Page 106 of Castings & Curses

He was at the Express Inn by the freeway. The one across from the KFC, yes I knew where he was. I was about twenty minutes north, fifteen if I drove too fast. Which I did.

I parked the car and climbed the stairs to the second floor balcony. Dylan had their room door open before I reached it. He had Liv by the arm and was dragging her out of the room.

“Take your brat.”

Liv ran to me. I wrapped all of my protective love around her. “Hey, baby, it’s okay. I’ve got you.”

Dylan glared at me with the heat of a thousand suns. I had looked into the veritable eyes of the underworld in the man I loved, Dylan’s hard stare was nothing.

“Where were you all day, Paisley?”

“You never once tried to call, so can your indignities. What happened?”

“She kept throwing glitter on everything, and thought it was cute. Blake told her to cut it out, and she wouldn’t. And when Blake tried to take the glitter from Liv, she hid the shit. She kept saying it was fairy magic.”

I put Liv behind me. I glanced up, there was an overhang ceiling between me and the sky, but the concept was there. “With intention.” And then I turned back to face Dylan. “Stay away from us. Stay out of our lives. I release you, I admit my mistake. Be free from us, and us of you.”

I picked Liv up. She was heavy, but damn it, I was taking her out of here.

Fire alarms sounded. Oops.

CHAPTER14

Eric

What the fuck was Paisley doing at the hotel? We hadn’t even pulled into the station after dealing with a literal dumpster fire out at the strip mall in Kent. At least the driver of the skid was smart enough not to drop his load in the parking lot of the gas station.

Some idiot tossed a cigarette into a potted plant in the lobby, only to find out the hard way the plant was plastic. I let the guys head in to deal with it. I wasn’t needed for this. And there was some ferret looking man yelling at my woman.

I jogged over to see what was going on. “Paisley?”

“Eric!” Liv bounced and reached her arms out to me. I lifted her from the car and looked from Paisley to the asshole I assumed was Dylan, and back again. “Did you have something to do with this?”

She shrugged. “Maybe?”

“Jesus, are you still going around telling people you can start fires with magic? No wonder, Liv thinks she has fairy powers. You are fucking nuts!” The weaselly little guy whined. I didn’t like him, didn’t like the sound of his voice, or how he was talking to Paisley.

“Dylan!” A woman from the second floor of the motel shrieked.

Dylan glanced back at her. So that was the new wife.

Paisley ignored them both and continued speaking. “If this was me, it’s not doing a good job. I mean, that’s a lot of smoke, and he’s still standing here. Everything go okay earlier?” She smiled, it was forced, but she was doing her best to ignore the obvious anger of her ex.

Liv played with my helmet. I took it off and put it on her head. It swallowed her and she giggled.

“It was a dumpster fire, literally. Guy had to drop a commercial load that combusted. It happens. So you’re the ex. Be a good little ex and leave now.”

“Or what big guy?” Dylan puffed up his chest and squared his shoulders.

It was a pitiful display. If he thought he was intimidating, he was solely mistaken. Maybe he was trying to show off around the women?

“Or I can make things very uncomfortable for you.” I had money I could throw at this problem to make him go away.

“Is that a threat? I’ll sue you, I’ll sue your whole God damned department.”

“It was not a threat. And legal action would be a bad idea.” I tried to stay calm and not show my teeth. But some growl came out in my voice.

Liv went very still. Crap, I didn’t mean to scare her. I wiggled my finger into her tummy to make her giggle. She squirmed and went back to poking at my gear.

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