Page 6 of Daniel Watson

Chapter 2

Beatrice didn’t care for the things that had been set up for them when they arrived. First and foremost, the family hadn’t sent a private jet for them when she knew that they had one. Then there was the fact that their tickets weren’t first class. Who would do that to people they invited to their home. Even bullying the man and woman that had been in the seats hadn’t gotten her anywhere near the first seats. He’d paid for them, he told her. Like that made a big difference to her.

July, of course, was being a total sap and not wanting her to make a scene. Of course, she had to explain to her, once again, that saps finished last, and if you didn’t make your mark in the world, then no one was going to take you seriously. It was a lesson that she’d been taught by her late husband, bless his soul.

The house was much nicer than she thought that it should have been. They were bragging she worked out in her head and that bothered her to no end. Trying to outshine her would get them nowhere quickly. Stupid people. Even though they were all dressed in jeans—she hated that kind of lowlife style, they looked expensive. Like they’d just come from some kind of beauty salon to make them look so special. But they were going to see that she wasn’t easy to impress or fool. So when she was offered a seat, she turned her nose up at the man.

“Where is the boy? The one that everyone is expecting me to raise as my own.” No one said anything to her but a kid did stand up. The child looked just like his mother. “You’re scrawny, aren’t you? And you don’t look the least bit like my sister. Probably because she had some kind of sexual fling, and you’re the result. I wouldn’t put it past her. Olivia was never worth the spit that made her. Now she has a bunch of curs that she’s expecting me to raise.”

The girls stood up, but they didn’t say a word. It was the man that spoke and his words sparked a fire in her that she actually was excited about. But no one told her to mind her words, and got away with it. Drawing back her hand to hit him, he pulled a gun from his back and put it down at his side, like he was testing her or something. Again, the excitement was there. Beatrice wasn’t the least bit afraid of him shooting her. It was him thinking that he could, to her of all people, that pissed her off.

“Didn’t anyone ever tell you that you don’t draw a gun or your pecker unless you plan on using it?” He pulled the gun up enough to put his second hand on it. However, before she could comment on him being a pussy, he racked the slide and then put it at her forehead this time. “What do you plan on doing? Killing me? Not fucking likely.”

“We need to calm down.” She’d not heard anyone else come into the room and turned to look at the newcomer who was interrupting her playtime. “My name is Caleb Anderson. This is my wife, Tabby. What do you mean by coming here and making accusations like that to Olivia’s children? Not to mention your own sister. None, that’s what. You’ll sit down and shut up, or I’ll have you on the next plane out of here. You’re here because of my generosity and I have no trouble whatsoever in doing what is necessary to make sure you never see the kids again.”

“Were you under the assumption that I wanted to see them anyway? I was summoned here because my sister died. If that wasn’t bad enough, you didn’t send me first-class tickets like you should have. Nor a plane like I asked for to get me here in time to be at her funeral. Christ, what a shitshow this has been. Now you expect me to, no doubt, take these kids with me so that they have a mother figure too—do I look stupid to you? I’m not.” One of the girls asked why she’d made the trip here if she didn’t want to take them home with her. “I’ll take him in. I’m sure that there is some money around that can be used to keep him in clothing and shit. And I could use a good worker to clean up after myself and my own child. My sister might have been an idiot, but she knew how to take care of her children. How much is the policy for that I’m getting? I’m sure that it’s for a goodly amount.” The girls laughed. Beatrice wanted to slap the lot of them, but the gun was still out—not pointed at her any longer, but close enough that he’d use it on her if she tried to hurt them.

“She left it to Luke to be able to use when she passed away. No one can touch it but him when he’s twenty-one.” The girl laughed. “I guess it sucks to be you, don’t you think? We’ll have jobs, of course, and keep him in clothing like we are now. I couldn’t care less if you took him or not. I’ll raise him on my own if you don’t. I believe we’d all like that better anyway.”

Beatrice wanted to slap that smug look off her face so badly that her jaws hurt she was grinding her teeth so hard. When the man finally stepped back but did not put his gun away, she nearly moved to do it. However, the girl moved out of the room. That was when she smelled the food that was cooking. She’d refused to eat the food on the plane, not that any had been offered and now she was expected to eat with all of them.

Dinner wasn’t the quiet affair that she wanted. They all spoke over each other, laughing and having a good time while she was seething about it all. They had obviously never heard the saying that children should never be heard when seen. Or something like that.

When a bowl of what she thought was mashed potatoes was passed to her, she told the man, she’d never caught his name, so she called him Gunner, asked her if she wanted some.

“Well?” He shoved the bowl at her then, and she had no choice but to take it. “You bastard. I’m used to being served my meals, not someone shoving food at me and expecting me to shovel food onto my own plate. Just give me some and move on.”

“Fine.” Instead of serving her, he passed the bowl around her to the person on her other side. Which happened to be Caleb something. She was so pissed that she could feel her blood pressure rising up, and when the kid laughed, she aimed all her anger at him.

“You’d better be enjoying yourself now, young man. When I get you home, you’re going to learn your place and it will not be eating with the good people that I know, including myself. Why, as much as I’ve seen of you already, you’ll be better off eating in the yard with the dogs. You’re an ill-mannered little shit, and if I have to beat you, you’re going to learn how to behave yourself.” Jerking the next food that was being passed around, she ended up having green beans spilled on her new dress. Before she could think about what she was doing, she slapped Gunner in the face, flipping him backwards in his chair.

She was satisfied for all of a minute when Tabby came up from her chair and punched her in the face. Even as she was flying backward, Beatrice knew that she might well have bitten off more than she could chew with that woman. She was meaner and quicker than she was.

Waking up, Beatrice knew that she was in a hospital. Yelling for someone to come to her, her head felt like it was going to explode right off her shoulders. When July entered the little room she was in, she asked her what had happened.

“You mean the part where you ended up in here, Momma? Well, you hit Doctor Watson, and when he fell backwards, Ms. Anderson hit you. She hit you hard enough that you hit your head twice on the floor. You have a concussion as well as fifteen stitches in the back of your head from the floor.” She said that she was suing. “They all thought you might say that, Momma, but since you hit first, the police are saying it was justified for you to be hit back. Also, Doctor Watson is pressing—”

“Wait a minute. Who the hell is Doctor Watson? And what the hell does he have to do with anything?” July explained to her that he was the man whose house they’d been in and the man that she’d hit. “You mean Gunner? He owns that house? I won’t believe that. Not even if there was proof. I’m supposing that he could afford something like that, being a doctor, but what I want to find out is what he’s doing with my nieces there? Huh? Do you know that?”

July shrugged, something that she knew that she hated, but her head was splitting right now, and she couldn’t think beyond getting out of there. Asking her daughter to go and get her some medications for her head, she showed her the button she needed to push. Pissed off more than she’d been in a long time, she felt her head pound all the harder and her belly churn up like it did when she drank some milk.

The alarm on something was going off over her shoulder, but she suddenly couldn’t turn to scream at someone to turn it off. It was all she could do not to puke all over herself. But that happened, too, as she couldn’t stop herself from being sick.

Two nurses rushed into the room and started telling her that she needed to calm down before she had a heart attack. They were standing too close to her, leaning over her and talking to her like she was an errant child. Her head popped, and just like that, Beatrice felt it pop behind her eyes and couldn’t see for several seconds. The first nurse told her she had to remain calm.

“I’ve had plenty of heart attacks, and it’s not done one thing to me. Back off. I know what it is that I have to do.” She wasn’t in the mood to do her breathing right then and was shocked to feel a pinch at her arm and the sudden rush of lightheadedness wash over her. “What have you done to me? Damn it.”

Waking up the next time, she knew that something had happened. Not only was she in a room now but there were all kinds of machines all around her. Reaching up to jerk the nose cannula out of her nose, she felt the straps that were holding her down. Damn it all to fuck and back, what the hell were they—

“You’ve had a heart attack.” Turning her head was difficult, but she finally made it work for her. She’d never been this exhausted before just moving around, but she looked at the girl sitting in the chair next to the bed. “I’m Serenity, Mother’s oldest and not Burts child. I’m not going to bother with telling you what everyone calls me. You’ll just call me what you want anyway. I remember you now. You’ve not changed a bit since I was a little girl. Have you? But you’ve had a heart attack. It did some damage, but not a great deal. But you’ll have to be careful from now on that you don’t get stressed. Also, take your medications. I’m assuming you think that you’re above such things.”

She couldn’t speak, she discovered, and that had her trying to reach her mouth again. Jerking on the straps that weren’t just on her arms but her legs too, Serenity smiled at her and told her that she was cuffed to the bed because she kept pulling out the things that were keeping her alive. Beatrice knew that she was above such things as medication.

“As I’ve said, you had a heart attack. Your left side is weaker than your right because you’re partially paralyzed. By that, I mean that you will have to be in a wheelchair as well as someone to care for you while you undergo exercises that will at least bring yourself up to functioning.” She laughed. “However, I can guess that you’re not going to do anything of the sort and will still be a bitch when you are in a nursing home. That’s entirely up to you, I suppose. Your daughter has gone home to rest. Not that you care about her all that much either, do you?”

“No.” Her mouth felt heavy like she wasn’t able to speak properly. When Serenity wiped her mouth, she was embarrassed to see that she’d been drooling. Christ, she was going to be impaired from this to the point that she was going to have to do just what the younger woman had told her. Telling her no again, the girl just laughed.

“No? Well, I guess that was expected as well. You won’t get better unless you make yourself do what you’re told. I actually hope that you don’t. I’ve never liked you since I was a little girl, and you slapped me when I asked my mom for a glass of milk. Yes, I remember you very well. Plus, knowing that you’re going to be in a nursing home thrills me to no end. Also, and this is the best news ever, you aren’t going to be taking my little brother anywhere. We’ll raise him ourselves.” She couldn’t make herself tell the bitch that she wasn’t going to be doing any such thing because her mouth and face wouldn’t work the way that she wanted it to.

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