Chapter Eight
That evening...
They all met for supper in the large dining hall at the main house. They settled in and ate.
After about a half hour, they were having dessert and some of them drank coffee.
Char looked up at Kelly and said, “So, I wanted to ask... did you ever find out about your father?”
“Mom left her journal and that was when I got my answers. I was going to confront my father about what he did to my mom when she was young. I was going to tell him exactly what I thought of him and try to get some kind of justice. But Shay told me to stop. He didn’t want me to go after my father because my grandmother would make my life hell.
And he was right. When it came out in court what kind of man he really was she found out about me and did exactly what Shay said she would.
She made my life miserable for about three months.
That’s when her dirty little secrets came to life and Shay ruined her.
I mean he literally obliterated her and she lost everything.
Then I found out my grandfather on my mother’s side left me a trust. It wasn’t much, supposedly, my mother had embarrassed them when she came home pregnant after a man raped her, he had beaten her to hell and left her to die.
That man was my father. So, it wasn’t a great discovery that was for damn sure. ”
“I can understand that.” Char nodded. “You saw what my mother’s family was like.”
“Some of us here were lucky in that and some weren’t,” Drew spoke up.
Char glanced over at him and looked curious.“So you and Shay grew up together?”
Everyone there either chuckled or smiled.
Drew and Shay shook their heads.
Kelly smirked. “They did not but...they were the same person for a long time.”
Char and Rosie looked over at her.
Char drew her brows together and looked confused. “What the heck does that mean?”
“Shay Montross was a legend to most,” Pappy cut in.
“In his own mind, maybe,” Arick quipped as he grinned. Then he looked over at Char. “I’m the third Montross brother. So I would be the best brother.”
Shay chuckled. “That doesn’t explain what happened, Arik.”
“Let me see if I can like... put that whole story into a nutshell,” Pappy said.
“Good luck with that,” Shay scoffed.
“For years, Shay worked for like special ops and in the NSA,” Pappy explained.
“He did that after his soldiering and wars in the Middle East. Well, at the same time, Drew had been over there too. Seems the general that was Shay’s commander found Drew and trained him to do what Shay does.
Then he had Drew be undercover as Shay. To him it was utilizing a man that was successful all the time and he doubly made sure that Shay could work.
..well, double.” Pappy snickered at his own joke.
“You see they called him the Everywhere Man,” Arik added. “Because he was everywhere. Only most found out why. He had a twin and they didn’t know about each other basically.”
“Wow,” Char exclaimed as she looked over at Shay.
He gave her a nod. “It was a real shock.”
Kelly shook her head. “The shocker wasn’t that it was when I mistook Drew for Shay.”
Drew gaped at her. “You promised to never tell anyone that story!”
“No, she said that ‘YOU’ couldn’t tell anyone,” Arik reminded him as he snickered, enjoying every bit of this conversation.
Candy, Drew’s wife, who sat next to Drew took his hand in hers and announced, “She had to tell me, baby. Just so we would be clear on it. Like so there wouldn’t be any misunderstandings later on.”
Drew’s mouth popped open.
Candy laughed. “She told me that you were entirely innocent though.”
“Come on, man!” Kelly laughed as she shook her head at Drew.
“If I’m not embarrassed...I mean it was a natural mistake.
” She looked around to explain to the people who were listening, “When Shay still lived in DC, I went and saw him from time to time. Well, on this particular visit, he was asleep on the couch when I arrived. And the room wasn’t well lit. ”
Drew groaned as he covered his face with his hands as she went on to tell them the story.
...Leaning down, Kelly whispered to Drew, “I’ve missed you so much.” Her hands roamed along his chest and went lower as he sucked in a breath.
Then she lowered her lips to his again and kissed him.
Wrapping his arms around her, Drew kissed her back.
Suddenly, she froze as she knew this could not be Shay by the way he kissed. In a panic, she rose up to say, “What the fuck?”
The lights came on and Drew stared up at a woman he’d never seen before. He had believed it was a sexy dream.
“What the fuck?” Her line was repeated by a man’s voice.
Stretching his neck, Drew looked over and saw an angry Shay.
He stood close to them with a gun in his hand. He had been the one to turn the lights on.
“Wow, this dream went to shit real fast,” Drew muttered.
.... The dining room went silent now as Kelly finished the mistaken identity story.
They all broke into laughter.
Pappy laughed the loudest. “Well, that must have been a really hard moment.”
“Ohhh!” Mckenna, his wife slapped his arm as she sat next to him. “That was just all around bad, Stone.”
Drew just hid his red flushed face as he grabbed his glass and took a drink.
Candy patted his cheek as she laughed too.
Arik laughed the loudest this time.
A few minutes later, most of the men and women rose from their chairs to help with clean up.
In the front room, Pappy, Drew, Arik, Shay, Kelly and Char all sat at a table. They intended to discuss what the next steps would be to take down Char’s uncle and grandmother.
Dewey came into the room and walked over to the table. “Pappy, we have some... um... visitors.”
Stone looked up at his VP and asked, “What kind?”
Three other men came in after Dewey did.
“The legal kind,” Dewey replied with a sigh.
“The legal—”
“I am the District Attorney for Bexar County,” the man in the suit cut Pappy off. “We are here with a warrant to arrest Kelly Hines Montross.”
Shay shot up from the chair and stared at them. “For what?”
The man in the suit stood with two Federal Marshals. He motioned to one of them and ordered, “Show them the warrant.”
The Marshall stepped forward and handed Shay a piece of paper.
Staring down at it, Shay lost all the color in his face as he whispered, “Murder?”
“Yes, murder,” the man in the suit replied. “Cuff her.” He motioned to one of his Marshals.
“The fuck you will!” Shay growled as he moved forward.
The Marshals reached for their guns.
Pappy stepped over and grabbed Shay’s arm. “Son, don’t do it.”
Shay looked enraged, angrier than anyone had ever seen him before. “They cannot take her to jail!”
“We will get to the bottom of it,” Drew told him as he got on the other side and held his other arm. Both he and Pappy were ready to hold him back so they wouldn’t have gunfire breaking out in this room.
Shay kept shaking his head. “If you hurt her you will pay.” He seethed at the men.
Kelly could see how bad this was. One wrong move and some of them could die from a gunbattle.
These were the people she loved most in this world.
Her family, the one she’d longed for all these years.
“Please stay calm, Shay? Please?” She fought tears.
She could NOT cry now as it would only make it worse on Shay.
“I know you and Pappy will get me free. But it has to be legally.” Cautiously, she slowly stepped toward the Marshalls and turned around.
The agents carefully cuffed her with slow methodical movements as they quietly read her rights out to her.
The entire time, Shay never looked away from her steady gaze. His eyes blazed with a fury that really did make the District Attorney in the suit take a few steps back in fear.
Pappy and Drew kept a hold of him as his body looked ready to spring into action to defend his woman. They couldn’t allow this to escalate, they had to keep this contained. Only they didn’t know if they could.
Char wept aloud as she kept shaking her head and muttering softly, “T-this can’t be h-happening...”
Before the agents and Kelly turned away, Shay whispered to her, “I will always love you,woman. And I will free you, I promise.”
TO BE CONTINUED IN HELL’S FIRE SPECIAL EDITION.