Walton wasn’t in the best of humor. Of course, he never was of late, especially since someone had moved his idiot brother-in-law and his ex-wife was not cooperating. Well, if he could find her, he knew that he could convince her to change her mind. It was either she did that or he’d kill her. Which was more than likely going to happen anyway. He read the front of the newspaper and felt pissed all over again.
“Married? To some fuckwad that is moving in on my territory?” He looked at the picture of the happy couple that had accompanied the article he’d read last night. “Who the fuck does she think she is, marrying? Fucking bitch is gonna have to toe the line better now that she has a new hubby. Especially if she doesn’t want me to hurt him too while I’m at it.”
He’d found out through the grapevine who she had gotten to marry her. Some construction worker, of all things. She was a doctor, not some idiot that went around fixing up old ladies’ houses for a living. Walton wondered if there was even any kind of money in doing that shit. Her new hubby was only hanging onto her coattails, just as Walton had tried to do.
“Not that I’m going to be doing that shit.” He thought of all the jobs he’d had over his lifetime. Most of them had been tweeners…ones that gave him pocket money while he was between it and his next big idea. And Walton always had those. The problem was, he never had the money to make them happen.
The drug lord thing had been his biggest and stupidest. But after spending a few weeks being chased by the cops because of Mac, he’d figured that he wasn’t going to be able to make that one happen. But the problem was, he’d gotten hooked on them instead of making any sort of profit. Taking Erwin, the retard’s, meds had been a happier time for him, but that had been cut off when his wife had gotten it in her head to have Erwin tested. She was forever sticking her nose into places that it didn’t belong. And not doing a damned thing to make his life any better.
“Not very loving of you, my dear ex-wife.” Walton looked around the shabby room he’d been in for a month now, and wondered why he’d not demanded money when she’d served him with the divorce papers. Of course, being in jail hadn’t given him much of an opportunity to fight her on anything. It was a done deal by the time he’d gotten word that she’d been granted a divorce.
Walton had loved Mac. He’d even thought it was nice that she was going to college to better herself. Well, he’d thought it was great until she started working longer hours than he wanted her to, and not helping out around the apartment. And when she did have a day or two off, some of it was spent with Erwin. He currently hated that man more than he did his ex.
“But the money sure was nice.” He’d found himself finding more and more things to buy with her money. Getting in and out of schemes had gotten him into trouble, but Mac was always there to bail him out of it. Until he started knocking her around. That hadn’t set well with her, and she’d put up a fuss.
So of course, instead of backing off, like he probably should have, he hit her more, knocking her around enough that she’d had to have surgery, as well as some time off work. Having her up his ass all the time hadn’t done much for their relationship either. And he fucked up one too many times for the Army. Getting himself discharged hadn’t bothered him that much, but she sure did take it hard. So again, like a fool, he’d hit her hard enough that she’d gotten his ass arrested.
After he’d lost his source of ready cash and his drug of choice from the retard, he had had to get it somehow. That was when he’d come up with the idea that she could—and should, with her being his wife—give them to him. She’d objected to that too, the damned goody-two-shoes. Then he had found his ass in big trouble and had to do something. Killing himself seemed, to him, at least, the most logical step.
That had been a brilliant idea. It had worked like a charm. And he’d been able to collect on an insurance policy that had given him enough money to pursue other dreams. Also to get all the happy shit he wanted. Even coming up with his mom as the beneficiary had gone better than he’d ever hoped for. He’d been free of the police, his ex-wife was right where he wanted her to be, and he had some cash. The Internet had been very helpful in getting his scheme into working order. And telling him how not to get caught.
But then other things started to mess up his life. The drugs hadn’t been easy to find that were cheap enough for him to afford. The money that he’d always taken when he wanted was gone now, and the insurance payoff hadn’t gone nearly as far as he thought it should. Mac hadn’t been an easy touch either. She wouldn’t even pony any over to him when he found her alone. Hiring guys to beat her to shit had dried up too, especially when they found out that she was with her new family. The McCulloughs were some kind of big deal to people, he’d figured out.
Walton hadn’t been a terrible husband. He knew this. The fact that he had knocked her around a few times shouldn’t have been counted against him. He’d only done it to keep her in line. He knew a lot of other men who had put their wives in the hospital almost weekly. The Army had frowned on it, but so long as she didn’t go to the hospital too much, he was getting by with it.
The few times, four or five at the most, hadn’t been all that bad. And when he’d tried to tell her that, explain how he was a better husband than most, she’d gone off and had him booted out of the service, then later into prison.
He surfed the stations on the television and found his show. When he’d been in jail all that time, they’d put it on the television during the day, and as hard as he’d tried not to get all caught up in their stupid lives, he’d found himself hooked. Walton watched it while looking through the books he’d found in the room…a Bible and a smut book that his mom used to read all the time. Tossing them across the room, he watched the soap opera until a commercial came on.
Walton didn’t have a cell phone. He did at one time, but that too had been because he’d been married to a rich doctor. He’d been stupid to have used her script pad that one time, and had nearly gotten her fired. An unemployed wife was one that didn’t have any income. He should have been smarter and stolen someone else’s. Not that anyone ever checked for that shit, but he’d fucked up. So when the phone beside the bed started ringing, he nearly didn’t answer it. Picking it up, he was careful not to speak until they did.
“Mr. Thomas, I presume.” He felt his skin crawl when the woman laughed. “This is Victoria. I’m a friend of your ex-wife’s. I was wondering if I could persuade you to just go fuck yourself. And barring that, you know, die. Stepping in front of a truck or bus, or even jumping off a bridge. Either one would suit me.”
“Who the fuck is this?” She sighed heavily. “You can’t be telling me that you want me to die. That isn’t right.”
“Isn’t it? Oh well, then let me be more point blank. You will die if you go near Mackenzie or any other McCullough again. And that would include Erwin. Does that suit your needs better? I would hope that you’d save me the trouble of having to kill you myself, but I don’t think you’re going to be that nice, are you?” He asked her again who she was. “Are you a simpleton? I have told you my name. Listen to me hard this time. I. Am. Victoria.”
“Well, Vicki, why don’t you bring yourself on over here and let me show you why you’re not going to kill me? I have myself a nice gun here that I’m just itching to try out on someone.” She told him it was daylight. “So? You so ugly that you can only be out in the dark where people don’t see you? All right, we’ll have us a good old time, you and me.”
“I’m sure you’d like to think that, but—and this is from a great many admirers and now my mate—I’m not ugly at all. I’m a vampire.” He started to laugh, figuring that she’d join him soon enough. But all she did was tell him how old she was. “So, as you can well imagine, I’ve got a great deal of magic that I’m just...what did you call it? Oh yes, I’m just itching to use on you.”
He scratched his arm, then his palm. “I don’t believe in vampires. What kind of shit are you trying to pull on me?”
“Shit? None. But I don’t give a fuck who or what you believe in. By the way, do you itch, Walton? Do you have a nasty rash on your dick that makes you want to scratch it hard enough to draw blood? How about those little berries of yours? Do you feel the burn?”
He had to remove his pants and underwear to get to his privates. Christ, it was like he’d been laying in a bed of poison ivy. His dick hurt so bad that he thought a cold bath would help. When he laid the phone back in the cradle, he heard her laughing. Whatever she’d done to him—and he had no doubt that she’d done it—he was on fire.
By the time he was soaking in a cool bath of water, he had bloodied himself. His dick now looked like he’d taken a rake to it, and his balls were so swollen that he couldn’t even touch them with a towel. And the towels in this hotel were the softest things he’d ever felt.
He needed some ice. Icing down his balls was the only thing he could think to do to bring the pain down. But going down to the ice machine with a bucket meant he had to pull on some pants, and even not wearing underwear, they were going to make him cry. So there he lay in the cold water. Walton didn’t have any idea what he was going to do now.
Victoria had said that she was a friend of Mac’s. That meant that she’d had something to do with this. He still wasn’t sure how he’d been hurt like he was, but he was sure that these two women were the root of all his pain.
“I’m going to make them both pay.” He thought of her telling him she was a vampire. “Bullshit.”
He believed there were other creatures around. He’d seen a wolf once that he was sure was one of them night creatures. Anything that wasn’t human, everyone knew, could only come out at night. Then once, when he’d been fucking some broad, he was sure that she’d changed when she came. Crying out in some other language that had his cock and balls shrivel up.
He looked down at himself. Christ, he’d done a number on himself. His poor old cock was bloodied raw, like he’d been fucking a rosebush. And his balls looked like they’d been used as a punching bag, they were so big and painful.
Cooling off the water again, he thought about Mac and what he was going to have her do for him. He was done with the drug thing. He just wanted money now. And some cream. Of course he was going to knock her around some more. Maybe even kill her. She’d done about all she could for him, and now that he was itching like…. He’d been scratching again, and now his water was pink with blood. He was going to have to do something or he’d end up scratching his dick right off.
~~~
Rich helped with the hoeing. He’d never in all his days seen anybody so excited about putting a few seeds in the ground. When he heard his name, he looked up and saw Mackenzie coming toward him and Erwin.
“Hey there, pretty lady. My goodness, you’re a sight for sore eyes. This here young man is about to wear me down.” He watched Erwin as he’d been told to do so that he didn’t hurt anyone. So far all he’d done was bite on the side of his hand and tell him that he liked carrots. “Erwin and I are going to have us some nice fat potatoes sometime.”
“Carrots.” He nodded at him and put the hoe back in the big bucket that had been brought out for them all to use. “I like carrots. They’re for rabbits.”
“You been here long?” He told Mackenzie that he’d only been there about an hour. “I didn’t know that any of you guys were aware that he was here. This is my third visit. And I think it’s wonderful how Erwin loves it here.”
She was feeling guilty. So Rich put her at ease with it, telling her that he’d only been told because he was a friend of the couple that owned the place. He didn’t tell her that him and Bea were part owners; he was thinking that she’d be thinking all kinds of things about that. Mac was a bit skittish about things.
“Can I have a hug?” Erwin squealed at her request, but he was very careful when he did hug her. In his excitement earlier, Erwin had knocked him down. He’d forgotten, or maybe didn’t realize, that he was so much bigger than the others who shared this home with him. “You are having fun with Mr. McCullough?”
“Grandpa. He said I could call him Grandpa. He’s not, you know?” Mackenzie said that she did. “You gonna stay until the carrots come up? I had two of them this morning. I like them a whole lot, Sissy.”
“You did?” Rich started to tell her that they planted the carrot seeds, then the staff came out to put fresh carrots in the ground for the residents. They ate them better, he’d been told. But he had a feeling that she knew that already. “How about I come back tomorrow and we can have some for breakfast again? I really liked them the other day when we had them for lunch, didn’t you?”
“Yes, okay.” He wandered off from her and Rich watched Mac. She was sad, he knew that, but he was sure it was more than just seeing her brother.
“When I was about six he came into my room to have me read him a story. I knew from the start that he was different than other big brothers, but I loved him anyway. After that first night, he’d come in all the time and I’d teach him whatever I had learned in school that day. Even as old as he was, it was like he and I were on the same level.” Rich told her that he could read well. “Yes. It was easy to teach him, he was so willing to learn. It’s the little things that he forgets. Like dressing. Brushing his hair and teeth. And having him remember not to use the same brush for both.”
Rich laughed. He wasn’t sure that she’d meant it to be funny, but it had caught him off guard. Telling her he was sorry, she told him it was all right. She had thought it was funny too.
“He’s not on the same level as some of these adults. Thanks to you, I’m betting. Where are your parents?” She told him. “I’m sorry about that. To lose one is hard enough, but to have them both die in a senseless accident is terrible.”
“I suppose. I mean, they were our parents, but they weren’t all that affectionate. Not like you guys are. It wouldn’t have occurred to them to have given a hug, and even an encouraging word from them would have taken too much time out of their social lives. There wasn’t any money, not really, but they had a good time with what they had.” He told her again that he was sorry. “It’s all right. I’m glad that you’re here. I wanted to talk to you about Hawk.”
“He told his momma and me. Whatever you need, you let us know and we’ll make sure that you have it. And my boys, they’ve all chimed in that they’ll be there to help out too.” He took his big blue hankie out of his pocket and wiped at his nose. Rich had been crying off and on for the last hour, just thinking about his sons. “They mean the world to me. More than my own life. When one of them is sick or hurting like my boy is, it tears into my heart like a knife. I’m sure you feel the same for young Erwin there.”
“I’m in love with Dustin.” He said he knew that. “He asked me to marry him. Soon, as a matter of fact. I guess someone put it in the paper that we already tied the knot.”
“I think that might have been Larson. He said that it might make your ex a little on the stupid side. Well, stupider, I guess you could call it. He’s not overly bright, is he?” She mentioned how he’d faked his own death. “Yeah, there is that. But I’m thinking he might have had some help with that. Perhaps he looked it up on the Internet. I’m to understand that there is a lot of useful information out there about anything.”
She eyed him. Rich had a feeling that he was being sized up. It made him want to stand taller, push out his chest a little more. But he didn’t. He just stood there and let her have her look-see.
“You’re not the down to earth, good old boy that you let on to be, are you?” Rich asked her what she meant. “You know, I bet if I was to look into your life, I’d find that not only do you a master’s degree in something, but I’m betting you might have a doctorate as well, don’t you?”
“I just don’t know what you mean.” He did though. While he didn’t have the latter, he did have a master’s degree in engineering. So did Dustin, as well as in business management. And not once, in all the time he’d been working on houses, had it ever occurred to him to finish up his education. “You won’t tell on an old man, will you?”
She laughed. And he’d bet his last nickel that it was something that she wasn’t used to. Some people laughed all the time. But not this woman. And he’d also bet that she’d done a lot more of it since she’d been with his son.
Erwin came back to talk to them several times. Mackenzie and he sat on the swing and enjoyed the afternoon. If he’d have been asked, he would say that they’d not said a single thing that was important, yet it made him feel like he’d gotten closer to the younger woman and her brother. When they were ready to leave, Erwin came to hug them both again.
“You’ll be coming back, won’t you, Sissy?” Mac told him she’d be there in the morning. “I’d like that. I got some tests in the morning too. You can stay and help me with them. It’s okay if you do. I know my colors good.”
“Well. You know your colors well.” He grinned, and all Rich could think was that he was just a little boy in a big man’s body. “Erwin, remember what I told you about Walton. He’s going to get you into trouble. Remember what I told you.”
“You said to go and tell somebody that he’s bothering me.” He looked at Rich then back at his sister. “He hurts you too, huh?”
“Yes, but I have someone that will help us both. So long as you don’t let him take you again. You belong here, no matter what. I can’t come to see you if you get into trouble and they put you in that home again.” He said he promised to be good. “See that you do. I love you, Erwin, and I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“I love you too, Sissy. Don’t let him hurt you either. Okay?” She said that she wouldn’t. “Grandpa, you’ll watch over her, won’t you? I can’t let her get hurt no more. She’s all I got.”
“You have me and the rest of us, young man. But having a sister like Mac here, that’s the best a person can hope for.” Erwin nodded and hugged them both after asking if it was all right. Rich was to his car when he turned to Mackenzie and asked her about that.
“He’s terrified of hurting me. Anyone, I suppose. That’s what got him into trouble in the first place. Erwin forgets how much bigger he is than most people, and he gets really excited when there are people around him. Not in a bad way, though there are people that believe he wants to hurt them, but he’s a good person. Just dealt a crappy hand.”
“How did Walton treat him?” He didn’t think she was going to answer him, but he was sure that was an answer anyway. Her not wanting to tell told him that Walton needed to have his butt handed to him. “I see. And that didn’t help him either, did it?”
“No. When he screamed at him or hit him, Erwin didn’t understand that. He can learn some things, as I’ve said, but when he gets into trouble, like he was with Walton all the time, he forgets to be careful or he gets frustrated and combative. Walter would egg him on and then blame him when it got out of hand. It’s one of the reasons that I divorced him. He was never good with my brother. I don’t think he realized that we were a package when we wed. And he resented the time that I would want to spend with him. What did he expect me to do, leave him in the care of others while he ignored my love for my brother?” Rich nodded. “Why did you come out here today? You had no reason to visit him. Why?”
“I have a reason to visit him. He’s related to you, and I wanted to get to know him.” Mackenzie didn’t seem convinced. “I wanted to talk to him about Walton, too. I didn’t want him to get himself wrapped up with the man again. I’m glad to know that you already did that, but he’s family, same as you, and I wanted him to know me too.”
“I don’t think he’ll have anything more to do with him. But Walton was the only male figure in his life for a while, and he doesn’t understand why he didn’t like him. And that’s a big thing for him, for people to like him.” Rich said he could understand that. “I think you do. You’re a nice man, Rich. Do people tell you that enough?”
“Never.” They both laughed. “All right now. We’ll get ourselves on home. I got it from my missus that she’s ordered in some food for this thing. I know that nobody will feel like eating, so she’s laid out some tempting things. And Reese, she’s been nervous baking again. Bea said the kitchen smelled like a bakery. All them good smells is gonna tempt all of us, I’m thinking.”
“That girl needs a shop. Or something to put her things in. Yesterday I had one of her scones. That’s all she said it was, just a scone. My goodness. It was like eating a piece of heaven. So of course, I ate three of them.” She laughed again as she got in her car. “If she keeps this up, I might weight four hundred pounds in no time.”