Page 1 of Weston (Sheppard’s Shadow #4)
Rogen was putting the next sheet of sheetrock up on the wall when her sister, Belinda, contacted her. Being a cat made it easy for them to speak to each other like they were in the room together. Smiling before she even spoke, Rogen picked up the tape to fix the seams in the drywall before she moved on to the next wall to make sure it was set up well, too. As usual, her sister started out the conversation like they’d been talking all day long.
Belinda worked for a man near where she lived—the mayor of their little town, Weston Sheppard. He was paying her well, and she was happy. It was all she could do when she heard from her not to find the man and hug him for making her older sister as happy as she’d been of late. Rogen thought of all the people she knew, not counting that she was her sister, deserved this more. It was, she thought, just a bonus that she was making such good money on top of it all.
I have a clothing bonus as well as time paid for lunch, isn’t that great? Not to mention the vacation I was telling you about last night. Two weeks is a nice one if you ask me. Especially when I’ve been here for such a short time period.” She told her that was great as she lined up the last of the tape that would hold the wall together until the plaster dried. “There’s medical, too, but I don’t know that I’ll use that all that much with me being a cat and all. Today was proof that I might need to bring more clothing to work in case something happened and I had to shift.”
Pausing, she asked her what had happened there. Rogen felt better after hearing all the details about the men coming into the office to try and blackmail her boss about some playground equipment, but she still didn’t care for the fact that she was literally in the line of fire with this job. She wouldn’t tell her to quit working but decided that she was going to make sure her boss understood that if anything happened to Belinda, there would be a world of hurt brought down on him as the one who should be protecting her.
The room was finished by the time she was finished speaking to her sister. As she thought before, Belinda was happy. It had been a very long time since she’d heard her laughing and having a good time. When her husband had been killed a few years ago, all of them despaired of her ever recovering. Not only had Benson been killed, but their two children had been as well. It had been a fire in their home that had not just taken Belinda’s family but everything in the house as well. Some items that she would never get back. And that hurt her to have no photos of her own with her kids in them.
“Whatcha up to?” Rogen looked up at her sister and partner, Sandy, and asked her how the other rooms were going. “I have two of the main rooms finished up, and they’ll hopefully be painted tomorrow. That was a great idea that you had about the fans blowing directly on the walls. It’s saved us about a week of getting this house finished. Not to mention the smell, too. It’s easier to stand to be in the room when it doesn’t smell like wet dog all the time.”
“I spoke with the owner the other day, but I didn’t mention that we’d be finished early. I believe that it would give the woman more things to think about changing in the house. I can’t believe how much rework we’ve had to do because we told her that we had a day extra. No way am I telling her that we have a week. What’s up with you now?” Sandy sat down on one of the large spools of wiring that had been being used for a table. “Is it that bad? What can I do for you? Slay some dragons? I will, you know.”
“Danny wants me to quit working and stay at home more with him. I don’t know how he expects money to be coming in when he doesn’t have a job and me out of work as well. Just because you and I own the company doesn’t mean that both of us didn’t have to work.” Sandy put up her hand to stop what Rogen knew was going to upset her. “I know. You told me not to marry him, but I was lonely. Not only that, but he was also working when I first met him. He’s so different now. Just as you said, he’d be. Lazy and a jackass too.”
“I don’t think that he’s any different but just more vocal about it. He certainly is to me. What did you tell him about the partnership that the two of us have?” She didn’t look at her but did tell Rogen that he knew that if she quit working, the company and everything else would go only to Rogen. That was the deal that they’d had made up when they went into business together. “I told you that was going to be the only thing that saved you. What did he have to say about that?”
“That he thinks you should have to buy me out so that he can—and he actually said so that he could have some extra money for the things that he does. The only thing that he does is spend money on those toys he’s playing with.” She finally looked up at her, and Rogen could see that she’d been crying. “Danny told me that I needed to get with child, and that would make you back off. Something about the two of us being too old to be working like we are and life passing us by. He’s a moron. I don’t know how he thinks that’s going to happen. I’ve told him several times that I can’t have his child, but he insists that I’m lying because you told me to. He acts like I can’t have an opinion unless you give it to me. I’ll say it again. He’s a moron.”
“Want me to have a talk with him?” Sandy told her that she didn’t want to have to visit her in jail again. “That first time was all on him. It even came out in court that he drew his gun on me first. I wish more and more that I’d ended his life rather than spare it. I know that I’d sleep better at night.”
“Don’t kill him, please? He’s not worth it. Especially for you ending up in jail or prison.” Nodding, she noticed something on her sister that she’d not seen this morning when they were having breakfast to start the day. She moved her sister’s hair out of the way and then started cursing. “I’m not even going to lie to you and say it was my fault. He backhanded me right before I left for work this morning because I didn’t want him to go with the two of us to breakfast. All the two of you would do is fight and—where are you going?”
“I’m calling the family. Enough is enough.” She waited for Sandy to tell her not to do it, to not involve the family, but when she picked up the phone, too angry to reach out to them, Sandy told her that Toby and Leanord would be working the fields and not hear her calling. That was all the okay that she needed to get Danny taken care of once and for all. The slimy bastard had hit the wrong person in hitting her sister.
After talking to all her brothers, she called Belinda later. She didn’t want to upset her at work, and whatever they planned for the man wasn’t going to include her sister. Belinda was fragile, and no one wanted her to be brought back down to where she was several years ago. Once she got her on the phone, it was only a matter of minutes before Belinda told her that not only was she going to help with Danny, she might well be the one that killed his fucking ass.
“I didn’t think you’d want to be a part of it.” She asked her why not, Sandy was her sister too. “She is, and I didn’t mean to imply that she wasn’t. But you’ve had a rough few years and are just now getting up on your feet. I didn’t want to bring you down again. As far as I’m concerned, you’re my sister as much as Sandy is.”
“This is just what I need. To help her the way that you all helped me. We all know that if not for your family, I wouldn’t have survived. Just losing my husband was bad enough, but my…I lost everything, or so I thought. The rest of you wouldn’t allow me to wallow in my self-pity, and I couldn’t love you anymore for it.” Rogen told her that she loved her. “And I love you too, Rogen, with all my being. But I want him out of her life, especially since he’s knocking her around. Let me ask you something. Do you think it’s the first time he’s done it?”
“I didn’t ask her. I don’t think that I want to know.” Belinda had to put her phone down to answer the door. She thought about hanging up, but when she heard the man’s voice in the room with her sister, she did reach out to figure out if she was in trouble or not. Apparently, it was her boss coming by to tell her that he was going to go back into the office tonight so that he could take tomorrow off. Rogen thought that was nice of him.
“I might have to take some time off too. One of my sisters is being beaten up by the man that she’s married to.” He must have asked if he was a shifter because Belinda answered that. “No. Sandy was feeling lonely one night after coming to my house with the kids around her, and Danny came around, making her feel special. Then, about a week after they were married, he not only quit his job, but he started spending money that they didn’t have. That’s not true; they had the money, but it was not enough for him to spend it like he does all the time.”
Rogen thought that she was telling the man a great deal about their soon to be ex brother-in-law, but she’d never met the man, nor did she trust easily. When her sister came back on the line, she started out with a plan to get Sandy away from Danny for a few days so that no one would blame her when he came up missing.
“And by that I mean dead.” Rogen laughed, telling her sister that she’d never would have thought that she had that in her. “I’d like to think that I’m as strong as you are, but no one, not even our brothers, can outdo you. But I will help. And here’s my plan.”
After telling her that Sandy could come up there and talk to Weston, her boss, then she could stick around and help out his shadow when it came to training his people about construction and how to make it work. That was where Weston was going to be headed in the morning with his brothers Nash and Beau. After Sandy came there and worked for a while, then they could do whatever was necessary to get him out of her life.
“And what do you think your boss is going to say when he figures out that Sandy just happened to be around your boss when her husband of eleven years comes up missing? Someone might well miss the little fucker. Didn’t you tell me that one of them was a shadow alpha?” She told her that was a brilliant idea. “Now, what have I said? I don’t know if you realize this or not, but you talk a great deal in riddles. What did I have an idea about?”
“That they go there. Oh, this is great. Archie is a great man and a wonderful leader. I was actually thinking about joining this one here rather than have to pay part of my check to the one down there every week.” Rogen asked her what she meant. “Since I’ve been here, I’ve been billed weekly a fine for not living with my shadow.”
“He can’t do that to you. At least, I’m reasonably sure that he can’t. You told me, too, that you pledged to the leap leader there. Didn’t you?” She said that she had but didn’t have to pay any fees because she worked for his brother. “That’s not right, honey. Let me look into things here, or you can talk with this Archie person and find out if that’s true. How much is it that you’ve been paying?” She told her. “Holy Christ, Belinda, no wonder you were having so much trouble with keeping your lights on. That’s about half of what you make, or close to it, I’m betting.”
“Close. I guess I never thought that after all this time, I’d be cheated, so I just paid the fine and went on with my life. I wonder if, now that I have a better-paying job, he’ll try and get more out of me?” Rogen told her to look into it and to make sure that she wasn’t being told that she didn’t have to pay the dues and then find out later that she did. “I have that in my paperwork. So I know that’s true.”
Rogen didn’t know what to believe now. As they were talking about the plans that she had, and it was a good one too, she decided that she was going to go and talk to their leader and find out about this. Then she thought that was a good way to get herself killed and decided to go to Belinda and find out from her boss. Since he wanted help, she was going to get as much from him as she could. No mother fucker was going to take advantage of her little family and get away with it. It just wasn’t right.
She and Sandy finished up working on the house they were working on that evening. It was a big payday for them, but only if the woman who owned the house would quit changing her mind every three days. As it was now, they’d had to move the two outside doors over to make room for one more. Then there was the kitchen that had to have a bigger refrigerator as well as a six-burner stove that she could have her staff use. That had taken four more days of work just to get the kitchen looking like she wanted it. And she didn’t want to get started thinking about how there was no carpet in the bedrooms four times then she wanted it back. The house had heated floors. Why did it need carpet anyway?
They’d not had it laid as yet, knowing that she was going to change her mind before things were wrapped up. Telling the woman that the carpet that she wanted, a bright white for the children’s rooms, was on back order so that she’d not have to change it out again and again. Who put a white carpet in a kids’ room in the first place? Rogen didn’t have kids but knew better than that.
She was just glad that she didn’t have to work outside with the woman. The lawn company had threatened to quit a dozen times, but the place still looked like a dump site for construction site debris. She was the house person, not, thankfully, the yard company.
Even the thought of having a white carpet in a kid’s room gave her the willies. Toby had four kids of his own, and each one of them could tear up anything white in a matter of minutes and not even get themselves dirty in the process.
She was home packing up when she heard back from her sister. The entire Sheppard family was coming to them to talk about business and to meet their leader, too. Rogen wasn’t sure about that and told her sister that but it was a done deal. They were coming and were going to help take care of Danny, the shithead. She wanted to knock the shit out of him now, but she would wait on the bigger team coming. If they fucked up, she’d find a place to bury them as well. All of them.
~*~
Weston looked over the paperwork again and had to sigh. It wasn’t written in the bylaws of their kind, so how the hell was Franklin getting away with basically double charging for fees and dues when a person worked in another shadow, not to mention had pledged to the other shadow in the first place? It made no sense at all to him. Apparently, to Archie, either. And he was a shadow leader.
“I can’t find where it’s in his laws either. And I’m not sure that he could do it in the first place, as she is a part of my group.” Archie handed him the book that they’d unearthed from the previous leap leader’s office before tearing down the building. “According to the laws made by the king, the only one that can be charged for living outside of a leap is the leader if he’s in another territory without permission. And I can’t think of a single reason that should be happening. Can you?”
“No. Not unless it’s for something like what is going on now. And even that, it’s no reason to charge someone simply for getting answers about a job.” The Watson family was going to come up here and train a few of their pack on how to lay sheetrock. In the past month, not only had they gotten some younger people in the shadow, but they were willing to learn a new trade to be able to help with the construction of a couple of new businesses that were coming to town, too. “You don’t have to do anything either to get them to come here other than to make sure that they’re paid a reasonable wage. And it’s up to you if you want to charge them or not any fees.”
“We’re going to make sure they have a place to stay while here too. It’s the least we can do for their helping us out.” Weston asked him where they were staying. “We have some homes around town they can stay in while here. The women are the ones that are going to be helping out. Their brothers are coming for a little time off since it’s the end of the season for them.”
He thought about what Belinda had told him about Sandy’s spouse and wondered if he should mention it as well, so he decided against it. Danny would show himself while here, and that would be the end of him. Weston might well do it himself. He didn’t think men or women should beat up on one another. It was bad enough when they did it to their kids.
By the time he was ready to go home, he was exhausted. Mentally, all he wanted to do was to turn off his head, but his body, too, from helping move some of the filing cabinets around in his office, was hurting him as well.
By the time he finished up his dinner, he was sitting on the couch and watching the news. There wasn’t too much more he could take today, so by ten, he was in bed and about asleep. It was then that his brother Beau decided to contact him. He’d never turn down an opportunity to talk to one of his family members, but today had been a shitty one, and he just wanted to sleep.
“I won’t keep you long. I just have a couple of questions you might have an answer to.” He told him to ask him. “Calhoun is the brother that is going to work with the town on the advertising that we need, correct? If so, then I’m not sure what it is that I can do to help him. He’s really talented. You should see his work.”
“From my understanding, he’s only going to help out with the adverts that are to bring in more businesses. I guess Sunny and Carrie have a list of the ones that have contacted them. Amber has the workup on them so that we can hit all their selling points to get them here.” He asked him how that worked if they were already coming here . “I don’t know, Beau. I only know that we have to have some kind of billing and a list of things on this thing to get them here. Just because they say they want to put in a business doesn’t mean all that much if they don’t know what their perks will be.”
“Good point. All right. It was something that just occurred to me.” He was dozing off when his brother spoke again. “What if one of them, the sisters, I mean, is my mate? Or yours? What if she’s the married one? And I end up killing her husband or something.”
“We’ve been told that he’s not her mate, so it’ll not matter, I guess. We’ll just have to cross that when it comes to it, I guess.” He thought about what his brother said about being mates. “I suppose we might any of us be mates to them. But I’m not going to stress about it unless I have to.”
“You’re right. I shouldn’t either. My house is being built, and if it comes to that, I can have the faeries finish it up if I need it quicker. I might do that anyway, just to get it out of the way.” He told his brother that he was tired and in bed. “Right. I’ll talk to you in the morning. Sorry to have bothered you, Weston, I needed to talk to you.”
“Anytime, little brother. We can have breakfast in town if you want.” After making arrangements, he closed his eyes and decided to try to will himself to sleep.
When that didn’t work, he got up and decided to have his house out of the way as well. Faeries didn’t sleep, so he was all right with getting them going. The only thing that he’d wanted was the option to change things up if his mate didn’t like it. They were more than happy to do that for him.
It only took them a few minutes to finish up the house. His bedroom wasn’t the master suite, and he was all right that they’d made it up to be neutral for his mate if he ever got one. As it was now, he was thinking along the lines of finding someone who wanted to go out and have a good time, knowing that it wasn’t going to go any further than that. He was happy to be dating in his leap, where no one cared about commitment.
By the time it was time for him to meet his brother, Weston decided to get dressed up. He was not in a suit, but he did wear a tie with his jeans. It felt right to be looking better than just a pair of jeans and a tee shirt for a change.
The restaurant wasn’t all that busy, so he was seated right away. Looking over the menu while waiting, he decided to have the endless biscuits and gravy. They served it with fresh coffee or tea, and he could get up to three sides if he wanted. Of course, he got all three sides of the hashbrown casserole with orange juice and fresh sliced tomatoes for his salad.
When Beau showed up with Nash and the others, he was thrilled beyond words. All six of them could put a dent in some biscuits and gravy, but he was overjoyed to be able to talk to them. His day was starting out much better than he could have imagined.
No business was discussed, but they did check their phones when they went off. If it had been scheduled, this time with them, none of them would even have done that. But they were busy men with a great deal going on at all times.
Archie was the busiest of the six of them. He had taken over their leap, but they also knew that his mate, Carrie, was getting close to her due date, and they all wanted to be there for the next generation to come to the family. There was Wills in the family, but he was the oldest kid he knew at ten. It would be fun to have not just little ones in the family but perhaps little girls around, too. They were keeping it secret as to what Carrie was carrying right now.
They’d only had to wait on food once, and it wasn’t so bad. The biscuits were fresh, as were the potatoes they got. He also knew that they’d all tip well and also slip some money to the kitchen staff for helping them out. Apparently, Archie had called ahead to let them know they were all coming in for the special this morning. He loved that they liked to do things locally.
The meeting with the Watson family was going to be on time, and he seriously thought about going into his office just to take a nap. Being up for over twenty-four hours was more than he thought he might be able to handle what with all the carbs he’d had for breakfast, too. Just as he was going into his office and closing the door, a man showed up, saying that he was there to go over the perks they were going to give him for allowing his wife to work with his leap.
“You must be Danny.” He asked how he’d known that, seemingly very proud of the fact that he’d heard of him. “No, not in any way that you’re thinking. I just knew that one of the sisters is married to a human that isn’t her mate.”
“Yeah, my wife, Sandy. Rogen is her sister, and she’s a real ball-buster if you ask me.” He didn’t but didn’t comment. “We’re trying for a baby right now. Well, I guess I’m going to have her see the doctor soon. She must not be as fertile as the rest of them are. One of them brothers has seven kids or something like that.”
“Four. They have four, and it’s doubtful that there is anything wrong with Sandy other than you’re not her mate. But that’s not why you’re here, is it? You mentioned perks. What were you thinking? And just so you know, there won’t be any monetary perks unless you’re working too.” He said that wasn’t fair as the job was keeping him from his wife. “And? That has nothing to do with us. We’re already putting the family up with housing and staff if necessary. Sandy is working for us and making a good wage. Whatever else you need isn’t anything we’re going to worry with.”
“Maybe she won’t work then? You might not understand this being single, but she does what I tell her so that she doesn’t get knocked around.” All he did was stand up so that he could see the fear on the other man’s face. “I was just joking. God damn it, it was a joke.”
“It’s time you left.” Nodding, the other man stood up. “And there will be no bothering Sandy when she’s working for my brother either. She’s here to do a job, and unless, as I said, you’re working too, then you’ll stay out of the way.”
He left five minutes later after telling him again that it had all been a joke. It wasn’t that he wasn’t in the mood for a good joke, but the man had hit his wife, and all jokes weren’t funny to him.
By the time he headed to the meeting place, leaving Belinda in charge of the office, he had a list of questions for his older brother about her having to pay leap fines while working for him. He’d not realized that wasn’t a rule until he looked into it. Sitting at the long conference table, he was happy to see that Danny wasn’t there. The rest of the family was, so he asked Archie his questions so that they could all get answers about what was going on.
“I did look it up in the by-laws, and there isn’t a law that says that she has to pay the fines. I’ve contacted our king, Major Ramit. His first name is Major, not a rank. He said that he’s had trouble with that shadow before. He is going to look into other things that he’s heard. Also, none of this will get back to your leader, as he said he’s been hearing complaints about him before.” Leanord asked if she’d get a refund. “If she doesn’t get one from her previous leap, she will get one from mine. I’ll make it right for her.”
“Thank you for that.” Archie looked at him when the man had a second question. “We, my brothers have come here on our own to be able to hang out with Belinda. We miss her, and I know that the kids do as well. I want to personally thank you for allowing us all to be here, too.”
“We were hoping that you could help with some of your skills as well. We could use some ideas on how to get a garden going. We were thinking something like a community garden where the people who want can have their own place to get veggies and such.” Toby, the man with four kids, said that there were plenty of benefits to having a garden started now. “Good, that’s what we were hoping for. A way to make sure that we can get what we need going by the time summer comes around.”
The meeting lasted for several hours. He was having too much fun to be exhausted and was glad that Archie told them that dinner would be at his house tonight. They were all happy about that, and he was looking forward to being able to talk to them all about the suggestions that they’d brought up in dealing with a new company. It would bring in another fifty jobs by summer if things went the way that he wanted.