Barrel of Whiskey by F.J. Blooding

Author:F.J. Blooding [Blooding, F.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Whistling Book Press

Eighteen

“I’m trying to decide if I should be nervous or not,” Dexx said, wringing the steering wheel.

“In a quarter of a mile,” Lola said through the speaker of Paige’s phone via Google Maps, “turn left.”

“I would say,” Paige said, her fingertips tingling with some anxiety of her own, “you either are or you’re not. It’s not really a matter of should.”

Dexx tipped his head and ran his tongue along his teeth. “Was it just me, or was that burger a bit greasier than normal?”

Paige cleared the loogie out of her throat. They’d stopped at a local burger joint and had eaten before meeting Chuck since neither of them had eaten breakfast. “Definitely greasy. I’m going to make a great first impression hawkin’ hairballs throughout this meeting.”

“Yeah, well, hopefully you don’t also have gas.”

“Turn left,” Lola said.

“Shut up.” Paige rolled her eyes. “Your nose is going to get you into trouble one of these days. I swear to the Mother.”

Dexx turned on his turn signal and waited to turn onto the dirt road as a blue pickup approached. “It’s a bad sign when even Lola doesn’t know the street names.”

Paige shook her head. “We’re out in the sticks. I don’t know that a dirt road has a name.”

“Yeah. It really does. Look there.”

She looked where he pointed. Sure enough. Green sign with a street name. D Lane. “Wow.”

“Yeah.” He pulled off the two-lane highway and onto the dirt road that disappeared over a rolling hill to nowhere. “Let me know when I should be worried.”

“Worried for you?” Paige studied Google Maps, but it didn’t appear to know much more than she did. “You can shift shape and run.”

“Continue straight for three miles,” Lola said.

Three miles. “Me? I’m screwed. All I’ll be able to do is call up a big wind and wail them to death.”

“You can do a lot more than that, and you know it.”

Paige agreed with a shrug. “Wonder what he wants?”

“You know what he wants.” Dexx thumped the steering wheel, dirt kicking up all around them. He rolled up his window.

Paige followed suit. It was getting hard to breathe with all the dust they were kicking up. “Yeah.” Yet she didn’t at the same time.

They’d entered a valley—if you could call it a valley. Small hills sheltered it from all sides, and a wide metropolis opened before them.

“Another Nederland?” Dexx asked.

“If you had a bunch of shifters that needed protection from the public, wouldn’t you keep them out of the city?”

“Yeah. I would.”

“Okay, then.”

They rolled into ‘town’ and found a place to park in front of a yellow store front that was reminiscent of the Wild West days. There wasn’t a name or anything on the storefront, but the big window showed off a wide array of canned foods.

There were several storefronts along the street and a lone gas station at the far end that boasted no prices.

Not a single person on the streets. No other vehicles.

Paige got out of the car and shut the door quietly.

Lola chimed in loudly, “You have arrived.

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