“Who?”
“It’s none of your business.” I grabbed the door handle and tugged, forcing her to move. “And I’d appreciate it if you would keep it to yourself. And keep your lips off my stuff.”
Mom and Auntie Meme were busying themselves in the kitchen putting the menu together for tomorrow’s daily special at The Brew. Something they did on a nightly basis after watching the evening news. They made potions for their “special” which covered the entire Louisville metro area. Most of their potions were to make people happier, worry less, take more time with their family. And the news was filled with murder, taxes, and robberies, leaving a dark cloud over the community. . . until they came to The Brew for breakfast or lunch for their daily fix of happy. The mortals didn’t know why they left in a good mood. We always claimed it was the good food. That’s what kept them coming back for more.
Mom and Auntie Meme tried to blend in the best they could, but couldn’t resist a little happy spell. Mom said it keeps the dust off. Deep in our bones we could never really give up our heritage.
“I’ll be back.” I kissed both of them on my way through the kitchen, grabbing my clutch off the counter and flipping up the j-hook latch on the screen door.
“Where are you going like that?” Mom asked, setting the fancy curved glass bottle of Tonka Beans on the counter. She rested the side of her hip on the edge of the counter and crossed her arms in front of her. Her long black hair flowed around her curious eyes and down her shoulders. Auntie Meme stood behind her like they were a small gang.
Hmm. The Tonka Beans attracted love and money. I wondered what on earth they were concocting for tomorrow. If I weren’t in such a hurry, I’d ask.
“I’m going to meet up with some friends,” I lied, smiling, keeping the package close to my body.
I don’t know if they didn’t want to know the truth or were blinded with the possibilities that I was embracing my “try to be like the mortal” side they so desperately wanted me to have.
“Have a wonderful time.” Mom grabbed something off the counter and walked over and placed a chain over my head, hanging it around my neck. There was a bright red stone hanging from the end. Mom pushed the pad of her finger on the stone, smiling. “This is a present from me to you.”
My skin under the stone warmed, sending heat through my core. I didn’t have to ask to know she felt I was under duress with what I had not admitted to at dinner and so she was putting a protective spell around me. Something a witchy mother would do for any of her children.
“I will.” I ran my hand down her arm before I darted out the door.
Vinnie was in the garage, all tucked in when I opened the door.
“Maggie.” Abram stepped out of the darkness and into the moonlight.
“Dammit! Abram!” The package went flying as I grabbed my chest with my hands. “Why the hell are you sneaking around?” I bent down and picked up the package.
“You obviously don’t want your family to know about the car tires, which makes me believe you are up to something.” Abram ran a finger down the side of Vinnie. Vinnie’s lights glowed a warm yellow with happiness, equivalent to a cat’s happy purr.
“I’m fine,” I assured him. “I’m going out to meet some friends.”
“Someone new?” He gave a slight, watchful hesitation. He knew everyone I knew. “I mean I’d love to take you out.”
I shook my head and patted Abram’s arm. “And this,” I gestured between us, “isn’t going to happen.”
I hated telling him my feelings, but I had told him several times. None of them sinking in. But I held out hope that one day my words would seep through that thick blond head of his.
I waited for him to walk off before I jumped in Vinnie and flipped the manual switch on, which made me in charge of driving and not Vinnie. I started Vinnie like a normal car.
“Good evening, Maggie.” Vinnie’s lights lit up. “Where are we off to tonight? I hope not another cat spell. Maggie.” There was a concerned tone in Vinnie’s tone. “Did you flip off my switch?”
“I did.” I pushed the gas. “Is anyone following me or watching me right now?”
“Not that I can detect, but you have shut off a big circuit,” Vinnie said in a robotic voice.
“I can’t believe you let the guy I turned into a cat come into the garage while Abram was looking at your tires.” I gripped the wheel pulling down the alley and taking a right toward the docks.
“I did no such thing. Abram is not to know that I’m your familiar. And I hate how he curses me under his breath.” Vinnie scowled. “Where are we going?” Vinnie asked.
I made sure I drove the speed limit and kept an eye on the rearview mirror in case I was being tailed. The coast was clear. I proceeded back toward the warehouse where I had reversed the cat spell.
“Why would he disconnect your circuit?” I asked. “He was looking at your tires.” Something didn’t add up but I was too busy thinking about what I was going to do once I made it back to the parking lot of the warehouse.
“You would have to ask him that, but he is right.” Vinnie’s map told me I was almost there. “I do need a new set of tires. And do you mind if we get some nice new chromes?”
Why? Why couldn’t my familiar be female? I inwardly groaned.
The moon hung low on the crisp night, leading me smack dab in front of the warehouse.
“Maggie?” Vinnie asked.
“Yes, you can have chrome.” My mind was focused on the people going in and out of one of the open warehouse large steel doors. There were at least eight of them lined along the outside of the building. A couple eighteen-wheelers were backed up to them, as if they were being loaded.
The two rice burner cars that had cornered me earlier were backed up to one of the opened doors. The bald man was standing on the bay handing a cardboard box down to what look like another guy from earlier. I scanned the lot to see if I could see the informant. I didn’t see him anywhere.
“Maggie?” Vinnie called for me again.
“I said yes to the chrome,” I murmured taking in all I could.
“I don’t care about the chrome right now. I care about why we are back here again.”
“I have to get this package back to the guy I turned into a cat.” I patted the box in the passenger seat.
“I don’t think that is a good idea. I think you should flip my switch back on and I’ll take you to Mick.” Vinnie always thought he knew what was best for me. “After all, the package for Mick is sitting in the passenger seat.”
“Mick isn’t the one who sent me a cat collar as a calling card and dragged my family into it,” I said. “While you were getting your rims stroked by Abram, I was getting a silent threat that the informant not only knew where I lived but also knew I had turned him into a cat. How is that possible?”
Not that Mick hadn’t threatened anyone other than me, but the informant had threated me and my family. He proved to be a much greater threat and risk; that was why I had decided to return the package to him. The rightful owner, even if it was some sort of illegal item. Though Mick was hot and handsome. Easy come, easy go. I sighed.
“So what is your plan?” Vinnie asked.
“I’m not sure.” I lifted my hand to the dangling necklace Mom had hung around my neck. “I just know I need to give this back to him so he will leave us alone.”
I rubbed my finger over the red stone, pushing it to my chest, letting the warmth fill my heart. I put my hand on the door handle. Before getting out of the car, I looked up at the streetlight hanging over the car. With a wave of my finger, the light shut off, leaving Vinnie and me in complete darkness.
“Please flip the switch from manual.” Vinnie’s tone was demanding. “If you go in there without my switch flipped and something happens, I’ll have to call in reinforcements.”
Reinforcements meant Auntie Meme and her troop of old ladies from her Spell Circle.
The last time Vinnie’s manual switch was flipped off was when I went on my fi
fth date with a mortal and I knew I was going to get home late, as in the next morning. I flipped Vinnie to manual because Vinnie had a tendency to be a little jealous of other men in my life. Vinnie did annoying things like honk the horn at all hours of the night, make the lights flash off and on, turn the radio up so loud the neighbors could hear and complained. When those things didn’t get my attention, he called in Auntie Meme. She showed up at my hot date’s door with her Spell Circle of friends—four plus her—and they put the itch on his male parts.
Needless to say, he never called me back. I could only imagine what would happen if they showed up here.
“You wouldn’t,” I gasped with my finger in the switch.
“Try me,” Vinnie warned; he wasn’t joking.
“You are my familiar. Not Auntie Meme’s,” I hissed.
“As your familiar, I’m supposed to keep you safe. That man you decided to spend your night with was not doing safe things to you and this is not a safe activity either,” he sassed back.
There wasn’t time to argue any more with him. I had to get the package back into the informant’s hands and get out. I flipped the switch and got out of the car. The fencing around the warehouse was the basic chain link with a little barbwire on the top, nothing for a witch to scale. I ran across the street, pulling the shadow of the moon with me in order to stay safely in the dark. The sound of the river swished behind me as a late night barge pushed its way north toward Cincinnati. The crickets chirped from the weedy banks. The informant appeared on the loading dock with a package in his hand. He and the bald guy seemed to be in a heated conversation. The informant shoved the box in the bald guy’s chest. The bald guy spit on the ground and thrust his finger inside the warehouse. The informant stormed off in the direction of the finger, disappearing into the guts of the building.
This was my chance to get in there and give him the package, erase his memory the best I could and get out. If it weren’t for the fact he had shown up at my house, I wouldn’t have come, but he did. Somehow, somewhere the spell went wrong and he ended up remembering me.
I looked around, making sure the coast was clear, I touched a piece of the chain-link fence in front of me, creating an opening wide enough for me to step through and into the parking lot of the warehouse. I raised two fingers to the moon and brushed them toward the warehouse, creating a dark path for me to run along and keep hidden with out being seen. The movement of boxes into the cars generated a lot of interest in me. Wasn’t Mystic Couture a big-time operation where merchandise was moved through the big trucks?
That was none of my business and there was no time to contemplate their business plan or practices. The three-story warehouse was the typical design with the large glass windows along the top and concrete sides. There wasn’t any type of landscape unless you called the smoking stands dotted around the perimeter scenery. I eased my way along the side of the building with my back against the cold concrete to the front of the building, keeping in mind the dock side was the complete opposite side of where I was. It was the only side, beside the big loading dock, where there was entry.
The front was lined with dark glass walls. Mystic Couture was scrawled across the entire front in the same scrolling red writing as on the packaging of the merchandise. There was one way in and one way out. The door on the far right. It looked exactly like the rest of the glass windows, only it had a handle which was not unlocked.
“Easy enough.” I ran my finger along the handle and gave it a little jiggle, imagining the lock unlocking. Gently I tugged, opening the door and stepping in. I sucked in a deep breath and let out a long deep sigh. The smell of Mystic Couture’s signature fragrance swirled around my body, leaving me with a giddiness of delight. I had only been able to peel the sample paper in between the pages of Vogue and rub it on my neck and wrists to smell like the pricey perfume. Now I was bathing in it.
I held my arms out to my side, with the package in my grip, and twirled, letting the scent curl around me and nestle in the fibers of my clothes and hair. The sound of a vacuum brought me out of my glorious feeling, reminding me I was on a mission. And if I was seen, I could totally go to jail for trespassing, breaking and entering, or theft. How would I be able to explain the product package in my hand?
I walked the opposite way of the sound of the vacuum. I had to find the informant. The office portion of the warehouse was as magnificent, chic and modern as I imagined. The plush red leather furniture and translucent desks were just a design feature screaming how cool this company was. Black lighting accented the office space.
“Are you okay in there?” Vinnie’s voice was whispering from somewhere.
“Where are you?” I frantically looked around the room wondering where his voice was coming from.
“The necklace.”
I reached up and touched the red stone Mom had given me. I should’ve known. I bet when I went to my room before dinner and Mom went to check on Abram working on Vinnie, she had him put in some sort of communication device so Vinnie could keep an eye on me, only Abram had no idea what it was. Which also meant she had a feeling something was going on with me. Something that required me to have protection.
“Are you kidding me?” Anger seethed from my pores. “I’m fine. And I will deal with this when I get back.”
“I see you are in the front of the building.” Vinnie must’ve been clued in by GPS. “You need to go down the hall and push the second door open. That is the entrance to the warehouse. You will find the informant in a small office to the right. He is alone.”
“Fine,” I grumbled under my breath, unable to thank him just yet. I was grateful I had him and could get back there without having to find it myself. Still, I wanted to be able to do this on my own. It was my mess to clean up.
I hurried down the hall and followed Vinnie’s directions to a tee. Only the informant wasn’t in there alone by the time I got there.
“I told you to do the drop. It wasn’t that complicated.” The bald man stood over the informant who was sitting in a steel chair. Spit shot out of his mouth with each word. “You were to give him the package.”
“I told you,” the informant said. “I was there. This girl came out of nowhere. She did some sort of voodoo shit on me and I became a cat.”
“Meow, meow.” The bald man laughed and gestured cat claws. “Do you expect me to believe that? Ohhhh.” He wiggled his fingers in the air, making spooky sounds.
“I’m not lying.” The informant was on the verge of crying. He ran his fingers through his hair before he planted his face in his palms. He cried out, “I threw the package in the dumpster when I realized my body was morphing into something. She did some sort of magic shit and the package floated out of the garbage. The drop off guy saw her too. She scaled the fence better than anyone I know and took off in a little red sports car.”
“So why didn’t she hop on her broom if she did witch crap?” the bald guy joked, walking around the chair the informant was sitting in.
I slipped next to the door with my back up against the wall, trying to stay silent. I put one hand over the red stone necklace to make sure they wouldn’t hear Vinnie if he happened to chime in. I gripped the package with my other hand, wondering how I was going to get it to the informant without the bald guy seeing me.
“I went to her house to get the package back, but she was inside with a bunch of people,” he cried out.
Please don’t tell him where I live, I pleaded inside my head hoping I could make this situation better.
“If you give me one more chance, I will get the package back from her.” His voice cracked with distress. “Boss, I just need one more chance.”
I looked through the crack of the door, trying to keep myself from being seen or heard.
“Eep.” I squeezed my lips together when I saw the boss had a gun sticking right at the informant.
“I’m begging,” the informant dropped to his knees in front of the boss with his hands together pleading with him to spare
his life.
“Boss, what do you want—” A man with a blue zip-up Mystic Couture jumper, like a mechanic’s jumper, strolled in the room. “What the?” The man stopped, plucking a gun from his jumper pocket. “Hold it right there.”
Shots rang out. My heart pounded in my chest. I dropped the package. The man with the jumper dropped to the ground, blood oozing out of his left side.
“Shit, shit!” The informant scrambled to his feet, looking at the man on the ground.
“He was no use to me and neither are you.” The boss shoved his gun toward the informant, his back to me.
The informant drew his eyes up, catching me standing there. I wanted to scream, but nothing would come out of my mouth. His eyes narrowed, his stare was deep and evil. A shot rang out. He doubled over, never once taking his eyes off me.
Shit, shit, shit. I disappeared back behind the door without the boss seeing me. Now what? I frantically tried to wrap my mind around the situation I was in that had gone from bad to worse. The red jewel was burning me. I was sure Vinnie was on edge wondering if I was okay or if he should call in backup.
What seemed like hours was only a minute when the boss stepped over the two men lying on the floor—like they were just two cockroaches he had stomped on with his shoe. I sucked in a deep breath, holding it until he had walked down the hall and disappeared into the warehouse.
“Shit, shit, shit.” I walked into the office and looked down at the informant.
“You,” he gasped for breath. “You. Red.”
“Yes. I’m the red sports car.” I wasn’t sure what to do. I looked him up and down. There was blood pouring out. Too much for me to control.
“Red.” His head rolled to the side. His gasping stopped.
“Help me,” the other man gurgled.
I ran over to him.
“Mick?” Terror ripped through my body when I saw it was him.
“Oh God, get me to a hospital.” His jaw clenched. His hands were pushed down on the bullet wound to his side.
Without even thinking, I grabbed the necklace. “Vinnie, I’m coming out.”
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