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Melbourne had a feeling that no one would go looking for poor Rachel and her supposed grave now, either.

If this was the way the police had been running things around here, it was a small wonder that anything ever got done.

He wondered how many other murders had been committed, and they sat on their collective asses.

He left the station house before he cleaned house with his dragon.

As tempting as it would be, it would be a lot of paperwork as well. Laughing to himself, he decided that next term, he might run for mayor of this city just to clear out the cops. He found himself telling his dad what was going on.

“You’re joking.” He told him he only wished that he had been.

“I’m going to make some calls around to some friends of mine.

The thing is, they could have found her at any time had they just looked around in their own town.

I don’t know what makes me madder. Them calling Clara a crazy old woman or the fact that they don’t know the laws in their own community.

Not to mention state rules that they’re supposed to be enforcing. ”

His dad used to be a cop and had been on a domestic call where he was supposed to be killed when he was taken away by magic. The queen of the earth, Melbourne’s grandmother at the time, had saved him because he was mated to her granddaughter, Melbourne’s mom.

He had no doubt that by the end of the day, heads would be rolling. His dad wouldn’t be the one to do it, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation would certainly have a few things to say about it.

~*~

“Sammy, there’s a phone call for you. It’s your sister.

” She didn’t go into panic mode like she normally did when there was a call for her but made her way to the community phone, just taking her time.

“She said to remind you that it’s her birthday and that you should be wanting to do something nice for her. ”

“Nice? I don’t suppose she gave you a price range as to what this nice gift is going to cost me, did she?

” The cook told her no, she’d not, but like always, it was going to cost a great deal.

“You got that right. I’ll tell you what it is if you want to formulate a price range while I’m talking to her. ”

“You gonna tell her no, aren’t you?” She just stared at him. “Yeah, I hope so. She sounds really excited, so I’m going to assume that it’s a really nice gift you got for her.”

“She works, so I don’t understand why…it doesn’t matter.

I’m not going to pay for anything that she’s gotten for herself from me.

” She picked up the phone and had to wait while her sister talked to someone else.

Wanting to hang up, she knew that she’d only call back and she’d not be happy with her. Suddenly she was talking to her.

“I got me the most amazing gift from you.” All she said was no. “Don’t be like that. You don’t even know what it is.”

“I’ve told you this before, Justine. I’m not going to be buying you gifts for your birthday anymore that I didn’t pick out on my own.

” She said that she doesn’t get her what she wants.

“I can’t afford what you want. And you’re nearly forty years old.

You’re a little old to be hoping for a gift from your little sister. ”

“Why do you have to be like that? Bringing up my age two days before my birthday.” She said that her birthday was in two weeks. “So. I should have a month to celebrate my birthday. It’s not every day that someone turns forty, as you might know.”

“I don’t care. I’m not going to foot the price of whatever you think that I’m going to be paying for.

” She said that she’d already put down a deposit.

“Get it back. I’m not going to be footing the bill for anything.

I thought you would have learned your lesson last year and the years before.

I’m not going to be paying for whatever you got yourself. That’s final.”

“You’re so mean to me all the time, Sammy.

I just don’t understand you. I’ll get my deposit back, but I’m not going to be happy with you for a year.

You can bet you’re not going to be getting anything from me either when your birthday comes around.

” She explained to her that she’d never gotten her anything for her birthday.

“And this is why. You’ve managed to ruin my day with this.

This trip would have been the trip of a lifetime. ”

“No.” Justine simply hung up on her. Putting the handle back in the cradle, she was glad once again that she didn’t have a cell phone that her sister knew about.

If she had, she’d be calling her back in an hour and telling her something else that she’d gotten for her gift from her, and they’d have to start all over again with her telling her no.

She used to have a great deal of trouble telling her sister no.

There was a time when she’d go into debt just to pay for whatever she got for herself that she expected her to pay for.

Then she’d smartened up. Or nearly became homeless.

That was a feeling that she never was having again, to not just be out of work but out of money for even crackers and cheese to eat.

“Did she hit you up?” She told Donald that she’d not been able to tell her what it was, but she was mad. “Good for you. I knew you were smarter than you looked, and you know that I think you’re about as ugly as they come.”

“Thanks. You date much with that sort of charm?” Donald had been saying the same thing to her since she’d hired him to work in her little restaurant.

It had been about the time she’d learned to tell her sister no and to have won one of the largest lotteries that had ever been established.

Those three things changed her life for the better, and she had never looked back.

Going back to her office, she finished up with the order she put in and finished up the schedule that was for the next month.

She could do that now that she had established a good working place for people to come to work.

Sammy made a habit of hiring people who had only just gotten out of prison for various crimes, mostly white collar. And having a good working environment.

She wouldn’t hire abusers, nor would she hire anyone who harmed children.

She would run very extensive background checks on everyone, and when it came back with just a hint of abuse on it, she wouldn’t hire them.

She’d grown up in that kind of setting, and she wasn’t going to let anyone in that had hit people.

That’s why she didn’t understand her sister.

Justine had suffered as much as she had at the hands of their parents.

More so since she was older. But on a daily basis, they would either be beaten, starved, or both.

It was as if their lives were so unimportant to their parents that they could and would forget about them for days on end.

Then, when they remembered them, it would be days of daily abuse and starvation, along with mental abuse that nearly destroyed her older sister.

It had taken Justine several years before she’d go out of the house.

She was terrified that their parents were going to find them and hurt them.

She didn’t know what she’d done, but after going to visit her once, she’d not only come out of her home, but she began socializing with others too.

It was such a transformation that she still, to this day, was waiting for her to have a breakdown and do something dangerous to herself.

Once she finished up for the day, she sat in her office and enjoyed her drink.

It wasn’t often that she’d have ten minutes to herself, and she was going to take advantage of it.

As she was leaning back in her chair, her office phone rang.

It couldn’t be her sister, she didn’t have this number as it was private and no one had it.

“My name is Storm Walsh, and I was wondering if I could have a word with you.” She asked her how she got the number. “You know it, so I was able to get it. It wasn’t as easy as I thought. You have a very complex mind.”

“I don’t know what that means, so I’m going to assume that you haven’t complimented me.

What do you want?” The woman laughed, and she felt her temper flare up.

“I’m having my first break since I got out of bed this morning, and you’re fucking it up.

What do you want and just so you know, the answer is going to be no.

I have no trouble saying that nowadays.”

“No, I was just speaking to your sister, and she is upset with you—”

“What do you mean you were just speaking to my sister. Justine has her own life, and if she said I was going to pay for something, she’d be wrong about that, too.

So whatever you’re selling, I don’t want it.

Neither does she.” The laughter again, and this time, she found herself smiling.

It was the sound of bells. She hadn’t any idea why it made her smile, but she did, and it lessened her temper just enough that she could talk to the woman.

“Look. Justine has it in her head that I have an endless supply of money. I don’t.

I have investments as well as other things that my money is going for.

Whatever she conned you into, I have nothing to do with it. ”

“She doesn’t know you won the lottery, does she?

In fact, no one knows that you won nor that you’re the only one that did that week.

” She asked her how she’d found out. “I told you, when you know something, I can find it. Not as easy as I thought it would be, but it’s right there in your mind for me to pick through. ”

“You’ve read my mind. I didn’t get that the first time you said it.

What is it you want? I’m not going to get suckered into a blackmail scheme with you.

Whatever you think you know, it’s not going to get me to pay you hundreds of thousands of dollars, so you don’t tell on me.

So state your business, and let me tell you no as well, and we’ll end this conversation right now.

” She told her that she didn’t need her money.

“That’s what everyone says just before they tell you how much they want from you. ”

“All right, I’m going to get to the point.

Several days ago, there was a man that came into your offices to get on as a potential job.

And in doing so, you were going to do a background check on him.

That would have led you straight to me. But he got waylaid and didn’t get to see you, so we have to do this the old-fashioned way.

I call you. Now. I don’t know what was supposed to happen when you hired him.

Once he got to your office and met you, you were to go to me, and since that didn’t happen for either of us, you didn’t get to meet my son, Melbourne.

He’s your mate.” She didn’t say anything, thinking that the woman was quite mad.

“I’m not mad at all but a very brilliant woman.

I will tell anyone that. But you and Melbourne were to meet, and it didn’t happen, and it has to. ”

“Perhaps the fates decided that I wasn’t supposed to meet him after all.

Maybe they realized their mistake and decided to waylay him, and they were finished with me and him.

” Storm said it didn’t work that way and that she was indeed supposed to meet him.

“Whatever the reason that I didn’t, I’m happy for that.

I don’t want to meet anyone who thinks that I’m going to be their slave forever. ”

“Why does everyone think that? Has everyone read the same book and come to the conclusion that you have to be a slave to a shifter? I don’t know, but I do know that it won’t work that way with him.

He’s a good man, and you two will have a good long life together.

I promise you I raised him better than that.

” Sammy told her good for her. “Yes, and it will be good for you as well. You must meet him.”

“No thanks. See how that worked? I told you that I’m really good at saying no.

I have things in my life just the way that I want them, and I don’t want a man in my life.

I had one of those in my father, and I don’t want to go through that again.

You have a nice day, Storm, and I hope you find someone to pawn your son off on. It’s not going to be me.”

Hanging up the phone, she felt really good about herself.

But her break time was over now, and she had things to do.

When her phone rang again, she stepped out of the office and went about her daily chores at the restaurant.

There were a million and one reasons she didn’t want to talk to Storm again, and only one of them had to do with her supposed son, who was to be her mate.