Andrew: Lanning’s Leap: Erotica Shapeshifter Romance (Lanning's Leap Book 5) (4 page)

“Yes. I told Darin to say he was going to open the files behind you. And to change the locks on the doors. I explained to him that the fucker, an apt name for him by the way, was going to ask him about ten thousand questions and try to send him away.” As John worked at his desk, pulling out the old computer and getting things boxed up, Andrew thought of the girl again. Pulling out his phone, he started doing some digging on his own.

~~~

Phillip was doing a great job. He’d been using her phone and computer for the last hour and he was making great headway in getting the job down pat. When they had a break again, he asked her to come outside with him, that he needed some fresh air.

“I have to tell you something.” She nodded and sat down. “I like you, Beth, I really do. But I’ve been less than honest with you. I’m not just a new hire. And my name isn’t Phillip. Well, it is, but it’s really my first name and not my last. My brother, Andrew, he’s the new owner of the company.”

She thought of some of the things she’d said to him and stood up to run. He asked her to stay, that he wanted to talk to her.
Yeah
, she thought,
this will be the end of my workday right here
. Even though she was going to quit anyway, she had a feeling that she’d not see Friday’s check now.

“You were spying on me.” He shook his head, then nodded. “Yeah, well, in the event you didn’t get that, that wasn’t the least bit helpful. Were you or were you not sent to spy on me? It was Blair, right? He said some things to your brother and you came in to...I don’t know. You came in to see if any of it’s true. Well, it’s not.”

“No, it’s not. And that’s not why I’m here. I came to see why anyone would be giving away hundreds of dollars of their sales commissions like you were doing.” Laci said nothing but did sit down again. “Andrew, my brother, bought this company to break it down. There’s no need for this little company, and he simply wanted something to do. He and I are actually opening an antique hardware store with our brother...never mind. That’s not important. But he saw the way your sales were being disturbed, and he sent me here to find out why.”

“You could have asked me.” He asked her if she would have told him. “No. I can’t. But you could have just asked.”

She got up to pace, wishing now that she’d remembered to get a bottle of water to go with her crackers. Laci felt the tears threaten again and decided that she’d had enough of being a doormat to men. When she turned to look at him again, she saw something...something moved over him, and she took a step back.

“Don’t. If you run, I’m going to not be able to hold onto him.” She asked him who. “I’m not human.”

“Not human.” He nodded. “As in you’re something else. Like a monster or something. And so you know, right now, I think you are, a monster I mean. What you did to me is beyond cruel. I trusted you.”

“That’s why I wanted to talk to you.” She nodded but said nothing else. All she could really think of was he’d said he wasn’t human. “I’m a cat. Leopard as a matter of fact.”

“I don’t believe you.” He put out his arm, and she turned her back on him. “I don’t want you to...I said I didn’t believe you. Not that I don’t think you’re telling me the truth. I just want you to go away.”

“I can’t do that. I feel an overwhelming need to protect you.” She nodded, her back still to him. “I know you’re on the run. I also know that your name is Laci Wintermute. You have an aunt that lives in one of the apartments over on Ninth. Which another brother of mine owns.”

She turned and looked at him. “You investigated me? How the hell...? How the hell did you find out my name? I’ve been very careful with that. Did you read my mind?” Phillip nodded. “No. I mean no. You can’t do that. People can’t really read other people’s mind.”

“I can. I know everything there is to know about you. Where you’re living, how much money you have, and where you have it stashed. I know that you lost your parents several years ago to a car accident and that you’ve been taking care of your—” She told him to stop. “I’m sorry, Laci. I really am. But I want to help you.”

“No. I mean hell no. I don’t want your help.” She started pacing again and tried to think. “I don’t know how you did this. Nor do I like that you’re spying on me. You know that there are people chasing me? And do you know why? Are you a part of it? Is that it?”

“No. I don’t know who they are or what they want because you don’t. If Max were here, he’d more than likely know.” She asked him who that was. “My nephew. He’s the son of my brother’s wife. Murph…Dane Murphy Lanning.”

“The sheriff? You’re related to the sheriff of this little town? Well of course you are. Why the fuck not?” When he nodded, Laci felt the earth shift under her feet when she got dizzy. When he helped lower her to the ground, she stayed where she was. This was just too much. “Your brother now owns the company that I work for. Another brother owns the place that my aunt is living in. The sheriff is your sister-in-law, and you’re not human. Can this break get any more surreal?”

“Yes.” He got down to her level and said her name. “My brother Thomas is married to a princess and she’s a genjar. Murph is Doran, as is her son, and I guess my brother is now. And my wife, Charlie, can do some pretty freaky shit too.”

“You’re not helping.” He laughed and she smiled at him. “Is any of this true? I mean, one thing of it? I’ll be okay that you only said it to try and cheer me up.”

Instead of answering her, he put his hand on her outstretched leg and it changed. Fur sort of just consumed his arm, and long claws appeared at the tips of his fingers. When she looked at his face, she could see that cat there too. His eyes were darker, his face looked fuller, longer. And when he shook his body, like he was shaking rain off his head, he was Phillip again.

“All the rest is true as well.” Nodding, she sat there. It was too much if she was honest with herself. Mind overload, and she couldn’t think beyond just making her body work, breathing in and out, and trying to keep from running and screaming. “Are you all right?”

“My break is over.” She stood up then and moved toward the building. If he followed her, she really didn’t care. Function, her mind told her, just function. But just as she was walking into the door, something hit her and knocked her back on her ass. The pain in her head exploded just as she saw what she’d hit.

A man...no, that was too tame a word. A god had hit her. A god that worked in her building? Who knew? But nothing would surprise her much right now.

Chapter 3

Andrew sat as still as he could and watched the two doors that led to the rooms in the emergency room. He had been counting the strokes that the second hand made when he’d been told to sit and shut up, but that wasn’t working any more to keep him or his cat calm. He had to...no, he really needed to go and see the woman again. Looking at his brother Phillip, he wondered if he’d help him clear this up, and decided that he didn’t know if he could say the words out loud. Phillip spoke before he could find out if he would or not.

“I think you pissed that doctor and nurse off.” He nodded. Andrew knew that. And Phillip had saved him from being arrested. Murph came in a few minutes later when he’d been surrounded by security to be thrown out of the hospital and told him in no uncertain terms to sit here and not move. “I don’t think Murph is all that happy with you either.”

“I think she’s my mate. That woman you were working with, I think she’s my mate.” Phillip looked at him and Andrew could tell he thought he was joking. “My cat wants to go back there and tear everyone apart so he can touch her, and I’m not so calm either.”

Phillip stoop up and told him to come with him. Andrew stayed where he was. Not because he was afraid of Murph. She had threatened to castrate him, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

“You can’t tell from here. And as much as I’d like to just see your cat go ape shit about now, I don’t think Murph will hesitate in shooting your ass.” He nodded, still not moving. “Why aren’t you sure? The blood throw you off?”

“No. I was...I was pissed off. I mean really pissed off, and I think it clouded my judgment.” Phillip asked him if he really believed that. “Yes. I mean no. I don’t fucking know.”

“Well, you’d better figure this out soon. Mom and Misha are on their way in, and they’re not all that thrilled with this either.” He asked him why. “Because that little shit you hit before leaving your office is suing you.”

“He hit me first.” Phillip only cocked a brow at him. “Okay, I guess I could have pulled back a little, but he actually hit me. And told me that I needed to go home and take a nap. I’m a grown fucking man.”

“Well, then act like it.” Andrew closed his eyes at the sound of his mom’s voice behind him. When he stood up and turned to look at her, Misha and Hannah were right behind her. “And I would appreciate it if you were to curb that tongue of yours as well. Whatever were you thinking, Andrew Lanning? Or were you?”

“He thinks she’s his mate.” Andrew wanted to hit his brother but knew if he drew back, it would be a brutal war. “He was just going back to find out now. And that guy? The one he hit? He hit her before Andrew hit him. I think that he deserved that and more for hitting her in the first place.”

“Well, shit.” His mom turned and looked at Misha when he spoke. “I’m sorry, Mom, but this guy hit one of our females. I don’t know about you, but I think that justifies what he did.”

“Be that as it may. In the future, please try not to break a man’s jaw or his nose until you’re sure.” She took his arm and led him to the desk. “Andrew, who is this young lady?”

“I have no idea.” She looked at him oddly, but then spoke to the nurse at the desk. In seconds he was headed back to the emergency department with his mom and the nurse. This wasn’t going to go well, he knew it.

The nurse coming out of the curtained-off area looked nervous. When she saw the person that was with them, she came toward them as if she was glad to have someone else there. Andrew walked to the curtained area and threw back the curtain back. Not only was the messy bed empty, but the cubical looked empty as well. He turned to the two nurses.

“Where is she?” They looked at each other, then at him. “She ran, didn’t she? I mean, unless you have her hidden in your pocket, she’s left without your consent.”

“She said that she had no insurance. And even if she could have afforded it, there wasn’t any way for her to pay for the deductible.” Andrew was nodding as he reached for his brothers to tell them what was going on. The nurse continued. “Poor little thing. When she woke up, she was so terrified that it took me nearly ten minutes to get her to calm down. But I did manage to give her something for pain.”

“What did you give her?” When Andrew heard what it was, he revised his message to his brothers.
She might be out of it by the time you find her. They gave her a nice dose of drugs to help her out, so maybe she’s close by and we won’t have to look too long to get her back here. I have no idea where to even begin. Try the buildings Phillip was talking about that she might be in.

Andrew left the hospital to search for Laci after assuring his mom that he was going to be careful with her whether she was his mate or not. Talking with Phillip, he gained a great deal of personal information including her name, but he was still at a loss as to whether or not she was actually his mate.

Just as he was leaving the building, he saw Thomas. As they came together in the parking lot, Andrew had the most insane need to hug him. He explained everything that had happened so far, as well as who the girl might be to him. That was when Thomas told him he knew where the girl was.

“She’s not having an easy time of it. And when I did a search of the area for her like I was asked, I found a woman a few blocks from here that was in a great deal of pain. It’s receding now with the drugs I guess, but we have to find her. It’s why I came here as quickly as I could. You’re not going to like this, but I also have an idea who might want her dead.” Andrew stopped walking and looked at Thomas. “Sonya. I mean, I’m not positive, but I think it might be her. Sina said that she would have set it up so that none of us meet our mates, and that since you think this girl is yours, it would stand to reason that she’d be a target.”

They drove to the building and were parking when he saw Laci. She was leaning against the wall to the smallest of the three abandoned buildings and there were two men with her. He could see that she was having some difficulties and got out of the car just as Thomas said his name.

“If you kill them, there will be hell to pay. Not just from the police, but Mom will rip you a new ass.” Andrew knew that too but asked him what he was to do. “Just go there, get her, and come back here. Don’t engage in a war play with those idiots. They’re not worth it.”

“It might be to me.” Thomas just rolled his eyes. “All right. I’ll try to behave. But I’m not making any promises. I’ve had a really shitty day so far.”

“I would say that she has too. Don’t you think?” That calmed him and his cat just a little. “Go easy. As you know, Phillip has talked to her and she seemed all right with what he said, but she might still freak out a little.”

Phillip had told him what he’d shown her as well as the things he’d told her. She had needed something, he’d told him, to get her mind off of the fact that she had been robbed by his company. He also told him that he had to protect her. And now that they knew she was his mate, that explained a great deal.

The men with her were touching her, not hurting her that he could see, but they were trying to get her to go with them. Andrew politely but firmly told them to back off. The first guy did as he asked, the second one simply cupped her breast.

“Don’t do that.” The man, the soon to be dead man, laughed. “I really don’t want to have to explain to my sister-in-law, the sheriff, why I had to kill you. I mean, she’s already pissed off at me for punching a man in the face and breaking his jaw and his nose. I’m pretty sure that he might need surgery too. He’s kind of disfigured from when I hit him in the face with a bat too. I don’t know for sure. But if you don’t back away from my wife, I’m going to kill you.”

“She’s not your wife. If she was, where did her ring go?” Andrew reached into the man’s head and made him back off. He neither had the time for this nor did he want to have to hit him. As soon as she was let go, Laci fell forward and he caught her in his arms.

“You did that really well and no one had to die. See, you can be taught how to be nice.” Andrew snorted at Thomas as he got into the car with Laci. Lifting her throat to his nose, he inhaled deeply. It was her. This woman was his mate and he told Thomas, who laughed. “Now what?”

“I have no idea. I guess the hospital. Or Mom’s. Which do you think?” Thomas told him hospital even as he was starting his car. “She’s not going to be too terribly happy about this, is she?”

“I don’t think I would be if I were her.”

As they drove along, Andrew looked at her. He wanted to touch the large bump on her head but didn’t. He wanted her to be quiet for a few more minutes, and he was afraid if he touched her right now, he might hurt her. Pulling up in front of the hospital, he saw not just his mom but the rest of his family as well. This was going to be bad, he knew it.

~~~

Laci felt the warm blankets over her body and snuggled down under them. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been warm in her bed. Nor, for that matter, the last time her bed had been so nice. She opened her eyes when she realized she’d not even had a bed in a few months, yet here she was in one. The man sitting in front of her was staring at her.

He was leaning forward, his arms on his knees, and looked ready to pounce, like a cat did when it saw a mouse. Laci watched him, thinking that was the strangest thought she’d ever had about a stranger before. Then she remembered Phillip and his arm.

“My name is Andrew Lanning.” She nodded and felt the sharp pain in her head. “You have ten stitches in the back of your head from the fall. The bump on your forehead is getting better but still will be painful for a few more days. Or so they told me when I asked.”

“Who are
they
?” He answered her, still not moving from his position in the chair. “I left the hospital in favor of not having to pay for a huge bill that I can’t afford. How did I get back here?”

“I brought you. I had to find you first, which proved to be an adventure. There were two men with you that had decided that you might have been a tasty treat for them.” Laci wondered if he was frozen or something. He hadn’t moved so much as his finger since she’d been looking at him. “Do you hurt?”

“I do. I’m pretty sure that’s about par for the course when you have stitches in your head and are in the hospital. But that doesn’t negate the fact that I’m not able to afford this.” He didn’t say anything, and she thought that she’d gladly hit him. “What are you doing here? I mean, have you nothing better to do than to sit in a chair staring at a stranger?”

“You work for me.” That did nothing to dispel her wondering why he was here. “And I hit you. I mean, I knocked you back when you came in the door. It’s my fault that you’re here.”

“You mean the cable company…that’s the job where I work for you? Or is it worked for you, as in I’ve been fired?” He shook his head. “I gave my notice there. I guess it’s safe to assume you know that.”

“No. I had no idea. That guy, Warren, he has the files and I had only just got the drawers open when I hit him. I think I pissed him off when I wanted to see the files on the people who worked for me. He seems to think I should just stay home. And take a nap. He said I needed to go home and take a nap. So I hit him.” She asked him why he’d done that. “Because he’s an arrogant ass that needed it long before I did it. Do you need me to get you anything for pain?”

“Are you a doctor as well as a cable mogul?” He said no. “Then I doubt very much you can help my pain. Besides, I’m pretty sure they’ll want like fifty dollars a pill, and I can’t afford that any more than I can this stay.”

“I’m paying for it.” She cocked a brow at him. “It’s the least I can do after what we did to you. You know my brother, Phillip? I talked to him earlier too. He said he talked to you about what we are.”

“You mean that shifting thing.” He smiled then, and Laci felt like the sun had shone all over her body. “Don’t do that. It’s unfair.”

“Do what?” She told him. “So you don’t want me to smile because it warms you up? I’m betting I can warm you more if you’d let me.”

He moved. Not just moved but was suddenly there, standing next to her. Laci rolled to her back and looked up at him. Christ, he was tall. Gorgeous and very tall. When he curled his fingers into hers, the warmth of his grip made her body heat and her nipples tighten.

He leaned down, his body almost in half when he brushed his mouth over hers. It was hot. His breath seemed to burn over her mouth. When he touched his mouth to hers, firmly this time, Laci moaned. There was no way this guy was only just kissing her. It felt like he was consuming her. And when he lifted his head, she looked into his blue eyes and thought she saw something there. Something that moved.

“Can I kiss you again?” His voice was low but dangerously sexy. Before she could figure out how to make her mouth work again, her head was nodding. This time when he touched his mouth to hers, Laci knew she was in deep shit.

The kiss, such a tame word for something that she felt running in her bloodstream, was hungry. He seemed to not just be kissing her, his tongue ruling hers as if he owned it, but that he was laying claim. And when he pulled her closer to him, nearly pulling her from the bed, Laci felt as if she had no choice but to wrap her arms around him and to hold on. It was that or she was sure she was going to fly away. When he lifted his mouth from hers, she whimpered.

“I need you.” She found that she needed him as well and nodded. “But this is neither the time nor the place for me to lay you out on this bed and have my way with every inch of you.”