by Nhys Glover
Jake’s ghostly side-kick had been gone all morning, and though I knew he was still tethered to Jake, he didn’t actually have to manifest all the time. The days of him being there every minute of the day and night, haunting Jake in punishment for his death, seemed to have gone.
When we got home, I was shocked to find a half-grown puppy, bedraggled and starved sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor; a puddle next to him. Luckily, the puddle was not blood.
The Despicable Duo were sniffing around the dog as if he was about to become their new chew toy. I didn’t like the malicious glint in Percy’s eye. The fact the pup, who looked to be maybe six months old, was twice the size of the cat, probably gave the furry monster pause. Even a pathetically starved beastie like this one might bite if provoked, and he had a lot of very big sharp teeth.
At the sight of us, my pets rushed to meet me, circling my legs and acting as if they had never thought to tease or torment the visitor. The pup whimpered pathetically, and huddled against the side of the crate, afraid of the two huge humans looming over it. Poor thing, it was being overwhelmed from every direction. It was a wonder Daphne wasn’t here to inspect him as well.
Dropping my canvas bags to the floor, I knelt in front of the pup to offer him my hand to sniff.
“Watch him, he might bite,” Jake warned grumpily, taking my bags, along with his own, to the kitchen bench.
“No he won’t, poor little fellow. You’re hungry, aren’t you? Pity the furry fiends clean their bowls of every speck of food.” I turned to Jake, my hand still out to the pup. “Did you keep Rex’s tins?”
He nodded and burrowed under the cupboard beneath the sink. Withdrawing two big No Name tins of dog food, he proceeded to open one, depositing some of the contents into a plastic bowl. It was Rex’s bowl, I realised with a start. I hadn’t seen it since he died. Jake being Jake, had hidden it along with the food, so I wasn’t reminded every time I saw it.
Jake put the bowl on the floor and slid it towards me. I accepted it and moved it close to the pup. With one frightened look in my direction, he sniffed and made a dash for the bowl. The poor starved creature began scarfing the meat and gravy down so fast I thought he’d be sick. I didn’t want to have to clean up vomit as well as piddle, but I couldn’t bring myself to stop him. Jake had at least kept the amount he’d put in the bowl small.
While the dog ate, I studied him, trying to work out what breed or breeds he might be. From his size and lanky limbs, not to mention big feet he hadn’t grown into yet, I knew he was going to be a big dog when he finished growing. His head was boxy, his ears long and floppy, his matted fur a golden colour. Had he had a more solid frame, I’d have said he was a golden retriever.
“He’s got some greyhound in him,” Jake observed.
“And some golden retriever,” I added.
Jake studied the dog for a moment before nodding. “The colouring’s right, but he’s too fine-boned for a full-crossbreed. Maybe it’s a small part of his parentage. Looks like you just got a new stray. That’s five of us now.”
I laughed, making the puppy jump. “Us? I didn’t know you were a stray?”
“’Course I am. I wandered in the same way they all do, drawn to your warm heart. Any good stray knows a softy when they see one.” He was joking, but there was an edge to his words. I thought it was caused by what had happened with his father.
“Are you angry with me for taking you to meet him? Oh!” I exclaimed as the pup leaned in to lick my hand, which was still extended towards him while I talked to Jake.
I kept still for a moment or two more, to see what he’d do next—the dog not Jake—and when he seemed to be happy washing my hand thoroughly, I turned my hand so I could stroke his muzzle. After a moment of caution, he accepted the gesture and moved into my arms, almost knocking me over in his excitement to have found a kind human to squander his love on.
Scooping him up, I cuddled his filthy, smelly body close, talking baby-talk and cooing at him like an idiot. Jake grinned for the first time since we’d mounted his bike this morning.
“You’re going to stink,” he told me, his happiness plain to see now.
I shrugged. “There’s far worse ways to get dirty.”
“I can think of some good ways to get dirty.” He wiggled his eyebrows at me.
I groaned in mock horror. “Again? Good grief, wasn’t four times last night and this morning enough?”
His grin turned wolfish. “Not even close. But you’ll have to smell less like a dog before I let you in my bed.”
I poked my tongue out at him and had to turn my head away quickly before the pup licked it. His breath was foul. Like cold tinned meat and dog breath.
“Do you think he’s just lost? Maybe I ought to put up some fliers in town.” Even I heard the reluctance in my voice. I’d fallen instantly in love and there was no way I was giving up my newest family member.
“If he was a pure breed, I’d say it was possible. But as he’s not, and he’s skinny and scared of people, I think it’s more likely he’s been dumped. A cute puppy for Christmas that grew too big and not so cute by mid-year.”
It was a common enough story, and I hated it. How anyone could be cruel enough to just leave their child’s pet on the side of the road to be run over or starve to death was impossible to contemplate.
“I’ll give him a bath in the mudroom shower,” Jake offered, having finished storing the food away.
“You haven’t answered me. Or was telling me I stink actually your answer?” I made it a joke, but it wasn’t.
He came over to us, moving carefully so he didn’t scare the dog, and kissed the top of my head. “I thought my offer of dirty sex answered the question. You did what your heart told you to do. If you’d told me, I wouldn’t have agreed. But now I’m... I’m awright with it. I’m even awright with the whole fated path you insisted I was following. Seems I am part of the pagan families. Though I’d started to suspect as much. Jaseis a lot like me in lots of little ways.”
I nodded happily. “He is, isn’t he? Hard nut with a soft centre.”
He growled threateningly at me, and much to my surprise the pup growled back, his hackles rising, and his teeth on display. Jake backed off immediately.
“He’s protecting you from me!” he exclaimed in amazement.
I stroked the raised fur down and spoke soothingly to the pup.
“Another Rex,” I said with tears in my eyes.
The pup looked up at me, as if he recognised his name.
“Seems like this is Rex Junior,” Jake observed.
I cuddled the dog close. “Welcome to the family, Rex!”
After working to win the pup over, Jake took him into the mudroom to wash him down. I busied myself cleaning up the puddle. I didn’t know whether he’d wet himself in fear at the sight of my Despicable Duo or if he wasn’t housetrained. Some people got rid of dogs when they couldn’t housetrain them. It wasn’t the dog’s fault when that happened.
Once the mess was cleaned up, I watched the last of the bath. Poor Rex Junior looked utterly dejected as he put up with being hosed down with warm water and soaped up with bubbles. He even sneezed at the smell. Once he was rinsed, Jake pointed to the back door with his head and I opened it obligingly.
Jake was no fool. He knew full well what the dog would do as soon as he let him go. At the bottom of the stairs he put the dog down and bounded back up to me just in time. Rex shook energetically, sending a cascade of water in every direction.
We stood, arms wrapped around each other, laughing our heads off as the pup shook and scampered and sniffed his way around the courtyard. I could imagine Rex’s scent would still be in some of the corners.
When we headed back inside, Rex joined us, almost knocking me off my feet in his haste to get in before we closed the door. Had he forgotten the dog flap he’d used to get in the first time or was he just keen to find more food? It seemed that even a small amount of nourishment had been enough to pick up his spirit
s and remind him he had a large gaping hole where his stomach used to be.
“We both need a shower now,” Jake told me, wriggling his brows at me.
I smirked. “I suppose we do. And showering together would save water.”
“Aye, it would.”
Chapter Nineteen
By the time we went down to make lunch and see how Rex was doing, we were sexually sated and clean. We’d shut all three animals in the kitchen/mudroom, and my hope was that Rex hadn’t been bullied too badly while we were gone.
Much to my amazement, I found not only the pup squashed into the crate, but Fred and Percy as well.
“Oh, where’s your phone? Take a picture. Please, take a picture! That is soooo cute!” I gushed, partly in relief to find them all getting on so well.
The pup was lying on his back, his paws in the air, while Percy and Fred curled up across his belly. It was almost like his front paws were curled around the smaller pets, holding them in a hug.
Jake pulled out his phone and dutifully took some shots. “I’m not posting them on Face Book!” he warned grumpily.
But a man as satisfied as he was couldn’t be truly grumpy, so I gave him a kiss to help appease him.
“If I keep scowling will you kiss me some more?” he asked, wriggling his brows.
“No! Oh, no you don’t. Feed me, stray bad boy! I’m starving. You gave me a workout so you have to feed me now.”
He assumed a scowl, the sight of which would have most men wetting their pants. “Bad boy, huh? I’ll show you how bad I am.” He threw me over his shoulder and headed out of the kitchen, me beating at his back with my fists and making not a jot of difference to his progress.
But my wriggling worked, and Jake eventually put me down just as the phone started ringing. I was right next to it by then, and picked it up, still breathless and laughing.
“Sounds like you’re no worse for yesterday’s trials,” Jason said cheekily.
“As you didn’t start with Miss Wimple this is DC Smith, I’m assuming this isn’t a police matter you’re calling about.” I’d lowered my voice and adopted a broad Northern accent to deliver his police intro. It probably sounded more like Sean Bean than Jason.
He laughed. “I do not sound like that!”
“You do! You have a real Sean Bean thing going on. And he’s very sexy. For an older man, of course.” I added the last primly, in case I sounded like I preferred Sugar Daddies. That’s when I realised I’d been flirting with Jason.
I looked at Jake in horror, but he only laughed.
“Umm, sorry about that. I was playing and—”
“I’m flattered if you think I sound sexy. But I’ll keep my distance. Jake’s too big for me to take on.”
“And he’s your cousin!” I declared, before I thought about it.
That produced silence at both ends of the line. I grimaced and looked at Jake’s suddenly stony features.
I started my apology to the shocked man on the phone. “Um, sorry for dropping that on you. We met up with Jake’s dad, Jon Smith, in town this morning. His ghost, that is. He told us about him and Jake’s mother and how he was killed by Arthur Watkins, a mob boss from Leeds.”
That gave me pause, so I turned to Jake. “Hey, if he was from Leeds, how is it you don’t know him?”
“He’s from Bradford. I planned to check him out, but you’ve been side-tracking me.”
“Oh, right. I have, haven’t I?” I grinned impishly. Then frowned. “How was that possible? I thought you grew up on the streets in Leeds?”
“I spent the first ten years in Bradford. When Mam died I had to make myself scarce, so I went to Leeds. That’s where I ran into Johnno a year later.”
“Arthur Watkins. I know that name. But he’d be old, if he’s still alive. In his seventies at least.”
Daphne popped in. “Did I hear the name Arthur Watkins? I haven’t heard that name in forever. Well, you know what I mean.”
“How do you know him?” I asked her.
This was getting complicated. I had three separate conversations going on and I was acting as intermediary for some of them.
“Daphne knew Arthur,” I told Jason hurriedly.
“I remember him from when I was a girl. Not that we were supposed to associate with the lower elements in town, of course. But I was always... rebellious. I knew him when he was about sixteen or seventeen. We were the same age. He was sleazy and dangerous even then, and though I liked some of his kin, he scared me. One time he almost molested me, but someone came along. He left town not long after that. I think because Daddy found out. You know... now I come to think about it, he said something about us Keepers being stuck up and that one day he’d take our power. Heavens, I can’t believe I forgot that, what with all this talk about guardians and keepers of the gateway and such.”
“Daphne said this Arthur said he’d take the power that belonged to the Keepers one day. Is there any chance he’s still alive?” I asked Jason.
“I’m on it. Thanks. I’ll get back to you.” His abrupt departure left me gobsmacked.
Turning to Jake, I saw all the play was gone from his mood now. His gaze was calculating.
“Make your calls, I’ll put together a salad. I can’t ruin that,” I told him.
He nodded and quickly pulled his phone from his pocket. Of course, there was no reception, so he headed for his bike. I knew by now he rode up to Moorcroft when he wanted to make his phone calls.
Locking the back door after him, I started putting together a salad. Rex Jr and the Despicable Duo—hey, that sounded like the name of a band—took that opportunity to wake up and come nosing around for food. Normally I fed my pets morning and night, but as Rex was in need of fattening up, and I couldn’t feed him without feeding the others, I put small amounts from different sources, into the three bowls, Rex’s having the most.
Watching the three standing side by side wolfing down their food made me smile. It eased my worried soul. Was it a good thing that we’d found out about this horrible Arthur Watkins? Yes, Jake needed to know his father hadn’t abandoned them, just as Bryce and Danielle had needed to know the same thing about their father. But the vengeful emotions it had inspired was not such a good thing.
How would I feel if I found out my father had been killed...?
A cold sweat broke out across my body. The puzzle pieces started to fall into place yet again forming another sickening picture. If the Watkins Clan had been trying to open the gateway early. If they’d killed to stop Brenda Mitchell from using what her husband had taught her about the spells, and if they’d known the gateway was about to open... And they wanted ownership of the land on which it stood. After Mummy’s death, Daddy was all that stood in their way, as far as they were concerned. A kid like me would have seemed easy enough to manipulate, especially if they made certain I had no money to live on or pay my inheritance tax with.
God, could they have killed Daddy too?!
Staggering to the nearest chair, I collapsed into it. My whole body shook with the enormity of what I was considering. Before I had a chance to fully process the possible depths to which the Watkins family had harmed my own, Jake came in the back door.
Taking one look at me, he fell to his knees and made me meet his gaze. “What?”
“I’m probably being stupid. It’s just that I started to think that maybe Watkins wanted this place enough to kill for it. And I don’t mean just me. Daddy. Even Mummy, as she actually owned this place. Am I being paranoid? Tell me I’m being paranoid!”
He stroked my cheeks with his thumbs. “It’s possible. I’m starting to think anything’s possible with these shites!”
Burying my head in his neck, I let his strength and concern warm my cold insides. I didn’t want it to be true. There were already too many deaths Arthur Watkins was responsible for. All to get possession of something that could never be theirs. The power was illusory!
After I’d pulled myself together, I sat back and tried for a smile. At
least I hadn’t cried this time.
“Well, did you find out anything?” I asked.
Jake sat on the chair beside me and nodded. “Johnno knows about Arthur Watkins and his kin. It surprises me I didn’t. But though Bradford and Leeds are only about twelve miles apart they’re like different countries in lots of ways. Bradford’s more ‘multicultural’,” he said the last word sarcastically, as if he was trying to be politically correct but failing. “And after I left I wanted nothin’ to do with the place, for obvious reasons.”
I nodded, waiting for him to go on.
“Johnno says Arthur is alive and well, a real poisonous spider in the centre of a web of every low-life crime there is: human trafficking, heavy drugs, murder for hire, extortion, the lot. He has to keep his fingers out of the Eastern Europeans’ pots, but when those big boys took over the city they let Arthur keep his territory. To keep the peace.”
I nodded, not liking the sound of any of it. Human trafficking? As in the white slave trade? I’d seen it on TV, but I’d never considered it was going on so close to home.
“Does... Does Johnno do all that?” I asked, not wanting to know Jake helped to trade women like they were livestock.
Jake shook his head. “One of the reasons I agreed to work for him back at the beginning was because he didn’t run prostitutes. And that’s what most human trafficking is about here. Johnno keeps to illegal cage fights, illegal gambling, loan-sharking, drugs, and some minor extortion—property insurance, it’s called. Then there’s a few side-ventures that fall in his lap like Frankie’s gallery. People get themselves in trouble and Johnno lets them get out of it by givin’ him a share of their businesses. He does pretty well for himself, with my help. And by keeping out of the big money-makin’ ventures he stays under the radar with the big boys and the Bill.”
“I... I hoped it wasn’t really bad stuff. You did say you’d never killed anyone before Squib. And that wasn’t really your fault.”
