A Bundle of Trouble (The Lynlee Lincoln Sets Book 1)

by Olivia Hardin

  I yawned and stretched, enjoying the taste of the coffee searing its way down my throat. “Mmm. I certainly slept late enough.”

  “Stay here as long as you like,” he said, leaning down to kiss me on the forehead. “Call me tonight, okay.”

  “I will.”

  The house seemed silent and empty without Beck and the family there. I finished about half my coffee before I finally made my way out of bed. After I was dressed, I padded into the kitchen and poured a second cup. Fuzzy remnants of a dream were poking and prodding at my psyche, but I couldn’t quite conjure the image.

  About midway through cup number three, I finally began feeling alive again. I was pretty sure Beck and I hadn’t actually gotten to sleep until well after midnight. My cheeks warmed with the memories of the hot, slow lovemaking. With a deep sigh, I walked towards the bedroom to grab my things.

  I took a short detour and peeked into Jilly’s room. Her things were neat and tidy, just as one would expect from a young nymph. Her life would be one of order, with things always in their place and always in their time. On her little pink desk was a note written in black crayon. “Daddy is a meeny but I luv him.” I chuckled, touching the word “luv,” and knocking the paper askew.

  Justin’s room was all boy. I knew Beck made him clean it each Saturday as one of his chores, but as the school week went on it tended to get messier and messier. There were piles of clothes everywhere, and it was impossible to tell which were dirty versus clean. In one corner was an army of little toy solders set up for battle. Closer inspection saw that one of them was holding a very familiar-looking spear. I grabbed up the little stick and rolled it between two fingers.

  “Hmm,” I mused, considering it a moment. “Brownies.”

  A foggy memory of the dream made its way back to the forefront of my mind. The little men had warned me of danger, but then what else was new? There was always some sort of trouble bubbling up in my life. I shook off the little shiver of concern that swept up my spine, heading to the bedroom to grab my overnight bag.

  I orbed back to my home and wasn’t entirely surprised to see Tig sitting at the back door waiting for me when I exited the storage shed that housed my grotto. I cocked an eyebrow at him and approached, then stopped short when I saw the wriggling bundle of fur on his lap.

  “Dogs are not appropriate peace offerings. You might as well take that thing back wherever you got it. I don’t have time for pets.”

  He wheezed a hearty laugh and scooped the little pup up, holding it at eye level in front of his face. “Whadya think of that? She says to send you back to wherever I got you. Gotta do what the gal says, eh?” And still grinning, he reached over the wrought-iron railing and dropped the little thing into the soft grass just beside my house. Instantly the dog began to sniff and to dig.

  “He’s tearing up my yard.”

  Tig snorted. “Well, he’s a she. And I put her back where I got her.”

  I snapped my mouth closed and examined the scruffy little thing. She was a medium sized dog, but with legs so slender they seemed a tad long for her torso. The hair springing in all directions on her body was mostly white, though both pointy ears sported patches of brown. She was so cute I couldn’t bear to look at her too long for fear I’d go all foolish about her.

  With a heavy sigh, I hefted my bag higher on my shoulder and stepped up to the door of my house. I had barely unlocked it and moved out of the way for Tig to enter before the pup ran ahead of him and right in, dirty paws and all.

  “I think she likes it here.” Tig pointed at the little thing even as he opened my refrigerator and grabbed a cold one.

  “Apparently you do, too. Maybe I should just leave and let you two enjoy my house.”

  “We need to talk.” He grabbed a second beer and handed it towards me.

  “It’s not even ten o’clock in the morning yet.”

  Tig shrugged his beefy shoulders, replaced the beer and headed off in the direction of my office. The puppy watched him go, then sat down at my feet and looked up at me, her pretty brown eyes glistening in a way that made me want to reach down and pat her head.

  “This is my house. You shouldn’t be in here.” Her only response was to wag her tail, stick out her tongue and pant.

  “You comin’, girlie?”

  Rolling my eyes, I followed the sound of Tig’s voice into my office. “Okay, I’m listening.” The stuffed vinyl of my office chair made a hissing sound as my butt dropped into the seat. I propped my feet onto the desk and folded my hands over my stomach.

  “Listen, I know you’re pissed. But this time I wasn’t just covering my ass. I was trying to protect you.”

  “That’s not a good excuse, Tig. I know how to take care of myself, and I need to be able to trust you. I’m not your employee anymore, so if you want to have a part in my life, you’re going to have to get that lesson right. Now what the heck is it you’re keeping from me?”

  “Prieto came to see me a few months after… you know.”

  I knew. He didn’t like to speak directly about the incident with the dark witch when he lost his one and only chance to be a father. His changeling’s death was something he didn’t like to remember, and I had enough demons in my life to know not to push him.

  “Are you in trouble? I mean, because of what happened?”

  He shook his head, swigging nearly half his beer. “It’s you, Lynlee. They know about what you did, your display of super powers. They want you.”

  A nervous tickle worked its way from the pit of my stomach to my chest. I scratched just above my breastbone as I frowned at him. I was still having a hard time coming to grips with my loss of control that day fighting the dark witch. My powers had nearly blown me and everyone else away, and it scared the hell out of me. “Want me for what?”

  “They want you to become one of them.”

  The way he said “them” was tell enough how he felt about that idea. Enforcers. He’d always had a bit of a chip on his shoulder about them. Once I had asked why he never became one. “That’s a private club. Invitation only.” If that invitation was being handed to his protégé instead of to him, that was likely to smart a little. Especially on top of everything else he was dealing with.

  I must have taken too long responding because Tig stood and approached the desk, setting his now-empty beer bottle on a coaster. “This isn’t a good thing here. This ain’t no worthwhile promotion. Being one of them makes you an outcast in the MAUC world. You’d no longer have one-on-one with your clients. In fact, you wouldn’t have clients at all anymore. You’d be the heavy, the one mopping up the big messes and usually that would mean destroying some other MAUC’s life.”

  “Who says I’d take the position?”

  “Who says you get a choice?”

  I was taken aback. I dropped my feet to the floor and leaned forward so that we were eye to eye. “I always get a choice, Tig. I made a choice to become a Neutralizer, I make a choice every day about which clients I take on and which I don’t. Hell, I make a choice every single day about whether to have breakfast or not. No one takes away my choices.”

  There was a little tap at my leg, and I looked down to see the dog patting at my calf with her little paw. I gave her my sternest look, drawing my brows together. She panted, sat back on her haunches and smiled at me.

  “Listen, Lynlee, the Enforcers get what they want. I don’t know how they do it, but I have never known a single person to get the offer yet not become one.”

  Forcing my gaze from “Miss Pretty Puppy Eyes”, I glared at Tig. “And how many of them do you know who actually didn’t want the job?”

  He didn’t answer, but instead walked out of the room. I heard the sucking sound of the seal on my refrigerator door, and when he returned he had a fresh beer in hand. With a thump, he dropped into the chair across from my desk and crossed one short and chubby leg over the other knee.

  “Wait a minute,” I murmured, suspicion heavy in my tone. “Why didn’t you get this inv
itation? You’ve been at this about ten times longer than I have.”

  He chewed his tongue a moment. “There’s a pretty simple answer for that and you know it.”

  The Changeling Incident. At least that was what the MAUCs were calling it. It hadn’t taken long for word to travel about Tig falling in love with a beautiful dark witch who then stole his changeling. It was a debacle that might not have happened if Tig had asked for help, but he’d been too prideful to admit how he was taken by the witch’s feminine wiles.

  The loss of his only changeling shouldn’t have mattered to anyone. The problem was that the dark witch intended to use the unborn child to gain entrance to the Innerworld, the place where goblins, fairies, dwarves, gremlins and elves lived. The Innerworld was sacred and had never once been infiltrated. If the dark witch had succeeded, it might have been a disaster in the MAUC universe.

  His beer was starting to look pretty good right about then. I shook my head, and when I felt another movement at my leg, I reached down without thinking and picked up the little furball demanding my attention. I sat back into my chair and dropped her into my lap where she made about three rotations before settling in and dozing.

  “You gonna keep that thing?”

  “What choice do I have now?”

  Tig guffawed. “You tell me. You’re the girl with all the choices.”

  We were silent a few moments as I rolled my fingers through the dog’s hair. “So what do I do about Prieto?”

  “Are we talking about him wanting to make you an Enforcer, or something else?”

  My head shot up and our eyes locked, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I don’t know what he is, Lynlee. No one knows what any Enforcer is really. But my gut tells me he has his eye on you for more than professional reasons. And it has some kind of affect on you. Something changes in the air when he’s with you. Something lingers when he’s not.”

  I waved my hand at him, blowing off the dramatic concern. Still, my stomach churned a little. I felt something poking my hip, and when I reached into my pocket, I came up with the little spear I’d found in Justin’s room.

  You’re in danger.

  I inhaled a long breath and held it a moment before allowing it to hiss through my teeth.

  “Well, I gotta run. A date with one of the mermaids from the other night. Those chicks are pretty demanding, you know.”

  Rolling my eyes, I couldn’t help the grin that tugged on my lips. I raised a hand and waved, watching until I heard him knock on a door somewhere in my house to exit. As a goblin, all he needed to do to get from one place to another was knock on a door and step through.

  Once I was sure he’d left, I turned my attention to the dog now sound asleep on my lap. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do about this little rugrat, but for now I found a strange comfort from having her warm body nuzzled into my stomach. I carefully dug my heels against the floor and used them to leverage my rolling office chair closer to the desk. I hit a button on my laptop to wake it up and began scrolling through emails.

  I had a few notifications from Spellbook, the paranormal version of Facebook. I clicked on one and groaned when I saw a picture of me frowning over the rim of my rum and coke at the Halloween party. There were a few other images there that showed how much the MAUCs had clearly enjoyed the festivities.

  I didn’t like it, but it seemed Tig was right about having that party. “I’ll never admit that to him though.”

  My words roused the pup, who stretched and stuck her cold wet nose up to my face. “You’re entirely too cute not to belong to someone. Where’s your family?”

  Her tail flapped against my side, and she licked my chin. But her affection didn’t last for long. A sound at the front door caught both our attentions, and she leaped off my lap, barking her way towards the sound.

  “It’s just the mail lady, girlfriend,” I informed her as I stood and went to retrieve the stack from the floor just below the slot. Proud of herself for her alert skills, she trotted down the hallway and back to the office. “How about Patch? That might be a good name for you. I mean, if you were staying, that is.”

  I knew I was fighting a losing battle. Getting a dog had been on my mind for years, so it was almost providence. And this perky pup had something that drew me to her. I sat down in my chair and patted my lap. Patch took a leap, her back legs not quite making it high enough. I caught her rear end and helped her up. She settled in after just a few moments and I grabbed a letter opener to go through my mail.

  I carefully skimmed the contents of each envelope, sorting bills into a neat stack. There was a reminder about the annual Mayberry Lake Homeowners Association, and I tacked it to the corkboard beside me. Luckily, these days I was getting along much better with the homeowners association. That was of course mostly thanks to Beck’s cool headedness.

  My heart dropped into my stomach when I got to one of the last pieces of mail. The return address was for one Charlaine Gould. Grammie Charley. The postmark read October 31st, the day of her Halloween escapade and less than 24 hours before her death.

  Dear Lynlee,

  I was never good at letters, but I’ll try with this one. I want you to know how much I appreciate all you have done over the years to help me. I never thought I needed a Neutralizer, but that day Mr. Durnham sent you to talk to me changed everything.

  I smiled a little, recalling that she never called Tig by his given name, but always called me affectionately by mine. The warmth she felt for me was always clear in the way she spoke and looked at me. I ignored it for the most part, ever vigilant about keeping my distance from people and especially clients. Still, without my ever knowing it, Charley had touched me on some deep down level.

  And even though I never cared for goblins and especially Mr. Durhnam, he was right. I needed someone to look after me. I’d never had that, you know. At least I hadn’t in a very, very long time. My family has been gone for ages. It’s hell getting old when old means living so many years past your loved ones.

  I was an only child and then I never had any children of my own. I like to think I might have made a good mother. After my immediate family passed, I had no one to share my secrets with. In those days one didn’t speak of magic. Entirely too dangerous. And so that was another reason I’ve remained mostly alone…

  I could relate. It didn’t escape me on nearly a daily basis how lucky I was that Beck had chosen to give us another chance. Humans still didn’t mix well with magic, and so we always remained hidden on some level, in the shadows. My entire profession was because of that unspoken creed.

  Someday soon things will be different. We’ll learn how to live together. How to be friends and to forsake the secrets. I’m sorry I won’t see that day. My prophesy arrived just three weeks ago. I might have tried to thwart my date with death, but then I think I am looking forward to seeing my loved ones again.

  Again, thank you for all you did, Lynlee. I know you like to hide it, but you have a good, loving soul. Don’t be afraid of it.

  You’re the closest thing to family I have, you know.

  Always, Grammie Charley

  I wiped away a tear and flipped the page to find behind it a legal document: Last Will and Testament of Charlaine Gould. A quick scan proved what I suspected I’d find.

  Charley had made me her sole beneficiary. I groaned and slapped the papers onto my desk. Patch jumped and looked at me with a puppy frown. I nuzzled her behind the ear. “Hmm… what do you think the chances are that Grammie was a millionaire, Patch? We could retire in luxury.”

  Eyes closed, Patch leaned into my petting hand, jaw slack with pleasure. I gave her one last rub, then picked her up and plopped her onto her feet. She hopped around in front of me anticipating whatever adventure we were about to go on. My phone started ringing, and I dug around in my pocket a moment before I found it.

  “Under no circumstances should you be posting pictures of me on Spellbook,” I immediately told Rhiannon without even a hello
to answer her call.

  “You near a television?”

  I could hear the tension in her voice. I hurried to the living area and grabbed the remote, hitting the on button. “What channel?”

  “Any channel. It’s on every news station.”

  There on the screen was aerial footage of a huge wildfire across Arizona and the Texas Panhandle that had been raging for a few weeks now. Last I’d heard it was only ten percent contained and concerns had increased because the blaze was approaching a heavily populated area. And those concerns were founded it would seem because the flames were licking no more than a few hundred yards from some houses.

  But that wasn’t the reason my mouth dropped open in alarm. No, my distress was due to the three Elementals in the path of the fire. Each of them had their arms extended, streams of ice shooting from their fingertips. There were four categories of Elementals, which are nature spirits akin to fairies. The three in front of the screen were of Water which gave them the means to manipulate H2O molecules in all forms, including solid. They were successfully putting out the fire with their magic.

  And they were doing it on live television.

  “Holy crap…”

  Rhia issued a dry chuckle, “You said it, sister.”

  Patch had followed me into the living area and was lying down beside me. Both of us heard a whooshing sound behind us at the same time. She jumped up, yapping at the intruder before I could even turn to look. When I did, I wasn’t surprised to see Vincent Prieto.

  My abdominal muscles tensed, but I maintained a stoic expression as he approached me, brushing his hand to push Patch out of his way. He didn’t hurt the pup, just slid her along the wood floor with his magic. It was a good thing too, because I had a feeling I’d go a little nutso on him if he harmed a hair on her darling little head.

  You sure are getting a little protective of a dog you don’t want.