Chapter Six #4
He sat on the bed beside me before I figured out my answer. He was so close I was breathless, as if a bowling ball sat on top my chest. I stood and scurried into the small bathroom. He could talk all he wanted to, but I didn’t have to listen from three inches away.
Caleb seemed undeterred. “I need your permission to widen a gate so I can get my truck up here. It’s going to be the only way I can get the supplies I need up to the house.”
“Like what supplies?” I asked around the foam created by my toothbrush.
“Like, lumber for one. Half this place is rotted and not fit to be living in.”
I spat frothy mint into the sink. “That sounds expensive.”
“Speaking of, that generator out back is working for now, but it won’t last forever. You need electricity up here, Mira. You can’t go through the winter with no heat. Is it as important to you as it was to your uncle to live off the grid?”
I frowned at my reflection. It was nice not answering to anyone or paying the bills, but my bones still ached when I thought about the end of the last chilly winter without that generator.
I spat again and rinsed my mouth. “No. That isn’t important to me, but I don’t have the money to pay an electrician.”
“My older brother, Brian, will be out here first thing in the morning to tap you into a power line. I can’t imagine it will take too much to heat this little house. Your fireplace works?”
I finished rinsing my face and gave him a thumbs up outside of the bathroom with one hand while I dried my face with the other.
“Good. A couple more space heaters, and you should be doing all right.”
My head was whirling. Where would I get all of this magic money? I couldn’t even afford food.
I had pulled my hair into a messy bun at the back of my head to dry my face. It felt good to have the weight off my neck, and I returned to my bedroom in the same fashion. I took a seat in the chair by the bed to avoid overly close contact with Caleb again. That felt too dangerous.
He stared, and in an astonished tone said, “You look different with your hair back.”
“I’m sure you do, too,” I countered, uncomfortable under the scrutiny. His hair was shoulder-length and long enough. He could almost get his hair into a stub of one, at least.
Caleb cleared his throat. “Anyway, doing all of this stuff is great and all, but you need a way to make a living. I don’t have any stake in this, and you can ignore my suggestions, but I bet you could put a pump jack up here and find some oil.
You are in prime oil country after all. You could make your land pay you. ”
I was startled. That was something I’d never in my life thought about, though I know a lot of people in town made money in some form from the oil industry.
“How do you know they would find oil on my land?” I asked.
“Well, I don’t know if they will, but I… Look, don’t freak out but I bought old Eli’s place just west of your property line several months back.”
I sat up straighter. “How could you buy his place so long ago? He just died last month.” By my bullet, but I didn’t like to dwell on stuff like that. The nightmares were enough.
Caleb sighed and leveled me a look that said he wished he could tell me everything that had ever been. “He went missing last year, and his place was already in default a couple years before that. I picked the land up cheap because nobody in town wanted to touch a property they said was haunted.”
“Is it?” I asked.
“It is now.” He said it quick but looked like he immediately regretted it.
I pushed before he shut down completely on me. “Do you think that’s why he did it?”
“Who?”
“Eli Emmerson. Do you think he turned you because you own his land?”
“Like revenge?” he asked with a slight frown.
And that’s all I needed to know. I couldn’t help the triumphant look that stretched my face. That had been a test, and Caleb McCreedy had failed. “You’re a bear shifter too now, aren’t you?”
“Mira,” he warned.
“Who am I going to tell?” I made a show of looking around. “These walls don’t share my secrets, Caleb. You still human or not?”
His expression darkened, and he looked away, staring out the window like the woods outside were the most interesting sight on the planet. Fine. If he wasn’t going to talk, he could listen.
“Eli’s sons were killed by poachers. He told me and Uncle Brady about it.
People in town think they just up and left for a different life somewhere, but they got shot up when they were running as bears out in the woods one night.
Eli wasn’t right after that. Even Uncle Brady called him crazy, and you’ve probably heard about how unstable he was.
When you have a lunatic calling you a lunatic, you’re a damned lunatic.
And that’s where Eli was headed. Maybe he felt like turning bear for good, or maybe you all go full bear when you get old and sick like he was.
I don’t know. But if he knew you were the new owner of his land, the land that has passed to the sons in his family for generations, maybe he wanted to punish you. ”
“It’s not a punishment, Mira.” Caleb had said it as softly as he possibly could. “I don’t think he saw it like that. He bled me slow. Killing me would’ve been a punishment. That crazy old shifter thought he was giving me a gift.”
“How do you know?”
Resting his elbows on his knees, he dropped his head and ran his hands through his hair roughly.
“Because I think about it all the damned time, Mira. The way he tortured me…” Caleb swallowed hard.
“The way he did it makes me think he was deliberately trying to turn me, not kill me. He had no sons left. He picked me to keep the monster alive.”
“Do you think it’s a gift?”
He jerked his head up, and I gasped at the gold-rimmed, inhuman eyes that met mine.
An empty smile crooked his lips. “No, Mira. Seeing you fear me isn’t a gift.
Knowing what the town would do to me if they found out what I am isn’t a gift.
Eli Emmerson’s last act on this earth was to curse me.
” He stood and gripped the knob on my bedroom door.
He kept his eyes cast away from me to hide the unnatural color.
“I put jacks up on my land and they are already paying. It won’t be a permanent solution if it is one at all.
You are going to have to find a job so you can live. ”
“I am living,” I said defensively.
“Mira,” he said, squeezing his eyes tightly closed. When he looked at me again, they were blue again. “This isn’t living.”
He reached into his pocket, then handed me a piece of crumpled paper. I read over it and tried to hide the disappointment from my face.
Don’s Butcher Shop
May’s Florist
Soft Time Linens
Library
Pizzeria
“I’ve already applied to all of these places,” I said quietly. “Except for the butcher shop. The sign on his door said now hiring but when I tried, Mr. Don said he didn’t have any openings.” The rest of them had said different variations of the same thing. I’d be bad for business.
Caleb stared at me for a long time, then shook his head like I’d said something unbelievable. “Before we do anything to your place, we need to have the title squared away for you to give me permission to do the electric and open the gate wider. Is the deed in your name?”
“Uncle Brady’s will put it in my name when I turned eighteen. I have to sign some paperwork with Mr. Burns before it’s all official, though.”
“Okay, get dressed,” he said. “We need to go into town and get that taken care of before anything else.”
“Right now?” I asked. Usually, I mentally prepared myself for a couple of days before a trip to Main Street.
“Yes, right now,” he clipped out. “As soon as the clinic okays me, I’m going back to work on the rig. That gives us roughly two weeks to get this place in shape.”
“Okay,” I whispered, wanting badly not to disappoint him. “I’m ready.”
“You’re ready?” he asked incredulously.
I pulled the rubber band out of my hair and my dark locks slid back in front of my face. “I don’t have anything else to wear,” I admitted. I could feel my cheeks burning with the admission, but I stood my ground and stared his glorious eyes down.
His gaze faltered first, sliding down to rest on the ring of scars around my neck. His expression was unreadable, but he’d seen them before, so I didn’t cover them up. He already knew I was damaged goods.
“Come here,” he demanded quietly.
Part of me wanted to buckle against such a direct command, but a bigger part of me reveled in the sound of the deep authority in his voice. Caleb McCreedy was a capable man, and though I’d never admit it out loud, I trusted him.
I followed him into the kitchen where he began searching the plastic bags. I opened the fridge to see what it looked like to have a full icebox. It was a scene from a dream. Except…
“Caleb?”
“Hmm?” he asked distractedly.
“Why did you buy all of these tiny cartons of milk? It would have been cheaper to buy a gallon.”
“Here it is,” he said, ignoring my question.
A green cotton shirt flew through the air, and I snatched it with my left hand. I unfolded it and drew the soft fabric up against my chest. The color was pretty. Did he think about me when he bought the garment?
“My sister picked it out,” he said, looking at me with an unreadable, empty expression.
I wasn’t disappointed because I wasn’t surprised.
Caleb wasn’t here because he found me interesting or pretty. He was here to pay a debt.
Right now, I was learning a valuable lesson about the stubborn streak of an honorable man.