Chapter 21
When Grayson and Kendra arrived at the red-brick bonds office where she worked, they went inside, and Grayson saw a large office with four desks, computers, and a staff of four, all of whom greeted Kendra and smiled at him. They were also all grizzly bears.
“I’m Burt MacGowan.” The jovial, hefty, dark-haired man offered his hand to Grayson, and he shook it.
“I’m Louise Stillwater,” one of the women said, dark-haired, tall, and flirtatious, and came over to shake Grayson’s hand. “Single, and interested if you’re our new bounty hunter that we’ve heard George talking about.”
Grayson laughed, amused that the woman thought he would be interested in her in that way. He already had his mate. “I’m Grayson Stone, and I’m engaged to Kendra.”
Louise let out her breath on a heavy sigh. “Well, that was quick, but I guess when it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be.”
“Whoa,” a man said, coming out of an office. “You’re engaged already? And you didn’t even ask me for permission?” Then he laughed. “I’m George Pinkerton, and Kendra’s boss. And you’re coming to work for us?” He shook Grayson’s hand.
“I sure am. Do I need to apply for the job? I’ll still be working with my brother and father when they need my help, but I’ll be living here in Kalispell with Kendra.”
Another woman brought out some paperwork. “George has already checked you out thoroughly. You just need to fill out this paperwork. I’m Ally McCormick.” She shook his hand. She was gray-haired and looked motherly.
“We just hired another bounty hunter today,” George said. “He said he knows you, Kendra.”
“Who?”
Though if he were a grizzly bear in Kendra’s sleuth, Grayson understood how he would know her, and vice versa.
“Ivan Osinger,” George said.
“Oh, not him. He’s a conman!” Kendra said.
George frowned at her, and Grayson assumed he had already made up his mind to keep Ivan on. “He had great references, and he has the background for it. He has the license, completed the agency-approved training, and has no felony convictions.”
Grayson thought of mentioning that he was stealing people’s meals off their front porches, but he figured they had nipped that in the bud. But what if he had forged papers stating he had completed the training?
“Are you sure he actually got the necessary training?” Kendra asked.
“Yeah. Louise did a thorough job of looking into his background,” George said. “He went to a bail enforcement training class, and I verified that he actually did go there for sixteen hours, completed the constitutional law, use of force, and arrest procedures, and obtained his certification.”
“Why do you say he’s a conman?” Ally asked.
"Ivan tells stories all the time, and he's very convincing, charming," Kendra said.
Louise smiled.
"He will wreck your heart if you give him half a chance," Kendra warned her.
"You dated him?" Louise glanced at Grayson as if she wondered if he knew what Kendra's past was with Ivan.
"Not me. But one of my best girlfriends did. You know Amy, right?"
"The PI who is psychic?" Ally asked.
"Yeah. That's how she knew he was cheating on her, and he tried to con her into thinking he wasn't seeing anyone else but her. It didn't work. She had envisioned his unfaithfulness. When she dumped him, he was off seeing another girl, no delay," Kendra said.
Grayson was glad Kendra hadn't been taken in by Ivan. Though he was ready to take him to task for hurting Amy.
"Okay, not the one for me," Louise said.
While Grayson filled out the paperwork, he wondered whether Louise thought she could reform Ivan.
He knew women like that, who thought they were special, who could change a man into what they wanted.
He'd known some men like that, too, who loved a woman but knew she was an alcoholic, or drug addict, or sex addict, and thought he could convince her to give up whatever her vices were.
But unless the partner wanted to do it for themselves, it just wouldn't happen.
One of the guys he knew had ended up in divorce court because his wife was a gambler, and there was no changing her.
Another man was a con man, convincing his wife they weren't broke and hiding bills and foreclosure notices until the bank repossessed their home and cars.
So the con worked for a while, but in the end, she learned the truth.
Ally got a call at her desk and hurried to answer it. “Okay, yeah, sure. We’ll send a couple of fugitive recovery agents over to take him into custody.”
Just then, Ivan walked inside the building. He smiled at Kendra and frowned at Grayson. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Kendra got the information from Ally for their new case before Ivan took it. “Come on, Grayson, we have a case to take care of.”
“You work here?” Ivan asked Grayson, sounding shocked.
“Yeah, and I’m engaged to Kendra. What do we have to do?” Grayson walked Kendra outside to get on with the mission.
“The guy is twenty-three, Marty Loman. I’ve had to take him in several times.
He always goes to his grandmother’s house when he’s in trouble.
He usually just avoids his courthouse appearances, and then we have to go through this all over again.
This time, he actually made it to the courthouse, sat in the proceedings for several other cases, got bored, then left. ”
Smiling, Grayson shook his head. “Sounds like he was afraid of what the judge was going to do with him.”
“He just hates the anticipation and figures if he doesn’t go in, just ignores the court date; nobody thinks he’s important enough to go after.
They’re always minor cases. This one is for running three red lights in a row.
A police officer saw him run the third signal, but others witnessed that he had run through two earlier ones and had caught his license plate number. ”
“So he’s not a dangerous problem.”
“Not unless he runs into someone because of his driving record. He stays up all night playing video games, so I imagine he’ll be sleeping right now.
The last few times I’ve picked him up, he was sleeping.
His grandmother is always so annoyed when I come to pick him up.
Not with me, but with Marty. She thinks he has gone to court and done what he needs to do.
The last time, she told him he acted like a three-year-old. ”
“Does he live with her all the time?”
“Most of the time. His parents kicked him out of their home because he refused to get a job. He said working a nine-to-five job was beneath him.”
Grayson laughed. “If all of us thought that, the world would come to a standstill.”
“I agree. But he feels entitled.”
“His grandmother pays for his upkeep?” Grayson couldn’t imagine relying on a grandparent to keep him afloat when he was an able-bodied worker.
“When she doesn’t want to enable him, he goes off and borrows from friends.”
“So he has had lots of enablers in his life.”
“Yeah. His parents even, until they finally cut him off, but mostly because of his saying he wouldn’t work, and then they’d had enough. Before that, he’d pretended, lied to them about looking for gainful employment, stayed out partying all night.”
“I suppose he wanted to be a CEO at a company rather than work at the bottom rung of an office first.”
“Nah, that might require him to have to work. He just wants money to spend on whatever he wants. He doesn’t have any desire to earn it himself.”
Grayson shook his head. “I’ve always worked.”
“Since you were three years old, I bet.” Kendra sounded like she was joking.
“Yeah, mom had us help with all kinds of chores even when we were two. Throw clothes into the washing machine and move them to the dryer. Mom would lift us up to push the on buttons. We loved it. And cleaning windows? My brother and I did an awful job, I’m sure, but we loved doing stuff like that.
Kids need to be taught when they’re little.
It’s just a natural way of doing things.
And they love doing what the parents are doing. ”
“Okay, so I know what our kids will be doing.”
He laughed. “For sure.”
When they reached Grandma’s house, they left his vehicle and headed for the front door of the house. “He won’t try to run away, will he? Should one of us go to the back of the house?”
“No. He’s lazy. He will be sleeping, or if he finally gets up, playing games. He won’t run. He never does.”
“Okay.” Grayson knocked on the door, and a white-haired woman opened it.
She was wearing jeans, a floral shirt, and an apron that read "Let the Good Times Roll." Her hair was pulled back in a bun, and she smelled like fresh apple pie. Her sharp, blue eyes softened when she saw Kendra.
“You’ve come back for my grandson, I see.” She almost sounded like she was amused by it.
“Yeah. You know it. Is he up and about or sleeping?”
“He’s up. He smelled my apple pie and came down to eat.”
“I hope he has finished it,” Kendra said.
They followed Grandma into the house.
“Aww, hell.” Marty quickly stuffed down the big piece of pie that he was eating.
“You know who I am. This is Stone, and he’s my partner now. Let’s go,” Kendra said.
Marty put on his sneakers and then went with her. She didn’t put handcuffs on him. Grayson let it be her call since she had already arrested him a number of times and knew him well enough to know how he would react to the arrest.
“Would you like a piece of pie before you leave?” Grandma asked, motioning to the pie.
Grayson was going to say no thank you, but Kendra said, “Sure, we would love it.”
Even though they had already eaten dessert, Grayson suspected it was a way for Kendra to make friends with people she dealt with on a regular basis, who helped but didn’t hinder her job when she had to pick up a fugitive. Which made sense.
“You have a reprieve for a few minutes,” Kendra said to Marty, taking a seat at the kitchen table.
“Would you like some milk to go with it?” Grandma asked.
Both Grayson and Kendra said that it would be great.
“Can I go up and play a game while you’re eating?” Marty asked.