Remington (Queen's Birds of Prey 5)

“Do you think it will come to that?” He said he was sure of it. “Then we’ll have to make sure he isn’t. Does he have family around that we should be aware of? Siblings or parents?”

“Just a grandmother in a nursing home. She is afflicted with dementia and no longer knows him, so he doesn’t visit while working. He is afraid that if Sorrel wanted to prove something, she’d be his prime target. I’m assuming, now that I’ve thought of it, that Sorrel can’t read his mind. While I was waiting on him at the diner, he didn’t seem to have a clue what Harlin was thinking about him.” Piper asked him if he wanted to send someone to the nursing home. “I don’t know, but I would feel better about it should it come to Sorrel finding out. She’s elderly with poor hearing and, as I said, dementia. However, you know as well as I do that matters little when it comes to protecting what is yours.”

“I do know that.” She sat down at the computer and started looking for someone to put in the nursing home that Mrs. Tayler, Harlin’s grandmother, was in. “I know a doctor that works there that can keep an eye on her for us. He’s been there for some time, so it won’t be a problem for him to look in on her.”

After setting that up, she reached out to the others to let them know what was going on. Duncan asked if they should all come there. She told him that she’d wait. Just in the event that too many of them would overwhelm the couple, and they needed to think about their job at hand.

The castle has been cleaned up for the two of you. Staff has been hired as well. I’ll take care of anything that comes up while you’re there. Also, Mom left a message for Harlin. I’m not sure what it means, but perhaps he will. Did you know he is part fae? Piper told him what Grant had done for him. No. It’s more than that. He’s actually about half fae. His mom, I guess, was a fae and faerie mix. There isn’t much of a difference, but it’s their magic that he would notice, I guess. I’ve put out the word for someone to locate someone that might have knowledge of her. Or better yet, her lineage. Other than the note for him, there is little I know at the moment.

Do you think we should tell him? Duncan said it would help if he remembered anything that might help them find out who he might be related to. Do you think that’s important? I mean, knowing his relatives? Oh, Harlin told Grant his grandmother is in a nursing home. I’m going to go there and check it out. If his mother was either fae or faerie, then she would be the one that had passed it down to Harlin, right?

Usually, but with the things going on, I’d not say for certain. They both laughed. All right. You go and talk to the grandmother, and I’ll take care of what I can on this side. Also, you should know that Basil is getting stronger by the minute, it seems. Just yesterday, I saw him out in the yard with the faeries and helping with the crops. We’re goin

g to have a good amount of food this year for families, I’m happy to say. And the herb garden just beyond the castle is enormous. The drying shed has been busy day and night since you left.

The others filled her in on things that were going on at home too. The gardens they were putting in for the kids that wanted to fulfill a requirement for college money were working out well. There were others that were assisting with the teachers for the end of year work as well, grading papers and such. Things were going much better than she’d thought they would be with so many projects in the works.

“I’ve invited Harlin to dinner, but he said he has to meet Sorrel for a pickup. The police are going to be there along with the Feds to make sure Sorrel doesn’t slip away. I have a feeling, as does Harlin, that Sorrel won’t show, and they’ll have to start all over in trying to find the man. But in the meantime, Harlin will be arrested with the others, then somehow escape if what we think will happen does.” Piper asked if Harlin knew he was an immortal now. “Yes. I guess he and Remi have been talking about all the things he will get. The fact that he won’t die has taken a great deal of pressure off him. He’s been paying for his grandmother’s care since she got ill.”

“We’ll take care of that for him. I’m going to head over and see what I can get from her. Would you mind staying here to keep an eye on things for me? I’m expecting two deliveries from the printer. Hopefully, they were able to correct their mistakes and not make any more while at it. I have to tell you, Miley and Tracy have been saving me a lot of embarrassment when it comes to putting out a flyer for shows. I owe them both so much.” Grant said he’d doubt they’d see it that way. “They don’t. They think that because I’m their aunt, they somehow owe me. I’m going to nip that in the bud, too, when we get back.”

As she flew to the nursing home, two things occurred to her. First of all, was that the nursing home was a shitty one. From her perspective, she could see that the roof was nearly caving in, and the yard looked as if it had only been half-assed mowed in a good long time. The second thing was, the people sitting out in the rain had no one with them and were soaked through. She was going to take care of that.

Calling Carder Pillow, she made arrangements to purchase the place. He was happy with her idea of taking control of it, but there seemed to be a problem with her just buying it outright. There were three leins on the place.

“It looks as if the place has traded hands four times in the last sixteen months.” He asked her to hang on while he looked. “Ah, here it is. Yes, I remember this now. They change the names around about every six or seven weeks. Oh my. I just realized they’re behind in their taxes. By quite a bit, Ms. Coby. Now I see the issue as well. It looks like on or a bit after the fifteenth, there is an influx of cash. I would imagine the payments are due for their residents. After the account is drained, they switch who the owner is. It looks to me as if the people that work there—as they have all listed the nursing home as their place of business—are the ones that empty the account until the next time the accounts are filled.”

“So instead of taking care of the people they’re in charge of, they take the money and hang around for the next time their name comes up. How many people are there doing this?” He told her there were six. “Six of them. I don’t suppose you know how many residents are there, do you?”

“Yes, I do, as a matter of fact. There are twenty-three. Just three days ago, Mr. Owens came in to get the money out of the account. I must clear something up for you—they do leave ten dollars in the account. I’m guessing that’s so it isn’t closed out. What a terrible thing to have happen to the people depending on them.” She agreed with him. “The account isn’t in anyone’s name at the moment. It says here that Mr. Owens signed the paperwork for it to be transferred. He didn’t leave a name that it was to go to, telling one of my managers here that he’d have to return with Mr. Shipley. I’m assuming he’s next in line for the windfall.”

“Can you put my name on there?” Mr. Pillow said he could if she were to show him some identification. Then he laughed when he told her she’d been in to do it just now. He more than likely had faked what he needed from her. “Thank you, Mr. Pillow. I owe you big time.”

“No, Mrs. Coby, you don’t owe me anything if you can get this taken care of. It’s a shame it wasn’t noticed before. But as I told you when I was working with Mr. Basil, I’m new to this area and the goings on.” She told him if he were to get into trouble, he was to call her. “I will if it comes up. It might, but I don’t think my boss will care so long as it was done with the people in mind. I think I might well call him up right now and let him know.”

“What a splendid idea.”

As soon as she got off the phone with the man, she made two more calls. One was to have a room set up for Mrs. Tayler once she had visited her. Things were moving along right now, and she wondered what the others would say when they found out she’d purchased a nursing home. Laughing, she thought they’d be jealous. Good. She loved it when she could outdo her family once in a while.

Chapter 3

Juniper sat on the porch and counted his fingers and toes over and over. It was that, or he was going to have to explain to his head what he’d just seen. The house was no longer something they could live in. Hell, nothing was what it had been. He looked over at Rose when she spoke. He wasn’t even sure she was saying anything coherent anymore.

“It’s all gone.” He didn’t let his mind dwell on what she said then. “It’s nothing, Juniper. Nothing at all.”

“Don’t. Just don’t remind me of it, please. I’m having a hard enough time just…well, I’m having a hard enough time.” Juniper shivered. “How the hell did she do that? I mean, how the hell would anyone do that? To us, for cripes sake.”

“She said there were updates to the house. That is not an update, Juniper.” She just would not shut up about the house. He begged her once again to shut up, and she just kept on talking. “There is nothing. Less than nothing. There is white. All white, like we’re in a cloud. No furniture was there. No walls. I bet we could walk for miles and never touch anything. What are we supposed to do with a house that is nothing?”

“Shut. The. Fuck. Up. About. The. House is what you can do. Do you think I didn’t see it when you did? I did. Did you not see me looking around when I stood right there with you? I was there, in the event you missed me. Also, now that you’ve done nothing but jabber on and on about it, I’m sick to my stomach, and I have a splitting headache. And you know what, Rosemary? I can’t go in the house and find me something to take for it because—let me tell you this, so you understand it too—there is fucking nothing in the house. Just shut up.” He leaned back on the chair he was in, so his head touched the house. Jerking away from it, he thought somehow that it might absorb him into its nothingness and spoke more calmly now. “She’s one of the queen’s birds. You remember those monsters. They were the ones that took down castles that Dante went after. I don’t understand why they’re still around when I know Dante was killed when the castle came down upon her head. Some say they did it, as they were angered by her for something.”

“Why are they here, Juniper? I mean, what has happened that—? Do you suppose Basil is finally dead? That we might be able to go home, and you can be king of the fae? That has to be the reason she’s around now. I don’t know why she didn’t just come out and tell us he was dead, but that has to be it, don’t you think?” Juniper said he didn’t know, but he thought for sure that he’d feel something if his own brother were dead. “Yes, I suppose you’re right on that. I didn’t think of that. I’d not have those feelings, for I didn’t love him. Not at all. It was you I cherished for all the centuries I was with him.”

He knew that to be true as well. They had been lovers well before Basil had been chosen to be her mate. She had wanted to refuse him, but Juniper thought about her being with Basil and the things they’d get for his reign. It had worked perfectly, too, until the baby had come along.

“We’ll have to figure out a way to get some cash. Remi told us that Sorrel had money. We’ll have to find him so we can get some cash and head back home. I have a feeling that is where we need to be right now.” He turned and looked at the house. “I don’t know what to do about the house. She’s cursed it and the things inside of it. When I think of the things we stashed away for something like this, I want to hunt her down and kill her.”

Juniper wouldn’t, of course. He wasn’t a fighter. Actually, he was quite lazy and didn’t do anything that wasn’t required of him. Even then, he wanted to have someone help him with even the simplest of tasks. No, he knew it was big talk, but he also knew that if it came down to it, he’d sell his own mother to get out of things that might cause him harm. Or even to require him to do much.