The Dirty Coven

by Lily Harper Hart

  “According to this, I’ve inherited a town,” Hannah muttered. There was nobody to talk to besides Jinx, so that’s exactly what she did. “A town. It’s some sort of themed town.”

  Jinx bopped his head, seemingly excited.

  “It’s like a role-playing town. One of those cosplay towns. Everyone dresses up like gunfighters ... and saloon girls ... and rides horses and stuff.”

  Jinx merely continued to stare.

  “Someone left it to me. A grandmother ... although, I don’t really remember having a grandmother. Do you think I had a grandmother who was still alive after all?”

  Jinx couldn’t answer that, so he didn’t.

  “This has to be a mistake.” Hannah was certain of that. There was no way she could’ve inherited a town ... especially at a time when she had no job or prospects. That was simply too coincidental. “I’ll call the attorney listed on here and talk to him tomorrow. I’m certain it was a mistake.”

  2

  Two

  It wasn’t a mistake.

  As it turns out, Hannah Hickok was the proud new owner of a cosplay town that was — reportedly — a popular tourist destination. Since she had no job and hated her new apartment, it seemed like she should at least check it out. Of course, the more she thought about it, the more she realized a visit would simply be staving off the inevitable.

  It was a brave new world and she wanted to be a successful person. It wasn’t often that anyone could claim they were left an entire town in a will ... and from a grandmother they’d never met. Abigail Jenkins. That was her name. Hannah couldn’t remember her mother ever mentioning the woman who gave birth to her in anything other than terse terms. There were no horror stories that plagued the family, no nightmare-inducing information drops about mental or physical abuse. There was simply nothing about Abigail that Hannah could remember.

  She had no idea if that was a good or bad thing.

  It took her a month to settle things in Michigan. She gave her landlord notice — she was only on a month-by-month lease anyway — and she sold the furniture she’d only recently bought. She packed up her clothing, the few nostalgic trinkets she had from her childhood, contacted her brother and father to tell them what was happening, and then packed up her ancient Jeep and headed toward Kentucky with Jinx in the passenger seat. It was almost a relief to put the past behind her and look forward to something new.

  Hannah was in bright spirits until she landed in Casper Creek ... and then found out she needed to take a ski lift to the top of a mountain to glimpse her new home.

  “I don’t understand.” She planted her hands on her hips and regarded the young man — he looked to be barely out of his teens and wore a nametag that read “Walt” on it — with an expression halfway between a frown and a grimace. She thought there was a chance he was messing with her. “I’m supposed to ride up in that?”

  The ski lift looked exactly like the ones used on the Michigan slopes she used to visit with Michael. She’d never considered herself much of an athlete — her mother joked she would trip over her own feet if she wasn’t careful as a child — but skiing had come naturally to her. The skis Michael bought her for Christmas two years before were one of the first things she sold when embarking on her fresh start.

  Walt nodded. “That’s the only way up, ma’am.”

  “But ... .” She looked toward Jinx, who was happily snapping at a butterfly as it fluttered around his head. “I have to take my dog up there. How am I supposed to do that?”

  Walt held out both of his hands and shrugged. “I have no idea. Dogs aren’t allowed in Casper Creek.”

  “Yes, but ... I’m the new owner.”

  “Really?” Walt appeared more curious than impressed. “I guess that means you get to make the rules, huh?”

  “Exactly.” She bobbed her head enthusiastically. “I’m the new boss and I need to get my dog up there. There has to be another way.”

  Walt held out his hands and shrugged. “You could try to climb the mountain. There are some guys from the local gym who do it. Abigail said it was okay if they signed releases that she wasn’t responsible if they fell and cracked open their heads. They managed it.”

  “Really?” Now it was Hannah’s turn to be dubious as she studied the steep rock face. “How long does it take them?”

  “Two hours.”

  She heaved out a sigh. That wasn’t going to work. “There has to be another way to the top. I mean ... how do supplies get up there?”

  “Through the back road.”

  Now they were getting somewhere. Hannah’s lips spread into a flattened smile. “And where is that road?”

  “About twenty miles that way.” Walt pointed back in the direction she came. “There’s a dirt road down there. You can’t miss it because it’s the only road in the vicinity. You follow it for about thirty minutes and it leads right to Casper Creek.”

  That was not the news Hannah was hoping for. “There’s nothing closer?”

  “No, ma’am.”

  “Fine.” She pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead and heaved out a sigh. “Okay, I guess that means we’re going back to the road. What’s the name on it?”

  Walt blinked several times in rapid succession. “Um ... I don’t think it has a name.”

  To Hannah, that was simply impossible. “It has to have a name.”

  “I don’t think it does.”

  “But ... it has to.”

  “There’s no sign.”

  She made a face and dug into her pocket for her cell phone. She was relieved to find she had full service in the area. She worried that wouldn’t be the case. And, as much as she hated being one of those people who was constantly glued to her phone, that’s exactly the sort of person she’d turned out to be. “Let’s look at a map, shall we?” It took her a few moments to pull up a map of the area and when she pointed at her screen, Walt looked bored. “Is that the road that you’re talking about?”

  “There’s no other road out there.”

  “Yes, but ... is that the road?”

  “If there’s no other road, that’s obviously the road you’re looking for.”

  Hannah had never been in charge before, never oversaw employees or fielded questions about how things were done. Despite that, she felt the incredible urge to get her first firing under her belt. She figured that was probably a bad idea, though, so she kept the urge under wraps.

  “It’s called Willow Bark Way,” she announced. “You might want to file that away for future reference.”

  “If you say so.”

  Hannah stared at him for a long beat and then shook her head. “I’m sure we’ll have a chance to discuss this further at our first employee meeting.”

  “That sounds great.” Walt brightened considerably. “Abigail brought freshly-baked cookies to meetings.”

  “Well ... I’ll keep that in mind.” She turned to the field and whistled to get Jinx’s attention. “Come on, buddy. We need to get back in the Jeep.”

  Jinx looked as if that was the last thing he wanted after such a long ride, but he acquiesced when she opened the door. He didn’t want to be left behind.

  Hannah waited until she was buckled in and the vehicle was on the highway again to speak. “Next stop is Casper Creek. I certainly hope this place is worth all the effort.”

  Jinx, his tongue hanging out of his mouth, focused on the foliage speeding by. He already seemed happy with their new environment. That, at least, was something.

  COOPER WYATT ROLLED HIS EYES as he watched his co-worker Tyler James work on saddling a new horse for the first time. Tyler, a miracle worker of sorts, was having fits with the new filly. Desperado was the last horse Abigail purchased before her death, which seemingly came out of nowhere. She watched his birth when visiting a friend and was so enamored with the black beauty that she insisted on buying him when he came of age. Unfortunately for her, that happened weeks after her death — which was unexpected and left the workers at Casper Cree
k bereaved beyond their wildest dreams — and now Desperado was Tyler’s next big project. The horse seemed to have a mind of his own and didn’t like the look of the saddle Tyler was carrying around one little bit.

  “I don’t think that’s going to work,” Cooper called out. He was thirty-one and boasted black hair that touched the collar of his shirt and a set of wild blue eyes. If anyone were to paint a quintessential picture of a cowboy for a romance novel or television show, Cooper would be it. Of course, he hated it when people made cowboy references. He was head of security at Casper Creek, which meant he avoided the performances as much as possible and focused on the quiet edges of the community whenever he needed space from the endless sea of tourists. He wasn’t big on crowds, which meant Casper Creek appealed to him sixteen hours a day. The other eight, when people visited, left a little something to be desired by his way of thinking.

  “I know what I’m doing,” Tyler gritted out, his face red from exertion. He obviously wasn’t happy with Desperado, who was doing a little dance to stay away from him. “I have everything under control.”

  Cooper didn’t bother to hide his smirk. Tyler was a few years older than him, although he didn’t look it, and the two men were tight. Sure, they liked to compete when hanging out at the local bar. It wasn’t for women — that simply wasn’t something that came up in their day-to-day lives — but darts, cards, and pool were always on the menu. Tyler was the animal expert, could even serve as a veterinarian in a pinch, but he didn’t hold his schooling over Cooper’s head. Cooper joined the military right out of high school, served overseas, and was looking for a quiet place to hang his hat upon his return. They both ended up in Casper Creek and it suited them.

  That didn’t mean they didn’t enjoy messing with one another.

  “I think that horse is a lost cause,” Cooper called out, his feet resting on one of the weathered fence posts that separated the corral from the rest of the town. It was a nice day — in the mid-seventies and sunny — and there was nothing to do but hang out while they waited for the new boss to make her presence known. She was supposed to arrive an hour before but apparently wasn’t keen on promptness. To Cooper’s way of thinking, that meant she was already starting out on a bad foot. Abigail was never late. Of course, no one could ever live up to the precedent that Abigail set.

  “I’ll handle the horse and he’ll be amazing,” Tyler shot back, his annoyance on full display. “You know, you could come out here and help me. If you herded him I would be able to get this saddle on him without risking dehydration and a potential heart attack from the exertion.”

  Cooper cocked an eyebrow. “Are you saying you can’t do your job?”

  Tyler scowled. “That is not what I’m saying. Why do you always have to take it to that level?”

  “Maybe I’m bored.”

  Tyler eyed him for a moment and then tossed the saddle on the ground, shooting Desperado a derisive look as he strolled to the fence. “You’re not bored.”

  “I’m pretty sure I’m bored.”

  “No, you’re keyed up.” Tyler rested his elbows on the fence and stared at his friend. “You’re just as anxious to meet the new owner as the rest of us. Admit it.”

  Cooper had worked hard to perfect his cool brand of sophisticated loner so he had no intention of breaking character now. “I’m not anxious. I’m pretty sure I already know what to expect.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “She’s a city girl. She’s going to come in here with big plans to make this place more posh than it is, probably add a spa or something, and she’s going to completely screw things up. I mean ... why do you think she never visited? There has to be a reason.”

  “I think there was a reason.” Tyler was calm as he rubbed his gloved hands over the craggy wood. “Abigail said she and her daughter had a falling out at some point. She said that Rose had big dreams that didn’t involve this place. She took off the second she turned eighteen and didn’t look back.”

  Cooper had heard the same stories. Abigail wasn’t shy when it came to voicing her disappointment with her only child. “How could you run away from this place? Worse, how could you just abandon Abigail? She was the coolest person ever. I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t want her as a mother.”

  “I happen to agree with you. The thing is, not everyone wants this life. I don’t know that we should take out our frustrations on what this Rose woman did on her daughter. From what I heard from the attorney when he stopped by, he said that this Hannah chick sounded excited about coming to Casper Creek.”

  “He said she sounded excited about inheriting a town,” Cooper corrected. “That doesn’t mean she’s excited to run the town. It just means that she’s excited at the prospect of selling this place to make a dime.”

  “Tell me how you really feel,” Tyler prodded dryly.

  “Okay, I really feel as if this Hannah Hickok — and how did she end up with that name in the first place? — is going to screw up everything that we’ve worked so hard to build. She won’t understand Abigail’s vision and I hate the idea of Abigail’s dream turning into a nightmare.”

  Tyler’s expression reflected sympathy. “I hate the idea, too. There’s not much we can do about it, though.”

  “We could try to scare her away.”

  “Like ... how? Are you going to turn this into a Scooby-Doo episode or something? I don’t think that will end well.”

  Cooper let loose a growling sound deep in his throat. “I just ... don’t like change.”

  “I don’t think anybody does. It’s out of our hands, though. All we can do now is wait for her to arrive and see for ourselves the type of person she is.”

  “Yeah.” That was another problem Cooper didn’t want to admit as he rubbed his chin. He had no idea if Hannah was like Abigail in other ways. The reenactments and town were only part of the magic Casper Creek had to offer. The rest was, well, a lot to deal with. Abigail was a special woman who managed to put out a lot of fires during her tenure as owner of Casper Creek. Cooper very much doubted the new boss would be able to say the same.

  “We have a lot going on here,” Cooper reminded Tyler. “We’ve had trouble from across the river. This is not the time for new management to take over and foul things up.”

  Tyler bobbed his head. He understood exactly what his friend was referring to. “There’s nothing we can do about it but wait.”

  “I know.” Cooper sighed, then turned his eyes to the east when he made out the distinctive sound of tires moving over gravel. “Well, I think she’s finally here. This should be ... interesting.”

  “Don’t go over there with a chip on your shoulder,” Tyler warned. “She hasn’t earned an attitude yet. Why don’t you let her look around and get a feel for the place before you jump all over her?”

  “I’ll consider it.”

  JINX STARTED BARKING THE SECOND he hopped out of the Jeep. Hannah lifted her hands over her head and stretched — the added hour in the vehicle had done a number on her back — and smiled as he raced toward the corral. She didn’t think much of it ... until the dog slipped through the fence slats and pointed himself directly toward a black horse. Then she realized what his intentions were and she started panicking.

  “Oh, no.” She broke into a run as she chased the dog, leaving the door to her Jeep open and her belongings forgotten. “Look out!”

  The two men standing on either side of the fence talking to one another — one blond, the other dark — turned their attention to the barking dog as he shoved his way into the paddock and immediately went after the annoyed horse.

  “Son of a ... .” The dark-haired man viciously swore under his breath as he slipped beneath the fence slats. He and the blond tore off in the direction of the dog as the horse began to whinny and neigh.

  “Don’t hurt him,” Hannah snapped as she struggled to get her leg through the opening. Her clumsiness was coming out to play and she fell through the hole rather than gracefully slipping through
as she intended, landing on the ground with a hard thud.

  “Ugh.” She made a face as she lifted her hand and stared at the mud clinging to her skin. “This is ... so gross.”

  The men were busy trying to catch Jinx so they didn’t bother paying attention to her. In fact, they didn’t as much as look at her because they were fixated on the barking dog.

  “Down, boy!” The dark-haired man seemed desperate to catch the dog as the blond focused on the horse. “You need to stay away from him. He’ll trample you.”

  “He’s getting ready to rear up,” the blond supplied. “We need to get the dog out of here.”

  “What do you think I’m trying to do?” the other man snapped. “I’m not in here for my health. You know I think that horse is evil.”

  “He’s not evil. He’s just ... spirited.”

  “I believe that’s just another way of saying he’s evil.”

  “Hey!” Hannah made an exasperated sound as she slowly got to her feet and clapped her mud-soaked hands. She didn’t look happy. Of course, nobody in the paddock looked happy. “Calm down.”

  The blond snickered. “That doesn’t really work on horses, ma’am.”

  “You have to get your dog out of here,” the black-haired man snapped. “He’ll get hurt if that horse decides to protect himself.”

  Hannah didn’t know a lot about horses so she decided to take him at his word. “Jinx!” She made kissing noises with her mouth and whistled to get the dog’s attention. “Come here. Leave that horse alone.”

  Jinx jerked his head from the horse to Hannah and looked legitimately torn about how he wanted to proceed. Finally, he hung his head and trudged toward his owner. He seemed disappointed about pulling away from the horse, but he loved hearing about what a good boy he was so he opted to scamper to his mistress’s side.