Page 51 of Legally Mated
Mutch stood, his demeanor once again calm. “Yes, I’ll be in the city, at the Oleander Hotel.” He walked over to the door and paused in front of Holland. “My phone number.” He pulled a business card out of an inside pocket and gave it to Holland. And, in a voice just barely above a whisper, he added, “I did not mean to offend. I just needed to be certain. It would be terrible for everyone, the pack and myself, if I needed to collapse the trusts after settingthemup.”
Holland stared down at the card for a moment, then gave Mutch a thoughtful look. “Do you trust me, Mr.Mutch?”
“I don’t trust anyone.” He smiled and I thought it was the first genuine one I’d seen on his face so far. “But, as much as I do, I do trust you. You must understand, this has been an underlying tenet of the family for generations. There are more than a hundred of us in my generation alone involved in large ways and small with the businesses that started with that gift of land.” He glanced down, then up at Eva. “We still have that original land. It’s all strip malls and apartment buildings now, the old houses are gone except for one I had moved to a corner of my own property.” Then he sighed. “I have, in the back of my car, the trunks I spoke about before. It’s the contents of the library and the omega records from pack Dolnakol.” His discomfort filled the air like sourherbs.
“You don’t know yet if you want to give them to us?” Holland said with a sadsmile.
I could smell Holland’s disappointment and his desire for the information in those trunks. Eva and I shared a glance and she shrugged.I’ll call you later, she mouthed, and I relaxed, fairly certain we still had an allyinher.
Mutch’s lips twisted. “They’ve been in my care for most ofmylife.”
Holland sighed and nodded and then he did something that I thought surprised us all. He leaned forward and placed a kiss, almost a benediction, in the middle of Mutch’s forehead. “I understand. Bring them to me when you’re strongenough.”
Mutch’s eyes went wide and he opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, then nodded and put a hand on the doorknob. “Thank you,” was all he said, which I didn’t entirely understand, but then Eva caught up to him and he let himself out of theapartment.
Chapter42
We sat in stunned silence.Holland stared at the door, a troubled expression on his face. Then he shook his head and turned to look at Bax and me. “We need to talk about this. Garrick, can you call a car for Mutch? I’m going to get the rest of the omegas up here.” He came back to Quin and kissed him, one hand threading itself through Quin’s hair the way I like to do to Laine. “Do you want to be inonthis?”
Quin patted the baby’s back, an expression on his face that I couldn’t immediately place. Then it hit me—uncertainty. “I don’t know. You know I’ll support you, but I’ll admit, the thought of things coming at me from under cover makes menervous.”
“No more nightmares,” I heard Holland whisper and he sat down beside Quin to lean their bodiestogether.
I felt a momentary pang of loneliness and wished Laine was here—not just for his legal acumen, but because the love that spilled out of Holland’s words made me want to hold Laine and tell him everything would be all right. Even though nothing in particular waswrong.
Except Mercy Hills was preparing—maybe, depending on Mutch—to stir up a lot of bad memories and set off an explosion of anger and fear. I didn’t want him hurtbythat.
I called down to Security to come over with a car, then, because Holland was still in the middle of a low-voiced conversation with Quin, Abel, and Bax, I started calling all the omegas that were still in Mercy Hills. The ones I knew Holland trustedanyway.
Nearly twenty minutes later, we heard the first knock on the door. But it wasn’t the omegas, as I was expecting. Instead, Edmond stood in the doorway, with three more of the security crewbehindhim.
And two large, antique trunks resting on the floorbetweenthem.
“He told us to bring these back to you before he left.” Edmond dug into his jeans pocket and pulled out a crumpled sheet of paper. “He gave me this to give to Holland, too.” He handed me the paper and asked, “You want theseinhere?”
I felt a light touch on the back of my shoulder—Holland, peering around me at the trunks with his eyes gleaming with hope and excitement. “Yes, bring them in here for now,” he said. “We’ll have to think of a place to keep themlater.”
“There’s a third one downstairs,” Edmond said as he bent to grab the heavy leather handle on one end of the first trunk. “We couldn’t fit them all into the elevator. And they’reheavy.”
“They’re full of books,” Bax said quietly. “Our history.” He stood and came soft-footed to stand besideHolland.
Edmond paused and looked up at Bax. “Ourhistory?”
“From before the Enclosure,” Holland said, and stepped to the side to clear the way through the door. “They can go against the wall there, the one between the living room and Quin’soffice.”
We stood soberly by as the trunks were maneuvered through the door and they set them in their places. Holland paced about the room, excitement beating off his skin, until Quin stood up and pulled Holland intohisarms.
“I’ll bring the other one right up,” Edmond said as he took the other members of the Security team and headed for the elevatoragain.
Holland slid out of Quin’s embrace and moved to kneel in front of the trunks. I followed him and we stared briefly at each other before Holland reached for the buckles holding the cover inplace.
The top was sticky, and he had to bend down and sort of get underneath it to force it up. It made a scraping noise as it came free, and then flew up to bang againstthewall.
“Shit,” Holland spat and reached out for the old wood as if he could heal it with a simple touch. His fingers stroked the frame, then slowly trailed down to the walls of the body of the trunk. They brushed over the covers of the books within, heavy cloth and leather giving off a smell of dust and old paper and history. “I don’t know where to start,” he said, and glance up at Quin. “I can’t believe he gave them to us, justlikethat.”
Quin crouched beside him. “You think it’s a good faithoffering?”
“I think we should have had Jason here,” Holland said and picked out one of the books. It was wide and tall and covered in cracked black leather, and it creaked when he spread the cover open over his thighs. “He could have told us what Mutch wasafter.”
