When he left her, he went to find Able, Alex and Misty’s dad. Able just so happened to be in the media room with Alex, who was showing him the new game. When he told them what he was about to do, they jumped at the chance faster than Misty had when he suggested it. Since he knew next to nothing about campers, he decided he’d look some up before he left.
“No. That’ll take the fun out of it.” He asked Able why that would happen. “I don’t know. But you’ll have it in your head that you want this one particular camper and won’t buy anything else. We should just wing it.”
“I’m not good at winging it.” Alex laughed when Grayson said that. “I’ve been a person who doesn’t take chances on things that are going to carry around my family. You should know that by now.”
“Yes. It took you four weeks to buy your wife a car. You’re too set in your ways, old man.” Coming from Able, Grayson thought it was funny. He’d been forever calling him young man since he’d met him. “We’ll go, we’ll shop, we’ll conquer. It will be the best time we’ve ever had.”
Once they visited a few of the many dealerships around town, he was thinking this was a terrible idea. There were hundreds of different styles and shapes of the suckers, not to mention pop-ups, travel trailers, and fifth wheels. You could choose from the drivable kind as opposed to something as simple as attaching it to your truck and sleeping that way.
It was two hours before he found two that he liked. Grayson, at some point, had been separated from his fellow shoppers but wasn’t worried. They could contact each other in a lot of ways, and he just assumed they were having fun too. But when Jefferson Quinn, the chief of police, found him in the showroom about to sign on the dotted line, he knew he should have paid more attention today.
“They’ve had your father and brother-in-law arrested.” He asked him why. “I’m not quite sure how much of this you’re going to believe, but they called us in on Alex first because he wasn’t paying attention to the salesman. That was easy enough to clear up in my mind, but then they arrested Able because, and I’m paraphrasing here, he was knocking heads together. They used much more colorful language, but you get it.”
“Does Misty know?” All Jefferson did was laugh as he nodded. “Oh, Christ, who do I have to pay off to get her out of jail too?”
“Nothing. I just came by to tell you that you’re not going to be able to buy anything here because the name Crosby has been banned. Not only that....” He couldn’t stop laughing. “Not only that but apparently you’re going to be getting some hospital bills from when your little tiny wife, your very pregnant tiny little wife, hurt four of their salesmen when they tried to tell her to calm down. I surely wish I had remembered to pull out my phone for that. It was a treat I’ll treasure for the rest of my life. You should have seen her, Grayson. She leaped right through the flipping air and landed on the first guy’s back when he reached out to lead her out of the building. Then after that, it was a free-for-all of grown men trying to get away from Misty.”
“How badly are they hurt?” Jefferson was still laughing when he looked up and saw his wife coming toward him. She wasn’t just walking but seemed to be slamming her foot down hard enough on the lot that small indentations would be there for years. Grayson had a sudden thought that years from now, they’d be spraying off the lot, and they’d see the footprints and say to each other, “Ah, the Misty incident,” and laugh a little. “Here she comes, Jefferson. You’d better not be laughing at her. She looks like she could take you on.”
He didn’t just sober up, but he also stepped back several feet. Grayson was both impressed and amused that people knew to be just as afraid of his wife as they were the rest of the women in their family.
“I’m so angry.” He didn’t bother pointing out that he could tell. “I’ve just spoken to Ryan and Jason. They’re going to buy this place and have it bulldozed under.”
Again, Grayson kept his mouth shut and just let her blow off some of her steam. She was still pounding the pavement, and he thought that term couldn’t have been better demonstrated than what she was doing right now. Careful not to get into her way, he let her go and contacted his two brothers. They were laughing when he asked them what was going on.
We’ve not purchased it yet. I’m not sure how serious she was. Then when she told us to just plow the campers under with the buildings and people, we knew she was pissed more than either of us had ever seen her. He told Jason what she was doing right now. Yes. Let her walk through it, I think. I will tell you what happened, as we’ve heard from Alex. Apparently, this guy was pissy anyway when he met up with them in the parking lot. Able had found one of the campers opened, and he, of course, walked into it. How the hell was either of them to know that it belonged to someone? It had only just been sold, and there wasn’t any indication that told them that. When the salesman tried to tell Alex to get his ass out of the camper, of course, he didn’t hear him. Then he suddenly grabbed him from behind, and Alex knew nothing but that he was being pulled backward. Fists were swung, and the salesman was hurt, badly enough that he’s going to need stitches. Able was ready to pounce on one of the other men that had come to help the downed salesman, and that was all it took for him to start swinging too. They both were arrested and taken in.
How did anyone know to contact Misty? I’m assuming it was her dad’s call. This time Ryan answered him, saying he was called because he was their attorney. But Misty had answered the phone. And she no doubt rushed down here to smack some heads around, and now that she has, she wants you to make sure no one is treated that way again. I think the owner is here now. Did anyone call him?
I did. He asked Jason what he’d said. I told him everything, including us purchasing the place and burying it. I didn’t, however, mention that Misty wanted the people buried, their employees, too. He does know we’re on the case of their company treating the handicapped unfairly. Also, there are recordings of the event, and it clearly shows one of his people trying to drag Alex out. I’ve seen them, thanks to their inventory being online. It was easy to hack into the system.
“Hello. You must be Mr. and Mrs. Crosby. I’m Daniel Hawkeye. I’m to understand there has been a little misunderstanding about your brother.” Grayson only had to put his hands around Misty’s waist to have her calmly answer the man, telling him she didn’t appreciate the way her family had been treated. “I know. I’m dreadfully sorry about that. If you’d like to come into my office, we can talk about it. I assure you, Mrs. Crosby, I have spoken to that particular man before on his behavior, and I thought after anger management classes, things were all right. He’s been terminated.” Mr. Hawkeye looked confused for a moment, then spoke again. “I’m not entirely sure why I told you that, but there you have it.”
He did. Misty was getting quite good at making people tell her the truth without any effort on her part. Grayson thought it was what made her an excellent attorney when people were trying their best to get the better of her. She didn’t use it often, but now, he thought, was a good time to know what was going on.
Mr. Hawkeye offered Alex and Able any camper on the lot if they would please not press charges. Neither of them wanted that, just fair treatment, but in the end, they did get a nice sized camper that even Misty approved of for half price. Neither of them wanted the man to come out a loser on this.
Misty was too excited to let one man make it so she couldn’t get away for a vacation, and they browsed several campers that he had liked. In the end, Grayson and Misty were able to get exactly what they wanted in the way of a camper and paid full price for it. Since he knew how one man could really fuck up your business, he didn’t want to take advantage of the man any more than Alex or Able wanted to do. Now all he had to do was find a bigger truck to haul it around with.
He had to figure out a lot of things on it. As they were leaving to get a truck, Mr. Hawkeye went over every detail with them, showing them things that hadn’t been pointe
d out on the paperwork, and even laughed when Misty squealed a little when she saw how much storage they really had in the thing. Grayson couldn’t be happier simply because Misty was.
Sometimes a smile from the one you love is enough to have a person leaping over mountains for them. Not that he’d had to do that today, but he felt very happy with things when she was excited to go camping with him.
Chapter 8
Ryan was ready to head out when his phone rang. Really not wanting to have anyone mess up his evening, he decided to let it go to the service. Calling from his cell, he told the lady at the other end he was going home. He walked out to his car and thought of nothing else but getting home to see Mel.
As soon as he pulled into their driveway, he knew that Mel wasn’t home yet. Going into the house, he asked what dinner was going to be and decided he’d wait on her. One of her favorite meals was being cooked tonight, and he figured he could take her to dinner tomorrow night. He liked baked lasagna, but Mel loved it.
When she touched his mind, he felt disappointment all the way to his toes. She was going to have to bail on him, or she was being sent to some other state. He told her he loved her even before she started speaking to him.
I love you too. I’d almost be tempted to ask you what you did, but I know you better than that. What was on your mind when you said that? He told her about dinner and eating with her. We can still have dinner together, but I do have to make a trip to Maine tonight. I have two I have to do for the Feds.
They need to hire someone else. He knew he sounded pouty, but she laughed hard enough that he had to join her. I’ve just had a couple of days packed into a couple of hours. Did you know that Grayson and Misty are buying a camper?
I did. She told me all about it. It would be a blast for the two of them, I think. Travel around in such luxury that you’d never want to come home. I don’t think camping is my cup of tea, however. He was glad to hear that because he didn’t care for it at all. If he wanted to travel, it was to a nice hotel where someone else cleaned up after him. Anyway. They’re giving me permission to take you with me this time if you can get away. I will tell you that it will only be for two days, three at the max.
I’d love to go. He did have a lot of work to do but figured that he could keep it caught up while she was busy. We’re not staying on site, are we? I hate that.
Me too. No. When I told Ben you were coming with me since we had plans already, he said it was fine, they’d put us up in a hotel. I already upgraded it to something nicer than a room. Also, we’re having dinner with some of the people working this case. I’m not sure what that means, but I told them all right.
I guess I can share you for one night. I’m going to have to work while you are. Mel told him she’d already figured he’d have to. Great. I’m finishing up the last of the stuff Misty has been looking into for me. I don’t think the case is going to be that difficult. It’s pretty cut and dried.
I was talking to Misty about it. Sounds like the men had no one to blame but themselves. He asked her how much longer she was going to be tonight. Not too much. I do have to pack up some extra gear for this trip. After they told me what I was going to be working on, I added a few extra things. I should be home in about thirty minutes.
After closing the connection, he moved to his office after making sure the cook was prepared for when Mel was coming home. Burying his head in what he needed to work on, he decided that someone would find him when Mel came home.
Instead of it being Mel that came to get him, it was Jon, Sean’s son. He’d been coming around for the last couple of days to hang out. He said that his sister was boring. More than likely, the kid was starved for male contact because he’d heard from the others that Jon would hit their homes after he left his. The kid had been abused too much, along with his sister, and he understood quite well about needing to know you’re loved.
“I was talking to Dad about a couple of things. Did you know there are over a thousand different kinds of faeries? I thought there was only one, but apparently not. I need your help with something if you have time.” Ryan would do just about anything for any of the kids in his family, going as far as taking them shopping if they needed something. But Jon, he was much too serious, he thought, for being just a kid. “I’m going to write a book about being a kid from an abusive mother. My life story, I guess you could call it.”
“I think that’s a wonderful idea, but I have to ask if you’ve spoken to your parents about this.” He said he had, but he wanted to make sure he didn’t get into trouble with writing about his mom. “You’d have to get Becky’s permission too. Is she willing to do that? She can’t sign anything, being a minor, but she can give it to you all the same. I’d have to check about your mom legally for you. She would have to sign off on the story before you can publish it. If that’s the way you want to go.”
“I do. She’s all for it, I guess. I sent a message to the jail where she’s at, and they asked her about it. I don’t call her Mom anymore, though.” Ryan told him he was sorry. “No reason to be. I just call her Sandy. Rachel has been a better mom to me than she ever was anyway. Sandy is thrilled to know that someone is writing a story about her. I didn’t tell them it was me. I just told them there was a person with firsthand knowledge on her who wanted to put it to paper.”
Leaning back in his chair, he regarded the boy. “You’re not as shy or reserved as you let people think you are. I think you get some of that observing people from Grayson. He could sit in a mall for hours and just watch people. I’m betting you do the same.” Instead of answering him, Jon just smiled. “I thought so. So this book. You want me to figure out what has to be done, so you don’t lose your ass over it. Is that about right?”
“Yes. It’s going to be non-fiction. Also, I’m not going to change the names of the people involved unless it’s important to their jobs. Like, I know that the Federal people are going to need to be changed. Since the entire world knows about Sandy now, I didn’t figure it would take anyone long to put her name to it anyhow.” He handed him a thick envelope. “I have these pictures too that I want to share. I’ve got to figure out how to blur some of the more personal parts, I guess, but they’re from when I was living with Sandy.”
They were devastating pictures, pictures Ryan would bet came from places Jon had been taken when he’d been too hurt to be ignored. Hospital pictures and pictures of doctors and nurses as they worked on their poor broken bodies. There were photos of his sister too. Flipping them over when he was asked to do so, Ryan saw that they were all dated with all the information on them that might be needed to look the files up. Ryan asked Jon if he was sure he wanted to do this.
Ryan watched his nephew as he sat there. He noticed right away that he didn’t bow his head when he needed to answer a question anymore. Nor did he not look a person in the eye when he was being spoken to or even when he talked. He nodded once, then explained his answer to the question.
“Okay. I’ve been thinking about that question for a couple of hours. Each time I do, I think I don’t just want to do it. I have to do it. Understand?” Ryan shook his head. “Yeah, Dad said the same thing. I have to do this because my sister and I beat the odds. I looked it up, Uncle Ryan. We should both be dead. If not for my new mom, I believe we would have been. We were victims. Not just of Sandy, but of the system too. I need to write this because I want to give hope to someone. I don’t care if it ever sells that many copies. I could care less if it sold only one. So long as that one person finds something in it that gives them hope or help.”
Ryan could understand someone’s having to do something over needing to do it. He himself had those sorts of struggles daily. Looking down at the pictures, he wondered a couple of things. Why had these two survived? And where did the help they were supposed to have gotten fail them?
“Then I’d suggest you put something in it that has a list of hotlines at the back. Or better y
et, something that will pull whoever from the depths of their pain to get out and find anyone that would help them.” Jon told him he was working on that list too. “Good for you. All right. I’ll do this for you. In fact, I’d love to look into this for you. I believe, as you do, that there are kids out there who might just need someone to show them there is a way out of the sort of situation you and your sister were in.”
“Thanks.” Ryan put all the pictures back in the envelope and handed them back to Jon. “I’m happy. I don’t know why I thought you needed to hear that, but I am. In fact, I’ve never been this happy in all my life. I have a bed that is all mine. Food whenever I need or just want it. I’m safe. Also, I’m not stressed out all the time. However, I’m worried about Becky. I think, in some way, there is something deeply wrong with her. It’s like more and more, I see her floating away. I’m worried about her a lot.”
“In what way?” Jon shrugged and told him he didn’t know how to explain it. “Are you talking something mentally? Or is it something deeper than that? You have to have some reason for thinking that. It’s not that I don’t believe you. You would know her better than any of us do.”
“Both. I don’t think she’s dealing with anything in a normal way. I’m not sure she has for a long time. I thought she was happy, but I’m not sure anymore.” He looked frustrated for a moment. “It’s like she says the right things when she’s around people, but when it’s just her and I, I can see something behind her eyes that worries me something terrible. Like she’s a big timebomb about set to go off. I’m not sure I’m saying this right. But I’m afraid of her and for her.”
“Sean and Rachel, they have her seeing someone. You don’t think this doctor is helping her?” Jon said he thought that she was too far gone to be helped by anyone. That shocked him. “Okay. I understand what you’re saying, Jon, but what brings you to this conclusion? Also, have you talked to your parents about it?”
Sean: The Sons of Crosby: Vampire Paranormal Romance Page 11
