Page 8 of Demitrius

“I don’t want to die either.” Getting on the bed with him, she wrapped her arms around him and told him everything that they’d been doing to keep them safe. “So you see, we’re taking this veryseriously, and you should too. I don’t know Georgie, do you?”

“She came around a few times when momma was alive. She locked us up in the closet and beat on momma, too. Something about welfare money. Momma didn’t have it on account of Dad taking it already. He was forever making it so that we didn’t have any food at the end of the month. She’d have fixings and stuff, she said to us, but nothing like milk and eggs. I tried not to eat so much of them, but momma told me that she’d get us what we needed, some way. I don’t know how she did it, but we’d have milk and eggs then. Do you suppose she was stealing them?”

“She’d call me, and I’d send her some money. She might well have stolen them for you boys had I not been able to send her something.” She thought of how many times she’d had to help her sister get through the month. “Your mom could stretch a dollar out until it screamed is what our daddy said about her. She was a good mom.”

“She was the best.” She held him for a bit longer before Martin came into the room, too. He, too, got up on the bed and snuggled with them. It had become a habit, the three of them snuggling nightly. Mandy thought it was to have a good night’s sleep, but she needed it as much as they did. Oh, how she loved these little boys.

They’d been living with Demi for the past two days now. It was quiet here, and there were no neighboring kids in the yard. Teddy and Martin would play in the back, but she knew they were nervous about it. After having her number changed on her cell phone, she didn’t get any more calls either. The peace and quiet of the phone was the best. After getting the boys up and going, she went to the kitchen to figure out what to have for dinner. She was almost too nervous to cook in Demi’s kitchen as he’d gone back to work today in his own restaurant.

“He’s going to bring stuff home.” She asked Martin how he knew that. “He left you and us a note. Here you go.” The note was crumbled and faded, like it had gotten wet at some point.

“Next time, just leave it on the table for me to read, all right?” The grin they gave her made her heart swell up. “What else do you know about our eating arrangements? Is he going to bring home enough for us all to eat, or just him?”

“All of us. He said he’s going to make it so that our taste buds have a good education. I don’t know about all that. I think my buds are just fine.” Teddy laughed with his brother. “Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you too that Ms. Jack is going to come by and see you sometime tomorrow. She came to see us when we were in the back yard. We didn’t do anything wrong, she just wants to see you for a little bit. Jack’s not a girl’s name, is it, Aunt Mandy?”

“Her name is Jacklynn. Someone at some point shortened it for her. Shipley, in the event you were going to ask, is Candance. But since she’s been in the service, the army for so long, that’s what she goes by.” She was distracted trying to understand what parts of the note said. Something about wine and nuts, but she didn’t get it. Thinking about calling him to figure it out, she picked up the phone and hoped she wasn’t calling at a terrible time. “You guys play in the living room so that I can call Demi to find out what this says. All right?”

They went into the living room. Really, it wasn’t much more than a room with sleeping bags and a big television. But they knew how to use the remotes and get to whatever they wanted to watch. She could get it to turn on, but nothing more. Whatever was on, that’s what she watched. Someone answered on the first ring.

“May I speak to Mr. Erickson? This is Mandy—” That was as far as she got before she was told to hold on. The next time it was picked up, it was Demi. He wanted to know if she and the boys were all right. “Yes, I just…you left a note, and since it got wet from the boys, I didn’t want to mess up something that you said to me. This isn’t a bad time, is it?”

“Not at all. I wondered if you were allergic to nuts or any kind of wine. I’m bringing dinner home with me, and thought that I’d ask first if there were any allergies that you three had.” She told him none that she was aware of, but she’d ask the kids. After getting an all-clear from them, she told Demi. “All right. I’m training a cook today. I find that after having that week off, I don’t want to be here as much as I used to be. I enjoyed hanging out with the three of you.”

She didn’t know what to think about that, so she didn’t say anything. Mandy knew he could well afford not having to work. However, what would that do for them staying with him? After getting off the phone with him, it rang again. While not sure she should answer it, she left it to go to voicemail. He was the only person she knew who had a landline that wasn’t business-related. She was surprised to hear Locke’s voice telling her to pick up.

“I’m glad that I caught you. Samuel wants to see you. I have a feeling that they’ve figured out that the phone number you have is no longer working. Also, no one in town or at the jail is going to be giving him any more information. That’s how he got your phone number, by the way, not to mention your home address.” She asked if she could count on that happening again. “No. The officers have all been told that if they tell him anything at all, they’ll be fired. And put in jail. I guess this man who had leaked the information was a friend of Samuels and didn’t think it was doing any harm in him telling him tidbits while he was giving him his meals.”

“That’s good to know, I guess. I’d rather they not have anything to do with him at all, but I don’t know what will happen with him.” She sat down at the table. “You said Samuel wants to see me. Should I go? I mean, do I trust him enough to go there and be in the same place with him? I’m terrified of him if you want the truth.”

“Shipley is going with you, if you don’t mind. She’s going to keep an eye on you and help you with questions he might have. Sometimes it’s better to have a second person there when you get overwhelmed. I know that I’ve been taking my wife places with me so that I can ask her questions about what was said. She’ll be there as your support.” Mandy asked when Shipley was ready to go. “I believe she’s on her way to see you now. Just get it over with is my motto. That way, you’re not worrying needlessly about what’s going to happen once you get there.”

“You’re right, I would worry.” She wanted to ask if Demi could take her, but arrangements had been made, and she’d go with the flow. Besides, he might not want to go with her, so it would be embarrassing for her to ask him. “The doorbell is going off now, so that’s more than likely her. One of us will get back to you once I leave. I’m nervous, but I think this is a good thing.”

Shipley and Dusty were at the front door, and she was dressed in much the same manner as she was. Jeans and a T-shirt. Pulling on her shoes, some old boots that she’d forgotten about, Dusty was going to stay with the boys. These people were making sure that she was well taken care of, even when she didn’t understand that she needed it. Going out of the front of the house, she slipped into her car just as the boys waved at her from the front porch. A good omen, she thought in ways of sending her off to see their father. Christ, she must be insane to do this, but with Shipley around, she did feel marginally better.

Chapter 4

Georgie was pissed off. The phone number she had for the bitch was disconnected. She never would have thought she’d do something like that as she’d been calling her several times a day for nearly a month. Georgie thought that the woman was stupid for even answering her calls in the first place. After about a week of it, hell, a couple of days, she would have changed out her number then.

Samuel hadn’t been able to get her new number either. His buddies at the police station weren’t giving him shit anymore. Some bigwig had put the hammer down on him getting information. They were his kids by god, why didn’t he deserve to have someone checking up on them all the time? Georgie was still about four hours away from his brother and that Mandy person. She’d better be right at the house too, or there was going to be hell to pay.

She and Samuel were twins. They weren’t identical, she had to tell people, on account of her having black hair and him having red. She was also taller than him. But other than that, she supposed she could see where people would be confused. They were forever asking them if they were identical. Stupid people.

Georgie was smarter than her brother, too. He might be meaner than her, but that is where her smarts would come in. While she might well have killed Besty—stupid name if you asked her—but she’d been better at it in not getting caught. Like she would have killed her in her bed, not out in the kitchen where anyone could see them. Then she’d run off like she’d not been home. Stuff like he’d done would get you in prison.

Samuel also had tried to kill his sons. Nah, doing that would get you hate from everyone in the prison. Killing kids was a big fat no-no as far as she knew. While not being in prison like her brother had been, she’d been in a lot of jails lots of times. That’s where she got all her information about things like her brother was in right now.

In addition to killing Besty, he’d been caught wanting to kill the kids. Then there was the witnesses too. Not just the kids, if she were to beat them enough, they’d not say a word, but the aunt had been there too. Georgie had full intentions of getting her out of the way too. Without her testimony, there wasn’t going to be anything they could hold him on. They’d have to let him go. No witness, no prison. Everyone knew that.

Of course, she didn’t know about the police and what they’d seen. But she also knew that blackmail would get them to change their mind. Money, too, but she didn’t have much of that, so she was going to have to dig deep into their lives to figure out what they’d done before becoming a model citizen. Everyone had something in their past that she could get. And if they didn’t, then she’d make things up. She wasn’t above doing anything for her brother.

Getting off the highway to get some gas and something to eat, she pulled up to the gas line and waited her turn. She loved how people would look at her truck. It was so jacked up that if she wanted to, she could run right up and over the little cars in front of her if she’d had a mind to. As it was now, she could look down on anyone in line.

Her truck was shiny black with thirty-five-inch wheels and a lift suspension system that raised the body up about four feet, making her a god to the driving world. There were flood lights along the top of the front window, a special light in the roof that turned when she needed it to.

Gunning her engine a little, she was happy to see a couple in their tiny little car get finished up faster and on their way. Pulling to the fueling station, Georgie pulled out her little ladder and made her way down the steps. Yes, sir, she thought, she was a scary bitch when it came to her truck.

Of course, it had cost her everything she’d ever made, too. The lift kit alone had been nearly five grand. The tires were about twenty-five hundred a piece for five of them. Then there was the paint job.Christ, it was no small wonder that she had to sleep in her baby. She didn’t have money for anything else after getting it the way she wanted.

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