Watson, Kathi Barton [little red riding hood ebook .txt] 📗

of you. There will be no funeral for the three of you. I’m going to talk Wats into donating your body to science. I’m sure they can find out what the fuck made you such a terrible person. Or not. I don’t know. But you can bet that no one will make a fuss about your deaths, nor will they…well, they might well have a celebration. We might even have the town’s mayor make it a holiday. No kiddies in school that day. The mail will be paused. Yes, I can see that happening. What do you think, Clayton? You can do that when you’re mayor, right?”

“You’re nothing but a cheap piece of ass.” Rayne laughed and told her now that she was Wat’s wife, she didn’t have to be cheap. They had all kinds of money. “Watson, you’re to get this piece of trash out of my sight. I have had enough of your little fun with me.”

“No. And if you call her trash or slut once more, I’m going to take over where Rayne left off and beat you until you scare small children when they see you. If you were to ever be able to see small children.” Wats stood up, and the rest of them did as well. “I’d like to say this has been fun—some of it has been—but it certainly gives us all a sense of freedom. You’re dead to me, Tina. I have no mother. As far as I’m concerned, Holly was my mother, and you—you’re nothing. We, none of us, will return. You are, as of the moment we leave here, on your own. The warden is going to treat you like any other inmate behind bars. No more pacifying your sense of entitlement. Good luck with your life. Or not. I don’t give a shit what happens to you from now on.”

They left then. He and Rayne were the only two left behind when first his uncles walked out the door, then his cousins. Wats turned to his mother once more before he and Rayne left as well.

“I hate you. I thought you should know that before I’m out of here. I hate you with a passion that I will never have for another being. You took the life of the greatest person I’ve ever known. You even took years from my being with my father that I won’t ever forgive you for. My children will never know you. None of us will name our children for any of you. As far as we’re all concerned, you died the moment you took the life of Holly.” He walked out the door holding Rayne’s hand.

His mother and the other two were screaming at them to come back. The more steps he took away from the room they’d been in, the more stress was lifted from his shoulders. By the time he was in his dad’s car, getting a hug from him, Wats knew that he was going to be all right. They survived their mother. A great many people couldn’t say that, sadly.

“I nearly wet myself when you hauled off and knocked his mother back off her butt, honey.” Dad was still laughing when he hugged Rayne, who was nursing her bruised knuckles. “I tell you, Rayne, you’re the best thing that has happened to me in a good long time. I hope you never change. Never.”

“What if our children are like me? What will you say then?” Dad looked at him, then back at Rayne. “We do want a lot of kids, Wesley. I hope you don’t mind that.”

“I will never be happier than when a baby of my son is put into my arms to hold for the first time. And Rayne, if any of them are like you, that will just be butter on my toast.” Dad got into the car. He was blowing his nose, so Wats held Rayne to give him a minute.

“I think you touched something in my dad that no one has ever touched before.” Rayne laid her head on his chest. “I love you, my heart. How about we make it official and get hitched up tomorrow if I can arrange it? I have to tell you, however, I’m worried about marrying a slut.”

She smacked him on the arm and got into the car. Wats was laughing when he turned back to the prison and looked at the high wire, then the armed guards in the turrets. There were people in the yard, all of them with the same uniform on, a drab gray with nothing much to distinguish one from the other.

This was the perfect place for his mother and aunts. He wished they’d been there before they’d killed his Aunt Holly, but he also knew things had to go the way they did in order for them to have what they had now. The timeline of life, Abby called it, was something they had to think of rather than what they’d lost. Without the events that were in place, he would never have gotten closer to his dad. Never have met Rayne. Things, he knew, he’d cherish forever.

Chapter 6

Tina didn’t know what to think right now. Her mouth was sore and was going to need stitches, they told her. One of the officers told her she’d likely get both her eyes blackened. That didn’t sit well with her, so she asked for someone to go to her house and get her makeup. Of course, no one moved to do as she bid them.

When she asked why no one had come to her aid when she’d been abused, all of them, even people that weren’t in the room, said they’d seen nothing. That she’d fallen. Well, she was going to get to the bottom of this. Heads were going to roll, by God.

“All right, inmate. You sit right there, and we’ll fix you right up.” Tina never, when she had a choice, did what someone told her to do the first time. It