Chapter 11
Eleven
Don’t make excuses for nasty people. You can also put a flower in an asshole and call it a vase.
—Hux to Bernice
Hux
I knew the moment that she pulled up.
I had a sensor not only on her car that let me know where she went and when she came home, but I also had a tracker on her shoe.
She’d left them on her front porch one day after work, and I’d tagged them, placing a sensor in the sole of her shoe where she wouldn’t feel it.
Not to mention, the cameras that I had on her house warned me the moment she pulled into her drive.
Heidi had been sitting inside with me when I’d seen her pull up, and I sent her outside to intervene with the Hubers, knowing that the assholes were going to be extra awful today.
Patrick was arrested by Gentry, a club brother and sheriff’s deputy with Jesper County Sheriff’s Department.
When one of their own was “targeted” they got mean and vindictive. No one would be spared.
And to keep myself from getting my hands dirty by beating the absolute shit out of them, I sent Heidi out because she would be the least threatening out of us all.
She came back with a surprise.
A surprise who looked wholly out of place, cold, and hesitant.
I hadn’t expected Heidi to bring her back, but now that she was here, I was glad that she did.
“Well, look who the cat dragged in,” Harvey drawled.
Romina slapped him across the chest. “What did I tell you about talking so badly about your sister?”
The table erupted in laughter.
“I was talking about Bernice.” Harvey rolled his eyes. “Romina, this is the woman my mom tortured for the last three months.”
Bernice’s eyebrows rose, but it was Romina who stood and walked over to Bernice and gave her a long hug. “I’m so sorry you had to deal with that horrible woman.”
Bernice’s eyes caught mine where I was leaning against the counter drinking a beer.
Her eyes widened and she mouthed, “What is going on?”
I shrugged.
When Romina pulled away, I noticed how Bernice’s arms went around her as she hugged herself.
I shoved off the counter and walked into my bedroom, coming back with the small throw that I had on my bed to cover my face and ears when I was sleeping, and handed it to Bernice.
She smiled at me gratefully, and I walked to the thermostat and kicked it up five degrees.
I’d be sweating my balls off in a few minutes, but it’d be worth it if I didn’t have to see Bernice shiver anymore.
“Cold?” Hampton asked.
Bernice gratefully wrapped the blanket around herself, then surreptitiously bent her nose into the fabric of the blanket before inhaling deeply.
“I’m not sure that my Southern blood is made for Montana winter yet.”
The table erupted into “but it’s not winter yet!”
They were right.
It wasn’t technically winter yet.
Just pre-winter, we liked to call it.
That time in the late fall when it could go either season. Sometimes in a day.
I went back to my room and pulled out a sweatshirt, then walked back into the kitchen and tossed the sweatshirt at her before heading to the door for the pizza.
The sweatshirt landed on her head as I passed, covering up her face.
The group laughed.
I walked to the door and opened it, jerking my chin at the kid who delivered every week.
“Keep the change,” I said as we exchanged money for pizza boxes.
“Thanks.” The kid skipped down the walk.
I glanced down the road to see the Hubers still drinking in their yard.
I wished that I could get rid of the public nuisances permanently without stirring trouble.
I’d be doing Jesper County a public service.
But they were too well known in the community, and had quite a few low-life friends who would notice them gone.
I closed the door when one of them looked my way, turning around with the stack of seven pizza boxes.
There was way too much pizza there for the six of us, but everyone wanted their own type of pizza and we’d been denied too much by our mother to ever fight over someone wanting their own pizza.
Speaking of, the moment that I placed it down on the table, everyone went to town.
Well, everyone but the ones married in and Bernice.
Bernice hesitantly sat down next to me and looked at the spread and said, “Wow.”
“What?” Heidi asked, almost three-quarters of the way through her slice of Canadian bacon and pepperoni.
“Y’all are quick.” She shook her head. “And I thought I was quick.”
“Just grab a piece. They won’t bite your hand off.” Romina held up a slice of pepperoni.
Bernice took it and ate hers slightly slower than us, but I had a feeling that was likely due to the way her eyes were wide and taking everything in.
The Hosea family was a spectacle.
We ate quick and were unapologetically uncivilized.
Which, of course, was why the married in-laws had to explain away our eating style. Always apologizing for something we felt no need to apologize about.
“Vera controls everything,” Candice began to explain, seeing the surprise on Bernice’s overly expressive face.
“When I first came into the picture.” She took a bite of pizza and chewed.
Way too damn slowly. “Hampton took me to a family dinner, and Vera controlled what they ate first and who ate first. How much they ate. When they ate. When they were done. And she picked and chose who got more or less. Poor Heidi was eating a plate full of food that was fit for a ten-year-old. Not a nearly eighteen-year-old. She also gave Hux more than Hampton, even though they were damn near the same size. Harvey sometimes less than even Heidi, depending on if he pissed her off that week. Hell, sometimes she’d make them sit there and watch.
Then give them an absurdly short amount of time to eat it.
That’s probably why they’re forced to eat as fast as they are.
They nearly always had a time limit. I think eight minutes or something like that.
Needless to say, the kids moved out one by one and now they eat like the food will be taken away at any second. ”
“Jesus Christ,” Bernice whispered quietly, mostly to herself. “And I thought my family situation was bad.”
I snorted. “You should be happy that your mother didn’t care. Mine cared. Too Much. Felt like we were suffocating our entire childhood.”
“When I joined the Marines,” Heidi said wistfully, “it was the best day of my life. I finally got to get out and breathe. When I did my four years and came home, I almost fell right back into the cycle of my mother. Luckily, I was able to get that factory job in Jawbone.”
“I’ve heard of this factory before,” Bernice said. “Don’t they sell dog food?”
“They do.” Heidi grinned. “I work there with Birdee, your sister-in-law, actually.”
“And Charleigh,” Bells chimed in, directing his gaze toward Bernice. “Do you know Charleigh?”
“Charleigh is over at my brother and sister’s place a lot.” She smiled.
Charleigh was a five-foot-nothing firebrand.
She was loud, opinionated, and unapologetic about who she offended.
She was also a fellow Marine.
Oorah.
That was probably why I liked her so much.
Not in a romantic way, because there was only room for one person to be stalked—Bernice.
But she was a breath of fresh air.
And she hated my mother and didn’t bother to hide her feelings on the matter.
The last time Charleigh had come into The Mercantile, she’d been banned for life because she’d overheard my mother berating Heidi and told her she was a pitiful excuse for a parent.
Mom hadn’t liked that and told her to leave. Charleigh had said she would leave when she was trespassed by the cops.
Mom called the sheriff, and sadly, Charleigh was trespassed.
However, that was the day that Heidi finally saw our mother’s actions through another’s eyes.
Saw that our mother was an overcontrolling freak and didn’t have anyone’s best interest—not even her kids’—at heart. Apparently, she only thought of herself.
That was when Heidi told our mother that she would help out at the store once a month, max.
Since then, she’d stuck to her guns.
And my mother hated it.
“So, what’s this I hear about serial killers?”
Hampton.
Always with his perfect timing.
Bernice choked on her pizza.
“What?” Bernice croaked, wiping her eyes when they started to water.
“I overheard Hux talking to Denver today at the store,” Hampton explained. “You have a serial killer stalking you?”
Bernice wilted.
“What?” Romina, Candice, and Heidi said almost in unison.
Bells and I exchanged a look.
“Why are you two looking like you have secrets?” Heidi asked, kicking me under the table.
I reached for another piece of pizza and took a large bite before saying, “Because we do. You knew this when you started dating a prospect behind my back.”
Heidi rolled her eyes. “Y’all don’t control who he dates.”
“No,” I agreed. “We don’t. But it would’ve been nice had y’all shared that y’all were seeing each other since he’s one of my club brothers.”
Heidi threw up her hands. “This is an old argument.”
Bernice leaned forward. “Why do I have a feeling this is juicy?”
“Because drama knows drama.” Heidi leveled a look on Bernice. “How about you tell us about your serial killer, and I’ll share how I accidentally had sex with my brother’s club brother.” She paused. “That sounds really incestual. I probably shouldn’t say it like that anymore.”
Bells chuckled.
“How do you accidentally have sex with someone, Bells?” I asked. “It’s not like you can slip and fall and be like, ‘whoops! My dick landed in your vagina!’”
Bells sighed.
Heidi groaned.
The focus was now once again on Heidi and not Bernice.
Which I could tell helped Bernice immensely.
She was painfully shy, and I could tell that she would rather not talk about her issues.
Especially with people she was just now meeting.
Kind of.
Though she’d met Heidi, Harvey, Hampton, and me months ago, it wasn’t like she was seeing any of us for any length of time. Or having long, drawn-out conversations about meaningful things. Most of the time it was “your mother wants you to do this.”
“So it goes like this,” Heidi sighed. “I was at a bachelorette party for a friend. We went to a bar, and I was drunk by eight thirty. I called my brother for a ride.” She looked at me pointedly. “And he sent Bells.”
Bells sighed.
“We get to my place, and I invite him in for a drink. He declines.” She scrunched up her nose. “But he does stay because my brother told him that I get crazy when I get drunk. I hated him being outside by himself, so I got him a drink.”
“Heidi makes mead,” Romina added. “She also makes beer, in case you’re curious.”
“Fascinating. What happened next?” Bernice pushed.
“Apparently, mead can make you euphoric.” Bells sighed. “I drank the mead. Then the next one she brought me. And the next. And before I knew it, I was acting like a fucking nut job. Couldn’t remember a damn thing other than I was really fucking happy. And Heidi was really fucking hot.”
“I drank mead, too.” Heidi sighed. “And we had the best sex of our lives.”
Bernice covered her mouth with a giggle.
“Apparently, my mead, which is really high in alcohol content, also gives Bells a sugar rush on top of everything else. He was like a kid on crack. And I was drunk myself. When we woke up the next morning, it was like we’d come down from a cocaine high.
We were very aware of what we’d done. We also decided to have one more go for the road.
But that one more go turned into all weekend.
Then it turned into dating behind Hux’s back. Which he was offended by.”
Bernice looked over at me. “It’s not that I was offended that they were sleeping together. It’s a free country, you should be able to fuck who you want to. I was offended that they hid it. Like it was some dirty secret. I didn’t want my sister to be a dirty secret.”
Bernice smiled at me, and her heart was in her eyes as she did. “That’s sweet. Really sweet.”
“Don’t call him sweet,” Heidi said. “He’s really not.”
No, I was not.
If she only knew how obsessed with her I was.
Probably worse than her serial killer.
Though I didn’t want to kill her.
I wanted to fuck the life out of her.
But that was about it.
“Now, about this serial killer thing,” Romina said. “Tell us everything.”