House of Secrets Read Online Free PDF Page B

get established in a good job. If they wanted to be together, perhaps Pixie could remain behind while they dated. “After his brother Danny graduates from school, maybe then they could go out and join you,” she said. She thought, at the very least she could buy time, until her nephew’s infatuation passed. She told Sexton, Joey needed to be able to support himself before he could support a wife and a child. “Well, Pixie did make a mistake,” Sexton said of the baby.
    “But I still love her.” Sexton said he had it all worked out. He talked about the scenario as if it were a done deal. They were buying a place called the Skytop Ranch, he said. It was on I,200 acres, on a mountaintop just south of Helena, Montana. Later, she’d learn he’d found the place through an advertisement in The Robb Report, a magazine for millionaires. Sexton had a brochure. It read, “More than a home, Skytop Ranch, Montana is a lifestyle … Expansive views of Montana’s beloved big sky are rivaled only by the mountain peaks, pine forests and wildflowers that are visible from every window of this three-story mansion. Here, the nearest neighbors are deer and elk, coyote and cougar. Here, the distractions are subtle, the rustle of the wind, the laughter of a trout stream, the soft morning whistle of a mountain bluebird.” The brochure showed a sun-drenched family room with a huge circular leather couch and a telescope aimed at the nearest mountain peak. In the formal living room, a black grand piano stood across from a large fireplace, its walls adorned with modern art. There were many rooms, “cozy niches for reading, playing and being,” the brochure said.
     
    Skytop had sophisticated fire and security systems. It had a helicopter hangar and a red, two-man chopper. Sexton also said he had a video of the property. He offered to send the tape home with Joey someday. Joey would be working for him, handling security, he said.
    As if Joey knows anything about security, she thought. Teresa Boron eyed the weathered deck and Ed Sexton’s worn blue jeans. She couldn’t help but notice the simple clothes the kids were wearing. She thought, where was this guy going to get the money for a mountaintop mansion?
    She thought this even before she learned the asking price for Skytop.
    The owner wanted $1.9 million for the ranch. Sexton brought the subject up.
     
    He said he was making a multimillion-dollar deal with the Wendy’s and Burger King franchises to do a nationwide promotion. “Promotion of what?” she asked. “The Futuretrons,” Sexton said. She asked him to repeat the word. “Futuretrons,” he said. “You see, my daughter and I are Futuretrons.” Teresa said she didn’t understand. Ed Sexton held out his left hand, showing her his palm. He pointed to what looked like normal lines in the skin. He said his second youngest daughter, Lana, had the same lines. “If some of these Satanic cults knew she had this mark, they’d hunt her down,” he said. “If they knew of her, or her whereabouts, she’d be in grave danger.” Teresa wondered, what kind of danger? “They’d want to sacrifice her. The mark on her hand makes her so powerful, she could destroy them. The power can wipe em out. I mean, wipe em out.” The girl Lana looked hardly 10 years old, but Ed Sexton was serious. “Okay,” Teresa said, humoring him. He talked about markings on his other children. He said his 6year-old Kimberly had the mark of a Christmas tree on her leg. When his wife was pregnant with Kimberly, he said, the family tree fell down and the baby jumped in her tummy. When the child was born, it bore the mark of the tree.
     
    “Really,” Teresa said. But she was thinking, Joey isn’t going anywhere with these people. God, it was we. The Sextons were into cults.
    Pixie and Joey returned to the deck. “Pixie, why don’t you stay here instead of going to Montana?” Teresa asked. “My dad says it’s best I go,” she said quietly. “Joey will