Make Her Mine

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Tyrell

Cash, Jasper, and I decided to tour the rest of the house on our own, preferring to scout out our new digs alone. “You wasted no time, did ya, Tyrell?” Jasper asked as he opened a door with a movie theater behind it. “Would you look at this?”

“Doing what?” I leaned in to see what else was in our private movie theater. “Wow, I wonder if we get Netflix.”

Cash laughed as he slapped his thigh. “Seems we’ve died and gone to Heaven.”

“Real cool, Cash,” Jasper said with a frown. “Our grandparents did die and go to Heaven, or we wouldn’t have this. And I meant how you fondled that cute, petite housekeeper in the foyer, Tyrell.”

“You mean caught and saved her life, not fondled.” I followed my youngest brother, ignoring my pain in the a*s middle brother.

Cash walked down the corridor to the next door. “If Mom and Dad hadn’t given up their fight, we would’ve grown up with this.”

“To be fair, we have no idea how hard that fight was,” I said as I looked into the room Cash had just opened. “Nothing but theater supplies in here. Popcorn, pickles, hot dog buns, we’ve got it all. We could make a living just selling tickets to movies and snacks here.”

Jasper chuckled as he walked down to the door across the hallway. “We could add that one to all the other ways our grandfather already made money from this place. Hey, a sauna!”

We all hurried to see it and found he’d made the entire room into a steam room. I couldn’t believe it. “We may never have to leave home, guys.”

Cash shook his head. “Unless one of these doors has some single women behind it, then we certainly have to leave, at least every now and then.”

“We just barely got here, Cash,” Jasper reminded him. “We should settle in and get to know the locals before looking for chicks. Otherwise, we may end up with the loosest women in Carthage, of which I believe are aplenty.”

Cash laughed as he walked away to see what we’d find next. “What’s wrong with loose women, Jasper? I’m not picky. If they want to give it, I’ll take it.”

“And their diseases?” Jasper asked as he raised one dark brow. “I think not, little man.”

Cash grabbed his crotch. “I’ve got your little man, Jasper.”

“That you do.” Jasper chuckled as I opened the next door we came to. And we all went silent.

Red walls, black carpet, and chains hung on one wall. Something like a bed, but it had no mattress, was at the end of the rectangular shaped room.

“You know what this is, don’t you?” Jasper asked.

“This is going to be locked up, then boarded up.” I pulled the door closed only to have Cash open it again.

“Don’t be so quick to make hasty decisions, Tyrell.” He walked into the room. “Gramps was a freak. Who would’ve ever guessed?”

“You boys finding everything alright?” a woman’s voice came from behind us.

We turned to find an older version of the young maid standing there. “You must be Ella’s sister,” I said.

“Correct. I’m Darleen.” She was about a foot taller than tiny Ella, but just as pretty with long dark hair and eyes as cobalt as the ocean. “Ella’s older sister. And you must be Tyrell, Jasper, and Jasper, the new owners of Whisper Ranch.”

I introduced us all. “I’m Tyrell, this is Jasper, and that’s Cash. Do you work here?”

“Nope.” She grinned. “So, you can’t fire me. I do live here though. So, I guess you could evict me. I’m going to college. I’m specializing in cattle and horses. Hopefully, I’ll be able to charge you for my services. Much the same way your grandfather did. But that’s our little secret, ’kay?”

Cash started coughing, Jasper’s jaw dropped, and I asked, “Do you mean that you and he,” I pointed to the room, “in this room, here?”

She nodded. “Yep. And I’m still available if any of you have that particular calling. Your grandfather paid for my college education. But I could use a new car.”

Our grandfather had been one hell of an old man! “I’m afraid none of us are into that sort of thing, ma’am. Sorry.”

Unexpectedly, she burst into gales of laughter so hard that tears filled her eyes and dripped down her cheeks. “You guys are too easy to fool. Really? Would you really think I’d do something like that? Oh, hell. That was fun.”

“So, you didn’t go at it with our gramps?” Cash asked.

“No,” she assured us. “Not in a zillion years. Not even if he’d left this place to me. But he did provide work for someone for this room. She left when he got sick last year. Hilda was his mistress for about twenty years. He took her on after your grandmother died, is what my mother told me.”

“But he never married her?” Jasper asked.

Shaking her head, she looked into the room. “Nope, just some sadomasochism when he felt like it. He did pay her well for it. She got a very nice home and quite a bit of funding for her trouble. He wouldn’t have married her anyway. He never took her out in public. She wasn’t in his class.”

“Like our mother,” I said looking at the floor, wondering what it must’ve been like back then. “To think that Mom was looked down upon makes me kind of hate this man we never met.”

Darleen smiled and lightly punched me in the arm. “Look at it this way, no matter how hard he tried, he didn’t succeed. Your parents got to keep their love, and you guys get to keep everything your grandfather ever made.”

“Yeah.” I supposed there was some justice in that. “But our parents can’t ever reap the benefits.”

With a grin, she said, “Betchya a billion bucks, they don’t want a thing that man had.”

Cash nodded. “That’s what Mom told me before we left Dallas. She said take it, enjoy it, and make the most out of it. She wanted nothing to do with Whisper Ranch nor anything our grandfather had ever touched.”

“Can’t say I blame her.” Darleen walked to the next door, and we followed her. “Let me show you Hilda’s bedroom.”

Pushing open the door, they saw a stark room containing only a twin bed with nothing on it. There was not a single thing else, not even a curtain covering the one window. I looked at the pitiful space and felt sick at my stomach. “Why’d he want to keep her like this?”

Darleen slowly shook her head. “He made everyone around him wretched. It was like he got off on it.” Her eyes met mine. “I don’t mean to talk badly about him, but he was an a*s, you guys. The name of Gentry isn’t one many people care for around here. Hopefully, you guys can change that.”

“You and your sister are like night and day,” I said closing the door. “How’s that?”

Her narrow shoulders shrugged. “Mom had her when she was in her thirties. Maybe she was made out of a rotten egg.”

While my brothers laughed, I frowned. “Or maybe she was a casualty of a mean older sister?”

“Nah, that can’t be it,” Darleen said with a grin. “I’m an angel.”

She probably wasn’t quite the angel. “I’m sure your sister can be an angel when she wants to.”

“I’m sure you’re wrong.” Darleen laughed, then turned to leave us. “I’ll let you guys check out the rest of the quarters on your own. I just heard your voices down the hall and wanted to introduce myself. I’m sure we’ll get along just fine.”

“Me, too,” I said, then added, “Even with Ella.”

Her laughter echoed all the way down the long foyer as she left us. Then Jasper’s shoulder hit mine. “Methinks you’re thinking about that petite maid too much, big brother.”

“No, I’m not.” I walked to the next door. “Hey look, it’s a massive shower.”

Cash wrinkled his nose as we all walked inside. “Perhaps we should board up this entire area.”

“The other two rooms, I agree with, but why this?” I asked as I held my arms out in gesture to the biggest shower I’d ever seen.

“Grandfather apparently was in here after they… you know.” Cash made a gagging face. “Yuck.”

I had to agree. “Yeah, yuck.”

Jasper looked at us and nodded. “We’ve got some changes to make around here and around town, too, if we want to be amiable.” We walked out of the giant shower room and back into the hall.

“Oh, s**t,” came a soft curse uttered by a feminine voice.

We all turned to see Ella running back down the hallway away from us. “Hey, wait up,” I called out.

But she kept on running as if she’d seen a ghost. “You going to chase after her, Tyrell?” Jasper asked.

“What for?” I turned to walk in the other direction.

Cash bumped his shoulder to mine. “’Cause she seems to have a crush on you.”

“You’re wrong.” I headed for the next door, but Jasper stepped in front of me. “What?”

“She’s acting that way ’cause you got her stimulated. Aren’t you going to get her settled down?” Jasper’s dark brow raised. “That might be fun.”

“I like my women a bit more refined. And not quite so mouthy.” I pushed open the next door to find a room covered in sketches. A chair by the window had a table next to it, and a pad of paper and colored pencils sat on top of it. “You don’t suppose this is why Ella was up here? You don’t suppose this is her stuff?” I ran my fingers over a picture of a cardinal that hung on the wall. The red feathers looked almost real. “She’s gifted.”

“You don’t know this is hers, Tyrell.” Cash pointed at the initials on the bottom of the paper that were written so tiny I could barely make them out. “What does this mean?”

“I think it’s the signature, or rather, the initials of whoever drew this.” Squinting, I tried to make them out. “I do believe it’s an E and an F. As in Ella Finley.”

“Or you’d like to believe that, anyway,” Jasper said. “I see two Es.”

Cash picked up the case of colored pencils as he looked out the window. “Oh yeah, this is hers alright. I can tell.”

He held the case he’d picked up to his forehead as if using his mind to see who it belonged to.

“So, you’re doing your old fake psychic thing, Cash.” I took the thing away from him to find Ella written on the case in black Sharpie.

Who are you, Ella Finley?