“You need anything?”he said that he could use a cup of coffee, but he’d get it on his own.“I wasn’t offering to pay for anything.I just meant, did you get your things out of the back of the car?We need to be going.”
“Yeah, sure.I’ve got my bag.You really came through for me, and I appreciate that.Thanks.”He was trying out his being nice thing when he realized that the kid and his wife were driving away.“Good riddance, too, to you.I’ve got better things to do than fawn over you and your fat wife.”
Huffing his way to the convenience store, Richard wondered why there wasn’t a car for him.He’d told the service that he was going to be here, and this time, there would be no excuses for him not to have a limo just waiting to pick him up.That’s the least they could have done after the way that they treated him at the airport.As he walked into the store, he saw that they were about as dead as he’d been on his feet.Richard decided to chat it up a bit to figure out where they lived so he’d not be out on the street all night.
“Hiya.I’m looking for the doctor here in town.Valley is his name.”The woman behind the counter said that he was closed at this time of night.“I know that, I guess.I was wondering how one got in touch with him if he had an emergency or something.I’m his father-in-law, Richard Taylor.”
“You’re related to Sharon?”He had to keep telling himself that was her name.Not Rachel, like he kept thinking it was.He told the woman that she was his daughter.“We heard about you.You abandoned her when she was just a kid because you had to go to prison.Yeah, we heard all about you, Dick.”
“It’s Richard, not Dick.I told him that when I was speaking to him.We had a slight misunderstanding, and I’m here to see him.Do you suppose you could call him and tell him that I’mhere waiting to be picked up?”He was trying his best not to get upset right now.All he needed was for the police to be called, and him being put in jail, too.For all he knew, they’d not bail him out either.“I just wanted to make sure they know that I’m in town and have no place to go.So I need to get in touch with him.”
“Can’t help you with that.We’re not to even tell you where he lives.You made it clear to him that you were only coming here for money, and he’s not one to give it up so easily.”He was starting to get mad, and he was sure that the two women knew it.“Now you find yourself a nice place to hunker down and see about getting some sleep.Not that I think you’re going to have a better day tomorrow.You’ll find that the entire town isn’t too keen on helping you out.Not after the way you treated that lovely daughter of yours.”
“I got caught, that’s all.Had I not been caught, then I’d of not gone to prison.So it’s not my fault.Besides, she was with my wife’s mother all this time.It’s not like I left her on the streets to survive on her own, now did I?”Neither one of them looked convinced, and he rubbed his hand over his face in frustration.“Now see here.He’s my relative, too, now.I demand that you call him up and let him know that I’m here.He’ll have to sort out what you’re doing to me later.I’m tired and hungry and want to go to bed.”
“You don’t want to see your daughter first?Geez, Mister, I would have been bouncing around trying to see her more than my son-in-law.He’s a good man, too, but so is your daughter in the event that you didn’t know that.She’s been helping me get my checks to the post office so my kids can’t take them anymore.I suppose you’d be out there taking them from me if we were related.”He said he didn’t know what she was talking about.“My checks.Because of men like you taking from me, I don’t get my check every month.But that daughter of yours, she’s making sure that I get them at the post office so no one bothers me no more.”
“That would just piss me off, and I’d take it from you later.”He’d not meant to say that and regretted it as soon as it left his mouth.“Look, this has nothing to do with you finding my family.I just want you to call them for me and tell them that I’m here.”
“Not going to happen.As I said, you should just find yourself a cardboard box to sleep in while you’re here and then move on.We have no use for your kind of people around here.I liked it when you left the first time, Dick.That’s what we called you in school.Dick the dick.I remember you now.”
“I don’t know what it is you’re talking about.”He did remember that name, but not the woman who said that he knew her.High school had been a blur of one kind of trouble to the next.He’d hated being around here, and right after he’d gotten out of prison, he’d made himself get as far away as he could.Never to return.But he had a good reason to now, and these people were going to help him.“If you knew me in high school, then you know what sort of person I am.Call my son-in-law up and tell him to get his ass down here before I start to cause him all kinds of trouble.I mean it too.I’m in no mood to be fucked with.”
He should have known better.Almost as soon as the words left his mouth, two cruisers pulled up in front of the store with their lights on.Putting up his hands, he glared at the two women and told them they’d get theirs.He wasn’t above buying this place when he got his money and firing them both.Stupid cunts.
Richard was taken to jail, but not before he had to sit in the back of the cruiser, which was parked in the parking lot with their lights on for an hour.He knew it was an hour too because he could see the big clock in the store proclaiming that it was well after midnight when he got arrested.The whole town was going to pay for this, he thought.Just as soon as he found his daughter and that husband of hers, they were going to pay too.This was just ridiculous.He’d told them he was coming; everything should have been ready for him.
He supposed in a way it had been.The police certainly knew who he was and where he’d been coming from.Even the two women in the store seemed to know a great deal about him coming.Well, everyone was going to pay for this as soon as he had his money.There was no point in his pussyfooting around anymore.He was going to get the money, or he’d know the reason why, damn it.They willknow better than to mess with him next time.Richard was going to be as ready for them as they’d been ready for him.And they weren’t going to like it any better than he had.
~*~
Kendrick had been notified as soon as Dick got out of the car in Dresden.He’d been dropped off right in front of his house, and he thought it was funny that he’d not even known that.When he got to the convenience store, he’d been notified once again that he’d shown up there.It was just like clockwork the way the town was keeping tabs on the man.He loved every second of it.
The fact that he’d been arrested was funny to him, too.He’d never get his address unless he gave it to him, and that was going to cost the man.Sharon was worried that he’d hurt someone, and he was as well.But for now, he was safe and sound in the jail system and not bothering anyone around.Teddy, one of the officers at the jail, said that Dick was powerfully upset with them as they’d arrested him for vagrancy.
Dick had had twelve dollars on him when he’d been arrested and claimed that he had family in town that was going to take him in.Kendrick had made it perfectly clear that not only was he not taking him in, but he didn’t consider him to be family either.Now that he was off the streets for the night, he was going to go to bed and sleep peacefully.
“What have you found out?”He’d thought that Sharon had gone to bed and was startled by her voice in the darkness.He told her what he’d found out.“So he’s back in jail where he belongs.Did I tell you that Mom said not to trust anything he says?Not that I have any plans of doing that, but it does worry me that you’re being so cavalier about all this.”
“I promise you that I’m taking this very seriously.He’s going to be pissed off when we finally do talk to him, and I figured that he’d be more forthcoming about his plans when he is.I have already had Brew read his mind.He’s going to try to act like you’re his best thing since sliced bread and that he has missed you when he can’t even remember your name.”She said she was worried.“I am as well.He’s a man used to getting his own way, and it’s not going to happen around here.I know what I’m doing, but the smartest thing I’m doing is making sure I know where he is at any given moment.I promise you that he’s not going to harm you.”
“He’ll try to take me so that you’ll pay.”He’d already told her that he’d be a dead man if that happened, so he didn’t say anything this time.She knew, however.“I don’t want you to have to kill him either.I won’t feel bad that he’s dead, but I will be upset that you had to do it.That he drove you to kill him.Don’t you understand?I don’t want it to come to the point where you end up killing him and going to jail for it.I’ve only just figured out that I love you and I like having you around.”
“I’m going to be all right.If it makes you feel any better, I can have my brothers kill him if it comes to that.And it might not.But if he harms you or tries to take you, then all bets are off.He’s a dead man.”She came to him and wrapped her arms around his waist while putting her head on his chest.“I’m not going to be hurt either.I might break a nail, but that’s about it.I promise you I’m taking this as seriously as I can.”
“Who’s Brew?You might have told me at one time, but right now I can’t remember?”He explained that he was an old and powerful vampire who just so happens to be good friends with his family.They helped one another when they needed it, and Brew, being as old as he was, could read minds without any contact.It was one of his superpowers.“He’s Calla’s mate.He calls her his Calla Lily.I remember now.They’re a nice couple.Scary but nice.”
“He would love that you said that.”Guiding her up to the bedroom, he had not realized it was so late.He told her that the house was being protected by the pack and everyone was watching the new house, too.“The flooring will be done in a week, then we can move into the rest of the house.I’m glad you had the idea to move into the other rooms so that we could get it set up.I do love the living room furniture that we picked out.It’s comfy and sturdy.”
“You’re trying to distract me.”He laughed, just simply threw back his head and laughed.It felt wonderful to be so free with his laughter as he was with her.“You do that well, laugh, I mean.It soundsreally good and makes me want to join you.When this is all over, I want you to make me laugh daily.All right?”
“It would be my pleasure.I would love to hear you laughing like you mean it.”He kissed her gently on the mouth and opened her door.“Now go to sleep before I have to get up in the morning.Remember what I said, don’t leave the house for any reason unless someone is with you.He might be in jail for the night, but I don’t know when it is they’ll release him.All right?”
“Yes, all right.I understand.He’s out there no matter if he’s on the streets or not.”He kissed her again and turned to his end of the floor to go to bed.“I want to make love to you.Not tonight, I’m too stressed out, but soon.Would that be all right with you?”
“It would be fantastic.”He adjusted himself and laughed again.“I might need to take a cold shower before I head to bed tonight.You’re all I think about when I’m going to sleep.”
Hurrying to his room before he embarrassed himself again, he got in the door and closed it quietly behind him.Leaning against the door, he closed his eyes.It was that or sob.He wanted his mate with all that he was, and the sooner she was ready, the better off he’d be.But he’d never rush her.It was her body and her time to choose when they made love.Going to his bed, he decided that he would be all right tonight without taking a cold shower and laid down.He was nearly asleep when Conri contacted him.
