Anatomy of a Nightmare - M J Marlow (i read a book .txt) 📗

her grandchildren: house, medical bills, etc. They are having trouble keeping up the payments on the house and their father’s cousin is planning on foreclosing on the property.”
“Their own cousin?”
“Scrooge was a benevolent philanthropist compared to Gordon Randall from all accounts,” Gabriel shrugged. “Anyway, as Miss Randall told us herself, she needs to work to keep her brother and herself from losing their home. So money is tight.”
“Perfect.” Gregory made his goodbyes and went out to his car. “Bring the girl’s car,” he told the men waiting for him. “It’s probably just a minor problem that you won’t have any problem repairing.” It was a cheap trick, but his father had been right. I thought I was seeing and hearing Evelyn when I watched this girl, Gregory mused. She had to be the missing sister his sister-in-law had hired him to find.
“I’ll pick up Esme,” he told his men, “and you can follow us to her home tomorrow in Miss Randall’s car.”

Lily woke up and her head was pounding. Then she realized that someone was knocking on the front door. She pulled on her robe and slippers and went to answer it. Her father’s cousin, Gordon Randall, was standing there. He smiled at her briefly and pushed his way into the house.
“I heard you lost your job at Talbot, Lily,” he said without preamble. “That is going to make it harder for you to keep up the mortgage payments, young lady.”
“I know, Gordon,” Lily said stiffly. She wanted him gone so she could be sick in peace. “If the only reason you came here was to gloat and make threats, Gordon, you can go now.”
“You’re as nasty tempered as your father,” Gordon frowned at her. “You remember our bargain, Lily.” His look did not reassure her. “As long as you had a job, I would let you keep the house.” He froze as he saw her look. “But you are unemployed now and you know what you’re going to have to do to keep from losing your home, don’t you?”
“I will find another job, Gordon,” Lily snapped at him. “You can go now.” He grabbed her arm and twisted it. “You’re hurting me!”
“You will go to him, Lily,” he said to her, “or that foreclosure date will be moved up. I know you don’t have enough money to meet this month’s payment.”
“And if I have you arrested for threatening me, Gordon?” Lily smiled at him sweetly. “What will happen to your business then?”
“Don’t test me, little girl,” Gordon snarled as he released her and she hit the wall hard. “You aren’t in my class.”
“You’re right,” Lily snapped back at him. “I have some class.” Gordon slapped her across the face and she put her hand to her cheek. “Ambrose has everything arranged. You will marry him tonight at eight p.m., Lily. Wear that emerald green silk dress Irene bought you for your birthday. It will make a lovely wedding dress.”
He released her and Lily slammed the door behind him. She could hear his laughter at her tantrum as he went down the front stairs. How could he be so hateful to his own family? He was treating them like they were nothing to him. But then, she thought as she went to make herself some breakfast, he always had treated them like poor relations. She wanted to talk to Edward about his threats, but what could he do to help? He had his work and his studies on his mind.
“Daddy,” she cried out loud as she set a kettle on the stove, “why aren’t you here? I could really use you.”
After breakfast she went to the pharmacy to get some cold medicine. She was aching all over by then and she knew she was ill. She paid for the purchase and made her way outside where one of Gordon’s business associates was just pulling up to the curb near the bank next door. Neil Ambrose was running for Mayor of Bayview in the next election and he fashioned himself as a forward thinker. He saw her and came towards her.
“Lily, dear,” he smiled as he stroked her hand. “A word with you?” He opened the door to his car and she got in. He drove them to his office and she went inside with him. Fighting him never did any good. He poured her a glass of tea and handed it to her. “You are becoming a very beautiful young woman, Lily.”
“Thank you, Mr. Ambrose,” Lily said as she sipped at the tea. “You’ve made some changes in here since the last time I was here.”
“You have a good eye, Lily,” Ambrose smiled. He took the glass from her and set it down. Then he leaned over her and tried to kiss her. “Oh come on, honey. You’re going to become my wife tonight. You don’t have to play these games with me.”
“I don’t like you, Mr. Ambrose,” Lily said to him firmly. “If you’ll excuse me…”
“You’re not going anywhere until you hear me out, little girl,” Ambrose broke in. Lily glared at him. “You are going to have to learn to behave, Lily. You are going to be my wife.” He ran his hand down her arm as he kept his eyes on hers. “Tonight, you will stand next to me in the church in front of all of the town and become mine.”
“I will not!” Lily shook her head and shoved him away. She started towards the door and he yanked her back. “Let me go!”
“No,” Ambrose replied. He shoved her to the couch and pushed her down on it. “I am going to teach you to behave, little girl.” He clamped his lips on hers and she gasped as his hand moved up under her t-shirt and clamped down on her breast. “You are going to be mine, Lily. I just want a little preview.”
“Let me go!” Lily screamed and managed to squirm out from under him. She slugged him across the jaw and ran from his office. She ran into her brother and his partner and he saw her wild eyes and disheveled clothing. He looked past her to see Ambrose with her purse and shopping bag. He took them from the man and handed them to his partner. Then he slugged him.
“Touch my sister again, Ambrose,” Edward snarled as he held Lily tight, “and I will have you arrested!”
“You’re the one who is going to be arrested, Officer Randall!” Ambrose turned to the other man. “Sergeant Murphy, I want him thrown in jail. He assaulted me.”
“He did?” Murphy growled. He glared at the man and Ambrose backed down. “I think you had better rethink that statement, Mr. Ambrose.” He looked at Edward. “Take your sister home, Edward. I’ll clock you out.”

Ken Crawford was in the bar near Talbot Pharmaceuticals nursing a drink. He had gotten the research he’d been asked to get and now he was going to get paid. He had all the money he could ever want, so what could they possibly offer him that would interest him. His contact showed and he felt the usual chill. This man had the coldest eyes he had ever seen in his life.
“You’re late, Coleridge.”
“We have a primary backer for you, Doctor Crawford,” Marcus Coleridge told him. “He is going to join you on that little island paradise you come from so you can do research with this drug unhindered.”
“And the incentive?” Ken asked bluntly.
“You get the preliminary research done to our satisfaction,” Coleridge told him, “and that cute little redhead who got you fired is yours.”
“You’re giving her to me?”
“The arrangements will be made,” Coleridge nodded. “Her sister is getting too close to finding her and they do not want that. She will be brought to you to use as you will.” He slipped him an envelope with plane tickets and an itinerary. “You leave in half an hour. The car is waiting outside.”
“So soon?”
“You hang around much longer,” Coleridge reminded him, “the Talbots and their people are going to find you. There is nothing to keep you here, Doctor Crawford. What you really want is going to be delivered to you as a gift quite soon.”
Ken nodded and finished his drink. He put the envelope in his briefcase and grabbed the laptop case. He had a chance to work on the drug that Geoffrey Talbot was too ready to abandon as the head researcher. What was better was he would soon have the woman he wanted under his control. She was going to learn that she could not refuse him and not suffer some consequences.

Lily was not surprised when Gregory appeared at her house at the appointed time after the way the day had gone. She was in the kitchen fixing herself a cup of tea to wash down the medication. She was not feeling at all well after being in the rain all night. The last thing she needed was to have that stranger in her house. He had made her feel uneasy and vulnerable enough last night.
Gregory watched a tall man rise from the couch, and closed the book on the coffee table in front of him. He moved with the same easy feline grace as his younger sister, and shared her lean, long-limbed frame. The brother, he assumed, as the door opened and he met the wariness in the younger man’s eyes.
“Can I help you?” Edward looked at the dark-haired man standing at the door and could see why his gentler sister had been so spooked. The man had trouble written all over him.
“I would like to speak to Miss Randall,” Gregory said to him.
“You must be Mr. Talbot,” Edward frowned as he stayed where he was. He straightened up to his full six foot two height and the man still had a couple of inches on him. It was the woman with him, however; that made Edward’s skin crawl. “I don’t know what you did to my sister, but she’s still shaky.”
“I don’t recall doing or saying anything to unnerve your sister,” Gregory said as his men came up to join him. “Maybe it was the man who she met this afternoon who upset her?” He saw Edward flinch at the memory. “Personally, I would have broken his neck.” He saw Edward relax then and look relieved. One of the men handed Lily’s keys to him. “My men fixed the problem with her car. Here are the keys.”
“That was nice of you,” Edward said as he took the keys like they were diseased. He tossed them across the room into a wire backset on top of a table along the back wall. “I suppose you have to talk to her?”
“If it wouldn’t be too much of an inconvenience,” Gregory nodded. “I realize you had to take time off of your job to pick her up last night. I could have given her a lift.”
“I was on my lunch break,” Edward shrugged. He stepped back. “Wait here in the living room, I’ll get Lily.”
Edward went to the kitchen as Gregory and Esme entered the house. Everything was well-used but well cared for. It was apparent that the children had not changed anything in the house from the way their grandmother had liked it; except for adding a large panel television above the fireplace. They heard voices and then watched Lily come into the room. Edward followed her and took up a watchful stance leaning against the wall.
“Thank you for bringing my car home, Mr. Talbot,” Lily said stiffly. She wondered why the woman was looking at her as if she was seeing a ghost. “You look at me like I should know you.”