“I’m letting my little brother stay at my house for a few days?” I was confused as to why Thorn thought it was a problem, but boy, was I about to find out.
“I know that he’s your brother, Brighton, but you’ve said yourself that you don’t know him very well. When I said that thing about how it’s usually the partner, I believe that. Looking at that woman’s body, it looks like a crime of passion and rage. He admitted they had a fight and he came here after her. How well do you really know your brother?”
I couldn’t believe he’d asked it. I’d told Thorn before about my strained relationship with Brody, but I’d never given him any indication that Brody was capable of murder. Sure, our relationship was strained, but to make the leap to suspecting him of murder? It was just too much for me.
"I know him well enough to know he didn't butcher that girl,” I said.
I couldn't hide the annoyance in my voice. Thorn was doing his job. I knew that, but it didn't bother me any less that not only was he accusing my brother of murder, he wasn't backing down. I could tell he wasn't backing down by the stern, overbearing look on his face. He wanted me to back down. I wasn't sure if Thorn was trying to intimidate me into listening to him, but even the notion that's what he was trying to do irked me to no end.
"I have to approach this professionally,” he said and put his hands up in front of him as if he knew that phrase would make me charge like a bull.
"You said yourself that you're not leading this case. From what I understand, you're not even involved in investigating it anymore," I retorted.
"I'm still police,” he said and then softened somewhat, but not enough for me. "And I'm also your boyfriend. That means I care about you, and I take my duty to protect you seriously."
I could not stifle my eyeroll. "From my little brother? I'm a grown woman, Thorn. You need to stop acting like I need you to protect me. It’s great that you care, but you are mistaken if you think I’m going to wither away and die without you."
I was being unfair, and I knew it, but I couldn't stop. He was being unfair too. Not that it made it right for me to do it, but I was tired, hungry, and had grown quite indignant.
"Well, maybe that's something we need to talk about later,” I added. “Right now, I'm taking my brother, who just saw his fiancée lying dead in a parking lot, to breakfast,” I said when Thorn didn't respond.
"We need to talk about what? The fact that I'm your boyfriend?" I saw a flash of fear in his eyes, and it made me wince with shame. I needed to dial it down a notch.
"Not that. I just mean in general, Thorn. This conversation isn't doing any of us any good right now. I'm tired because the contractor building my garage woke me up. I'm hungry because there was no food in my house. I need to eat and rest, but no, I'm not saying we need to have a talk about our relationship. It's nothing like that,” I said with a weary sigh.
He relaxed a little, but then stiffened again as the rest of what I'd said sunk in. "What do you mean the contractor at your house woke you up? I didn't know you were having a garage built."
"I didn't either,” I said with a huff. "He showed up this morning. It was an old contract my aunt made a long time ago. It's a long story. We'll talk later, okay? Your deputies are all standing around waiting for you."
"Brighton, no. We're not just going to put a pin in this until later. You've got a strange man you don't know building a garage? He happened to show up on the day a woman was murdered? You can't seriously think any of this is okay."
"Oh my gosh, Thorn,” I said my voice crescendoing with irritation. "So is my brother the killer? Or is it the contractor? Oh, wait, maybe they're in on it together. Seriously, babe. You're acting like I'm a little lost lamb surrounded by wolves. I need to go before this heated discussion turns into a fight."
"Brighton," he protested.
I answered by kissing him quick on the lips and then, "Come over later. We'll all have dinner. I'm going to go now."
Thorn made a noise like he was going to protest, but I kept walking. It was better to just cut things off there and continue our discussion that night. Cooler heads would prevail later, and I wasn't worried about Brody or Grey being a serial killer. If one of them was, the other could protect me since I really doubted they were in on it together. Or I could protect myself because I had that whole witch thing going on. And a magic cat…
I walked back over to Brody who was still standing on the grass staring at the ground. He barely looked up when I approached.
"Let's go get some food,” I said. "There's a diner near the town square. I think you'll like it."
"I'm not hungry,” he said flatly.
"Well, I'm starving and I'm moving toward hangry. Do you have somewhere else you need to be?"
"No."
"Well, my car is stuck inside the crime scene for right now. Can we take yours?"
"You'll have to drive,” he said and handed me the keys. "I just need to sit down."
"Well, you can sit down at the diner. Maybe have a nice hot cup of coffee?"
"That would probably be good," Brody admitted.
And without any further discussion, we left in his car for Dumbledore's. It was still early, but the diner was open by the time we got there. They opened a little later than Bubble & Brew, but not by much.
Word must have gotten around about what had happened. Keisha gave me a hug we when came in, but she didn't say much as she seated Brody and me at a booth in the back corner. She seemed to know that what we needed was privacy, and I appreciated it.
Brody appeared to be in a trance when she came back a few minutes later to take our order. I asked her for coffee and toast for him and ordered pancakes, eggs, and bacon for myself.
"That all?" she asked before heading off to the kitchen.
"Actually, I need a side of extra bacon to-go. Oh, and maybe the full breakfast special to-go too."
"Sure thing," Keisha said. "I'll bring the to-go orders out when you look like you're finishing up your breakfasts."
"What's that about?" Brody asked when Keisha was gone. "The to-go orders?"
"Those are for Grey, the contractor building the garage. It seems like the nice thing to do. He’s building the garage at a discount, so I feel like I should be extra nice.” I wasn’t sure if that was true. I actually just felt obliged to bring him a gift, but I wasn’t in the state of mind at the time to question the weird compulsion. “And the bacon is for Meri."
"Meri?"
"My cat. The store is closed, and he said if I couldn't get fish, he wanted bacon.”
“Your cat said he wanted bacon?” Brody cocked one eyebrow.
I’d made a mistake and completely forgotten that Brody knew nothing about Meri or me being a witch. Then it dawned on me that he was a witch too, and he had no idea. I decided immediately that was a discussion for later. He’d been hit with enough so far that morning, plus he’d think I was nuts until I could prove it. Which I couldn’t out in the open in the diner.
“Yeah, you know us crazy cat ladies. We think our cats talk to us”,” I said and forced a chuckle.
He seemed to buy it. “I’ve heard that”,” Brody said absently.
Brody drank his coffee and ate his toast in silence. I didn’t try to force a conversation between us. One, because he’d just been through trauma, and two, because I wasn’t quite sure what to say to him.
The bright side was that the whole witch thing might give us a second chance at our relationship. Perhaps we could get that brother and sister bond back over our magical abilities.
There was also the chance that he would handle it the same way as the rest of our family. He’d stay away from Covington and forget about it.
I hoped that he’d never do to me what my grandmother and other great-aunts had done to Maude. I’d liked to have thought that he wouldn’t, but I bet Maude had believed the same thing. I felt so sad for her right then. The Tuttlesmiths hadn’t been the ones to ship her off to the institution, but they had done little to st
op it too.
Those musings gave me pause. What if telling Brody about our powers wasn’t the best idea after all? That was something I’d need to chew on for a while.
After breakfast, Brody and I headed to Hangman’s House. If he was impressed with the house, he didn’t say anything about it.
While my brother waited on the front steps, I took the breakfast I’d bought for Grey over to him. His overwhelming gratitude and beaming smile made my heart flutter, but I couldn’t stay and chat with him. Brody looked like he was about to fall off his feet, and I needed to get him inside.
I unlocked the door and stepped inside, but as Brody tried to follow me over the threshold, he gripped his head and sucked in a deep breath. “What the heck?” he whispered more to himself than to me.
“Are you all right?” I asked and grasped his upper arm to steady him.
“Yeah, it’s just weird. It’s like the pressure is different inside than out. It made me feel a little off balance for a second. Plus… I don’t know… never mind.”
“No, go on. What is it?”
“It’s just that it feels like there’s something in the back of my mind that I know but I don’t know. There’s a thought trying to make it to the surface. Not like when you can’t think of the word you want to use, but something… more. I don’t know, Brighton. I think I need a nap. It’s like there’s something there that isn’t quite there.”
I wanted to tell him that I knew exactly how he felt, but I hesitated. Brody really did look like he was struggling to stay upright, and I needed some advice on how to proceed before I told him about our history and magic.
“I’ve been up all night,” he said as he collapsed onto my sofa.
“Do you want some tea or coffee?”
“Maybe a pillow and a blanket? It was weird outside coming in, but in here it feels like I could sleep for days.”
“You could go upstairs and sleep in one of the spare bedrooms,” I offered.
“I don’t want to move,” he said with his eyes half closed. “It’s so comfy right here. I don’t remember ever being on a couch so comfy.”
“I’ll get you a pillow and blanket then.”
I watched as all of the tension and anxiety dissolved away from Brody as he almost literally melted into my sofa. It was as if he hadn’t relaxed in years and suddenly had no choice but to give up and chill.
When I got back to the living room after grabbing him a pillow and a couple of blankets, he was out cold. He barely stirred when I lifted his head to slide the pillow under it.
While he was asleep, I wanted to visit with Annika and talk with her about revealing the truth to Brody. I missed her terribly, but while she was on the mend, Amelda had her on lockdown. I’d been told repeatedly that I could visit with her later, but no one would tell me when that would be.
Apparently, Annika’s body was easy for the Skeenbauer witches to heal, but her mind had taken it far worse. Being brought back from the dead wasn’t an easy proposition spiritually or mentally, but Amelda had assured me that Annika would eventually be fine.
There was someone else I could discuss the issues with besides Annika. Someone I missed just as much even though my longing for his companionship scared me. Remy was still Remy after all. Even if he was a darker version.
I went to the archives at the courthouse and found them closed for the day. That meant if I wanted to see Remy, I had to visit him at home.
Chapter Three
“Brighton,” Remy said when he opened the door. “What a nice surprise, come in.”
If it was possible for his eyes and hair to have been a deeper black, they were. His voice had lowered and was slower and smoother too. It was almost mesmerizing, and I briefly wondered if I was feeling the way a fly felt before it flew into a spider’s web. Still, I refused to believe he was dangerous.
I’d been in Remy’s house before, but something had shifted in his home as well. The biggest change was the rows of aquariums and terrariums in his living room. There were dozens of them taking up every available space.
The glass and plastic enclosures housed snakes, spiders, scary-looking reptiles, and scorpions. The sight sent a shiver down my spine, but my breath caught when I saw a large aquarium filled with the type of spiders that had killed Langoria and almost killed Annika.
“Remy?” I asked as I turned in a circle trying to take it all in.
“They are what you think,” he said. “No one would take Janet’s collection after she was… dealt with. So I did. What they are is not their fault. They shouldn’t suffer because of human stupidity. Even poisonous things can be of the goddess.”
There was no way to know for sure, but I thought Remy might be talking about more than just the creepy crawlies he now called pets.
“But some of these have to be venomous, Remy. Aren’t you putting yourself in danger by having them here? What if a tank breaks?”
“They are all warded with protection spells to keep them in, and I use a protection spell when I feed them or clean their enclosures. I take all the precautions necessary.”
“That’s good,” I said and felt myself relax a little. “Did you find out why she had them?”
“She was a snake handler,” Remy said. “Well, from what I’ve learned, she started out as a snake handler and moved on to other various venomous creatures. As you can see,” he said and swept his hand in front of a few of the enclosures like some sort of spokesmodel for the creepy crawlies.
“What do you mean by snake handler?” Before he could respond, I remembered something I’d seen on a Discovery Channel documentary a few years back. “Oh, you mean the people that think that the snakes can’t hurt them because of their faith. She used to handle them as a test of her faith?”
“Yep, that about sums it up. Well, that’s what she did with them until she used the scorpions to kill Langoria.”
“How do you know all of this about her?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer.
“A couple of the ladies from her church helped me move the animals over here. Nobody else wanted them, but they were willing to help me move them to my house.”
“I’m surprised no one else wanted them. I mean, maybe they could have used them for their snake-handling tests of faith.”
“They aren’t like that,” Remy said thoughtfully. “The church outside Coventry isn’t that kind of church. Janet was on her own with her extreme beliefs. The ladies I met were really nice people and appreciated me helping out some of the world’s less cuddly animals. But this isn’t why you came here. You have something else on your mind. Something you couldn’t discuss with your human boyfriend.”
“I mean, I could discuss it with him. He knows what I am, Remy. He was there when you guys took Janet to the crypt.”
“He couldn’t have stopped us if he wanted to,” Remy said coldly.
“No, he couldn’t. And while I could discuss my issue with him, he can’t help me. But you can. You said once that you’d always be here for me, so can you do that now?”
“I can.”
“Okay, my brother showed up in town today. He’s at my house sleeping right now, but when he went into Hangman’s House, it affected him. The way it affected me when I first went inside. He’s a witch too, Remy. I mean, I hadn’t really thought about it until he showed up. But he’s here now.”
“Why is he here? I feel like you’re leaving something out. The way you said that he showed up today leads me to believe it was an unexpected visit.”
“That’s right. You’re not at work today so you haven’t heard,” I said.
“Haven’t heard what, Brighton?”
“Can we go sit in the kitchen?” The animals were making me far more nervous than I’d expected.
“Sure. You can talk and I’ll make tea. Nothing magical, I promise,” he said and gave me a good-natured wink.
We walked into the kitchen, and I took a seat at his table while Remy moved around the room preparing tea for us. He’d been somew
hat awkward, which I’d always found adorable, before. Now he moved with the fluidity of a dancer. The curiosity of what had happened with him was killing me, but I spent the next few minutes filling him in on the murder and Brody’s arrival instead of dwelling on my questions.
“And now your brother is your boyfriend’s number one suspect,” Remy said as he set the tea down in front of me.
“I’d prefer to think he only said that because of statistics,” I said.
“So you’d prefer to be in denial.”
“That’s pretty harsh,” I responded. “I feel like something has changed between us. Maybe it was a mistake coming here,” I said and started to get up.
“Brighton, wait. Please, stay for a bit. I don’t think you’re worried that your brother killed his fiancée, but you’re nervous about something. You wanted to ask me about your brother being a witch. So please tell me more or ask away. I want to help.”
“It’s just that… Well, what my family did to Maude. I’m worried if I tell Brody about his abilities, what if he doesn’t take it well? My mother and grandmother moved away from Coventry and pretty much forgot about their powers. Maybe Brody will do the same thing, but what if he freaks out about this? I don’t know why I’m worried that what happened to Maude would happen to me, but I am.”
“It’s a different time, Brighton. It’s not as easy to get women committed now. You don’t think Thorn would keep you from being institutionalized? He wouldn’t protect you?”
“I think he would. I mean, I think he would try. I don’t know, Remy. Like I said, I don’t know why I am worried about this. It’s irrational. I’m sure Thorn would do everything he could to protect me, but he’s human.”
“You don’t need to worry, Brighton. I would protect you. I would do whatever it took to keep you safe, and I’m not just a human.”
“No, you’re not,” I said. “But you let me go. You said that Thorn would break my heart, but that you’d be there for me. The more I think about that, the more it doesn’t make sense. Why wouldn’t you protect me from being hurt in the first place? Why didn’t you fight for me at all?”
Wicked Witches of Coventry- The Collection Page 25
