Whitney got infuriated again. She felt like Trent was trying to keep her away from the action because she was a woman. She didn’t think that he was only saying this because he wanted her to be safe.
He asked, “So what did you do today that might have caused the bad guys to shoot at you?”
“I just went to the track and talked to a degenerate gambler. We made sure the usual suspects at the track weren’t around before we talked.”
“No, no, no. You thought you made sure. You don’t know how these guys operate. There is always someone around watching, waiting to tell on you. There are people that get paid to snitch to the mob every day. They are waiting for someone like you to talk to someone like the degenerate gambler. I’ll bet you found out some juicy tidbits on the mob,” he said.
“How did you know? He basically told me that Susan was the boss’ gumar and she ran up some exorbitant debts until he finally ordered her to be gone. I’m pretty sure that he paid a college kid, Daniel Elders, to kill her or maybe he didn’t. I don’t know anymore.”
“Relax. Daniel Elders didn’t kill her. We found out that Daniel Elders got paid just to tell the mob that Susan went into the library. The mob even has people to do that so they have all kinds of snitches working for them. We’re not sure who did the killing of Susan yet, but we are pretty sure it was ordered by the boss.”
“So why haven’t you arrested Daniel Elders? He might be able to tell you more.”
Trent explained, “Can’t do that yet. Two things will happen if we arrest the kid. One, he will get shot or killed before he ever testifies. Two, he got paid by a mob guy and I’m sure they didn’t provide any details to him about the overall plan. They probably made it so that he only knew about telling them when Susan got to the library. Odds are that he didn’t even know it was going to be a hit.”
“Do you have any other evidence that would help put this puzzle together?”
“Not really. That’s another reason we don’t arrest Daniel. There still might be some evidence out there and at this point these gangsters probably think they are going to get away with this. If we arrest the kid, they will start to make sure they have all the tracks covered,” he told her.
“This thing gets more complicated as I find out more information. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?”
Trent said, “Criminals, especially given the caliber of this organization, are getting better at what they do. We figure out how they are doing something and then they change the game and try to stay one step ahead. Then we have to adjust as law enforcement to keep up with what they are doing. Over the years, these criminals have become very good at what they do, so finding the loose ends can be extremely difficult and frustrating. I don’t know how many times I’ve known a murderer was walking around the streets because I didn’t have concrete evidence that would convince a judge and jury to put him away. That’s one of the hardest things to deal with in this line of work.”
“I’ll bet. This is my first case, unofficially, but I am already frustrated with how long it is taking.”
“If you are frustrated now, wait until these cases hit the courts. Years can go by with some of these mobsters bringing in twenty lawyers just to stall as long as they can. The system needs to be reworked as a whole because there are too many loopholes that these criminals’ lawyers find to keep a vile, murderous piece of shit out of jail. It’s despicable. They rape the social fabric of our society for personal gain and ruin families or anyone that they see standing in the way,” he said emotionally.
Trent’s passion for keeping people safe really resonated with Whitney and somehow made her man even more perfect to her. Her anger faded away. She was really happy that he didn’t even focus on her explanation of how the ghosts were helping her. Normally, people ridiculed her when she said something like that and she loved him for being understanding.
She knew she was in love with him and had nearly uttered the phrase several times only to catch herself, and stop before saying something reckless. Whitney was confident that Trent really liked her but she didn’t want to say the words and have him remain silent. That would kill her inside.
Whitney fell asleep on the couch while talking to Trent. Like a gentleman, he carried her to bed and tucked her in before leaving.
Chapter 8
The steady breeze coming from the Mustang’s open window cooled Whitney off as Trent drove them to Aaric and Victoria’s house. She couldn’t wait to show off her new man to her family. She peered over at Trent’s muscles peeking out from the black short-sleeved shirt.
“I have to warn you about something before we get there. Me and my dad have some quirky stuff we say to each other so I just don’t want you to get weirded out.”
Trent kept his eyes on the road and said, “No, that’s awesome. I think it’s great that you have a special bond with your dad. I wish I could say the same.”
“I wish I could help you with that and I feel bad for anyone that doesn’t have a good relationship with their parents.”
“Let’s just forget about that for now and have a good time today,” Trent suggested.
“Sounds great.”
They arrived at the Castle and Trent was much more impressed than Whitney. She knocked on the door and it appeared to open magically until Whitney looked down. Her niece, Gwendolyn, could barely reach the handle as she pulled the huge door open.
“Hi, Aunt Whitney. Who’s this guy?” the young girl asked and gave her aunt a hug.
“This is my friend, Trent.”
Gwendolyn said, “Hi, Aunt Whitney’s friend Trent.”
“Hello there, you precious little princess,” Trent told the little girl.
“There she is,” Ursula Powers said. “Oh, my goodness, who is this young man?”
“Alright, listen up everybody. This is Trent. Trent, this is my mom, my dad, my sister, her husband Aaric and their kids, Gwendolyn and Guinevere,” Whitney introduced.
“Nice to meet everyone. Thanks for having me,” Trent said and went down to one knee and turned his attention to the girls. “You both have the names of princesses.”
Guinevere said, “Uh huh. We like to play castles and kings and you look like you could be our king. Do you wear makeup?”
Trent answered, “Can’t say as I do. I don’t know too many kings that will admit to wearing makeup.”
Gwendolyn said, “They do in our kingdom. And we get to put it on them.”
Trent said, “I don’t know about that, but I bet you girls are ticklish.” Trent poked at the girls’ bellies, causing them to giggle.
“Now we get to put makeup on you,” Guinevere told him.
Aaric stepped in and said, “Alright girls, maybe later with the makeup. Trent, you want to take the tour of this place?”
“I’d love to, but I’m not sure if I have enough time. I’ve got to be back at work on Monday,” Trent joked.
“Don’t worry, it won’t take that long,” Aaric assured him.
“This is an amazing place, I must say,” Trent said as he looked around the kitchen.
“Thank you, much appreciated,” Aaric told him as they ascended the staircase.
Her father walked into the foyer and said, “EEEHHH.”
Whitney ran up and hugged her father. “EEEHHH.”
Robert joined the men on the tour, leaving only the women in the enormous kitchen.
Her mother immediately said, “Oh my God. Why did you let me badger you at your apartment? Where did you find this man and why haven’t you said anything about him before today?”
“I met him how people meet. He is a new cop on the force and he was investigating Susan Foley’s case.”
Her mother exclaimed, “That’s so romantic. That’s going to be a great story to tell your kids one day. I mean minus the murder part of course, God rest her soul.” Ursula made the symbol of a cross over her chest.
“Mom, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. We just started dating a little while ago.”
>
Her sister said, “You should hang onto this one. I thought you had hired a model or something. How do you control yourself around him?”
“Thanks for the confidence in me. It’s hard to control myself sometimes, but he’s not just good-looking, he’s also a great guy. I like that you guys tell me to hold onto him without even getting to know him.”
Victoria responded, “Unless he’s a serial killer, I’d hang onto him.”
Whitney reveled in finally being the center of attention and loved that her mom and sister seemed jealous of her. All they ever talked about was Victoria and her husband and kids, so this was a refreshing change for Whitney.
“Well honey, I challenged you to bring a man to this party, and you responded. I couldn’t have imagined that you would find an amazing man like this, but I am so happy for you. I should have challenged you a long time ago,” her mother said.
“Again, you two have absolutely no faith in me it appears. I told you things would work out. Sometimes you just have to believe that it will happen and stay positive.”
“That’s called faith, honey. There’s this whole thing called religion that you might want to look into,” her mom said.
“Alright, alright, we’re going down the wrong road now. What’s new with you, Victoria?”
“You’re looking at it. Between cooking and cleaning and watching the kids, that’s about it. We still have our Friday night cocktail parties that you don’t come to,” her sister hinted and raised her eyebrows.
Oh spare me with this routine. You have a maid and an au pair and I can count on both hands the number of times you have cooked a full meal. You even hire servers for your cocktail parties.
“Perhaps now that I have a proper date, I’ll start to come.”
Victoria silently clapped her hands together. “Yay. If I were you, I’d be showing off Trent around town whenever I could. Show all those people that made fun of you over the years that your man is hotter than all theirs combined.”
Victoria had always stood by her sister, even engaging in physical altercations with other girls when they made fun of Whitney. Despite her unknowing jealousy of Victoria, she would never forget the true love her sister had shown with her protective actions and words over the years.
“I’m not going to do that. I really don’t care about all those people. They were insecure about their own lives and they projected it onto me.”
“You’re not as vengeful as the other Powers women,” her sister said with a laugh and smiled at her mom.
Her sister looked like a taller version of Whitney with bigger breasts and was a bit heavier. She had much lighter brown hair that looked nearly blond during the summer. Her sister wore different combinations of stylish eyeglasses and expensive jewelry from her expansive collections at all times.
“Ok, I need you guys to do me a favor. Do not bring up Trent’s family. I don’t know what it is, but he won’t talk about it. I need you to tell dad and you to tell Aaric. I hope they didn’t mention it along the tour.”
“What happened?” her mother asked.
“What did I just say? I don’t know what it is. Just make sure to remind your husbands please.”
They sat down to dinner at the enormous rectangular table crafted from maple. Everything had gone great so far and her family really liked Trent. The food started to get passed around and everybody filled their plates.
Guinevere bluntly said, “Hey Trent.”
“Hey what?” he responded.
“How come you didn’t bring your family with you?” Guinevere asked.
Victoria jumped in. “Honey, we don’t ask our guests those kinds of questions.”
Whitney became uncomfortable until Trent said, “It’s ok. I need to talk about it sometime. You see girls, if you look around this table right now you can see that everyone is a good person. That’s great and lots of families are like yours. But sometimes families can have a few bad people in them. And then there’s other families that can be half bad and half good.”
“Is that what your family is?” Gwendolyn asked.
Trent’s Adam’s apple rippled as he swallowed and gathered himself for a moment. “Not exactly. You see, some families can be almost all bad and only one person from that family is good.”
Whitney didn’t even realize that she had been crying and noticed all the women were in tears. She grabbed Trent’s hand and felt the emotion coming from his body.
Guinevere asked, “And that’s what your family is?”
Trent replied, “That is what my family was like. But I did have a lot of people help me out that weren’t my family. I met some really nice people that made me forget about my bad family and look forward to the future. That’s what I focus on. A lot of really good people helped me like I was a member of their family.”
Gwendolyn said, “Mommy, mommy, that makes me sad. Can Trent be a part of our family, please?”
A crying Victoria answered, “Of course he can, honey. He’s already won my heart.”
“You can be part of our family if you want, although you may want to wait until the end of the night to decide. Or maybe someday you will legally be a part of the family,” her mother hinted.
“Mom, stop it now.”
“I’m just saying, who knows what the future holds for a man who doesn’t look back,” Ursula Powers said.
“Alright mom, even though that was strangely poetic, let’s not do this right now.”
Trent looked like he was going to burst into tears with a scarlet face and eyes to match. Whitney leaned over and gave him a kiss. She wanted to say ‘I love you,’ but caught herself before blurting it out. They finished eating the meal and went out near the pool bar.
The tiki torches lit up the moonless night and lined the entire pool. Whitney sat on a stool next to Trent and sipped her raspberry daiquiri. She couldn’t be any happier.
Her father said, “Just so we’re straight, Trent. That’s my little girl and if anything happens to her, you’re going to have to answer to me.”
“How many Long Island Iced Teas have you had, dad, cuz you aren’t scaring anyone.”
Her father was tall, in good shape and still had thick brown hair for an older man. He had sported tinted eyeglasses and a mustache for Whitney’s entire life. His bushy black eyebrows sat above the frames of his glasses. The electrician had an approachable, friendly appearance.
“Why would you stop me from protecting you?” her father asked.
“Because you don’t have to protect me from Trent. He can take care of me quite fine, thank you. But you know I always appreciate what you do for me. Eeehhh.”
“Eeehhh,” her dad returned.
She never remembered her father getting defensive with any of her other boyfriends and assumed the booze had given him the urge to say something. Her head buzzed as rolling clouds hid the stars and the torchlight distorted her vision. The ghosts’ promises were finally coming true as Whitney reflected on the years of disappointment. She quickly shook off those negative thoughts and took a drink of her frosty beverage.
“So Whitney says you guys met while you were on the investigation?” her mom asked.
“Yeah, I saw her and forgot what I was doing. I kept trying to see if she had a ring on a certain finger, but not let her know what I was doing,” Trent told her mother.
“I knew what you were doing.”
“I don’t know about that,” Trent said as he leaned over and kissed Whitney.
“So romantic. Remember when you used to be like that, Bob?” her mother asked.
“I remember a lot of things. A lot of things. Would you like me to start commenting on all of them?” her father joked.
“Just go back to your drink and forget I said anything. As for you, young man, you are welcome in our family anytime you want,” her mom offered.
“That’s mighty gracious of you, Mrs. Powers,” Trent said.
“Please, call me Ursula, we’re family now,” her mom laughed.
/> “Ursula, and this goes for everyone. Thanks for making me feel so welcome around here. It says a lot about all of you as people to be so loving to a complete stranger. Reminds me of my mentors that helped me get to this point,” Trent said.
Everybody went to leave and Whitney found herself in the passenger seat of the Black Jade Mustang. Trent got in and immediately leaned over and started kissing her. His tongue invaded her mouth and started to dance around as she tried to keep up with his passion.
She could feel the heat coming from his body as he gripped the side and back of her neck. She rubbed his bicep and sheer excitement emanated from her body. The two lovers finally collected themselves and drove away from Aaric and Victoria’s house.
Trent said, “You want to hit up a bar on the way home. Here, what about this place?” Trent pulled into the crowded parking lot.
“Yeah, I don’t know about this place. This is a place where a bunch of local losers hang out and I’m not sure if you would like it.”
“Come on. We’ll just go in for a while. What’s the worst that could happen?” he asked.
Oh, I don’t know, maybe you get to see someone I went to high school with and you can see how they treat me. You can see that they think I’m a freak.
The couple entered the open area with pool tables in one corner and scattered tables around the horseshoe shaped bar. Whitney could feel the eyes of the people who had judged her over the years.
Most watched in disbelief as she and Trent walked hand-in-hand across the bar. She looked around and caught jealous stares from most of the women and a slow grin appeared on her face that wouldn’t go away. Finally, the tables had been turned and she had what everybody wanted.
Whispers From Another World: Whintey Powers Paranormal Adventure #1 (Whitney Powers Paranormal Adventures) Page 7
