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“Edgar and I are going to talk about that when we get back home.I never thought about what I might have.”She thought of something.“Will my parents have magic too?And Earl?And Mandy?I would have to talk to them about it if they did.They’re not as backwards thinking as most people their age are.They’ve embraced the fact that not everyone around them is human, and it’s served them well.”

“I’ve noticed that about them.When I told them I was a vampire, they didn’t even blink twice.I loved it, and your father is a hoot.I like your mother in her way of just saying what she thinks, too.But your father is just funny.”She told Alex that her dad was usually telling jokes when he should be serious, but again, that had served him well in the business world.“Yes, I can see that humor over getting angry would do a good job of telling people, too, that he’s too smart to have the wool pulled over his eyes.He’s a smart man, your father.I guess I never thought of that until just now.”

“Thank you for that, Alex.You’ve no idea how good that makes me feel that you like him.I’ll tell him, too, if you don’t mind.”He said it would thrill him beyond words for him to know that.“Good.I’ll talk to him and my mom first.They’re on their way here from home anyway.I’ll call Earl as soon as I get home.I don’t want him blindsided about Tommy either.”

By the time she and Edgar got home, she’d spoken to Earl twice and let him know what was going on.Her parents were being picked up at the airfield by her and Edgar so that she’d tell them then.

Earl’s faerie arrived and made himself known to her brother right away.He said that he did feel safer already and that he was glad someone was going to be keeping an eye on Tommy.Earl did feel bad that they had to think this way about their own family, and that was when she was told about Edgar’s great-grandma and how she’d been killed by Fowler when she’d tried to kill Amy.It made her shiver when she thought of how much larger Fowler was than Edgar’s dragon and that he had to kill his grannie.

Chapter 4

Tommy felt like he was being followed.But every time he thought that he’d turn, and there wouldn’t be anyone behind him for blocks.The feeling made him think of his family and how they’d stoop so low as to have him followed so that they’d know every little thing that was going on in his life.Turning quickly, he thought he saw movement behind him, but it wasn’t there when he looked hard.Something was going on, and he didn’t care for it.Pulling out his cell phone, he called the only person he knew that could do that to him.So when his dad answered, he didn’t bother with formalities but asked him straight up if he was having him followed.

“Followed?Are you doing something that would make you think that you need to be followed?”Tommy was so shocked by the question that he didn’t answer him.“Don’t be ridiculous, Tommy.I’m in Ohio this week for the grand opening.Why would you think that I’d have you followed?Unless, of course, like I said, you need to be.”

“I’m a grown man, Dad.Why would you be having me followed if you were?I’m not doing anything to your businesses.I’m looking for work.”Dad told him how he should have come with them and to be there for the grand opening.It was going to be nice.“I’m not a part of the Reader Fresh now, am I?You’ve all made it perfectly clear that I’m not needed for the family’s business anymore.”

“You’re not, and stop being so pitiful.You know why you were let go.To pursue whatever you want in the business world, isn’t that right?”He didn’t bother answering him because he was still hurt by the way he’d been told that he was not to come within five hundred feet of either business until he was employed.Like that was going to happen.“When you go around threatening people, you can expect to be punished by the people you threaten, Tommy.We take someone telling their brother that he’s going to have to watch his back from now on very seriously.Why would you even say something like that even if you were joking?”

“Because it was a joke, and I thought he’d get a good laugh about it.”He had been serious about threatening his brother and had promised him that he’d be looking over his back for a long time, but telling them that had been a colossal mistake.Now he had to watch his step around his brother because he’d told him that, and then, like a big baby, he’d told everyone around that he’d said it.It had been the police that had told him to stay away from the businesses.Christ, it was a nightmare trying to get even a hundred bucks from the offices at work.“When did he lose his sense of humor?Huh?I mean, he used to be like you, finding everything funny all the time.”

“No one thinks that it was funny, Tommy.I believe you’ve been told that.”Dad spoke to someone with him, and it was difficult for him to understand what was going on.He asked his dad if he was just too busy to talk to his son.“Why would you say that?Are you trying to cause trouble?I was talking to your brother-in-law, Edgar.You were told that your sister got married, weren’t you?”

“Yeah, I heard she was married.I don’t believe it, but I heard about it.Why?Why did she get married in the first place even?She only knew him for a couple of days or something, right?What’s he going to do when she introduces her daughter to him.”Dad told him sometimes it just hits you, and you know.“What I know is that she’s going to regret marrying so quickly.What did he do, screw her a couple of times, and she insisted on marrying him?Next thing you’ll be telling me is that she’s going to have a kid.Wasn’t one enough for her out of wedlock?Christ, wouldn’t that be the straw that broke the camel’s back?A kid for her to raise again while he’s out draining the company you’ve worked so hard for.”

It took him several long seconds to realize that his dad had hung up on him.He started to call him back so that he could hang up on him but decided that it wasn’t worth it.But he did make a mental note that would put a black mark against his father for doing that.No one just hung up on him whenhe had things to say.

The hair on the back of his neck danced a little when he thought he saw a bug crawling up his leg.Christ, he danced around for ten minutes when he thought that he had a bug on him.He hated bugs worse than he did his family right now.Shivering when he didn’t see it anymore, he continued on his way to his apartment to carry out some of his plans for his sister.But he could never shake that feeling that he was being followed.It was like someone was eyeing him up for trouble or something.

His apartment was clean right now because he’d had the cleaning lady come by and do her job.He didn’t like others being in his place, but he’d made such a mess to his home when he’d found out that his parents had gone to Ohio again and hadn’t told him that there had been no holding onto his temper.Then Dad reminded him that he had access to the shared calendar they all used, and he should have looked at it more than once a month.Dad even reminded him that he’d told him last week they were going for the grand opening in a couple of days and that he should go.Like he’d be welcomed.

He’d spoken to Tabby twice in the last two weeks.Both times, she’d told him that she didn’t have time to go over the office plans with him as he’d not be getting into it anytime soon.She’d told him that she had a big safe that had her petty cash and the checkbook in it, and it was never just lying about so that he could get to it.He asked her if she didn’t trust him anymore.

“I don’t trust anyone with the petty cash nor the checkbooks.I write the checks, and the bank knows that.So if one comes in and it has a different signature on it other than mine, they’re not to cash it.”He asked her about her supposed husband.“Supposed?Why does it bother you that I’m now Tabby Walsh, Tommy?But no, he doesn’t have anything to do with my business, and I don’t have anything to do with his.We have enough on our mind with our own businesses and don’t have time to get into someone else’s.”

“But you listen to him enough to keep me out of your offices, don’t you?”She pointed out that he had threatened Earl.“What does that have to do with you, I wonder.I didn’t threaten you.I might if you keep me out of your offices, too.”

“I’m not worried about you, Tommy.I have more important things to mess with than having you tell me that you’re going to get me.I’m protected very well.”He asked her by who, and she just laughed.Christ, he hated his sister then, and the more he thought about it, the more he hated her daily.“Is there something else that you wanted?I’m sort of busy right now with the grand opening in a couple of days.”When he told her that he had nothing to say to her, she hung up on him.It was getting to be bad when they were all just hanging up on him for no reason.

He had plans, and so far, he’d not been able to go through any of them when he wanted them over with.Tommy had taken out insurance on his family by way of the internet, and the first payment was due in a couple of weeks.He’d been sent a bill for them, and now all he had to do was kill them off and collect before he made the first payment.Excited about having read about that on the internet on how much a person could make by taking out a policy on someone before you killed them.Tommy had been thinking of making a practice run by taking one out on one of his buddies to see how quickly he got his money.All in the name of practice makes perfect, he thought.

The article that he’d read had said the turnaround was only a few weeks.Well, that could be too many for him as he needed money now.While he’d paid up his rent and his phone, he didn’t have much in the way of spending money now, and that was irritating him something awful.It was all Tabby’s fault, too.Her and that damned husband of hers.

Just as he was making himself something to eat, he sorted through his mail.There, in the pile of overdue notices, he found the paperwork for Tabby’s insurance policy.Pulling it out of the envelope and tossing it away, he looked at the numbers on the thing and thought he should have done this a long time ago.Taking out policies on people that he’d had to kill off.It had only been three, but that would have netted him three million bucks by now, and that wasn’t anything to sneeze about.He picked up the bill to the thing and read it over.It was then that he saw that the policy was null and void until he had made the first payment on it.

“Well, mother fuck.That’s fucking not going to work out too well for me, now is it?”Tommyhad been talking to himself since he’d been about eight years old when he noticed that other people weren’t as smart as he was.Especially his family.Also, he got the answers that he wanted as well when he answered his own questions.

Eating leftovers was all right, he supposed when it was pizza, but anything else was just crap.As he was finishing off his meal, he decided that it was way past time for him to get what he wanted from the office of Reader Fresh.His brother had to come through for him, or all this hard work was going to be for nothing.

Picking up his cell, he called Earl and had to wait for several rings to go to voicemail.He didn’t leave a message but did hang up.Where was he that he couldn’t answer his phone?He did wonder if he’d gone to the grand opening but didn’t know for sure.It would be just like them to leave him by himself while they were off having fun.

Calling Tabby, he got the same voicemail recording.That she wasn’t near her phone and couldn’t take his call.There was something about contacting Edgar if it was an emergency, but since she didn’t leave any number for him, he didn’t have any way to call him back.Just as he was going to toss his phone across the room, it rang with an unknown number.

“What the hell do you want, mother fucker?I don’t have time to talk to your unimportant self.”The laughter pissed him off more.“I’m hanging up now, and you’d better—”

“It’s Edgar Walsh.You called your sister’s phone, and I thought that I’d help her out by asking what you need in the way of help.”He told him that he wanted to talk to Tabby.“Well, that’s not going to happen today.She’s talking to people who might want to do business with her new opening of Reader Fresh.Now, is there anything that I can help you with right now?”

“Are you now fielding calls for her?Like I care, but I wanted to talk to her.It’s important that I get her to call me back within ten minutes.I’m not fucking around with her calling me back at her convenience.I need her now.”He said that he could help him or he’d be shit out of luck for her calling him back.“You gonna give me money on behalf of my sister then?I want five grand so that I can pay off some things I have.”