Misty Reigenborn Romance Boxed Set (144 page)

"You're a liar."

"Am I?  She wasn't the only one.  After her, there was the twenty year old granddaughter of one of his supposed clients.  Do you want me to go on Tory?"

"No.  I've heard enough."

Lindsey laughed, lighting another cigarette.  "You want one?"  At first Tory thought she was talking to her, but she was talking to Tony.  Tony shook his head.  "I know you smoke.  I know you've probably got my daughter smoking too, because what's better than a cigarette after sex?  Do you think you're going to offend Langston?  You'd be better off if you stayed the hell away from him Tory.  Do you really think he bought you a car and offered to pay for your college education out of the goodness of his heart?  You're in the right age group for one of his conquests."

Tory felt sick.  It couldn't be true could it she thought?  No.  It was her mother twisting everything around like usual. 

"Give me one of those Mom.”

"I knew it.  He's got you hooked on cigarettes.  It was your father who got me started originally.  I started again because I missed the smell."

"Yeah, right.  Like you got sentimental about my dad when he's nothing but a loser with pipe dreams.  What's wrong with having dreams?  Everything starts with a dream.  Even your bullshit dream of marrying rich guys probably started from some dream you had about being a princess when you were little."

Tory took the two cigarettes and the lighter from Lindsey's hand, lighting one with the fancy lighter that had Lindsey's initials on it and then handing the other back to Tony, who was leaning against the wall, looking like he was about to fall asleep on his feet. 

She touched his hand when she handed him the lighter.  "Go to bed after you finish your cigarette, baby.  You look ready to fall over."

He lit the cigarette, handing the lighter back to Lindsey.  He shook his head.  "I'm fine Tor."

"You're not fine.  We've still got to drive home tomorrow remember?"

"Ah, already calling it home.  You really are bound and determined to throw away whatever chance you have at a future aren't you, Tory?"

"Shut up Lindsey.  Just because you weren't willing to stick with Dad, to give him a chance, to give our family a chance, doesn't mean that I'm throwing my life away."

"At least you got rid of the loser from the trailer park." 

"You met him for two seconds, and refused to meet his parents.  So what the hell did you know about Jude?"

"Did you sleep with him too?"

"All the time.  I loved it.  Thinking about how disappointed you'd be with me for sleeping with trailer trash, that's what turned me on most of all." Tory blew a smoke ring at the ceiling. 

"It really wouldn't surprise me," Lindsey said dryly. 

"So who's your future ex-husband this time Mother, if it's not some twenty-five year old computer guy?  Or don't you want to tell me about him?  Is he 90 with one foot already in the grave with no family so that when he dies there won't be any one besides you to sit back and collect his money?"

"No.  He has a son.  But he's gay.  Loomis disowned him years ago."

"Loomis?  How old is this son of his?  What's his name?  Something ridiculous like Bradley or Gregory?"

"Arturo is forty."

"So he is an old fart.  You're only thirty-seven mother."

"Don't remind me how old I am.  And I'm not thirty-seven yet.  I've still got two months to go."

"Yeah, yeah.  But forty?  That's gotta make him sixty at least."

"He's seventy-four, had his son late in life.  Couldn't have been more disappointed when he found out he was flaming."

"How much is this guy worth?"

"I don't know." Lindsey shrugged. 

"Sure you don't."

"It's enough, believe me."

"Does he have a heart condition?"

"No, he's perfectly healthy for a man his age."

"So you're in love with this guy?"

"Hardly.  I've had enough of love.  I loved your father.  I loved Langston and look where that got me.  Nowhere.  What's the point?  He'll die in five years, ten, even fifteen.  I'll be taken care of.  He'll be too old to care about sex, let alone sex with an eighteen year old."

"I guess that makes sense in a twisted kind of way.  So tell me about Dad's ex-wife."

"Oh yes.  Her.  A wonderful story all in all.  Will you get me another drink dear?  Less ice cubes this time though."

"How are you gonna drive back to your new man's house?"

"I'll have him send the driver in my new car."

"New car?  You haven't even married the guy and he already bought you a new car?"

"It's beautiful.  Brand new, had less than a hundred miles on the engine.  Langston would never let me drive his Mercedes and Loomis bought me a brand new one."

"He bought you a Jaguar Mother, wasn't that enough?"

Lindsey pouted.  "I wanted the Mercedes.  I've always hated Jaguars.  I'm embarrassed to drive the thing."

"Are you kidding me?  What that car cost could feed a family for three years."

"And your point is?  I don't like the way they look, never have.  I don't care what it costs.  I'd drive a Cadillac if I liked the way it looked."

"Oh gee, a Cadillac would really be slumming wouldn't it Mother?  Give me your damn glass.  Tony go to bed.  Go to my bed.  Don't listen to her.  She's gonna be going home to a guy who's old enough to be her grandpa when she gets done lying to me about my dad's ex-wife."

Tony looked back and forth between Tory and her mother and walked down the hall to Tory's bedroom.  Tory gave Lindsey a triumphant smile and took the glass from her hand. 

"You've got him well trained huh?"

"Quit insulting him.  At least he loves me."

Lindsey shook her head.  "He'll probably dump you the second you turn eighteen."

Tory rolled her eyes.  "Sure, Mother."

She went down the stairs, refilling her mother's glass with a mixture of Langston's scotch and what Tony had bought, adding water from the sink because she knew Lindsey hated tap water; and four ice cubes.  She wanted to spit in it but decided that would be too juvenile. 

She walked back up the stairs drink in hand, and wondered what Lindsey would tell her about her ex stepmother.  That just sounded too weird she thought having a stepmother you'd never met. 

She handed the glass to Lindsey, and Lindsey took a big gulp, lighting another cigarette.  "So, your dad's ex-wife.  I never met her; but the stories.  She was a cocktail waitress at a strip club.  And that's not the best part.  She was married when your dad met her, but her husband was sick or disabled.  She ran off with your dad and left him with his parents who were as bad off as he was.  Got a quickie divorce, married your dad in Reno or Vegas or some other low class place.  He wanted to introduce you to her, begged me to let him do it.  This was right before.  .  .  Who died first Tory?  Was it your grandmother?  Ah, it doesn't matter.  I told him no way in hell was he going to show my daughter off to some slut who made her money by flashing her tits at disgusting slobs.  I think he thought she could make enough money to bankroll whatever stupid idea he had in his head at the time.  Then a few months later, right after it was your grandmother's funeral right?  Your grandfather died first.  He calls me up, it was the middle of the damn night, you were still crying yourself to sleep heartbroken over losing your grandparents; and tells me he's having a baby.  They'd been married six months.  He thought he was living high off the hog, living in a condo, telling me how he's going to make it and he wants you to be a part of his life again."

"You bitch.  You lied to me again."

“I couldn't let him raise you with a pole dancer as a stepmother.  Think about it Tory.  Do you want to grow up to be a stripper who has to resort to serving drinks topless when you're too old for the perverted businessmen to want to shove dollar bills down your g-string?  If you'd have let me finish, you'd figure out why I told him no."

"Okay."

"It's not enough that this woman was an ex stripper, she was an ex prostitute too.  Her husband used to be her pimp before he got sick."

"Yeah, right."

"Ask your father.  He didn't believe it until the baby was born.  This woman was a redhead with green eyes and the baby was born with dark hair and dark eyes." 

"Maybe it came from her parents."

"It came from the child's father.  I loaned him money for the DNA test and he hasn't paid me back.  He demanded a divorce.  It's about that time that your dumbass father let it slip that his parents had left him their house."

"Why doesn't he live there?"

"More drama.  She tried to stick him with a child that wasn't his, and then she tried to have him arrested for assault."

"My dad did not beat up his stripper ex-wife."

"No, he didn't.  He's not quite that stupid.  But he didn't want to deal with it anymore.  He would have taken the kid if it had been his.  It broke his heart that it wasn't.  He was all set to make up for everything he did wrong with you."  Tory made a face.  "He headed out to Montana when the divorce was final, but she's been trying to get her hands on the title to the house ever since.  The courts told her she couldn't have it but she didn't care.  She got the car that he paid for with the last of the money that his parents left him, but they said that's all she was entitled to."

"I thought you said he made his parents broke?"

"He came close to it a time or two.  If it hadn't been for Brenda, there wouldn't have been anything left."

"Like she ever cared."

"She did.  Who do you think took care of them those last few months?  It sure as hell wasn't your father."

Looking back, Tory could remember her father being conspicuously absent the last few months her grandparents had been alive.  It had been Brenda who had come to pick her up the couple of times that she’d been able to visit.  Not that she'd stuck around after Tory got there, but she'd been there all the same.

"So maybe she's not as big of a bitch as you are."

"Thank you dear.  I hope you had a nice trip."

Tory snorted.  "Are you kidding me?"

Lindsey sighed.  "Never a dull moment with me as your mother kid.  Seriously, Tory, whether you want to believe it or not, Langston does have a thing for young girls.  You watch yourself okay?  You don't want to end up like your mother do you?  Stuck with a seventy-four year old man as your last resort."

"Then don't do it Mom.  Go be with the twenty-five year old.  At least he makes you feel young."

"He's a bore.  All those movie star good looks wasted on someone who would rather write a computer program than have sex.  He didn't make me feel young when we weren't in bed.  He really made me feel older than I am.  As if having an almost eighteen year old daughter isn't bad enough."

"Gee, thanks Mother."

"I'd better be leaving.  If your stepfather drags his ass out of bed before you leave in the morning tell him he'll be served with divorce papers on the second or third at the latest."  She threw Tory the keys to her jaguar.  "If he's giving you a car and an education without wanting anything dark and perverted in return, milk him for every last dime."

Tory sighed.  "Sure, Mother."

Lindsey dug a cell phone out of her purse, tossing her old one onto the floor and stomping on it with her high heeled boot.  "I'll call you with my new number in the morning.  I'm too drunk to figure it out right now.  You drive safely.  Call me if you need anything."

Yeah, right she thought.  "Yes, Mother."

Lindsey turned h
er back and dialed a number into her phone.  She spoke quietly into the phone, then her voice got louder.  "I don't care if he's in bed Loomis.  What do you pay him for?  No way in hell am I driving that piece of trash one more second.  Yes, I am.  That's why I need him to come get me.  Yes.  No, you don't need to come.  Go back to bed." Her voice softened.  "I know.  Okay, I'll see him out front in fifteen minutes."

Lindsey turned back to Tory.  "You want to keep me company while I wait for this idiot to come and pick me up?  If I wasn't so drunk I would never let Morris drive my car."

Tory laughed.  "Morris?  Loomis?  Rich people should live on another planet.  Do they pay people to work for them and then make them change their names to something stupid?"

Lindsey gave her a half smile.  "Come on Tory.  I can't stand to be in this house one more minute."

She followed her mother down the stairs and out the door.  "What about all your stuff?"

Lindsey shrugged.  "I'll get new stuff."

She took off her wedding ring, kissed it goodbye and threw it as far as she could into the street.  "Fuck you very much Langston."

"You could have sold that ring, or at least gave it back to Langston since he paid for it."

Lindsey gave her a dirty look.  "I can take you defending your father.  He's your father so you have the right.  Do not defend that man to me.  He has made the last nine months of my life completely miserable.  You know how hard I had to work to find a guy with enough money so that Langston's stupid prenup didn't matter?"