by E. M. Moore
“Good morning,” I said, still choking on how early it was, and on a Saturday no less. “I’d like a guest pass for the day, please.”
She rang me up, telling me where the locker rooms were, and I smiled politely, but immediately went over into the weight section to look for Randy.
I caught his thick arms first and then had to do a double take to make sure it was him. He was instructing an elderly lady on a strength machine. I smiled, watching him interact with her. It seemed like they had a good rapport going on. She even smiled up at him, so it didn’t feel like intruding when I walked up to them.
This time it was Randy’s turn to do the betake. “Norah?” He smiled big, then glanced at his client. “Mrs. Sawyer, this is Norah.”
She gave a small intake of breath, her gaze starting at my face and traveling down to my toes. “My dear, she’s exactly like you described.”
The woman stood up from the machine shakily with Randy’s help and then stretched her hand out to me.
“Nice to meet you,” I told her, giving Randy a look. He’d never mentioned he talked about me to his clients. My heart melted inside.
Randy helped her back down and then instructed her to do one more set of the same weight before turning back to me. He looked down at my bag and then turned a quizzical expression to me. “What are you doing?”
“I thought I’d come see you at your work today.”
This big hulk of a man blushed. Not even joking. It made my heart soar knowing I could do that to him. He leaned down and pressed a short kiss to my forehead. “And you actually brought stuff to work out in?”
“Well, yeah, I’m not just going to follow you around like a creeper,” I said, winking at him.
“You can creep me any time you want.”
He gave my hand a quick squeeze and then turned back toward Mrs. Sawyer to check on her. “I have to go back to help her, but I’ll find you when we’re done.”
“Go ahead,” I said, pretending as if I knew my way around a gym. “I’ll be fine.”
I decided to stay in the same area. The free weights I wasn’t so sure about, but I could figure out the weight machines. If Mrs. Sawyer could do it, I could too. I walked up to a leg curl machine and tried to lift my legs. “Jesus,” I grumbled. I looked over, checking to see what the weight was at because it was evidently set up for someone Randy’s size and not me. I took the pin out of the seventy-pound weight and moved it to the beginning. When my legs flew up in the air with barely any resistance at all, I moved it down a couple until I found a weight that was a little challenging, but something I could handle. Then, I looked over at Randy coaching Mrs. Sawyer and counted how many reps he had her do and then did the same. After moving through the reps five times, I changed to a different machine. This one was for my shoulders. I noticed that there was an instruction sticker on this one, so I read it briefly before sitting down and turning to a lower weight automatically. I tried to move my hands closer together, but they wouldn’t go. Yikes, I’d overestimated my abilities. I moved the pin up and did the same amount of reps I did on the leg machine before trying a different one.
This went on for about a half hour until Randy was finally free. He came up to me while I was staring at a leg press machine. He grinned, going through the motions of how to work it and then told me to lie down and he would change the weight for me. With him there, he knew exactly what to do. He didn’t need to keep changing the weight around and after getting three sets under my belt, he helped me up and right into his arms. He held me to his solid chest, his breath tickling my earlobes. After a few moments of silence, he said, “This was a surprise.”
I shrugged, trying not to make it a big deal. Though, anytime he wanted to hold me like this in public would be fine by me. “Now I know where to find you in the mornings, so if I ever need you…”
“You know I’m at your beck and call, anyway.” He smiled down. “Did you talk to Liam this morning?”
I shook my head, my lips curling up at the thought. When I’d left, Liam’s face was smooshed into a pillow. “Are you kidding? They were all still asleep when I decided to get up.”
His strong touch sagged a little. “I was just wondering if he’d said anything about his parents yet. He hasn’t talked to me about it at all.”
I rubbed his muscular biceps before putting my hands around his neck. “He seems to be doing just fine.”
“I know,” his forehead wrinkled anyway as if his words and his mind were at odds. Looking at Randy, no one would know he had such a soft heart, but he did. The tattoos and strong muscles, and of course his nipple piercing, told a different story from the outside looking in.
“I’ll see if he’ll talk to me about it, okay?” I promised him.
He smiled down, sneaking in another kiss.
I wound my arms tighter around him. “Are you supposed to be kissing gym members? I wouldn’t want to get you in trouble.”
“Definitely not,” he said, sneaking a peek around to see if anyone was watching us. It was a good thing we were hidden between two big machines.
“Ooh, rebel,” I teased, stepping closer. “And you’ve told Mrs. Sawyer about me?”
He grinned. “She’s the nicest client I have. She asked me one day why I’d been smiling so much and the only reason I could think of was you.”
I lifted onto my tiptoes and kissed him again, this time giving everyone who might be watching a show. I couldn’t just let that hang between us without showing him how much what he said meant. I was the reason for his happiness. Essentially.
He stepped away right after. “We probably should stop. I might actually get in trouble.”
I looked around, checking to see if anyone was watching. A few people had entered the weight area, so I let him go. “I have to leave anyway to open up the shop. The bathroom is…?”
Randy pointed me in the right direction and then told me to meet him by the juice counter before I left.
I moved away from him, wishing he could come to the shop with me. It would be nice to have some company and since I’d taken the Jeep, there was no way for one of the other guys to come unless they wanted to take an Uber in or something.
Compared to the gym portion of the building, the bathroom wasn’t quite as bright. I changed into different clothes, watching the light above the stall I’d chosen flicker in and out. A rush of cold swept over me and I shivered, looking for the vent for the air conditioner that must’ve just kicked on. I pulled my shirt into place and lifted my bag onto my shoulder before walking out of the changing room.
Stopping short, my sneakers squealed against the tile. I gasped in a breath.
It was the eyes I noticed first. They stared at me from across the bathroom. Large and round, they were unearthly. Too much white that led to fangs and tufts of animal hair. I grabbed the side of the dressing room door, bracing myself. The djinn tucked its head and stomped toward me, its human feet eating away at the distance between us. “Stop!” I yelled. I’d already known I couldn’t put a sleeping spell on him, but maybe this would work instead.
He kept coming.
My heart flew up through my throat and beat away a mad rhythm that turned my stomach. I focused on the bottle of hand soap on the sink and sent it flying at the djinn’s head. It soared through the air and hit him right in the temple. He staggered for a moment, then growled, coming at me again, this time with more ferocity. I slipped out of the way, backing up a few steps until I pressed against something solid and cold. The djinn swiped at me, but his clawed hands went right through me.
He looked down, a growl ripping through his throat. I hurried up and shimmied away until I fell through the door leading to the gym and landed on my ass. I scrambled away, doing a whacked-out version of the crab crawl until my palm landed on someone’s sneaker. I kept my gaze on the door and didn’t move it. It stayed shut. Thankfully. Before I could even relax, a woman’s voice broke in. “Are you okay?”
I let out a short squeak and then stood, p
ulling my bag back up on my shoulder. She was a middle-aged woman, the type that went to the gym in full makeup and looked just as perfect as they did leaving as they did when coming in. “Excuse me,” I said, pushing past her. Moving forward, I scanned the gym for Randy until I saw him standing by the juice bar exactly where he said he’d be. I ran up to him, pulling on his sleeve. He turned with a big grin on his face, but it fell the moment he saw my expression. “We need to talk.”
He told the woman at the counter he was taking a short break and then followed me outside. “What happened?” he asked, pulling me to a stop. A piece of hair tracked across my face and he pulled at it.
“The djinn.”
His eyes widened. “In there?”
I nodded.
He took my shoulders and forced me back against the side of the gym, then he took off at a dead run, slamming right through the doors. I let out a breath and bent over, trying to take the fresh air in as quick as I could. While I waited, I ran through what had happened several times wondering if I could’ve done anything different to take it out. Or, if I’d somehow done something to call it to me. A few minutes later, Randy came back out, strolling leisurely this time. “Not a sign of it.”
“It tried to touch me,” I told him, adamant now. “It swiped at me with these enormous black claws, but they just went right through me. He looked confused afterward as if he didn’t understand why that happened. Then, I fell back against the bathroom door and sprawled out on my ass.”
“He didn’t follow you after that?”
I shook my head, my temper rising. Why couldn’t I go anywhere without something happening? “What the hell, Randy? The club? Now here?”
“You call the rest of the guys. I’m calling Dean Reid.”
“Dean? How’d you get his number?”
He gave me an ‘Are you kidding?’ look. “You think I walked out of that place the other day without getting that prick’s number?” He turned away while the phone rang in his ear. When someone picked up, he said, “Yeah, it’s Randy. Where’s your djinn right now? It just showed itself to Norah again.” He paused. “Yeah, no shit.” There was another pause again. Randy’s shoulders bunched, an impressive display in his gym tank top. “You have no idea? I swear to God, Reid, if this is your family doing this to Norah I’m going to break every fucking bone in your body the old-fashioned way. I won’t need magic to kick your fucking ass.” Then, he yanked the phone away from his ear and hung up.
“Well, that was diplomatic,” I said.
“I hate that fucking guy.”
“You hate everyone who’s not the five of us.”
Randy shrugged, completely accepting my observation with one caveat. “I like Mrs. Sawyer.”
“Fine. You like Mrs. Sawyer, too, but Dean’s done nothing but try to help us.”
“Only because it helps his ass too.”
“Aren’t we also doing the same thing?”
Randy’s dark eyes locked onto mine. The smell of maple swirled between us and at our feet, the sidewalk began to crack.
“Chill,” I warned him. Our magic was getting stronger. In Randy’s case, it seemed to heighten when he was mad.
He shook his head. “You’re not going to the shop today. What did the others say?”
“I didn’t have time to call them,” I grumbled. “You were on the phone with Dean for like two seconds.”
His chest rumbled, and I reached for him. He slid his hand into mine and we both relaxed.
“I’ll go back to the estate, okay?” I offered. I supposed I didn’t have to open the shop today. It was a good thing Liam put up all the money to start the shop, so I didn’t have to worry about paying back a bank who wouldn’t like it that I wasn’t open for business to recoup the money I’d borrowed.
He eyed the parking lot around the corner. “By yourself?”
“Well, yeah, you’re working, and I’ll be fine until I get there.”
“Norah,” Randy said, his lips thinning. “The thing tried to hurt you this time.”
“But he couldn’t,” I reminded him. “I doubt he’ll figure out how by the time I get to Ipswich.”
He relaxed a little at that. I could tell he hated the plan, but he also knew I was going to get my way.
“I’ll have Liam call Dean when I get to the house and see if he can’t smooth things over from your miserable ass.”
The corner of his mouth quirked up, taking pride in the fact that he was a miserable ass. “Just let me know what happens, okay?”
“Okay.”
I gave him a quick kiss and then hurried to the car, images of the frightening djinn hovering just beyond my eyes. If he’d come to me in the shape of the blue genie like Aladdin, that wouldn’t have been so bad. I could handle that. Or The Rock picture Dean had painted for us. I would be down with that. Not this disgusting thing though. His look sent shivers up my spine.
13
Driving through Salem was a blur. When I got past the city limits and onto the highway, I pressed the gas pedal down a little further. Being visited by a djinn in the close confines of the Jeep was not my idea of a good time whether he could touch me or not. Sooner or later, he’d figure out how to touch me and since my magic didn’t seem to work on him, I’d be screwed.
“Damn, Norah Girl. I know I did not teach you to drive like that.”
I let out a short cry of surprise and then glanced over at the passenger seat where Granny sat, her arms over her chest and staring at the speedometer in disapproval. “What the hell, Granny? You can’t just pop in on me like that.”
“One, don’t swear, and two, I swear to God, Child, if you do not stop calling me Granny, I’m going to make all of your guys limp for a week.”
My mouth dropped. One, that she even knew about guys being limp skeeved me out and surprised me at the same time, but even worse, two: that was brutal. That cut deep. “Grandma!” I yelled, not sure what I wanted to comment on, but wanted it known I did not like where this conversation was headed. At all.
She smiled big and then winked. “That’s what I thought. You keep that mouth under control and listen to me now, you hear?”
I pressed my lips together to keep from smiling.
When she knew I wasn’t going to interrupt her, she said, “I see you’ve got a djinn on your tail.”
How in the world did she know these things? “Are you following me around? Are you watching my life like it’s a TV show or something?” Because if she was that was…weird. What would my life be categorized or rated? Well, that was simple. Rated R for sure because of all the sex, but…hmm, who in their right mind would watch this kind of fuckery go down and get enjoyment out of it?
“I see things, Dear,” Granny stated, bringing my attention back to the present. “And yes, don’t for one second think I don’t have a tracker spell on you like I did when I was alive. Those things don’t just go away in death.”
“You’re tracking me?”
“Then and now. How do you think I found out that instead of going to prom, you went to the local pub down the street and got sick on Schnapps?”
My mouth dropped, remembering that clearly. Or, not so clearly, since my brain was in an alcohol haze. “I thought the owner of the bar called and told you.”
“Oh, he did. But I knew before then. I was just watching you have too much to drink and laughing and laughing. That was more fun than any of those evening sitcoms. The more you drank, the sicker you looked.” She laughed like I’d been her own personal comedy show. I guessed she was the type of person that would find my life humorous.
I narrowed my gaze at her. “You’re not supposed to laugh at your grandchild like that. That’s evil.”
She huffed, rolling her eyes as if I was being too sensitive. “Will you just listen to me about this djinn? We don’t have time to bring up the past.”
I clenched onto the steering wheel tighter. I missed Granny so much when she was gone, but when she was here, she grated on my nerves something fierce
. It was a good thing she was family.
“Djinns are no ordinary paranormal creatures,” she started. “They don’t have a mind of their own, they’re constantly under control of their owners. Do you know who is controlling this djinn?”
I rubbed my forehead, still tracking the road in front of me making sure I didn’t veer off into the forests on either side. “We think we do, but—”
“But nothing, they’re the ones sicking it on you, Norah Girl. When you find that out, you’ve got who’s causing you all this trouble.”
“The Order hasn’t gotten any feelings though.”
Granny looked offended. “Are you seriously going to trust cramps more than you’re going to trust me? I’ve been around a lot longer than you’re menstrual cycle, Girl. I wouldn’t think I’d have to explain that to you. Whoever this is has control of the djinn and they’re sending it to you. That, I know.”
Dean’s father then, I presumed Dean seemed so sincere that I really didn’t think it was him. Plus, he was a friend of Liam’s. He was worried about his dad. We didn’t know if his dad even knew about me, but evidently, he did. Something was going on. “I’ll take care of it,” I told Granny.
She nodded once and smiled. “Good girl. I wouldn’t mess around with it. The sooner the better.”
I rolled my eyes but kept back the retort that wanted to spring from my lips. “Thanks, Gran—”
She made a sound in the back of her throat and I cut myself off. I certainly wasn’t going to test the whole making my guys limp for a week thing. That would be pure torture. I wasn’t sure if she could pull it off, but there was no sense in finding out.
“Thank you,” I said again, this time much more committed and sincere.
Granny reached out, her hand filtering through my hair. She couldn’t touch me, but I felt her intention. “Be happy, Norah Girl. One of these days, you’ll have a normal life. Until then, I’ll always be looking out for you.”
I bit down on my lip to evade the sudden onslaught of feelings, but when I turned away from the road to say something back to her, she’d disappeared. I leaned back against the seat, all fight leaving me.
