Loman by Kathi S. Barton

Chapter 1

Loman didn’t move from his position when the momma giraffe and her calf joined the tower or group of them he’d been photographing for the last hour. He was magnificent, even being as small as he was at about six feet. He couldn’t have been any more than a few days old. As they began enjoying the last of the grasses on the ground, he snapped several more pictures as his brother contacted him.

“I’m sorry to bother you.” Loman said it was fine. He was just about finished anyway. Ronan said that he had some information for him on his home. “Good. I only have a few more days here, and then I’m coming home for a while. I’m taking a month off to get my house in shape.”

“Your furnace is finally installed. Correctly this time, and I’ve also had the roof checked out, as well as the rest of the house for you. The inspector said that you’d have a few more years on the one that is there. Five at the most. So I hope you don’t mind, but I went ahead and had it replaced completely while no one is in residence.” Loman thanked him and told him that he really appreciated him looking out for him. “No worries. The kitchen looks fantastic. I love the way that Brook’s crew tore out all the existing walls and put in more electrical outlets. It’s worked out good for us in all the rooms.”

“She said that it does make it easier for when you have a lot of shit to plug in.” Loman noticed the pack of lionesses making their way to the tower. “I might have to cut you off here, Ronan. I have a situation here that might cause me to have to take off soon.”

He told his older brother what was going on. If he was right, they’d go after the calf by separating him from his mother and the others. The tower would try and save the little one, but they were hungry. The calf wouldn’t be able to keep up with others if they ran either.

“You’re not allowed to interfere, are you?” He said that he’d rather not. Not unless they came too close to where he was. “I would imagine if you were to just happen to shift, they’d feel the presence of a larger lion and take off, Right?”

“Not females. They’d only feel that I was some jerky lion trying to take their food. One of the lionesses has given birth recently. I’m not sure if she still has cubs to feed or not, but I’m not going to get involved in their fight. Have you not seen your own females fight with each other until some idiot comes in, mostly you, to try and break it up? What happens, Ronan?” He told him that they turned on him as a pride. “Right. And if it’s all the same to you, I’d just as soon keep all my fur where it—Later, brother.”

Loman left his camera on the tripod and set it to take pictures every ten seconds. It would be worth the camera getting destroyed if for no other reason than the shots he’d get. Moving back deeper into the little bit of overgrowth he had found, he made sure he was as covered as he could be. Loman allowed just enough of his lion to go so they’d think he had already passed through.

The sounds behind him were terrifying. He knew the exact moment that the lionesses attacked and how the tower was protecting the little one. The sound of their deadly kick to the lions was loud, and the cries of the injured made his own lion curl a little tighter to him. When the fight took off, running away from him rather than toward him, he sat there for several minutes, waiting to not hear anything more from the bloodshed.

Loman studied the scene. Blood was everywhere. While he couldn’t see the animals anymore, there was enough blood surrounding the trees that he knew one of them had been hurt enough that they’d be dead soon, if not already. Picking up his camera, he was glad to see that it hadn’t been broken. He went back through the pictures to see what had happened.

“I can feel your anger. Are you all right? Do I need to pop over there and take care of things for you? I will, you know that, don’t you?” He told Parker what had just happened. “Oh, I’m sorry, Loman. That must have been heartbreaking for you. You said he was only a few days old? But I guess I can understand why you don’t interfere. I’m not sure that I could be so brave. But then, it’s like my magic. To interfere means that it comes back on your tenfold. But that’s not why I contacted you. Other than your anger. When will you be home again? No rush, but I was thinking that you need to come home and see the gallery they’re working on. It’s coming along much better and faster than I thought it would. Brook has the best workers, I think.”

“I have another assignment here, then I’ll have to work on getting them developed and sent out. The second set of pictures that I’m taking are of some waterways. I’m not sure what they want, but I’m actually a week early in going there, so I’m going to leave tonight.” She asked him if he was all right. “Yes. Physically I am. Mentally? I’m not sure. I need a conversation with Jasper.”

“Jasper? Are you getting magic, Loman? You never did check out if either of the Benson sisters were your mates. Could that be it?” He asked her to stop pushing them at him. “I’m not pushing them at—okay, so I am. I think that everyone is. We want you to be happy.” He felt his anger toward his family, something that he never thought he’d have flare up again.

“What makes you think that I’m not happy already? I’m not hurting anyone with what I do, am I? No, I’m not. I come home when I have to. Here lately, not as much, but I do when I have to. I work hard. Christ.” He thought about his anger toward this woman and didn’t care what she did to him. “Why is it that everyone wants me to be mated? I have no problem with it when it happens in the natural course of things. But now I’m not wanting to come home because I know that you or one of the others is going to try to set me up with someone, and that’s not how it works. At least not how I want it to work. Damn it.”

“I’m sorry.” He could feel her anger toward him, and he, again, didn’t care right now. He was pissed off too. Loman wanted them to just leave him the fuck alone. “I will drop it and leave you alone. We all will if that’s what you want.”

“Now you’re going to be petty.” She didn’t say anything more to him but appeared in the country that he was in, right before him. And she didn’t look happy either. “You’re going to threaten me, Parker? Tell me, if I don’t come home with you, that you’re going to make it so that I’m not in contact with my family? I’m not like the rest of you. Not one bit. I live alone. I work alone. It’s terrifying for me to think that there is a woman out there that is going to be like you all are and expect me to be this chatterbox all the time. To woo her in some way. That’s not me. At all.”

“I know that, you moron. But there are things going on at home that you…Do you want me to tell you, or do you want to just stay out here and let yourself be alone without a mate?” He asked her what was going on. “It’ll make you want to come home. I’m not sure I could handle feeling like I’ve blackmailed you by telling you something that you’ll resent me for the rest of my life. I love you, Loman.”

“What’s going on? And before you tell me, you should know I love you too. I’m frustrated. Pissed off and not feeling myself.” She looked at him then, and he could tell she knew something was wrong with him. Loman was glad it wasn’t just him who thought he was off his meddle. “What is it you see, Parker? Something is off about me, and I’m not—”

For the fourth time today, he leaned over and threw up. It was mostly bile and water now, but he was really feeling something was wrong. He didn’t think that he was sick. He couldn’t get sick. However, when warm arms wrapped around him, he felt himself being laid down.

Loman asked for his mom. He saw her for a second before everything seemed to dim out for him. He could hear voices but not see or understand what they were saying to him. Then there was Jasper.

“You see me?” He nodded his head and said that he hurt. “You do. Very much so. I can heal you, my dear brother, but you’re going to hurt more before you are better. The blood I gave you long ago has been poisoned with iron.”

“I have iron-poor blood?” Loman giggled. Or he thought he did. “Something is wrong with me, Jasper. Please fix me. I don’t want to die.”

“You won’t, my friend.” He must have passed out but did wake to the feeling that he had to throw up again and again. Parker and a beautiful woman were standing over him at some point, but he couldn’t lift his arm to touch her.

He didn’t know what was going on or even if the dreams or whatever they were were really happening. Loman was going to die, and he just knew it. Something was wrong, and no one but Jasper was able to fix him. He didn’t want him to die either and said that. The voice that answered him, if it was a voice and not more dreams, told him that Jasper was going to be just fine as was he. Loman certainly hoped so.

~*~

Lindsley watched the man sleep. It wasn’t as fitful as it had been. He just looked like he was resting peacefully. She leaned back in the chair that had been brought into the room when Loman was first brought here. Lindsley didn’t think she’d ever forget how he looked when she was asked to help hold him down eleven days ago.

“He has been poisoned with iron. Not as much as it would have taken to fell a man like him, but with the combination of his lion being ill too, it’s made him near to the point of a comatose state.” Lindsley had asked Ronan who and how it had happened. “I don’t know. Parker is looking into it. To see if she can trace the iron to someone. But we have to get it out of him. It’s shutting down his organs, and he’ll have to be on life support forever. He’s an immortal, you know.”

She did. So were her sister and mother. Her dad? Well, right now, she could care less what happened to him. Yes, he was her dad, but he’d been a fucking prick to them since she could remember. He’d even taken money from her bank account just after setting it up with money from her birthday.

While she’d been holding him down, something that she thought would be fairly easy as he was so ill, she’d been knocked back against the wall at one point. It had been bad enough that her head was bleeding, and her right shoulder had been broken. Almost as soon as she stood up to have someone take her to the emergency department, it was all healed. Even the blood from her head wound seemed to absorb right back into her body. No one said a word about it. Even to this day, she hadn’t been asked about it.

She brushed a stray lock of hair from Loman’s brow, then leaned back in her chair. “I think that I’m your mate. I don’t know for sure, as I’m not talking about it to anyone. But my sister Andi and I have been each other’s confidants for years now. Since we were children.” She had no idea why she was talking to Loman, but it felt right to her. “The iron that they took out of you, a great deal I was told, is being traced right now.”

Parker told her that she could tell him things if she wanted. That he may well hear her voice. When she sat up in the chair, she made her way to the window that looked out over the back yard. She knew this was his home. Her sister and mother had been staying here since he came here. It was about the nicest house she’d been in, even counting her own home.

“My father shot my mom. The day he’d been released from jail. We thought for sure that she was going to die. It was touch and go there for a while, but she’s better now. Thanks to your magical family.” There were flowers starting to bloom in the rose garden behind his house. “She’s still in the hospital. Andi and I, along with your family, take turns going there to sit with her then the other comes here. Andi reads to you. She thinks that if she does that, you’ll be considerably smarter when you wake up. However, your mom told us that you were brilliant. Of course, I didn’t know what she meant by that until she showed me her collection of newspaper articles about how you graduated from college at fifteen with an art history degree. Also, she said that you’re an attorney for yourself.”

“I wanted to be able to read over contracts that I get so that I don’t get into a deal that my ass can’t cover.” She turned to look at Loman when he spoke to her. “I don’t know your name. Do I?”

“Lindsley Benson. My father is Allen. The one that tried to shaft you.” He asked her if she’d come and hold his hand. “I’ve been doing that a great deal. It somewhat comforting to me. I didn’t know that you’d mind all that much.”

“Yes. I’m afraid to move, to be honest with you. I can feel my muscles tightening up in pain when I wiggle my toes.” When she took her seat again, Lindsley reached for his hand. “I’ve been a bastard for the last—I don’t know how long I have been. But I was particularly mean to Parker. I was happy to wake up just now as my regular self. I thought she’d turn me into something.”

“She told us all. That it was the iron that was making you not yourself. Also, I guess there was enough magic that had been given to you with it that turned you. I think she called it inside out. That your personality changed so much that you didn’t know how to deal with it. So anger was what you used.” He told her he was sorry if he’d said anything to her to hurt her. “It’s fine. You’re calm now, and I’m betting I’m seeing the real Loman Foster.”

She watched him doze off and on. When he woke, Loman would ask her questions or ask for something. He was concerned about his camera and his pack. Also, he wanted to have something to drink. Giving him the ice chips that were forever in the cup seemed to satisfy him immensely.

Lindsley let the rest of the family know he was awake, and talking was easy enough. Parker or one of the others had given her the magic to do so. They said that they would come over a few at a time so as not to overwhelm him. She had heard that Loman preferred his own company to that of a large crowd.

When her cell phone went off, she saw it was her father again. Turning off the call, she let it go to voice mail. As it was right now, Lindsley wasn’t sure there was any more room for him to leave any messages. He’d been calling her for days now and begging her to let him into the offices again. There was no way. When Loman woke this time, he stared at her for a few seconds before he spoke again.

“You said your dad shot your mother. Why did he do that?” She told him what her father had said. “Did he really think that having her dead would get him back to the way things were? Christ, I don’t understand humans at all. No offense on that. You seem normal.”

They both laughed, and he dozed off again. This time when he woke, it was as if he’d never stopped talking to each other. He asked her if they’d locked him out of the offices before he could get things squared away for himself.

“Absolutely. Even though we gave him notice about a month before we came in and kicked him to the curb, he didn’t do anything. Andi told us that he’d not. Thinking that we were just trying to scare him. It was funny, really. We found the money that he had stashed all over his office. Credit cards that were taken out for the company. Most of them were maxed out, but mom is making arrangements to have them paid off.” He asked about passports. “Just one in his name. I don’t know how he thought that was going to work for him. I mean, he’s been watched for the last month of his being there.”

“He seems like a man that isn’t stable.” She said that he was obsessed with running the business and ruining it for himself. “I don’t know him, but it’s doubtful that he thinks that he’ll ruin it. It’s his money maker, and he would have kept it running even if he had to bring in people like me, who he would bully into putting their art in the gallery. If he used his tactics like he did on me to fifty people, and only five weren’t savvy enough to know that they didn’t have to conform to his rules, then he’d keep it running. I can see a few of the artists that I know who wouldn’t have said anything to the police because their self-esteem would have been taken down a notch or two.”

“You know, I think you’re right.” He smiled and closed his eyes. She could tell that he was still awake. “They told me that I have magic too. That it will only get stronger if I bond with you. I had to ask what that meant. I’m not ready to jump into bed with you, however.”

He laughed before speaking. “To be honest with you, Lindsley, I don’t think I could do much more than hold you. I’m exhausted and hurting. Not as much as I had been before you held my hand, but I don’t want to move. Not yet, at any rate.”

“How do you even know that I’m your mate? You know it could be Andi, and I’m just getting magic because I’ve been hanging around with your family. Who I like, by the way.” He said he liked them as well, but she could prove it to them both by smelling his neck. “Sure, I’m going to lean into your bed to smell you—you do know that you’ve been lying here for the last week and a half without so much as a sponge bath. There is no telling how long before that you were without a shower. You’ll just smell like body odor, won’t you?”

“I have no idea. If I’m thinking right, it’s been nearly three weeks since I’ve had a shower. It’s important to my job that I don’t smell fresh. Do you know what I mean?” She said that she did. Surprising herself with her answer. “I don’t know what I’d smell like to you, but I can smell you, and your scent calls to me. You smell of earth, rich soil and flowers. Like nature to me. Fresh in the spring. Winter, too with all the snow.”

“That’s very romantic.” She didn’t want to know for sure, but there were things she’d been unable to ask people about since she’d been sitting with him. Leaning into his throat, she moaned when the scents hit her system. Not only did he smell of earth, but not like body odor like she’d thought. It was as if he was the blues and greens of the field for her. Fresh apples being sliced for a pie. Dizzy, she had to sit back down. “You’re my mate.”

“I’m glad.” When he went to sleep this time, she let go of his hand to pace the room. While she wasn’t a pacer usually, the things she’d figured out in the last few seconds were making her have even more questions. It wasn’t until Sarah came into the room that she felt as if she was going to bust if she didn’t talk to someone. “He’s my mate.”

“I know. How do you feel about that?” She told Sarah that she wasn’t entirely sure just now. “That’s understandable. It’s all new to you. By the way, I’ve been helping out with some of the background checks on your employees, and I have a list of them that need to be gotten rid of. One of them was having an affair with your father. He’s a piece of work, isn’t he?”

“He is. I knew about the affair. I think that was what set my mom off on this mission of hers to ruin him. He nearly did that to her.” Sarah sat down and watched her at the window now. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now. I mean, what, if anything, can I do to make him feel better.”

“Nothing right now. He just needs to rest. The two of you are going to be fine. It will take some adjustments in both of your lives, but you’ll be happy. I think happier than any of us right now.” She told Sarah that she thought they were busting with happiness. “We are. So think how happy you’re going to be when you two are together.”

“The magic that was given to him by Jasper this time, I was told it was quite a bit. Like enough to make him partly fae. I don’t think I ever believed in other creatures before this. I mean, I knew there were shifters in our business, but so long as they didn’t have any trouble, I didn’t either. They were just people.” Sarah told her that most of the people that she had working for her were shifters. “I thought as much. They’re very strong. I’ve always marveled at how easily they could pick up art pieces without so much as breaking a sweat.”

Lindsley just nodded when Sarah didn’t say anything more. There were all kinds of questions going through her head, and not one of them would slow enough that she could figure out a way to talk to her.

“You know, I can read your mind, right?” Lindsley asked her if she could fix it so that she was calm in her mind. “I can. Then I can do a nice little walkthrough and answer things that I can. Carmella would be the one to talk to about some things. She’s a wonderful woman.”

“Yes, she’s been so helpful to me on a great many things.” Finally sitting down, she took Loman’s hand into hers. “When I’m near him, I feel like I can do whatever I set my mind to. Then when I’m with my mom, all I can think about is him. I think that’s why Andi has been staying longer with our mom. She knows more than I do about this.”

They talked about the things that were in her mind. After a time, she was able to calm her mind down enough that she could figure out things on her own. Loman slept the entire time, and she was glad he was getting some much-needed rest. Lindsley couldn’t wait for him to be able to get up and get moving.

At dinner time, she was able to get him to sit up in a chair. He was weak, he told her but felt better sitting up. He didn’t feel so bedridden. Laughing while he moved to the chair, she was glad for the help when not just Ronan showed up but Brook as well. They brought them all food and some egg drop soup for Loman. It was about all he could handle just now.

Once they got him back in bed, he was awake more. Sitting up made him a little tired and sore, but he was able to hold whole conversations with everyone without slipping into a nap. Once they were all gone, leaving behind some juice for them both. Loman asked her if she’d sleep with him.

“No sex. Even the thought of trying to satisfy you makes me hard. I’m not that strong yet. But I would enjoy having you by my side.” She pulled off her shirt and pants and used one of his shirts for a nightgown. Getting into bed with him, she was glad when he wrapped his body around hers.

Not being as active as she normally would be at home and work, she wasn’t as tired as she thought she should have been. Loman didn’t snore at all, and his breath on her shoulder, even through his shirt, was comforting to her.

Tomorrow she was going to have to go to the gallery. Things were going on there that she needed to be on top of. Then she was going to see about her father and what his fate was. He’d been arrested on attempted murder charges as well as the things that he’d pulled at the gallery.

Cass told her that her father was facing some serious prison time for the mail fraud of sending money overseas as well as not paying artists that had had a showing in their gallery. Tens of millions of dollars had been found stashed away in different accounts. Lucky for them, Andi was able to run it all down and get it back to the places that it belonged. The only thing worrying them now was the credit cards and paying for advertising for their grand opening.

“You’re thinking too hard.” Rolling to her side, she looked up at Loman when he spoke. “You’re very tense right now. Want to talk to me about things? I’m sure I can help you with some of your thoughts. Like money.”

“We’re just barely making it.” He said he’d help them out. “You don’t have to do that, Loman. We’ll get it taken care of.”

“You’re my mate. Your sister is now my sister, and your mother is my family as well. When we need help, I’m going to help. I have a bit of money. Quite a bit, as a matter of fact. And if there isn’t enough from my accounts, I’ll ask my family—who is also your family to help out. They will. Simply because I’ve fallen in love with you.” She wasn’t sure what to say. Loman kissed her on the nose. “Go to sleep. It’s late, and tomorrow, we’ll have a serious conversation about the needs of the gallery.”

She didn’t know why but she believed him. Rolling back to her side again, she closed her eyes. In seconds she felt her body begin to relax and her mind calm. Before slipping away, she felt Loman kiss her on the ear and him telling her that he loved her. It was too late for her to say the same to him. It was like a plug had been pulled out of her, and she was falling into a void of sleep.