Whiskey Witches, F.J. Blooding [ap literature book list .TXT] 📗

conference room, their laptops open. It looked like New Roads had done everything but take over the station. Pretty ballsy move on Brian’s part, but one Paige couldn’t disagree with. All the evidence had been gathered. Statements had been written. She’d reviewed everything a half dozen times already.

“Nope.”

“Great. I need food. Now. Fries. And a burger with extra pickles and bacon. Lots of bacon. Maybe a shake. Chocolate and really big.” He used his hands to show how big a shake he needed.

She snorted. “They don’t come in that size. Where do you put it all anyway?”

He leapt to his feet, digging his keys out of his pocket. “High metabolism.”

“Why are we driving? The diner’s right down the street.”

“There’s another one down the highway I want to try. Brian said it’ll change my life.”

Her chortle died with a hmm. “Oh dear.”

“No judging.”

The air dropped a degree, but the humidity had risen. Not that she could really tell. She looked forward to returning to Denver where the air was drier and cooler.

They arrived at the diner, a little chrome and turquoise building off the highway. Old time rock ‘n’ roll blasted through the speakers. Their waitress took their order and be-bopped to the kitchen in her pink poodle skirt.

“Heavy day,” Dexx said, shoving his straw in his soda.

“Heavy week.” Paige removed the lemon slice from her iced tea and set it aside. “I’ll be glad when this case is over.”

He nodded, his lips pursed. “Want to talk?”

“About?”

“About your mother, your daughter, your memories. Anything. I’m being your friend here, Pea. You’ve had a lot of shit thrown at you with no time to deal with it.”

“Oh, good grief. I’m not going to sit here and cry on your shoulder.”

“Maybe if you’d grieved before, you wouldn’t have called the demon to kill Rachel, and we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

She massaged her temple. He was right. Nothing else had to be said about it, though. His words were true. End of story.

He snapped his fingers in front of her face. “Yeah. Like that. Whatever is going on right there, you need to share. Get it out. Purge it.”

“Because talking about it will make everything all better.”

He shrugged. “No and yes all at the same time.”

“The thing is…” She let her voice trail off as thoughts and emotions battled with each other inside of her mind. She didn’t want to talk, didn’t want to share, but her mouth had other ideas. “I hate her. I really, really hate her.”

Dexx lifted his eyebrows in acknowledgment. “I’m not her biggest fan ever.”

“I want to kill her.” Paige met his gaze. “I want to maim her, to hurt her.” She ground her teeth. “I don’t know how to handle this, control it. This anger—it changed me.” Her throat clogged with emotion.

Dexx laid his hand next to hers on the table. “You’re stronger than you were then. You’re handling this a lot better.”

“I called that demon, Dexx. I told him to kill my mother and I really, really wanted him to. I didn’t think of Leah or how that would affect her. My only thoughts were for myself.”

“We’re all allowed selfish moments.”

“Not homicidal ones. The thing is, I’d do it again. The thought’s crossed my mind. Who would I summon? Who would do as I commanded?”

“You could hire a hit man.”

“Demons are cheaper.”

“Wow.” He released short breath, his eyebrows raised. “Just wow. I hadn’t thought of that. So, no soul signing?”

“I’m a summoner. So, no.”

“You could hire me. I’d do it practically free. Just pay for my gas, I’m your man.”

“You’d go to jail for me, too?”

“Look, Pea.” Dexx grabbed a sugar packet and dumped it on the table. “If she’d done to me what she did to you, I’d be in jail. She’d be dead. By my hands.”

Paige’s eyebrows rose in slow increments.

“I’m not a nice person, either.” He ran his fingertip through the spilled sugar. “That doesn’t make me bad. I just don’t take shit from anybody. I know my limits. Well, sometimes I do. Most times I stay within them.”

She watched his finger move the grains of sugar around, drawing a picture of Mickey Mouse. At least she thought it was Mickey. It could have been a camel.

“But what you’ve gotta do now is figure out what you’re going to do with it. The hate, the anger. How are you going to use it?”

“I feel like I’m evil or tainted or something horrible.”

“You’re not. At least, not yet. Are you going to go around killing people?”

The obvious answer was no. Yes, the anger beckoned, but it wasn’t enough to drive her into homicidal action. Thoughts? Sure. Thoughts were easy. Actions were different. “What happened to the smartass? Where’d this come from?”

“Being a smartass is my cover so that when I have my one minute of smart, I’m brilliant.”

She rubbed her eye. “I don’t want to get back to the lying. That’s the one thing I loved about the last three years and didn’t even realize it. I didn’t have to lie. I didn’t have to cover anything up. Having the chief and Agent Scott know is such a relief. I won’t have that in Denver, though.”

“The solution is to quit. Either quit the demon thing or quit the Force.”

“I’m almost glad.” Thoughts churned wildly in her brain, but her heart was calm. The kind of calm that only comes when someone stumbles upon a truth they wouldn’t otherwise have believed. “I’m kind of happy they made me forget. All this. Magick. Demons. The responsibility.”

Dexx nodded.

“Rachel. Leah.”

Dexx bit the inside of his lip.

“What a fucking coward.”

“Not so much. I’ve seen people who—” He clicked his tongue. “I mean, everyone has their demons. They have their bad days and their fears. There are lots of people who are overwhelmed and they all handle it different. Some people kill others. Some kill themselves. Others grow into hateful, spiteful old biddies. You showed you’re human.”

“Because that’s awesome.”

Dexx curled the tips of his fingers in hers. “You needed that break and it’s okay. It happened. Get over it.”

She still felt like a jerk.

“You’re not a bad person, Pea.”

She couldn’t stop the negative emotions twisting her gut.

He captured her gaze and held it. “And I’m not going anywhere. Not until you need me to.”

What? Where had that come from? Part of her leapt with joy. The other flinched at the implications of his statement. “You’re a traveler, Dexx. You don’t know how to stay in one place.”

“Maybe. But I don’t care. I’m here, you need me.”

“And if I need you for a year?”

His eyebrows rose, the corners of his eyes drooping. “We’ll have to see when we get there.”

Paige extracted her hand from his. The idea, the thought of allowing another person in—

She shook herself. No. They’d solve this case. He’d go back to New York, or maybe he’d find another hunt down the road. They’d go their separate ways and be done. She needed to redraw the line. “We need to find Lucius. After he walked out of the cell, he disappeared.”

He frowned at her hand as she tucked it beneath the table. “I don’t know. Maybe you should let him go, do his own thing.”

“This coming from the same guy who wants to send all demons to Hell.”

“Right. Right.”

The waitress came by with their food.

“Anything else?” she asked.

They both waved her off and she went to another table.

“But the thing is, Pea, you’re open for possession, which means having you near any demon is a bad, bad, bad idea.”

“You heard him, though. He doesn’t feel he has to possess me.”

“Great for him. I still say let him be. I’d rather you were safe.”

Hearing those words, the caring he offered. Jesus. She didn’t know what to do with it. Take it? How? Give it back? Reject it? Remain independent and alone? “While a bunch of demons run wild on the earth.”

He shoved several fries in his mouth at once.

“I see what you did there.”

He hrmphed at her. There could have been words, but the fries stole them.

She concentrated on her burger. Well, she had to prepare it first. She realized she was weird. She owned it. She took off the bun, setting it on a napkin. Then placed the tomato and the lettuce with it. Soggy bun? Gross. Green tomato? Also gross. She took the mustard and slathered the patty, placing the pickles on top with careful precision.

“There’s a drug for your psychosis. You know that, right?”

She glared at him and cut into her burger.

“Okay.” He shoved a bite of burger in his cheek, resembling a chipmunk. “Why can’t we call in the angels?”