“Well, at least you managed to protect yourself.” Tyler made a clucking noise as he grabbed her under the arm and helped her to her feet. “Cooper is going to be mad as a hen when he finds out Astra attacked you this way. He’s going to go after her.”
Hannah wasn’t sure what to make of the statement. “How come you said you were impervious to her sex charm? Does she really cast sex charms?”
“She does.” He bobbed his head. “I’m impervious because I’m gay.”
He delivered the line with such matter-of-fact calmness that Hannah was almost startled by the realization. “But I thought ... .” She trailed off, confused. “I honestly thought Cooper was trying to keep you from sitting next to me at the bonfire because he was a little territorial. How stupid does that make me?”
Tyler chuckled. “Oh, he was definitely trying to keep me from sitting next to you. He simply did it because he wanted to be close to you, not because he thought I was going to steal your affection.”
“He’s a complicated guy, huh?”
This time the laugh that Tyler let loose was a hearty guffaw. “He is indeed.”
COOPER WAS FURIOUS WHEN HE landed in Casper Creek the next morning and heard what happened. In fact, he was so angry that he threw his coat across the barn when Tyler filled him in.
“Well, that was mature,” Tyler drawled, refusing to acknowledge Cooper’s bad behavior with anything other than derision. “Do you think that’s going to help?”
Cooper glared at him. “No, but it made me feel better.”
“That’s good. It was totally worth it then ... especially since the goats are already fighting over it.”
Cooper scowled as he gave the goats chase. It took him a full three minutes to reclaim his coat. By the time he did, Tyler was already busy with another task and thought the conversation was over. He was surprised when Cooper attacked him for the details a second time.
Tyler laid it out with cool precision. He wasn’t prone to histrionics or dramatic retellings, but even he was a little breathless when he got to the part about Hannah knocking back Astra with magic she didn’t even know she possessed.
“It was pretty impressive,” he enthused. “I think she’s going to be a strong fighting force once she manages to accept everything that’s happening.”
Cooper stroked his chin as he considered the statement. “I was hoping she wouldn’t have to fight so soon. It doesn’t seem fair given everything that’s happened to her.”
Tyler tilted his head, quizzical. “What’s happened to her?”
That’s when Cooper realized he’d overstepped his bounds. “It doesn’t matter. She’s here now. I’m starting to think she belongs here. I wasn’t sure if that was the case when she first arrived. Now, though ... well ... I think she’s definitely Abigail’s granddaughter.”
“I think so, too. She held up well last night. Other than her knees being scraped up from the fall and being a little dazed, she didn’t hardly whine or anything.”
Cooper shot him a look. “If she whined a little, I think she’s earned it.”
“Oh, yeah?” Tyler was amused despite himself. “You know what I find funny about this?”
“No, and I don’t care.”
Tyler ignored him. “If anyone else whined after a battle, you would be the first one to jump all over them. You hate whiners. The pretty new owner comes in and does a little whining, though, and you can’t stand up for her fast enough.”
Cooper planted his hands on his narrow hips. He and Tyler were tight — like brothers really — and that meant they knew exactly how to needle one another. “I think you’re reading too much into this. She’s had a lot to deal with. There’s no reason to jump all over her when she’s still learning.”
“Uh-huh.” Tyler was almost giddy with delight. “Do you remember when Becky first joined the fray and cried after the first fight? She didn’t fall apart until five minutes after the battle. You called her ‘Becky the bawler’ for a month straight after the fact.”
“That was different.”
“Of course it was. You’re not attracted to Becky ... although she’s still crushed over that. She wants you to fall all over yourself and declare your love. You look at her as the annoying cousin who comes to visit too often. It’s a little sad.”
Cooper flicked his ear. “Stop trying to be funny.”
“I’m not trying to be funny.” Tyler sobered. “You’re attracted to Hannah. It’s written all over your face whenever you see her.”
“I most certainly am not attracted to her.” Even as he uttered the words, Cooper knew they were a lie. He’d been attracted to her from the moment he saw her. He was determined to fight that attraction, though. The last woman he was attracted to turned out to be evil incarnate. He didn’t believe Hannah would go that route, but he wasn’t taking any chances. “She’s a nice woman going through a lot. That doesn’t mean I’m attracted to her.”
“Oh, so cute.” Tyler grabbed his friend’s cheek and gave it a vigorous jiggle. “You have no idea how cute you are when you lie to yourself.”
Cooper jerked away, irritation bubbling up. “I’m not attracted to her. You’re living in La-La Land.”
“Well, if I’m living there, you have the house next to mine. Besides, I’m not the only one who has noticed.”
“Oh, don’t tell me Abigail stopped in to give you an earful after she disappeared from Hannah’s apartment last night.”
Tyler stilled. “No. You’ve seen Abigail?”
Cooper straightened and bobbed his head. “I have. She’s having trouble controlling her new ghostly form. We only talked for a few minutes. She’s working on it, though. I think she’ll be a regular fixture around here again before you know it.”
“Well, that’s something to look forward to.” Tyler turned thoughtful before returning to business. “I was talking about Hannah. She found out I was gay last night because of something I said to Astra and was confused why you put on that show of testosterone when I made to sit next to her at the fire.”
Cooper’s cheeks flooded with color. “That didn’t happen.”
“Oh, you’re even cuter now.” Tyler zipped in and tweaked the end of Cooper’s nose before the other man could stop him. He was amused by the entire thing. “She senses something between you. She admitted it when she was confused last night.”
“There’s nothing between us.”
“Uh-huh. If you say so.”
“There’s not.” Cooper was adamant. “I swear there’s nothing between us.”
“You keep telling yourself that. Maybe you’ll eventually start to believe it.”
COOPER WAS STILL STEWING WHEN he let himself into the saloon twenty minutes later. Tyler refused to back down from his assertion that Hannah and Cooper were making constant eyes at one another. The veterinarian seemed to think it was funny. Cooper? Yeah, not so much.
He could hear voices in the storage room behind the bar and that’s where he pointed himself. He expected to find Rick there — maybe with one of the other bartenders –
but instead he found Jackie and Hannah fussing over one of the saloon girl uniforms. Hannah didn’t appear to be thrilled with the fit.
“I can’t wear this.” She was beside herself. “Look at my boobs. They’re spilling out the top. That’s not wholesome. It’s ... not seemly. I look like a lady of the night, not a barmaid.”
Jackie made a clucking sound but didn’t appear to agree with Hannah’s assessment. “You have some nice cleavage, girl. You fill out the uniform better than I hoped. I didn’t realize you were so well endowed. Sure, we had to pour you into a push-up bra, but you look pretty good.” She turned to Cooper and fixed him with a pointed look. “Tell her she looks good.”
Cooper’s mouth dropped open. It had gone dry and he was certain he’d somehow lost his voice. “W-what?” he finally stuttered out.
“You heard me.” Jackie wasn’t in the mood to mess around. “Tell her she looks good. She’s freaking
out.”
“I ... um ... .” Cooper had no idea what to say. He’d seen the standard barmaid uniform on at least fifty different women since joining the Casper Creek staff. He’d never lost his faculties before because of it ... until now. “You look nice,” he mumbled finally.
Hannah pinned him with a withering look. “I don’t look nice. I look like a prostitute. I know there’s a brothel here, by the way. I’ve seen it. I have no intention of dressing to work there.”
“We have more than enough people to work there,” Cooper said absently. “That’s one of the most popular attractions. A lot of the young girls volunteer to wear those outfits.”
Hannah didn’t consider herself a prude, but she was scandalized. “You can’t be serious.”
“Oh, I’m serious.” He licked his lips and slowly raised his gaze from Hannah’s cleavage to her eyes. When he did, he found her glaring at him. All he could do was cringe at his reaction and force himself to keep an even gaze. “The outfit looks great on you. There’s nothing wrong with it. You’ll fit right in.”
“Then how come I feel as if I’m on display?” Hannah asked as she tugged out the top and stared down her shirt. “I had no idea my breasts could look this big.”
“Oh, well ... .” Cooper wrenched his eyes away and swallowed hard. “I was supposed to be here to talk to you about something, but now I’ve completely lost my train of thought.”
“I’m guessing you want to talk to her about what went on with Astra last night,” Jackie offered helpfully. “That’s been the talk of the town all morning. Apparently Hannah was impressive.”
“Right.” He bobbed his head. “That’s exactly what I want to talk to you about. How are you? I heard you fell and scraped up your knees.”
“No one cares about my knees,” she replied dryly. “Trust me. With these on display, no one will give a crap about my knees.” She gestured toward her chest and shook her head. “I’m determined to make this work and not be difficult. I’ll just have to put up with this.”
“Put up with what?” Another voice joined the small group in the storeroom and Cooper jerked his head to his left when he heard Boone move to his side.
“Hannah doesn’t like her outfit,” Jackie explained. “She thinks it makes her look slutty.”
“Oh, well, I think she looks just slutty enough.” Boone winked at Hannah, whose cheeks were a violent shade of red, and then turned to Cooper. “I hate to bother you, but we have a situation.”
“We do,” Cooper agreed. “Astra was here again last night. She attacked Hannah.”
“What?” Boone’s mouth dropped open. “Why didn’t you call me?”
“Because I just found out this morning. Apparently Tyler and Hannah handled the situation themselves.”
“Well, that’s just great.” Boone’s expression darkened as he glared at the lone blonde in the room. “Young lady, when you run into trouble like that, you’re supposed to call for help.”
Hannah was having none of it. “I have bigger problems today, okay? I need to find a way to minimize this.” She wiggled her fingers in front of her chest, drawing Cooper’s attention to the first sight that greeted him when he walked into the storage room.
When he didn’t immediately look away again, Boone snapped his fingers to get the security guru’s attention. “Hey, I have an additional situation on top of your situation.”
“Sure. Right.” Cooper cleared his throat and, thanks to Herculean effort, forced his gaze away from Hannah. “What’s going on?”
“Kip Bunting has gone missing.”
Whatever he was expecting, that wasn’t it. “You’re kidding.” Cooper sobered quickly. “What happened to him?”
“I just know he didn’t show up for his job and the people at the apartment complex are saying his door was wide open when they did a welfare check on him. I have no idea what happened to him.”
“What do you need me for?”
“I thought you might want to look through that apartment with me. You would recognize anything that belonged to Astra better than me. We’re looking for ties between those two men and the coven and I need your help with it.”
Cooper scowled. “Astra and I weren’t that close.”
“You were a heckuva lot closer to her than I was.”
“Okay.” Cooper held up his hands in capitulation. “I’ll go with you. I don’t want to be gone all day in case Astra returns, though. I don’t want to be caught unawares a second time.”
“No problem. It shouldn’t take more than two hours.”
“Then ... let’s do it.”
13
Thirteen
Boone drove to the apartment complex. Cooper hitched a ride since the sheriff intended to return to question a few of the workers once everyone arrived later in the morning. The security guru was lost in thought, his gaze focused out the window. Since Boone could read the edge of his mood, of course, he wanted to poke him.
“So … Hannah looked pretty interesting in her outfit, huh?”
Cooper’s movements were slow and deliberate as he tracked his gaze to the older sheriff. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“It was just a comment.”
“Right. Just a comment.”
“Just a comment,” Boone repeated.
Cooper puckered his mouth but didn’t immediately speak.
“Still, she looked really … smoking,” Boone said after a beat, internally reveling in the way Cooper shifted in his seat. “At first I was disappointed she didn’t resemble Abigail more than she does but now … well … I’m kind of glad for it. I would feel dirty drooling over someone that looked like Abigail’s younger clone.”
Cooper’s hands clutched into fists as he readjusted on his seat. His movements were limited due to the seatbelt but that didn’t stop him from squirming. “I still see Abigail when I look at her. There’s something about her eyes.”
“Really? I didn’t look at her eyes.”
Cooper’s temper flared. “What were you looking at?”
“The same thing you were, sport, and you need to calm yourself.” Boone wasn’t in the mood for a meltdown. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen Cooper this worked up. Usually the man was unflappable. “You need to slow your roll.”
“That is the dumbest expression I’ve ever heard,” Cooper groused. “How did you even hear it?”
“I have a teenage daughter,” Boone reminded him. “She spouted that one when she was eleven and full of vinegar. She’s moved on to other sayings of late. She throws shade a lot. I have no idea what that means, but I don’t think it’s good.”
Despite himself and the annoyance rolling through him, Cooper couldn’t stifle his laughter. “How is your little darling?”
“Loud.” Boone hit his turn signal and waited for traffic to clear so he could pull into the apartment complex. “Other than the outfit, how was Hannah this morning? I ran into Tyler when I was looking for you and he told me about what happened.”
“She seems fine. I guess her knees are scraped up because she hit the ground. Somehow, though, she made it through the attack.”
“That’s pretty impressive if you ask me. That means she’s more powerful than we gave her credit for. We assumed she would be a quarter of the witch Abigail was. It turns out she might be on the same level.”
Cooper had already been considering the exact same thing. “Abigail was my source on all things witchy. I don’t know what it means for Hannah. I’m curious to find out, though.”
“As curious as you are to see under the barmaid outfit?”
Cooper scowled. “I don’t care what’s underneath that outfit.”
“Of course you don’t.”
“I don’t. I’m a gentleman.”
“Total gentleman,” Boone agreed as he parked in front of the apartment. He killed the engine, and exhaled heavily. “She’s really pretty, though.”
“Oh, geez.” Cooper slapped his hand to his forehead. “You’re not goin
g to let this go, are you?”
“Nope. I’ve seen the way you look at her. I think she’ll be good for you.”
“And I think we have other things to deal with.”
“You’re not wrong there.” Boone flicked his eyes to the doorway, to where the landlord, Milton Furman, stood. “We should get this over with. We need to find answers.”
“I think we already know that Astra is behind this,” Cooper argued. “The fact that she keeps popping up the way she does is proof enough for me.”
“Well, I need more than that.”
“Because you think you’ll need to prove it in court?”
“Because I want to make sure that she’s guilty if we have to take the ultimate step,” he corrected. “I’m not an idiot. I know we can’t arrest Astra and put her in jail. She’s too dangerous. She’d escape.”
“She would,” Cooper agreed. “If we come up with tangible proof that she killed Jordan, we’re going to have to kill her.”
“I would rather not talk about that until we’re facing the barrel of a gun.”
“Fair enough. Let’s see what Milton has to say.”
“I doubt it’s going to be anything good.”
“Does he ever say anything good?”
“Nope. Not that I can recall.”
MILTON WAS IN A PARTICULAR MOOD WHEN he let the security chief and sheriff into Kip’s apartment. That mood could only be described as dour.
“If he’s dead, who is going to pay out the rest of his lease, huh?” Milton’s craggy eyebrows were like fuzzy caterpillars as they moved across his forehead. “I just know he’s dead and I’m going to have to pay to get all this stuff junked.”
“Wow. You’re all heart, Milton,” Boone drawled, shaking his head. “I think worrying about junking furniture is exactly where your head should be now that one of your tenants has gone missing.”
Milton’s expression was blasé. “Hey. We all have priorities.”
“Good to know.” Boone turned his attention to the apartment. It had been dirty when they stopped by to question Kip earlier in the week. Now it looked as if a tornado had blown through it. “Were they always this messy?”
The Dirty Coven Page 12
