Nolan by Kathi S. Barton Page A

Nolan
and Rylee to keep quiet, that nothing they could add to this was going to be
very helpful. And the losing of temper was going to be her job, not theirs. When
Victor stood up, he slammed both hands on the table before leaning over it and
her. His smile only made her magic stir up, but didn’t piss her off as he’d
hoped.
    “Now you listen here. You are going to get
that golden stick out of your ass and do as I told you to do. Or else.” She
asked him what that might be. “I’m going to come down on you so hard that you
and that stuck-up family of yours is going to be shitting out blood for the
rest of your days. I don’t care to be pissed off like this.”
    “Oh, I think you enjoy it a great deal,
Victor. As a matter of fact, I know that when you beat your wife, you get off
really well with that. And when your son, who is following in your footsteps at
being a prick, beats someone that you tell him to, you get your jollies off
that as well.” She stood up when his face took on the appearance of a man who
had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “Sit down. And when I speak,
you will listen to every word I say.”
    He did, his ass hitting the chair so hard
that she could hear it groaning. He sat there, his eyes glazed over as he was
taken deeper under her spell. She didn’t care to use this kind of magic, but
right now and in the future, he wouldn’t be beating his family, and maybe he’d
learn a lesson or two from this. Doubtful, but stranger things had happened. Snapping
her fingers, she put the rest of the room, with the exception of Rylee and
Nolan, into a trancelike state.
    “He beats them all.” Chris turned to Nolan
when she continued. “Not only his wife and daughter, but this boy as well. If Walter
doesn’t hurt others, like Shane and any of the younger kids whose parents
Victor has problems with, Victor makes it harder for him. And he doesn’t limit
his abuse to just hitting either. Walter spends a great deal of his time locked
away in a small room without food or water. It’s why Walter does what he does. And
you should know that he’s sort of glad you are standing up to Victor.”
    “Why hasn’t anyone done anything for them
before now?” Before she could answer her, Rylee seemed to figure it out.
“Because Victor is a bastard to everyone when he doesn’t get his way. You did
something to him, didn’t you?”
    “Yes. I put him and the rest of the people
into a sleep-like state. It won’t hurt them, but I wanted to talk to the two of
you to see what you wanted me to do. I can make him a better person, but that
won’t last. Magic sometimes isn’t as strong as we’d like for it to be,
especially when there is so much evilness going for the person. The boy, Walter…he’s
going to need help if this keeps up. As the future stands for him now, by the
time he’s twenty-five, he’s going to be in prison for murder. And that won’t
help him at all.”
    “What sort of things can we do? I mean…short
of letting him get by with this?” Chris told Rylee that wasn’t her plan either.
“Then what? Do we…can we pull him from his family? Maybe, I don’t know, bring
him under our wing, so to speak? I don’t want him hurting Shane anymore, but I
don’t want him dead either.”
    “I can suggest to him that he moves out of
his house. Gets away from his father. His mother won’t take help. While she
doesn’t enjoy him hurting her, she has had help before and always returns to
him. I don’t think there is much in the way of help for someone that doesn’t
want it.” Chris sat down and looked at them both. “He needs a guiding hand, but
mostly he needs a friend. He has none but those his father sets him up with to
teach him the ways of a man.”
    “Move him out. And he can stay with…there’s a
house on the property that he can use. I can find him a job, get him…Christ, I
hope we don’t regret this.” Chris assured Nolan that he wouldn’t. She promised.
“I don’t