AllFreeNovel
Share Us
They continued to ask him about names of the dead that he’d not thought about for decades. His parents were just the first of many that he’d been told had been exhumed and were right now being tested for DNA and fingerprints. He’d even gone so far as the tell the man where the murder weapons were and how he’d disposed of the few things that were easy to burn up. He was hoarse by the time they called it a day. Then they told him that they’d be back tomorrow.
“Also, your accommodations will be different, too, starting tonight. You will be in a different cell as well as have a Federal Officer in front of it at all times. Don’t expect to have special meals brought in for you, but you’ll eat what we give you. Also, you’ll do this without complaint. There are other things that are going to happen to you, Mr. Farley, and we’ll get to those later.” As the man was packing up the things that he’d brought in with him, he looked at the other agents with him. “I think this calls for a celebration. We’ll find us a good steak house and have the works. The President will be very pleased with the day’s events.”
He was nearly dragged back to his new cell. And it was just as he said, too. Not only did his ‘accommodations’ change in that he had a smaller cell as well as no window now, but he also didn’t have as many blankets as he’d had before. Just a thin one that he could literally see through. Lying in his bed, he thought of the big witch. Then, there was something tickling at his head, and she spoke to him again. The bitch.
“It’s grand witch, you idiot, not big.”Dave asked her why she was doing this to him.“Because you’re a bad person and did this to yourself. Besides, you’ve no idea how much better the kids are sleeping knowing that you’re not going to be trying to kill them anymore. Oh, even though you didn’t ask, Maddy is doing well too. She’s weak, of course, but healing more and more daily. Aren’t you thrilled about that?”
“No, I am not. She should be dead. Why do I have a feeling that you had something to do with that, too? You did it, didn’t you? Like you make me tell the truth all the time. You gave her some of your mojo, and now she’s going to live forever.”Witchy told him that he was correct on both.“Both? What are you talking about?”
“She’s going to live forever. So are the kids. Even if you were to get out right now and be given free access to them, you’d not be able to do much more than to piss off a sleuth of bears. One of them being her new mate.” He asked her what that meant. The sleuth and mate shit meant. “Sleuth means a group of bears. There are a lot of them, too. And just pissed off enough at you to do you great harm. Mate? Well, like we explained it to the children, they’re man and wife. You’ll also be happy to know that with her being mated to a bear, a black one if you’re at all curious, it’s made them both much stronger than they were before. Gibb is about the sweetest man to those little children. They’re happy—”
“I don’t care how fucking happy they are. I want them to come here and get me out of here.”She said that no one was going to do that for him, even if they could.“Of course they can. Just come on down here, tell them that I didn’t hurt none of them. Even have dumbass Maddy tell them that I didn’t pull the trigger on her and I’ll take her kids. She owes me that much for not dying when I shot her. The stupid bitch. You too. You both should be dead.”
“Okay, let’s go over today’s events, shall we? You’ve been sitting with four federal agents for the last several hours, is that right?”He asked her what that had to do with anything.“I’d think plenty since you confessed to over three dozen murders, including the attempted murder of your other sister. Then there is the confession of you killing off a high-profile federal attorney. That alone will get you a lot of years tacked onto the several lifetimes that you’re going to serve now.”
“Nobody can serve more than one lifetime. Everyone knows that. It’s just asinine that they said that someone is going to be serving five life sentences. You can’t. So that’s not going to work. And as for me confessing to killing people, I’m going to tell them that some grand witch made me not be able to lie. That’ll get me something.”
“Yes, locked up. Do you think that anyone is going to believe that there is a witch around? No. Not many. And even those that might believe, they’re going to keep their mouth shut in the event that said witch came after them.”Her laughter grated on his nerves, making his head ache all the more.“Poor Dave. He’s going to go to federal prison for a very long time, and he won’t ever get to abuse or use people again. I’m sure a lot of people are going to have a party in your name, too.”
“We’ll just see about that, won’t we? I got this in the bag.”There were times when he didn’t understand a single word that came out of his mouth. Ignoring her laughing at him, he started to speak again. Then he thought of a bribe.“I’ll tell you what. I’ll not give you a single penny of the money that I’ll promise you if you get me out of here.”He thought about what he said.“Damn it, woman. It’s getting old having to tell the truth all the time. I demand that you take that shit away from me. A man like me can’t be telling the truth all the time. I’ll get myself killed if I keep doing this.”
“One less prick around if that were to happen. No, you’re going to be away forever, Dave. And people all around will be happy as a bug in a rug.”She laughed again, and he wanted to scream at her.“Tomorrow will be a big day for you. You need to be on your best behavior, or you might not make it to prison at all.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? Are you saying that there is a chance that I can get out of this? Is that it?”Her laughter was fading away, and he was screaming at her out loud now to tell him what she was talking about. “Come back here. You hear me? I said to come back here and explain to me what you meant. Am I getting—”
“Shut your mouth, or I’ll shut it for you.” He’d forgotten about the guard. Telling him that he wasn’t sorry about yelling made the man growl at him. Fucker was more than likely one of them shifter things. They were taking over the world.
Lying down on his cot, he realized that his mattress wasn’t nearly as soft as it had been. Not that it was all that comfy, but this one was thin as a sheet and no bigger than the bed. Rolling over, Dave was going to figure out how she meant that he wasn’t getting out. He would, by god, too. And kill the lot of them.
~*~
Maddy had been home from the hospital for two days now, and she was about as bored as she’d ever been. The kids were going to school during the day, which left her with her own thoughts. Mostly, those centered around Gibb Cross and what she’d been finding out about him. And it seemed that everyone had a tidbit about the handsome man, too. Looking up when someone said her name, she glared at the bane of her existence right now.
“Where have you been?” Gibb laughed and told her that he’d told her he was taking the kids to school when they left. “Oh. You said you’d be right back. What time is it?”
“Just after nine. It takes a little bit to get to the Indian school. I also told you that.” He sat down across from her wheelchair. “Why are you in a mood now? I mean, you’ve been in a terrible mood since you woke up.”
“I’m not in a terrible mood.” He reminded her that she’d made Belle cry this morning. “I told her that I was sorry. I’m just in pain.”
She wasn’t, and she was sure that he knew it. The only reason that she was in the wheelchair right now was because she’d gotten a little dizzy when thinking about how she should be dead. Looking away from Gibb, she decided that it was time she told him what was going on. Or at least a bit of it.
“I’m broke. More than that…I guess you would know that, too. The kids told you that as well.” He said that he knew she had been broke. Then told her that they had but she wasn’t any longer. She looked at him. “What are you going to do? Hand over control of all your money? Give me credit cards that have no limit on them and tell me to spend what I want?”
When he stood up, she nearly rolled away from him. Taking her hand into his, he kissed her palm, then laid a stack of credit cards in her palm before returning to the seat. He didn’t say anything, but she did look at the names on the cards.
“These are in my name. With Cross on them. I’m not a Cross.” He said that he was aware of that, but he didn’t want her to have any trouble using them when she wanted. “Why would I have trouble? Because you’d cause it?”
“No.” He laughed a little, but she knew that he was forcing himself to be civil to her. “I don’t want to cause you any trouble. You seem to be doing that all on your own. Did you actually tell the children not to get too close to my family because you weren’t going to be staying? Thad cried for an hour before I was able to get him to go to sleep last night. Maria said she wasn’t going to talk to you ever again if you made her leave here. I didn’t tell them to say that, but they’re upset with you. So am I if you want to know the truth.”
“You’ll toss us aside when Dave gives you enough money to take them from you.” She knew that as soon as she said it, she’d hurt him. Deeply too. “I’m sorry.”
“I could tell you that it’s all right, but it’s not. You’ve been a real bitch since yesterday. I didn’t do anything to you but to keep your children safe and make sure that they were able to see you while in the hospital. You’ve been rude, mean and a royal pain in the ass to everyone. I’m just glad that my grandparents aren’t here so that you’d be picking at them as well.” He stood up this time, and she could see the anger around him. “I’m going to go outside for a spell. I don’t know when I’ll see you again. But if you want something, you need only to reach out to anyone but me. I will bring the kids home from school to be with you. Until then, there is staff here.” He started for the doorway before stopping and turning back to her. “I don’t want nor need Dave’s money. Even if he had any, which he doesn’t. We have plenty enough as it is. You enjoy your day. Or not. Right now, I don’t care what you do.”
The door slamming had her angry. Then just as she realized that she didn’t have any reason whatsoever to be pissed off, she burst into tears. She really didn’t know what was wrong with her. Every little thing pissed her off. Even good things like having the kids well taken care of and happy. Well, they’d been happy until last night.
She didn’t know what had possessed her to tell them that they couldn’t stay here. There was no reason for her to have said that. No one had hurt them. Nor had they been in her face about things. When Sunny had come over last night and told her how things were progressing with Dave and his prison sentence, she’d pissed her off too. Not only did she not tell her off, which is what Maddy thought she wanted to, but she’d left after telling the kids how much she loved being around them.
“You going to get your head out of your ass and start figuring out how good you have it?”She asked who she was speaking to.“Jamie. I’m mate to Mark, the oldest. I just ran into Gibb. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him that mad before. I knew it had to be you who did it. He said he was going to talk to you this morning while the kids were at school. I’m assuming that it didn’t go as he planned.”
