Page 41 of Vortex

There’s a sudden commotion at the door and a lot of cursing. Female cursing. Very strong female cursing. Mary shakes her head, which I take to mean she doesn’t agree with the language being used, but she mouths to me, “That’s Martha.” It takes a moment for me to place who Martha is, and then she’s in the rec room and causing a ruckus.

“I need to go home and wash this filth off me. You can’t seriously expect me to be seen living as part of a biker gang. I’m the goddamn mayor, for Christ’s sake.” She stands in the middle of the room, hands on hips, almost daring someone to argue with her. None of the brothers look like they want to take on the challenge and just as I’m about to stand, Mary places a hand on my arm, saying, “Let me sort this out. It won’t take a moment.” Standing, she walks directly in front of the mayor. “Martha Mary! Stop this ridiculous outburst at once, do you hear me?” Leaning forward she slaps the side of the mayor's thigh, and not gently. The mayor goes silent, and her eyes fill with tears.

“Grandma! You hit me! You haven’t hit me since my sixteenth birthday.” Martha’s tears fill her eyes, but she refuses to let them roll down her cheeks.

“Maybe it’s been too long coming, young lady. Now stop your nonsense and use some sense. It is not safe for you to be out on the streets or to be seen in public. The same goes for me. I’m restricted in my movements too, and until such time as the biker club thinks we’re safe, we stay here. Do I make myself clear?”

“Grandma! I can’t stay here. I’m the mayor. I can’t be seen to be associating with a gang of delinquent bikers.” Martha turns a hard stare at everyone present, including me.

“The only delinquent thing these bikers have done is save your sorry ass, from what I can see.” I stand and join Mary in front of Martha. “From what I understand, I wholeheartedly agree with you. Fook off out there on your own and get yourself killed. The town would be better off without a crooked mayor, and the club will be better off without some dumb bitch trying to cause trouble over something that happened before she was fooking born and doesn’t know the truth of. Go. Please. Leave us and let us have some peace and quiet.”

Martha is clearly not used to being confronted so openly and raises her hand to slap Allegra.

“If that hand touches me, it will be the last thing you ever do with teeth in your head,” Allegra announces slowly and with venom.

Martha blinks at her as she says, “What does that even mean?”

“It means if you dare to slap me, I will knock every one of your teeth from your mouth and will take great pleasure doing so. Is a slap worth all that pain?”

“Grandma, she can’t talk to me like that,” but her hand has dropped to her side.

“She can, and she just did. If I were you, I’d calm the fuck down and stop being rude to those who have offered you their home as a place of safety.”

“Grandma!”

Mary turns and walks back to the table we were sitting at before all this drama began. I look Martha in the eye and ask, “Will you be joining us, or leaving?” Without waiting for an answer, I join Mary. A few seconds later, Martha sits with us.

During all this, I noticed Chris the realtor being carried through to the office area. He doesn’t look well. A shadow passes over me, my head is tilted back and a mouth slams on mine, taking a kiss. Before I get to respond in kind, I’m freed and Vortex is smiling down at me.

“Hello, my love. How’s your day going?”

“Not as exciting as that of my man, apparently. You leave me here while you go off rescuing damsels in distress, no?”

“Not intentionally, and apparently it wasn’t welcomed. I’ll know better next time. Just leave her tied and gagged in the back of a van with men who want to treat her badly and then bury her in a shallow grave.” Vortex says this in a gravelly voice that tells me how angry he is at her behavior.

“I may have been hasty in my reaction, I admit,” Martha states.

“Hasty. Ungrateful. Rude. Unpleasant. Vicious. Need I say more?” Vortex was getting into his stride there.

“I don’t think I was vicious.” Martha looks surprised by his use of that word.

“The guy whose family jewels you made into ground beef might argue that.” Vortex raises his eyebrows at her.

“You did what?” I ask, suddenly very interested in the conversation.

“I may have taken offence to some comments that one of my kidnappers made while in his captivity. When your man and his associates released me, I may have vented my frustrations a little harshly on the gentleman in question, while he was already incapacitated. I believe I was well within my rights as a woman to give him a worthy response.” Martha gives a little feminine cough.

“I thought Chris looked like he had a right to give them a response, too. Why did they give him such a beating?” I thought he seemed very weak and easily played. It shouldn’t have taken much to make him talk or do anything, but you never know about people when the chips are down.

“After his first beating and humiliation by Brandon, Chris became angry and refused to be a part of any more dealings. They have been using his company without his consent and without paying him his cut of the deals. Brandon told him they were taking back the estate and the vehicles. Chris has been very vocal and done nothing to help himself. They will make him disappear before long. Many realtors have gone on extended vacations and have never been seen again.” Martha looks at Mary as though she’s only just noticed her. “Grandma, what exactly are you doing here, anyway?”

“Trying to keep you alive, dear. You’ve never been terribly bright with your decision-making. You get that from your father. Your mother was just easily manipulated. Your grandfather made her into the foolish thing she was. He thought it was funny to mess with her head. He’d spend hours making her see things from some stupid point of view that made no sense to anyone else.” Mary shakes her head at her granddaughter. “This whole feud thing that you insist on carrying on with the bikers was just his way of hiding his own failings as a father. I hated him for it then, and I still hate him for it to this day.”

“You don’t hate him, Grandma.” Martha is shocked by Mary’s outburst.

“I most certainly do for what he did. He ruined your mother's chance for true love and then married her off to that idiot of a father of yours. He made her whole life a misery when he tried to pay that young biker to leave town. Thought he was being so clever. Thought everyone was money-mad like he’d become. Well, that biker stood up to him and made him look like the fool he was, I can tell you. When I found out what he’d told your mother, I threatened to walk out there and then. It wasn’t so easy for a woman in those days, and he knew it. I wish I’d been stronger, child. I made him pay for it in later years, but I was too late in finding out that your mother had poisoned you with it too.”

“No, Grandma. The biker wanted money to marry mama. She told me all about it.”