Chapter 10 #3
“No, ma’am. You’re on our property and you don’t have the right to be here if we refuse you service.
And consider service refused. Now, you can go quietly or I can call the police.
That’s your choice, but either way, you’re leaving.
” His jaw was set in such a way that Kyle knew he’d had to do that before and wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.
“Fine! I’m going! But you should be ashamed of yourselves!” Margie huffed as she stormed away from the table.
Kyle didn’t realize it, but he’d been holding his breath the whole time she’d been standing there, and he let it out in a whoosh before he spoke. “Sir, I’m so sorry about that. She’s a real problem, and we—”
“No, sir, I’m sorry she bothered you on our property. Rest assured I wouldn’t have hesitated to have her carried out by law enforcement. Now, the two of you, enjoy your dinner in peace, and it’s on the house too.”
Kyle shook his head. “No, I insist on—”
“No, sir. We don’t allow our guests to put up with things like that. Your meal tonight is comped. I hope you enjoy it and come back soon.” With that, the man turned and walked away before Kyle could argue with him further.
“Well, that was really nice of him,” Gina whispered as she glanced around furtively. Fortunately, all the other diners had gone back to their meals and weren’t staring anymore.
“Yes, it was. We’ll come back here again sometime.
I can’t believe she followed us here.” Was she following them everywhere?
Kyle had no way of knowing, but he was growing to suspect she did.
Of course, she couldn’t be two places at once, so she was only following one of them, and it was a sure thing it was Gina.
In her mind, Margie surely thought she could strong-arm Gina before she could him.
The one thing he hated most started to happen in that moment—big crystal tears rolled down Gina’s face. “Oh, baby,” Kyle whispered and took her hand, “don’t let her rattle you. It’ll be okay.”
“No. It won’t. She’ll never stop harassing us. That woman is used to getting her way. If she doesn’t, it’s going to be a long, difficult journey for us.”
“No. As soon as the kids are grown and gone, she’ll pester the shit out of them and not us.”
“But that’s several years from now!” Gina reminded him through her tears. “Until then, she’ll bug the piss out of us every chance she gets. I knew it was wrong to bring somebody else into this mess. I’m so, so sorry.”
Kyle sat up straight. “I’m not. If this is how she treats you, you need somebody on your side.
I’m that somebody, babe. She’s not going to bug the piss out of you alone.
She’s going to bug the piss out of me too, and there’s only so much I’ll take before I retaliate.
And she really doesn’t want me to do that. ”
Gina stopped crying and sniffled. “What do you mean, retaliate?”
“Just wait. I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve.” And he wasn’t kidding. When it came to comeuppances, Kyle Miller was the king. Margie Ivitts had no idea who she was dealing with.
And that would be her downfall.
Kyle had a call to make and it was answered with a tenuous, “Hello?”
“Is this Miles?”
“Yes.”
“Miles, it’s Kyle.”
“Oh! Hello there! What’s up with you?”
“Got a question. Do you know where Margie Ivitts lives?”
“Of course. Over on Daytona near the school.”
“I need an address.”
“Nah. It’s a yard full of little concrete statues and crap. Looks like a junk lady lives there. You won’t have any trouble finding it.”
“Gotcha.”
“Kyle?”
“Yeah?”
“What are you up to?”
“Oh, nothing. Just want to know about the adversary, that’s all,” Kyle assured him. God, I hate lying to him! he thought, but he wasn’t about to divulge any of the details of the hell that was about to rain down on Margie Ivitts. That would be a huge surprise.
And he couldn’t wait to get started.
Two days later, Kyle slowed and stared. Miles had been right. It wasn’t hard to find Margie’s house. Not only was the lawn cluttered with concrete statuary, but her gray car was sitting out front. He was spending the weekend at Gina’s, and that would be a perfect time to fuck with Margie.
“What are you up to?” Gina asked, her eyes narrowing into slits as Kyle got dressed. It was two o’clock in the morning on Saturday, and he was putting on black sweats, a black stocking hat, and a black long-sleeved tee.
“Oh, nothing. Just rattling a cage. She wants to play hardball, she’s about to get a taste of Kyle Miller,” he answered with a wicked glint in his eyes.
By the time he got to Margie’s, it was almost two thirty. Fortunately, the houses all over the neighborhood were dark. He worked quickly and quietly, and in less than twenty minutes, he’d accomplished his objective. Boy, would she be surprised when she woke up!
“Kyle, what did you do?” Gina asked when he came back in.
“Nothing damaging, babe. She’s just going to be really, really pissed.”
“I just wish she’d leave us alone and be done with us.”
Kyle rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Babe, she’s never going to be done with us. We should at least give her a taste of her own medicine.” And he was sure of one thing.
Margie wouldn’t be following them the next day, at least not for a while.
One cup of coffee wasn’t enough, so Margie went back for a second. She’d almost finished the second one when she decided to go out to get the paper off the front walk. And what she found shocked her.
Her car sat on four jack stands, and the wheels and tires were chained and padlocked to her front fence. “What the hell? Who did that shit?” she whispered under her breath. As she walked out to look at the mess, a neighbor came out. “Did you see who did this?”
“No, Margie. Not a thing. Must’ve been in the middle of the night. Any idea who it might’ve been?” the neighbor lady asked.
“Yeah. Really good idea who it was.” Who could she get to come and cut the chains? She decided before she did that, she’d call the police.
A lone cruiser pulled up and the officer got out. “Wow, Margie, looks like somebody knows you pretty well,” he said with a snicker.
“Oh, haha. Not funny, Jernigan,” she snapped back.
“Did it ever occur to you that it’s not a good thing when you know the names of every officer on the force?” the policeman asked.
“It means I’m a tax-paying, law-abiding citizen,” she answered.
He shook his head. “Yeah, you keep going with that. Want me to make a report?”
“Yes. Please.” Arms folded across her chest, she waited as he looked everything over.
“Oh, this is a good one,” he told her as he got his tablet out and began tapping on the screen.
“Y’all and your newfangled contraptions. Can’t you just write it down?”
“No. This is how we take complaints now. Who do you think did this?”
“A guy named Kyle. Kyle Miller. Lives in Madisonville, I think.” She decided she was going to have to pay a little visit to his house. Obviously, she wouldn’t that particular day, but eventually she would.
“And why would he come all the way from Madisonville to do this?”
“He’s shacked up with that slut of an ex-daughter-in-law of mine.”
“Oh, so he’s dating Gina Pritchard. Yeah.
Okay. That explains everything. And what exactly have you done to them to make him want to do something like this?
” Margie didn’t want to answer. “Come on, Margie. People don’t just drive to another city to do something like this. There’s got to be a reason.”
“I ran into them at the restaurant last night and he wasn’t very nice to me.” That sounds good, she thought.
“You ran into them in the restaurant? Don’t you mean you followed them there and caused a scene? Because I know you, Margie. We all do. And that sounds like something you’d do.”
“No! Of course not! I wouldn’t do that!” she screeched. How the hell did he guess? she wondered.
“Right, right. Well, I’ll go talk to this Kyle fellow, but I’d advise you to leave them alone.” Officer Jernigan turned to go back to his car, then turned to Margie again. “And by the way, it is a bad thing when you know the names of everybody on the force. Tells us a lot about you.”
“I don’t appreciate you talkin’ to me that-a way!” she called after him.
“Have a nice day, ma’am,” he threw back over his shoulder before he slipped into his cruiser.
Good. Maybe he’d cuss out that damn Kyle guy. She didn’t need that shit getting in the way of her doing what she needed to do for her son and grandkids.
Gina was in the shower when the doorbell rang, and Briley ran for it. “Kyle? Kyle, come here,” he heard the boy call out.