Across
the street, in the shadows of a recessed storefront, Delta stood with Bubba Ray
and Mac at her side. She’d watched
Shannon and Jackson leave the restaurant and round the corner earlier. Now she waited for Michael to leave as she
worked on another plan.
With
a grunt of frustration, she spoke to her brother. “Bubba Ray, these people are gonna be the
death of me. Why the hell can’t they
just roll with the program and realize they can’t make up their own rules? Destiny has its own plan and so do I. But they keep screwing everything up. Just when I get the right two together,
another one comes along and horns in.
I’d hate to have to put one of them in the hospital, but it’s damn
tempting.”
Bubba
Ray stared at her, horror written all over his cherubic face while Mac whined
and bumped her leg with his wet nose.
“Yeah,
I know, Mac. It was just a thought. Guess that’s why they have me. But I’d much rather be sitting somewhere
having a cold beer than standing here in the dark thinking up ways to throw
these two together. Hell, I’ve spent the
last two days running ridiculous errands for that tight-wad Fairy just to
smooth his feathers out over the fifty thou I requisitioned to cover the
damages. Now I’ve got a cop to get rid
of too. Could these people be any more
of a pain-in-the-ass? And let’s don’t
forget about the old bitch that’s rattling her sword over the stupid smoking
cat. I still don’t have a clue how I’m
gonna make her go away. Fairy boy says I
can’t kill her off. Hell, that’d not
only fix this case, but it’d make me feel a damn sight better. She’s really getting on my nerves.”
There
was silence as Delta tilted her head and listened to a voice only she could
hear. A moment later, she looked
straight up into the dark night sky and snapped, “Oh, shut up! I’m working myself to the bone down here and I
don’t need your smart remarks. I know
performance review time is coming up.
It’ll all be resolved by then.
Just you don’t worry about it.
How’d you get your batteries recharged so fast, anyway? Don’t you need some bed rest or something?”
A
moment later, she froze as her breath hitched in her chest. The boss had never spoken out loud to her,
always just a disembodied voice in her mind, so the soft, deep baritone voice
that spoke out loud took her by surprise.
She looked right to see if Bubba Ray had heard it too. His wide eyes told her he had. Now, this was downright embarrassing.
“Holy
shit, Fairy boy, you did not just proposition me!”
He
had. The boss had never made any kind of
off-color or suggestive remark to her, had never given her any indication he
might be interested in her, although it wasn’t uncommon among the fairy god folk. Working with love matches all day long could
be rather…stimulating. But inviting her
to join him in his bed and “recharge his batteries” had proposition written all
over it. Unfortunately, it also had
strategic parts of her body at full attention and nodding furious agreement. It had been a long time.
What the…
Apparently,
seven decades was too long for a fairy godmother to go without sex. She’d have to find a way to remedy that, but
not with the boss.
Delta’s
brain was scrambled as she searched for some other explanation or some way out. Bubba Ray was blushing furiously and staring
at his feet, refusing to make eye contact.
Hell, even Mac wouldn’t look her in the eye. What the hell was happening here? Where’d that come from? She was absolutely right about what the boss
hinted at and she had to find a way to change the subject…fast. This was downright embarrassing.
Then
a thought occurred to her.
Time to pick a
fight.
With
a huff, she stabbed her fists on her hips and scowled skyward. “Fairy boy, I wouldn’t recharge your
batteries if you were the last stinking fairy in the universe. You meddled with my case. You threw Jackson in the middle of all this out
of the clear blue without a single mention of him in the case recommendations. You did it because you didn’t know what the
hell you were doing and now you’re trying to distract me. Well, it’s not gonna work. I’m onto you.”
Again
the soft baritone slid over her with the whisper of a soft sheet.
“Of
course I did it, but I knew exactly what I was doing. You needed a challenge.”
“What? Challenge?
Delta doubled up her fist and shook it at the sky as her heart fluttered
in her chest. “Why, you double-dealing,
sneaky, soot-feathered…”
“You’ve
been getting too comfortable in your current role. It’s time you moved up to the next level and
to do it, you need tougher assignments. The
big guy thinks you need more challenge, so I gave you some stretch goals. Think of it as an…opportunity.”
“You’re
damn straight I’ve been comfortable in my current role. I’ve got it figured out now and I can work it
in my sleep. I don’t want to move up to
the next level. I don’t need any more
headaches and I don’t want any more challenges.
I like it right where I am. Don’t
you go screwing up a good thing…and I can tell you where you can put your
stretch goals and your opportunity if
you need directions.”
The
disembodied baritone voice chuckled. “Well,
they don’t call you Bitch Number Two for nothing, that’s for sure. I always know I can count on you to liven up
a boring day.”
Bitch Number
Two?
Delta
was stunned. She’d always had top
billing. Who was poaching in her
territory? “What the hell are you
talking about, you big flop-footed faggit?
Bitch Number Two? Oh hell
no! I’m Queen Bitch and you damn well know
it.”
“Not
any more, you’re not. After the stunt Bitzy
pulled down in Florida, you’ve been bumped.
You’ve got to admit, an alligator in the punch bowl to break up the
wrong wedding was a stroke of twisted genius."
“Stroke
of genius? Are you kidding me? She put two people in the hospital and almost
blew her cover with that little stroke of twisted genius. Shit! You
corporate types are all alike. Doesn’t
matter how many bodies you leave in your wake, as long as the case comes in on
time and within budget.”
“Oh,
not that tired old song and dance again,” quipped the fairy godfather. “Give it a rest, Delta. You’ll understand once you’ve moved to the
next level. Just hang in there, hag, and
you’ll get up to speed yet.”
Delta’s
temper blazed red-hot. “Hag? Who you callin’ Hag, you puffed up pile of
horse-feathers! And for your
information, I am not moving up. I like it here and you can’t make me do
it. So stick that in your pipe and smoke
it! Don’t you have some real work to
do—like knitting a sweater for that ugly-ass bald cat of yours?”
Mac
barked his agreement.
A
split second later, there was a peal of thunder and lightning shot across the
clear night sky.
Delta
rolled her eyes and cackled as she shouted.
“Yeah, you talk tough for a guy in tights and wings.” With a glance at Mac, she added, “Whose idea
was it anyway to assign a Fairy in tights to the redneck task force? The big guy must’ve been having a slow
day.”
Mac
whined his agreement just as a louder, larger bolt of lightning shot across the
sky and struck her Harley parked next to the building changing it into a moped.
Delta
stared at the moped for a moment and then cursed under her breath, “Ass!” With a wave of her fingers, the moped was
restored to the Harley she rode in on.
Another
bolt of lightning, the moped was back and the back tire was flat.
“Shit!” Delta glared at the moped. “I hate working with fairy godfathers. They’re so damn temperamental. You’d think after three hundred years, they’d
have gotten past all the sensitivity crap.”
~~~
