Dane’s fake smile looked sincere. “That’d be great.”
Ciera raised up on her tippy-toes, wanting to beat her wings with excitement. Their plan was going perfectly. “Do you have paper records anywhere? Perhaps it would be easy to search that way?”
The man’s eyes shifted to a file cabinet beside him, but then he stopped. He backed up a few steps. “I don’t understand what you’re after. This whole thing seems bizarre.”
Dane tightened his grip on Ciera’s hand, giving it a little tug to tell her it was time to leave. “Well, never mind. We can just ask his girlfriend. Hopefully she knows. Thanks for the dimensions.”
With Ciera feeling sweat on her temple, they scurried out the door and as far away from the store as they could get. Dropping Dane’s hand, Ciera rubbed hers together, thinking of their next move.
Dane’s words interrupted her, “Stop worrying. We’ll figure it out.” He smiled. “Remember, I’m a thief. Let me tell you what we’ll do tonight. Did you get his computer password?”
Ciera nodded. “It was Amy-two-zero-zero-four.”
“Good. That’s all we need.” Dane led Ciera around the building and pointed out the loopholes in the shop’s security system, recited the store’s hours, the neighboring store’s hours, and had laid out an entire plan on how they’d get the records nearly as fast as a fairy godmother could zap themselves a meal.
He suddenly halted and glanced down at his wrist. “Oh no, it’s after four already! I gotta get home.”
A short ride later in an automobile Dane called a taxi, he secured Ciera in the storage unit. “Rest. I’ll come get you sometime after midnight, and we’ll get those records.”
Ciera smiled and kissed him on the cheek, causing her chest to constrict pleasantly. It was a shame the fairy realm banned all human contact, Ciera could get used to having a human friend. “Thank you for all your help. And if it means anything to you, I think you’re a good thief.”
She swore Dane’s cheeks turned pink as he shut the door.
Chapter 10
Dane
Dane sat at his kitchen table, shuffling through page after page of bills. The numbers were not even comprehensible to him. There was no way to keep his apartment, put food on the table, and pay back what he already owed—no matter how hard he tried. Right now, food and living expenses were paid, the rest of them ignored. Even if he hadn’t given Ciera that hundred dollars, this would still be a lost cause.
As he flipped them over and over in his hand, his mind wandered to the woman in his storage room. She had kissed him on the cheek, and he hadn’t realized how much he liked it until he felt his cheeks heat. When he had introduced her as his wife, it felt complete—it felt right. Did he just miss being married?
Maybe it was time he started dating.
Stop it. Your life’s too full already. You don’t have time for women nonsense. Besides, she’s pregnant with another man’s child. A man she is still looking for.
Was that camping cot too hard for her? He did have a nice soft sofa sleeper up here in his living room. Did she need a shower? How had he ignored that? She must be washing up in the bathroom beneath the stairs. How dare he do that to a pregnant woman—who kissed him. He rubbed his cheek. Her lips had been so soft.
Ignore the attraction.
“What’s up, Dad?” When had his daughter come out of her bedroom?
Dane dropped his hand. “Just paying bills, honey.”
“Do we have enough this month?” She leaned against the chair across from him, pulling her worn t-shirt straight.
Dane thumbed through the upside-down stack. “We’ll be alright. I’ll make sure of it.” He flashed his daughter a smile, but her worried expression didn’t change. It was so much easier when she had been little and didn’t understand. Didn’t ask questions like, ‘Why don’t you have a job? Where does our money come from? What happened to Mom? Will you ever remarry?’
“It’s after your bedtime. Why aren’t you sleeping? Is something going on at school?”
Rosa shrugged and picked at her purple fingernails. “No, just the same old, same old.” Her pale lips turned down in a frown before she glanced away.
Dane knew that expression. “Come on, something’s going on. You weren’t all right at dinner either.”
Rosa pulled her long red hair to the side and sat down, lacing her fingers together on the table. “It’s just there’s this one boy who keeps saying Mom didn’t want me and that’s why she took off.”
Dane cringed. At some point, he’d have to tell her the whole story. He thought of the woman downstairs, wanting to give up her child. If only his wife would have been that transparent, their life would be quite different now. Maybe he just ignored the signs…wanted to ignore the signs.
“You know how I told you mom was sick, and she couldn’t care for you? Well, it’s true. She couldn’t help raise you and that made her sad. Very sad.”
Rosa’s lips puckered while she was in thought, then her voice was soft. “I wish she would have hung in there. I would have made her happy.”
Dane swallowed and took a deep breath, wishing that his wife could see the woman Rosa was growing up to be. “It’s not your job to make someone happy. It’s not anyone’s job, really. I could have guided her more, but it was up to her to want to change.”
“Now you’re doing it, Dad. What do you tell me? It’s in the past.”
Dane forced a smile. “You’re right. So, tell me about this boy at school.”
“I guess I should have told him the truth—that Mom was dead. I couldn’t, though. Is it wrong that I don’t want anyone to know?”
Dane shook his head, and his voice turned quiet. “I don’t like telling anyone either.” His vision clouded, and he blinked away the tears. “Things like that should never happen to anyone.” He shook his head, refocusing on his daughter’s issue. “You know what they say about boys who tease.”
“What? That he likes me? I don’t think so.”
Dane forced a shrug. “I don’t know. I used to do it all the time.”
“Now what do you do when you like a girl?”
Dane gave an uncomfortable laugh. “I don’t have time to like girls.” He thought of Ciera. “But if I did have time, I’d take them out to lunch. I’d support whatever goals they had in life, whatever quest they were on, no matter how crazy I thought it was. Be there to support them. Kinda like you and me.”
Rosa smiled. “So, you’d be nice to them?”
Dane’s head filled with an image of pregnant Ciera in the basement, laying on the hard cot in a nearly dark room. “Not always, but I should be.” He rubbed Rosa’s head.
She jerked away. “Dad, you know I’m too old for that.”
“As always, you’ve helped me more than I’ve helped you. I swear you’re raising me. Just tell that boy to get lost and ignore him. You wait and see. When you’re in eighth grade next year, or maybe high school, I bet he’ll ask you to a dance.”
Rosa shook her head in denial, then gave a sly smile. “Well then, I’ll need to start coming up with really good excuses why not. Something that will make him regret how he treated me.”
“If he knew about your mom, he wouldn’t tease.”
“But I don’t want any special treatment. I don’t want to explain it.”
“I know. Me neither.” Dane stood up. “I have a problem I need to take care of in the basement. I’ll be right back.”
As soon as Rosa nodded, he nearly flew out the door and down the two flights of steps. When he arrived at the storage unit and knocked on the door, there was no reply.
“Ciera?”
Nothing.
He cautiously opened the door to an empty room. Everything was put away neatly, except for his lantern on the floor with broken glass surrounding it.
He felt queasy. Had he chased her away? He couldn’t have brought her upstairs with his daughter. He didn’t trust her for that.
No. That’s not true. You didn’t want h
er to meet your daughter. You didn’t want to explain your situation to her.
He ran his fingers through his hair and sat on the cot, his insides turning, thinking of her out on the street alone, barefoot and pregnant. How cliché. What if something happened to her?
No. No. No.
He couldn’t live with that.
He flew upstairs, told Rosa he was going out for a little while, and ran out the door. Searching the streets of Chicago for the most charming, pregnant, violet-eyed woman he’d ever seen.
Chapter 11
Ciera
Ciera walked the streets of Chicago. She hadn’t been able to nap like Dane suggested, and the hard cot wasn’t to blame. She was disgusted with herself. She loved helping others and was used to being able to grant people’s wishes. Ever since she arrived in Dane’s life, she had only caused him trouble.
He helped her when he should have been mad that she interfered with him stealing that jewelry box, whatever his reasons for wanting it were. Then, she was spending his money and taking all his time away. He was providing her with shelter, staying in his storage unit, and on top of it now, she had broken his lantern. Without her magic, there was nothing she could give him in return.
That wasn’t true.
She would make it up to him and set things right. Plus, if he was going to help her break into the prosthetic store and steal information on John, she would help him first. It was what fairy godmothers did. Helped people before they did anything for themselves.
Dane wanted that silver jewelry box with the elephant on top and she was going to get it for him. She’d follow the plan he laid out to break into the prosthetic store, but instead, would return to the antique shop. Without a doubt, he was a good thief and Ciera wouldn’t stop whatever grand plan he had.
Under the cover of darkness, she’d break in and get what Dane wanted. One-two-three and it’d be over.
Who needed magic when you had determination?
~ ~ ~
Thrilled for the fairy godmother skill of a great sense of direction, Ciera found that antique shop without any trouble. Now, she stared through the shop’s large front window like she had two nights ago. The silver jewelry box Dane needed was inside somewhere, and she’d find it. She owed it to him. There was only one place inside they hadn’t looked. One door they hadn’t opened.
When she got her magic back, she’d set this all right. She’d grant the store owner’s wish, whatever it was. That would be of greater value than the silver box. She’d also fix the window she was about to break. Ciera had taken a rock she found outside Dane’s apartment and stood back. Winding up her arm, she let it loose, flinging it at the window.
The glass shattered. With feet wrapped with bandages from Dane’s first aid kit, she carefully pushed the rest of the glass out of the way and stepped inside.
Passing through long aisles filled with old dishes, lanterns, and other contraptions, she rushed toward a door tucked in the corner of the shop.
Please be in here.
She pushed it open to reveal a desk with papers sprawled across the top. Along one wall sat boxes piled upon boxes. Ciera pulled one off the shelf after another. Inside were miscellaneous items. Dolls. Miniature glass decorations. Garbage.
When she finished rummaging through the boxes, her chest grew heavy. How could she return empty-handed? She never failed.
She spun around to find one more box sitting on the floor behind the desk. Taking a deep breath, she opened the container to see a beautiful, shiny jewelry box. An ornate elephant decorated the top.
Ciera smiled as she tucked it under her arm and crawled back out the window and away from the shop as fast as her legs would carry her. Oh, did she wish she had wings.
As she waddled through the streets, holding her belly with one arm and the silver box with another, she heard loud ear-piercing whistles and sirens that grew louder. She ignored them, rushing down one alley and then the other, eventually finding her way back to Dane’s apartment. She had put a little piece of tape on the door lock, just like Dane had told her about, which allowed her to return inside the building and hide away in the basement without anyone noticing.
She beamed when she rested the jewelry box on top of a fabric folding chair. After staring at it for quite some time, she laid on the cot, realizing Dane would be so happy. So proud of her. It was the least she could do—he was helping her find Robot-Armed-John.
As she drifted to sleep, an odd thought tugged at her consciousness. How did father fairies not live with the mother of their children? A long time ago, Ciera’s mom had died, so she never thought of this possibility, but now, laying in the same building as Dane, there was something comforting about having him close by.
That’s absurd.
He’s human, and you’re on Earth.
But she couldn’t help it. His gentleness with her. The way he helped, despite not wanting to, made her feel, well, warm inside—complete. In her twenty-six years, she finally felt like she belonged somewhere besides at home with her father.
~ ~ ~
Ciera awoke to Dane rushing into the storage unit. She jumped—her heart nearly in her throat. Her voice was groggy as she pulled the invisible wand from under the pillow. “What’s going on?”
“I thought you left. Now, there’s blood on the door handle.” Dane’s eyes darted toward Ciera’s arm, and he knelt in front of her, gently grabbing her forearm and giving her arm a little twist. A few dried crimson stripes stuck out against the pale skin of here upper arm. “What happened to you?”
Ciera tried to rub the dried blood off, twisting her head to see the back side of her arm. “I must have cut myself on the glass. I was so excited to help that I didn’t notice.”
“Excited? Glass?” Dane followed Ciera’s gaze to the silver box resting on the chair. “Where’d you get that?”
“The antique store I met you at. You’ve been so helpful to me, I thought I’d get you what you were looking for.” Grant your wish even without my magic.
“You stole it?”
“How else would I get it?”
Dane’s body darted straight. His head shook side to side as he paced in front of Ciera. “You’re not a thief. You could have been caught.” He stopped. “Tell me the details. How’d you take it?”
“I threw a rock through the window and hurried inside.”
“A rock through a window? That’s not how you do it.”
Ciera sprang up. “Well, it worked, didn’t it? There it is. Inside the shop, there was a door we didn’t open the other night, and I searched for the box as quick as possible.”
Dane stopped at the door and leaned outside, wiping a finger in her dried blood on the handle. “Were you followed?”
Ciera shook her head. “By who?”
“I don’t know. The police? Anyone?”
“I don’t think so.”
“You don’t think so? This isn’t good. You came back here after leaving blood at the crime scene. If they gather your DNA there, and someone tracks you here… It could lead to me, and…” Dane ran his hand through his close-cropped hair.
A small voice called from outside the storage unit. “Dad?”
“Crap!” Dane’s eyes turned to lasers, freezing Ciera in place while his expression tightened. He peered his head out of the room. “Yes, honey?”
Honey? Dad? Dane had a child? Pieces started to click in place. How he’d taken sympathy on her being pregnant. How he wouldn’t bring her up into his home. How his touch on her injured foot was so soft and fatherly.
Dane slipped out of the room and closed the door. Ciera’s hands clenched into fists. Was he hiding her? Twisting the knob, she flung the door open.
Dane’s hand rested on a child a foot shorter than Ciera. Not a teenager, but somewhere in between. Her fiery red hair reminded Ciera of Erde and for a moment, she was homesick. It may not be her home, but her favorite place to be.
As Dane guided the girl to the steps, Ciera cleared her throat. “Hi,
I’m Ciera. Your father’s friend.”
The girl’s face seemed to glow, only to be reined back by her father’s stern voice. “Rosaleen, go upstairs. I’ll be right there and we can talk about this.”
“Why is there a woman in our storage unit? Dad, what were you doing in there?” A sneaky smile on her face.
Dane turned his focused stare to his daughter and pointed upstairs. “Go. Now.”
With a humpf, the girl folded her arms over her chest and stomped up the steps. Once out of sight, Dane turned toward Ciera. “You need to leave.”
“I don’t understand how this changes anything. Why were you hiding me from her? Is it because I’m not like you?”
“What did you want me to do? It’s hard enough to keep her life normal, much less expose her to a crazy pregnant lady with purple hair.”
“Crazy? You think I’m crazy?”
“Come on, Ciera. You were out on the street, drenched in rain. You’re pregnant and don’t even have shoes. You have no place to go and are looking for a man with a robotic arm that you met in your dream. What am I supposed to think?”
“But you were helping me.”
Dane threw his arms up. “Helping you live out your delusions. I thought if we figured this out, you’d be able to move on. I was giving you someplace dry until the child was born. Then the hospital would help find you, and the baby, someplace safe to go.”
“I don’t need any help. I have this under control.”
Dane pointed into the storage unit. “By breaking a window and hurting yourself? By leaving a trail of blood?”
Ciera felt herself mimicking Dane’s daughter. She folded her arms over her chest. “I was trying to show my gratitude.”
“It’s not even the right jewelry box. It’s not silver.”
Ciera’s heart dropped. Her voice was nearly a whisper. “Not the right one?”
“No. It’s wrong. And now, your blood is at the crime scene. You’re injured, and I don’t know what to do with you.”
Hidden: A Pregnant Fairy Godmother's Journey... Page 6
