Authors: Rob Rosen
Tags: #MLR Press LLC; Print format ISBN# 978-1-60820-435-9; ebook format ISBN#978-1-60820-436-6, #Gay, #General, #Romance, #Erotica, #Fiction
rolled down, the air hitting my face. I smiled. If they were playing
to my weakness, then I was playing to theirs. And the biggest
kink in their chain was Port.
Billy Ray knocked on his door not fifteen minutes later,
wearing his usual Daisy Duke’s and nothing more than a beguiling
smile. In his hands he held the peanuts, three bags in each, the
brandy bottle sitting by his foot. Port opened the door, naturally
expecting us. “Surprise, surprise,” I whispered from behind a
wide, old oak, our car out of sight, Jeeves behind another oak
to my side. I looked to my partner in crime and shot my thumb
up in the air. “This will be his easiest sale ever,” I said, also in a
whisper.
In fact, it was. All six bags and the bottle of peach brandy.
That and a number on a piece of paper handed to our lithe, little
friend before the door was closed and Billy Ray made his way
back toward us. He jumped behind my tree and smiled big and
wide. “Seems he’s a fan of my nuts,” he said.
Welcome to the club
, I thought. I shook his hand and told him
thanks. He wasn’t mad that he had to find his own way home.
And with the money I’d given him, he could afford to close up
shop for a good week. Then it was our turn, making sure Port
had little to no time to sample the goods he’d just bought. We
knocked and he opened the door. “What took you so long?” he
asked, gruffly.
“It took me some time to find the birth certificate,” I told
him. “Now let’s go.”
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217
He shook his head. “No need. Everyone’s coming here.”
Which made sense, I supposed. I mean, with all the illegalities
about to go down, better if they took place away from Robert
E.’s house. Screw the son, right? After all, it seemed like everyone
else was. So we were ushered in and told to have a seat in the
living room.
A highly uncomfortable half an hour later, we were joined by
Robert E., the senator, a smattering of body guards, Beau, and
half the mansion staff: Zeb, Pearl, Jake, and Stella. Which made
Port’s humble apartment a rather tight fit. Beau, of course, was
the least happy to see me and Jeeves.
“I told you to go back North,” he said, with a tight grimace.
“What, and miss this joyous reunion?” I replied, smugly. Then
I put the second part of my plan into action. Before Robert E.
could ask for the document I didn’t have, I lifted my nose up into
the air and asked. “Are those boiled peanuts I smell?”
Jeeves chimed in next. “Looks like Billy Ray’s,” he fairly
moaned. “Best damn boiled peanuts in South Carolina.”
The guards took the bait first, both of them grabbing for a
bag. “Salted for me,” I said.
“Same here,” said Jeeves.
The guards turned to their bosses, who shrugged. “Fine, but
be quick about it. We don’t got all day for this. Besides, I’m half-
starved myself.”
We took our two bags from the guards, the other four were
shared between the Pellingham gang. The Jackson side of things
looked at us like we’d done lost our marbles, and stood behind
me and Jeeves. Though, of course, nobody passed up Billy Ray’s
nuts. Because, yes, they were that stellar. But the peach brandy,
was only poured for their side. We abstained. After all, we all
knew what was in it.
“Now, down to business,” said Robert E., half the nuts eaten,
all the brandy drunken. “Hand over the birth certificate.”
Beau snickered. “This I’d like to see.” Thankfully, I don’t
218 Rob Rosen
think they heard him. Not over all the yawning coming from
their side of things.
“Um,” I hemmed and then hawed. “We’ll give it to you at the
airport. You understand. Just trying to keep things on the up and
up.” I held up a folded piece of paper I had in my pocket. “We’ll
give it to you before security.”
“Yeah, right,” whispered Beau, who quickly got a poking in
his ribs from Stella.
The guns came out next. Theirs. We, sadly, only had our wits
about us to use as weapons. Scary as that sounds. “Now,” said
the eldest Pellingham, who up until then had been silent. “Hand
it over, boy.”
I looked at him, then to his son, then to his grandson. What
a dynasty, right? Though it was then I remembered something
Jeeves had said. I held up the folded piece of paper and nodded
at Robert E. “Did you really love my mama?”
His gun quivered in his hand, his eyes going just a tad droopy.
“She was a beautiful woman, your mama was.”
I frowned. “Yes, yes she was. Though I’ve only ever seen her
in pictures, you know.”
His frown mirrored my own, hanging low on his face. “I, uh,
I know.” He sighed. “It was such a terrible accident.”
Which meant that another one of my hunches was proving
correct. “So you did love her,” I said. “And if Walt here didn’t
fiddle with their car, and you didn’t fiddle with their car…” My
face turned to the eldest of the family. “… then who do you
think did?”
As loopy as he appeared to be getting, his face also turned in
that direction. “Pa?” he said. “You told me you were in Charleston
when the accident happened.”
The senator, shaking his head, the cloud of tranquilizers
apparently making its way to his brain, replied, “That girl was
nothing but trouble, Robbie. Her and her mama would’ve ruined
our family name.”
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219
Robert E.’s gun got lowered. “No,” he whispered, hand
trembling.
I cringed, a knot forming in my belly that could’ve docked an
oil tanker. “Yes,” I groaned. And, at last, the truth has come out.
Though it hadn’t set me free. Figuratively speaking.
Then the first guard went down in a heap, body crumpling in
on itself. The second guard turned to help the first, but his eyes
quickly rolled back inside his head, and then he too was a lump
on the floor. “The peanuts,” Port managed, just before he keeled
over.
“And the peach brandy,” I tossed in, just as the other two
Pellinghams went down for the count.
“Huh,” Stella said. “Reminds me of a riddle.”
Jake snickered. “How many horse tranquilizers does it take to
do in a family of lousy Republicans?”
She shrugged. “Oh, you’ve heard that one already?”
Zeb walked over and gave me a bear hug. “Thanks for
rescuing us,” he said. “And, um, and sorry for what you just went
through.”
Jeeves nodded. “I… I really thought it was an accident. He
loved her. I knew he did.”
My heart thumped in my chest, a tear welling up. “But not as
much as the senator loved his good name. Or that mansion he
sleeps in. And not like we have proof, anyway.”
Beau moved for the door. “This is just a temporary reprieve,
assholes. When they wake up, they’re gonna be twice as pissed
as before. You should’ve left when you had the chance. Because,
evidence or no evidence, we’re all dead now.”
“Wait,” I yelled as his hand clamped down on the doorknob.
“Please don’t go. You’re all wrong about us, about me. Granny
purposely kept us all apart. She was trying to protect us from
them.”
He shrugged and turned the knob just the same. “So what,
Little Brother. Too little, too late. Looks like all that protection
220 Rob Rosen
was for naught.” He sighed and opened the door, and was gone
a split second later.
Zeb looked at me first. “He has a point, you know. All we
have is a bunch of letters and some raunchy video footage,
enough to only ruin Port, really. Nothing to tie the other two to
the murder of your parents or to the blackmails. It would be our
word against theirs. And their word is law around these parts.”
He looked at the knocked out bad guys in question. “And when
they
wake up, there will be nothing and no one to protect any of
us. They’ll bring us all down, either in name or worse.”
Then, as if being surrounded by a bunch of passed out bad
guys wasn’t strange enough, Jeeves started to laugh. Loudly.
“Some sort of weird Tourettes reaction?” I asked.
He fought to catch his breath. “Fuck no,” he managed, the
laughter picking up speed.
“Tourettes,” Stella said, with a nod. “Definitely.”
Wheezing, he managed to gain control of himself. “No,” he
said. “Bitter irony.”
“Please explain,” said Jake as he walked around and collected
the guns. Which, all things considered, was about the smartest
thing any of us had done in quite some time.
Jeeves nodded. “It’s just… all these years… they were
blackmailing me for things I didn’t do.”
My nod echoed his. “You didn’t rape that girl at the fraternity
house. And you didn’t kill my parents.”
“No,” he agreed. “But I still needed an alibi for both events.
The girl was raped in my room. I was in charge of your parent’s
car.”
“And?” said Pearl, her arms over her ample chest, clearly over
all this. With good reason.
Again he nodded. “And, all this time, they really had nothing
on me.” Then he glanced around at our motley crew. “But…”
I snapped my fingers. “But you were Robbie’s roommate. For
years.”
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221
Zeb smiled, which fairly lit up the room, if not my still
pounding heart. “And you had plenty on them.”
“Plenty,” he agreed.
And now it was my turn to smile. “Any that could cost an
election?”
He paused, clearly teetering on the brink of something. “Ask
her
,” he finally said, finger pointing to the last person in the room
I ever expected him to be pointing at.
“Pearl?” I said, forcing down a gulp the size of a nice-sized
plum.
She sighed and walked over to the senator. “He was a fine
looking man in his youth, Trip. Was sweeter than honey, when
he set his mind to it.” She looked up at me with the saddest
expression I’d ever seen on anyone’s face before. “I didn’t know
about the others,” she said. “Not until you told me. I thought it
was only me all along.”
My eyes went wide. “You… you spied? On Granny?”
Jeeves walked up behind me and put his hand on my shoulder.
“She had to, Trip.”
Pearl nodded. “I had me an extra mouth to feed, sugar.”
“You’re joking,” I coughed out. “Please tell me you’re joking.”
She shook her head. “Wish I could, boy. See, that’s who I
worked for before your granny. Came highly recommended, too.
After the baby was born, I mean.”
“And you spied?” I managed, not sure if I was more sad than
mad.
Her head kept on shaking back and forth. “Nope. Not a lick.”
The faintest of grins rose up on her face. “Well, he thought I was.
Only, I was feeding him a bunch of bull. Meaning, he paid for
that baby of his with…” Her grin grew to a laugh. “… with stuff
I done seen on my favorite soap.”
Okay,
that
I had to laugh at. “Wait, not
One Life to Live
?”
She kicked the downed senator lightly in his side. “Damn
222 Rob Rosen
idiot must’ve thought your granny lived in Llanview with all I
was feeding him. Smart as a whip, but gullible as a five-year-old.
Luckily for us.”
I thought of all of Pearl’s kids. “Wait, Vicky, your oldest?”
And, now that I thought of it, lightest in complexion. “The one
that went to The University of North Carolina?”
“Yes, Trip.” She glanced down at the senator again. “All paid
for by this one here.” She looked back up at me. “I had to do it,
boy. I had nothing. And back then it was his word against mine
whether or not he was the father.”
“But not today,” Stella chimed in. Then she walked over and
yanked out a few strands of the Senator’s hair. What few he had
left. With the root follicle still intact, which I knew they’d need
down at the lab. “Today we got DNA.”
Pearl moved away from the Senator and back over to me. “I
didn’t know, Trip. Not about any of it. He said it was just me. I
had no reason not to believe him.”
I only had to think it over a second. I mean, I never did have
a mother, not by the legal sense of the word. But I always had
Pearl. I held my arms out and pulled her in. Mostly. I mean,
she did most of the pulling. And squeezing. “Can’t. Breathe.” I
croaked out.
She laughed and backed away, a stream of tears rolling down
her cheeks. “Sorry, sugar.” Her smile was contagious. “And I’m
gonna make it right, boy. Promise.”
Jake was already walking to the front door. “Right, yeah. But
later, please. Before these assholes wake up and come looking
for us.”
We all turned and looked at said assholes. Again I laughed,
seeing as Billy Ray’s nuts were at least half eaten, as was most
of the peach brandy. “Well, that’s not about to happen any time
soon,” I said, leading my staff out of Port’s apartment. And, of
course, keying every Pellingham car waiting outside.
Well, here’s where we’re gonna jump ahead some. Back into
the nitty gritty of all this mess. See, many months went by after