Page 3 of Ayden (House of Frazier #3)

Clive set the phone in the receiver and looked around the room. Rose asked him what he’d been able to find out, and all he did was stare at her. She had to know better than to ask him questions when he was in charge of things today.

“You bring that attitude to me, mister, and I’ll slap you fucking sideways.” He’d forgotten just for a second who he was dealing with and the day of the week. He told her what he knew. “What do you mean you can’t find them? What’s the point of having money if you can’t use it to find people. Did you tell that man what we want?”

“I did. He seems to think that they’ve left the little town they were in. Since Gilbert and that Summer person were together, we’ve known where that person is. You’d think with two kids hanging at her tit that we’d be able to locate them after she killed our son.” It wasn’t as if they liked Gilbert, but that wasn’t the point. The point was they were without any living relatives but the brats, and they were going to get them. At least one of them. “Once the body was removed from that house, they seemed to have vanished like the prom queen’s virginity on homecoming night.”

That sounded better in his head, but he didn’t correct himself. Rose would go on about how he didn’t need to say a word without her permission. Today was her day to be in charge, and he hated that almost as much as he hated his wife. But they had things going the way that they wanted now, and there was no point in messing up a good thing.

The two of them had been married for nearly forty years. Neither of them had wanted to get married, but it was that, or they’d lose all their fortune—though they had lost it anyway. His parents had arranged the marriage, and he was to do it, or there would be no money. Also, they were to have a child as part of the deal. Clive looked at his wife and mentally shook his head. They’d worked out well, the two of them, so long as they followed their own set of rules.

On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, he was the one that made decisions. On Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, Rose would make them. Sunday they neither one made any kind of decisions, and that had suited them just fine all their married life. There were rules too to those decisions. There was no overruling the decision from the day before; you couldn’t just keep going back over the same decisions daily because once they were made, they stuck.

The decision-making rules applied to everything. Money, household things, and even what they watched on television that night. Right now, they were watching a game show, and he was fine with that. But he never let on that he enjoyed her decisions either. Clive was sure that she did the same to him. They coexisted, and that was all they’d ever wanted out of their deal of being husband and wife.

“Did you find out where they’re staying or just that they’re not in the house anymore? I don’t like that the government is so willy-nilly about things. They should be able to tell us whatever we want to know as we pay our taxes, too. That bitch had better play ball with us, or so help me, Clive, I’m going to make her regret ever being around our son.” He was reasonably sure that she did that anyway but kept that to himself. Gilbert had been a handful before they’d sent him away to military school.

Not that it helped. He’d become more violent as the years went by, and when he’d knocked that Summer person around and she’d allowed herself to get knocked up, he didn’t seem to worry about how that was going to make them look either. They had a reputation to uphold, and he made them look bad. That was why having the brats was so important. They needed, now more than ever, someone to take over the family business when it was time. They had that all worked out as well. As soon as they were to get the girls or just one, he didn’t care. They were going to make sure that she was healthy, then send her off to boarding school where they’d not have to deal with her. He wanted nothing to do with raising a child, not even his own child, when it came to it.

“Did you hear me?” He looked at Rose when she snapped her fingers in front of his face. “I asked you if you have any information on who was the one that pulled the trigger on Gilbert?”

“The police. That’s all I was told that the police had had to take him down because he was holding a gun to one of the girls’ heads. I don’t understand why they didn’t just let him kill one of the girls. It certainly would have made our lives better, but there you have it. No one knows who pulled the killing trigger.” She asked him where the body was. “We can’t get it until we claim it. Silly thing if you ask me. It’s not like anyone is going to claim his body anyway. Just let us have it so that we can find out who the killer was and take care of them for killing our son. Do you suppose that there is more than one bullet in his body, and that’s what they’re holding onto it?”

“I never thought of that. Yes, that could be it. If so, then we’ll have the entire force put out of business by suing them. Is it too much to ask that someone pay for his death? Even if it’s the police? I tell you, Clive, people get stupider every day if you ask me. The rich are the only ones that have any sense.” Not that they were rich. Daily, they were borrowing from Paul to pay Peter. As it was right now, they barely had enough money to go to the end of the year. They’d never been any good at saving money, and it was beginning to show nowadays. “What do you know of that insurance policy that we had on Gilbert? Can it be cashed in yet?”

“I told you yesterday that without us making the payments, then it’s not any good. They told me that when it was my turn.” She told him that she’d forgotten. “I don’t understand that either. As far as I know, my parents never paid on their insurance, yet we were able to collect on it when they were dead. Why do you have to pay on a policy only to have to cash it in when they’re dead? Makes no sense at all.”

“Something about paying into it so that we can get a return. Stupid people. If I had the money to pay for it, why on earth would I need to cash in the policy in the first place? If I were in charge, that’s the way that I’d make it. You just had insurance on everybody.”

He didn’t know how that would work either but kept his mouth shut. Besides, it gave him a headache trying to figure out how businesses worked. That was another reason they were so broke all the time. They didn’t understand people and the workings of their businesses.

Neither of them owned a cell phone, and there wasn’t a computer in the house that they used. The two of them, when necessary, would use the old landline in their home rather than try and figure out how the other things worked. The staff—what little there was left, he knew, had phones on them all the time. He’d hear them twitter once in a while and they’d wander off. He liked the olden days, where men were men and women knew how to keep their mouths shut. That was another thing that he’d not mention to his wife. She’d knock him three ways from Sunday, as his daddy used to say.

“The phone is ringing.” Picking it up as there wasn’t enough money to have a butler anymore, he answered it with a bark of his name. “Clive, don’t tell them who they got. Darn it, man, don’t you get anything right?”

“Mr. Clive Forthright, my name is Ayden Frazier. I wanted to ask you some questions.” He told him that he wasn’t buying anything. “Not that you could afford it, but that’s not what I wanted. I’m calling about my wife and our family.”

“I don’t know you from crap. Stop calling here.” The man said something, and he had to have him repeat it. “What do you mean, you’ve adopted my granddaughters. No, that’s not right. That Summer person has them, and we’re going to have to get one of them from her since she killed off our son.”

“Your son was killed by the police department and the feds. It’s against the law to sell drugs on high school property and also to have drugs and prostitution run from a government housing.” He told the man that he didn’t know what he was talking about. “Oh, but I do know. And I wanted to give you a heads-up that you’re not going to take my daughters away from me. If I find you within fifty feet of them, I’m going to rip your throat out. I’ve been doing some digging on your family, and it seems like you knew what Gilbert was up to. Even going so far as to profit from his dealings.”

“We needed the money. A son should take care of his parents. That’s what we had to do when my parents decided to retire.” He wished he’d not said that, but the man was talking in riddles. “Why do I give a good fig about your daughters. I’m going to talk to that Summer person about her giving one of them to us so that our family name has a good standing.”

“That Summer person, as you call her, is my wife, and her daughters are now mine.” He told the man that was impossible. He’d never given permission for her to get married. “She’s a grown woman and doesn’t need your permission to do anything. As for the girls, you’re not going to touch one of them either. They’re mine now.”

Not knowing how to deal with the man, he handed the phone to Rose. Before she could get more than just saying her name, she was listening to his bull crap too. What did he mean by saying that he was going to adopt them? Or did he say that he had adopted them? The man was making no sense at all, and he didn’t want to deal with him right now. Then he listened to his wife.

“You’ve no right to do that. I didn’t give you permission to marry her, and that’s my final word on the situation. Now. Here is what you’re going to do, young man. You’re going to—” She must have been cut off because the next thing he knew, Rose was sputtering about while the man was shouting. He could hear him from across the room. “Now you see here. I’m not going to allow you to—” She’d been cut off again. The man had no manners, was all he could think about. And he was messing with the wrong person if he cut his wife off one more time.

When the phone was put back in the cradle, the two of them stared at one another. They’d never been so disrespected in their life and in their own home, too. Getting up, he bellowed toward the kitchen that he needed some tea right now. Hearing the glass break gave him a good start, but he laughed too. Sitting back in his chair, he finally asked Rose what had happened.

“He told me that he’s not going to give up one of the children. How does he get off telling me what he’s going to be doing? Not to mention telling me that I’m going to be going to jail, too. Did you know that it was against the law for us to be profiting off of what Gilbert was doing? I think you might well have told me, but I don’t—he cut me off, the little pisser. Cut me off like I wasn’t talking to him.” He told her that he’d done the same to him. “Well, I’m not going to put up with it. Do you still have people at the station house? You get on them right now to go and arrest that man for being rude to me.”

“I don’t know that that is going to work.” He explained to her how the man was right about what he was saying. “What do you mean he’s right that we can’t profit off of our own son. Darn it, Clive, I don’t like this, not one bit. It’s my turn, and it should be the way that I want it to be.”

“I know, and I don’t either. Here we were having a nice evening, and he calls here, making threats. It didn’t even matter to him that he was talking to the one in charge of today, Rose. That’s no way to treat us.” She patted him on the head, and then they both shut up when the maid brought them their tea. Rose grabbed her arm before she could leave. “See that you write down what you broke too, or I’m going to know what for.”

By the time his tea was cooled off enough for him to drink, he was upset again. The man had done this to them, and he was going to have to take a stand or do something against him. Picking up the phone when Rose told him to call the station house, he was just about ready to scream when the man put him on hold to go to his office.

“You answer the phone so we can talk when I call there. I don’t like being put on hold.” The man told him that he didn’t know he’d been going to call. “That’s not my problem. You shouldn’t be out fraternizing with your employees anyway. My taxes paid up means you work for me.”

“Mr. Forthright, I don’t know if you’re aware of this or not, but everyone pays their taxes and expects me to do what they want. You’re not any different than Ms. Shawl, who lives in the housing place along Meadow Drive.” He felt his anger surge up. Imagine comparing him to those people on Meadow Drive. “Now, you don’t want to be messing with the Frazier boys. They got themselves some money now, and I don’t think there is a person in his town who doesn’t owe them boys something for helping them out. You and your missus, you just leave that Ayden alone with his family, and we’ll get along just fine.”

“He isn’t going to turn over one of his daughters.” The officer told him that was a good thing as they weren’t to be separated. “That Summer person has had them all their lives, and now it’s time she gave up one of them. The better one of them, too. I won’t be taking the stupid one just because she has two to choose from. I got myself no use for girls, but that’s all she had, so that’s going to have to do for us.”

“Mr. Forthright, if you try and take one of those pretty little girls, there is going to be hell to pay. Not just from the police, but those Fraziers take care of what’s theirs, and they’ll kill you if you try anything stupid.” He said that it was only fair. “Fair or not, you touch one of them girls, and I’m going to turn my back on them so that they can deal with parents’ justice.”

“You see here now. I want you to go out to that shanty that they live in and take one of them right now. It’s only fair since you killed off my son. He wasn’t much anyway, but he was a Forthright, and I want justice for him.” He told him that he wasn’t going to do that. “Then why am I even talking to you.”

After hanging up, he picked up the receiver and redialed the number. He thought maybe he’d get a different person, one that would work with him, but it was the same voice. He did that sort of thing when he had to call things like the cable company. If you didn’t like what they were telling you, simply hang up only to call back, and you’d get another person. Not that he believed any of them were in the area. They were all calling from some third-world country, and he was upset about it.

His tea was now cold, and he didn’t have anything to eat either. The television had long since gone to something else, and he and Rose were talking about how ridiculous everyone was being about that Summer person. What right did she have to do any of the things that she’d been doing? None, that was it.

His head was pounding so hard he knew that if he didn’t get to lie down soon, he was going to be sick. There was nothing worse than being sick, he thought. Getting up, he was headed to bed when his front doorbell rang. Going to see who it was, he was surprised to find someone in a suit standing there. He asked him what he wanted.

“My name is Federal Marshall James Calhoun, and I’m here to question you about the involvement you have had with your son in his endeavors to sell drugs to minors around town.” He told him what he had told the other man. They needed the money. “So you’re telling me that you knew what he was doing and have profited off of his illegal activities.”

“Don’t be stupid. Of course, we did. How else were we to make any money with our taxes being paid and the house in good repair. If you need to be bribed, you go and talk to that man at the head of my son’s operation. His name was…let me see.” He turned to Rose and asked her as she was headed up the stairs, too. “Peter Conklin. He’s the one in charge of the dope going around here. And he was nice enough to bring us the money too when there was enough profit. Now, it’s nearly nine o’clock, and we’re headed to bed. If you want any more answers—now see here. What do you think you’re doing?”

He was put in cuffs along with his wife. As they were being led out to a cruiser, he yelled at his neighbors to mind their own business. They were forever standing out on the street, watching whatever was going on. He remembered once when they threw a party for the street when his son was put in jail. Ingrates. All of them were ingrates. Who did that sort of thing?

~*~

While he knew what was going on with the Fortrights, he didn’t have a great many details. They’d been arrested last night in full view of their neighbors. Ayden even got to see some of the video when they’d been trying to get away from the men that had come to arrest them. Laughing, he looked over at his daughter—how he loved to say that—and sobered up when she glared at him.

“It’s rude to have fun at someone else’s expense, Ayden.” He told her what he knew and didn’t hold back when he told her about how they’d been going to take one of them. “Take us where? Mom would have had a fit if they’d tried that.”

“They wouldn’t have gotten in the front door, I promise you. But they also admitted to knowing that your biological father was selling drugs to teenagers on the high school grounds.” She said that they used to come by the house when he was there, and he’d sell them to them, too. “He was a terrible man, and I’m happy to have them out of your lives. Both of them are now saying that it’s your mom’s fault that Gilbert is dead and that they expect for her to turn one of you, the better of the two of you, over to them so that their good names are still intact.”

“I’m not going anywhere with them, and neither is Harley.” He told Selma that he knew that, too. “I wonder what they would have done had they gotten one of us? They wouldn’t have had an easy time of it is what Brandy said. Did we tell you that she’s having us go to self-defense classes? I think we need that more than ever.”

“They’re in jail now, honey, and it doesn’t look as if they’re going to be getting out anytime too soon.” She asked if, because they were old, people would feel sorry for them and let them go. “I don’t think so. I believe most of their neighbors are happy that they’re gone, too. Something happened there, and I’ve not been made aware of it yet, but they’re going to be gone a long time.”

“I hope so.” Harley joined them in the kitchen, the house was starting to look like a used box outlet. They’d been finding things all over the place in town at auctions and garage sales. There weren’t too many of those this time of year, however. “Thanksgiving is next Thursday. What did you want to do about taking a covered dish?”

“I don’t think that we’re supposed to do that now. Aunt Brandy said she was going to have it catered so that no one has to clean up. Did you know that a turkey takes forever to cook? I guess on account of it having big boobs.”

“Turkeys do have big boobs.” He thought about the conversations he’d been having since he’d found out he was a father. It never ceased to amaze him what sort of things they could ask questions about, either. And nothing was off limits. When they’d spent the day at the slaughterhouse with Lica, they had more questions than he thought a book might. And they read everything they could get their hands on, too. Christ, he was having so much fun.

Ayden helped the girls make placards for the table. It had cost him the world to get enough glitter and glue so that they would have enough to go around. Even as they were drying, all he could think about was how much glitter was going to be in the rental until the end of time. He was glad it was here and not his own home that they were being crafty with.

“Ayden, what do you know about sex?” He nearly swallowed his tongue when Selma asked him that question. “I don’t want you to explain it to me. Mom already did, but you do know that’s how babies come, right?”

“I do know that, yes I do.” He eyed her hard. “Did one of my brothers ask you to talk to me about sex with you? I’m going to murder them, just so you know.”

“No, they didn’t say anything. But Aunt Brandy is getting big, and we were wondering if you and Mom were going to have any children. Besides us? I want a little brother.” He wasn’t sure what to tell her about that. “You and Mom sleep in different houses. I hope you know that won’t get us a brother or a sister if you keep doing that. I think you like each other, but we’re wondering if we’re going to be only children.” He wasn’t even going to question her about being an only child when she had a twin sister.

“Yes, I’m aware of that. But your mom is still trying to figure things out.” She told him that she thought Mom knew about sex, too. He felt his face heat up hotter. “I’m sure she does. But you see, she has had a lot done to her in the last month or so, and I’m waiting on her to make the decision where I’m going to be sleeping.”

It wasn’t nice of him at all to put the blame on Summer, but he didn’t want to have this conversation with one of her daughters. It wasn’t as bad as how come bulls had balls and cows didn’t, but it was right up there. He decided right then and there that he was going to not say a word to his brothers on about raising little girls. He was going to let them figure it out all on their own, and he was going to sit back and laugh at them. At the very least, he was going to be laughing at his own home so they’d not hurt him. Ayden thought that he’d write down some of the questions that the girls had so that he could tell them to ask their parents. Yes, he was enjoying it to a point about having the oldest children, but also not. Christ, he was terrified of what sort of questions a son would ask when and if they ever had one.

When Summer came home, he could tell that something had happened. Getting her to tell him took a while, but he found out that she didn’t want to work anymore. He was all for that, he told her. He missed her when she was away.

“What will we do for money then?” He told her that he had a job that paid well. “What is it you do anyway? I don’t think that I’ve ever found out.”

“I go to businesses that need a boost up and see what I can see about helping them. It might be that they have the wrong sort of boxes to send things out. They might have too many employees or not enough. I study the place for a while, and then when I get it figured out, I tell Brandy about it. She decides then if she thinks that the place can benefit from having more money or just close up.” Summer asked him if it paid well. “It really does. I get paid very well, and I’ve only been banking it so that we can have a nest egg for ourselves. The house is paid off; it was a deal that Brandy made with all of us, and we were to get a house from her. I did let you know that Brandy is wealthy, didn’t I?”

“Yes, you did.” Summer made them all quick sandwiches before she sat down herself. “I don’t want to work. At least not as hard as I have been. I miss you and the kids.”

“We miss you as well.” After handing out juice bottles and napkins, he sat down with them all as well. “Brandy had found us a cook. She said that she hired us one because she didn’t want to see you in the kitchen all the time when you could be out with her. I think that she needs friends like you to keep her out of trouble. Though, now that I think about it, you’re trouble too.”

He kissed her on her nose and got up to get himself a fork. There was potato salad in one of the containers, and he loved that more than he did any other salad that was with the stuff they were eating.

After lunch, he went back to his office. He had to fill out the forms that Brandy had set up for him so that she could check the boxes of the places he worked. There were a lot of questions that he had to ask and fill out, but he enjoyed the job now that he knew he wasn’t going to be going undercover for her. That had gotten both him and his wolf really sick recently.

He’d been working for a restaurant over the summer, and they’d served him human remains for his dinner. He’d been eating there nightly, and it never occurred to him what he might be eating. Their plan had been to make him a part of the deal they had going, selling off the real meat and then serving the customers human remains to boost the profits they were making off the sale of the other meats. Ayden had been sick since and had not been able to eat any red meat, nor had his wolf. He hoped that he’d be able to get over it soon, but he just didn’t know. It was a great deal to process.

“Ayden.” He looked at Selma when she said his name and smiled at her. She was by and far the most girly girl he knew, and he loved her for it. Harley was the exact opposite in that she was the most tomboyish little girl he’d ever met. Yet the two of them seemed to get along. “Ayden, what if I told you that I could see the dead. What would you do?”