“I’ve talked to Luther about the house. He’s very proud of that mansion. You’ll be happy there.” He nodded but didn’t look all that convinced. “Tell me what’s bothering you, Mitch. I can help some. Maybe.”
“They’ve named Vinnie in the suit. Not with me, but as part of it. Because she is in my life and has money, I guess. I don’t understand some people.” Connie didn’t either, and she’d seen more than her fair share of them. “Now they want even more. And they think that the state should continue to pay them as if they’re watching children for them for the rest of their lives. At some point, you’d think they’d have a clue that what they were doing was wrong. I understand that they’ve been investigated, but it seems no one looked all that hard to find anything. Why are there people like them out there?”
“I don’t know, love. I truly don’t. People like them are always looking for the short cut. It might not be millions of dollars, though most of them would jump at it, but mostly to make it so that they can get as much as they can from the system because they feel they deserve it. Even if they don’t, they’ll keep taking and taking, complaining about how they can never get ahead this way.” Connie looked at her home, the one her lovely family lived in. “Mitch, if you don’t fight this with every fiber of your being, I’m going to be very disappointed in you.”
“I’ve decided to fight. I don’t want to, but they’ve pushed me against the wall, and it’s either go at them with all I have or let them continue to beat me down. And they are. Daily now. There was an interview on television last night with them. You should have heard the drivel they were saying. How I did them wrong by telling the state I was no longer there, when in fact I was there the entire time. They claimed I even talked others into saying untrue things as well. Accused them of doing things that just weren’t right. I never told anyone why I left until now, but they have this version of it in their heads that is making me look like a pervert.” Connie asked him what they were. “They said that Mark told me that I couldn’t make passes at his wife, that I needed to have counseling. To see someone about what was going on in my head. Basically, he said I was nuts. They said that they were going to call the board on me anyway, but the way I’d done it hurt them. It was the way they’d ran things all along and no one had complained until I told them to. Bullshit.”
She smiled. This was a Mitch she’d not seen before. Fired up and full of piss and vinegar, as she used to say. Connie wondered if she could do anything to help her friend when she realized that some of those boys he’d told her about were dead. In all these years of being gone, Connie had made some very strong connections and was going to reach out to one of them as soon as Mitch left. There was no sense in stirring the pot up if it didn’t lead anywhere, so she’d wait to tell him. When Mitch stood up to leave, she wanted to hug him to her desperately. She so loved this young man.
“Well, Steele is saying we need to go over a few things in the office. I think he wants to make sure that none of what we do is brought up at the trial. I’ve even asked him not to go, and he only laughed at me.” Mitch smiled and so did Connie. “I’ve never seen such a change in a person as he made when he met Kari. Do you suppose everyone does to a degree?”
“You have.” Connie nodded when Aster spoke. “You’re not as dark or moody. I’ve even seen you smile a couple of times for no reason whatsoever. My goodness, it’s like someone took your body and replaced it with a happy one. I like this new you. But what I’d like to know is, when are you going to introduce us to your mate? And when are you going to invite us to your home so we can come and see you whenever we want?”
“She can’t see you.” Aster asked him why not. “I’m not sure. I’ve asked her a couple of times if she can see her aunt or dad when he’s around, but she can’t. I’ve been meaning to ask Steele about it.”
“She doesn’t want to see us.” Mitch asked her what she meant. Connie knew there were many factors involved in seeing a ghost, but if you believed you could, then you could. “She’s afraid of you being a necromancer, isn’t she? That’s what it is. She’s in love with you and is still slightly afraid. I know she and Steele have talked, even Kari and Addie have, but she’s still afraid of what you might be able to do to her. Not that she really believes it in her heart, but her mind is harder to convince sometimes.”