Carter didn’t move as she sat in front of the desk. Today was her fourth day out trying to find a job, and the second time that she’d been asked to wait while they checked on something. While she knew what they were checking on, calling the police to find out if her story matched what they were told, they had no intention of hiring her.

“Miss Compton, I have a buddy that will hire you.” She looked at the administrative assistant who’d came in when the boss left her alone. “He’s a good guy. He and his brother are opening a greenhouse and they’re hiring a lot of people.”

“I have to find me a job or go back to the halfway house.” The woman nodded and smiled as she handed her a piece of paper with a name and address on it. When their fingers touched, Carter looked at the woman. “Don’t go home at lunch. He’ll kill you if you do.”

Startled, the woman just stared at her. “He’s having an affair.” Carter nodded. “I thought so. So, if I don’t go home for lunch, what happens to me and my children? We have to have someplace to live now that he’s out fucking his secretary.”

“If you trust me enough not to go home at lunch, it’ll all be cleared up and you’ll be safe.” The woman stared at her for several seconds, and only stood when her boss returned. Carter nodded when she did. The boss, however, wasn’t pleased.

“You should know that we are a nice reputable company, and don’t condone having convicts working here.” She didn’t even bother telling her that she had been exonerated of all charges. Standing, Carter started walking toward the door. “You should have known not to come in here looking for a handout either. We don’t do that. Now, I’d like for you to leave.”

Carter could have told the secretary that her husband was also having an affair with the man that did their books for them. She could have told her that her nice company that didn’t deal with convicts was making meth for the local drug lord down the block, but didn’t do that either. Instead, she left there without saying a word.

If the woman didn’t go home for lunch, which she didn’t think that she would now, the two people in the bed would be killed by the man who cooked the books for her husband and was his part time lover. Not only that, he’d kill himself too while he was there. It would be a mess, but the woman would be able to get her insurance on her husband and a very nice settlement from the man’s insurance. She would be safe with her children from now on.

Walking in the bright sunshine, she made her way back to the apartment her sister had set up for her. Her friend was there, Dylan Whitfield, and Dylan’s sister-in-law, Sunny. They had been here for two days with an elderly man and didn’t seem inclined to go home without her and Rachel. Carter looked at the same elderly man as he came toward her on the sidewalk.

“You get the job?” She told him that she’d not. “Didn’t think you did. Some people aren’t as forward thinking as I am. I’ve come to take you to lunch. And then you and me, we’ll have us a nice conversation.”

“Mr. Whitfield, you guys would be much safer if you just left me here. I know what I’m doing.” He said he knew that too. She was smart, he told her. “It’s not that. You don’t know what I’m capable of.”

“Is that why you won’t let me touch you? Or anybody for that matter?” The man was smart as well, but she had been at this a lot longer than he had been guessing. “I noticed that right away. When someone gets too close to you, you back up fast and far. Leaving your hands in your pockets all the time too, that’s so nobody will try and shake your hand. What can you do? Read minds and the such?”

“Yes, and the such is much worse.” He nodded and opened the door to the little deli that he’d led her to. When they were seated, she looked at him. “I’m able to do things that you’ve never thought of. I see things that people don’t need to know. I could kill a person halfway around the world and never touch them. I won’t if I don’t have to, but if it came to protecting my sister and myself, I would in a heartbeat.”

The waitress took their order, Ollie ordering for her when she wouldn’t. Then when the waitress was gone, returning once with their drinks, he stared at Carter but didn’t say anything for long moments. She didn’t squirm or get nervous. This was a good man, and she had no reason to fear anything about him.

“Rachel said she won’t go without you. Can you make her go?” She said that she could but would rather not. “You lift things up too, don’t you? Not just little, but big stuff too.”

“Yes.” Her answer was short, but that seemed to be all he required for now. Their salads were set in front of them when he looked around the restaurant. Then when he looked at her, she could see determination in his eyes.

“Who’s coming for the two of you? Can you tell me that?” She told him who was coming and why. “Your parents, they want you for bigger things. I’m guessing for some of them abilities that you’re not talking about.”

Again, she gave him the short answer and he nodded. Eating the salad, she thought about what this man knew that she’d not even shared with her sister. And there was plenty more that he didn’t know. Or, and this was likely most of it, he was afraid of asking her.

“I want you to come back home with me. Now hear me out before you tell me no. Your sister, she ain’t going if you don’t, and even though you can make her, I got it in my heart that it won’t do you no good to send her to my place, because your parents will take you and that’ll bring her back here.” Carter asked him if he’d stop Rachel. “No. I know about family and the ties that bind. She ain’t gonna stop trying until she wears me plum out. Then she’ll be hurt anyway, or killed. When they coming, these so-called parents of yours?”

“You believe me.” He said that he had no reason to think that she’d lie to him. “Mr. Whitfield, I’ve been in prison for the last ten years. I’m sure that you know convicts better than that.”

“I’m gonna tell you again to stop calling yourself that. You got out because they just figured out that you didn’t do those things they said about you. That don’t make you a convict, that makes you a victim. And while I know you can take care of yourself—I don’t doubt that one bit—that sister of yours, she’s not going to be so easy to protect with knowing you’re out here all by your lonesome.”

She looked around the restaurant, then back at him. “The man over there with the woman in green—he’s having an affair with her. Not because he wants to, but she’s his boss and she’s making him. His wife knows now, he confessed it all to her, and she’s going to try and kill her. But she accidently kills her husband instead, and three lives are ruined.” He asked her if she could stop that from happening. “Yes, I could, but there are repercussions to doing that. If he is set to die, then something else will happen that will kill him. Maybe not today, but soon after. His wife isn’t a good person either, but she loves her husband and the money that he makes. So instead of just talking, as they should, she’ll take matters into her own hands.”

“There are other stories you could tell me about the people here. I’m sure that you could tell me about myself too. I don’t want to know nothing, by the way. But I do know that if you don’t come along with your sister, she will be killed, and you’ll end up killing your parents. Is that something that you could live with?” No, she told him, Rachel had been good to her. “But your parents you don’t care about?”

“No, not at all.” He nodded, and when her burger with fries was set in front of her, she looked at the man who in the last few days had been kinder to her than anyone, except for her sister Rachel, had been in a decade. “I’m not a person that people like. I’m very prone to being nasty, and sarcastic too.”

“I like you. Very much. You’re a good deal smarter than you let people know about. You have a sense of goodness about you that no one sees. You’re witty and funny. I get peeks of it occasionally, that humor that you hide, but you got one.” Carter just smiled at him. “There it is, that pretty smile you got. What do you think of my deal?”

“All you said was to come home with you to make sure that Rachel was safe. While I don’t have restrictions on where I can go and work, I do need a job so that I can stop sponging off my sister. She sold everything so that she could try and take me to Dylan and your family, and I don’t want her hurting for that.” Ollie told her that he’d give her a job. “I’m not a puppy that needs for you to take care of me.”

“Don’t care all that much for dogs, me being a cat and all, but I like the wolves on my property and that of my grandsons. The wolves, they’re out to protect us when they can. We do the same for them.” She took a bite of her burger and moaned at it. It was the first one that she’d had in ten years, and it tasted so good. “You come on home with me and I’ll make sure you get fattened up with food like that all the time. My daughter-in-law, Eve, she can bake a pie that’ll make you sing her praises to the heavens.”

“Ollie, I’m trying very hard to save you and your family from all this. You’re making it very difficult to say no to you, and you have to know that I have to stay here.” He said he understood that, but she could use a backup, everyone needed that. “You do understand that I’m a good deal stronger than the wolves and your family as tigers, don’t you?”

“You might be able to lift up a car and make it twirl in the sky, but you ain’t that strong when it comes to somebody loving you.” Carter looked away, unable to say anything around the lump in her throat. “You come home with me, darlin’ and I’ll show you a whole passel of people that will love you like you deserve. And I’m thinking of all the people that I know, you need to be loved more than most.”

“You could be hurt. Perhaps even killed by this.” He said that he’d been hurt before. “But they’re coming, Ollie, and they mean to get what they want at all costs.”

“So do I. I mean to save you the same way, if you’ll let me.”

Walking out of the little restaurant, she didn’t tell him yes or no. But she did pause at the table to look at the man there.

Putting the suggestion into his head that he needed to find another way of making a living now, she touched her finger to his forehead and let him see what was coming. It was up to him whether he did something about it or not. She heard the woman screaming at him when he got up and left.

“You did save his life, didn’t you?” She told him all she’d done was give him information that he could use or not. “And that’s all it takes for you to help someone that needs it? Give them something they can do or not?”

“Sometimes it’s not so easy as that, but yes, occasionally it does work. If he had stayed, then it would have been his own fault what the outcome would have been.” When they were outside of the place she’d been staying, she stood and looked at the nice man. “If I go, you’ll heed what I tell you? Everything I say, and so will your family?”

“They’ll listen to you. Dylan, she’s a bit on the rough side, but she’s not afraid of someone having more information than she does and using it.” She nodded and looked up and down the street, then back at him. “You gonna tell me what’s going on that has you looking over your shoulder so much?”

“They’re within ten miles of here. Not my parents, but someone is out there looking for me. I think perhaps it’s someone that they contacted.” He nodded and told her that they had to get going. “It’s not going to do much good—you know that, don’t you? They’re determined, and they have people that want to explore me. Cut me up and use me in ways that hundreds will die from.”

“Together, we can do something that’ll keep them away. We, you and I, we’re good together, see if we ain’t.” He laughed then. “Come on then. I noticed that you don’t have much to pack up, but we’ll get it gathered. I’m telling Dylan and Sunny that we’re leaving. You can ride with me in the back. It’ll be fun.”

She knew that this was a mistake. And though she couldn’t see her own future, she knew that they were going to regret her coming back with them. She only hoped that they could forgive her when the time came. Carter knew that they’d be afraid of her too.

~~~

Josh was showing a house when he heard from his grandda that they were coming home. He was glad to hear that, but wasn’t able to talk to him right now. The rest of them had plenty to say and to ask, but Grandda just said that he was coming home with two beauties. Only Grandda would think that a woman was a beauty and get away with calling her that to her face.

“Why is it you keep showing us houses that are too small?” He looked at Mr. Riddling and asked him what he meant. “My wife and I want a big house. One we can show off to our families that we got money.”

“When you filled out the card, you said that you were downsizing and that you were only looking for a two-bedroom house, with not much in the way of a yard.” He handed the man the copy of the search he’d been given. “If you’ve changed your mind about that, then I’ll take care of that right away.”

“We only want to live in it for about a month.” Josh was confused. “We want them to think that we own it, but we don’t want that big. Just for the holidays. And if you could make sure that it has nice furniture in it, that would be great too. We don’t have anything that’ll fit in a house as big as we want. We want to lord over our parents that we’ve done so well that they’ll be jealous.”

“You mean to rent a house that’s large? That’s furnished as well? I don’t think that’s going to work. Not to mention, it would be expensive, even if I could find something.” Mr. Riddling said if they weren’t buying it, they shouldn’t have to pay anything for it. “You just want to stay in a lovely home that’s completely furnished for a month, as well, as I would assume, the lawns to be completely done. Did you want it decorated too?”

“Yes, that would be really nice. Nothing too elaborate though. We don’t do that normally. But it should be ready for us to live in. Food we can bring in for ourselves, I guess.” Josh just shook his head at Mrs. Riddling when she spoke. “Also, if you could make sure that there is at least one car, and a limo that we can use while they’re here, that would be fantastic as well. Oh yes, and a staff that will do all the cooking and cleaning for us. Just for the month.”

“All for you to use for free.” Now they looked confused as they assured him that was just what they wanted. “I don’t have any kind of service for that. I doubt very much anyone in this line of business does. We’re not into renting so much as we’re into selling. And as a whole, I don’t think anyone in this industry would do the things for you that you’ve asked me for. If there is nothing else I can help you with, then I’d like to get back to my office.”

“Why are you so snippy all of a sudden?” Josh didn’t even bother saying anything. “All we wanted to do was to have a little fun in pissing our families off. I don’t see why that should make you angry. It’s not like you’re going to be able to tell them we didn’t really buy it. And perhaps we might even throw a little cash your way. You know, like ten or fifteen dollars for helping us out. And your boss told you to make us happy.”

“I’m sure she had no idea what you were really wanting, or she wouldn’t have set this up for me.” Mr. Riddling actually got huffy with him. “If there is nothing else, then I’d really like to go. You’ve wasted enough of my time.”

Josh called his boss as soon as he got them out of the house, which wasn’t easy, as they were still trying to convince him that there shouldn’t be a problem with this. When he was put on hold, he was sure that the Riddlings had beaten him to it. Not that it mattered to him. He didn’t think he’d get fired over this, but if he did, then so be it. Josh was getting sick of people like these two.

Carol was laughing when she came back on the line. “As you might have guessed, I just got a call from Peter and June Riddling. They had quite a story to tell me about you. And I swear to you, Josh, had I known what they were about, I never would have assigned my best agent to them.” He said that he knew that. “The nerve of some people. He said you got nasty with him when he mentioned that he didn’t think he should have to pay for a house that he was only going to use for a little while. He also said that you promised him a staff, as well as having it furnished. Then you backed out for some reason.”

“They had it in their head that I’d not only provide them with this grand house, but have it decorated for the holidays, as well as a limo that they could use. For free, I might add.” She said she was sorry. “So am I. Carol, I need to take some time off.”

“Whatever you need, Josh, you know that.” He did and told her that. “I think you should be thinking about taking over this firm like I spoke to you about a few months ago. I’m too old for this shit too.”

“I love working for you. I don’t know how I’d be as a boss.” She told him he’d be as good at that as he was at whatever he set his mind to. “Maybe, but I need some time to get my head together. And Adam and I are opening this greenhouse, and I’d like to get a good start on that as well.”

“But you will come back to me, right?” He said that was his plan, but the more he thought about it, the more he was thinking he’d not go back at all. “Tell me how long you’ll need, and I’ll put you in for your vacation and such. I think you must have amassed about a month.”

“Two, I think. And you don’t have to pay me for all of that. Just about a month of it for now. I don’t want to hurt you while I’m trying to figure out my life.” He saw his grandda coming toward him in the old truck. “Thanks, Carol. If you need me, just call. And if I can help you out I will, but I’m seriously in need of some me time.”

When they were together, they hugged as they usually did. He’d been gone longer than he’d thought he would be and was glad to see him. After telling him about his last client, they both had a good laugh about it. Then Grandda turned serious.

“I brought home these two women with us.” He asked if Grandma knew. “It ain’t like that, you turd head. They’re in trouble, and there might be a bit more to it than just saving them. One of them is purely scary in what she can do. Not that she’d hurt me or any of you, but they want her.”

“Who does? And you know that we’ll help them in any way that we can. But what do you mean, scary with what she can do? You mean kick ass, like Dylan and Sunny?” He said it was magical. “I understand that, Grandda, but that doesn’t tell me very much.”

“She said that she can kill someone halfway around the world and not leave her chair. That she can lift up cars and throw them should she need to.” Josh didn’t say anything. He wasn’t sure that he believed his grandda; not that he’d lie to him, but the girl might have to him. He asked him if he’d seen her do it. “No. You can’t just kill someone like that for a demonstration, now can you? And what do you think would happen if she was to toss a car around like it was nothing but one of them toys that them boys of Evans plays with?”

“Okay, you have a point. But she might be telling you a tale.” Grandda just glared at him. “I don’t know why you’re upset with me—if you believe in her, that’s great. But I’ll hold out for proof.”

“Her momma and daddy are coming to get them. They’ll use Rachel to get to Carter. That’s their names, Carter and Rachel Compton. Carter is the one that is all powerful. Rachel is a human. She knows a little of what her sister can do, and her parents know some too, but not all, I’m betting.” He asked him why they needed them if she had all this power. “Joshua, you’re getting on my last bit of nerves. I’m a knight to them, and I want you to help me by being my steed.”

“Oh, so I’m to be the horse in all this.” Grandda laughed when he did. “Really, what she told you could be a fabrication of a sick mind. Is this the family that Dylan went out there to get? Does she know what’s happening with this girl?”

Josh had it in his head that she was just that, a little girl. The other sister was someone that went to school with Dylan, so he knew that she couldn’t be very old. And if she was telling his grandda big tales, someone needed to talk to her. He looked at his schedule on his phone and asked him if he could meet this paragon of magic.

“Not if you’re going to be nasty about it. She don’t need that any more than I do. She’s been hurt, Josh. Been in prison for ten whole years for nothing. They let her go because they figured out finally that they had the wrong person. It was the parents all along.” He nodded, and then realized that she wasn’t a child at all. He asked his grandda how old this girl was. “I think she’s about your age. Might be a little younger by a couple of months or so. She was seventeen when they tried her as an adult, due to a cop being killed.”

Josh had heard some of this, but he’d been in the middle of shit here and hadn’t paid attention. Well, they had his attention now. He talked to Grandda a bit more as they walked to his car. By the time he’d left to go and see about dinner plans with the entire family, Josh had a name and something to go on. No one was going to come here and take advantage of his family. And especially not his grandda.

As soon as he was back to the trailer he was living in until his house was just a little more livable, he pulled out his old computer. Putting in the name Carter Compton, he got a hit right away. He changed while thinking of the news he’d gotten today before sitting down to read about this woman.

In a week, less he was told, he’d be moving into the bedroom, and the kitchen would also be done. The rest, he’d been told, they could work on around him. He was going to take this month off and help his brother in their new partnership, and get his house furnished. He could not wait.