Ventura Hellway: California Demon, Book 3 by Dunbar Debra

Author:Dunbar, Debra
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-07-27T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

It was far too late to drive over to visit Bea and the girls, so I went home, and took a chance that they’d still be up, and called them instead. Bea was thrilled to announce that she’d gotten a raise at work. It would allow them to expand their food budget, and she was planning on upping their savings. Nevarra had evidently changed her mind about the community garden and had spent the day organizing one in the vacant lot down the block. She already had six neighbors signed on to the co-op. Sadie had found a book about raising poultry and was learning all she could so she could take over their budding backyard-chicken enterprise.

Both girls asked again if they could come over to spend the night this week, or maybe even an entire weekend. They wanted to go hiking in Griffith Park, visit the observatory, have a picnic. Both wanted to meet kids their age in my neighborhood. I thought about Lila and the woman who’d come to borrow sugar, and wished my encounters with the neighbors had gone better. Maybe when Nevarra and Sadie came over, I could have a small party to introduce them around. Hopefully, two friendly teens would break the tension between me and the shifters.

I told the girls I’d have them over again soon—maybe this weekend. Now that I didn’t have a price on my head and Bishop was paid off, I felt like I could actually take a few days off if I wanted. And maybe the neighbors would relax a little to see me out doing normal things with two human girls. Maybe they’d finally view me as less of a threat if their children played stickball in the streets with my sisters.

It would be fun. I’d love for the girls to come over and spend Saturday night and Sunday here with me. A normal weekend, just like it was before the demons came. I smiled, thinking about how mundane, how normal, how perfect that all sounded.

I wished the girls and Bea a goodnight, and then stared at my phone a while, wondering if Bishop would call or text me. It was a stupid argument. If we couldn’t move past one argument, then there wouldn’t be much hope for this relationship. Hopefully he’d cool off and text. If not, then I’d be the one to make the first move. But not tonight. I was still irked at him. Maybe I needed to cool off as well.

Putting my phone aside, I went into the kitchen to wash the wine glasses and the bowl I’d served Mittens his tuna in. It was a good thing I hadn’t kept that Instant Pot. I rarely got home until late, if at all. What would happen if I was detained with work, and by some miracle the electricity stayed on and the thing ran all night long? Would it catch fire? Would the food burn? Would my neighbors smell the disaster and intervene before my house and the neighborhood burned down?

There would be no Instant Pot in my future.

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