Sebastian (Bowen Boys, #5)(3)

“Oh my, George, we’ve neglected to tell her our names. I’m Corrine and this is George Bowen. And I assure you, we have no idea what you mean. Our son gave us these this morning.” Corrine nodded to the other box. “He said that he’d made them easy for us to use.”

Ama glared at her. “So you thought that you’d find some random person off the street to show you how to use it? I’m not buying it. You think you can entrap me, you can think again. I have no desire to go back to jail, and I’m pretty sure that even without any money, no one would believe me if I told them what really happened here.”

She flushed when she realized what she’d said. She pounded on the window between the back and the driver, and when it opened, she asked him to please pull over. George told him it was okay. She was reaching for the door handle when George put his hand on her. She felt the vibration immediately and, apparently, so did he.

“Oh my.” She opened the door and stepped out before he could say more. Before she was five feet from the car, he called her name.

“Amarizi, stop please.” She did but didn’t turn. “You know that you can’t be harmed by us, and that you are a great deal stronger than either of us if you needed to be. Come back to the car and I promise you that we’ll take you to our son and he can explain. We didn’t know what…we had no idea when we saw you in the deli what you were, but it explains why we want to trust you. Will you please come back and let us explain?”

She turned to him slowly and saw that Corrine was standing beside him; the driver was still in the car. She looked around, noting that they were no longer in the city but on the outskirts of town in a part of town she’d never been. She looked back at him.

“I don’t know what you think you know about me, but it’s wrong.” He nodded, all three of them knowing she was lying. “I’m going with you, but if it even looks like this son of yours doesn’t have a clue what you’re talking about, I’m leaving you.”

He nodded, and so did Corrine, and then he opened the door for her to get in. When the car was moving again, he handed her the computer. He also handed her the box.

“My son, Sebastian Bowen, owns this store. We were just in there not an hour ago and were having lunch when that horrid man came in.” Corrine smiled at her as she continued. “I thought for sure he was going to wet himself when you grabbed his more private parts.”

“He called me a hooker because of my tats.” Corrine nodded. “I can’t help where they are.” She nodded again.

“Well, of course, you can’t. And he was a silly man to have thought they were tattoos and not a sigil like they actually are.” She looked at her sharply. “We’re not human, dear, in the event you didn’t catch that. I think you might know what we are.”

“Yes. Panther.” She looked at the computer. “I’ll help you, but you have to keep my secret to yourself. I won’t have people thinking…I won’t have it again.”

“No, of course not. You can trust us.” Ama nodded, not really sure why but she thought maybe she could. “My son will clear things right up.”

~~~

George watched the young woman talk to the sales clerk. He glanced at Corrine and started to ask her what the hell they were doing. She shook her head before he could ask. When Ama stood up and walked to them, he could see that she was a lot more relaxed than she’d been before.

“It checks out. She said your son was called away on business to help one of your other sons, but what you said checks out.” She looked around the store and George wondered if he could buy her anything, and wondered where that thought had come from. She looked back at him as if she knew what he’d been thinking.

“I don’t want you to freak out. Are you going to?” He shook his head at her. “You look like it. If this is going to be too much for you, we can call it quits now. No sweat off me. I don’t need any problems, not from you or anyone else. Especially not from any of your family, because I’m going to help you. What I’m doing is because you asked, not because of anything that might be rolling around in your head.”

“My head is rolling all right. No, no, it’s not that.” He looked at Corrine again before turning back to her. “It’s just that we thought…you must be the last of your kind.”

He saw her stiffen and regretted his words, but before he could tell her how sorry he was, she spoke first. George reached for his mate, not sure why, but he needed her contact when Ama looked at him with her dark green eyes.

“You know nothing of my kind. No one does, and I’d very much like to keep it that way.” He nodded and knew that the sharpness in her voice was his fault. “Do you still need me to show you this computer?”

“Yes. I would...we would very much like for you to show us how to run this.” He looked at her and then opened his mouth to tell her again how profoundly sorry he was.

“Look, Mr. Bowen, we’re not going to get through this if you don’t just say you’re sorry once and we move on. I get it, you didn’t mean it. And I’m sorry, too. I shouldn’t have been so short with you. But I’m a little on edge. I’m unemployed and have no place to live if I don’t find something soon...I’m not asking for a hand out here, but a real job with a real paycheck would be flipping fantastic. Understand?”