Page 18 of Audon

“I don’t care. The police had better be doing their job, or I’ll have their badges. I’m not a man to mess with.” He didn’t say anything, and he turned to look to see that he’d gone back in the kitchen. “Damned man. I don’t want to talk to him. I want him to divorce his wife so that things go my way. My son needs a keeper.”

Picking up the phone, he was at a loss as to which line the man could be on. Pushing random buttons, he finally got the man on the line and asked him what the problem was. He had to jerk the phone from his ear when the man actually shouted at him.

“What right do you have in speaking to me in such a manner? I’m Pete Jacobson, not some hard-of-hearing old man that pisses his pants.” He said that he wanted to make sure he heard him. “I heard you. The problem is I don’t think you’re listening to me. I told you not to marry that woman, and you did anyway. I want her arrested for breach of promise to my son.”

“She made no such promise to your son. She doesn’t even like him.” He said that he didn’t either and asked what the point was. “We’re married and happily so. Stop sending the police here on wild goose chases. I’m sure they have more important things to do rather than to come to my home and harass me and my wife.”

“You’ll do as you’re told.” He heard a sound and looked at the phone. “Did you just hang up on me? Why you little shitless cur. I should have you arrested as well. There is no way that…”

He put the phone back in the cradle and yelled for the butler. He didn’t know his name, but yelling for ‘Butler’ served the purpose. He told him to call the man back and hang up on him. Of course he didn’t know the number, and apparently looking up a cell phone number in his old phone books was impossible. He decided that he was going to press charges against the younger man and be done with him too. He might even shoot him while he was at it. Damned people.

For the next hour he tried to find out why he couldn’t get the damned upstart arrested. They wouldn’t go on his word that he’d yelled at him, and there apparently isn’t any law about that. If he was in charge, he’d surely make sure that there were laws just for people like him. Damned people. He decided he was going to have to teach him a lesson as well. Getting his jacket on, Pete was going out the door just as his wife was coming in. He asked her where she’d been all day.

“I’ve been with my lawyer if you must know. I’m filing for divorce.” He asked her what she was talking about. “Just as I said, I’m filing for divorce, and you’re going to be out in the cold. Why didn’t I remember that you signed a prenup when we were first married? Well, I remember now. And as soon as today, you’re going to be served. I’ve had enough of you.”

“You’re to stop this nonsense right now. I’ll tell you when you can file for divorce. I’m in charge of you and my money. You’ll call them up and stop this right now, or I’m going to teach you a lesson that you’ve seemed to have forgotten.” She lifted her chin, and he popped her a good one. When she went flying backward, he felt satisfied with what he’d done. “You remember who’s in charge, or I’ll have to teach you how to behave. I’m not putting up with your nonsense anymore.”

He was leaving the house before she got up. Damned woman. Who did she think she was telling him that she was filing for divorce? He’d been in charge since their wedding night, and she’d better well remember that. As he was leaving the driveway, someone pulled in behind him.

“What do you think you’re doing?” The teenager-looking man got out of his car and ran up to his. Rolling down his window, he had his gun out and ready to defend himself when he asked him his name. “Pete Howard Jacobson. Why do you want to know?”

“You’ve been served.” He looked back at the house, then at the young man. He had disappeared by then and was backing out of the driveway. Pete was so angry that he thought about going back into the house and teaching April another lesson, but he had things to do. He wasn’t going to waste his time on his wife when there were more important matters to attend to.

Finding the right Hathaway house proved to be harder than he thought it should have been. He’d wanted to find his father, but he wasn’t listed anywhere, and that was another thing he would take care of if he was in charge. People should want to have their addresses known so that they could be found. He’d wasted a good two hours just going from house to house when he finally found the one that he’d been looking for.

His problem wasn’t that he didn’t know the house. He’d been to it before. But he was driving himself today and didn’t know the streets like his driver did. He’d gotten so lost at one point that he’d had to ask for directions. Men did not ask for directions no matter how lost they were. But he’d been reduced to finding someone that could direct him, and that made him all the more pissed off.

Pulling into the driveway, he was impressed that the house was in better shape than he remembered. The flowers out front made it look like a welcoming place, unlike his, which had sharp bushes in the front to ward away any unwanted guests. Not that anyone was welcome to his home, but he kept them out all the same.

Knocking on the front door, he checked his pockets again. The gun was still there as well as the extra clip. He didn’t know why he’d need the extra clip, but he had it on him anyway. The Glock held twelve shots and one in the chamber—which was hot he’d been told—and that’s the way he should carry it. To be ready at all times. When the big man, a butler he supposed, opened the door, he pointed the gun at him and told him to call for his master.

“They’re not here.” He asked where they’d gone. “To their parents’ home. They’re not expected back until late this evening. You should put that gun away before you hurt someone.”

“I’ll not do that, you see. Because that’s what I came here for. That damned woman is going to marry my son, or so help me I’ll plug her so full of holes she won’t know where it’s all coming from.” The man put his hands down and said that he needed to leave. “I’ll leave when I’m damned good and ready. You say they’ll be back later? Then I’ll wait. I’ve got nothing to do but make sure that this woman does right by me. Trinity will marry Peter even if I have to kill off her current husband to do so. I have a beef with him too. The damned man. Did he tell you that he yelled at me? Who does that?”

He was headed to the living room when the big man said he was calling the police. He thought that was an excellent idea and told him to do so. The police would be on his side. They’d been arresting Peter since he could walk, and they’d see that he was right in making sure that Trinity married him to bring him to heel. Of course he’d have to knock her around a bit too, just so she knew the rules, but he wasn’t above that. Women needed to know their place and she’d be no different.

When the butler disappeared, he wasn’t worried. As soon as the police got here, he’d make sure that someone called Trinity and her husband and got them home. He wondered if the brat was here but didn’t want to be bothered by it just yet. He had other things on his mind other than whether or not some brat was around to start screaming when things didn’t go his way.

The police showed up just as he was beginning to think that they weren’t. Telling him that he had to turn over his gun had him pointing it at them too, and they backed off. Joey, the only officer that he knew, said he was going to be arrested, but he knew better. As soon as they heard the whole story, they’d be arrested, Trinity and that husband of hers. He was in the right, and the sooner people learned that, the better off they’d be.

“Mr. Jacobson, we’ve got some officers at your home.” He asked what had happened there. “Did you hit your wife? Knocking her to the floor?”

“Yes. She’s not been hit in some time now, and today she said she filed for divorce. I taught her again how she wasn’t smart enough to make decisions.” He said that she was in the hospital. And that she was pressing charges. She also said that he was served papers pertaining to her divorcing him. “I got them, but I’m not concerned with them right now. She’ll have to be knocked around a bit more, but I’m not concerned with her feelings being hurt. She should have known that she was going to piss me off. Where does she get off filing for divorce after all this time? She’s uppity is what she is and needs her teeth broken in again.”

“You hit your wife before?” He said that everyone did. It’s the way that you kept them in line. “I’ve never hit my wife in all our married life. That’s against the law; you know that, don’t you?” He waved him off.

“Only if she presses charges, and I’ll take care that she revokes those when I get back to the house. I might have to teach her how to behave around the police too when I get there.” He huffed. “I’m telling you right now, if Trinity thinks that she’s going to be able to talk to me or my son like that, she’s in for a rude awakening. I’m the man of the house, and the sooner they remember that, the better off they’ll be.”

“Mr. Jacobson, I’m arresting you for hitting your wife and having a gun pointed at my officers.” He said that he’d not fired anything, so there was no harm done. “There is harm done. Your wife has a concussion, and she’s going to need stitches in her mouth. You did that.”

“Yes, and I’d do it again if she doesn’t behave herself. You’re not going to arrest me. I’m Pete Jacobson, and that name means something around here.” He said that it didn’t if he had hit his wife. “Water under the bridge. I told you I’ll take care of her when I get back home. I’m waiting on Trinity and that damned husband of hers. He yelled at me today to leave his family alone. Well, I’ll decide when I’m going to leave them alone. As soon as I have to bring her to heel is when I’ll leave them alone. To think she made a promise to him and has backed out of it. She even went and got married without any consideration to my family name or my son.”

“I’m not going to ask you again to give me that gun. I’ve told you three times now, and I won’t do it again.” He handed over the gun just to shut him up. But he told him that he wanted it back when the other two got here. “They’re not coming here. They’ve been advised that they’d be safer with their family.”

“Why the hell didn’t you say that before?” When he was asked to stand up, he did. When they put the cuffs on him, Pete didn’t know what to think. “You take these off me right now. I know my rights, and I’m allowed to bear arms. I’m not planning on killing her right away. Just if she doesn’t see reason. Just give me my gun back, and when she gets here, I’m going to make her marry Peter, and you’ll see, things are just the way they should be.”

He was read his rights and then told what he was being arrested for. Having a gun was one of them, and he just didn’t understand that. He really did have the right to be armed. And they had taken that away from him. The rest of it was just stuff about April and Trinity. He didn’t know why anyone was getting their dander up in the air when they were just women. Women who needed to be taught a lesson. And he was going to do that if it was the last thing he did.