When he was finished, Randolph had a better understanding of the daughter. She was estranged from her parents, it said. But it was more than that, he’d bet. She hated them as much as he did. For entirely different reasons, yes, but there was enough going on right now that he’d bet that taking her to bring her parents out in the open would do him no good at all. They’d surely let her rot.
“I want you to contact this woman, Clare Winchester, anyway. We might be able to work together to get her parents out of the way.” Benson said that he could do that. He also told him who the alpha was. “Related to her?”
“Brother to her husband.” Well fuck, this was getting more and more complicated all the time. “Her brother is working at the pack house too. As a painter. He is slow but can function in the world. Smart too, I’ve been told, for someone like him.”
“So, we have a daughter that is married to the alpha’s brother, her brother that is handicapped but not stupid, and their parents are out running around with my diamonds like they don’t have a care in the world. And you know as well as I do that they no longer have them, nor the cash, I’m betting. They never could keep ten cents in their pocket when they could spend a quarter for something shiny. Christ, I hate those two.” Benson nodded. “We might as well shoot her where she stood if we were to take the girl. They’d have no more use for her than I would if I tried to blackmail them with her. Damn it. Then there is the added fun that she’s related to the alpha by marriage. So, I can take her and deal with the Winchester family, or be taken in by the WC and more than likely killed. Is there any plan in this that I don’t get myself slaughtered? Or sent off to prison where they throw away the key?”
“Yes, I have an idea. It might be something that can at least get us close to Con and Ava.” He asked him what it was. “Ask the girl for help with them. If she hates them as much as I would, had they done that to me, then I’d gladly turn them over. It’s better us than the Feds, don’t you think?”
Randolph had learned a long time ago that his way wasn’t necessarily the only way. He also had learned a good lesson about listening to those around him. If not, then he’d never see the Feds coming after him because they’d help them find him. He rewarded for good ideas and for ones that made him money. Benson, Randolph thought, had made a great deal of money off keeping him out of prison.
“I like that. Try and set something up that will include the alpha. Might as well get that over with as well. I really don’t care if she wants to be there, or him either. Make them in the same place at the same time. We’ll not be well liked when we leave, but at least we can make an impression they’re never going to forget.” He said that he’d do that now. “Also, make sure that the place we’re staying doesn’t have any unwelcomed guests. I’d hate to run into Con or that wife of his before we’re ready for them. If they’re there.”
“Yes, sir.”
Randolph looked at the picture of the girl. He supposed that wasn’t the right term for her, but she was a beauty. Nothing at all like her overly made up mother. Ava had always thought herself well beyond more beautiful than she really was. Randolph thought of what it would take for a young woman to hate her dad as much as it looked like their daughter did hers.
Con had always been the most narrow-minded man he’d ever met. He would get an idea in his head and pick at you until you agreed with him or let him have his way. And when he did get to do whatever it was he was thinking on, you’d think that he’d invented it. Like being his mule.
He knew that Con thought he was an indecisive prick. Randolph wanted him to think that. When in reality, he knew the answer to whatever he might be going on about almost before he shut his trap. But Randolph, unlike Con, was a thinker. Making sure that he had all the pros and cons listed in his head before he answered anyone.
Randolph hadn’t wanted to use people to transport his diamonds from one country to the next, for the exact reason that had happened. They could steal from you. Con had, in his estimation, taken nearly ten million in diamonds before Randolph had figured it out. And that had pissed him off more than being stolen from.
Then he tried his best to blame it on Randolph, actually telling him that had he not made it so easy to steal them, then he’d not have taken them. Like he was an idiot for allowing him to work for him. Randolph had wanted to kill them both right then and there, but he wanted his merchandise back. The next day, while trying to flee the country, they’d both been killed. Or so he’d been made to believe.
“I should have known it was a little too convenient, don’t you think?” Benson pointed out that he’d had a lot going on then. “Yes, I did, but that doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t have looked into it a little more. What about that idiot that was their friend? What was his name? Grass or something.”
“Norman Crass. He’s no longer a problem for anyone, sir. He washed up on shore a few days ago. In California.” Randolph had read that, he thought. “Sir, I was wondering if you’ve thought this through. I mean, I don’t want to tell you your business, but is it worth going here for diamonds that you’re never going to see again?”
“Probably not. But they fucked me over, Benson. Not once, but several times over the course of our working together. And that just doesn’t sit well with me. How about you?” He shook his head. “I’m not sure what my plans are now other than seeing this girl and talking to the alpha. Then we’ll go from there. As you know, my first thought was to go in with guns blazing. Now? Well, now I want information. And I think I can get that in the form of the daughter. She’s not on my radar, not now, but she might be just as guilty as her parents are.”
“I’d doubt that, sir. She had been working hard at distancing herself from them well before they worked for you. And the brother, she took him out of the home almost the same day that they were killed. Or when we all thought that they’d been killed.” Benson smiled. “And for all intents and purposes, Winchester is a good man. Not just respected by the WC, but anyone you talk to in their town. I don’t think he’d allow his family to be associated with that sort of mess. He’d kill her himself if it came to that, and walk away feeling justified in what he’d done for his brother.”
“Probably.” He looked out the window again and thought of what he was embarking on. “I’m going to try and get some rest here. You wake me when we’re close to there, all right?” He said that he would.
Randolph closed his eyes, but he was far from relaxed enough to sleep. Instead, he let his mind wander over what he knew about the couple he was going to kill. Con and Ava had been good at their jobs. Never once had they been caught carrying what he’d asked of them. And for that, he’d paid them well. But they’d gotten greedy and had taken his things. It was far worse than he was making it out to be, he knew that. They’d robbed him of so much more than just diamonds.
It had taken him almost a week to figure out that his phone had been fucked with. Not just tapped, that would have been bad, but they had cloned it. Every call he’d made, every call he got in, every time he used it for the navigation system, they’d been right on top of it. They knew his passwords too, thanks to them being far smarter than he’d thought they were.
At first it was just a little bit of cash that had come up missing. He had just fobbed it off to poor calculations on his part. Then one month it had been for five grand. Not just that, but one of his own checks, that he had apparently signed, for four thousand, eight hundred and twelve dollars and seventeen cents had been cashed. Such an odd amount that he’d looked into it. The money had paid for a mink coat. Again, he’d thought it was his wife this time, and had forgotten to ask her about it until the next week, after Con and Ava had been dead. There was ten thousand taken out this time. And the same thing had been taken out of all his accounts.
And finally, there were the credit cards taken out in his name. Huge balances had been opened in accounts that he’d never heard of. One of the cards had a credit limit of almost fifty thousand dollars. All of it was charged out the f
irst day it had been approved. There were nine cards like that, some of them lower amounts, but most were for that much and more.
The real shitty part was, there wasn’t anything he could do about it. Not then. But now that he knew they were alive and hanging around to take advantage of someone else, he was going to get his payback tenfold. Or more.
They’d gotten away with nearly fifty million. Fifty million in cash and credit cards taken out in his name. Including his diamonds.
When Benson told him they were there, he had another thought. Something that made the hair on the back of his neck dance, it was so bad. But he knew, as surely as he was sitting here, that they’d done something to that young boy of theirs.
“They had him in that home. I don’t remember the name of it.” Benson told him. “Yes, that’s it, Sherman Oaks. I want you to go there. See what you can find out. I’m betting that they have a little plan for him like they did for me.”
“You mean the insurance policy?” He nodded. “I can look into that. But since they’ve been declared dead, they won’t be able to collect on it.”
“No, but they would have taken that into account. Find out what they’re going by now and see if you can dig something up. It might be nothing, but I have a feeling that they’ve taken out a huge policy on him as they’d done me.” Benson said he’d look as soon as they were checked in the inn. “Also, look around that place. See if they might have hidden my diamonds there to collect later. Probably not, but it’s worth a shot.”
He’d gotten a letter in the mail about a policy that had been taken out in his name. Randolph had nearly thrown it away, junk mail he’d thought. But after looking it over, he realized that it was a real policy with him as the named victim. Because as surely as he’d been sitting there at his desk, he knew they had meant to kill him off.
Randolph had called the company, asking about it, and had been told that Conrad and Ava Macintosh had taken out the policy and would be the beneficiaries should he be killed or die. And since they were now dead, who did he want to make as the beneficiaries? It had been enlightening to him, the lengths that these people went to go make a buck or two off him. Also, and this rankled him the most, they were using one of his credit cards to make the monthly payments.
~~~
Owen knew that the watches were worth some money. The ones that he’d sold at auction a month ago had netted him nearly thirty million dollars. But the one that his dad had claimed was worth more than those was being offered at the same auction house, and Owen was nervous when he was told it would be the main reason people came to the auction house today.
Clare asked him if he was all right. “Yes. I’m okay. Are you all right? I’m fine. Just fine. I’m all right.” She giggled. “No, I’m not okay. Look how many people are there. And I’m thinking that they’re only here to see how much the watch and cups go for.”
He and Clare had gone through all the tea cups and sets and picked out the ones they had wanted. There were over two hundred of them that they’d found so far, and had several more trunks to go through in the other sheds.
Then his mom had taken the ones that she wanted. Bought them from them. No matter what he’d said to her about them, she paid fair market for them. He had put the money in a safety deposit box, where his other cash for sales had gone, for his and Clare’s children to use.
So, here they were today, not just selling eighteen pocket watches, but twenty-five tea cups and saucers, as well as four whole sets with four cups and saucers, a teapot, and cream and sugar containers.
Owen still hadn’t told his family about the other money. They’d unearthed three more trunks besides the ones that he’d found on his own that were filled with an array of things. They could see that there were several more in the shed they were working on too. To date, he had four more places that he was looking for trunks in. And there was no telling what he’d find in those.
The bidding was going to start with the tea sets. He wasn’t sure how much to expect on those, so didn’t pay any attention to the bidding. Instead, he was answering questions that were being put to him about the man that had commissioned him, a fake person, to sell off his things.
Their attorney had thought it a good idea to not let people know that he’d found them on the property. Nor to tell people the things were actually his. He’d been really good at that so far. He was terrified, as was Clare, that someone would come and say that they’d had permission to store things in the barn and shed.
No one knew him as anyone but Mr. Winchester, executor of the estate of some eccentric gentleman. And since they were using a very well-known auction house in the city to do this, there wasn’t anyone around to make assumptions other than that he was doing a favor for someone.
“Mr. Winchester, are you being given a percentage of the sales brought in for these items?” He said that he wasn’t going to disclose any details about the sales. And it wasn’t a lie; he was getting all of it, but that wasn’t anyone’s business but his own. “This other gentleman, he must have a great deal of trust in you to do this for him. Is he a relative of yours?”
“Nope.” He turned away from the person that was following him around and firing questions at him like a tommy gun. The bidding for the second tea set was underway. Owen turned and knocked the man back. “I’m sorry, but should you be back here? I mean, it was my understanding that only staff could be back here with the bidding going on.”
“You’re back here.” That was rude, he thought, and looked around for some help. “If you don’t mind me saying so, I’d say that you’re set to make a great deal of money off this poor old man. Do you think he has any idea what these things are worth?”
“I’m sure that he does, or he’d not be having them sold off here, don’t you think? I mean, why use an auction house of this repute if you only get ten dollars for something?” The man that had been helpful earlier came to his rescue. “This person shouldn’t be back here, I don’t think. Can you please show him out?”
“Yes sir.”
As he was being pulled to the door, the man shot one more question at him. He wanted to know if the man that he was helping was dead. Owen didn’t even bother saying anything. But he did look at Clare when she laughed.
“He thinks I killed the man for his goods and now, at a public forum, I’m selling them off and making money. How stupid does one have to be to be a reporter, do you think?” They were both laughing when the gavel came down on the tea set. He decided that he didn’t want to know. “Would you like to have some lunch with me, miss? I’m sure there are any number of places where we can have a nice meal and then find us a big bed.”
“Why Mr. Winchester, whatever will people think?” He took her hand in his and headed for the exit. But he was stopped by Gabe and Rayne. Whatever they wanted, he wasn’t sure he needed to know just yet. But when he tried to move around them, he was stopped by Gabe.
“You need to know this.” He said that he didn’t. “Okay, fair enough, but you might want to know this. There is a ghost with us. His name is Norman Crass.”
“I don’t think I know him. And can you please come up with something else besides ‘there’s a ghost with us’? I mean, say something like ‘Hey, do you happen to know Norman Crass? He’s needing to talk to you about how he died.” He glanced at Clare and knew that she did know him. “Why is he with you two, and where did he die?”
“Clare’s father killed him two mornings ago.” Clare held his hand tighter. “Then he dragged his body across the state of California to have him come up on shore there. He knows not only where your father is, but also what he’s doing here.”
After getting all the information that Gabe had from the man, they all left for lunch. The good time he had been planning was now not like he’d planned. But he listened to Rayne as she explained to Clare what they’d been able to find out. And it was a great deal.
“So my mom is spending the money on having her body enhanced for whatever reason, and that’s why
they’re broke. My dad is here to kill off Conrad for the insurance money. Could they get any crueler, do you think?” Owen didn’t answer her. There wasn’t anything that he could say to her that wouldn’t hurt her anymore. Instead, he ordered for them both and let her get information from Norman via Rayne.
Owen was thinking about last night. And taking his lovely new bride to bed. It had been something that he’d never done before. Not just take a woman to bed in their house, but his bride.
They had decided to wait until they were wed before they had sex. He thought it was romantic, for about ten minutes. Then he realized it was a new form of torture to the male sex. The three days that they’d had to wait had been the hardest and the most painful three days of his life.
The morning of their wedding, Clare had gone shopping with his sisters. They had been gone all day, and when she’d returned, she had this smile on her face that made him think of models in magazines, sex pots on posters, and virginal women that he’d seen in school. He was sure he was thinking of that wrong now, but they had been in his thoughts every time he saw her looking at him.
They were married in a short ceremony in their home. Then when it was over, he had picked her up and carried her over the threshold of their room in their big empty house. He’d been busy there too. Dozens of roses, petals of them all over the floor of the room. A box of chocolates that were both light and darks, as well as a large bottle of champagne that was chilling beside the bed.
“I bought the cutest nighty for you.” He grinned and asked her if it was expensive. “Yes. Are you going to tear it from me and take me hard?”
“Christ, woman. But yes, I plan on taking you all kinds of ways.” Her giggle made him smile. “Go put it on and I’ll be naked when you—”
“Owen, are you there?” He looked around the restaurant and vaguely took the surroundings in, and then looked at his brother. The women were gone, and he asked him where they’d gone too. “Bathroom. Or I guess the ladies’ room. You were really zoned out there. Are you all right?”
Owen Page 7
