“I’d order something, but I don’t have the funds.” Tessa’s eyes never left her aunt’s. “Could I have a glass of water please?”
“Of course.” The server slowly backed away.
With fingers gripping the table to prevent curse words from jumping out of her mouth she spoke. “Interesting to see you here in New York as this went down.”
“I had vacation time coming,” her aunt replied sweetly. “You picked the perfect time to call.”
She shook her head. “Cut the bullshit. If you have ruined me, I will sue your ass so fast—”
“I haven’t done a thing to you. You shouldn’t send invoices that you can’t pay.”
“Then it’s your responsibility to handle my bills. I review the reports you send me every quarter.” Tessa’s voice began to rise. A few heads turned her way so she lowered her voice. “There weren’t any discrepancies.”
“Well, there were those invoices from early in the spring. And then there were those bills from when I went on vacation for those two weeks in Hawaii. Hawaii was lovely that time of year. Especially compared to Chicago in the dead of winter. Did I show you the pictures?”
Her right foot tapped the floor in a nervous fit. “Aunt Daisy, what bills?”
“Oh, yeah, there were just so many that I put them in this box. Here. I didn’t have the time to enter them all.”
With a thud, Daisy placed a box on the table crammed to the hilt with bills. A firebomb could have gone off in this establishment and Tessa wouldn’t have left the seat to rush for the door.
“How could you?” Her shaking hands touched the bills as the feeling of lightheadedness steadily increased with each unpaid invoice.
“These things happen all the time with the larger firms. A missed bill here, a mislabeled file there. I mean with my firm handling two Fortune 500 companies, a slip up here and there usually gets caught during the audit.” Aunt Daisy sipped her coffee. “I wonder if you’ll survive until that point.”
“You can’t do this to me.” Her voice rose again. “No matter how much you feel about what Grandma did to you, doing this kind of thing to people is...” She reached for the words. “Fucked up.”
“It’s done and over with now. You need to start liquidating your assets and handling your business as you prepare to close it.”
Tessa couldn’t believe this raving lunatic was droning on as if her aunt hadn’t had a hand in Tessa’s downfall. After a huff, she stuffed the bills she’d pulled out back into the box. “This isn’t over by a long shot. You’re going to pay for this.”
The older witch laughed before slamming her empty cup to the edge of the table. “What will you do?” Smugness oozed across the table. “Ask for help from my mother?” She snorted. “Perhaps she’d love to know how you squandered her money and couldn’t cut it in New York.”
“No thanks to you.”
“Sweetheart, I prolonged the inevitable. You can’t manage a business, nor can you assume the role of the perfect girl for my mother. Welcome to reality, sweetie.”
Wow.
Anger pulsed from her legs up to her arms.
She whipped out the water witch wand and pointed it at her aunt.
Normally she wasn’t prone to violence, but after realizing her aunt had rendered her penniless, she couldn’t escape the driving need to scare the shit out of her. With the power of the wand trembling in her hand, masking their encounter would be easy.
Aunt Daisy’s eyes widened as if she pointed a loaded gun.
“What-what’s that?”
The wand wavered in her hands. “You’ve never seen a water witch wand before?” With a flick of her wrist, Aunt Daisy’s cup flew across the table from the edge to teeter on the opposite side on the handle. Then with another flick, the cup bounced across the table before landing inches from her aunt’s nose.
Aunt Daisy recoiled, her mouth wide. “Don’t.”
“I could hurt you right now as much as you hurt me. But then what would I get? I’d be as miserable as you are.” Tessa’s fingers ached from her iron grip on the wand’s sharp knobs. “Look at you. Sitting there alone with no one to love, a dead-end job you hate, and no aspirations for something better.” Her voice broke as her aunt gulped. “I should hate you, but instead right now I feel sorry for how much of a loser you are.”
The coffee cup drifted back to the table as she withdrew the wand. With as much dignity she could muster, Tessa picked up the box and left the café. Her aunt sat silent in her seat.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Dating Tip #16: Your date should never refer to you as “Sugar Daddy.” Anyone using the word values how well you can pay the bill for dinner and not how well you can be a lifetime partner.
Rob’s time was up. Kaput. The fat lady had sung her last tune, left the stage, and now the janitors swept the floor. He’d accomplished what he’d wanted to do though. The debts had been paid and now his aunt and uncle could rest easy. But other things had come up. Like Tessa. She had pain he wished he could take away.
A day had passed since his failed date with her, but a problem even bigger than money bothered him. He stared at the cell phone in his hand. He’d been sent a brisk reminder to report to base. Since he’d been cleared, he’d be sent overseas immediately. So he had to finalize things. It should be simple. Just call up Tessa, tell her to meet him for dinner and say his goodbyes. In a perfect world, he’d tell her he would come back soon, but life was never that simple. Not with the way their relationship had progressed. Could their relationship endure with potentially thousands of miles between them?
He didn’t want to let her go like this.
He dialed her number. Part one done.
“Hey, Rob. What are you up to?” she asked.
He swallowed. “Nothing much.”
“I just met with my staff to tell them I’m closing the agency.” She tried to sound like she wasn’t hurt, but her pain swam just below the surface. “Not the best news so I used happy hour to let them down gently.”
“I’m sorry about that.” He sighed, trying to form words that would get things moving. Dinner. Dinner. Ask her out for dinner. “You interested in another trip to Limbo?”
He rubbed his forehead. Epic fail.
“Where do you want to meet and do I have enough time to take a shower?”
“I’ll text you the address in East Village. Take all the time you need.”
Surprisingly, she didn’t take much time at all. She appeared all too eager for another chance. It hurt him even more to see her that way.
“This’ll be an easy job,” he said. “Matter of fact, I’ve already contacted the party and they want to give it to me.”
“That’s a new one.”
Rob chuckled. “I’d be out of a job if everyone turned in what they owed.”
“I think with the world swarming with people like my aunt and Dagger you’ll never run out of folks trying to screw over others.”
“This will be a quick trip. No crazy people, no spellcasting, and under no circumstances, diving into the ocean to hide from demons.”
Tessa followed him to the apartment. Rows of high walk-up apartments and townhouses dotted the street.
“Please tell me our destination is on the second floor,” she asked.
“Exercise is good for the soul. We have five flights of stairs. As if you have room to talk, your apartment is on the third floor.”
“And I bitch and moan for each one of those steps.”
He grinned. “Well I like the results.” He smacked her butt.
They didn’t have far to go. The fifth floor was well-lit with white doors and numeric labels on the sides. Rob knocked on 5C.
The door opened to something quite unexpected. The man behind the door looked at Tessa with surprise. “Tessa?”
“Hi, Paul.”
“You know this guy?” Rob asked.
His target moved out of the way so they could enter.
“Yes, I see him most mornings
on the way to work. He’s a clerk at Starbucks.”
Paul’s apartment was a matchbox—like most places in NYC. The living room served as both his bedroom and dining room. A galley kitchen large enough for one person was directly off the living room. As Rob expected, no crazy people jumping out of corners.
A nice and easy repo for their last trip.
“Have a seat while I get what you came here for.” Paul entered the kitchen as they sat down on his sofa bed.
Rob glanced around again. Paul didn’t have much. Scattered on his coffee table were newspapers with acting gigs circled here and there. Drops of coffee and the remnants of where cups laid stained the papers. A single closet and dresser hid clothes stuffed into them on the opposite side of the room. His target was just another starving actor trying to survive.
Paul returned holding a small jewelry box. His eyes appeared forlorn as he sat down on the rickety chair across from them.
“I’d hope to make some money to be able to keep it, but, with two jobs, I couldn’t make enough.” He opened the box to reveal a silver ring. After placing it on his palm, they watched as the jewelry shifted, attempting to roll onto a finger. With a sigh, he offered it to Rob.
“What does it do?” Tessa asked.
Paul scratched his ear. “The wearer receives confidence and beauty. I wanted to use it to…you know, get some jobs on casting calls.”
She nodded.
“I managed to secure a job as the understudy for the Broadway play, The Death of a Salesman, but they never called me in to perform,” Paul said.
“That sounds good. Really it does.” She tried to hide it, but the look on her face spoke volumes: regret. He had to make this quick before she said something. He’d been down this road too many times. But the truth was the truth. Never play unless you had the money to pay.
Rob took the ring and stood to leave.
Before heading back downstairs, they said their goodbyes.
“Rob, do you ever regret any of your repo missions?”
He sighed as he descended the stairwell. “Not particularly, but I did feel a bit bad after I understood your circumstances.”
“So why did you take Paul’s ring?”
“Tessa, we all have responsibilities. Whether Paul is a starving artist or homeless alcoholic he needs to pay his debts like everyone else who writes a check every month.”
She rolled her eyes and he couldn’t help smiling. His lady had a good heart. And he didn’t want to break it.
“Where will we open the portal?” she asked.
“We’ll do the jump into Limbo from your place.”
When they arrived back at Tessa’s apartment, she waited for Rob to toss in the ring.
At last, a final effort to locate her scroll. With little time left, she bordered on desperate.
They prepared space for their trip by moving the coffee table out of the way. Once the portal opened, she leaped through the entrance and crashed onto an old sled. The rotted wood caved under her weight, leaving a sharp pain running up her back.
“How about you slowly find your scroll?” Rob said with a smirk.
Like he had room to talk? She wasn’t the one doing repo missions with a rib injury. She made a rude gesture in his direction.
Tessa whipped out the wand. No more games. This thing needed to do its job and that was for it to obey her commands and teleport her where she wanted to be taken. No more casting spells to plant mud in her hands or pull her along until she reached a chasm of doom.
“Seven minutes, Tessa. You can do it.”
With confidence, she held the wand firmly and pictured her car in her mind. From its champagne color to its leather interior—even the small coffee stain on the floor of the driver’s side to CDs scattered on the backseat. The wand jerked as power surged from one end to the other. The air around her folded with a whoosh as the wand teleported her to the vehicle.
She expected the landing to be smooth, but the wand lived up to its crazy antics. One second she was in front of the portal, and the next she was in mid-air dropping ten feet to hit the hood of a car. Her car! After a choked cry from hitting the top, she rolled off the side onto a pile of dusty statues. The bulging eye sockets of one of the bronze figures stared back at her. Eww.
Tessa held her sore back as she limped over the vehicle. Had to move. Not much time.
She grasped the handle, only to find the door locked. Damn it. She slapped her forehead. All this time, she never thought to bring the damn keys. Screw it! She tapped the driver’s side window with the wand. The glass shattered and littered the driver’s seat. A couple thousand dollars in car repairs was nothing compared to replacing the scroll. Anticipation filled her. She could see it in her hands. Smell the old parchment. All her efforts led to this moment. She wrenched open the door and scanned the floor. Nothing.
She checked the back seats, looked through the glove compartment box, and waited for that aha moment where everything wrong could be made right.
Her car was empty. Someone had been here and taken the scroll. The GPS unit was missing from the dashboard. Had thieves taken her property? Anger heated her face and spread into her chest. A growing need to ram her fist into the seat grew.
There wasn’t any time to debate this. She had to go!
Tessa closed her eyes and focused on the power vibrating in the wand. Everything around the portal was easy to recall—from the three-headed marble statue to the floating bookcase with tomes that smelled like bleu cheese. The wand obeyed her command and threw her in front of the portal where Rob was straining to keep it open.
She hopped through the portal before he collapsed on the floor. The amulet rolled from his hand, plopping to the floor. Smoke rose from the jewelry, leaving a stench of burnt wood in the air.
Tessa checked his hands. “Are you hurt?”
“Naw.” Sweat dripped off his brow, running onto his damp shirt. “I told you seven minutes. Not eight. Not fifteen, but seven minutes.”
“How long was I gone?”
“Long enough for me to have to move heaven and earth to keep the damn door open.”
“I’m sorry. Either way it doesn’t matter.” Her voice cracked as the empty car flashed in her mind. This wasn’t fair. “My scroll is gone.”
Rob tugged her close. “What do you mean gone?”
“The car was empty.” A single tear fell, but she quickly wiped the wetness away. Crying wouldn’t fix this mess. “Someone asshole took everything.”
Rob placed her head on his shoulder. The spot was firm, yet at the perfect height for her relieve her burdens. She let every inhale and exhale come and go, hoping the pain would ease. But the wound persisted like all disappointments in her life.
Warm lips kissed her forehead. She leaned up to look at his face, searching his eyes. “I don’t know what I’m going to do now, but we’ll figure out something together, right?”
His mouth formed a straight line. The pause before he spoke again set off alarms. What was he hiding this time? “I wanted one last time with you…before I go.”
“One last time? Go?” No. No. No. All of this wasn’t happening. Not all at once.
She couldn’t miss the disappointment in his eyes. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Dating Tip #10: In magic, what goes around comes around. Relationships are the same way. Be careful what webs you weave to catch that someone special. You may find that the mistakes of the past come back to haunt you. For real.
Tessa stiffened as he continued. “I already told you I was injured while on active duty.”
She nodded—suddenly feeling the need to steel herself for what was coming.
“All I’ve wanted is time and money. Just a small piece of the pie while I kept up the ruse of an injury to the hospital.”
Right then she knew what was coming and her grip around his waist tightened.
“My time ran out a few days ago. I got my discharge papers not too lon
g ago. I have orders to report to Fort Briggs tomorrow.”
Tomorrow. She couldn’t swallow the word without wanting to cry.
Twenty-four hours from now she’d stand here alone. This warm feeling, this steady wall she’d come to depend on would go away for a while.
Her fists clenched as her throat tightened. She blinked and the world blurred with her tears. Why did she have to let go of one of the good things in her life?
“Tessa, look at me, baby.” He tried to gently move her chin, but she wouldn’t budge. “I’m really sorry I didn’t tell you the truth.”
She wanted to be angry, but she let the bitterness go. What could she say when he planned to serve his country? Wouldn’t he come back? Finally, she found the words to speak. “I don’t know what to say.” The words came out as a choke, her voice hoarse.
“I will have shore leave, and I’ll be back to New York to see you.”
A feeling of exhaustion seeped into her so she tried to pull out of his embrace, but he held her tight. “Let me go, Rob,” she said softly. “I need some time to absorb this.”
Focus became difficult as she struggled to hold herself together. Do something, make your hands busy! Two of her neglected delivery boxes drew her eyes. She grabbed the larger one, trying to maintain her composure as Rob remained silent behind her. She tore at the flaps, not caring if she damaged what was inside.
A fleck of cream-colored paper caught her eye from within the box. No, please no. With unsteady fingers, Tessa pulled the remains of her torn scroll from the box. The cardboard container dropped from her hands as she grasped the broken scroll. Portions of it were torn to shreds, the magical runes no longer visible. Within the folds of ripped paper, a note: Special delivery, my sweet. Dagger.
Rob stepped in front of her.
“That motherfu—” A sob clenched her gut, tighter and tighter. She collapsed forward, unable to hold it in anymore. Rob took the pieces of scroll from her hands. He tried to tug her back into his arms, but he didn’t bring her comfort.
Repossessed Page 18
