Chapter 2
Shortly after lunchtime Everly parked her car beside Brandt’s truck, and started up his stairs to his wrap around porch. As soon as she placed her foot on the third step, Brandt was standing on the porch watching her as she approached his front door.
“Aunt Everly! What brings you over here?”
Everly looked up at him, and bestowed one of her most beautiful smiles on him. She didn’t have to pretend to be happy to see him, she loved him as much as she did one of her own kids. “Just thought I’d come pay a visit to my favorite nephew.”
“Barron isn’t here, but I can call him for you,” he teased.
Everly shook her head. “You know I came to see you. I love Barron, too, but it’s you I came to see.”
Brandt laughed as he opened the gate at the top of the stairs and held it open for her as she reached the last step. “Come on in.” He led her across the porch and into the house, hugging her as she paused beside him to kiss his cheek.
“Where’s Tempest?” Everly asked, noticing the quietness of the house as soon as she stepped inside.
“Tempest went to visit her family for a little while. It’s just me at the moment.” He walked over to the refrigerator and reached for a bottle of water.
“Good, I kinda needed to talk to you alone.”
Brandt hesitated, reached for a beer instead. “Want one?” he asked.
“No thank you, I’m not sure it’d be strong enough.”
Brandt left the beer where it was, closed the fridge and went over to the table where she stood. He pulled out a chair for her. “Have a seat.”
Everly sat down in the chair he offered, then crossed her hands, threading her fingers together and resting them on the tabletop in front of her. “I haven’t spoken to Bam about this, nor anybody else. I thought it best that I come right to you.”
“What’s the problem?” he asked.
“I’m not sure there is one. That, and the fact that Bam and Mav would go off half cocked is the reason I’m coming straight to you and circumventing them. I’d prefer to keep it that way for now, but as you’re Alpha now, I won’t presume to tell you what to do.”
“What’s happening, Aunt Everly?” Brandt asked, realizing she must really be shaken-up if she was worried enough to come to him, leaving her own generation out of it.
“It’s Emmalyn.”
Brandt nodded.
“You know she’s been home for a couple of weeks…”
“Yeah.”
“She said she’s just missing home and took some time off work, but I’m not so sure.”
“Why is that?”
“This is the part that I’m having a hard time voicing…”
“Aunt Everly, just say it.”
Everly kind of rolled her eyes and grinned to show how foolish she thought coming to him with something that was just a feeling could be, but then she spoke. “I’ve been feeling like I’m being watched. It’s really had me on alert, but I figured it was just my overactive imagination. Then today, this morning really early, Emmalyn came home. She said she’d been at Analise’s house, and I’m sure she was. But when we were talking, she admitted to feeling off. She said she’s been living in fight or flight mode and seems unable to turn it off. I suggested it was just the nature of her life, being a profiler with the FBI and involved with all those horrifying cases she’s been a part of. She said I was probably right, and at least it was better than having a deranged human stalking her because she pissed them off by profiling them. So, basically, I’m here because of an unfounded feeling, and an off the cuff remark Emmalyn made.”
“Sonofabitch.”
“You think I’m right?!”
“Honestly, I don’t know. But the fact that she’d even say something that unusual makes for a reason to be suspicious that it might be true, even more so when you add in the way you’ve been feeling.”
“So you don’t think I’m just imagining things?”
“No, I don’t. You’re not the emotional type.”
“At least now I don’t feel so foolish.”
“Where is she now?”
“With Daisy. Went to town to look at places for her new art studio.”
“Alright. I’m going to have to come up with a way to keep her in our sight at all times. Which isn’t easy because she’s so damn independent. And I fully understand why you haven’t involved Uncle Bam or anybody else, but we might have to. Let’s not jump the gun, though. Let’s take it a step at a time. Make sure she’s not alone, and become more vigilant. Keep your eyes open. If you feel like you’re being watched, you might be. It might be a good idea not to be alone yourself. You’re connected to her. If somebody wants to hurt her, a good way to do it is to hurt someone she loves.”
“You’re right. But I’m rarely alone. Between Bam and Bane being retired or semi-retired, one or the other of them is usually around somewhere. And with Kaid, Mav, and Daniel nearby, there’s always somebody within earshot at least.”
“You still need to be careful. If someone is stalking her, watching her, they’re watching the rest of us, too. And I know you’re going to think I’m crazy, but if there is someone after her, I don’t want to scare them off. I want them to get close. I want them to think they can get to her. Because then I can get to them. Whoever it is, they won’t be walking away to come back another day. If someone is threatening Emmalyn, they will be removed from the face of the Earth. They will not be left alive to return at a later date.”
Everly smiled at Brandt. “And that, my dear, is why I came to you, and not your uncle or your father. They’d rush into the woods, combing the property roaring and threatening everything that breathed, and if there is someone out there they’d run, at least for now. If we want to eliminate this threat, we can’t let them know we know they’re there.”
~~~
Daisy walked around the outside of the small building. At one time it was used to house the offices of a now defunct business that sold portable sheds and storage buildings. When the business went under all the portable buildings had been moved, the little house had been left where it had always been.
“I wish I had a key,” Daisy said, peeking into the house through the windows.
“Did you ask your real estate agent about it?”
“Yes, she said it’s been tied up in some kind of legal thing where the bank repossessed it, but the title is in question.” Daisy moved to the next window to try to see inside from it. “I don’t think she’d make very much on this place, so she’s trying to sway me to the newer buildings in the middle of town.”
Emmalyn scowled as she walked away from Daisy and toward the back of the very small house. “Come on,” she said as she rounded the outside corner.
“Where are you going?”
“Doing what I do best. Let’s get you inside to take a look.”
“Isn’t that trespassing?”
“Yep.”
“Emmalyn!”
Emmalyn tuned out Daisy as she made her way around the building searching for a way in.
Daisy came to stop right beside her as she eyed the small, high bathroom window. “Bet it’s open,” Emmalyn said.
“Want a boost?” Daisy asked.
Emmalyn glanced toward her questioningly.
Daisy shrugged. “Might as well help you. You’re not going to stop until you get us inside.”
“You know me so well,” Emmalyn said. “Come on, give me that boost up.”
Five minutes later Emmalyn was opening the front door to let Daisy walk into the space properly. “How nice of you to visit, come on in,” Emmalyn said formally.
Daisy giggled. “Oh, I love it in here. I love the feeling. The sunlight coming in the windows.”
“The way the floor sags in the middle,” Emmalyn said.
“It’s old. It needs some love.”
“It needs to be replaced.”
“It’s got good bones, Emmalyn.”
Emmalyn looked around, trying to see it through Daisy’s eyes. It had a single room you stepped into when walking through the front door, two bedrooms just beyond that, and at the back of the house, it had a small kitchen and a bathroom. To the untrained eye, it looked like the place would fall in at any given moment. “I guess I can see why the artist in you is drawn toward it.”
“You have an artist in you, too. It’s in your blood.”
“Eh, kind of.”
“I can already see it,” Daisy said, walking through the front room of the house to the small hallway that separated the bedrooms from the bathroom and kitchen.
“Daisy, it’s so in need of work. And it’s not centrally located to the schools in town. They’re all on the other side of everything. Another block or so and it’s not even in town,” Emmalyn said as she walked over and looked out of one of the windows. “And the whole damn thing is surrounded by cement. What idiot cements over an entire lot?”
“The people who used it last sold portable buildings. They cemented everything to put up all the buildings they were trying to sell.”
“Well, that explains it,” Emmalyn said. “Might want to break some of it up and give the land a chance to breathe.”
“I think so, too. Maybe I could put down a little gravel for a few parking spaces instead.”
“While the land would appreciate it, aesthetically, I really don’t think it would matter. Have I said it’s dilapidated?”
“It’s not! It’s just in need of a little love.”
“How are the kids going to get here? They won’t be able to just walk over after school.”
“I think it’s good that it’s not near the school. I don’t want it to be just another class kids have to take before they can go home. I want it to be something extra. Something fun they look forward to, you know? A place they can go and allow their imaginations to blossom without criticism. No matter what they imagine, they can create it here.”
“But this one would be a lot of work to get ready. And there were at least two we looked at that wouldn’t need anything but you to move in your supplies.”
“I don’t feel inspired in those.”
“And you feel inspired in here?” Emmalyn asked, already knowing the answer to her question.
Daisy turned around and smiled at Emmalyn. “So inspired. I want to clean it up, paint the outside blue — a pretty, calming blue. I want it to have the appearance of a little cottage full of wonder and good feelings. I want it to look like a painting itself, with colors, and flowers and maybe I can even put a small porch on the front. Kids can set up easels out there and paint if they want to. And in here I want to take full advantage of these great windows and not put anything over them to block the natural light coming in through them. I can put shelves on the walls in all the rooms to store supplies. I can have easels on this side for the painters and tables or desks for sketchers. I can have the other two rooms set up for sculpture or any other medium the kids show interest in. Of course the classes wouldn’t be all at once, but certain days for certain classes, unless of course the student is more advanced and can work on their piece themselves.”
“You could tear down the walls and have one large room so you could oversee all of it at one time.”
Daisy’s eyes widened and her mouth formed an exaggerated ‘O’ as she saw the space with new ideas. “I could!”
“So, this one is it?”
“Yes! I have to talk to my dad, but yes. Unless he can find something structurally wrong with it, yes. I like the location. I love the space. And there’s plenty of space on the lot if I wanted to expand and put in a kiln to fire pottery I could. I could make space for a couple of potters wheels. I could even put up another building for other types of sculpture, like your mom does, or with stone and chisel. It’s limitless.”
“No way I can talk you into one of the other newer buildings?” Emmalyn asked.
“They’re just boring commercial buildings. This one has heart. This one is it.”
“It’s old.”
“It’s perfect.”
“Alrighty then. Let’s go get the wheels turning.”
Daisy squealed a little, clapping her fingertips together right in front of her face before resting her still pressed together hands against her lips giving the impression she may break into prayer. “I’m so happy.”
“That is what you’ve been missing. And that is why I’m going to make sure this works for you. We need to go see your dad, get him to come take a look, and then find out what needs to happen with the bank for you to be able to lease it.”
“Lease it? I’m not leasing it. I’m buying it.”
“Buying it?” Emmalyn asked.
“Yes. I love it. It needs me.”
“What if the art school studio thing doesn’t work out?”
Daisy shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ll figure something out to use it for.”
Emmalyn moved closer to Daisy and looped her arm through Daisy’s. “You won’t have to. It’ll be an art school.”
“You really think so?” Daisy asked hopefully.
“Daisy, I have no doubt. This is the happiest I’ve seen you in a long time. You deserve this.”