“I’m the only living relative of the one and only Betty Moss.” He glared at me. “Glad to be the bearer of great news, but this place is all mine.”
“But Rory . . .” Jason tried to speak, but the man in black still had his hand pressed to Jason’s chest holding him to the wall.
“But Rory is nothing. She is no relation to anyone. She is the daughter of a whore.” He smiled sickly at me. “A whore who worked for my whore of a mother.” He stated.
“So you are the bastard son of Goldie and Bruce. The man that they said was my father?”
“I was no one’s father.”
“No shit!” I snapped at him.
“Got quite a mouth on you don’t you? Must be all those years living around whores.”
“I wouldn’t know. I was only around Caroline.”
“Bullshit! You were raised by my mother. My mother pushed me aside so she could raise you.”
“Sorry asshole, but you’ve got your bullshit wrong. I was raised by Caroline. I moved around a hell of a lot with Caroline. And only Caroline.” I moved closer to him. As we watched each other I was hoping I could get close enough to distract him so he would let go of Jason.
“No. No they told me that . . .”
“That what? That I was the baby you made with one of Betty’s whores and my mother ditched me and left me to be raised by my grandmother?”
“She wasn’t your grandmother!” he shouted.
“Are you sure?” I met his eyes and it took just that split second for him to loosen his hold on Jason’s body. I saw how much strength it took, but Jason took a deep inhale and shoved against the man in black with all of his might. He knocked him back just enough to give Jason the second he needed to reach for the baseball bat that had been standing just a foot away against the living room wall. Jason swung not once, but twice before the man was off balance. He stumbled backward to try to get his balance, but there was nothing to grab onto. Jason lifted the bat to take another swing at him, but the man held up his hand and caught the bat mid-swing.
“You really don’t want to fuck with me, lawyer boy.” He shoved back, knocking Jason a step off of his feet. “I’ve waited too fucking long for that old bat to die so I could rightfully claim what is mine as next of kin.”
Jason and I looked at each other.
“Betty’s will doesn’t say anything about next of kin or living relative. It simply names Rory as the owner.”
“The hell it does. I’ve seen the fucking will. I have a copy of it!” he screamed. “I’m next of kin. The only next of kin!” he gritted his teeth.
“You may very well be, but Betty changed her will after Bruce died. She had a previous will and it became null and void once she changed it and it was filed. My father filed it himself.”
“I don’t give a fuck if there was another will filed. I have this will and it states everything goes to the next of kin.”
“Yes, that was the original will when Bruce was still alive and could claim next of kin. She said the only person she wanted to leave it to was her great niece, Rory London. Like I said, my father drew up the papers himself. Betty signed them and he filed them.” Jason said continuing to speak calmly as he made small steps to get closer to me.
“Look you two thieving fuckers, I don’t know or care what fucking game you are playing at here, but I’ve been waiting for the old bitch to die so I could claim this land. I have deals with developers waiting. We’ve made offer upon offer. We figured the last dead body would have had them running for the hills, but no. No siree. They still wouldn’t sell.” The man in black began to pace.
“The other dead body?” Jason asked and looked at me with a raised eyebrow.
“Yeah, there was some guy that kept going to see Betty. Then he would go see Goldie. Then back again. We figured he was either doing them both, trying to get them to make up, or double crossing them. We never did get to find out because all of a sudden, he ended up dead. The developers and I scrambled hoping that they would jump at the thought of selling, but no. No, they just swept it under the rug. Blamed it on a drifter and moved on with their lives.”
“Sorry, but I call bullshit!” A voice came from the front door and we turned all just stared. We stared because there was a walking, talking Drew Parker standing there.“You have no idea what you’re talking about, asshole.” Drew stepped between the man in black and Jason.
“Drew you’re here! But how? The police said you were shot!” I was shrieking. “They showed us pictures from the crime scene. You were dead. Jason and I ID’d you.” I dropped to sit on the couch, still staring openmouthed at Drew.
“All for show, Darlin’, all for show.” He winked at me and smiled at Jason when he saw him cringe at him calling me Darlin’.
“Care to explain just what the hell is going on here? Rory and I really were shown crime scene photos. They had the area over on the other side of the lake taped off.” Jason was as confused as I was. “Dick, we thought you were dead.” He punched Drew in the shoulder before joining me on the couch and making a show of taking my hand in his. He kissed the back of my hand before setting it on his thigh and rubbing his thumb over my skin. I could feel the blush spreading from my cheeks and down my chest. I couldn’t even raise my eyes to look at Drew as he took one of the chairs from the kitchen, leaving the man in black standing with his own jaw hanging open as we all lost interest in him even being there. Drew pulled the chair into the living room, turned it around and rested his arms on the back, like he had the other night at the bar. Any escape the man in black had hoped for was now being blocked by Drew.
Of course, the man in black had to try. He took two steps toward the door and Drew just turned and laughed at him. “Go ahead. See how far you get before I zap you with this taser gun.” Drew pulled the small taser from his back pocket and waved it at him. The best thing you can do is sit down and shut up until the police get here.”
“Who the fuck are you to be telling me what to do?” the man in black shouted and took a step toward Drew, who then turned and pointed the taser gun at him.
“I’m the fucking guy with the taser gun pointed at your nuts. Now sit down and shut up so I can tell you how you most certainly are not the next of kin or rightful owner of Happy Endings Resort.”
“Can you first please tell us how you are not dead?” I looked at him through squinted eyes still not sure of what was going on.
“Well, asshole here wrestled my gun out of my hand.” He pointed at the man in black with his thumb over his shoulder. “Let me tell you something. When you wrestle a gun out of someone’s hands you might want to make sure the bullets are real. They were blanks.” He watched as the knowledge set in. “You might also check if the person you are following, while following someone else, isn’t actually following you! And when you shoot the person you discover is following you with said blanks in their gun, setting you up for a fight and you think you’ve killed them, you might want to actually check that they are really dead.” He shook his head smiling. “He’s been following Rory for almost as long as I have, maybe longer.”
“I was protecting my interests and gathering proof that she isn’t a relative of Betty,” he growled.
“Actually, you are not a relative of Betty,” Drew stated. He held up his hand to stop the man in black from responding. “Rory, do you have the black book I gave to Bear?”
“You? You gave it to Bear? Stixx said Bear found it.”
“My poor pal Bear simply did as I had asked. I asked him to give the book to Stixx and forget how he got it and then lay low. I knew if he didn’t lay low he’d blab, especially to Stixx.” He laughed. “The book has all of my investigation notes in it. If I hadn’t been able to get back here in time, then you two would have been able to figure this out and prove Dipshit here is actually Goldie’s bastard son from a reoccurring client who dumped her like a bag of rocks as soon as he found out she was pregnant with him.”
“That is a LIE!” The man in black shouted.
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“No, that is the truth. Goldie even put it in a letter to Betty which is another reason she made sure her estate went to Bruce and then to Rory.”
“Drew can you start at the beginning?” Jason asked sounding impatient.
“Sure. I’ll try to explain it all before the police get here, but Bennett here might have to wait and read it in the paper tomorrow.” He looked over at the man in black. “I’ll make sure you have a copy of the morning paper in your prison cell.”
Chapter Eleven
“FIRST OF ALL, the story everyone has heard of the two sisters hating each other isn’t true at all. Neither is the other rumor of Goldie getting pregnant by Bruce after she seduced him.” Drew explained. Jason and I looked at each other then back at Drew.
“How do you know all of this?”
“Betty told me and I confirmed it with Goldie’s own journals.” He smiled at me. “I’ll turn them over to you, of course. They are now yours.”
“Lies, lies and more lies,” Bennett interjected. “You can spin all the lies you want, but the truth will set us free and prove that I’m . . .”
“The son of a whore,” Drew looked over at me. “I’m sorry to speak ill of your grandmother, but . . .”
“So that part is true? Goldie was a madam?” I was hoping the way Drew had started, that all of the bad stuff really was part of the untruths.
“They grew up in a very abusive home. Their parents were mentally, verbally and, to an extent, physically abusive. When Betty got pregnant at the age of seventeen by her boyfriend, Bruce Rodwell, she was sent off to relatives.”
“Betty got pregnant?”
“Yes and her beloved sister, Goldie, offered to let everyone think it was her and that Bruce had gotten her pregnant. Goldie was the stronger of the two girls. She was able to deal better with the abuse. Betty needed to get away.”
“Oh my God.” I covered my mouth holding back tears.
“Bruce only agreed to go along knowing that the woman he loved and their baby would be safe. They would be eighteen a couple of months after the baby was born. Then they would take the baby and run away.” Drew shook his head and shrugged. “They were kids and had the ability to dream and think all would be happy sunshine and roses.”
Drew continued to tell them the history of the Moss twins.
“After Betty gave birth to Logan, she wanted to return home, but Goldie wouldn’t allow it. She said it wasn’t safe for her and the baby, so she would have to wait a bit longer. That little bit turned into almost two years. During those two years, Bruce started at the community college taking business courses. Goldie was not as lucky. Goldie felt lost without her sister. She found comfort in the arms of boys she had gone to school with, then men who showed her kindness.”
“That’s how she ended up a madam?” I asked, saddened for them both.
“Yes. Their parents spent so long telling them they were trash and no good, Goldie decided she might as well benefit from those who were good to her.” He looked over at me with a reassuring smile. “She didn’t go into the life blindly or without a plan, I assure you. She had a time frame set. She had a goal in mind and she knew how to make it work, and she did.”
“Did she really retire to Florida?”
“She did not. She actually didn’t live that long.” He stared at me, almost as if he was trying to tell me something.
“But she was alive when I was born. She visited me. We lived in her house.” I was getting nervous and a little afraid of what he was going to tell me.
“You were in Betty’s house were you not?”
“Yes.”
“Notice anything unusual about it?”
“It looked exactly like my grandmother’s.”
“Betty was a very set-in-her-ways kind of woman. She didn’t like change. Goldie had to literally force her to leave when she was pregnant. Betty and she fought for weeks. It finally took Bruce breaking up with her for her to go. She left pregnant and brokenhearted.”
“But you said Bruce loved her.”
“He did. He loved her enough to push her away to a safe place until he could care for her and the baby.”
“You realize this is all lies he is telling you.” Bennett said now sitting on the floor across from us all.
“You say that because your father killed your mother.” Drew said with no emotion and turned to me when I gasped.
“His father killed his mother?”
“Yes, his father. Reynolds Slone killed your grandmother, Goldie Moss, when she was only twenty-nine years old.”
“But how is that even possible if I knew my . . .”
“Your Great Aunt Betty couldn’t deal with the death of her twin sister. She couldn’t face not speaking to her, never seeing her again, so she took over her life. She assumed the life of her dead sister. The woman you knew as your grandmother was actually your Great Aunt Betty.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I leaped up from seat. “I’m so confused.”
“That is because what he is telling you is all lies.”
“Reynolds Slone is one of the developers who has been after this property for years. He has offered millions. Betty has always turned him down. She said she would never give him what he wanted. Not after what he had done.” I looked over at Jason. He knew? “I didn’t know any of this, I assure you.”
“No one knew any of this. Betty . . . well, Bruce wouldn’t allow anyone to know. Betty cracked mentally after Goldie was killed. She had lost her other half. They knew the rumors and the stories people were telling about them, but it was keeping you safe.” Drew looked at me. “It was keeping Reynolds at bay.”
“Is that why we were always moving?” I was now biting on my nails, a habit I had stopped years ago. Now I couldn’t help myself. Once I was done with the nail I moved to the cuticle, just to feel the pain of the skin tearing, to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.
“Yes, Bruce had asked Caroline to keep you safe. He paid her, but it wasn’t much or Betty would have noticed the money missing. When she did notice the money being moved around, she would fall into a depression and then assume Goldie’s life. Bruce never knew for how long she would last in that state. Caroline would tell him where you were, and Betty would go and see you. Then Caroline would move you again. Bruce was hoping that sooner or later she would snap out of it. Sloane was not supposed to know where you were. Betty and Bruce feared he would harm you.”
“And the house?”
“As Betty got older, it got more difficult for her to return to herself. Bruce started noticing Betty moving things from the house here at the resort to Goldie’s house, which they had to keep so Betty would have a place to go when she assumed Goldie’s life. She was disappearing from him and taking on more of Goldie’s persona. He wanted her home with him, so if he had to make Goldie’s house their home, then he would. The only real change in the house was your room Rory. It was in the will that it be changed upon his death if he went before Betty so that Rory could come and stay with her.”
“I didn’t handle Bruce’s will.” Jason looked from Drew to me. “If I had, I would have known the reason for . . .”
“This is all bullshit. I’m telling you that he is setting you up for something.” Bennett shouted.
“I have all of the documents. I have a journal that Bruce kept for Rory. As well as Betty and Goldie’s. You can see that Betty’s thoughts and handwriting changed significantly after her twenty-ninth birthday. Betty wrote about visits and conversations she had with Goldie, visits and conversations that could have never have happened since she was dead.” Drew cringed when he saw my reaction to his matter-of-fact statement of my grandmother’s death. “Sorry.” I nodded and showed him a weak smile.
“The police have all of the originals. I have copies on me, as well as a copy at my place and one in a safe deposit box.” He shrugged. “I didn’t know how far Bennett and his murdering father were willing to go, so I wanted to have my bases covered and Rory needed to kno
w the truth.”
“So my parents?”
“Your parents were a mess.” He gave me another reassuring smile. “Sorry, but they were. Your parents were actually pretty much what you were told, just not the who.” There was a knock at the door interrupting Drew’s explanation.
“I’ll get it.” Jason stood and moved to the door. I just stared at Bennett. I was trying so hard to organize everything that Drew had just told me. I felt even more lost and alone than I did earlier.
“You tell the police that what Mr. Parker here just told you is bullshit, and I’ll have you rolling in dough by noon tomorrow.” He sounded so sure of what he was saying, but so did Drew.
“Mr. Sloane.” Detective Hall stepped in with Detective McDonald following her. “We have a whole lot of questions for you.” Three uniformed officers stepped in as Jason came to stand next to me.
“I’ve got nothing to say to you assholes.” He struggled against the officers as they tried to hold him before placing handcuffs around his wrists.
“That’s fine because your father has been singing like a bird and pointing the finger at you as well as Mr. Parker wearing a wire this entire time.” Detective McDonald said flatly.
“That is against my legal rights to be recorded without my knowledge.” He pointed at Drew. “And my father would never do that. We had a deal. We are partners. We are in this together!” he screamed as he struggled against the cuffs.
“In what together?” I shook Jason’s hold on my upper arm off as I stepping right in front of Bennett. “You took my fucking family from me. You rolled around in money your whole fucking life. I struggled and felt lost and alone for years. Your fucking father killed your mother, my grandmother, and you don’t even give a shit. You and your fucking father drove my great aunt insane by taking away her sister. You took away my family, you son of a bitch!” I pulled back my hand and slapped him in the face as hard as I could. I put all of my years of loneliness, fear and hunger into that slap. It knocked him and the three officers holding him up back a step. “If you and your scumbag of a father decide to take this to any kind of a trial, I swear I will sell this place off bit by bit to your biggest competitor and I will sit in the courtroom everyday making my family’s presence known.” I shouted in his face. “And then I will sue you and your shithead father for the wrongful deaths of my grandmother and my great aunt and I will take every cent you have and everything either of you own!”
The Inheritance (Happy Endings Resort Book 1) Page 7
