Chapter 1

Lucas didn’t understand why all these people were here in the courtroom because it had been his parents who had been killed. He would have rubbed his hands together, excited to see just how much they left him, but he’d been chained down like an animal and looked bad in front of the others.

It was really only Katie that he hated looking bad in front of. Not that he liked her, no he hated her as much as he was sure that she disliked him. But there she was, dressed up in a new suit like she’d had the money to go out and buy something for today, and he was sitting there in the ugliest shade of orange jumper that he’d ever seen. Christ, orange wasn’t his color, and he was never going to wear it again once he was out of here.

“Mr. Barnhart, are you listening to what I’m saying to you? There is a great deal to go over and if you have any questions, ask them now so that we can get on with the estate of your parents.” He asked why the others were there, such as Katie Donahue, were there. “You’ve been told several times now that her name is Katie Griffin. Also that she’s named in the last will and testimony of your parents. If there is nothing else, can we please move on?” Lucas snorted before answering.

“All right, but I don’t like it. I guess we can move on, but once this is done with, I’m going to fire her and deal with the estate, and it’s a big one too, I’m betting just the way I want to. I have plans, and once I’m out of here, I’m going to be watching heads roll like they should have done years ago.” He looked around the room. “I don’t know that big man there. What’s he doing here?”

“Again, that’s Katie’s husband.” The attorney for the estate, something that he was just coming to realize that he loved saying, was getting annoyed. Lucas didn’t care. He should have been having things moving the way he wanted to when his parents were killed.

Three weeks ago his parents had left for some kind of trip without him. Why they thought that he’d be all right with that was beyond him, but they did it, and it was too late for him to be able to take it out on them. The plane they’d been in, one that had over two hundred other passengers on it, had nosedived into the ocean and had killed them all. Because his dad and mom had bought first-class tickets, like he would have approved of that for them, they’d been the first to die along with the pilot. It boggled his mind that they were both dead, and he was now their sole heir to their lovely, wealthy estate. He was going to be so rich.

He wasn’t paying half as much attention as he should have been; he knew that, but when they said his name, he sat up higher in his seat and smiled at Katie. She was going to be on his shit list for the rest of her short life, as far as he was concerned. And it was going to be one of a lot of pain, too, for her. That was when he realized that the attorney had moved on to someone else.

“What did you say?” That got him a glare from the man, but he didn’t care. “You’ll have to repeat what you said. That couldn’t have been enough words for you to have told me what the estate was worth. And I demand that you tell me slowly this time. I have shit that I have to do as well, but we’re not leaving here until this shit is taken care of.”

“Certainly. Right here is what it said. “My only child, Lucas Mark Barnhart, I leave one dollar. I didn’t want him to think that I’d not thought of him while addressing the distribution of his mother’s and my estate. We have both agreed that since we have been pulling him out of one thing after another, that one dollar U.S. is all he deserves. The rest of the estate, including all lands and property that has not been—”

“No. That can’t be right. A dollar? He had to have been made to do that. Katie did it.” The attorney told him that Katie had had nothing to do with the estate will that his firm had taken care that it was filed the day before they left for their ill-fated vacation. “There has to be a mention about me someplace else. He told me that he was leaving me the money.”

“Did he now? Do you have any proof of this? Anything written down?” Lucas said that it was just between the two of them. Before he’d been arrested. “I was the one that was with the family just days before they were killed, Mr. Barnhart. That’s when they changed their will to reflect the changes that they made. There is no way that either of them would have had the time to change their mind about things since I know that for a fact.”

“It was implied as I’m their only living—who gets it all then? They didn’t have any friends so that’s not the way things went. Tell me who I have to kill so that I can get this straightened out?” It was explained to him that since they had to keep going over the records again and again for him, they’d not gotten that far into the will to know what was going on. “Then what the fuck are you waiting for? I’m not getting any younger sitting here waiting for you to get your ass in gear. What does the rest of the— What’s going on?”

“I told you before we brought you in here that you could stay for the last of the reading of the will if you behaved yourself. Since you can’t seem to keep your mouth shut up and your language under control, I’m taking you back now. You’re finished with the reading anyway.” He told the guard that he wasn’t leaving. “You’ll do as you’re told, or so help me, I won’t have any trouble taking you back there unconscious.”

He was dragged out of the now empty room by his chained-up arms when he said that he wasn’t going to let someone else have his money. He’d been waiting all his life for it to come to him, and they weren’t going to get it now that he could. As he was tossed into the cell, he nearly ran at the cop when he put his hand on his tazer. That fucker hurt and made him piss himself the last time it had been used on him. And no amount of yelling at him that he’d be good from now on would get him back in that room.

“Mother fuckers.” He just knew that Katie was going to get all his money from in here, and there was nothing he could do about it. Not only would she have his money, but she’d probably use it for good shit like she was forever spouting off to him about when she worked for him. He was a moron for hiring her. It was then that he remembered that his father had hired her and that he’d not been able to have her fired. She was too good anyway about knowing all the rules and shit about laws.

Lucas was an attorney in name only. He’d gone through law school but hadn’t ever taken a test if he didn’t have to. Even his boards had been taken by a man that had answered an ad in the paper about it and Lucas had been working at the firm, Barnhart and Barnhart since. Getting paid weekly to show up or not at his office and beat the shit out of people that didn’t do what he wanted. Especially that Katie. She’d been much too smart for him, and not only that, his dad would come down on his ass when he made the slightest slap to her.

His hope had been to make his family so embarrassed about him that they never wanted him to be around them. They didn’t, but it had nothing to do with the way that his dick swung. Being a homo had been disturbing to him more than it had to his parents. The fuckers even joined clubs about the gays. Christ, they even paid off some of the men that he’d tried to fuck when they didn’t want anything to do with him. He hated his parents now more than ever.

The clicking of heels, a sound that would usually make him ill, was coming down the hall. He knew that it was going to be Katie. However, when someone that looked like her showed up, he asked her what the fuck she wanted. The woman smiled and he thought her the most beautiful creature that he’d ever seen.

“I’ve come to warn ye off me cousin, Katie Griffin.” Her accent, whatever it was, made his dick hard. “You’ll be staying away from her if’n you get out of here. Her job with you is finished, and I’m warning you now that if’n you don’t back your arse off, I’ll be taking you apart with the nice whip that I have for meself.”

“Come closer so that I can have you give me a hand job. I’d love you to take me into your mouth, but I want to hear you telling me what it is that you’re doing to me. You can do it. No one cares.” She said she’d rather cut her throat than to let him touch her. “I don’t have to touch you, moron. Just you do the touching. Christ, I could really come right now if not for the fact that all I can think about it— mother fuck. What was that?”

“A spray bottle I got for me cat. It worked so well on her that I thought that it would work on you, too. I’m not giving you shite, you mother fucking prick. I’ve come to warn you off not to live out some kind of sick fantasy that you’re having.” For as pissed off she was sounding, it was making him harder, like a stroke to his dick. Standing up, he pulled out his dick and came all over the floor, and just missed her by an inch. Christ, he’d never come so hard in his life.

Staggering back, he didn’t even care that she was talking to him in another language. The spray of water on him was like a balm to him, cooling off his hot body like he’d taken a dip in a kiddy pool and was being cooled off. The next thing he knew, after closing his eyes, he was hurting all over his body, and it never seemed to stop.

The water on him, he would swear for the rest of his life, was making the tazer that was sticking out of him worse. His dick, free of his pants, was spraying piss all over him, and he hoped to fuck that he was pissing on the men hurting him. Unable to even form words, Lucas felt his head hit the wall and then bounce on the floor a couple of times before he was out cold.

When he woke up, he was chained to his bed. Not only at his feet but his wrists too were stretched out too far from him to even scratch his fucking nose. Working to get himself free, he was pissed off when everyone seemed to ignore him. Even when he realized that he was still without his pants on, did anyone come along and pull them back up. He couldn’t even ask for the girl. And he wanted to see if she enjoyed their interlude as much as he did.

“You’re being bound over to prison.” He asked what he’d done when he could work up enough spit to talk to someone. “You exposed yourself to a visitor. And if that wasn’t enough, she’s also pressing charges against you for making her sick. I didn’t know someone could do that, but it’s sure enough a law and she’s using it.” The man laughed. “Funniest thing that I ever did hear of. But it would be you that would have had it used against you.”

He didn’t want to go to prison. He was supposed to be getting out. Asking the cop why she was able to do that when he was sure that she enjoyed it as much as he did, he was told that she’d been ill for ten minutes for what he’d done to her and that they’d had to send her to the hospital when he’d passed out. Lucas asked if she’d been worried for him.

“No. I told you that she was sick. Thought that she was going to puke her guts up that it was that bad. What the fuck made you think that she’d be all right with you masturbating all over her? Christ, you’re lucky that she didn’t pull out her gun and blow your fucking balls off.” He told the cop that she was covering up how much she’d enjoyed it. “You go on thinking that. The poor woman said she’d never get over that. I don’t doubt that she’s going to be suing your ass for something more. Wouldn’t surprise me if she were to get her cousin to press so many charges against you that you never see the light of day again.”

He didn’t mind. Really. Lucas couldn’t remember the last time he’d been able to get off so well, and it made him feel a little more relaxed than he had ever been. Thinking about his body, he was concerned that his head was hurting him and asked the cop what had happened to him. He told him how he’d passed out when he’d been tazed, and that had put a knot on his head as big as an egg. Still worth it, he told himself.

He wasn’t able to get any lunch while he was chained up. They told him that he wasn’t going to be unchained until such time as he was picked up. He didn’t even care where they were taking him so long as he was able to take a long hot shower, get the juice off his body, and for him to put on one of his nicer outfits. It had been too long since he’d been able to dress up.

It was nearly dark in his little cell when someone pounded in the cell door. He could tell that the man was pissed off but about what, Lucas didn’t really care. He was still on a slight buzz, and no one was going to take that away from him. As he was beginning to feel less and less on his little high, he thought about what was being done to him.

First of all, he was told to put on another jumpsuit. All he could do was grab it before it hit the floor, before he realized it was not a suit but a jumper like the one he had on. Secondly, he wasn’t able to take a shower, unless, they told him he wanted to be hosed down with a fire hose. He’d heard that those suckers would peel your skin off, so he told them he’d be all right. As quickly as he was able to get his clothing changed out, he was in a large bus with bars on the windows, and he was chained down again with two other people. Lucas had no idea where he was going. No one would tell him shit, either. If they thought that he was going to go down easy—he never knew what that meant, but there was no way they were going to do shit to him without a fight. And they’d be sorry too that they tangled with him.

~*~

Stone loved coming back after break. The kids were full of energy. While not ready to learn, they were getting along better because they missed the friendships that kids made during the rest of the school year. Spring especially was wonderful because they all knew that summer break was right around the corner. It did take him some extra time to get them to settle down, but he had a hard time with it as well and didn’t mind so much.

“Okay, class. We have to get to work.” The usual groans but he was happy to see that he didn’t have to remind them a second time that they needed to get out their books. Ready, especially for the younger kids, was his favorite class. “How many of you did your listening over the break.”

The usual three held up their hands but there were others that he could see seemed to be getting into the story they’d been reading. Some of the kids he knew didn’t have anyone that would read to them, no matter what they said they’d do, but he was just as happy to see that more than half the class had been read to a little bit.

They were on the second page of the story, only about three lines per page, so it wasn’t difficult to do for him, he heard from the office. They all loved it when the intercom sounded, liking it when someone was called to the office. Usually, it was him and a student, but this time, it was just him. Putting one of the shier kids in charge, he made his way to the office to see what was going on so early in the morning.

“Mr. Griffin, this is Ms. Rachel Cummings. She is looking to have her niece put into our system and she wanted to meet one of the kindergarten teachers. I thought of you first thing.” He didn’t point out that as of two weeks before break, he was the only one who wasn’t pregnant and already asking for time off. “Mr. Griffin also has been the teacher of the year for the last six years running.”

Eight, but he wasn’t going to correct their principal at this point. He shook hands with the woman and pulled his hand back, barely catching himself from wiping his hand on his shirt. It was as if he was handling slimy meat or something. The woman wasn’t human, but worse than that, he knew that she wasn’t in charge of her “niece” either and had taken the child from her parents after killing them.

It happened a good deal more than he wanted to admit. Not the killing part but that someone wanted to hide their child—one that they’d gotten by other means until the heat was over and they could move on. This woman wasn’t looking for a good school, not even a good teacher. She wanted a place in a small town that wouldn’t, she hoped check into things that she’d rather they didn’t.

While the woman was going on and on about how she’d been in other districts that had demanded that the little girl be tested before putting them into a grade. Of course, too, she was the smartest kid in the room at her last school. He reached out to Storm, his sister-in-law.

After telling her what was going on, he waited for her to tell him that she was going to come and get the child. He didn’t see the little girl because Ms. Cummings said that she was napping in the car and that’s why she had left her husband there with her.

“I didn’t think that anyone would mind about me parking in a no parking zone so she’d not wake up.” He did mind but kept his mouth shut. The little girl in question was being held by Cummings’s accomplice, her longtime boyfriend, Harry Jones. “My husband just dotes on her. I get jealous sometimes if you know what I mean.”

Again, she made him slightly ill, but he smiled and waited for Storm to get back to him. When she did, she was laughing hard and he had to smile. To know her was to love her but to hear her laugh, you knew that someone was going to get their asses handed to them in short order, and you could only wish that you were around when she did it. It was a nice show when she got all fired up.

“The police are on their way. Believe it or not, they’re both wanted by the feds. Imagine my surprise when I read that.” He asked her how many times they’d pulled this trick . “First time on a child. They’re branching out, so to speak. They used to only take infants to sell off, but that’s getting harder for them to do with all the security that goes on at the hospital nowadays. You should be seeing the first cruiser pulling in now.”

He nodded to the open doorway and asked if something was going on with the parking lot. Knowing full well that it was about the couple, he stepped back, taking Mr. Sharp with him, his boss and hoping that the woman ran out rather than taking a hostage of either one of them. He’d go before he let Sharp, but he wasn’t keen on getting hurt today.

Cunnings not only had a gun, but she was firing at the police as she left the school. Diving for cover, hoping that the shattering glass was something more than the front of the school, Stone pulled the alarm that would have all the teachers going into lockdown. He wasn’t taking any chances with his class and made his way there as soon as he realized that Ms. Bonnie, the longtime secretary, was on the phone with the police as well.

His class was going through the motions of what they’d been going on once a week since they entered his room. Not only did they know to not open the door unless it was him but they already had the blinds pulled down and the steel plate pulled in front of the door so that it engaged the locks. Getting them to go to the bathrooms in their room, he was thrilled when one of the kids knew how to get the class pet. Mr. Moons was a cat that the kids had adopted on the second week of class.

“Mr. Stone, are we in trouble?” He said that they were safe so long as they did what they’d been told. “It’s my birthday today, and I need to get home. My momma is baking me a ‘nilla cake for my birthday. Will we be going home?”

“Yes, Thomas. I’m hoping that everyone goes home.” He heard the police, only because his hearing was far better than most anyone else’s in the bathroom, and looked to the two children who were not human. With a small shake of his head, they both nodded and wouldn’t tell that the police had the couple taken down. “We should have sung happy birthday to you. I should have remembered.”

Small talk to the kids was better than telling them that he was afraid as well. He wouldn’t die, but there were things going on that he didn’t like having no control over. He checked on the other kids and tried cheering them up as well. Before he could get back to the other students, Rain and Storm popped into the room.

“It’s over. You guys did great and no one was killed but the two people that started this whole thing. We were on hand to save the little girl, too.” He asked her if her parents were really dead. “Yes, I’m afraid that they are. But there is other family that will take her in, hopefully. Your kids are going to come out all right with this. They did what they were told and managed to feel good about not getting hurt on top of that.”

“That doesn’t mean that we’ll stop practicing.” She agreed with him. “When will the lockdown be over? I don’t want them to think that they’re still in danger.”

“The police are here now, so it shouldn’t be much longer. You did a good job, Stone. I’m very proud of you for taking care of the kids. It could have been much worse had you not notified us when you did.” He told her that he knew she had his back. “We do. Forever and a day.”

After the lockdown was released, he continued with the class projects as if nothing happened. It was good, he thought to keep normal around the kids. After about an hour, it was like nothing had ever happened. They were in the reading circle when one of the kids, Davy Markus, asked if the people were dead.”

“Yes, they are. They did a very bad thing, and the police had to take care of them so that they’d not do anything like that again.” He put the book aside and asked if they had any more questions. There were only a couple at first, but by the time lunchtime was ready, they were talking about how they’d had such a good time on break. Normal is just what they needed and he was glad that he had such a good class that seemed to understand that he was there for them all.

Rest time was better than he thought it would be. They were resting on their cots when he decided to get some of the grading that he’d been putting off for a few days. There wasn’t that much but it was enough to keep his mind from going over this morning. When it was time for them to start waking up, he put it all away to spend some good time with the kids. It was coloring time, and it was his favorite time of the day.

The kids could write their names now and were able to say their alphabet. There were other things that they could do as well but he was most proud of all of them as they were working hard to be able to go to first grade. It was like a passage of something special to them, and he was working to make them the best kids to go forth that he could.

“Mr. Stone?” He looked at Valeria and asked her what it was she needed. Of all his kids, she was the most difficult to get motivated on things. She could do the work, they all could but she wanted to wheedle her way out of as much work as she could all the time. “Do you think that we could take a longer nap today? I’m worn out.”

“I’m sure that most of you are. But we have a time schedule to adhere to, and it’s important that we keep to that.” She told him that she was powerful tired, a word that he was sure that she picked up at home. “Maybe I could take a longer nap, and the rest of the kids could just do their work.”

“No, that won’t work. We all have a schedule, as I said.” Ignoring her little tantrum, he began helping the kids put their cots away. “Come on now, everyone. We have work to do.”

Preparing the kids for the next grade was a daily thing. They had to know so much now that it boggled his mind that anyone was able to keep up that didn’t go to preschool before coming to his class. The ones that had been in the pre-k classes excelled in their work and were better at getting along with the other students. They also seemed to understand the rules better than the ones that hadn’t. Most of his class had gone to pre-K and they were all doing very well and didn’t mind helping the other students that hadn’t been able to go to the classes for one reason or another.

By the time the end of the day was coming around, he was exhausted. It had been a stressful start, and it seemed to be more or less stressful for the rest of the day. Two students had forgotten to bring their money in for lunch, and he’d made sure that he sent home notes with them. It had been a policy to not allow the kids to have their lunch if they didn’t have a paid-up account but he’d had his family nip that in the bud right away.

A child couldn’t function without a meal to eat. And for a lot of the kids, it was the only meal that they had all day. There was a breakfast program in place that would have hot food for the kids who weren’t able to have a hot meal at home, but that was nearly too much for the cooks, and they’d had some of the pack come in and serve it to the kids. It was a good win for everyone and some extra pocket money for the women who had come in to help out.

Stone had bus duty today and was looking forward to it. Most of the parents that did pick up would have to stop and talk to him about this or that when they would be in line and it would make it slow moving for the kids. So being on bus duty like he was meant that he’d not see the parents at all and just made sure that the kids got on the right buses so that they’d make it home. Hall duty was just as nice for him. Just making sure that the kids didn’t run through the halls to get out of school was one of his all-time favorite things to do. It sheltered him from parents, mostly women, about making passes at him.

Stone knew that he wasn’t a bad-looking man. He made sure that he kept himself in good shape and ate right. Running after twenty four kids a day would do that for him. But he was also single and wealthy. Having all his brothers with wives made him the last time anyone could get their hands on the Griffin money. Or so they had thought. He wasn’t waiting on a mate. She’d come or not. But he wasn’t going to change his life by getting one.

He knew that he was being harsh about it. But he liked his quiet time, and he also enjoyed being single. Not that he dated all that much. He rarely did. But if he wanted to go out, he usually made sure that he was out of town and went out with someone who was aware there would be no wedding bells between them. Most of the pack knew that, so that’s where he dated most of the time.