106: Unmasked Part 2
Easton
“Sounds more like a damned nightmare, not real life, Dad.” I pace in his study. It’s New Year’s Eve and we are supposed to be getting ready for a fun celebration tonight. Not waking up to some ridiculous trouble dreamed up by a delusional, selfish pair of women.
“Afraid not. It’s true. I checked it out through some….friends last night.” He adds gravely as he
leans back in his chair.
“Luci does not need this s**t. Today is hard enough for her.” I tilt my head back and stare at
the ceiling.
“I know Easton. I want to deal with this now. She’s desperate and that makes her dangerous. Sadly, she isn’t even the mastermind behind most of this. I’ll let you tell Luci about it. Our friends are already digging for more information.”
“When was all this planned for? She has lost her f*****g mind.”
“Lorelei’s scheme for you was for your next away game. All dependent on when she could gain
access to you alone.” He says gravely.
My mind moves quickly. “Who are the friends helping with the other problem?”
“Baker’s squad leader, who we helped, has an older brother named Mack. He’s now the president of a motorcycle club. It’s in another state, but he knows a lot of people that deal in this type of business. He should have a name for me soon. That part can be dealt with after today because it’s not planned out yet according to what Lorelei told Nicole.”
“We know where Lorelei is today?” I ask as I pace.
“Vince is following her for now. He’s coming to the party with his wife tonight. Your mother found out she’s treating Nicole to a spa morning for her ‘help‘ so far.” Dad rolls his eyes at
that.
“I’m not exactly easily transportable, so how was she planning to get me where she wants
me?”
“Wallace Jones volunteered that he’d be thrilled to assist anything that harms you or your brothers. Though it honestly sounded like she’d corner you in a restaurant.” Even Dad sounds skeptical of that.
“Becker was right. I should have killed him the last time we saw him. We turn the tables then.
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The party starts at seven tonight. Get Vince to ask her out for coffee this afternoon. She hasn’t seen him, right?”
“No, Vivienne was the one who saw Vince and creeped him out. I’m following your line of thinking.” Dad nods as he lifts his phone.
“How fast can Jessie have a custody document ready?” She wants to fight dirty, then I’ll meet
her on her terms.
“Probably within an hour. She’s efficient. You want to offer her cash to sign him away?”
“No, I’m not giving her a dime. I want to play her game. Wallace’s dad is still running for state representative. Tell Vince to talk up the party tonight. Have Vince invite her. He’s getting revenge on me or something.”
Jackson’s voice comes from the doorway. “He was dating Luci until she met you. He can take pics with Luci and have them on his phone.”
Becker joins in. “Nothing she’d like better than to screw Luci over. Sounds like she truly hates
her.”
“Thinks Luci changed you and that’s why she can’t get you back.” Kingston adds.
“How long have you been standing out there waiting?” I ask. “You could have come and
offered your ideas faster.”
“You should get first draft planning East. She’s your evil ex.” Becker says seriously.
“I don’t want her here until Cole’s gone to bed though. He doesn’t see her. Vince can’t come to
the party until like nine or ten. Doesn’t his wife have brownish hair?” Cole is not going to be
involved in this in any way. “I can ask Luci. She’s seen pictures of her.”
“You want Luci out of the room.” Jackson nods.
“Yes. Vince said his wife is a firecracker wrapped around a cherry bomb and apparently she
was ready to kill Maxton Porter for what he was planning. Luci sent her ideas for how to
occupy her girls while they were out of school and I don’t even know what else she did, but
Catalina’s a fan.” I add.
“This is going to ruin our party, isn’t it?” Becker groans.
“No. She’s in and out of this house in under an hour. I’m not ruining tonight. Luci has enough
bad memories around this date and I’ll be damned if Lorelei creates another one for her.
Instead, I’m going to have full custody of Cole to mark it as a celebration.” I vow.
“Let’s call Vince. This all hinges on his ability to get Lorelei to even meet him for coffee.” Dad
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106: Unmasked Part 2
lifts his phone.
“Uh Dad, Vince isn’t going to have a problem picking up any female. You should have seen the female population on campus when he started.” Becker says with a grin.
Dad presses a button on his phone. “Hi Jason.” Vince’s voice comes through clearly.
“Vince, we have an idea for you. How good are you at convincing a woman you just met to go on a revenge date with you?” Dad says with amusement.
“I’m betting I’m about to find out.” He laughs. We run through our plan.
“Your wife be ok with this?” I want to make sure. “You’re not going to do anything, but I won’t
cause those kinds of problems.”
“Catalina wanted me to order a thousand live cockroaches and dump them into Porter’s car. She’ll be fine.” He says dryly.
“I like her already.” Becker jokes.
“Speaking of likes….that guy Wallace that Nicole is hanging around with, he’s a prick. We doing anything to him?”
“Yes. What’d he do?” Dad asks curiously.
“Yelled at some poor girl at the juice bar he visited with them before the spa. Shoved Nicole
into the car. I want to hit him.” He reveals.
“Wallace has always been a dickhead. You might get your chance.” I promise him.
“You need pics with Luci. We have time for that?” Kingston asks.
“They have another hour to go. Can she meet me here? I asked the spa attendant after they
checked in.”
“I’ll bring her to you. I need to explain what we’re planning.”
“I’m sitting at a cafe right across the street from the spa.” He says before we end the call.
“Go take pictures of Luci with her boyfriend. We’ll watch Cole.” Jackson says with an evil grin.
“I want to go watch Easton.” Becker laughs.
“Calling Jessie.” Dad tells me as I lead my brothers out.
Luci and Cole are in the playroom building some kind of castle. She glances up and the smile
on her face dies. “It’s like the four horsemen, what’s wrong?”
“Grab your shoes, Luci. We need to go somewhere for a little while. Cole, we’ll be back soon.”
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He races over to hug me.
“Daddy, I stay up late tonight.” He looks so excited.
“You will. I can’t wait to see your mask.” I squeeze him tighter.
“Mommy made it special.”
“She does that. I think it’s because maybe she’s special.” I whisper to him and he nods.
Luci meets me in the hall. “You’re furious. Can you tell me what happened now or on the way?”
“On the way.”
Only once we drive out of the gate do I begin telling her everything. I have her hand in mine. and like always, when I pause she squeezes to let me know she’s following me. By the time I make it to needing pictures of her with Vince for a convincing lie, she looks like her head is going to explode. “I’m sorry but she was planning to trick you into signing your rights to Cole away and then…ugh what is wrong with her? Nevermind, I know what’s wrong with her. She was raised by a ditch pig gutter trollop.”
I whistle lowly. “You expanded on that huh, sweetness. You can be vicious, can’t you?”
“When someone goes after my family, yes apparently I can.” She lifts our joined hands and leans her cheek against mine. “I don’t want her to get to you or Cole.”
“She will not. I plan for her to show up after you have left with Cole and Barrett for bedtime.
We are putting an end to this though. And we will celebrate afterwards. I see Vince.” I tell her
as we park.
Having to watch her get all up close and personal with Vince has me ready to end Lorelei
Winters. How the hell Cole came from her, I’ll never know.
Luci
I have to laugh even though I’m worried about tonight. I left the yellow sunshine mask out and didn’t have mine on yet. Easton emerges from his closet dressed in the gray sweater I left out for him and a pair of jeans. He eyes the mask on his bed and then me with a resigned grimace. He takes out his phone and sends something. Then I realize it’s to me as mine goes
off.
I open the text and my mouth drops open as he steps closer. “Easton Reed.” I make my tone
outraged.
“What…you’d look good in that. I told you, serious compensatory demands for me to wear a sunshine, funshine mask. Now where’s your Grumpy bear mask? You can be the bad version
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+15 Points
of that. I’ve even researched these bears and have your name. You can be the Screams–a–Lot Bear.”
“Only you could turn innocent bears into dirty suggestions.” I mutter trying not to laugh.
He raises one eyebrow. “Nothing I sent you is a suggestion. I used the word demands intentionally.”
“Let me take your picture in it.”
“Only if you have yours on.” He challenges.
“You already know, don’t you?” I am suspicious.
“Sweetness, you cannot bluff worth a damn. Never play poker. I did enjoy making my demands
though. And I’ll deny it to anyone else but yesterday you did have me worried. Who are we going as?”
I reach into my bag for the two real masks. “He–Man and She–Ra. Wait, do you have the boots and the dress from that?”
“No, I only did costumes for the boys.” I frown playfully at him.
“I’m ordering it for you.” He proclaims.
“You have a thing for She–Ra?”
“No I have a thing for you dressed like her. Your damn Starlight costume haunted my dreams enough.”
“Mommy, Daddy, I come in?” Cole calls from the doorway.
“Let’s see what you are.” Easton looks him over. “Hmm are you a flying stick of butter?”
“No Daddy.” He laughs.
“What about a yellow flower?”
“No flower.” Cole sounds so aggrieved.
“I give up.”
“I Bumblebee, one of those robots. More than meets the pie.” He sings and we both laugh at that. “Grandpappy matches. He’s Octopus Prime.”
“He sure is and I can’t wait to tell him that.” Easton grins. We walk toward the formal dining
room that connects to what Imogen called an entertaining room making for a huge open party
room.
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106: Unmasked Part 2
Sydney, Stormi, Banning, Barrett, Mrs. Isabelle and Mr. Logan are all here. Barrett and Cole are happily showing each other their costumes.
There are quite a few other people here too.
I spy Marco and his wife, Emily along with Vince and Catalina. Before we can go meet her, Mr. Jason gets everyone’s attention.
“Thank you everyone for coming tonight. I hope we all have a good time. You have numbers you were given along with a small notepad. Walk around and write down your guesses for mask identities. Luci is the only one not allowed to participate since she made most of these masterpieces. Also, we will not be serving any alcoholic beverages tonight. I would like everyone to leave here sober and get home safely.” I smile gratefully at him for that. “And we have plenty of room if you’d rather not drive at all. We have a table for you to design your own hats, a photo booth with props, and a confetti popper gun making table. We’ll judge the hats and confetti blasts later. Hopefully you all enjoy the party and it’s one to remember.”
Ivory Row
Part 3 out in the morning. Never brag you are going to be done early with your writing. It’s like asking for things to go wrong. Sorry I’m so late.
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