Don't Let It Snow in Deadwood, page 17
“I spent the rest of May and all of June and July wooing him.”
“Did you end up screwing him?”
She smirked. “No, Hooch only liked to watch while I took care of myself. He was long past being able to get a full erection.”
Grimacing, I tried to forget that detail before it took up residence in my brain and registered for a post office box. “That’s too much information, Susan.”
“You’re the one who asked.”
Lesson learned. “What about the lawyer?”
“Oh, he could still get it up and was rather large in the briefs. He probably had a good inch on Rex. We screwed around during Hooch’s naptimes, but we had to be sneaky. There were tons of cameras around the house. Like I said, he was into watching.”
I squeezed the bridge of my nose. The last thing I wanted to reminisce about on Christmas Day was Rex Conner’s nether regions. “I meant, what did the lawyer get out of you wooing Hooch?”
“If you want specific answers, then you need to improve your interrogation skills.”
“Duly noted.”
“The lawyer and I convinced Hooch to make him the executor of his estate with full access to all of his accounts.”
“And whose idea was it to include you in the will?”
“Hooch thought it was his.”
“But your lawyer pal was whispering in Hooch’s ear about your innumerable qualities, I’m sure.”
She lifted her chin at my backhanded insult. “I was a poor widow with a broken heart and two children to raise. The money would keep me and my kids off the streets.”
Errrch! Back the truck up. “Two children?”
She leaned back on the heels of her palms. “As you know, Violet Parker has two kids, so of course I had adorable twins whose pictures I kept next to our bed.”
“Your and Hooch’s bed?”
“Yes.”
“My kids’ pictures sat next to a strange old man’s bed?”
“A rich old man.”
As much as I wanted to throttle her, I laced my fingers together and let her continue. “So, the will was changed, the lawyer became the executor, and you were added as a beneficiary.”
“Me and my kids.”
Come again? “The letter only mentioned me.”
“The new will split his estate into fourths. One part to a grant program at his alma mater; another part to his only living relative—some adopted nephew he hadn’t seen in almost thirty years; a third part to Violet Parker; and the final fourth to Violet Parker’s kids, split evenly, of course.”
Nutcracker balls! This was even worse than I’d thought. “Okay, so the will was changed and then what? You kicked back on the beach and waited for him to die?”
“Yeah, pretty much. The cancer had spread throughout his body and by early July he was sleeping most of the day and night. I made sure the nurses changed him routinely and rolled him over so the bedsores didn’t get any worse. But the old bastard would not die.”
How horrible to be in such a wretched state and surrounded by gold-digging vultures.
“Don’t give me that look, Violet. You don’t understand. Hooch wasn’t a kind and compassionate man in his youth. He was a ruthless, cutthroat businessman who took great pleasure in hostile takeovers that ended with him squeezing all of the value from his acquisitions before squishing them under his heel like bugs.”
“You’re just saying that to make yourself feel better.”
“It’s the truth. He told me tale after tale about how he destroyed so many lives, grinning the whole time with glee as he bragged about his might in the business world.” She scoffed. “Do you actually think I would do this to some innocent old guy?”
Yes! Wait, let me think about that for a moment … Hell yes! Instead of answering her, I asked, “How come you ran off instead of waiting for Hooch to die?”
She wrinkled her upper lip. “Well, I got into some trouble with the lawyer.”
“What kind of trouble?”
“The love kind.”
“What does that mean?”
“He fell in love with me—or so he claimed.”
I sneered. “He just wanted the money Hooch was giving you and the kids.”
“I thought so, too, at first. But it got weird.”
“Define ‘weird.’ ”
She stood and began pacing at the end of the bed. “He’d buy me jewelry, bring me roses, talk about adopting your kids as his own. He even got a tattoo of my profile over his heart with ‘Violet’ written under it.”
“Why my name? He knew your real name, didn’t he?”
“Yes, but when we screwed around, he’d call me by your name. He said it made our dirty romps more exciting.”
I covered my mouth. Oh, my poor sullied name.
“I soon realized that I was trapped,” Susan continued, still pacing. “If I came clean about my true identity to Hooch, I’d lose out on the money.” She frowned down at her hands. “And by that point I’d done some things to get your name on that will that went beyond deranged. Hooch had kinky tastes, trust me. Money can make people really unbalanced.”
I wasn’t even going to fish in that murky pond. “It sounds like the lawyer played you.”
“He had dreams of us living on the island in Hooch’s house, raising your kids—even though he knew they weren’t mine—and growing old together there.”
“So you ran.” My tone overflowed with derision.
She stopped pacing and scowled at me. “I didn’t know what else to do. I figured that if I disappeared, Hooch would realize I didn’t love him and change his will again.”
“What about all of those gross kinky things you did?”
“Well, you see, there was this guy I’d met at the clubhouse. He owned a local upscale art gallery.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. You were having sex with him, too?”
She slapped her hands on her hips. “I didn’t have sex with him. I just agreed to help him with a couple of shows.”
“Fine. You helped him. What’s that have to do with this whole sordid mess?”
“I realized during those shows that I was much happier surrounded by art, and that my dream was to open my own gallery.”
Golly gee, I was certainly glad that I could play a part in Susan finding her dream career. Now I could go to my deathbed feeling fulfilled.
“The weight of that stupid will started to make it hard to breathe.” She returned to wearing out the carpet. “After another couple of weeks I’d had enough. I snuck away and took a flight back to the States.”
“But what about the money you’d sleazed so hard for?”
Her eyes narrowed. “In exchange for a few disgusting moments with Hooch, I’d enjoyed living a life of luxury in his huge beach house for months. That was good enough for me by that point. End of story.”
“But it’s not the end of the story, is it?”
“No.” She blew out a breath. “Unfortunately, Hooch didn’t change his will and the fool lawyer was still pining over me. I’d given a fake address back in the States on all of the paperwork I’d signed, which kept him at bay until two weeks ago. He’d tracked down my last address and sent me a letter, which the post office forwarded to me here. In it, he explained that Hooch had died in November and I was still in the will. He also sent me several love poems he’d written since I’d left.” She wrinkled her nose. “He’s still using your name in them.”
This whole story was nutty as peanut butter frosted fruitcake. “Is that all?” I asked.
“No, he also sent me a picture of his penis. You should see it. Even you’d be impressed.”
I flinched. “I meant, is that all of your story about how I ended up married to a man I never knew existed?”
“Yeah. That’s it.”
I sat there for a moment, letting it all gel in my head. “What did I wear at my wedding?”
“A sexy little nurse uniform with fishnet stockings and a pair of Valentino Garavani rockstud ankle-strap heels. Hooch really got off when I played Violet the slutty nurse with him and took his temperature with my extra-long thermometer.”
Eek! I was going to need to soak my brain in bleach for a month to clear these stains. “Well, at least I was wearing nice shoes.” I covered my face with my hands, peering at Susan through my fingers. “What did I ever do to you?”
“Besides the obvious?”
“What’s the obvious?”
She pointed at me. “You treated me differently.”
I lowered my hands. “Different from what?”
“From Quint. I could never quite put my finger on it until you came clean about Blake not being my real dad.”
“He raised you as his own.”
“Yes, he did, but you didn’t treat me like a sibling.”
“What in the hell are you talking about?”
“When you looked at Quint, your eyes practically glowed with adoration. Then you’d turn to me and there was nothing there but hate.”
Not hate. Not at first, anyway. “That’s because you kept destroying my things.”
“I only did that because I was mad at you for not adoring me like you did Quint.”
Dear Lord in a flatbed Ford! My sister was driving on one lug nut.
“Is that why you screwed Rex? Because I didn’t adore you enough growing up?”
“I fell in love with Rex,” she defended.
Apparently, my mom had been telling the truth on that one. “How could you fall in love with someone you barely knew?”
“Barely knew?” She sniffed. “Rex and I were having sex long before the day you caught us.”
“What?”
She looked like the cat that had eaten the canary. “I guess Rex never told you about that and how we’d—”
“Stop!” I held up my hand. “So, you and Rex were screwing around behind my back before the day I caught you two in my bed?”
“Yes. We’d had sex in your bed several times before that day.”
I let that settle in my gut, waiting for the flames of anger to flare. Oddly, I felt nothing—no ire, no hurt, no humiliation. Hmmm, that was different.
“Rex liked to keep our rendezvous hush-hush. He said it made him hot thinking about me as his naughty secret.”
Of course. Rex had been into all kinds of stupid sex games. I’d donned a few silly getups myself back then upon request. Memories flashed through my mind, my cheeks warming at my stupid naiveté. Ah, there was my old friend, humiliation. Welcome back.
I returned to Susan and the here and now. “And you fell in love with him?”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t think him screwing around with you behind my back was a red flag when it came to a long-term relationship with the rat bastard?”
“Rex told me he loved me. That he was going to break it off with you, but he wanted to let you down easy.”
That dickhead had been playing both of us.
“Enough about Rex.” I stood from the chair. “You need to fix this mess with the will.”
“That’s what Mom said, too.” She rubbed the back of her neck. “I made her cry.”
I held back a snort. Hell, I’d made our mom cry more times than I could remember. She’d bawled buckets when I told her I was pregnant. What surprised me was that causing Mom’s tears seemed to bother Susan all of a sudden. Apparently even black widows have hearts.
I looked at her luggage. “Are you running away again?”
“I’m going back to St. Barts.”
“Why?”
“Mom told me I have to make things right by you.”
Hmm. Susan’s history when it came to anything involving me raised some doubts. How could I trust that she wouldn’t go and screw up things even more?
But before we went any further, I wanted to address something else. “You need to keep your hands off of Doc.”
She rolled her eyes. “Hold your breath. I saw him with the kids this morning while they were playing with their presents. I’m not going near that.”
“And I’m supposed to believe you after your past with my boyfriends?”
“Those other guys were ticking time bombs. I’m surprised you couldn’t see it.” She glanced at my hair. “Then again, you were always an easy mark for charmers, falling for anyone spewing compliments about your curls.”
I let that blast about my hair fly over my bow. “And you were merely helping me out by sleeping with them?”
She shrugged. “If they hadn’t shown interest, I would’ve backed off. But you kept choosing two-timing losers. What was I supposed to do? Let my sister be the butt of their locker room jokes?”
“Please! You took pleasure in screwing them behind my back. Don’t even try to deny it.”
“Pleasure? Other than Rex, one of them was okay in the sack. Another was like a monkey. He went off before he even got it out of his pants.”
“Wait a second! How many of my boyfriends did you sleep with?” Before she could answer, I held up my hand again. “You know what? Never mind. It doesn’t matter. My point was, you took pleasure in hurting me.”
“Didn’t we already go over this? Must we beat it into the ground?”
I’d like to beat her into the ground with a big ol’ … I clasped my hands together, looking at her luggage again. An idea popped into my head. Insurance, of sorts, that she’d clean up this mess. “Let’s make a deal, Susan.”
“Why would I be interested in a deal with you?”
I ignored her sarcasm. “If you get me and my kids out of this mess, free and clear, I’ll help you lure Rex back.” All I had to do was get him onto her sticky web and then she could scuttle in and immobilize him with a bite or two.
Her gaze narrowed. “Why would you do that?”
Because I wanted to kill two birds with one stone. A big stone that was strapped to the end of my new mace. A pointy stone would be best. Unfortunately, Cooper insisted that murder would get me jail time, so I’d have to settle for manipulating Susan and Rex into leaving the Black Hills of their own free will.
I smiled, my positivity shining like a beacon through the shitstorm. At least, that was the look I was trying to fake. “Just call me a sucker for true love.”
Chapter Eighteen
What was it about Christmas lights that made everything in life seem okay? Or maybe it was what the lights represented for me—comfort food, shared laughs, and family … including the ornery law dog across the puzzle table from me.
“Quit looking at me with that goofy grin, Parker.”
“Come on, Cooper.” I looked down at the puzzle pieces, searching for one with part of a green stocking. “Can’t we just put away our fangs for one night? It’s Christmas, for Pete’s sake.”
And Susan has left the state.
Earlier, after our little talk, Susan had finished packing and caught a ride south to Denver with Mr. Peabody, who lived down near Colorado Springs. According to Mr. Peabody, the storm had stayed north and the roads were mostly clear a little ways south of Rapid City. The Denver airport was Susan’s best bet with Rapid’s airport not only still closed, but also backed up from cancelled flights.
Mom and Dad had seen her off. I figured she and I had said enough to each other down in the basement. She knew the deal—one “fuckup” for another, as in her dissolving “my” bogus marriage in exchange for me manipulating Rex into her hands.
Later in the afternoon, Doc and the kids had gone outside to play in the snow, staying out so long that I’d donned my old coat and gone out to see what they were up to. I found them in the side yard, along with a couple more new snowmen.
I stopped short at the sight of Addy battling one of the snowmen with my old softball bat. She raced in, swinging and dodging, performing moves that made my eyebrows hit my hairline.
Then it was Layne’s turn with his new trident. He attacked another one of the snowmen, jabbing and spinning. His moves were fiercer than those he’d been practicing earlier in the living room in front of Cornelius.
I raised my gloved hand to my mouth. Something about the intensity on their faces told me this wasn’t just play for them. They were small warriors, training for battle.
“They’re sparring,” Doc said, joining me.
“Where did they learn those moves?” That couldn’t be innate, could it? Maybe with Addy, who was next in line to wear my shoes, but Layne? Only females could be Executioners.
“I’ve been training them.”
I gaped at him. He was watching the two kids lunge and swing, destroying the snowmen. When had he trained my kids to … Oh! “Is this what you guys have been doing all of this time at the Rec Center?”
He nodded. “It started when Layne got suspended for defending your reputation at school. He wanted me to teach him how to fight. Instead, I taught him self-defense. Addy was eager to join us.” He glanced my way. “Of course, like her mother, she’s a natural with any sort of bat or other bludgeoning weapon.”
I turned back to my daughter in time to see her slide on her knees under a snowman’s twig arm, hop up on the backside of it, and land a blow to its middle section. “You’ve been teaching my kids how to defend themselves,” I stated, as if cementing it in my head.
“I wanted to talk to you first and make sure you were okay with it, but the kids wanted to keep it a secret. They hoped to surprise you.” I could feel his gaze on me. “I understand if you’re upset about me not getting your permission first.”
Layne landed a series of blows to his snowman’s middle, and then spun around to add a kick that knocked off a twig arm. Addy shouted in approval, high-fiving her brother.
For months now I’d fretted about what would happen if any of my enemies came looking for my kids, picturing them as lambs to the slaughter. My heart swelled. The two warriors in front of me were not lambs. Sure, they were small, but maybe, just maybe, they could surprise an enemy enough to escape capture. Then I could hunt down whatever son of a bitch dared to come for my family and do what I was born to do.
I smiled at Doc. A real smile this time, not one of my think-positive faces. “You have given my kids the tools to stay alive in a world full of monsters. How could I be upset about a gift like that?”
