Taken (20 page)

“Look, Dad. I like living here with you. I really do. But no one is going to keep me away from my wife.”

“She’s not your wife, Joshua.”

“She’s my soul-mate. But I don’t expect you to understand.”

“I’ve been in love a couple of times, so yes, I do understand. And as amazing as it feels right now, those feelings won’t last forever.”

Josh slammed his palms flat on the desk and leaned forward. “No
secretary
is going to seduce me away from Channie. This is forever.”

Dad remained calm and kept his voice low, even as a red flush crept up his neck. “That was uncalled for.”
 

Josh knew he’d crossed the line, insulting Liz like that, but instead of apologizing, he said, “I won’t let you demean what I feel for my
wife!”

Dad pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed then crossed his arms and rested them on top of his desk. “I know you love Channie. And as soon as she’s eighteen, you can get married if that’s still what you both want. But she’s a minor and neither you nor I have the right to go against her parents’ wishes. Not unless she’s ready to accuse them of abuse. If you really love her, you can wait a couple of years.”

Josh’s heart hammered in his chest as he jumped out of his chair. “That’s bullshit and you know it!” The rush of blood behind his ears sounded like a roaring river.

“You need to calm down, son.”

“I’m not your son!”
 

All the muscles in Dad’s face went slack.

Josh fell back into his chair and shook his head. “I can’t believe I said that.”

Dad’s chair creaked as he pushed away from the desk. He grabbed Josh’s biceps and pulled him to his feet then crushed him against his chest. “My blood may not flow through your veins, but I made a conscious decision to make you my son when I adopted you sixteen years ago. We are bound by law as well as love. You are my son, Joshua Vincent Abrim. And
that’s
forever.”

~***~

The house-shaking bang of the front door, followed by a string of pseudo swear words woke Channie a little before dawn the next morning. “Goll darn it, boy, I ain’t lost that much money since we got here.”

“I’m sorry Mr. Belks. I truly am. I’ll make it up to you.”

“I lost five grand on account you. Where you gonna get that kind of money?”

Channie pulled a robe on over her nightgown and ran to the banister to peer over the rail. Hunter looked terrible. The dark bags under his eyes combined with the chalky pallor of his face worried her. Was he sick?

“I’ll find a job and pay you back. You have my word.”

Daddy dismissed Hunter with a wave of his hand, turned towards the stairs and bellowed Momma’s name.

“Where’re you at woman! Get down here.”

Momma opened her bedroom door and stepped into the hall. She was wearing the same clothes she had on when she locked herself in her room two days ago. Channie thought Hunter looked like death, but Momma looked ten times worse. She clutched the Book of the Dead against her bosom with one blistered hand and brushed the frizzy grey halo of hair off her brow with the other. She stared at Channie with unseeing eyes so blood-shot there wasn’t a speck of visible white. She looked like one of the characters from Elijah’s Saturday morning cartoons after they’d dropped a toaster in the bathtub.

The floor shook beneath Channie’s feet as Daddy bolted up the stairs. He stared at Momma for a second then ran down the hall and grabbed her by the shoulders. “Prudence? What happened?”
 

The hair on the back of Channie’s neck stood on end as Momma leaned around Daddy and glared at her with demonic eyes. She raised a hand and pointed at Channie’s heart. “You. This is all your fault.”

Diego burst into the hall, wearing nothing but a pair of boxers. “What’s going on?”

Daddy said, “You tell me. I left you in charge and I come back to this? Look at her.”

Abby tried to push her way past Diego, but it was clear he had no intention of letting her anywhere near Momma or Daddy.

Diego said, “She locked herself in her room. Abby took several trays of food up to her, but she refused to open the door. I didn’t think you’d want me to break the door down.”

Daddy sighed and slumped his shoulders. “Alright, son. I don’t blame you.” He slipped an arm around Momma’s waist from behind and held her against his protruding belly with one hand. He kissed the side of her head then held his other hand in front of her. “Prudence. Give me the book.”

Momma snapped out of her catatonic state and screamed. Hunter’s shield slammed down over Channie before she even realized he’d joined them upstairs. Momma cast multiple curses but they bounced off everyone’s shields like steel marbles in a pinball machine.
 

When she’d finally exhausted all her energy, she slumped against Daddy. He pried the book from her grasp, handed it to Diego, of all people, then carried Momma into their room. Abby, still wearing nothing but a sheet, ran down the hall and pressed her ear against the door. She motioned for everyone to join her. Diego was the first to comply. Channie looked at Hunter and raised her eyebrows. He shook his head then took her hand and dragged her downstairs.

Abby, Diego and the trips joined them an hour later.
 

Channie said, “What’s going on up there?”

Abby shooed Diego and the trips into the kitchen and told them to start breakfast then led Channie and Hunter into the parlor. “Daddy’s trying to talk Momma into going back to Blackhawk with him without making it a direct order.” She looked at Hunter and smirked. “He says you got the worst poker face he ever saw.”
 

Hunter’s cheeks flushed as he grinned and shrugged his shoulders. “I cain’t help it. When I get a good hand, I get excited.”

“Anyway, it sounds like Daddy thinks if he can get Momma away from the book for a little bit, she might come back to her senses.” Abby made a face and shuddered. “But Momma doesn’t want to stop studying. She won’t let go of the book unless Daddy gives her a direct order, and she gets so upset every time he does, that it’s just not worth it. She seems to think she’s under some sort of curse that requires a blood sacrifice and she’s trying to figure a way out of it.”

~***~

Momma and Daddy were still arguing upstairs when Diego had to leave for work. He was the local manager for the McDonald’s on Dillon Street, so it surprised Channie when Abby packed him a lunch.

“If I worked at McDonald’s I’d eat their fried potatoes for every meal.”

Diego laughed and said, “Come work for me. I bet you change your mind in less than a week.”

“Can I? Would you hire me? Really?”

“Of course. But only if your papa says it’s okay.”

Channie rolled her eyes. “Like that’ll ever happen.” Daddy didn’t believe women folk should work outside the home … unless it was gambling.

Diego patted Channie’s cheek as if she were a child then laughed when she batted his hand away. He kissed and hugged each of the trips, admonished them to mind their momma and stay away from Granny then kissed Abby and whispered something in her ear that made her giggle and blush.
 

The trips ran to the front window, waving and yelling, “Adios, Daddy!”
 

Channie glanced outside and was shocked to see Diego climb into a monster truck with huge tires across the street. “Holy moly, is that his vehicle?”

CoCo turned around and grinned at her. “Grandaddy bought it for him. And as soon as I can see over the steering wheel and reach the pedals, I’m gonna drive it.”

Channie mussed his hair and said, “No doubt,” then frowned when she realized CoCo was serious.
 

“Channie, I’d like a word with you.”
 

Momma.
Channie’s stomach dropped like a rock as her blood ran cold. She turned towards the stairs. Momma still looked like she was minutes away from death, but her hair was wound into a neat bun and she was wearing clean clothes. Her eyes were still blood-shot but no longer wild.
 

Daddy stood behind her with one hand on her shoulder and the other on the handrail at the top of the stairs. He looked down at Channie and arched his eyebrows in that “do as your told” way that meant severe consequences if she chose to disobey.

“Yes, ma’am.”
 

Momma and Daddy were both waiting for Channie in her room. She stepped inside and pulled the door shut with shaking hands then leaned against it.

Momma narrowed her eyes and glared at Channie. “It was wrong of you to trespass into my room and steal my property.”
 

“Yes, ma’am.”
But I wouldn’t have needed to if you hadn’t stolen my power-name.

Momma dropped her gaze to the floor and lowered her voice till it was barely above a whisper. “But I had no right to beat you the way I did.” She took three breaths, glanced sideways at Daddy then gritted her teeth and said, “I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry, too, Momma.”
Sorry you hit me.
Channie wasn’t sorry for taking the book, not even after all she’d suffered because of it. There was no doubt in her mind the book was evil, making her choose between Josh and magic was beyond cruel. But if not for the Book of the Dead, she’d still be bound by Chastity’s curse, unable to touch Josh much less make love to him.

Daddy said, “Your Momma has agreed to heal your bruises.”

Channie cringed when Momma grabbed her battered face with icy fingers. The bruises burned as Momma healed them.
She’s doing it on purpose.
Channie clenched her teeth against the pain, refusing to give Momma the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

As soon as she finished, Momma shoved Channie’s head away from her and spun around towards Daddy. “I done what you said, Monroe. Now give me my book.”

“I’ll give you the damn book after we win back the money I lost. Now git in the car.”

~***~

As soon as Momma and Daddy left, Abby started bugging Channie about wanting to meet Josh. She kept at it until Channie finally told her she’d decided to break up with him and let Hunter court her.
 

Abby pressed one hand over her mouth and the other over her heart as tears streamed down her face.

“Jeeze, Abby. You’ve never even met him. Why are you so upset?”

“You
love
that boy. I can tell when you’re thinking about him by the way your energy field glows. And you think about him all the time. If you break it off, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”
 

“Abby …”
 

Abby grabbed Channie’s shoulders and stared at her with shifting eyes. “Is it on account of him being magically disabled?”

“What?”
 

Abby sighed and said, “Mixed marriages ain’t easy, but it’s worth it. Just look at how happy me and Diego are. And it won’t be as hard for y’all since you ain’t got no magical abilities no more.”

“Thanks for reminding me.” Channie considered letting Abby believe she was a coward, or worse, a bigot. But her conscious wouldn’t let her. “That’s not why I’m breaking up with him.” Time to change the subject. “How did Diego survive Daddy’s wrath. You never told me how the two of you wound up back here.”

Abby wrapped her arms around Channie and smothered her against her breasts. “You’re scared Daddy’s gonna hurt Josh, ain’t you? That’s why you’re willing to throw away your own happiness — you just want to protect him. That’s so noble.”

Channie wiggled out of her embrace and said, “Tell me how you managed to keep Daddy from killing Diego.”

Abby nodded and plopped down on her unmade bed. She patted the mattress, but Channie pretended she didn’t see the invitation and sat on the floor.

Abby took a deep breath and wiped the tears from her cheeks. “By the time I got back home, there weren’t nobody there ‘cept Aunt Wisdom and Hunter Feenie and at the time I believed Hunter was a spy.”

“What about Diego?”

“He’d moved.”

“How’d you find him?”

“One of his cousins was working at McDonald’s in Whistler’s Gulch. He told me Diego’s momma had a new man in her life and he was taken’ care of the family so Diego didn’t have to, but he didn’t get along with him and kicked him out the day after we left.”

“That’s horrible.”

“If it’d happened just one day sooner, me and Diego wouldn’t have had to go through all that grief. Anyway, Diego quit his job and took off, looking to come find me and the boys.”

“How’d he know you were gone?”

“He recognized the bus when we stopped for food at Walmart on the way outta town and followed us inside. He’d never seen the boys before and I gotta tell ya, Channie, it was awful hard on him not to pick ‘em up or hug ‘em or even say ‘howdy.’ I was surprised none of the rest of y’all felt his distress as he followed us around like a lost pup.”

“I felt it all right, but I thought it was you.”

“A good part of it was. I don’t know how I got outta there without breaking down and bawling like a baby. Anyway, I wrote a note on the back of my shopping list, telling Diego we was on the run, and dropped it so he could pick it up.”
 

“Daddy didn’t tell us where we were going until after we’d crossed the Oklahoma state line. So how’d Diego know where to look?”

“He didn’t. He decided to try to find some of our neighbors or kinfolk up the mountain and see if any of them could point him in the right direction. Aunt Wisdom found him wandering around. She promised to call him if she ever heard from us, so when I showed up eleven days later, that’s what she did.”

“I’ll bet that was a sweet reunion.” Just the thought of it warmed Channie’s heart.

Abby nodded, but she frowned and bit her lip. “It was. At first. But when Diego learnt I left the boys in Colorado, he threw a regular hissy fit.”

“Did he beat you?”

“I wouldn’t a blamed him if he did, but Diego ain’t nothing like Daddy. He had a right to lay into me for abandoning our babies, but all he did was holler at me in Spanish. Even that weren’t so bad, since I couldn’t understand a word he said.”

“Yeah, about that. When did you and the trips learn to speak Spanish?”