Chapter 19
Jena put a hand on her stomach and sat back from the decimated breakfast tray. Man, that’d been good. All those calories had helped temper her magical hangover, and she almost felt human again. Well, half-human at least. She had no idea how a sidhe felt, but guessed it couldn’t be that different—
She glanced over at a quick knock on the door, and Tess pushed through with Liam trailing in her wake. Felix scowled, rolling his eyes and put his back to the were. Tess smiled at them, oblivious. She clasped a bundle of laundered clothes to her breast.
“I spoke with Phil, and Liam’s offered to drive you both into town.
With him being gone for so long, he’s the farthest removed from all this drama between our packs and we’d both feel better knowing he’ll be with you,” she said, setting the bundle down on the bed, then gathering up the breakfast tray.
“Drive us?” Jena narrowed her eyes at Felix. “I thought I fried everything.”
“You did, dear, but Liam’s Jeep isn’t one of those new ones with all the gadgets—”
“You’re still driving that piece of crap?” Felix asked, cutting Tess off.
Liam pulled back like he was offended. “It’s not a piece of crap; it’s a classic, and aside from needing a jump, we’re good to go.”
“Great,” Felix muttered.
Jena wasn’t thrilled either. Last she remembered that “classic” was open to the elements and about ninety percent rust, but him driving was definitely preferable to them hoofing it back to the shop on foot. She blew out her cheeks. “When can we leave?”
“As soon as you’re ready,” Liam said, his expression tight as he glanced at Felix, who was pointedly not looking at him. Liam turned away with a frown. “I’ll be waiting downstairs.”
Jena’s brow quirked as he left. Huh. Wonder what that was about? Whatever. On the off chance he actually felt bad about what he’d done, it was way too late. Felix might seem all easy-breezy, but he could hold a grudge like nobody’s business.
Tess rested the tray on her hip and reached for the door. “Well then, I’ll see you two before you go, and don’t think I forgot.” She beamed as she left. “I’ve got that container of macaroni salad waiting for you.”
“Fantastic.” Jena dropped her smile as the door clicked shut. She flopped back on the pillows. “You gonna be able to deal?” she asked Felix.
He scrubbed his hands over his face, then scratched his stubble. “If it means being able to get this thing off my face and out of these clothes, then yes. I’m borrowing your razor and call dibs on that blue jumpsuit I know is still hanging in your closet.”
The razor she understood, Felix was one of those guys whose beard grew in like he had mange, but the jumpsuit? “The one from the seventies cosplay?”
He cocked his brow. “Do you own any other jumpsuits I don’t know about?”
“Nope.” Jena snorted. “And it’s all yours.
” She hadn’t been able to squeeze into that since high school, not that she would’ve worn it again if she could.
She pulled over the pile of laundered clothes.
Thankfully, it was all her stuff, and she didn’t have to stretch out anyone else’s yoga pants.
She didn’t quite roll her eyes at the neat little stitches mending her tee. Aggie would’ve stapled it.
Aggie.
Jena hurried to get dressed and made a face as she slid her feet back into her still-damp sneakers. Gross, but at least she wasn’t in borrowed clothes anymore. She eyed Felix scowling at the pair of Liam’s sweats he was wearing. “Your suit didn’t make it?”
“No, but I fully expect it to be reborn as a throw pillow,” Felix said, glancing at a flannel one with shirt buttons on a chair across the room. He opened the door and held it for her.
“Houndstooth doesn’t exactly match the decor,” she said as she stepped into the hall.
“What are you talking about? I would be a statement piece.”
“Okay, maybe, but the statement would be ‘what the fuck?’”
“Har har,” Felix muttered, following her.
Beyond the doorway was a long railed hallway overlooking a great room below, the blazing fieldstone fireplace flickering light throughout the space.
Jena headed for the stairs, pretty sure she’d never seen so much finished timber in her entire life.
It even smelled like cedar beneath the remnants of breakfast flavoring the air.
Phil and Tess were waiting for them by the front door, and she had a frickin’ gallon container of macaroni salad. She held it out with a wide smile, and Jena forced herself to take it with one of her own.
“Thank you.” Jeez, it had to weigh five pounds. How much did this woman think she ate?
“Of course!” Tess waved like it was no big deal. “Hopefully, all this blows by quickly, and you’re able to make the pig roast tomorrow, but I wanted you and your aunt to have enough for a meal just in case. You’re both welcome this side of the tracks any time.”
“I appreciate that,” Jena murmured, Tess’s sincerity tugging at her heart.
“You ready?” Felix asked, one hand on the door knob.
“Almost.” Jena turned to Phil. “You said earlier that my dad was dead, but Aggie told me he skipped town after he hexed everyone.”
“He did.” Phil and Tess exchanged a look. “But then about four years later, he came back.”
Jena’s stomach cramped. “Then that last spell my mom cast…” She swallowed, feeling sick. “It was to banish him, wasn’t it?”
“Could’ve been.” Phil blew out his cheeks.
“I wasn’t there, but Nana One was. She’s the reason you got out of the house when you did.
Their pack memory doesn’t work like ours, but from what I could piece together, William and Rebecca had one hell of a fight.
Once Nana had gotten you out of harm’s way, she went back and saw your mom blast that sack of shit into a million pieces before she crumpled,” he said, putting an arm around Tess.
His voice thickened. “By the time I got there, she was gone.”
Shit. Jena put a shaking hand to her lips.
Blasted into a million pieces or not, she was pretty sure her father wasn’t.
Her mother might’ve vaporized his body, but sidhe were harder to kill than that.
Jesus. All that sin up in the ruins was from him?
She swallowed the lump in her throat, the entity outing itself to her making a lot more sense. “And you never said anything.”
“No. If I had, we’d be hip-deep in inquisitors, and you’d suffered enough.”
She nodded, swallowing as her breakfast threatened to reappear. Yeah. They definitely would’ve taken her into custody after that. Her gaze met Felix’s. “I’m ready to go now.”
He opened the door for her, and they exited the house onto a wide, covered porch.
Jena hugged the vat of leftovers to her chest wishing it was lasagna as the cold hit her.
Comfort food. She needed hot comfort food after that.
Damn. It figured the weather would wait until now to turn seasonable, and it was raw.
“You okay?” Felix asked, putting his arm around her.
“No, but—”
The two of them stopped short. Whoa. They both stared at the Jeep idling in front of the steps, mist raining through the beams from its headlight.
“Wow. Is that seriously Liam’s Jeep?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Liam said, pushing away from the shadows close to the house to join them with a wide grin on his face. He flipped his cherry-cola curls from his eyes. “I told you she was gonna fix up nice.”
Nice? That was an understatement. The rusted-out frame on wheels Jena remembered had somehow become a showpiece of a vehicle.
Its paint job was a flawless matte gray with charcoal trim, and the undercarriage was the same flat black as the soft top.
Fixing it up had to have cost a mint. What had he been doing while he was away?
Liam opened the driver’s side door that definitely hadn’t existed back in the day and flashed another smile over his shoulder. “Hop in.”
Jena and Felix exchanged a glance. “Shotgun.”
“It’s all yours.” Felix snorted as they rounded the back of the Jeep to the passenger side. Rain misted, pearling down the thick plastic windows. “Guess we know where those child support payments his ex has been bitching about never getting went to.” He sniffed.
“Meow,” Jena said, holding the door open for him, though he could be right. Damn, those were nice leather seats.
“Oh please, like you weren’t thinking it,” he muttered, getting in the back.
She climbed in after him and did a double-take at Kelsey crouched low behind the driver’s seat. She put her finger to her lips. Great, they had a stow away.
Before Jena could say anything, Liam put the Jeep in gear, bumping down the tracks leading away from the Eastside weres’ compound.
“I’m assuming you’re not supposed to be here?” Felix asked.
“Nope.” Kelsey grinned from the floorboards. “But this is the most exciting thing that’s happened in Havers in forever, and somebody’s got to help you guys keep Liam in line.”
And there wasn’t really any good argument against that bit. Jena sat back against the butter-soft leather and tried not to groan. Man, this was a step up from her car. Unfortunately, being chauffeured around in luxury left her with nothing to complain about and plenty to piece together.
Could that really be her father up there in the ruins?
The odds were better than she liked. Like, pretty much a thousand percent, but that resolved, it only left her with more questions.
Why had he come back? And still, the better question was why the hell had her mother gotten involved with him in the first place knowing what she did?
Jena’s fingers tightened on the grimoire in her bag. She might not want to know the answers, but it was pretty apparent that she needed them. Ugh. Nothing was ever frickin’ easy. She stared out the window into the pre-dawn fog, the headache from her magic hangover slowly creeping in again.
“So. You’re back,” Liam said after a solid five minutes of bumping along the forest track and listening to his wipers sweep across the windshield.