Page 6 of Dallas

“He doesn’t. He’ll take her to the cleaners soon. I know that she signed a prenup when they were married. Anything she came with into the marriage is hers and vice versa. Which is to say she didn’t have a great deal, if anything at all. He can prove, without any kind of trouble, what she’s been up to there. But I’m thinking that she’s just going to go away for the rest of his term—a long spa-like trip, I think, then he’ll divorce her when his term is over. I do believe that he’ll be running again. More than likely on a better campaign than he had the first time. Jamie followed through on all his promises and then some. I’m not saying that he’s perfect, but about as close as he can get.”

When she entered the room and sat in one of the large wingbacks that were across from the desk, he looked at her. In the last several hours, he’d gotten to know her a good deal better. But he could see that she was exhausted. Dallas knew that he was beginning to feel the long days he’d been putting in all over the place, too. She asked him what he was thinking about.

“Nothing and everything. Where is this house that you have, and why weren’t you living it before?” She told him that it was not far from his parents’ home. “I don’t know what that means. Do you not want to live close to where your parents live? Also, what sort of home is it?”

“It was my grandparents’ home. It’s not an ancestral home. I guess we’d be considered new money by most. Your grandmother, who I like, by the way, said that while you guys didn’t have as much as you do now, you’re considered to be old money. I guess, in a way, I know what that means, but why does it matter?” Dallas told her that he didn’t know either other than their money had been, even for as little there had been in the last couple of decades, they’ve had it for a little longer than most. “Mrs. Simpson, your mom’s mother told me that the family name meant something and would open doors. I don’t know that I’d want a lot of doors open for me. However, not so much in recent years.”

“Because there were so few doors to open, from what I understand. The money, and there had always been a great deal of it, had started to disappear from a lot of the old families around here and into Washington.” He laughed a little. “Upstarts like you, with more money than we had, would have been married off to families like mine to bring in not just a fresh flow of money but stronger bloodlines. Of course, the men of the household would go around acting like we did you a huge favor by allowing you to hand over your money and us to spend it for you. From what my grandparents have related to us, they would have gone through the fortune of the new bride much faster than we did our own money, dump the new bride, and set ourselves to go out and find another rich woman to freshen things up for us again.”

“Did you being gorillas have anything to do with your fortune?” He said that was a funny story. “You have to tell me. I could use a good story about now. Jamie is going to announce that his younger sister is getting married to the Dixon family soon, and I hate that he’s doing that. But after talking to him about the reasons for it, I guess I can understand. It has about everything to do with his kids and soon to be ex-wife.”

“I’m sorry it’s come to that for you. Your dad said that the only way to make it work out so that neither Jamie nor you were targets it would be better if the world knew about you and me getting married. While your dad didn’t come out and say it, he said that he thought the White House would be a good place for a family wedding.” She said her mom wasn’t so backward. “No. Your mom is lovely but not at all subtle about things.”

“Mom told me that it would have to be a very large wedding so that people didn’t try and put two and two together and get six. Her logic is scary sometimes, but I guess I can see that. People will have something else to focus on instead of the fact that Carol has been pushed under the rug.” Dallas laughed. “Tell me about how you became wealthy.”

“We’ve been gorillas for generations. The fact that we could hide in plain sight without humans knowing that we were around, I guess, worked very well in our favor. My great too many back to count him grandfather ran a large circus-like act that would go all over the country and put on shows. Every animal was a shifter, so it made shows go off without a hitch, and people paid big money to go to one of the shows. Which in turn made it so that there was money for the people that worked the shows.” Amy said it must have been scary for him to be able to do something that different. “I doubt it was that difficult for him and his mate. Because of the income, they would have protected my grandfather to keep the money flowing. Understand? Everyone was paid well for their work in the shows, and he’d let them roam around the town when they were off for the evening. It was a nice setup until he found out that a group of his shifters were going into homes and robbing the people living there. Not wasting a minute, not only did he turn them in but testified against them at their trials. Of course, it was brought up that he was a gorilla shifter, as was his entire family, but since no one had ever seen him out and about as a gorilla, it was forgotten. The six family members who had been robbing people were all put in jail and never heard from again. It worked out well for the others, and they continued on in their endeavors.”

“I think I might have liked your grandfather.” She stood up. “I’ve contacted a couple of people who worked for my grandma in the past. Mr. Hunt is going to get a crew lined up and go over to the house and have it aired out. The place is furnished, too, by the way. With what, I couldn’t tell you. It’s been about twenty years since anyone has lived in the house full-time. People have been staying there—staff mostly, I just found out, but it’s in good shape.” He asked her when she wanted to go and see it. “Tomorrow after lunch, if you don’t mind. That way, we can be away from your family and home when it hits the newspaper that we’re getting married. Are you sure that this is something that you want to do? I mean, for all I care, we could just live together and be done with it.”

“I’ve spoken to both our families, and in order for it to look good for your brother, then getting married is the best way to handle it. I promise you, Amy, I will never hurt you. Mentally, either, if I can help it. But I’ve never had a mate before, so I might mess up some.” She said she’d not either and would mess up. “Then we should get along just fine, don’t you think?”

“Time will tell.” She stood up and stretched. “I’m going to bed. Your mom set me up with a nice bedroom and bath. I’m so exhausted I think that I could sleep well right here on the floor.”

After she left, he sat there thinking about their marriage. He was so deep in thought that he had to smile at his grandda when he cleared his throat for what he thought wasn’t the first time. Looking at his favorite grandparent, he asked him how long he’d been there.

“Not long. You drooling over that girl? She sure is a looker if you ask me.” He said he hadn’t, but he had noticed she was very pretty. “Smart too, no matter what kind of façade she’s been putting on. Her brother told me and your grandma that she graduated top of her class in both high school and Brown University. Taking pictures, too, that’s only her minor in college. She’s got her a masters in business as well as she’s been working on her PhD too.”

“I didn’t know that part. Amy did tell me that she can speak several languages, too. As well as balance a checkbook. It took me a bit of time to figure out what she meant by that. I guess it’s not common for people, especially kids of this generation, to know how to do that.” Grandda told him that he was glad that he’d taught all of them. “I am as well. I know that it’s kept me in money all these years, knowing just how much money I have in my accounts. What’s up, Grandda? You’re usually in bed by now.”

“I got myself to thinking about things. You know me. Can’t leave a single rock unturned. How much do you know about this Carol person that Jamie is married to? I have me a feeling that there is something about her that I should know, but I can’t put my finger on it. You can help an old man out, can’t you, son?” He asked him what he wanted to know while booting up his computer that had gone to sleep. “Well, I don’t know. I have hinted around to her husband. I do like that young man, by the way, that I seem to remember her name—her maiden name is Farley. Carolynn Farley. He’d told me that he’d been married to her before he’d run for office, so he hadn’t done one of them background checks on her. You can still do that, can’t you?”

“I can. Do you mind if I call Amy to help out? She said she was going to bed, but I might need some information from her.” Grandda told him not to wake her. “Grandda, I can figure out if she’s asleep or not. I promise I won’t disturb her unless she’s awake. Just hang on a second.” Turned out she was awake. So he told her what they wanted from her.

“I decided to read a book. The room is beautiful, but the bed…well, I’ve not slept in a bed for a little while that is this nice. I’m on my way down. It might be fun to do a little snooping before she’s sent off, don’t you think?”

When she entered the room, she kissed grandda on the head. Dallas had never seen his grandda so embarrassed before, and it caused him to laugh a little. Grandda was a good man, and he loved him to pieces.

After getting her birthdate and a couple of other bits of information, they found out that Carol Farley was deceased. And had been for about forty years. But Carolynne, with the same birthdate, had an FBI file.

“How is it possible that two people have the same name, born on the same day? I mean, I know there are millions of people in the world, and it could happen, but how likely is that?” Amy told Grandda that she didn’t think the odds were all that possible. “Yeah, me either. Can we get into the file that you’ve figured out? And who would put that out there that she has one where anyone could read it? Something smells like tuna if you ask me.”

As soon as he clicked on the file, his cell phone rang. Almost afraid to pick it up, he was even more nervous when Jamie joined them in the room with his own phone near his ear. As soon as he sat down, Dallas knew that the shit had hit the fan, and they were all going to be in prison in just a few minutes.

“Yes, I’m right here in the room with my future brother-in-law and sister.” Jamie looked at him and then at Amy. “Of course, I trust them with my life. Christ, man, what the hell is going on? They’re just doing something that I asked them to do.”

Dallas took Amy’s hand when she came to stand next to him. Jamie was still talking to whoever had called him while grandda sat as still as he’d ever seen him in the chair. Something was up. Afraid of what it might be, he reached out to Amy to see if she knew anything.

“Nothing. I had no idea that there was going to be anything going on with this search. And why is he taking the blame for us looking.” Dallas said he was sort of afraid. “You and me both. I’m going to go and ask my parents.”

Before she could leave him, the secret service men came into the room and stood in front of the three windows and the two doors in the office. It appeared to him that none of them were going anywhere.

~*~

Amy could only stare at her brother. The things that they were finding out were making her slightly sick to her stomach. Not only that, but her parents didn’t seem to have known about what was being told them either. Carol was a person with a past that none of them had been made aware of.

“So you knew when I married her that she was a person with a hidden past and let it happen.” The man, she’d forgotten his name when he’d introduced himself after he’d arrived, told Jamie that no one had ever thought that it would matter. “And yet it has to a great many people. I should have been told this as soon as I asked her to marry me. Not years down the line after I’m President of the fucking United States. Not to mention the mother of my children.”

“Jamison Parkerson. There is no reason for you to speak like that.” Amy told her mom that there was every reason he should be pissed off. “Yes, but this man is only the person delivering the message. He’d not made it happen.”

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