“I’ve been thinking that he’s going to get into a tussle with the cops. You and me, we’ll knock ourselves up a bit, then call the cops. He won’t know a thing about it until they kill him dead. We don’t have to be drawing too much blood, but enough for them to take him away. And if that one works, we’ll get the rest of them arrested, too. Whatcha think about that?” She told him she didn’t want to be too knocked around. “No. I’ll hit you once, and you can hit me one time. After that, we’ll lay low until he comes in tonight—did they say where they were going when we chained them up this morning?”

  “No, they didn’t say shit. I know that they’re not out there keeping their mouths shut under the tree like we told them, so whatever they doing, they’re not doing anything to bring in any money, you can bet that for sure.” Yes, he knew that for sure. They were lazy fuckers, the lot of them. “All right. I like that idea. We’ll get it going tonight, and then we’ll rid ourselves of them kids for good.”

  Fred wished he’d been the first one to hit. He knew that Paula was gonna knock his head off for sure. He could tell by the way that she was tensing up that she was gonna hammer his head, but good. Closing his eyes, ready for whatever hit him, he heard the front door open up and turned to look to see if it was one of their kids coming in. It wasn’t his kids but some man he thought that he should be knowing.

  “What do you want?” Fred looked at his wife and then at the man standing in the doorway. He didn’t have any idea who he might be, but apparently Paula knew who he was. “You get on out of here. I told you already that we don’t pay dues on account of us not wanting to be a part of your pack. Go on now. You’re interrupting our business.”

  “I told you two months ago, Paula that I was going to be giving you a deadline to be paying your dues. You’ve been a part of my pack, whether you want to be or not, for the last nineteen years. It’s totaled up to be a nice sum of money. And the pack needs it. Pay up, or I’m going to have to take something from you.” Fred asked him what he was talking about. “I’m your alpha, Lincoln Bates, you deadbeats. Yearly dues is what I’m talking about. You and your family came here to be a part of my pack when you were nothing but newlyweds. I gave you a year’s grace in not paying on account of you having to take care of your old momma. Well, she’s not been here for decades, and I’m sick of you being in every line there is to be getting free handouts without paying your dues. I told your wife that I was going to be around to collect them and that’s what I’m here for. You owe thirty-six hundred dollars in dues and another thirty-six hundred dollars for me having to come here and collect them. Pay up or face the consequences. I’m finished playing with you people.”

  Fred didn’t know how it had happened, but it was a blur of moment, and he fell to the floor. Paula was screaming so loud that it hurt his ears, but he couldn’t get her to stop. Moving his mouth was too much work, so he just moaned his unhappiness at her to get her to stop. Closing his eyes against the movements again, he felt himself be sick and turned to his side and puked up his dinner. Damn, but it didn’t taste any better the second time than it did the first, either. Paula was one of the worst cooks he’d ever encountered. Not like his momma could cook. She could—When someone said his name, he turned to look.

  Fred couldn’t get anything to focus in his eyeballs. The man was a big man, bigger than he was anyways, but he didn’t know who he was. Looking around the room made him ill again, but he thought that he should know the bunch of men in the room with him and his wife. It was his house, wasn’t it? That should count for something, he thought.

  “You’re dying.” He told the man that he wasn’t doing any such thing. “You’re near dead now. Any last words you’d like to say to Mother? She’s gonna live, mores the pity, but you are as good as dead right now.”

  “Who are you?” He was having trouble working up enough spit to talk, but the man answered him. He said he was his son, Lica. “You were supposed to be blamed for beating us up. I’m going to tell the police that you did it when they get here, too.”

  “You’re not going to be able to tell anyone anything if you don’t lay still and stop from bleeding everywhere. As I said, you’re dying. You were shot in the chest by Mother. She was aiming for the Alpha, but he moved you in front of the shot.” His son, or whoever he was, looked away and then back at him. “Mr. Bates said that he heard what you were planning, and he’s going to tell the police on you when they get here. There they are now, pulling into the drive. Mother is going to be going to human prison, too, if she lives. I don’t see a reason why she won’t live, but you never know about wounds to the belly.” He heard his wife screaming again. Then she started jabbering about one of them doing the plan they had.

  “You take his place, you mongrel. You hear me? That’s the very least you can do for me since I’ve had to put up with you for the last twenty-some years.” He tried to get Paula to come closer to him, but he was getting weaker by the minute. Maybe he was dying. He surely did feel weak. But he could hear his Paula planning as clear as day. “One of you boys, get over here and tell them that you shot your momma. I’m not going to prison. You hear me? Your daddy ain’t going to go to prison either when it was you six that we was going to kill off. Come on over here and bring me that cop’s gun. I’ll shoot the six of you, and that’ll be the end of my troubles. Even your daddy shouldn’t have to die until I said he can. You hear me?”

  Fred could hear her fine but what she was saying was making his head spin a little. Another person was in his vision, and he asked who they were. He said his name was Lincoln Bates and that he was going to have the pack take care of his body when it was released to him. For some reason, Fred didn’t think that it was going to be a good thing taking care of him.

  He did get to see the police. There seemed to be about fifty of them the way that they kept moving around and such. There was someone laughing, too. He didn’t know who that was, but he thought it rude to laugh like that when someone was supposed to be dying. He couldn’t remember who was dying, but he did remember someone telling him that someone was.

  When he opened his eyes again, he didn’t know where he was. There wasn’t much to see. Everything was white like the snow and clean. Paula didn’t keep a good house, so he knew that he wasn’t home anymore. While he’d been lying on the floor one day after Paula hit him, he’d seen dust bunnies about forty inches long. Looking around hurt, so he tried to call out to someone to talk to him. The little squeak that came out of his mouth embarrassed him some, but that was about all he could manage right now.

  “Mr. Frazier? You have anything to say about why you were shot?” He asked him where he was. “You’re in the emergency department of the hospital, but you’re not going to be alive much longer. You’ve lost a great deal of blood, and the wound is in a serious location, the doctors are saying. Can you tell me your version of what happened tonight? I’ve already heard from your alpha and wife. Their versions are a bit different from each other’s.”

  Could he? He had no idea. Then he remembered what his wife said about their kids. He told the officer as best he could what had been planned out. How they were going to blame it on the kids, so they’d be going to prison and away from them.

  “We hate them, you know. All they’ve done is suck us dry. I want them dead. You hand your gun over to my wife, and she’ll take care of them for us. I don’t want them around.” The man asked if he was serious. “As death.”

  Chapter 2

  Lica leaned against the shovel that he’d been using and looked at his brother’s truck as he pulled into the yard. Edmond had been out getting feed for the cattle. The empty truck made him think that things hadn’t gone as well as he’d hoped they would.

  “No credit, I’m assuming.” Edmond shook his head and said that they’d hit their limit with the Barn, the only place around here where someone could buy feed for cattle and such. “I guess we’ll be turning them out to the other pasture a little sooner than we thought. That sucks, too, since we need it to get them through the winter months.”

  “I got a call into the Callus farm.” Without saying a word, Lica turned his back to his brother and began shoveling the shit out of the stall. “It’s a good deal, Lica. All we have to do is run their tractors for them for six months, then it’ll be all ours. I’ve looked over the contract and had Ivan look at it, too. The only loopholes in it are in our favor. At least our cattle will be able to eat for the fall and winter months and right on until spring of next year.”

  “I don’t like having to get things on credit, Edmond. And we both know that’s what they mean when they say we’ll be paid well.” He said he knew that, but they had to eat. “I guess it can’t hurt for us to do the work. They still all right with us using their equipment for the south field?”

  “Yes. In fact, it was their idea for us to get it ready for winter. You know as well as I do that’s going to save us a bunch of trouble. Our tractor isn’t going to make it another year, and this one, buying on credit like they said, will get us through a lot of years.” Lica knew that, but he didn’t have to like it. “I have the contract with me now. It’s been signed off on everyone but you. And since you have the most experience in driving the larger equipment, they’re going to pay you extra for teaching their hands on how to use it when we get there.”

  Lica signed his name to the bottom of the contract where all the others had. They’d been partners in their farming since the day that Devlin had turned eighteen. If not for the help of Dan Wilkins, the cop in town, there is no telling what might have happened to the six of them when their mother was put in prison and their father killed. Turning to look at Edmond when he cleared his throat, he asked him what was going on.

  “Do you remember what today is?” He didn’t think that there was a time in his life that he would ever forget what the date was today. “We have to go there and make sure that she doesn’t get out. I don’t know why they’d even consider her being let go, but today is the day. I’ve already lined up the attorney that we’re using. With Devlin being in his last year of college, it’s helped us a great deal in knowing who we can trust as attorneys. Are you going with me?”

  “I am. Are the others?” Edmond told him that Ivan wasn’t going to be there on time, but he was going to be there. “He’s got his interview today, right?”

  “Yes. If he gets that job, we’ll be looking at a better income for us.” The six of them worked and pooled their money. They paid the bills for the ranch out of their money, and then whatever was left over, usually not too much, was divided up between the five younger ones of them. Since Lica worked on the ranch full time, he had room and board, so that made him not need as big a cut of the money. “I had a strange phone call this morning. I don’t know if I was cut off or the person was, but they were asking about the year that our father died. I didn’t get an opportunity to answer them.”

  “They’ll call back or won’t. More than likely, someone trying to get us to pay some money to them. I know that I don’t have to ask, but I’m gonna just for my own peace of mind, but you have all the receipts from paying off Bates, don’t you? I’m glad that we were able to pay the parents’ dues. His letting us pay it over time helped us out a great deal, but I don’t ever want a big debt like that hanging over my head again. Do you?” Edmond said that he had copies, and so did their attorney. “All right then. Let me finish up this stall and I’ll get myself a shower to get going. Are we going together or meeting up there?”

  “There.” Nodding, Lica finished up his job and then made his way to the outside shower. It wasn’t anything more than a large tub with a hole in it that hug on the side of the house. But when you needed to rinse off the crap from the barn, it was a better way to clean up than dragging all the nastiness into the house to shower. He was headed to the shower, his clothing hanging on the line after his rinse, when the house phone rang.

  “Hello, House of Fraizer.” He waited on the line to quiet down before he spoke again. He didn’t know the voice, so he didn’t hang up on whoever it was because it sounded like an elderly woman. Again, he said the name of their house. It was easier than naming off all of them who lived there until the person spoke.

  “Which one of you boys is this? I’m thinking Edmond is who I spoke to earlier but I didn’t have a good connection.” He said he was Lica. “Lica? My goodness, you don’t sound a bit like your father, thankfully. I just heard that the old bastard is dead. Can you confirm that for me? I’ll need a year and date, honey.”

  He gave her the date and the time that his death was confirmed. Still, no idea who he was talking to, and knowing that just about everybody in the state knew how his parents had come to be in trouble, he even told the woman the year that his mother had been sentenced too.

  “Her hearing is today, correct? Why they’d want that cunt of a woman out of prison is beyond me, but I don’t make the rules.” Lica couldn’t help it. He laughed. “Oh, you have a good sense of humor. I’m so thrilled to know that. I was wondering if you have some room for an old woman to come and stay with you for a little bit. I can still cook a mean pot roast and bake a lemon cake that will make your toes curl.”

  It took him less than a minute to know who he was talking to. “Grannie Fraizer? Is this you?” She laughed, her voice coming over the phone as lovely as he used to remember it being when he’d been a child. It was as soothing as a brush of her hand over his head when she’d come to see him to bed. “My goodness. If we don’t have any room, you can bunk in my bed, and I’ll sleep in the barn. It’s nice and warm this time of year for that, anyway. When are you coming?”

  “Oh, Lica, I can’t believe…well, I should believe you’d be this welcoming. I’ll be at the courthouse when they call it to order. I got me a few things I’d like to say about that old bitch that’ll have her behind bars for the rest of her days. It will. How are you boys doing?” He told her that they were doing as well as can be. “Liar. You’re not doing well at all. I didn’t know a thing about my son being dead until just a few weeks ago. Now that I do, I can make some things…well, I’ll see you boys, all of you men now, I guess, at the court house. My goodness, I just can’t wait. I’m all giddy to see you. You tell me who they are now, I won’t know them little ones. Why Devlin, he was nothing but a babe when I got out of there.”

  “He’s graduating from college in a few weeks. Going to be the family attorney for us.” The back door opened, and he heard Mrs. Wilkins squeal and he covered himself up with his free hand as best he could. “I gotta get me some clothing on, Grannie Frazier. I’ll tell the others that you’re coming. I’m not sure who will remember you, but I can’t wait.”

  “I’m looking forward to it too, son. You’ve no idea.” After hanging up with his grannie, he told Mrs. Wilkins he was sorry.

  “You get yourself dressed. It’s my fault. I should have knocked first. In my head, well, not today. You are still boys.” She was flittering about the kitchen while he ran up the stairs. When the door opened again, he heard his brother Edmond laughing, so he knew that she’d told him she’d caught him standing in the hall naked. Coming down the stairs, Mrs. Wilkins started talking like they’d been having the same conversion as they’d been having five seconds ago, and it being a week ago. “I put them pies in the freezer for you boys. Now, don’t be putting them in the micro-zapper or they’ll not be fit to eat. There are some homemade noodles that I made up in batches for you for your supper, too. Just cook them until they float, and they’ll be good with anything.”

  Her husband, Dan Wilkins, had passed away about the time their mother was sentenced to two life terms in prison. No one, not even his doctor, knew that he had cancer, and by the time he was getting his treatments set up, he was gone. It hurt his heart something terrible for Mr. Dan to be gone. But Mrs. Wilkins had made up for them being with their parents.

  For some stupid reason that no one could understand, their mother would be coming up for a parole hearing every fifteen years. This was the first one for her. He had it in his mind that the judge had been sweet on their mother and didn’t believe a word out of their mouths when they were asked about her and their living arrangements.

  The judge did say that he felt sorry for their mother, her being the mother of six sons and was going to lose out on being able to raise them. He must not have been paying attention all that well when they were talking about how much they hated her.

  Anyway, the Wilkins’ had been there for them since he and his brothers had purchased the Brady Ranch at an auction three months later with a loan from the Wilkins’. Then after Mr. Dan passed, Mrs. Wilkins kept them in food and darned socks since. She was about the best mother they could have had, he thought.

  “I just spoke to Grannie Frazier.” Edmond remembered her, asking if she was the one that he’d spoken to earlier. “She was. She said she thought that it was you, but she’d had a bad connection.”

  Edmond made the two of them a sandwich, and Mrs. Wilkins gave them paper plates and chips to go with it. After sitting at the table, he told them what she’d said about coming to visit. Mrs. Wilkins smiled at them and asked if they remembered she was going to visit her younger daughter next week.

  “I did forget. But this couldn’t be more perfect timing, could it?” Edmond winked at him. They both knew that their daughter was going to try to convince her mother to live with her from now on. That living on the farm, ten acres in all was too much for the elderly woman. “You’re going to have so much fun with your grandkids you’re not going to want to come back.”

 

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