Chapter 79 #2
“You’ll like it here. The people, the land.” I don’t even get into the initiation part of things, because maybe she won’t have to if Dad’s dead?
And that’s not exactly something I want to think about right now.
I don’t go straight to the main barn. I give her a quick tour of the operations, cruise by what’s now the horse pasture, and explain everything.
The smile doesn’t leave her face, and we stop when Costco walks up to the fence. We get out, and I pet the gelding’s head when he sticks it over, looking for affection.
Mom lovingly strokes him. “Maybe now I can get a horse.”
“I was thinking about that day,” I admit. “When you took me to the carnival.”
She looks shocked. “You remember that? You were so little.”
“Of course I remember it, Mom. It was one of the best days of my life. Until Dad got home. You lied to protect me, didn’t you?”
She blinks back tears. “I should’ve stripped outside and dunked myself in the pool, too.”
“Why did he react like that?”
Her hand stills on the gelding’s velvety nose.
“Because he made me give up my horse when he took me,” she softly says.
“He knew how much I loved riding, and how much I loved Ferris. My horse,” she adds.
“I didn’t compete but I loved jumping. The stable where I boarded him had a lot of acreage.
I could ride for hours, natural jumps, and had so much fun. ”
“And he couldn’t stand you having something you loved, especially that took your attention.”
She nods. “He threatened to rip out Ferris’ throat if I didn’t stop.”
“Fuuuuuck. Is that why we couldn’t have pets?”
“Of course. His excuse was that they were dirty and smelly. The truth, I realized, was he didn’t want something that could bring us joy, or that we’d pay more attention to than him.”
“I’m sorry, Mom.”
I’m not expecting the anger in her tone.
“Don’t you dare apologize.” She turns to me.
“You are the best thing that ever happened to me. If it wasn’t for you, I would have been tempted to kill myself.
I knew even when you arrived that your brothers were already lost to him.
I had absolutely no power to save them unless I killed your father. And then I’d lose them to the state.”
She cups my face. “You are beautiful. You’re perfect. And having you and seeing the wonderful person you developed into, bucking your father at every turn, gave me hope that maybe one day we could escape him.”
She pulls me in for a hug. Just like that, I’m in fifth grade and she’s hugging me for my perfect report card, telling me how proud of me she is.
My father never acknowledged my achievements. Probably because I smoked my brothers at every turn.
“What happened when I left?” I ask when we end the hug. “How crazy did he go?”
“I’m glad you called Lana. When he got home late that night and you weren’t there, he asked me where you were, and I said camping, and told him what you said about planning the wedding.
He immediately called Lana, and when she told him the same thing, he looked up the car’s location, saw it was at the nature preserve, and that calmed him down.
Then he got busy with campaign bullshit, and it wasn’t until the third day he started asking questions again.
“I drove out to the preserve, found your car, and I walked along your scent trail for a little way, then turned and walked more into the depths of the park. Returned to the car and called him and said I found you, and you asked for another couple of days.”
I’m…shocked. “Really?”
She smiles. “Really. Because I might have also lied and told him you agreed to go back to college to get a law degree, but you wanted it to be the same place Lana went once she decided where, and you just wanted an extra couple of days to make peace with it.”
“And he bought it?”
“Of course he did. Especially when I showed him the college brochures.”
“Um, what college brochures?”
“The ones I’d ordered once you got back. I don’t know why I did, but I thought maybe I could talk him into letting you go to school somewhere away from Atlanta, giving you space and buying you more time.”
I throw my arms around her again. “Thank you, Mom.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you better, honey. I will always hate myself for that.” She sighs. “I was kind of hoping you would do that, then I could go out there and be with you on the pretext of keeping an eye on you while we tried to figure out how to escape him. And Lana, too.”
“Is she stuck marrying someone else now?”
She tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear. It’s really shaggy now, and two-toned from where I’d bleached it. But now that I’m pregnant, I didn’t want to risk dyeing it again. “When it became obvious you had run, she disappeared.”
Horror fills me. “Disappeared?”
“She left a note for her parents that she was terrified of what would happen with you gone and that she was going to kill herself. They found her car wrecked, in a river.”
“Fuuuuuck.” I lean against the fence for support while Costco nuzzles the back of my head.
“It’s okay, sweetie.”
“How can you say that?”
She smiles. “Because she’s not dead.”
I blink. “Whut?”
“I gave her money and helped her stage the accident.”
“Where is she?”
She shrugs. “I rented a car while mine was in for service, drove her to Birmingham, and put her on a bus to Colorado with three names and a town written on a piece of paper. Paid cash and gave the clerk extra to give her a fake name on the ticket.”
Relief fills me. “What about her parents?”
“They think she’s dead. Which is horrible, obviously. But her father is in Randolph’s pocket and would’ve sold her out to someone else as soon as he could.”
“I wonder if Mike Crowe can locate her and help her once the old man’s in the ground.”
“Funny you should mention him.” She smirks. “That’s one of the names I gave her.”
It doesn’t take me long to run payroll and set the direct deposits for our guys.
Todd handles paying the familiars cash every day because we don’t want them on the books for obvious reasons.
The pack has a shell company Todd can list as a “contractor” in the records so the IRS doesn’t get suspicious.
Mom walks around wearing a beatific smile, which strikes me as hilariously poignant considering the background aroma is cow shit.
I’m almost done when my favorite witch appears in the office doorway with an ear-to-ear grin. “Annnd?”
I wave her in and give her a long hug. “Thank you.”
“I didn’t do a damned thing except what it is that my weird brain does.” She steps back from me when Mom appears in the office doorway.
“Mom, this is Alizée Moultaire. She’s the one I told you about.”
Alizée swoops over for a hug, and Mom practically falls into her arms, happily crying while Alizée whispers to her.
I don’t join them because I suspect whatever Alizée’s saying to her is something like what Todd and I experienced.
When they finally step apart, Mom’s laugh-crying and wipes her cheeks with her hands. Then Alizée turns to me. “How’s my favorite pup doing?”
I pat my stomach. “Not sure I can still be called a pup, can I?”
“Of course you can.” She hugs me, then arches an eyebrow. “Anything you want to say to me?”
I laugh. “You were right.”
“That’s what I like to hear!” She kisses my cheek. “Just stopped by to feed the beasties.”
“How long?” I whisper.
I don’t know why I whisper because Mom’s a shifter and standing right there.
Alizée’s smile fades. “Soon,” she says and pats my cheek. “The worst is almost over. There is still something for you to do, but look at it as an exercise in spleen-venting.”
“Huh?”
She smiles. “You’ll see.”
I finish my tasks and I drive Mom back to the house. We move to the living room to watch TV, my head in her lap. I need this time with her. We had damned little of it the older I got, not able to risk one of my brothers or my father interrupting.
She plays with my hair. “Once it’s all over, I’ll probably go back.”
“Back?”
“To Atlanta.”
“Why? Live here with us.”
“I want to sell everything. Liquidate the business. Disband the pack. You won’t lose me again, honey. But you’re newlyweds. I’m sure Todd would prefer I’m not here.”
I sit up. “You’re wrong. He wants you here as much as I do!”
“Honey, I’m not disappearing. I will move here but…” Another of those heavy sighs. “I’ve never lived alone. I don’t want a big house. I want a little place all my own. My furniture. My decorations. Just…mine.”
“Then you can move into the apartment. And we’re not newlyweds yet. I need you here, Mom.”
She cups my face. “Honey, I promise I will be here for you and the baby. I will be here for your wedding. Atlanta’s only a few hours away. But I have to wrap up my life there. Liquidate everything.”
“BT needs her gramma.”
“BT?”
I laugh. “Bad Timing. Todd calls her BeetleBug.”
She fingers the band on my left hand. Todd switches his out every morning for a silicone one so he doesn’t ruin his. “When’s the wedding?”
When, indeed. “That’s the question, right? We’d already be married if it were up to Todd. I reminded him Dad probably had alerts out. If I showed up in a system somewhere, he could find me.”
“Smart.”
“Will it bother you that he’s going to die? Dad, I mean.”
“Honey, it would bother me more if he didn’t.” Her brow furrows, thunder in her gaze. “My only regret is I won’t be there to pull the trigger myself.”