Читать книгу Belong To The Night - Cynthia Eden - Страница 14

Jamie parked her SUV and stepped out. She’d already taken Rico back home and left her walking on the furniture, pretending she was too weak to fly. Now Jamie was back at the hotel to check in with her coven. Especially Sen.

She walked up the porch stairs and was reaching for the door when she heard, “I talked to my boys. They’re real sorry ’bout what happened.”

She stopped and slowly faced Buck Smith. He sat in one of the rocking chairs that littered the wraparound porch. He watched her with eyes like his son’s. But he was bulkier than Tully, dangerously large. The kind of guy she’d never want to be caught alone in an alley with.

“It was just a misunderstanding.” She gave him the same smile she used to give perps she was sure had killed someone, but didn’t have the proof yet to prove it.

“You ain’t like the other covens.”

She walked over to him but didn’t get too close. There were just some people in the world she didn’t get too close to. Buck Smith was definitely one of them. “You could say that.”

“Y’all are definitely a lot prettier. Those Midwestern ones they had the last few years looked like they belonged behind a plow.”

Jamie’s laugh was real.

“So you and my boy together?”

That seemed an odd question coming from an uncaring father. “No. Just good friends.”

“Something tells me you don’t have a lot of friends.”

“And something tells me you don’t have any. But hey,” she said before he could reply, “that’s not why you’re here. You’re here to see your son. To mend that bridge. That’s what you told Tully, right?”

“Yeah. Right.”

He studied her and Jamie didn’t flinch, nor did she look away. She didn’t know what he was looking at or looking for but she’d be damned if she backed off of anyone. It was something she learned as a cop. Show any weakness and the scumbags would wipe you out before you took your next breath.

“There you are.” Wanda waved from the path leading to the hotel. The woman hadn’t even gotten ten feet when Jamie’s eyes watered. Does she bathe in that scent?

Maybe Jamie wouldn’t back off in a firefight or facing down Tully’s sperm donor, but she’d be damned if she’d stay around for that smell. By the time Wanda made it to the porch, Jamie was walking inside the hotel, closing the door firmly behind her. She sneezed twice and Emma grinned at her from the front desk.

“Wanda?” she asked.

“We’re totally going to have to fumigate her room when they leave.”

Tully relaxed back in the half-circle booth at his favorite bar. It wasn’t the fanciest one in town, but it was the most comfortable, had his favorite beer, and the best live reggae music anywhere on the East Coast.

As it turned out, soothing Caribbean sounds were just what he needed right now. He needed to be soothed. He needed to relax. Not easy when all he felt was uptight and stressed out because his father was up to something.

Tully sipped his beer, listened to the music, and let his mind turn until Kyle sat down on one side of him and Katie sat on the other.

“So how’s that bird?” Kyle asked before taking the beer out of Tully’s hand.

“Probably dive-bombing squirrels.”

Katie rested her head on Tully’s shoulder. “I think it’s so sweet, you going with Jamie to take care of her bird.”

“And, yep,” Kyle muttered, “said out loud it does sound stupid.”

Tully kissed the top of his baby sister’s head. “It was the right thing to do.”

“Why?” Kyle asked, placing the now-empty beer bottle back in Tully’s hand. “It’s not your fault. Seems to me if anyone went with her it should have been Luther.”

“Luther Ray Smith in the same car with Jamie Meacham?”

“Why not? Set up a camera in the car for that trip and we could have sold that mess to pay-per-view.”

The brothers laughed while Katie tugged on Tully’s long-sleeved T-shirt. “What’s going on with you and Jamie?”

“Nothing.”

“Are you sure? ’Cause if you’re going to get serious, she’s going to have to stop calling me Snaggle.”

“I’ll talk to her about that,” Tully said quickly and loudly to cover up Kyle’s laugh.

Jamie walked in to the bar and immediately stopped. “A reggae bar in the middle of Nowhere, North Carolina,” she said to her coven. “I find this a little frightening.”

Sen pushed past her, once again all smiles and cheer. Her rage from that afternoon already forgotten. “You’ve missed some bands! I told you to come with me before, but no. You never listen!” She stepped farther into the bar and a table full of enormous men called out her name.

“See you guys later!” She ran off and launched herself at the biggest male there.

“Bears,” Mac said next to Jamie.

“Polar, to be specific,” Kenny added.

“Where was I when this happened?”

“We’ve been asking ourselves that a lot lately.”

Jamie let out a breath, way too tired for this conversation. “Don’t start, Mac.”

“I wasn’t. You asked a question, I answered it.”

“Is it love?” Jamie asked.

“For now,” Emma said, looking around the bar until she caught sight of Kyle and walked off.

“I hope it lasts until next winter,” Kenny sighed out and both cousins turned to look at her.

“You want Sen to be happy and in love?” Jamie asked.

“Until winter time.”

Mac shrugged. “Why?”

“Because…I wanna be there when she finds her polar-bear sweetheart splayed out on one of the frozen man-made saltwater lakes, patiently waiting for one of those baby seals we’ll have flown in just for this reason to pop its head up so the polar can snatch it out of the ice cold water, tear it open, and devour it like a Girl Scout Thin Mint cookie.”

“She really drives you crazy doesn’t she?”

“Yes! Because no one should be that fucking perky and mean it!” She let out a breath, once again relaxed. “And on that note, I’m going home.” When Jamie frowned, she added, “Gaming.” As if that should explain everything and for Jamie and Mac…it did.

“You staying?” Jamie asked Mac.

“I could go for a drink.”

“Yeah. Me, too.” Jamie handed over the SUV keys to Kenny. “Take the car, we’ll walk back.”

“You sure?”

“Yep.”

Together Mac and Jamie headed toward the bar but Emma was motioning them over. When they ignored her, she yelled out, “Hey!”

Jamie sighed as the pair changed course. “Remember when she was the painfully shy, insecure one?”

“Heady days.”

“Now that she’s getting regular cock, she’s extremely pushy and demanding.”

“Magick cat cock,” her cousin whispered in her ear, which sounded so funny to Jamie she was still laughing when they arrived at the booth. And when Kyle said “Hey, y’all,” the laughing only got worse.

“What’s so funny?” Emma asked.

“Don’t mind her,” Mac said, pushing Jamie toward a chair.

“Wait,” Katie said, sliding out of the booth. “I want that seat.”

Mac stared at the chair. “Why?”

“Don’t argue.” Katie took Jamie’s arm and shoved her into the booth. Jamie had finally stopped laughing until she looked at who she was sitting next to. Tully winked at her and gave her the biggest, cheesiest grin—which made her start laughing all over again, this time Tully laughing with her.

“What?” Emma demanded.

“I can’t believe you actually ordered Long Island Iced Tea,” Tully said to Jamie as she sipped her drink. “That’s so cliché.”

Jamie reached over and picked up his beer bottle. She held it up with the Coors label showing and Tully shrugged. “If it’s good enough for NASCAR…”

“I don’t even know what that sentence means.”

“Yankee.”

“Hillbilly.”

Tully glared at her. “Do you know how wrong it is to call me that?”

“I didn’t mean—”

“I don’t even live in the hills.”

Rolling her eyes, Jamie handed him his beer and relaxed back into the booth.

“You look tired,” he told her.

“Gee, thanks.”

He leaned back until their shoulders were touching. “I don’t mean you look tired and old and it’s time to put you in a nice old folks’ home.”

“Is this your idea of a pep talk?”

“I just mean you look worn out.”

She sipped her drink. “Maybe I am. A little. Nothing to worry about.”

But he wasn’t sure he believed her.

“Are you getting enough sleep?”

“Are you seriously asking me about my sleep habits while we’re listening to pretty good reggae, enjoying our favorite alcoholic beverages, and have so many people around us to make fun of?”

“Yes. I am. You know I like to take care of you. Wipe your nose when you’ve got the sniffles. Feed you when you’re hungry…burp you when you’re gassy.”

“I don’t even have a response for that.”

His phone rang and while he pulled it out of his back pocket he said, “If you could excuse me a moment, beautiful. My adoring constituency is calling.”

“It’s your mother.”

Without looking at the caller ID, Tully said into the phone, “Momma?”

“Hi, sweetheart. Do you have a minute?”

“Yeah, Momma. Hold on.” He covered up the mouthpiece. “You freak me out.”

“You and so many others.”

Shaking his head, he went back to his call. “What’s up, Momma?”

“I need to talk to you about something.”

“It wasn’t me,” he responded automatically. Just like he’d been doing for the last twenty-five years. “It was Kyle. He’s evil, you know? He’s a cat.”

“What are you going on about?”

“I’m pawning the blame off on my idiot brother. That’s what I do.” Tully grinned at the cat who was glaring at him while the cute little witch sat in his lap.

“You just leave your brother alone, Tully Smith,” she laughed. “And nothing is wrong. But I did want to talk to you before I talk to your daddy.”

“Talk to me about what?”

“The call I got a little while ago. From your father.”

All the humor flooded out of him and he asked, “What did he want?”

“Now, pup, before you go gettin’ all upset, let me say he was ever so nice.” Tully knew it for fact. Knew his momma was the nicest woman on the planet. It was the Southern belle in her. The charming sweetness of her made more than one predatory female wonder how Millie MacClancy managed to live in a house with Tully, Kyle, and Jack without killing any of them. But that was her way and, on most, her innate kindness brought out the kindness in others. Even Jack Treharne. But Jack had proved himself to Tully a hundred times over. Buck had not. And Tully didn’t want that old bastard hanging around his momma until he did.

“I’m sure he was, Momma, but I still want to know why he was calling you at all.”

“He wants dinner.” Tully didn’t know he was snarling until he realized the witches at the table were all staring at him. Mac and Emma looked ready to bolt. Jamie just smirked. “Now calm down,” his mother went on. “He wants dinner with all of us. You, me, Jack, Kyle, Katie, Buck’s boys, and Wanda.”

“Momma, I’ve got a lot going on right now. The Mayor’s Spring Dance is taking up a lot of my time and—”

“Tully, I know you don’t want to do this. I know and understand that. Really I do. But…I just…I just want…”

Hearing her struggle for words, Tully felt his heart break a little. “You don’t want it to seem like you tried to get between us.”

She let out a grateful breath. “Yes. Exactly. I understand if you don’t want to get too close to Buck. And in the end that’s going to be your decision. But one dinner to make sure that’s what you want…?”

Anyone else he’d turn them down flat. Anyone else, he’d laugh at them and tell them to go chase their tail. But this wasn’t just anyone. This was his momma. The woman who’d done everything to protect him. She loved him unconditionally and for that she deserved whatever she wanted. Especially when she rarely asked for anything except that high-powered vacuum for last Christmas and a half a pound of chocolates for Valentine’s Day because, to quote her, “I can’t eat a whole pound of chocolates! I have to watch my girlish figure.”

Yeah. For Millie MacClancy Treharne, she deserved whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted it. “Of course, Momma. It’s just a little thing,” he said, using one of her favorite phrases. “I’ll definitely go have dinner with Buck. And so will Kyle and Katie. They can’t wait.”

His siblings glared at him from across the table and he smiled and winked.

He heard his mother let out a soft, relieved sigh. “Thank you, pup.”

“Anything for you, Momma. You know that.”

“And I appreciate that. But now I gotta get your daddy to agree.”

“You’re on your own with that, darlin’.”

“When it comes to Jack Treharne, I usually am.”

They said their good-byes and Tully disconnected the call. He carefully returned his phone to his back pocket, moved his beer and the bowl of chips out of his way, and then slammed his head onto the table.

The pain helped but not as much as he wanted it to.

Jamie put her arm around Tully’s shoulders as she wondered how the wood table had survived being attacked by such a remarkably hard head. “Buck up, little—” Tully turned his head so he could glare at her. “Okay. Wrong word to use. How about ‘chin up’?”

“Or I can kill him while he sleeps and avoid this dinner all together.”

“You should have told Momma no,” Katie chastised.

“Can you tell Momma no?” Kyle asked.

She crossed her eyes and grudgingly admitted, “No.”

“You should have the dinner at the hotel restaurant.” Jamie suggested.

“Why?” Kyle asked.

“If you guys meet Buck at the hotel he’s already staying at, you can leave whenever you want. If it’s going well, you can stay and enjoy Mac’s tolerable food.”

“Tolerable?” Mac snapped.

“If it’s going really well, you can enjoy my superb desserts.”

“I hate you more and more every day,” Mac muttered.

“But if it goes badly, you’re not stranding Buck anywhere. He and his sons are already there. You don’t have to worry about who’s carpooling with who or who needs directions back to the highway, yada yada. You wanna go, you go.”

Tully sat up, his pained expression gone. “You know…that’s a really good idea.”

She sipped her drink before admitting, “What can I say? I’ve had years of practice getting out of bad family dinners.”

Tully walked Jamie and Mac home, swinging by Mac’s place first and then heading into the woods toward the coast. Less than a mile from her house, Jamie stopped. When Tully faced her, she smiled and for some crazy reason, he thought she was about to kiss him. And he really wanted her to. He wanted her to kiss him so bad, he could actually taste her on his lips.

But instead she said, “Thanks for walking me.”

“I can take you all the way home.”

“That’s okay.”

He stepped in closer. “You afraid to take me to your house, Jamie? Afraid I won’t leave until morning?”

“The way this town works?” she laughed. “I know you won’t leave.

“Wow. You are cocky.”

“Not cocky. I just know how it works in Shifterville, USA. One night leads into another and into another until one day I look up and all your shit will be in my house and you’ll be wondering where your breakfast is.”

“Oh, come on.”

“I have seen this dance played out again and again for the last ten months I’ve been here, with couples who I wouldn’t in a million years imagine together. Sorry, handsome, but that won’t be me. I’ve done my time, paid my dues…” She patted his shoulder. “But thanks for thinking of me.”

She stepped away from him and was several feet away when she stopped and looked over her shoulder at him. “And don’t follow me to make sure I get home. That’s just creepy.”

He hated that she knew him so well.

Before walking the last stretch that led to her house, Jamie waited. She wanted to make sure Tully hadn’t followed her. She knew he’d do it just to protect her and while she appreciated it, she simply didn’t want to deal with the fallout from something like that. And the gods knew there’d be all sorts of fallout.

Confident the wolf had headed on home, Jamie took a breath and raised her hands. She held them palms up, her fingers spread out. She began to chant as she slowly moved the last bit to her home. By the time she was fifty or sixty feet away, they all turned toward her. The power she’d raised between her palms flashed hot and bright and she unleashed it. It flew from her and ripped around the perimeter of her house. When it was done, all was quiet but she knew they’d be back. Knew she’d get no rest tonight, as she’d gotten very little rest in the last few weeks.

Letting out an exhausted sigh, she walked into her house. Rico greeted her at the door, the gyrfalcon back to her old self.

“Hi, honey. I’m home.”

The bird squawked at her and Jamie turned in time to see that the spell she’d used—one of her most powerful—had only worked long enough to get her from the road to her house. What she’d sent away had not only returned, but there were more of them now.

One ran at her, charging up the porch stairs. Jamie stepped inside and slammed the door, sealing it shut with a word. But they were banging at the walls now. At the doors and windows. They wanted in, and they wouldn’t stop until they got in.

Swallowing down a bolt of panic, Jamie backed into her house and looked around. She was still safe inside although with all that racket, she’d never get any sleep. But if she couldn’t sleep, she could research. She went to the bookshelf where she kept her Grimoire and spell books. She pulled off her jacket while her gaze moved through the titles. One book stuck out from the rest but she ignored it. She knew what it would tell her to do to stop the onslaught happening outside her house. It would work too. It would stop all this once and for all.

But she’d made a promise to her cousin. Hell, she’d made a promise to herself. She wouldn’t break that promise now.

Still desperate, though, she grabbed other books, a handful of them and went into her living room. She turned her TV on loud and went to work, doing all she could to block out what was happening right outside her house.