Murder & Mayhem

by T Wells Brown

  As soon as I registered what was happening, I noticed Lance too, was registering what was going on. Before he could make a move, I squatted to the ground, reached out, grabbed hold of the first thing I could, popped back up with a large piece of rebar that had a sharp bent end on it and I swung with everything in me.

  I swung that piece of metal at his head for my unborn child. I swung again for my momma, who was dirtier than she’d ever been her entire life and chained to a pole. I swung that rebar at his head for my aunt, for my uncle, and for all of the horrible things these two people had done.

  I swung, and I swung, and I swung, and even after he was on the ground, I kept swinging.

  Before I was done my face was covered with brain matter, skin, blood and all sorts of other lovely bits and pieces of Lance. I had completely obliterated his face, and by the end I was swinging blindly. Once I used up all my strength, and knew he wasn’t ever getting up again, I fell to my knees and finally allowed myself the luxury of vomiting…. everywhere.

  And when I say everywhere, I mean everywhere; on me, on Lances still body, the concrete - everywhere.

  By the time Cabe, his band of Macho Men, and Roman with the police, finally came through the door, that’s how they found us. What a site we must have been. I was on my knees, covered in vomit, blood and bits of Lance’s head. Momma was still beating Mark’s head in with the chunk of concrete she’d found, and screeching in a way I would never forget.

  I could feel Cabe standing over me.

  I dropped the rebar with a loud clatter, wiped my eyes with the back of my hand, and looked up at him.

  I watched Cabe’s eyes move from me to Lance and so I looked at him too. It was impossible to make out any of his facial features.

  I’d seen to that.

  I looked over at my momma when I heard her cry and rail out a horrific scream. Seems she wasn’t ready to stop beating Mark over the head with her concrete weapon, and didn’t take kindly to having her weapon taken away from her.

  I looked back up at Cabe, who hadn’t moved.

  “Holy shit Isabella.” Cabe whispered.

  “I’m okay. Check on my momma, I don’t think she’s gonna recover from this Cabe.”

  “I don’t give one fuck about your mother.” Cabe dropped to the ground next to me.

  “Careful Cabe, you’re going to get goo on you,” I tried to tell him as he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me to him. “Oh well, now you’ve done it. You have all sorts of nasty stuff on you.”

  We heard someone yell “Heads up” and then I was suddenly knocked back from a side tackle. It was my momma and she was chanting over and over, “Bella Baby. Bella Baby. Bella Baby.” She curled up to me and laid her cheek against my stomach and slid to the floor, still chanting “Bella Baby. Bella Baby. Bella Baby.”

  Cabe let me go and I curled over my momma and whispered “You’re okay now momma. Everything is going to be okay.”

  She looked up into my face, her eyes wild and crazed, “We’re gonna have a baby!” She screeched.

  Jumpin’ Jezebels!

  Chapter 22

  Two Heartbeats

  Cabe, his band of Macho Men, Roman, the police, an ambulance, a fire engine (with Captain Steve) and a news crew were all bustling around the harvester shed, a harvester shed I never wanted to see again for the rest of my life.

  Ever.

  While the Macho Men crew kept the news reporters and cameramen back, the EMT’s, with the help of the police officers, peeled my momma off of me. But if she was forced more than a few feet from me she became enraged, and I would have to calm her back down.

  Therefore, I stayed with her while the firefighters tried to clean us both up, and the EMT’s worked on Lance and Mark. They eventually sedated momma enough they were able to get her strapped to a gurney and hauled off to the hospital where she would spend the next few days, and many more in recovery and therapy. God willing, she would be able to keep her sobriety up. This was the first time she was even willing to give it a try.

  Cabe and I got in a huge argument about whether I needed to go to the hospital or not. I said no, he said yes. Everyone in earshot voiced their opinion, and none of them were on my side.

  He won, but don’t think for one second, I didn’t store it away for future weaponry, especially since there wasn’t anything wrong with me. I tried to tell him that, but I guess when someone you care about is covered in human goo; it tends to freak you out a little.

  I knew he really cared about me, ‘cause he was totally freaked out. I knew this for a fact, ‘cause he wouldn’t let me go, even when the EMT’s made their way to me to assess my condition.

  Between him and momma, I was starting to need a little bit of my own personal space back.

  From there it only got worse. The wine tribe arrived at the scene and started carrying on like I’d never seen them do before!

  Jumpin’ Jezebels!

  There was wailing (Terra and Jenna) and cursing (Becca) and fussing over me like I was a toddler just pulled from a deep abandoned well (Sydney and Stella). The only one who made any real sense was Jules, who saw that I was okay and went directly to Roman and the other police officers and ripped into them like none of us had ever known she was capable of.

  The police and Roman were shocked and looked a little frightened.

  It seems when Jules is scared for someone, she’s grown to care about, Mama Bear comes out and she has claws, teeth and one heck of a mouth on her!

  Everyone quieted down (all except Becca, who kept right on cursing) as they brought the bodies out on stretchers.

  Mark had no pulse. My momma had taken care of him but good. He was covered up completely, so we all knew he was gone.

  Lance had a pulse that was weak and inconsistent; they didn’t think he would make it, but had tried to save him.

  I didn’t feel one bit bad.

  Not one. He was going to kill my baby, my momma, me… and wanted to feed us to hogs!

  I turned away so I wouldn’t have to see his beaten in head and face as they rolled him by us. Becca said in an uncharacteristically low voice, “Damn it, Cabe, you beat the shit outta him!”

  “Wasn’t me,” Cabe responded in a similarly low voice, and looked down at me - making the ladies look at me with a mixture of horror, curiosity and pride (that last look was from Becca).

  “He wanted to feed me to hogs!” I yelled to the group. “Can we get to the hospital already?” Geez.

  Finally, after what seemed like hours at the hospital of me recounting what happened to what seemed like five-hundred-million police officers and detectives, we were able to ditch the wine tribe, and made it back to the estate. I only wanted two things: One, to take a shower and wash the grime of this horrible day off of me, and two, my sweet little fur babies.

  I went straight to the shower. I stood under the scalding water and it felt so damn good to wash what was left of the disgusting blood, vomit and pieces of Lance off of me once and for all. Good riddance.

  I stood in the shower with the spray beating down over my body and watched as the goo slid down my legs, across the tile, and circled the drain before disappearing in a surreal colorful daze.

  Flashes of the day filled my head and I knew at some point I was going to need to talk to someone about everything that had happened since arriving at the estate. But that could wait.

  Before hitting the shower, I’d asked Cabe to ask one of his guys to let the pups out once I was in the shower. I didn’t want them to see me this way. I told him where their treats were, so hopefully they wouldn’t have any issues.

  After the most divine shower of my entire life, I patted myself dry, slipped into my big, fluffy robe, pinned my wet messy hair to the top of my head and left the bathroom.

  I found my pups on my bed waiting for me. I honesty had never been so happy to see anything in my whole life as I was to see those sweet babies right then. Maybe I was being a little over dramatic, but I deserved it after everything I’d
been through.

  I laid down and curled my body around Annie, and Jake lay in the crook of my bent legs, resting his big heavy head on my hip. It felt glorious. Annie curled up against the front of me and my big gentle giant at my back was the safest I’d felt all day. Maybe these two were going to be all the therapy I’d need. One could hope.

  “You do realize Marcus is going to want the dogs back now that you and your mom slaughtered the bad guys.” Cabe was standing in the doorway watching us.

  “Over my dead body.” I mumbled. Cabe hadn’t brought up my momma’s outbursts and I was hoping he would let it go and act like he hadn’t heard it.

  “I have to admit I’ll feel a lot better on the nights I have to work out of town with them here.”

  “Whatever.” I muttered and cuddled further into my babies. No one was taking them from me.

  “We need to expose the dogs to children so we know how they will act before the baby comes.”

  My eyes popped open. I was facing the opposite direction so he couldn’t see my face. Then I had a thought. Yes, I was reaching, but I’d do anything to get out of this conversation.

  “How’d you guys find me?”

  “What?”

  I rolled my upper body over without disturbing Jake, and flung my free arm out across the bed. “Did you guys track Lance? Did you suspect him all along? How did you find us?”

  Cabe watched me a beat, leaned his shoulder against the door jam and said, “This is what we’re going to talk about?”

  I nodded yes.

  “Okay fine, we’ll do this your way. I put a tracker in your necklace.”

  Jumpin’ Jezebels!

  I stared at him for a beat. “What?” I yelled, not really sure if I was mad or just surprised.

  I then whispered “Thank God.” and rolled my upper body back to once again snuggle Annie. I settled on surprised.

  “Not that you needed it.”

  I rolled my upper body back so I could see him, flopping my arm out across the bed again.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.

  “You’d already saved yourself by the time we got there. If I wasn’t so fucking freaked out by all that happened, I’d laugh. Those guys never stood a chance against you and your crazy fucking mother.”

  I was speechless. Didn’t he realize they were gonna kill us? This wasn’t funny!

  I squinted at him.

  But I couldn’t get too mad; he didn’t know how me being pregnant was a big deal. Only momma and I knew. Only I knew how she would kill anyone who tried to hurt this baby. I knew it with my whole being. But there was no way Cabe would know.

  He must have seen the look on my face ‘cause he went on to say, “That was their first and fatal error: thinking they could control your mother. All over some fucking awards.”

  “What awards? ”

  “The Markins may have backed out when things got dicey, but they knew full well that Lance had tampered with Antonio and Raquel’s car. All of this was over their award-winning wines they couldn’t make without Antonio’s vintage Cinsault grapes. According to the info Sydney and the ladies dug up, they were going to lose a couple of their biggest accounts if they didn’t continue to win awards. Awards they knew they were going to lose without Antonio’s fruit. Lance was trying to get control for his family so they would have a chance at the accounts.”

  “These must have been some pretty big accounts for all this trouble.”

  “Millions.”

  “Wow. So, have they been arrested?”

  “No. No proof, it’s all speculation.”

  “WHAT!” I sat up, dislodging Jake’s big head. “What is stopping them from coming after me again?”

  “Me.”

  “They still came after me before, when you were here.” I said.

  “That was Lance and Mark. Also, you weren’t my wife and the mother of my child then.” He went on, “Besides, I’d feel sorry for anyone who tries to fuck with you or our baby after what I saw you did to Lance.”

  “Don’t remind me.” I said laying back down to cuddle my babies. I knew I was going to have nightmares over what I’d had to do to Lance .

  “You are the most badass woman I know.” He said quietly to my back.

  “You’re crazy.” I mumbled. But I was starting to feel a little warm flush come over me. Did he really think I was badass?

  “I’m not the one cuddled up to a couple of giant pit bull guard dogs and calling them ‘my babies’. It took three of my guys to get them out of their kennels, and if Marcus hadn’t shown up, my men would have gotten their asses handed to them.”

  I snuggled deeper into my sweet babies and cooed loving nonsense at them.

  “Isabella, nothing rocks you; you roll with the punches better than anyone I’ve ever seen. Even when you’re knocked on your ass, you get up stronger, fucking prettier, and more capable than before. You can bend a man to your will with your food and your beauty - but the best part is, you have not one fucking clue you’re doing it.”

  His voice had gotten closer while he was talking, so I wasn’t surprised when I felt the bed compress as he sat down next to me.

  “You’re the only woman I have ever met who is soft enough to interest me, but strong enough to withstand me. I won’t be able to walk all over you. My work won’t scare you, and my guys already love you. I can’t stop thinking about you and I don’t even want to. I’m in so fucking deep with you Isabella, I need you. Marry me Bella.”

  My stomach fluttered. He wanted me to marry him! He loved me! And he called me Bella!

  “You just want to marry me because I’m pregnant.”

  “No. I want to marry you now because you’re pregnant. I knew I wanted to marry you the day of the funeral when I had my hands wrapped around your beautiful feet and you moaned. Be my wife Isabella.”

  I flushed. Shoot. I did do that.

  “I am not putting up with any of your passive aggressive bullshit where you decide to push me away by dating someone else.”

  “I regret doing that to you Isabella. More than you’ll ever know.”

  “Yeah well, I marry you, that means you’re mine; you do that shit again and you’ll think Lance got off easy.” I wasn’t kidding. I’d hurt him.

  “Strongest fucking woman I know.” He mumbled as he snuggled up to me, Jake and Annie.

  “You’re going to have to stop saying fuck. At least around the baby.”

  ******

  The wedding was held at the winery two months after Isabella and her mother stopped the two men that kidnapped them both and tried to kill them. Lance succumbed to his injuries the day after he was taken to the hospital. His family was furious and everyone knew it wasn’t over. Now, not only did Cabe and Isabella have to worry about the Markins, the Vista Rio family was gunning for the newlyweds too.

  For now, they would celebrate and enjoy life. A new life and a new beginning.

  Isabella wanted to have the wedding as quickly as possible, not wanting to walk down the aisle with an “even bigger buddha belly” than the one she thought she had.

  The wedding was simple and sweet and she wore a cream-colored gauzy dress Jenna had made for her. The beautiful dress was floor length, with spaghetti straps and no adornments. Isabella wanted everything simple and easy. Cabe wore a pair of gray slacks and a white untucked button up shirt with his sleeves rolled up. Isabella’s bouquet and decorations were a variety of wild flowers with no order to them. All that mattered to her was that they were colorful.

  The Women of Wine Country tribe, Sydney and her girls, and the Macho Men group were the only ones in attendance except employees, who were more like family anyway, and the Italian aunts and uncles.

  The ceremony was simple and sweet. The couple didn’t have anyone stand up for them. They didn’t need anyone but themselves and they knew it.

  A giant Scot with a thick accent, who’d recently joined Cabe’s team, hilariously officiated.

  The reception was a s
imple family style dinner, with everyone pitching in. Isabella stood off to the side and watched as her mother set one of the dishes down on the long table and went back in for another dish to bring out.

  This was going to be a long road for her, but she was willing to do anything, she said, to be a part of Isabella’s, Cabe’s and the baby’s lives.

  Cabe made it clear to Cynthia, any abusive language or action and she would be cut from their lives, regardless if she was sober or not.

  Only time would tell if she would be able to keep it up. They had never been through anything like this before and she hadn’t had a drop of alcohol since – so maybe.

  She glanced over to the grassy area where Annie and Jake were playing with the children. They were some of the employees’ kids who were always at the estate. It would be a good life growing up here.

  They had started calling Annie “The Nanny” due to her gentle nature and care of any child who visited.

  Jake was an adventure dog all the way and would fetch anything thrown for him. Bringing it back was another matter entirely, and he made a game of having the children chase him to retrieve whatever it was to be thrown again.

  The children loved the dogs. They were so sweet, gentle and so very happy.

  Isabella laid her hand across her belly; tonight, she would let Cabe know that the doctor heard two heartbeats at the appointment she’d had earlier that week. She wasn’t sure which news was scarier to deliver – the two heartbeats or that Isabella had a doctor’s appointment without telling him.

  Only her mother understood why she needed to have that first visit alone. Tonight, Cabe would know too.

  Touching the pendant at her throat brought up the feelings of love… and loss. She knew how happy her aunt and uncle would be to see the estate alive with the celebrations and the sounds of the children’s laughter.