Page 16 of Marshall

“I’m sorry, honey.”She waved him off and said that she’d gone peacefully, and that was all that she could have hoped for.“I believe that she was happy in her final days as well.Living here with us, she certainly seemed like she was.”

“She was.When I spoke to her that night, after dinner, she told me that she was as happy as she’d been before when she’d first met her husband.Grandda wasn’t the best of men, and I think that she was relieved that he died so young.Sad but true.”He agreed with her and cut up the pancake that Tad was shoving into his mouth.He had a sippy cup, too, and he had to laugh that it was covered in faeries.

After breakfast with the kids, the two of them helping with the major cleanup of Tad’s food all over the floor, the four of them made their way to the living room.He’d not thought of how much the little people could do for them, so when the furniture arrived along with some clothing for the kids—thankful once again for them having tags on the things that they had on, their rooms were set up for them and Tad was quietly playing with some of the things that had come on the delivery truck.

The two of them enjoyed having the kids there.Of course, it was only the first day but he found that he didn’t mind.Their adoption paperwork had been filed, and no one was the wiser that they actually belonged to the woman in the morgue.

Her name and not her mates were added to the pack.Even though it had been addedposthumously, she was a member of their pack.The pack, too, had been great about allowing her to be buried on pack land.There was no one to contact, they’d been told, so there would be no dispute about who the children should have gone to.He loved it when something went well.In his experience, things rarely went the way that you’d hoped.

~*~

She hadn’t been caring all that much for her retirement.So, being as bored as she was, Meggie decided that she was going to wait tables.She didn’t know which was worse.Waiting tables or front-line combat.And she was leaning towards combat as being the better of the two.

“Hey there, girly.”She smiled at Mr.Habersham.He was who she worked for at the pizza place.“Come and sit with me a bit.I have to talk to you about something important.”

“All right.I wanted to talk to you, too.I don’t know that I’m cut out with working in the public.”He laughed.And when he slapped his knee for the second time with his good humor, she smiled at him again.“I take it that’s what you wanted to talk to me about.”

“It is, it is.You waiting tables had a few of the men…well, let’s just say the way you handled those kids the other night is really good for them but also not so good for business.What did you say to that Murphy boy anyway.”She told him.Of course, that had him laughing again.She had a feeling that Mr.Habersham was always a good-humored man.“Well, now, that’s a different kettle of pepperoni.Isn’t it?”

“He was badmouthing his so-called girlfriend.Telling the kids with him that he was getting laid every night.I knew he was a virgin and knew that he was blowing smoke up their asses, as you’re so fond of saying.Not wanting to embarrass him about his nonexistent sex life, I told him that saying those things about the sweetest girl that I knew was going to get him into big trouble when she heard about it.”

“I heard tell that he didn’t expect you to call her up.My goodness, she was spitting mad when she came here to confront him.Goodness gracious, that was fun.”She asked him if he was firing her.“Something like that, I guess.You don’t need the money and there are some kids out there that this is their first job.I think you’d be more suited to recruiting rather than putting little boys in their place.I do believe that I’ve not had as much fun as I have in a good long while.You’ve only been working here a week and I’ve been entertained daily with the goings on.”

“I’m sorry about that.”He told her not to get so worked up yet.“It’s all right, Mr.Habersham.I should have thought of other kids needing a job.”

“I want you to sit right still with me for a minute.It’s about all it will take for you to realize that your being here is a good thing, too.Just now working like you have been.”Mary Carter came into the restaurant and made her way to the back to get her uniform.She didn’t notice anything different, but the elderly man told her to wait.

That’s when she noticed it.

Mary was being beaten.She could tell the way she walked, the way she winced when she had to bend over.Everything about her seemed to scream pain.Just as she was going to go up and help her, a man came in.He smelled the same as Mary did.But no blood on him.Once he was seated, Mary rushed over to him, right in the middle of taking an order for another couple, and asked him what he wanted.

“Large pie.And you know what else I want.Get to it.”Mr.Habersham said that she was using her break deal for him and that whatever else he got, she’d be taking it out of her tips.

“She ain’t entitled to a large anything.Just a personal pizza for herself.But he gets a large and she ends up paying for it.I’ve been putting it back, the money that she gives me, and it’s purt’near a hundred dollars.Not enough to run on but enough that she can get her a meal or two while running.”She asked him if she was to help her out with that.“Well, now, I won’t be telling you what to do.But it sure would make me sleep better at night to know that she’s got herself a new start and all.”

“Does this happen a great deal?Women working for you that need to run.”He said he was the only place in town for women like her to be able to work while their other half, whatever they were can keep an eye on them.“I see.”

And she did, too.Every time that Mary’s husband snapped his fingers, she dropped whatever she was doing, even delivering food to a table to do his bidding.Meggie could tell that people were upset over the way she did things, but not one of them asked her why.

“I’ll do that.Do you think this will be an ongoing thing?I don’t want to have to draw my gun on a couple of shits to get her safe.”He told her that was the only one he had at the moment, and he would know about it, and that he’d help her out as much as he could.“I’ll need a key to the back door.Also, do you have someone to fill in for her that can come in?”

Almost as if she knew that she was needed, Betsy Crock came into the place with her uniform on.She also ignored Mary’s boyfriend when he told her that he needed a refill on his beverage.

He handed her a set of keys, telling her where they went, and then he slipped her an envelope.It was filled with the cash he’d been saving as well as another set of keys he told her that was to his old beater that was out back.

“I only got the one car, so you’ll have to figure that out soon, Honey.If I were you, I’d call on those other women to get her out of here, too.She’s going to have a baby, and I don’t want her getting beat up so that she loses it.”She asked him how long he’d been planning this.“For a few weeks.I like the fact that you didn’t have too many questions and just agreed to do it.You are, aren’t you, honey?”

“I am, and you knew that too.But I won’t need your beater.I’m not saying that I won’t need it in the future, but I don’t need it today.I’m going to have her taken away and with enough money to start fresh like you suggested.”She told him that she was going to the back room, and for whatever reason, she wasn’t the least bit surprised to see Robin there waiting for her.“You know what’s going on?”

“Nope.Do you?”Meggie told her that they were going to get women out of sticky places.“I’m all for that.I was a prisoner for decades with no help.I want to be your forever partner in this.”

The plan was that when she came back to the back room, Robin was going to make herself resemble Mary.Meggie was going to take Mary out the back door and get her away that way.Robin, a vampire of considerable age like Hamish was going to be able to take care that the man didn’t know anything for a bit so that Mary would have a head start on leaving.

As soon as she was back in the kitchen area, Meggie told Mary that she was leaving and she only nodded.The relief on her face was enough to spur her on to do this a good deal more.It was sad, too, that something like this had to be done.

Giving her a credit card, one that had her name on it from magic, Meggie told her that it had two grand on it.That she was to never come back here and to live out her life.

“I can’t thank you enough for this help.”She told her she could thank her by helping someone else who was in trouble.As soon as they were outside, Warren, Robin’s mate, introduced himself and told her that he was going to take her someplace.“What about Henry?He’ll not give up on looking for me.”

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