Gerard (15 page)

She told him she was going outside now and that she’d not say a word about anything.
Gerard, what does this mean? You think that we’re the same now?

Yes.

She stepped out on the porch just as two police officers were pulling Garth from the truck. Even from where she was, she could smell him. Not only had he wet himself, but apparently he’d crapped his pants too. She looked over at Paddy when he laughed at the antics near the truck. The man was having a great deal of fun for someone who had gotten his head pounded not twenty minutes ago. Susie couldn’t help but smile too.

“They don’t want to be touching him. Can’t blame them a bit, nope. He’s stinking it to high heaven.” She asked him what he’d done. “Oh nothing much. But none of them officers there are going to believe a word that he says to them. I’m thinking he’ll be in a loony bin in short order.”

She listened to Vance then, screaming about cougars as big as he was, women changing into cats and threatening to drive him over the edge. She wasn’t sure what edge he was talking about, but Paddy was right. No one believed a word he said.

“She cut me open. Look at this.” The closest officer backed away from Garth when he pulled his torn pants up nearly to his balls. “She nearly unmanned me. Why aren’t you arresting her right now?”

“You’re telling me a woman, Mrs. Douglas here, turned into a cat…a cougar, and tried to kill you?” Garth said that he’d seen her do it. The officer looked at her, then back at Garth before shaking his head. “You on something there, Mr. Vance? Maybe you might hit your head or something?”

“I did no such thing. Ask her. She was supposed to drive me into the bank, but the fucking bitch had no keys.” The officer asked him why he was going to the bank just as the Douglas men pulled into the drive. Gerard walked to her, but the rest of them stayed near their cars. She didn’t know what was going on until he spoke to her.

“They’re making sure that he doesn’t get away. I’m thinking that he might try to get them to let him go if nothing else. Mason has no idea who else is in his pocket. Also, they don’t know that he killed his brother.” She nodded. “Besides, they’re hoping the police do let him go so they can have their fun.”

Susie didn’t want to think of the fun they might be having with this man, but she did know that whatever it might be, he’d not enjoy it nearly as much as they did. As Garth continued to tell them what she’d done, Susie leaned back on Gerard and tried her best not to think of what was going on between the two of them.

~~~

Gerard knew that he was going to confess about everything soon. All Vance talked about was how Susie had done this or that to him, and that she’d told him things that Gerard knew weren’t true. He even alluded to the fact that she might have been the one that hit Paddy when he’d told them about being ambushed by Garth.

“I just want you to explain to me why you wanted Mrs. Douglas to take you to the bank. Don’t you know that you’re wanted for some things that have been going on around town? I’m pretty sure you couldn’t have missed it, what with it being all over the news and what not.” Gerard watched Cort, one of the town’s officers. Cortland Anderson and he had gone to school together, and as far as he knew the man was much smarter than he was projecting at the moment. “You said that just before she turned into this here dog that she was going to take you—”

“Not a dog, you fool. A cougar. Why the hell are you still holding me like this when she’s the animal around here? And as for the bank, she was going to give me some money. I needed to get away.” Cort asked him where he was going. “I’m not stupid enough to think that you’re not going to arrest me sooner or later.”

“Arrest you for what?”

Vance growled, and Susie laughed. It was funny, the way he growled like it was going to make a difference, but when he lunged at her, Gerard punched him in the face as hard as he could. No one moved when he hit the dirt. As he lay there, Gerard had a moment of pure fear. He might have killed the man. But when he moaned, Gerard let out his breath. Christ, that had been close.

A wagon, a large unpadded van, was brought in for Garth, and he fought them as he was being loaded in. When he broke free of them, going for the tree line, Zach took him to the ground with a full bodied tackle, something akin to what he’d done on the field when they played ball for the high school. He held him there with a boot to his chest. The officers were just picking Garth up when he started yelling about what he’d done.

“He told them. Damn it all to fuck. Why am I the bad guy here? You know as well as I do that Rogers did this. I was just a pawn in his scheme. Of course, it was my idea, but he just took it and ran with it.” Cort asked him what he was talking about. “The plan to take the ranches, you fucking idiot. We were going to make a killing off this land, and he got us all caught. Then Howard. That stupid halfwit just had to tell them what we were doing. And now look. He’s dead because of it. I should have killed him before last night, and I’d have all the fucking money.”

“What money?” Garth looked at Gerard and laughed. “You don’t have any money, Garth. All you have is a lot of people pissed off at you for robbing them.”

“Shit, you mean like you? Fuck that shit. You didn’t deserve the money, and now look at you. You all have it. Well, I’ll have mine soon enough, and I’m going to do what my brother was going to do. Buy me an island and live there so no one can touch me.” Garth was being stuffed into the back of the van again when he started spouting off about the men he’d killed. “That man that thought he could just come in here and take what was mine is now rotting in a grave on the McBride ranch. Go dig him up and see him. Put a bullet in his head just as neatly as I sliced open Howard’s throat. Hated to do it, but he never learned to shut up.”

He told them about the second man too. The banker that had been there before Rogers had been. He’d been shot too, and his body was buried in the cemetery. It might take them awhile to find him, Garth told them, as he’d done a number on him by tossing his body into the fertilizer pit at the back of the property, the one they used for the flowers in the summer. He was still laughing as the doors were being closed.

“Man, that man can carry on.” Cort turned to him with his hand out. “I really appreciate you calling us in on this, Gerard. Been looking for this little turd for some time now. I hear tell you and the Mrs. have some horse selling going on.”

“We do. There are some buyers from down south coming up to pick them up on Monday.” Cort nodded, and as soon as Gerard touched his hand to the officer, he felt the same emotions that he had with his brother. It nearly took him to his knees. “Cort, you should…you should bring the family out and let them see them. Some of them are very gentle. Maybe your son can…he can have a ride on one.”

Cort stared at him, then looked away. “Who told you? I mean…well, hell, anyone could have, I guess. We thought we could take…it’s hard, you know? Trying to do this on our own. My wife’s mom helps when she can, but she don’t like to come over as much as she used to. It’s draining us all, and our resources are about gone too. They don’t give him much longer. Less than a year, I guess. He’s only five, for Christ’s sake. Too young to….” When he sobbed just standing there next to him and Susie, Gerard felt his heart break for the man. His five-year-old little boy was dying.

Gerard only nodded, wanting and needing to help him but not sure how. To have your child dying as his was, cancer taking him at such a young age, Gerard wanted to pull him into his arms and hold him for a little while.

“You bring him on out here and we’ll set him up on one of the ponies. There are a lot of them.” Cort nodded but still hadn’t looked at him. “I’m sorry. I wish I could do more.”

“He’s been wanting to come out since he heard you had them. I told him that…I was gonna ask you in a few days if he could…it’s not something we like to do. Ask people for help with him. It puts some people off, you know? Like it’s too much for them. They should live in our shoes for a day.” Gerard asked him why he’d not asked before. “I guess it’s pride. Maybe a little like we don’t want to share him in these last few months we have left with him. He’s my boy, Gerard. My little boy.”

“I can’t imagine what you’re going through. I am so sorry. But I am serious. Susie and I would love to have you all come out and spend the day with us. We’re going on a drive sometime in the next few days, so come out before then. Hell, come out whenever you want. Someone is always here.” Cort told him he’d talk to his wife. “You tell her that we insist.”

After he left them, Vance on his way to jail and the other officers going back to work, Gerard turned to his brothers and Paddy’s pack and smiled.

“Steaks all around. Our treat. It’s been a hell of a day and I, for one, could use a nice fun dinner.” After the whooping and yelling calmed down, Aunt Georgie started sending men to the store for food, and she and Susie entered the house with the others to get started on the side stuff. Mason patted him on the back and went to the barn with the rest. Gerard sat on the steps and thought about what the fuck had just happened.

Things around here might never be calm, he thought. And realized it was fine. Because without his family, he wasn’t sure…he knew that he’d never make it. And with the love of his life in his corner, Gerard thought he could do just about anything. Getting up, he went to the barn. The men were going to show up in the morning to put on the new roof and start on the other buildings as well.

Chapter 12

When their plane touched down, Emma was right there to greet them, excited beyond words to see her mom and dad after so long. A month didn’t seem like that to most people, but to her it had seemed like a lifetime or two. As soon as she saw her mom she moved forward, nearly taking down the security officer that was standing by the door when she got there. Her dad was just coming down the steps when she finished hugging her mom.

“You come to meet your old dad, did you?” She said that she was there for Mom, but he was okay to see too. “Hush that now, you know that I’m your favorite.”

“Did you bring me anything?” He just smiled at her. It had been their joke, probably for more fathers and daughters than just the two of them, since she’d been a little girl. “I got some news for you too when we get to the car. Things around the ranches have been a little stressful, but we got it handled. Even without you here.”

Helping them get their luggage into the new car had been fun. She teased them about having much more than they’d left with, and told them about the boxes that had arrived yesterday. Her mom said that she’d gotten a few things for everyone, and even some things for the new baby. She was busting to tell them about her and Mason, but didn’t say anything just yet. Her dad, of course, asked her about her news twice as they were driving to the ranch.

“Not to the house.” She knew this and was headed to their home, hers and Masons, even as her mother sounded panicky. “I’m not ready for that just yet. Might not ever be.”

“We understand.” And Emma did too. Her brother had been…after his death it had been hard for all of them to go to the house. The only person who had been there in the few months he’d been gone was Mason, and that was just to check on things around the inside. There were a number of others moving around and about the ranch at all times, but he wanted to check on the house for them. “We have a place at the house all ready for you. And Georgie has been over baking up a storm. We’re having a celebration tomorrow night, so it’s good that you came home early.”

Only she and Mason knew that her parents had cut their vacation short. It was only five days, but it was enough to know that they wanted to be there for Gerard and Susie. They had contracts for more horses, and they’d hired three more people to work for them fulltime. It was time to have some fun.

“And you should see the building that they’re having renovated. The work is going to make that place shine. And they’ve decided to buy the one next to it too. Just on the off chance that this hotel business works out.” Her dad said it would. “You and I know it will, but Susie and Gerard are having a hard time with it. And I think with the money too. They’re very rich, but you’d never know it the way that they act. Susie said that they’re worried that someone is going to come back and ask for a refund.”

“Never been that poor before where I had to worry about money. I can tell you though, it’s smart of them to take their time with it. Jumping into too many things will overwhelm their pocket book, as well as themselves. We gonna swing by the building on the way to the house?” She said she could do that. “I’d like to have a look. Just to see what a little gumption can do for a building.”

“Palmer has bought two of the buildings too. And he and Georgie are getting married in a few weeks. She finally told us all that he was her mate. I think Mason has known for some time now.” Her mother said that she’d thought so too. “I think they’re so cute together. They remind me of you two when they think nobody is looking. All in love and stuff.”

“I do love your mother. She’s the smartest woman I know.” Emma grinned at him. “How you like being the mayor? Making them people stand up and take some notice, are you? By golly, you’d better be. You’re my daughter and you gotta make me proud.”

“I’m working on it, Dad.” They drove by the building slowly. He wanted to get out and have a look-see, he said, but they were going to surprise everyone and she knew her father well enough to know that if he got out, he’d be there until the building was finished, offering suggestions and what not. “I have a project I need your help on, Mom. It’s about the program that Susie is working on. She is working on a way for handicapped children to come out to the ranch to see and ride horses. And then there are the other animals that she wants to have there too. Mostly shifters that will have more control around them, but she needs help getting the paperwork done correctly.”

“She needs to apply for some grants too.” Emma told her that Susie would never go for that. “Well, the paperwork will go much smoother if she does it. The government will think they have a hand in it, and that can open more doors than not. I’ll talk to her.”

Emma could tell that her mom thought it was a done deal then. Katie McBride could open or close more doors than a wind in a door factory. Her dad had been saying that to people for years, and Emma thought it was right. Her mother, for all her quietness and shyness, had more power than the president. Glancing at her dad made her think that Susie didn’t stand a chance between these two forces.

As they pulled into the drive of their home, she thought of all the things they’d done to the land since they’d been gone. A barn was being put up at the back of the property for the yard equipment to be stored in. There was also a horse stable for the few horses that Mason had picked out for them. She’d been riding all her life and loved it. Mason had never ridden except for work. She was looking forward to getting him out and in the dark woods.

Then there was the kitchen expansion. The kitchen had been in good shape and large enough for the little entertaining that her grandmother had done, but not for their growing family. When she had great parties—and Emma could remember some pretty fantastic ones when she was younger—Grandma had the food brought to the house and then the mess and all the food taken away when it was done. Randy, their butler, had told her and Mason that it had worked well for her, but cooking in the place now was just not going to work.

“My goodness, child.” Her mom laughed when she saw all the men at the house. Seemingly in it, on it, and even under it. They had been working with the house for two weeks now, and she was frankly sick of the construction but could not wait to see it. “What are you doing here? Building a new house?”

“Oh no. Mason and I love this one. We’ll never leave. But we needed to make some improvements.” Three men came out to get the luggage from the car as she took her parents inside. “The front hall needed new wiring. We plugged in one of those candle things over there and nearly burned the house down around our ears.”

She didn’t tell them what really happened. That she and Mason had been having sex against the wall, his big cat eating her while she screamed out this name. And when she let her own cat go to take care of his needs, she knocked a large lamp off and it had shattered. But the cord had broken off and the fire from the socket made her cat scream while running for the woods. It had taken her nearly two hours to calm her enough to let her shift back.

There was new furniture too. As well as a television set that was as big as she was. The family had been over to the house twice in recent days to enjoy some football on the big screen, as well as some pretty amazing dinners that Jace had helped make for them.

“You should make this room bigger too.” She looked around the office that she’d been using when she and her mom entered it. It was small and lovely, and every time she came in here, she thought of her grandmother. She asked her mom why she thought it should be changed. “She loved this room. I would come in here with her when she was working just to see her here. It suited her, the smallness of it. The colors. You need to make this room yours as well. Something that says ‘I’m Emma Douglas, and I love my job.’”

“I do love it.” Her mom nodded and sat on the most uncomfortable chair in the entire room. Also the most ugly. “Is Dad going on the run with them?”

“He wants to. But he also doesn’t want to step on anyone’s toes if he does. He has it in his head that Mason thinks he’s too old.” They could hear her dad in the kitchen, three rooms from the one they were currently in, talking to the men working in there. She had a feeling she was going to have to increase their pay to have them put up with them. “That man would never make a good librarian. He’s too loud, and he thinks that he knows more than the books. I can see him now, telling them stories instead of doing his job. The old poop.”

“He’s wonderful.” Her mom nodded and smiled. “Will you really help Susie? She had this little boy out to her house the other day, and he had so much fun. It wore him out, of course, all the excitement, but his parents were thrilled to death. Cort, that’s Gerard’s friend and father to little Cort, said that there are hundreds more children that would love to be able to do this before they died. Little Cort has cancer, and they don’t give him long to live. Susie cried for two hours after they left. She felt like it wasn’t enough, what she’d been able to do for him.”

“I’m on a few committees that can help her out too. Some of them are especially there for children and their families. One is the Lasting Wish Foundation. They call it Lasting Wish because it is for them. And their families.” Emma knew her mom was on that board and hoped for some help from them as well. “I would suggest that she find herself a photographer. Not for the publication of the photos, but so that the families can have them. It’s something that has just started in some of the other places we try to fund. They make these beautiful albums that the parents get as part of their visit. I’m betting that Susie won’t want to charge families for this either, will she? I don’t know that I would either. It’s hard on them, caring for a sick child, and very hard on their bank accounts too. Some have lost their homes over something like this happening.”

“No. She won’t. I think you’re right about that. And Cort and his wife Janie took a lot of pictures. She told me that she might not ever be able to look at them, but she had them if she wanted to.” Her mom nodded. “Also, you should know that the money that they found in the mill has been turned over to the FBI. But two days after it was given to them, Susie received a check for double the amount. The agents took up a collection when they heard what she and Gerard were doing, and sent it to them, along with the money from the mill. Some of them know Cort and his wife, and were happy that it could go to help fund a project like this one. I think they ended up giving a lot of it to Cort for medical expenses.”

“Good for them. I’m sure that your dad and I will help out as well. We’ll start some fund raisers too. Give to the neediest families and help them out. You and I will talk about that later.” She nearly pointed out to her mom that Susie wouldn’t be happy about getting the money, but didn’t. She would let Susie deal with it. “When are you going to tell him?”

“Tell who what?” Her mother only smiled at her. “Seriously, Mom, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“The baby.” Emma didn’t say anything, but put her hand over her still flat belly. “I have known you since before you were born, darling. A mom knows when her little girl is going to have a child of her own. So when are you going to tell your dad?”

“Mason wants to do it. He loves Dad as much as I do. I think he’s sort of excited to tell him.” Her mom said that her dad loved him as well. “The ranch, it’s doing well. Mason is making it work, and he’s setting up a meeting as Dad asked him to do with the renters. Did you know that several of them are no longer using the land but still paying rent?”

“No. I had an idea that they weren’t, but Landon said that it mattered little to him so long as it was being kept up.” Emma shook her head. “They’re not?”

“No. Two of the fields have trailers on them. Squatters, Mason thinks. The land isn’t set up for that, and they’re running water from somewhere via hoses. He said that they’re using generators for electricity too.” Her mom looked shocked. “Also, there is one tenant that is making noises about taking the land as his own. He claims that Dad gave it to him after he rented it for ten years. Do you know if that’s true?”

“The contracts are in your father…in Mason’s office. And there is a copy of them filed in the court house. Your dad is very good at that sort of thing. And I know that he’d never give land away. He loves it too much.” Emma knew that about her parents, and also knew that the man who was messing with them didn’t have a clue who he was fucking with. “You’re helping him look into it?”

“Yes. I have filed paperwork to have him removed from the land. As well as the squatters that are abusing it. We don’t need someone setting up house there when there is every chance that Mason will expand. Did you know that he’d nearly doubled the amount of steer we have? And the Double Deuce has more cattle on it now than ever before. They’re selling dairy all over the country. And Jace and Mason are thinking of putting a cheese factory in. The local Amish are willing to work with them in getting it set up, and once it’s ready, they said that they’d market it for him in their shops. They seem to think that Double Deuce McBride cheese is going to be huge.”

Her mom smiled. Emma knew that her parents loved Mason and what he was doing for the ranch, but she also knew that they thought of her brother often and wondered, like she did, what they had done to make him the way he’d been.

“I want to go and see Dirk’s grave too.” Emma nodded. “I’ve had flowers put on it since we’ve been gone. And I know that Mason has been going to the house. I wanted to…he does a great deal for us that goes beyond being our son-in-law.”

“He loves you and Dad very much.” Her mom nodded and looked out the window at the men working. “We’ve talked it over, and Mason and I have…we’d very much like for you to stay with us. One of…Darin wants to buy the house from you and live there. He doesn’t have much in the way of money, but Susie and Gerard are lending him enough to put a down payment on it.”