by Elle Casey
Table of Contents
Title page
Copyright
Other Books by Elle Casey
Dedication
---LEAH---
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
---JAMES---
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
Chapter Fifty-Two
Chapter Fifty-Three
Chapter Fifty-Four
---LEAH and JAMES---
Chapter Fifty-Five
Chapter Fifty-Six
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Chapter Sixty
Chapter Sixty-One
Chapter Sixty-Two
Chapter Sixty-Three
Chapter Sixty-Four
Chapter Sixty-Five
Chapter Sixty-Six
Chapter Sixty-Seven
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Chapter Sixty-Nine
Chapter Seventy
Chapter Seventy-One
Chapter Seventy-Two
Chapter Seventy-Three
Chapter Seventy-Four
Chapter Seventy-Five
Chapter Seventy-Six
Chapter Seventy-Seven
Chapter Seventy-Eight
Chapter Seventy-Nine
Chapter Eighty
Chapter Eighty-One
Chapter Eighty-Two
Chapter Eighty-Three
Chapter Eighty-Four
Chapter Eighty-Five
Chapter Eighty-Six
About the Author
Lost and Found
Elle Casey
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
© 2014 Elle Casey, all rights reserved, worldwide. No part of this ebook may be reproduced, uploaded to the Internet, or copied without author permission.
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OTHER BOOKS BY ELLE CASEY
NEW ADULT ROMANCE
Shine Not Burn (2-book series)
By Degrees
Don’t Make Me Beautiful
Rebel (3-book series)
ADULT CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
Full Measure (written as Kat Lee)
Just One Night (romantic serial)
YA PARANORMAL ROMANCE
Duality (2-book series)
YA URBAN FANTASY
War of the Fae (4-book series)
Clash of the Otherworlds (3-book series, follows War of the Fae)
My Vampire Summer
Aces High
YA DYSTOPIAN
Apocalypsis (4-book series)
YA ACTION ADVENTURE
Wrecked (2-book series)
YA ROMANTIC SUSPENSE/THRILLER
All The Glory
DEDICATION
For Aigline. A friend and fellow adventurer.
Chapter One
“YOU’RE LATE AGAIN, LEAH.” BELINDA is giving me the tired face, the one that says she wants to scold me but then we’d both realize there’s really no point in me being here when she’s probably only had one customer all morning. Plus, she’s terrible at being mad at me for longer than five seconds.
“I’m sorry, Belinda, I really am. It won’t happen again.” I rush through the store to get to the messy back room where I dump my bag on a ratty chair and check myself in the mirror for any errant nostril-lint. I won’t bother checking my hair; it’s always a crazy, frizzed-out, curly mess in a shade of blond that’s unfortunately referred to as dishwater. So attractive.
“If I had a nickel for every time you’ve said that,” she says, finishing with a sigh.
“I know, I know,” I say, wiggling my nose left and right, lifting my head up and down to get a better view, “you’d have at least two dollars.”
“Come out here, Smarty-Pants, we got a shipment of new essential oils and I want you to set up a new spot for them.”
When I left home earlier, I’d tried to console myself over the inevitable boring day I was about to have with ideas of an ice cream splurge after work, but now my mood perks up instantly even without the ice cream, and my pinkie finger freezes in mid eyebrow-shaping. “New oils? From where?”
“No comment.”
That gets me out of the back room in an instant. “You didn’t order from Greenterra did you?”
She won’t look at me.
“But you said…”
“I know what I said. Never listen to me, I’m a liar.”
I walk over and put my arm around her shoulders and pull her against me. “You never lie. You just change your mind sometimes, and since you’re a chick, you’re entitled.”
“Ha! I stopped being a chick thirty years ago. I’m a hen now. A clucky, tired, angry old hen. But I got tired of you bugging me, so I ordered some of that garbage so you can see I’m right about it never selling.”
I laugh and let her go, moving over to the stack of boxes that are in the corner of the store. “You might be tired, but that’s only because you work too hard. You don’t get to claim henhood until you’re at least sixty so you have … twelve years left of being a chick.” I cut open the first box to reveal the beautiful dark, purplish-blue glass bottles inside. “Why don’t you stop going to the farmer’s market every weekend?” I ask. “You hardly make any money there anyway.” I hold the bottle up to the meager light coming in the front window and smile over the fact that I can barely see inside. Sunlight diminishes the power of the oils, and I’m glad to see this company knows its stuff.
“I like the farmer’s market,” she says. “It’s better to be outside than cramped up in here all the time.”
I can’t argue with her there. This place is dark and dreary, but Belinda has always fought with me over making any changes. Not that I’m Miss Interior Design or anything, but I do know the difference between a cave and a new-age shop. This place looks more like the former, even though the name on the sign outside says it’s Belinda’s New Age Wonders.
“Speaking of the market, I’m going to need you to cover for me in two weeks.”
I look up in surprise. This isn’t something I’m used to hearing; Belinda lives for the farmer’s market.
“Why? Where are you going?�
�
She acts like she’s busy rearranging pens on the counter and shrugs. “Nowhere special. Just my thirty-year high school reunion.”
I stop what I’m doing and clap while hopping a few times. “Oh my god, that’s so exciting!”
She tries to shrug it off, still pretending pen alignment matters. “It’s no big deal. I got cheap plane tickets and figured I could miss two market days.”
“Oh, Belinda, you’re finally getting out into the real world. That’s awesome. I’m so happy for you.”
She looks up with a scowl. “You act like I’m some kind of shut-in.” She folds both sides of her shawl tighter across her chest.
I put my hands on my hips and give her my best mom-look. “Name the last time you went anywhere but here, your apartment, or the market.”
“I go places.”
“Name one.”
“Just because I like to buy my veggies fresh…”
“Listen, you do all your shopping at the market. All of it, including your clothes and shoes. You’re like the poster-girl of clean living. But you need to get out more, I’ve been telling you that for years. There’s more to the world than hemp skirts and organic mushrooms.”
“You’ve only worked here for nine months so there’s no way you’ve told me anything for years.”
I wave my hand around, sending her negativity away. My bracelets jangle like I’m some kind of belly dancer. I love feeling like a belly dancer. Ching ching.
“Whatever. You know what I mean.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” she says, leaving the counter to go into the back room, her voice fading with the distance, “just don’t make any plans for the fifteenth and sixteenth, okay? You’ll be in charge of everything for two full days.”
I resist the urge to rub my palms together like an evil genius, but it’s hard. I’ve been wanting to get my hands on her stuff for years. Okay, so it’s only been nine months, but it’s been nine loooong months. All this place needs is a little freshening up, and the customers would come in droves. Then I’d have a job for life and not just one for as long as Belinda can survive. I seriously don’t know how she affords to pay me anything at all; even minimum wage is too much for what I see coming in the door.
“And don’t get any crazy ideas,” she shouts. “I know what you’re thinking and it’s not going to happen.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I say, trilling my words like a Disney princess as I line up essential oil bottles on a tiny shelf attached to the wall. I cannot keep the smile off my face. She is so going to love it when I’m done with the place. Love it. Love love.
Chapter Two
I’M STILL FEELING LIKE A Disney princess when I leave the store mid-afternoon and head to the subway. I only work half-days because that’s all Belinda can afford, and usually that stresses me out on account of the fact that I make almost no money, but today, I’m perfectly fine with it. The sun is shining, my favorite fountain is working and sending white water splashing all over the place, and …
“Shiiit!” I yelp, slipping on the sidewalk and nearly busting my ass in the process. I’m saved by my ninja-esque skills as I grab the edge of a garbage can affixed to the concrete next to the street. I hang there for a couple seconds until I can get my feet under me again.
“Oh, man, that’s some bad luck right there,” says a guy who’s walking past and looking at the reason for my near-fall.
I cringe as I stand up and realize I’ve slipped on a dog turd. Literally. It’s a poop right there on the ground.
“Who didn’t clean up after their dog?!” I yell, for some reason imagining that the perpetrator is still hanging around the scene of the crime, when I know perfectly well he stopped, plopped, and ran. “This isn’t Paris, you know!”
I’ve heard there’s dog poop all over the sidewalks there, but here in New York, people usually take care of their doggie-business. Unfortunately, my head was too full of dreams of re-designing Belinda’s place to realize where my feet were placing themselves.
“What the hell am I going to do now?”
I look down the sidewalk and notice a man with a hot dog cart up ahead, and an idea-lightbulb goes on above my head. Hot dog carts have lots of napkins. Score.
As I start to hobble over, an alarmed expression comes over the vendor’s face and he starts shaking his finger at me.
“Oh, no, lady, no no. No doggy stuff for me. No, not for me. Not for you. No, no.” For some reason his horrible accent is making this worse. His hand becomes a stop sign. “You go away!”
After trying to shame him with a mighty scowl that says Whatever happened to chivalry? and failing miserably, I change the trajectory of my hobble over towards the fountain, thinking maybe I can splash some water onto the ground and use it to clean my shoe.
When I get to it, I sit on its concrete edge and slip my shoes off. The sun is shining down on me, and even though the odor of horrible unspeakable things hovers, I’m reminded what a fabulous day it is. My bracelets give a little jangle and I angle my face up to the sky to soak up the sunlight.
A black man drifts by on old-school rollerskates with a boom box up at his ear, distracting me for a moment. I watch as he glides over the sidewalk. He has no shirt on, and if his shorts were any shorter, I’d be seeing the mighty motherlode. Thank God they’re not shorter, because his lode looks like it could be very mighty if the bulge is any indicator. He’s singing loudly in a falsetto voice.
“Walking on sunshine … Waaaooohhh … I’m walkin' on sunshine … waaaaoohhh…”
He’s gone before he finishes the rest of the song, but I know the tune and it restores my faith in today. I start humming it to myself as I turn around and put my feet in the fountain. My toes are way too hot and sweaty, so this water feels positively scrumptious. I lean my head back and close my eyes, letting the bliss overtake me.
“Hey, lady! Yo! You can’t put your dirty feet in the fountain!”
I ignore this person, whoever he is. I will not let him intrude on my rapture. Go. Away. Rude person.
“Hey! You hear me? Whatt’re you deaf or somethin’? I said you can’t put your dirty feet in the fountain!”
I stand up all of a sudden, my mood destroyed. All I wanted to do was cool my hot, sweaty, almost dog poopied feet off, and now this guy’s all up my ass about … what? Fountain trespass? Is there even such a thing? No, there’s not; not in my world, anyway.
I decide then and there that fountains should have people in them. What’s the use of all that cool water if you can’t even enjoy it? Eyeballs don’t need cool water — feet do. Cold water? Meet my feet. You’re welcome.
I take two steps out towards the middle of the thing. It has a mostly naked woman with a basket of something in her arms in the center with a bunch of fish dancing around her. The Apple logo floats in the background behind her, suspended on one side of the store’s giant glass entrance.
“Stop right there,” says the fat, bald-headed rent-a-cop, coming toward me through a quickly-gathering crowd of onlookers, hands on his belt at his hips. “I’m not jokin’. You’re playing with fire right now. I’m warnin’ you.”
I snort. Fire, my ass. I take several more steps in and can’t help but smile. Sometimes it feels really good to be bad. Okay, usually. It usually feels good to be bad.
He’s working up a serious sweat coming to the edge of the fountain. When he points at me, I can see big sweat stains from his pits, and the buttons going down his belly are straining to keep his shirt together. Uh-oh. Paul Blart, mall cop, is out to get me. So not scary.
“Get outta there right this second. I’m gonna count to five.”
I take another step towards the fountain lady.
“One!”
I take one more step. There are two higher levels of fountain between her and me. He wouldn’t dare follow me up there.
“Two! Don’t go there! Don’t you go there!” He’s eyeing the edge of the fountain, like he might be considering whether
he can lift his short, pudgy leg over it.
I lift my foot and hoist myself up to the second level.
“Three! You’re almost at the end of your rope! You’re gonna hang yourself, young lady!”
A couple of teenagers standing in the crowd start chanting: “Do it! Do it! Do it!”
Their enthusiasm for my possible future incarceration inspires me. I actually skip up to the next level higher, once more a Disney princess in my head. I might actually be Ariel since I’m nearly a mermaid at this point. Plus my bangles are jangling again. Ching ching-a-ring! I’m walking on sunshine, dammit!
Paul Blart, mall cop, is pretty much enraged at this point. “Four! Okay, you got one more number! One more, that’s it! And there ain’t gonna be no halvsies or three quarterzies either! After four, it’s five, and then you’re done.”
I take one more big step, the one that will get me all the way to the foot of the naked lady.
“Five!”
And my foot lands on something really hard and really sharp. Holy mother of …
“Aaaack!” I scream, yanking my leg up out of the water and away from the offending object. It crosses my mind that I’ve probably just cut my foot open on a broken bottle. Will I get tetanus? Toxic shock syndrome? Lose my foot? I’ll be unbalanced forever with only one foot! Argh! This must be my karmic punishment for breaking the law. When will I ever learn?
“You’re under arrest!” the rent-a-cop yells. “Citizen’s arrest for disturbing the peace!”
I try to regain my balance, but I can’t. My arms start pinwheeling out to the sides, but it does me no good. I’ve jumped back too far from the pain and now gravity has made me her bitch. I’m going down.
“Aaaaahhh!” The world literally turns upside down. Or does a one-eighty. I was never very good at math.
SPLASH!!
And what was once a very refreshing oasis of sanctuarial bliss has now become a very cold, very wet pool of regret, pain, and stumbling yet indignant rent-a-cops.
Chapter Three
