Page 20 of Audon

Her face was bandaged up, and she had her arm in a sling. He knew too that she’d had stitches in her head when she’d been knocked down by her husband. Axel was representing her in her divorce from Pete, and he hoped that she took him to the cleaners. If anyone deserved to be taken care of, it was that man.

“How long before the judge makes a determination about the divorce? I heard that he was going to hear the divorce proceedings first because the other things would take longer.” He told Trinity that he was still reading over the prenup that April had had her future husband sign before they were married. “Do you suppose he’s trying to get out of it? He gets nothing from what I heard from Debra.”

“Axel told me that it was ironclad and that there were no loopholes that he could try and get around. Even for as old as it is, it’s the best that he has seen. You did know that Mac didn’t want Axel to sign one when they got married. They were in love at their first kiss.” It had been too. Like his other brothers, they fell in love right away, and there was no turning back from it either. “I’m happy that you trusted me enough about not having one. Not that I’d take anything from you. I’ve told you this before: what’s yours is yours and what’s mine is yours as well. I love you dearly.”

“And I love you.” She was about to speak again when the judge came out of the little side door. He often wondered how big that room was but didn’t want to be caught looking around. Sitting up straighter in his seat, he took Trinity’s hand and held it tightly into his own.

“All right. We have a lot to go through today, and I don’t want any trouble from anyone on how the things go.” The judge looked pointily at Pete. “You’re going to keep your opinions to yourself today, or I’ll fine you. I’d be better off giving you more days in jail the way things are going for you today.” Judge Brown looked around the room. “The first bit of judging that I’m going to do is on the divorce of Pete Jacobson and April Harsh Jacobson. I find for Mrs. Jacobson. I could go into why I’m going with her on this, but I have a busy day, and I’m not—do you have something to say, Pete? I’ll tell you right now, my word in bond, and I’m not going to listen to you go on about how a woman has to know her place.”

“She should. I’ve been running this company for the last fifty or so years, and I’ll not have you or anyone else come in and tell me that I’m out of work. You just tell her to go back to her sewing classes or whatever she’s been into this week and to leave me the hell alone. I’ll take care of her when I get her home.” The gavel came down, and Pete jumped. “There’s no need for all of that. I don’t know what got into her now after I’d trained her so well before. A few pops to the mouth and she’ll see reason.”

“That’s why she’s divorcing you. She’s sick of being popped in the face.” The judge aimed his gavel at Pete like it was a gun. “You’re going to stay away from her and all that she owns, or I’m going to have you back in here in two shakes of a lamb’s tail. I’m not messing around with you, Pete. You’ve caused enough harm to that young woman, and I’m not going to allow you—”

“Allow me to do what? She’s my wife, and she’s my property. She’ll do what I tell her, or she’ll feel the back of my hand is what is going to happen.” Pete stood up then and looked at April. When she stood up as well, he thought for sure there was going to be trouble. “You get your little ass back home and make sure you stay there too. I’m going to teach you a lesson that you won’t soon forget.”

“I’m not going to go anywhere near that house again.” He nearly sat when she said that but stood up again when April continued. “I’ve put it on the market. I never liked that house in the first place. But since it was bigger than my parents’ house, you just had to have it. I’ve bought me a little two-bedroom home that I’m going to enjoy living in. Without you.”

The two of them ignored the judge while he banged his gavel on his dais. He was spitting mad too that neither one of them was paying him any mind and just making a circus out of his courtroom. Finally, April sat down and smiled.

“There, by god. Now that you’ve gotten it out of your head that you’re divorcing me, we can move on to why I’m in jail.” Judge Brown granted April her divorce and told Pete to sit down and shut up. He didn’t want to, but when one of the officers from the local jail came to stand next to him, he sat down and closed his mouth. “She’s going to regret this, see that she doesn’t. And I’ll say when we’re selling the house, not her. It’s mine until I say so differently. Damned woman.”

“Now. As to why you’re in jail. It’s been brought to my attention that you’ve been threatening Mrs. Hathaway with a gun. What do you have to say for yourself? And it had better be along the lines of saying you’re sorry.” He said that he wasn’t sorry and as soon as he got out, he was going to be popping her in the mouth as well. “With the gun or your fist? I’ll say that neither one of them is going to make me very happy with you.”

“She needs to marry my son. Then I’m going to teach her the lessons that my errant wife has forgotten in how to be a dutiful wife. She’ll bring him in line, or I’ll know the reason for it. Also, there is a brat that she has. I’ll have nothing to do with that either. I want it given away or sold; I don’t care, but she’s not coming to this marriage with a damned kid on her hip.” Judge Brown asked if it was Peter’s child. “Good God, no. He don’t have the sense to come in out of the rain much less father a child. I guess I’ll have to supervise that too if I want heirs to come to me. And they’ll be taught lessons too. I won’t have another son like I do now. I should have done better by him and had him go to prison a couple of times instead of bailing him out. He’ll learn or else. I rule with a heavy hand and a bigger gun than is needed in this situation, but you’ll see. I’ll keep my family in line.”

“Trinity Hathaway is married now. She and Audon Hathaway tied the knot a few weeks ago. I did the marriage myself.” Judge Brown looked at Pete. “How do you suppose she’s going to be marrying your son if she’s already got herself a good man in her life?”

“I’ll have to kill him off if he won’t take the money that I have. I’m to understand that he has a bit more than I do, but that don’t matter. I’ll make sure that I have that Trinity’s money and then we’ll see how things go.” Pete looked at him. “His parents have about a dozen other boys to carry on the name. Won’t matter to me if I have to shoot him too. I will have what I want.”

“Are you threatening to kill this young man? Again?” He said that someone had taken his gun and he’d better get it back before he leaves too. “You don’t have a permit to carry a gun, Pete. And if he comes up shot at all, even if you just graze him, I’m going to have you put in jail for attempted murder. And while we’re on the subject, there will be no selling of that child either. She belongs with her mother and not anywhere else.” Pete just waved him off. “Use your words, Pete, or so help me, I’m going to have you run back to jail where you’ll be spending a great deal more time.”

“I’m not worried about him. Everybody has their price. And if I have to make him take it by shooting him up a bit, then that’s no business of yours. You should be thanking me for doing your job, anyway. I’m the one that is making things happen around here.” Audon didn’t know what that meant, and neither did the judge. He looked at him, and Audon shrugged. “You there, boy? You gonna divorce Trinity so that my son can have her as her wife? I’ll pay you whatever you want.”

“No.” He stood up then. “Your honor, is he allowed to keep threatening us in the courtroom? He’s upsetting my wife.” Trinity looked upset, but he thought it was because she wasn’t able to get to Pete. She would do him some bodily harm if she were able to get close to him. “Not to mention what he’s said about our daughter. How can he get away with that?”

“He’s not. I’m telling you right now, he’s not.” He looked at Axel and Debra. “You’re good attorneys. What have you come up with since you’ve been looking? I’m sure there is more than him just wanting to kill off your brother and his wife.”

“There is, your honor.” Axel took a file up to the dais and handed it over. “In there you’ll find that Mr. Jacobson Senior has been threatening people for a very long time. He didn’t have a gun then, but he did use his cane on a few people who were afraid to press charges when it happened. Since this has all come out, we’ve heard from over fifty people around the neighborhood who are now coming forward. He also has been known to pour gasoline on pets and other animals that might come into his yard. Some believe that he puts out food for them so that they’ll come to his yard, then he kills them.”

Pete laughed. It was like he found all this funny. The judge, having had enough, it seemed, told him he was going to add ten days to his stay in jail. Of course that didn’t go over well and he was up and arguing again. Audon had about enough. There was no way that this was going to go anyway but badly the way things were going. For whom he didn’t know, but at least April got her divorce from Pete. Finally, it was time to hear witnesses to what Peter had been up to.

“She’s all right to marry, I suppose, but I don’t want that kid. She’ll have to do something with it. Maybe give it to her current husband so that he has something to remember her by.” Pete must have thought that was a good idea and said as much. “I have them, Daddy. You just don’t listen to me. But Trinity ain’t going to treat me like you treat Mommy. No way. I won’t have her hitting me again. That hurt.”

“She hit you because you tried to hit her.” Judge Brown looked like he was ready to call it quits when Pete and Peter started arguing about being hit by Trinity. No one said anything to them, and the judge leaned back in his chair. Yes, he thought, he was giving up on having the courtroom quiet like it should have been. Finally, the judge stood up, and everyone got quiet.

“Get them out of here and back to their cells. I’m trying my best not to sentence them all to prison, but it’s difficult when they’re acting like children.” He banged the gavel. “Lunch. And when I get back, those two had better be out of here. I’ve had enough.”

Judge Brown left by the same door he came in through. Pete was cuffed first, not at all happy with the way things were going, and then Peter. The two of them deserved whatever they got, and he hoped they got it all. Thinking about how much safer his house was going to be, he was glad that he’d taken the advice of his dad and got things squared away.

He and Trinity had also decided to clear the house of the furniture that was in it one room at a time and go with what they wanted. It was going to take them a few auctions to get the furniture that they wanted, but it would be well worth it when they were finished. For the most part, they were leaving the bedrooms alone, but for the one that Trinity had been using and do the rooms that they spent a lot of time in. The master bedroom was going to be their first project.

At eleven forty-five, the judge came back into the room. The Jacobson men had been taken back to jail without any trouble, and April was there as a witness for them. She of all people knew what sort of people her son and ex-husband had been all their lives.

She’d bought them lunch at the deli when they’d been there, and she told them what her plans were for the house. She really was going to sell it so that she could have a place that she could make some memories of her own in. Something fresh, she called it, and he didn’t blame her. It was what he and Trinity were doing in their own house.

After the judge called things to order, it went a great deal smoother. People testified against the Jacobson men, and there were a lot of people who had been hurt by the men too. The cane and then the gun had been hurting a great many people, even if it was only threats.

It took them nearly all day to get the things situated with the Jacobsons. Peter was sentenced to six months in jail, and Pete was sentenced to five years in prison. He would be transferred there in the morning, and then everyone could get on with their lives. The judge even read over the paperwork for Lizzy and granted him fatherhood.