Chapter 2
Daniel didn’t care for having to look for his niece. She should just stay where she lived, and that would be the end of it. Why she worked was beyond him, but he was also glad for it because it gave him extra cash when he was low on it. Also, he loved knocking her around. She was strong and seemed to bounce back quickly, and it gave him a thrill to watch the blood seep out of her body, and the marks showing up made him feel like a big man, beating the underlings of the world.
He was sitting outside her apartment complex when one of the cops sounded their sirens at him to get him to come to their car. Daniel hated all kinds of authority, but the police were his least favorite. If they got a burr up their asses about something, they could make your life a living hell. That’s one of the reasons that he was polite to them as well as avoided them every time he went out.
It surprised him to no end that he wasn’t taken in for questioning about Calla all the time. She must not be talking to the cops when he knocked the fuck out of her. Either that, or they didn’t care for her either, and that was what he was counting on. It was simply too much fun for him to have at her expense to get a little cash than to let her go on living. The fucking cunt.
Daniel didn’t work unless it was wholly required of him. Which meant that he didn’t have anyone to be beholding to and did as little as possible when he was flush. He supposed that working his fists on Calla was working, but it was fun, so he didn’t bitch about it too often. And never to her.
Not understanding why his mom had left everything to Calla, he did get bits and pieces of her money when he could. The stupid bank people didn’t say anything when he brought her into the bank with him to get some of her cash. The thing was, they had a limit on how much she could take out a day, and he’d always forget to take her back daily so he could have the two grand each time. Of course, when he knocked her around, he knew that she had to be laid up someplace to get healed, but that was something he was going to make sure that he did daily when he found her again. Waiting around on the money in only pocket change was making things difficult for him. And it was always about him, damn it. Now this.
“Yes, sir, what can I do for you?” The office told him to hang on a moment, he had something for him. “Hopefully, it’s from my niece, Calla Marshall. She’s been neglecting paying back the loan that I lent her last year.”
“I don’t believe that she owes you anything, Mr. Marshall. This is from the man that she’s going to marry. And he asked me to be sure that I explained to you fully that she’s under his protection and that if he sees a single mark on her, he’ll not ask questions but hunt you down. I’d take heed to that, sir. Mr. Smith is a man that no one messes with a second time.” He asked if the man had just threatened him. “I’d not say that was a threat but more like a promise for you. He will hurt you if you don’t leave her alone. Also, I’m to tell you too that her money is no longer your concern. He’s made arrangements at the bank that no one but himself and her can get to it.”
“So he’s taking her to the cleaners? I pay my taxes and—” The officer said that he wasn’t paying taxes actually and that he had a court hearing date for him to have that taken care of as well. “I don’t own anything around here, so why would I have to pay taxes on it.”
“The same reason that you don’t own the cops. There will be no more blind eyes to her walking about beat to shit, either. When she tells us about you, we’ll be running you in.” He said what changed. “Mr. Smith is what’s changed. He donates a great deal of money to our city, and he said that the donations would stop immediately if she’s hurt again, and we allowed you to go around like you didn’t do it. He’s made it very clear that he’s disappointed in us for allowing it to go on this long.”
“Well, she’s related to me through marriage. If he has a problem with me and her getting together, I’m going to have to have a talk with him.” The officer—he couldn’t see his name tag right then—told him he’d be smart and just do as he was told. “So you’re afraid of one man, and that’s going to curtail my fun. I don’t think you’re seeing the larger picture here. She owes me money, and I plan to get it.”
“It’s your funeral.” He didn’t like that and told the man that. “Whatever, Mr. Marshall. He’s a very wealthy man who isn’t going to be taking shit from you. As I said, if I were you, I’d just forget about it and get myself a job. Everybody is hiring, and that might save you from being dead.”
“Is there anything else? If not, I’m going to be on my way.” He was handed the envelope with his name on it, and he had to sign that he’d taken it. Whatever. He knew that shit like this would never stand up in court, so he wasn’t worried about it. Sitting back on the bench, he wished daily that he still had his car where he could at least enjoy some air conditioning. This heat was for the birds.
Sitting down, he tried to think if he had any cash on him, not wanting to move again for breaking out in a sweat. He did remember having about two hundred dollars on him but he’d gone out last night and had him a big meal. My god, it was wonderful to be waited on and have a steak dinner, too. That’s when he realized that he had about a fiver on him and nothing more. The good kind of beers were eight bucks a bottle nowadays, and he didn’t have that much. If he had to drink that nasty shit again, he was going to puke on himself. But he needed a drink, and that was going to have to do.
After getting back with his beer, glad when a twenty had been in his pocket so that he could have the better stuff, he did think about the fact that if he’d bought the cheap beer, he could have had four to just being able to have two but it was a no brainer, and to him, it was the principle of the thing.
There had been no one stirring at Calla’s apartment now for three days. Usually, she was up and around, going to that job she had by now. If she didn’t come out of there tomorrow, he was going to have to go up to her place and wrestle her out. He had things to do, and her sitting around on her lazy ass healing wasn’t working for him. She owed him money.
Calla didn’t really owe him shit. When his mother had died about six months ago now, everything had been left to his brother’s kid. Charles had been dead for about ten years now, which meant that it went directly to her rather than probate like it did. He could contest things then, but with her directly getting the money and house and the will mentioning that he didn’t get squat because of his dealings with a bad group of people, he couldn’t lie his way around that either. He finally pulled out the letter to read. No one was going to make him read anything on their time if he could get by with it. Stupid shithole more than likely was going to spell his name wrong too.
“Mr. Marshall.” The handwriting looked elegant. Not a word that he used all that much. But it looked like someone with a fancy hand had written. “More than likely from some old queer.”
“Mr. Marshall, I’m writing you to warn you—giving you full notice—that if you bother my wife, Calla Lily Marshall Smith, at any time going forward, I will hunt you down. Calla Lily has given me permission to harm you should you hurt her again, and that will hold me from killing you. But if she is hurt and unconscious, I will assume that once again you wished to kill her, and I will make you suffer in ways that will make you wish for death.
“I’m a very wealthy man who has nothing to do but to pamper my Calla Lily, and by that, I mean that keeping her safe is a priority to me. If you harm a single hair on her head, cause her any undue pain, I will kill you. If she tells me that you have stressed her in any way, I will kill you. I’m sure that you see a pattern emerging here. Leave her alone, or I shall not hesitate in making you nothing but fertilizer for someone’s yard.”
Then it was signed Brewster Smith with Calla’s signature under his. Wadding the paper up, he dug it out of the trash can to use it as proof when he had to kill the man himself. He had threatened him no less than four times, and he wasn’t going to put up with that. Crossing the street, he made his way to Calla’s place and went upstairs to her apartment. Pounding on the door, he would wait until she opened it, his fist curled up, and his anger just as hot as he could get it. He might think of himself doing a favor for the other man and kill her for him. He knew Calla and she wasn’t that big of a prize for anyone. Momma had always said that she was ugly. By god, he was going to make her less attractive with his—
“What the hell are you pounding on that door for?” He told the neighbor that he was looking for his niece. “Nobody lives there no more. Movers came in and helped them Goodwill people load up all her stuff and take it away.”
“She does, too, live here. Go back into your house and leave me be. Stupid cunt. I know where she lives.” She told him that she was going to get her ball bat and she’d show him what a cunt could do. When she went into her house, closing the door behind her, he pounded on the door again. “Calla, get your fucking ass here and open the door. I’m about as pissed off as I’ve ever been before. And what makes you think you can sic someone on me when I’m just trying to get what you owe me.”
“She don’t live here.” Another neighbor was yelling at him. “Damn it all to hell. If you wake my baby, you’re going to get a nice ear ringing from me. You’ve been told twice now that she don’t live here no more.”
He heard the sirens then and was happy to be able to have someone else arrested. Just as he was turning to talk to the second neighbor, he was hit from behind with something hard. The second time it hit him in the back, he saw stars and hit the floor. Somebody was hurting him, and he didn’t like it.
When he woke up, he was in the emergency department on one of those hard-as-ass beds that weren’t nearly wide enough for a man his size. Not that he was fat, he told himself, but he wasn’t narrow either. Mother fuck. Someone was going to—lifting his arm to call a nurse, he couldn’t believe it when he figured out he was chained to the bed. This shit was getting old, and he was going to make sure someone paid for this. Instead of calling one of the nurses on the call button, he started yelling for someone to get their asses in there and undo him. His head was hurting. He was so pissed off.
“Shut up.” He eyed the woman who had come into the room where he was. “You beller like that again, and I’m going to make sure that the hits that you had coming to you were nothing. Shut your ever-loving mouth.”
“You can’t talk to me like that. I want you to take these off of me right now.” She said she wasn’t a cop, and they were the ones that put it on him. “Well? Get off your ass and get me one. I don’t like being chained like an animal.”
“Yet you act like one. Mr. Strouse is the one who called us when you started yelling at a closed door. Didn’t they tell you a bunch of times that she wasn’t there? I know they did. Then you went and woke up his baby girl. They’ve got enough going on there without you adding to it. Ms. Tailor is the one that hit you, and if’n I’d been here, I would have bashed in your empty skull had I been there.” She got close enough to him that he could count her nose hairs. That had him backing away from her. “You make one more peep before you’re released, then I’m going to find me a big male nurse and have them do a rectal probe on you. Got it?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He was terrified that she’d do just what she said, so he kept his tone down. “Where are the police that locked me down? If you don’t mind me asking you to find them for me, I’d appreciate it, please?”
He’d never groveled in his life, yet here he was, a grown assed man working the women in front of him like she was going to pull out a gun and shoot him in the nuts. And that was what he felt like, too, that she had his nuts in one of those fancy nutcrackers he would see at Christmas time.
~*~
Brew watched the man in the small bed. He’d been here since he woke up and bitching about things and didn’t think that he liked the man any better than he had before meeting him. He was repulsively fat, weighing in at he’d bet four hundred pounds. He dressed like a man who was half his weight, and that made him think that the man had no qualms about eating too much at every meal. He knew there was nothing wrong with the man that would have him being that heavy other than he just didn’t care.
He’d gotten a taste of the man when he’d heard about the incident at the apartment complex. Leaving word that someone would call him if he returned had been a good investment. Now all he had to do was to wait for him to screw up again, and he’d be out of his love’s hair. And he did love Calla Lily, too.
She’d been at his home for four days now. After making sure it was all right with her if he were to close out her other place, he donated all the things in the apartment to the Goodwill Store. Calla Lily had told him that there was nothing there but terrible memories, and she wanted to make new ones. He was fine with that and told her as much.
“Your house is very stiff, isn’t it?” He told her that was the problem; it was just a place where he rested. “I’ve noticed that you have most of the house shut off. Is there a reason for that, too?”
“None. Other than the staff doesn’t need to clean those rooms and I had them close them off to avoid them. It’s worked out well for us.” She told him that other than Landon, his butler and man’s man, the other staff were useless. “They’ve been with me for so long that they are more than likely taking advantage of me. Yes, I’ll agree. But as I said, they’ve been with me for so long they’ve become a part of the house.”
“They’re a part of something all right. Did you know that Mary comes in and clocks in, then leaves only to return at five to clock out? She does this daily, I’m told.” He asked her what she did if not working for him. “As far as I’ve been able to see, she goes home and works there. Getting double the paycheck is putting a great deal of money in her pockets. The same goes for Olivia, who was trained by Mary and does the same thing. Only she doesn’t bother coming in at all but gets paid like the others.”
“I didn’t know that.” She nodded, he remembered, then pulled out a notebook and told him what all the staff was doing. The cook, she told him, was dead, and he’d been paying her family her wages for the last twenty-five years. “They’ve been collecting it because she was killed in some way that I would have been responsible?”
“No. She was robbing a church with her sister, who was also killed and was caught stealing. She only got about forty-five dollars and a bullet in her head when she thought it would be easy money like she’d been getting from you.” He sat down, thinking that he should do what she said and pay attention to his money. “Four months ago, you gave her a raise.”
“I’m guessing that Landon has told you all this.” She told him that he’d not wanted to, but she’d asked him. Thinking that there should have been more people working here. “He’s a good man. I’m assuming that he’s tried to tell me this before.”
“On several occasions.” Calla Lily sat down at the table with him, but not close enough for him to touch her. “You should be more careful with your money, Brew. I know that I have no room to talk about money, but mine was being stolen from me by a man who beat me up. Yours is being stolen right under your nose.”
“Are you planning to take me to the—never mind. That was a cruel question, and I don’t believe you have any interest in my money other than for me to keep it in my vault and bank.” She said that she was bored and needed something to occupy her mind. “I’m assuming that you went to Landon and asked him about the people working here. Thank you for that.”
“They’re all gone now. He said you told him that he was in charge of the house, and he fired them all. Stopped payments on the checks that were to go out for people that don’t actually work for you.” Again, he thanked her. “I have a couple of questions for you.”
“Anything, love. Anything at all.” She told him he didn’t know what it was yet. “I would lay down my life for you. Not for what you’ve done for me already but the things I think you’re going to be doing for us in the future.”
“I want to have control of the household accounts.” He said they were hers. “Thank you. Also, I’d like to do something other than just sit around your lovely home too. I’m bored, and when I’m bored, I tend to do things that I don’t usually ask permission to do. Like, I’ve already started on the herb garden out back. Also, it looks as if someone at one time tried to grow a vegetable garden. While I don’t want to spend all day snapping peas and green beans, I would like to have some for my own dinner. No one here knew how to cook either.”
“With you here, I’d like to entertain again. This used to be the place to have large gatherings. While I don’t care for the human race, I do enjoy the company of some of my kind. Not to live here, but to be here for occasions where I must dress up.” She eyed his clothing, and he laughed. He’d been doing that, laughing again, for a while now, and he would swear that it took years off his body. “I mean in a man’s tux with all the women in long flowing dresses. Dressing to the nines, I believe it was called at one time. Yes, I’d like to get the house opened up again and show you off to them.”
“I’m not all that much to show off, Brew.” She flushed brightly, and he had to smile. He might well have said nothing if he thought she was fishing for compliments, but she was stating a fact that she’d been told all her life. But to him, she was everything. “I also wanted to talk to you about us being together. I know you told my uncle that we were married, but we’re not. Is there a way that we can make that true so that no one takes exception to it if they find out? No wedding is necessary, but if you could have it put to the record, I’d be happy with that.”
“It has been filed. I did not tell you when it was done as you were still getting used to the things around here. Had I known how much of an investigator you were, I might well have waited for you to figure it out on your own.” They both laughed, which was what he’d been going for. He worried that it would upset her as he’d done it without telling her. “There are many things that I have done since, too. I have put your name upon the deeds to the houses and property that we now own. Credit accounts. I have even made it so that your money is in a safe place where your uncle will no longer have access to it. I believe the bank will now fully cooperate with you in keeping his fingers out of your accounts.”
“I hope so. Like I said, it’s a lot of money that I was saving for a house.” She started to turn away but looked at him. “Will you put that money with yours now? I would like for you to do that. You’ve given me so much that I want to contribute as much as I can as well.”
He didn’t tell her that simply being around was more than he’d ever hoped for, and just being able to gaze at her at any time he wished was a perk he’d not counted on. The very fact that she was saving him a great deal of money was, again, nothing that he’d ever thought of.
“It would be my pleasure to invest your money with ours. And anytime you need anything, you’ve only to ask Landon or myself, and we’ll get it for you.” Her face flushed again, and he found it to be the most endearing thing he’d ever captured in a woman’s face. Yes, he thought to himself. He was one lucky vampire. “We’ll need to hire a full staff. Open the rooms up that have been closed off for no other reason than it was easier on someone else to do so.” He thought about the rooms in the house. “I wouldn’t be able to tell you what a single room has in it, much less the color of the paper. I do believe the last time they were opened up, it was when wall coverings were all the rage.”
“It might be better to hire someone to come in and clean the rooms then. It’s doubtful if they look as bad as I’m thinking, but we don’t want our new staff running for the hills after opening one of the doors.” He laughed with her again. “I know it sounds as if I’m just sliding into this with no thought to how long we’ve known one another, but I’m thinking about everything that I do. I’m not one to go willy-nilly into things, and it seems like that to me. But I’m not. I’m calculating every move I make to make sure that if you were to ever want to rid yourself of me, then I will be able to stand on my own two feet and survive. I’ll be broken, but I won’t die of starvation or lacking a place to live.”
“I’m glad that you’re prepared, love. But I shan’t ever leave you. You are my heart and soul. My very life.” She just stared up at him, her eyes filling with unshed tears. “Oh, my heart. I will make it my life’s work to make sure that you understand that I love you so much.”
The rest of the afternoon and up until dinner, Brew pampered Calla Lily. She was strong, there was no doubting that, but she was just like the flower that she was named for. A delicate flower that blooms with its whole stem. Something so fragile that it begged to be protected. Yet, like the flower, she was strong and resilient. And he loved her with all of his heart.
After dinner, she had made herself a grilled cheese with some pasta on the side. He’d explained to her that she’d never gain weight unless she was breeding. He loved that she ate what she wanted, and he was happy with her sigh of relief that she could, if she wished, have children now. He supposed that being alone, she’d never given it a single thought. Now, she seemed to be thrilled to start on that chapter.
“Not today.” He nodded. “You have to believe me when I tell you that I’m happy with you here. Also, I’m falling in love with you. But not yet. I have some nightmares of my own that haunt me, and he’s still running around like he’s nothing to worry about. Did I tell you that he went to the bank?”
“I heard, too. I guess it was quite a surprise for him not to be able to get to any of your money when he’d been told that very thing. The police were called.” She said she thought that was the best part. “He was taken to jail and stayed overnight until they were able to get to the bottom of him not having any cash. It was quite the eye opener for the police, too, that it happened so quickly for him to try to access your money so soon after being told it wasn’t his.”
“Peter Lanne said that he’d had a fit that he wasn’t being treated nicely as he had some money in my accounts. Can you imagine the look on his face when he was told to get out and to never return? I bet he doesn’t give up, either. He told Peter that I’d given him the access all along and that it was unfair of me to take it from him this late in the game. Daniel has nearly five dollars on himself that is going to have to last him until he gets a job or some other form of payment that isn’t me.” Brew told her that he’d had twenty. He’d slipped it into his pocket when he took a sip of him to know where he was at all times. “I heard that he spent his last few bucks on some kind of drink. It figures, Daniel has always thought that he deserves the finer things in life. Even if he couldn’t afford them. It is a small wonder that Grannie didn’t leave him anything. He was forever ‘borrowing’ from her. She kept track of his borrowing, too, right up to the penny. When she passed away, he owed her over a hundred grand in cash, and then there were the things that he’d stolen from her that he pawned or sold off. Jerk. Grannie took great care of me when I was younger. I hated to see her go.”
“I knew her when she was but a child, your grandmother. She was much like you, insecure yet strong. When her baby had been born, she had nothing to do with his upbringing because her husband wanted to raise him in the way that he was. That didn’t turn out very well, and when he died, having a heart attack one night when he’d been yelling at Daniel about his waste of money, she turned her back on him. He stole things from her like he did you. I think she did well in not leaving him anything.” Calla Lily said that she thought so, too. “Good. To change the subject, we’ll have to have a trip soon. I need to be in New York for a meeting, and it would be my pleasure to have you with me. Would you like that?”
“I believe that I would.” He was happy with her answer. He didn’t know what he’d do if she didn’t go with him. He’d been looking forward to showing her off for a few days now, and New York was the perfect place to do so.