The Agent and the PI (Sequel to Falling For the Undercover

A Funeral and Change

David’s POV

The following week passed by in a haze.  It was all we could do to keep Elizabeth going.  She was so saddened and still blaming herself for the death of our parents.  She was going to be sixteen soon and she wasn’t even acting like a normal sixteen-year-old.  The morning of the funerals it seemed to take a little extra effort to get her to leave her room.  Her eyes were red and swollen and it killed me to see her that way.  I wished to hell that could take her pain away, but I knew that I couldn’t hell I couldn’t even take my own pain away.  The only thing that was keeping us guys together was the fact that she needed us.  I wasn’t sure how the future would play out for all of us, but I knew that we needed to protect our little sister at all costs.  Something was telling me she was in danger I just couldn’t put my finger on it at this point in time.  But I couldn’t focus on that at this time because we had a funeral to attend.  Children are supposed to bury their parents but damn not this soon.  Certainly not in the way.  When a child thought of his or her parents dying, they thought of them growing old and dying peacefully in their sleep.  Not in some horrific crash.  We hadn’t let Elizabeth in on the details but apparently mom and dad had burned to death when their car overturned and burst into flames.  I couldn’t imagine a worse way to leave this earth.  I wondered what their last thoughts were.  Were they thinking of their kids?  Did they tell each other they loved the other one?  Knowing my parents, the answer to both of those questions were yes.

Elizabeth’s POV

I didn't realize mom and dad knew so many people.  It seemed like there were so many people spilling out of the church.  After the service I can't tell you how many people came up to me to offer their sympathies.  But one person stuck out.  He was sleazy to say the least.  Not that he dressed that way just that he oozed snake.  He gave me the creeps.  He introduced himself as my uncle from my mother's side of the family.  This intrigued me because I had never met anyone from her side of the family.  He complimented me about how beautiful I was and how I looked just like my mother.  He then asked me how old I was, and I told him I would be sixteen in about three days.  His face lit up and he told me he hoped to be seeing me again real soon.  I didn't like him.

Later that day I told my brothers all about the meeting with my uncle and they all got very quiet.  Larry came to me and asked me to sit down he had something serious to discuss with me.  I didn't like the sound of that.  That's when he informed me that mom had run away from her tribe to be able to live the life she wanted.  By tribal law now that mom and dad were dead, I became a ward of the tribe and by default my uncle.  I just stared at my brother not comprehending what he just said.  "Do you mean I have to leave here?  Why can't I just live with one of you until I'm eighteen?"

A few days later, I along with a bag of my belongings were in Larry's car and we were on our way to what was going to be my new home. "I'm not going! You can't make me!" I yelled at my brothers.  They just shook their heads and informed me they had no choice.  "I tried to keep you here.  I thought that maybe since I was a blood relative, they would let me take care of you."  Of course, it didn't work that way.  The judge ruled in favor of the tribe.  Since my mom had passed and my brother didn't know any of the tribal ways, he couldn't teach me my 'heritage'.  This sucked big time.  I was having to move over a thousand miles away from the home I grew up in.  I didn't want to leave.  "But why do I have to go today? Can't I at least have a few weeks to get used to the idea?  I don't even know this guy." 

It was the truth.  I didn't know him I met him one time and that was at our parent’s funeral.  Mom never spoke of her side of the family and my brothers seemed terrified to let me go.  It didn't help I didn't want to go either.  "Look we will come and visit every week to make sure everything is ok.  We love you and will do what we can."  "You just don't get it Larry I don't even want to go it's not fair.  I'm sixteen I should get a voice in this but no I have to roll over and eat s**t and take it up the ass."  I realize I wasn't being fair, but the situation wasn't fair. Heck the very way I just spoke to my brother spoke volumes as I never said those kinds of things.

He just looked at me and sighed "I know.  We're here."  I didn't even want to look.  We pulled up to a little worn out house.  There stood my uncle along with what I assume was his wife and maybe two boys?  Hell, I didn't even know if he had a wife and kids.  The boys looked to be about my age and looked just like their father like little snakes.  I couldn't help but shudder I just knew this was going to be a terrible thing.  I wanted to go home.  Larry hugged me and told me he would be there on the weekend.  He whispered "be good" in my ear and I sighed.  For him and the guys I would do my best.  I loved my brothers.  Hell, I loved my parents and now I'm alone without any of them.

My uncle raced forward.  "Sweet Elizabeth I trust your journey was a good one.  I bet you will be tired after the long trip.  Let’s get your stuff and get you inside so we can go over the rules."  My mind spun three hundred and sixty degrees with that last statement.  What kind of rules do they think I need?  Hope it's nothing to distressing.  I slowly glanced around what was going to be my new home for a while at least.  It was run down, dusty, depressed looking.  It matched my mood perfectly.  I cried inside.  I wanted my home back along with my parents and my annoying overprotective big brothers.

David’s POV

After Larry had left with our little sister all of us guys just broke down.  How could a court system rule that a teenage girl had to go live with someone she didn’t know verses staying with her brothers who were perfectly capable of taking care of her?  The courts had cited because of her heritage and the fact that all of us were single that Elizabeth being with our uncle would be a better suit for her.  We didn’t agree and Elizabeth certainly didn’t want to go.  Personally, I just wanted to pack her up and hide her out somewhere I know that the other guys wanted that as well. We consoled ourselves the fact that we would be able to visit her often and that in two years she would be eighteen and could come back to live with us all again.  What we didn’t know was that this uncle had other plans.  That was until Larry came home from dropping her off.  He told us how “uncle” didn’t want any of us coming over to visit for the first month he also wanted us to limit phone calls to just once a week.  He said it was to help her acclimate better to her new home without bringing reminders of her old life.  He had also stated that it was a custom in their tribe when a child loses a parent and is orphaned to block out reminders of those lost parents as much as possible.  It didn’t make sense to me, and I was going to make it my mission to find out if he was telling the truth or not. 

The one thing that got to me that most was how come my brothers and I didn’t know about this side of the family?  What had happened that my mother refused to even talk about them?  We had known that she and dad had cut themselves off from mom’s side but other than that we didn’t know any details.  I wish they would have told us then we could have been better prepared for the whole situation.  What astounded me even more was how quickly this uncle was able to get the courts to grant him custody.  Hell, mom, and dad had only been gone for not quite two weeks and he already had an order for her to be turned over to his custody.  We begged and pleaded with him to let Elizabeth stay until after her birthday so that we could celebrate with her, but he was having no part of that.  “The court order says she is to be remanded to my custody immediately and if you don’t have her here in twenty-four hours, I will have you all arrested for contempt.”  His words didn’t sit well with any of us, but we also knew we didn’t have the choice.  Elizabeth was angry and rightfully so.  She was angry at a lot of things.  Losing our parents, having to move and even at us guys for not fighting harder for her.  I tried to assure her that we understood the situation was unfair, but we had to follow the law.  We would all be working as hard as we could to get her back at home with us as quickly as possible.  I reminded her that we would visit and call her often and that if worse came to worse she would only have to live there for two years and then she would be free to chose where she wanted to live. 

Unknown POV

My employer was a bad man.  He exploited his heritage just to seek out revenge on his sister God rest her soul.  This poor girl and her brothers had no clue what was about to happen to her.  When she arrived at the house, he was all smiles and charm.  He told the brother that brought her how it was custom for them to not have contact for a while so that she could get acquainted with her new home.  What utter bullshit he was speaking.  He was banking on the fact that they didn’t know anything about their heritage, and he was right.  When the brother had reluctantly left his sister in the care of this man, he didn’t know that he had left her with the devil himself.  I couldn’t help the sadness that overcame me to see such an innocent young girl become one of his victims.  At least the other ladies we were charged with watching over had at first come her willingly but this one was actually a prisoner and didn’t know it.  Once you came to this house you certainly didn’t get out of it.