Tequila for Two: An Althea Rose Mystery (The Althea Rose Series Book 2)

by Tricia O'Malley

  See? This is why relationships suck. You have to tell your person what you’re doing all the time. I hadn’t talked to Cash since Friday, and all of a sudden he thought I was keeping a world of secrets from him. Completely annoyed, I hunched in my seat, turning my shoulder on him.

  “Oh sure, go ahead. Be mad at me,” Cash said, waving his hand in the air, a disgruntled look on his face.

  “If we could focus?” Chief Thomas said, raising an eyebrow as he pursed his lips.

  “Listen, we were done with the magick lesson and, well, you know, I have extra senses,” I said, pointing to my head, and Chief Thomas nodded for me to continue. “So, I felt this, like, wave of evil press against us. It sort of rolled across the beach. And I just told Luna to run. So we ran. I forgot my shoes and everything, my feet got all cut up on the gravel.”

  I slid my right foot from my flip-flop and lifted it to show Chief Thomas the bottom, where I had a few cuts from the gravel. He nodded and gestured for me to put my foot back under the table.

  “And the next thing I know, Prudie’s in the coffee shop the next morning telling the whole town that a murdered body had been found where we ‘d been practicing magick the night before.”

  Chief Thomas sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, clearly frustrated with me.

  “Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”

  “I don’t know,” I replied honestly. “My last relationship with the town cop didn’t end so well, if you remember. I think that’s broken my trust of law enforcement.”

  “Althea, I’m on your side. I was on your side last time you guys found a dead body, if you’ll remember.”

  “I know. I get that. I do like you and I know you’re an honorable man,” I admitted.

  “Then you can’t withhold information from me like this. You could have seen something that would help us,” Chief Thomas explained. I blew out a long breath, leaning back in my chair and looking up at the ceiling for a moment, surprised to find I was dangerously close to tears.

  “So you believe me?”

  “Yes, I believe you. But I still want to know who this Horace guy is and what you were really doing last night,” Chief Thomas said sternly.

  “Yes, I’m dying to hear more,” Cash said dryly, and I shot him a look.

  “We went to that Pagan festival last night,” I began, and Chief Thomas sighed.

  “Why wouldn’t you just say that when you got pulled over?” he asked.

  “Yes, Thea. Why would you lie?” Cash asked. I swung on him.

  “You know, you’ve got a lot of nerve coming in here and acting like this,” I began, feeling my temper kick up.

  “Would it kill you to just be honest? What am I supposed to think about this?” Cash asked.

  “I haven’t been dishonest,” I pointed out. “This happened last night. We haven’t really spoken yet. Stop acting like I’ve lied to you. It’s not like I’m hunting you down asking you to account for every second you’re not with me. You’re being totally unfair,” I seethed.

  Cash looked suitably taken aback and he nodded once, briefly.

  “I’m sorry. You’re right,” he said simply and I felt my temper ease a bit.

  Great, Cash was a guy who apologized easily when he was wrong, too? He was way better a man than I deserved. As far as I’m concerned, I’m always right and my apologies come few and far between.

  “Can we stay on track here?” Chief Thomas asked, checking his watch. He was right; I wanted to get out of here and find Luna. Her non-responsiveness was making me nervous.

  “Horace is the leader of the radical Pagan group that’s in town. He’s into super weird shit. The reason we were speeding last night is that, when we were there for what should have been a celebratory full moon ritual, he started calling on evil spirits or something, and things got weird.”

  It was like I had sucked all the air out of the room as both men sat perfectly still, devouring my words.

  “Define weird,” Chief Thomas said.

  “Like weird. Flash of light. Ground moving. People screaming. We ran for it,” I said.

  “That would explain the call I got about an earthquake,” Chief Thomas mused, leaning back in his chair.

  “Did you go to the festival to investigate?”

  “Too many cars were leaving for me to get down the lane right away. By the time I got there, everything looked fairly normal. Mostly empty, and – well, as normal as one could expect for that type of gathering.”

  “Did you see a man in a loincloth with ram horns on his head?”

  Cash just shook his head next to me, closing his eyes briefly.

  “That I did not.”

  “That’s your man. He kind of looks like Gandalf. You know, long flowing grey hair, thin, eyes that pierce through to your soul,” I explained.

  “I will take that under consideration,” Chief Thomas said evenly.

  “Listen, am I free to go here? I really want to find Luna. I’m starting to get worried,” I admitted.

  “Yes, you can go. But, and I’m asking you this very nicely, please keep me informed today. We’ve got a killer on the loose and I could use all the help I can get,” Chief Thomas said, holding my gaze.

  I appreciated that he was letting me go and that he was being honest with me. For that, I would return the favor.

  “If I know anything, you’ll know it,” I agreed, getting out of my chair.

  See? I know how to work well with others… when I feel like it.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  “WHY DOES IT seem like I every time I’m around you, you’re in some kind of trouble?” Cash mused as we made our way to his Jeep. He’d agreed to drive me back to my bike and I figured we might as well hash things out between us now.

  Why bother putting off the inevitable?

  “Listen, I get if this is too much for you. I know I’m probably not someone you’ll want to introduce to your family. And, yeah, I don’t lead a normal life. There’s always going to be something you would consider abnormal going on with me,” I shrugged my shoulders as I bit my lip and stared out the car window at the water. “And I don’t want to be normal. I’ve never aspired to have the picket fence kind of life. If that’s the type of girl you’re looking for, well, we should probably just stop this in its tracks right now,” I said, stiffly. There, I’d been an adult about it; no harm, no foul.

  I gasped as Cash swerved suddenly to the side of the road and all but pulled me into his lap as he crushed his lips to mine, taking me under his spell with all his heat and yearning. I could feel how much he wanted me, the desire pulsing off of him in waves, along with a layer of anger underneath. Not caring, I kissed him back, throwing myself into it. If this was to be our last kiss then I was going to get my money’s worth.

  Moments later, we broke apart, gasping for breath, and met each other’s eyes.

  “Stop trying to break up with me,” Cash panted.

  “Stop making me feel like you don’t want to be with someone like me,” I panted right back.

  “Stop making assumptions about the type of girl I want to be with,” Cash retorted, and I sat back, crossing my arms over my chest.

  “Am I wrong?”

  “You’re so wrong,” Cash muttered, pulling the car back out into traffic and proceeding to the wharf.

  I bit back a smile as I felt warmth fill me. Okay, so maybe the day wasn’t a total loss.

  “The magick stuff doesn’t freak you out?”

  “We’re going to have a nice long talk about all of that. But I think we need to find Luna first. And solve a murder, it seems,” Cash said, getting out of the car and walking to my bike. I walked over to where he stood waiting.

  “So, I’ll see you later?” I asked, not sure what to do now.

  “Give me the key to your bike chain. I’m going to throw your bike in the car and we are going to find Luna together. Like couples do,” Cash said patiently and I couldn’t help but grin at him a little stupidly.

  So
we were a couple after all. Apparently, it only took a morning at the police station to confirm that.

  See? Definitely not your average girlfriend.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  WE STOPPED BY my house so I didn’t have to spend all day in my bikini and cover-up. Hank was delighted to see Cash again, and I smiled as he raced in circles around Cash, dropping as many toys as he could find at Cash’s feet.

  “I’ll let Hank out. You go change,” Cash ordered.

  I took my phone with me upstairs, continuing to glance at it every few seconds, hoping for a response from Luna. Hopping in the shower for a quick rinse, I tried to calm the beginning tendrils of panic that licked at my stomach and thought about what to do.

  “As much as I’d like to join you in there, we should probably get moving,” Cash called through the door, knocking lightly as it was slightly open.

  “You could join me,” I offered hopefully, panic quickly being replaced with lust.

  “Oh, I’ll join you later. And all night. And tomorrow morning too,” Cash promised, as he opened the shower door to hand me a cup of coffee. I met his eyes with my mouth hanging open.

  “I look forward to it,” I said, gulping hot coffee and stinging my mouth as he left the bathroom chuckling.

  Damn, that man was distracting.

  Considering my wardrobe after my shower, I thought again of Cash’s brother and pulled out my newest maxi dress, a white ombre dress that faded from white at the shoulders down to a deep sea blue at the bottom. It was cool, chic, and I was probably going to spill something on it by the end of the day since I don’t do so well with white. But at least I was trying.

  Taking a moment to run some gel through my curls, I stopped at my bathroom mirror to add some mascara and eyeliner, grabbed some dangly silver earrings from a dish, and chugged down the rest of my coffee. This was as good as it was going to get.

  I snagged my phone from the counter and texted Miss Elva on the way down the stairs about Luna being missing in action. I hoped that maybe she would have a finding spell or would know something we could do to track her down.

  “You look nice,” Cash said from where he sat on a couch, Hank lying belly-up next to him. Hank was snorting gently as Cash scratched his stomach and there was an expression of pure bliss on his face.

  “Hank loves having his belly scratched,” I pointed out, moving across the room to drop onto the couch next to him.

  “He’s pretty dang cute, farts and all,” Cash admitted and I laughed, remembering the time Hank’s particular brand of noxious gas had ended a makeout session for Cash and me.

  My phone dinged with a text and I felt my heart flutter as I grabbed it.

  “Luna?” Cash asked, leaning forward.

  “Miss Elva,” I said, shaking my head. “She wants to come help look for Luna. Chief Thomas must have contacted her.”

  “I haven’t met this Miss Elva yet,” Cash said and I raised an eyebrow at him, trying to decide if I wanted to give him any warning or let the full force of all that is Miss Elva hit him.

  Deciding he’d already had enough shocks for the day, I patted his knee before standing.

  “How do you feel about voodoo priestesses?”

  Cash paused halfway off the couch and looked at me.

  “I’ve never had to actually consider that question before,” he admitted.

  “See? Isn’t it fun dating me?”

  “I suspect there will never be a dull moment,” Cash agreed.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  “STAY HERE, I’LL go get her,” I instructed him and hopped out. Climbing the porch stairs quickly, I knocked on the weathered door and waited until I heard Miss Elva call for me to come in.

  “Hey, Miss Elva,” I called, stepping into her house.

  Okay, so maybe I’m downplaying that a little a bit. Stepping from Miss Elva’s porch into her house is like stepping from everyday life into an Alice in Wonderland room.

  There is just so much stuff. Everywhere. It’s like stimulation overload with no rhyme or reason to it. It’s not like it’s a hoarder’s paradise or anything like that; it’s just that every available space is filled with something. Next to a sofa straight out of a Restoration Hardware catalog was an old medicine cabinet hanging on the wall, it’s shelves crammed with bottles full of who-knows-what and animal skulls. Other shelves held prayer candles to every saint you could imagine. It didn’t matter where you looked, there would be something intriguing there to grab your interest. One of these days I was going to actually come hang out at Miss Elva’s and have her tell me the stories behind the goods that cluttered her room.

  “I don’t have a good feeling about Luna,” Miss Elva announced, coming in from the kitchen, carrying a few pouches that she shoved into her cross-body leather satchel. Today she wore a long caftan in muted purple, looking positively demure by her standards.

  “Where’s Rafe?” I asked.

  “I sent him out to do some searching for me. He can get into places unseen that I can’t,” Miss Elva explained, smoothing back her hair, which today was unleashed in a riot of ringlets and held back with a jeweled headband.

  “Smart,” I said, then stopped at the front door.

  “Cash is in the car. My…boyfriend,” I said, pausing to think about what I wanted to say.

  “And you don’t want to me say anything too crazy to scare him off,” Miss Elva said, waving her hand in the air. “Child, I know.”

  “Please don’t be offended, it’s not like that. You know I love you,” I protested, immediately feeling guilty. “I just want to kind of ease him into all this magickal stuff. He’s not used to this world.”

  Miss Elva shot me a glance, her hands on her hips.

  “And you’re gonna hide yourself from him? I don’t know if I hold with that, now.” She was right, but I didn’t want to get into it at the moment.

  “No, I’m not hiding. We just haven’t been together long enough for him to learn it all at once. This is still pretty new to him,” I said.

  “Well, he’ll learn soon enough. We’ll just have to see how he weathers the storm,” Miss Elva said, breezing past me and onto the porch.

  I wasn’t sure if I liked what that meant, but I was unwilling to leave Miss Elva alone with Cash for long, so I dashed after her and opened the front door of Cash’s Jeep for her.

  “Cash, this is the esteemed Miss Elva, the best voodoo priestess in Florida,” I said, meeting her eyes to let her know I wasn’t trying to hide what she was from Cash.

  Miss Elva harrumphed and then slid into the front seat, reaching out a hand to Cash.

  “That’s in all the States, honey, and don’t let Miss Marie in N’awlins tell you any different,” she said, settling in comfortably.

  I saw Cash’s lips quirk and I blew out a breath.

  “I’m sure you’re the best at what you do,” Cash said magnanimously, and pulled away from the curb.

  “Where are we going first?” I asked.

  “I’ve got to get Dylan. He’s been kicking his heels at the coffee shop waiting on me,” Cash said, and I immediately felt bad.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t even think about that,” I said, immediately chagrined and a little embarrassed. Now Dylan was going to get caught up in our little drama and I could only imagine what Cash’s mama was going to hear about me.

  One thing at a time, I reminded myself. We needed to figure out where Luna was.

  “When’s the last time you heard from Luna?” Miss Elva asked, turning to look at me.

  “She texted to check on me earlier today, but since then it’s been silence. And her phone’s going to voicemail, which never happens because of Granny Lavelle up at Seashores.”

  Miss Elva nodded, not saying anything.

  The houses of Tequila Key flashed by my window, all cluttered together, clambering for space on this scrap of land in the Keys. I prayed that Luna wasn’t going to be the third dead body to end up at that beach.

  Something niggled in
the back of my mind, but just as I was grasping at it, we pulled onto the main drag and I saw Dylan leaning against the front wall of Beau’s new restaurant, talking animatedly to Beau.

  “Looks like Dylan has already met Beau,” I said, smiling as I saw them both laugh at the same time. They’d make a handsome couple, all bronzed and well-dressed.

  “Damn it. I wanted to be the one to introduce them. Leave it to Dylan to steal my thunder,” Cash griped, swinging the car into a spot right in front of the restaurant. The men looked over and smiled at us as we got out of the Jeep.

  “Hi, Beau,” I said, smiling when he came over to pull me into a hug.

  “Can you believe how freakin’ hot Dylan is?” Beau hissed into my ear, and my smile grew even wider as I looked up at Beau.

  “Trust me, I get it,” I replied, and Beau shook his head in disbelief before turning to hug Miss Elva.

  “Child, I’ve been meaning to come look at the renovations,” Miss Elva said after being introduced to Dylan, who looked at her curiously but refrained from commenting.

  “Yes, please, come in. Sorry it’s such a mess in here, but it’s still a construction zone,” Beau explained, ushering us in and locking the door behind us. “Sorry to lock the door, but you know how the looky-loo’s are in this town. I swear Prudie hovers outside the front door, just waiting for a glimpse inside.” Beau gestured to where he had tacked up brown butcher paper over all the windows and the glass doors to prevent prying eyes from seeing inside.

  “That woman is on my list,” I declared.

  “Your hit list or your shit list?” Beau joked, then stiffened when I glared at him. The last thing I needed was for Dylan to think I actually went around trying to kill people.

  “My shit list. She’s a mean old gossip,” I said, then turned to look at the space. “Holy crap, you’ve done a ton of work since I was last in here.”