Piper (Queen's Birds of Prey #4) - Kathi S. Barton Page 0,13

Mom was looking for some plants to put around the house.

I’m at Arts and Crafts. Dad asked him if he was short on money. No. I have enough. There are two people in here that have plans to kill the woman that is ringing us out.

Do you see any guns? Abe told him they didn’t have any. They were going to cut her up with the knives they had on them. What will happen to the others in the store, son? I’m on my way there with Joel.

There won’t be any of us in here. They’re waiting on all of us to leave. Dad, I’m the last person in line. I think the three people ahead of me are together, so when they leave, it’ll just be me and them. Dad told him that they were nearly there. All right. I’m not afraid. I just don’t want Mrs. Clarity hurt.

Joel entered the store first. He looked at him and winked, then asked if he had everything he needed. It wasn’t until he was ushered out of the building that he realized what Dad was doing—getting Abe out of harm’s way as well. Dad told him to go get the police and to stay there. Running down the sidewalk, he forgot to tell them to be careful.

The police were still talking on and on about leaving the station, and Abe wanted to beat them up. They were taking their time about going to help his dad. When it looked to him like they weren’t ever going to get going, he called for his mom and the others. He was sure the next time he needed extra help, the police weren’t going to be called. They weren’t taking it seriously at all.

When the man was brought into the station where Abe was, he was mad. Not only had the police only just left the station, but his family had been the ones that had stopped the violence in the shop. He wanted to say something to the officers, but he was afraid he’d be in trouble. However, his dad had no such problems and told them off. Then he fired them.

“I’d rather know my family is safe because of the response from the police than think that my wife and her sisters needed to be called in for back up.” The chief said they’d not believed the kid. “That kid is my son. And it shouldn’t have mattered one bit that he came to you to tell you about what was going on. It should have had you out the door as fast as you could be.”

Hiring a new set of policemen wasn’t nearly as difficult as he thought it might be. Dad not only had a new crew in place shortly but more of them than before. The man in charge of the station now was someone he knew. Mr. Pilgrim was teaching him to tell the difference between shifters and humans at the packhouse. He asked Dad what had happened at the shop.

“Mrs. Clarity had had some issues with her daughter and son-in-law before, but usually they’d just rob her then take off. After she opened her shop, they’d been hanging around more. When she wouldn’t give them any cash, they decided they’d kill her. Great family there, I think.” Dad looked at him as he continued. “I’m going to have to have Abe here tell you how he knew. But it’s not to go any further than this room.”

“I think I know. He’s got some kind of magic that tells him what’s going on. He’s been displaying it at my house for the last few weeks.” Dad asked him what he’d done. Abe was curious too. “Mae, my little girl, was playing on the floor, minding her toys when Abe there jumped up and took one of the blocks from her. He said she was going to swallow it. Not that she could or might, but that she was going to. There were other things too. Like he grabbed a cup just as it was crashing to the floor. He was in the living room when he rushed in and caught the cup as it tumbled off the table I’d hit with my body. I figured he was either seeing things that were gonna happen, or he was just one lucky kid.”

“I have to touch someone to know what’s going on.” Dad got down to his level and asked him if he’d seen what they did to Mrs. Clarity.