Beauty and the Beastmaster (Mystic Springs Book 3)

by Linda Winstead Jones, Lisa Childs

  Dating Gabi would give him a reason to hang around her, and Mia, as often as he liked. If he knew Gabi better maybe he could figure out a way to gently send her packing. He didn’t want to hurt her, didn’t want to scare her off. He definitely didn’t want to leave her to the hands of a man or woman who wouldn’t care how she was run out of town.

  Casting the spell to isolate the town on the heels of violence would forever taint the town. Even he knew that. Those who shouldn’t be here would have to be eased out of the way. Yeah, that was the reason he was having second thoughts. His doubts were based entirely on concern for Jenna’s isolation spell.

  The truth was, he hadn’t expected to like Gabi so much. Dating her again, for whatever reason, wouldn’t be a chore.

  If he couldn’t find a way to get her to leave on her own, they could always use amnesia punch. It was relatively harmless, as far as he knew. A drink, a ride to the edge of town or beyond, and boom, it would be done. They’d never given the potion to a child, so what about Mia?

  Mia was a baby. She’d forget soon enough without even a small dose of amnesia punch, wouldn’t she?

  Jenna probably would’ve done that herself, if she’d thought she could get Ivy to make her a batch. Ivy would ask too many questions, though, and Jenna had to know that. If Ivy was in on the plan her sister would soon be told, and if Eve knew it wouldn’t be long before Jenna’s plans were public knowledge.

  There was time to think it over, to ponder his options. Not a lot of time, but… time.

  Silas had another reason for delaying the inevitable. Hanging around Gabi would give him time to figure out what was going on with the kid. Tonight he’d caught a hint of something he couldn’t quite explain. It hadn’t been much, and could’ve been nothing more than wishful thinking. Kids normally didn’t develop abilities until their teenage years, but now and then there was an aberration. Now and then? They were all aberrations. Every time they accepted the rules that guided who and what they were, those rules changed. Magic waxed and waned. Something once thought impossible happened. Something once thought undeniable was denied. The only truth that was inescapable was that everything changed.

  What he caught from the baby wasn’t at all like his connection with animals. That was clear, unmistakable, and unique. Most animals had few words, but their emotions, their needs, were always crystal clear. There was no deceit, no playing games. He communicated with animals on a primitive level, but it’s not like they could talk. Silas Hollister was no Doctor Dolittle.

  If he could literally talk to animals he’d ask Judge exactly what he was worried about where Gabi and Mia were concerned. Was it him? Jenna’s plan? Or was there something else that had triggered this protectiveness? It was impossible to know.

  If it turned out Mia had Springer blood, she and her mother would be allowed to stay. He’d see to it himself. It was a good thing that Gabi had no plans beyond another date or two. She wasn’t looking for permanent any more than he was. If anything happened between them, anything beyond dinner, it would be nothing more than a fling.

  If he ever did decide to get serious about a woman again, it wouldn’t be a Non-Springer.

  The last time he’d made the mistake of falling for someone who wasn’t from Mystic Springs it hadn’t gone well. That was an understatement. How could he marry a woman without letting her know what he was, what he could do? How could he have known she’d freak out as if he’d grown horns and wiggled a forked tongue in her direction? The woman he’d believed himself to be in love with had acted as if he would hurt her, as if he were a freak she should be afraid of. Her exit from town had required a big dose of amnesia punch, and since then Silas had kept all his relationships with women brief, easy, and as far away from his home as possible.

  It made sense to stick to that plan. Broken hearts were for saps. That pretty, airhead Non-Springer had left town years ago. He was over her. Completely and totally over what’s-her-name.

  Samantha.

  As he walked into the house, night birds who’d gathered in the trees around his home chattered and twittered, as if they were laughing at him. One dog howled, and others joined in. The howls didn’t last. The birds’ twitters and caws continued.

  Silas went to the kitchen and the old-fashioned wall phone hanging there. He dialed Clint’s home number from memory. This was a call he should’ve made days ago.

  Marnie answered, and Silas almost hung up without saying a word. That woman could talk! In this case, caller-ID was not his friend. She’d just call back.

  “This is Silas. Is Clint around?”

  What followed was a too-long, rambling explanation about a book deadline, long hours in the office, and her desire not to interrupt her husband unless it was an emergency.

  Was it an emergency?

  Not yet.

  After he hung up Silas stood there a moment, his hand on the phone. Should he call Luke? No, since Jenna was involved Clint needed to hear the news first. It was only right. If he interrupted Clint with this news, that book would never be finished. According to Marnie he was close to being done.

  What could a delay of a few days hurt?

  Gabi looked at the painted window of her shop as she unlocked the door. Beauty Shop. It was so plain, such an ordinary designation, and the paint was chipped here and there. If she ever owned her own shop, she’d give it a snazzy name of some kind. It might be elegant, or funny, or enticing in some way.

  Gabi’s Glamor.

  Mia’s Mama

  Curl Up And Dye

  Love is in the Hair

  Tangled

  The possibilities were endless, but it was a waste of time to think about what she’d name a shop of her own. A woman who didn’t dare to open a bank account or renew her driver’s license couldn’t own her own business.

  She swept, wiped down her station, and organized her tools. There was no one on the books until eleven, but there was always something to do. She’d left Mia and an attentive Judge with Cindy, who seemed to be feeling much better this morning. What was she going to do when Cindy couldn’t watch the baby anymore because she had a baby of her own? Maybe someone else in town would fill in, but Gabi liked and trusted Cindy Benedict. She didn’t like or trust that many people.

  Well, Silas, but he hardly struck her as the babysitting type.

  Dating him again was going to be interesting. That first date didn’t count, she decided. They’d both been coerced. Tricked, even. This time the decision to have dinner together had been their own, and they were going into it with their eyes wide open. Dating Silas might be fun, as long as they were both good with the rules and restrictions. She hadn’t decided what those rules might be, but she’d give it some thought. He did turn her on, she had to admit. He was good-looking, oozing testosterone, and he was at least a little bit interested in her.

  Sex? Maybe. Love? Never.

  She’d once been such a romantic. Falling for a man who’d swept her off her feet, made her his wife, controlled her to the point where she had no other life, hurt her and then — after she’d thought she was free of him at last — stalked her from one town to another, had pretty much killed any romance that might be left in her soul. No, she did not believe in happily ever after.

  If Blake wasn’t rich, she wouldn’t worry about him so much. Without his resources he would’ve forgotten her by now and turned his attentions to another woman. A woman to charm, seduce, possess, control, hurt, and stalk. Maybe he had. He always had more than one woman under his control in one way or another. Maybe he’d tricked another woman into loving him while he was still hunting his ex-wife. He could multi-task.

  Finding out she was pregnant had given her the courage to leave him. She’d put up with too much for too long. It had escalated so gradually, from adoration, to jealousy, to unnatural control, to his disappointment in her, to the infrequent bouts of rage, and finally to physical violence. She’d been willing to sacrifice a lot of herself in order to try to bring Blake back, to save him
from what he’d become. She’d loved him, once. She’d believed he loved her.

  Blake Pierce would never put his hands on their child.

  If she dared to search his name or hers, even on a public computer like the ones at the library here in town or in Eufaula, he’d know. Someone who worked for him would know. They’d come for her, by the light of day or in the night. They’d kill her and take her baby, as her ex-husband had threatened the last time she’d seen him. She couldn’t take any chances…

  Gabi was so lost in what-ifs she jumped when the door opened. Seeing Tyler Milhouse come into her shop, a toothy grin on his otherwise handsome face, did nothing to ease her fears.

  “You got time for me this morning?” he asked.

  She should say no, she should lie and tell him her schedule was full. But that would be easy to disprove, and besides, she needed the money.

  For the past year she’d managed to get by without dipping into much of the cash she’d brought with her. In fact, in the past few months her business had increased and she’d managed to add quite a bit to her stash, which she kept in a fire-proof safe in her bedroom closet. She bought the occasional piece of clothing for herself or for Mia at one of the local boutiques. They didn’t carry much but always seemed to have just what she needed. She’d bought a stroller from the antiques store in town. In the back of the store they always had a few gently used items that couldn’t be called antiques. She’d furnished her house in the same way, one piece at a time. It was there that she’d found the safe.

  All these thoughts about, and an actual planned date with, Silas, combined with renewed memories of Blake made her realize that Mystic Springs, perfect as it was for now, couldn’t be forever.

  “Come on in,” she said, indicating the chair before her.

  Tyler plopped himself down. He never let her shampoo his hair. It appeared to be freshly washed, but there was so much of it he always spent a good bit of time in her chair. His brothers were no better.

  He chatted as she cut, talking about the weather, the spring festival, the coming full moon. Tyler was always fascinated with the phases of the moon. She was more than half finished with his cut when he said, “So, you’re seeing Silas Hollister. I heard y’all went out once before and it didn’t go well, so I was surprised to hear y’all were giving it another shot.”

  She’d been expecting this from someone at some point, so it didn’t startle her. Still, her heart leapt a bit. “There are no secrets in Mystic Springs,” she said lightly.

  “That’s true enough,” he grumbled, as if maybe he’d expected another answer. “Though honestly, don’t we all have one or two?”

  The way he said it made Gabi’s spine tingle. Did he know her secrets? How could he? Impossible. It was a good thing she was almost finished with his haircut. Her hands started to tremble.

  Tyler paid her, she smiled and thanked him for the generous tip, and then he left. When he was gone Gabi closed her eyes, held onto the back of the chair, and took a deep breath.

  She liked it here. She felt safe, more often than not. But maybe it was time to leave Mystic Springs and start over again in another small town. She should go further north. She should change her name. Not Mia’s, that would be too confusing for the child, but Gabi could pick another name, first and last this time, and start over again.

  If she had to spend the rest of her life running from her past she would. If Blake found her, if he knew where she was…

  Her eyes were drawn to the window as the dogs ran past with Silas right behind them. He looked her way and nodded, even though it was impossible for him to see her standing here, with the glare on the front window, those big letters, the too-plain and less-than-perfect Beauty Shop, blocking some of the view. She saw him well enough. The way he moved as he ran was enough to make her mouth go dry. How had this happened, so fast? She’d dismissed him before. Why couldn’t she manage it now? Why couldn’t she cancel tonight’s date and keep trucking on? One foot in front of another, and then again. Head down, eyes and focus on nothing but her daughter.

  Silas could be bad news. He was everything she didn’t want in a man. Sexy, with dark eyes that seemed to see right through her. Kind, the way he treated his animals, the way he always knew what they needed.

  He didn’t seem to care that she was determined not to enter a serious relationship, but what if he changed his mind? He was probably very persuasive. She couldn’t imagine any woman saying no to him if he set his sights on seduction. Not even her.

  If she found herself wavering in her resolve to keep things casual between them, she’d pack up in the dead of night and go. She’d disappear.

  She’d done it before.

  Springers relied on Silas for pet care, though to be honest those services weren’t often needed for much more than the occasional vaccination or checkup. The magic of Mystic Springs, the power that resided in the residents of their small town, was enough to keep their dogs, cats, and the occasional odd pet — Mike Benedict used to have a collection of snakes, and the newly retired Mayor Frannie Smith had once decided to harbor a family of possums — healthy. He also removed pests, on occasion. Bats, hornets, termites. He’d moved them all from homes to a more natural habitat.

  Most of his local clients called him on his cell phone to make an appointment, but now and then someone would just show up.

  On this cool afternoon, he wasn’t surprised to see Janie Holbrook’s little red car, a ’67 Mustang that would make any car-nut drool, making her way down his long driveway at somewhere around fifteen miles an hour. What a waste of horsepower. She was a friendly woman, knew everyone in town, and took very good care of her cats. At the moment she had four, if he remembered correctly. They were all wonderfully spoiled. And fat.

  She pulled up to his front door.

  He had a simple setup in one long building, with living quarters on one side and a larger office on the other. The doors of the dark brown building were side by side, home on the right, work on the left.

  The office area was much larger than his personal quarters. He didn’t need much for himself, just a living area, a bedroom, a bathroom, and a small kitchen. The dogs had more space than he did in the back of the building, with both an outdoor pen and an indoor facility with all the comforts any dog might desire. It made sense, since there was only one of him and he sometimes had as many as a dozen dogs in his care. At the moment he had ten. No, nine, since Judge had found a new home.

  Janie walked toward him, an incredibly fat calico cat cradled in her arms. She smiled as he opened the door to his office for her and she walked in, heading straight for his exam room where she carefully placed her calico on the metal table.

  “Queenie isn’t feeling well,” Janie said. The older woman was a little plump, a little short, and dressed for cool spring weather in a baby blue outfit and matching tennis shoes. The shoestrings were bright pink.

  Silas placed a finger under Queenie’s chin and looked into the cat’s eyes. Yeah, cats were different. They didn’t always cooperate, and he had learned not to push. But today Janie’s fat cat was willing to talk to him, in her own way.

  “The only thing wrong with Queenie is her weight. Are you giving her the special food I ordered?”

  “I am! She loves it. It makes a nice addition to her regular meals.”

  Silas looked down at Janie. Her eyes positively twinkled as she teased him.

  “Why are you really here?” he asked.

  She didn’t try to make excuses, once she’d been caught. Janie gathered a content and very healthy Queenie into her arms and sat in one of the hard chairs against the wall. “I hear you’re seeing Gabi Lawson.”

  “News travels fast in this town.”

  “It’s not like we have a lot to do,” she said. “Gossip is a favorite pastime. Besides, you know very well how it works around here. At least ten Springers could’ve told you last week that you were going to ask Gabi out again and she’d say yes. Half of them would’ve warned you against
it, but, well, you’re going to do what you’re going to do.”

  Did Janie know what was in the works? Was she aware of Jenna’s plan? He rarely wished for the ability to see into a human’s mind, but right now he did. “Why would anyone warn me away from something so simple as dinner with Gabi?”

  Janie dipped her chin and looked up at him with censuring eyes. Queenie purred, oddly amused by her owner’s insistence on being here. “She’s a Non-Springer, and trust me when I tell you, she’s not entirely who she appears to be.”

  Who was? “Neither am I. Or you.”

  Still, he wondered what the woman meant. Janie wasn’t psychic, she just had a magic touch with plants of all kinds. She did have several psychic friends, though, and the old-timers in this town had a tendency to stick together. The strength and focus of those psychics varied, fluctuating with time, dependent in some cases on the weather or the stages of the moon.

  Did she know about the plan? If the news spread, if those who didn’t want to isolate the town found out what Jenna and the Milhouses had planned, there would be all-out war.

  Clint Maxwell was adamant that Mystic Springs remain open, a part of the world. He and Silas had been friends since elementary school. They weren’t close friends who shared everything, but they did get together now and then to watch a football or baseball game. He should’ve gone to Clint as soon as Jenna had approached him, but he’d delayed the call until last night and had too easily given up, after talking to Marnie.

  War among Springers would be ugly. Times of high emotion always enhanced magical abilities, and nothing triggered high emotion like talk of Brigadoon. Silas reminded himself of the saying about it being better to ask forgiveness than permission. In this case he was pretty sure Clint, and others, would not agree.