Judith (Queen's Birds of Prey 3)

He called her back twenty minutes later.

“It seems as if I might have spoken too soon about the bank in that area, Mrs. Castle. We’ll maintain the bank there just as we have been, and everything will go back to the way it was before.” She told him no. “I’m sorry? No, what? You wish to make other arrangements with our bank? I am to assure you that we’ll gladly accommodate you in any way we can. My boss has said it would not only be costly to close the branch down at this time but to have the building taken down would cost all of us a great deal of money.”

“No, as in we no longer require your services as a bank at all. You will abide by the time frame I have given you. The building will be removed, and the ground under it and surrounding it, including the parking lot, will be returned to its former condition.” He sputtered around for a good minute. Jude smiled even now at how she had ended the call. “You have a lovely day, sir. And we look forward to having you erased from our town within the thirty days allotted to you.”

Hanging up on him was the most satisfying thing she’d done in a while. Mostly because he was still talking about how he’d made an error in closing the bank, and that she must, as he was the only bank around, take back her time limit of having the building taken down.

Of course, she didn’t answer the next calls from the same number, nor the dozen or so more she’d gotten from the same area code. She had said her piece, and he’d abide by the contract, or she’d take him to court. As soon as she saw Duncan on her way to her house, she grabbed him by both cheeks and kissed him on the mouth.

“Not that I mind that sort of greeting, but can you tell me what I did to deserve it? That way, I can do it over and over again for you.” She told him about the bank. “Good. I hated that corner anyway. The building they put there was so out of place with the other buildings at the time.”

“It should be gone in what I calculated as forty-one days. If it’s not, I’ll have Piper take it down and charge them a large fee for it. I’m not one to mess with when it comes to money.” He laughed with her. “How about, since the kids aren’t home, I take you home and ravish you? Sound good to you?”

“I love the way you think, my dear.” He took her hand into his as they walked toward their home. “I was thinking about something a little while ago. What do you want to do about the play yard in the town square? It’s been falling down for years. I never thought of getting it fixed up until I walked by it just a little bit ago.”

“It’s on my list. Mary is going to help me get a planning board set up to have projects like that one taken care of. Also, she’s finding people to come and work at the nursery school. I hadn’t any idea there was one here.” Duncan said it was newly started when he’d been in town lately. “Good to know. I have a few projects I’m working on with the Over Seventy Club. Again, I had no idea there was such a thing.”

“I think that’s new as well.” He laughed. “Do you think you and I, as well as the other birds, should join it? There isn’t one of us less than a couple of thousand years old.”

“You’re older than even we are. Then Mary—I think she is the oldest. Did you know she has a list of people that are dependable? She’s going to share it with me when we have our meeting tomorrow.” Duncan said he did know about that. “I guess you would, having lived with her for so long. And you have to talk to Abe. He’s having trouble adjusting to having so many people around him. Mostly it’s a classroom thing, but he said he’d talk to you about something he wants. As much as I’d like to keep him home and teach him, I think he needs contact with others too much for me to give in to him.”

“I’ll work with him.” They were home then, and he turned to her. “I love you very much, Judith Castle. I want to say that to you all the time, and even that isn’t nearly as much as I want you to know it. You are my life and my heart and soul. Thank you for being the perfect person for me.”

“I love you, as well.” She eyed him. “I have a feeling you’re about to tell me what you’ve done. Is it bad? I don’t want to know. Just tell me how many people I have to murder to get you out of trouble.”

He opened the door. There were shouts of happy birthday from the crowd of people in the house. Closing the door on them, she glared at him.

“I swear to you, I had no idea it was going to be this big. When Mary pointed out what the date was, she figured that having you and the other birds a party would make it seem less like you guys lost my mom, and more like a rebirth of your lives. I swear to you, however. I didn’t have anything to do with the planning.”

Walking through the door, she could see the other birds. Going inside, she spoke to Duncan through their link.

You’re losing out. You know that, don’t you? He asked her what she meant. No afternoon sex for you. I’m talking never having any in the afternoon.

She felt his disappointment all the way across the room. Then his laughter. Standing with the other birds, she smiled, when what she really wanted to do was to knock some heads around for having this party.

Chapter 8

As soon as the party started to wind down, Duncan started cleaning up. It was busywork, really. He was debating on whether he should have told Judith as soon as the call came in, or if he, as he was doing, should have waited on the right moment to tell her. Either way, she wasn’t going to be happy with the news.

“Okay, spill it.” He turned and looked at his grandda when he spoke. “You’ve been as antsy as a cat that happened on a field of catnip. Tell me, or I’m going to send you to the woodshed. Do people do that anymore?”

“I don’t think they do. Too many cameras around where people will record it then send nasty messages about you abusing the kids. Even if it was just as innocent as you taking me out there to show me something.” Grandda said it was a strange world they lived in now. “You don’t know the half of it, I’m afraid. I heard from the hospital. Hanna has escaped. They think her brother snuck her and himself out before she was out of recovery.”

“She’s that orphan woman, isn’t she?” Duncan nodded. “That is a bad one, son. Really bad. You might should have told Jude when the call came in. I’d be careful of that sort of thing. Nothing can put a woman out faster than you thinking you might be protecting them when in truth, you’re afraid of them. I’m afraid of your grandma. She’s the sweetest thing ever created. But boy oh boy, when you piss her off, she’s like a nasty snake. Getting you where it hurts you the most.” Grandda shuddered and shook his head.

“I’ll tell her now.” Grandda told him he couldn’t, she was visiting the other birds. “They were all just here together. Why does she need to visit them now? Never mind. I don’t care. I’ll tell her as soon as I can. Meanwhile, I want you and Grandma to be careful when you go out. You are immortal, but that doesn’t mean she won’t hurt you in some way.”

“We’ll do that. You keep my great-grandkids safe too. They don’t know nothing about keeping themselves safe.” Duncan thought perhaps both his kids were better at keeping themselves safe than he was. It was their only mode of survival. “Also, while I’m talking to you. I was wondering if you were serious about your grandma and me living here. I sure do like being able to just walk into another room to have a talk with you and the others.”

“Grandda, I want you and Grandma here with all of my heart. Even Judith loves having you here. I know, too, that you and Abe have gotten a good relationship going. You can s

tay here for as long as you want. I promise you.” Grandda hugged him tightly. It was something he was getting used to, being hugged like he was being squeezed in half. “You can change anything you want around here too. We both are just so happy to have you here.”

“We’ll talk about changes. I was going to ask you, too, if you’d mind if we explored some of the old caves around here. I don’t think you’d mind, but you might have a safety reason for telling us no. We’d take the kids too if you think they’d like that.” He said the only cave he was sure they shouldn’t go in was the dark one at the top of the hill. “All right. Can I ask you why not?”

“It’s a breeding cave for some of the smaller creatures for the area. Mostly a pip will use it for night time faeries. But for the most part, it’s used by some bats as well as a few snakes. It’s not safe to walk around other animals when they’re breeding.” Grandda nodded and said it was good to know. “You could take them to the stash too if you’d like. I’m sure you might even find a few things of Mom’s there you’d like to keep. By the way, have you been able to go through the stuff Mom left you in the fireplace?”

“We did. Lots of small paintings of you and her were there. We’ll treasure those—also a lot of gold. I don’t know what we’d do with it right now, but it’ll be nice to know we can fall back on it. The kids, they have anything from the cave?” Duncan told him they didn’t, just the few things that had been given to them by the birds. “I’ll see what we can look for then. I know Miley has that set of armor. That was nice to let her have it.”