Chapter 2

Roman didn’t care for the dead body in his office right now. It should have been three of them, but he wasn’t worried about that right now. Rice, she was still out there and she had his money. As soon as he was able to put his hands around her scrawny little neck, he was going to squeeze the life out of her. Christ, it was a nightmare that was happening right now.

Glancing at the body that was just under the window in his office, he thought about tossing it out to the street below. But that would be dangerous as it was a nice sidewalk there, and people would notice that it had fallen from his window. He just hoped his dad or any of the other people in the office noticed it. He was going to do his best to ignore the body himself.

All Rice had to do was to work for him for the last year and a half or whatever her contract stipulated. After that, he’d have her declared dead, and that would be the end of it. He’d heard that someplace but didn’t know how it worked. After seven years, you could have someone declared dead. No one seemed to be able to find her but him, and that was all right, too. Since he didn’t want her popping up anytime after he had cashed out her checks, he actually was going to need to kill her. He’d been holding off in putting in his inground pool for months now so that he could easily dumb her body under the concrete, and that would be the end of his issues with his damned attorney.

She was a good one, too at least for as far as he would allow her to go. She did research better than anyone he’d ever met, and when one of his underlings went to court with her notes, they’d win hands down. If they didn’t, he’d cut her pay again, and that, too, would make her have to stay under his thumb. Who would hire someone that couldn’t even keep their pay up?

“Roman, have you found out what happened to little Miss Rice?” He nearly snarled at the man, his boss and father, who stood in the doorway, not coming in. “I’ve not seen hide nor hair of her since about a month ago. See what the holdup is in getting her to come in here. I know her place burnt down but there isn’t any reason she doesn’t come in and tell us what happened. Poor girl. She must be in a lot of pain or something is all I can figure. You do know that she’s the only one that keeps you on the straight and narrow when you go to court with her research.”

“She does not do my research, and nor is she the only one that…Dad, I can and do my own research when I have to go to court.” To which he didn’t add that was never going to happen again. “I understand that you like her but there isn’t anything I can do if she’s not answering her calls.”

“Find her.” When his dad stood there for several moments, staring at him, Roman wanted to wipe his nose. Even if he were to step one more foot into his office, his dad would see the coke that was all over his desk and the hundred dollar bill—only the best for him—rolled up to help pave the way for him to get stoned. “You have got a bit of powder on your nose, Roman. I’ve warned you before about doing that in the office where anyone can see you. Go home. Or better yet, go and find that girl.”

He didn’t need to be told twice to go home. As he was gathering up his empty briefcase along with his coat from last night, he was out the door and into the streets in less time than he took to try and figure out where he was when he woke up in his office this morning, naked and blurry-eyed.

By the time he remembered that he didn’t have a car at the office, he was sweaty and pissed. It didn’t take him long to be either nowadays, but at least he looked good while doing it. Roman knew that he’d lost a great deal of weight. He’d been a fat slob for most of his life and had only graduated from law school because his dad had a great deal of money. He no more knew the law than what his own phone number was.

“Mr. Davis, there are several messages for you. Also, we need to speak to you about your rooms.” Holding out the little papers that were as pink as his eyes had been earlier, he took them from the butler and made his way to his rooms. He knew that still living at home at his age was pathetic, but it was free; he knew the address, and there was someone to clean up after him. As well as wash up his clothing. “Mr. Davis, before you go up, there is the little matter of Ms. Ambrosa Pennington.”

“What about her?” He nodded in the direction of the library and turned to walk away. He wanted to tell him to tell her he was still out, but she was standing there staring at him like he was some kind of insect under her microscope. Or was it a stethoscope? Like he knew what she did when out and about all day. “Hello, Amby. How’s life treating y—”

The punch to his face took him off guard and had him lashing out at her almost as soon as she drew back to hit him again. But slapping her back, a huge mistake on his part, had her pulling out her gun and putting it to his forehead. He’d forgotten that, too. She wasn’t one to mess around with.

“Now, Amby, we’ve talked about this before. No guns in the—what was that for?” She told him to stop talking to her as if she were a simpleton after popping him in the head with the barrel of the handgun she had. “I don’t believe that I was. Put the gun away, and let’s start over. How are the wedding plans coming along?”

“They’re not.” He wanted to leap for joy in not having to marry her, but he knew that if his father were to find out about this, he’d cut him off at his cock. “Have you seen today’s paper, Roman? Or at least the front page? It’s a very nice picture of you with your dick hanging out and your hands all over a hooker by the name of Loulou. It’s funny that the headlines asked me the same question that you did. How are the wedding plans going? I’m finished with you.” She turned on her heel but not before coming back and punching him in the face again. “I’m going to call your father right now and have this finished. I never wanted to marry you in the first place, but he promised me a large sum of money to do it. No way am I saddling myself with you.”

His mind was centered on the large sum of money— just how much, he wondered — that she’d mentioned. Before he could get his mouth to work, his entire face hurting, not only was Amby out the door but he could hear her barking orders to the driver he presumed to take her to the Davis offices. His goose was cooked, as the old and odd saying went.

He’d forgotten about the body in his office before he could regret leaving the office so soon. What would the housekeeping people say when they ran across him? He was going to say that he didn’t know anything about it as he’d been gone before noon. His dad would pitch a bitch about it, having to have the room cleaned, but he had more important things to worry about. That fucking cunt Rice and her checks.

It had taken him nearly four years to figure out that he could have gotten them sent to his firm. He’d concocted some story about how he had insurance, too, and there wasn’t any point in them both doing the searches. When all the time she was working right there in the office for him. But the insurance companies, eight of them in total, decided that they’d be better served to find her on their own. That was when the checks started coming to his firm, eight of them over the next year. Well, his dad’s firm for now.

Then that stupid shit Donnie had stuck his nose in where it didn’t belong. Christ, the man had actually gone to Rice and handed over the checks that had come into the mail room when he’d explicitly told him to bring them to his office as he was looking over the accounts. Not that he’d get his hand dirty in killing him off, but it had cost him a pretty penny in getting the man dead so that he’d learn a lesson. Of course, he was dead, and that wasn’t a good lesson for him to learn, but he was out of his hair for the time being.

Going up to his rooms, he was nearly ready to leave when he realized that his room wasn’t made up and there was all kinds of shit laying around that he had wanted put away. Clothing, even some coke that he’d missed, was on his dresser. Making sure that he used up the smack amongst his underwear and socks, he went to his phone and called the kitchen. When no one answered, he was just ready to pull out his gun and shoot the lot of them. But that would piss off his father, and he had enough to deal with right now.

There had to be a way that he could go to the insurance company, and…well, he wasn’t sure what he was going to do, but to tell them that he’d lost the checks wouldn’t go over very well. They’d already put some stipulations on only Rice being able to cash them. They wanted her driver’s license, birth certificate as well as her personally there to collect. He could get the other two but having her there? Well, that was the problem. That was when he came up with the plan to kill her off and then collect the insurance money after proving that she was indeed dead. That was going to be the highlight of his week, having her killed. He’d hated her since she was brought to the firm by his dad. And, of course his dad loved her the pieces. Roman just wanted to chop her up into pieces and be done with her.

Since he knew so very little about law and how to get around to collecting on the checks he’d had Rice actually look up on how to cheat her out of the money. Hell, he didn’t even understand his Marandi rights when read to him at least once a week.

Nothing had gotten him into so much trouble that he decided to have himself driven everywhere so that he’d not first of all wreck and secondly to know where he parked his car. That had been a major problem for him, trying to remember where he’d parked and how much towing was going to cost him. Or his dad at least.

Then Rice had come to him with the fact that he couldn’t legally collect checks when the person was still alive. After that, he’d been plotting her demise. Rice was one of the smartest women he knew, and yet she was the dumbest as well. Women were all stupid if anyone asked him.

Going to the kitchen, he found the big room empty. Even after looking everywhere he knew how to find his way around, he couldn’t find a single person that worked there. After standing in the living room yelling for them, he couldn’t get anyone to come. That was when he hit on the idea that he needed to get out of the house before his dad came home. It would be just like him to have not cleaned up his mess at work and had left the body there for him to take care of.

Not that he’d ever taken care of a body before. It was the first time he’d ever killed anyone personally. It made him sort of squeamish to see all that blood that came from the wound he’d inflicted and even more sick to his stomach when the body continued to twitch after he’d shot him. But it was all the man’s fault. He’d made him kill him by losing sight of Rice and not bringing her heart to him after he killed her. So now he’d have to do it all on his own.

Roman had been of the opinion that if he didn’t acknowledge something that happened, then it couldn’t be true. Same with laws. If he didn’t understand them, then they didn’t exist. It had gotten him, with a good deal of his father’s money, out of more situations than he could remember. All he’d wanted to do was to have some fun with people. His dad could never understand that, even after all these years.

After going to the garage, where there were usually at least five people hanging around doing whatever they got paid to do, it too was devoid of people. He was pissed off that he was going to have to drive himself to find his dealer. Since he’d stopped driving, he didn’t know where to find him either. Christ, he hated all people today.

Just as he was pulling out of the driveway and was about twenty feet or so from it, several cruisers came up behind him only to turn into the driveway where he’d just come from. Whatever made the staff leave—he hoped they had a good reason or they sure were going to be in trouble when the police showed up.

It took him nearly three hours to find the house where he’d get his nose candy at—he secretly loved using all those terms he heard on the television and used them whenever he could. However, when he got there, it looked like the place had been raided. There was no one around there either. Also, it looked as if a fire had been set in the place across the street. Even the cars that were usually in the drive were burnt up. Knocking on the door a second time, it was finally answered by some construction guys or something. They asked him what he wanted.

“I have business to attend to here.” He told him that they’d all been arrested and that he was there to get anything of value from the home before it, too, was torn down. “When? Damn it, why don’t people notify me when this shit is going to happen. Did that old lady across the street have anything to do with it? I swear she was forever calling the cops on us…them.”

“I can’t help you, mister. The police come by here several times a day now, so you’d best be getting away from here unless you want to be arrested as well.” The door was closed in his face, and that pissed him off as well.

Parking his car had been easy, but he’d left it running. A quick in and out, and he’d be on his way again. Now it wasn’t starting, and he didn’t remember to bring his phone with him. Walking back to the house, he knocked several times again to find out if he could borrow their phone to call his dad. He hoped that they had the number because he didn’t have a clue about that either.

~*~

Londyn was nearly finished reading the newspaper—just one more section when Waylon joined her in the living room. It had been a long time since she’d had the time to read an entire newspaper by herself. It wasn’t much of a place that Waylon had but it was nice and cool as well as clean.

“There are some people looking for you. I haven’t heard of the law firm but I’m assuming that it’s the one that you used to work at.” Waylon told her the name and asked her if that was it. After telling him it was, she handed him the newspaper but for the section on court dates. “There is a man named Dale Davis who has put an ad in the paper about finding you.”

“I’ve not gotten that far yet. Have you spoken to him? Or know what he wants?” He said that he’d not, knowing that she was hiding from the younger Davis so he’d not kill her. “I liked his father. Mr. Davis is the one who hired me when I got out of college. Do you think that he’s working with his son?”

“I have no idea. However, the note for you is in the section for cheap ads.” He opened the paper for her, and she found it immediately. He’d even put her name in it, just to be sure, she thought that she’d get it. “It says to contact him through his personal number. I’m assuming that you have it since he mentioned that you’re to call him.”

“I did have it. When my place was burned up, my cell phone was in it. I was afraid to carry it around because I didn’t know if Roman could track me or not.” he told her that was good thinking. “Now that I think on it, I believe that he might not know how to do that. He seems pretty unfamiliar with not just cell phones but computers as well. The one that was on his desk had an icon on it to get into his games. That, I believe, is the only thing he used it for.”

“He has a law degree, though. I would have thought he was smarter than that.” She told him that he’d be wrong. “How can a man get through life without at least having a good working computer.”

“I had one of the interns tell me that they had to set up his cell phone for him so that he’d only have to press a single number to call someone. While he wasn’t even sure that he could make a call, he knew that one of the numbers was for a man by the name of Diesel. He was one of the drug dealers that would contact him occasionally while at work.” Waylon wondered aloud again at how he’d gotten a law degree. “More than likely, his dad throwing money at the school. Or worse yet, Roman blackmailed his way to the top. And by that, I mean he was at the top of his class. I guess he figured that if he was going to get an education, he might as well have the best there was.”

“If you don’t mind, I’m going to make a couple of calls on your behalf. So is Amy, but I’ll use her as a last resort. My dad is good friends with a great many people, too, so that might get you in closer than anything I can do.” She asked him if it would get him into trouble. “Not really. Dad knows that he can turn me down, and if he does, I’ll move on to something else. Also, will you go out with me to look at houses? I’ve had one in my mind, but it was sold recently, and I’ve figured out that I really didn’t want it, or I would have tried harder. What kind of places do you like?”

“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never in all my life lived in a house. I’ve been in them before, I mean, I’d go to other people’s homes when I was a child but I’ve only ever lived in apartments since I can remember. Why do you need my input?” He told her. “I see. I guess I never thought of us getting that far in where we’ll be living together. I thought that living here with you was just temporary.”

“It is in a way. But I’ve been looking at houses for a while now. I can’t stand to share things with my neighbor. Like noises that are coming through the walls. Driveways. That’s another thing that I hate when someone takes up all the room in the drive when we’re supposed to be sharing.” She could see him getting upset when someone took more than their share of something. But she wasn’t entirely sure whether it was a joke or not. She didn’t know him at all, honestly. He’d done it to his brothers when there was only a single slice of cake left to eat and they were going to share. “I have three today to look at. Come with me, and I’ll buy you dinner. I’m sick of fast food.”

The two of them ended up getting coffee at the nearby market. She’d never been to it and was surprised at all the items that they had to offer. Not just coffee and tea, but there were scones as well as fresh fruit and veggie takeaways as well. She settled on a veggie cup with dressing to keep her from getting hangry if they were late getting dinner.

The first house on his list was a no. Even pulling into the lumpy drive made her nearly empty belly feel off. The house itself was all right, she supposed, but there was more than likely a great deal of things to have done to it before it was livable. If ever. It was sort of a classic run-down place. No cars on the lawn, but there was a broken-down couch and a recliner on the front porch.

The second house wasn’t much better. She wondered if the realtor had any idea who Waylon was. A wealthy man she knew she would have had to have made sure that he wanted to see houses that were at least the size of his parents and brothers.

“This is just laziness.” She asked him what he’d meant. “Why we’re looking at these houses. I told her that I wanted a fixer-up if it came to that, but I didn’t mean that I’d have to tear down the building to start anew. That house, the second one, was in worse shape than the barn they found in the back of the property that Dallas bought. And it’s hundreds of years old.”

They were both laughing when they got to the third house. This time, they didn’t bother getting out of the car. It had been burnt out sometime over the past few weeks, and the tape was still blowing in the wind from when the fire department closed it off.

They were headed out of town, thinking that they were going to have to find themselves another realtor, when she spotted a for sale by owner sign. Convincing him to have a look, it didn’t take them very long to fall in love with the front yard and the wrap-around porch. Pulling up on the driveway there were two other cars there too.

“Are you here about the house?” Waylon told the older man that they were. “Just put it on the market about an hour ago and have already seen more people coming here than we have in all the years we lived here. Go on in, have yourself a look around, and tell me what you think.”

Waylon took her hand into his as they went into the front of the house. The porch alone would have sold her on it, but upon opening the doors to the large manor of a house, she wanted to kick all the people out and tell them that she was buying it. There was a couple that was talking to what she assumed was the wife of the man in the yard.

As they walked around the large house, she overheard others talking about it. They were saying that the price was a little too high, but it was a wonderful find. Others, like her and Waylon, weren’t saying anything to each other. At least not where people could hear them. They had their own conversations about it through their link.

The tiled front foray was perfect for the entrance to the house. The front two rooms, one of them what she would think would have been called a sitting room had old furniture in it that seemed to be something from the period of when the house was built. Even the library, brimming with books, caught their attention, as well as the floor-to-ceiling stained glass windows on both sides of the fireplace. It alone screamed at having a Christmas tree lit up beside it. As they toured the dining room, a spectacle of period pieces too, she could see them hosting dinners here with his family and not ever running out of room. She even loved the dish sets, about twenty-five settings that were in the four corner cabinets.

The woman came to speak to them, but she looked like her smile was tight. As if someone had said something to her and she was trying her best to be polite. Smiling back at her, the woman asked them if they had any questions.

“How much is the asking price of the house?” She told her and then went on to explain that the furniture that was out now came with the house. “I’m sorry, are you moving into someplace smaller? That’s the only reason that I can see for you to leave such a grand house.”

“Bless your heart, darling. It had been a hard decision to make but one that we should have made a decade ago. It’s just too much for us, even though we have staff that comes in to help. There are five bedrooms on the upper levels as well as a large grand ballroom on the top. My goodness, it has seen some wild things going on up there.” She took them on a tour around the bedrooms, waving them on so that she could take them to the upper levels. “My husband designed this house. It has so many features in it that I hate to leave, but it’s necessary now that we’re in our nineties, the two of us.”

Margie showed them the whole house vacuum system. The dumbwaiters worked and came up to the upper levels easily. The hardwood floors on the third floor were enough to have her again kick everyone out and tell them that the place was taken.

“The kitchen is all modern. About a year ago, we decided that if we were going to sell it, we should at least make it look good. All the floors have had their carpets pulled up and replaced with temporary rugs. There is a washer and dryer on each floor, including the ballroom. You just never know when you’re going to have to clean up some tablecloths after a party. Oh my, the things that we did in this house. Oh, you must see the porch around the house. In the back, there is a pool, of course. Inground because that was what we wanted. People were saying that no one would want to buy a house if it had a large pool in the back. Well, be damned with them all. We wanted to be able to play with the grandkids back there, so we put it in.

She showed them laundry shoots that were in each of the bedrooms that had been put in when the house was built. The wine cellar, as well as the craft room that she had down in the basement. Even the backyard was something to be impressed with. What with the orchard of apples and peaches there as well as grapes.

“We wanted this to be our forever home, and we nearly made it. But I want to have everything on one floor so that I don’t have to worry about the stairs any longer.” Waylon told her that he could understand that. “You’re such a wonderful couple. I do hope you’ll get it. Some people just don’t appreciate the finer things in life.” It was when her husband, Charlie, came into the house that she realized how much in love the couple was.

“We don’t have to sell it right away. Some people, well, as I overheard my wife saying just don’t understand that some people like the things are around here. One couple wanted me to slash, their words to slash the price of the house, or they were going to come in and burn all the furniture here so that it wasn’t cluttering the place up with old stuff. Old stuff, indeed. Well, I hope they don’t get it, is all I can say about that.”

Londyn was sure that Waylon felt about the house the same way that she did. He was asking questions about acres as well as any other things that would pop into his head, seemingly without thought of the order of things. They were sitting on the back porch. It was very lovely with the pool right in front of them when Waylon made an offer on the house. To say that the Dutch’s were surprised would have been an understatement. But they accepted even with the other offers that had been put in by some of the other people.

“I have to tell you, I didn’t expect it to sell. I truly didn’t. I thought that we’d be found in our jammies one night when no one answered the front door or something.” Waylon said it was just what they were looking for in a new home for them. Then Charlie put out his hand before continuing. “I know you. I don’t know if you remember me or not but I remember when you were just a little tyke under your granddas feet all the time. All you boys, you were such good boys and better men I hear now that you’re all grown up. We used to go to some pretty grand parties at your parent’s home, too, back in the day. Or I guess it would be your grandparent’s day. My goodness, when I think of them, it makes me realize that I’m just getting older by the day.”

The four of them had such a good time that Waylon invited the elderly couple out to dinner with them. She was starving by the time he convinced them to go, and they were going to meet the banker at the restaurant in order to sign off on the loan they were taking out.

Londyn couldn’t have been happier. Now, if she could get that bastard Roman off her back, she’d feel a good deal better about life all the way around.