Lucky Witch: A Beechwood Harbor Magic Mystery (Beechwood Harbor Magic Mysteries Book 5)

by Danielle Garrett

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “I helped Melanie escape with her lover. I had connections and helped them get new identities and far away from New York.”

  I leaned back in my seat, shocked by the woman before me. Ever since I’d arrived at the manor, she’d been icy and distant. On the few occasions where she stuck her neck out for one of us, she retreated so quickly that it was hard to know what her true motives had been in the first place.

  “Your family found out that you helped her?” Adam asked.

  Lacey cocked her head. “Yes and no. They had their suspicions. Melanie and I were always close. They knew I wouldn’t want to see her suffer if her lover was killed. But they couldn’t prove my involvement.”

  “So, what happened to humiliate them?”

  “With Melanie gone, my father turned all of his attention toward arranging my marriage. A pure vampire marriage is always arranged. The bloodlines have to be considered. I was still so angry at him for him driving my sister into hiding that I refused his first offer. And it was … public.” She winced. “Really public.”

  “Did you pull a runaway bride?” I asked, straightening.

  Lacey’s eyes slid closed.

  “You did!”

  “It was only six months after Melanie left. The vampire princeling my father picked for me was an arrogant gasbag that put this fur ball to shame in the Casanova department,” she said, gesturing at Adam. “Well, at least, before you two were together.”

  Adam grimaced. “Gee, thanks, Lacey.”

  She smiled at him. “You know you’ll miss me once I’m gone.”

  He chuckled and gave a slight nod.

  My chest tightened as I watched them. Things definitely weren’t going to be the same without her around. I’d have a lot fewer fights to break up, but there would be a distinct hole left in our little misfit family.

  “Seriously though, Lacey. Are you in trouble?” Adam asked, his voice steady even as concern etched deeper into his brow.

  Lacey shook her head. “No. My father wouldn’t hurt me.”

  “Why do you have to go back?” I asked.

  “This is a summons. It goes beyond a father asking his daughter to visit home for the holidays. A vampire summons cannot be ignored. If I don’t go home, he will send his knights to collect me, and that would be far less pleasant.”

  “Why has he waited so long?” Adam asked. “You were here even before I got here four years ago.”

  “I’ve been here for five years. I left the night before my wedding and haven’t been back to the east coast since.”

  “How did he even find you?”

  She shrugged. “I wasn’t exactly underground.”

  “Like your sister?”

  “They’ll never find Melanie. I don’t even know where she is.” Her voice thickened and I caught a glimmer of a tear in her frost-blue eyes. “My father was angry. He wanted me to suffer. See, to vampires like my father, living away from the rest of the house would be a punishment. Whereas, I’ve embraced it as a blissful freedom. My aunt sends me money, to keep up with my basic expenses.”

  “Behind your father’s back?” Adam asked.

  Lacey nodded. “He’d probably kill her if he knew. It’s been selfish of me to accept her help. I, of all people, should know the high cost to helping someone go against my father’s wishes.”

  “So, you always knew that being here would be temporary?”

  “Yes and no. I didn’t know how long it would take for my father’s wrath to pass. This is relatively quick.”

  I winced. “Yikes.”

  She shrugged one shoulder. “Not too long after I arrived, I received a letter from my mother. Somehow, she got my aunt to talk and tell her where I was. Anyway, she told me to wait for him to cool down and that someday I could come home. I ignored it. She sent a second letter about six months ago. She told me things were changing back home. I knew something was coming. I just didn’t know when.”

  She lifted the letter from the table. “Now I do.”

  “I hope it goes better than you expect,” I told her.

  “Me too,” Adam agreed.

  “Thank you.” She pushed up from the table. “I’d better go and tell Posy that she will have a new room to rent out.”

  She started for the door and I stopped her with a tug at her wrist.

  “I owe you a potion,” I said. “From the night you helped us track the werewolf.”

  “We didn’t find him.”

  “That wasn’t part of the deal,” I told her. “I want to honor the deal. Just, think it over and tell me what you need before you have to leave.”

  Lacey stared at me for a long moment, and then she smiled ever so slightly, and inclined her head. “Thank you, Holly.”

  “Of course.”

  With another sad smile, she stepped through the door and let it flap closed behind her.

  I let out a long exhale. “I had no idea her life was so complicated.”

  Adam shook his head. “I didn’t either.”

  “Are we the world’s worst roommates? I always assumed she was this shallow, flighty vampire who lived for the next issue of Cosmo and that her biggest challenge in life was figuring out what cocktail dress to wear to happy hour with her girlfriends.”

  Adam shoved up from the table. “Lacey isn’t exactly an open book. Don’t beat yourself up.”

  I knew he was right but couldn’t shake the feeling that I was a miserable jerk for not seeing the deeply rooted struggle she’d been hiding. It wasn’t that she hadn’t shared with me, it was more that I’d never asked. I’d always found her unapproachable and cold.

  It was a shame that I’d seen the real Lacey mere weeks before she would be leaving the manor. Possibly for good.

  As if on cue, Evangeline came into the kitchen a few minutes later, wearing her usual sunny smile. “Hey, you guys. What’s on the agenda for the day? You know, I think I have an opening this afternoon. You could book a couple’s massage. My new gal is fantastic! I’ll give you the friends and family rate.”

  Adam reached up over his head and stretched. “Thanks, Evie, but I’ve got a lot of work to do and I’m sure Holly is jam-packed too.”

  I stared at him, trying to decipher the words and determine if they were meant to be a barb. Whether they were or weren’t, they stung a little.

  “Oh, okay. Well, maybe next weekend. Just give me a call and I’ll fit you in.”

  Adam nodded and exited the kitchen.

  Evangeline looked at me, her eyes round. “Is everything okay with you two?”

  “I don’t know.” I pinched the bridge of my nose and shook my head.

  “You want to talk about it?”

  “I wouldn’t even know where to start.”

  Evangeline smiled gently. “How about with some tea?”

  I laughed. “Generally a good place.”

  She went to the stove and turned on the kettle and I stood to prepare the mugs with two scoops of my favorite herbal blend. Soon, the kitchen was filled the warm, earthy fragrance of the tea steeping. We took the cups to the table and sat kitty-corner at one end. In between sips of the steaming tea, I unpacked the issues plaguing me while Evangeline listened and pensively whirled one finger over the contents of her cup, stirring the dark liquid.

  “Who knew that Adam was such a homebody,” she said when I finished.

  “Tell me about it. I’ve been dating him for the past year and didn’t realize it!”

  She tilted her head. “What is it that you want?”

  I shrugged. “I was happy the way things were going. It’s not like I purposely sought out any of the things that have happened over the past months.”

  “Agreed.”

  “I thought things were finally starting to calm down. I’m back in business and don’t have to worry about being chucked back into a jail cell anytime soon.”

  “I don’t know, Holly. Chief Lincoln seemed pretty close to it when you told him you’d been pokin
g around his crime scene.”

  I smiled. “True, but I have a secret weapon. Cassie. She’d make him sleep on the couch until he let me go.”

  Evangeline laughed. “Good point!”

  After another long sip, I set aside the tea. “I don’t want to leave Beechwood Harbor. This feels like home to me and you guys are my family. You, Nick, Cassie, and Posy. Now Earl, too. Lacey just told us she’s leaving and I’m actually sad about it, which I didn’t expect!”

  Evangeline’s smile faded. “She told me last night.”

  She was far closer to Lacey than I’d ever been. What had started out as a celebrity-fan relationship had turned into a genuine friendship since Evangeline’s arrival at the manor.

  “Things are changing,” I added. “But in a town this size, I’ve learned that some things never do. At first, that drove me crazy. The petty town fights over Christmas decorations and whether or not the paint used on the park benches is the wrong shade of green. Everyone knows everyone, a blessing and a curse. Somehow, against all the odds, it works.”

  “Sounds like you’ve already made up your mind then,” Evangeline said.

  I nodded. “But what if it means losing Adam?”

  “Holly, Adam’s crazy about you. I can’t imagine that he would really walk away.” She sighed and stared down into her still-steaming tea. “I told him I wouldn’t share this with you, but I think that given the circumstances, he would understand.”

  I straightened as my pulse jumped.

  She looked back up at me. “After you battled with Sasha, he had a breakdown. He was in tears, saying he couldn’t lose you. When you came back, he bottled it all back under his tough-guy exterior, but he cares deeply for you.”

  “I know he does.” My lips twisted as I fought back tears. “But it’s not fair of me to trap him in a life he doesn’t want. I wish I could promise that my life is going to be smooth sailing from here on out, but I can’t. He’s right when he says that things just kind of … happen around me.”

  “If you ask me, it’s not so much that he can’t handle it, the problem seems to be when you go off and do your own thing. Or, well, never mind—”

  “No! What were you going to say?”

  She reached up and fussed with the end of her thick braid. “I really can’t—”

  “Evangeline, please.”

  Her hand dropped and she drew in a sharp breath. “I think that he thinks you and Nick have a connection.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Not this again!”

  She held out one hand, her palm facing me. “He hasn’t said anything to me about this specifically, but he watches the two of you whenever you’re together. He might be good at hiding some things, but it’s pretty easy to spot a twinge of jealousy. Trust me, I’ve dealt with it all my life. The Hollywood scene is full of people who smile to your face and throw a serious side-eye when you move on. People were always jealous of my success and while most wouldn’t say it right to my face, I could feel it all the same. Now, I don’t think Adam dislikes Nick, but he definitely tenses up when you two are in the same room.”

  “Do you think that’s why he wants to move? To get away from Nick?” The realization turning my stomach. We’d dealt with jealousy on both sides of the fence some time ago. I’d honestly thought we’d moved beyond it, but if Evangeline’s hunch was right, Adam hadn’t. At least, not completely.

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. Of course, it doesn’t help that he’s a werewolf now and in on our world. It was one thing that put some space between you two in the past. You probably couldn’t fully be yourself. Now that barrier is gone.”

  “But, I—we—it isn’t like that!”

  At least I didn’t think so. Sure, there was a part of me that was relieved to tell Nick the truth about who I was and the reality of the supernatural world he’d been inches away from the entire time we’d known each other. But that was just a matter of being authentic, wasn’t it? It wasn’t something else.

  The clenched feeling in my gut didn’t help clear up the surge of anxiety.

  “Shifters are territorial by nature,” Evangeline continued. “Even if it’s completely innocent, it’s in their DNA to question and want to be protective. The problem is that you’re used to being independent and want to take care of yourself. There’s nothing wrong with that. I’m the same way! But when you pair that headstrong will with an over-protective personality, it’s a little bit of a recipe for disaster in the long term.

  “Adam likely senses that, even if he couldn’t put it into words. So, he wants to scoop you up and take you away. To safety, or what he sees as safety. It’s a survival instinct.”

  I frowned and pushed away my teacup. “So, it’s either learn to paint inside the lines or walk away completely before it gets ugly?”

  “That’s what you have to figure out. Adam is always going to want to protect you and keep you from harm. If you continue to charge into it, he’s going to have to look away at some point. It’s simply too painful for him.”

  Her words sunk in, stinging a little deeper with each passing second. I knew she was right. I also knew there was nothing I could do to stop any of it.

  “You’ll figure it out,” she added, reaching over to pat my arm. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Right?”

  “Thanks for listening,” I said weakly as she stood to leave.

  She took her mug to the sink, rinsed it and set it to the side to dry. “I’m sorry it wasn’t more sunshine and roses.”

  A bitter smile crossed my face. “Can’t always be, right?”

  Lacey left in the middle of April. Evangeline threw her a going away soiree at her day spa. We’d all been there, even Posy and Earl, sitting side by side with her band of beauty queen friends. They were all so happy and festive, I doubted any of them knew where she was really going. Whatever story she’d spun for them had obviously been prettier than the truth.

  I’d planned a final farewell for the following day, but the morning after the party, Adam found that her room was empty. She’d slipped away in the middle of the night, with only a note left behind. In it, she’d promised to come back as soon as she could to visit and promised that everything would be all right. That we weren’t to worry about her.

  “Look, she included a picture from last night,” I said, holding up a Polaroid. One of her friends had spent most of the party waving a camera around, snapping away like she was a broke paparazzi at a trendy Hollywood club.

  The photograph showed Nick, Lacey, Evangeline, Adam and me all smiling together. My eyes welled up the longer I stared at it and after a moment, I passed it off to Evangeline.

  “Things sure aren’t going to be the same without her around,” Posy said.

  “She’ll be back someday,” Evangeline said with an edge of certainty.

  A beat of silence followed. Apparently none of us had much faith that her powerful father would release her a second time. I was still floored by the revelation of just who she was and the ongoing thoughts of what her life must have been like prior to moving to Beechwood Harbor.

  Chapter 24

  “Can you believe this is happening?”

  “Of course I can. Who do you think helped him pick out the exact ring you wanted?”

  I smiled as Cassie stared down at her left hand, admiring the glittering stones on her all-important finger. “It really is perfection, isn’t it?”

  “I’m really happy for you, Cass. You’re going to make a stunning bride.”

  During their weekend away for their anniversary, Chief Lincoln popped the question. Cassie, obviously, said yes. They came back glowing with joy and Cassie was already talking potential wedding venues and dates.

  “Thanks, Holly. I guess we’ve come a long way.”

  “Oh, you mean since the time when he thought you were a murderer?” I laughed. “I’d say so.”

  Cassie grinned and glanced down at her ring again. She couldn’t stop staring at the delicate bobble. Not that I could blame her. If
I were in her shoes, I’d have had a hard time focusing on anything else, too. She’d been ditzy at Siren’s Song all day, easily flustered when she was yanked from daydreaming about her future wedding. After we closed up, I took her out for a celebratory drink at a chic martini bar a few miles down the coast.

  “What did Adam say?” Cassie asked, teasing her focus from the ring.

  I’d gone home before meeting her in order to change into proper cocktail attire. Adam was on his way out to grab dinner and we’d passed like two ships in the night. A brief smile and customary “how was the day” as we went.

  “He’s really happy for you guys too,” I replied.

  It wasn’t a lie. He was fond of Cassie and Chief Lincoln. But when we’d seen each other at the manor, I hadn’t been able to bring it up. The announcement remained lodged in my throat and then he was gone and I had to hurry to change before meeting Cassie.

  “Tell him thank you,” she said.

  I nodded and flagged down the bartender to order two more drinks. The man noted my request with a nod of his head and moments later, placed two martini glasses in front of us. The drink was some kind of house special, a concoction invented by one of the mixologists. It tasted good, despite looking like a puddle of melted cotton candy.

  “So,” Cassie started, reaching for her glass. She toyed with the stem and smiled up at me through thick lashes. “When is it going to be your turn? I mean, no pressure, but how fun would it be if we were planning our weddings at the same time?”

  My stomach clenched and I took a sip to buy myself a moment. I slapped on a sickly-sweet smile that would probably give even the cotton-candy drink a cavity. “Well, it’s not really up to me, is it?”

  Cassie smiled. “Oh, come on. If you dropped a few strategic hints, Adam would take the bait. He’s crazy about you.”

  The words sliced deeper into an already open wound and I lost the grip on my smile. The edges twitched and I hurried to take another drink.