Jade (Rare Gems Series)

Jade

Rare Gems Series Book 3

By

Kathi S. Barton

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or person, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

WCP

World Castle Publishing, LLC

Pensacola, Florida

Copyright © Kathi S. Barton 2014

Print ISBN: 9781629890968

eBook ISBN: 9781629890975

First Edition World Castle Publishing, LLC, May 2, 2014

http://www.worldcastlepublishing.com

Licensing Notes

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews.

Cover:  Karen Fuller

Editor:  Eric Johnston

Editor:  Maxine Bringenberg

Chapter 1

“Thanks for the ride.
I really appreciate it, Allen.” Jade looked around the nice car with envy. “I have a lead on a nice one, and he’s supposed to call me back today.”

“It’s no problem, sweetie.
I was going into town anyway. But I wish you’d talk to Blair. He’d help you buy a car if you simply asked him.”

She knew he would. For that matter, he’d more than likely give her one if she asked him to
, but she wasn’t going to. She was determined to make it on her own, and if that meant buying a car that was twenty-six years old until she could get something better, then so be it. But it was going to have to be sooner rather than later. Sapphire was starting to make noises about simply buying her a car and lending her the money to pay off the large debt she’d suddenly found herself in.

A long ago boyfriend had used all her information to open an account as well as
obtain a few credit cards. The account at the bank had been easy enough to get taken care of, but not so much the cards. Even proving that she’d lived in this area for longer than the account had been opened wasn’t enough. Their logic had been that she could have opened the account from anywhere. And this guy was more than likely doing it because he hated that she’d left him.

“How
’s the job hunting going?” She looked at him, wondering how he’d found out she’d been looking, but he answered her before she could ask. “Emerald said you were looking for something a good deal more full time. She told me that the flower shop you worked at is being sold.”

“Margo sold it last week
, and the new owners are going to make some changes. I just don’t want to be out of a job when he decides to bring in some of his own workers. I love working there, but….” She really did, too. And Margo Noel, the previous owner, felt badly about it. “The forestry service isn’t looking for full-time help right now either. My boss there said it would be well into next year before they had the funding for that, too. I’m not having a great deal of luck anyway.”

“Times are tough. Blair was telling me that most of the kids coming out of college right now are having a hard time finding work.
Some of them have degrees in computers, too.” She nodded, knowing that what he was saying was right. “Annabelle said that your sister is going to work at that new school or she might be out of work, too.”

Emerald had signed on to work at
the paranormal school that Blair had set up. She’d been set to work at a regular school, but that had fallen through because of funding. Too bad for the other teachers, but great for her sister.

“I have an interview with a firm in the city. It would mean moving there
, but I have to do something.” Allen nodded. “There are days when I just wish I’d stayed back home and not moved with the family.”

Jade turned away
, not wanting Allen to see her tears. Lately it had been like that for her. She’d cry at everything. Knowing that her sisters were happy was great, but Jade was really depressed that things just didn’t seem to be going her way.

She got out of the car after thanking Allen again for the ride. He told her he’d see her after work if she’d call him
, but she had planned on staying at a cheap hotel just so no one would have to come and get her, as well as to be alone for a while. She thought she needed that more than anything…a place to get away and get her head on straight.

“You call me when you’re done.”
She nodded, knowing that she wouldn’t, but he nodded to something behind her. “Well lookee there. Somebody is showing off, if I don’t miss my bet.”

She looked at the large Hummer that sat in the front of the
Green Touch where she worked. It did look like it cost a small fortune, but she ignored it. Probably some dick that had pissed off his wife and was there to make amends with a dozen or so roses. Jade went to the back of the greenhouse to toss her things on the table and lock up her bag. She overheard one of the women who worked the register saying that someone was missing. Jade went to her station to start planting the flowers that would be up in the fall.

People came and went as she was putting the dirt she’d brought out to work with into the small trays.
She was planting fall cabbage now, and later if she had time, she’d get a good start on the other flowers that were on her list. There wasn’t a great deal of call for plants that time of the year, but she had to get what they might use in now or they would never be up in time.

Jade heard her before she saw her.
The small mewling sound had her thinking it was a cat for a bit, but after the second time, she turned slowly to look. There, behind the pallet where she’d been working, sat a little girl of about seven or so. When Jade moved to where she could get a better look at her, she realized that the child was afraid.

“Hello.”
The girl cringed in the corner more. “Are you lost? I think there are people looking for you. Don’t you want them to find you?”

She shook her head hard but didn’t move
out. Turning around completely on the chair she was working on, Jade looked at her. There was something about her that made Jade think of a wounded animal. When someone came into the area she was working in, Jade moved so that the person couldn’t see the child. The woman standing there looked pissed.

“Have you
seen a kid here? She has on these nasty jeans that are too small for her and a tee-shirt I wouldn’t be caught dead in. I’ve been looking for her for over an hour, and her father is getting really upset.” Jade didn’t say anything. “I swear to you she runs off just to make me look bad in front of her father. Why the hell she won’t just listen to me is annoying as hell. She should be locked up.”

“Locked up?
Like an animal?” The woman flopped down, then stood quickly. After she straightened her clothing a little, she sat down like she was perched on a limb and might fall. Jade took an immediate dislike to her.

“Of course not like an animal. She wouldn’t have to pee on a newspaper or anything.
What I meant was she should be sent away to a girl’s school, like I’d been. She could learn to have some manners, not…well, she doesn’t have any.” There was a man coming toward them then, and Jade watched the transformation in the woman go from pissed off to visibly upset in seconds. Jade watched the man stride toward them.

He moved like he was on a mission
, and when he got there things had better be the way he wanted them or hell was going to be paid. When he stood near her, she could smell his cologne and wondered how much he’d paid for it. But the woman’s sob made her glance back at her.

“I can’t find her.
I just don’t know where the poor thing is. I’ve looked and looked and…oh darling, you don’t think anything has happened to her, do you?” He handed her his handkerchief, and she sobbed into it. A small giggle behind her made her think that the girl was hiding for a good reason.

“She’s here somewhere and when she comes out
, she won’t have any idea what sort of trouble she’s caused.” Jade didn’t agree with him but let him go on comforting the woman. “You should have held her hand and not let her go. I know she likes to run, but I didn’t want her to get out where she could do anything to any of the plants.”

Jade
turned back to her work, ignoring the couple and wishing they’d simply go away. The man was great looking, yes, but not her type. She went more for the kind of man that hit you once or twice when you didn’t have what he wanted, then would steal what he thought might bring him a buck or two. That wasn’t really true, but it seemed to be the type of man she attracted. The past two men in her life had been abusers, and she had decided that it really wasn’t worth trying to find her mate if all she got was duds. Jade looked up when the man touched her shoulder.

“You really are into your work
, aren’t you?” Jade saw that the woman was glaring at her, and Jade decided that these two suited each other. “I was wondering if you saw my daughter. She’s about four foot nine and a little on the thin side. She has dark hair and is wearing a pair of blue jeans and a green tee. Her name is Angie. We came in here to have a look around before tomorrow and now…now she’s run off.”

“I might have.”
Jade started to tell him where she was when the other woman spoke up. This was going to be a problem, Jade just knew it.

“When I asked you where she was
, you said you didn’t know. You said that…you told me that you wouldn’t help me.” Jade raised a brow at her, but she seemed to be on a roll. “In fact, all you asked me about was if she was a rich man’s kid.”

“You’re a liar.” Jade stood up and towered over the woman.
The man moved back, but Jade saw that he didn’t move to protect the other woman. As Jade moved around the pallet, the woman cringed away from her.

“You touch me and I’ll own you.”
The words rang in the air between them, and Jade took a step back. She wasn’t afraid of the woman, but she didn’t want to hurt her. She took another step back as the man moved to just beside her.

“Angie, where have you been hiding?”
Jade didn’t take her eyes off the woman in front of her as Angie moved toward her father. “Come on, honey, you’ve caused enough problems today.”

“She hurt me
, Daddy. I don’t like her.” The man looked at the woman but didn’t say anything as he held the little girl. “I want her gone. She hurt me again and I hate her.”

Jade moved around the three of them and toward the back where her things were.
There was no way she was going to stand there and take this kind of crap from anyone. She found Margo in the office talking to a man in a suit. When she looked at her, Jade knew that something had happened.

“The new owner is here.
He and his girlfriend are trying to find his little girl.” She sniffled a little, and Jade had an overwhelming urge to join her. “This is his accountant and brother. He’s going over the books.”

If anyone should be crying
, Jade thought it should be the accountant. Jade had seen Margo’s books, and they were a nightmare to say the least. And her filing system pretty much consisted of her stuffing things in a shoebox and never looking at them again. Which she was pretty sure had happened.

“I think I met them.”

She was
suddenly pushed forward hard from behind and fell into the wall. When she turned, the other woman was standing there and she didn’t look happy. Jade tried to calm her wolf, but she wanted blood.

“You fucking cunt.
You knew where she was all the time and you waited to tell him so that I’d look bad. Well, I got news for you. He’s going to marry me, not some little nobody like you. And when he does, I’m going to have this place bulldozed with you in it.” Jade looked at her hand and didn’t see a ring. That seemed to piss her off more. “He’ll marry me, you wait and see.”

“Why marry the cow when the milk is free?”
The words slipped from her mouth before she could think about them. The woman leapt at her just as the accountant moved forward. Before Jade could react or do anything, the man stepped between the two of them. And Jade’s wolf snarled at the new wolf in front of her.

~~~

Quentin’s head was pounding. All he’d wanted to do was stop by and see the place before heading to the hotel to meet up with his friend Thad. And now Debra was pissed off, Angie was crying, and the woman he’d bought the place from was crying. Then there was the beautiful woman who had somehow managed to hit Debra, or so she’d said. Margo had called her Jade.

“You should have heard her.
She called me a cow.” Debra sobbed again into the paper towel that he’d handed her. “Then as I walked into here, she attacked me physically.”

Quentin looked at his brother Roger
, then at Margo. Neither of them had said anything since he’d walked in. The woman in the corner hadn’t either, but Christ, she was pissed off. And for some reason Quentin thought it made her look lovelier.

“Did you see what happened?”
Roger looked at Debra when he asked him. “Who attacked who?”

“Quentin, you’re not saying you believe that bitch over me
, are you?”

Quentin didn’t answer Debra as he waited for Roger to answer.
“If you saw something different, let me know.”

“Debra has the right of it.”
The girl in the corner growled low. It took Quentin a few seconds to realize she was what his brother was, a wolf. When she started to pace, he realized that she moved like one, sleek and very aware of her body. When she turned to look at him, Quentin suddenly imagined fucking her.

“Margo, what happened here?”
The older woman looked at him, then at Jade. Before he could ask her again, Margo spoke.

“She’s telling the truth. I…Jade was in the wrong.”
A lie and every one of them knew it. But he’d asked and now that he’d had an answer, although not the real one, he had to do something.

“Forget it.
I so don’t need this shit.” Jade moved to the office behind her and was out again before he could ask where she was going. He started to follow her when Debra stepped in front of him.

“Let her go. You were going to have to fire them all anyway, right? What do you care if one of them quits
? It’s less unemployment you have to pay out.” Quentin looked at her, then at the other two in the room. Had he not had an audience, he might have told her to fuck off. The woman had been driving him nuts for three weeks now, and he was going to have to end it.