“Now, honey. It’ll all be ok.” Dennis Lee patted the woman on the back awkwardly. Except for his daughters, he’d never been much good at comforting women. And that had been tough at first, too. They’d been so small. But he’d gotten better at it.
Big, dark eyes stared up at him.
They were going to bury her nephew Raymond soon. More than a week after the storm.
Dennis Lee had never cared for the fool that much, but he’d come in useful when he or Jenny had needed something done—off the books, so to speak.
Still, there were others out there who would be just as useful. And half as dumb.
Her nephew had been dumb as a stump, and a sick pervert, too.
Jenny had always made excuses for Raymond. Mostly about how he was so disadvantaged.
Hell, Raymond hadn’t known what disadvantaged was. Jenny and that fool husband of hers had pampered that boy from the time he was in grade school.
When Dennis Lee had been in grade school, he’d gotten strapped by his daddy if he didn’t come home with enough money to buy dinner for the family. By the time he should have gone into middle school, he was on his own, taking care of himself.
Disadvantaged, Dennis Lee’s old wrinkled ass.
There was nothing disadvantaged about how Jenny had raised her nephew. But he knew better than to say something like that to her.
He liked Jenny.
Liked having her in his bed, for one thing. For a fifty-eight-year-old woman, she had a nicely toned body and parts that hadn’t sagged too badly over the decades. She looked ten years younger than what she was. He felt damned good when he slept with her.
The woman had a razor-sharp brain behind those gorgeous eyes of hers.
“Will it?” She looked at him. “I don’t know if I can keep up the pretenses, Denny.”
Dennis Lee fought a rush of irritation. Jenny’s section of the city was a nice, shiny part of his business plan for the next three years. He couldn’t afford her getting squirrelly. His hand tightened around her pale throat. “You have to.”
She almost whimpered. Then she nodded her consent.
Hell, she didn’t mean it. She was just losing control of herself. She’d lost one of her babies in that damned twister. It was no wonder she was rattled. Raymond may have been a stupid fucking ass, but he’d been the kid Jenny had raised. The hand he had around her throat loosened. He slipped it around her waist and pulled her closer.
Jenny sure did like to snuggle. It was one of the things he loved about her. Dennis Lee wasn’t much of a cuddler himself, but with her…it was hard to resist.
“It’ll be ok, baby. I promise. And when we’re done, think of all the money we’ll have. You can give that boy of yours everything you’ve ever wanted to give him.” Dennis Lee held open his arms and gathered her into his arms. “Come on, now, get it out. Just let it go, baby. Then we’ll go to this damned meeting of the mayor’s and decide what we’re going to be doin’ next. We’ll make this work for us, honey. I promise.”
He sat in the armchair and just held her on his lap while she cried.