were impressed with him because he’d shown her true colors when asking her about her ‘game’ that she’d been playing.

By four-thirty, they were closing up for the day, and he was going to have to come back in tomorrow.

He had to admit that it went much smoother with Allison gone.

He and the other lawyers went out for pizza after gathering up their things.

He liked them and was glad that they all had a common goal to get Allison off the streets.

David said that he had been working on this since she’d approached his client about being his daughter from a previous relationship.

“They divorced soon after. But now that it’s coming out about how she tricked them into paying her an ungodly sum of money, they’ll be working together to get her to stay in prison.

I’d like to know what she’s done with all her illegal gains from these scams she’s been playing.

I mean, so far as I know, she was able to net nearly ten million dollars from other people that she scammed as well. ”

“That’s a great deal of money. I wonder how much she would have gotten from my family had they believed her.

” David told him that he thought that she was in for the long run with the Watson/Sheppard families.

She would have taken them for more money than she had previously gotten all together.

“There were things going on that she didn’t have any idea about when she came to this town. ”

“You mean because of the family being shifters? Yeah, I wondered how she was going to make that work out when I read your reports on it. She claimed to be their mother, yet she wasn’t a shifter like them.

That’s another thing that she’s been complaining about.

That shifters should have to tell people what they are.

That it should be the law. The woman is nuts if you were to ask me.

” Jameson agreed with him. “It’s too bad you didn’t allow her to get in deeper with herself.

She might well have turned and run. But then she’d be doing this to someone else, and they might not have faired as well as you guys did. ”

That night, when he was at his home, he went over his notes again and decided that he’d had enough.

Going into one of the bedrooms he was using as a sorting room, he looked over some of the things that he’d brought back with him the other day.

He was just sorting through the linens that he’d gotten when his doorbell rang.

He’d not been expecting company, nor had his family told him that they were coming over, so he didn’t know what to expect.

Opening the door, there was no one there until he looked at the big truck that was in his driveway.

The person coming toward him was saying how she’d gotten things packed up earlier than she thought and had them on the truck.

“It’s a lot of the bigger stuff.” He asked her what she was talking about. “The estate manager was able to get all the bigger stuff loaded early and told me to bring it to you. He said that he’d contact you to let you know.”

“No one contacted me about anything.” He looked into the deep cavern of the back end of the semi and whistled. “There is a lot of stuff on this thing. I’ll have to get some help, or you’ll have to wait until the weekend. I had no idea you were coming.”

“I can’t wait for the weekend. I have a load that goes back in the morning.” She pulled out her cell phone and made a call. “I’ll call now to see what’s going on. Can you please make arrangements to have this emptied out tonight?”

He contacted his brothers and asked for their help.

They were willing to come over, but he didn’t know what he’d do if they hadn’t been able to help him.

As it was, he was going to have to pay for pizzas, their payment for helping unload everything tonight.

It was going to be late, too, for as much stuff that looked like it was in the semi.

~*~

Demi didn’t know what to think about the men who were unloading the truck.

They didn’t even seem mad because the truck was a few days early.

But got right to work and unloaded the furniture right off as if it didn’t weigh hundreds of pounds.

Even things that took four men to load on the other end didn’t seem to bother the two men who pulled it off and into the house. And what a house it was, too.

The front hall had been a staging area for some of the things that had come on the truck.

She knew they were getting the bedroom things upstairs first and then the living room things last. There were six bedrooms in the house, and enough furniture to make sure that someone could easily sleep in the rooms once they were set up.

The linens and other things that she’d seen at the other house were being packed up to come on another smaller truck than the one that she was driving.

“Do I know you?” She’d been asked that before.

Not tonight, but by other men hitting on her.

She knew that she was good-looking. She kept herself in shape, too.

But this man seemed sincere about asking the question, and she was sad to say that she wished she’d known him, but didn’t.

“You look like someone I’ve worked with before.

Perhaps gone to college with or something. ”

“The only time I’ve been on campus is delivering something to them.

I did go to college online, but I’m sure that doesn’t count.

” He said that it did as she was getting an education.

And then he smiled at her. “You could put the electric company out of business with a smile like that. I’m not hitting on you, but you’re a good-looking man. ”

“Thanks.” He moved on when she did, and they got two more bedroom sets out of the truck. She didn’t know who loaded it for her, but they put all the furniture that went together near the other things that went in the same room.

There was no doubt that they were all related.

The man that she’d met first seemed to be the baby of the family, and they treated him like it.

She’d be pissed off if someone treated her the way that he was being treated, but he seemed to not take them all that seriously.

She was glad. It might have been a big fight had they started something with all the work that needed to be done.

She looked up when someone said her name.

She’d not even realized she’d given it to them, but then remembered it was on the paperwork.

“It says here that there are two more trucks coming to my house. I’m sorry, but it looks to me like I’ve gotten most of the furniture that I had bought.

What other kind of stuff will be on another semi?

” She told him that she didn’t know that her company had been called in to deliver it and that they said she had a load going back the same way.

“I don’t know what that means, but that’s all right.

I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.”

He stood there staring at her for several long, tense moments before he looked at his family. Then, when she thought that he’d walk away, he took a step toward her and inhaled deeply. Like he was trying to smell her for some reason. She asked him what the hell was going on.

“Nothing. I mean, there is a lot going on, but it’s nothing right now.

It could be, but right now I’m not going to say anything.

I’m not sure that I have it right, so I’m not sure what to say to you right now.

It might be a joke that my brothers are playing on me, but then I don’t know why they’d do that.

Do you? But it could be—” She smacked him when it looked like he was going to continue speaking like he was.

He put his hand on his cheek and stared at her.

“You’re not supposed to be able to cause me any harm. ”

“You’re off your rocker. What the hell are you talking about?” He said she was his mate. “I don’t want to be your friend. Or mate, whatever you want to call it. I think you have something wrong with you.”

“So do I right now.” He moved a step back from her when she lifted her hand to smack him again.

“I’m sorry. I’m not making any sense to myself right now.

My name is Jameson Sheppard, as you know.

You’re Demi Rothchild. I didn’t mean friend when I said you were my mate, but my mate.

Like someone who is supposed to be my everything. ”

“You’ve enough shit going on right now without me being your everything.

And if you mean what I think you mean, you can just forget about that, too.

I don’t have time for a husband of sorts, nor do I want one.

I have my life just the way I like it.” He said that he did as well.

“Well, good for you and me. We don’t have to take this any further than it is right now.

Just so you know, I’m going to be really pissed off if you think that I’m going to bow down before you and be your willing slave. ”

“I don’t expect you to be my willing anything.” He looked around again. “I’m still not sure this isn’t a joke being played on us by my brothers. They’ve been teasing me a great deal about being the last one to get a mate.”