“Nearly,” Betty looked at her paper. “I want Reverend Morrison to be brought back from Spain, and I want him to stand in front of all of you and admit that we’ve had sex. Lots and lots of sex.”
“Betty!” Caroline snapped. “There are children here.”
“I know, and they all got here because their parents had sex.”
“What’s sex?” four-year-old Jessica asked her father, Josh.
“Uh.” Josh looked at Caroline, then back at his daughter. “That’s a question your mother can answer later.” He lowered his voice and muttered, “Like in about twenty years.”
“We can’t drag the Reverend back to Scotland just so he can humiliate himself for your benefit,” Dougal told the evil empress of Invertary.
“Then, I guess we’re at an impasse.” She dug into her bag and brought out a pie, then set about eating it, without a care in the world.
And why should she have a care? She had everyone in the room over a barrel.
“How about we get him to tell us by Skype?” Mitch suggested.
“I’ve seen that telly program,” Betty said around a mouthful of food. “I know those videos can be faked. He needs to be here in real life. In person.”
“Is this your last demand?” Dougal said. “If we get the Reverend here, will that be the end of it?”
She paused for a moment, clearly enjoying the tension. “If he tells the truth to everybody, aye.”
Dougal wasn’t convinced. “Then you’ll negotiate the sale of your properties?”
“Aye. But you’d better bring a big fat wallet. I’ll no’ be letting anything go for a song.”
“Mitch,” Dougal snapped. “Get the contract out. I want to make sure Betty can’t renege on our agreement.”
“Contract?” Betty spat some food with the word.
“Aye, we drew one up that says we’ve met your demands, that you won’t come up with any more or stall the process further, and when the last agreed upon demand is complete, you’ll seriously consider any offers made on your holdings.”
She looked up at Lake. “Did you know about this?”
“It was my idea,” Lake said, remaining stony-faced.
“You make me so proud,” Betty told him.
As Mitch led Satan over to the table in the corner, to sign their agreement, Dougal sidled up to Lake.
“Are you really going to change your name to McLeod?” he whispered.
“Absolutely.” Lake nodded, a sparkle in his eye.
“What are you up to?” Dougal asked.
“She didn’t say which name,” Lake said. “So, we’ll change our middle names. We can always change them back down the track. She isn’t going to live forever.”
Lake’s devious mind impressed Dougal, but he was a bit worried about his reasoning. “I don’t know about that,” he said. “I think that witch might outlast us all.”
And with that, as though Betty could hear him from halfway across the room, she looked up, caught his eye and laughed.
A New Client for Benson Security
This story takes place after Ransom before Rich.
Callum’s laptop suddenly made loud kissing noises in the middle of his meeting with Joe.