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Each of them said that they were on their way again. Ayden was asking questions of Summer, if she knew what was going on or did someone call her. Anything to get information without shaking her. He could tell that Ayden wanted to shake the need out of her, but he was talking to her as calmly as he supposed that he could.
“My neighbor called telling me that there was screaming coming from my place. She didn’t know if it was the girls or not playing in the backyard. She just wanted them to stop.” Summer was soft but continued. “She actually has asked me not to let the herd, my children, out when she’s trying to have a card party. Stupid woman. Doesn’t she understand that, firstly, they’re not cows, so there is no herd. Secondly, they’re playing as children do.”
“What made it different this time for her to call you?” Summer looked at him like she’d never seen him before. “It’s all right if you don’t know. We’ll be there for you anyway.”
“Selma, Selma and Harley, short for Harlequin, said that they didn’t want to stay with their dad today. That the last time he was watching them, he’d not fed them, nor had he let them out of their room. I thought that I could trust him.” She looked out the window of the car as they drove by several houses on her street. “That’s a lie. I was desperate, and I needed to work. So I called and asked him, and he said he’d do that. But I had to pay him. Pay him? Like they’re not his children as well.”
As soon as they pulled into the driveway, Summer was out and running to the house. It was Brandy that caught her, telling her that she couldn’t go in and that it was going to be a police crime scene. The harder she fought with Brandy, the more Brandy was determined not to allow her in.
“My daughters are in there, you fucking bitch. Let me pass.” Brandy told Summer that the girls were fine, but she’d told them not to move. “What do you mean, not to move? If they’re fine, then they need to come out here and come to me. Where is their father? Gilbert? Where is he?”
“Dead.”
~*~
Mac kept an eye on Summer. Mac had only been back for about half an hour when the all-help message had hit her. Running to the house, their house closer than anyone else’s, she was there in time to see that the little ones were all right, but Gilbert was dying. He’d not yet taken his last breath.
“Are you sure that they’re all right?” She told the woman, for about the fifth time that they were, that no one would harm them while she was there. “That other woman, she told me that Gilbert was dead. How does she know that? I’d very much like to beat her right now, but I don’t think it would do any of us any good.”
“I know how you feel. She makes me want to punch her in her face several times a day.” That was untrue, but it made Summer smile a little. “When I got here, I only live about two houses down from here on the next street over. He was still alive. It was doubtful to me that he’d had long to go, but I asked him who had killed him. The little girls, who are a great deal more calm than their mom is right now told me what happened. I can tell you what they said to me, but the police asked me not to. Until they can talk to the girls.”
“No, don’t. I think that it would tear me apart to know that they had seen him killed. I also have a feeling that it had a great deal to do with the way he lives when not at the house. He’s my ex-husband, by the way. I only tell men that we’re married because it keeps other men from hitting on me. Not that anyone would want to take on a mentally unstable mom of two because of the things that Gilbert did to the three of us.”
“Harley is the calmest. She’s the one that spoke to me. Selma was there as well, standing in the living room with her sister. They’re beautiful, by the way.” Summer thanked her. “Is that enough for now, or are you going to need more to be this calm?”
“I don’t know, to be honest.” When Summer looked around, so did Mac. “That man there, the one that you told me was your husband, is he all right? Today, when they were all in the restaurant, he seemed a bit on edge. I might have taken my bad mood out on the five of them.”
“He’s all right now. I think that he’d like to come over and sit with you. I know that it would calm you both down.” She only nodded, and she asked Ayden to come and be with Summer. “I’m going to check on things for you both. As soon as I know anything, I’ll let you guys know. But I swear on my love for Edmond, your children are perfectly fine.”
The police were waiting for the coroner’s office to come and get what they could from the crime scene. Mac, along with Edmond, knew what had happened in the house. The moment that she walked through the door, everything, even to the smallest detail, was there for her to see. Edmond too.
Gilbert had been sitting on the couch having a nap, and the girls were locked into their bedroom. Not on his side but on their own. That was going to take some explaining to Summer when she was able to see them. Why would they have their father locked out of their rooms? Since she’d never touched the girls, she couldn’t tell yet. But she did know what had happened to Gilbert.
There were three men in the living room when shots were fired. The men were there to talk to Gilbert about his recent dips into their territory. Selling drugs in someone else’s established market was a big no-no, she knew. But he was doing more than that, and the men were there to talk to him about it.
Gilbert was running drugs through Summer’s house, using a post office box that he’d set up as her place to get mail as a drop point. Also, he would run his stable of women for prostitution while using his ex-wife’s computer. Summer was unaware of it, but her daughters knew.
The girls were afraid to tell their mom for fear of their father. He’d threatened them with certain death and worse yet to sell them off to the highest bidder. Mac had a feeling that he’d do it too. The man was forever out for himself and didn’t give a shit about the two little ones that used to depend on him when they were little. Not anymore. Not for a long time, either.
Officer Capshaw came to find her when she was standing at the door waiting for him. He only shook his head when he came out of the house. Behind him, she could see the little girls. They were being helped by a female officer out of their clothing and into a scrub shirt that was way too large for them.
As soon as they were dressed, they ran out of the house to their mom. Mac felt their love all the way across the yard to where she was standing. She looked at Capshaw when he cleared his throat.
“I’m not even going to ask you how you knew to look for the other men. You were right. They’re all dead. Gilbert got off a few shots of his own. I will have nightmares for the rest of my life when I think about how close those bullets going through the door got to those little ones.” He eyed her with a frown on his face. “How did you know that this was going on in the first place?”
She told him that Ayden and Edmond were at the restaurant when Summer needed help. He nodded and then asked about the girls. Shaking her head, she told him she wasn’t sure what he was talking about.
“I’m sure you do, but I’m going to leave that alone. For now. So long as nothing comes back to bite me in the balls about it.” She assured him, like assuring the mom, told him that he was not going to be bitten by any of it. “Gilbert has a list of crimes that are longer than I am standing up. I guess the Feds were looking for him about a month ago, and he sort of skipped around until they left him here. I’m not saying that there would be fewer deaths had they really looked. There are three men off the lists of most wanted right now, and I’m happy with the results.”
“I think that a great many people will be.” He nodded and watched with her the reunion between a mother and her kids. “She’s Ayden’s mate. Or his? I’m not sure how they say that. The girls couldn’t be any safer so long as he has breath in his body. Not to mention, they’ll grow up not to be so terrified of every little thing. You know all of us well enough that we’ll keep the three of them safe as well.”
“You keep saying that. Like you know there is going to be trouble. Do you?” She told him that she didn’t, not anymore. “I’m not sure what that means either but I’m too overwhelmed right now to chase you down about it. Just tell me when something like this is going to happen, and I’ll be as happy as I’ve ever been.”
After talking, she made her way to Edmond. He was standing guard over the little family, and she was glad that someone was. Once one of the officers came to talk to Ayden and Summer, Edmond followed her to the furthest away car.
“It’s all gone.” She nodded at him, and he smiled at her. “I have to tell you, I’m sort of sad about that. It was neat knowing that I could use my green spider shit and wrap people up. It was like it was there for us to use just the one time then it just faded away. I even asked Lica about the stuff we shared with him. He didn’t know what I was talking about. Is that the way it was supposed to work, you think?”
“Yeah, I do.” Mac looked up at the man of her dreams. “You know what happened in there, don’t you? What I had to do?” He nodded and kissed her on the mouth.
