Page 5 of Trevor

“Calm down.”He nodded and asked him what he was supposed to do.“Nothing.If you’d like, I can talk to them for you.You look like you’ve had the best Christmas, birthday, and any other holiday all rolled into one.I’ll help you out with this.But you have to have Christmas here for the family.This place just screams family get-togethers for any reason.”

When the couple came back, asking them if they had any more questions, it was when he asked the price.It was much bigger than he thought but he swore to himself it wasn’t because he was a Strong.He wanted to tell them that he’d pay any price so long as he could have it.

It was Jenson that made the offer.He wanted to smack him around, telling him that he wanted the house bad enough to pay the asking price, but he seemed to know what he was doing.He was going to murder his brother or at least do him bodily harm if he lost this house.Leaning back on the couch he’d been sitting on.He closed his mind off to the conversation and thought about the investments he’d made just this morning on a large business that was going to bring several hundred jobs to the area.Not to mention, they were going to use local to build the plant.It wasn’t until his brother poked him that he let go of his thoughts.

“We’re leaving.”He nodded at his brother, standing up when he did.“I’ve helped you out by making an offer on the house, and they want to see what this couple wants to do.I’d say that you’re in for some bidding wars because they want to make it their family home, and it’s just you.Not that that should matter, but I just have a feeling.”

“Did you make an offer?”He said that he’d said he’d pay the asking price.“Good.This is a great house, don’t you think?”

“I do.You zoned out there for a moment, and I told them that you were looking to expand jobs in the area and that you were thinking of what needed to be done to make it happen.It was sort of embarrassing when I think about it.What the hell were you thinking about?”He told him it was just what he’d said.“Oh.You have someone that wants to start up a business around here?That’s awesome, little brother.I’m proud of you.”

They were nearly to the car when the other couple came out of the house.Once they were gone, taking their time in getting the car started, he was both excited and nervous when the home owners came out to the car.They told them that the couple thought that the house was a little too big for them.Jenson said that the offer still stood if they wanted to think about it.They left soon after that.

He only then just realized that he’d only looked at the main level of the house and the yard and was sold on it.Trevor decided to ask his brother about the house.Since Jenson was driving now, he simply handed him a sheath of papers about the house.

“Eight bedrooms?It didn’t look that big for that amount of bedrooms.”He explained that there were two bedrooms over the garage that also had a dinette set as well as a bath and living room.“That’s kinda nice.I could have someone over if I wanted.”

“You want the house then?”He said that he did and thought that the house was perfect the way that it sat.“I have to agree with you there.It also has a new furnace and air conditioner.The kitchen has been updated in the last year.There aren’t any carpets in the place.That is something that Jade wanted in our new home, too.I like the hardwood floors and the way they feel when you walk around on them.”

“What else can you tell me?”Jenson told him that the house had hardwood floors throughout.That, as he’d said, the furnace and the air conditioner had been replaced, the roof was new, and that the garage, while a new addition, had been made in the way of the house so that it blended in well.There were also fifty acres to the house that was used by the local farmers as an added income.“When did they say they’d get back to us?I’m assuming that you gave them your card.”

“I put your number on the back so that they can call you directly.”He thanked his brother.“Youowe me dinner.And if you get the house, you’re going to babysit for Jade and me so we can have a nice dinner.”

“Deal.Don’t be surprised if your son loves me more than you guys when you get back.”His brother told him that he thought that he could handle that.“You say that now, but you don’t know what I have planned for the two of us when he comes over.”

~*~

Debra was asked once again to come to the living room.She hated that room most of all.People were so nice and happy there and all she wanted to do was just be left alone so that she could think.And plan.They were even making that hard for her.Thinking and planning were what she did best.

Sitting on the couch as far away from the little shitter—their baby, she hated it when it would come up to the couch and make its way to her.It wasn’t walking yet, but it did annoy her to the point that she wanted to go and get a butcher knife and cut off his head.The little monster would suck on his hands then touch her—Christ oh mighty, it would touch her with its grubby little hands.

“Does someone your age trick or treat?”She asked what that was, knowing full well what it was and how it was supposed to end.She wanted to have to sacrifice something to the gods worse than she wanted these people to leave her alone.“If you want to, you can dress up in a way that would keep you from being recognized while out getting candy.”

Jenson was an idiot, but Jade wasn’t.Neither was Jenson, now that she thought about it.He was just a sap, what his brothers called him.Jade was sharp, and the way that she stared at her all the time, never leaving her alone in the house, especially around the baby, had her thinking that she could get into her head.She watched her like Mrs.J did toward the end of her life.

Her planning could only get her so far in what she wanted out of life.It was simple, really, her plan but not being able to get out and get it done, now that was a different matter altogether.She looked at Jade when she said her name.That was another thing that she wanted to get away from and that was to have people stop staring at her all the time.

“I asked you if you wanted to go trick or treating.”Her voice had a tone to it, but she didn’t know what she’d missed.Telling the woman that she didn’t want to go or to dress up seemed to satisfy her.Screaming in her head, she smiled, knowing full well that it didn’t even come close to looking like a smile but more of a grimace.Whatever.They were holding her back.

“How old are you?I’ve heard two different ages.I would have thought that your guardian would have been able to tell us the true age as she raised you from infancy.”She stared at Jenson, wondering when he got so smart.Instead of answering him, Debra stood up and said she needed to go to the bathroom.“All right, Debra, if that’s your real name, we’ll pick up from there when you return.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”Jenson shrugged, but she could tell that he was ready to get something more than she wanted to share.“I’m tired.I think I’ll take—”

“The FBI is looking for you.I have a feeling that you even know what they’re looking for you for.”She sat down on the couch again and stared at him with her mouth open.“The only thing is, they don’t call you Debra Carter but Lavender.Lavender Hunt.I know that it’s you because they told me about the scar that you have on your left shoulder.It’s from when you were shot six months ago when they had you trapped, or so they thought, while you were robbing a bank.You’re very enterprising for someone who claims to be only eight years old.Not that I don’t think an eight-year-old could have some skills, I think, and this just could be me, but I think that you’re closer to the twelve-year-old that they say you are.”She laughed.It was about as forced as she could make it.

“I just don’t know what you’re talking about.I mean, the FBI?What could they want with me?”He told her.“Murder?Attempted murder too?Why, I’m just a kid.”

“Sure you are.”The front doorbell rang and she was frightened when she couldn’t go and hide.Jenson told her to have a seat still and that these people wanted to talk to her.“They have a few questions to ask you and are, for their own reasons, I guess, going to take you in.That’s who you’ve been hiding from, isn’t it?I mean, you had Mrs.J.fooled into thinking that it was some bad guys that wanted you but it’s really nothing more than the Feds as well as a few other departments with initialson their flak jackets.”

“You’ll not do this to me.”It was Jade who asked what she was going to do about it if they didn’t turn her over.“I’ll kill you all.I know how, too.”

“So do I.”The men came into the room just as Jade pulled her gun.“I’d like to say that this has been fun, but really, it’s not been.You’re a monster.And I’m glad to have you out of m—”

“Mommy, you can’t do this to me.I’m just a little girl?”It had worked before for her, whining to Mrs.J when things weren’t going her way.Mostly, it was that she needed money for something, school supplies, she told her, but really, she’d been hiding guns all over the other house just so she could never be caught like she was right now.She turned to Jenson.“Please?Daddy, I don’t want to go with them.They’ll hurt me, take me apart like I’m something of a monster, and all I wanted to do was to stay alive.”

“You’re not going to win any favors by using that tone with me.I’ve been reading over the file of Lavender Hunt for a few days now.”She stood up and reached for her gun.When she couldn’t find it, she began looking for it in the cushions of the couch.It was one of the men that their butler let in that laughed.

“Hello, Lavender.It’s been a long time in coming.”She said that she didn’t want to go and that they’d made a mistake.“As much as I’d love to tell you that we never make mistakes, I can tell you right now that we haven’t on you.Your gun is the one pointed at you.Jade and her husband have been pretty good at keeping an eye on you for us.”

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