by Mikayla Lane
She knew it wouldn’t have mattered since Gibly and the other sibiox would have gotten in the bear proof containers they used anyway. She’d left them unlatched specifically so the cats could tear everything up.
“I think so,” Kyle said, wondering if his men had used the latching wooden containers he’d seen out back.
Not knowing if they’d unknowingly enticed the vermin, he decided to change the subject.
“I’m sorry you haven’t had much sleep. We should be done this morning and out of your hair by lunch time,” Kyle assured them, hoping like hell he was right.
He was exhausted and starving. The two muffins he’d eaten barely staved off the growling of his stomach, and he was drooling at the thought of stopping at the first restaurant they passed once they got out of there.
Far away from here, he amended in his mind.
“Ain’t no rushing on our account,” BJ said with a tired smile. “You’re the most exciting thing to happen around here in a long time. I hear a few of the girls done did dumb suppers last night hoping one of you boys is their future husband.”
“They did a what?” Kyle asked, wondering if the woman was even coherent this morning.
“A dumb supper is an old tradition in these parts,” Bess began. “It’s where unmarried girls hold a supper at the stroke of midnight in order to find their future husbands.”
“What? What does a midnight dinner have to do a husband?” Kyle asked, completely confused.
“In a dumb supper, the single girls begin to set the table at midnight. They set the table backwards, until nine things are placed onto the table as offerings to their future husbands,” Bess explained as the soldiers began filing inside and listening after finishing the clean-up out back.
“What are the nine things?” one of the soldiers asked.
“Why, they could be anything. Like potatoes and roast beef, green beans and apple pie. Anything to make nine items,” Bess answered. “When the nine items are placed on the table, the girls wait in silence until the spirits of their future husbands come and lay something on the girl’s plate that lets them know who their husband will be.”
“Like what?” Greg couldn’t help but ask.
“Well, in your case, a girl could get a swatch of camouflage cloth, maybe a stethoscope if he was a doctor,” Bess explained to a rapt audience.
“And these spirits bring something they can actually touch? Physical objects?” another soldier asked with doubt.
“Yes, it’s believed they do. I have never personally done a dumb supper, I found my Jeremiah before I needed to try, but I’ve heard of a few others doing it with impressive results,” Bess admitted, telling the truth.
“That’s got to be the strangest way I ever heard to find a spouse,” a sergeant muttered.
Bess only laughed, grabbed the full coffee pot, and began filling the soldier’s foam cups.
“How much more strange is it than hunting online profiles of people who are trout fishing one another?” Bess asked, causing the soldiers to laugh.
“I think you mean cat fishing,” one of the soldiers called out.
Bess just waved an elegant hand in the air.
“Cat or trout doesn’t matter if you’re not talking to who you think you are,” she added.
“She ain’t lying there. I wasted five months on some chick only to find out it was some short, fat dude in his mom’s basement jerking me around out of boredom,” a sergeant said with a sad shake of his head.
BJ was just getting ready to drift back off to sleep as the soldiers laughed and joked with her mother until the last voice she expected to hear whispered through her mind like a bucket of ice water to the face.
“You look like shit. Why the hell aren’t you sleeping?” Nik demanded, covering his concern with anger.
“Oh shut up, you asshole, and get out of my head! You have no right to be there!” BJ growled back at him, suddenly wide awake.
“I’ll get out when you answer my question,” Nik fired back, not liking that she was so angry at him.
“I don’t have to answer you since you mean nothing to me!” BJ countered, her own anger rising at his attitude.
“Were you up all night doing a stupid supper to find another mate?” Nik demanded, unreasonably pissed off at the thought.
“It’s called a dumb supper, you idiot, and no I didn’t bother since I don’t want a mate! If I were you, I wouldn’t mock what I don’t understand,” BJ shot back.
“Are you threatening me?” Nik roared in fury that she would dare when he’d done nothing to deserve it.
“No, you fool, you threaten yourself with your ignorance. I doubt anyone else could even break through your veneer of intelligence and crack the hard head you’re so proud of,” BJ countered, suddenly tired of dealing with everyone-especially Nik.
“BJ, honey,” her mother prodded.
“What now?” BJ yelled out, surprising everyone in the room. She immediately blushed. “I’m sorry. I’m just tired and need more coffee.”
“Yes, dear, you can go home and get some rest later,” Bess said aloud before speaking to her daughter through the shengari’. “Pull it together for a few more hours, honey. Everything will work out as it should. Have patience.”
BJ nodded at her mother and immediately blocked Nik from talking to her again. It was going to cost her energy she didn’t have to spare, but she couldn’t stand fighting with him either. Blocking or fighting, both were going to cost her later, but blocking him would save her peace of mind, and that was more important to her when she still had to deal with Major Kyle and his team of foolish men.
“What did you ask?” BJ turned to the major.
“Oh, I was wondering why you hadn’t taken any pictures of the suspects,” Kyle asked again, looking closely at the cop.
“I couldn’t get the camera to work. Mojo was supposed to fix it, but he’s not been himself lately,” BJ explained, trying to remember that Mojo was supposed to be a drug addict.
“Interesting,” Kyle added as he openly stared at BJ until she shifted uncomfortably in the chair.
BJ looked over at her mother.
“What did I miss? Why is he staring at me like that?” she asked.
“I don’t know, honey. Try to pay attention because I can feel a shift in his energy that doesn’t bode well for our plan,” Bess warned as she felt a shiver of fear skitter up her spine.
BJ couldn’t be more grateful when Dennis and Irwin came barreling through the door a few minutes later.
“Good morning, you handsome devils!” Irwin shouted out as he strode in carrying a large picnic basket over his arm.
“’Morning, all,” Dennis added, carrying a covered basket as well.
Kyle eyed the baskets and prayed they hadn’t brought them some culinary disaster made from the bullet-ridden raccoon from the night before.
“Is that food?” one of the soldiers asked, causing Irwin to immediately flutter over to the young man.
“Of course! It’s my almost-famous raspberry coffee cakes,” Irwin told the soldier as he set the basket down, fished out two large plates, and set them on a desk.
The soldiers fell on the plates, and within seconds both plates were empty, dashing all of Kyle’s hopes of trying the delicious looking treats until Dennis nudged his arm.
“I got some homemade deer jerky and some hard boiled eggs. A man needs more than that sugary crap to stay strong,” Dennis assured the major as he pulled out several mason jars and handed them to Kyle.
Kyle was so hungry he felt like he was holding the holy grail of food. He ignored the jealous looks of his men as he opened the jar of jerky and sunk his teeth in a strip of meat.
“Oh, this is so good!” Kyle mumbled as he took another bite.
“My own recipe,” Dennis said with pride.
The way Dennis said that gave Kyle pause and he stopped chewing as he looked at the large man.
“This is deer meat right? And chicken eggs?” Kyle asked c
autiously.
Kyle was praying he hadn’t eaten the dead raccoon from the previous night. For all he knew, they called everything deer jerky.
Dennis puffed up and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Son, we may do things differently here and use some words you ain’t never heard, but a deer is a deer and a chicken is a chicken. That there is deer jerky and chicken eggs,” Dennis chastised.
Kyle sighed in relief and finished chewing the meat he had in his mouth before he looked at Dennis again.
“I’m sorry. I meant no offense. Thank you so much,” he said.
Kyle was hoping he wouldn’t alienate the man since he needed to talk to him, and he sure as hell wouldn’t mind more of the jerky and eggs either. The big man was right-he needed protein and a clear head if he was going to get his unit out of there that morning.
“No problem,” Dennis said with a hearty chuckle before giving Kyle a pat on the shoulder.
Kyle saw Dennis take a few more jars out of his basket and set them on the desk next to the now-empty muffin baskets. His men looked at him pleadingly, waiting for him to tell them they could eat.
“Go ahead, but make sure everyone gets some,” he ordered as the jars disappeared and the men turned towards one another to share the food.
“Wow, you boys are real hungry this morning. The diner is serving all day,” Irwin offered, looking over the men with concern.
“No!”
“No, thank you!”
The men all shouted varying degrees of “No!” around the room, and Kyle looked to a surprised Bess, Dennis and Irwin.
“Yeah, we uh, we’re not fond of possum or raccoon . . . it makes some of them sick and a few are allergic,” Kyle lied, hoping not to offend the few people who’d given them real food.
“Oh, you poor, poor dears,” Irwin said with a cluck of his tongue. "I'd be more than happy to host you boys at my place. I have chicken and deer.”
Kyle was surprised to see some of his men consider it before they collectively shook their heads.
“Thanks,” Kyle said, turning to Irwin, “but, I don’t think we’re going to be here long, and we wouldn’t want to trouble you. In fact, why don’t we get started?”
Dennis and Irwin shrugged and nodded before pulling up chairs near another desk.
“Do you need us today?” Bess asked, referring to herself and BJ, who’d already been questioned the day before.
Kyle thought about it for a moment and didn’t want to take the chance that one of the men would say something that he’d want to verify with Bess or BJ and they’d be stuck while they waited for someone to find the two women.
“Is there a way you can stay in town? Close by in case I have something else? And is your son coming?” Kyle asked.
“Of course we can. We’ll be at the diner or the mercantile, easy for one your boys to find. I woke Mojo up, and he promised to be here. I’m sure he’ll arrive shortly,” Bess assured him.
Kyle watched her and BJ pick up the empty picnic baskets and head out of the door before he turned to Dennis and Irwin.
*****
Nik growled in frustration as BJ headed out of the station, still refusing to speak to him through the shengari’. She’d cut him off completely, and for reasons he couldn’t explain, it hurt. He felt like a piece of him was missing. A piece he hadn’t known he’d lost. Knowing that only pissed him off and frustrated him even more.
“Should I follow them?” Disc asked Grai.
Grai shook his head.
“No, we need to keep an eye on the major,” he stated.
Nik huffed in frustration. He wanted to follow BJ and make sure she was all right. He knew how long it must have been since she’d slept, and he’d seen her stumble in the road when she’d left the station. He tried and failed to convince himself he was only concerned because it was partly his fault. Even Targe had begun laughing at his efforts to avoid thinking of BJ as a mate when his actions and emotions said differently.
“I think we need to follow the women,” Nik muttered before he could stop himself.
“Tactical reasons?” Grai asked.
Nik scrambled for any valid reason he could think of and drew a blank.
“No,” he admitted.
“Then we can’t do it, my friend. There’s too much at stake,” Grai explained, feeling sorry for the conflicted man.
Nik knew Grai was right, and it only frustrated him more.
“Woman, you better damn well talk to me, or I’m coming down there to make sure you’re OK,” Nik growled through the private path.
His words only echoed back in his mind, telling him she still had him blocked. Narrowing his eyes at the challenge she presented to him, he began searching the area below to find a way around her obstinate refusal to talk to him.
“Maybe you should have started off with an apology for being an ass instead of attacking her for looking rough,” Targe accused.
“Fuck you, Targe. She’s being hard-headed. If she’d talk to me, I’d get around to apologizing for last night,” Nik argued back to his beast.
“This is going to go badly. Everything you’ve done since you met her has gone badly. You’re only going to leave her with another of your messes to clean up,” Targe warned, knowing his host was going to take things too far.
Nik only snorted, ignoring his beast as he plotted a way to teach BJ a lesson about being hard-headed. With the military leaving soon, he had nothing to worry about.
Chapter Twelve
BJ paced the back kitchen of the small mercantile as she tried to concentrate on what Mojo was relaying to her from his meeting with Kyle. Time and again she found herself having to force her mind back to Mojo and away from that infuriating Nik.
Her mother had come into her room that morning and talked to her about what had happened in the cavern and Nik’s reaction. BJ believed her mother was right about why Nik had reacted as he had, but she still couldn’t stop the disappointment and hurt that flooded her when she thought of the things he’d said.
“BJ, you have to pay attention, your brother needs you,” Bess warned her softly.
“I know, Momma, I will,” BJ replied and then tried to focus on Mojo, who was doing an outstanding job of acting like a stoner-even though he’d never done a drug in his life.
She ignored Nik prodding at her mind, unable to deal with him and concentrate on getting the military out of her town at the same time. She was far too tired and emotionally worn out to deal with his issues regarding her heritage and his unwillingness to be a mate.
“Apparently, I frustrate the major a little too much,” Mojo finally told her with a laugh. “I’m on my way to you, where I’m supposed to wait until he’s done with Dennis and Irwin.”
Minutes later, he was coming into the mercantile’s kitchen.
“You think it’s going OK and they’re finally going to leave?” BJ asked him.
“The major seems to be a little frustrated between Irwin’s antics and my stoner routine,” Mojo admitted with a chuckle. “I think the mix of herbs in the muffins and jerky helped.”
Bess smiled and kissed the top of his head as he sat at the table.
“Guess someone should have mentioned that the herbs used in the muffins create terrible side effects when combined with the herbs in the jerky,” Bess said with a wink.
“They were all starving, sweating, and ready to leave when I left,” Mojo added with a laugh.
Bess moved over to BJ and put her hands on her shoulders.
“I think it’s safe for you to go home and get some sleep. I’ll wake you for dinner,” Bess’s tone of voice dared BJ to argue.
BJ stood and kissed her mom’s cheek.
“You don’t have to tell me twice. If you need me . . .” BJ began when Bess waved her hands in the air.
“You go. We’ll be fine,” Bess assured her.
“See you at dinner,” BJ said with a wave as she left the mercantile and headed home through the path in the woods.
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Nik had been watching for BJ around the mercantile when he saw her leave through the back door. He noted that she appeared to be heading along the same route she’d taken the day before when she’d gone home.
“I need to get down there,” Nik said aloud to no one in particular.
“What?” Grai asked.
“I need to talk to her and apologize. I can’t leave here without at least telling her I’m sorry,” Nik admitted.
“Dude! You barely escaped with your life, and you want to go back? What the fuck is wrong with you?” Traze asked in shock.
Nik glared at Traze before Grai slapped him in the back of the head.
“Shut the hell up, or you’ll be spending dinner with Bess again,” Grai threatened.
Traze stormed off into the sleeping area of the transport.
“You better bring a fucking army, because I’m not going anywhere near that crazy witch again,” Traze mumbled.
Grai turned to Nik and leaned against the wall.
“She blocked you?” he asked, already knowing the answer by Nik’s determination to leave the ship with the military still below.
Nik just nodded his head and looked back to the video and where BJ had disappeared into the woods.
“So you’re thinking she can’t avoid you if you’re already in front of her?” Grai prodded.
“Something like that,” Nik admitted. “You think it’s a bad idea?”
A part of Nik was hoping that Grai would deny him the request so he wouldn’t have to face BJ again. With the military still in the town, there was a very real risk that he could endanger them by getting caught, but he knew by the way Grai was reacting to his request that he wouldn’t say no.
“I think you were a fool for not handling it right to begin with. I admit-before I knew of what Tristan truly is, the whole wing thing would have given me pause. But I would have explained to her that I needed time to understand, and I wouldn’t have hurt her feelings if I could avoid it. You need a do over,” Grai agreed with a grin that made Nik a little nervous.
“Uh-huh. Why do I get the feeling you already have something in mind?” Nik asked.