“I told you what my plans are for the money. Not that you asked, but Grandpa Joe is living with us too. He’s sad, but he’s getting better every day.” James said he’d take his house then. “I already own that, as of this morning. Well, Wesley and I own it. It’s going to have to be torn down. Termites have gotten to the foundation.”
“Are you going to give me anything, bitch? I’m broke, and it’s all your fault.” The need to hit her was great. But he knew as surely as he would draw back, her new husband would do just as he’d said and kill him. James tried being pitiful for her, so she’d help him. “You have to give me something. I’m down on my luck, Penny. I’m your uncle, for fuck’s sake.”
“You are. There is no doubt about that.” She looked at Wesley, then back at him. “All right, I’ll help you out. But just this one time. If I were you, I’d get a job. Nothing is free anymore, and you should have learned that a long time ago.”
“Yeah, sure. Where is my money?” She said she’d never planned on giving him anything but advice. “That’s it? You tell me to get a job, and that’s supposed to help me? Christ, I should have left you with your fucking mother when I killed her.”
“What did you just say?” James had to think about what he’d said and backed away from them. “You killed my mother? For what?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He looked around for an easy escape to gather his thoughts. “I’m going to let you off this time, but you’d better be prepared to pay me some of the money I should have gotten in the first place.”
He was nearing the police station when a group of cops came outside. Turning down the alley that ran the length of the station, he found himself a nice quiet place to hide out. She’d tricked him, he told himself. Tricked him into saying things he shouldn’t have. Damn, damn, damn. James was beginning to really hate his niece.
Chapter 6
Wesley found Penny on the deck. She’d been absent for a while now, and he was relieved to have found her. He could have, he supposed, reached out to her, but he didn’t know how she was feeling. Asking her if she was all right, his heart broke when she looked up at him. There were tears still falling, and he sat down in front of her and laid his head on her lap.
“If you want me to, I could go find him now and shake the answers out of him. I don’t know how much he’ll tell you, but it would be fun to do that.” She put her hand on his head, and he turned enough to kiss it. “I’m so sorry he hurt you, Penny. I had no idea he’d done what he had.”
“I think on some level, I knew he had.” She lifted his head up and kissed him. “I thought for sure he was going to piss himself when you spoke to him. You were so calm, but I could tell you were angry.”
“To be honest with you, I was trying not to allow you to kill him. I could see you were reaching for your gun.” She laughed with him. “There are a couple of things I’d like to ask you. Nothing earth shattering, but just questions. Why is it that Tony never seems to come around? I mean, I don’t know why, but I thought he and your uncle would be close.”
“Dad hasn’t really been around much even when he was in the same room with someone. He’s forever quiet, unlike James.” He thought it was because James never shut up and told her that. “There is that. He was forever trying to inject some of his stupidity into a conversation. I think Dad just got used to letting him have his way. I wonder if Dad had anything to do with Uncle James killing my mom.”
“I don’t know why I think this, but I don’t think he did. I’ve seen your dad around town a couple of times lately, and he always seems to have his head down and moving quickly. I think you got that from him, racing from one place to the next.” He stood up—the deck was cold on his ass—and picked her up out of the chair. Instead of sitting back down with her, he took her into the house and sat with her on the couch. “I was enjoying the fire in this room when I realized I’d not seen you since we got home today.”
“It’s nice, isn’t it? To have a nice warm fire when it’s so cold out. I bet this room will be the place we hang out the most when winter comes.” He said he’d hang out with her anywhere. “You’re just hoping to get laid again, that’s all.”
“Of course, I am. But I will admit, I’m sort of worn out.” She just looked at him. “You’re almost too much for me. I wonder if you’re trying to kill me off or something.”
“No. Not yet, at any rate.” He remembered something and got up to find the envelope Raven had given him that morning. Handing it to her, he sat back down next to her as he explained. “Raven said this is the commission on sealing the deal the other day. She told me you did a fantastic job with it.”
“I was pissed off that she had the nerve to buy me all this— Holy fuck, Wesley, this is for seven million dollars. What the hell is she doing giving me this much money?” Wesley said he’d not known about the amount, but he figured it would be high. “Why? Why on earth didn’t you warn me?”
“Actually, I never thought about it. When she handed me the envelope, Chandler was there. He told me it would be a good amount as Raven and Holly paid him ten percent of each deal he helped close for them. I didn’t know how much the original deal was for, but I thought you’d been told about it.” Penny kept staring at the check. “Penny, are you hearing me?”
“Yes. This is a lot of money when all I really did was tell the man to call his wife.” Wesley didn’t know what to say to Penny about that, but he knew Raven had been glad she showed up. “I had to deposit my mom’s insurance this morning. This is really going to make Emmie’s day when I want to put this someplace safe.”
When the front door was knocked on, he got up to let his brother in. He’d called him when they’d gotten home after talking to James, and Chandler said he’d help. He was happy to see he’d not only brought Sasha, but Pip, their daughter, as well. He took the baby and led them to the living room where he could sit and play with the baby while they spoke to Penny.
“Hey.” Chandler had a way with words, he thought. But it was Sasha that spoke next. She wasn’t one to beat around the bush.
“I don’t know if you were told this or not, but Chandler and I can see ghosts.” Penny looked at him, and he nodded. “Wesley asked us to come over here and see if you’d like to have some information about your mother. I told him I could do it easily, but not without your permission.”
“You’re not kidding, are you?” Penny got up and took Pip from him. When she sat down, she didn’t look at them but the baby. He thought she was taking this much better than he’d expected. “I just found out today that James killed her. Will you know how he did it?”
“I will. You won’t unless you wish to. I can talk to her for you. She can hear you, but I’m afraid she’s been gone too long for me to be able to allow you to speak to each other. Chandler and I are getting used to this promotion, they called it, a little at a time. I will tell you, Penny, she’d not had a very easy life up until her death. I will also tell you that Tony isn’t your father. I did find out that much.”
“Is it James?” Sasha told her no, he wasn’t either. “So, my birth certificate is wrong. That neither of them are related to me.”
“You are related to them. Wendy wasn’t your grandmother, but your mother.” Penny did look at Sasha then. “Wendy had you while her boys were in prison. She had sent you away to the Parker family to be raised. Hallie, the friend of Wendy’s, was killed by James, and he brought the child, you, home for your brother. Tony and James aren’t your uncle and dad—they’re your brothers by birth. No one is sure why he knew to find you there. Only Wendy would be able to tell you that.”
“Do you see her too?” Sasha nodded. “I don’t know what to think about all this. I mean, I want to believe you, but it’s so far out there I’m not sure what to think.”
“I do understand that. Wendy refuses to use the glamor that is there for her. When she was in that accident, she to
ld me, she’d just found out that James had killed Hallie. She was calling the police when she lost control of her car. The rest, you know.”
Penny got up with Pip and paced the room. “Will she give me the answers I need if you ask her? Either of them?”
“Yes. Ghosts cannot lie to us. It hurts them when they try. I’m new to this stuff too. I mean, all of this is crazy nuts sometimes, but I do have Chandler to fall back on when it gets to be too much.” Penny stopped pacing, and his heart broke for her tears. Wesley wanted to get up and make his family go away, but Penny needed answers. “What is it you want to know?”
“Did Hallie suffer?” Sasha glanced to her right and then told Penny she had. “I’m sorry. I know you said she can hear me, but could you tell her that I’m so very sorry for this?”
“She said to tell you it was never your fault. But she is glad to see you’re happy now.” Penny said she was. Very much so. Sasha laughed again. “She said to tell you she’s glad you look nothing like your mother. Something I should explain. The two here cannot see or talk to each other. Unless they died together or they died at the exact same time, they can’t see each other. It’s only relatives that can have conversations on the other side. These two were friends at one time, but that isn’t the same as being related.”
“Will you ask Wendy why she had me sent away? I think I might know the answer to that, but I don’t know for sure.” Wesley looked at Penny while Sasha stared at whoever was talking to her. “I’m all right. I’m just trying to come to terms with this.”
“It’ll be all right, love. I just wanted to be informed when James or any of the others came around.” She asked him if he thought Grandpa Joe knew. “I don’t know. I would think he did. It’s perhaps why he made it so you got everything in her will.”
“Wendy said she’d been afraid that you’d be hurt by the boys. Mostly James. She said James has never been right in the head.” Penny laughed, but it was forced. “Wendy said Grandpa Joe did know, and she’s glad he did what he did. She might not have been happy about it at the time, but now she is. Also, she sent money each month to Hallie. You were with her for about a year, Wendy said.”
“How did I end up being Tony’s daughter on the paperwork?” Sasha looked at who he thought was Wendy. “Also, who’s my father? Anyone that I might know?”
“There isn’t a father’s name on your birth certificate, just Wendy’s as your mother. Tony only claimed you as his own verbally. I don’t know why—he would have his own reasons, Wendy said. But she was happy for it. She believes Tony might well have known about you being Wendy’s. When he mentioned it to James, saying he had a child out there someplace, James took it upon himself to go and get you. No one, not even Tony, she said, was aware that he’d done it until he showed up with you.”
“So, Tony knew about me and told his brother, the psychopath, that he is my father. Why?” Sasha told her. “He found the birth records when looking for cash. Okay, that I can believe. He was forever going through drawers and cabinets looking for things to steal and pawn. So instead of asking his mother about them, Tony tells him that I’m his child. To what end, I’m wondering.”
“She doesn’t know.” Nodding, Penny finally sat down and looked at Pip again. “Pip is going to be able to see ghosts too when she’s a little older. It’s the mark that the two of us bear that makes us what we are. I’m also to understand that when she stares at you like she is now, she sees a part of you that no one else can. I’m sorry I don’t have better news for you, Penny.”
“Are you kidding? You’ve given me a great deal. I didn’t know any of this.” Penny handed Wesley the baby. Then she got up to go to the door that led to the outdoors. He thought she was going to go out again, but all she did was stare out. “I have so many questions right now I can’t think beyond I’m not who I thought I was.”
Chandler cleared his throat. “I know where Hallie is buried. Her husband is also dead. They’ve been missing, and no one has been able to have closure since you were brought here. I’m going to have Sawyer make a few calls and have them found. They’ll be able to tie James to their murders because of the stuff he left behind that he used to kill them both with.” Penny asked if it would be enough. “Yes. More than enough. Allen, Hallie’s husband, has more wounds than Hallie does. The things James used to kill them both are with Allen’s body.”
“That’s enough on that, all right?” Chandler nodded at Penny and looked at Wesley and said he was sorry. Penny told him it was fine, really. “I have to tell you guys, I don’t know whether to thank you for this or run screaming from the room. I believe you, but it’s nothing I ever thought of. Not just that you can see ghosts, but that I’m not the person I thought I was.”
“No. But I don’t think for a minute that this will change you in any way. Just because you’re not his child doesn’t mean you’re anything like either of them. You are who you are because of how you were raised.” Penny thanked him. “I love you, Penny. With all my heart. And getting married to you only makes me want to love you more.”
~*~
Butch was waiting outside the store when he heard someone talking as they came up behind him. He had to stare at the two women for a while before he realized it was his sister and Penny. Christ, whatever they were doing to themselves nowadays, it sure had prettied them up. When they moved by him, not acknowledging him at all, he reached out to grab Emmie and found himself slammed up against the building behind him.
“What the fuck, Emmie? Are you trying to piss me off? Let me go, and I’ll only hit you a couple of times.” She asked him why that would make her want to release him. “What? Just let me go, will you?”
She didn’t release him. However, he stiffened when he felt the dangerous part of a gun poking him in the back. Butch just knew it was Penny that was the one carrying the gun. She was forever pulling that sucker out when there wasn’t any reason for it.
When he was flipped around, no other word for it, he looked at his sister when she put a gun into his forehead. It startled him, even more, to know she had figured out to start carrying a gun too. Mother fucking balls, where were all these people getting guns from? He asked her what she thought she was doing.
“Keeping you from touching me. Making sure you know that if you do happen to touch me again, by just a hug or a fist, I’m going to shoot you. I don’t care enough about you anymore, Butch, to be concerned about whether you live or die.” He told her she was a cold bitch. “Perhaps. But I’ll tell you this. It’s much easier than it used to be to think about you being dead.”
“I just don’t know who you are anymore. Nope. Also, I don’t care about all this change shit going on. You’re a hard woman. What you think is going to happen when you marry James?” She said she wasn’t marrying James. “Yes, huh. You’re going to marry James, and Dutch is going to marry Penny. You’ll live in that old house of Wendy’s and have the best life ever. They’ve even decided you two can keep your jobs so they won’t have to work.”
“Well, isn’t that nice of them.” Butch didn’t think she was being nice when she said that to him, but he didn’t push his luck. Having her agree with him about them marrying up, he didn’t care what else she said. “I’m not marrying anyone, you fucking idiot. I would like to have a nice husband that doesn’t think his wife should do all the housework, cooking, and cleaning while still holding down a job.”
“Why not? James is a good guy. He’s been around the block a time or two in prison, but that ain’t no different than me. You and Penny will be happy as fuck. And mentioning that, you’d be fucked nightly too. Ain’t that worth the price of bread in China?” She told him it was price of tea in China. “I don’t like tea. Why would I care about the—?”
“Listen, you uneducated potato head. I’m not marrying anyone you pick out for me. Neither is Penny. She’s marrying a man of worth, and they’ll have children no one has to worry about robbing a bank
or anything like you’ve done. No. We’re not marrying the likes of either Dutch or James.” He told her she wasn’t being fair. “Fair about what? Me getting married so I can be beaten all the time? You can bet your last buck I’m not going to do anything you think I should be doing.”
“Why are you always so bitchy?” Penny laughed, and Emmie did too. It was mean laughter too. Not at all like they thought anything was funny. Women were so strange. “Penny, I’m going to tell your daddy on you. Seen if I don’t.”
“Good luck with that. He’s been dead since James and Tony went to prison all those years ago.” Butch was confused. He normally was, but right now, he didn’t know what the hell she was talking about. Tony was dead? No way. “You’re just as stupid as the rest of them, aren’t you, Butch? I’m wondering if your parents realized that the two of you were going to be trouble from the second you took your first breath. I have a feeling had they known, they’d have put you up for adoption right away.”
“Now that’s just mean. We’re all right people. We’re no different than anyone else around here. Why, just the other day, I was telling my brother that I’ve been out of jail for nearly a month now without no one catching me. I think that’s a world record for me.” She just shook her head. “I bet that guy I heard you were marrying up with can’t say that.”
“You’re absolutely right about that. He’s never been to prison. Or jail for that matter. What do you know, you hold that record compared to a nice family.” He wasn’t sure, but Butch thought she was jesting him. But he did agree with her. “It’s not a contest, Butch. Being out of jail for nearly a month isn’t all that wonderful of a thing to be proud of.”
Wesley: Bishop’s Snowy Leap – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance (Bishop's Snowy Leap Book 3) Page 8