by Ann Charles
“In the midst of the honey paraphernalia and glass shards on the floor, I found this.” He held his hand out toward me and opened his fingers.
I leaned forward. A shiny bright blue button lay in the center of his palm. “What’s that from? One of my coats?”
Elvis the chicken was a button fiend, tearing them off my coats whenever she could get at them, but I didn’t think Cooper knew about her fetish. Besides, I hadn’t been in that store in months, back before Elvis waged war on my coat buttons.
“Not your coat. I’m ninety percent sure it’s the missing eye button from the old, one-armed Raggedy Ann doll that had been stuffed in an oven in the Sugarloaf Building until yesterday morning.”
My jaw dropped. “No way.”
“Yes, Parker.” He held up the button between his finger and thumb. “Look. There’s still some red thread wrapped around two of the holes.”
Oh, God, there was. I looked up into his steady gray gaze. “Why would the imp break into a store and steal jars of honey?”
“I didn’t say it stole anything, only that it broke in and destroyed several jars and other honey-related products.”
Doc’s chair creaked as he leaned back. “We need to figure out exactly what sort of creature we’re dealing with here. Did your aunt say anything more about it last night?”
I thought back to the few conversations I’d had with Aunt Zoe before going to bed. “No, only what she’d said at the table—that imps can cause a lot of trouble and I needed to find it and put it back in its cage.”
“There’s something else I didn’t mention before Parker arrived,” Cooper said, drawing questioning looks from both Doc and me. “The police weren’t the only ones who showed up at the scene of the crime this morning.”
“Who else?” I beat Doc to the punch.
“Masterson.”
“Why would he be concerned about this?” Doc asked the same question that was in my mind.
“I’m not sure, but I have an idea or two.”
What would make Dominick want to stick his nose in this particular crime? “Is he running for mayor again or police chief or something?”
“He owns the building,” Cooper said. “The store owner is renting from him.”
Ah. That was a legitimate tie-in, but … “Why would he be concerned enough to leave his warm bed at such an early hour?”
“Maybe the store owner is uninsured,” Doc suggested.
Cooper leaned back in the chair. “When I asked Masterson why he was there, he told me that he’d heard the call come in over his scanner. Since he was awake, he thought he’d check things out, being it’s his building.”
Okay, a believable explanation there, I guessed. But why was he awake so early? Did the devil ever sleep? “Was Rex there, too?”
“Why would your ex be there? Just because he’s living above Masterson’s garage doesn’t mean they’re joined at the hip.”
I hopped off the desk and started pacing. “I don’t know why Rex might be there, but these days I wouldn’t be surprised if you said Wild Bill Hickok’s ghost had shown up, too. I mean, why would this imp thing be there making a mess of only the honey stuff? None of this makes sense.”
“Yeah, well, if you hadn’t been so gung-ho with your damned purse yesterday, I wouldn’t be sitting here tired as hell, trying to figure out how to catch a weird creature I can’t even fucking see.”
I stopped and glared at him. “You’re the one who let it out of its prison, not me.”
“Only because you and Uncle Willis kept whining about hearing something in that stupid oven.”
“Okay, you two.” Doc played referee. “Stop growling at each other for now and let’s figure out why the imp chose that particular store, and if we can possibly use honey to catch it.”
“Like the proverbial fly.” I walked over to Doc’s front door, staring out the window at the snow-peppered street. “Do you two think it’s suspect that the imp broke into another one of Dominick’s buildings after we freed it from his Sugarloaf Building earlier in the day?”
“Maybe,” Cooper conceded. “But maybe not. Masterson owns a lot of buildings around Lead and Deadwood.”
Of course he did. He had to be one of the Black Hills’ oldest residents. When one lived multiple lifetimes, collecting buildings must be like accumulating a closet full of shoes for us regular folks.
“Did Dominick see the button?” Doc asked Cooper.
“I don’t think so, but he sniffed around the mess of honey and glass on the floor for a bit. He was pretending to check out which products were damaged along with the store’s owner, but I saw him actually sniff one of the broken jars when he thought nobody was looking.”
I turned back to Doc. “That’s like the time he cut my palm and sniffed my blood, telling me, ‘Now it’s in your hands.’ Although I’m not sure I ever figured out what ‘it’ was.”
“He must be able to smell these other freaks,” Cooper said.
“I’m not a freak,” I told him.
“I don’t know, Parker. I’ve seen you first thing in the morning, remember? The sight of that hair alone could probably turn a man to stone.”
I crossed my arms and glared at him. “Look, Doc. Cooper’s finally extracted his funny bone from his ass.”
The detective’s grin drooped at the corners like his tired eyes. “You bring out the best in me, Medusa.”
“The question is,” Doc said, interrupting our verbal sparring. “Does Masterson realize that particular imp came from his building, or can he just pick up their scent in general?”
Cooper did a double take. “You think there are more of these creatures out there?”
“Violet, tell Coop the story your aunt shared about Reid and the old school building years ago.”
I filled Cooper in on how Reid had unknowingly picked up some kind of imp in an old school, like a tick, and didn’t realize it was draining him of energy until he stopped by Aunt Zoe’s place, where she caught sight of it in a special mirror in her dining room. She’d trapped it and destroyed it in her glass furnace, warning me after her story about how much trouble imps could cause if allowed to roam free.
Cooper sighed, scrubbing his hands down his face. Unfortunately, his haggard look didn’t wipe away. “Have I told you two how fucked up all of this is?”
“Sure, multiple times,” Doc said. “Sometimes you bitch and moan about it several times a day.”
Cooper aimed a mock glare at Doc. “Kiss my ass, Nyce.”
“Not even with somebody else’s lips,” he shot back with a smile.
“Do you think I could go down there and look around the crime scene?” I asked, leaning against Doc’s desk. “You know, since I’m the only one around who can actually see the imp.”
Doc rubbed his short beard. “I’d bet that Masterson can probably see it, too.”
I nodded. “Maybe that’s why he was there.” I wondered if he’d seen anything Cooper and the others couldn’t. “Did he look at the security video?”
“Not that I’m aware of.”
“Maybe I can just look at the tape,” I suggested.
“Let me think about it, Parker. I’m not sure I can get you anywhere near this without raising the wrong eyebrows.”
I huffed. “Like Detective Hawke’s, you mean?”
“For one, yes. Masterson’s, for another. Do you really want him to know that you are the one who freed his pet?”
Cooper had a good point. “So, how can we catch it?”
“That’s the real trick,” Doc said. “Being that very few can probably actually see the damned thing.”
“I don’t have time for this,” I muttered. “First a freaking lidérc, then a Duzarx, and now this. Dominick should have warned me he was hiding an imp in that building.”
“Are we sure he was the one who was hiding it?” Doc threw out.
“Face it, Parker.” Cooper rose from his chair. “You’ve screwed up again. Who knows how much trouble this little shit
will cause before it’s over?”
I wrinkled my upper lip at him. “You shouldn’t have opened the thing’s cage. But, oh no, Detective Cooper stuck his nose in where it didn’t belong … again.”
“Pointing fingers isn’t going to solve anything,” Doc said to the two of us. “What’s done is done. Let’s focus on fixing the problem.”
He was right. “I’ll figure out what to do about this,” I told them both. “I just need to come up with a plan.”
Cooper smirked. “The same way you’re going to figure out how to catch a lidérc?”
“As a matter of fact, yes, Cooper. So stuff that in your big bazoo and blow it.”
He looked at Doc. “I’m going to go back to my office now and file a report on your girlfriend’s latest ‘oopsie-daisy.’ ” He set the button down on Doc’s desk. “In the meantime, Parker, try not to set any other imps, Hungarian devils, or nock-flesh-eaters free.”
“Nachzehrer,” I corrected him, referring to the creature from German folklore that supposedly was similar to a vampire, only it ate human flesh instead of drinking blood. “And I had nothing whatsoever to do with those two undead ghouls running around here.”
I hoped there were only two, but according to my aunt, two could become four or eight or more if they were hungry enough and started chewing on more fresh corpses.
“Like I said.” Cooper zipped his coat with a hard tug. “This is some fucked-up shit.” With a two-finger salute for Doc and a hard glare at me, Cooper left, closing the door behind him.
I dropped into the chair Cooper had vacated. “He’s a broken record, but he’s right. This is a big mess that just keeps getting worse. Now what?”
Doc shrugged. “We persevere.”
“Persevere, yeah right.” I thought of my well-filled Executioner to-do list, along with the tall stack of my other problems that was on the verge of tipping over. “These days, it feels like if I try hard enough for long enough, I’ll pretty much screw up everything.”
Doc smiled. “When it comes to you, Killer, perseverance is more like stubbornness with a purpose.” He pushed back his chair and stood. “Now, I believe you have something to give me that you withheld last night.”
“Oh no, big boy. I offered it out there for you with bells and tassels dangling from it, but you were too busy holding hands and skipping with Mr. Sandman to see it.”
I shifted in the chair, settling into the only source of warmth Cooper had left behind after blasting me with his freeze-ray glare yet again.
“Well, I’m not busy now, Boots.” Doc walked over to the door. He clicked the deadbolt and pulled the shades, shutting out the rest of the world.
Alone. Finally.
I closed my eyes and tried to relax my shoulders. For a moment—this moment—I wanted to sink into the quiet bliss that filled me when I was with Doc …
Criminy! How was I going to find that damned lidérc, let alone catch it?
I heard the floorboards creak as Doc walked to the front windows. The blinds clattered as he closed them, then the darkness behind my eyelids intensified. I took a deep breath, shaking my hands loose. Come on, if I could just let everything else go …
And now I had Cooper’s tail all puffed up about this freaking imp mess, dammit!
I blew out the breath, trying to center my focus on Doc—the spicy scent of skin when I buried my face in his neck; the heat of his body when I pressed into him; the beating of his heart when I laid my head against his chest …
What in the hell was a Duzarx, anyway?
Another breath—in and out. Slowly. Focus on Doc.
Only Doc.
Doc … what was it about him that had my heart snared so thoroughly in his net? Was it his doing or mine? Or a bit of both?
Whatever it was, this link between us was stronger than just the physical attraction that had my pulse pounding when he reached for me and kissed me like he couldn’t get enough. With him came a calming belief that even though the sky might be falling around me, I could wrap myself in his arms and stay safe.
“Violet.” His voice was close.
I opened my eyes.
He’d returned to his desk, only he was leaning against the front side of it this time instead of sitting behind it. Hands in his pants pockets, he stared down at me.
And then there was the way Doc looked at me … like he was now. Really looked. Staring past the false bravado, wild hairs, and chaotic bouts of insanity that distracted most. Lighting upon the real me that tried to hide away from everyone else, even my kids some days. The me that had been fantasizing lately about a white dress, a gold ring, and matching his-and-her slippers … and as of this morning while brushing my teeth, a shared underwear drawer.
His gaze darkened at whatever he saw in my eyes. “What aren’t you telling me, Violet?”
“Uhhh …”
I looked away, worried that he’d seen a gleam reflecting off my wedding bells hopes. During a previous discussion, Doc had made it clear that he wasn’t averse to taking the matrimony plunge, but that was as far into that topic as we’d dived. There was no way I was going to be the one to bring up the subject again. Nope. I was going to play it cool and smooth, and if he someday mentioned marriage, I’d …
What was I doing? I was supposed to be thinking about the lidérc, not a wedding. And the imp. And the séance tonight. Not to mention the Nachzehrer.
“My eye hurts,” I finally answered, which was sort of true. It still throbbed if I touched it, which I’d done repeatedly while trying to hide the bruise with my heavy-duty concealer.
I could see in his face, though, that he didn’t believe me.
“And I don’t want to do the séance tonight.” No lie at all there. I wasn’t even close to being mentally ready to dance with Wilda Hessler and her hair-raising twin. I thought of Mrs. Hessler’s creepy, black-hole eyes and shuddered.
He held out his hand for mine. “Come here, Boots.”
I let him pull me out of the chair, settling in between his long legs. “Doc, how do you feel about catching a plane to some Mexican beach town this afternoon?”
He smiled. “Are you sure that’s far enough away?”
I slid my arms around his neck. “No, but I wasn’t sure you’d go for the South Pole.”
“It’s summertime down there. We could take your fur-lined bikini to go with the handcuffs.”
“Goose bumps aren’t very sexy.” Neither was I in a bikini after carrying twins for nine months.
“Warming you up would be, though.”
“I don’t know. You have a history of complaining about my icy toes. Maybe we should stick to a Mexican beach.”
“As long as you’re there, Boots, I’m game.” He leaned closer, kissing the corner of my mouth. “Icy toes and all.”
Ahhhh, true love. That reminded me of my father once telling me that love was like a toothache—it didn’t show up on X-rays, but you still knew it was there.
Doc kissed his way across my jaw toward my ear, his lips soft and warm, stirring up a flurry of excitement deep in my core.
My phone chirped in my purse, which sat on the desk behind us. Someone had sent me a text message.
“Ignore that,” I said, tightening my arms around his neck and going up on my tiptoes. “You owe me one good-night kiss.”
His hands slid down my ribs, spanning my hips. “Just one?”
“Yes, but with interest.” I brushed my lips over his cheek above his freshly trimmed beard.
He pulled me tighter against his hips, his body primed and ready. “There’s definite interest coming from me.”
My phone actually started ringing instead of chirping.
“Let it go to voice mail,” I whispered next to his ear.
“You sure?”
“Yes.” I made my way back to his mouth via a side trip down his neck and along his collarbone. His beard tickled my cheek, sending shivers south of the border. “Now, about that kiss …”
He didn’t need further
urging, and for several heart-galloping seconds I got lost in the land of Doc, aka my happy place.
My phone started playing the Harlem Globetrotters theme.
Jerry!
Doc pulled back, his breathing shallow, matching mine. “That’s your boss,” he said and then kissed me again. “Your lips taste like raspberries this morning.”
“That’s just for you, Candy Cane.”
The ringing continued.
I ignored it and kissed him this time, spreading my fingers wide on his shoulders as I rubbed all over him. The Globetrotters theme stopped somewhere in the midst of my seduction attempt. I moaned as his hands cupped and stroked, pressing even more against him, enjoying all of his hard edges as he coerced my tongue to dance with his.
The phone started ringing again, but without the Globetrotters music this time.
Doc un-suctioned himself from me. “You need to take that call.”
I cursed under my breath. “I’d rather take you.”
“Minx.” He leaned down and brushed his lips over mine once more. “My client could be here any moment.”
I trailed my nails down his chest and kept going. “Where’s your sense of adventure?”
The phone kept ringing.
He captured my hand, holding it against his heart. “I think you’ve used it all up over the last twenty-four hours thanks in part to Prudence, the imp, and your ex.”
“Don’t forget Detective Hawke.”
“I’m more worried about what Rex is up to now, along with Dominick.” He handed me my purse. “Answer your phone, Boots, before I throw you over my shoulder and have my way with you in the back room.”
I fished out the dang clamoring cell phone, cursing under my breath at the sight of Jerry’s desk phone number displayed on the screen. That man had the worst timing. Well, second to Cooper.
I hit the accept button, swallowing the frustration left over from not getting to finish what Doc started. “Good morning, Jerry.”
A minute later, I disconnected and tossed my phone back into my purse. “I have to go. Jerry is having an early staff meeting over at Bighorn Billy’s and forgot to let me know ahead of time.”
“I heard.” Doc was sitting on the edge of the desk next to where I stood. “We need to talk about your ex some more soon.”
