“I’m not stupid, Josh. I’ve worked very hard for what I have. And I’m not going to hand it over to you just because you’re thinking that marrying me is a way for you to be rich. I’m rich. You’re not. Not unless you have money stashed away somewhere, and you can use that.” He’d told her not to be ridiculous. If he had money stashed away, he’d not have to marry her. “The invitations won’t go out until you have a good job and are working hard at keeping it.”
Not only had she not sent them out, but she’d not even ordered them. She wasn’t a very nice person, he found out. But she had money, and he could put up with her rudeness until she was murdered.
“Mr. Hinkley, Mrs. Remy said to tell you she has better things to do than to come here and listen to you complain. You’ve made your bed. Now you’re going to have to take care of yourself.” He asked if she was coming to see him. “No. I just told you that. She’s not coming here. None of them are. You have a court hearing in the morning. We’ll run you to the—”
“What for?” He asked him what he was talking about. “Why do I have a court hearing? I don’t even know why I was arrested. Not to mention, you’ve treated me badly here, so I think that should be punishment enough. Don’t you?”
“No. You’re a vagrant. You don’t have a place to live. No money on you. You don’t have a job or even anything in your name except the clothing on your back. Vagrancy is against the law in this town.” He said that was why he needed to talk to Lizzy. “She’s not coming. What do you expect her to do? Set you up for life while she’s living her own?”
“Yes. She owes me that for making rules about us getting married. I know she has money, but she wanted me to get a job. How stupid is that?” The guard said he thought it was very smart of her. “You’d not think that if you were me. I’ve been looking to marry her for a while, and now she’s gone and made it so I got nothing. Now I’ve been arrested for not having the things she should have been providing for me.”
This officer walked away too. It seemed to him that no one else had thought of his brilliant plan. Perhaps they’d thought of it but weren’t as savvy as he was about making it work. He’d been so close to sealing the deal that he could have tasted it. Then, like a fart in the window, he was out of everything. Money. Fame. He knew that with money came fame, so he’d been deprived of that as well.
Eating his sandwich, he thought of the things he’d planned for his money. There was a great deal of her money that he wanted, and the things he had been planning for it were huge. A boat. Houses all over the world that he could just go to. She’d have to get him a private jet too. One that was ready at a moment’s notice so he could go and come as he pleased.
Someone clearing their throat had him looking up from his nasty meal. “Who are you? And how did you get in here? Do you have a key?” The man said nothing but did stare at him hard. “Look at what they feed you here. Sandwiches with a bag of chips. I wanted a nice steak sandwich, but this is what I got. Why are you in here?”
“My name is Fergus. I’m Lizzy’s father. I want you to leave her alone. You’re going to end up on the wrong side of me if you don’t stop calling her and telling people what a terrible person she is for not marrying you. You’re a deadbeat and should have been put down long ago.” Josh told him Lizzy didn’t have a father. The man only cocked his brow at him. “How the hell do you think she came to be if she didn’t have a father? You really are a moron, aren’t you?”
“No. I’m not. I’m very smart. I need you to tell her to leave her current husband so I can have what I want.” Josh’s head exploded in pain, so much, so he felt blood coming from his nose. “What the fuck was that? Christ, that felt like a jackhammer hit me in the head.”
“I did that. I’ll do more to you if you don’t fucking leave my daughter alone.” When he opened his mouth, Josh saw the fangs. He didn’t believe this man was a vampire any more than he was. Laughing, he told him that was a good try, but he wasn’t buying it. “You’re not buying the fact that I just showed you what I am? Lizzy is a vampire, too just so you know. So is her husband. The one she’s not leaving. Especially not for someone like you.”
“What’s wrong with me?” The man listed off all the things he thought Josh was afflicted with. “You see, those are all my good traits. I’m lazy, yes. But why should I have to work when there is someone out there with more money than they can spend? I can do that. You said I was a drain on society. No, I don’t get any federal assistance. It’s a stupid rule again. I have to have worked
