Page 116 of Deadly Misfortunes

"Stay out of prison."

"Right. But do you want to move to Dallas with Janie and continue working for me? Or refurbish your farm until it's a place to be proud of and live there? Or renovate it and sell it? Or move in with Janie and find work in Austin?"

"I loved going to the farm when I was a kid. Belinda hated it, so I spent summers there helping my grandma with chores after my grandfather died. But there's no real work out there unless I want to run the farm, and I don't. I wouldn't know the first thing about farming or renovating the house, barn, or other outbuildings. My grandfather showed me how to refinish vehicles; I used to work with him every summer until he died."

"Okay, so if I get you help that will assist you in rebuilding your grandparents' home and other buildings and repair the fences and the like, you could sell it. I'll make sure you have someone who works in your best interest to sell the property for the best price. Then you can pay everyone back, invest some of the money, and buy yourself a home wherever the two of you want to go."

"But I want to work for you," Red said, sounding almost desperate, like he had found a family to be with when his own didn't want him.

"Janie?" Gregory asked.

"I'm going with Brendan wherever he goes." She poked him in the chest with her finger. "And you're not having anything further to do with your family."

"Right. Like you told me months ago."

"Yeah, because you were always so upset with them and then took it out on me. Not physically," Janie quickly told everyone. "He was moody and inconsolable. And when are we getting married?"

Red cleared his throat and reached into his pocket, to everyone's surprise. He brought out a boxed ring and opened it. On bended knee, he asked her, "Janie, will you marry me?"

She smiled. "Yes!"

They hugged and kissed, and Sascha was glad she had seen Janie in a wedding gown to marry Red, not someone else in her future.

"Yep. Miss Lassiter is a fortune teller, you know. And she said we're getting married and having a baby girl."

But Red still looked worried. He knew he'd face some felony charges.

"I've always wanted a vintage Mustang," Gregory said. "I'll buy the broken-down one, and you fix it up like new. And Raymond would like a vintage Ford pickup, so the same deal for him. Whenever we go to vintage car shows, he always wants one." Gregory glanced at Sascha.

Sascha laughed. "All right. I want a gypsy van with Sascha the Sensation painted on the panels. I can look up something that appeals to me, and you see if you can do it."

“I can do it,” Red assured them.

"Believe me, I have enough well-to-do collector friends who will be asking you to refurbish their vintage vehicles or buy new vintage ones to refurbish. You might find you don't have time to work as my bodyguard."

But then Sascha remembered something she needed clarification on. "Did you ever have a dream about some guy wearing a mask and strangling you?" Sascha asked Janie.

"Omighod, yes. I mean, not a dream. It was Halloween, late at night; we're both into horror stuff and had been watching scary movies. I went to bed, and Brendan went to turn off the porch light so we wouldn't get any more trick-or-treaters.”

“But I was in a playful mood,” Red said.

“Right. I was under the covers, lights turned off except for the hall light, which was on. Suddenly, this guy was wearing a ski mask and came over, acting like he was going to strangle me. I screamed, got my legs free from my bedding, and kicked him right where it hurts the most. How did you know? Ohmigod, you envisioned it?"

"Yeah. I wasn't sure if it was a nightmare or a vision, but I'm glad to know you weren't really attacked."

"I was a lot more careful about scaring her after that," Red said.

"I bet. Were you bitten by fire ants a while back?" Sascha asked, thinking on that mystery too.

"How did you know about that? I covered up the spots, not wanting anyone to think I had chicken pox or measles. Or that I was dumb enough to fall into a fire ant mound."

"When you left my apartment after trashing it, you tripped and fell on a raised mound of fire ants," Sascha said.

"I did.” Red frowned. “How did you know it was me? You had a vision.”

She didn’t say she hadn’t, but just let him think she had.

“I figured it was karma and I deserved it," Red said.