Dani and the Bull Ch. 09

He kissed Helen softly and moved off her, rolling onto his back. Thank god she was past that age, and Dani was already pregnant. He didn't mind it as much as he had, and now the idea of a grandchild coming into this home wasn't so bad after all. He just hoped that Zach and Tom weren't so affected by the drink that they didn't think before they got into Annie and Sue's pants. It was bad enough that both Arthur and Rex were having shit fits because of who their daughters were involved with.

Well, at least their mothers were understanding at least, Sylvie Belton and Jane West had been friends with Helen since childhood, and while the friendship had cooled some since Helen had married him, they still dropped by on occasion or called and made arrangements to meet for some woman time.

All this bullshit with Nick had revealed more too about Helen and the two women. Getting her to tell him had been easier than he thought and more than once he had wished he had never known. He had listened as she had told him about that summer over thirty years ago, of the annual town picnic and the fireworks display out at the lake. How she, Sylvie and Jane had walked to a secluded bathroom and the way back had been attracted by sounds. Peering into a clump of bushes well away from the other picnickers, they had been shocked to see both Nick and his father double teaming his mom, Nick had been fucking his mother as if he might never stop and his dad was taking her from behind. Helen had told him his dad had been encouraging his son and his mother hadn't seemed to care what was happening. They had heard of incest of course, but never thought of it happening so close to them. All three girls had run back and without thinking told their fathers what they had seen. Who had in turn told Sheriff Watson about it, there had been a big scene and in the end they had been charged with all kinds of things, but regrettably nothing serious enough to do any amount of time. Nick, just eighteen, had been sentenced to a full mental health facility for observation and therapy. He had been in for three years when he was released and by then his mother had given birth to Jessie.

Anyone who had remembered the thing could never stop wondering just who had fathered Jessie, though Helen did suspect that he was probably Nick's.

After his release he had confronted the three girls and swore he would get even with them for telling what they had seen, and done to his family. By then all three of them were married and had started families, they had paid little attention until the other night, and now all three of them knew that while the events of that night might have been sealed away in their memories, it was clear Nick's was not, the women were beyond his reach, but not their daughters. Which had explained why Bull has asked his grandmother for charms for both of his daughter's friends as well; if he couldn't get to Dani, what was to stop him from going after one of the others instead? Now that both of them were involved with Helen's sons would make his revenge even sweeter.

The hardest part for Helen had been repeating the story for her sons, as well as Dani and Bull. It had been hard for him to listen to it, despite having heard it once, and it was clear that Dani had been clearly shaken. When she told Annie and Sue, they had confronted their mothers and while Sylvie and Jane had been reluctant to talk about it, in the end they had verified everything Helen had said. That only enraged their father's more, and had demanded that the sheriff arrest Nick and Jessie, but that would have been hard to do, since neither of them had been seen since that night.

Their house had been trashed when Tom and two of his deputies went to check it out, but they had still found guns, drugs, and what looked to be satanic symbols painted in black all over the walls.

Tom had told him later that the worst of it had been finding the two men's mother, chained to a bed in an obscene manner and it was clear she had been used in the most abusive manner possible. Somewhere in the process the old woman's heart had given out and she had died. There were warrants out on both men and officers had gone to Texas to talk to Shelia. They found her in the hospital, beaten within an inch of her life, and not sure if she would live or not. Before she had slipped into a coma, she had told the Texas authorities that Nick and Jessie had done it to her. Jericho and his wife Marie had come from Mexico to get the children and take them back to their home there. Shelia's family had agreed that they had the best chance of keeping the children hidden from their father and uncle since they had gone there to hide from Nick themselves.

Jack found himself wondering now if the reason he hadn't killed Nick years ago was that he had been doing what he had been trained to do, keep an eye on your enemy and keep him close, wait for your chance, then strike. He realized that he would have never been able to handle the two men alone, not even with the help of his boys, but Bull was stronger than any of them, and he loved Dani. He would protect her and in the end it would be Bull who was the cause of Nick's death.

Helen put her hand on his chest and settled her head on his shoulder, pulling her close, Jack kissed her forehead and gradually he felt her relax into sleep, it took him longer to join her. Now that the lust was gone, he found his mind thinking that maybe they should start working more on beefing up the demons that Bull had been talking to him about. If there was some supernatural thing going on, wasn't it better to be prepared in that way too? He had seen a lot of strange stuff in his life and being a native of New Orleans he had witnessed some oddball rites. And he wasn't even going to think about his encounter with The Lady in Red in the graveyard that one night.

He had been drunk, that was all, him and Nick and some of the others just having some times talking about things. That had been not long after Dani was born and he had been thinking how nice it was to have a cute little girl in his house and how he was going to be the best daddy in the world. He had heard the stories of course, his father in law had told him all the history of the house as soon as he decided to keep it and raise his family in it. But he had never believed he would ever actually meet her.

It had been her perfume first, and then soft little laughs in his ear. Just the way Helen had done it sometimes, a soft teasing laugh that a woman might do to entice a lover. When he looked around, there she had stood, just as she had been described to him. All dressed in red, and looking like someone he knew. He had never quite figured out who it was she resembled, and each time he tried to think, his head would begin to hurt. In time he had just put it all down to too much beer and whiskey and never told anyone about it.

Lately though, the memories had come back and there were times lying in bed that he got a whiff of that perfume and the sound of that soft laugh. It didn't bother him though, if anything it made him feel safe, as safe as he had felt in his mother's arms or Aunt Jessie's. Or his grandmother's...

Jack sat up in bed as he remembered, his grandmother, his grandma Lazarus; that was who she had reminded him of. The same face, the same small frame. Without thinking he reached for the bed side phone and dialed the house in Louisiana. His mother answered on the second ring and not for the first time he heard how old and tired she sounded. "Momma, I need to know, did daddy have a sister, someone besides aunt Petunia and Aunt Rose?"

"Well, there was one, but the family never spoke of her much, she left home when your father was just a little boy. Her name was Lily, and the only thing I knew about her was that she always wore red, and she smelled of Lily scented water. I always heard that it was some great scandal that made her leave, but she wasn't more than fifteen or sixteen when she left."

"Momma, do you know what ever happen to her?"

"No, no one did. I know your father tried to find her when you grandmother died, but he never found a trace of her. I used to wonder if it wasn't Lily's son left that house in Oregon to you. But then again, we could never prove it. He had been raised by Tom Lazarus' widow so we just assumed he had inherited it from some other side of the family. It was some distant cousin of the family that built it after all, and he had been disowned for years before he even went to Oregon because he was a gambler and all. Why do you ask?"

"I was just remembering something that happened once a while back." Jack lit a cigarette and sighed. "So how you been momma, you and Aunt Jessie doing okay?"

"You asked that when you call just last week, and I still can't believe you let Dani get pregnant by some man she barely knows. The child is barely eighteen, not old enough to know her own mind, let alone raise a baby, even if he is the son of Pierre and Massie Marquaille. Which is good, but at the same time I remember all the grief he caused his family when he up and ran off at such a young age. Odd he should find his way to the only family of Lazarus' in that part of the country. Well, as Maylene always said, stranger things have happened."

"So it seems momma, did you get a chance to talk to that sheriff that Pierre told me about, was it Jake's wife that died?"

"Yes, which is a shame, she was a good woman, I always liked her, as much as I liked Helen. But the sheriff took a statement from me and Aunt Jessie and he's going to check into the chance that it was Jake that caused her death. If so, it will be a good thing, I never did understand how I could raise two boys and how they could turn out so different."

"Like you said momma, stranger things have happened. And as far as Bull and Dani go, well, they may have rushed things but I can honestly say, I can't think of a better man for her, and that baby is going to be well loved."

"Of course it is, your daddy will be watching down from heaven and keeping a close eye on it, and so will I once I get there with him."

"Well let's not rush it momma, I love you ya know, I always have, even when things were the craziest."

"I know Jack, you just take care of yourself, and if you ever feel the urge, come down and visit, preferably before you have to come and put me and Jessie in the ground."

"I will momma, I promise..."

"Goodnight son, you take care and call again soon. Your Aunt Jessie and I are thinking about you all every day."

Jack hung up the phone and looked up at the ceiling. "Is it you Lily, are you the one everyone calls The Lady in Red?"

He almost dropped his cigarette as a soft hand touched his face and the smell of lilies tickled his nose. He didn't need to look to know she was there in the room with him and that the mystery of the Lady in Red had been solved after all these years. Later, as he drifted off to sleep, he knew that Lily was there to help watch over his family, and he felt as safe as he had when he was a child.

To Be Continued...

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Author's Note: Yeah, it's me again, got to have a say after every chapter, and I know you get bored, but hey, it's in a woman's nature to talk more than listen.

I hope this chapter answers some questions I know have been bothering you. This one was hard for me to do because I didn't know for sure how people would react to just what Helen and her two friends had seen that night. So rather than spoil a good sex scene, I decided to let Jack tell the tales and expose both the pure evil in Nick and the identity of the Lady in Red.

I hope you all are enjoying this story, because I enjoyed writing it and I really got involved in not only Bull and Dani's tale, but that of her family. Jack especially who disdained the life style he had known back in New Orleans, but yet has a less than pristine outlook on life himself.

Anyway, as usual

Peace

Darkstone57