Belong To The Night Read online

  “She’s still breathing, but we need to get her to a vet.”

  Jamie nodded before glancing over at Bear.

  “Y’all go,” the grizzly said. “I’ll take care of things here.”

  “You need my gun?”

  And Tully didn’t even have to look to know that Bear was smiling. “Darlin’…that’s the last thing I need.

  Chapter Seven

  “That didn’t go as well as I’d hoped,” Tully finally said to her after an hour of sitting in silence in the Colton City Veterinary Clinic waiting room, about forty-five minutes or so away from Smithville. He’d seemed surprised the bird had lasted the trip but Jamie wasn’t.

  “I’m sorry about that,” she said.

  “Sorry about what? Y’all didn’t do anything wrong. It was them.”

  “It’s not like they knew or could even comprehend the relationship I have with Rico. You can’t really blame them. They thought they were just shootin’ a bird.”

  “Exactly. That’s the problem. We have a cooperative relationship with birds. Mostly crows but they’re real loyal to their own. If we start shootin’ them out of the sky, they will turn on us in a heartbeat.”

  “I didn’t realize.”

  “Your bird shit on my head and lived to squawk about it. That wasn’t a clue?”

  “Now see? I thought you let that go because you liked me so much.”

  He leaned in until his shoulder pressed against hers. “She shit on my head.”

  Laughing for the first time in a while, Jamie nodded. “I got it. I’m clear.”

  “All right then.”

  The vet walked out of the back, smiling at them. “Well, much to my surprise, it looks as if your bird is going to make it.”

  Jamie widened her eyes and opened her mouth a little to give the impression this information really shocked her. “Are you sure?”

  “I am!” the vet said. “Now, she is going to need a lot of care over the next few days.”

  “Of course.”

  “And I really should check, but do you have a falconers’ license?”

  Jamie didn’t even know there was such a thing. “Well,” she decided to go with at least a partial truth, “she showed up one day and didn’t really leave. I didn’t know I needed a license.”

  “Actually, one of you should have it. But I’m not going to make a big deal out of it. Just something to think about if you take her to another vet. They may ask a lot more questions.”

  “No problem.”

  “Okay.” The vet smiled. “We’ll have her ready for you in a bit and we’ll give you the medications you’ll need to care for her.”

  “That’s great! Thank you!” Once the doctor walked out of the waiting room, Jamie let that painful fake smile drop. “I can’t believe I have to pay all that money for crap that bird doesn’t even need.”

  “And why doesn’t she need it?”

  “Seneca. She’s our resident healer. As soon as that arrow hit Rico, she unleashed a spell to heal her. Which also explains why she went off on…what’s his name?”

  “Luther.”

  “Yeah. Luther. There are side effects when you use all that magick, that fast, with no prep. For her it’s rage.” Jamie shook her head. “I need a falconer’s license. Are they kidding?”

  Tully laughed but it died away as Jamie heard the tinkle sound of the bell at the front when the door opened and hit it. She looked up and watched the large, hulking man walk across the room toward them. He stopped in front of them and nodded at Tully before focusing on Jamie.

  “Miss Jamie,” he said, holding his hand out. “The name’s Buck Smith, and I wanted to apologize about what happened earlier today.”

  Tully didn’t know what his father was doing there but as he watched Jamie slip her hand into his grip, all he wanted to do was break the old wolf’s arm off at the shoulder.

  “I’ll be dealing with my boys when I get back but I wanted you to know right up front that what happened wasn’t okay in my book.”

  It wasn’t? Since when?

  “I appreciate you coming here to tell me that yourself,” Jamie said. “It makes me feel a whole lot better about everything.”

  She cannot be buying this.

  “And I appreciate you giving me my say. I also expect you to add whatever you pay here to my bill.”

  “That’s not necessary.”

  “It is to me. You promise me that you’ll do that.”

  “Okay.”

  “Thank you.” He still held her hand, studying it before he released her, nodded at them both, and walked out.

  Tully followed right behind him. As they neared the old coot’s truck, Tully asked, “What the hell are you up to, old man?”

  Buck stopped and faced him. “I’m not up to anything. And watch how you talk to me, boy. I ain’t that feline you grew up with.”

  And there he was. There was Buck Smith.

  “You ain’t foolin’ me for a second.”

  Buck smiled. “Don’t know what you mean…son.”

  Tully growled while Buck walked around to the driver’s side of his pickup. He got inside and slammed the door shut, his arm resting on the frame of the open window. “You know, I’ve been thinkin’, maybe it’s time we put the past behind us.”

  “Is that right?”

  “It would make my Wanda real happy. She don’t like all this discourse.”

  “Can you even spell discourse?”

  “Funny. You were always real funny.” Buck started up his truck. “All I’m asking for is a chance. A chance to make it all right. You think on it.”

  Tully stood in the parking lot for he didn’t know how long after his father had driven away. Other patients came in, the dogs snarling and snapping at him or cowering on their leashes, the cats hissing at him from their crates. A stallion horse, brought in for treatment in the back where they took the farm animals, busted out of his trailer before his owner could even get out of her truck and took off running down the street, half the vet staff running after him. And the whole time Tully didn’t move a muscle until Jamie came outside with a bandaged Rico in a makeshift crate and a bag of medicine hanging from her fist. She stopped beside him, studying him without saying a word.

  “He says he wants to put the past behind us.”

  Jamie shrugged. “Well—”

  “Don’t tell me what you think I want to hear, Jamie,” he cut in, desperate to hear truth. Absolute truth. “Tell me what you feel.”

  “What I feel?” She let out a breath. “I feel like I want a chocolate shake from the McDonald’s down the street. I feel that Rico is going to really milk the sympathy as long as she can. And I feel if your father had half a chance, he’d cut your throat and leave you bleeding out by the lake I accidentally poisoned. But what’s in your favor is that he wants something. And he’s not going to make a move until he gets it. But if you push him out now, he’ll only be back later. Maybe at a real bad time. I’m a big fan of waiting to see what people will do rather than simply reacting. Just make sure you’re ready for him. Anyway…that’s my opinion.” She tugged on his T-shirt. “Come on. Let’s get that shake.” Then suddenly, she surprised him and, he was guessing, herself, by going on her toes and kissing his cheek. Her brown eyes blinked wide and then she tossed out, trying to sound casual, “That’s for coming with me today. And for last night.”

  And for the first time since his father had driven off, Tully suddenly saw everything around him in crystal perfection. The blue sky above, the dusty dirt at his feet, the stallion charging back up the opposite side of the street, the vet techs and owner still trying to catch him, and the amazing ass hanging out from the back passenger side of the SUV as Jamie placed the crate with her bird inside the vehicle. After a few minutes of outright rude ogling by him, he heard Jamie let out an annoyed sigh and she turned to face him. “Mind giving me a hand, Tully?”

  He refused to move because he didn’t know what she wanted a hand with.

  “S
he won’t settle down back here. I think you may have to hold her.”

  The bird. She’s talking about the bird. Which was a good thing, because if she was talking about something else, they wouldn’t be leaving this parking lot for hours and Colton City was a family-friendly town. In the end it wouldn’t be right. It would be fun…but not right.

  At least not yet.

  Chapter Eight

  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.”