Tricks & Treats: A Romance Anthology

by Candace Osmond

  Ronan joined his brothers and, together, they moved to Katherine’s side. She held onto their hands as if her life depended on it, but it wasn’t her life at risk. There was clearly silver in the wound or his body wouldn’t be acting this way. Like the gash on his forehead, his cells would be regenerating and knitting his muscles back together.

  The healer instructed four men to hold Maxwell down while she poured cup after cup of water into the wound, washing away most of the silver dust they’d found proof of on the hunter’s remaining blades.

  Maxwell’s screams filled the house and echoed off every wall. Katherine wanted to cover her ears but she needed to share in his pain, diminish it for him somehow, and this was the only way she could. She knew it didn’t make sense but she needed to do something.

  “This is going to hurt.” The healer motioned for the men to hold him even tighter. Using two towels, she squeezed the sides of the gaping wound together and pushed out as much of the blackened blood as she could. Maxwell howled in agony, bucking against the wolves holding them, then fell unconscious.

  “Good.” The healer nodded and reached for another towel. With each cup of water, followed by another towel, the wound looked better.

  Katherine and the others watched as the corners of Maxwell’s torn flesh began to knit back together, but a section in the middle refused to heal.

  The healer turned and looked over the wolves present in the room. “Sylvie,” she pointed at Katherine’s mother, “I need tweezers.”

  Sylvie darted from the room as fast as any young wolf and was back within a minute with a pair of tiny, metal tweezers. Carefully, the healer picked out any remaining flecks of silver then washed the wound one more time. She stepped back and nodded. “It’s done. The wound is clean.”

  Katherine rushed to Maxwell and laid her head on his chest, feeling his heart beat strong in his chest. She sobbed in relief and kissed his blood covered face.

  Pierre came forward and picked Maxwell up in his huge arms, carrying him to a long leather couch. Katherine waited for him to wake up, distracting herself by gently washing his face clean of blood.

  After around ten minutes, Maxwell’s icy blue eyes opened and searched, immediately, for her. Katherine whispered, not realizing the room had emptied, “Hey sleepy head” and kissed him softly on the lips.

  He struggled to sit up, obviously drained from blood loss. “Are you alright?”

  Katherine felt her stomach turn over. How could she ever think of leaving him? He wasn’t a fighter by any means and yet he’d thrown himself bodily onto the hunter to save her. Even after almost dying from silver poisoning his first thought on waking was her safety. He deserved so much more than she could offer him.

  Katherine smiled weakly at him and stroked his face. She loved him so much, he was a part of her heart and would always be her first love, but he wasn’t her soul mate. She’d walk away from him because she knew it was a lie to stay.

  “I’m fine. How do you feel?” She brushed her fingers lightly over the pale pink skin that was forming over what had just been a deadly wound.

  Maxwell flexed his arm and grimaced. “It’s still a bit tender but it’s nothing compared to what it was.” His pale blue eyes darkened as he remembered the agony.

  She pressed a kiss to his forehead, then covered his eyelids, nose, and mouth with her soft lips. “Remember us,” she whispered. “Don’t think about the bad.” She grasped his hand and squeezed tight.

  A fleeting smile graced his beautiful mouth and lifted her heart. He would be alright. He was stronger than she’d ever thought. Everyone would be in awe of him now, of how he’d fought a hunter and survived a silver poisoning.

  Maybe he’d survive her leaving after all.

  Katherine leaned forward and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his neck. He was her first love, the man she should have connected with on a soul deep level. It wasn’t enough though, their love. It wasn’t enough to keep her here, frozen in time, unable to move on and evolve like the rest of the world.

  She needed to leave home and travel the world. If Alpha law dictated that she wasn’t eligible to rule, then she would find her place and purpose out there, without her parents to pick up the pieces if she made a mistake.

  Not yet though, she thought. She’d leave, but not right now. Right now she wanted nothing more than to curl up on Maxwell’s lap, breath in his familiar scent, and surround herself with family and friends.

  Whatever and whoever was out there would just have to wait.

  ♀♀♀

  Like Katherine? This is just the beginning of her story and a tiny glimpse into what made her the woman and wolf she is. Her story continues in Book I of The Guardians trilogy, Blood of Eden, available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, and Smashwords. Here’s a little taste…

  When Katherine LaFlamme is summoned home by her father, the Alpha of the North American wolf pack, she drops everything and answers the call. Despite her desire to experience the human world before she settles down, Katherine is fiercely loyal and, as her parent’s first born and the pack’s best tracker, she’s an essential part of the family.

  There’s trouble at home; a hunter has invaded their territory and murdered several of their kind and a rogue wolf has been stalking the female members of the LaFlamme family. To make matters worse, a secondary claim to the Alphaship of North America has risen, setting the entire pack on edge.

  Then Katherine meets a mysterious wolf named Quinn and things begin to get interesting… and very deadly. Katherine and Quinn are swept up in a puzzle of ancient rites, prophecies, and mythic lore which reveals that there’s more to both Quinn and Katherine than first meets the eye.

  Come check me out on my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/authorjjking and on my website https://jjking.ca/ for more information on Blood of Eden and Book II of The Guardians trilogy, My Brother’s Keeper, due out November 20th, 2016. Make sure to sign up for my mailing list for upcoming releases and promotions and don’t forget to leave a review if you like what you read!

  Story Five

  Up All Night by J. Margot Critch

  Dear Reader, Up All Night is part of J. Margot Critch’s Brewed Moon series and takes place between the events of Bump & Grind and the upcoming Double Shot to the Heart. While Up All Night works as a steamy standalone short story, it may contain some spoilers from Bump & Grind, and it will be a lead-up to Double Shot to the Heart, the next novel in the series.

  Chapter 1

  “Jesus,” Mitch Swanson muttered as he crouched over the woman’s body. He looked up at his brother and partner, Peter. “This is the fifth one in the last six weeks.” He stood, but he couldn’t take his eyes from the lifeless form in front of him. The woman was naked but for a barely-there, blue thong and the piece of plastic sheeting that had been wrapped around her.

  The late October air held a damp chill that went straight to his bones and he pulled his leather jacket tighter. Par for the course for St. John’s, he figured, counting his blessing that at least it wasn’t snowing. He and Peter watched wordlessly as the crime scene techs finished their work, before they loaded the body into the van to transport it to the hospital for an autopsy.

  The medical examiner’s report would take time, but Mitch bet that they would find a deadly combination of ecstasy and fentanyl in her system, and little else. He knew that her death would be labelled an overdose. And she would go unidentified and never be reported as missing. Just like the others. No amount of canvassing the streets of St. John’s, the night clubs and the gentlemen’s clubs would come up with any answers or people willing to admit they knew the women.

  But like always, Mitch held out hope that this time would be different. He hoped that somehow the person who had dumped her here like a bag of trash had slipped up, left something behind, some clue that would lead them to who was behind the deaths of at least five women.

  “Fuck, we need to find this asshole,” Peter cursed beside him. “We ne
ed to find out who’s putting these drugs on the street.”

  “We will,” Mitch responded, not sure if he was trying to convince his brother, or himself. He narrowed his eyes on the body, training them to take in the crime scene, hoping to find something that would be useful.

  “Think it’s Irish?” Peter asked.

  Mitch shook his head. Earlier that year, they had dismantled the crime network of the Irish mafia in the city by killing one organization head and jailing the other. “I don’t know. The Irish are scrambling right now. Maybe they’re pushing bad drugs as a way to make some money. Let’s get Steve and Joe and pay a visit to Colin O’Connell in jail,” he told Peter, who already had his phone out to call their teammates. “See if he knows anything about it.”

  With the body finally removed, Mitch started at one end of alley, and walked slowly to the other. His eyes trained to the ground, and the piles of garbage and filth, looking for something that was out of place. That wasn’t always an easy task in an alley where people throw garbage, and meet up for nefarious purposes.

  But then his eyes settled on one thing that definitely stood out from the trash bags, cigarette butts, syringes, and used condoms.

  “Holy shit,” he whispered and crouched again. Using a latex-covered hand, he picked up a cell phone, and turned to Peter. “Think this belongs to our guy?”

  “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Peter laughed. “You don’t think that someone would dump a body and drop his cell phone in the process, do you?”

  “I sure hope so,” Mitch laughed. Knowing that it might be a long shot, he tapped the screen. It was locked. “Criminals slip up all the time. How many convictions have we gotten from a lucky break? Either way, let’s get this back to the precinct. Maybe Steve can take a crack at unlocking it.”

  He pulled an evidence bag from his pocket and before Mitch could fully stand upright, the screen of the phone lit up and the device vibrated and played an old Trooper tune in his hand. Someone was calling it. Mitch couldn’t believe it. He accepted the incoming call, and turned up the speaker so Peter could hear as well.

  “Hello?” Mitch answered.

  “Who’s this?” the person on the other end said in way of a greeting.

  “Simon Smith,” Mitch gave him a phony name.

  “You got my phone?”

  “Probably, I just picked this one up.” Mitch improvised. “I found it outside a bar on George,” he said of the nearby bar-lined street.

  “I want it back,” the man insisted.

  “Sounds good to me,” Mitch said. “Come meet me and you can have it.”

  “Where’re ya at?”

  Mitch looked around his surroundings, making sure that he was far enough away from the crime scene before revealing where he was. He said the name of a nearby business. “I’ve got to get to work though, so you’d better hurry.”

  “Alright b’y, I’m not far,” he said, and before Mitch could say anything else, the call was disconnected.

  Mitch looked up and Peter was smiling at him. “What a stupid son-of-a-bitch. Did this solve just fall right into our laps?”

  Mitch thought it might have, maybe they’d gotten lucky and no one else would be hurt. But he was careful to not get too cocky. “It looks like we might be close,” he admitted. They were silent, both mulling the case, both keeping their eyes open for the owner of the cell phone, who should be along soon.

  It wasn’t long before they were approached. “Hey,” he called out. “You Simon? You guys got my phone?”

  Mitch held up the phone. “That depends. Are you the guy I was talking to?”

  “Yeah,” he said, getting close enough to reach out for his phone. But he was shorter than Mitch and when Mitch held it above his head, forcing the man to jump for it. “What the-”

  Mitch pushed his jacket aside and flashed his badge, which was clipped to his belt. “How about you come with us?” Mitch asked the man. “We’ve got some questions for you.”

  Chapter 2

  “Just tell me where the drugs came from,” Mitch insisted, as the man, identified as Burton Davis, sat across from him in the dingy interrogation room. Before him on the table, five full-coloured photos of the deceased women sat in front of him.

  “I don’t know, man.”

  “You’re lying,” Mitch insisted. “Listen Burton, if you don’t cooperate, you’re going down for five counts of murder,” Mitch embellished the truth. They didn’t actually have enough to pin any crime on him, let alone murder. Steve was currently putting Burton’s information through the system in hopes that he’d have some outstanding warrants they could hold him on. “If you tell us where these women got the drugs and who wanted you to dump the bodies, then a judge will look more favourably on you. It’s up to you.”

  Burton paused. “If I talk, I’m dead.”

  Mitch knew they were getting somewhere. He sat in the chair and looked at Burton straight on. He leaned across the table. “We’ll protect you if help us. You did dump that body right?”

  He nodded, not saying anything.

  “Did you give them the drugs?”

  Burton hesitated, then shook his head. “It was the guy at that club.”

  “What club?”

  “Leather & Lace.”

  Mitch sat back, he’d heard of it. It was an exclusive club that operated in St. John’s. But it wasn’t like the pubs or night clubs that littered George Street, in the city’s downtown core. From what he’d heard, this one catered to a high-class clientele and providing them with a meeting place, where the men and women of the business and political arenas could mingle and make backroom agreements – oh and they could also their have every sexual need met. Mitch had never heard of problems from the people at the club. He wouldn’t expect to. With all of the higher ups rumoured to be part of the club’s clientele, they were politically untouchable. But if someone they were distributing poisonous drugs, they needed to be stopped.

  “Leather & Lace is killing these women?”

  “Not the club itself,” Burton insisted. “It’s one of the guys there. And it’s not intentional,” Burton told them. “At least, I don’t think so.”

  “Does this guy have a name?”

  He shrugged. “Some Russian guy.”

  Mitch’s interest was piqued. He knew that under a man by the name of Yuri Petrova, a Russian crime syndicate, involved in drugs and human trafficking, was making a move on the city. But he wouldn’t be successful, not if Mitch and anything to do with it. “You have a name?”

  Burton shrugged again, annoying Mitch more and more. “A guy asks you to dump five bodies and you don’t even get his name?”

  Shrug.

  Losing patience, Mitch pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. He exhaled. “So why did you do it? Are you just an extremely helpful guy?”

  “He gave me money.”

  “The Russian guy?”

  Nod.

  “And then what?”

  “I would get a text to come to the back alley of the club. I’d show up. He’d already be out there-”

  “With the bodies?”

  “Yeah.”

  “So, who were they? Who are these women?”

  “I never asked.”

  Mitch sighed loudly at another dead end. “What connection did they five women have with the club?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Were they targeted or just unlucky to have been given poisonous drugs?”

  Burton didn’t answer.

  “Burton?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “That isn’t good enough,” Mitch told him. “If you don’t give us more, we can’t offer you a deal.”

  “The Russian guy works at the club. He’s not the owner, but he’s close to him. From what I heard, he brings in girls to the club, like professionals, you know. He’s the only one that I dealt with.”

  “He works at the club,” Mitch repeated, and stood, and walked to the door. “Okay, good
.”

  “Hey,” Burton called out to him from the table. “What about my deal?”

  “Oh, you’ll get your deal,” Mitch said, his tone dismissive. He opened the door and Peter and Steve walked in. “You’re under arrest,” he said, walking out the door. He walked down the hall to see if he could find his Captain. He had to see a man about a warrant.

  “Absolutely not!” Captain Lewis shook his head. “We can’t invade the privacy of the club owners and patrons without cause.”

  Mitch was shocked. “But sir, we have cause. We have five dead women. And a witness who says he picked them up at the club.”

  “You’re going on the word of a guy who has a mile-long rap sheet. He’s just talking to get a better deal for himself. How do you know that he didn’t kill them himself?”

  Mitch thought of the dull man he’d just interrogated. “Honestly, he’s not smart enough.”

  “I said no,” his superior officer insisted. “Issuing a warrant on Leather & Lace, going into a club like that would be a huge violation of privacy for everyone in job. We’ll all lose our jobs.”

  Mitch knew not to argue with that tone of voice, as much as he wanted to. So he said nothing and walked out of the office. He was on his own with this case. There was something strange going on at Leather & Lace, and he was going to find out why.

  Chapter 3

  Mitch and Peter were sitting at a corner table at Brewed Moon, a downtown St. John’s cafe, nursing their coffees and the disappointment from not being able to pursue their investigation. They both sat frustrated, brooding over their coffees. They had to get into the club, find the “Russian guy,” and build a strong case to take back to their Captain.