Unbreakable (32 page)

“Yeah I read your report, but I didn’t know
you knew I did so I thought I’d ask,” he says bashfully.

We continue our meal and learn stuff about
Lucy also. She had a misdemeanor as a teenager for smoking pot. She
got in trouble a lot at school, but still graduated with a 4.0 GPA.
She also got caught trying to steal cigarettes from a local
convenient store.

“I’m actually surprised I passed
expectations after I realized the extensive background check I went
through when Lilly told me I had the job,” she admits to us. “I am
far from squeaky clean, but I swear to you that all of that is in
the past,” she says to me and I can tell she doesn’t have a
dishonest bone in her body. She just had a little wild side and now
she channels it into tattoos, piercings, and computers.

“How did you know about the background check
anyway?” Jacob questions her, and I am interested, too, because I
didn’t know about it either.

“I’m very good with computers and I know
when someone is checking in on me,” she says slyly.

“We might need to utilize your expertise.
Someone may be trying to hack into our video feed,” Jacob admits
and Luke and I both stare in his direction. It's news to me, and by
Luke’s reaction I can tell it is news to him also.

“Calm down, we don’t know for sure,” he
instantly tries to put us at ease. “We just realized it at
headquarters and we don’t know for sure,” he tells us calmly.

“What program are you running?” Lucy’s
interest immediately piqued.

“Come, I’ll show you.” With that they head
out of the kitchen and off to the cottage.

“I guess you lost your personal assistant
already. Man you have a fast turnover,” Luke teases me. I help Miss
Finnegan clear the plates and do the dishes. After about an hour,
Lucy and Jacob still haven’t returned. Luke and Jimmy decided to
get busy on the demo of the master and Miss Finnegan excuses
herself to take a nap before she needs to start supper. A lot of
mouths to feed now and she’s loving it.

I head into the family room plopping on the
couch and look out the window. It’s a beautiful day and I don’t
want to be cooped up inside all by myself. The loud banging coming
from the master is giving me a headache. I decide to take a little
walk around the plantation. Since I’ll be staying close to the
house I shouldn’t have to report that to anyone. Right now everyone
is in his or her own world anyway. I walk out the front door and
sit on the porch steps stretching my legs out so I can feel the
warmth of the sun. I lean back resting on my elbows and look up at
the white fluffy clouds against the deep blue sky. They look so
soft, it’s almost like I could reach up and grab a handful of their
snowy, cottony softness. I’m in a trance a million miles away as
they move slowly in the sky.

I’m startled out of my dream world when I
hear obnoxious honking at the end of the driveway. Shielding my
eyes with my hands to see down the lane, a white Cadillac sits just
beyond the gate and whoever is in it is laying on their horn. I see
Jacob coming from the back of the house in a slow jog followed by
Lucy, to see what the commotion is about.

“What are you doing outside?” Jacob says
aggravated by me being out of the house. “You are not supposed to
be out here alone.”

“I’m on the porch.” I give Jacob a look that
says you can’t be serious. “Sam is out with the dogs,” I defend
myself. “Who in the world is that?” I ask annoyed as the honking
continues.

“It looked like your good friend Adeline
Grace from the monitor,” Jacob answers in jest. “Do you want me to
let her in?” He asks and the blaring horn has brought Luke and
Jimmy out. They are filthy covered in drywall dust. Luke comes over
to me, brushing himself off and looking toward the car.

“Who the hell is that?” He asks also
extremely annoyed.

“Adeline,” I say under my breath.

“Oh shit, I guess mother is going to find
out I’m home,” Jimmy declares and he looks like he is trying to
decide if he should run and hide or face her and get it over
with.

“Let her in, I’m curious to see what the
witch wants,” I tell Jacob and he walks to the house to push in a
code on the large security panel by the front door. The gates at
the end of the lane slowly swing open. They were installed
yesterday and I thought it was a waste of money yesterday, but
today having the control to decide who can and can’t come in is
kind of nice.

The white Cadillac speeds up the lane and I
almost think she is going to takes us all out by the way she is
driving. I’m not the only one because Luke grabs me and pushes me
behind him and everyone takes a step back before she screeches to a
halt in front of the house.

“Here we go,” I hear Jimmy mumble beside
Luke.

She gets out of her large pretentious car
with a huff, slamming the car door behind her.

“Goodness gracious alive, well if it isn’t
James Carmichael, you’re back! I should of known you would be
friends with the likes of these people,” she hisses as she motions
to us taking special notice of Lucy with a long look of disgust.
“Your mother will be so proud,” she scoffs condescendingly, like
her words should make Jimmy fall to the ground in shame.

“I’m sure she is as proud of me as I am with
her,” Jimmy retorts and takes a seat on the front step with a giant
smile.

Adeline ignores his response and continues
to look upon us with distaste. “You’ve got quite the crew here,
Lilly,” she mocks us, her bright pink lips pursed in a thin line.
Her bleach blond hair is curled, and every hair exactly in its
place. She looks the exact same every time I see her, but now I can
tell that time is catching up with her. Her skin is deep with
wrinkles, and even though she tries to cover it up with thick
layers of makeup, I can tell she is really starting to show some
age, especially looking at her in the bright sun. I have never
noticed just how unattractive she is.

“Adeline, I am so sorry,” I say sweetly and
she is taken aback at what sounds like a heartfelt apology. “I mean
look at you. Time has not been kind to you at all,” I dig in the
sweetest voice I can muster. I hear muffled laughter behind me
coming from Jimmy. “It must take you half the day to put all that
crap on your face.” My smugness is so cruel that I feel much
pleasure from it.

“Still as ungrateful and rude as ever,”
Adeline scowls putting on a huge pair of sunglasses. No doubt, she
is now very self-conscious.

Jacob and Lucy join Jimmy on the front
steps. They seem to be enjoying the show. Luke stands firmly next
to me as Adeline and I stare at each other. The hatred so deep that
it feels like there is a fire burning between us.

“Enough with the pleasantries Adeline, what
do you want?” I ask her rudely crossing my arms.

“I came to give you this.” She thrusts out
an envelope and waves it in my face waiting for me to take it.

I grab it from her and rip it open,
unfolding the paper. I study it for a moment and start to laugh
almost uncontrollably, handing the paper to Luke. His laughter is
louder than mine.

“What is it?” Jimmy yells from the step
impatiently wanting to be in on the joke.

Luke walks over to them and shows them the
piece of paper. Written on it is an invoice for 3.5 million dollars
owed to Adeline for consulting services she rendered to Jane.

“It will be a cold day in hell before you
get a dime of my money, Adeline! You think hanging around Jane like
a lost puppy for years was being a consultant.” I am amused by the
whole thing and can’t stop laughing.

“I assure you this is no joke, Lilly,” she
stands firmly in place. “I am owed the money and it should be paid
from Jane’s estate,” she states, her face getting red with anger.
“You will pay it or you will be hearing from my lawyers. My lawyer
is confident that I will win this one.” I almost feel bad for her
that she thinks this is legit, and that I can be scared into paying
it.

“I’d rather pay ten million dollars in legal
fees than give YOU one cent of MY money!” I shout powerfully, Luke
back at my side with the letter. I yank it from his hand and rip it
in two, and then again, and again, till there is nothing but tiny
pieces. “That is what I think of that!” I yell throwing the shreds
of paper in her face. “Now get the hell off my property!” I take a
step closer to her so that we are less than a foot apart.

“You WILL be hearing from my lawyers,” she
sneers back not moving, but I can see her looking at something out
of the corner of her eye that makes her take a step back toward her
car. I look in the direction of her sudden fear and see Sam and the
dogs are coming around the house. Gus, the bigger of the two, is on
high alert. The hair on his back is standing up, while Oscar looks
like he is a bit calmer.

“Oh, Sam, come over here so our unwanted
guest Adeline can meet the dogs,” I say wickedly seeing that
Adeline is scared to death. Sam says something in German to Oscar
so that just like his brother he stands on high alert, and they are
very intimidating as they walk our way.

“I’m leaving, but this isn’t over!” Adeline
squeals as she gets back in her car fearfully. She revs the engine
and takes off in a lurch as she speeds down the lane. Jacob quickly
gets up and punches in the code for the gates for fear that she
will try to drive right through them.

“Lockern!” Sam commands the dogs and the
both sit and start panting. They look like they have an
accomplished expression on their faces as if they are smiling.

“Good puppies,” I say and I want so badly to
sit on the ground and start petting them, but Sam gives me a look
that tells me I can’t.

“They’re working!” Luke warns next to me and
I look up at him irritated.

“I know, I know. They need something special
for that though, did you see her face?” I am so impressed at what
they just did.

“I must admit, I’ve never seen Adeline move
that fast,” Jimmy says ecstatically as we make our way over to the
front step. “That was so cool Lilly. I’ve never seen anyone talk to
her like that. There’s nothing she can do about it. She has to be
spitting nails and I am sure her first stop will be my mother’s
house. That will be a really fun phone call I am going to receive
shortly.” He shakes his head and I can’t decide if he is looking
forward to it or is scared of it.

“Sorry about that,” I apologize to Jimmy. “I
don’t care if you want to save face with your mom, you can call me
bad names.” I offer to him. I’m sure pacifying Lindsey is a lot
easier than having her wrath.

“Nah, I’ll just ignore the call for now,”
Jimmy smirks.

“Chicken,” Luke teases his friend.

“Damn straight, telling my mother off is
easier said than done,” Jimmy admits coyly.

“Jacob, are you done with Lucy? I would like
her back now if I can,” I say trying to change the subject.

“Actually, no I’m not,” he says looking at
Lucy then back at me. “Lucy tells me that the computer you just
bought is sophisticated enough to try and find who’s hacking into
our video feeds”.

“I think with Jacob’s network, and that
computer, I can narrow down the IP address that it is coming from,”
Lucy explains and her words are as foreign as the German Sam speaks
to the dogs.

“Okay. So that means what I actually hired
her for is put on hold?” I question honestly since I have no idea
what they are talking about.

“So there is someone trying to access the
video?” Luke asks concerned, he stands behind me his hands on my
shoulders.

“I am not a hundred percent sure, but with
the interference they are getting, it would seem so. I’ll know more
once I hook into their grid,” Lucy answers Luke.

“So your other project is just going to have
to wait. This is more important,” Jacob says firmly, as if I have
no say in the matter.

I shrug my shoulders indicating to them that
they can do what they want. Jacob and Lucy head into the house and
I hear Lucy talking more mumbo jumbo computer stuff as they
disappear.

I turn around to face Luke and he has white
dust all over his face. He’s still handsome as ever as he looks
down at me with his wicked grin that always makes by insides
burn.

“So how is it going in the master?” I ask as
I brush the white dust off his cheeks.

“Messy,” Luke chuckles.

“Turns out we are good at destroying
things,” Jimmy chimes in still on the step as he joins in on the
conversation.

“I think we are done for the day. I’m going
to hop in the shower before supper,” Luke announces to Jimmy, who
seems more than fine with being done with the work for the day.
Luke leans down and kisses my lips softly and starts to walk into
the house after Jimmy. I’m still standing on the front steps when
Luke stops at the doorway. “I would feel much better if you would
come in the house also,” Luke says gently trying not to upset
me.

I don’t argue, but follow him in the house
and head for the family room.

Chapter 37

I sit on the oversized chair and I grab the
journal we brought home from Cypress Grove. I cross my legs
underneath me and lay the book on my lap. Incantations and Spells,
I read the front of the book again slowly running my hand over the
bound leather journal. Opening it, I pick up the picture and start
to study it in the better light. I can see now that the woman and
the girl are standing in front of the wishing well that we found in
the backyard of the James house. I am sure this must be Celia
Bellevue James. Is the little girl my mother? I stare into the eyes
of the little girl in the picture and there is almost something
familiar about her. Not good familiar, in fact the little girl
gives me an uneasy feeling. Not at all like Celia. She has a much
warmer smile and kind eyes.