Samuel
SAMUEL
Looking around the dining room, I took in the people to my right and left. It was, of course, the house staff and Ambrose's family. The gang that had invaded the house before I'd arrived had bound everyone and dragged them to sit against the wall. Sadly, they’d been smart enough to keep everyone apart so no one was close. Which meant there was no one around to get to the knife I’d stowed near my shoulder like I had done that day out with Elizabeth.
God, I’d known something was wrong when I hadn't seen a glimpse of Ambrose's father or Elizabeth. I hadn’t expected Joseph to come rolling out to help, but I could have easily pictured him showing up to pretend he was in charge so long as his father wasn't around to prove otherwise. Then again, from the changes I’d seen in Ambrose lately, maybe he too, would be willing to put his brother in his place if need be.
I had listened to my instincts enough to return to the house to check things out once I was sure things were under control without me giving orders, but I hadn't been smart. For the first time in a long time, I had ignored my instincts, and the goddamn Le Garou had got the jump on me, knocking me out and tying me up to wake up against the wall.
Now, I was stuck there with too many people keeping an eye on me, and all of them more than happy to shoot me. Probably the only reason they hadn't shot me was they didn't want to alert the entire ranch to their presence, which answered one of my questions. How did a fire that size appear without anyone noticing? Again, if I’d been listening to my instincts, I would have known that only deliberate sabotage and arson could have created it.
Now that I was helpless I was determined to listen to instincts I’d honed over the years because those were the only things that would give me a chance of making it through alive. Of course, it was complicated further by the fact that I wasn't alone. Pretty much everyone was under lock and key, and not everyone was in the room with me. For whatever reason, they’d locked Elizabeth in the dining hall with me and the staff, including Hipolita, who managed to look quite dignified as she sat against the wall, watching the armed men with an impassive expression.
The rest, though...I didn't know. All I knew was that the children had been rounded up and put somewhere else, clearly to keep everyone in the dining hall in line for fear of being outnumbered or making too much noise. It was a good, if ruthless, plan, though I didn't think it was necessary. The cooks and maids didn’t look like they were willing to put up much of a fight, and without a gun, Elizabeth wasn't going to be much good in a brawl, which left me against six men, which wasn't odds I would take unless I wanted to exit life quickly.
As for Joseph and his father...again, I didn't know. I had heard some yelling from somewhere in the house, but it had been too muffled to figure out who it was, let alone what was being said. Still, with what information I had, I'd have to guess it was Joseph. He was the only one left who could yell, but I wasn't sure why they’d taken him and his father when they’d left Elizabeth here with me.
She was watching me from across the room, and bless her heart, I could see her eyes darting around, not in fear but calculation. Well, there was also fear since it wasn't often someone broke into your home, held you at gunpoint, and threatened your children. But there was plenty of anger, which meant she had her fear under control and was trying to figure out a way to deal with the problem before it was even more out of our hands.
Our attention snapped up when we heard heavy sounds coming toward the dining hall. The doors swung open, and I sat up straighter, ignoring the protest from the wound in my back, when I saw they were dragging Ambrose into the room. His body was slack, arms tied behind his back, and two men dragged him over to me, dropping him in the empty spot to my right and propping him up while making a few crass jokes.
Blood trickled down the side of his face, and it looked bad, but I bit back the fear that threatened to rise and take over. I knew how ugly a head wound could look from the smallest scrape. As far as head wounds were concerned, this one wasn't that much to worry about...I hoped. It looked like instead of getting him in the back of the head like they'd done with me, they'd got him near his temple. He’d get a new scar I could trace with my fingers, and I would have a lump on my head until it went down.
"And our numbers continue to grow," I said with a sigh. "You boys are really building a collection."
"If you don't shut your…" one of them began, reaching for his gun and stepping toward me.
"Now, now, if you shoot me, what's going to stop anyone within earshot…ha, earshot, get it?" I snorted and cleared my throat. "Anyway, you boys have a lot more to worry about than my big mouth. There's not a whole lot of you, and, uh...there's still plenty of men out there. Men loyal to the Isaiahs. Men who are armed. Men who spent the last hour or so trying to save their home from the fire you started. Now, how do you think they'll take it if they find out you're in here shooting up people?"
The other man rolled his eyes, grabbing his friend by the elbow and dragging him backward. "C'mon. Boss said leave this one be. He wants to talk to 'em later."
Well, that was news to me and it promptly shut me up as I wondered what their boss could possibly want from me. I'd suspected they kept me away from Elizabeth because it had been reported that I'd been with her a week before. Ambrose had also thought they’d been watching the ranch to get information about how things worked. So either my original assumption was wrong, and they didn't care who they put next to one another, or they didn't know that much because Ambrose being close to me was hopefully an advantage.
He gave a heavy groan, his face twitching, and then his legs kicked out. His eyes snapped open, and his head jerked, looking around frantically, taking everything in. When his gaze fell on me, I gave him a wry smile. “Welcome home. As you can see, the house is under new management. Hopefully, it's temporary because, honestly, the whole group is a bunch of brutes."
"?" he asked in a hoarse voice. "What?"
"Le Garou, congratulations, you were correct about who was causing trouble," I told him with a snort. "Though perhaps now isn't the time for I told you so . There's still plenty of time for that after."
That seemed to get his attention, and he began to really look around. His eyes fell on his sister, who gave him a nod to show she was okay. After a few seconds, he looked at me. “My brother? Father? The kids?"
"All somewhere else, I'm afraid," I told him with an apologetic wince. "I'm banking on them being alive and okay, though."
"Thank God for small favors," he said with a grunt. "Guess the fire was them."
"That was my thought too."
"Ugh. That’s just the kind of thing they would've done in the past. Bastards."
"Well, if they didn't do it before, they've done it now. Maybe they've learned some new tricks."
"."
"Shush, this is how I deal with things when I'm stressed and worried."
"This is how you deal with everything. When you're happy, when you're upset, when you're bored."
"If it works, then it works. What's the point trying to change it?"
"Lord above, I don't know what to do with you."
"I'll give you some ideas later."
"Lord."
"I'm sure I could get you to?—"
"Sam-u-el."
I snorted. “If it makes you feel any better, they're clearly running out of time. That's two people who’ve come looking in the past twenty minutes, which means others are going to."
"That will just make 'em speed things up, includin' the shooting people part."
"If they just wanted to shoot people, they would have already. We would have come back to a bunch of bodies."
"That's not helpin'."
"It means they plan on using us for something, or they want something from someone here. And if I were to guess, they're going to get it from your father."
"No, they won't."
"Depends. How much do the lives of everyone in this building weigh against whatever they might demand of him?"
It was a perfectly reasonable question, but I could see the way it hung around Ambrose's head and clung to his thoughts. We'd never spoken about it, but I knew he’d spent too much of his life hanging onto everything his father was or wasn't in his head. And he’d spent just as much time chasing his father's affection, and if not that, at least a little pride in his youngest son.
The old man would never give him something like that, but being hardheaded about showing your child affection or encouragement wasn't the same as not loving them. It was, in my experience, incredibly common to watch fathers struggle to show true affection to their sons, which got worse the further west you went. I had been lucky regarding my patient and loving father. Looking at Ambrose, I thought about how different his father was from mine and how difficult that must have been, and yet?—
"I don't think your life weighs less than anything material in this house or on this land...or the land itself, for that matter."
"His pride is strong."
"He’d sell his pride for the sake of his son."
Ambrose looked at me with a frown. “You don't know him."
"I know people ," I told him with a roll of my eyes. "I understand, as much as I can, that your dad is a hard man to love, and it's hard to see past who he is, but maybe it's time to stop chasing after what you think your father should be and look at him as he is."
"What in the hell are you talking about?"
"I mean that your father comes off as a hardheaded, cold, controlling jackass, and yet he had no problem letting you take over a good chunk of the ranch. He's let you make changes where you saw fit, hire people you think are best, and even let you take over keeping an eye on me, Grumpy, and company. He didn't say a word against your plan with Elizabeth, and as long as I've been around, he's never said anything harsh about you and has let you take care of things as you wanted. Your father isn't affectionate and warm, but he trusts you with his family's legacy and lets you live your life as you see fit. That's love. Not warm love, but it's love."
"I—"
I turned away from him, staring at the door to the hallway. I thought I’d heard a door close further into the house. “He wouldn't sell you out any more than his other children or grandchildren."
To his right, Hipolita finally looked over with a smile. “Finally, someone gets it."
"Really, you too?" Ambrose asked her with a groan. "Are you?—"
"I'm fine," she said with a shake of her head. "They just rounded those of us up who didn't fight. Not much fight left in this body anyway. I didn't see much point in giving them trouble."
"A shame that your powers to make men shake in their boots and stop acting like spoiled little boys don't work on this lot," I told her with a smirk.
"What the fuck are you jabbering on about over there?" one of the guards demanded, stepping forward.
"We have been having an entire conversation about your lineage, and you're only just now figuring out we were talking?" I asked him, arching my brow.
"My what now?"
"Your lineage. Your bloodline. I've been wondering how that disfigurement, I'm sure you call a nose and forehead, came about. The only theory that holds any water is inbreeding."
"In...what?"
"I have to ask, were your parents related by blood by chance?"
"You son of a…" the guard snarled, ripping his gun from the holster and only stopping when the doors to the hallway opened, and another man walked in.
"Quit fuckin' around," the new one answered, pointing at me and Ambrose. "Bring those two and the woman. Boss wants 'em."
"This sonuvabitch just asked if?—"
"Boss doesn't care, and I don't either. Bring 'em, now ."
We were yanked up by our arms, and I paid for my mouthiness when the wound on my back pulled. Spots danced before my eyes, and I groaned, slumping against the furious guard. "Careful now, I'm a little...tender there."
At my gasp, he smirked. "Not so smart now, are ya?"
"Guess not," I said, fingers wrapping around the small knife in his belt and pulling it free when he yanked me upright so I was no longer using him as support.
"Move," he growled, giving me a push far too close to the wound that I thought I’d collapse from the pain. Instead, I gritted my teeth and twisted the small knife so it was hidden in the rope around my wrist, the handle hidden by my hand. Two knives were better than one, and a knife in my hand was better than one on my shoulder.
I expected us to be marched deeper into the building, but instead, I saw the main room was finally lit with lanterns and candles. There were the missing men I’d been wondering about, with the elder Isaiah on his knees, his head still held high. Curiously, Joseph was seated. His teeth gritted as he avoided looking at everyone. There were three other men, one of whom stood in between the two Isaiahs, and I stiffened.
"Elias?" I hissed in surprise before I remembered I needed to keep my composure.
Elias grinned, and while I’d once thought his wide smile was attractively feral, now it just looked rabid. "Sammy, didn't expect to see you again. Heard someone matching your description was around here, but it wasn't until you killed poor Merv and Charlie that I knew it had to be you. Only you could be cornered and come out in one piece."
"All things considered, that's not a compliment at the moment," I said, looking around. "Or comforting, for that matter."
The escorts pushed us down to our knees. Ambrose looked at me. “You know him?"
"Do you?" I wondered.
"Looks just like his daddy," Ambrose growled. "Didn't know he had a son."
"Oh, great. Amazing. So Elias is the son of the leader of the group that was stirring up shit around here years ago. And your dad ended up killing his dad, and now he's here."
"You always could take a complex situation and reduce it to its finer components," Elias said with that same grin.
"Still didn't answer my question," Ambrose muttered.
"That answer isn't relevant to the situation at hand," I muttered back. "He's here because of you and your family. My knowing him is...purely coincidental. Though so goddamn coincidental, I have to wonder if I need to reevaluate whether there’s a God and whether his sense of humor is sick and twisted."
Elias chuckled, stepping forward and waving away the men behind Ambrose, Elizabeth, and me. I grimaced when he stopped before me, reaching down to take hold of my chin and force my head up to look up at him. "C'mon, Sammy, maybe the good Lord just wanted us to see one another again. I’ve missed you since you snuck off in the dead of night with a good chunk of my money."
I didn't bother trying to pull my face out of his tight grip, glaring up at him. "I told you if you attacked that caravan, you weren't going to like the results. So here we are, me proved right, and you mad."
"I guess there's no point asking where the money is. You wouldn't be stuck at this ranch if you had it, now would you?"
"I...got rid of it."
Elias' smirk was playful, in the same way a cat would smirk right before it bit the head off a bird. “You always were a softy despite all that talk. Who'd you give that money to? An orphanage? A family down on its luck?"
"You aren't getting it back, so what does it matter?" I snapped, hating the position I was in right now.
"Well, I'm sure we can figure out a way to help you pay back what you owe," he said, and I could tell from the look in his eye exactly what he had in mind. Of course, it didn't help that we were in a position both of us were intimately familiar with.
"Stop touching him," Ambrose snarled, fighting against the ropes around his wrists despite knowing there was nothing he could do. His eyes were flashing with a rage I’d never seen, no matter how much I got on his nerves.
That amused Elias even more because clearly, if there was one thing that hadn't changed about him, it was that having control wasn't just a love of his but a need. And if there was one thing that made him more arrogant and crueler, it was watching someone struggle to get out from under his control. That was precisely why I’d left the way I had; it had ripped all sense of control he'd felt from under his feet and given him nothing to grasp.
Now, he was standing in front of me with his goons everywhere, and I was helpless. It was not the best exit I could have chosen.
"Oh," Elias said in a way that sounded like he was stroking the word. "Sammy, did you find yourself a new toy?"
"Don't be disgusting," Joseph spoke up, sitting up in his chair. "My brother?—"
"Knows Sammy... intimately ," Elias said as he stared at Ambrose, his eyes glittering with pleasure. "You don't get that mad over someone touching someone else unless that someone is considered yours, isn't that right?"
Ambrose's face lost some of its color, but his expression never changed. “I'll kill you."
"That would be something to see," Elias said, and I wasn't surprised when his hand lashed out, slamming the back of his closed fist into Ambrose's jaw and sending him crashing to the floor. Of course, Ambrose was hard-headed, so it would take a lot more than that to knock him out. Not that that mattered, Elias was proving a point, not trying to take Ambrose out of the picture.