Wicked Witches of the Midwest 9

by Amanda M. Lee

  It took me a moment to realize what she was insinuating. “Oh, you’re so gross.”

  “And so are the two of you,” Aunt Tillie said. “Your biggest problem is that you get in your own way. Knock it off. Landon wants to know when something is going on and you want to tell him, Bay. Stop trying to protect each other at every turn. Follow your natural instincts. That’s what good people do … and you’re both good people, so your instincts won’t lead you astray.”

  Landon smirked. “You’re smarter than you look sometimes. You know that, right?”

  Aunt Tillie shrugged. “I’m a genius. You two are morons.”

  “And … we’re done,” Landon said, rolling his eyes as he slipped his arm around my waist. It was the first time he’d touched me in almost two hours and it was such a relief I wanted to cry. “I’ll consider what you said and get back to you tomorrow morning over breakfast.”

  Aunt Tillie grinned. “I’ll be the one eating your bacon.”

  “And only a stupid woman would say that,” Landon said, tugging me close. “We’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “I can’t wait … and I’m still eating your bacon.”

  TWENTY-ONE

  I woke to find Landon curled around me, his chest pressed to my back as he spooned close. We didn’t have a deep talk upon returning to the guesthouse – even though that’s how I imagined our night going during the walk. Instead we took a long bath and went right to sleep.

  I was refreshed and energetic in the face of the new morning. That lasted exactly thirty seconds … until Landon opened his mouth.

  “We need to talk.”

  I groaned and buried my face in the pillow. “I knew it!”

  I heard Landon chuckling behind me as he drew me closer. “I said we need to talk, not argue.”

  That sounded better, but only marginally. “What do you want to talk about?”

  “Seriously?”

  “Landon, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” I said, opting for honesty. “I knew it was a mistake even when I was doing it.”

  “Then why did you do it?”

  “For all the reasons I said,” I answered. “I can’t stand it when you’re worried. You get this pinched look on your face – like you’re really constipated or something – and my heart hurts.”

  “I’m going to let the constipation remark go, but only because you seem to think you’re funny and I don’t want to dissuade the laughter this morning,” Landon said, rolling me onto my back so he could stare into my eyes. “As for the rest … .”

  I hated the conflict clouding his eyes. “I really am sorry,” I offered. “I knew it was wrong, but then it was too late. I knew if I told you after the fact that you would have a meltdown. I hate when that happens.”

  “That makes two of us,” Landon said, poking my ribs before resting his head against my chest. I ran my fingers through his hair as he pressed the palm of his hand to my stomach. “Bay, I love you. We need to communicate better.”

  “I thought we were communicating better.”

  “We’ve been communicating a lot better, but you still have a penchant for covering things up,” Landon said. “I think part of it is that you want to protect me. I think another part of it is that you hate explaining witch stuff, because you think I don’t get it.”

  He wasn’t wrong. “The other part of it is that you can’t help me with some of this stuff and I don’t like it when you feel helpless,” I said. “That seems somehow … selfish.”

  “It’s not selfish for you to tell me what’s going on,” Landon countered. “I’m not always going to understand it. I’m not always going to be able to help. I am always going to love you, though. I don’t have to understand everything. You don’t understand everything in my world.”

  “I definitely don’t understand why you brought Agent Asshat back to town with you,” I said, digging my fingers into his sore neck and causing him to groan. “Why did Noah come with you?”

  “I think it’s my boss’s idea of a joke,” Landon replied. “He knew I volunteered to handle the arsonist as a way to be close to you. Noah has been irritating him, so it seemed like a great idea to punish Noah by sending him to Hemlock Cove at the same time he was messing with me.”

  “This could be a problem,” I said. “How are we supposed to fight ghosts with Noah hanging around?”

  “Noah won’t be hanging around,” Landon clarified. “He’s going to be investigating the arson case. Chief Terry is coming for breakfast at the inn, by the way, and I need to talk to him before we meet up with Noah later. Don’t let me forget.”

  “I won’t.” I kissed his forehead. He always woke up looking effortlessly handsome, the stubble along his jawline giving him a dangerous edge. I, on the other hand, look as if I slept in a wind tunnel most mornings. “Even if he’s focused on the arson, Mrs. Little is going to keep pointing her finger at Aunt Tillie. He’ll end up out here. We both know it.”

  “I’ll warn him about that,” Landon said. “I’ll make sure he knows that Aunt Tillie has been cleared.”

  “That puts you in the unenviable position of having to make excuses for me and my family again,” I said. “Noah will think you’re protecting us. That’s what you do.”

  Landon’s eyes were serious when he shifted them in my direction. “Bay, I will do whatever it takes to keep you safe and happy. As for Noah, he’s not a threat. He’s an idiot.”

  “Wrong,” I corrected. “He’s an FBI agent who has his nose out of joint because his theory on what happened a few weeks ago turned out to be ludicrous. Then he got captured by the bad guy and saved by other people. He’s not going to take that well.”

  Landon pressed his lips together and tilted his head to the side, considering. “I never considered it that way,” he admitted. “I didn’t think about the fact that he was saved by two women.”

  “He was saved by you,” I clarified. “Aunt Tillie and I merely bought him time with our mouths.”

  “Yes, but that’s still a form of saving him,” Landon said. “I’m going to make fun of him about that when I see him in a few hours.”

  “Landon!”

  “Bay!” Landon mocked my tone as he growled and tugged me closer. “Don’t worry about Noah. He’s the least of our problems.”

  “What’s the most important problem?” I was legitimately curious.

  “I’m starving, ghosts are after you and Annie, we have an arsonist in town, Sam’s mother seems really curious about the witch stuff, Clove is kind of frazzled and that sucks because she’s the steadiest of your little trio, Annie is behaving like the world’s biggest brat, you and Thistle are fighting over the guesthouse even though she’s going to move in a few months, Clove is pouting about you fighting over the guesthouse and did I mention I’m starving?”

  I couldn’t help but laugh at his hangdog expression. “That’s because you didn’t eat your dinner last night,” I reminded him. “You pushed it around your plate and ate cake. Cake is not enough to sustain you.”

  “Love sustains me,” Landon teased, kissing the tip of my nose. “As for the food, I couldn’t make myself eat. My stomach was upset.”

  “Because I lied?”

  “Because you fell into my arms – and not in a good way,” Landon replied. “I don’t like the idea of you getting hurt. It bothers me.”

  “It bothers me to think about you getting hurt, too,” I said. “You got shot for me not long after we met. You haven’t forgotten that, have you?”

  “Nope.” Landon shook his head. “I plan to remind you of that for the rest of our lives. Whenever I do, you’ll give me a massage and strip naked.”

  I snorted as Landon rolled us so I was situated on top of him, giggling as he tickled me. “Stop. That hurts.”

  “Life hurts, Bay,” Landon said, sobering. “You need to trust me with the truth even when you think it’s going to upset me. I would rather be upset by the truth than blindsided by a lie. Do you understand?”

  I solemnly nod
ded. “I’m sorry.”

  “I know you are,” Landon said, kissing the corner of my mouth. “The fight is over, though. I’m done arguing.”

  “It wasn’t much of a fight.”

  “That’s because I’m a lover, not a fighter,” Landon teased. “Now … give me a kiss.”

  I arched a challenging eyebrow. “Just a kiss?”

  “For starters,” Landon replied. “We have an hour before breakfast. Let’s see where the morning takes us.’

  That sounded like the perfect way to start the day.

  “OH, YOU two look happy and in love again,” Aunt Tillie said as we entered the dining room an hour later, a Mardi Gras mask – complete with feathers and sequins – perched on her face as she sat in her usual spot at the head of the table. “It makes me want to puke.”

  “Join the club,” Chief Terry teased, smirking when Landon shot him a dirty look. “I always want to puke when I see them together.”

  “Really?” Mom raised her eyebrows as she stared at us. “I always want to plan a wedding when I see them. Isn’t it funny how everyone sees something different when they look at Landon and Bay?”

  My cheeks colored at her words and when I risked a glance at Landon I found him smiling. “It’s not funny,” I muttered. “Aren’t you embarrassed?”

  Landon shook his head. “There’s bacon, Bay. I don’t get embarrassed when there’s bacon.”

  “But … she’s trying to shame you,” I pointed out.

  “She’s not trying to shame me,” Landon countered. “She’s trying to figure out what my intentions are regarding her daughter. For the record, my intentions are good. I’ll tell you before I propose just to make sure you’re ready, Winnie.”

  Mom beamed at him. “That was a very good answer, Landon.”

  “I’m not new,” Landon said. “I know exactly what you want to hear.”

  “Speaking of what I want to hear, what are we going to do about Annie?” Mom asked, sobering. “We cannot let Belinda operate in the dark like this. It isn’t fair to her or Annie.”

  “Where is Belinda?” Landon asked, glancing over his shoulder. “Should we be talking about her when she might be able to overhear us?”

  “She took Annie to the doctor,” Mom replied, causing my heart to flop. “Don’t worry, Bay. She didn’t take her because of what happened last night. Annie needs a checkup before school starts. She is going to ask the doctor about Annie’s mood swings, though.”

  “We have to do something,” I said, shifting my eyes to Aunt Tillie. “We can’t let this go on.”

  “I know that, Bay,” Aunt Tillie said. “I’m not new either.” She winked at Landon in a saucy manner. Given the mask, it was unsettling. “I have everything under control.”

  “I’m not in the mood for an argument – which is why I’m not asking about that mask – but how do you have things under control?” Landon challenged. “I don’t think you have anything under control given what I saw last night.”

  “Don’t make me put you on my list,” Aunt Tillie warned, staring at her reflection in the back of her spoon. “We’ve warded the house, so Annie is safe here. I think the ghosts followed Bay because they were initially drawn to her light – she has a bright aura – but when they saw Annie they focused on her instead. No one has a brighter aura than a child.”

  Landon turned to me with a dubious expression on his face. “Did she just explain something?”

  “She explained that the ghosts are fixated on Annie because of me,” I supplied. “This is my fault.”

  “That’s not what I said, drama queen,” Aunt Tillie snapped.

  “It’s not your fault,” Landon said. “If I’m agreeing with Aunt Tillie, you have to know that you’re being ridiculous. You can’t blame yourself for this.”

  “There’s no one else to blame.”

  “Perhaps that’s because there’s no one to blame,” Landon argued. “You didn’t do this. There’s no way you could’ve stopped it from happening. Sam didn’t do this. There’s no way he could’ve realized what was on that tanker. Try as I might, I can’t think of a way to blame Aunt Tillie – which must be some sort of record.”

  I giggled despite myself. “What are we going to do?”

  “We’re going to do everything we’ve already been doing,” Landon replied. “We’re going to keep an eye on Annie and protect her. We’re going to figure out what happened on the tanker. Hopefully that will allow you to put the spirits to rest … or whatever it is you do with ghosts.”

  “Help them move on.”

  “Yeah, that,” Landon said. “We’ll take it one step at a time and go from there.”

  “That sounds very pragmatic,” Aunt Tillie said, bobbing her head. She looked as if she was going to take flight thanks to the feathers on the mask. They really were distracting.

  “What about the arsonist?” Chief Terry asked, sipping his coffee. “We can’t forget about that.”

  “I’m not forgetting about that,” Landon said. “That’s the primary reason I’m here, after all. We essentially have two cases with no tie to one another. That hardly ever happens in Hemlock Cove.

  “Still, we need to figure out the ghost angle to help Annie and the firebug angle to help everyone else,” he continued. “Whoever is setting these fires is bold. He’s doing it in the middle of the day when there are a lot of potential witnesses around.”

  “You said arsonists are usually men,” I said. “Why is that?”

  “Because men like to burn things,” Thistle answered. “They’re all ‘fire good, tree ugly.’ Women are more ‘tree pretty, fire bad.’ It’s the age-old battle of the sexes.”

  Landon poured two glasses of tomato juice and handed one to me. Before we started dating, he hated tomato juice. I wasn’t sure if he started drinking it because I enjoy it or as a show of solidarity, but now he had it every morning we ate together.

  “Sadly, Thistle isn’t wrong,” Landon said. “Men get off on fire in a way women don’t. There’s a psychology behind it. The odds of our arsonist being a woman are slim.”

  “So how will you catch him?” Thistle asked.

  Landon shrugged. “I have no idea.”

  “Well, while you’re focusing on the arsonist, I’ll put all of my efforts into figuring out what happened on the Gray Harker,” I said. “We need to solve the old mystery before we can force the ghosts to do what we want and leave the ship.”

  “Oh, that sounds fun,” Maggie enthused. “I would love to help.”

  I opened my mouth to answer – searching my mind for a way to let her down gently because I didn’t want to put her in danger – but Landon did it for me.

  “You can conduct research, and that would be a great deal of help,” Landon said. “As for you going off on your own to investigate this, Bay, that’s not going to happen. You’re sticking with me today.”

  What did he just say? “But you said we have two problems with no ties,” I reminded him. “One of those problems is mine and the other one is yours.”

  “And we’re a couple and I’m not comfortable letting you out of my sight after what happened yesterday,” Landon said. “We have two separate problems, but we’re investigating both together.”

  “But … how will that work?”

  “I haven’t figured that part out yet,” Landon admitted, reaching for a slice of bacon when Mom slid the serving platter toward the middle of the table. “We’ll figure it out, though. I promise.”

  I wasn’t convinced. “You’re kind of bossy.”

  “You can boss me around all you want while we’re investigating,” Landon said. “I’m fine with that. I even find it a turn-on.”

  Chief Terry cuffed the back of his head. “That’s not the proper way to speak to a lady.”

  “Yeah,” I teased, smirking. Somehow the knowledge that Landon wanted to keep me close made me feel better while simultaneously annoying me. That’s love, right? “I’m sure we can figure out how to solve both of our problems if
we put our heads together.”

  “That was my thought exactly,” Landon said, shoving a slice of bacon in my mouth as he gave me a kiss on the cheek. He momentarily focused on Aunt Tillie as I chewed my bacon. “Okay, I have to ask, what’s the deal with the mask?”

  “I’m undercover,” Aunt Tillie replied simply. “I’m on the case … just like you two.”

  “Uh-huh.” Landon shook his head. “Whatever floats your broomstick.”

  Aunt Tillie smiled widely. “I knew you’d see things my way.”

  “Goddess, help us,” Thistle muttered.

  She could say that again. The entire world was topsy-turvy these days.

  TWENTY-TWO

  “Be careful, Bay,” Landon ordered, pressing his hand to the small of my back as we surveyed the ruined display room in Mrs. Little’s shop. “Don’t trip and hurt yourself.”

  Chief Terry and Agent Glenn were with us, although I was doing my best to pretend I didn’t see the younger agent. What? I don’t like him. “This is terrible,” I said, shaking my head. “It’s going to take her months to get this place back up and running.”

  “That’s not necessarily true,” Noah said, puffing out his chest as he readied himself to impart some insightful truth nugget. “The structure is sound. All of the drywall will have to go … and the floor will have to be replaced … but other than inventory, the damage isn’t terrible.”

  I narrowed my eyes. I hate it when people talk down to me. “And how long will that take?”

  “I would guess about eight weeks.”

  “So two months,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what I just said.”

  “Calm down, tiger,” Landon teased, smirking as Noah frowned. “You’re smarter than him. Everyone knows it. There’s no sense in proving it when two members of your fan club are already here.”

  “That’s right,” Chief Terry said, kneeling next to one of the corner displays. “I never doubted for a second that you were smarter than Agent Glenn.”