Time Jacker by Aaron Crash (nonfiction book recommendations .TXT) 📕

There was a beat of awkward silence, and then Aunt Sue roared laughter. “You say the damndest things. Tell us, really.”

Bailey kept a straight face. “It really is where we met. Gabby here came along later. We have mutual enemies.”

“Don’t you mean friends, dear?” Moms asked.

The succubus shook her head. “No. Mutual enemies, but the enemy of your enemy is a friend.”

“I’ve fucking said that for years.” Sue sank down at the table and started eating noisily. She still had better manners than Bailey.

Jack made his mom a plate, and all five of them ate and chatted.

Gabby said she worked for a large military contractor, which wasn’t all that far from the truth since she was part of the Pinturicchio Legion.

Bailey said she was in the entertainment industry and made a joke about being a personal escort for rich men. Again, not exactly a lie, but both Moms and Aunt Sue thought she was joking. You could say the most outlandish things as long as you immediately smiled and pretended it was all a joke.

After dinner, Gabby insisted on cleaning up all by herself, and Jack pulled his mom outside onto the back porch. The lawn he mowed had gone yellow from the cement patio back to the chain-link fence, which showed an alley on the other side.

He got right down to it. “Hey, Moms, I came into money. I want to help out. I’ll still talk to Cousin Eddie about not raising your rent. You are family, after all. No need to be greedy.” Jack pulled out the wad of bills all rubber-banded together.

His mom’s eyes narrowed. “That looks like drug money, sweetie. Like in the movies. It’s suspicious.”

“I know, Mom.” Jack debated on whether to show his mom and his aunt his powers. They were old, and he wasn’t sure if they could really handle the truth. He’d keep it quiet for the time being. “Look, you need the money, and I’m getting into a new business, so I’ll have more cash. Pinetree and I are going to be buying and selling some rare antiquities.”

“I don’t know, Jack.” His mom frowned. Then she looked him in the eye. “Are you sure you’re doing the right thing?”

That was the question. He returned her gaze. “Today, I can live with what I’m doing. It might not be what Dad would do—”

His mom cut him off. “You were never going to be your father. That’s good. You get to be your own person, and that’s the best kind of person to be. If you’re okay, I’ll take the money. But I doubt Aunt Sue will buy your side business schtick. She’ll think you’re a pimp and those girls in there are prostitutes. That’s what she’ll think.”

“And that isn’t the truth. Bailey and I are together, that’s true, but Gabby is just a friend.” Of course, that was stretching the definition of friend because so far she had watched him have sex with Bailey twice now, and Jack had spent several delicious minutes feeling up the angel.

His mom patted his hand. “I’m sorry about the past, Jack. I really am. And I’m sorry you had to lose all your brothers. Especially Andy.”

Jack felt the tears sting his eyes. He couldn’t tell her that losing all his brothers seemed to have been destined to happen, to make him the surviving son, the sixth son out of a long line of sixth sons. It would be cruel. In fact, in a lot of ways, his fate was cruel.

But he had to give his mother hope. “It’s just us now, Moms. I won’t put us in danger. At the same time, I have to do what I think is right. Sometimes that’s going to align with the higher laws, and sometimes it’s not.”

“In that way, you’re not like your father. For him, it was black and white, right or wrong. He couldn’t see the gray.”

Jack nodded. Hank Masterson was many things, but morally flexible wasn’t one of them. Jack thought of his life, standing between a demon and an angel. “I’m living in the gray at this point. But my heart is in the right place, I think.”

His mom drew him in for a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “You have a heart of gold, son. You’re a good boy, bringing your old mother and aunt dinner on a Wednesday night.”

Two more nights until they went to rescue Annie. Forty-eight hours.

Jack and his mom went back inside the house.

Bailey had already started. She’d drawn a pentagram on the table and set candles at the five cardinal points.

This was a bit of a shock to Moms. “Susie, what is going on here?”

His aunt was a bit tipsy. “Bailey wanted to show us a magic trick. She’s going to make these little lead balls glow. She’s an adult entertainer, after all.”

Bailey must’ve seen the look of shock on Jack’s face. “I’m an adult, and I entertain adults. Just to be clear.”

Gabby stood over Bailey’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, Mrs. Masterson, it’s not an upside-down pentagram, but a normal pentagram, an ancient holy symbol of power. The five-pointed star represents the good in the world.”

Moms sat down at her normal seat and surveyed the table. Jack sat across from her. There were eighteen lead balls at the center of the table. Bailey had the vial of holy water ready. “Now, this magic trick requires something eternal. Rose Masterson, will you always love your son?”

Moms smiled at Jack. “Always. He’s my little Jackie boy. The last of my sons.” Tears shone in her eyes for a minute.

Gabby clutched her heart. “There is so much soul in this room. There is so much love and happiness, and I feel the eternity. Can’t you feel it, Bailey? It’s joy and commitment and the power of an enduring love.”

Bailey exhaled a frustrated breath. “Yes. I can feel all that. I’m just not saying it out loud because I don’t want to