Page 14 of Kingston
“No one, I can only assume.My goodness, this is a mess.”She didn’t bother telling her that it was a royal fuck up, but let her go on thinking it was simply a mess.“I’ll have to go back and see what happened.The only reason that I can see now that they went to him is that I felt his taking of a mate.And I don’t know how you feel about this, but it was a grand gesture for him to find you.And now that you’re to have his child—I’m so sorry about all this.Someone screwed up badly.”Again, she said nothing.
Not that she wanted to lash out at the other woman, but things like this, Kings falling through the cracks as it were, was something that should never have happened if someone was keeping up with the order of things.They should find the original person in charge and fire them at the very least.
After trying to find the faerie in charge, things went from bad to worse.He tried saying that he’d been watching over Kings since the day he’d been chosen, but couldn’t recall anything that had happened in his adulthood to verify what he’d been doing.Even Kings had said he thought that he would have noticed a faerie hanging around him, as well as the other cousins.
When Lady Earth left her home to go and do some more research, Skye went to have lunch with Tank and Ace.They were quickly becoming a part of the family, like they’d been a part of it from their birth.She loved having them around.
“What are we having today?”Lunches with them had been fun for Kaida and her.They would meet up and have a wonderful time, then the men would get together for dinner, and she’d heard that it was a blast.Kings was certainly enjoying his time with the two new arrivals.“I’m going to have taco salad.My favorite meal of all time for lunch.”
“I’ve been thinking about what you said about us moving up here to be closer.There isn’t a lot that we’d have to do to move here, but some of it might cost us a bit.”She said she’d help them get out of their lease if that’s the problem.“We do have a lease on our house, but we actually purchased thebuilding that we’re going to be working from.We thought that if we were to have a lease, there might be a time when we lose it for reasons that we can’t foresee, and that would be the best way of keeping up with where we want to work.”
“That makes perfect sense.”She agreed with Kaida.“We can help you with that as well.There are things that we can do to make sure you have a place here that you can work from as well.Tucker owns a few buildings in the downtown area of this town, and it wouldn’t be hard for him to lease them out for you.”
She knew that they had money; all of them didn’t seem to have to work if they didn’t want to, but other things were going on that she knew a little about, like the income from the rentals that Kings had and the ones that were sitting empty.But she’d not offer them up for the men since Kaida had already done it.But she’d be there if it came to that.
“We have another job while we’re here.We’re to look for a missing adult.I didn’t catch that he’d been gone for nearly six years until we said we’d work on it.I’m kind of excited to start on this one.They have to have someone looking for him because of the insurance money.They want to declare him dead so they can collect on it.”Skye asked Ace if they had any leads.“We’ve already found him.I have to be honest when I tell you that I’m surprised that they hired us.They’ve done nothing so far to prove or disprove that the man is anything but living.But they paid upfront, and that’s mostly why we’re doing this for the money.And he’s not that far from here either.Just a few miles from his son’s home, the person who hired us.You’d think that in all that time they would have come across each other at some point, wouldn’t you?”
“I would have thought so.But then I don’t go into town all that often and look for people that I might know.”She shivered a little.“Gives me the creeps a little, to be honest.Why was he hiding out so close to his family and not contacting them?I’d have to figure that out too.Like, do they even want him found, or do they want to just declare him dead for the money?”
“I never thought of that when we found him.He doesn’t seem to be taking any kind of precautions for where he’s living in order not to be found.Perhaps he’s not really missing and is rather pissed off at the family and wants them to leave him alone.Like you said, they didn’t hire anyone but us in all this time.”Kaida said she’d just tell them where he was and have nothing more to do with it.
“That way, if something happens like it did with the man and his wife, you won’t be questioned about your part in it all.I don’t want anything to happen to you two.I’ve grown quite fond of you over the last few weeks.”They’d been together every evening since they arrived and had even been aware of her and Kings’ bonding.In the month since they’d been there, they’d spent a great deal of time with them and had really gotten to know them quite well.“When are you going to tell them where he is?”
“Tomorrow.They’re coming by the courthouse to get what information we have.I thought that it was the best place to meet with them as we didn’t want to do anything without witnesses.”Kaida said she’d be there, too, in the event that they needed backup.“That’s very nice of you, but we don’t want anything to happen to you guys either.You’re the best family we’ve ever had.”
“That’s so sweet.”It was, too.She’d been on the run with Trevor for years before they came to be a part of the Savage family, and she, like Ace and Tank, thought that they were coming out on the better end of the family with them in their lives.“Let’s eat before we start crying like children.”
Lunch was fun, and she really enjoyed her taco salad.It was something that filled her up, but it never made her feel overly heavy.Just as she was getting out her purse to pay for her food, Kaida said that she had all their meals and would pay for them.That was an unexpected bonus, one that she rather loved.
After lunch, she had two meetings to go to.Inviting the others to go with her, she knew that they’d be finished up in record time.One of the meetings was with the mayor and his plans for the school district’s upcoming calendar.Which she had no idea why anyone would think that she had any say in the thing.Then they were meeting about the pool and the need for a lift to be put in for the people with disabilities who wanted to enjoy the pool as well.
Knowing that the men had already spoken with them about it didn’t make her want to go to themeeting any better, but she would go so that she could tell them again that they would pay one-half of the bill to have it put in, and that was all.If they couldn’t raise the other half, then it wasn’t going to be on them.While they could all afford to put in the lift on their own, they decided that the town had its hands out a little too often now.They would like to curb their thinking that they were going to be given money for every project.
No one could figure out why she was there either, so she didn’t stay long.After the meeting for the pool was called to order, she pulled out her notes on the last time they’d gotten together about this very thing.After reading over what was said, she told them that the Savages position hadn’t changed, and if they wanted to get that put in, they’d have to raise part of the money.
“But it has to be put in.We’re being fined daily for not even starting on the project.”Kaida asked the mayor what the holdup was.“We can’t afford another fundraiser this time of year.People are getting ready for back to school, and there’s just no money set aside for something like this.”
“I don’t know what to tell you then.You’ve had two years to raise the money or not, and it’s small wonder that you’re getting fined.You were to start on this when it was brought up, and now that they’re fining you, you decide that you can’t afford to work on the project.That sounds like something you should have taken care of over the planters that you had filled for the sidewalks.”
“That was from the beautification of the town money.Not the pool fund money.”She said she didn’t care where the money came from, but they were only going to fine them for so long before they started taking legal action.“You’ve had two years.Something should have been started by now.”
“Why don’t you just pay for it, and when times are better, we can pay you back for some of it?”She stood up with her notes and was ready to leave.This was the exact reason that the dragons had left their other town was that the town was forever in their pockets.She was nearly to the door when the mayor realized that she was really leaving the meeting.“You can’t just walk out of here.We’ve not gotten anything finished or set up.”
“As far as I’m concerned, the meeting is over.You’ve been told what the Savages would do, and you decided that wasn’t enough.How about if we stop helping with projects all over the town?”The mayor, she really wished she knew what his name was, said that he’d sue them if they did that.“Good luck with that.We’ve been helping long enough.I believe that I can speak for the rest of us when I say good luck with the projects that you have on the list of things we were going to help you with.”
She was out the door before she let him say another word.As soon as she was outdoors, she leaned against the building she had been in and covered her mouth before she felt like she was going to be sick.She hated confrontation, and this had been a huge one.Skye could only hope that the men of the family weren’t upset with her when they found out that she’d stopped all projects in the city that were going on.
There were only two, but in order to make this stick, she made her way to the first project and halted work.Telling the supervisor that the Savages were no longer going to fund their part in the Works Department, and their new furnace and air conditioner being put in.The Works Department was the one in charge of the beautification projects around town.They had agreed to fund half the work when it was apparent that the building had no furnace or air conditioner that functioned.And with winter fast approaching, they’d need to have it fixed soon.
The second project that they’d been a part of was the expansion of the grocery store.It had burned down a few years ago, and they’d been able to get funding for it to be rebuilt.But it was much too small for their growing town, and they asked for money to double its size.She had them stop the work as well, and she was happy to see that they seemed to think it was funny that she was the one making them stop when the mayor had only yesterday told them to hurry up and get it finished, as he had more projects to work on.She reached out to Kings and told him what she’d done.
“Brilliant.It should have been done years ago.Thank you for helping us out of that black hole.”She told him that she thought that he’d be upset with her.“For taking a stand against a bully?Never.He’s just lucky I didn’t go with you.I might well have shifted to my dragon and taken the place out.Then where would he be if the building had burnt to the ground?Moron.I’m happy you did it as well, the rest of the cousins will be whenI tell them.”
“He wanted you to fund the pool project for the lift, and they’d pay you back when they had the money.I had a feeling that they’d never have the money for the project while others are going on.This wouldn’t have been the end of it either, I don’t think.”He told her that he believed she was correct in that as well.“I have nothing else to do today but to hang out with Ace and Tank.They’re thinking of moving here, isn’t that great?”
“It is.I hope they do.There is nothing like having a lot of family around that you like and having fun.Why don’t we have them over for a cookout tonight?That was where you left off in convincing them; the rest of us can take over.”She asked him if he’d heard anything from Lady Earth.“Only that I’m king of the dragons.I don’t know how I feel about that, but she’s going to work with me in getting the training that I need about the laws, so I can rule.I guess there are a lot of them that even I’m breaking, but I get a pass on them because we didn’t have any idea.Oh, and the faeries are staying, but not nearly so many of them.We can pare them down as much as we see fit to.”
“A quarter of them is still too many.”She laughed with Kings.“All right, I’ll have to go over the book, too, I guess.This is really fucked up.When I think of all the things that had happened to you when you were younger, it makes me want to find your parents and beat them to death.I think I could do it too.”
