by Amy Boyles
He shrugged. “You have the best position for this. Everyone knows you’re damaged. You can get close to people that I can’t. So.” Garrick stopped and extended his hand for me to shake it. “What do you say? Will you help me?”
I stared at his hand for a moment, but there was no decision to make. I already knew which path I would choose.
I slipped my hand over Garrick’s. “You’ve got a deal.”
Chapter 15
“So, Pepper, we got off on the wrong foot. I know it must’ve been crazy for you to watch me practically attack your fiancé right in front of you. I’m so sorry about that. I hope we can put it behind us.”
I stood on the other side of the counter at the venue shop. I’d gone in to talk to Della, the owner, about what to do about the rental chairs and decorations. But instead of finding Della, I’d found Drew.
Jackpot.
I had no problem doing as Garrick wished. Not only did I need some of Drew’s saliva, but if she had a man around, or even a distant cousin who might be big enough to throw Erasmus across a room, I wanted to know about it.
I swatted the air in dismissal. “Oh, Drew. Don’t worry about it. You hadn’t seen Axel in a long, long time.”
She nodded. “I know, I’m sorry. I was just so overcome with emotion. It’s been forever since I’ve been in a relationship with a good guy.”
Her shoulders sank as her gaze cut to the counter. “Lately all I’ve been dating are duds.” She scoffed. “One of them followed me here, even.”
I perked up at that. “Tell me more.”
Drew glanced at the clock. “It’s almost my lunch break. Do you want to have lunch?”
“Sure,” I said, because I loved breaking bread with my fiancé’s old flames. Sounded like the best plan in the world.
“I’ll meet you outside in five,” I said.
Drew smiled. A real, genuine smile. Like, she was actually being nice and stuff. It surprised me.
Five minutes later Drew and I were nestled in a restaurant dedicated to chicken salad called Southern Witchen Chick. I think the Witchen was supposed to be like Kitchen, except with a W to make it witch.
The place was ultrafeminine and cozy. It was what I needed after a couple of harrowing days.
We ordered and Drew started right in. “I’m sorry about what happened to Axel. Is his memory still…you know?” Drew circled her finger by her temple, the universal sign for crazy, which was completely inappropriate here, but I ignored that.
“Well,” I said slowly, “he still doesn’t remember me, if that’s what you’re asking.”
She nodded. “I’m sorry.” Then Drew leaned forward. “And I heard there was a break-in at the Vault last night. Is that right?”
Forget about news traveling fast; in Magnolia Cove news traveled like lightning.
“I heard that, too,” I said, not wanting Drew to know I’d been one of the people who discovered what had happened. I leaned forward conspiratorially. “From what I’ve heard, a man did it.”
Drew sucked air. “Do they know anything else?”
Was she asking because she was guilty? “I have no idea. But with all these strangers walking around town, it seems like one of them should be guilty. I mean, you’re new to town and all, but we’ve never had problems before they let in all these—creatures.”
Drew frowned. “Aren’t they here for your wedding?”
“They are, but they’re not all my relatives.” I scoffed. “Do you really think I’d have relatives like that? I would hope not.”
Drew nodded knowingly. “Yeah, it makes sense.” She nibbled her bottom lip nervously. “But I just arrived in town, too. And my ex-boyfriend is here as well.”
The in I was looking for. I tried not to look too interested. But I was way interested in what Drew had to say about her ex.
“Oh?” I said innocently. “He did?”
She rolled her eyes. “Well, I don’t know if he followed me, exactly, but he’s here.”
I glanced around the restaurant as if I expected him to walk right in.
“He’s not here-here,” she explained. “We dated for a while, but he was just too different from me.”
“How so?”
Drew rolled her eyes. “Well, his family is a big deal to him. They come first and all. Lots of loyalty.”
He didn’t sound so bad. Sort of normal, actually. “Hmm,” was all I could think to say.
“And so many secrets. I get that he’s old, but just because of that it seemed like secrets just went hand in hand with it.”
“Really? Sounds intriguing.”
Drew stirred the ice in her glass with her straw. “You would think, but really it was just too many secrets for me to handle. I expect my man to be transparent, let me know how he feels up front, not be all clandestine about it.”
That was a big word for Drew to use. It impressed me that she knew what it meant.
“So anyway,” she continued, “it didn’t work out, so I broke up with him. He’s very dark. Has this side of him that’s almost dangerous. He’s very charismatic, too. That’s why we dated for so long.”
I quirked a brow. “Dangerous?”
“Oh yeah, it’s in his nature. He can’t help it.”
So he was probably a werewolf. It made sense. After all, Drew had a history of dating werewolves. It made sense that she’d date more than one.
Drew rose. “If you’ll excuse me. I need to head to the ladies’ room.”
“Sure.”
I watched her while she disappeared into the bathroom. As soon as Drew was out of sight, I whipped her glass away and replaced it by magic with another.
I stashed her glass in my purse, making sure to spell it with a cover so that it wouldn’t leak out. I mean, just because I was talking to Drew didn’t mean I wasn’t going to have Betty work the spell to see if Drew was the one responsible for Axel’s current state of Pepper-amnesia, as I liked to call it.
Drew returned a few minutes later with a fresh coat of red lipstick layering her mouth. She smiled brightly at me. “I hope that we can put our first meeting behind us. I’m so, so sorry about how I acted, Pepper.”
Drew cringed. “Really, I am.” She lifted her glass and sipped. I bit my lower lip.
Please don’t let Drew figure out I switched her drinks.
She frowned and her gaze cut to me. I smiled and rose. “Well, it was so nice having this discussion with you. I really enjoyed talking with you.”
Drew nodded eagerly. “Me too. I’m so glad you were able to forgive me for how I acted. I hope it was okay that I talked to Axel a couple of times. I wanted to see how he was doing.”
“Oh sure.” I swatted the air dismissively. “Don’t you worry about that. I mean, talking is just talking, right? It’s not like you were trying to kiss him or anything.”
Or showing up naked in front of him like some people who I would rather not have thought about.
Drew rose and shouldered her bag. “I’m really glad we had lunch. Maybe we can do it again sometime.”
“Absolutely.” And I meant it. Once I’d talked to Drew, I realized she was a nice person and our original meeting had been a bit wacky but as long as she wasn’t the person who’d potioned Axel, we could be friends.
As long as she didn’t kiss him or drop her clothes in front of him, that was.
I started to turn to leave when Drew’s eyes widened. “Oh my gosh. He just walked in.”
“Axel?”
She shook her head. Her eyes filled with panic, and I instinctively knew who she was talking about. “Your ex?”
Drew whimpered what sounded like a “yes.”
I squeezed her arm. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. Are you scared?”
“He’s just so charismatic. I’m afraid that I’ll end up seduced by him.”
I cocked my head to one side. “No man can be that charming.”
Her lower lip trembled. Her neck flushed, and I peered into Drew’s eyes, trying to figure it out. “Was he
mean to you?”
“No, it’s just…”
“It’s just what?”
Her gaze cut to mine. “There were times when I felt like I wanted to give myself to him and I knew he was using his power to get me to want that.” She shuddered. “I’ve been trying to avoid him but this is a small town and there are only so many places to hide.”
I still didn’t understand. But it was also a small restaurant so I dropped my voice. “What would have been so wrong with giving yourself over to him?”
Drew close her eyes and shivered. “Because of what he is and because of what I would become.”
Then, as if everything she’d told me was a great puzzle, all the pieces started clicking. They merged, the spaces sewing together, and I saw the entire picture for myself.
I grabbed her arm, and Drew’s eyes flew open. “It’s okay. I’ll walk out with you.”
Knowing what I knew, I wasn’t surprised at all to find that when I turned around, there stood Blake Calhoun. I also wasn’t surprised to see Molly on his arm, since they’d been at the club together the previous night.
But what I was surprised at was that when Blake met my gaze, I felt myself being drawn to him in the exact way that Drew had described.
Chapter 16
Whether it was simply my bad luck or whatever else it could have been that I didn’t have a name for, Drew’s saliva didn’t work on Axel.
No, we didn’t try to trick him this time. This time I called him up, asked Axel to come over and handed him the black goo.
“This is from your ex-girlfriend, Drew. I want to see if she’s the one who spelled you.”
So while my entire family watched, Axel swallowed the black pellet.
“Well?” I said, hope swelling in my chest. “How do you feel?”
His gaze darted to the floor. That was all I needed to see. “It didn’t work.”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
Axel stayed awhile and we talked, but after a time he left and I felt about the same as I had.
No Axel who loved me and no other leads on who had spelled him. Since Drew’s saliva hadn’t worked, I quickly dismissed her as a likely suspect. Garrick had suggested it might be a male and female team, but what if he was wrong?
But who could it be? I simply didn’t believe that Axel had undergone a horribly stressful situation—that our wedding would make him break his head. That theory didn’t stick.
So who could it be?
“I’m out of guesses,” I said to my family after Axel had gone.
Cordelia, Amelia, Betty and I sat in the living room. “I have no idea who could have done this to us. Molly and Drew, both women who had thrown themselves at Axel, are both innocent, at least of spelling him, as far as I’m concerned. And we don’t have any other way of reversing this spell. Will it eventually wear off?”
Betty pulled her pipe from her mouth. “Hard to say.”
“So you don’t have an answer.”
She shook her head.
My stomach pretzeled at the thought that it wouldn’t wear off. “Axel had an idea. He said we could go to the Memory Mirror.”
Amelia’s jaw unhinged. “You mean up where the hillbilly giants are?”
“Too dangerous,” Betty snapped. “They’re already mad at us. Think we’re vandalizing their shrubbery. You can’t go up there.”
I raked my fingers through my hair, letting the nails bite into my scalp. “But what are we supposed to do? Just sit here and wait for the spell to break? What if that never happens? There’s a criminal on the loose. Clearly. Someone did this to him, then someone is messing with the giants, and they broke into the Vault. What do they really want?”
“To create chaos?” Cordelia suggested.
I exhaled a shot of air. “To create chaos. What if she’s right? What if that is what someone wants?”
“Seems a bit trivial,” Amelia said.
I snapped my fingers. “But it’s not, is it? Create smoke and mirrors. Make everyone look in one direction while whoever it is sneaks off with the real prize. A prize that’s located somewhere else entirely.”
I threaded my fingers together as I needed something to do with my extra energy. I’d been cool for days, I thought. I’d been clinging fervently to the hope that Axel would remember me, that I couldn’t give up believing that, but honestly I’d tried the saliva of my top two picks and neither had worked.
What did that mean?
Someone was creating smoke and mirrors.
“There’s a person who’s done this who is hiding. We need to get them out in the open. Expose them.”
Betty frowned. “So what do you think we should do? Make more chaos?”
I snapped my fingers. “I love that idea.”
My family looked at me uneasily. This might be hard to swallow, I admit that, but it was a smart, smart plan.
“Yes! We create more chaos. Make it seem like whoever has done this is winning. If we wreak some havoc, maybe they’ll reveal themselves.”
“And maybe they’ll just run off with whatever it is they wanted to begin with, and we’ll end up looking like idiots,” Cordelia said.
Amelia tutted. “Cord’s right. What if we do something wacky and then the craziest thing happens—someone steals our entire town?”
Cordelia scoffed. “How would they steal the entire town?”
Amelia threw up her hands. “What else could they possibly want? I mean, seriously. If everything in the Vault isn’t good enough for you, then what could you possibly want?”
“But why go to all this trouble?” I said. “I don’t understand it. At all. I don’t get why someone would make such big waves and not make an actual move. Can one of y’all please explain that to me?”
“I would if I could.” Betty spat into the fire. “But I don’t have an answer, either.”
“Then what do we do?” I pleaded. I rubbed my eyes. “I’m at my wit’s end. The man I love doesn’t know me, someone is making a mess and I have no answers!”
I stopped, took a breath and repeated quietly, “What do we do?”
No one said anything.
I exhaled. “All I know is that we’re playing catch-up when we should be leading the chase. I don’t like that and y’all shouldn’t, either.”
Amelia shot me a guilty look. “So you think we should create more chaos? How do we do that?”
“Betty,” I said, a hopeful lilt to my voice, “I was hoping you might have some ideas on that front.”
“Kid, the only ideas I have about creating chaos include revealing certain parts of my body, and I don’t think that’s the sort of thing you mean when you say ‘chaos.’”
I clicked my tongue. “You are exactly right. I don’t want any nudity. This is a wholesome town.”
Betty smirked. “As you say. Can you explain why you think adding more chaos onto this would help, exactly?”
Hadn’t I already explained this? Frustration tugged on my body, pulling me every which way. I felt frayed, my nerves a jumble of electric yarn. My stomach was knotted, my head hurt and my body thrummed with worry. Nothing was working out. Nothing, and I didn’t have any answers left.
“Maybe it won’t help,” I admitted. “Maybe it won’t do anything except make things worse, but if the culprit thinks we’re all splintered and won’t be able to defend ourselves or whatever it is that he wants, then maybe he or she will make a move.”
Amelia frowned. “But won’t we really be splintered if we’re trying to look all chaotic and all.”
“No. We’ll be acting.”
“But some of us might be acting better than others,” Amelia said. “Some of us were born with chaos running through our veins.”
“Like your mothers.”
As Amelia’s eyes brightened, I shook my head. “Absolutely not,” I said, shooting down her idea. “We do not need to get Mint and Licky involved in this.”
“But you said you wanted chaos,”
Cordelia said. “If we ask for their help, they’ll make sure our town has chaos coming out the wazoo.”
“But will we be safe?” I asked. “Not to disparage my aunts, but they aren’t always the best when it comes to whether or not we’ll be safe. They can’t exactly control their chaos, can they?”
“And will that chaos be more than Garrick can deal with?” Cordelia said. “He has enough on his plate with the giants and the Vault break-in.”
Amelia shrugged. “If we tell them to keep it simple and not to overreact, they should be okay. I mean, maybe they will be. The least we can do is ask.”
Betty inhaled a puff of her pipe and blew a smoke square to the ceiling. “That’s true. Asking is the least we can do. I would ask, what’s the worst that can happen, but we all know there is a lot of worst that can happen when it comes to those two.”
I glanced around at the three expectant faces. My entire family looked eager, excited to be helping, excited that we’d come up with a harebrained plan to create ordered chaos. As if any kind of ordered chaos was possible when it came to Mint and Licky.
“Okay,” I said slowly, trying to digest what had just been decided, “how do y’all propose we get them to create ordered chaos?”
“We tell Garrick what they’re going to do before they do it,” Amelia offered. “If we do that, then Garrick will know what’s going to happen. He can have his men ready and then everything will be okay. All the chaos will be organized.”
Cordelia raked her fingers through her silky locks. “What about the rest of us?”
Amelia furrowed her brow. I knew it! She didn’t have a real plan. She was simply spitballing, and the spitballing wouldn’t work, either.
“I’ve got it.” She clapped her hands. “The rest of us keep an eye out. Scour the town for anyone misbehaving. Then we tell Garrick if we see someone acting suspiciously.”
I shook my head. “You’re banking everything on one event. One moment. What if the culprit isn’t ready to act then?”
“That’s a good point.” Amelia gnawed the inside of her cheek as she thought. “What if we tell everyone the wedding is back on? But at the last moment it gets canceled and that’s when Mint and Licky do the whole chaos thing? After all, the culprit was planning on the wedding taking place. The entire town would have been at it. Nothing would have been being watched. Whatever he or she wanted, it would have been vulnerable then, too.”
