Every Woman Needs a Wife (41 page)

“Mister…”

“Pitchford.” The man extended his weathered hand. “James Lee Pitchford.”

Vernon shook it heartily. “Thanks for the advice, man. I won’t forget it.”

“Now that them Jaunal boys are on your tail, you’d better watch out. They had your wallet, right?”

Damn, that’s right! “Yes, sir.”

“You be careful. And tell Tanya that the Pitchfords still live in the same place if she wants to come home.”

“I’ll do that.”

He turned to walk away but James Lee grabbed his wrist. “Word is there’s a lot of money tied up in that girl, money that Jaunal would kill to put his hands on. Her being alive is damn inconvenient right now. You take care of our little girl.”

Vernon could only nod. “I’ll do what I can to protect her.”

“Jaunal has a private plane, but you’ve got a head start. Make the most of it.”

A
frantic banging on the door brought Tanya’s head up from the novel in her hands. She placed
The Things I Could Tell You!
on its face and hurried to the door.

Vernon rushed in. “Pack your stuff and let’s go!” He slammed the door behind him.

“Will you stop this?”

He peered out of the window. “I’m serious. I just got back from Social Circle and had an unfortunate run-in with your father. He has a hundred-thousand dollar reward out for you.”

She let out a little laugh. “Vernon, you are so good! Your delivery is Oscar-worthy. Let go of my arms!”

“Tanya, I’m only going to say this once,” he said, shaking her. “Pack your shit, the girls’ things, and something for Brandi. We have to get the hell out of here. Jaunal, Bubba, and Mr. Wiccams were hot on my tail—”

Tanya’s hand shot out and hit him square in the jaw. “What did you do? Oh God, Vernon! What did you do?” She sank to her knees.

“I’m sorry. Truly, truly sorry. I didn’t know,” he said, cradling a hand over the right side of his face.

She glowered angrily at him, chest heaving up and down, wishing she had the strength to totally punch out his lights, but she was too angry to move. Too frightened to really think about what he had done. He had put this family in more danger than he knew.

“You can hate me all you want,” he said through clenched teeth. “But
get the girls. We need to break camp like yesterday. I dodged them at the airport in Atlanta, but they have this address, and—”

Tanya stood slowly, anger shooting through her unlike any she had ever known. “That bastard killed my sister to cover up his lies. He’d think nothing of killing me, you, Brandi,
and
the girls. A reward out for me? This is about money and lots of it. He killed my sister and she was only trying to get away.” She punched him hard in his chest. “You fucker! It’s taken years for me to be safe and you destroyed it all in one day! I hope we all don’t pay for your stupidity.”

Guilt washed over him like a waterfall, but he quickly pushed it aside realizing there was more at stake. “Sierra! Simone! Come quick,” he yelled upstairs. “We’ve gotta get going.”

A rumble of activity indicated that the girls were on the move.

Vernon followed Tanya into Brandi’s office. “What about clothes?”

“We can buy clothes anywhere. I only need passports and birth certificates.”

The girls bounded down the stairs in jeans and bare feet Sierra, a few steps ahead of her sister, asked, “What’s wrong?”

Vernon scattered the contents of the drawer behind Brandi’s desk. “We’re leaving.”

Taking in the frantic activity, Simone asked. “Why?”

“I’ll tell you when we get in the car.”

The doorbell rang. Vernon paused in the center of the office, then looked at Tanya, “Oh my God. That must be them.” He ran out of the office, Tanya right behind him and the girls right behind her.

Before he could get to the door, the glass window to the side shattered and sprayed out on the marble tile foyer. He covered his face just in time.

Moments later a beefy hand, covered by a denim shirt, beat out the rest of the glass. Vernon hightailed it past Tanya with the girls’ hands in his. As Tanya ran toward the side entrance, trying to catch up with Vernon, moisture peppered her brow, then poured down her face.

She kicked off her heels in route, her arms pumped back and forth, propelling her even faster. She heard a crash, followed by a loud thunder of footsteps on the upper level of the house. Her heart pumped faster.
This couldn’t be happening! If she got out of this alive, she would shoot Vernon!

Shadowy figures rushed toward her from the garage. The girls broke free and sprinted back into the house with Vernon right behind them. Tanya froze, then spun around quickly to find the others bearing down on her from the opposite direction. She turned again. Trapped!

Vernon quickly turned and kicked Bubba, who was nearest, in the knee.

Tanya kicked her father in the groin, then ran past his doubled-up form to get the girls to safety. With no prompting, they went upstairs. They found no safety there.

Men filed into the living room, some from the solarium. Some came through the open front door. Two men brought the girls and Tanya downstairs, pushing them forward into the living room.

Wilbur Jaunal reached out for Sierra then took her to the sofa.

“Don’t touch her,” Vernon growled. Bubba punched him in the gut.

Jaunal grinned, pulling the little girl onto his lap, patting her thighs possessively.

“You’ve grown up into a lovely young lady, Tanya,” he said, leering at her. “Hate I missed out on so much growth.”

Then he turned a frightened Sierra to face him and smiled. “Well, little girl, how ’bout dem Bulls?”

Vernon lunged forward. “Sierra, come here!” Sierra struggled to loosen Jaunal’s grasp on her waist.

“No, she’s fine right where she is,” he said, gripping her even tighter. “I’ll take good care of her. Like I took care of all my girls.”

Tanya’s insides boiled as she broke away from her uncle Hank’s grasp and lunged for her father. The man shoved Sierra to the side; she let out a whimper as she ran to Vernon. Before anyone could stop her, Tanya went for her father’s eyes, fingers going in one of them as he raised a fist to beat her away.

Tanya fought back, gouging his face with her sharp nails.

Uncle Hank yanked her back, but she managed to thrust one foot out and connect with Jaunal’s face. A spray of blood poured out onto his starched white shirt.

“You bitch! First you cause me to lose everything.” He blinked, trying to recover. “Now you’re trying to blind me.”

Tanya suddenly stopped struggling as her mother walked in, followed by a wide-eyed Aunt Nadine and a sulky-mouthed Aunt Peggy. Shock took her breath away.

Her mother gave her a scathing glance from head to toe. “Turned out all right, didn’t ya?”

“Which is more than I can say for you,” Tanya shot back.

Margaret leaned forward and said in a voice that was just above a whisper, “All you had to do was give us a son. Things would have been fine. But you messed it up by telling that teacher of yours. I would have raised it and no one would have known a thing—”

Tanya was sickened to learn that her mother had
wanted
her father to have sex with her. “Why would I want to have my father’s child?” she choked out.

“That was the only way to get our hands on the rest of the Van Oy fortune, neither of my sisters produced sons and none of their daughters were of breeding age.”

Tanya was too numb to feel anything. Her parents’ greed knew no boundaries. “Did you realize how much he hurt me?”

The hard woman shrugged. “It always hurts that first time. You were a big, strong girl. You could get over it.”

“So why didn’t you just have one of your own?”

“Can’t,” she said in a hushed tone. “I was too old.” Then she cast an angry glance at Wilbur. “And your father couldn’t get it up for anyone but young girls. And the DNA had to show that it was my bloodline
and
his,” her mother continued, oblivious to Tanya’s disgust. “So you were the obvious choice. You would’ve been taken care of for the rest of your life. If you had just kept your mouth shut.”

“So what was his reason for hurting Mindy?” Tanya said loudly enough for everyone to hear, pain and anger holding ground in her heart. “She wasn’t of ‘breeding’ age.”

Nursing his eye, Jaunal said, “I never touched her.”

“You raped her just like you did me,” Tanya said angrily. “Then you killed her to cover it up.”

Her mother gripped her arm, forcing Tanya to face her. “We would’ve owned all of Monroe, Social Circle, Jersey, and Covington. Nothing would have stopped us. Then you and that Mrs. Patton started spreading lies. Your sister’s death is on your hands. She wasn’t home where she was supposed to be. It’s your fault.”

“She stood by and let it happen. She knew he was raping us, but she wanted her precious money!” Tanya cried.

“Enough!” Margaret said. “Enough! Just sign these papers and we’ll be on our way.”

“Oh, you’ll be on your way sooner than that.”

Heads turned to the Black woman standing in the doorway brandishing a metal pipe. The silver-haired Black woman standing next to her held a gun that would make Clint Eastwood jealous.

B
randi reached out, pulled Margaret in front of her, and put the gun to the woman’s head. “By my calculations you all will be leaving within the next ten minutes. Your escorts are on the way.” Bubba grabbed for Tanya. “Come on! It’s just two women. We can take them.”

A shot rang out, causing Tanya to wince. Smoke curled from the end of Bettye’s gun as she glared openly Bubba. He grabbed his foot and was too busy doing the pain dance to care.

“I was told to shoot the stupid ones first. Anybody else think two women can’t hold their own? Try me!”

“Sierra, Simone—run down to Avie’s,” Brandi said. “Tell her we need Jeffrey Manor assistance. She’ll know what I mean.”

Sierra turned back. “Should I call Uncle Donny?”

“No!” Vernon said. “If he comes, the game will be over before the police get here.”

“Avie’s packing, too?” Tanya whispered to Brandi, relieved that the ugly situation was under control. “Who in their right mind, would give that woman a gun?”

“I thought the same thing.” Then Brandi turned to the Jaunal crew and said, “Now, I hate to break up this little family gathering, but I didn’t invite you. Tanya didn’t, either. And we certainly don’t want you to stay.”

Tanya unplugged a lamp and wrapped the cord around her father’s wrists; she looked across the room at Bubba. “If one drop of blood falls on the
carpet, I’ll give you something to be sorry about. I shampooed two days ago. You don’t know how hard it is to get out bloodstains.”

Uncle Hank whipped off his jacket and gave it to Bubba.

“Now what’s all this about?” Brandi asked, trading weapons with her mother-in-law, but keeping it trained on Margaret. “Don’t think about it, Jim Bob. I’ll put a cap in your ass.”

“You’re right. They
are
my family,” Tanya said eyeing Vernon with a glare that should have put him six feet under. He, along with Bettye, continued to tie up the rest of the family. “Vernon went down to Social Circle and they came pouring out of the woodwork and trailed him here.”

Brandi threw an angry glance at Vernon.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t know about all this.”

With the Jaunal clan tied up waiting for the police to arrive, Tanya told Bettye, Brandi, and Vernon her story.

“After I moved in with Michelle’s family, I was fine for a while. I learned how to cook, sew, take care of a home, and I learned about God. I was going to stay with the Pitchfords forever if they’d let me. And they would have, too.” Then she looked at her father. “But a note left in my locker warned me if I testified I would be sorry.”

And sorry she was.

♥♥♥

As Tanya sat in the wooden chair of the Social Circle courthouse, being sworn in, the police still hadn’t located her sister. Whoever snatched her didn’t do it because they didn’t want the littlest Jaunal to testify; her testimony had been recorded earlier. The kidnapping was a warning for Tanya. One she didn’t heed, but should have.

As she lay in the bed next to Michelle that night, unable to sleep because she knew that something was wrong, she overheard Mama Diane and Mr. Edward talking in the kitchen…

“They threatened to fire me if I don’t return Tanya to her family.”

Mama Diane’s soft, silky voice carried through the thin walls. “She needs our help—”

“Yeah, but if I lose this job, I won’t be able to take care of you and the kids. We can’t get involved with this mess. She’ll be okay. White folks look out for each other all the time. Who’s gonna look out for us?” Mr. Pitchford asked pointedly.

Mama Diane said in a voice filled with steel, “We’re not going to let some redneck stop us from doing our Christian duty. That child’s family now.”

And they had made it through that crisis.

Then the youngest Pitchford child had come straggling in two days later, beaten, blood covering her small blue shirt and a note tied securely to her wrist.

Get that white bitch out of town

or your family will suffer

♥♥♥

That night Tanya slipped out of bed, as Michelle’s soft brown eyes brimmed with tears, knowing exactly what was about to happen even though the two girls hadn’t spoken about it. Tanya knew that the D.A., who had used Tanya’s medical report as part of the defense, wouldn’t stop until he had Jaunal on the ropes. The man had a hard-on for Jaunal since Tanya’s father had forced the D.A.’s family to pack up their old family home and move to Covington. The case wasn’t all about justice for Tanya, it was about payback for the white people Jaunal had mistreated.

Thanks to the media’s involvement, Jaunal’s crimes were known to everyone in the Social Circle area. He would stand trial for the aggravated sexual assault, but unfortunately he made bail. During the trial, the body of a little blonde girl turned up on the opposite side of the tracks near the trailer parks. Someone wanted to make it look like people from the east side of town had done it. But Tanya knew better.