The Outsider Series: The Complete Omnibus Collection

Chapter 21

Chapter 21

It didn’t help that the winds had picked up and thick, dark clouds were gathering overhead, threatening to unleash one hell of a storm. Leaves rustled and trees swayed as she passed through the heavy, iron gates, driving over the slate, gray driveway and parking beside Andy’s fancy new truck. At least she knew he was home. Diana left her purse but tucked her cell phone in her pocket and lifted her leather case, carrying it up the wide, stone steps and glancing at the wall of red roses that swept up the north wall of the house. It was stunning; it appeared to be filled with hundreds of the sweet-scented flowers. Diana took a deep breath and knocked on the polished, mahogany door with its insert of stained glass in the center. The door alone was a showpiece.

A few seconds later it was opened… not by a servant, but by Andy; he glared with such fire that she had to fight not to take a step back. She tilted her chin up, determined to hold her head high.

“Just what the hell do you think you’re doing here, Diana?” He stepped outside and grabbed her arm, pressing her against the outside wall. “Twice in one day. Maybe you’re looking to pick up where your mother left off with my father.” He started to lift her in his arms.

Diana clutched his arm and dropped her leather case, pushing his shoulder back and sputtering, her heart and stomach flip-flopping over his arrogance. “Where are you taking me? Put me down.” She hit his arm as he started down the steps.

“To the barn.”

That was a splash of icy cold water that had the anger and fury pumping through her, and she kicked and swung her fists, demanding that he let her go. She finally bit his shoulder until he yelled and swatted her behind hard as he put her down, but he didn’t let her go.

“Why, you little brat.” He ground out the words, gripping her shoulders harder than he needed to.

“Would you stop treating me this way? I’m here on business. I’m here as an attorney representing Bonnie Hays.”

He groaned, cutting her off and throwing his hands in the air, shouting a string of vicious curses. “Well, of course you are. After all, you are a Claremont. I guess it was just a matter of time before you'd sunk down into the slums, protecting a w***e with nothing but dollar signs in her eyes. Her only talent is how she performs on her back.” He leaned into her, about to grab her and shake her, but Diana stepped back out of his reach just as she heard a vehicle squeal behind her and a door slam.

“Get away from her, Andy,” Jed shouted as he stormed toward them, looking wild and out of control. He was wearing that damn rumpled, cowboy hat as he glanced at Diana. “You okay?” he said, and she could only nod.

He charged Andy, plowing into him and taking him down. She gasped when Andy rolled away and leaped nimbly to his feet like a big cat. Jed, too, his hat in the bushes, came up swinging, and he roared as he drove Andy into the back of Diana’s SUV. They each landed a punch. Andy had a busted lip, and Jed had a cut above his eye.

Diana screamed and tried to jump in between them, but she was tossed back on the ground, landing hard on her butt.

Stunned, Andy was beside her first. “Diana, are you hurt?” Concern laced his tone. He really was worried about her.

“Get your hands off of her, Andy,” Jed shouted, as he helped Diana up, cupping her other elbow and pulling her off the ground.

“Both of you, stop it.” Her hair had come loose and draped across her eyes. She tucked it behind her ear.

“Stop it! I won’t have this here,” someone shouted from the porch. Diana jerked her gaze up at the distinguished graying man who was an image of Andy thirty years older. He was wearing denim jeans, a black shirt, and a fierce, shrewd look that had Diana swallowing the heavy lump suddenly jammed in her throat. This was not a man to be toyed with. As he strode down the stone steps, his eyes locked onto Diana, and he stared at her with a series of emotions flashing across his face: shock, malice, and then hatred. This was Todd Friessen, the man who’d been their landlord, had toyed with her mother, slept with her whenever the mood struck him, partied with her and who knows how many others; destroying women’s lives on a whim and for his own enjoyment.

“I told you, Andy, to get rid of her. I don’t want her here to embarrass your mother or this family. Since you can’t follow a simple request, I’ll take care of it.” His sharp gaze never left Diana’s. There was ice in his eyes; although he was extremely handsome, she nonetheless wondered what it was that had women flocking to him.

“Todd, I sure can’t say it’s nice to see you again, because it certainly isn’t a pleasure. As I said to Andy, I’m representing Bonnie Hayes, the woman you’ve bedded, played and toyed with, and now want to toss from town. Oh, and, Andy, if you show up tonight to throw her out of her house, before we’ve arranged a settlement; I’ll be waiting with a news crew and cameras We’ll be sure the video goes viral across the internet and is broadcast to every station in the state; showing the big, powerful thugs tossing a woman out into the street with all your dirty little secrets. And then I’ll track down every woman you’ve ever burned out and sent packing and have their stories aired on the news. I’ll tell the story of how you perfected the act of the wealthy English landowner—you use women for your s****l needs and then toss them, and their children, out into the dirt in the dead of night because you’re done with them. That you ignored the plight of me and my sister and left two helpless kids in the clutches of a drug-dealing w***e, who was arrested for dealing and given 10 years in prison the very night you tossed her children out, instead of getting them help. I’ll give them Louisa’s picture, too, and talk to them about how there was an open question of whether you were her father. This tiny four-year-old little girl with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and severe epilepsy who died and you could have prevented it—”

Todd shouted, “That is a damn lie! I was not that kid’s father. Faye tried pulling that stunt, saying she was pregnant again and I was the father. But that ain’t so. I took care of it, and I can prove that sister of yours wasn’t mine.” He stepped ruthlessly toward Diana.

Jed stepped between them. “Uncle Todd, back off.” He said it dangerously low, a warning.

Diana leaned around Jed and shouted, “No one will care whether you are or not! All we have to do is allude to the fact. You should know, all too well, that’s all the gossips need to destroy someone’s good name. Isn’t that what you’ve been doing to me, alluding to everyone I’m a drug dealing w***e just like my mother?”

“Diana, watch your mouth. And don’t make threats and start something you’ll regret,” Jed said, watching Diana with dark, dangerous eyes. She knew she needed to be careful. He moved closer until he almost touched her with his body, and she gently laid her hand on his arm.

“Jed, I need to help Bonnie. She’s been bullied, and apparently Andy here is planning on tossing her out tonight. I know better than anyone that this isn’t okay. He wants her gone, and he needs to do this right. He needs to give her time to find a decent place, and he needs to be fair about her store. What these two are doing is ripping away her basic foundation, her income and housing. Andy cleaning up after his dad isn’t right. Who’s the next victim going to be?” Diana pleaded.

Jed jerked his head and glanced at Andy, his hands resting on his slim hips. “Is this true? You planning on playing the thug for your dad again?”

Andy glared at Diana, and something softened when he said, “You made your point, Diana. What is it you want?”

“No, you are not going to negotiate—not with her!” Todd’s eyes darkened in rage.

Diana couldn’t understand how her mother could have been involved with the likes of Todd, but then again, she didn’t understand anything about her mother, since Faye hadn’t known how to be one. Her thoughts wandered for a second to Faye and where she was; whether she did have another brother or sister out there in the system.

Andy didn’t answer his father, but raised his eyebrows sharply, glaring at Diana and demanding an answer.

Diana swallowed. “Bonnie is prepared to leave, but she needs a month to find another place to live and to arrange for movers to move her things. She needs a fair settlement for the loss of her shop and income and for how your father used her.”

Andy chuckled, but it was in no way pleasant as he glanced away. “Just give me a number.”

“Forty thousand and she’s gone for good.”

Andy shook his head, his lips forming a thin white line. “Twenty, she signs a non-disclosure, and she’s gone by nightfall.”

“Thirty, she agrees to your confidentiality agreement, and she leaves in a week.” Diana was shaking inside but hoping she appeared cool and confident.

“Done,” declared Andy. “Let’s go inside, and we’ll finalize this deal.”

Jed followed Diana into the mansion, to the library off the large entryway, which had a huge circular staircase leading up to the second level, with deep, red carpets and oil paintings on the walls. Diana was positive that the house cost more than she’d see in this lifetime. Andy strode around an oak desk with a stack of mail in the corner and yanked open a drawer, pulling out his checkbook. Todd lingered, then strode to the bar and uncapped a decanter with an amber liquid and poured three fingers into a glass, tossing a cube of ice in. He didn’t turn around when he said, “You heard from your mama?”

Diana was startled by the question. “No. I haven’t seen her since she was arrested for selling m*******a to an undercover cop and driven away in the back of a police car fifteen years ago.”

Todd grunted, then slowly turned around. He put his glass down and began to leave, his steps heavy. “Andy,” he said, “make sure this is wrapped up today. And have our lawyers make sure that Miss Claremont here sticks to what’s agreed.”

“That’s Miss Fulton,” Diana stated with irritation.

Todd stopped and really surveyed her for a few seconds, a look that Diana couldn’t, for the life of her, make out. Then he left without saying another word.

Diana was very aware of Jed’s presence behind her. Apparently, so was Andy. “You know, cousin, I ain’t going to hurt her. So you can ease up on the overprotective role you got going there and point those daggers you’re glaring at me somewhere else.”

“You’re an asshole, Andy. I’m done with you harassing Diana.”

Diana sighed. “Jed. Please.”

Andy leaned against the corner of the desk beside her, glancing briefly at Jed before resting his gaze comfortably on Diana. “Diana, whether you believe it or not, you didn’t deserve what happened to you as a kid. And if I could go back, I’d call social services and made sure you and sister were taken away from Faye—I am not a monster. But your mother was. And that’s the God-honest truth. I’m not interested in treating you that way again.”

Diana grabbed her pen and rested her pad across her lap. “Let’s finish this agreement.” She could hear Jed swearing softly under his breath behind her, but she needed to finish this and did her damnedest to ignore both of them.

An hour later, Jed followed Diana out of the large estate. She needed to stop at Bonnie’s to get her signature on the drafted agreement she’d put together with Andy and his lawyer, who had been on speakerphone. They had argued over minor points, both conceding one or two, during the conference call. The fact that Todd wouldn’t sign was a minor splitting of hairs. Andy, however, did, but he refused to hand over the check until Bonnie signed the agreement.

Jed paced and paced, then finally sat in an easy chair behind Diana, waiting as if he’d sworn his protection to her. He refused to leave even when Andy assured him nothing inappropriate would happen. After all, his mother was just upstairs.

Jed parked behind Diana at Bonnie’s, and he stood behind her again as Bonnie wept and cried, changing her mind and saying that she wanted to stay and couldn’t leave. That maybe if she could talk to Todd he’d let her stay.

It was Jed who spoke up quite crudely: “He’s not interested in you. And by next week, he won’t even remember your name. Sign it and take the money, and get as far from him as you can. Then you can thank your lucky stars that Diana here is willing to go to bat for you. Because that’s what she did, and you’re not playing these games with her. Sign it.”

Diana handed her a pen, and Bonnie stared at Jed, wide-eyed. Then she pursed her lush, rosy lips and took the pen, scribbling her name where Diana indicated.

“This is for the best, Bonnie. I’ll take this to Andy and be back with your check.” Diana stepped out on the porch with Jed.

Bonnie shook her head. “Maybe for you. But Todd’s the only man I’ve ever loved,” she said, and she shut the door.

Jed walked Diana to her SUV, his beat-up, rusty brown pickup parked behind her.

“Jed, you don’t have to babysit me. I appreciate your coming along, but I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.”

“Can you really, Diana? Because when I saw your note and where you were going—I wanted to wring your neck for going back there. What do you think would have happened if I hadn’t shown up when I did? There is one thing about Andy that I do know: He follows through on everything he says and wants. And he wants you.” He slammed his fist against her door.

“He doesn’t want me. You’re wrong—he hates me.”

“Oh that’s where you’re wrong, baby.”

She let out a heavy sigh. “Did you find the horses?”

He didn’t look at her when he shook his head. “I’ve already cancelled the group I’ve got coming in. I can’t get replacements and get them ready that quick.”

Diana’s heart ached, and she felt hollow. He hid his hurt so well. She knew how much he loved those horses, and she also knew that he was a lot like her, and paid his own way. He may have come from a wealthy family, but it was their money, and she’d seen firsthand how he earned his own way, taking nothing from anyone. She couldn’t help but admire that part of him.

“Jed, I’m so sorry. I can’t help thinking that this is my fault.”

He did look at her then. His gaze took on a hardness that had her pulling away. “It isn’t your fault. So don’t go and take that on, too. You’ve got a lot of courage, Diana, but you’re also naïve. Have you figured out yet what you’re getting out of this with Andy, what this justice is? Have you, Diana?” He was shouting. “Because you told me once that you’d loved Andy as a kid, he was your hero. And yet you’re trying to get justice, and that is so twisted. I can’t help feeling like I’m getting caught up in something I shouldn’t be. There is something you haven’t figured out yet, and I don’t like being made a fool of. I won’t be played.”

“You’ve made that point quite clear. Repeatedly. Go home, Jed,” Diana said. She stared at Bonnie, who was peeking through her front window at them. “I don’t know what this is with you, and what I hope to accomplish anymore. I’m confused. But what I know is I’ve never taken advantage of anyone. Ever.”

Diana slid behind the wheel, slammed her door, and drove away. When she glanced in her mirror, Jed had climbed into his truck, and was headed the other way.