August (Erikson Brothers #3)

Chapter 5

It was hot out, but she loved being out of doors. Jack kept an eye on the kids as they played in the dirt. It was much too late to plant much of a garden, so she was going to put in a large patch of pumpkins so that they could have fun carving them when it was time. Looking over when Joey squealed in delight. The older kids were playing peekaboo with her and she was enjoying it.

Richard came to sit by her while his brother was playing with Joey. He was such a serious little man and she did wonder if there would be a time when he was less tense. It would take time, she knew, but for now, she was going to love him to pieces.

“I have a question for you.” She stopped what she was doing and pulled him into her arms. “I needed that. Thank you.”

When he started to cry, she wrapped him in her arms tighter and held him until he was ready to talk. The little boy had gone through so much, and her heart broke for him. When she realized that he’d fallen asleep, she still held him. Soon, Peter came to her and laid in the dirt. Before it got too much warmer out, she gathered them up and took them into the house. After changing the baby, she put them all in the living room on the floor and decided that she needed a little nap, too. It must have been a sight when August came home and found them all sleeping on the floor.

“I didn’t want to wake the kids.” She got up to his whispered comment. Getting up, she picked up Joey when she started to fuss and handed her to August. Peter, Richard’s little boy, was beginning to fuss as well as he was hungry. “Do you suppose they’ll ever be on the same eating schedule?”

“Doubtful. They seem to enjoy having one on one with us.” She changed Peter and then took Joey. I think I’m getting pretty good at this diaper thing. I’m going to be a real pro when our own baby gets here.”

“You do realize that we’re going to have two infants at the same time, correct?” She said they’d handle things just fine. “Says the woman who forgot if she was coming to bed or just getting up this morning.”

“I figured it out.” They both laughed quietly. “I need to remind Richard that he was going to ask me something before he took a nap. They had a good time playing out in the yard. I hope none of them get sunburnt from it.”

“I think they would endure it just to do it again. I know that I would.” She asked him about the investment he was working on for a friend of his. “He says he doesn’t want to risk it right now. I told him that it wouldn’t get any better, taking a risk on a new project, but he said no. It’s all right. I took the risk, and I’m willing to bet that in just a couple of years, we’re going to reap the benefits.”

She didn’t understand entirely the stock market. It was hard for her to part with her hard-earned money on a whim. Jack supposed it wasn’t a whim at all but something that August had looked deeply into and knew just how much to invest or not. It’s what made them wealthy.

After getting the kids up for their bath, it was nearly dinner time when she realized that she’d skipped lunch again. She was going to have to be better at that. There wasn’t just her life but that of her unborn baby, too. Going to the nursery to check on the baby, she was delighted to see that Peter was awake.

He was only a few years older than Joey. It was amazing to see the difference in just a few years could change in a baby’s life. Joey would smile at her, but when she laughed, it seemed to startle her as much as it did Jack.

“Mistress, there are some phone messages for you. Several of them are from the police station. Your brother is demanding you come to see him.” She decided several days ago that she wasn’t going to drop everything and go see what he wanted. There were his children to raise, and she was going to do a good job of it despite having a dad like he was. “Also, Miss Shipley called to ask you about the donations that Mr. August said needed to be rotated.”

The family as a whole would buy pallets of things that would go to be used when a disaster happened. Right now, they were shipping bottled water to help the firefighters out in Yellowstone Park. There were other projects that she would be involved in and she loved that they would include her in such things.

Deciding to get her brother out of the way, the nannies said that they’d keep an eye on the children while she was out. It wasn’t much of a walk, only a few blocks, but the weather was getting sticky, and she knew that it was going to have to rain soon, or she’d be sending out her crews to water some of the new trees that she’d planted in the spring. There seemed to always be something going on.

It turned out that her father wanted to see her, too. Bringing them both to her in a room that looked like something out of a nightmare, with his dark colors and cameras everywhere. They were brought in one at a time and chained to the table and floor. It didn’t let her let her guard down. She knew these two better than she did anyone else.

“What took you so long? I’ve missed my son’s services because of you. You’re going to have to do it all over again so that I can be there.” She told her dad no, that it was finished. “Christ, why is it that I never noticed what a terrible child you were?”

“Because you were hoping I’d be like you, and I’m not. Not even close. What did you want?” Dad asked her about the funeral. “There wasn’t one for the lot of them. Since they were all murdered by David, I had them buried quickly and without any fanfare. It’s done and over with.”

“I won’t believe that he killed my grandsons. No, no one will make me believe that. Sons are what keeps the world going.” She told him that she didn’t care to hear that, but Joey lived. “Who’s that? Which of his sons is that?”

“Joey is a girl. Josephine.” He waved her off, and Richard asked if he could talk now. It wasn’t a question so much as it was his sarcasm coming out. “Your children are just fine if that was what you were going to ask. Once the waiting period is over, we’ll adopt them so that they’ll have our name.”

“Like I care what you want to do with them. What I want to know is how much money are you going to give me for you having them?” She told him what she’d told his wife, nothing.

No, she said that she was promised enough money so that she could start a new life. That’s what I want too when I get out of here.”

“It’s against the law to sell you children. I’m sure you know that.” He, like Dad did, waved her off like what she said wasn’t going to apply to him. “She is getting a new life. In jail with you. I don’t know that I’d like that either, spending the next twenty or so years with you, but you’re in jail, and I’m happy. Plus, I get to raise three beautiful children with my husband, who otherwise might not have lived with the two of you.”

“Whatever. I got to see Linda yesterday. She was bitching that you tricked her. Don’t you dare go thinking that I’m just as stupid as she is. I want money enough to get me out of here. Don’t tell me that you don’t have it. The Erickson’s are a huge name around here. I should have been the one that he married off.”

“I’m sorry? Are you saying that you should have married August? I don’t believe that he swings that way. In fact, I don’t believe any of them would have sex with you even if you were a woman. You’re a mean son of a bitch.” He thanked her, and she didn’t bother telling him it hadn’t been a compliment. “Did you know that Linda was abusing your children? That she threatened them with selling them off at least once a day?”

“Yeah, so? It kept them in line, didn’t it? You need to get me out of here, Jacklynn. I have things that I have to take care of soon and proto.” Jack pointed out that they were the same thing, that proto and soon were a different way of saying the same thing she told him when he said that they were not. “It’s not the same thing if I don’t want it to be. Get me out of here.”

“No.” She looked at her dad and noticed how much older he looked than only a few days ago. “What did you want? Before you answer that, I’m not getting you out of here, I’m not going to give you any money, nor am I going to come back to see either of you. I’m finished with you two.”

“You’ll do what you’re told for once, or I’ll snatch you bald.” She only had to glance at the way he was sitting to get him fired up again. “Damn it all to hell. Why are you treating me this way? It’s because I didn’t beat you enough when you were home. That’s all on your mother. She coddled you too much.”

“She loves me. Speaking of Mother, she’s sold her home and is gone on a long cruise. It’s either three months or four. I didn’t know that you two never traveled when you were first married. I think it’s wonderful that she’s going to get to see all the things that you denied her because you didn’t like to fly.” He told her that it was dangerous. “Yes, and so is being around the two of you. What is it that you want that you think I’m going to give to you before I leave? I’m not going to bail either of you out. I’m not going be at your court hearing either unless I have to testify what a mean prick you’ve been all your life. Also, once you’re in prison, which I hope is a very long time, you’ll never see your grandchildren again. Mine or the others that I have.”

“Good. They’re as good as dead to me. I want you to tell me how Daivd died.” She told him point blank about how he’d killed two of his children before killing Mary. Then he set fire to the house, using their tiny bodies as an accelerant to burn the house down with him still living in it. He told her she lied. “So you say.”

Standing up, she suddenly needed a shower and some fresh air. After listening to them for the past hour, she was ready to have a long, clean bath so that she could wash them off her. As she was leaving the police station, Jack requested that no more calls be made to her house. That they weren’t going to get any help from her.

Standing in the open sunshine, she held her face up to let it burn her face. Sometimes, it took her an entire day to remember that she was related to the two that were in jail. Not to mention Linda. As she made her way back to her home, she was tickled that the Desk Sergeant told her that there wasn’t any air conditioning going into the cells. It had been turned off because the power bill was too high. Good, she thought, let them boil in the heat. It might do them some good to live like everyone else.

Stopping by the Dari-mart, she picked up some ice cream and some cones so that the kids could have a treat today. It was something that she was craving and the kids might well have some fun eating it before it melted all over themselves. The pool people were planning to have the pool finished by tomorrow. Thank goodness, she thought. That reminded her that they were going to have to get the kids some swimwear and towels to use. Jack was excited to know that they didn’t have to travel all that far to have a nice dip in the pool. Besides, she thought public pools were overrated.

By the time she got home, she was exhausted. The heat would do that to her, but she never let it bother her until today. The kids were ready to get in the half-full pool, and she was going to join them. It was a perfect way to enjoy the day, lying in her own backyard with her children and sipping iced tea.

~*~

August hadn’t realized just how diverse Dedria was. She not only had some very large homes around the world but she had a good portfolio as well. Just selling him the Soil company for five bucks did a great deal for his own, but she had market stocks in a great many new and old ventures. He was excited to have something entirely new to gamble with.

“If I make money or not, I don’t want you to tell me. Just at the end of the week, let me know if I have to sell more to be able to eat or not.” He laughed with her. The two of them had gotten close over the last few days. “I do have a couple of homes in Europe that I think I’d like to unload. They’re pricy but aren’t bringing in the cash like they used to. No one is staying long term when they rent anymore.”

“Have you thought about renting them out short term.” She told him that’s what she was doing now. “No, I mean as a vacation place for people to go and not have to stay in a hotel.”

August told her everything that he knew about vacation homes that way and how much she could charge per month. Or even less. August had been doing the same thing for the last couple of years, and it’s been very profitable.

“I don’t want to have to go back and forth to see to the rent and such. How would I make that work and not have someone tearing up my home? I did use them a great deal before the kids came along. Both homes are in the middle of what I call touristy things. This sounds interesting.” Showing her a contract that he used for the people on the other end to keep an eye on things, she was excited to make things work. “What I wouldn’t have given for a home to rent rather than a hotel. This can be very personable with the right people in there.”

After going over both contracts, one for a manager to keep things cleaned up and well maintained, there was a second one for the person who was going to be a renter. She couldn’t believe that she could get that much for a simple weekend.

“That’s the point too. Most people wouldn’t be able to afford a first-class home like this, so you can get a little more out of it. I have maid service there as well as a cook if they want one. A lot of the renters liked having someone for breakfast but they want to do their own things in the afternoon and evening. You won’t believe how much you can make in a single year.” He’d already found renters for the next three weeks after she’ gotten on the cruise ship that she was going to have fun on. He hoped that she did. If anyone deserved it, it would be Dedria. She was a good woman and a great mother-in-law to him and his brothers. August picked up Joey to play with when his cell phone rang.

“August Erickson.” The woman at the other end asked him who he was again. After telling her twice more, he was ready to hang up when she started going on about houses in the downtown area. “Wait a minute. I’m still trying to get information on who you are. I don’t know what you’re talking about when you said the building at Fifth and Vine.”

“It’s my house, damn it. Someone sold it to you, and I want it back.” He pulled up properties that they owned and that home wasn’t on his list. Trying to explain that to the older woman, he was ready to hang up on her when she insisted that he did. “The bill of sales has your name all over it, dumbass. I know how to read, by god.”

“I have no doubt that you do. But as I’ve said to you three times now, I don’t own that property. I do own the one on the left to it and one across the street, but that’s never been up for sale, or I might well have purchased it.” She asked him if he was sure, sounding confused now. “Yes. I’m looking at a map now. As I said, I would own it if I knew it was up for sale, but I don’t. Perhaps someone told you a lie.”

“That damned little bitch.” He guessed the woman was in her sixties or older, the way her voice sounded so frail. “My daughter told me that you swooped right in at the meeting and demanded that I sell it to you. I’ve been sick, you see, but I’m beginning to think that I shouldn’t have trusted her with a single feather from my down comforter. If you don’t own it, can you tell me who does?”

“Yes, I can.” He went to the public website and pulled up the sales in that area. He didn’t know the woman on the line, but he was willing to bet that her daughter had told her a lie. “It says here that Granville March owns it.” When she started cursing, he let her.

“That god damned kid. I knew it was going to have to be something like that if you didn’t own it. Now, what am I supposed to do? She’s put her dead husband’s name on it to fool me into thinking that you…I need that place. It’s mine.” He told her the name of a good attorney, leaving his brother’s name off the list. It didn’t sound safe to him to have his brothers in a closed room with the family. “You’re not an attorney?”

“No, I’m into investments and portfolios. Things that I can get cheap and sell big.” She asked him if he ever played the ponies. “No, I don’t gamble. I did one time with my brothers but that’s it. I got it out of my system.”

Locke had been wanting to buy another ticket. The amount of it had surpassed even the one that they’d purchased. He’d have to get with him and see what he’d done. It was scary as hell to win that much and even worse to spend the grocery money on them like he knew people to do.

After getting off the phone, he called his buddy Jamie and told him that he’d given his name to a woman who complained that she’d gotten her house stolen. He asked if it was the March family home.

“That’s it? Oh no, tell me I didn’t recommend you to someone who is going to cause you a lot of problems. I’m so sorry.” He told him what had happened. “She did ask me if I bet on the ponies. So they put the house in someone else’s name to keep her from losing everything. I wish I had known that.”

“It’s fine. She goes through money like she has a great deal. Then complains to her family when they don’t get her out of hock. It would be a conflict of interest if I were to take her on, so it’s an easy out for me. But she’s got your number now and it’ll be busy all the time for you, I’m afraid.”

“Actually, not. I was surprised to have a call come in on that line. It should have been shut off weeks ago.” They both got a kick out of that. “I’ll have to figure out why it’s not been off yet. Thanks for reminding me.”

They talked a bit more, mostly about how people can get so worked up about things that they shouldn’t in the first place. Then he told him about a man and woman who had hired a surrogate for them to have a child.

“First thing out of the gate, they’re suing her because her shorts were too short when it’s nine hundred degrees outside. Then when that got thrown out, they tried again to make it so that she lived with them during the entire process. I told her what I thought, and now she’s no longer a surrogate. Get this, August, they weren’t just using her. They had about ten other women who were doing the same thing, too. They wanted to make sure that they had a pretty baby when the time came.”

“What were they going to do with the other nine babies and their mommas?” He told him that he’d asked the same question and they weren’t going to pay them. Then he told them the clause. “So they get to not just pick the sex of their child from all these mothers, but also, if it’s ugly, they don’t have to pay for it? That’s a huge scam if you were to ask me.”

“It’s perfectly legal if the contract states that and the mother signs off on it. They know going in that it might be for nothing. Christ, no wonder attorneys have a bad rep.”

The two of them talked for a bit longer. Jamie had been in law school with his brother Zander. Where Zander was going to be working for them all the time, Jamie had gone to his father’s firm and was working on large cases. Like the kind that got you six figures if you won. And a bad rep if you lost.

“I need to get going here. My wife is at home with the—” Shocked sounding, Jamie asked him if he really had a wife. “I do, and three children that I love. Also, one on the way.”

He didn’t bother explaining it to him. And he wasn’t surprised that he didn’t ask. Attorneys were a private bunch. He’d learned that from Zander and Knox, so he didn’t elaborate on how he’d ended up with the best deal in the world and come out winning the kids lottery as well.

Pulling out his list when he made it to the store before going home, getting food to feed his little growing family was scary enough without having to take into consideration a lot of other things that children needed. Diapers were much more than he had thought, not to mention the formula for the youngest. He, like Jacklynn, thought that by the time their next child came along, they’d be professionals at this.

“Hey there, August.” He didn’t see anyone that he knew and just nodded in the general direction that the shout had come from. Looking at his list again, he was annoyed when someone said the same thing to him again. This time, he heard it closer and was dismayed to find someone he didn’t have time to talk to coming toward him. “I’ve been looking for you. Are you all tucked up in your house or something?”

“Something like that.” He looked around and then at the woman again. “I’m sorry. Should I know you? If I should, I apologize to you.”

“Darling Jane. That’s not my real name, as you can guess. Just my professional one.” He only then noticed that she was large with child. Or he totally misread the big belly she kept rubbing. “Do you have a few minutes, August? We should really talk if you’re going to be a papa soon.”

“I am. With my wife.” Darling asked him when he’d gotten married the look on her face looked like a puppy eating something sour. It wasn’t a good look on her. “Some time ago. We have three other children, too. And since I’ve never met you before, I’ll have a DNA test done that will prove that you’re trying to scam me. Have a good day.”

“I heard you were nicer than this.” He was slightly distracted or would have paid more attention to the cashier. She seemed to be in a hurry, too. “Maybe we should start over. I’m Darling Jane, I’m going to have your kid.”

“No, he’s not.” He looked at the woman that was ringing him out and thanked her. “Get out of here, Mabel, before I call your mother again and tell her that you’ve stolen the pretty pillows off her couch again. What do you think she’s going to do to you when she finds out that you’re messing with customers again. She told you the last time that she was going to beat your bottom all the way home. And I’ve already called her to come in.”

“Melissa, why do you have to be such a spoiled sport? I’m just trying to have me a little fun.” She told her to scat like she was some neighborhood cat that had become a pest. “I’m going to tell William that you’re not working the cash register as much as you are your mouth. What do you think he’s going to do then?”

“He’ll want to know if it pays well. At least better than this job I have right now.” She told him the total and asked him if he wanted to buy a lottery ticket. After telling her yes to the ticket, he handed her fifty dollars and told her to keep the change. It wasn’t but an extra twenty bucks, but it sounded to him like she needed it. Plus, she got rid of Darling for him.

He was on his way home when he realized that he had two lottery tickets. He hadn’t a clue how much it was for. Or, for that matter, if it was a daily drawing or what the scratch-off was for. Deciding that he was going to wait until he got home to look, he started laughing.

Here he was a father to almost four kids, and he had been hit on. He didn’t know if he’d been hit on when he might have appreciated it. Being a nerd about numbers, he wasn’t the Erickson that most younger women wanted to go out with.

After telling Jacklynn what had happened and the woman selling him two lottery tickets, they both had a good laugh. When the little bit of groceries were put away, Jacklynn told him it was a lottery ticket for the big drawing tonight. It was then that he wished he’d gotten a few more. Not that he thought that he’d win, but if he did win anything at all, he was going to share it with the cashier. It might brighten up her day. And maybe get her out of the cashing out business for one night to have a bit of her own fun. She asked him if Tennessee was one of the states that made you tell who had won.

“You can’t remain anonymous here. Unless you request it from the state. Although if someone asks who won it, they’ll tell on you. It’s to keep their records straight I think. You’d have to ask Zander or Knox about that for sure. Kentucky and a couple of other states are like that as well. If you don’t want everyone to know, buy an Ohio ticket, and you’ll be able to remain anonymous.” He looked at his wife—how he loved saying that. “Why? Did we win with that one?”

“It’s a scratch-off, and yes, we did.” She handed the ticket over to him when he asked. Sure enough, they’d won five grand. It was going to be a nightmare to try and cash the ticket so he decided what he was going to do.