Page 9 of Jack

“I’ve been keeping an eye on Ms. Murphy too. Now, that is a classy lady. She’s been doing a lot for this town since I became a cop here. When she figured out that someone was tailing her, she told them it was all right to be with her but they weren’t to get hurt if they could help it. I love that woman.” He said that he did as well. “We know that Taylor is in her offices this morning and have been driving by there a few times a day. She always waves at us and doesn’t fuss at us for wasting tax payer’s money. I hear you’re going to be getting married to her soon.”

“Tomorrow morning at the court house. We just want to get it done so that there aren’t any more problems with her mother. I hope that works anyway.” He told him good luck with that. “Yeah, I understand that too.”

Heading to the offices where both Henrietta and Taylor were working today, he was glad to see that they were having a snack to keep them tied over until dinner. He sat down to join them just as they were getting themselves something to drink.

~*~

Taylor watched her mother as she walked up and down in front of the Murphy Building. She didn’t enter, for which she was happy but she did gesture towards the building and flip off anyone who came in or out of the building if she happened to be near enough. Grandma had told her that she thought that her mom was in a blind rage and that it would be better to let her stew rather than to try and figure out what she was pissed off about.

“Ms. Taylor? You have a call on line two. It’s the man that you had a meeting with this morning,and he missed it.” She asked if he had said why he missed it. “No. But he is upset that he doesn’t have a check in his possession for the amount that he said you owe him.”

“I’ll take it. Also, Jack is supposed to come in today. Can you show him where my office is?” She smiled and said that she could. Picking up the phone, she realized something else. “The recording is still on about how whoever calls is being recorded, correct?”

“Yes, and I reminded Mr. Chou of it as well when he started cursing at me. A heads up, ma’am, he’s spitting mad about something.” Taking a deep breath, she smiled so that she’d at least start out on her end in a better mood. Whomever he was talking to was being fired and her heart hurt for the other woman. She might even try to find her and rehire her from the bully. When there was a lull in his berating the other woman, she spoke.

“Mr. Chou, it’s Taylor Murphy Tucker. What is it I can do for you?” She waited a few seconds until he realized that she was on the line. “We had a meeting planned for this morning and you didn’t show. That’s not the way I do business.”

“Where is my money?” She asked him what money he was talking about. “The money that you’re going to pay me so that I don’t buy you out lock stock and barrel.”

“I wasn’t aware that my business was up for sale. It didn’t hit the paper where I’d think that sort of news would be. Perhaps you could explain it to me.” He screamed that she owed him for not giving him the line of credit that he’d asked for. “I suppose you would think that with our last meeting but I remember telling you that there wasn’t any way that I was going to give you any money to expand as you have no place to work on that as of now. You were to show me the land specs as well as the builders so that we can get started on that. As it is now, I’m not inclined to give you anything. I don’t like to have my day messed up because someone didn’t feel like coming to a meeting that we’ve set up.”

“I’ve been doing business with your grannie for a long time. She never wanted to have meetings with her. She would come out to where I needed her and then set things up for me while she was here.” Taylor reminded him, not for the first time, that she wasn’t her grandmother. “No, you’re not. She knew how to run a business. And you don’t have the first clue on how to treat someone when they want to make you money.”

“Mr. Chou, I believe my grandmother told you the last time she was with you that if you didn’t pay the note on time, we would not be doing business with you. I’ve told you this as well. You borrowing twenty-three million off of us doesn’t make us any money when you are already fifty-seven million dollars in arrears. That’s not even counting the leans that we have against your company and the late charges that you owe. You’re already in debt with us for over ninety million, and you’ve not made a payment in over six months.”

“I was going to get caught up with you when you came here.” She asked him if he was planning to use the expansion money to get caught up. “Yes. That’s the way things work.”

“So you’d use the expansion money that you told me you needed so badly because your lines were too slow to get partially caught up on the money that you already owe us?” He told her again that was how things worked. “I don’t think so. If you don’t expand like you said you needed to—and I agree with you—you’re never going to get ahead of the losses that you’re experiencing now. Me putting any of my money into your business would be like throwing gas on a fire. There will be nothing left for me when all is said and done. I’m afraid—and to be honest with you, I am afraid of your business failing. I’d be losing more money than you if I were to help you out like that.”

“So you’re not going to help me out?” She told him that she didn’t think anyone would be willing to help him out with the track record that he has now. “Where is your grandmother? Now her I can talk to. She knows when things need to be put in place to handle the flow of business.”

“My grandmother turned this over to me because she didn’t want to deal with your lies anymore about your business. I’ve done some major research on you, Mr. Chou, and I’ve found out that you’ve been turned down by every bank in town. Not only that, but you’ve been playing the races and losing more than you can afford. Your wife has left you when you drained your retirement dry and left herwith nothing of the money that her parents left her. Even she thinks this is a bad idea.” He asked when she’d spoken to his wife. “Just this morning. She came to the meeting that you and I were to have this morning. She came here to convince me that doing business with you isn’t going to help at all but to make both of us lose money. And I hate to lose money.”

Her cell phone dinged, telling her that things were set up on the other end. Smiling, feeling good about the next steps that were going to befall Mr. Chou, she leaned back in her chair just as Jack came into her office with her grandmother.

“As of this moment, Mr. Chou, the police are there to take your building away from you for nonpayment. The IRS is there because you’ve not paid your taxes in the last fifteen years as well as the land and property taxes on your personal property.” He called her a cunt. “That’s not all that nice, you know. Good luck in the future with your business, Mr. Chou. It looks like I’m going to be getting some, if not all, of my money back sooner than I thought.”

“You’ve had him arrested then?” Taylor told her grandmother that his wife had brought in all the paperwork that she’d had at home about her husband and told her that he needed to have prison time. “That man could talk a big game, but he never had anything to back it up. That’s why I gave it over to you. I knew you’d not waste any time with his ass. Stupid man. Who did he think that he was dealing with?”

“Stupid women. His wife, now, if she’d come in for a loan, I would have given it to her. Perhaps not, but I would have thought it over a great deal.” Her cell phone rang, and she turned it off. “Speaking of stupid people. That was Mother. She’s been calling me about fourteen times a day now and leaving messages nastier than the last one.”

“She is going on about us not having any children and that she’s going to be at our home to make sure that you take your birth control every day. I didn’t tell her that it wouldn’t do any good. If you’re in heat or ovulating, nothing can stop me from impregnating you.” He explained how that would work. “I’m not saying that we start on children right away, but would you like a couple dozen?”

They all started laughing, and Taylor hugged him to her. She was so in love with this man that there were times when she thought someone should pinch her to make it all seem nothing like a dream. After going over the next day’s schedule, they headed to her grandmother’s home for dinner. She was going to have to talk to her grandmother about having Jack stay with them, him sleeping with her, but she’d not gotten around to it.

“I’ve been thinking. You should both move into this place on a permanent basis. It’s not like there isn’t enough room and I’d so love to have you both here all the time. When Jack leaves, it’s like a part of my heart goes with him.” Taylor looked at Jack and asked him if he’d like to stay there. “Oh, do say you will. I was also thinking that it might be a bit safer for the three of us if we were to stick together. There is no telling what that woman would do if she caught us unawares. My goodness, I just don’t know what’s come over her.”

“She’s realizing that her daughter is pulling away from her.” When Parker popped into the room, he stood up. After introductions were made, he then explained that he’d gotten in touch with her about the magic that was in the family. “You were right in assuming that Jack healed your cancer. I’m here to offer you immortality as well. Jack and Taylor already have it, thanks to them being mates.”

“Immortality? Is there such a—never mind you’d not say it if it wasn’t true. I don’t know what that means for someone as old as I am. Will I suddenly become younger? No, that’s not right.” Grandma looked at her and winked. “What would you say about having this old woman around all the time? I’ll assure you that I’ll not be in your bedroom in the morning to make sure that you’re not popping the wrong sort of drugs.”

“You’re a hoot. It would be a pleasure to have you around a bit more. But no, you won’t be younger, but you will benefit from the magic that will come with it. You won’t die, nor will you have the aches and pains of someone your age either.” Parker took her grandmother’s hands into hers. “You’re completely cancer-free, and it won’t be anything that comes around anymore, either. You can still get hurt, but you’ll heal a great deal faster. No colds, either. You’re going to be healthy as a personhalf your age.”

“And what happens if I decide that I no longer want to be around? Is that something—I’m not saying that I’m going to do that, but will I be able to die should I want to? I’ve been around for a good long time, Parker, and I might just be sick of living with the world.” Parker told her that she could take it away with just a snap of the fingers. “That will kill me?”

“No, you’ll age a bit, not quickly, but your age, whatever it might be, will catch up to you. You’ll more than likely die with your family surrounding you, and that would be nice, wouldn’t it?” Nodding, Taylor felt her own eyes fill with tears about what was being said to her grandmother. “However I would like to suggest with the things that are going around right now with Gilda, you might well need the extra bit of magic, at least until she’s gone.”

“You know she’s going to cause trouble then?” Parker said that she was too off her noodle not to be able to cause a great deal of trouble. “I worry about what I could have done when my grandson was around. He tried to tell me what she was like, and I didn’t listen.”

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