whiskey witches 01 - whisky witches (36 page)

Running away

isn’t always cowardice.

Sometimes, it’s about saving your life

to fight another day.

Other times,

The fight just isn’t worth it.

P
AIGE AND DEXX
had been reviewing the evidence all morning, trying to deduce where Sven hid. Nothing. Paige knew they couldn’t sit around and wait for the answers to magickally appear out of the air. That was stupid. They lacked the information they needed. Malika and Jones weren’t going to tell her anything useful. They needed a new plan.

Dexx sat in a chair, his feet spread, his elbows on his knees, his eyes glazed.

Paige leaned against the table, not even seeing the files in front of her. “I’m done waiting.” The words practically exploded from her.

Dexx raised his numbed gaze off the floor. “Yeah. Me too. What do you have in mind?”

Paige stared through him. “Who do we tail? Who do we stake out? How’s Sven attached to Jones or Malika?”

“Right. All of that.”

She slapped her hands against her legs and stood up. “We need to find where their hang out is.”

“Hmm.” Dexx followed her out of the inn. “Okay. So, where do we start?”

Paige thought about it until they reached Dexx’s car. “Malika’s house?”

“If she’s in lock-up, what are we going to see?” Dexx leaned against Jackie’s roof. “It’s been combed over pretty good. There’s no evidence left to collect. If there’s anyone left to tail, that’s probably the last place they’d go. It’s a straw and you’re grasping.”

“All of our options are straws. The last place we’d look is the best place to hide. Maybe someone will show up, lead us to Sven.”

“By sheer will of bad luck?”

She took in the bright blue sky, ignoring the humid heat. She was starting to get acclimated. Dang it. She didn’t want to get acclimated. “Would you prefer staring at the same old notes and getting nowhere, or pretend we’re doing some good, pray for a little good luck, and get nowhere somewhere else?”

“You have a wonderful way with debate. Fine. Whatever. I’ve followed worse, anyway.” He disappeared into the car.

Paige slid into the passenger seat.

“All right. So what do we do if we run into a demon. Or Sven?”

As if Sven wasn’t a demon.

Dexx turned the key. Jackie rumbled to life. He put her in gear and guided her to the blacktop road leading to town. “Do you have a plan on how to handle that?”

“Actually, yes. Back before Grandma found out I summoned demons, she taught Leslie and I how to use earth magicks. Once I discovered my gifts, I didn’t use them as much. I didn’t really need to.”

Dexx raised his eyebrows. “I’m waiting for the awesome part of this plan.”

He could be such a douche. “Demons use a different sort of magick, something from the dimension they’re from.”

“This is starting to sound ten kinds of science fiction.”

“Call it whatever you like, but the idea of multiple dimensions has been hypothesized for thousands of years.”

“Wow. You just got nerdy. I think you just turned me on.”

She rolled her eyes.

Dexx drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “Okay, so Hell is like another Earth?”

“Kind of, I guess. I don’t know. When I see a demon, they feel different, but not in a way that’s easy to pin down. More like how a song turns creepy when sung in a minor key.”

“Wow. Where’d that come from?”

Paige sighed as they came to a stop sign. “I was on Facebook. Someone posted a version of ‘Every Breath You Take’ done in, I don’t know, some minor key. It was creepy. Just creepy and cool and . . . off.”

“Interesting.” Dexx stared in his rear view.

Paige glanced at him. “What’s wrong?”

“We’ve developed a tail.”

“Anyone we know?”

“Brian.” Dexx pulled onto the shoulder and parked Jackie under a tree, rolling down the window. After a few minutes, Paige heard the sound of footsteps. “What’s up, Chief?”

Brian set his hand on the door. “The car behind you is your detail. Don’t lose them.”

Paige rubbed her cheek. “Remind me what good they’re going to be with a demon?”

He raised an eyebrow, thumped the car door, and walked away.

Dexx clucked his tongue. “All business, that one.”

She shrugged.

“Good. I’m happier.” Dexx put Jackie in gear and accelerated sedately away.

“Seriously?”

“Help in any form is help.”

“No it isn’t. Sometimes, help is just fodder.” Her heart sank with the weight of that truth.

Silence filled the car.

“What were we talking about before Brian?” Dexx asked.

Paige spread her open hands. “Don’t remember.”

“Because we were just talking about it a second ago?”

“Brian was a huge interruption. Also, the car tailing us has a human who’s probably going to end up dead because of us.”

“Thank you, Glass Half Empty.”

“Don’t get me wrong. Fodder’s how a good zombie apocalypse team survives.”

His expression twisted in incredulity. “Are you kidding me? Zombie apocalypse shows up, and your survival plan is fodder?”

“I gotta be realistic. Yes. I can fight. But there are a lot of people who will plain refuse. Why waste the life? Use it as a good defense.”

He passed the turn-off to the Metley Plantation. “You realize, of course, you’re just making it harder on yourself because now you have that many more zombies to kill.”

“Only if they find me.”

Dexx turned down a residential street. “You are twisted.”

Paige chuckled. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d bantered for the purpose of having nothing else to say. Sometimes, the stupid, boring moments really were the best.

Dexx followed a one-lane, paved road. “So, do you stock up on weapons first, or food?”

“All I have to do is make it home. The weapons and food are there.”

“Seriously.”

“Hey, when the CDC comes up with a zombie plan, it’s serious. Yeah, I’m gonna pay attention.”

He shot her a disbelieving look out of the corner of his eye. “No joking?”

“In my defense, most of it wasn’t gathered for the zombie apocalypse. I have weapons. Comes with the business.”

“The business of being a cop.”

“Yeah. Shut it.” Most cops had a gun or two. She had . . . well, she had an arsenal of other weapons. A compound bow, a crossbow, a hatchet, and a lot of knives. “The food kind of happened. I buy things on sale, which means I usually buy too much. And then I forget about it, or choose something easier, something frozen.”

A low, dry chuckle escaped him. “Oh, boy. Pea, I never would have seen you in this light before.”

“I’m not bad to have on a zombie hunting team.”

“Until you decide I’m fodder.”

She laughed and shook her head. “A demon hunter? Fodder? Right.”

The trees disappeared, revealing a small outcropping of houses. They drove down a couple of streets before Dexx parked Jackie. Malika’s little blue house sat nestled down the street. They watched for several minutes, saying nothing.

Paige took off her seatbelt.

Dexx turned toward her. “What’s going on with us?”

“What?” Startled, she twisted to see him better. “I don’t—I don’t know.”

“Tell me I’m not the only one—I mean, we have a connection.”

Oh, dear God. They were having that conversation. Shit. She was awful at relationships. She’d fallen in love once, with Leah’s father. But when he’d died in a car accident, she’d never been interested in entering another relationship. Until Dexx. Jesus. What did she want to do with him? “Yeah. I enjoy being with you.”

“I feel better with you around.”

She narrowed her gaze and focused her attention on the gear shift. “I appreciate the fact I can tell you anything.”

“You don’t, though. You’re really not good with saying things that really matter to you.”

She tipped her head to the side. “I tell you more than I do anyone else.”

“So, why can’t we have sex?”

Paige blinked. “Blunt.”

“End of the day, I’m still me.”

“Right. Um, well, uh, for me, things would get complicated.” Fact of the matter, she wanted to have sex with him. But he was her partner.

“What’s complicated about sex?” He placed his knee on the seat between them, the leather squeaking under his shifting weight. “We’re together a lot. I find you attractive. I’ve seen how you look at me when you think I’m not paying attention.”

She winced. “Can’t deny it.” Didn’t mean she knew what she wanted to with him, though. She didn’t. On one hand, she wanted to keep things the way they were. She liked what they had. On the other hand, gaw-dang, the man was sexy. She wanted to eat him alive.

“Right. So . . .” He narrowed his eyes, his crow’s feet crinkling into place. “We could work, Pea. Think about it. You’re a demon summoner.”

“You’re a hunter.” She let out a puff of breath.

The car filled with silence.

“We work pretty good together.”

Which was part of the problem. “We sure do.”

“Friends with benefits could be hugely beneficial.”

“Casual benefits.” She didn’t know what she thought of that. Mostly, she was pretty sure she couldn’t do that. She wasn’t a casual sex kind of person. Well, not that she’d ever given it much of a chance.

“You’re not the kind of woman who needs romanced. Are you?”

“What do you mean, I don’t need romanced? Candles, paying for dinner, daisies, opening the door, those are nice.”

“Yeah, but—” His eyes widened. “You’re not serious, are you?”

“I’m not the kind of girl you generally pick up at the bar. I’m intense . . . Mostly intense.”

“Trust me. I noticed.”

“I’m not impressed by your devilish smile, or that sexy gleam in your eye.” No. She totally had. “I don’t give a rip about your ass.”

“You’re a liar. Are you looking for a relationship, then? How would your job feel about our affair?”

She hadn’t missed the reference to her being married to her job. “Seriously, shut it. Good grief.”

“You don’t think so? When was the last time you thought of doing anything other than work?”

She pursed her lips in thought. He had a point.

“Even though your memories were stripped, you sought emotional refuge in work. Now, you’re a workaholic.”

“Let me guess. There’s a drug for that.”

“Yes.” Dexx widened his hands, his expression open. “Sex.”

She barked a laugh. “Does it come in a pill?”

He pushed his lips out, his eyebrows raised. “It comes from the sugar on my lips.”

She burst into a fit of giggles. “Oh my god.”

“I’m being serious.”

She regained composure and studied Malika’s house.

Dexx grinned in silence.

Something moved in the thick bushes separating Malika’s yard from her neighbor’s. “What was that?”

“What was what?” He pushed himself up in his seat.

It moved again. “There.”

“Where?”

“In the bushes. Something’s moving.”

“Is there a genie or something here we should know about?”