Brides on the Run (Books 1-4): Small-Town Romance Series

by Jami Albright

  “Waffles it is.” The waitress laughed and seemed relieved to be able to walk away from the table.

  “Okay, spill,” Luanne said. “And I swear if I think you’re lying, I’ll call the sheriff faster than you can say grand theft auto.”

  June wrung her hands. “Well, it all started a few months ago. My no-good D-A-U-G-H-T-E-R ran off and left B-O-B-B-Y with me. Don’t get me wrong, I adore him and truly believed he was better off with me, and for about a month he was. Pearl was so sweet to take him in and not complain at all.” She gave her sister a loving look. “We’ve lived together since my husband died five years ago.”

  “I love that little squirt, June. You know that.” She reached across the table and ruffled Bobby’s hair.

  Bobby looked up from his coloring page and grinned.

  Pearl began to tear up the paper napkin in front of her. “Everything would’ve been fine too if it weren’t for that lousy Marty Franklin.”

  This made Jack sit up in his seat. “Marty Franklin? Is that Bobby’s father?”

  “Gawd, no.” Pearl said.

  June crossed her hands primly in her lap. “We don’t exactly know who B-O-B-B-Y’s father is.”

  “Marty Franklin is the scumbag who lives in the duplex next to us. He takes care of the place for the owner. At least he’s supposed to take care of things at the place we lived.”

  “Lived?” Luanne said.

  “Yes, lived,” Pearl spat out. “He became the manager about the same time June’s daughter left. At first it was only June’s social security check that went missing. We called the SS office and they assured us the check was mailed, but she never got it.”

  June picked up the story. “We asked Marty about it. At first he denied knowing anything about it, but then the next month Pearl’s check went missing. At that point, we confronted him. He admitted he’d taken them because we had the baby living with us and he’s not on the lease.” June’s voice quivered. “Why would a little boy need to be on the lease?”

  “I’m pretty sure they don’t have to be, but we’ll check that out,” Jack said as calmly as possible, but his blood was boiling.

  “Then the next month he kept both checks. We told him we’d go to the police, and he told us he’d report us to Child Protective Services and that we’d lose Bobby.” June raised her hands helplessly. “What could we do? I can’t lose him. As you might imagine, we couldn’t pay our bills and three days ago we came home from an errand and all of our things were on the front stoop. Marty said we hadn’t paid our rent and evicted us.”

  “Why would he do that? He can’t get your checks if you aren’t living there.” Luanne looked from one woman to the next.

  They both ducked their heads, and before they could answer the waitress returned with their order. Jack had never seen anyone be more excited about a waffle than Bobby.

  After the waitress refilled their coffees and left, June said, “Our checks are still going to the address. He said he’ll turn us in if we change anything. We’ve been living out of our car for the last few days. We know what we did was wrong, but we didn’t feel like we had another choice.”

  Fury burned through Jack’s body. He kept his shaking hands in his lap, squeezing and releasing a fist over and over. People like Marty were the scum of the earth. They didn’t deserve to breathe the same air that decent people did.

  “Where’s Jack’s car?” Luanne asked.

  June chewed on her crepe-paper lip. Even Pearl looked a little uncomfortable.

  “Ladies?”

  Pearl squared her shoulders. “We sold it and got ten thousand dollars for it. That’s more money than we’ve ever seen in one place.”

  Something close to a sob slipped from Jack’s mouth. His baby had been defiled had sold for pennies on the dollar. He scrubbed his hands down his face and breathed through his nose. This could not be happening. That car was the symbol of everything he’d worked for, and now it was gone. Just like that. Poof.

  “We still have most of the money. We’ll give it back to you. Just don’t call the cops.” For the first time Pearl lost her belligerent tone. “It would kill June to lose that boy.”

  “Ladies, will you excuse us a moment?” Luanne took Jack by the hand and led him outside.

  He squinted against the bright sun and slumped against the building.

  “Are you alright? I know how much you loved that car.”

  He just waved her off. There wasn’t anything he could say.

  She patted his arm. “I understand.”

  And she did. How weird was that? Most women would want him to talk about his feelings and beat the whole thing to death. Not Luanne.

  “What do you want to do?”

  “Nail that fucking Marty Franklin’s ass to the wall. If not for him I’d still have my car.”

  “I’m with you on that one.” She flicked hair from her forehead.

  He placed his hand on his stomach. Acid that churned and burned in his gut. “Should we call the police?”

  “Let’s see who owns the duplex first,” she said. “In a small town, you never know. Marty’s uncle could be the chief of police. We need all the ammunition we can get first.”

  “Good plan. The bottom line is this family needs help, and if we can help I won’t feel like my car died in vain.”

  She rubbed his arm. “I am sorry for your loss. She had a good life.”

  Her lips twitching at the corners made him grin. “Shut up. Let’s go use our superpowers to fight crime.”

  Luanne did feel bad for Jack. He was the one who’d lost in this deal, so it was only right that she try to fix this. “Ladies, do you know who owns the duplex you live in?” They were all back at the table and had ordered pie. Because why the hell not? Pie made everything better.

  “It used to be owned by Carol Flagg, but when she died her kids sold it. I’m not sure who bought it.” June pulled out some toys for Bobby to play with. The boy was really one of the best kids Luanne had ever seen.

  “We need to find out who the owner is. Can Caroline do that?” she asked Jack. “I’d ask my assistant, but I gave him two weeks off and he’s in Mexico.”

  “Yes, if she’s still at the office.” He reached for his phone in his pocket and froze. “Would you ladies mind if I borrowed my phone?”

  There was an awkward silence. “Um…sure.” June gave a awkward giggle and handed it to him.

  “Thanks.” He pulled up his contacts and selected the one for his office. “Caroline, it’s Jack. I’m glad I caught you before you left for the day. Well, it’s been interesting. I’ll tell you about it when I get back, which probably won’t be for a couple of weeks. We’ll handle things via email or phone. Right now I need you to check the ownership of a property in Quincy, Alabama?”

  Luanne listened to him give his assistant the property details and the info on Marty for a background check. She resisted the urge to do the happy dance. He’d said he wouldn’t be back to the office for a couple of weeks, so he planned to continue their adventure.

  “I’ll wait.” He lowered the receiver from his mouth and addressed her. “Don’t look so excited, Thumbelina. This trip has disaster written all over it, but I’m willing to see it through if you go with me.”

  She stifled her grin. “If I have to.”

  “What in blue blazes are you two talking about?” Pearl snapped. “What are you going to do about our situation?”

  Jack licked pie from his fork. “Cool your jets, Pearl. I’m waiting on my assistant to get the info. Why don’t you polish your fangs or something?”

  Pearl harrumphed.

  While they waited, Jack reached over and grabbed one of Bobby’s crayons and drew a picture of a cow in a dress. The kid gave him a lopsided grin. Jack asked him how he liked it in a Donald Duck voice, and the boy fell into spastic giggles. When he winked at Luanne she nearly melted out of the seat.

  “Yeah, I’m here. Uh-huh. Okay, got it.” He scribbled something on a napkin. “Thanks, Caroli
ne. Can you draft a cease and desist order for the owner and cite the fact that Marty Franklin has been stealing Pearl—” He looked at Pearl.

  “Moore,” Pearl said.

  He glanced at June and raised his brows in question.

  “Kelso,” June said.

  “Marty Franklin has been stealing from Pearl Moore and June Kelso for the last four months and has evicted them, threatened them, and is continuing to steal from them. I’m also going to need you to wire me some money. I don’t know where to yet. I’ll call you back in a bit. Thank you. I owe you.” He gave a half laugh. “I’m sure you will.”

  He hung up. “Okay, ladies, it’s time to call the authorities.”

  “Now wait a cotton-pickin’ second,” Pearl exploded. “I thought you were helping us, not turning us in.”

  Luanne put her hand over Pearl’s. “Pearl, we are trying to help, but you need to get the chip off your shoulder and let us.”

  “But why are you wanting to call the police?” June asked.

  “You need to report what Marty’s done to you.”

  “But he’ll report us to CPS.”

  “No. He won’t. He doesn’t have anything to report.” Luanne stretched her neck side to side to crack it. “Does he?”

  “Absolutely not,” Pearl said.

  “Then let’s give them a call.”

  And that was how it went. Jack and Luanne advising them what to do, Pearl arguing, and June acquiescing. The police came and took the women’s statement. Jack got the name of an attorney from Quincy, who put him in touch with the local senior citizen advocate. They both assured him the sisters would be sorted out by the end of the week. He also told the lawyer to send him the bill.

  At one point Bobby got restless, so Luanne took him outside to walk around for a while.

  When they came back in she found Jack and the women in an intense conversation.

  “We aren’t taking charity.” Pearl crossed her arms in defiance.

  “But you’ll steal from me?” Jack asked.

  “That’s different. Now that it’s all out, we can’t take your money for nothing.”

  “I’m not proposing to give you money for nothing. You got ten thousand dollars when you sold my car. You keep that as payment for the clothes you took from Luanne.”

  “You want to give us ten thousand dollars for a bag of thrift store outfits? Why in the world would you do that?” June asked.

  “She’s had a tough couple of days, and that bag of clothing is important to her.”

  “Well, since you put it that way.” Pearl stuck her hand out. “You got yourself a deal.”

  Luanne could hardly believe her ears. Jack was getting her clothes back for her, and helping the sisters in the process. Her vow to hate him for all time grew weaker every day.

  The arrow of his words had made a direct hit, and the hard shell around her heart cracked open. All the gooey feelings she kept barricaded away spilled out and there was no calling them back. Tears blurred her vision and a lump the size of a semitruck stuck in her throat.

  “I’ll go get the clothes.” June excused herself from the table. “You’ve gotcha a good man there,” she said as she passed Luanne.

  “Oh, he’s not—” But her denial fell on deaf ears. June was already out the door. How should she play this? The wall of ice she lived behind had more cracks than the Texas dirt in mid-August. She wasn’t sure she could act like this didn’t mean everything to her.

  “Pearly!” Bobby cried.

  Busted. No more hiding behind the wall. She squeezed Jack’s shoulder. When he glanced up, she mouthed, thank you.

  He smiled and gave a half shrug then excused himself from the table.

  As she watched him walk away, something very sweet took up residence in her chest.

  Pearl held her arms up to Bobby. “Give me that boy before you drop him.”

  “For some reason this boy thinks you’re about the best thing in his world, Pearl.” Luanne gave the woman a saccharinely sweet smile and handed her the child. “Clearly you’ve never held him at gunpoint.”

  Pearl smoothed down Bobby’s orange hair. “Don’t listen to her, sweetie pie, she’s just mad someone got the best of her.”

  Luanne dropped into her chair. “The truth is, Pearl, I kinda want to be you when I grow up. You did what you felt like you had to do to protect your family. Granted, it was completely misguided. But go big or go home, right?”

  Pearl laughed and so did the boy. Then June returned with Luanne’s meager belongings. “Here you are, Luanne. We didn’t mess with any of your things.”

  “Not that we would want any of those thrift store finds,” Pearl said.

  Luanne sucked down a laugh. The old broad was something else.

  Jack came back to the table and ended a phone call as he sat down next to her. “Okay, ladies. You’re set up at the extended stay hotel until the authorities get this worked out. If nothing’s happened by the end of the week call my assistant.” He sat his phone on the table, and wrote his office number on one of Bobby’s coloring sheets. “She’ll get in touch with me.”

  He stood and June grabbed his hand. “We will never be able to thank you both for all you’ve done.” A tear slipped down her wrinkled cheek. “Here, we want you to have this.” She handed him his phone.

  “Um…thanks. Well, we better be going. We have a bus to catch.” He kissed June on the cheek and pointed at Pearl. “You ladies stay sassy and unarmed.”

  When they stepped out onto the sidewalk Jack burst out laughing and leaned against the building. “That was the craziest thing I’ve ever been involved with. She gave me my own phone as a thank you gift.” He could barely finish the sentence, he was laughing so hard.

  “I know. Can I see it?”

  He dug it out of his pocket. “Sure.”

  She pulled up Gavin’s contact and dialed. “Scarlett, it’s Lou. Jack and I have run into a bit of trouble, but we’re alright now. We’re headed out on the next leg of our journey. I’ll call when we get there.”

  “Good idea,” he said. “Let me have it now, so I can call Caroline back and have her wire us money.”

  This was going to hurt.

  But it had to be done.

  She dropped the phone and brought her heel down on it as hard as she could.

  “Luanne! What the hell?” His shouts ricocheted off the buildings on Main Street.

  “I’m sorry, Jack. But hasn’t it occurred to you that my father could possibly use your phone to track us?”

  “Luanne, this isn’t some spy movie. That kind of shit’s illegal.”

  “I can assure you my father’s not above illegal activity to get what he wants.”

  He stared at his broken phone. “Have you forgotten we’re broke?”

  “We aren’t broke. You still have enough money for us to catch a bus, buy a burner phone, and eat for the day. By this evening, we’ll be at your family’s house and I’m sure they’ll put us up. Tomorrow we can borrow their phone and call the people we need to.”

  “We don’t have any numbers.” His hands were firmly planted on his hips.

  “I imported them to my email. All we need is a computer and a Wi-Fi connection to retrieve them.”

  She knew he’d taken several blows today, but this was important. Her father was probably already on the move now.

  His long fingers threaded through his hair and he took several slow breaths. “Okay. You have a point.” He looked up and down the street. “Let’s find the bus station, or tonight you’ll be the one on the pole.”

  “You don’t have to tell me twice.” She looped her arm through his and they set off.

  She also ignored how right everything felt.

  Chapter 17

  The bus wasn’t as bad as Luanne had expected. It was clean, and had movies and Wi-Fi, not that the last would help them since they didn’t have a smart electronic device to their name. They’d purchased a disposable phone to have in case of an emergency, but it was a
flip phone, for crying out loud.

  She needed to call her grandmother, who was probably in a complete tizzy by now. Not that she’d really be worried about her welfare, but it always sent the woman over the edge when she didn’t fall in line and behave like she was supposed to.

  “I guess I should call my grandmother.” She set aside the bag of snacks they’d bought and held her hand out for the phone.

  “What about your dad?” He dug the device from his pocket.

  “He won’t be there. He doesn’t spend a lot of time with her.”

  “Gigi, it’s Luanne.”

  “Luanne. Where are you? You need to get home right now. Your daddy is torn up about all of this.”

  “I’m not coming home, Gigi. I only called to let you know that I’m okay.” She picked at a loose thread on her jeans.

  “I’m sure you are, since you’re gallivantin’ all over creation with a man other than your fiancé. Honestly, Luanne, have you given any thought to what people are sayin’ about us? I’m not going to be able to show my face in town ever again.”

  “Gigi, Marcus—”

  “Don’t you call your daddy by his first name, it’s disrespectful.”

  “Marcus,” she ground the word out for emphasis, “made a deal with Doug. He wants Doug’s father’s company’s business, Doug wants to be the CEO and needs a respectable wife to get Mr. Divan’s approval. I was the bargaining chip. He sold me to the highest bidder, Gigi.”

  “Oh.”

  There was a silent pause. Maybe this was what her grandmother needed to remove the blinders from her sight when it came to her son.

  “Please. You’re so dramatic, Luanne. Sell you to the highest bidder, indeed.”

  Then again, maybe not.

  “I don’t know where you get all of this drama from. It certainly wasn’t from me. I guess you’re more like your mother than either of us thought you were.”

  That cut deep. Gigi knew exactly how to bring her in line, and any comparison to her mother was sure to elicit the response she wanted.

  But not this time.

  “Gigi, he doesn’t care about me.”