Page 7 of Nash

The front doorbell rang, and his mom told Billings, her butler, not to answer it.Nash hadn’t thought of his mother not allowing Sunny’s grandmother to come into the house.But when it exploded back, breaking not just the door itself and the hand-made glass mosaics down both sides of it and the table that had stood in the middle of the room for as long as he could remember.Even the flowers that were replaced daily went scattering when the police, about a dozen of them, came into the room with flack jackets and headgear on, but their weapons were drawn as well.They were all pointed at the men who were detaining them at the bottom of the stairs, as well as his mother.

“Hello, darling.”Sunny told the very beautiful woman standing just inside the broken door mess she was glad to see her.“I would imagine that you are.You must be Nash, young man.Come here, the two of you.These men are going to be arrested.You are pressing charges, aren’t you, Sunny?”

“Yes.I am.On his mother, too.”Sunny looked at him, and he could see her concern.“If that’s all right with you, Nash?”

“You go on and do what you need to do.”Sunny stared at him for several seconds, and he nodded at her.“Press charges, Sunny.Please.It’s no less than she deserves.”

Nash watched his mother being taken out in cuffs.It was a thrilling sight to him but one he knew that he was going to pay for.His mother would not take kindly for having to be arrested in the first place, but to be dragged out of her own home in cuffs where the neighbors could see would put her over the edge.Mrs.Nettles, she’d asked him to call her Belle, asked the staff to bring them some light snacks as well as drinks to the dining room.

“And by drinks, I mean something that will burn our throats as it goes down.Understand?”They all looked at him as if he might be the one in charge now that their mistress had been taken away.Telling them it was fine got them moving, but he would have to get in touch with his brothers.He wondered if they’d want him arrested, too, for being such a prick to their mother.“You’re afraid of her, aren’t you, young man?Your mother, I mean.You’re afraid of her.”

“I wasn’t until recently.”He could have told her a lot of things, but she seemed all right with that answer.“I have to contact my brothers, too.I don’t know how they’ll take having Mother arrested, much less by me.I’ve not been on the good list here for a while now.”

“It’ll be fine, Nash.If they give you any more shit, I’ll adopt you, and you won’t have to deal with them anymore.”Belle looked around the room they were in.“If this isn’t a smash it in your face, I have money house, I don’t know what else it could be called.Nash looked around then, too.

When he left Belle and Sunny to reach out to his brothers, he decided to do it privately and all of them at the same time.He hadn’t any idea where his grandda was, but he was sure as soon as he found out, he’d be bailing his daughter out of jail.Which meant that he didn’t have much time to get out of town.As surely as he was standing on the back deck of his mother’s home, he knew that the old man would waste no time in coming after him.

After explaining to them all that had happened with Sunny when he’d been with her last night, he went on to tell them about how they’d ended up here instead of in his own home.Nash didn’t explain how he didn’t have anything to keep Sunny safe, but they all seemed to understand that he thought she’d be safer where they were.Then he told them how their mother had pulled in guards to keep them from leaving the house, as well as how there were guns pointed at them.The silence at the other end of the call made him nervous.It was Archie who spoke first.

“Did she hurt either of you?”It wasn’t a question that he had anticipated, but he did tell his brother that she’d not, not physically, anyway.“I’m in my truck now.I don’t know where the rest of you are, but I’d like it if you were to meet us at the house.There are some things that I’ve been able to uncover, and I need…please?Will you all meet me at the family home?”

They all agreed, and he reached out to Archie alone.When he told him that he’d explain when he arrived, he also said something else that startled Nash.He told him that he was profoundly sorry for the way that he’d been treated over the last few years.Going back into the dining room with Sunny and Belle, Nash missed what was being said to him.His mind was so messed up.

“Are you all right?”He turned and looked at Sunny and realized that it was just the two of them in the room.“You looked freaked out or something.”

“I think that I am.”He turned in the chair and looked at her, telling her everything that had been said when he had spoken to his brothers.“I have to tell you, Nash, I think your mom is a manipulative bitch that is used to getting her own way about shit and doesn’t mind throwing her weight around to make sure that things go the way that she wants.”

“It’s funny you should say that.I have been sitting here thinking the same thing.Even though I messed up with taking you that day, I hadn’t hurt you like she put out there that I had.If I were a father to someone who had supposedly done something like she said I’d done, I would have investigated a bit more before doing what—she turned my family against me and made sure that I didn’t have contact with any of them.And this is something that really bothers me: she was going to kill me.I had to ask around, but she shouldn’t be able to do that.Threaten?Yes.But she can’t just kill me like she did our father.”Sunny asked him why he thought she was doing that.“Control?I don’t know.But it has to be something.I don’t understand why she is controlling us the way that she has been.And I think it’s been our entire lives.”

“I don’t know her that well, but I’d say that she’s used to getting things done the way that she wants them, and if you fuck up, then…she would have known that I was a waitress.Do you suppose she did this to keep us apart?I’m not saying that I want to hang out with you all that much, but why would she care if, as mates, the two of us got together?She hid us away from each other.Why?You could have healed me, right?But I was stuck in that—I did get good care, don’t get me wrong there.But your brothers came to see me at night the way that you did.”He nodded at her question, but the more he thought about it, the more questions that he had.

The doorbell rang, and he realized right then that it wasn’t an appropriate ring for a house.It was a theme song from a movie about a child that had been possessed by the devil.Right off the top of his head, he couldn’t remember the name of it, but he was sure that was what it was.When his brothers came into the dining room, Belle joined them, too.Behind her, the staff was bringing in drinks and platters of food for them to munch on.Their dinner, they were told was being catered in soon.

“All right, Sunny and gentlemen, I have a bit of news for you all.I don’t know you at all, so when you have a question, I’d like for you to please tell me your name.”Belle looked at him.“Nash, your mother is a fucking cunt, and the sooner that you and the others realize that, you might be better men than you are now.”

Archie laughed.He was sure that he was laughing a bit too hard at hearing someone call his own mother a cunt, but when he stood up and hugged Belle, Nash wasn’t sure what to do.This was the freakiest thing he’d ever witnessed in all his life.

“Ms.Nettles, you couldn’t have said it any better.”Archie looked around the table and then back at him.“Nash, I said this to you earlier, and I want to say it again in front of everyone.I am more sorry than I could ever be for treating you the way that I did.You messed up, hell, which one of us hasn’t?But instead of pulling together like a family and trying to resolve anything to get the two of you on better starting ground, we treated the two of you like you had murdered our entire family and were ready and willing to walk away without finding out the truth.I beg you for your forgiveness.”He then turned to Sunny.“You, too, were a victim in all this.My brother did hurt you and treated you like shit, but there was no reason at all for us to have treated you like we did.Sneaking in to see you at night.Making sure that you had whatever you needed when we visited you.That is no way to treat someone.Especially not our newest family member.”

Sunny got up and hugged each of his brothers.When she sat down next to him again, he braced himself for whatever she was about to say.He was sure that she was going to tell him to fuck off and to leave her alone.Instead, she took his hand into hers.

“I hate that I went along with everything like you were this terrible person.You did hurt me, but not physically.My heart was broken too if I’m honest, but it wasn’t because of you, not all of it.If not for the staff where I was, literally talking to me about things that they noticed, there is no telling how much longer I would have gone on thinking that your mother was helping me.”Archie asked Sunny what it was they had said.“I was to go to this house after I was discharged from the facility.She just told me that I was going to be able to go home and nothing more.And I was to keep my mouth shut, her words on where I was so that her degenerate son, I always thought she meant Nash, but I don’t know for sure now—wouldn’t find me.I thought that was an odd thing to say, but then she told me that she’d give me money to start over wherever I wanted to go.She wasn’t willing to help me with finding out the truth about what had happened but kept filling my head with all these terrible things about all her sons.That none of you were any different than Nash had done to me, and without her, there is no telling what sort of things they might do to their mates.Do you think that she meant to keep you all away from your other halves?”

“The better question would be, has she done this before?Did she, at some point in your lives, keep you away from your mates when they showed up.”Archie sat down hard.He was glad that there had been a chair behind him, or he might well have hurt himself badly.Belle went to make sure he was all right, but what Belle had said about other mates had him thinking.Had she done this before?

“Why?”They all turned to Beau when he asked his question.It was a good one.Why would she do that?“Most of the time, she barely acted like she liked us.Why would she care if we found our mates and moved away?I have to admit to you guys I think this takes some looking into.Not just the mates, though I hope to Christ she’d not do something like that, but her reasoning behind it.Why would she not want us to…that’s it.She doesn’t want us to be happy.You think?”

“If that’s the first thing that pops into your head, then that’s more than likely it.”All of them turned to Belle when she stood there.“As much as I’m enjoying this with all you young men, I believe we need to search this house before she gets back.There is no—”

“I know where everything you need is.We’ve been saving things for you.”The staff, one by one, were lined up behind Mother’s butler, Billings.“I’ve been waiting for this day.All of us have since you were young men.I’m ever so glad that one of you has gotten your heads out of your ass, and—by the way, I’m leaving my employment here as of an hour ago.The things that you need are in the living room.The rest of us, all the staff, only stayed here to make sure that you were able to find what you needed, and we’ll be leaving before your mother returns.Also, I’d watch out for your grandfather, too.He’s a mean little fucker that would just as soon spit on you than to help you out.Father like daughter, if you know what I mean.”

“Don’t go.”Everyone looked at Sunny.“She’s probably going to be put on trial.If I were you, Archie, I’d move into this house and make it your own.Change the locks and make sure that you find yourself a good attorney to look into the death of your father.For some reason, I think she might well have murdered him for something more than…I don’t even know anything about his death, but after today, I’d think really hard about how he died.”

“I’m going to do it.”Archie stood up.“The house is mine anyway.When Dad died…I didn’t want to push Mom out, so I let her stay here.I think she’s outstayed her welcome and my goodwill toward her.Billings, if you’d stay here with the rest of the staff, I’d appreciate it.Also, so you guys know, there are a lot of things that Dad left you that Mom didn’t turn over to you.I’ll figure that out, too.”

When they all went to the living room, Billings and the other members of the staff decided to stay.They were still going over some of the things that were in the room when the caterers arrived.Nash didn’t think that this day could have gotten any stranger, but he was beginning to think that this wasn’t strange.His life before had been.This was normal.At least, that’s what he kept telling himself it was.

Chapter 4

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