“I was only here to tell you that you were not mentioned in her will at all, Mr. Harold. I have spoken to your niece, Penny, as well as your other brother Tony on your mother’s behalf.” The man stood up. “Now, I do hope you have a safe life after this. I’m on—”
“You said you spoke to my brother and niece. If they didn’t get it, then you’re going to tell me who I have to kill to make sure I get it. That ain’t fair, I tell you.” The man only stood there, not saying a word. Nor did he give much away in his face. This wasn’t a man he’d play cards against. “You have to tell me. That ain’t right.”
“Well, I have taken care of your mother’s wishes, and that is all I’ve been hired to do, Mr. Harold.” James told him to sit down and to answer his fucking questions. “As titillating as that sounds, I’m going to have to pass. I have other people I report to, and I’m going to go back to my office. You have yourself a lovely day.”
The man just left. No matter how many threats James tossed at the little fucker, he just kept going to the door like he was on some kind of happy trip and wasn’t letting anyone take his buzz away. After tossing everything around the cell that wasn’t screwed down, James sat down on the floor and thought about what it meant for him not to have his mom’s house.
“It means a whole lot of shit, that’s what it means.” He usually spoke to himself and didn’t even mind answering his own questions. It was about the only way he could get anyone to agree with him. “Fuckers. I’m going to figure it out too. See if I don’t. Whoever got my mom’s house, they’d better be making their will out, so I get it this time. I swear, they’re going to be dead when I get to them.”
Smiling to himself, he knew he didn’t usually make that much sense when he was pissed off. Like today. Damn it all to fuck and back. Why didn’t Emmie just give him the money out of his own mom’s account? It wasn’t like she was going to spend any of it. Not to mention, he thought there might be laws about that when you were the bank manager—fat lot of good that had done them all.
“Wouldn’t even give over the keys to us so we could get us some ready cash. What sort of person does that sort of shit to their own brothers and their friends?” He asked Dutch about it. “You ever figure out where your sister hides her keys when she leaves work? I’m telling you, Dutch, we sure could make a lot of dough if she was just to accidentally leave them out someplace.”
“She don’t even tell me where she lives no more.” Now that was cold, he thought. “You know where your niece is living now?”
“Nah, but then I don’t really care so long as she’s not fucking living with me. Did I tell you I tried to get her to get her ass in the house and fix me some dinner? She told me no. I tell you, Dutch, we got the worst of the worst of women in our families.” Dutch agreed with him. “When I get out of here, I’m going to not only make sure Penny knows who’s boss, but I’ll also make sure she marries you. There ain’t no reason whatsoever that she should be telling you no after leading you around for so long. Just like her to up and tell you no after you already told her you’re a good catch for her.”
While James didn’t think Dutch was such a good catch, he did like the man. And then after the marriage, they’d be related for real. They’d be like brothers. That alone should have made Penny sit up and take notice of who she was getting married to. The Donnelly’s were about as close to family as they could get.
“I’ve been thinking on something. I heard that guy telling you that your mom didn’t put you in her will. Then he told you he talked to your niece and brother. You don’t think she might have left it to me, do you? I mean, we was always at her house. And I didn’t hit her around like I did my own mom when she was living.” He asked him why the man didn’t tell him when he was there. “I don’t know that. You might be as right as rain about that part. I didn’t think on that. Oh well. You should be getting out of here soon anyway, right?”
“I don’t know when. They didn’t tell me when they brought me in here on some trumped-up charges from the bank. I’m telling you right now, Dutch, that sister of yours is getting uppity. Not only that, I think she has this thing in her head that we’re beneath her. When we all know that ain’t even close to being true.” Dutch pointed out how she was the bank manager. “The only thing I can say about that is, they must have been desperate to fill the spot. Not to mention, they got rules about hiring women to do a man’s job. Why, I’m betting right now the people that run that bank are pissed off on account of how I was treated in there.”
He and Dutch talked through the rest of the afternoon well into the night. When the lights went out, James laid on his bed and thought about the things he was going to be doing when he got into his mom’s house. There was still plenty in the place that he could sell off. But the big television she’d just got, that was going to be in his bedroom.
James thought about Tony. He was about as stupid as stupid came when it came to anything. He didn’t know from minute to minute what a person was talking about. No matter how many times he’d hit him upside the head to try and knock some sense into him, it didn’t seem to stick. He often wondered if their mom had dropped him on his head a lot when he was a baby.
Tony couldn’t be depended on for much in the way of going out on some robbery either. He’d have his part in the jobs they did told to him about fifty times, then he’d still mess it up. Now he wished that when Penny was little, he’d not killed her mom and brought the kid home for his brother. It was like the two of them didn’t have a brain cell between them when Penny was a baby.
But she’d gotten smart. Not only did she finish up her schooling, but she went on to college. Why she’d done that, James didn’t have a clue. What good was it to have smarts when all you were going to be good for was fucking? Not that he ever wanted to have sex with his niece, but that was what others around him had said.
He heard the woman down the hallway, talking again. The cops had told him she talked to herself all the time. She sure was giving herself a piece of her mind. He doubted she could have afforded to give up too much. He thought she was off her rocker. She was going on about her being some kind of adding machine or something like that. James wanted to tell her to shut her trap, but he knew that would just set her off to be louder.
“Hey, James. You awake?” He told Dutch he was. “I been thinking about what that lawyer said. He only told you that he talked to your niece and brother. He didn’t say they weren’t mentioned in the will. Just that he talked to them. Do you suppose your mom gave her house to your niece?”
That had him sitting up on his cot. “You thinking that or wishing it, Dutch? I mean, that would mean the house belongs to you when you marry up with Penny.”
“I didn’t think of that either. But I will tell you this—if that’s what is going on, you know you always got a home with me. Even if Penny don’t care for it, you know you can live with me for as long as you want.” He told Dutch that was nice of him. “Like you said, we’re going to be like brothers soon enough. There ain’t no reason at all you should be out that house. It’s not the best in the neighborhood, but it’s big enough for us three, don’t you think?”
“How are you going to talk Penny into marrying you? I mean, she seemed dead set against it when she was at the house.” He said he was thinking about knocking her up. After that, she’d have to marry him. “I don’t know, Dutch. Women don’t have to marry like they used to. Damn shame about that, but I don’t think that’s going to work.”
He didn’t point out that him trying to knock his niece up was going to cause him all kinds of shit. Penny might be a pain in the ass, but she was fucking good with that gun she was carrying around all the time now. She’d been sassy since she’d been hanging out with that fucking Emmie.
“I’ll see about that.” Both of them were quiet for a while. Then when Dutch started laughing, he asked him what was so funny. “Your niece, being fat with my kid. I was just t
hinking how I wasn’t going to stop fucking her just because she’ll look like the side of a cow.”
“Dutch, I don’t want to hear about you screwing my niece if it’s all the same to you.” That made him laugh harder. “You just get her married to you, and things will be just hunky-dory. No matter if she got my mom’s house or not, she must be living someplace close to here. She sure was johnny on the spot when my mom died.”
James tried to think if he’d ever been to Penny’s house. He knew she had to be going someplace to live. He’d not seen her at his place for a while, not even at Grandpa Joe’s house that he could see when he’d been there. He wished sometimes he’d been living with the old man rather than with his mom. She didn’t take care of the house, or things, as well as the old man, did. Everything was spotless there.
It sure would be nice to have a maid to come around and pick up after him. There’d be other perks for her too. He’d fuck her whenever she got finished cleaning up for whoever was living with them. Also, he thought having someone to do his laundry, and other things around the house would be nothing to sneeze at.
Then he thought of Emmie. She wasn’t too bad on the eyes. Skinny as fuck, but she had herself some nice titties. He thought if he could just fuck her, she’d want to hang out with him more and more. James sat up in the bed when something just hit him right between the eyes.
“Hey Dutch, what if I were to marry your sister? I mean, that would make us double related, don’t you think? And the way Emmie and Penny get along, they’d surely see this as a great thing on account of them being sisters like for real.”
Dutch didn’t answer him, so he laid back down. The man was probably asleep.
Tomorrow he’d put out the word that he wanted to talk to Emmie. She might not come; he was aware of that. He’d pissed her off something terrible when he’d been at the bank. James frowned. Now that he had a minute to think on it, she wasn’t the least bit upset about him being arrested. Nor did she have that Bishop bastard let him stand up. Right then, he decided he didn’t want to talk to her about the mess she’d made for him at the bank. Emmie seemed to think she was in charge or something.
There were gonna have to be rules when they were married. Like she’d be giving him the keys to the bank when he asked for them. Then there was the cooking and cleaning shit that had to be done. James figured Penny and Emmie would be good at keeping house for their husbands.
The more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea. Not just the fact that they’d have the house and all that came with it, but the girls had jobs. He and Dutch would have it on easy street. If he got her pregnant a couple of times, they could get one of those welfare cards his mom had always gotten. Steaks every night for dinner. Beer stocked up in the fridge. Christ, he should have thought of this shit years ago.
Being too excited to sleep well, he was nearly ready to leap on the person who brought him his breakfast. It took him a few minutes to get Dutch to answer him, and when he was surly to him, he thought about not telling him his fantastic idea. After he told him, Dutch didn’t answer for a while and that sort of pissed him off. James told Dutch to stop ignoring him.
“I’m not ignoring you, dumbass. I’m thinking.” James asked him if he was hurting from that. “Don’t be a cock sucker, James. I was thinking on about what you said about marrying my sister. I have some questions about that.”
“Are you going to ask me if I can provide for her or some shit like that?” They both laughed. Dutch did ask him what he’d been thinking on. “Yes, I’d let you pop her when she needed it. Same with your wife, I’m thinking. They might learn not to be bitching to you and me as their husbands, but you know they’re going to be pitching a fit at their brothers. Pop her all you want. So long as you don’t touch her titties or her pussy. That’s going to be all mine.”
Both of them were laughing hard when they talked over the two cells between them. The woman at the other end was bitching again, and he could see that she was being taken out. While he didn’t give a shit on why she was even in jail, he did wonder if her bitching about shit was going to put the judge in a bad mood for when he got there.
After shoving his tray out when he was finished with it, James laid back on the bed. He didn’t really want to get hitched, but the benefits of being married to Emmie were too hard not to think about. She’d have to let him in the vault at her work, he thought. There wasn’t any way she was going to tell him no without him knocking her around a bit. Hell, he thought, he might just demand she get him a copy of the keys so he’d be able to come and go as he pleased. Being married was going to have way more benefits than having a clean house. It was going to put money in his pockets all the time too.
“James Harold, get up and against the wall. You’re seeing the judge today.”
He stood up and got against the wall. He didn’t fuck with these people, no matter how much they pissed him off.
By the time he was getting loaded up in the car they were transporting him in, he had to pee something terrible. It was their fault, he thought, for not reminding him to empty out before he left the jail. Now, he’d been told, he’d have to hold it. Like that was supposed to be something a grown man had to do.
The building was surrounded by people when they pulled up in front of it. James asked three times what was going on and never got an answer any of those times. There were even camera crews from stations he’d never heard of before. One of them, he noticed, had a license plate from way out west. He wondered what the hell was going on.
Getting into the building was a nightmare. There were, just like outside, people everywhere. He did kind of enjoy it when the people parted when he was led down the hall. He wondered if anyone thought of him as a dangerous criminal. That would be fantastic, he thought, if they were all here to see what sort of bail he was going to be getting.
There was going to be a wait, he was told by the three men with him. James told them again that he had to piss, but it didn’t seem to bother them. If he wet his pants, he told one of them, he was going to make them clean it up. All that got him was a cuff to the side of his head. Fuckers, every damned one of them.
“You can pee in a minute. I’ve got to be in there with you, Harold. You’re aware of that, aren’t you?” He asked the guy if he was going to hold his dick for him. “Sure, I will if I can find it. I heard from one of your victims that you don’t have much to show for all your bragging.”
“I’m not small, you fucking prick. I’ll show you if you want.” The man laughed, and James got pissed. Before he could say a word to the man, he was called to go into the courtroom. “You just saved your own life there.”
“Are you threatening me, James? I surely hope you are.” James told him he wasn’t threatening him but making a promise. “That’s perfect. You just threatened an officer of the law, dummy. Now we’re going to have you at our nice jail for a few more days.”
Fucking shit head. He had never learned to keep his mouth shut. And now here he was getting charged with shit while he was in the fucking jail. Would his luck ever change? He thought it would as soon as he got himself attached to Emmie. Then heads would roll, or he’d know the reason why.
Chapter 3
Wesley was just finishing up reading the instructions on cleaning the tractor when Penny joined him in the barn. He’d left before sun-up this morning and hadn’t woken anyone in the house as he fixed himself something to eat and left the house. She asked him if she could talk to him.
“Sure. Just let me put this stuff away. I’ve never had equipment like this before. I don’t want to come out here in the spring and find it’s all been rusted through or something.” She asked him if he thought that was going to happen. Wesley laughed a little. “No. I’m babbling. Making small talk for fear of you telling me that you guys are all moving out.”
“No. We’re not moving out. This is such a nice place I might not ever want to le
ave. But that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about. Your mom, she came by yesterday when you were at the Sanford farm. Thank you for that, by the way. Giving me a list of places you’d be in the event that I needed you.” He told her it was his pleasure. “Anyway, your mom came by and said she was going to make sure I was aware of the Thanksgiving schedule. I didn’t know what she was talking about, but she handed me a list. I guess I’m to sign us up for some part of the meal that is going to be at Sawyer’s home. Did you know anything about it?”
“I sort of did. I mean, I remember them talking about it the other night. I didn’t really pay attention because I’d just put in a long day, and I figured someone would update me on it when it was time.” He took the list when Penny held it out to him. “Okay. Now I remember. Sawyer and Raven were making the meat, and we were each to bring something we really like to the meal. We can either sign up for dessert, side dishes or a go along.”
“Yeah, I saw that too. What is a go-along? I mean, I sort of have an idea what it is, but I don’t know for sure.” He told her. “Okay, that’s what I thought. Things like drinks and butter that will go along with the meal. Do you cook?”
“I can if pressed. I know how to cook, but I don’t enjoy it overly much. However, for this, I’ll do it. I can make green beans with ham as a side.” She told him she loved to cook. “Awesome. If you’d like to do this, then I’m all for it. What is it you can make?”
“Anything. I can do things from when I was living at home, comfort food. Or I can do something I have a recipe for. That is if I can have all the ingredients right in front of me.” Wesley told her she could get whatever she wanted, and it would be in the kitchen for her. “Would you mind overly much if I started filling out the other parts of the house? I’m not saying it’s something I’ll do for sex.”
Wesley: Bishop’s Snowy Leap – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance (Bishop's Snowy Leap Book 3) Page 3