Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Locke decided that the next time he went to see his brother, he was going to kick his ass. The cabinet that he'd told him that he'd carried into the house weighed a ton. While he knew that it hadn't had any of the linens in it nor the copious amounts of silverware, it was still heavy. He and his brothers were there to finish up the house before Dusty got home.

"Do you have any idea how I go about looking someone up for criminal records? I have to interview three people for the cook here, and I want to do a background check to see if they're all right to have around all this wealth." He asked her if she was getting cooks for all the houses. "We have one, correct? I mean, Ms. Bee is staying with us. Right?"

Locke showed her how to look them up on the computer that had been put in the kitchen after telling her he had no idea if she was staying or not. It hadn't come up in their talking to her. But he did have a request of his own that he thought she could help him with.

"Once you have that finished, can you come in here and show me how to pull the rug out from under this table. Dusty was telling us that it was what he tripped on. I have twice since we've been here."

"Just lift one end of the table up, and someone can roll the carpet up. Then do the same to the other end." He kissed his future wife and thanked her. "This is a lot of work. I wonder why he didn't ask for help."

"He's stubborn as a mule, that's why. Not really, but when he was talking to me, he said that he'd gotten into a Zen and just worked until he could get it finished. I know what he means about that. I do the same thing when I'm studying. Are you sure that you don't mind me going back to college to become a doctor?" She told him that she was thinking about something that she could get educated on, too. "Good, we'll study together."

She left him there. The kitchen wasn't really her domain. She'd told him that she didn't have much in the way of cooking skills. But she worked in there getting the rooms readied for his little brother. They'd drawn rooms from a bowl to tell them where they were going to start working. His brothers were now in the living room, and a few of the bedrooms working now.

Going into the kitchen when she announced that lunch had arrived. She'd been setting up the household computer with staples that would be delivered to Dusty's home. He liked the idea so much that he was going to ask her if she could set the same thing up in their kitchen. It would certainly make getting the groceries in that they needed all the easier.

"Two things that I have to tell you about." She handed one of the big subs to him when he told her to tell them. "Ms. Bee told me that if we did hire someone to come in and cook for Dusty that we should have staff as well. I never realized that his house was so big. I counted eight bedrooms on the second floor and three on the top. When I was a kid, I would dream of having that as a playroom. But he's not there yet."

"You'll get him there." Zander laughed when Alex smacked him on the head. "What was that for?"

"For thinking that I'm some kind of expert at getting you guys married off. You might be next, Zander, so you had better be nice to me." He claimed he was always nice, and Alex rolled her eyes at him.

That got Locke to thinking about how it was high time for them all to be married to someone special. He wouldn't bring that up with them while they were all together; they'd make fun of him. But he did think that it was in the future for all of them to be happy. August asked Alex what the second thing was.

"Oh. I nearly forgot. Do you think that he'd mind if I hired him a crew for the yard? I wouldn't want to take care of his sucker on my own, but it has been pointed out to me that you're all stubborn." Taking it as a compliment, they all thanked her. "You guys are certifiable."

"I think that at one point, all of us were looking into having a lawn service. I know that the big house has one." Knox leaned back in his chair and looked out the windows. "I think that he does need one. I know that when I tried to mow my lawn, I gave up about halfway through. It's a big fucking yard, and I know nothing about trimming or anything like that. I have paid a kid to mow the front for me, but I haven't seen him since. I know that I paid him well, but I think he figured out girls were just too nice to look at, so he stopped working."

They all had suggestions on who to hire for their lawns. He didn't know that Zander had his mowed with a service. When asked if he thought that they could use the same people, he shook his head.

"I hired them without thought as to how much mowing and trimming there had to be done. At some point, they just stopped weeding the gardens and left the bushes out front to grow too big. Now, I'll probably have to have them taken out. They're a mess." Locke asked him why he was having them still work for him. "I don't know. I was getting the yard mowed and figured that someday I'd hire a better crew. I guess that time got away from me, and I didn't do it."

"I think that's true for a lot of things that you have going on in your household." She turned to him first. "Did you know that you have a dry cleaning service that comes to your house and steam presses your suits weekly? When I heard that, I wondered what other silly things where it seemed people were taking advantage of you six being so busy. And wealthy. You've all got some really stupid things going on where you're being taken advantage of. Ms. Bee helped me with your list, Locke, and once the word got out that I was looking into things, people started stopping me on the streets to let me know that you guys couldn't live without the services that they're doing for you."

"I had no idea." She nodded and handed him a list and then his brothers a list as well. "This is what I pay people for steaming suits that I haven't worn, but maybe once a year? Christ. Five hundred bucks a month is more than it cost me to go and pick up my suits that I'd drop off."

"It would…I know that I'm new to his family, but you guys are being taken advantage of big time. Yours, Locke is more than ten grand a month. And you're also paying for two cable subscriptions. One to your upper floors and the other to the main floor. I hope you don't mind, but I've taken care of the people working here." Locke asked her if she'd take care of the ones at their home. "I'm glad that you said that. I've already taken care of the steam press guy and the cable company. They tried very hard to explain to me that it wasn't going to bode well if you didn't have cable where you wanted it. I haven't seen any disruption in service since I cut them off."

There were things on his list that he'd never heard of. Why would he need a limo service at his beck and call when he drove everywhere he wanted to go. That alone was costing him nearly three grand a month. There was also a grocery store amount that he was sure she'd put the decimal point in the wrong place. But she assured him that she hadn't. It was costing him nearly five grand a month to have groceries delivered to their home. Just to be delivered, not even the price of food was factored into that. A service that he was sure he'd never used before or after Martha had passed away.

"The grocery store was only costing you less than ten bucks a month up until Martha got sick. Then, over the next couple of months, it went up to the amount you're being charged now. I don't know for sure, but I think that the townspeople found a mark with you and were hoping that you'd never figure it out. That's what I think anyway." He told her that it looked like that to him, too. "I don't mind taking care of this for you guys, but I want you to tell me about each place of business and if you've okayed them or not. I might need passwords, too, in order to cancel them for you."

"Whatever it takes, I'm fine with it. When I think of my accounting—" Zander looked at his list and then at him. "My accountant is charging me for each check he writes to pay these thieves."

"You all need to take over your own personal money, and I would for the company that you run too. You can't manage what you can't see. It's the only way that you'll keep on top of what is going on." Zander agreed with Alex and told her how much he appreciated her figuring this out for them. "I can do that for you." They all looked at Alex, and he asked her what she could do. "Fill out checks for the bills that you have, and all you'll need to do is put your signature on the checks to get things paid. I don't want to have my name on your accounts. I think that we need to know one another better, but it will save you a great deal of money for one thing and a lot of headaches when something isn't right."

After talking to his brothers, they decided that they'd have Alex take care of their lists, too. And her taking care of the bills for each household until they could hire someone they could trust, and she smiled at him.

"I need for you to go to the bank and lock your account if I'm going to proceed with this for all of you. Otherwise, if your accountant figures out he's up for termination, he'll skip town with your money and assets. They'll suddenly be in his name, and you won't have any nice houses around the world either." Each of them pulled out their phones and secured their accounts immediately. "Now call the police and have your accountant arrested. He is taking large sums of money out of your accounts without your permission. Do it now. As I said before, he gets wind of what is going on."

Within an hour, all their accountants had been arrested, and their accounts were put into another account so that they'd not be able to take anything else. She reminded them to cancel all their credit cards so that wouldn't be a problem as well. By the time they were finishing up with the rooms they'd been assigned, Locke could almost feel how they all felt like fools being taken advantage of by the people they trusted. He loved Alex so much, and this made him appreciate her eye for detail even more.

Even going home that night, within walking distance for them, he thought about other things that she'd discovered. Most of it she simply wrote off as her being on the outside looking in. However, he thought it was more than likely that they just didn't notice things that they saw every day, and this was it more than anything. They'd gotten lazy and hadn't bothered because there were more important or even more exciting ventures to get their attention.

"Ms. Bee told me when I spoke to her earlier that she'd have us sandwiches in the fridge if we were hungry. I'm starved." They both made their way to the back of the house and slipped inside the back door. Just like they were told, there was a tray of different kinds of sandwiches right there for them. Also small bowls of potato salad—his favorite, and macaroni salads.

After they finished eating, Alex loaded up their few dishes while he put the extras away. He'd not realized how much fun it was to have someone having a little meal like they had when you come in from working. Wrapping his arm around her waist and walking to the stairs with her, she yawned three times before they were up the stairs.

~*~

Being brave, especially about sex, Alex had no idea how to seduce Locke. She'd seen how they did it in movies but knew on some level that it had been scripted and more than likely analyzed by hundreds of people beforehand. She just wanted a good lay and figured that Locke wouldn't mind so much helping her with that. So, turning to him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, all she did was smile.

His mouth was covering hers, taking her, tasting her. He began pulling at her clothes. First, the shirt came off, which didn't fare any better than she thought it would. He was dipping his head down to her bare breasts and pulling it deeply into his mouth, tormenting her erect nipple with his tongue. Alex hoped that her clothing would survive throughout their life together. Either that or she was going to have to buy herself more clothing to cover herself with to be around the house.

She could feel her body responding to his sensual assault. Her pants were suddenly too tight, too heavy. She wanted to touch him, but she needed to feel his skin against hers.

"Locke, please, I need…I need something more."

She tore at his shirt, ripping the material as if it were no more than tissue paper, need giving her strength she had no idea she had. When she had it off, she leaned forward and took his hard nipple into her mouth and bit him, bit him hard, drawing a sound from him that had her wet. She could feel the steady steam of her cream sliding down her legs. Christ, it was like having the most wonderful sex while not having sex at all.

He reached behind her to her pants and buried his hands down into them, pulling her up to his cock, which was hard and hot against her soft folds. She wrapped her legs around him and held on while riding up and down his cock with the power of her legs.

He started toward the bed and even got as close as the edge of it, but she needed him now. When he stopped and pulled her legs down from his hips and slid her down his body, she started pulling at his belt. He moved her hands, and he dropped to his knees in front of her, and yanked her pants off quickly. He buried his mouth against her pussy and sucked her into his mouth, panties and all. She screamed out as the sensations of what he was doing to her pulsed through her body. When Locke lifted her leg, positioned it over his shoulder, and tore the material from his goal, she grabbed a handful of his hair and held on. Her pussy gushed with her cream; a small trickle of it ran down her thigh. More of her juices gushed as his head lowered to her.

Locke lapped at her, even as he inserted a finger into her heat. He once again tongued her clit, and suckled it. When she started moving against his fingers and his mouth, he inserted a second, then a third, into her. She was close to coming and he'd not even entered her yet.

"I want to suckle from your pussy. Let me bite you, taste you." He teased her clit, driving her closer to the edge.

"Yes, oh god, Locke. Bite me, make me come so that I can quit this burning need to explode." Her body weakened at the thought of him biting her between her legs. She wasn't the least bit worried about the pain but needed for him to show that she was alive.

The pain was immense but over quickly. It was replaced by the most intense orgasm she had ever had. When he drew her clit into his mouth and swallowed, she came again, still rocking from the first one.

Her knees buckled now, and had he not twisted and lowered her to the bed, she would have fallen. He never stopped, and Alex had come four more times. But he wasn't finished with her yet.

Locke leaned back on his heels, her cum and juices glistening on his chin and lips, and stroked his engorged cock. The blood-filled head was as big as a large plum. The tip was leaking cum, and the desire to taste him overwhelmed her. She sat up quickly and reached for him, taking him into her mouth before he could stop her, not that he could have. When he started gently fucking her hot wet mouth, she moaned.

He started to pull away, but she growled at him. He pushed harder into her, not being gentle now. Suddenly, he jerked her away by grabbing a handful of her hair and turned her around. While she was up on her hands and knees, he rammed his cock deep into her pussy from behind.

He pulled out nearly to the tip and rammed into her again. Again and again, he'd pull out just to the head and slam hard into her. Reaching around to her pussy, he pinched the small, exposed piece of flesh, leaned down, bit her on the shoulder, and came, jerking and pulsing in her hard over and over until he dropped on top of her, her own climax still singing through her body.

Alex couldn't move. Even if she had the willpower to just inch over on the top of the bed, she had a ton of weight on her backside. Giggling a little, wondering what he would say of her calling him a ton of weight, she was finally out from under him when he pulled her backside to his groin and snuggled up against her.

"That was…It just was." That got her giggling again, and she could feel his smile as if he were pressed against her. "This is going to sound stupid, but I'm thinking that we should pace ourselves—please? If we have that kind of sex again. I will not survive. I'll be happy, but like I said, I'd be dead."

She heard her cell phone ringing someplace in the bed. By the time the two of them were able to locate it in the tangle of sheets and blankets, the person had hung up. Locke's phone started ringing just as she was going to tell him that it was a call from William Grable. Locke looked at her with a mischievous look on his face. Then he answered it.

"What do you want? I've just had the greatest sex of my life, and you're trying to kill my buzz. Tell me whatever it is so that I can tell you no and hang up." The Grable sputtered on the other end of the line, and that put Alex into a goofy mood where she was still laughing too hard. Then he asked the man what he wanted.

"I want to talk to you. We got off on the—what's that word there?" Alex started laughing when she could almost see William having to have a script to ask to talk to Locke. "The wrong food…what?...No, I said foot. Yes, I did. Will you stop bothering me so that I can talk to this man? Jesus H. Christ. Go away until I can talk this man into getting out of my mammy's house."

William then asked if he was still there. "I am. Just waiting for you to tell me about the food you got off on." He asked him what he was talking about. "Never mind, it went over your head."

"Something's on my head? Damn it, man, are you sending bugs after me? I just want what is mine. My mother—do you believe that shit? She was keeping track of all the shit that I took from her. What sort of mother does that?" Locke told him he thought it was a smart way to deal with him. "We'll see about that. Can I come and talk to you? I guess you have a wife now. She'll, I suppose, will want to be there too, right?"

"Yes, I don't go anywhere without my wife." Locke winked at her before continuing with Willaim. "How about you come over with your wife and kids. I'm to understand that you have about a dozen or so of them, correct?"

"No. Good lord, no. I got me two, just two that I'm going to claim. Anyways, I'll bring my wife because I know she'll be harping on me, calling me to find out if you've turned my stuff over to me like it should have been in the first place." Locke said that he'd get what he had coming to him. "Well, ain't you nice? Did you—no, she'd of not heard you. She's taking one of the kids in to pee. What time we gotta be there?"

After giving him his address three times, he said he'd be at his house before six on the sharp. Neither of them knew what that meant, on the sharp? Not that it mattered, Locke said to her. He really was going to get what he had coming to him.

Alex wondered if it was such a good idea to have William at their home. He told her that he thought this was better than a restaurant because there would be a scene, or the idiot would hurt someone else. She agreed.

"We'll do something that we might have if they weren't coming over. How about hot dogs and brats. I know we have some. I saw them in the groceries when it was delivered." She told him that was an excellent idea and that if they didn't get around to eating, they could reheat them and eat them tomorrow.

"You think that he's going to simply walk away from this if he doesn't get his way? The reason I ask is if we should invite the rest of them over as a sort of backup if he gets out of hand." Locke asked her if she thought he would. "I do. In some way, he terrifies me, but most of the time, I'm in awe as to how he made it this far in life without someone taking a sharp object to him. Smell alone would get him in trouble with me."

"Yes, I have noticed that he has an aroma about him that sickens me as well." They laughed again. "I guess we should get up and make sure that the household is ready for them. Though I don't know if he'd care all that much. I just want him to leave us the hell alone."

"I second that." They got up and made the bed. Tossing her blouse in the trash, she wondered what Ms. Bee would say if she were to come across her torn clothing. Then she didn't care. She was flipping happy.

After telling Ms. Bee what was going on, she asked for her to show her how to order on the computer once more before she felt like she was able to handle it. Alex had no trouble showing her, and it was funny to her that her grandson was also there to help his Grannie do a good job for them. She met up with Locke in the back yard talking to one of his brothers. It startled her how much they looked alike again. They were all big men, and it was—

"Ms. Alex, there is a phone call for you. I think it's young Dusty." Excited to speak to her brother-in-law, she rushed to the phone and had to calm herself twice before she was able to talk to him. "How are you? I hope you're doing what you were told and keeping up with the pain levels."

"I am. I don't want to be here any longer than I have to be. I was wondering if you or Locke could bring me in my computer. I'm about as bored as I've ever been waiting like this. The staff here said that they could set me up with a desk under the bed so that I could see it. I know not to overdo things, but I'm about to go mad here with nothing to occupy my mind." She told him that she understood boredom. "Yes, you are living with the king of boredom. Locke is the most boring man I know."

"Did you want me to bring you in your computer so you can use it, or did you want me to bash it over your head?" He laughed but stopped abruptly. "I'm sorry. You must be still in a great deal of pain."

"Only when I laugh. The muscles are getting stronger but I still have to lie on my stomach in order to get them to heal properly. The things they do to my legs are kind of nice. It really does get my blood running, but it's also something that wears me out a great deal." She told him that she could understand that, too. "Thanks, Alex. You've no idea how much I miss being around you guys."

"We miss you too." When Locke came into the house, she handed off the phone to him. The house wasn't the only one that she'd found a landline in, but it was certainly one of many things that she thought were old-fashioned. After heading to her own office, grateful to have something to do herself, Alex was still on the phone with one of the companies that she'd been contacting on behalf of her new family.

She put the phone on mute so that she could talk to Locke when he came in, and she told him about the woman she was talking to. All she was trying to do was get two credit cards canceled that she was sure that Locke hadn't asked for.

"Oh, honey, you don't want to cancel that card. It would put a ding on his credit report. Just stick it in a drawer someplace and only take it out when hubby isn't around. See what I'm saying?" Alex did and told the woman she was appalled by her suggesting that she go behind her husband's back to use a card to get something. "Everyone does it. Now you tell me the annual income in the house, and I'll see if I can—never mind. I'm just going to give it all to you. You just say the word, and I'll hit this little button here for you, saying that you decided to keep the card after all."

"Cancel it." When the woman started to say something else, she cut her off. "I have a recording of the conversation that we've just had, and I'm sure they do at your place of business. If, by the end of the day, you're not terminated, I'm going to go there and figure out why. Cancel those cards right now before I call your boss."

"Testy, aren't you? Well, don't come back here telling anyone that you've changed your mind. I'm marking your file with a black mark." Alex laughed, and that seemed to piss the woman off more. "There. All the cards that we've been very generous with you are canceled. I hope you have the day that you deserve, you bitch."

Locke picked her up and sat her on his lap. "Don't take this the wrong way, but you're very good at protecting us when you're cornered, aren't you?" She told him that the woman had pissed her off. "Yes, I can see that. I'm sure she knows it too. Good job. Now, what else do you have to do today? I'm going to run the computer into Dusty, and then I'm going to go by and pick up some buns. It was discovered that they didn't come in the groceries. I don't know if that means no one ordered them or we just didn't get them. But I'm also to pick up a couple of gallons of tea as there isn't enough in the fridge for us to serve if they want that."

"I have some things that I need his approval on before I can cancel some of the things that he had in his name. One of the weirdest things is that Dusty is paying a nursing home for someone that I can't find a name for." He told her to leave that one be. It was personal for Dusty. "Oh. I never thought of that. Is it something that you can share?"

"Let Dusty tell you. It was a long time ago, but he needs to tell you about it. All right?" She nodded. "Now. I'm off to the hospital. Is there anything else I can pick up?"

"No. I think we did a good job in building up the pantry with staples. At least, that's what Ms. Bee told me. I just pulled out a couple of her recipes and made sure that those things were on the list. Since I didn't know what some of the things were, I only ordered small sizes. She told me that for a non-cook, I'd done very well." He told her that he was proud of her as well. "If you're hoping to get laid again, you don't need to butter me up. However, I'm still sore, so we might need to just cuddle for a while."

He told her that he was sore, too, and left it at that. When he left to run by his brother's place and then the hospital, she was kind of glad for the quietness of the house. It was never a loud place here, but she was used to the silence of the buildings in which she had been staying. Alex couldn't have been happier than she was right now. She only hoped that it would last, too.