They made it back in one piece, but only barely, and Shamira had to clean the seat before heading to Shane’s office. Shamira realized how much her life revolved around sex when Shane insisted on taking her report while taking her from behind, shoving her face into his desk. He expressed his pleasure with her, in more ways than one, then sent her to her room. But she hadn’t gotten out of the door when her cell rang, the familiar Tubular Bells ringtone erupting from her pocket. The caller ID identified it as her sister.
“Hey Samantha!” she said as she slid the phone open, only to feel her blood chill. Her sister was crying. Shane walked up, noticing Shamira’s change in posture and realizing something was wrong, but she put a hand on his chest and shook her head. One agreed on rule was that she couldn’t be ordered around for any reason when she was on the phone with her sister. “What’s . . . hey what’s wrong. Samantha –”
It took a minute before her sister’s crying lessened enough and her speech became coherent enough for Shamira to get any answers out of her, but as she did, Shamira’s concern turned to pure, unadulterated rage. She was so mad she almost crushed the phone.
“Samantha,” she said coolly, “I’ll be there in three hours. No, I’m coming. I’ll be back from the road. I promise. Don’t do anything until I get there,” she said, then hung up the phone.
“What was that?” Shane asked, not liking Shamira’s body language.
“Family problem,” she replied. “I’m taking the rest of the night off.”
“Shamira, that means we can’t dominate you, but you still work for me and more importantly, we’re still your friends.”
“Shane, this doesn’t affect the house, so –”
“No, if it affects you, it affects all of us.” He grabbed her by the shoulders. “Don’t make me get Clara.”
“Already here,” the Native American said, peaking around the corner. “I was planning on taking her over to Reaper. He reserved her for the evening, but I guess not. Shamira, what’s wrong?”
Shamira gritted her teeth. “My soon-to-be-ex-brother-in-law’s twenty-one year old secretary is what’s wrong! Son-of-a-bitch cheats on my sister and then has the nerve to blame her?!” Shamira was seeing shades of red that never appeared on any rainbow. “I’m going to –”
“Calmly reflect on what would happen if you tore him apart out of anger?” Clara put out.
“I’d feel better.”
“Only briefly,” Shane said, standing in front of her. “You can’t go killing humans or even harassing them for simply being stupid and . . . well, human. You’re dead, Shamira. You can’t even threaten him.”
“What are you going to do?” Clara asked. “Risk exposing yourself and our kind?”
“I know how to avoid leaving trace evidence,” Shamira growled. “They won’t find his body for months.”
“Shamira,” Clara said, using that disapproving tone that was normally reserved for mothers.
“I’ll just kill him a little bit.”
“Shamira,” Shane reiterated.
“How can I do nothing?!”
“You can’t,” Clara said. “We just don’t want you committing homicide. Now tell us exactly what happened.”
Shamira growled. “My sister was able to get away from work a little early and thought she’d surprise her husband at the office. Well, apparently she surprised him, because he was fucking his secretary on his desk. Then he yells at her for working too many hours and never having enough time for him! That son of a bitch! Then he says the only reason he hadn’t asked for a divorce was because he didn’t want to do it while she was grieving my death. Bullshit! If she hadn’t caught him, he probably never would’ve asked for anything, and . . . and . . . and I just want to rip his heart out of his chest.”
“Which we’ve established that you WON’T do, right?” Shane asked. When she didn’t respond, “Right? Shamira, you’re not leaving the house until you promise you won’t kill your brother-in-law.”
“Or his secretary,” Clara added, almost smiling when she saw Shamira mouth the word “damn.” Shamira could be sneaky when necessary.
“Or his secretary,” Shane agreed, “or anyone else involved in this affair, such as former mistresses or –”
“All right, all right!” Shamira said.
“Can’t you just deal with this on the phone?”
Even Clara glared at Shane after that, but it was Shamira who said, “She was there for me every time I cried over anything. You want me to give her a shoulder to cry on over the PHONE?!”
Shane looked at Clara. “I said the wrong thing, didn’t I?” Clara just nodded at him, so he sighed. “Okay, but I want you to call Clyde Pritchard before you get to the Alabama. And take Sebastian with you.”
“What?!”
Clara looked puzzled. “Sir, I think that I could handle –”
“Oh no,” Shane said. “You’ve gotten too close to be objective,” he said, though he was smiling when he said it. “She might bat those beautiful eyes and convince you to let her get away with something. And I need you to help Lillian upgrade the wards.”
“Sir, I can do that anytime.”
Shane pointed down the hallway. “Go get Sebastian.”
“Yes sir,” Clara said shortly, shooting him a glare.
Shane matched her gaze. “Tell Sebastian to pack an overnight bag and to meet Shamira in the garage. Then you come back here. We need to talk.” He watched Clara leave, then turned his attention to Shamira.
“Don’t get mad at her because of me,” Shamira said.
“She seems to have forgotten that I’m still the boss,” Shane said coldly. “Personal issues aside, I’ve been very lenient towards you, but this is the last time. Unless your sister is in actual danger, you’ll have to work it into your schedule, no more running off on a whim. This house has lands to run, and I demand that my employees do their jobs.”
Shamira knew that he was being fair, but she was in no mood for fair. She turned to walk away, but Shane stopped her.
“I haven’t dismissed you yet,” he continued. “We have an incredibly important meeting coming up, drug dealers to find, and a rebellion to quell. I need your mind in the game. If something threatens my house’s position, whether it be your relationship with Clara or with your sister, I will take steps. Do I make myself clear?”
Shamira wanted to hit him . . . a lot. “Yes sir,” she said, her voice coming out in a whisper.
“You have living relatives who can help her and be there for her, and I suspect she has friends. I’ll give you 24 hours to comfort her and do what you can, but then I expect you back here. Otherwise, the morning star investigation will go to someone who’s willing to concentrate his or her energy on it.” Shane hoped that the threat of taking away her investigation would make her pause, though his threat obviously pissed her off in the short run. “Now you may go.” As she left, he was tempted to light a fire in his office’s fireplace, because things had just gotten colder.
—————– ————–
The next night . . .
—————– ————–
Shamira felt mildly less annoyed when she and Sebastian pulled back into the garage after a whirlwind trip to Huntsville. To give Sebastian credit, he had been completely innocuous, not getting in Shamira’s face, not trying to make any moves, and not doing anything that would get him decked. He had spent some time talking to Clyde about general were business while Shamira snuck in some time with her sister while the kids were asleep.
The parents were driving up the next day to console and help watch over their grandchildren, and Samantha was going to go to a lawyer’s office. Apparently, the words that had been exchanged in Patrick’s office indicated that there were no other options. After the kids had gone to sleep, Samantha had gone out to a remote corner of the yard and had indeed cried on her sister’s shoulder.
It had taken all of Shamira’s willpower to keep her promise and not go do something really unpleasant to Patrick. He’d been upset about all the long hours Samantha had worked and the lack of “quality time” they’d had to spend together. Shamira knew that her sister wasn’t exactly a saint, so she seriously doubted the man’s claims. She spent a lot of time reminding her sister that she was a beautiful woman in her early thirties with a job she loved, children she adored and who adored her, and would have tons of men knocking on her door in no time. That had set Samantha off crying again. So Shamira reminded her sister that she still had a pulse and was therefore one-up on Shamira. That had at least gotten a giggle.
Eventually she helped get her sister calmed down to the point where it looked like neither woman was going to do anything rash. Shamira wanted so badly to go, throw on a pair of pajamas and eat chocolate ice cream like they had done when it had been Samantha acting as caretaker, but they couldn’t risk the boys seeing their dead aunt in the kitchen with a spoon in her hand. So Samantha had gone back inside after promising she’d call if she needed anything and Shamira would do her best to help out. Shamira had gone back tot he Waffle House to meet up with Clyde and Sebastian.