Piper (Queen's Birds of Prey #4) - Kathi S. Barton Page 0,14

“Yes.”

Dad only looked at him for a few seconds before he nodded. Abe was glad he didn’t ask more. He didn’t want to have to explain to him how terribly bad they’d cut her up. She was a really nice person.

Uncle Joel had gotten his map for him as well as the paints he’d wanted. He told him that Mrs. Clarity had seen him eyeing them, and she wanted him to have them. He felt bad that she’d given them to him, but Dad told him to take them, as she was grateful to be alive, and that made her feel better. So he went home with his dad and family to start on his project.

He had talked to them last night about the college. Abe had really thought they’d be mad at him for doing things behind their backs, but all they said was, it was good. That doing research on the college had been the right move. Knowing about the place made them think he was serious about attending as well. Abe told them that Aunt Piper was going to show him a few things about clay usage.

Now, here he was working on his project on the dining room table. Abe was having fun with it and was excited to see it come together. Mostly, he thought, he wanted to show his parents that he was very serious about this school and hoped he’d be able to get in on his own without having his mom telling them to take him. She said she could do that for him and would be glad to do it.

“I’d rather do it on my own. So I can feel good about it.” She told him she understood that. “I’ve got to make sure I can stand up on my own two feet rather than have to fall back because I let you get me in. Does that make sense?”

“It does. You want to feel good about your education rather than worry about you only succeeding because I pulled a few strings for you.” He nodded. “Good for you. But know this—if you need me to step in for you, for anything, then you only need to let me know. I’m your mom, and no one is going to hurt you so long as I live.”

“Thanks, Mom. I love you too.”

Abe did love them, every one of the birds and their mates. He figured that soon they’d all have mates and babies on the way, and there would be that many more people he could call his own. So long as his bio parents, what Tracy called them, were not in the picture.

Last night before he’d gone to bed, he did that reaching thing. He could contact anyone in his family and figured he might be able to tell where the bios were. The only time he’d felt them was a few weeks ago. Something about them had called out to him. Abe had figured out later that it was them saying his name. Nothing more, just them talking about him. Trying it again now, he could actually see what they were doing.

His bio mom was Retha. But she spelled it wrong so people would remember her. Like anyone could forget her blue hair and tatted up face. “Did you think about what happens if they don’t want him anymore? I mean, we’re planning on taking him then selling him back. But what if they just say we can have him? I don’t want him around, Tag. Just the money.”

Tag. He supposed his bio father’s name would have been shortened to Tag from Taggert. “Have you figured out how much he’s going to be worth yet?”

“No. I’m still working on where he’s at. The newspaper talking about some king getting married and adopting two kids only said that they were in upper Ohio. That don’t tell me much.” Bio mom looked around. “Do you ever feel like someone is watching us? I mean, like right here in the room with us?”

“I don’t feel that. Maybe it’s you not being high yet that has you feeling that way. Come on, share what you have.” Drugs. That was when Abe noticed they were tying off a rubber thing around their arms. He moved back away from them but returned when Tag spoke again. “We could just take him and sell him on the black market again. It worked out okay for us then. I don’t like how that ended, though. Those people that bought