Down the Dirt Road (The Dirt Road Series Book 1)

by Livell James

  “That’s the problem, Guardian, your concern over my granddaughter. You are only to concern yourself with her safety after she has come into her magic. As she has yet to complete the Ostara, you’re not needed. Her wellbeing will always be a matter for her family and mate. That isn’t you, Lucas Valentin; the Guardian and the Blue Moon Priestess are never to be mates.”

  “Old man, I have read the bylaws and the history regarding my station, and you are incorrect in your beliefs, but I won’t stand in your way as of now. My purpose is to ensure the ceremony goes off without a hitch and your granddaughter comes into her powers. I will do that, but make no mistake, if we are mates, then I will claim her. There isn’t anything you or anyone else can say or do to prevent that, do you understand?”

  Lucas hated using his power against people. Edwin was a warlock, but a weak one; Ruth was the one with all the power. It was her line which provided the next generation of witches. Edwin was her chosen mate, but not her only one. Ruth had other children, children who wouldn’t be revealed to Kaylee until the ceremony. Just like her mother before her, Kaylee would soon find out her family’s origin and that it was much larger than she ever thought. Lucas knew this because part of his job as Guardian was to keep and guard the McClane’s family tree. Edwin knew as well and even though Lucas genuinely liked the old man, he was meddling in places he shouldn’t.

  “We’ll see about that.” Edwin got up and left the porch, but looked back at Lucas. “If Ruth decides there will be no mating between the two of you, it will not happen. I promise you, half breed, I will do my very best to convince her the mating is tainted because you are not of pure blood.”

  “If I know anything of your mate, old man, it’s that she doesn’t mess with fate. You might want to remember that while you’re doing your best to convince her of something which hasn’t happened yet or might not ever happen. I have been loyal to the McClane’s from birth. I take that duty seriously, and will remain doing it until my dying breath, guardianship or not. My blood has nothing to do with that, it only makes me work harder.”

  Chapter 6

  Kaylee felt like a ten-year-old shuffling out to the car, but damn, she didn’t want to do this. Shopping and errands were fun if you could get something nice, like a great pair of jeans or even a killer pair of heels. But going to the grocery store with her grandma, yeah, that would never be on her top ten things to do in a day, heck, maybe in a year.

  That reminded her of another thing; who in their right mind named a grocery store after a wiggling pig? The Piggly Wiggly!! Then plaster pictures of said pig with a huge smile on its face, wearing a butcher’s hat. How was a person supposed to buy yummy breakfast meats like bacon, sausage, or ham with that damn pig smiling at them? Or, heck, how about pork chops? That pig made Kaylee feel guilty, so she always steered clear of the pork products, and it pissed her off.

  A girl needed some bacon, every once in a while, or a nice, juicy pork chop. But, no, the Wiggly had ruined that for her. Kaylee never felt these things in Birmingham at Kroger’s or Winn Dixie. She could snap up pork products and anything else she wanted, left and right, with absolutely no guilt. Well, maybe a little guilt on those days she decided on a junk food binge, but that was the store's fault.

  No, this honor was just for the Piggly Wiggly in good old Eclectic. It was the only grocery store around unless you wanted to drive even further; Kaylee didn’t. The drive was another reason she was dragging her feet. She knew her Grandma Ruth was going to want to drive, and the woman was a terror on the roads.

  She drove with two feet, but the left one only got action when a stop sign, another car, or heck, a person was within six feet of the front of the car. When that happened, she slammed that foot down like nobody’s business. The right foot, now that baby got a lot of play, as in pushed down to the floor from the moment the car was started up.

  Forget about the front, walking behind Grandma Ruth’s car was taking your life in your hands. She didn’t look when she backed up; if you were unfortunate enough be behind her, she deemed it was your responsibility, not hers. Kaylee had witnessed her saying just that years ago when she ran right into a police cruiser. Kaylee had been about fourteen at the time and remembered the cop looking at Grandma Ruth like she was nuts. Kaylee agreed on some level, quite a few of them, actually.

  That was when an idea hit her. She hadn’t been back here much since she’d gotten her driver’s license or had her own car. Grandma Ruth usually visited her in Birmingham during the years since her mom moved to California. The more she thought about, the more a plan came together in her head. She decided to go for broke, right before her grandma got to her car.

  “Grandma Ruth, why don’t I drive this time? I didn’t get a chance to fill up yesterday before I got here and would like to top off the gas tank,” Kaylee said smiling, trying to look as sweet and innocent as possible. She should have known it wouldn’t work.

  “Oh, Kaylee, there isn’t any need for that,” Grandma Ruth said, holding her hand in the air, complete with jingling keys. “If you have to go somewhere, we’ll just take you. Why spend money when you don’t need to? You have to remember, you don’t have a job, right now, which means you’re going to have to watch your pocketbook.”

  Yeah, Kaylee knew she needed to watch her spending, but filling up her gas tank wasn’t going to exactly break the bank. But it did bring up another problem; Kaylee needed a job. She had enough savings to get through a couple of months, maybe. Not having to pay rent would help, but she would still have to pay for utilities and food. Kaylee stopped walking when she realized Grandma Ruth had turned and was talking to her.

  “Kids your age are too frivolous. Things are too easy come, easy go for you youngins. Why, I remember having the same pair of shoes for two years, wore them every day walking to and from school. Now, people have rooms just filled with only shoes.”

  All Kaylee could do was stare at her grandma, then, suppressing her giggle, she asked, “Was that when you lived in the Bayou? I thought you told me you had to paddle your johnboat for two hours just to get to school and your family was so poor you couldn’t afford things like shoes?”

  Her grandma didn’t miss a beat, waving her keychain-clad hand in the air and said like it was just common sense, “Oh, that was another time. I did go to school for eight years, Kaylee. It’s not like all of them were the same, you know. That’s another thing about you kids, always trying to rush things.”

  This time Kaylee did giggle, “Of course Grandma, whatever you say.”

  When they rounded the corner of the garage, Kaylee froze in place, looking at her grandma’s car and again considered trying to come up with something, anything which would make the woman let her drive because what was before her now couldn’t be safe. The pink—yes pink, but not just pink, day-glow pink—late model Cadillac sedan was a tank and had more than a few problems.

  The first one, from what Kaylee could see, was the car didn’t have any hubcaps. No big deal, but then there were the side panels. Those looked like someone beat the car with a hammer. And the bumper or lack of one; someone had fashioned a two-by-four where the bumper should be and on it were a couple of placards like you would see on semis or work vehicles.

  One said, This vehicle takes wide turns. The next said, This vehicle stops frequently, and in marker across the bottom, it included, quickly. But the one which caught Kaylee’s eye was a huge hand-painted one which said, If you can read this, you are too close. Kaylee was pretty sure anyone within a hundred feet of the car could have read the sign. Which said a lot about her grandma’s driving skills or lack of them.

  “Grandma what’s with all the bumper stickers? You do know they’re supposed to go on the back of the car, right?”

  “Oh, those. Your grandpa said if I banged up the car again, he was going to take my keys away. Those sticker things distract him, and I get to keep my keys. Did you see the one that says, Horn’s broke watch for fingers? He loves that one. Shook his head and laughed
for a good half hour. Which reminds me, we’re going to need to make a stop at the police station.” Her grandma said it like it was an everyday occurrence and no big deal.

  “Uh, Gram, why do we need to stop at the police station?”

  “Do you remember the nice officer who put his cruiser in the wrong place and my car hit him? He gives me more stickers when I come in to pay my tickets. Such a nice man. He’s the one who helped with my new bumper. Even gave me the signs.”

  Kaylee was too stunned to say anything but “Oh.”

  As Grandma Ruth opened her door, it screeched with the sound of metal against metal, making Kaylee grit her teeth. Walking to her side of the car, she cringed a little when opening her door resulted in the same noise. Getting in, she quickly put her seat belt on, just in time for her grandma to put the pedal to the metal and tear out of the driveway.

  Kaylee couldn’t look out the windshield. She’d made that mistake once, and her foot had slammed on an imaginary brake pedal. That only left her with two choices; she could either watch her hands as her knuckles got whiter with the grip she had on both the armrest and the seat, or she could look out of the side window. She chose the latter.

  Her grandma was always surprisingly quiet as she drove. It was like she was on a mission, and Kaylee wasn’t about to distract her in any way. The thirty-minute drive to Eclectic took her grandma eighteen. Kaylee looked around; the town of Eclectic was nothing but a one-traffic light, one-road town. Kaylee knew from her conversations with her grandma, the most exciting news going around right now was the new Dollar General being built. Oh, how exciting… not. If a McDonalds or a Starbucks was going in, she would have been right on the excitement bandwagon. But a Dollar General? Not so much.

  By the time they pulled into the grocery store, Kaylee was more than ready to be out of the car. Once on solid ground, she had to resist the urge to kiss the pavement or offer her thanks to a higher being for getting her there in one piece.

  Damn, this place hadn’t changed since she was a child. The store had been in Eclectic for fifty or more years. At least, that’s what the sign next to the door said. It was crowded; being the only grocery store in town or within a thirty-mile radius, everyone shopped here. It was also one of the biggest employers in the area and where she would probably be working if she couldn’t find something else. She didn’t have a lot of faith in finding something else. Needing a break from her grandma, Kaylee got her own cart, one with a wobbly wheel, of course.

  “Grandma I’m going to go pick up a few things. When do you want to meet back up at the front, so we can check out together?”

  “I only have a few things to get. How does an hour sound?”

  “Okay, meet you back here in an hour.” Kaylee wanted to groan again or roll her eyes, she wasn’t sure which expression was the most appropriate. She knew she would be sitting out front, all her shopping done, well before her grandma even if she walked slow and read every label on the products she picked up and all the magazines by the cash register.

  Kaylee had been wandering around the store forever, fighting her wobbly cart every inch of the way when she remembered she needed to get one more thing. She was about to pick up some tampons when she got distracted by the ‘adult’ section located right next to the feminine products section. Thinking about her dreams last night and Lucas, she picked up two packages of condoms and started reading the back. A girl could never be too prepared after all.

  Then she noticed it in all its promised glory, ‘the pleasure pack’. She grabbed the box and almost started to do a little dance—the words twisted, sensations, intense, and warming all made her mind drift to a certain man. She started looking all over the box for a size; didn’t they have sizes?

  “Can I help you, Kaylee?” an intensely deep, but gruff, and somewhat familiar voice spoke very close to her ear.

  Kaylee dropped the box and spun around. At first, she thought the man standing in front of her was Lucas, but then she noticed several things; his eyes were green and his hair was much shorter. The biggest difference, she didn’t feel anything but mild appreciation for this man. No belly flutters, hard nipples, or wet panties. He was hot, hell, he was a mirror image of Lucas, but he wasn’t him.

  “How do you know who I am, but I haven’t got the first clue who you are?” Kaylee asked. Something was putting her off this man. It wasn’t fear or trepidation, it was more like anger. She felt it coming off him in waves, not directed at her exactly, but someone close to her. Kaylee never could explain how she felt other people’s feelings, she just did. It was instinct or self-preservation, she didn’t know and hadn’t or wouldn’t talk to anyone about it.

  “The name is Matthias.” The man looked at her and smiled a little too broad and a lot too toothy. “Lucas told me all about you, Kaylee.”

  The way he said Lucas told me all about you rubbed her the wrong way. He sounded as if he was implying something she was sure she wouldn’t like. The damn eyebrow bob thing he did only confirmed it.

  “Nice to meet you, Matthias. Care to share exactly what Lucas told you about me?” Kaylee didn’t take the hand Matt had offered to her. She knew it was rude, but she didn’t want to touch him, so she crossed her arms over her chest and waited to hear what he had to say about Lucas.

  “Oh, by the looks of what you’re interested in buying, I think you know. Didn’t take him long. I heard you’ve only been in town for one night. You have to be his fastest conquest, yet. But I wouldn’t bother buying those. Lucas is a one and done type of guy. Unless, you’d consider taking me for a spin. I like to sample the new pieces for a long while,” Matt said with half laden eyes, licking his lips.

  “Really? Well, that’s good to know, and I think I changed my mind,” Kaylee said, picking up the box of condoms and slamming them down on the shelf. How dare he, how dare both of them? Kaylee wasn’t a virgin, but she wasn’t easy either. Lucas Valentin could kiss her ass if he was going around saying she was. As for Matt, he could kiss her ass just for being a douche.

  Kaylee went right to the cash registers and checked out. Thankfully, Grandma Ruth was making her way up to the registers as well. Once they both walked out of the store, Kaylee helped her grandma load up her groceries, then grabbed her grandma’s keys.

  “I’m driving home.”

  Her grandma must have noticed her mood because she didn’t say a word, just got in the car. Kaylee followed suit, keeping quiet as she brooded about Lucas. When she got back to the house, she was going to find the bastard and the two of them were going to straighten some things out, right from the start. If she was going to be called a slut, then she’d better have done the acts to deserve the title.

  Chapter 7

  Kaylee was tired, frustrated and angry, well, not just angry, she was downright pissed. How dare Lucas talk about her that way? They didn’t know each other, and he sure as hell couldn’t see into her mind, so he had no idea she’d one of the best sex dreams of her life starring him. Even then, he still had no right to imply she had slept with him or done anything.

  Kaylee had fumed the entire way home thinking about it. When they got there, Kaylee hastily helped her grandma put away the groceries. Well, put away was a loose way of saying she threw, stuffed, and crammed things where she thought they should go. She shouldn’t have, she should have taken more care, but she was just too damn mad.

  Her Grandma Ruth had been quiet the entire way home and even as Kaylee sort of helped. When Kaylee slammed the last cupboard door and said, “I’m going for a walk,” her grandma still didn’t say anything. When Kaylee went out the door and slammed it, too, still nothing. She should be ashamed of herself, Matthias’s words shouldn’t have upset her this much. Normally, they wouldn’t have; she would have put him in his place and been on her way. But this was Lucas they were talking about, and the words hurt her more than they should have. The same man she had these weird feelings for, the same man who was so sweet to her yesterday, how could he be a douchebag, too?


  Kaylee didn’t consider herself to be naïve, she had met and even dated her fair share of assholes. She also knew anybody was capable of anything, even lying to make themselves look better in front of their friends. Kaylee just wasn’t that type of person. She believed being honest was the only way to go. Even little white lies had a way of coming back to haunt you. Now, lies by omission, she didn’t believe those were lies at all, a person should be able to keep some things to themselves. But if Lucas said he’d fucked her, it was a whopper lie which needed punishment or retribution. She wasn’t beyond doing either to Lucas.

  Kaylee decided walking to the cabin would be better for everyone involved. The fresh air might calm her down a little, which was doubtful, but one could hope, and she needed the extra time the walk would take just to process everything. If she got in the car, it would take her less than two minutes to get there; this way, it would take her at least fifteen.

  The well-worn path was right next to the shed, and Kaylee had been down it tons of times as a child, so she wasn’t worried about getting lost. She had been walking for a while, caught up in all her nasty thoughts of what she was going to do to Lucas, when someone screamed, “Boo!” behind her. Kaylee didn’t even think, she balled up her fist and rounded on whoever the hell it was in a move which would have made her self-defense teacher proud and planted her fist right in the person’s face.

  It took her mind a second to figure out what was going on, but once it caught up, she considered tackling the person and repeating her impressive punch. When he looked up and glared at her, Kaylee knew exactly who it was.

  “What the hell, Matthias! Where did you come from and how in the heck did you make it out here before me? Weren’t you working?” Kaylee asked.

  He looked at her all stunned and shocked and roared with a bit of a growl mixed in, “You punched me!”

  “And that surprises you, why? A woman walking in the woods by herself and a stranger yells boo, coming out from who knows where, and you thought you would what? Get away with it? Get a good laugh by making me scream? Well, let me tell you something, Matthias Valentin, I don’t work that way. Now, go away. I have had enough of you to last a lifetime.