Marc (Bowen Boys, #4)(54)

“Yes.” Khan laughed. “She’s sort of vindictive. Remind me never to piss her off. And Monica said to tell you that she has something for Jonny from Jack. She won’t tell me what it is.”

He sat down on the couch after finding a robe in the laundry room. “She asked me about what happened. I told her everything.”

“Good. Now she can heal. Do you think she’s going to be okay with this thing tomorrow after what happened?”

He didn’t know and told Khan that. “I’m thinking that getting back at Dad will be great for her. I know it will be for me.”

Khan agreed and after a few more words, they hung up. Marc was crawling into bed with Jonny when she spoke to him. He nearly went back downstairs.

“I want you to order one of those rings that go on my clit too. I think that would be fun.”





Chapter 18


“I don’t want you to move away.” Everyone looked at Jonny, and she flushed. “Look, this is really stupid. You had to know that your house was falling into the basement. The guy said that it had been eroding for over fifty years. Who doesn’t notice that their house is eroding? I think even I would.”

“We raised our children there,” Corrine snapped at her. Not that Jonny didn’t blame her. She’d been getting more and more upset as the night went on. These people just seemed to like to bicker.

“And they want to give you something in return, and you got your feelings hurt and now you want to run away.” Corrine stared at her, but George hopped out of his chair and stamped to her.

Jonny stood, too, and let a little of her cat go. He was bigger and much larger, but she wasn’t going to back down. Not anymore. Not from anyone. He stopped and looked at Marc, who growled low.

“Sit down, George. She’s right.” George turned to his wife and started to speak, but she stopped him. “I am hurt. A great deal. And we did know the house was falling down. Just last summer you told me you didn’t think it was going to last another winter. But it did and now….”

“Now what, Mom?” Marc asked her. “Now what? You’ll need to tell us or none of us is going to be happy with this.”

“Now you’re all finding mates and you don’t need us.” Jonny snorted and she glared at her. “You do that a great deal when you have something to say. You’ve had no problems speaking your mind all evening, just say it.”

“You thinking they don’t need you is just stupid. Christ, woman, if they don’t, we women certainly do. I can’t make a frigging pancake, much less flip one. And I don’t know how many times I’ve heard Monica say she was going to ask you for advice on something. Even Caitlynne goes to you for help. And Jack? That woman practically lives on your front porch.” She looked at George. “And you. You’re needed for your sage advice as well. Not that I will believe a single word that comes out of your mouth, but there you have it.”

George grinned, then flushed when she winked at him. That man was going to pay. She wanted this settled and then to move on to the more important fun of the evening. Even Corrine was in on this thing.

“He wants me to have a new home.” Corrine glared at Khan as she spoke. “What on earth am I to do with a new home, I ask you? I can barely keep the one I had.”

“Yeah, well hire someone to help you. I had to, you made me.” Corrine opened her mouth and Jonny snorted again. “I didn’t even get to hang around tonight and have some of his…some…. I don’t know what it was, but it sounded good. And there is not one speck of dust or any dirty clothes anywhere in the house. Mrs. Cable had it cleaned and shining before I got my lunch finished. And you should have tasted that chicken thing he made for me. To die for.”

“Mom, I think what she’s trying to tell you is to let us build you and Dad a new home and stay here with us.” Marc put his hand over her mouth before she could tell them the dinner tonight was going to be beef bourguignon. “She’ll behave if you stay.”

Corrine smiled at him, and she looked at George, who nodded. “We’ll stay. And let you build us a house, but we all know that she won’t behave. We wouldn’t have it any other way. She’s just too rotten to even try.”

Jonny wasn’t sure if she had just been insulted or not, but let it go. They were staying and that was the end of it. She didn’t even have to ask her parents to get involved. They were having too much fun buying things for their new house with the check they’d received.

It had been more than she’d ever thought it would be, nearly eight million dollars. When she’d asked Marc about it, he’d told her that the government gave them a percentage of what Roy and the others had cost them over the years. And the reward for any information on the capture and conviction of Anthony Kidd had been five million alone. She’d looked it up. That part had been right, but she never could find anything on the other part.

She looked up when Khan sat next to her. “You did that well. I owe you. I would have just demanded and yelled.”

“You always yell and demand. You rarely get things to be the way you want them, but you still do it. The only person you don’t yell at is Monica. I think you’re afraid of her.” Khan looked around and saw Monica wasn’t in the room and told her he was, a little. “Good. She’s a little meaner than you are in a sneaky sort of nice person sort of way.”