Page 36 of Myths and Shifts

“He thought it was the least confrontational way to handle the situation.” The deputy nodded when Daddy made ahmm, that’s curioussound. “At the time I was just glad he hadn’t burned anything down.”

“Do you think he’s part of this?” Daddy sounded appropriately skeptical but didn’t specifically point that out. “It was a group of women who came to welcome me to town.”

Deputy Winslow took another deep breath, which didn’t give Daddy a good answer but it was enough to have Daddy commiserating with the law enforcement officer. “I would love to give you a confident answer on that, but I’m just going to have to investigate and probably lecture people.”

Daddy went full Pierce and frowned, looking a bit like an angry statue, but after a moment he nodded. “That’s the best I can hope for probably.”

Neither of them liked it, but they seemed to be realists because the deputy sighed. “I’m guessing that whatever they thought they were doing was manipulative but not intended in the way I’m assuming. But if I’m wrong, I’ll get Lorne to eat ‘em. He’s a rabid little thing.”

They were all so weird.

I loved it.

“I’ll take it.” Looking slightly happier, Daddy glanced around the room. “You might want to talk to anyone else who possibly got welcome gifts?”

Oh, Deputy Winslow didn’t like that. “For fuck’s sake.”

He had the best job.

But it seemed like the whole situation was enough to give him a push to take charge, so he metaphorically grabbed the hot potato they’d been tossing around with both hands and stood straighter as he glared at everyone. “Alright. We’re getting started. If you brought cupcakes to one-up Kenzie, you have to leave. He gets to stay because he was just being nice and he’s got a place on the council for this situation.”

That got a few grumbles but one good glare shot them down.

“If you’ve been going around giving out welcome baskets, you’re going to meet me over at the sheriff’s office at three o’clock with a very good excuse for why you’ve been drugging our visitors.” Deputy Winslow wasn’t pulling punches, but he huffed when five women at the back of the room made a hasty exit.

“If you’ve been given gifts by our local welcoming committee, please be alarmed because we don’t have one. We have locals who make ridiculously bad decisions.” Shaking his head, the deputy seemed relieved that no one started screaming. “If you ate or drank anything that they gave you, please see me before you leave or before you do anything stupid.”

He was my favorite local.

“I’m turning the meeting over to Boyd as our local representative and Pierce here to represent the visiting councils.” That finally got more reactions from everyone and grumbling spread around the room. “Enough.”

The fun human wasn’t having any of it.

“Most of you didn’t realize you’d been drugged by old ladies and the rest of you were waiting for someone else to take charge so you could blame them when shit hit the fan.” That had everyone going quiet. “Congratulations. Someone took charge.”

Daddy.

Daddy took charge.

His quiet hum said he hadn’t expected it but he wasn’t going to turn down the chance to tell everyone to sit down and shut up.

It was fine with me. I didn’t care who was in charge of the meeting because I had bigger issues to deal with…how to get revenge on naughty little old ladies.

Yep. Daddy and the deputy might be bigger people, but I wasn’t. I was a pissed-off little with a Daddy to protect and I was going to remind everyone that scary came in cute packages.

Chapter 11

Pierce

“Thank you for your insight.” The way Merritt patted my leg under the table said he was proud of my restraint as I tried to shift the conversation away from the woman who was the biggest pain in the ass I’d ever met. “Mr. Akeman? What does Scotland think about that?”

Everyone liked his accent and even a few of the straightish men smiled when the guy talked, so I was hoping he’d be a good bribe to get her to shut up.

It wasn’t.

She just couldn’t help herself.

The sturdy woman glared at me as she straightened her shoulders and ignored everyone around her as they winced. “If you’d let me finish, boy.”

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