He was a good man and a better friend than she’d ever had.It didn’t take her long to figure out how much she loved him, and she was glad for that.Having someone to love was important to everyone, and she thought that she was especially lucky in that Ivan was so good to her.And he was too.
Never once had they had a fight about anything.But then they were new to each other.She found that she would agree with what he would say just to see his smile.And he was happy with his entire face when he did that.His laughter was something that she would look forward to daily.She’d think of silly things all day just to hear him laugh with her about it.Then there was their lovemaking.
It was gentle most of the time, but there were times when she was painfully aware that he’d been a little rough.Not that she minded about that.She would enjoy it as much as he did, like the other morning when he woke her up while eating her.
She’d come up off the bed with a scream to release.He’d been licking her pussy and sucklingat her clit for some time if she was honest with herself.He told her to lie back down so that he could finish, and she wanted him to fuck her.But he wasn’t taking no for an answer and swatted her on the ass as he fucked her with his tongue.
Coming as hard as she did, Sen was sure that she’d be hoarse come the end of the day.But it was well worth a little sore throat for all the things that he’d given her.And when he finally fucked her, she came again and again until she simply passed out with pleasure.It was something that she would think about forever.The low growl from Ivan had her looking at him.
“I can smell you.Behave, or I’ll beat your bottom when we get home.”She told him how sorry she was.“Don’t be sorry, just stop doing what you’re doing.I won’t be able to sit here quietly if you keep that up.”
She giggled, bringing attention to her from her mother.When she stood up, so did Sen.They stared at one another for a long, tense-filled moment before her mother was made to sit down again.
“She’s the reason that I’m in here.”Judge Rainer asked her how she had not been the one to pay the hotel bill.“She got my brother’s money, and I didn’t.If she had given it to me like I asked, then I’d of not have had to buy the gun to get the money.”
“What do you mean, she’s the reason that you had to buy the gun?Like the hotel bill, I’m not sure how that even equates to her causing you trouble.Perhaps you’d like to explain yourself.”With a glance in her direction, she kept standing when her mother stood again.“Ms.Ranger, I’m waiting for an answer.Why did your daughter have you buy a gun that you knew you weren’t able to have?”
“She is going to give me that money, or I’m going to kill her.She thinks she’s so smart to keep me out of her bank account, but I have ways of finding out what’s going on.My brother should have left his money to me, not to her.She no more deserves it than she does to be alive right now.And she made it so I lost my house and car too, by trying to find her daddy.”Again, Judge Rainer asked what she was talking about.“My daughter got all the money from my brother’s estate, and that wasn’t right.I was his sister, and that’s the way it should have been.When she decided to keep me out of her accounts, I decided that he gave her much more than he did me, and now I’m going to get it from her.Even if I have to kill her.I will too.No matter what you do to me, she’s going to die, and so is that husband of hers if they’re really married.”
“They’re married.I did the deed myself.But let’s get back to you killing your only child.You said you’d do it.I have it on good authority that you no longer have the gun that you got illegally.Just how are you planning to make that work?”She said it had been easy to get a gun in the first place, and she’d have no trouble again.“So you’ll get yourself another gun and try to kill your child and her husband for money.Is that what you’re telling me?”
“Yes.And I won’t try.I’ll kill her dead the first chance I get.She no more deserves his money than I do living the way I’m going to be without funds.She did this to me, and now she’s going to have to pay.”
Chapter 9
Debra got five years in prison for the gun specification, and her trial for the hotel was going to be in eighteen months.If she lived that long.None of them could see her living that long in prison with her attitude and the way that she spoke to people.She’d be lucky if she made it a year there, and that’s fine with him.Ivan liked her being in prison and not out and about.
After making it home from the trial, he encouraged Sen to go up and take a nap.She looked worn out, and he felt bad that she had not slept well the night before.As he laid down with her, telling her that he’d stay until she went to sleep, she told him about the night that her mother had beaten her.
“I’d asked about my father.All the other kids had dads who were either living at home with them or they went to visit him on weekends.Most of my friends were from divorced parents, and that was all right, I guess.But at least they had dads that they could see.I had no one.”He asked her if she’d ever talked to Howard at her uncle’s house.“Just polite conversations.I’d not figured out who he was just yet, so he was just a friend of my uncle and aunts.”
“I heard that you were in the hospital for two weeks.It must have been bad.I’m sorry that you had to go through that.”She said that she was as well, but now that she’d had time to think about it, she knew that her mother was trying to kill her.“What would that have gotten her?I wonder if she thought that far ahead.Killing you would have ended all the things that she’d gotten from Howard, don’t you think?”
“I think she was so enraged that she didn’t think beyond having me not ask about him.I was just a kid wondering why I didn’t have what the other kids had, and at first she slapped me.”She rolled to her back but didn’t look at him as she continued.“Once I was down on the floor, she stomped me so hard that I had four broken ribs.My wrist had been broken as well as my leg when she took something hard and beat me with it.I never knew what it was, but I hurt.Even after I passed out, she continued to beat me until I was nothing left but a bloodied child that didn’t understand.”
“After that, you were sent to a boarding school, correct?”She told him how she’d not even been healed all the way before being shipped off.“Then your uncle stepped in and took over your care.You’d think that Howard would have had something to say about the way that she’d beaten you.”
“I’m not sure he knew all the particulars about what went on that day.And Howard is the one who paid for me to go to boarding school.He told me that just the other day.Uncle Robert is the one who suggested it, but my dad is the one who paid for it.My college too.I’d thought that I’d gotten enough scholarship money to pay for it all, but it was him.”Ivan watched as tears streaked down her cheeks.She still wasn’t looking at him, and he was all right with that.“When I got out of college and got a place of my own, Mother started coming around me like nothing had happened.I think that’s why I didn’t remember it all that well.She acted like nothing had hurt me, and I was willing to let her think that.I was afraid of her, even after all that time had passed.I didn’t ask about my father again either.Not until my uncle and aunt died.”
“I’m sorry that you had to go through all that.The way she was talking in court today, you’d think that she thought it was justified in killing you for the money.I think that scared Judge Rainer, too.He seemed shocked by her just telling him what she planned to do to you.I think that’s why he gave her the maximum on the gun thing.”She said that he’d talked to her yesterday and told her that he was going to get out of her what she planned to do with the gun.“I believe he got more than he had hoped for, don’t you?”
“He’s a good man, my boss.He wondered if I was going to quit working for him now that we’re married.I assured him that I was going to work for him until I couldn’t do it anymore.”She finally looked at him.“I don’t want to be a stay-at-home mom either.I will work a job with adults and then gohome to be with my babies.I know that sounds selfish, but that’s what I want to do.I don’t think I’d be a good mom if I had to be around the house all day.”
“I’ll be working too for the same reasons.Lica was going to be a stay-at-home dad with his little one, but after about three weeks of it, he decided that he couldn’t do it.He told me that he spent so much time playing with and watching his child that he didn’t get anything else done.He needed a break for taking a break from working.I agree with him on that.It would be tough to be around kids all day without adult contact.”She told him that was it exactly.“Good.When we have children, we’ll hire a nanny to take over during the day while we’re at work.Nothing is set in stone with that, so if we, either of us, decide we want to be there with the kids, we can do that as well.”
Almost as soon as they decided on that bit of information, she fell to sleep.Ivan watched her for several minutes while she laid there quietly before he got up to see about the household.He needed to get some of the things done that he’d been putting off in favor of spending time with Sen, and he was glad for the time.He went outside before he got caught up in wanting to lie down beside her while she slept.
The day was beautiful.It was almost eighty degrees outside, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.Spring was in a couple of days, and he couldn’t believe the weather they were having.The yard had been taken care of just yesterday by the lawn service, so he had nothing to do when it came to the trimming.However, he did go out to the gardens to see how they were thriving.He was going to the front of the house to do the same when someone pulled into the driveway.
He didn’t know the car, but he did know that it wasn’t one of his brothers either.As he leaned on the shovel that he’d found in the garden, he watched the doors open.He was surprised that Howard got out of the car and came toward him.There was something about his gait today that had him concerned.He looked pissed off.His smile didn’t reach his eyes.
“I was hoping to talk to Serenity.Where is she?”He told him she was taking a nap and that she’d not been sleeping well.“Can you wake her?I really want to talk to her about something.You can listen in, too, but it’s going to be between the two of us.”
“As I said, she’s not been sleeping well, so she needs to have this lie down.Whatever you wish to say to her will have to wait.”There was a flash of anger, but he continued to smile at him.Ivan leaned the shovel against the house in the event he had to shift quickly.He might have to if the man didn’t explain why he was so angry.“I can have her call you when she wakes up.I don’t know how long she’ll be, but I know that she was exhausted when she went to sleep about an hour ago.”
“I’ve come all this way to talk to her, and I’m going to do it even if I have to go into that house and wake her myself.”He just stared at him.“You heard me.Get her out here so that I can talk to her about business.Now that her mom is out of the picture, she’s going to need someone to keep her in line with the money that I’m going to leave her.She’s going to be a very wealthy woman.”
“She is now.We both are.”Ivan shifted on his feet and was trying to get his own anger under control.He’d never acted like this before and was sort of shocked that he was acting like this now.Something must have happened, and he was going to get to the bottom of it before he allowed him to talk to Sen and piss her off, too.“As I said, she’s not been sleeping well, and you’re going to have to wait for her to wake up.I’m not going to allow you to go into our home and disturb her.”
