Page 24 of Cassian

Taking Davy home, she finally got him into bed—he was getting much too big for her to carry around anymore, and she had to wake him for the second time tonight.As soon as he was in bed, he moaned about how tired he was, and she agreed with him.If only grandma had called sooner, he told her he could have gotten some sleep.Getting into the shower when she got to her room was better than lying down for the next twenty minutes before the alarm went off.She was ready for work about two hours earlier than needed and wasn’t happy about that.

~*~

Cassian found that he loved being a house husband.He really didn’t have anything to do other than to answer questions of the staff, but he was having fun.Today, he was going to go to the police station and press charges against the woman who had been living in his brother’s barn, and then he was free for the day.Brenin was on a time crunch and didn’t have the time to deal with it today.

It did bother him that she’d planned to burn his brother’s building down, but now that the police knew what she had been doing, they were looking into fires that were unsolved around the area.He had no doubt that they’d be able to attach a couple of them to her name.

“Lord Cassian, there is a call for you on the house phone.For some reason, they called the kitchen rather than the office one.”He said he’d take it then and made his way to the kitchen.“I’m sorry to have disturbed you, but he said it was quite important.”

“That’s all right.I can tell them no on your phone in there as well as I can on the office phone.It’s probably just a salesperson needing to hit his quota about something, is all.”He took the phone off the hook and pressed the pause button to connect the call.The man was talking to someone else, and it sounded like a good argument.He didn’t wait until he was done.“You called me.Pay attention to whom you’ve called.”

“Mr.Savage, I’ve had a hard time reaching you.There are a lot of you around town.”He didn’t bother saying anything.He knew how many Savages were around town.“Yes.Well, I’ve been trying to reach you as I said, and it’s about the estate of your parents.Do you by chance know where your brother, Brenin Savage, is located?”

“I do.”That’s all he was getting until he told him what he wanted.“What about our parents’ estate?That was settled some months ago.”

“Yes, well, the estate did, but the insurance policies that were taken out on them were not.Wereyou aware that they took out policies on each other in the event something happened to them?There is also one here that I have for Margo Savage.She’s deceased, too, I’m told.”Again, he didn’t agree nor disagree with the man.“You’re a very hard person to get information from, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know who you are.”He thought that was an explanation enough and waited for the man again.This was going to take all day if he only gave him bits and pieces of whatever he was looking for.“What about the insurance?I’m assuming that it was taken out long before now, so if you think I did it as some kind of scam, you called me, I didn’t call you.”

“No, no, that’s not it at all.You’re the only living relatives of the three of them, you and your brother.”He said that he knew that.“I’m sorry.I’m not explaining this well.I have three policies that belong to you and your brother, respectively.As the only living relatives of theirs, the money comes to you two.”

“I don’t want it.Make the check or whatever out to my brother.”He said it had to be made out to the two of them.“All right, then I’ll sign it over to him.I’ve no need for their ill-gotten gains.I doubt that my brother will either, but that’s up to him.”

“As the insurance company that holds the checks, we will pay you the money, and it’s up to you to do whatever you wish with the proceeds.”His voice had gone hard now, and he didn’t blame him.It wasn’t his fault that his parents and sister had been shits to them all their life.Cassian decided that he’d go a little easier on the man.As he thought, it wasn’t his fault that it put him in a bad mood whenever his parents and sister were involved in his life.He apologized to the man.“Yes, well, I’m sorry too.Not for your loss, it sounds to me like you didn’t get along well with them, but I’m sorry that I’ve had to be the bearer of bad news for you today.But I will say it’s quite a sum of money.In the millions for you both.”

“It would never be enough to negate the way that they treated us.But that’s not your fault either.”After setting up a time that the two of them could meet with the insurance adjuster, he hung up the phone.

Calling his brother from his office, he told him what was going on.And just like he thought, he didn’t want the money either.After talking for a little while about something else, they would come back to the money and what they needed to do with it.It was Brenin who had a wonderful idea as to what the money could go for.

“Give it to Tank and Ace.”He loved the idea and didn’t even know all the details yet.“I know they’re struggling.The house that they were living in when they were down south hasn’t sold yet, and they are still paying rent on the building that they were going to use for their business.I’m sure if we told them a little about how our parents treated us—if they don’t know already, they’ll take the money.”

“I love that.”He did too.The money would go for a good cause, and their family would have hated it.They’d been born to a family of half-bred dragons, and they couldn’t shift before.Their parents would have thought that they were the scum of the earth for even thinking of hanging out with them.Yes, giving them the money would be the perfect way to use the money for good and piss off his parents in the afterlife as well.Yes, he thought with a huge grin on his face, this would be the perfect way to use the money.“We’ll have the checks made out to them so that there is no problem with them getting the money.”

“Brilliant.I love it when a good plan is workable.”They talked about how the two of them were struggling, but wouldn’t take any help from any of their new family.“And I thought that we were stubborn.They’re good men, but I know that they could use the money.”

“I know.Did you hear that Tank has been bagging groceries at the local store?He said it’s to get more information from the people that they’re serving, but I know that they need the money.I wondered the other day how they were making it on the mayor’s salary.Tank is being paid too, as his assistant isn’t he?”

“I don’t know now that you mention it.I just assumed that he was.That’s on us.We should have looked into it before now.”He agreed with his brother and was going to have someone look into it forthem.“We’ll owe him back pay, too, I would imagine.Which would help them both out, too.Christ, I can’t believe that we’re just now thinking about this.I guess we’ll have to be more careful in the future about things like this.He’s a good fit, and I don’t want him to stop being mayor because we forgot to pay them.”

Cassian made notes on things that he wanted to check on.First and foremost was Tank being paid.The insurance man, he didn’t remember his name if he’d told him, was going to meet him tomorrow at his home, and that would be taken care of.It wouldn’t take them long, he didn’t think to convince Tank and Ace that they needed the money more than they did.At least he hoped it wouldn’t.They were a prideful pair, and he didn’t want to embarrass them either.They’d have to take the money and use it for themselves.Even if they were to just invest it in something long-term.He made a note to talk to Trevor, Kings’ and Skye’s son, to see what sort of investments they needed to get into.

After talking to his brother about other things that were going on in their lives, they hung up the phone.The two of them had started meeting for dinner once a week, and it had been really nice.Then on Fridays, they’d meet up with the rest of the family and have a loud dinner.Usually, it was at one of their homes, but they did occasionally meet up in a restaurant.It was more fun at home; they could be themselves when they wanted to be.

He had everything else finished for the afternoon and was starting on work that he could get done for tomorrow when his phone rang again.Picking it up, he only said ‘hello’ in the event that he didn’t know who it was.Usually, only his family would contact him on the phone, and he wasn’t sure why it wouldn’t be them now.

“My name is Timothy Marshall.I’m with Burke and Burke Law Firm.We have a proposal for you regarding some businesses that would like to come to your town.We’ve heard that you’re the one who goes over the contracts.”He asked him where he’d heard that.“We’re a large firm and we have contacts all over the world, sir.I assure you that we’ve looked into your lives quite extensively.”

“Good for you.”He did his own research on Burke and Burke and found that they’d been in business for only the last five years, and it looked as if the managing partners were doing some underhanded dealings as they were being looked into by the law board.Also, they only had about five lawyers that he could find on their payroll.He told the man what he’d been able to find by doing a search on the name.

“I assure you that’s all a misunderstanding.We’re on good terms with the law board as well as anyone else who has been investigating us over the last few months.Not all truth is in the newspaper.”Cassian didn’t say anything as he did a deeper search on the firm.“We have three businesses that are looking for a land deal so that they can expand their businesses.They are a part of the Fortune 500 club and have been looking to expand for the last few years with no luck.”

“You send me the contracts that you have on them, and I’ll go over them.That’s the best I can do.Or you can just send them to me and I’ll work with them.But as it stands right now, we have our own business contacts that are willing to take over some land that we’ve purchased with the town in mind, and have got all the paperwork started already.I’m afraid that if you don’t send it over soon, they might continue to look for land deals to expand.”

“I assure you that the contracts are perfectly in line with what they need.”He told him that he was sure that they were, but would still have to look them over.“I heard that you were hard to do business with.Maybe I’ll take my business elsewhere.”

“That’s a wonderful idea.You do that.”He heard the man sputtering about good deals and contracts that have everything that they need in them when he hung up the phone.Laughing to himself, he thought it was the best call he’d ever taken.Burke and Burke were going to be shit out of luck if they tried to pull the wool over his eyes about ‘perfect contracts’ again.