After she got into her car, she wondered if he’d remember anything she’d said to him. His eyes had been closed, and he looked really relaxed. Not being a part of the partnership that he’d been in seemed to have taken a great load off his shoulders.
~*~
Ricky didn’t mind the accommodations at the jail. There wasn’t anyone around but him and Meadow at the very end of the hall that they were in. That didn’t mean that he wanted to be there, but he knew that he’d not be there for long. Uncle Walter would soon have him out and free. There was no way that anyone would arrest his nephew without there being some repercussions. He was just biding his time.
Being arrested in the first place had been a pain in the ass. Not only had the police been there to bring him in, but there had been FBI, ATF, and SWAT. He could understand the Bureau being there, he supposed, but the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives was a little much. Even the Special Weapons and Tactics group was overboard in arresting him.
All he’d been doing was walking along the main drag in the little town that Dane lived in. Ricky had made his way into one of the little shops that he liked. Not buying anything, he was coming out the door when Armageddon came calling, it seemed.
Before he could guess what the fuck was going on, he was dragged from the shop, tossed to the ground, and a gun nearly embedded in the back of his head. They told him, several times, that he wasn’t to move, which he minded, and that he was to keep his trap shut. Again, he did just what they wanted. These types of people were not ones to fuck with.
Then Dane had shown up.
“Hello, Fucktard.” When she’d knelt down to his level while he was still on the ground, he asked her if she got off on tossing around innocent people. “Innocent? Doubtful you’ve been anything close to that since you were in diapers. But I did enjoy that. It was fun watching you being tossed around like the little boy that you are.”
He forgot that he was restrained and tried to lunge at her. Her laughter at him had him fuming, but he kept his mouth shut. Christ, he could not wait to take care of that bitch.
When he looked up from his position on the cot, there she stood, almost like he’d asked for her to come and see him. Instead of getting up, begging her for information, he stayed right where he was. It was then that he noticed that she was no longer pregnant, and she filled out a pair of black leather pants better than any model that he’d ever seen on television or in books.
“Would that be porn books?” Confused, Ricky asked her what she was talking about. “You thought that I looked better than a model in my pants. I just wondered if you were looking at porn when you saw the pictures.”
“What the fuck. Are you reading my mind?” She nodded and sat down in a chair that he’d only just noticed. Her answer startled him too. “Well, stay out of my head. I don’t need you fucking me up.”
“No. You seem to be able to do that all on your own. You’re in deep shit here, Ricky. Deeper than I thought when I started looking for shit that you did with the bus explosion. That’s going to be five counts of murder.” He said that there were only four mentioned in the paper. “The other child died from their wounds this morning. Not that it matters how long you stay in prison for this. I mean, it’s not like you’re going to live beyond the first life sentence that is given to you.”
Under normal circumstances, she might be right on that. But he knew who he was related to. Even if Uncle Walter didn’t want to get him out of this, his mom would. Mom would make her brother do anything to get him out of trouble. Ignoring Dane for what was on the television in the hall, Ricky tried to hold onto his temper when she laughed again.
“You really think that you’re just going to be able to walk away from this? Five murders? Three more attempted murders? And that’s only on this bus tragedy. Looking into your life has been one surprise after another. Your mom would be so proud to know that you have more deaths on your hands than her brother does. You’ve been a little shit for a long time.” He only snorted in her direction, still not looking. “I’ve spoken to her.”
He waited for her to continue, but when Dane didn’t, he finally had to know. “Who have you spoken to? Are you trying to tell me that your little powers allow you to speak to the dead? I don’t believe you. You’re nothing but a pumped-up dike that thinks her shit doesn’t stink.” He laughed again. “I have news for you, Dane. I’m a great deal more of anything than you’ll ever be.”
“Really?”
She stood up, and he watched as she stretched out her hand. Before he could guess what the hell she might be doing, a long blade about two inches wide extended out from her. The sucker was long enough that it could have touched him. Backing away from it as far as he could, he whimpered when it cut into his nose. She didn’t move, not even to step closer so that she could ram it through his head.
“I’m not going to kill you like this, Ricky, my boy. I’m going to allow the people in prison to have their fun with you. I’m sure you’ll be begging for me to end your miserable life when one of them sticks their cock, the size of a baseball bat, up your ass. You might even find that you like that.”
She was sitting down again when he realized that she was no longer a weapon. There was no chilling from that. Every time she moved, he thought for sure she was going to shift into something and kill him. Then Ricky remembered the cameras. There was no way she was going to do anything with them being recorded. Again, as if she’d been in his mind, she snapped her fingers, and all the lights and the cameras went off.
Plunged into complete darkness, he wasn’t sure where she was, much less what she might be doing. Sitting as still as he could, fearful of what kind of other shit she could do, Ricky didn’t say a word.
When the lights came on, she was standing over him. There was a gun in one of her hands and.... He only then realized that one of her hands was the fucking gun. The other, he had no idea. Ricky couldn’t pull his eyes off the one that was pointed at him.
“You are going to piss yourself if you keep scaring yourself every time something happens.” When she went back to her seat, just blending into the cell door and walking right through the metal, Ricky thought that he might be in worse trouble than he’d figured. Dane was much scarier than he’d ever thought. “You keep that in mind while you’re plotting your way out of here. Either way, Ricky, I want you to know that you’re going to pay with your life for what you’ve done.”
She might have been gone for twenty minutes, or days, for all he knew when he turned to where she’d been sitting. He’d been thinking about what other things she could do. Other weapons she could make herself become. Ricky wondered if anyone would believe him when he told them what Dane had done to him.
They brought his meal to him. He could tell what time of the day it was by what he got. That was another thing that he didn’t mind so much about being here—the food wasn’t so bad. Yesterday for dinner, he’d had roast beef and mashed potatoes, as well as a large slice of cherry pie. If he didn’t give them any shit, they’d bring him some ice cream, they’d told him. This was better than he got at Uncle Walter’s home. At least here they waited on him.
When the cop that had his and Meadow’s meal came back his way, he paused by his door. Pulling out the notepad that he’d referred to twice since he’d been here, he looked at him.
“Dane said she forgot to tell you about your momma. She said that she’s talked to her, and you’re not to expect anything from her.” Ricky said that he never did. “Well then, I guess that’s good. Your uncle will be in to see you around dinner time. He’s having pizza brought in.”
That sounded delicious. Pizza with his uncle? It would be like old times. As he sat there thinking about Uncle Walter, he tried to think up things that he needed to make clear to him. Like why everyone thought that he’d had a single thing to do with the bombing.
Several things could work in his favor, he t
hought. He could tell his uncle that Meadow had enticed him with sex. Not that he would ever bang a woman as old as she was. Meadow had to be at least sixty or something. Then he thought about telling him that he had no idea what Dane was talking about. He’d been someplace else when the bombing occurred.
Ricky thought of the remote that he’d kept. Probably shouldn’t have done that now that he had time to think about it. That, he thought, might get him into some deep shit. But he also told himself that Uncle Walter wouldn’t allow her to go to his room and look for evidence against him. He didn’t even let the staff in to clean up after him except once a week. Even then, Ricky had to have his clothes in the hamper and things that were clean in the drawers.
As soon as he was brought his evening meal, he told the cop that he was having pizza with his uncle. They told him that they’d not been notified of that, so to keep it just in case. He didn’t even bother looking at what it was, he was so hyped up for having a hot pie with Uncle Walter.
Uncle Walter showed up about twenty minutes later. Ricky could smell the pizza even before he stopped in front of his cell. A table was brought to him, even a couple of beers. When Uncle Walter sat down, he pulled him off a huge slice and started eating it as he spoke.
“Where is my slice?” Uncle Walter asked him what he meant. “Of pizza. I was told that you were bringing me some pizza, and we’d have it while we talked about this shit that Dane is pulling on me. She’s out to get me, Uncle Walter. I hope you know that.”
“With good reason, I’ve been told. As far as the pizza, I said I was having some. I never said I was going to have any with you.” He took another big bite of the pie, folded over like he was eating a sandwich. “If you ever get the chance to have Adornetto’s pizza— Well, I guess you’re not going to have any where you’re going. But it’s the best there is, bar none. Now, what’s this I hear about you thinking I’m going to be getting you out of here? That’s funny. It’s also never going to happen. You’re going to pay with your life for what you’ve done, and as of the moment I leave here, I’m finished with your ass too.”
Ricky watched his uncle polish off the entire pepperoni pizza. Not once did he offer him any. But he did tell him, in no uncertain terms, that he wasn’t going to help get him off, no matter what he thought their relationship might be. Nor was he going to visit him after today.
All Ricky could think about was that he was going to have to figure this out on his own. And when he did—not if, but when—there was going to be hell to pay from not just fucking Dane, but also his family. Fuck this shit. They were going to feel his wrath.
Uncle Walter left him after finishing the pizza. As he was going through the door to the outside, he heard someone thanking him for bringing in enough pizza for everyone. And his generous fucking uncle told them to make sure that the night shift knew some was coming for them too. Mother fucker. Ricky hated every fucking one of them.
“I’ll show you how I’m going to get myself out of this mess. And I’m going to make sure that everyone knows my family left me out to dry.” He thought about telling the world that his uncle had made him do this for some money. “I’ll have to work on that storyline a bit longer, I think. I love it.”
Chapter 7
Wyatt was glad he’d taken his brother up on his offer of buying one of the buildings that he had downtown. It was within walking distance to anything that he might need, and if he wanted, he could walk to work and back. Painting the wall in the room that was going to be primarily for kids, he thought about the conversation that he’d had with his dad when he’d gotten here today.
“I was wondering if you could take over one of the things I do for the high school. I don’t mind being their sideline doctor, not at all. But your mom and I, we’ve been thinking about doing some traveling. Nothing for a long time, but just here and there for a week or two.” Wyatt told him that he’d love to help the school out, but especially him and Mom. “Thanks. I was also wondering what you know about motor homes. Not one that I have to work like the devil to get it up and going. Just something that I can pull into some place and be all ready to take a nap under the trees. I have to tell you, those suckers are bigger than anything I ever saw before.”
“I saw one on a commercial the other night.” Dad asked him how hard it was for him to finally get a television set up. “Not as hard as you’d think, old man. It was a commercial— Hey Dad, they’re having an RV show in a few weeks in Columbus. I’m betting that you could go there and pick out just what you want. If you’d like, I can hang around with you. And I’d take Hailey too. She’d have the best knowledge of the towing capacity and such, what with her pulling a rig for all those years.”
“I like that idea. I do. Taking your mother there might have her thinking that we want one of them driving kind. I have to tell you, I can see the pros and cons of something like that. One of the bigger ones is, what do you drive around after you’re all set up?” Wyatt had told his dad that people usually pulled a car with their camper. “Yes, I can see that costing more than just getting yourself a hotel for the night. The gas mileage would be terrible.”
His family might be billionaires several times over, but that didn’t stop them from looking at costs. Wyatt loved that about his dad and mom. They had instilled a sense of caring about where your money was going in all of them.
“Wyatt?” He told Levi that he was in the back room. He’d asked him earlier if he could come by and maybe paint something on the walls of this room. “Wow, this is a lot larger than I was thinking. What did you have in mind?”
“I just want it to be fun or funny. I’ve not thought that far into it. I’m going to have a toy box over there, as well as a treasure chest with small things in it for kids that have to come and see me. I want them to leave here thinking that coming to the doctor isn’t as bad as they thought it was going to be.” Levi thought that was a good idea. “Also, I’d like to have something that goes around the room. Like up and over the ceiling too.”
“I can almost see what I want to do. How about we make it a pirate ship? And instead of just a toy box, we make it look like a real treasure chest—with girl and boy pirates, of course.” He watched Levi as he started to paint the picture for him in his mind. “The table will have to be something more than a place that they have to lay down—a plank. I’m not sure how that will work, but I’ll get with Brayden on it. Maybe he can come up with something— Holy shit, I’m going to have fun with this.”
By the time his brother started to make notes, he was as excited as Levi was. It was going to be epic to have this room. Then he started thinking of the other rooms and what he might be able to incorporate into them.
“You’ll need a wall.” He must have missed something from Levi, and explained to him that he had several walls in the room now. “No, I mean a wall for baby pictures. Ones that you bring into the world. I’ve seen that at doctors’ offices before. It’s kind of fun to look at the babies and the doctor together.”
“I have a picture of Brayden’s baby with them. I was going to make that my first one.” Levi asked him if he could take care of that as well. “Go for it. I was actually thinking about what I could do to the other rooms as well. I mean, it’s pretty boring in the rooms when you have to wait for the doctor to get around to seeing you.”
“I’d love to do it.” Wyatt told him that he wasn’t asking him to do that, it was too much work. “No, this won’t be work for me, but a lot of fun. I can see the other rooms forming in my head now. You just paint all the walls white, and I’ll take over from there. I love this. I might even trust you enough to bring my own kids here.”
He knew that he was joking about that. Wyatt had been checking out all the kids since they were brought into the family. There was something so calming about caring for a family member that he’d never gotten before from working in the partnership. Painting the last wall in the room, Wyatt told Levi about what
Dad had asked him earlier.
“You’d be good at that too, and not a pushover. I love Dad to pieces, but I noticed that he can be a little lax when he’s looking the kids over. One of the football players from last season broke his hand, but he didn’t want to be pulled out of the game. Dad let him play until the end of the season.” Wyatt said there was no harm in that if the break wasn’t that bad. “Really? I would have been pissed off if I found out my doctor let my kid play when he shouldn’t have.”
“Yes, but the thing is, I know about that kid. He didn’t play much. Rarely, as a matter of fact. But he was a senior and wanted to be on the sidelines with his team for his last year. Dad made him promise that he’d try very hard not to go on the field, and he’d allow him to sit on the sidelines.” Levi said that he’d not heard that. “Dad even made the kid tell his coach, as well as his parents. I might well have put the cast on his hand and been done with it, but the kid wanted to wear his uniform for the games, and this coach wouldn’t have let him dress. I think Dad made the same decision that I would have.”
“Good to know. I never thought about that part. I remember wearing my uniform all day on the day of a game. There was something so—I don’t know—magical about being able to wear that and feel like you were a part of something.” Wyatt just let his brother think on that while he painted. “You’re a good man, Wyatt. I don’t say that enough to any of you, but you, you’ve been the best friend and best brother that anyone could have asked for. You’re calm. You don’t let the circumstances of what is going on around you get in the way. I love you, Wyatt. All of my brothers, but I dearly love you.”
“Don’t get all sappy on me, moron.” The two of them talked about the other walls as Wyatt finished up the painting in the room. When he was finished with that room, Levi said that he’d be back tomorrow to start on it. “Thanks, Levi. And I love you too. You and the others? Well, a brother couldn’t have asked for better role models than the five of you.”
Wyatt: The Stanton Pack—Paranormal Cougar Shifter Romance Page 8