Page 92 of Grave Curse

“I’m insulted.” Loki’s giant hand came down on the back of the older man’s neck and squeezed. “Can I show this deadbeat shit stain just how insulted I am?”

I pondered Ginger’s dad. “It might have to come to that, but I’m trying to be reasonable here. After all, he is Ginger’s biological father. Oh, yes,” I added when McSwain gasped as if he suddenly had a hot poker shoved up his ass. “We know your daughter. She wants what’s owed to her, which is half a million bucks in back child support, something she’s legally entitled to, even at her age. But she doesn’t want to jump through all the legal hoops because, well, you’re an asshole. And assholes like you drag shit out and make everything even more painful than it already is, rather than quietly fulfilling your parental responsibility to your only child. So we came up with this solution. What do we think of this solution, boys?”

“Quick and efficient,” Romeo said. “Like tearing off a band-aid.”

“Is it time to break a leg yet?” Loki asked.

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. “So there it is, Brody. The reason we’re here. Are you going to be a good boy and cough up everything you owe?”

Sweat glistened on McSwain’s brow. “I d-don’t have that kind of money.”

“Yeah, you do,” Romeo scowled, crossing his arms. “You don’t think we came here without doing our homework on you, do you? Jesus, now I’m insulted.”

“He’s good at insulting us,” Loki muttered.

“You have three active bank accounts, Brody—a checking account, a savings account and an account for household emergencies. You also have a 401K that looks very robust, and you have this house, which would more than cover the debt right up front. So, yeah. You’ve got the money. Pay up.”

“But… just paying in one lump sum will bankrupt me. I’ll have nothing left.”

“Not our problem.” Again Loki bumped him with his chest. “Pay up. Or suffer.”

“Or leave.” I smiled at McSwain as his frantic gaze jerked back to me. “Our friend would be fine with those three options, Brody. Either pay up now, suffer the consequences of not paying up now, or leave Chicago forever.”

McSwain goggled at me. “Leave?”

“Forever,” Loki hissed in his ear.

“Would he have to pay anything if he chooses to leave?” Romeo asked, raising his brows innocently.

“Why, not at all, Romeo. See, our friend Ginger has decided that Chicago just isn’t big enough for the both of you,” I went on, looking back to McSwain. “So on her behalf, we’re going to either sink you financially, or throw you out physically. Or just break all your motherfucking bones and leave you for dead. Decide.”

“Decide,” Loki echoed in his death whisper. Clearly he was having the time of his life.

Nervously McSwain licked his dry lips. “It… it would take some time for me to move—”

“No it wouldn’t, Brody. It’s actually very easy. Just pack your shit and go. I don’t care where. Just get the fuck out of Chicago. You have three days.”

“Three days?”

“And if you’re not gone by then, bitch,” Loki shriek-whispered, while out of the corner of my eye I saw Romeo stifle a laugh, “we’ll burn all your shit to the fuckin’ ground. Maybe I’ll bring marshmallows and have myself a fuckin’ weenie roast.”

I bit my tongue to keep from reminding him that weenies were what people brought to a weenie roast, because there was no point. He was rolling now, and nothing was going to stop him. “It’d be a crying shame to burn down such a beautiful house, Brody. A real waste.” I frowned as a mental light suddenly went on, and I looked around the open, airy kitchen with all the latest bells and whistles already installed.Hm. “Say, how many bedrooms does this place have, anyway?”

At that, Loki snapped his head around to look at me, before he busted out laughing.

*

Ginger

“And from the master bedroom on the main floor, we connect to what I think must’ve been an office but will now be the nursery. So in total, we’ve got the four bedrooms and two bathrooms upstairs, the master and nursery down here, plus another couple bathrooms on this floor, and a huge walkout unfinished basement that Tyr’s claimed as his personal space, so he can turn it into a gym and a home office. Oh, and we’re going to keep the small bathroom that’s already down there nextto the laundry room.” I led my girl posse of Roxie, Mabel, Shiloh with her one-month-old son Zachary strapped to her in a soft-material baby sling, Misty, whose baby bump was now apparent, and Alice, Loki’s raven-haired, totally kickass wife, who held her eighteen-month-old daughter, Catherine. Catherine had her mother’s Black Irish coloring, with the raven hair and porcelain-white skin, but like all Colgraves, her black-fringed tiger eyes seemed to glow from within.

Someday, Catherine Colgrave was going to be a freaking force of nature.

“It’s so convenient to have the nursery close by.” Absently Shiloh rubbed a hand over her snoozing son’s back. “Romeo brought the bassinet into our bedroom when we first brought Zach home, but once the new-baby jitters wore off, he put everything back in the nursery next door. He’s definite when it comes to teaching our kids about boundaries and how to be independent.”

“I don’t think any Gravedigger man is going to raise a Mama’s boy.” Misty peeked at little Zach all snug in his sling.

“What about Tyr?” Roxie asked, looking around the mostly empty rooms, no doubt already decorating them in her mind. “What’s his philosophy when it comes to raising kids?”

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