Page 14 of Dallas

“Jamie is going to be my attorney. And what business is it of yours what happens to me? None, I tell you, not one bit.” She straightened up the bed covers so that nothing was exposed around her. “I don’t like you. I’m sure you have figured that out by now. Be gone and tell my daughter to get her ass in here. I have some things to say to her, too.”

“She’s in surgery. I told you that. And this concerns me because you shot my future wife and father-in-law.” Bethy decided to ignore him for now and looked out the window.

She didn’t understand what the big fuss was about. This was Roger’s fault. He’d made her angry when he decided that he wanted to have a job outside of being with her, and she’d made it clear that if he didn’t want to be with her, then he wasn’t going to be with anyone. Who would have figured that her dumbass daughter would try and save him? Bethy was going to have to try again, this time when it was just the two of them in the same room. No more heroics to save him when she was ready for him to be dead.

People came into the room. One of them was prattling on about cameras in the room as well as body cameras on their chest. Whatever. She wasn’t worried about being recorded. What she did would be justified when she told them her plans. Her plans were going to be better than anything that she’d ever heard before.

“Where is my son? He’s the only one that I care about. And don’t you dare bring that wife of his in here either. She’s the reason that I went temporally insane when I shot Roger.” She wasn’t kidding either. Her anger at having Carol being with her son was palatable. She’d never liked the other woman and thought that her being with her son was a monstrosity. But her plan was going to work, and they’d see that she was smarter than she’d ever been given credit for. “I want to know the moment that he gets here. I don’t know what’s taking him so long now, anyway. He should have been here the moment that I was hurt. He’s going to raise hell when he figures out that he wasn’t informed first and foremost.”

“He’s not coming to see you. He said that he wants to be with his sister and dad.” She didn’t bother correcting Dallas. She and Jamie had a special relationship, and she knew what he’d be doing. To make things look good. “What are you mumbling about, Bethy? He said that he didn’t want to see you until you were behind bars.”

“He’s just laying the groundwork for us.” Dallas just stared at her. Looking at her like she was some sort of bug or something. “Oh, you men think you know everything, don’t you? Well, I know what’s going to happen with all this. People are going to think that I’m the most brilliant mind in the world. Jamie and I will take over the running of the country, and he’ll be president for life. You just wait and see. And I’ll be the First Lady with him.”

“You can’t be first lady, Bethy. You’re his mother. Who, I might want to add in there, is going to jail for the attempted murder of your daughter and husband.” She told him he didn’t know anything. “Really? I think that anyone would know that much. You aren’t going to be going to the White House to stay with Jamie.”

“Of course not. I’ll be living with him. Maybe the two of us will have a couple of kids, too. If I wasn’t going to kill off Amy, and now I suppose you, I’d make you take those other kids. Jamie and I will have wonderful, well-behaved children.” Dallas asked her if she thought that she was going to be able to have children as old as she was now. “I am not old. You mother fucker. What a thing to say to me. You just wait and see what Jamie says about you insulting me like that. He’ll be thrilled to have me in his bed so that I can make a perfect host to all the world’s leaders.”

“You’re sick.” She laughed at the expression on Dallas’ face. “You’re actually thinking that you can—Christ, Bethy, you’re too old to have children, even I know that’s not possible with your age. And if you think that this is something that your son is going to be all right with, then you’re more delusional than I thought.”

“Not delusional, young man, but just what Jamie needs in his life after all the things that I’ve done for him. Do you have any idea how difficult it’s been for me to keep him in line? If his father hadn’t been such a pushover and an idiot, then I would have gotten him into the White House sooner. But that worked out well, too. A little hint dropped here and there about Carol being in witness protection, and I nearly had her out of the way. But then Amy decided to step in and be a part of the family again. I’m putting that blame squarely on your head.” Dallas asked her if she really had turned her daughter-in-law in. “Of course I did. Christ, up until then, it was everything that I could do to keep her out of the spotlight all the time. However, she’ll be gone soon enough. Then it will be just as it should have been.”

Jamie, her precious little boy, came into the room then. She was so glad to see him that she ignored him talking to Dallas for the opportunity to just marvel at his grace and handsomeness. They were perfectly matched. When she realized that he was speaking to her, she smiled brightly and asked him what he needed for her to do for him.

“Die.” She wasn’t sure that she’d heard him correctly, so she asked him to repeat himself. “Of course, I can do that. I want you dead. Out of my life. Never to come near me again. I don’t want you even breathing the same air that I am. You are nothing to me.”

“I don’t understand.” She looked at Dallas when he stood up and hugged Jamie. “What have you done? Have you been filling him with lies? Have you—it won’t matter what you’ve done. He’s my one and true love, and he and I will be the—”

“You and I? You and I will be nothing. Christ, Dallas had it right. You are sick. What made you think that I’d want you in that way? You’re my mother, for Christ’s sake. I can’t…I don’t love you in any way. Not after what you’ve been spewing about—how could you even think those things about me? It’s never going to happen. Not so long as—don’t ever talk to me or about me ever again. You’re never to contact me for any reason. As far as I’m concerned, you’re dead. And good riddance to you.” She told him that was what made it all right. That she was perfect for him. “You’re insane. There was never a—when I think about all the little touches that I would brush off from you. The times that Carol told me that you were a little too familiar with touching me, I want to puke on you. You’re insane, as I said, and I want nothing to do with you. Ever again.” He turned to leave, and she begged him to come back.

The door slammed behind him, and she was left with Dallas in the room. Something wasn’t right. He’d heard something that wasn’t true. It had to be that. There was no way that he’d turn away his own mother, not after all the sacrifices that she’d made to get him to where he was now.

When the police officers, about four of them, came into the room, she thought that they were there to arrest Dallas. This had to be all his fault. There wasn’t any way that her baby would treat her this way. When they started telling her about her rights, then about how Roger had been granted a divorce from her immediately, she thought that was the first good news she’d had all day. Then she asked about money for her and Jamie when he got out of the White House.

“I need to make arrangements for the two of us.” The officers never answered her. They didn’t speak while they locked her to the bed. When it was apparent to her that they were arresting her, she told them to get her son. There was no way that he’d approve this. “He’s just a bit overwhelmed that I’m so prepared for things to go forward. Just ask him, and he’ll tell you.”

“He’s gone. He left this room and has returned to Washington.” She told the officer that couldn’t be right. He’d left her behind. “With good reason, too. You’re going straight to lockdown. An institute for the criminally insane. There, you will be cared for with minimal effort. Given enough food to sustain you. Beth Jane Hallow, you are stripped of your marital name and will only be known as inmate seven-four-twenty-three until such time of your death.”

After being loaded into a van that had no windows, she was locked to the seat and told to keep her mouth shut. Bethy didn’t understand. Not anything that was happening to her. No matter how many times she begged for them to call Jamie, they ignored her in favor of turning their backs to her. She was going to have to do something soon. Bethy had a feeling if she made it to where they said they were taking her, no one would hear from her again.

Chapter 7

Amy wasn’t in any pain, but she was keeping to the program. Lying in bed, making sure that she pretended as best she could that she was hurting. As much as she wanted to get out of here, she didn’t either. There were enough news vans outside her window that she was terrified of what they’d do to her if she told them that she was all right.

Dad had come to visit her last night, and they spoke for nearly two hours about what had happened at the restaurant. Mom, Mother, she was calling her, had shot them both. And if not for the magic that she held, some from Dallas and a great deal from Elizabeth, she would have surely died. Her dad, too. When the door opened to her room, she smiled when Dallas entered. He had several large bags of what she hoped was food. Dad was right behind him in his wheelchair.

“How are you, Dad?” He said that he’d slept better last night than he had in a good long time. “I bet you did. The nurses said you’ve been up and around well, too. Don’t do too much, okay?”

“I won’t. I’m enjoying the quiet.” Dad fixed him a plate of the food that Dallas brought. Once he was seated and Dallas made her a plate, too, Dad spoke again. “I’ve talked to Jamie again. He’s doing much better than I thought he would have done after talking with…well, he’s doing great now. Carol is keeping him focused on the daily tasks, and I think that’s what he needs now. The papers aren’t saying a word about the conversation that Bethy had before she was taken away. I’m glad for that.”

“Yes, I am as well.” She ate some of the potato salad that had been brought in, telling Dallas how great it was. His mom had been making them meals for the last few days, and she thought the woman could open up her own restaurant. “I’ve got some good news to tell you. The calendar has already sold over four million preorder sales. Four million. Can you believe that? And I have interviews with seventeen more zoos that want me to do the same for them. I’m so excited for that. I’m popular.”

“I thought you were already popular, child.” Dad laughed when Dallas said he didn’t want her to be too popular. “No, I can understand that. When are you going to get out of here? I’m going to be released the day after tomorrow. It’s all arranged that I go in the dark of the night so that I’m not bombarded with the press.”

“I’m going to be able to leave here tonight. Just like you, in the night. I don’t know why they think that will work. The people are out there all the time and haven’t left even to go home to take a shower. I have been briefed on what to say to them if they get too close, but it’s still scary about how much they’re making up because they don’t know.” She thought about the video of the conversation she’d had with Dallas again. “Did anyone say anything was wrong with her? I mean, to think and say all those things, there has to be something. And what made her snap that day.”

“I know the answer to that one.” Dallas handed her another bottle of water when she reached for it before speaking again. “None of you had stood up to her before. For all her life, she’d been setting up the rules, and no matter how bad or ridiculous they were, you did it to avoid getting into an argument with her. She’d already been told no once that day. My mom. She told her that she wasn’t going to wear a dress to lunch when she had on nice pants and a blouse. Seems trivial, I think, but it was too much for her. Then Roger telling her that he had a job without her permission. It was all it took.”

“So it’s my fault?” Dallas assured Dad that it wasn’t his at all. But it was a good thing that it happened the way it did. “How do you figure that, young man? Your wife and myself were shot. A lot of other people might well have been hurt too because of where we were.”

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