Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Alex was having fun, but she was tired too. Watching the little kids while their mother slept today was exhausting, but she was learning a great deal about kids at the same time. Especially the outspoken Mandy. Her mother should maybe stop talking around the little girl, but she thought it was too late now. The kid seemed to know everything there was to know about her mother and father. And the old lady that was her grandma. When she asked her again if she knew if her mom was all right, Alex told her that she was asleep. But then added what had really happened.

"You did see your grandmother try to hurt her, didn't you? She did manage to get one blow into her shoulder before the police were able to stop her." She said that she'd not seen her mommy hurt. "Yes, well, you were doing a great job of keeping that other woman from taking you and your brother and sister, which was really smart of you. She wasn't able to take you because you were there to protect them all."

"Mr. Locke did too. He cussed." Alex thought that was an understatement as to what Locke had done. Screaming at the woman to stop trying to take the children made her think that when they had children that they'd be safe with their daddy. "Did you know that my mommy is going to sell our house?"

"I know that now. But I can understand her wanting to move to a smaller house with you three. It must be hard for her to take care of this place. Six bedrooms are a lot, even in places with a staff." After explaining what staff meant, she played around in the water with Fred, the little pudgy little guy who seemed to think that everything was funny and that he needed to show his two new front teeth.

While Mandy was careful splashing water on her little brother, she wasn't so much around her. Begging not to be soaked, Alex was soaking wet from the top of her head to her feet before she'd ever gotten in the pool. She kept an eye on Parker, the other child in the Landry family, who seemed to be too quiet. Or maybe it was because her sister seemed to be talking all the time. She didn't know but did keep a closer eye on her.

By the time Locke returned with them both more clothing, dinner for them had shown up as well. Not only did they have pizza for everyone, but he'd picked up a few kids' meals for the smaller ones who wouldn't eat pizza. Alex thought that she'd been raised on pizza alone but could see how Fred would have a hard time eating it.

After giving the kids a bath, the most difficult thing she'd ever done, Alex wanted to crawl into the baby bed with Fred and catch a few zzz of her own. But duty called, and they were helping out a woman who needed more than just a little help from them. Dusty was in the kitchen with Locke when she'd finished up with the children.

"They must have been as tired as I am. Mandy was asleep before I finished the book I was reading. And Parker doesn't look as pale as I thought she was earlier. I guess you were right to say that she's just too tired to play a lot. I know that I am." She sat down next to Locke and finished her glass of water. Before she could get up and make her way to the now spotless kitchen, Dusty went to get it for her so that she could put her feet up. Alex could get used to this kind of service. Locke said that Mrs. Landry had been arrested along with her neighbor Mrs. Hawthorne.

"I hope they both get the book thrown at them. To think that they were planning on taking the children right out of the house in the morning while Amanda still slept. What kind of monsters—I would have freaked out completely had it been me when I got up and found my kids were gone. And she thought herself justified in taking them because Amanda wouldn't allow her to keep her son on life support. When he gets to that stage, I hope she keeps her from her only child just for payback." She then thought of what she'd said. "I don't think that I'd be able to do that. But then, I have nothing to go on without having children."

Locke told her that he'd done the same thing. Thinking of keeping someone away when their family was dying. It hurt him to think about it. Alex leaned her head on his chest while he spoke to Dusty when he returned with her glass.

Dosing off, she woke up when Locke tried to move from under her. Getting up when she saw the police in the room, she had to wait to be caught up on what was going on. The officer seemed to be just as confused as she was with what he'd come to tell them.

"I'm sorry. What do you mean when you say that Margaret is going to be given more time for her sentencing? What happened?" The officer told her, and she had to sit down. "All because he wouldn't help her take his grandchildren from their mom, she killed him? My goodness. I wonder how she supposed that the courts would give her the kids after killing off her husband. Or, for that matter, their cook. People get odder every time I'm around them. That's insane."

"You should have seen my boss's face when we went by to do a welfare check on Mr. Landry. Mrs. Margaret had already told us that she'd killed her husband and cook, and she'd have no trouble killing off a couple of nosey cops, too. I didn't know what to expect, but it wasn't the elderly man on the floor of his shower naked and stone-cold dead with his head all bashed in. And then Margaret telling us when we got back and asked her what had happened, and she said that he won't disagree with her again about her children." He shook his head as he took the offered glass of water from Dusty. "The poor cook had been rolling out biscuits when she'd been killed. Margaret said that she'd told her that she wasn't going to be cooking for a bunch of kids that she'd stolen and said she should be locked up. I guess Margaret thought that was the wrong thing to say and bashed her a few times."

She nearly laughed at the police officer. He was so sincere about what he'd heard Margaret talking about killing off her husband. Alex had to wonder if she had always been like this or if it was from the grief of losing her son, her only child, that was making her so nutsy. She didn't know what she'd do if something were to happen to Locke. She'd not even been in love with him for that long, but it felt in her heart that it had been forever since she'd known him. After the police left, telling them that Margaret was getting a doctor to visit her in the morning, the two of them just sat there on the couch, Alex wishing that they were home right now.

Little Fred woke up once in the middle of the night. He had a very wet diaper on and seemed to be just as happy when she took it off of him. Getting him bundled back up in his sleeper, she only had to lie him on his bed, and he was out again. She went to check on Amanda and found that she was awake and moving around.

"I can't believe that I slept this long." Alex pointed out that she must have needed it. "I guess I did. I do feel a good deal better than I did. Do you mind me taking a shower before you leave?"

"No, not at all. And if when you're finished with your shower, you want to go to the hospital, I'll stay here with the kids until you return. We are finally getting into a routine, the five of us." Amanda laughed and then burst into tears. "I'm sorry, honey. I didn't mean to upset you again."

"You didn't. It feels like I'm on edge all the time. I just want to be normal again. Or something like that. But it's not going to be right away before I can put all this behind me and move forward." She didn't mention her mother-in-law killing her husband but did tell her that she'd been arrested. "There is something seriously wrong with that woman. To think that I'd be all right with her taking my children from me is completely insane. What on earth was she expecting me to do? No, I just can't wrap my head around it. If you don't mind, I'm going to take you up on seeing Fred. I have all the paperwork finished up now, and I swear to you that both of us sighed a sigh of relief."

She cried a bit more as she was headed to the bathroom. Once she heard the water turn on, Alex went to check on the kids once more and felt good that they were all sleeping peacefully. They all had needed a good night's rest, she thought.

Making breakfast for Amanda, mostly by reading the microwave instructions on the size and still burning the leftover pancakes from earlier, she was ready to call a nearby restaurant to have them bring by something for the family to eat. She was dumping the burnt pancakes in the trash when someone knocked on the back door.

"We're here to take over, Mrs. Erikson. We've been watching you and your husband taking care of things, so I got on the phone and started calling around." She was handed a cake that was in one of those carrier things while the woman surveyed the room. "Spotless, just like I thought it would be. Thank you for that. But you go and put your feet up, and we got this. And I swear to you on my husband's heart that we're her real neighbors and won't take those kids from this poor woman on threat of life. You go on now. We got this."

"We?" The woman went back to the door and opened it. About a dozen women, all with containers of food in their hands, marched into the kitchen like they were ready for anything. "My goodness. Why are you all here? Amanda told me she didn't know her neighbors all that well because almost as soon as they moved in, Fred got sick. She told me that she feels so bad about that."

"That little one, Mandy, a talkative little thing, told my grandson what was going on. To be honest with you, child, I didn't know what to think about some of the—never you mind. We got the scoop now." She laughed. "My name is Caroline. It's Wilkerson, but that doesn't mean that you're to call me Mrs. Wilkerson. I'm adopting you as my friend now as will the rest of the women here. Now, sit there since I can't get you to go to the living room, and I'll make you a good cup of tea to tie you over until the kids are fed. Yes, that's the ticket. We'll get Amanda in the right direction. Her poor husband and Milly, her cook. Why she went and killed them off, one might never know."

After getting the rundown on the murder of two people at the Landry home, Alex sat down and sipped her tea. She wanted to be upset with Locke for not telling her more details about the murders, but she knew that he was sparing her more heartache. As the women, they were all scattered around the house, giving the home a once over, she enjoyed the honesty of Caroline about the goings on of the neighborhood she and the other women seemed to run.

~*~

By the time the kids were up and moving, Locke had sent a car to pick her up and take her to the hospital. She was well armed with information for her husband, such as that all the paperwork had been filed and that the insurance that he'd had on him since childhood was in her name. It had a substantial amount of money on it when he passed, and she was never so happy that his grannie had taken it out and had paid on it up until her own death. Then she and Fred had taken care of it. It alone was going to help her and the kids with a fresh start.

She wondered, however, if she was ever going to be able to move on after losing the man of her heart. Time, she'd been told, will be in her favor. She was so glad to see him sitting in a chair by the window that she could have danced for him. However, when she touched him, just putting her hand on his shoulder, she realized that he was already gone.

Amanda didn't call for help right away. Enjoying the fact that he had a huge smile on his face gave her some comfort. Sitting in the chair next to his, she held his still-warm hand in her own, sobbing quietly with her grief. Being so grateful that he'd not been in the bed hooked up to all the monitors that drove him crazy, Amanda told him how much she loved him with all her heart.

She managed to take the heart monitors off of him so that he could rest well. She knew the chances of this very thing happening that he'd die alone in the room before anyone came to check on him. Touching her fingers to his cheek, where a single tear slid down his face, she wiped it away and took it to her lips.

"I love you so very much, Fred. I hope you knew that when you left this world. I'm not even upset that you didn't wait for me to make it to be with you. I told you that you weren't to try and hold onto life. That when you were ready, to just close your eyes and go." It hurt her again that she'd not been here, but she was thrilled to have been with him now. In the quiet of the room, just the two of them. She thought about the things that she'd brought with her to tell him.

"Everything is in place now. The house, along with the cars, are paid off as of now. That was a good insurance rider that you had on the loans. I hope more people learn about that." She cried a little, wondering if she'd ever be able to drive the car that they'd created so many good memories in. I should tell you about your mother, but I find that I don't want to. There is no point in bringing her up right now."

She told him of her plans to have purchase them a smaller home. But they'd made so many new friends now that she didn't have the heart to leave them. All the women at the house, she told him, were volunteering to keep an eye on the children if she were to get herself a job.

"Which they told me that I needed to have because I wouldn't like hanging around the children all day. Right now, I don't see that happening, but I think they're right. Just talking to them and Alex has taken away so much stress from my shoulders." The nurse came in to check on Fred, and she told him that he was gone. That he had been before she entered the room.

When she rushed out and then back in, she was asked to move so that they could check on his heart. Amanda told the nurse that she wasn't going to leave her husband right now and that they worked around her while she held his hand. The doctor told her that she should have called someone as soon as she knew, but she ignored him. She had needed this time much more than he had to have a precise time of death.

When they left her to make the arrangements that had been put into place, she called Alex. Telling her that Fred had passed and not to tell the children just yet, Alex said that she'd come into the hospital to be with her.

She nearly told her no, that she was all right, but decided in the end that she'd like the company. Almost as soon as Alex arrived with Locke, things started to hit her that hadn't in all his time. Her husband was gone. Forever. And she was suddenly feeling all alone in the world.

Locke was able to talk to the staff and the doctor that had tried to shame her. The doctor did come in and tell her how sorry he was and he seemed to be sincere in it. He even allowed her to hug him when he asked her if she needed anything else.

It was nearly three in the afternoon when they took his body from the room. She was ever so glad that they didn't cover his face up when they took him away. He just looked like he was sleeping and was off to have a test done or something. She stayed with Alex and Locke when she was unable to follow her husband's body when taken to the crematorium.

"Are they sure that he's gone?" Locke didn't answer her. She knew the answer to that as surely as she was breathing. "I don't know why I asked you that. I know that he's finally at peace. I'm not, but I know that I'll get there soon."

Dusty joined them a few minutes after Fred was taken away. He allowed her to sob on his chest while she babbled about the things that she'd not gotten to talk to him about. A little bit angry, it was him giving her a squeeze that made the surge of being pissed off at the entire world go. Clinging to him, she thanked him several times for being there when she needed someone the most. He didn't say anything but continued to hold her tightly. It had been so long since she'd been held that she didn't want it to end.

"I'd like for you to allow me to spend the night with you. I'll be on the couch, but you need to have someone around, and I'm willing to do that for you." She told him that she'd be all right, that she seemed to be handing it as best that she was ever going to. "All right, but if you change your mind, you call me. No matter what time of the night it is. All right?"

Thanking him, she was grateful for his support, both mentally and physically, while she answered questions that the police had for her concerning Margaret. It was a good thing that Dusty was there for her, or she might well have confessed to the issues she'd had with Margaret. As it turned out, the elderly woman had been terrorizing the community for a long time, and they were happy that someone had gotten the nerve to tell her no.

"Ms. Landry, if you need anything from the department, you just ask. Your husband was a good man and a better friend than any of us deserved. He was a great man to have in our corner, too, when we were out on call. I'm profoundly sorry for your loss." She thanked the captain when he showed up at her home later that evening. He, too, asked about things that had gone on with Margaret and asked her if she was going to press charges of trying to kidnap her children.

"I'll make sure that she gets there first thing in the morning. As you might well know, she has a lot to deal with over the next few days." Captain Waller said that he understood that and was glad that she had him in her corner. "I'm just helping out a friend. Nothing more than that."

"Goodness, we all know that. Like her late husband, you've done a lot for us at the station, too. I can't thank you enough, you and your family, for all your donations to the funds that we sadly have to run to keep up with new equipment. And your ideas have been spot on in getting the right people in the right places, too." While she didn't know what that meant, she knew that her husband had spoken highly of the Erikson family. "Like I said, Mrs. Landry—" Amanda asked him to call her Amanda. "All right, Amanda. If you need anything from us, you just let us know."

By the time she got her kids settled, telling only Mandy that her dad was gone, she held them until they objected loudly that they'd had enough of her coddling them. In a way, she was glad that only one of her children was able to fully understand what was going on. Fred was much too young to realize that his father was gone, and Parker was too young as well.

~*~

Locke needed his wife in the most cardinal of ways. While they'd been making love nightly, they'd not had a really good fucking since Dusty had gotten out of the hospital then everything seemed to start falling apart around them. As he sat at his desk, contemplating getting up to go to bed, he was surprised and thrilled that Alex came to check on him.

She had on a thick robe that he thought had been a Christmas gift from someone long ago, and was glad that someone was getting some use out of it. When he asked her to come to him, she only paused for a second before pulling his chair away from his desk and sat on it, straddling his thighs as he sat there.

"Did you have something in mind? I mean, I could interpret this in a lot of different ways right now." She smiled at him and told him about the job that she was doing for the family. "I didn't know that you had an accounting degree. That's awesome."

"I'm not certified just yet, but I'm, with the help of your brothers, getting that taken care of soon. I am going to be working at an office so that I can get the full advantage of being able to concentrate on the job and not you lurking around trying to jump my bones." They both laughed. "One more thing. Amanda's sister, I had no idea that she had one, but that's not important. She is coming to town in a few days to help Amanda out with the services that she's having at a later date. I can't remember her name, but she's Amanda's twin. Also, and this one that shocked me was that the twin is identical to Amanda. I saw a picture—Candace Shipley. That's her name. I got it now. She's been living in another country since she turned eighteen. She was in the Army for the last ten years. I don't know if she's still in it or not. Amanda was sort of vague about that, but she's coming soon."

"That'll be good for Amanda. To have her own sister around. I might have thought that she should have been here before now." Alex told him what she'd found out. "I guess I can see that. So I wonder what she does for the Army that has her deep into things that she can't be contacted."

"I have a feeling that Amanda doesn't know either. But she's happy for her coming here. Also, Mandy is really excited to have her around. So that's good for everyone." She put her feet on the arms of his chair and pushed her robe between her legs. "I don't have any panties on. Nor anything under this robe. Which I'm taking from you by—" Locke couldn't wait another minute. He spread her legs and moved the robe out of his way, and licked her pussy. "That's what I've been needing forever. Take me, Locke. Please?"

He didn't waste any time in spreading her out on his desk. He didn't want to break anything—he never understood how a person could just clear their desk off to have sex by just sweeping everything to the floor. This shit was expensive. So he moved things to the floor each time he bent over, taking another sip of Alex. Christ, he wanted to stand up and pound her until they both were sated.

Spreading her nether lips open, he was excited to see her juices flow from her pussy. Licking her from gate to clit, he suckled the little nubbin into his mouth while sliding his finger into her warm sheath. Christ, his cock was aching to be released, and before he could think anything else, he stood up to free himself. It was like all his blood rushed from every part of his body to his cock in seconds. He didn't think he'd been so hard or needy in his entire life. When she sat up, wrapping her hand around his cock, Locke moved back and forth, fucking her hand as he wanted to do to her body.

"You're deliciously hard. Did you know that I dream about this every time I fall to sleep?" He moaned and watched her through the slits of his eyes. The extra strength to keep his eyes wide open so as not to miss anything was difficult. He was at a point where he couldn't concentrate on two things at once, much less having his eyes roll to the back of his head. "Locke, I want you to fuck me. Right now. I want to feel you take me slowly while I watch us being connected. I love to think about your cock sliding in and out of me too. It's so good to have the real thing. Oh yes, that's what I want."

He moved just the crown of his cock to her wet pussy. Instead of entering her like he so desperately wanted to do while holding onto his cock, he teased her pussy by going in and out of her in slow movements. He was nearly ready to come like this when Alex pulled him toward her, and she suckled at his nipples. Locke did feel his cock as he filled ever so full. He thought that he was going to die right then.

"Take me." He did as she commanded and slid all the way into her. He needed to pause and stop for a deep breath before he could move again. That only made it worse for him, feeling her pussy walls tighten around him at a frantic pace. He leaned over her, taking them both to the desk, and fucked her as hard as he could. Not even caring that the desk, all three hundred pounds of the sucker, was moving across the floor to keep up with them.

As she tore at his shirt, pulling it up and over his back, her nails digging into his back was all it took for him to lose his grip on his coming. Holding onto the edges of the desk, he felt his nails digging into the nice wooden surface while he died several little deaths after coming hard enough to make him faint a little. When he woke, it had only been seconds, Alex was still riding him, begging him for everything that he had.

Locke was sure that he was finished. That his body and his cock were used up. But his balls filling after coming so hard ached just a moment before he began fucking her again. When he came this time, her pussy wrapping him up in her tight sheath, Locke lost track of everything but the woman under him. The next time he opened his eyes, not even realizing that he'd passed out again, Alex was sitting on his lap as they held each other tightly. He could barely move, much less talk to her. Her warm, quick breaths were the only indication that he'd not killed her at the same time that he'd killed himself. Christ, how would he ever survive this marriage if she was forever making him pass out after and during sex.

When he woke up again, having needed a small rest before he was able to stand up, he was alone in the big office with a blanket that was from the living room over his groin. When he moved to stand up to pull his pants up, he wondered again at her stamina that she could get up and go to the living room when he could barely stand up to pull his pants up. She had to be taking vitamins or something. He was going to have to figure that out before he was old before his time.

Finding her in the kitchen, noticing that she moved as gingerly as he had made him feel a little better. As soon as he was able to sit down, he did. His strength had been used up just coming this far. Ms. Bee was talking about some kind of street fair that was coming up in a couple of weeks.

"All us old ladies get together and bake our best pies. It's been a tradition that the mayor pick the winner, but he's a diabetic now and can't do it. I was thinking that you could do it, but you'd just pick me—or you'd better, and they'd think I was being unfairly judged." That made him laugh, and when his body protested that movement, he stopped. "You all right, Mr. Locke? You look a little spent there."

When she turned from him laughing, he looked over at Alex. Sipping her tea, you'd never think that under that prim look she had now was a wanton woman that he was going to love for the rest of his days. If he lived that long.

The rest of the day, after he got some of the stiffness out of his body, he worked on the lessons that he'd been putting off in favor of his new status as husband to the most beautiful woman in the world. Yes, he told himself, you're a sap, but he couldn't have been more happy than he was right now. There was a great deal of fun being married to your best friend. The two of them were perfect together. He couldn't wait until his brothers, all of them, found themselves someone to love even half as much as he did Alex. He couldn't wait until they had children. The thought of being called ‘dad' was going to blow his mind when it happened. Yeah, he told himself again, he was a sap of the highest order. But he found that he could care less. However, he wasn't going to tell his brothers. They'd make fun of him. Laughing, he got up to go and find his wife. He was suddenly needing of her body again.