Easton: Forbidden: Paranormal Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  “See, didn’t I tell you that she was a worthless piece of shit?” The coldness this time seeped into his entire body. His heart, he knew, had been frozen right up. When he was able to get his breath back again, he told her not to do that again. “But you have to see that I’m right, Mary, honey. Me and you, we could have traveled with that money. You’d of had to give it to me, though. I don’t know why you didn’t. But it’s water under the building now. You just tell me where it is and I’ll have someone fetch it for me.”

  “I was never going to give that to you. You wouldn’t be getting any of it even if I had died of old age. It was for my daughter first. Then after you murdered her, it was for Alex.” He asked her who that was. “My son. Alexander Patch Hunter. My brother is going to raise him. He’ll be someone that I can be proud of.”

  “You gave over my son to that faggot? Christ almighty, woman. He told me, your brother, that he was going to raise him because you said it was all right. But I didn’t believe him. Do you have any idea what sort of things he’ll be teaching my boy? Nothing that I’d be teaching him, that’s for sure.” Mary told him that she hoped not. “Now why you gotta say something like that for? I was a good provider.”

  “You never worked a day of your life and you know it.” She laughed that bitter sounding sound, and he just stared at her. “You know, I used to laugh my ass off when you’d bitch about not getting welfare because of you owning the house. When you never did. It didn’t even have your name on it after I purchased it. It belonged to me. Then in the event that something happened to me, my brother got it. He’ll know just what I want done to it too. After he bulldozes the house. I wish you were still in it, Wendell. That would have been the icing on the cake for me.”

  “Mary, tell me what you did with the money. I know you didn’t spend nary a penny of it. Had you done that I would have noticed. While I’m sitting here, I’m thinking of all kinds of things I could have done with that money. You sure did spoil it for me, I want you to know that. When I get it, there won’t even be a headstone for you, that’s how angry I am with you about it.” She just smiled, and holding his temper at her was getting harder and harder to do. “Mary, I’m not kidding you. Tell me where the damned money is. I have shit that I’d like to do with it. Getting me out of here is going to be the first thing too.”

  “The money is where I put it. When I cashed it in, not even knowing that I won the big one, I wished every day that I’d had Margaret with me. She and I would have never looked back and would have headed out to be with Easton. It would have been enough for us to have lived in style for the rest of our days.” He was so pissed off that he stood up and drew his hand back to hit her. This was enough, and he wanted that money. “I won six hundred million dollars, Wendell. I didn’t even have to share it with anyone. I was the only winner.”

  “What?” He staggered back, sure that he’d not heard her correctly. “You can’t be telling me right. You couldn’t have won nothing. I would have heard about it. You’re just too stupid to even know how to cash a check. You lie.”

  “No, I do not. Ohio is a no tell state. So when I won no one knew but me and my attorney. I had one too. I guess you could say that I still have one. Mr. Winning—an appropriate name, don’t you think? — has been taking care of it for me since I won.” He said that ain’t right to her two more times. “Right or not, Wendell, he took my money and turned it into billions. Billions of dollars that you could never touch. As it turned out, neither could I. You never let me leave the house again. I was ready and willing to take her and leave you when you started chaining me to the floor every day.”

  Wendell couldn’t get her to tell him where the money was no matter how many times he threatened her. He didn’t dare hit her again. Every time he did, he could feel a little bit of his heart die in his chest. She was trying to kill him by freezing out his heart. But he’d get her to tell him. As soon as she came back, he was going to threaten her with something big. He just had to think on what it could be. Damn it all to hell. Billions of dollars should have been his if she’d just behaved herself and turned it over to him. Now he had to figure out how to get to it before someone else did.

  ~*~

  “I don’t understand. She had money and didn’t get away? Why would she stay with him? I would have paid her back, or even helped her if I had known.” Mr. Winnings, Albert, said that she couldn’t leave without her daughter. Easton nodded. He could understand, but she could have called him.

  “She couldn’t, young man. You have no idea what it cost her to even keep this money from Wendell. Mary told me what I was to do with it one day when I came by the house. You see, she knew how to get in touch with me even when he’d not allow her out of the locked shed.”

  “The wolf pack?” Albert said no, that wasn’t it. She didn’t want to get them in trouble either. “Then how? I need to know that this person who was helping her knows that she lost her life because he or she didn’t contact me.”

  “I’m a faerie of the earth. The only way that Mary could speak to me was to summon me through the dirt that she was living on when he locked her away.” Easton felt his eyes fill with tears when Albert cried too. “I tried and tried to find you. But all she knew was that you’d gone out west. Not a state to find you in. Nothing but your name. It took me nearly four years to contact all the Hunters in the phone book that I could lay my hands on. You weren’t listed in anything that I could find.”

  “I’m so sorry.” Albert told him how he’d looked, even asking the earth to find him. But all he’d ended up doing was failing them both. “No, you didn’t fail her, Albert. Without you she might well have died sooner. You told me that she would talk to you all the time when she could. I’m betting that for a long time, you were the only one that did speak to her other than Wendell.”

  “Yes, that’s about the truth of it. But the money, it wasn’t a little bit, Easton. Your sister, she was smart, that one. No matter what that husband of hers says, she knew what she was about. As soon as she knew that she’d won the money, she called out to me to find her someone to help her keep it from Wendell. After that, he’d never allow her to leave the house again, much less with that little girl. I was so sorry to hear of her passing.” Easton thanked him. “She would have left him given the chance. By the time that little Margaret passed on, she found herself carrying another child. I think she grieved a good deal more than she let on. It was hard on her knowing that Wendell had taken away her will to live by killing her baby girl.”

  Albert handed a thick file to Jake and Forrest to look over. Easton wasn’t sure why they were there too, but he was glad for the company. Wayne had been called away about his house and the insurance claim. When Jake whistled, Easton looked at him.

  “Your sister won the jackpot, Easton. Six hundred million dollars.” Easton looked at Albert when he laughed. “That’s not all either. There are investments here that made her a billionaire several times over. Holy shit. This is amazing. I wish I could have known her in life. She sounds like a hell of a woman.”

  “She was.” Albert told him that there was more. “I don’t know if I want even this. I mean, what am I supposed to do with this much money when I don’t have her around to celebrate with?”

  “Here, Easton, this is for you. It tells you how to use the money. By the way, she owned the house out there too. If Wendell wasn’t in jail, you were to kick him out and tear the place down while he watched.” Easton felt his heart break again. She’d had more than enough money to leave Wendell, but couldn’t because the bastard had locked her away like she was nothing to him. He looked at Jake when he said his name again. “Easton, she has a list of things that you’re to do with the money. First thing she wants is for you to set up a shelter for abused women. Also a sort of underground network to get them safely out of town. There are plans here for you to build a library, as well as a home for children of abused people. The list is long. Mary wante
d you to put enough money away that your children, hers and any you have, could go to any college that they wanted without having to work.”

  They talked around him, the attorneys. When he needed a break, he got up and headed to the deck at the back of the house. Mary was there waiting on him. Walking to where she was, he stood as close as he could to her and asked her why.

  “Why did I want you to do this for me? I can’t think of another soul that would have used it the way that I wanted. I did want to come to you, Easton, I tried so very hard to figure out a way.” He nodded, his heart hurting for all that they had lost. “I can’t stay here long today. I’ve been with Wendell. He’s aware of the money now. I had so much fun telling him all about it and how I had kept it from him. I think he believes that he’s getting out. Or he’ll have someone find it for him so that he can bribe someone to let him out. He’s such a fool.”

  “You’re not telling me anything that I don’t know.” They both laughed. “You’ll not leave me, will you, Mary mine? I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t right here where I could talk to you.”

  “I’ve done what I wanted, Easton. You know the rules. Besides, I don’t think Wendell will be in this world very long. We didn’t hurt him very much, I promise, but every time he hit at Margaret and me, he’d get a little more of us throughout him. As you can guess, Margaret was most angry, and did hurt him more than she should have. It is mostly in his blood. It’s true that the dead are very cold.” He nearly begged her to stay when she looked up at him with the saddest eyes. “We must move on, or we’ll get to the point where we can’t. I don’t want to stay on this side when I know there is something more on the other. I came here today to tell you what I want you to do for me. I want you to raise Alex to be a man that we can both be so very proud of.”

  “You know that I’ll do that for you. You didn’t have to ask.” She said she knew that. “What else? What more do you have to tell me?”

  “In the things that I left for you with Albert are pictures. Some of them are very old, but there are a few of Margaret as well. She was such a joy to have around me.” Easton wiped at his own tears then. “Love Alex like I would. Teach him to not have prejudices against others. Tell him that we’re all just people, and that some of us are a little different than others. Will you tell him that?”

  “I will.” She nodded, and then put her hands near his cheeks. “Are you leaving me now? Please don’t. I don’t know if I can do the right thing by him.”

  “You’ll be perfect at it. That’s why I have you as my brother.” She started to fade, then he asked about Margaret. “She’ll be around later. Margaret tangled with her...well, the man that sired her. She’ll come to tell you goodbye when she’s rested.”

  He stood there after she was gone, just letting himself grieve again for the loss of her. Mary had always been the good one, loving and kind to everyone. How she had ended up with a monster like Wendell would be something to ask the fates, he supposed. Easton certainly didn’t have the answers.

  Going back into the house, he was amazed that they were all still working on things. Bypassing the office, he headed to the kitchen for something to drink and to freshen up, and found the cook and Wayne in the room. Hugging Wayne, holding him tightly, he told him what had happened with his sister and the conversation the two of them had had in the yard.

  “She’s gone then?” Easton nodded as the cook poured him and Wayne a cup of tea. “I wish that I could have been here to talk to her. There are some things that I would have loved to have told her. Like, she must have been such a wonderful and special person to have done what she did. Can you imagine all the sacrifices that she had to make in order to live? Then to come here and tell you how much she loved you. Easton, I hope that I can someday be half the person that the two of you are. Because I know that the two of you are very much alike when it comes to loving someone. I am a lucky man to have you in my life.”

  “Thank you, but I think it’s me who is lucky. You have been there for me since I arrived. I can’t thank you enough for—”

  The cook popped them both in the back of the head. Both he and Wayne stared at her.

  “You’ve said you love each other?” They both nodded. “Then that’s done. Now you have to get your bottoms in gear and make a life for yourself, or those little ones are going to be wondering where you are when they need you. You need a house. You got that yet?”

  “I have three that we’re looking at today.” She nodded. “Do you treat the others like this?”

  “Not when they don’t need it, no. But you two, you needed a little reality check. I’m thinking that you’d spend the rest of the day just telling each other you love the other. Good, glad you do. But, here’s where I’m telling you to get going—you cannot live on love alone. Get your asses in gear, live a life that your poor sister can look down on you and say, ‘he’s doing good.’ Otherwise, you sit here and have her going, ‘what is wrong with those idiots?’ Which is it gonna be? I got cooking to do, so you either shit or get off the pot. Move.” Easton kissed her on the cheek. “That ain’t gonna get you no good will from me, you little shit. Get going.”

  He knew that she was happy with the kiss. The smile that she had on her face made him think that she’d been just as surprised by it as he had been giving it to her. Moving out from the kitchen back to the offices, he laughed when he opened the door. The attorneys looked about as guilty as everyone thought they were.

  “We’re going to find a house. You guys figure out what we need to do to start on my sister’s memories and I’ll do it. Right now I’m taking my lover and kids out to dinner, and finding a place for us to live happily ever after.” He heard a “whoop whoop” from the kitchen and laughed. Today, as far as he was concerned, was going to be everything that Mary wanted it to be. A good life. “If you need us, don’t call. Please. I need this as much as anyone.”

  Chapter 8

  Thomas was feeling pretty good about himself. Sure, he’d been arrested, but he’d made life hell for a great many degenerates. Lying back on his bunk, he tried his best to tune out the man down from him. Wendell was talking to himself again.

  He’d not been doing that when Thomas had first arrived. Mostly he would just sit on his bed, grunting about him getting out of there and how they didn’t make this place very friendly. Thomas wanted to ask him if he knew that he was in jail, but decided not to break his code of silence for that idiot. Thomas hadn’t said a single word since they’d arrested him down from Wayne’s home.

  The place had gone up a good deal faster than he’d thought it would. The house had been a beauty at one time, before him. Now it was nothing but one wall and cinders still burning deep in the basement. The drones going over it for the news crew had afforded him a nice view of the place that he got to see when he was with his attorney.

  Wondering if Wayne was boo-hooing about the loss, Thomas laughed to himself. The cocksucker had done him wrong by putting his picture out there. He knew it had to have been him. No one else that he’d fucked had been nearly as smart as that man—not that he’d gotten to have sex with Wayne.

  He’d never been sure how Wayne had figured out that Thomas was HIV positive. There hadn’t been anything on him back then that would have been a telltale sign. Nor was there any record of him going in to be tested. Wayne had simply known.

  Then there was that bitch that had helped Wayne throw him out. He had had plans to get her too, but something was always protecting her. Not a person, no, but there was something that seemed to be watching over her. Whatever. Making Wayne suffer as he had was enough for him.

  Thomas wasn’t gay, and he’d kill anyone that said he was. He was doing his duty, as any other man would, to rid the world of people like Wayne and his lovers. Pretending to be like them was difficult, and if he came, which bothered him on so many levels when he did, it was because they’d done something to him. It wasn’t hi
m enjoying male to male sex. Never.

  Thinking about his father and the fuss he’d put up about him doing this still had him cringing. His father actually believed that he, his son, was a homosexual. What bothered him the most about that conversation was that his dad kept telling him that he didn’t care what his sexual orientation was, so long as he was happy.

  He wasn’t happy, damn it. And he wasn’t gay. Thomas rolled to his side, his body facing the wall. Working hard to shut out the talk they’d had was getting more and more difficult all the time. Thomas had actually hit his father for saying that.

  “Son? Why?” Thomas had stood over his father as he lay on the floor of his family home that day. Dad looked up at him with so much hurt in his eyes that Thomas could barely contain his need to snatch his eyes out of his head. “I don’t care what you do.”

  “I do, you mother fucker. I’m not fucking gay.” His dad had said nothing, holding his bloodied head in his hand. “Did you hear me? I said that I’m not gay. They’re monsters, and I am not. I’m practicing so that I can kill them all. All of the monsters of the world.”

  Thinking about why his father had come to the conclusion didn’t make him feel any better than he did about hitting him. Dad had caught him on the sofa having sex with one of the gardeners. No matter how many times he’d told Dad that he was trying to practice at making love to a man, he never believed him. Nor did he speak of it again. Neither of them did.

  Now his dad wasn’t on speaking terms with him. He had found out that his only son had been on a mission of doing just what he’d said he would—killing all of them. It had been a hard awakening for Thomas when he’d called home to ask for money to bail him out of jail the other day.