Read Online Jamie-5 by Kathi S. Barton - Free Book Online Page A

that time she caught you necking in the back seat with Helen Smart.”
    Jamie pulled away, but did not let Dane go. He was still holding her when his mom entered the office basement with Pi right on her heels. He looked over at the two women and winked.
    “Let me go, you ass. You jerk me around like I’m some sort of lost puppy. I have to go to the bathroom. By myself, thank you.” He watched her walk away then sat next to his brother.
    Devin joined them a minute later.
    “They’re going to make her move out. He said he doesn’t need this sort of thing going on around here. Dumbass. I told him that she was in trouble and he said to have her take her trouble elsewhere,” Devin said, disgusted.
    “I’ll talk to her. She seems like a reasonable girl. Maybe we can find her a place to stay for a few days until things settle, maybe with Taylor and me. I don’t like her staying here if this could happen again.” Jamie just looked at Byron. For a reason he could not explain, he wanted to hit him.
    “I’ll take care of her. And if you don’t mind, I want you to stay away from her.
    She’s…she’s…” She’s what? Jamie thought.

    “Ah. Well, why didn’t you say so? By all means. I like her too. Does Mom know yet?” Jamie decided to ignore him and watched as Dane came toward them.
    “Mr. Grant?”
    All three of them turned to her and said, “What?”
    Her low growl made all three of them laugh, but then they quickly turned it into a cough. He wondered why they did that. His brothers did it a lot, and him only recently. He wondered if it had anything to do with the women in their lives.
    “The attorney. Sheesh, how many more of you are there? Devin Grant, please. May I have a word with you in private?”
    The two of them walked to the other side of the room and then Devin motioned to his mother to join them a minute later. When Margaret started crying, Jamie walked over with Byron. Something was wrong.
    “I’m sorry, Mrs. Parker. I can tell you where…go away. I didn’t want to talk to you. This is between your mom and me.” Dane looked at him, scared now. No, more like she was terrified.
    He knew it had something to do with what had happened today.
    “No. What’s going on? I want to know why you were so comatose that you couldn’t hear someone pounding on the door. Why you had to be shocked to come around. I want to know what happened to make you so afraid to say anything to me.”
    “You don’t get to…I found him all right? One of the little boys your mom asked me about.
    His mother killed him then buried him under a big tree not far from the trailer where he lived. I saw it, her throwing him against the counter, her picking up the shovel and hitting him over and over until his head was mashed in. Then she wrapped him in a black trash bag and took him outside and buried him with the same shovel she killed him with. I felt it, the pain, the sorrow. I felt each strike of the heavy shovel. I felt each time the shovel vibrated against his tiny…I’m going to be sick.” She darted away and when Jamie went to follow, Devin held him back.
    “Not yet. She needs to deal with this. And I need to tell you something. Dane told us today some of what she does when she does this. How much it takes out of her. You don’t believe her, she told me. I don’t know if I do either. But if that little boy is where she said, she’s made a believer out of me. She needs support, not someone who is only in this for sex. You understand what I’m saying to you?”
    “You’re telling me that if I can’t be there for her now, to back the fuck out. Yeah, I get it.
    But I didn’t ask for, nor do I need your advice. I’m going to see if she’s all right.” Jamie went to the bathroom door and waited for her. He saw his brother talking to the police. Jamie knew that one of them was a good friend of Devin’s. The police and the medics left a few minutes later. Pi took his mother upstairs again and Byron was on the