Free Phillip: Lanning's Leap - Paranormal Erotic Romance by Kathi S. Barton Page B

that this might come out. That she was going to be caught.”
    “I doubt it. My…Dottie always seemed to think of herself above such things as rules.” Charlie continued pacing as she told them more about her “mother.” “I’m pretty sure that my father…Curtis had money stashed away for them. I’m not sure, but…it’s one of the reasons that I moved out of the house when I did. I was trying my best to make a name for myself by working odd jobs until the money started coming in, and I had a feeling that when the shit hit the fan that I’d be left holding the bag. Then after I was told he was dead, I thought from the way my mom was struggling that perhaps I’d been wrong about it. But I wasn’t, was I? They had money.”
    “And a great deal of it.” Nildale moved into the room as if he’d only been in the hall. But Misha knew that he’d been away and had only just arrived. He was, Misha would bet, trying to ease Charlie into their magic. “I just found out from Kendra that someone has found one of his many stashes. I don’t know money in your world, but I’d say that if he was skimming, then he had his hands in very deep. There is just over ten million in one place that we’ve found. The rest, I’m told, will be easier to find now.”
    When Charlie asked why now, Nildale looked at Phillip. He was frowning so hard that Misha worried for him. But their mom came into the room just then and asked to speak to him. Moving into the hall, all Misha could think about was he hoped that this was a mission. He needed to distance himself so that he could think. But as soon as he entered the hall, he knew that wasn’t what it was.
    “May I help you?”
    The four men standing there had a look about them that screamed armed and dangerous. Whether or not they were legally armed had yet to be established. When his mom moved back away from them he felt a little better, then Rider and the rest of his brothers came in from different directions of the house. He knew then that his mom had gathered her sons to take care of each other, and he was going to kiss her as soon as this was finished.
    “We’re here to speak with Charleston Grant. Right fucking now.”
    Nothing more was said, and the man looked like he expected Misha to rush right out and bring her to them. When he cocked a brow at him, Misha laughed.
    “You might think I have a clue what the fuck you want, but you’d be dead wrong. And I’m not exaggerating when I tell you, you’d be dead wrong.” The man asked him if he was threatening him. “Oh no, you have that wrong. I don’t threaten. What I’m telling you is that if you continue to stand there and fuck with me, then you will be dead. I’m not in the mood right now to try to be nice. Not that you have been either, but this is my home and what I do is law here.”
    “Mr. Lanning, perhaps we got off on the wrong foot.” Misha nodded but didn’t take his eyes off the first man as the second one tried to clear things up. They were both humans, and if they thought they were going to come into his house and treat him like this, then they were going to be dead humans very soon. “We’d very much like it if you were to have Charleston Grant come here so that we can ask her some questions. It’s very important to our case. Mark here, he’s not had his morning coffee and he can be cranky when that happens.” As a joke, if that was what it was, it fell flat. It was nearly four in the afternoon, not the morning any longer.
    “And what case is that?” The man reached into his jacket, but he never got whatever was there out before Rider had him on the floor with his hands behind his head. The man couldn’t have moved unless Rider let him, and he was pretty sure that the fucktard knew it too. Misha leaned down to talk to him when he noticed that the other men had been equally subdued by Andrew and the others. “You might rethink your way of doing things while here. My family is everything to me, and when