Blaze (Queen's Birds of Prey 2)

“I do. About two grand, I think. I also have credit cards with my name on them, as well as credit accounts all over the country. Some homes, too, that we’re going to visit soon. Things that belong to me and my wife.” He told him that he should tell her that he spent the cash and to give it to him. “No. that is never going to happen. Not to mention, I won’t lie to my wife about it. There is no way in hell that I’m going to ever do a damned thing for you or with you again.”

“She’s sort of butch. Don’t you think?” Bryson just put his arms over his chest and said nothing. “Boy, I never noticed how big you’ve gotten. You must have gotten that from your old man.”

“I wouldn’t know. I never saw him after he was killed and you took me from them.” That wasn’t what he meant and he told Bryson that. “If you mean I got it from you, then that’s not even possible. You’re nothing to me. Not by blood or love.”

“You don’t love me? Hell, I made you what you are today, didn’t I?” Bryson told him no. “You sure do like that word, don’t you? I m

ean, you say it pretty near all the time now.”

“No, I don’t love you. I don’t know that I ever did after you made Ellen cry when you took the money that was to buy Clara and me food for the week. You made her cry a great deal.” Curt said that she got over it. “I’m sure she did. But I didn’t. We went hungry because you were a fucking gambling addict that needed a fix all the time.”

“Your sister said that same thing to me.” He waited for Bryson to deny Clara being his sister. “So, she can be your sister, but I can’t be your daddy? You do know that she’s no more your sister than I am your daddy. Right?”

“I love her. You’re a pain in the ass. Why are you looking for Ellen?” Curt started to ask him where he’d heard that and eyed the store again, knowing that little shit had told his boy. “She’s not going to help you with whatever you have going on in your head. I just found out that you were having affairs, and she had had enough.”

“How the fuck did you get that? That man in there, he sure is nosy, don’t you think?” Bryson asked him again why he was contacting her. “I don’t want her talking to you about my business. I’m thinking that you’ve already spoke to her, and she’s giving out things that don’t concern you.”

“Yes, I’ve already talked to her. In fact, she’s coming here today so that I can have a nice long talk with her. About you, if you want to know.” Curt asked him why. “Because I think you’ve been holding onto secrets long enough. I want answers that you’re not giving me. Not unless we pay you. I called Ellen, and she said that she had stuff on you that would put you in jail.”

“Why on earth would she do that? Damn it, Bryson, why are you making trouble for me? What did I ever do to you?” Bryson asked him how long did he have for him to go down the list of things. “You’re not at all nice. Not one little bit. Does that wife of yours know what a person you are?”

“Yes. You’re just lucky that I’m with you and not her. She hates you more than I do.” She scared Curt a bit more than he liked to admit. “I want you to leave town, Curt. You might just live longer if you do.”

“And how the hell do you figure that’s going to happen when I don’t have any fucking money?” Bryson just walked away. “You’d better be paying up, son. I’d really hate to have to tell some stories on you to that wife of yours.”

Bryson just flipped him off. Just as he was walking away, his boy raised his hand over his head and flipped him off. What a horrible way to treat the man that raised you, Curt thought. Just terrible. The world was going to pot, and there wasn’t a damn thing people could do about it anymore. Which reminded him, he needed some pot to get him through this shit. But he really needed cash to make that happen. Damn his kids.

Chapter 7

Ellen didn’t know what to do with all this wealth that surrounded her in Bryson’s home. And to say that it was tastefully done in the house would have been a gross understatement. Everything was beautiful. The wood shone like it had been waxed only this morning. Both Bryson and Blaze had welcomed her with open arms, and set her up in a luxurious room that made her think of old movies and bed and breakfasts. Tonight she was going to get to see Clara…or Dawn. Either way, she was nervous about that too.

“Do you need anything, Mrs. Foster?” Ellen smiled and told Blaze that it was a lovely room. “We’re just getting started on getting things set up here. Your room, I think, is the only one with pictures on the wall so far.”

“They’re very good paintings. I could almost step into the one where the water is tumbling off the mountain and take a long soak. My goodness. I bet the painter was right there when they painted it.” Blaze said that she had been. “You painted that? Oh my. Beauty and talent. Bryson is a very lucky young man.”

“It’s me that’s lucky. I didn’t think that I’d ever meet anyone like Joel, my sister’s husband. They’re so in love that you can almost taste it in the air around them.” Ellen said that’s what she felt when she was around Bryson and Blaze. “Thank you very much. It was love at first sight.”

Ellen was led to the large living room. The furniture in this room wasn’t wood, but it looked just as beautiful. The colors were of the deepest of earth tones—reds that defied a name, and so many browns and blues that they seemed to blend into each other on every piece. Standing next to the fireplace, Ellen peeked out into the back yard. It was gorgeous too. The pool, an enormous thing, looked like you could park several semis in it and still have a place to swim.

“I guess you know how we got the kids. I didn’t stick around long after Dawn was brought to the house. It was hard enough for me to raise Bryson knowing that his mother and father were dead.” Blaze told her that they’d made a connection with Bryson’s grandparents. “I had no idea they were alive. Why didn’t they take them? Never mind. I have a feeling that I know. Bryson wasn’t given to Curt to raise when they passed away, was he?”

“No. Did you know about the house?” Ellen didn’t, so Blaze told her about the poker game and him winning not just the house that they’d lived in, but also Bryson. “Dawn, she was gotten because her parents had something Curt wanted. Money. It seems to always boil down to money when it comes to him.”

“Did he have anything to do with the death of Bryson’s parents?” Blaze told her that in a misdirected way, he had. “I thought so. It just didn’t seem right to me the story that Curt told me. They were druggies, he told me. Just barely making it. I found it hard to believe, but I had Bryson. Then I read about the murder suicide thing in the paper. It was after that that I started to doubt anything that Curt told me. I had for a long time, but it was harder to sweep under the rug after that.”

“He did kill Dawn’s parents. They were both witches, and he did it to get their magic and their money. Little did he know that they’d given all their magic to Dawn before he killed them both. I wondered why he’d never killed her instead of raising her like he did.”

Ellen told her that might have been her fault. “I wanted another child. I can’t have them, so I guess he went out and stole me one. But you see, I knew that he’d killed them, her parents. I was thinking that was the reason that Clara didn’t speak when she was brought to me. The trauma, I thought.”

“We’ve come to the conclusion that it was more than likely getting all the magic that she did. Her body and mind would have had to adjust to that sort of double dose of powerful magic.”

“I used to not believe in that sort of thing, magic and witches. But when I moved to Texas, I found out all sorts of things that I had no idea about before. My second husband was a wolf shifter. He was the pack leader too. Up until he had a massive stoke, he was always there for me. He had two children of his own that I helped raise when I went out there. You might say that I was married for the first time with the amount of love I had for the man.”

“I’m so glad that you were able to find happiness after Curt. He’s not a good man, is he?” Ellen said that she didn’t know the half of it. “That’s what we were hoping you could help us find out. And now that you’re here, stay with us for a while. We have plenty of room.”

“I don’t know, Blaze. I just don’t feel right barging into your lives right now. You two just got married and all. No. You don’t need an old woman here that is going to be in the way.” Blaze laughed. She didn’t know if it was at the situation or her. Either way, she wasn’t all that thrilled and stood up. “You see. We’re already at odds with each other.”

“I’m not at odds with you, Ellen. But you saying that you’re old is funny to me. I’m way older than you. Hell, I’m order than this town, this state, and not to mention, I’m older than this country. I was a bird a long time ago.” Blaze sat down when Ellen’s knees just simply gave out on her. “My sisters and I were made, created, because a queen that we worked for needed protection. Being a woman, she knew that at any time she could have been made to marry a man for her lands. And she had a great many of them. So, using her considerable magic, she turned a falcon, eagle, phoenix, vulture, an owl, and me, a hawk, into something that would work for her and not try and take over her kingdom. We were loyal and very good for her.”