by Amy Boyles
The mayor dropped her compact in her purse and splayed her hands wide. “I can just see it now. All our advertising will say, ‘Come to Witch’s Forge, where you can pretend to be a witch while having a romantic time doing it.’”
“Um, do you really think that’s a great advertising campaign?”
She scoffed. “Of course I do.” The mayor pinned her attention on India. India withered. “Come, India. There’s a lot to do. Create flyers. Start the campaign. We’ll need new PR people. I expect you to get on that first thing in the morning.”
Poor India scribbled notes on a pad as fast as the mayor shot them off, but it looked like the poor girl could barely keep up.
“And new PR people,” she said slowly. “Got it.”
“Wonderful.” The mayor clapped her hands. “Now, Charming. Be sure to see Frankie home.”
My heart lurched. Vic gave everyone a round of handshakes. Tex and Watts each gave Frankie a chaste kiss on the cheek.
My own cheeks burned as I thought of how Frankie had pulled Thorne in for a kiss. As soon as the cameras were off and the audience gone, Thorne stormed off the stage, avoiding contact with anyone.
The mayor took my elbow. “Well, I think that went great. Charming, be sure to see about Frankie.”
I glanced at Frankie. She tore herself from the men and gave me a sly smile.
My stomach turned. The less time I spent with that woman the better.
But it didn’t look like I’d be able to avoid her anytime soon.
Chapter 5
We didn’t reach the condo that Frankie was renting soon enough.
“Don’t you think that went well tonight?” she purred.
I killed my initial response that was a vivid no. “Yes. Great.”
“I really think Thorne and I have a connection, something deep.”
My stomach folded in half. I could feel vomit edging up the back of my throat. “That’s great,” I lied.
I felt her gaze drill into me. “You know, when I first saw the two of you together, I could have sworn there was something going on between you two.”
I waved my hand in dismissal. “Between Thorne and me? No, not at all.”
“Good.” Frankie lifted her arms and ran her fingers over the ceiling lining of my Mini Cooper. “Because I really think he might be the one.”
Right. And so were your first three husbands. They were all the one, too. “You have two other possible matches,” I gently reminded her.
“Yes. But only one vampire.” Her voice dropped, and she turned to me, cozying up beside the gear shift. “I will admit that I’ve always secretly fantasized about what it would be like to…you know…with a vampire.” Her voice shifted to elation. “And now, here’s my chance.”
“Yep.” We pulled into a line of condos—each made of brick with beige front doors. Since Frankie was only visiting, she’d wanted to stay in the human part of Witch’s Forge instead of Fire Town, where she technically belonged.
I pulled into a spot. “All right. This is you. See you tomorrow at sunset.”
Frankie’s gaze darted left and right. “Aren’t you going to walk me to my door?”
This wasn’t a date. Was she crazy? Probably. But being the good little matchmaker that I was, I smiled politely.
“Sure.”
I walked Frankie to her front door, where I spied something resting on the stoop.
“What’s that?”
Frankie’s nose wrinkled. “I have no idea.”
She flicked her hand, and a rope of fire spewed from her fingers, coiling around the package and lifting it from the ground.
Dead red roses, their leaves like tinder, burst into flames. With a snap, Frankie extinguished her fire.
“What on earth?” she whispered.
“Looks like someone left you a present of dead roses. Is there a note?”
There was. Frankie pulled it from the smoking bouquet and squealed. The roses dropped to the ground, and several large cockroaches scurried across the concrete.
They were different looking. Each had a black stripe down its back.
I tiptoed back. “Gross. What does the note say?”
Frankie’s hands shook as she opened the envelope. The cocksure witch had vanished, and in her place stood a woman that I would almost have described as fragile.
She scanned the note card before throwing her head back and laughing. “What a crock. Someone’s trying to scare me. That’s all.”
“May I?”
She handed it to me. In bold typewritten letters was written, STAY AWAY FROM HIM.
She looked at me and scoffed. “Some fool’s idea.” Frankie pointed to both the roses. They burst into flames. She then pointed to the note card. I dropped it before the slip of paper burned my hand.
Frankie shook her head. “Idiots.”
The whole thing seemed strange. Frankie received a threat to stay away from him. Who was she supposed to stay away from? There were three beaux for her to choose. Plus, Frankie’s reaction when she opened the envelope didn’t jive with what she was now saying.
“Why were your hands trembling when you read the note if it’s just a crock?”
Frankie flung her hair over one shoulder. “A bouquet of dead flowers and a stupid note? Someone’s trying to scare me. You might find this hard to believe, seeing as I’m such a nice person and all, but some people don’t like me. I actually have…enemies, for lack of a better word.”
“I never would have guessed.”
She smirked. “Well, I must be off to bed. Have to get my beauty sleep, you know.”
“Right,” I murmured. “Beauty sleep.”
I turned and walked toward my car. But I was still bothered by the note and flowers. Frankie may have been brushing it off, but I had a feeling someone was being serious. They didn’t want Frankie involved with another man.
As I opened my door, I glanced around. The night air was still—too still. Gas lamps flickered up and down the street, and the quiet of the evening was eerie.
Not even a cricket chirped.
I shivered before sliding into my car, locking the doors and driving off.
“Well, Frankie certainly lip-locked Thorne, didn’t she?” Mama sat in the living room cradling a cup of coffee. She’d done something to the house to open up the room so that as soon as I opened the door, I faced her instead of the wall that normally cut off the living room from the hallway.
I glanced around the room in confusion. “Did you ask the house to change its structure?”
“That’s neither here nor there,” she said, brushing me off. “I waited up because I want you to be careful. Frankie tried to steal William from me years ago, but luckily your father was a good man. He avoided her wiles.”
I dropped my purse on the floor and slumped into a chair. “First of all, Thorne is not mine. Secondly, what happened? You never talk about Dad. Not really.”
Mama hiked a shoulder to her ear. “Nothing really to tell. She basically strong-armed her way into getting several dates with him when Frankie knew good and well we were interested in each other. Threw herself at him, from what your father said. Kissed him. She may have even tried to work a spell so that he’d fall for her.”
She sipped her coffee. “Luckily none of it worked. But he was a wizard. I can’t say the same for the vampire.”
“We’re not involved, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”
Mama picked at a thread on the couch. “There you go, denying your feelings for the man.”
“Mama,” I snapped, “Thorne wasn’t going to do it. This morning he wanted out and then Frankie had five minutes alone with him and suddenly Thorne was fine with it.”
“She blackmailed him.”
I laughed. “That’s ridiculous.”
Mama sniffed. “Well, she certainly said something that made him change his mind.”
I nibbled my bottom lip, thinking about the note.
“What is it?”
“When I dropped
Frankie off, someone had left a threatening note.”
Mama slowly rose. She pulled her hair over one shoulder and lifted her chin. “It wouldn’t surprise me if that woman’s actions eventually become the death of her. Come, Charming. It’s time for bed. You have a long night ahead of you tomorrow.”
“There’s no way I’m getting into a hot tub with her,” Thorne said.
We stood near a table and chairs that had been set up overlooking the town.
Thorne looked great—gray suit, black tie with flecks of gray and green in it and polished shoes. His hair was tied back, but his smirk seemed to be etched even harder onto his face.
I noticed his tie was slightly crooked. “Bend down.”
“Why?”
“So I can fix your tie.”
“Can’t you get a stool?”
I glared at him. He chuckled and lowered himself. I wove my fingers under his collar and started to straighten the knot.
“You smell good,” he said.
My breath hitched. “You shouldn’t be talking to me about how I smell when you’re about to have a date with another woman.”
He scoffed. “Yeah, some woman who might supposedly be my soul mate.”
“She might.”
“Charming, I don’t trust magic to pick my women for me.”
I quirked a brow. “Your women? What, are you like a vampire caveman or something? You going to beat a lady over the head and drag her off to your lair?”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Give you a reason to stereotype me.”
I shook my head. “That’s so not true.” I finished fixing his tie and lowered his collar. I smoothed my hands down his chest because I could.
It might have been wrong, but my hands lingered on his chest for another moment.
“You know I’m only doing this for you,” he murmured.
I stopped breathing. I could hear blood flowing through my ear as my heart drummed in my chest.
“You’re nervous,” he said.
“No I’m not.”
“Listen, Charming, I’m not getting into a hot tub with that woman because she’s not the one I’d like to be in a hot tub with.”
I stared at the knotted tie at his throat. I couldn’t look at Thorne because I was afraid of what he would say. Afraid to admit something buried deep within myself, something knotted and coiled so tight that if it sprang loose, a geyser of feeling would surge out with it.
“Oh?” I said, trying to sound like I had no idea what he was talking about. “Who would you rather be in a hot tub with?”
“Look at me.”
I grimaced. Looking at Thorne meant I had to face things. Had to meet him eye to eye, deal with the thing bunched up inside me.
“Look at me,” he commanded.
“Boy, you are bossy.”
“Stop avoiding.”
I inhaled a deep shot of air, straightened my shoulders and met Thorne’s gaze.
His silvery eyes held a tenderness I hadn’t expected. My heart clenched as if someone had grabbed it and held it tight. My face warmed, and I knew my cheeks must be bloodred.
Blood. Smart thing to think about when talking to a vampire.
“I think you know who I’d rather be spending time with.”
I hiked a shoulder. “I do?”
He sighed, shook his head. “You and I haven’t had any time to chat. But when this is over—”
“Thorne, you’re needed over here,” a production assistant called.
“Give me a minute,” he growled. His expression fell, and he turned back to me. “When this is over, when this mess with Frankie Firewalker is straightened out and she picks Tex or Watts or the trash man for all I care, I’d like to take you out on a date. A real date. Not going out as cover for something else.”
I fidgeted. Thorne referred to a time I’d asked him to dinner but only so that I wouldn’t be eating alone in a nice restaurant when I was supposed to be spying on Kimberly Peterson and her date for the night, Dash, who turned out to be a murderer.
“So you’re asking me out on a date?”
“I’ve been trying to ask you out for weeks, but our schedules haven’t been in line. It also seems like every time I try to ask you, someone interrupts us”—he pointed toward the PA—“like just now. But I’m tired of waiting for the right time, because it seems like something is always in our way. I’d like to take you out on a proper date, Charming Calhoun. That is, if you’ll have me as a date.”
The air gushed from me. I’d sort of expected it but not now. Not here. Not when Thorne was supposed to be having a date with Frankie.
My gaze darted around until it landed on her. She smirked at me.
I realized my hands were still placed on Thorne. I pulled away.
“I’m only doing this for you,” he reminded me. “I’m not interested in her.”
I bit down on my lower lip and slowly dragged my gaze back to Thorne. “Okay.”
He quirked a brow. “Okay?”
I nodded. “I mean, yes. I’ll go out on a date with you.”
A warm smile slowly spread across his face. “Now. Was that so hard?”
“Yes,” I joked.
He laughed. It was warm and throaty. “Great. Now, let me get this ridiculous thing out of the way so that I can get to the real person I want to date.”
I swallowed a knot in the back of my throat. “I’m guessing that would be me?”
He’d started to walk away and stopped, turned back to me. “Charming, you’ve guessed right.”
Then he strode toward Frankie. In that moment the funniest thing happened. I felt light, almost elated. Butterflies whirled in my stomach and my heart sang. I’d opened up to Thorne, really opened up to him by saying I’d go out on a date—with a vampire, a creature I despised.
And I was excited.
Chapter 6
Thorne treated Frankie like a gentleman throughout their entire date. She wanted to feed him shrimp; he almost allowed it.
Though my stomach churned at the scene.
“Here, try this,” Frankie said, shoving a shrimp toward him.
“Looks good,” Thorne said, taking it from her hand before she shoved it in his mouth.
Frankie wiped her fingers before walking them up Thorne’s arm. “You know, Thorne, I feel a very special connection with you.”
“You do?”
“I can just feel that you could be the one.”
Thorne nodded, looked serious. “And you feel this where?”
Frankie fisted her chest. “Here. I feel it here. But do you know what would be the convincing factor?”
“What’s that?”
“The hot tub.”
Thorne’s lips quirked in amusement. My stomach clenched. Please, Lord, don’t let Thorne and Frankie get into the hot tub together. There was no telling what happened underneath the water.
I shivered. That was not a thought I wanted to focus on.
Thorne patted her hand much as a grandfather would do to his grandchild. “Well, I’m not so sure about the hot tub.”
Frankie flicked her hair from her shoulders and leaned in. “Well, I know about it. Trust me. It’ll be fun.”
They finished dinner as the production crew got the hot tub ready. As soon as Thorne could, he approached me.
“You’re the matchmaker on this. Stop the hot tub scene.”
I hiked a shoulder. “Just tell her no.”
He fisted a hand to his hip and shuffled back and forth. “Have you met her? I don’t think she takes no for an answer. Pretty sure it’s not in her vocabulary.”
I nodded, sighed. “I’ll talk to her.”
“Good. I’ve gone as far as I’m going to go with this.”
“Thank you for doing it at all.”
Thorne grunted. I wasn’t sure what that meant, and I didn’t push him. I wasn’t in the mood for getting yelled at, least of all by a moody vampire.
Yes, I still wanted to go out with him.
I crossed over to Frankie’s changing room, where she was getting in her bathing suit. It seemed polite to wait until she came out before having this conversation, but Frankie must’ve sensed my presence.
“Charming, is that you out there?”
“Yes, it is.”
“How do you think the date’s going?”
“Oh, um. Well. I think dinner was great.”
The door swung open, and Frankie appeared wearing a black one-piece suit with a V cut all the way to her navel, exposing bare skin.
My eyes bulged. There really wasn’t anything coy about that suit at all. No, it was definitely come-and-get-me material.
Frankie modeled her attire by turning all the way around. “You like my suit?”
“Yeah,” I lied. “Very classy.”
“I thought so, too.” Frankie clapped her hands. “Now. We’re about to enter the hot tub. Where’s Thorne?”
She started to stomp off toward where the crew had set up the tub, overlooking the sunset. I quickly followed.
“Here’s the thing about that. Thorne’s not going—”
We reached the tub. Frankie shrieked. A jolt ran straight to my toes.
“What?” I said.
She pointed. A finger of fire snaked from her hand and darted into the water. The flame hissed as part of it extinguished on contact.
But the rest of the flame lived. It dipped below the surface. When it came back into sight, the flame was coiled around something.
“How do you do that without extinguishing the flame?” I murmured.
“Talent,” she huffed. Her gaze pinned on the thing she’d retrieved. Fury burned on Frankie’s face. “Who put this in here? Who would do that?”
I blinked as the flame pulled away and dropped the object on the ground.
A hair dryer lay lifeless on the ground. Water pooled around it.
“Who dropped that in the tub?” Frankie demanded.
Crew members surrounded us, each of them denying they had anything to do with it.
Vic, the host, charged up. “Frankie, what’s going on?”
She pointed at the hair dryer as if it were an abomination. “That was in there.”
Vic placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “I’m sure it just fell in by accident.”
