A Barrel of Whiskey - (An Urban Fantasy Whiskey Witches Novel) (27 page)

Becky bowed her head.

Alma stepped up, her white eyes glowing in the shifter sight. “But you don’t have open access to cross my thresholds.” She glared up at Paige with those glowing eyes. “And the thresholds are still mine.”

“Technically, I believe they’re Leslie’s.” Paige raised her eyebrows and nodded at the angel. “But what she said.” She released her oozy witch hands laced with Cawli’s silvery spirit and pressed a single blue ribbon of Becky’s Grace into the ward near the front sidewalk entrance. “You will always have to walk up the sidewalk. You can take no other path to our home.”

“Understood.”

The ward crackled with electricity, but the pitch of the snap changed the longer Paige pressed the ribbon to it. Eventually, there were mere sizzles and the faint outline of a pale blue doorway just tall enough for Becky to enter, and just wide enough for her wings to fit while folded.

Paige switched off her shifter vision and smiled at Becky. “Thank you for everything. I’ll keep Bobby safe.”

“I do apologize for the inconvenience.”

“I just hope Rachel buys our story. If she does any digging—”

“She’s not a detective, Pea,” Alma grumbled, glaring up at Paige with a confused and thoughtful expression. “She’s not going to investigate you.”

“She might not, but she has Michael on her side.”

Becky nodded. “And he most certainly will investigate. Okay. What other things do I need to lay down to pass his initial review?”

“Well-baby doctor visits?” Paige started ticking the list off. “Insurance claims per visit, the bills and when they were paid. That shows up on the credit report which is the first thing to do when investigating anyone. Um, credit card purchases. We just now bought all of Bobby’s things. They should have been purchased months ago. Also, there should be a crib for him in my apartment. If I’d been pregnant, I would have thought of that.”

“Not everyone does,” Alma said.

“Shut up,” Leslie grumbled.

Paige smiled. “Also, the plane ride to Louisiana. Leslie and I would have had to have been pregnant at the same time and if Les couldn’t have gotten on a plane to get to Louisiana, then I couldn’t have either.”

“I have a plan for that one,” Becky said.

Paige hoped it was something good because that was a big red flag. “I do have the birth certificate.”

Becky nodded. “Dexx has been named as the father.”

“We should probably check to see if we were actually able to conceive at the right time.”

“I will check.”

“Didn’t Dexx already say it was possible?” Alma asked.

“He pulled shit out of his ass and flung it at Rachel who was flailing at being stonewalled.” Paige glanced down at Bobby’s little face and sighed. “Trust me. She’s not giving up. She’s going to dig. She’s going to figure out the truth if we don’t do something to prevent it.”

“Don’t worry.” Becky put her hand on Bobby’s bundled body. “I’ll take care of it.”

“There are also eye-witness events. No one saw me pregnant. No one mentioned it.”

“I’ve already started with memory plants. I started at the station. I should be able to get to everyone except for Sven.”

“And, hopefully, she never runs into that demon.”

“Exactly. It’s highly unlikely.”

Paige conceded with her eyebrows.

“Thank you, Paige.”

She narrowed her eyes at the angel. “For what?”

“You’re endangering the lives of your family for one small child who could affect the world greatly in times to come.”

“Yeah, well, what kind of person would I be to let a baby die?” A practical one? Well, she wasn’t that. Apparently.

“Well, thank you again.”

“Be careful leaving. I don’t want to tip off the opposing forces of what you are. And bring Roxxie by.”

“We’ll call first.” Becky gestured over her shoulder as she turned to the door. “The wards.”

“Exactly. Be careful.”

“I will.” She left.

A cop car pulled up at about that time.

“Dexx,” Paige called. “Cops. You called them. You deal with them.”

“Yeah,” he shouted from the kitchen. “Be right there.”

Paige closed the door behind her.

Alma stood in the workroom door at the foot of the stairs, one hand on her hip, her wrinkled face twisted and disgruntled. “What was that?”

“What was what, Grandma?”

“The wards?”

“A thought. I just had a thought and, guess what? It worked. Beautifully. So, yay, us!”

“Who controls the wards now?”

“Um.” Paige did, probably. “We’ll work on that. Okay? So, yeah. I didn’t mean anything by it.”

Alma turned back into the work room.

“Grandma, please don’t be—”

Alma turned, her hand raised, her expression relaxed at least a little. “You’re outgrowing me, Pea. I need to be happy about that. I need to be pleased that I’ve taught you how to take care o’ yourself and your family. And I am. It just feels, well, a little disjointed is all. I need to find my new place.”

“No, Grandma.” Paige sighed, not knowing what to say. She
was
getting older. They couldn’t rely on her the way they used to. They had to start doing for themselves more and relying on her less. “We have to carry our own. You’ve carried us long enough. Don’t you think?”

Nodding, her wrinkled lips flat and pushed out, Alma thunked the doorframe with one hand. “Well, I can get back to my quilting, then.”

Paige had never known Alma quilted.

Leslie herded the kids out of the workroom, listening to Tyler and Mandy squabble loudly. “Go clean your rooms,” she barked over the two of them.

Leah was pushed ahead of the pack. She tripped, caught herself and hurried to stand behind Paige.

“No!” Paige yelled in a commanding, stop the entire team to listen voice. “We have an entire house that’s been wrecked. We have a kitchen to clean, a living room to straight, a work room to tidy.”

“I’ve got the work room,” Alma called. “It’s still mine,” she grumbled.

“I heard that,” Paige said.

“Good.”

Paige pulled from her diaphragm again and continued barking orders. “Bedrooms can wait. First, we straight what fell. Anything that’s broken we pile on a table and see if we can glue back together. Mandy, you get the living room. Pay attention. Don’t be a slob.”

“On it,” Mandy said with a curt nod, straightening to a sloppy attention.

“Once you’re done straightening and picking up, might as well dust. We had a lot of shit falling from the ceiling.”

“Paige,” Leslie admonished. “Language.”

Seriously? That woman. “Once that’s done, sweep and vacuum.” As a kid, she’d always hated working on the living room floor because it wasn’t just vacuuming. The rugs didn’t cover the entire floor and in places, hardwood peeked out. It was annoying.

“Tyler, you’ve got the kitchen.”

“Aye, aye, Captain!” Tyler clicked his socked heels together and saluted with a lazy elbow. He straightened, dropped his hand, and waited.

“Pick everything up first. Put the shards that are easy to pick up on the dining room table.”

“Just throw them away,” Alma called, poking her head out of the workroom. “There ain’t nothin’ in that kitchen worth gluin’ back together.”

Paige tipped her head to the side. “You heard the woman. Throw them away. Get shoes on, both of you. No working with your shoes off.”

“Okay,” Mandy said, her leg twitching as if to run up the stairs.

“Aye, aye!” Tyler yelled.

Paige’s eardrums rang. That boy and his voice. “Okay? Go!”

The two thundered up the stairs, shoving each other out of the way.

“And, Tyler, you sweep when you’re done. And this will take as long as you make it! So, hurry and be done quickly, or be lazy frelling sloths and take all week. No X-box until you’re done!”

“We have a Wii,” Mandy called, disappearing down the hall.

“Fine,” Paige yelled louder. “No Wii!”

Leslie stared at her sister in wonder. “How did you do that?”

Paige smiled smugly. “I babysit adults all day.”

Snorting, Leslie ducked her head. “Okay. Where do you want me?”

“Bedrooms?” Paige shrugged. “You could keep an eye on Kamden and Bobby better that way.”

Leslie nodded. “I can do that. But you’re bringing Bobby up.”

“You got it.”

Dexx ducked back into the house from the front door. “Cops dealt with. Thanked them for her time. She’s awesome.”

“When did you leave?” Paige asked, scrambling to get out of his way.

“Back door, dude.”

“Oh.” She totally missed that.

Tru entered the entryway through the hall. “What do you need us to do?”

“Well, I know you’re itching to clean guns.”

Dexx grinned. He loved cleaning guns.

“But I need one of you with Mandy in the living room and one with Tyler in the kitchen. I’ll let you two boys duke that out.”

“You got it, boss,” Tru said with a smile. “Did you see me? I shot one of those hounds.”

Paige widened her eyes, her lips flat. “Great.” She loved shooting. She just didn’t necessarily love shooting at things, especially if they were alive and wiggling. If she was hunting for food, that might be one thing. She could probably work around that. But shooting someone else to protect her and her own? Yeah. She wasn’t about to fucking hesitate. Fuck that fucking shit. No. However, she didn’t enjoy it.

“He nicked it.” Dexx chuckled and turned into the living room. “It’ll live. Who do I have, again?”

Paige shook her head. “Whoever you pick.”

“Mandy,” he threw back his head and yelled.

“Coming!” Mandy’s muffled voice was quickly followed by thundering footsteps. “Are these okay, Aunt Paige?” Mandy showed off her pink snow boots from the third from the top step, her expression worried. “It’s the thickest sole I have.”

“Snow boots?” Paige frowned at Leslie. “Where’d you get those?”

“We were going to visit you in Denver and everyone got excited to see snow.” Leslie raised her hand. “It was a thing. They’re fine, Mand.” Leslie headed up the stairs. “Go on. Dexx is helping you in the living room.”

“Sweet!” Mandy hopped and ran down the stairs, easily dodging her mother and baby brother. “Dexx!” She ran into the living room and leapt at him.

He laughed. “What is with all the energy?”

“We totally kicked booty out there today.”

“You did. Now, do me a favor and don’t make me do all the work.”

“What?” Mandy plucked at her purple shirt and shimmied. “Don’t make
me
do all the work.”

“Hey, Grandma.” Paige ducked into the workroom now that everyone had their jobs assigned. Well, except Leah, but Paige knew exactly what Leah was going to do. Cleaning up her ghost mess.

“Yeah?” Alma was working on righting books on the back bookshelf. “What’s up, Peanut?”

“I met the local shapeshifters’ pack leader today.”

“You what?” Alma swung around, then stopped herself. She set her palms down on the table, her wide shoulders squared. “Well. You’ve certainly had a busy day. What happened?”

“Well, I got the history of why we came to Texas.”

Alma bit her top lip.

“Did you know?”

Shaking her head and looking up at the ceiling, Alma sighed. “They were fairy tale stories. I had to deal with Momma, you understand. She wasn’t handlin’ her gift near as well as you do. She wasn’t right in the head. It was a fight to keep her from killin’ herself. I was worried for her. So the stories my grandmamma told me about the shifter battles were neat deterrents. Honestly, child, I didn’t even really think about them until you ran across the shifters there in Denver.”

“Hmm.” Paige ducked her head. “Well, we have a new treaty. I told Chuck you had to review it, and then we’d probably sit down and review it as a family before we could sign it.”

Alma stared at the wooden table with her white eyes. “What do you think?”

“I think it’s a good treaty. It cuts the limitations from the Whiskeys and Chuck’s pack.”

“And that’s a good thing?”

“Yeah, Grandma. It really is. We could use their help. They could use ours. They’re not bad people, Grandma, and neither are we.”

“Well, at least we’re not the Eastwoods.”

“But Mark was,” Paige said quietly. “Why didn’t you tell me about our connection to them?”

Alma shook her head and lifted one shoulder. “They were stories. By the time you showed up with him and I figured out who and what he was, it was too late. ‘Sides, he was a good man.”

He had been, too. Paige had been so in love with him. She shook herself. Reminiscing wasn’t what she was standing in the doorway for.

“Grandma…” Paige licked her bottom lip, afraid of saying what she was planning to and not knowing how to do it. “We’re thinking of moving back to Portland.”

“What?” Alma’s expression went silent and still, her body not moving.

“We’re thinking of moving to Oregon. Maybe not Portland, but I would have a better chance of landing a job there. And Leslie and Tru are thinking of joining me.”

“When were you going to tell me this? Officially?”

“We were trying to find the best time.”

“And this was it?”

“Nope. But is there really a best time for this kind of conversation?”

Alma raised her hands to either side of her and let them fall with a shake of her head. “I guess not.”

“Yeah. I guess not.”

“So, you’re sidin’ with the pack and then takin’ the fight to Merry’s door.”

Paige nodded.

“Doesn’t make much sense.”

Oh, right. Alma didn’t know the rest. “Unless the pack is moving with us.”

Alma studied the table top. “Could be disastrous.”

Yeah. “Would be worse if we took the battle to Merry without backup.”

Sighing, Alma looked up, her lips screwed to the side for a long moment before she spoke. “You’re going to keep on with Dexx, then?”

Yeah. She was. “I have an animal spirit inside me, Grandma. Why give him up when I break the treaty ten ways to Sunday?”

“Well, we could probably hide.”

Why? “I don’t want to.”

Alma raised her chin and dropped her gaze.

“When did you start hiding instead of fighting, Grandma?”

The corners of Alma’s eyes drooped. “When I found myself raisin’ my daughter’s daughters, I guess. Funny thing happens to ya when you realize how badly you failed the first time.”