Page 3 of Maverick

“I do. It’s in the…I’m going to give you my keys. But can you return them to me quickly? They’re my car keys, and I don’t know that I can afford to have that fob thing replaced again. I can’t believe they charge you so much for one of those.” Dad told her that he’d bring them right back after getting the front door opened. “Thank you for that. We’ve been using that door since we arrived and have started on the back door for the rest. It’s a huge house.”

He wondered allowed if it was a huge house, making fun of his dad and the realtor. When he opened the front door, waiting for his dad to return so they could look it over together, he whistled when his dad returned, and Sherm opened the door for them.

Maverick didn’t get any further than the front stairwell when he wanted the house. The double staircase that went up to the second landing and separated, he decided that he’d find a way to get the house simply for the front tile work and the stained glass window at the top of the separation. As his brother and nephew went to the left, his dad to the right, Maverick found himself wanting to explore the upper floors more than anything else.

He was in the third bedroom when the realtor found him. “Mr. Strong? My name is Katelynn Huston. Do you have any questions for me? This house has been on the market for nearly five years now and I know that the family is desperate to sell. I’d not tell anyone else that, as I’m sure that it would take a person with money to be able to afford this place.” He said that the cost of heating alone would be huge. “Not really. That’s the only great part of this place. It has its own natural gas line coming to it. And it also sells what it doesn’t use to the nearby plant. The family told me that heating it wouldn’t be an issue, but cooling it in the summer, because the walls are so tight that is where the cost is.”

As she told him some of the finer and not-so-fine points to the place, he looked in the last two bedrooms on this floor. There were ten, she told him but only one bathroom at each end of the hallway they were on.

“The third and fourth floor was added on much later and there are four bedrooms and four bathrooms on those floors. Also there is air conditioning that only takes care of those floors each. Each bathroom up here is fitted with a linen closet as well as a washer and dryer on both floors so as not to have to carry linens up here. You might have noticed too that all the rooms have natural gas heaters in them. I believe that was what he’d been talking about when he told me that each room has its own heat.” Maverick made his way down the stairs, not needing to see the fourth floor of the bedrooms, as she told him that they were the same. “The master suite is on the second floor. It, too, has its own heat and cooling, the only room that does on that floor. There are two more rooms on the second, them being a nursery, a playroom as well as a nanny’s room. I believe the previous renters used those two rooms, the playroom and the nanny’s room, as their exercise room and office.” He asked if they were the owners or renters. “Family, but they paid rent. It didn’t settle over them well when the family decided to sell it out from under them. That’s why the bank has taken it over so that there is no one person making anything off of the sale of everything. You could, if you wanted head to the bank and purchase it from them at a more reasonable price. I’m only telling you this, Mr. Strong, because you’re the first real interest that we’ve had in this place. The family keeps coming by, wanting to have a look around, but no one is able to purchase it without the say-so from the bank. From what I’ve been told, they don’t have good enough credit to purchase anything on credit. I believe that they’ll come and bid on it just to make the price higher, knowing full well that they can’t purchase it.”

He thought that he could afford to buy the house outright but didn’t think that would be fair if there was anyone other than him going to try and purchase it. Having his dad call the banker at home, no less, he was surprised to find out that the banker only wanted the back taxes on the place as he didn’t figure that anyone in the family could afford that either.

“They’ve been in a pickle, you might say since Grannie passed on. She was the only one who had any money, and she didn’t have all that much. When the house sat empty for so long, they were going to live in there together and see about buying it as a family and staying here until the others could afford to buy out the last man standing. That only worked for about a week.” They both laughed. “As you can imagine, they took to living together like I would if I had to live with my mother-in-law. Hard and vicious. You would have thought that they’d get along for just a day, but they were fighting from the first hour.”

“Why didn’t the grannie leave it to anyone? I mean, you mentioned that she had passed.” The banker, Mike Melville, said that she hadn’t left the house to her children but that of a scam that had gone belly up before she’d passed away. “Poor woman. And to have kids like these to boot.”

“Exactly. So the bank took over the house until the creditors were paid off and it turned out they didn’t want anything to do with all the drama that was going on and cut their losses by putting it on the market for the taxes.” Dad asked him what the taxes were to be paid. “Less than you’d think.” After giving him the amount, he told him that he could have the house for that. If he’d want it. “My son does.”

Maverick nodded at his dad and told him that he’d be by the bank in the morning before the auction started. The banker, he was sure he just wanted to get the house sold, said he’d fill out the paperwork on it first thing and that anytime Maverick wanted to stop by and sign the paperwork, he’d be ready for him.

“I just want it off my books. I’m sick of dealing with…you might want to be prepared for the family, young man. They’ll be hounding you to death about whatever is bothering them. Just to give you a heads up.” Maverick thanked him and told him that he’d be ready. “Also, you might not realize this, but everything that is or was in the house is yours too. It’s an ‘as is’ sale. I’ll call the realtor now and give her a heads up.”

And just like that, Maverick not only had a home, but it was filled out too. All he needed to do was have it cleaned from top to bottom then start on the renovations. Piece of cake, he told himself.

Chapter 2

Gracie was tired of sitting around. She was healed up, she thought, so she should have been able to leave to find herself somewhere cheap to live. However, it wasn’t hard for Jenson nor his wife to convince her to stay for a few more days. Being wealthy, well, in this case, living with a wealthy couple, had its perks, too. She’d never been so pampered in her life.

There was a family dinner tonight again. The first time, she’d been unable to attend as she was still recuperating in bed. But the dinner tonight, held at Jenson’s home she was told that she’d be there. She’d not met all the family before coming here. Mostly, it had been Jenson and his parents. But tonight, the entire family was going to be together here. There was no way that she was going to be able to miss out on this one. They had sort of blackmailed her, sort of into attending.

“There you are.” She loved Jade. She was harsh at times, brutal to a fault, but she was honest and friendly so long as she wasn’t pissed off at you. “I have some good news and some, well, I guess that it would be good news too. I have a check for you in the house for all the money you were owed from your last job. It’s made out to me so that your uncle doesn’t get a hit on it from you cashing it. The other good news is he’s been arrested. Well, both men, your uncle and your previous boss, have been arrested.”

“I can understand why my boss was arrested, but why did you have my Uncle Bradon arrested? Not that I’m unhappy about that, but give me something to be cheerful about.” When she told her, she had to sit down. It just so happened that since she was in the yard, the ground came up and hit her hard. “When? When did he burn it down?”

“Last night. I had no idea that you were living there until it was brought up that you had a lease there. The entire complex is gone now. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been so flippant about it. I honestly didn’t think that you’d care now that you’re here with us.” She told her that she couldn’t live with them forever. “Why not? I mean, I know that Jenson is having a good time having you around. And I love talking to you.”

“I’m not a pet that you can just adopt, you know. I’m a full-grown woman.” Jade laughed when she did. “I’m not really upset so much as I’m shocked. I didn’t have anything worth all that much. Clothing, that’s about all that I had that I owned. Also, some linens. How did they know that he did it?”

“He burnt himself when he was setting the place on fire at the other end. He was hoping, he told the police that he’d be able to have you come running out of the place and he’d be able to get to you. While he didn’t say why he wanted to get you, he didn’t seem to mind telling the police that you owed him. Do you?” She said that he’d been her guardian when she’d been a teenager and had gone through all her money before she was old enough to get to it. “How much was it? And why him?”

“He was my mom’s brother. When she died, Jenson will remember more details about the funeral and insurance more than I will, but he was supposed to watch over me until I turned twenty-one then he was to hand over my inheritance. But he’d spent it all and now thinks that I should go on giving him money so he can continue to live in the lifestyle that he was before all the money was gone, just under two million. There might have been more. I know he sold the family home as well as the antiques that were inside of it. That was the first thing he did, leaving me homeless at sixteen. He wouldn’t allow me to cramp his style while he lived on my money. I don’t know how much he got for the house. I figured that it was a good deal of money.”

“I’ll look into it for you. Do you remember the address?” She gave it to her and told her that it was all water under the bridge now. “Not necessarily. Just with the little that you told me, I can get him on a bunch of charges. The most being child neglect. Then the money.”

“It’s fine.” Jade sat down in the grass next to her. “I’ve been working my ass off for so long that I’m not sure what to do with myself now. I don’t have a rent payment. No other bills either, for that matter. I don’t own a car but a bike older than I am. Do you know where it is, by the way?”

“In the barn. Jenson had it brought here when you were hospitalized. He told me that he thought that it was your dad’s.” Gracie told her that he had one like it but her uncle again had sold it off. “I’m going to get this guy for you, Gracie. The man did you wrong on so many levels that I want to burn his ass.”

“Go for it. I’ve not had anything good to do with him for a very long time. Mostly he catches me off guard and beats the shit out of me, then he leaves me for dead after taking whatever cash I have on me. I finally got to the point that I’d just have direct deposit. Even that didn’t work out as well as I had hoped. He’s got someone in the bank that allows him to take out whatever I have there. I had a feeling that it was against the law, but I couldn’t ever get anyone to listen to me. Not even the bank manager.”

“I’ll take care of his ass too.” Jade looked at her phone when it dinged. “I’m supposed to meet Maverick and the family at the house that he’s bought. He volunteered us all to come over and put all the boxes back in the house before the family of the woman who died comes sniffing around. I’ve never seen the house, so I don’t know what to expect. You’ll come with me, right? We’ll have food there, too.”

“You know, I think all you guys do is eat. It’s like if there is food or a crowd, you all eat, or you gather up to eat.” Jade said they were a large family. “That you are. And the way you have food around all the time, I’d be large too.”

They were still laughing when they got into Jade’s car to drive to the house. She didn’t know why she was going to help them. They’d more than likely tell her that she was to not lift anything. But she’d show them. She wanted to help out, and she would. She was sick of lazing around.

The house was beautiful. She fell in love with it as soon as they pulled into the long drive. Getting out, Gracie could only stare at the old architecture that made up the house. Even the extra floors, added on later, were kept in the same style as the rest of the house and blended in nicely. Walking up the stone path to the front door, she was nearly mowed down by someone coming out of the doorway.