I didn’t accept it.
Josh tutted. “You’re not getting any other food.”
I arched an eyebrow and looked at him seriously. “The crap you just blurted was not a plan. It was a series of hopeful wishes. Why would Howard be in the stands?”
He looked at me like I was an idiot. “Because Howard is a massive fan of the Western Chargers. He’s there to see the game. Those were your words, remember?”
“I remember what I said. And I’m pretty sure that’s not it. All I’m certain of is that he will be there.”
“Why would he go to the game if it wasn’t to watch the game?”
“… I don’t really know. But I think… I don’t know, my gut reaction is to think it has something to do with the fact he was bullied. What if he wants to get back at people? I mean, he needs a solid reason to have not left town, right? There are serious consequences for witches who leave their employers. He’s going to prison, isn’t he?” I didn’t need to wait around for Josh to answer that. I was pretty certain about the bylaws regarding a witch fleeing their employer. Unless there were serious mitigating circumstances, Howard was headed to remand before a court date. “From the little I’ve managed to learn about Howard, it sounds like he was smart. He was good at his job. So he would understand that if he wanted to run, he would need to run now. I really doubt he’s going to blow his freedom just to watch a final game by his favorite team.”
Josh didn’t look happy, but at the same time, he didn’t bite back. “You might have a point there. But I’m still not entirely sure what it is. Are you telling me you think Howard is planning an attack of some sort? I looked at his bio. He has no history of violent crimes. Any witch who has committed violent crimes is never given a position like his.”
“Men can do many things when they are pushed off the edge.”
“That’s very poetic, but if you have any credible evidence to suggest that he is planning an attack, then we need to alert the authorities. We’re bounty hunters – not the police. And we will get into some serious trouble if we don’t reveal evidence of potential threats.”
I sighed, my shoulders dropping. “I don’t have any evidence of a credible threat. All I’m saying is I don’t think Howard is going to the stadium to watch the game. I think something else is going on.”
Josh sighed. He brought up a hand, shoved it against his brow, hooked his elbow onto the table, then sighed once more. “I really don’t need this right now. The woman of my dreams has essentially invited me to the game tonight, and now I have to put up with you.”
“Firstly, she’s not the woman of your dreams,” I spoke as if I had some kind of authority on the matter. “Unless your dreams involve corporate takeovers and tax avoidance. And secondly, buck up. Let’s just head there and see what happens. You’re right – I don’t know how my powers manifest yet. I don’t honestly know if I’m onto something. But… I trust my intuition enough to follow. Let’s head to the game.”
Though it was essentially burnt sawdust, I took a bite of my toast.
Something told me I was going to find more than Howard at the game. And that something was right. So it was time to refuel before the fight.
Chapter 11
“Why am I wearing this again?” I asked as I stared down at my Western Chargers jersey, plucking it up and frowning at the enormous picture of a bull on the front.
“To blend in. You remember how you work for me, and I’m the expert? Well follow my advice. If we don’t wear one of these, we’ll stick out like a sore thumb.”
Josh slammed the door to his truck closed, straightened his jersey, and pointed forward.
I jumped out of the truck, landed perfectly, and rolled my eyes.
We were early, but the place was already filling up. I’d told Josh that we should get here even earlier, but he had pooh-poohed my plans. Now we had to line up in a massive queue as we waited for our tickets to be read.
Josh held onto our tickets as if he was a kid who’d been given a free pass to Disneyland. The reason he was holding onto them was they were in an envelope with our names written on it from Helena. Josh acted like a total boy around her. He’d gotten the stupidest grin on his face after the tickets had arrived at the house.
Now he was distracted by them, continually turning the envelope over and staring at what he erroneously assumed was Helena’s handwriting. I very much doubted she’d personally write anything for Josh, save for the words go away and never come back.
Josh was so distracted by his tickets, he wasn’t looking around. I was. It wasn’t just that I was searching the crowd for Howard. It was that we stuck out like a sore thumb.
I crossed my arms. “Your plan socks,” I announced. “We should not have worn these jerseys.”
That was enough to get Josh to look up. “I told you to leave the planning to me. We need to look like we belong if we have a chance of catching him.” He darted his head down to continue to pathetically drool over Helena’s handwriting.
I tapped him on the shoulder and pointed to the crowd in front of us. “I don’t know where you got these jerseys, but either they are from another season, or they’re for a completely different team.”
Josh looked up. He clenched his teeth. “Right,” he managed.
The couple next to me leaned in. “You do know this isn’t a basketball game, right? You’ve got the wrong team’s jerseys on there.”
I turned my mad attention to Josh. “Yes, of course we know this isn’t a basketball game. But our other jerseys,” I said that with a great deal of emphasis, “are in the wash.”
“Yeah, we love soccer, don’t you?” Josh said, sounding like a total idiot.
The guy behind us quickly pulled Josh into a conversation about the highest-ranking teams that season and their chances of reaching the finals.
Josh stumbled through it, sounding exactly like a guy who’d never kicked a ball, let alone seen someone else do the same.
I crossed my arms in front of me, trying my hardest to hide my jersey.
All the while, however, I kept my senses peeled.
My gaze kicked this way and that through the crowd, and I was sure not to miss a thing.
… Howard wasn’t here. Or if he was here, I’d missed him.
Hell, maybe he wasn’t even coming. Maybe I was an idiot for thinking he would.
Before I could become too much of a defeatist, Josh reached forward and settled a hand on my shoulder. It wasn’t a strong move. But it had a lot of import behind it. “Maybe you’re right after all, Missy,” he said in a quiet tone.
My back itched with nerves. “You’ve seen him? Where?” I managed to ensure my enthusiasm didn’t make my voice bark out and draw the crowd’s attention.
“No. Not him. Someone very interesting, though. You see the alternative entrance for VIPs, which we would totally have used if we weren’t trying to rough it?”
I craned my head to the side, glancing at where he was pointing. While the queue for ordinary tickets looked like it was heading around the block, there was a much quicker line about 100 meters off. And the people heading through that door were the hoi polloi of Madison City.
I caught sight of a short stout man who looked as if he was in his early fifties. He had designer glasses on and a blue and white pinstripe suit. It was way over-the-top. People were only ever that ostentatious when they had a point to prove. Primarily, that they were rich.
I frowned. “Am I meant to know that guy. Who is he?”
“No, you don’t know that guy, unless, of course, you’re a witch who’s trying to get out of the city.”
“You mean he helps witches get free? Hold on, if you know him—”
“Why don’t I do something about him? He has friends in high places. Very high places,” Josh said.
I opened my mouth.
“I really don’t have the time to explain that comment to you. Just trust me. Carson Black over there is a man who can get whatever you want to be done done, regardless
of how illegal it is.”
I frowned as I glanced at Carson once more.
He walked straight through the VIP line without the ticket checkers even glancing his way. Which of course meant they knew him by sight.
Josh still had a hand on my shoulder, and I wasn’t sure if it was because he was holding me in place, or he was getting ready to hide me behind his back again. Because hello, I was starting to appreciate that Josh was protective of me. Fair enough, I had a protection order. But the stiffness in his fingers told me to watch out.
Carson didn’t even look back as he strode easily through the VIP line, his hands in his pockets.
Josh didn’t relax for a good minute.
He turned to me sharply as the whole crowd shuffled forward another few steps. “I’m starting to regret this.”
“What? Coming along?”
“No. I think you’re onto something. I’m regretting bringing you along.”
“I’m meant to work for you, right?”
“Yeah, but this protection order of yours sure does complicate things. My ass is on the line if I let you get hurt.”
I controlled myself, ensuring a stab of fear didn’t blast through my belly.
“Well then, I guess our only option is not to attract any danger. Now, tell me more about this Carson Black. Who exactly is protecting him?”
“You really don’t need to know that.”
My back stiffened. “It’s not Max, is it?” Dammit, but my voice shook.
Josh looked at me, dropping his whole act and no longer staring methodically through the crowd for any sign of threat.
He arched an eyebrow. “Max is a lot of things, but he wouldn’t protect a rat like Carson.”
“So who is protecting him?”
“Like I said, you don’t want to know. Now, what do you want to do? I understand if you want to go home – it’s probably for the best.”
The old me from several days ago would have demanded to be taken home. Clearly this situation was a lot more dangerous than we’d expected, so it was time to regroup.
But the me from several days ago no longer existed. “We were going to face a situation like this sooner rather than later. I’m meant to work for you – and you’re not meant to just protect me. The government wants to use me,” I said with a straight tone, as if I was actually over the fact I was now a witch without any say in her life. “And this is the line of work I was given. So let’s do it.”
Josh looked at me slowly.
Was that a very impressed glint in his gaze? Or was it the kind of look that promised I had no idea what I was getting into?
Chapter 12
It didn’t take that much longer until we got into the stadium. Okay, that was a lie. It took half an hour. And during that half an hour, Josh wouldn’t talk to me. He snapped at me to play on my phone so I didn’t stick out like a sore thumb as I watched the crowd obviously.
I wasn’t the one sticking out like a sore thumb, trust me. It was Josh. He was standing to attention, looking like a meerkat surveying their prairie for an attack. He was clearly looking for any more of Madison City’s criminal underbelly.
Me? I did as I was told; I surfed the net.
I didn’t waste my time using social media, though – I did what I should’ve done a while back. I started to look at all the intricacies and bylaws of being a bounty hunter in Madison City. I found a great resource out of the Justice Department website, and I read it thoroughly. By the time we were in the stadium, I knew a heck of a lot more about my job – from which paperwork needed to be signed when you found a culprit, to which contacts you could call for assistance. Josh should have sat me down and told me all of this, but you know – Josh was Josh.
We quickly found our way to our seats. The rest of the stadium was too packed to hang out in, and the main foyer was like a can of sardines.
As soon as we were seated, we drew a fair number of glances for our incorrect jerseys, and one or two insightful comments.
Josh brushed them off.
I shoved my phone back in my pocket, crossed my arms in front of my incorrect jersey, and turned my head to face Josh. I opened my mouth.
“If you’re about to say what now, don’t. You’re the finder, remember?” He dropped his voice down low as he said the word finder so no one else could hear, “so find him already. You wanted to come here.” Josh had his hands in his pockets, his legs over the back of the empty seat in front of him, and his shoulders pressed right into the flimsy plastic seat behind him.
I curled my lip to snarl at him, but then Josh got his comeuppance. A beefy man walked past to get a seat behind him, and clocked him on the head with his elbow.
“Hey,” Josh said as he brought a hand up and rubbed his head. “Do you mind?”
“Which one of you assholes stole my VIP ticket?” the guy snapped.
He was huge. From his thick neck down to his massive legs, he looked like a rugby player.
No, wait – he was a rugby player. I recognized his face. And his broken nose, of course. He was from one of the best warlock divisions in town.
Josh obviously appreciated this fact, too, because his expression mollified as quickly as a match extinguishing when it’s thrown into a pool. “I guess you didn’t see me there. No matter. And what is that about your VIP tickets? We haven’t seen them.”
“They were on the seat. I went to the bathroom. Who stole them?”
I receded at the guy’s angry tone. Josh didn’t whimper and rather kept a completely professional tone as he shoved a hand into his pocket and pulled out his badge. “I work for the Justice Department as a bounty hunter. I assure you, sir, that we did not steal your tickets. Nor did we see who did. We only just sat down. If your possessions have been stolen, the first thing to do is to head to one of the on-duty officers in the foyer. You should’ve seen them when you walked in. They will then help you to check with lost-and-found. They can also put in a call to stadium security.”
Though the guy looked as if he could continue a fight with a rabies-infected bear, at Josh’s professional tone, he looked mollified. “Thank you, sir.”
“You’re welcome. Do you have any other possessions here? I suggest you take them with you.”
“That was all. It was my fault for leaving the tickets here. Still, if I find the bastard who stole them, there’ll be hell to pay.”
Josh didn’t point out that the guy didn’t have the right to enforce justice. That was obviously a fight Josh knew there was no point in getting into. “Good luck,” he said with a brief wave.
The rugby player walked off.
I crossed my arms a little tighter and frowned at Josh. It took him a few seconds to realize I was looking his way.
He shoved his hands back in his pockets, clicked his jaw from side to side, then slowly turned to face me. “What exactly is your problem? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Who was that guy back there?”
He snorted. “Figures that you wouldn’t recognize one of the best rugby forward in Madison City.”
“Firstly, don’t pretend that you’re into sports. He’s not a forward. And secondly, I wasn’t asking who he was. I was asking who you were. I’m talking about that professional, direct, helpful guy you turned into for a few seconds back there. Can I meet him again someday?”
Josh rolled his eyes. “You’re a class act buffoon, you realize that?”
“And you’re a coin with many sides.”
“Coins only have two sides. I told you you were an idiot. Now, do your thing.”
My stomach clenched, all thought of banter gone. Now it was time to do my thing – I just had no idea how to get started.
Finding that testing officer had been different. Maybe it was because the echo of his voice had been fresh in my ears. Maybe it was because he’d been close at hand. Or maybe it was because I’d been primed so much with magic while undergoing the other tests, that it had been easier somehow. The point was, I didn’t know how to
just turn my ability on. I’d been focusing on Howard since we left the house. And I still had no idea where he was – just a vague impression that he would be here.
Josh let out a beleaguered sigh. “You’ve got no idea, do you?”
“No,” I said defensively. “I’m just learning how to wrangle my powers. It’s like… I’m missing an important part of the puzzle,” I chanced upon those words, and as soon as I said them, I realized I was right. I clicked my fingers. “That’s it. I don’t think I know enough about this case to track him down.”
“You don’t need to know about the case to track him down. It’s not how your powers work.”
“How would you know?” I snapped back. “You yourself professed that you have no idea how my magic works. So let me figure it out on my own. I think I need to sink myself into the details of this case and find out why he ran.”
“You don’t need a motive. You just need to catch him.”
“Would you just shut up and help me?” I snapped as loudly as I could.
A couple of people turned around. Josh offered them polite smiles, tilted his head toward me, and bared his teeth. “Fine. If it will shut you up, then fine. What do you need to know?”
“What does Howard’s file say exactly?”
“That he was a middle manager at Hancock Industries. That two days ago he stopped checking in.”
“What kind of middle manager was he? What department was he in?”
Josh opened his mouth to say it didn’t matter, but I shot him a death glare, opening my lips as if to threaten him that I was about to scream again.
“Fine,” he said through clenched teeth, “fine. Howard worked in the HR department.”
I nodded, darting my gaze to the left and up.
“It’s not important,” he added.
“Of course it’s important. HR departments see the most complaints. They deal with them, and they get them.”
“And?”
Forgotten Destiny Book One Page 11
