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  “Ninny? You’ve been hanging out with your grandda too much, I think. But no, Rayne, I think you telling me that was something you needed to do. And believe it or not, I needed to hear it. Not for Tina, but knowing that my son was a great deal stronger than I was when it came to his mother. Thank you for that. Now, let’s go and have some lunch and have a little bit of fun.”

  They did have fun. The meal was loud, and laughter rang out throughout the place. When the others, the other cousins, joined them, it was even louder, with more laughter going around. When Wats took her hand under the table, Rayne felt wonderful, like she was a part of something grand, and she was going to enjoy it as much as she could. Wats liked her, she thought, and she liked him as well. This was turning out to be a much better day than she’d thought it would be when she’d gotten up today.

  Chapter 2

  Tina wanted to talk to someone about her being able to get home. There was absolutely no reason for her to be locked up like this. Didn’t they understand that they were keeping her from doing her civic duties? Now that she was going to be in charge of things, she needed to make it known that she was nothing like Eita was, bless her heart. But Tina was going to be hard on the people in this subhuman town. The officer that brought her a tray for her lunch wouldn’t speak to her anymore, but that didn’t stop Tina from making her demands known to the woman.

  “Did you call my husband and tell him I want him down here? Don’t just stand there, answer me, damn it. I have to speak to him about this rumor I heard about that bastard son of Holly’s moving into my home.” The woman didn’t speak to her, but she did give her that knowing smile. “You’re an idiot. I hope someone figures that out before you get someone killed. It wouldn’t be too bad if you were killed, but I’m thinking with the way my luck has been going, I’ll be hurt as well. Get me a phone, and I’ll make the call myself. I’ve been in this place for far too long, and I want my things.”

  “If you have any complaints, you need to put them in writing and turn them into the mayor. I don’t think it will do you much good, however, since the mayor we have is lazier than you are. However, in a few weeks, about twelve days, I think, we’re having another vote, and there will be a new mayor in town.” The woman laughed. “Though I doubt very much that will do you any good either since Clayton Wilkerson is going to be a shoo-in for the position.”

  “There is no way he’s going to be running for anything. Christ, his wife has only been gone for a few weeks, and he’s out running around like he doesn’t have a clue? I tell you, if not for their wives, there is no telling what sort of shit they’d be getting up to. I’ll have to have a conversation with him as well. I want to set him straight on that and a few other things I have on my mind. Why are you still standing here? Don’t you listen? Get me a phone. Now, damn it.” Putting out her hand, she tapped her foot. That was all it would take for most of the town to do what she wanted before. There was no reason for her to think it wasn’t going to work on this dumbass. But she still stood there like she’d not spoken a single word to her. “I’m sick to death of the way I’m being treated in here. I want you to go find me someone that will answer my questions and do what I tell them to do. This is fucking stupid. And you’re going to get it when I finally get out of this nasty place.”

  “Are you threatening me?” Tina knew better than to answer that question. A few days ago, one of the people down the hall from her had said she was threatening the officer and had gotten charged with something like threatening a person with a law degree or some other shit. “I’m not going to bring you a phone. You’re not going to get out of here until you move to a larger prison. Which can’t be soon enough for those of us that have to be around you and the others. There isn’t going to be any talking to your husband or any of the other men anymore, as they told us not to put calls through from you women. It’s not a rumor that Mars and his lovely wife are moving into the mansion—it’s a fact. They’re going to have a baby as well. And I’m enjoying this more than I should, but there isn’t anything you can do about it either. So, if there is nothing else I can do for you—not that I want to—but if there is nothing else, I’m going to go back to work.”

  “Listen here, you fucking bitch. Do you have any idea how much power I wield? How much money I have? It’s more than you’ll see in several lifetimes. I’m a Wilkerson, and because of me and the other women, it’s a name that ensures whatever we want, we get. Even if we have to resort to making a few heads roll.” The woman laughed. “Damn you, you fucking cunt. Get me, my husband. He’ll have you fired so quickly you won’t be able to— Where the hell are you going? You don’t turn your back to me. Get your ass back here until I tell you I’m finished talking to you. Damn it.”

  The woman was laughing all the way down the hall. Tina couldn’t see who was in the other cells, but she did know some of them held the others that had been arrested that day. When the bitch came back, a cell phone in her hands, Tina felt like she’d won this battle, but she only held it out just far enough that she wasn’t able to reach it.

  “By the way, I don’t know if you were told this or not, but your son is married now. A very nice woman too. Her name is Amy.” Tina couldn’t even fathom why this woman would tell her such an outrageous lie. She asked her about it. “No reason for me to lie to you about it. But I think they’re trying to have a baby too. That would make you a grandma. Ha. That’s funny. You a grandma.”

  “No fucking way is that going to happen. I need to speak to him before, God forbid, he actually does get this woman knocked up. He doesn’t understand that with money comes hookers and streetwalkers wanting to take every penny he has. I’ll just have to teach him a few lessons in that. Christ. She’s not going to be married to my son nor anyone else when I’m finished with her.” Tina was already plotting ways to end the other woman’s life. “I’ll need her name and schedule she keeps. I’m sure, like all money-grubbing fucking bitches, she’s thinking she’s going to get his money. He should know by now that I’ll say when and who he’s going to marry. And if you call me a grandmother once more, I will kill you.”

  Again, the stupid cow walked away with laughter ringing around the hall. It seemed to be twice as loud as it usually was. The worst part was that she kept singing about how they were going to grandma’s house. She knew it was a kid’s song, but it was making her crazy. Screaming, just letting off some steam that she’d not been able to since being brought here, Tina sat down on the bed.

  Too much right now. Mentally sorting through the things that had been told her, Tina put them in order of importance. To her, it was all important, but as she had learned from Eita, if you ran around doing a lot of things at once, it was difficult to bask in the wonderful moments when you were able to finish one of the projects. Eita was a pro at being a Wilkerson. Tina wished every day that the bullet that had ended the life of her best friend in the world had taken out Crista, who had killed Eita. Sure, she’d not be in charge right now, but Eita was the best at getting things done. She would have had them all out of here by now, and they would be on the way to getting things back the way they were. When they were in charge.

  “It’s all that woman’s fault.” Holly had been killed by them, and the fact that she was making their lives so fucking difficult from the grave pissed Tina off so much she wanted to go and dig her up and kill her all over again. “She wasn’t worth the spit of cum that created her if you were to ask me.”

  Since she couldn’t get on the party line that they’d had, nor talk face to face with any of the other women, she had to talk to herself. Tina didn’t mind her own company, but long stretches of no one to speak to really depressed her. Who was there for her when she came up with one of her many brilliant ideas? No one.

  They wouldn’t allow her to have another pen to keep notes with because she’d tried to use it to pick the lock. If some low-brow mouth breather had been in the cage with her, she would have made them
break her out. Tina was also grateful that she wasn’t with a low life. Shivering, she looked around her cage.

  To call it a cell wasn’t fair. It was a cage, something to hold someone in. She’d been in jail a couple of times in her youth, but never for this long. All she’d had to do was make a phone call to her mother or her father, and they’d send someone out to get her. Then they paid off the other person, the reason she’d been arrested, but it never showed up on her record. Having wealthy parents had been a wonderful thing. But sadly, she’d had to kill them when they started making noises of cutting her off from their fortune.

  “Didn’t I get the shaft on that too? The only mention of me was to tell me that no matter what happened to my brother, I still didn’t get to inherit any of their money. Fuckers. Still killed him, now didn’t I? If I couldn’t have it, neither could he.”

  Laughing at herself, she sat down on the only seat in the cage. Her cot, they called it. Not the floor. The fucking place only got cleaned three times a week, and never on the weekend. She could still see some of the bits of food that she’d dropped on the floor the night before last. Whoever thought that having a single sandwich on plain white bread could constitute a meal was out of their ever-loving mind.

  Also, she hated to admit it, but she thought she was putting on weight. She’d been a size four most all of her life. Even when she’d been fat with Watson, she’d managed to not put on any more than five pounds. Of course, the doctor was pissy about that, telling her that she’d hurt her child. Like she gave a shit about him. The only reason any of them stayed pregnant was because Holly, the cunt, had had a son. Not that anyone considered her to be a part of the family, but Eita said it would look good on them to not just have a child for their inheritance but to have a son. It had taken her five abortions before she’d gotten a son. Fuck, that had been the worst part, having to have sex with Wesley so much to make one. She shivered again like someone had walked over her grave.

  “Probably Holly.”

  Laughing at her own joke, she looked up to see a man standing there. While she had no idea who he was, she tried to make herself look better and thinner by sucking in her cheeks and throwing her shoulders back to make her breasts look good. For all the money she’d put out for them, or Wesley had, she wanted everyone to see how nice they were.

  “Not on your life. I’m here to tell you, Christina Wilson, that you’ve been found guilty of five counts of murder in the first degree. Three counts of murder in the second degree, and—”

  “What the fuck are you talking about? I’m getting out of here. And my name is Wilkerson, not Wilson. That name is meaningless to me.” He said she wasn’t, actually. “Oh yes, I am. I will be living in the big house. There wasn’t even a trial. You can’t convict someone without a trial.”

  “The trial was conducted over the last three days. It ended an hour ago with the jury finding you all guilty of the same crimes. You weren’t there because, as the judge stated, you weren’t cooperating and were causing a ruckus, so you would have to learn your verdict this way. Since you and the other women wanted to be tried as one, then you all got the same sentencing. Each murder committed by you or any of the other women is counted against each of you. I know for a fact that you were told this would happen if you did things this way.” She said she wanted to change her mind. “It’s not going to work either. The paperwork has been filed, and now you only have to wait on your sentencing. In the meantime, you’ll be sent, with the others, to prison. A larger building than this one that won’t stand for the way you’ve treated the people that work here.”

  “First of all, I’m not happy with this so-called verdict that you’ve given me. It’s a lie. I won’t have it.” The man smiled at her. “Secondly, the only place I’m going is home. Where my husband had better be fixing it back the way I wanted it before all this mess was put upon us. I mean, what did I do, really? Nothing that anyone else in my position wouldn’t do if they were a Wilkerson with all the money in the world. You go tell that judge to— Better yet, you tell him to get his ass down here and let me talk to him. I cannot believe he expects me to just be all right with this shit. Go and get him.”

  “No.” She asked him what he’d said to her. “I said no. I know it’s not a word you might be familiar with, but I’m not going to do anything for you. As far as I’m concerned, you needed to be put in prison a long time ago. Now, I’ve told you, and you seem to understand what is happening. I’m going to tell the others—”

  “I do not understand what is happening, you fucking moron. I want to know why no one is coming here to get me out of this fucking place. There is no way that a jury of my peers would have the balls to put me in a place so far from my home. However will I be able to go to my clubs and have lunch with the others? No, I don’t understand, and you’re not leaving here until you understand that I’m not in any way going anyplace that isn’t the Wilkerson Mansion. Do you fucking hear me?”

  He walked away. Just walked away from her like she wasn’t still speaking to him. She wished now that she’d gotten his name. There was going to be hell to pay when she was free from here. Mother fucker. Who in their right mind would send her, Tina Wilkerson, off to prison for the lame assed things they were blaming her for?

  She heard one of the other women screaming—Tina thought it was Christa. Now there was a person that deserved to go to prison. Killing Eita had been what had started all this. She just had to take out her gun and fire it when everyone knew that Eita had it all under control.

  “The first thing I’m going to do when I get out of here is to make sure she’s no longer welcome around us. For a time, anyway. We’ll have a discussion. But since I’m married to the oldest son, I get to decide. Everyone knows the one in charge is the one the married to the oldest.” She thought about that for a moment and smiled. “New rules, bitches. Just wait and see.”

  She was told she needed to get her things together about an hour later. Who really knew what time it was. There were no clocks that she could see. Nothing to tell her what time it was other than the shitty meals she was brought. Getting things gathered up, she was glad she didn’t have anyone bring too much in for her to use. Putting it in the duffle they’d handed her would have crumbled it all up.

  Tina was standing at the door when a man in a suit, along with the man who had been by earlier, approached.

  “Christina Wilson, you’ve been—” She said it was Tina Wilkerson. “No. According to the divorce paperwork I was handed when I came to fetch you, you’re no longer entitled to use the name Wilkerson for personal use nor in business dealings. In the event that your ex-husband wants to remarry.”

  “Remarry? Honey, I don’t know how you came to that conclusion that he could remarry, but he’s married to me. Until death, we do part, which will be sooner than he expects the way things are going this minute. Now get out of my way so I can go home. You’ve no idea how excited I am right now.” He laughed with her as he chained her up. “I suppose you think this is necessary? I’m only going out to the limo that I’m sure Wesley sent for me. Really? You have to show how powerful you are now? “Christ, I hate fucking men.”

  “Not from what I heard, you don’t.” She didn’t know what that meant but let it go. She saw the others in her click standing in the big hall too. They all had the same duffle and looked as excited as she did. “All right. We’re going to load up in the vans out front. Then you will—”

  “Where is Christa? I have a few things to say to her.” The officer at the door asked her if she’d heard yet. “Heard what? Where is Christa Wilkerson? I need to see her too. We’re the best group of women that—”

  “Christa committed suicide two nights ago.”

  Chapter 3

  Wats found Booker sitting outside the house that had been on the market. He had been sitting out here, the realtor told him since they’d arrived. Sitting down next to his cousin, he sat there in sile
nce, waiting on Booker to say something first. It didn’t take him long to speak up.

  “I don’t like me right now.” Wats asked him what he meant by that. “Is a son supposed to feel relieved that his mother is gone? That she’s no longer a threat to me or those that I love? I doubt very much anyone feels like this when their mother chews her wrists open rather than go on for another day. She left me a note. Did I tell you?”

  “I heard, but I didn’t hear what it said.” Booker handed him the note. It was still sealed. “You’ve not read it yet. Is there a reason for that?”

  “I can’t. I know it’s going to be something along the lines that it’s all my fault that she’s done this. Or Dad’s. Did I tell you that Dad and I are planning a trip to go ice fishing this winter? I’ve never done it before. I’m actually looking forward to it.” Wats was planning trips with his dad as well. More along the lines of baseball games and camping trips. “Will you read it for me? Not to me, but just read it, then if it’s not too overwhelming, I’ll take it.”

  “All right. But what happens if it’s all drivel about you causing her demise? I’m reasonably sure she isn’t going to be any different with this than any of the rest of them have been.” Wats laughed. “Later, sometime soon, you’ll have to look at the recording of the women being sent to the prison. It made my entire day just watching the looks on their faces when they realized they weren’t going home, but to a larger facility.” He thought about what he’d said. “I’m sorry. Booker. That was really insensitive of me.”