Avenging Laura (Special Forces: Operation Alpha)

Chapter 8

CHAPTER EIGHT

“This is harassment. I will have my lawyer sue you!” Kathy Pratt screamed at the group.

“No, you won’t. I’m the one paying the fucker. He will do what I tell him to do since I’m the client. I’m not paying him anymore. Since you’re a stingy bitch who expects everyone else to pay your way, you’re not getting a new one. Now sit down and listen to what I have to say, young lady,” Jeannette ordered Kathy as she sat down in the chair opposite her daughter.

Jeannette nodded at Dominick and Highlander as they came into the room, pulling their chairs next to the elderly woman.

“Mom, it’s time you pretended to give a damn about someone besides yourself. Laura is missing and you know more about Dad’s business than you’re letting on. Spill the beans or I’ll air your dirty laundry so fucking fast, you won’t stand a chance of showing your face to anyone. Bob has already divorced you because of that fiasco six years ago,” Dominick warned his mother as he leaned forward, his eyes going cold.

“You wouldn’t dare! I will sue every one of you!” Kathy screeched as she jumped from the chair.

“Then how about this, I will cut you completely out of the will. You won’t receive a dime, much less a mention when I die,” Jeannette informed Kathy, her voice going just as cold as Dominick’s stare.

“You wouldn’t dare!” Kathy shouted as she stared at her mother in horror.

Jeannette didn’t respond. She just shrugged as she reached for her purse and pulled out her cell phone and pushed a number. When she put it on speakerphone and the attorney’s voice came on the line, Kathy went white as a ghost.

“Jack, this is Jean. That revision we discussed, do it. I want Kathy’s name taken out of my will. She is not to be mentioned, or even receive a dime. She wants to leave my granddaughter to be killed by a madman, she’s going to find out how much of a madwoman her mother really is.”

“Fine! I’ll talk, damn it!” Kathy yelled, smacking the table with her hand.

“Money hungry crotch goblin! I don’t know where I went wrong with you. You got the same love and attention your brother and sister got, yet you turned into this uncaring, unfeeling embarrassment.”

“You made me marry him!” Kathy seethed when she sat down.

“I didn’t make you do anything. You trapped that man into marriage. Your father and I introduced you to a nice man that would have made you a very wealthy woman and who adored the ground you walked on for some reason I’ll never understand. Yet, you chased after David as if the hounds of hell were nipping at your heels. You got pregnant and begged your father for him to make David marry you. So, don’t you dare put that shit on me, young lady.”

Kathy huffed out a laugh. “You mean that Mr. Magoo looking idiot that wound up marrying Ruth?”

“A very rich Mr. Magoo look alike, thank you very much. See, that is your problem, Kathy. You always went for the looks. Look where that got you? Alone, on a fixed income waiting for your mother to croak so you have some inheritance to pretend to be wealthy on while you look for another rich sucker as you continue to look over your shoulder.”

“Looking over my shoulder for what, Mother?”

“Your ex-husband and a daughter who despises the ground you walk on.”

When Kathy looked down at the table, Dominick and Highlander knew they had her with Jeannette’s words. Looking at each other in shock, they couldn’t help but wonder what all Jeannette had found out since Dominick opened the door on everything this woman had put Laura through.

“Kathy…”

“I’m still your mother.”

“You haven’t been my mother since I was born. You and Dad have hoisted me off to a nanny since the minute I took my first breath. You pretended to want something to do with me if it got Dad’s attention. He stopped wanting something to do with me when I refused to follow in both of y’all’s footsteps and put Laura down. How the hell she was the good one out of you both, I’ll never fucking know!” Dominick yelled at his mother, smacking the table, making her jump.

“She’s not David’s,” Kathy mumbled, looking down at her fingers.

“Come again?” Dominick demanded, confusion in his voice as he looked over at Highlander and his grandmother.

“She’s not David’s. That’s why he’s always hated her,” Kathy said louder, looking over at Dominick, eyes full of anger.

“W-whose is she?” Dominick stammered, clenching his fists, ready to strike.

“I got drunk one night after a fight with your father. Found out about him and that whore, Deanna, that he was fucking on the side. So, I got dressed, went out to a bar and got drunk. There were a group of Army grunts there apparently in town for some training exercise and I went back to his hotel room with him.”

“Was it a one-time thing?” Highlander asked, staring Kathy down.

“No. He was assigned to the base for nearly two months working with a unit there. Apparently, David’s unit was working with a Special Forces Unit at the time. They were doing a cross training with the Marines…”

“Who is her father?” Jeannette cut off Kathy’s mumbling.

“Some Army grunt named Travis McCoy,” Kathy mumbled as she looked away.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Dominick jumped up as he shouted at his mother and walked away.

“Who is that?” Highlander looked between the two women and Dominick who was pacing back and forth in the kitchen.

“General Travis McCoy. He’s the head of Delta Force stationed out at Fort Hood. I’m sorry, Fort Cavazos. I keep forgetting about the name change.” Dominick sighed, as he sat back down, ignoring his mother completely.

“Does he know, Kathy?” Jeannette asked, looking at her daughter coldly.

“No. I never told him and to the best of my knowledge, David never knew who it was I slept with. I never told him anything about it or the person. He just knew I had an affair with someone. He had always assumed it was another Marine.”

Highlander didn’t hesitate. His wife needed every fucking thing on the planet. She’s been gone for two days. One fucking minute too long. He pulled out his phone and dialed Tex’s number.

“Hello.”

“Tex, it’s Joe. Ye are on speakerphone with me, Dominick, Laura’s grandmother, and mother. I need ye to get me in touch with General Travis McCoy.”

“Um, you know he can’t override anything to send the boys out, Joe.”

“Ask him about a woman he had an affair with thirty-six years ago while doing a TDY in California at a Marine Corps base. That affair resulted in a pregnancy that he was never told about. He has a daughter. It’s Laura,” Highlander cut straight to the chase.

“Well fuck!” Tex replied before hanging up.