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  Fort Morgan

  Denver Cereal, Volume Twelve

  Claudia Hall Christian

  Cook Street Publishing

  Denver, CO

  by

  Claudia Hall Christian

  StoriesbyClaudia.com

  The Denver Cereal

  The Denver Cereal

  Celia’s Puppies

  Cascade

  Cimarron

  Black Forest

  Fairplay

  Gold Hill

  Silt

  Larkspur

  Firestone

  Fort Lupton

  Fort Morgan

  Alex the Fey Thrillers

  The Fey

  Learning to Stand

  Who I am

  Lean on Me

  In the Grey

  Finding North

  The Queen of Cool

  The Queen of Cool

  Seth and Ava Mysteries

  Tax Assassin

  Carving Knife

  Suffer a Witch

  Suffer a Witch

  Copyright © Claudia Hall Christian

  ISNI: 0000 0003 6726 170X

  Licensed under the Creative Commons License:

  Attribution – NonCommercial – Share Alike 3.0

  ISBN-13 : 978-1-938057-31-1 (digital)

  978-1-938057-30-4 (print)

  Library of Congress available upon request.

  SMASHWORDS EDITION

  PUBLISHER’S NOTE:

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  First edition © serial fiction October 2014 — May 2015

  Cook Street Publishing

  ISNI: 0000 0004 1443 6403

  PO Box 18217

  Denver, CO 80218

  ~~~~~~~~

  For Rose,

  Every one of these chapters

  was written with your head on my lap.

  Be at peace, precious one.

  ~~~~~~~~

  What’s happened so far

  Denver Cereal is an addicting, fun, sweet and crunchy serial fiction filled with the tension, drama, and love of urban life.

  The best way to catch up is to read Grand Junction, Denver Cereal Volume 1- 10 wherever eBooks are sold or online at StoriesbyClaudia.com.

  We used to write a section here that gave a synopsis of all of the previous books. Frankly, the synopsis’ weren’t very good. More than anything, they deprived you of the chance to hang out in Denver Cereal for a while. We were only be spoiling your fun You deserve a chance to read all the twists and turns, mischief, and wild adventures of Denver Cereal. These aren’t books to be accomplished or checked off a list. They are stories to be savored and enjoys.

  Get to it. We’ll be here when you get back.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-one

  Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-two

  Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-three

  Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-four

  Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-five

  Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-six

  Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-seven

  Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-eight

  Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-nine

  Chapter Three Hundred and Forty

  Chapter Three Hundred and Forty-one

  Chapter Three Hundred and Forty-two

  Chapter Three Hundred and Forty-three

  Chapter Three Hundred and Forty-four

  Chapter Three Hundred and Forty-five

  Chapter Three Hundred and Forty-six

  Chapter Three Hundred and Forty-seven

  Chapter Three Hundred and Forty-eight

  Chapter Three Hundred and Forty-nine

  Chapter Three Hundred and Fifty

  Chapter Three Hundred and Fifty-one

  Chapter Three Hundred and Fifty-two

  Chapter Three Hundred and Fifty-three

  Chapter Three Hundred and Fifty-four

  Chapter Three Hundred and Fifty-five

  Chapter Three Hundred and Fifty-six

  Chapter Three Hundred and Fifty-seven

  Chapter Three Hundred and Fifty-eight

  Chapter Three Hundred and Fifty-nine

  Chapter Three Hundred and Sixty

  Glossary of Characters

  Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-one

  Danger

  Tuesday night — 9:18 p.m.

  Phoenix, Arizona

  Dionne looked across the room. The men had taken them into an office filled with soft couches, thick rugs, and even a fireplace. If Dionne didn’t know better, she’d swear she was in a hotel room and not a place of business. The men had checked with someone who was negotiating with the police before bringing them in here. The men . . .

  They were more like the monsters that lived in the children’s books she’d read to La Tonya and Jeraine — gorgeous to look at and very evil. One of the men, Jeff, was tall, thin, and tan. His eyes were shockingly blue and his hair salt and pepper. He wore a clean blue dress shirt, even though it was nearly ten at night. His suit probably cost more than her and Bumpy’s first home. He was like a shark — always looking for what to consume next. He’d given Dionne the once-over before turning his attention to Yvonne. While clearly the alpha male, this man would not be the one to actually kill them. He was more likely to order them killed or throw them out of a helicopter and let gravity do the work.

  The other man . . . What was his name? Gio? Gino? Dionne closed her eyes for a moment. She’d been so frightened for such a long time that her mind was starting to blank out.

  Gino. That was his name. Also some kind of banker in an expensive suit, this man was thick, tough, and had the look of a mobster. His face showed the wear of too much sun and too much alcohol. From what she could tell, this man was the muscle of the operation. He talked almost as much as he did cocaine and drank tequila. Snort a line. Take a shot. Suck on a wedge of lime. Tell a long-winded, pointless story. Snort a line. Take a shot. Suck on a wedge of lime. Tell another story. She did her best to listen to Gino.

  The bodyguard used to be a cop, Jeff-the-alpha-banker told them, before he got into trouble, and he looked the part. Gino had implied that he was the trouble that had taken down the bodyguard. While they were in the bathroom, the bodyguard had gone to the conference room to get Agent Angie. Whoever was negotiating had agreed to turn her over to the police as an act of “good faith.” Gino had laughed and laughed as if it had been his idea, but Dionne was pretty sure that Yvonne had made it happen.

  Gino was the one who’d killed the young secretary and shot Agent Angie. When push came to shove, Gino was going to be the one who would kill them too.

  He was also the one who would end up holding the bag for Jeff-the-alpha-banker. Gino would end up stabbed by a shiv in some maximum security prison while Jeff-lay on a beach somewhere. Gino asked her a question.

  “I’m sorry?” Dionne asked.

  “What’re you thinkin’?” Gino repeated.

  “Nothing much,” Dionne said. “I’m just a little fatigued.”

  “Here,” Gino said. “Have a line.”

  “No, thank you,” Dionne said. “I come from a long line of addicts. My father, my son . . .”

  “Jeraine,” Gino said. “That’s your boy.”

  Dionne swallowed hard. She hadn’t realized Gino knew who she was. Gino grinned at her unease.

  “I used to see him perform every year,” Gino said. “My dad took me to see you when I was a kid.”

  “Me?” Dionne asked.

  Gino nodded.

  “My dad used to say that you were danger personified, with the voice of an angel in the
smoking hot body of a she-devil,” he said.

  Gino leaned forward to cut another slice of lime. He snorted a line of cocaine, took a shot of tequila, and stuffed the lime in his mouth. Gino pulled the lime from his mouth.

  “So don’t you worry,” Gino said. “When the time comes, I’ll kill you fast and easy. I owe it to my old man to make sure you don’t suffer.”

  Gino looked her in the eyes. Dionne swallowed hard.

  “I’m not going to rape you or nothing either,” Gino said. “I owe that to my old man. You can just sit here and when the time comes, I’ll make sure it’s easy.”

  He gave a nod to seal the contract.

  “That’s nice of you,” Dionne managed.

  Gino laughed. He looked at the bodyguard and nodded toward Jeff, whose head was buried in Yvonne’s breasts. The bodyguard gave a sly grin and nodded.

  At that moment, Dionne understood what was going on. Gino was a mobster, maybe one of those old New York, Godfather mobsters, or maybe something else. Organized crime, for sure. He’d been the organization behind the child pornography sites. They’d used Jeff, his money, and his connections to make things happen. She had misjudged him. Gino was not the sidekick. He was one of those mythical creatures — a true psychopath.

  “Did you kill my friend Andy Mendy?” Dionne asked.

  “Now that was the damnedest thing, wasn’t it?” Gino asked. He shook his head. “That was that prick Red Bear. He . . .”

  Gino nodded to finish his sentence.

  “She was a friend of yours?” Gino asked.

  “I went on tour with her a couple of times,” Dionne said. “Our kids are about the same age. We’re in the same profession and live in the same town.”

  Dionne did her best to give an unconcerned shrug.

  “It will please you, then, to know that the Great Detective is being dealt with,” Gino said. “Her kid got the symphony?”

  “She did,” Dionne said. “How do you know about the symphony?”

  “I made sure the box got to her,” Gino said with a shrug. “Just didn’t seem right that this prick would get the dough and her kid . . .”

  “But you’ve made a ton of money off Sandy’s porn?”

  The words just popped out of Dionne. Her heart jumped with terror. Gino raised his eyebrows. He didn’t say anything. Instead, he leaned down to cut a lime wedge. He pointed to Dionne with the knife.

  “You should take a better look at . . .” Gino said. He pointed the knife at Jeff. “My people, we don’t get involved with no kid stuff.”

  Dionne turned to look at Jeff. In her exhausted state, her mind jumped to an image of the boys’ hysterical mothers pacing in their office waiting room, poor little Ivy and Tink, Charlie’s beaten body, and every other horror from this entire situation. The images battered her until her mind fell on an image of Sandy.

  “Why? All of this . . . why?” Dionne asked.

  Gino raised his eyebrows and nodded to Jeff. There was a noise in the hallway and the bodyguard went out to look. Gino leaned in.

  “Have you ever done something so that something else could happen?” Gino asked.

  Dionne gave him a confused look.

  “You’ll see,” Gino said.

  The bodyguard came back into the room. Gino looked up at him, and the bodyguard shook his head.

  “Hey, what do you drink?” Gino asked in a voice that Dionne thought was intentionally slurred.

  Jeff looked up from Yvonne.

  “Uh . . .” Dionne saw that he wasn’t going to take “nothing” for an answer. “Wine.”

  “Red? White?” Gino asked.

  “Red,” Dionne said. “I’d like some cold water too.”

  “Done.” Gino pointed to the bodyguard. “Get the good stuff.”

  The bodyguard looked at Jeff, and he nodded. The bodyguard left the room.

  “Just a little while longer, Dionne,” Gino said. “You’ll see. I’m not such a bad guy.”

  ~~~~~~~~

  Tuesday night — 9:48 p.m.

  Denver, Colorado

  “What are you going to do?” Jeraine asked in a low tone.

  They’d just put Jabari to bed in the small bedroom next to theirs. Jabari was good at going to sleep but he woke up with the slightest provocation.

  “I’m going to call him,” Tanesha said.

  She went into her closet and started to change out of her school clothes.

  “Who?” Jeraine asked.

  “Fin,” Tanesha said. “God, my clothes stink after lab.”

  “What?” Jeraine asked.

  “My clothes stink after lab.”

  Tanesha poked her head out of the walk-in closet. Her pants were off and her shirt was unbuttoned. Jeraine raised his eyebrows at her and she smiled.

  “You’re going to call Fin?” Jeraine asked.

  “My mother is in danger,” Tanesha said.

  “I remember,” Jeraine said. “My mom is with your mom.”

  “I know,” Tanesha said. She nodded and went back into the closet. “We have to do something.”

  “You’re going to call Fin?” Jeraine asked.

  “I saw Fin in that Sea of Amber,” Tanesha said from inside the closet. “Saw him, and then my computer broke. And, really, where is Jacob? Delphie? Little Keenan? If Valerie weren’t in hiding, she’d be screaming to the rafters about Jake.”

  “How are you going to call Fin?” Jeraine asked.

  “Just a sec,” Tanesha said.

  He came to the door of the closet just in time to see Tanesha pulling up her flannel pajamas. She walked past him into their bedroom. She picked up her cell phone and looked at it.

  “How . . .” Jeraine started.

  “The Isle of Man is a real place,” Tanesha cut him off. “He told me once that the fairy queendom exists in private because no one expects it to be a part of the world. If he’s with Abi at his mother’s place, that’s on the Isle of Man. They have cell service there.”

  “You’re going to call the fairy castle?” Jeraine’s voice held his skepticism.

  “I’m going to call Fin,” Tanesha said.

  She went to the couch tucked under the rafters of their attic bedroom. He sat down next to her. For a moment, she looked at her phone, and then she shrugged.

  “I may as well try it,” Tanesha said.

  She found Fin’s number and pressed the button. The phone rang once, and then twice. It rang a third time. Tanesha was about to hang up when she remembered that she had to use some of her fairy juju. She clicked off the phone.

  “What happened?” Jeraine asked.

  “I forgot to give it a whammy,” Tanesha said.

  “A whammy?”

  “Fairy juice,” Tanesha said.

  She closed her eyes for a moment and then dialed the phone again. The phone rang.

  “Hello?” Fin’s voice said.

  “I’m looking for Prince Finegal,” Tanesha said.

  “Tanesha?” Fin asked. “Did you get my e-mails? I can’t believe you never called or . . .”

  “Please confirm your identity,” Tanesha said.

  “Uh . . .” Fin said something to someone in the background. “You bought the couch you’re sitting on at the Salvation Army when they had a store on Colfax.”

  “Fin?” Tanesha’s eyes welled with tears.

  “What’s going on?” Fin asked.

  “Mom’s in terrible danger,” Tanesha said as tears fell from her eyes, “and the serpents say they have Dad, and they have Jake and Delphie and Keenen in the Sea of Amber and . . .”

  “What?” Fin asked. “You must calm down and tell me everything.”

  Tanesha gulped in air. Jeraine rubbed her back. It was difficult to speak, but Fin’s words were an order. She was forced to calm down before she responded.

  “Did you get my e-mails? My phone messages?” Fin asked.

  “No,” Tanesha said. “Nothing. I saw you in the Sea of Amber.”

  “The Sea of Amber . . .” Fin’s vo
ice trailed off. She heard Abi’s voice in the background. “How do you know about the Sea of Amber?”

  “I saw you in the Sea of Amber,” Tanesha said.

  “You said that,” Fin said. “I’m a full-blooded fairy. The Sea of Amber has no hold on me. Titans, witches, Olympians, Earth spirits, some feys but not all of them, earth sprits of course, humans, . . . no fairies, that’s for sure.”

  “Fairies can go to the Sea of Amber and not get sucked in?” Tanesha asked.

  “Of course,” Fin said. “We can’t find it, though, that takes a. . . Wait. Start at the beginning.”

  Fin’s voice held so much magic that their bedroom lights flickered.

  “You came to Jake’s room,” Tanesha said.

  “I did not. Who said that?” Fin asked.

  “Jill,” Tanesha said. “She said they were sound asleep. You came to their room. You were ill or sick and covered in blood. You told them that the curse wasn’t broken for you. Every time the healers closed Abi’s wounds they broke open. She is carrying a boy.”

  “No, a girl,” Fin said. “We’ve already named her Misty, after you.”

  “Very funny,” Tanesha said. She pressed over his laughter. “Jake left with you. So did Keenan and Delphie. Jill said you wanted or needed a Titan and asked for her or Katy. She called her father and he went. We didn’t know anything until Jill saw Jake in this stuff. Jabari said it was the Sea of Amber, and then Heather . . .”

  “What did Hedone say?” Fin asked.

  “She said that she could find the Sea of Amber, but it would suck her in,” Tanesha said.

  “That’s true,” Fin said. “It’s an Olympian gift. No other being can find it.”

  “Right,” Tanesha said. “And aren’t you a half-blood?”

  “Me?” Fin asked.

  “Because of Manannán,” Tanesha said. “Your father.”