Page 14 of Weston

“It’s doubtful I would have come to her home even if invited.She wasn’t a person that people wanted to be around.”Danielle agreed with him.“Anyway, I was thinking that you could use a hand with the heavy stuff.The three of us can help you out today with whatever you want.”

“I was thinking of having a sale, but I don’t know how to begin with that.Just putting the things that I don’t want out on the sidewalk appeals to me.Then, if no one picks it up, I can have it picked up by someone who deals in this sort of thing.Do you think that would be all right?I don’t want to break any rules.”Jameson told her that his brother was mayor and that he’d call him to ask.“Thanks so much.I really appreciate that.”

Wills made her a ‘free’ sign once it was established that she could do what she’d had in mind, and even before the second piece of furniture was brought out, people were lined up to take it away.Some of them asked if they could come inside to get the stuff, but Jameson put a stop to that.There was no telling what they’d take in the name of things being free.

By the time dinner rolled around, she was exhausted.Having been up for as long as she had and moving things out, she was ready to call it a day.However, once the women in the leap, she had known that Jameson and his family were shifters, showed up to help clean things, she sat in the living room, now devoid of furniture, and relaxed on her lounger for the yard.She was asleep in no time.

Waking up, not knowing where she was, scared her a bit.But once she realized where she was and what was going on, she found herself in the kitchen where food was being laid out.She’d have to pay Jameson back for this meal as it was Chinese food and pizzas again.Christ, she thought, her body was hurting everywhere for everything that she’d been doing.

“You’ve got a lovely home here.I’d never been inside, but it’s bigger than it looks from the outside, isn’t it?”She told Rogen that she’d never been in all the house until yesterday.“I never knew your relatives, but I’d heard about them.Your grannie sounds like a real peach.”

“You have no idea.Once, when I was visiting my dad, she made me wear plastic bags on my feet so I’d not bring things into her house.And I wasn’t to use the bathroom because I wasn’t part of the family that lived there.Great-grandda was a nice man, but he allowed Helen to be the way she was.”She asked about her dad.“My dad wasn’t all that brave around her.He’d do what she wanted, no matter how much it hurt me in the process.After a while, I just stopped coming around even though he had visitation rights with me.It was just easier to not come here rather than to be treated like pond scum.”

“That’s so sad.”She agreed and was grateful when Weston came over and changed the subject.“I will change the locks as soon as Monday.I’ve been thinking of other things, too, that I need to worry about.Like the land that I have.Jameson said he’d contact the renters and tell them that I’d get with them soon, but since it’s not broken right now—as my grandmother on my mom’s side would say, I’m not going to worry about it right now.”

There were a lot of things that needed to be taken care of in the house.Not just with the locks, which was important, but there were the outbuildings as well and the things that might be in them.There was a lawn service that came by, as well as someone who cleaned the house once a week that she’d need to decide on if she wanted them to continue or not.She never realized that owning a house could be so thought-consuming.But she’d get to it sooner or later.

Chapter 7

Weston had been studying the blueprints for the new school for the last twenty minutes and still had no idea what he was looking at.Not to mention how many pages there were for him to get equally confused about.

He got that they overlapped for a reason, but for the life of him, he didn’t know why there were places on the prints that weren’t on the other page.There were whole sections that seemed to be added that had nothing to do with—

“They’re upside down, and you start with the last page.”He looked up at Sandy when she spoke.“I have a hard time with them as well, but not like someone who’s never read them before.Why are you looking at them anyway?”

“I was told I have to approve them.”She shook her head and moved them away from him before getting to the first page and putting it in front of him.“This looks great.Is this what I’m hoping to end up with?”

“It is.I’d let someone who knows what they’re doing look them over.It’s not like you’d know enough to change things, no offense.”He told her that there were none taken.“I came here to ask you something.It’s about Danny.”

“He’s still in jail.”She nodded and then started pacing the room.“I don’t believe that he’ll make bond, nor do I think they’ll be letting him out for good behavior.He seems to be causing a bit of trouble there, anyway.Also, I think—”

“The house we shared in Tennessee, I’m having it cleaned out.There were several insurance policies there with my name on them.Even a couple with my sister’s name on them.I’m…he was going to kill me off too.”He waited for her to say more.Sandy knew that she was an immortal, just like the rest of her family.“I was good to him, Weston.Better than I should have been, too.Why would he kill me off?”

“Money.Greed.You know as well as I do that was his motive for killing off Belinda’s family.A better question you should be asking yourself is, why did he start with her?I’d want to know why he’d started with the children.”She said she’d never thought of that.“To me, it takes a stone-cold killer to kill off children.He seemed to have had no qualms at all about it.”

The day before yesterday, they’d had the bodies of Benson and the two children exhumed to see if they were dead before or after the fire started.It had always been assumed that they died in their sleep, overcome with smoke.But now that they knew that Danny had killed them off for the insurance, they were going to dig deeper.To see, he supposed, if he’d killed them all before setting the house on fire.

“I don’t understand why it makes a difference.It was all premeditated, right?”Again, he told her that he didn’t know, but Jameson would.“To be honest with you, I’m afraid to know what he did.If he killed those two kids with something more than the fire.But then they wouldn’t have suffered as much, either.That’s what I’m thinking.I know that Belinda has suffered greatly thinking that they would have woken up during the fire and knew that they were going to die.I don’t know that I could—what if we’d had children?I know that it’s not possible, but—”

“Don’t.Just don’t do that to yourself.You couldn’t have children so there is no point in you thinking about it.”She told him that was all she could think about.Would he have killed his own children?“And if I tell you that I think that he would have?That I believe because he had no trouble killing your niece and nephew, he’d have no trouble killing his own?Is that going to make things any less terrible for you?”

“No.”She finally sat down, and he could see the tears streaming down her face.Her voice roseas she began to scream at him, but it was what she said that had his heart breaking for her.“I brought him into my family, and they had to pay the ultimate price.He killed my brother and his kids because of me.”

Getting up, he went to her and jerked her from the chair.After slapping her, he held her as she broke down.Sliding her back into the chair, he knelt on the floor in front of her while she continued to cry.He didn’t want her to think about the things that she did, but he didn’t know what else to do with her.

“He would have killed someone else’s family, perhaps someone else’s entire family.But he didn’t.He wasn’t able to get to anyone else because of you and your family.You’re smart for not allowing him to take over your life, Sandy.You didn’t let love color your perception of him.You knew on some level that he had to be watched, and you saved your family.Not alone, but you were there for them when they needed you.”She nodded, but he needed for her to say it.“Tell me you understand.Tell me that you know that if not for you and your family, he would have gotten away with not just killing your family but who knows how many others.Tell me that you understand.”

“I understand.”She held onto him, her grief getting the better of her.“Benson was such a good man and a great father, and Danny killed him because of money.”

“You remember that.You had nothing to do with—how was you to know that he was going to be that sort of person?You couldn’t have known.None of you could have.”She nodded.“Do you realize how lucky you are?How you keeping tabs on him has saved your entire family.Even when you got here, you never lost sight of him.Coming to one of us when he was out of control.There is no telling what things he might well have done had he been allowed to roam free and not have anyone watching over him.”

“He’s a monster.”Weston nodded, getting up from the floor and sitting in the chair next to her.“You hit me.I’ll never forget that, either.You brought me back to my good place by hitting me, and I will forever be thankful for you, Weston.I was…bad thoughts were entering my mind, and I was ready to…I was going to end my life if not for you.”

“He’s not worth it.”She nodded.“And do me a favor.Don’t tell your family that I hit you.I think they’d knock me around a bit too.”

“I won’t.I love you, Weston.You’re about the best brother-in-law a girl could have.When she stood up, so did he.After getting another hug from her, he settled behind his desk and asked her if she was all right.“I am.Not entirely.But I know that I will be.I’m headed to the jail.Danny wants to talk to me.Jameson said he’d go with me, and I had declined, but I think I’ll call him to take me.I don’t want to say the wrong thing.But I do want him to tell me something that can be used against him.Hopefully, there will be a lot of something that can be used against him.”

After she left him, he didn’t bother picking up the blueprints again.Sandy had been right.He wasn’t the person that needed to approve them.Reaching out to Archie, who had dropped off the prints, he told him what Sandy had said about them.

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