Kale, p.18
Kale, page 18
part #2 of Texas Kings MC Series
I moved through the rest of the letter but was sure that what I was reading was incorrect. It mentioned the sale of my Auntie and Uncle’s house and the ongoing tax payments for the property and house in Alaska.
The final paragraph mentioned an exorbitant amount of money and I closed my eyes for just a second. I took a few deep breaths and then opened them again to see that number still there on the paper. I reread the paragraph to make sure that the amount wasn’t what I owed the lawyer, but what was owed to me from life insurance policies and other thing.
I looked up at Kale and realized that he was no longer on the phone. He was staring at me with his eyebrows up in question.
“What did the lawyers office say?” I asked him.
“The receptionist transferred me straight to the lawyer when I mentioned your name. As soon as we get finished here we have to go to his office. What does the paper say?”
“All I can see is that nothing this man tells me will bring my family back.”
“True. Very true.”
“Did he say where they are buried?”
“No. He said he would give you that information when we got to his office. Are you going to look through the rest of those papers? You’ve only looked at the first page.”
“No. You look for me, please.”
I picked the papers up and handed them across the table to Kale. He let go of my hand and started reading. I saw his face change when he read that I was the last of my family and then his eyes went wide when he saw the number at the bottom.
“Well. That was unexpected.” He flipped the first page behind the others and started scanning.
“You think?”
“This is the deed to land in Alaska. And a house. This next page is a printout of the payments that have been made for taxes on the house and property. There are some notations about maintenance also. I guess the neighbor was a family friend?”
“Yes. My Dad’s best friend. Uncle Jonas. He only leaves his house to go into town once a month for supplies. Except for when he would come to our place, or he was out hunting or fishing.”
“Well, as of this letter he is alive and well and taking care of everything for you.”
“He helped my Dad build our house. We lived in a trailer on his property while they worked on it.”
“So, your family isn’t all gone. You have him.” Kale looked up at me. I could tell that he was hoping that would help me get through the words in the paper from the lawyer.
“I’ve never thought of it that way, but yeah.”
“We can get his contact information from the lawyer. I wonder why he didn’t get in touch with you when you were in prison. Come visit or something.”
“He really never leaves his land unless he is out of supplies. When we were there my Dad got his supplies for him, so he didn’t go into town for years. When we moved to Utah he had to start getting his own things from town.”
“Oh. He likes his solitude.”
I snorted and nodded my head. “You have no idea how much.”
“So, let’s go see a lawyer so we can get on with your day. We’ll find out where they are buried and go get flowers.”
“Did you read that part about the money?”
“Yep.”
“Does that mean what I think it means?”
Kale nodded his head. “As far as I can tell it means you’re a wealthy woman.”
“It’s blood money.”
“No. It would be blood money if the motherfucker that killed your parents gave it to you. This is money that your parents and Aunt and Uncle paid for, probably for most of their lives. I have life insurance policies myself. If something happens to me, my brothers and my parents will get quite a bit of cash.”
“I’d rather have them here.”
“I know, sweetheart.” Kale stood up from the table and reached down to take my hand. “Come on. Let’s get this over with. You can leave that money where it is if you want to. I’ll take care of you.”
I laughed for a second.
“My Dad would come back from the grave and whoop my ass. ‘Never say no to free money, Terra girl.’ I heard that a few times in my life, believe me.”
“There you go then. Let’s go find this lawyer.”
“I didn’t know they had swamps in Utah, but okay.”
O=O=O
“Ms. Albie, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” The small silver haired man walked toward us through the reception area after his receptionist buzzed him. “I’m glad to see you’re doing well.”
I shook his hand and introduced Kale. We followed Mr. Hudson through the reception area and down a short hallway to the corner office. As he moved behind his desk Kale and I sat in the chairs facing him.
“I’m glad that you have been released, Ms. Albie. I thought that it was a few more months away and was surprised when I received a phone call today.”
“You called to check in on me?”
“Yes. Monthly. When I put money in your account for necessities.”
“That was you?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Hmmmm. I always wondered.”
“You’ll notice that monthly expenditure on the balance sheets that we sent to you. The cost of upkeep on the property in Alaska is also listed there. You will notice also that your Aunt and Uncle’s home was sold with not much profit. From what the bank was owed along with the story surrounding the house, the property value was lower than it should have been.”
“I wouldn’t want that house anyway.”
“When I was given this case by my associate you were still a minor even though you were already in prison serving your sentence. I managed your money as if you were one of my children. I will admit that on occasion, such as the sale of that house, I asked my wife her opinion on the matter. She sent me on a fact-finding mission and then told me what she thought you might say. I’m glad to see that she was correct.” Mr. Hudson smiled and then added, “Although she is rarely ever wrong, I’ll admit. We’ll keep that our little secret.”
I smiled at the lawyer. I kind of liked the little guy.
“The house in Alaska is in good shape?” Kale asked. He reached over and squeezed my hand.
“Yes. It is in excellent condition. Mr. Smith has been excellent in that area.”
“Mr. Smith?” I had no idea who he was talking about. “Oh! Is that Uncle Jonas’ last name?”
“I do believe that Jonas is Mr. Smith’s first name, yes.”
“Does he have a phone yet?”
“Sadly, no. You can usually only communicate with him by mail. I did buy him a satellite phone using your money. On the first of every month he turns the phone on for the day. You can reach him then. If he answers.” Mr. Hudson smiled and shook his head. “Mr. Smith is, how can I say this tactfully, gruff.”
“Oh, he’s a raging asshole. Crazy too. Always has been. I love him dearly, though.”
“Well, yes. During our monthly calls he always asked about you. I was happy to tell him that you were doing as well as could be expected. He has taught me a valuable lesson through the years.”
“What’s that?” Kale asked as he tilted his head. I think Kale kind of liked the little man too.
“How to stuff a month’s worth of questions and details into a three-minute conversation. Also, he taught me how to have an entire conversation by asking only yes or no questions. Mr. Smith is a man of very few words. Very, very few words.”
Kale laughed for a few minutes and I smiled as I imagined this little man trying to get any information out of Uncle Jonas.
“Thank you for taking care of everything. Your fees were paid through the money, correct?”
“Yes. A quarterly payment was removed and paid directly to our offices.” Mr. Hudson buzzed his receptionist and when she answered he asked her for my file. She brought it in and smiled brightly at me, when her eyes went to Kale her face changed from sweet to interested. I raised our joined hands and stared at her. She quickly walked out of the office and shut the door behind her.
Kale laughed quietly and squeezed my hand in his.
We dealt with the necessary paperwork and I signed notes for the bank putting the money in my possession. Mr. Hudson made a call to the bank to activate the debit card that was paper clipped to the file.
Once we finished going through the paperwork, I handed Kale my debit card to put in his wallet. We shook hands with Mr. Hudson and held hands on our way out of the office. Once we were outside, rather than go straight to the motorcycle, Kale led me across the street and down a little bit to a coffee shop we had spotted on our way to the office.
“Let’s grab a drink really quick and ask them where we can find a flower shop.” Kale and I ordered our drinks and he struck up a conversation with the woman behind the counter. She gave us directions to the flower shop that was one block down. We decided to drink our coffees as we walked, leaving the motorcycle in front of the lawyer’s offices.
Once I picked out the bouquets that I liked, daisies for my parents’ grave, roses for my aunt and uncles and sunflowers for my brother, we walked hand in hand back to the motorcycle. Kyle had the flowers in the crook of his arm and I was still sipping on my coffee.
“Do you want to go see your house in Alaska?”
“I do. If it really is still the way we left it then that means all my mom’s photo albums are there, all the special stuff she collected isn’t gone like I thought it would be. My Dad’s bow and other things are still there too, I bet. I thought all of my family’s things were gone forever.”
“Do you want to move to Alaska?”
“Should I?” I looked up at him and he was staring straight ahead. The look on his face was blank, but his grip on my hand was still steady. “I don’t really want to live there forever but I would like to visit.”
“I don’t want you to move to Alaska. I want you to live in Texas with us. With me.” Kale was still staring straight ahead, and I couldn’t get a read on his mood now.
“I want to go to Texas to be with you. I want to live near Lisa and watch Brighten grow. I want to play pranks on your brothers with you and get Zeke back for saying I had a mustache.” I squeezed his hand and stopped, making him turn to look at me. “I want to go where you are.”
Kale finally smiled. I realized that he was worried about what I would say and that made me warm inside. Neither of us had mentioned the future or what we were heading toward, but from his behavior just now I felt sure that he wanted me in his.
“Good. I don’t want to have to move to Alaska. It’s fucking cold there and the sun never comes up.”
“Well, that’s not really true. There are some parts that are dark for a couple of months of the year. The part that I am from has sun almost twenty-four hours a day for a couple of months in the summer. I think that would be harder for you to adjust to than the darkness.”
Kale looked at me like I was crazy. “How do you get used to that? How is that even possible.”
“You ever looked at a globe, honey?” I laughed at him. “You get used to it. It was harder for me to adjust to time when we got to Utah. That was horrible for all of us.”
“I can’t imagine. Oh, and I bet it’s fucking cold.”
“That it is. It’s cold here but that’s nothing like it is at home.”
We stopped at the motorcycle and I walked over and threw my coffee cup in the trash can by the door in front of the lawyer’s office. Once I was on the bike, Kale handed me the bouquets and got on in front of me. He took off from the curb headed in the direction that the lawyer gave us for the cemetery. I held on tightly with one hand, the other trying not to crush the fresh flowers.
I cried silently the entire way, wishing I was going to see my Mom and Dad, rather than their graves.
O=O=O
I walked with Terra through the cemetery, looking for her family’s graves. Once we found them I was glad to see that the family had a headstone that was large and elegant, rather than just a flat marker. I was sure that Mr. Hudson’s wife had helped him pick out the wording and probably the marker itself.
I stood back a few feet and leaned against a tree as Terra got down on her knees in front of her family’s headstone. She pulled the grass from around the edges and laid the flowers just so in front of it. I saw her shoulders shaking as she traced their names with her finger. I could hear her murmuring, and I knew that she was speaking to them.
I gave her as much time as she needed to say goodbye to her family. It was horrible that she had seen their bodies, knowing they had died just minutes before she came home. Almost as horrible was the fact that she had spent ten years in prison for killing the man that murdered them.
This was her first real chance to say goodbye.
Finally, her legs shaking as she stood, Terra turned to me. I rushed over and took her in my arms as she sobbed on my chest. It broke my heart to hear her crying, her heart breaking all over again. After a few minutes I realized that I was crying right along with her. I couldn’t imagine losing my parents or my brothers and sister.
I wasn’t sure how long we had been standing there but finally Terra pulled her head back from my chest and gave me a watery smile.
“Thank you for being here with me, Kale.” She reached up and rubbed her hands over my cheeks and then did the same thing on her own. “I never got to say goodbye to them. I didn’t get to go to the funerals or anything. I thought I was okay but now it’s like it just happened yesterday.”
“You probably didn’t get much chance to grieve after your arrest.”
“No. No crying in that shithole. They’ll eat you alive.” She chuckled to herself. “I actually feel better now. Cleaner, if that makes any sense.”
“Yeah, I guess. I have no idea what you’re going through, baby. I’ve never lost anyone close to me like that.”
“It was horrible. My last memory of them was laying there and all the blood.”
“Tell me your best memory of your Dad.”
“Sitting beside him next to the campfire. He was telling me stories. I don’t remember them, but I remember looking up and thinking he was the biggest, strongest man alive.”
“That’s good. Now your Mom.”
“I remember her arms around me as she helped me stir something in a bowl. Then she let me lick the spoon. I was small, but I remember it vividly. She was wearing a pink t-shirt and her hair was in braids.”
“What about your brother?”
“When we were little my brother would come and sleep in bed with me. Sometimes it was so cold that it was like the heater wasn’t even making a dent in it. He would crawl into bed with me and we would snuggle up. If it got too cold he and I would go into our parents’ room and sleep between them. My Dad’s beard used to tickle my face when I snuggled up with him.”
“Okay. The next time you think of the last time you saw them switch it to that picture. The one of all of you snuggled up in the hellish cold of Alaska together.”
“Yeah. I’ll try that. Maybe replace the bad with the good.”
I leaned down and touched my forehead to hers.
“You can always talk to me about your family. They sound awesome. Your Dad was a bearded, mountain man and your mom cooked. Your little brother was probably a shit sometimes, but you loved him anyway. I have a version of that. My Dad’s a bearded biker and my Mama cooks so, so good. I know about the brothers that are total shits too.”
“Do you think your bratty brothers are awake yet?”
“Yeah, Daughtry’s probably still trying to dig that blueberry out of his nose. He snorted it right on up there, didn’t he?”
“The blueberries are nothing compared to when they see that Sharpie on their faces. They are going to kill Jenna.”
“Nah. They’ll be pissy for a while but then they’ll get over it. It’s what we do. Besides, all the shitty tricks she plays on them she learned from them, so there’s that.”
“Will you take me back to the hotel and snuggle with me until I go to sleep?”
“Of course. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
“You’re so marshmallowy, Kale.”
“Don’t tell anyone. You’ll ruin my reputation.”
16.
O=O=O=O=O=O
TERRA
The ride back to Rojo was uneventful. I spent the majority of the trip in the car with the girls. We talked about all sorts of things, but mostly they gave me details and information about what it was like to be with a member of the Kings MC.
I learned about the wenches, or sweetbutts as some called them. Brenda told me that I should be assertive and let it be known that Kale was my man. She said that some of them would try and push it and most likely Kale would leave it to me to make my place there.
I didn’t think I would have a problem making sure that they understood that the man was all mine. I was pissed off just thinking about some woman putting her hands on Kale and we were hundreds of miles away.
I learned about club business and that it wasn’t my business at all. I didn’t really have a problem with that. I trusted Kale to tell me what I needed to know and to keep me in the loop about things that directly affected me, but I was going to consider his club his job. He could leave the details of it at the office and just give me the high points.
Brenda talked a little bit about her man, Sonny, who was in prison somewhere in Texas for the foreseeable future. She was vague about what he was in prison for, but I got the idea that it had something to do with the club and her father. It seemed to be a very tense subject and I was glad when Jenna brought up a new topic.
I did get to talk to Jenna for a little bit. She drove while Brenda rode with Daughtry and Carlie rode with Sam.
I told Jenna that her brother had been worried about her because she didn’t have anyone to talk to. I tried to explain to her that I was here to listen if she wanted to talk to me, but she was resistant. I finally asked her if she knew why I had been in prison. She told me that she didn’t have any idea, so I told her my story.
