Pawsitively Betrayed

by Melissa Erin Jackson

  “I don’t know if you’ve uncovered anything … unusual about Amber,” Molly said slowly, “but I’m concerned she’s not who everyone thinks she is. Bad things seem to happen when she’s around. And now her products are putting people in comas and exploding in people’s hands.”

  Amber nodded. “Well, we’re on the same page. Amber is clearly dangerous.”

  “That’s an understatement. I can’t tell you how I know, but she’s planning something very sinister,” Molly said, her voice flat. “She’s angry about what happened to her parents. She’s never believed the fire was just a horrible accident. She thinks someone murdered them. No one would listen to her. She had a hard time in high school after their death. Her grades suffered. Her family moved away from her the second her sister turned eighteen. I’m guessing Amber was hard to be around, as obsessed with conspiracy theories as she is.”

  Amber wondered how Molly would change her tune if she knew that all Amber’s “theories” had been right. “She’s rude, too. I finally set up a one-on-one lunch with her and she stood me up.”

  Molly gasped. “Me too! Ugh. The nerve of that woman. She’s a recluse who’s kept to herself for most of her adult life so she’s awkward at best. I could almost excuse her odd behavior if it was social ineptitude, but she’s passive-aggressive. There’s a calculation there. Once she finally started emerging out of her little hidey hole, destruction followed. Melanie Cole was one of the few people in town who wanted much to do with Amber, and in less than three years of living here, Melanie winds up dead. Not that I think Amber had anything to do with her death, but what happened to Melanie reopened Amber’s old wound about the supposed injustice of what had happened to her parents.

  “Mark my words, but that resident slipping into a coma and the little boy who almost had his hand blasted off are just the beginning of what Amber has in store. I mean, this is the busiest time of year in Edgehill and she’s closed her shop? Those creepy toys of hers sell like hotcakes at the festival. What business owner would willingly shoot themselves in the proverbial foot during peak tourist season? Who knows what she’s working on now behind closed doors. She wants people gossiping about her behavior so they’re distracted. She wants people blindsided to what she’s really up to.”

  “Which is what?” Amber asked, not sure she wanted to hear anymore.

  “Revenge on Edgehill and everyone in it.”

  Amber involuntarily swallowed. If someone like Molly, who wasn’t even from Edgehill, could think such things, what opinions did Amber’s fellow residents hold? Thea Bishop had said the residents here had called Amber “weird” and “odd.” Had Thea watered that down, or was Molly making it sound worse?

  The more Molly talked, the more Amber believed the possibility that Kieran had been supplying Connor with information. Connor had either passed it on to Molly, or Kieran had been chatting Molly up, too. Which was a move that felt far more calculated than the over-the-top whimsies of a madman. Ambushing the fashion show to “sew chaos” while wearing the face of a beloved reality TV show host was the work of a narcissistic lunatic. Planting ideas in the head of a man like Connor months ago took forethought. Kieran knew it would take time for Connor to witness enough weird events to hook him on the story, and also knew that once the hooks were in, Connor wouldn’t let up until he had his story, no matter the consequences. That was twice as true for Molly.

  It meant someone was in this for the long game. Amber just didn’t know if the narcissistic lunatic and the manipulative, patient informant were one and the same.

  “It’s clear to me,” Amber said, “that Amber assumes someone in town knows who murdered her parents and that she’s angry no one will confess. Do you think she stayed in Edgehill all this time so she could eventually punish those who took her parents from her?”

  “Bingo,” Molly said. “She’s gotten close to the police chief so she can get access to his files, I’m sure of it. I know you haven’t been in town for long, but she and the chief used to despise each other. He looked at her like she was something sticky he found under his shoe. Then all of a sudden, over the course of a few months, the two are buddy-buddy.”

  “Maybe they’re having an affair,” Amber said, easily picturing Chief Brown’s appalled expression. “I haven’t found any evidence of it yet, but they’ll slip up eventually.”

  But Molly was already shaking her head. “I don’t buy that. My theory? She’s a psychopath. Sure, she might act like she cares so much about this town, but psychopaths know how to blend in. They’re human chameleons. She used her charms to win the chief over, which couldn’t be too hard because he’s not that bright. But she needs him for something. He’s only been here for three years. New blood. He didn’t live through the Blackwood fire saga. She’s controlling the narrative with him, I’m sure of it.”

  Amber couldn’t say that sitting through the evisceration of her character was remotely enjoyable.

  “Amber thinks there’s a conspiracy happening here and wants to uncover what the police are hiding from her,” Molly said. “But regardless of what she finds out, she’s on the brink of trying to tear this place apart from the inside out. I can’t tell you how I know that, but I do. We’re on the precipice of something big here.”

  “And you think she’s capable of doing all this by herself?”

  Molly laughed. It was a sharp, derisive sound. “Are you saying you haven’t met her family? There’s something very … off … about all three of them. And don’t even get me started on her cousin. He’s one of the most unpleasant people you’ll ever meet.”

  Amber knew for a fact that Molly Hargrove had never talked to Edgar. Even if he was angry with her for one reason or another, if a reporter from Marbleglen had tried to pump him for information, he would have mentioned it.

  What concerned Amber most of all was the undercurrent of venom in Molly’s tone. “You seem emotionally attached to this story,” she said.

  Molly adjusted her posture to something a bit more relaxed. Had Molly already been a step away from furious before Amber stood her up for lunch, and Amber’s oversight had pushed her over the edge? “Let’s just say she’s putting someone in danger who I care about very much. Her and her weird family. He might be in denial, but I’m not. I won’t let him get caught up in their schemes. I refuse. All we know is that their grand revenge plan is going to happen during the Here and Meow this year. We have to stop them before then. The fact that Amber has pulled Kimberly Jones into her web doesn’t bode well.”

  “Ah, yes, the head of the festival,” Amber said. “Do you think Kimberly is in on it, or is she being taken for a ride? I can’t get a read on her. She’s very protective of Amber.”

  “Oh, Kim has no idea,” Molly said. “Poor thing is clueless. She’s even dumber than Chief Brown. She’s always followed Amber around like a puppy dog and now they’re joined at the hip. Kim needs to feel like she belongs, so I’m sure Amber has indoctrinated her by now.”

  Indoctrinated?

  “I’m impressed that you’ve gotten a source here in Edgehill who is willing to share this much insight with you,” Amber said. “We both know how reclusive Amber is, so your source isn’t someone in her inner circle.”

  Molly laughed good-naturedly. “If you won’t tell me whose payroll you’re on, I’m not giving up my source.”

  But Amber was almost positive Willow was right: Connor’s, and thereby Molly’s, source had been Kieran Penhallow. The question was, was he still their source?

  Where are you, Kieran, and whose side are you on now that you’re out?

  Amber and Molly had been driving in awkward silence for the better part of two minutes, Amber scanning the streets while Molly glared ahead, when Amber’s phone buzzed in her hand.

  It was a message from Kim. I’m still John and I’m locked in the men’s bathroom in Ma and Paw’s. They’re outside. I can hear them. They’re scratching at the door.

  Ma and Paw’s was almost a mile and a half from The Qui
rky Whisker. Kim had moved quickly.

  “Can you drop me off at Ma and Paw’s?” Amber asked.

  Molly didn’t immediately reply. “What’s your connection to John, by the way? You said he was your … client?”

  Crap. Amber had forgotten about that part. She made something up on the fly. “Yes, he has an obsessive fan who’s been following him across the country for about a year now and he thinks her behavior is starting to escalate. I’m well-known for what I do, but not just anyone can find me. I was hired to figure out what I could while he was in town. Edgehill is small enough that we thought it would be easier to flush the stalker out.”

  “Is that why he ran off like his butt was on fire?” Molly asked.

  “Yes. She must have been in that crowd outside Amber’s shop,” Amber said.

  Molly seemed to accept this. Amber was glad, because she wasn’t sure how long she could keep up this lie. Molly remained silent while Amber gave her directions to Ma and Paw’s, the biggest grocery store on this side of town. When she pulled up directly outside the store, Amber made a move to get out, only to have Molly stop her with an “I meant what I said about compensating you for information about Amber Blackwood.”

  “Oh, I believed you.”

  “How do I get in contact with you?”

  With a smile that she hoped was suitable for the spy persona Kim thought Amber had, she said, “I’ll find you.”

  With that, she got out of the car and headed for the store without looking back.

  The inside of Ma and Paw’s was always a little too warm and stuffy for Amber’s tastes. It gave the place a lingering earthy smell. The front of the store was devoted to produce, which was currently filled with people picking over the selection. The bank of cash registers was to the right, and to the left were the aisles for frozen food, dry goods, and everyday essentials. It was also the direction of the bathrooms.

  A shout went up in the leftmost corner and Amber headed that way. A harried-looking grocery store employee was on the move, too. She was a short, heavyset woman who wore a determined scowl that made it clear she wouldn’t be above knocking people’s heads together if they caused trouble in her store. Amber was happy to follow her.

  The restrooms’ entrance was wedged into a corner between the small deli counter and a cold storage area for single containers of soda, water, and energy drinks. The area was crowded with mostly teenage girls idling in a cluster.

  As Amber slowed her approach, wondering if these girls were going to let her pass, one of them recognized her.

  “You’re the lady who was with John earlier!” the girl accused, then took a picture of Amber with her phone.

  Amber tried to get her hand up to shield her face but wasn’t sure if she succeeded. She assumed that within hours—if it hadn’t happened already—Sienna’s face would be plastered all over John Huntley’s fan sites. “Does anyone know this lady, Hunters?”

  Amber knew they would come up with no information on who she was. She was a ghost, as Molly had said. She sent a silent apology to John.

  The grocery store employee Amber had been following eyed her. “You know John Huntley?” she whispered.

  “I work for him, yes,” Amber said, worried this woman was going to ask for a favor she couldn’t grant.

  The woman nodded. Then, in a loud, commanding voice, she addressed the loitering teens. “Out of the way! Let this woman through!”

  The girls standing in the mouth of the hallway that led to the restrooms smashed themselves against the wall as the woman marched forward, Amber close behind. Once they reached the restroom doors—a small hallway space that gave way to the storage area behind thick black rubber doors—the grocery store employee used her barking, no-nonsense voice to herd the girls out of the hallway and back toward the deli counter. Now the woman stood at the mouth of the restroom’s hallway, arms crossed, blocking the teens’ path.

  As she used her body as a shield just as Tad—Todd?—had done back in The Quirky Whisker, the woman patiently listened to one girl wail that she actually needed to use the restroom and it wasn’t fair that she was being denied access.

  Someone further back called out, “Don’t lie, Tammy! You used it like ten minutes ago!”

  A squabble broke out between several of the girls and colorful insults were exchanged.

  With the Hunters distracted, Amber turned her attention to the men’s restroom, blew out a breath, and knocked. “John? It’s me, Sienna.”

  The “occupied” label immediately flipped to “vacant,” and the door flew open. Amber jumped back, but a manly hand reached out to grab her by the shirt, and then yanked her into the musky-scented men’s restroom. It all happened in a matter of seconds. Kim flipped the lock on the door again and then started to pace. It was meant for only one occupant, so Kim didn’t get far before she had to turn around and head the other direction.

  “Monsters!” she hissed. “All of them are monsters!”

  Amber blurted, “I think Connor and Molly are onto me.”

  That stopped Kim’s pacing. “What do you mean?”

  Amber forgot for just a moment that the gorgeous man standing in the foul-smelling men’s restroom wasn’t actually the world-famous John Huntley, but her very overwhelmed friend. She shook her head quickly to refocus herself, then recounted the conversation she’d just had with Molly. “The thing is, even if Kieran is her source for a lot of this stuff—”

  “It doesn’t explain how she knew about your products malfunctioning a day before it happened,” Kim finished. “Kieran got out Thursday night and Molly’s article was out Friday morning.”

  “Exactly,” she said. “She’s talking to someone else with magical intel, even if she doesn’t know it. The thing with Henrietta’s coma is that if it’s magic-induced like I think it is, magic is the only way to reverse it. I would need a lot of time with Hen to work through a bunch of spells to find one to wake her up. Assuming I could come up with the right spell in the first place. Magic that affects the mind is the trickiest and experimenting on Hen when I don’t know the nature of the spell could actually make things worse. We need to find the Penhallow who did it so we can get him or her to reverse the spell, or at least tell us which one they used.”

  Kim frowned. “How are we supposed to do that? They don’t seem like the type to willingly give up information.”

  “I don’t know yet,” Amber said. “And I don’t know what Aunt G saw after she used the premonition tincture either. I think Molly was right that we’re on the precipice of something, but obviously I’m not the mastermind. The Penhallows are.”

  “And we know for sure that Kieran didn’t also make a call to Molly the night he called you?” Kim asked. “I know you said he changed once the curse was lifted, but what if he was faking it?”

  Amber hadn’t thought of that. “We’ll worry about that later. We need to get you out of here.”

  Kim’s eyes went wide. “Don’t make me go back out there. I’ve had my butt pinched so many times. Those girls are even scarier than the tourist-zombies. These ones are fast zombies. Everyone knows those are the worst ones!”

  Amber tried not to laugh. John Huntley wearing Kim’s worry made it hard to take him seriously. “I think our best bet is to go out through the storage area. The doors are to the left of the bathroom. I’m guessing a few girls will be on the other side waiting, but the main crowd is being held back.”

  Kim nodded. “Okay.”

  “When I say go, follow me. Don’t stop running.”

  Amber flipped the lock and opened the door so she could peer out. The hallway was still clear. A shout went up from the group when the door opened, but it petered out when they saw that it was Sienna’s head poking out of the bathroom and not John’s. Looking right, Amber confirmed that the Hunters were still being managed by the grocery worker. The irate girl, Tammy, was now threatening the woman with legal action from her lawyer uncle if she kept being denied her rights to use the facilities.

&nb
sp; “If I suffer from a bladder infection because of you,” Tammy said, “you don’t really think you’d be able to pay my medical bills on a grocery store employee wage, do you?”

  The woman didn’t reply. Nerves of steel, that one.

  Looking left, Amber watched as a man with a pallet of plastic-wrapped boxes emerged from the black rubber doors. As the door flapped open, she saw a large opening at the other end of the small warehouse, a hint of blue sky evident before the doors closed again. Amber had seen the light of freedom.

  Without looking back at Kim, Amber said, “Go!” She threw open the door the rest of the way and then bolted for the warehouse area. Kim was fast on her heels.

  A series of shrieks erupted behind them. The grocery store guard started barking orders and demands, but Amber feared the woman had been overpowered. Amber sent up a silent prayer for the woman’s likely bruised shins. Not all heroes wear capes.

  Pushing their way into the warehouse, Amber quickly realized that there wasn’t a clear path to the door on the other side. Wrapped pallets, loose boxes, and warehouse workers were all in their way. What seemed like seconds later, one of the excitable teenagers burst through the doors behind them. Kim wasn’t wrong: the Hunters were quick. The only thing on Amber and Kim’s side was that the warehouse’s lighting was dim.

  Amber grabbed hold of Kim’s elbow and yanked her to the right, where they slipped between a massive stack of boxes filled with toilet paper on one side and a pallet of crackers on the other. Amber then pulled Kim into a crouching position.

  “Where did they go?” one of the girls screeched.

  “What are you all doing in here?” a masculine gruff voice replied. “Hey! You don’t belong in here!”

  “Oh my God, Amber,” Kim hissed urgently in John’s voice. “Don’t let them find me!”

  “I’m sorry,” Amber said, and before Kim could ask for what, Amber slapped her across the face.