Outlaws: A Romance Anthology

by Yolanda Olson

  I drove along the familiar private road that stretched about seventy yards from the main road to my aunt and uncle’s estate. My father had a heart attack at work shortly after my mother was killed. At twelve, I came to live with my mother’s sister, Marlowe, and her husband, Lawrence.

  Quickly, I dashed up the red brick steps to the door as to not linger in the rain. Aunt Marlowe had been talking in the entryway with Audrey, their maid, and when I stepped inside, their conversation broke up. Audrey hurried toward me, greeted me with a smile, and took my coat.

  “Are the roads bad out there?” Audrey asked as she hung up my coat.

  I shook my head and gave her my assessment of the roads as my aunt listened in. Audrey had been with Aunt Marlowe and Uncle Lars before I had moved in as a kid, and she had always been kind to me.

  “Come in and have some coffee, Griffin,” my aunt suggested.

  I followed her to the country-style kitchen and sat at the table that overlooked their fog-covered lake in the back. Faintly in the background, I could hear a hand spanking flesh. I remained quiet until Audrey brought over a mug filled with coffee and then left the kitchen.

  “Where’s Uncle Lars?” I asked innocently.

  “He’s disciplining Riley,” my aunt whispered.

  I raised my eyebrow at her.

  Riley was Audrey’s fourteen-year-old son and lived here. We were sixteen years apart in age, so even when I lived here, I never really got to know Riley. He was always around, though, and I’d heard he was as smart as a whip, but often in trouble. Audrey, being a single mom and trying to keep a grip on her son, had turned to Lars many times to discipline Riley and help guide him.

  “What did he do?” I inquired, just before I took a sip from my pale blue mug.

  My aunt swatted at the air as if it were nothing. Was it really minuscule, or was she just saying that? I raised my eyebrow at her again.

  “Audrey caught him in your old bedroom. He found some of your … er … magazines.” My aunt’s cheeks turned red with embarrassment, but I couldn’t help but laugh at this. “Griffin! That’s not funny!”

  “I’m sorry, Aunt Marlowe, but it kind of is.”

  “You left that smut in there, and he found it.” My aunt rolled her eyes at me and slapped my forearm before she took a long sip from her floral coffee cup. “It’s like you’ve contributed to his delinquency. His poor mother caught him reading them.” The coffee cup went back toward her lips, but then she stopped to scold me again. “If Lars and I had caught you with those kinds of magazines, he would have spanked the shit out of you.”

  I pulled the coffee cup away from my lips and added, “I probably would have liked it back then.”

  “Griffin Miles Evans!” my aunt gasped my full name in shock. “It would have been one thing if they were those”—she frantically waved her hand around as she desperately searched for the words—“those swimsuit magazines.”

  Laughing, I tilted my head back and stared at the ceiling. I had always been a curious young man, and very quickly I discovered that the run of the mill pictures of tits and ass didn’t do a whole lot for me.

  “But they were those … weird magazines,” Aunt Marlowe whispered ‘weird magazines’ as if she’d be struck down on the spot for saying their name. She got up from her chair to pour herself more coffee.

  “We’ve had this discussion multiple times, Aunt Marlowe,” I reminded her kindly. “There’s nothing wrong with kink or what I like.”

  “Of course, there isn’t, Griffin dear.” She sat and sipped her coffee. “You know that Lawrence and I support you and the decisions you’ve made.” Aunt Marlowe took another sip and then quickly added with a smile, “We’re both fine with the fact that you like women and men. It’s perfectly fine,” she reassured me, though I thought it was more for her benefit than mine. I was perfectly happy with who I was.

  I sighed and drank my coffee while Riley was getting spanked for getting caught reading fetish and kink magazines. My aunt went on about how she had plans Saturday morning to get her hair and nails done for the party that they hosted several times a year for the Evans Financial employees. It was a tradition that my father, grandfather, and great-grandfather all carried on, along with Uncle Lars. I would carry on the tradition, as well, as soon as I stepped into the CEO role.

  Moments later, rubber-soled sneakers scampered down the hallway toward the kitchen. Before Riley made his appearance, Audrey intercepted him, and my aunt and I could hear their hushed conversation in the hall.

  “Riley!” Audrey hissed. “Griffin is in the kitchen. Don’t go starting any of your nonsense. You can have breakfast after he leaves with Mr. Walker.”

  It was amusing to me that Audrey still called my aunt and uncle “Mr. and Mrs. Walker.” Lars finally came into the kitchen, wearing an expression that told me he had already had a long day. After he finished a quick cup of coffee, we headed out to make our way to work.

  “Behave today, Riley. Don’t give your mother any trouble,” Lars’ stern voice filled the entryway as we pulled on our coats.

  Riley watched me with swollen eyes while Lars spoke to him. The swollen eyes were no doubt from an embarrassing crying episode during his spanking. Fourteen was an awkward age. Riley was tall and lanky and hadn’t grown into his clothes yet. His dark jeans were too long for him, and the bottoms were frayed in the back from dragging on the ground. Riley wore a navy University of Michigan sweatshirt that was also too big for him. Possibly from a second-hand store.

  “Yes, sir,” Riley said to Lars, though his eyes were still on me. “Hey, Griffin,” he greeted me.

  “Nice sweatshirt,” I commented before opening the door and walking outside into the humidity.

  “Take the long route to work, Griffin,” Uncle Lars said the moment he closed the car door. “How’s your morning?”

  “It’s alright,” I said as I turned onto the main road. “I dreamt about it again last night.” I paused to see if he was going to say anything right away.

  While Lars knew what had happened, my aunt didn’t. My father told Lars, of course, and he kept it a secret and from my aunt. Uncle Lars shared the same beliefs as my father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. In a nutshell, never trust a woman because she will either cheat on you or deceive you and take your money. After my father died and I went to live with my aunt and uncle, Lars continued to preach the same thing to me. That belief had been burned into my heritage for decades. And I knew without a shadow of a doubt that Aunt Marlowe had remained faithful to him, simply because he hadn’t killed her.

  Since it was a notion that the men in my family deeply believed, it was also a fundamental principle that they silently built Evans Financial on. The company was one of the best to work for in Grand Rapids, mainly because of the retirement and pension package. We had a lot of couples that worked for us, and if the men who founded and ran the company discovered any slips of faithfulness along the way, their names were entered into a journal to be handled at another time. They usually just disappeared.

  The corporate parties that were hosted quarterly were meant to be a way to bait any women, or men, to see if they’d sway and cheat when their spouse wasn’t looking. The majority of the time, it was to catch the women; however, there had been some instances of men. Since my eighteenth birthday, I’d been used as the bait to lure the women, and men, for Lars to discover. All I had to do was be my handsome self, flash a smile or two, and the women would come find me. I’d make sure we were “caught” by Lars. He’d record the name of the offending party in the black leather-bound journal that had been passed down several generations, and they’d be dealt with later.

  “What part did you dream about?” he asked.

  “The part where I walked in on him strangling her.”

  “I often have dreams about telling your aunt.”

  “She’d flip if she knew that my dad killed her sister.” I paused for a moment, hoping my stomach would settle from that unnerving thought. I could pi
cture my mother’s eyes looking into mine as I held her wrists down. “Or that I helped. It isn’t worth upsetting her.”

  “Griffin, you were a child.”

  “A child who helped his father kill his mom.”

  “We’ve been through this, Griffin.”

  “Yes, we have.” We’d had this conversation several times; though I didn’t agree with his opinion on the matter. I was eager to move onto another topic. “So what’s up with Audrey’s son?”

  Lars let out a laugh and shook his head.

  “Riley idolizes you. Haven’t you noticed?”

  “I haven’t.”

  “Audrey is losing her control on him,” he admitted. I knew he was alluding to the content of the magazines that Riley found in my old room. I wasn’t going to get into that conversation again. “I’m not pleased with Audrey, though,” he said under his breath.

  “Why? Did she not make your coffee just right?” I joked.

  “Nothing at all like that.”

  “Then what?” I pressed.

  “About a month ago, I was out for a late evening walk along the path in the woods and came upon two people fucking. It was Audrey and one of the landscapers. One of the married landscapers,” he advised.

  Shit.

  “I added her name to the journal, Griffin.”

  That statement came with a heavy feeling because I knew sooner or later she’d be dealt with, and it didn’t sit well with me.

  “Lars, that kid isn’t much older than I was when I lost both of my parents,” I reminded him, hoping he’d look at it from that perspective.

  “Riley’s father sought out another woman, Griffin. That’s why he lost his father.”

  “And yet you never dealt with the woman that Riley’s dad was banging. You only dealt with Riley’s dad,” I jabbed at him.

  “Dammit, Griffin! You know my intention was to deal with her as well. She fled the country and went home to Toronto. You’re out of your mind if you think I’m going across borders to deal with it. That was ten years ago.”

  I shrugged but kept my eyes on the road.

  “That’s fine. Someday I’ll finish what you weren’t able to.” Though we both burst out laughing, there was some truth to it.

  “Don’t forget, I won’t be in the office tomorrow afternoon. I need to help your aunt and the caterers finalize everything for the party Saturday. There is a meeting tomorrow afternoon between the department heads. Can you attend in my absence?”

  “Of course,” I assured him while I pulled into the parking lot.

  As we walked into the Evans Financial building, Lars reminded me that there would be two people at the party on Saturday that he suspected had cheated on their spouses.

  “Remember, flirt and let them come to you. Don’t pursue them. Let them think they have the upper hand and are in control.”

  I was slightly offended.

  “Have I messed up yet?” I inquired.

  “No, I simply feel better giving you the reminder. Everything has stayed intact because we’ve been careful. It’s not worth being careless.”

  “I’ve been doing this for twelve years, Lars. I think I have it under control. I only need the names.”

  We entered the building and remained silent until we were in the elevator.

  “Groom Riley for Evans Financial, Griffin, but do it from a distance,” Lars instructed as he jumped topics on me.

  Considering the news he laid on me in the car about Riley’s mom, it was a bit concerning.

  Chapter Two

  After we docked, it seemed like we drove forever through an unfamiliar town. Even though I slept on the ferry, I was still exhausted. We were on our way to a cabin that my dad said we owned.

  We pulled up to the cabin, and I was surprised that it wasn’t bigger than it was. I was so accustomed to everything being large that this didn’t seem like it was anything my dad would own.

  “Are you sure this is ours, Dad?”

  “I am, son. Your great-grandfather owned this. We own miles and miles of the surrounding land.”

  “Does anyone know we’re here? Or that we’re coming here?” I asked.

  “I spoke with Lars this morning. He knows.”

  “Does he know about Mom?”

  I tried to control myself and not cry. My dad put the car in park and reached over to hug me.

  “He knows, Griffin.”

  “What … what if he tells?” I began to panic because I worried the police would take me out of school and put me in that juvenile hall place.

  “Griffin, son, relax, and listen to me. These secrets are safe with Lars. He will never tell anyone. You are always safe with your uncle, no matter what.”

  “No matter what?” I asked again for confirmation.

  “No matter what. I promise.”

  I let go of my dad, sat back in my seat, and stared at our small family cabin. Dad told me what we were coming here to do when we left Grand Rapids this morning. I wasn’t sure I could do it, but he said it was my chance to prove to him that I was an Evans man.

  “Ready?” he asked. I nodded and wiped my eyes with the back of my shaking hand. “Okay, behind the cabin, there will be a blue wheelbarrow. Go get it and bring it to the trunk of the car.”

  We got out of the car, and I ran up the small hill to fetch the wheelbarrow. It actually felt good to run after being cooped up on the ferry ride and then in the car for a while.

  “Blue wheelbarrow … blue wheelbarrow,” I said over and over until I rounded the back of the cabin. “Ah,” I murmured when I spotted it right away.

  Tightly, I gripped the cracked and worn wooden handles and hurried back to the car. My dad stood at the back of the open car trunk and nodded his approval as I neared. When I looked inside the trunk and saw the black body bag that my mom was in, I doubled over and threw up.

  Two nightmares, two nights in a row. I stared at the ceiling, annoyed that I had woken up from another nightmare this week. They were always disruptive, but during the workweek made them even more bothersome.

  It wasn’t quite three in the morning, and I had a long day ahead of me too. While I was trying to get images of my mother’s dead body out of my mind, another troubling thought entered in its place… Riley’s mother, Audrey.

  As warped as it was, I agreed with my family’s stance on cheaters, but I didn’t agree with Lars where Audrey was concerned. And maybe it was because I knew that kid would be shipped off to some temporary home until he was adopted. At fourteen, chances would be slim that he’d be adopted. There was a chance my aunt and uncle would keep him, but either way, it weighed heavily on my mind.

  Wide awake now, the only thing on my mind was what Lars had said to me yesterday. Groom Riley for Evans Financial, Griffin, but do it from a distance. I got out of bed and paced around for a while as I thought about how to achieve this. The easiest way to do anything was through money.

  I went downstairs, logged onto my laptop, and opened the website to my bank. I opened a new account under my name for the time being. Tomorrow I would contact an attorney to put the account in a trust under Lars’ name. That way, Riley wouldn’t think that it came from me.

  If I were to groom Riley, I’d prefer him to attend the University of Michigan for his business degree, just like I did. Judging by the oversized Michigan sweatshirt that he wore yesterday, I’d say he’d be perfectly happy attending the school. I quickly calculated what the tuition cost would be for six years, added in some incidentals, and a cost cushion. I stared at the calculator and cocked my head to the side.

  “Not bad,” I supposed out loud.

  I transferred an even two hundred thousand from one of my accounts to the new account. There. Step one of the grooming process had already been started. More words from my talk with Lars worked its way into my head. Riley idolizes you. Haven’t you noticed? I guess I needed to start paying a little more attention to Riley. The fact that he did admire me would make this much easier. Since he was sixteen years young
er than me, he would be a good next in line for Evans Financial.

  With my coffee in hand, I strolled into the lobby of Evans Financial, smiled at Monica, the receptionist, and struck up a friendly conversation with her. Monica was recently married to one of the guys in the accounting department. Unlike Monica, he wasn’t much to look at, but he made a lot of money. Lars had mentioned Monica’s name specifically as one for me to try to bait at the party.

  “Good morning, Monica,” I greeted her with a smile and set my coffee cup on the writing ledge in front of her.

  “Hello, Mr. Evans.”

  “Please, call me Griffin,” I reminded her for the millionth time. Until I was in the CEO office, as much as it irked me, I was Griffin. “Are you and your husband coming to Lars’ party tomorrow?” I tried to sound like I gave a fuck.

  “Oh, yes! We’re both very excited. We love the parties.”

  “Good. I look forward to seeing you there.”

  I flashed a smile and then got in the fresh-scented elevator. Whatever the cleaners used, I actually appreciated the fresh scent. It almost always wore off by noon as people used the elevator more, filling the space with their perfumes and cheap colognes. Though I stared at the button with the number three glowing, I pressed the button for the second floor. All the lights on the button panel dimmed, except for the number two. Just another daily fucking reminder that I wasn’t respected enough yet to join those on the third floor. My father would be fucking pissed. I huffed to myself as I made my way down the hall to my office. At least I had a fucking office, as lackluster as it was.

  I flipped the light on, and one of the overhead fluorescent lights flickered and then went dark. Now, only three bulbs threw a fake yellow glow onto my oak furnishings. Annoyed, I flopped down on my fake leather chair and booted up my computer. Yeah, my dad would be pissed right the fuck off if he knew I was working in these conditions for our family company.

  Somehow, I managed to buckle down and get through some work, but by 10:00, I leaned back in my crappy chair to take a small break. As the burnt-out bulb hummed, I stared at my University of Michigan mug and instantly thought of Riley and his mom. Under no circumstances did I want her name in the leather journal. It could potentially leave Riley parentless.