“It was an unfortunate incident. They’re not suing,” Ellie said between gritted teeth.
“That what you think?”
“It’s what I know.” Grace would be back in two weeks, and she’d have returned by now if both Ellie and her doctor permitted it.
“Strange. I had a word with her daughter, and she sounds keen on visiting a lawyer to settle the matter.”
The cold weight of apprehension dropped into the pit of Ellie’s stomach, practically dragging her gut to the floor. Her lips and fingers went numb. “You had no business going to them behind my back. What the fuck is wrong with you? Get out of my shop. Get out now. This is harassment, and I’m sick and tired of you coming in here starting trouble.”
“You sell it to me now, and I can make this problem go away,” Chad continued smoothly, as if he didn’t even hear her.
The bell chimed again. Ellie’s gaze flew to the door and locked on the golden stare of her man, only he wasn’t looking at her, his eyes set in a face contorted into a mask of rage. He stalked over, black boots thundering on the tile, and she knew before he opened his mouth why Sam had taken their picture.
Shit.
“The hell are you doing around here, Brunswick?” Griffin demanded.
“Having a civil discourse with this young businesswoman.”
“From what I heard, you aren’t welcome here. You need to go.”
Chad glanced from Griffin to Ellie and cocked a brow. “How can you possibly run a business when your boyfriend has to come fight your battles, Ellie? Think about that. And good luck with that suit. My offer is on the table until Friday, and then I suppose you’ll just have to handle it on your own.”
Ellie’s face flushed. “I have never needed a man to fight my battles. Get out of my shop. Now.”
When Chad hesitated, lingering just a few steps from the counter, Griffin stepped up within arm’s distance of him. They weren’t evenly matched—Griffin had six inches on him, and a whole lot of breadth, his shoulders broader and biceps larger. Chad looked small and harmless by comparison. “Step out now, or I’ll escort you out.”
“Ah, abusing your badge for your lady’s honor. Well. We’ll see what Mayor Pemberton thinks of this,” Chad said snidely. Then he vacated the premises, and everyone seemed to take one collective breath.
“Oh my God,” Sam said. “That was tense.”
“It took every ounce of my composure not to pick him up by the scruff of his neck and set him outside,” Luke said, groaning into one palm. “Fuck.”
“Griffin,” Ellie said quietly. “Come to my office please.”
The moment she had him inside and shut the door, she spun on him. “How dare you come into my shop and behave like I’m some damsel to save?”
“I… What?”
“Did Sam call you?”
“She sent me a text message because I asked her to let me know if Chad Asswick showed his face around here again to bother you.”
“That little traitor,” Ellie muttered, slamming one fist into her other palm. “This ends now. You will not show up to rescue me the moment someone says I’m in an argument.”
His mouth opened and shut a few times before he found his voice. “You’re seriously upset with me?”
“If I want the support of the police, I can call them on my own.”
“Then maybe that’s what you shoulda done instead of letting that asshole swagger into your shop and to your home whenever he has it in his head to bully you! You’re my woman, and I’ll be damned if someone harasses you when I can do something about it.”
* * *
The moment the words left his mouth, Griffin knew he’d fucked up. Ellie’s expression frosted over.
“I can’t believe you’re pulling this macho, overprotective bullshit because a man dared to challenge me. You think I can’t take care of myself? I have managed for three fucking years just fine on my own without the oversight and protection of a man, Griffin Montgomery, and I sure don’t need you entering my store and doing it for me.”
Griffin grunted. He hated that she’d busted him red-handed just as much as he hated that smarmy bastard standing across the counter, staring her down with a threat in his gaze.
“I’m not some possession for you guard and protect like a dog growling over a bone. I’m a woman with my own mind, and I know how to get rid of a man if I need to.”
“I never said you couldn’t, El.”
“Then treat me like one.” She sighed. “I don’t want to fight with you over Chad.”
“I don’t want to fight with you either.”
He just wished she’d trust him when it came to a guy who looked as sincere and trustworthy as a fox in a henhouse.
Something about Chad Brunswick didn’t settle right with him.
16
Ellie hadn’t slept well the previous night, spending the scant hours between Emma’s bed time and her usual arrival to Glazed and Confused staring at the ceiling and wondering what was so bad about depending on another person again.
Because sometimes people leave you, she thought.
She’d depended on Greg. He’d been their sole provider. Her beloved, the father of her child.
He’d been her everything, and one accident had torn a jagged hole in their lives it’d taken her three years to repair. Men weren’t permanent fixtures in one’s life. They came and they went, and sometimes it was death that took them.
The moment she began to rely on Griffin Montgomery, she’d be dooming herself to potentially losing him too.
Two days had passed since the confrontation with Chad Montgomery, and she was still waiting for a lawyer to contact her on Grace’s behalf, too afraid to hire the attorney she kept on retainer to handle the mess between them.
Of course, that would be the adult action to take, which meant she had no choice but to make the call Monday morning.
Around nine she started to sag from lack of sleep, sitting on the stool behind the counter with her head propped on her arms. When the bell chimed, Ellie jerked upright to the sight of Grace and her granddaughter.
“Hi there!” she chirped, putting on her friendly face.
“Oh, good gracious, child, you should be at home. Are you sick?” Grace asked with concern.
Ellie’s smile weakened. “Just a little tired. I didn’t sleep well.” Worried about being sued.
“Oh, goodness. I sure hope I can come in again soon.”
“Grandma says she misses the bakery so much nothing would satisfy her for lunch but one of your croissandwiches,” Sofia said. “Plus she wanted me to try one.”
“Luke’s the croissandwich pro,” Ellie said, chuckling. “What’ll it be?”
“Two with bacon,” Grace replied. “And we’ll take two sweet teas and a—”
“Unsweet for me,” Sofia cut in. “And technically you should also have yours unsweet. So much sugar.”
“Bleh. You won’t see unsweetened tea touching these lips.” Grace sniffed in disdain.
Ellie laughed. “All right. That all?”
“That’s all.”
Grace’s smile seemed too genuine for a woman planning to squeeze her for a few thousand dollars, minimum, but Ellie twisted around and called toward the back, “Luke, two bacon, egg, and cheese croissandwiches please! Fresh off the grill!”
“You got it!” he called back.
“It’ll be about five minutes, but you know that. So, um…” Ellie stuffed her anxiety where it belonged and waited for her disobedient heart to relax. “You really do want to come back?”
“Of course. I love it here. I told you that. It’s so dull at home.”
“Um…well.” Now or never, girl. Just out with it. Just get it out. “A man came by and suggested that you were planning to sue me for what happened. I totally understand it if that’s the case, and I probably shouldn’t even talk about this before—”
“Sue you?” Grace’s stunned expression spoke volumes. “That’s ridiculous. I wouldn’t dare do
that. I only hoped I hadn’t lost your trust in me, and that you’d let me resume opening the bakery some mornings.”
“It’s all she can talk about,” Sofia interjected.
“Who said such a silly thing?”
“Remember, Mama did mention you should keep your legal options open.”
“And I told her no,” Grace insisted.
“I know.”
“Well. I’m glad you two came in. I was going to lose a lot of sleep until Monday worrying about this.”
“I will get it to you in writing if I have to. I don’t want to sue. I just want to work and have a good time. I like when my friends visit me here, and I enjoy spending time with you.” Grace came behind the counter and hugged her, and for the first time in months, since the day she put her husband in the ground, she finally cried and let it out, exhausted with being the infinitely strong and tireless single mother and Wonder Woman.
“Shit,” Luke said. “Uh.”
Ellie raised her face from Grace’s shoulder and saw him standing there with the tray.
“Go home, El. I got this.”
“I can’t leave you here alone until Margie arrives, Luke.”
“You can. I’ll finish this up.”
“Listen to him,” Grace said. “Go home, Ellie. You’re tired. Listen to the advice you gave to me and go home to rest, baby.”
“I…” Am so damn tired, she thought, protest dying on her lips. She let Grace take off her apron, mumbled what sounded like a goodbye, and headed outside with her keys.
The moment Ellie slid into the driver’s seat, her phone rang. She peered down at Griffin’s number and hit the accept button.
“Can you come down to the station for a moment, Ellie?”
“Sure. I was just leaving early. What is it? Have you…?” She swallowed, mouth feeling like she’d stuffed it with cotton. “Is it news about my stuff? About Grace?”
“News about Grace for sure. Maybe about your stuff too.”
* * *
“I don’t believe it,” Ellie hissed, staring at the screen. Rage thundered between her ears, and her pulse thumped wildly in her neck.
“I didn’t either at first, but my friend sent this shit back to me, and I felt like a fucking dumbass. All these times we stared at the footage, and the answer was right in front of us. We just had no reason to suspect it.”
Griffin ran the video back and played it again. In the lower corner of the screen, a gray streak shot across the floor. The snippet of video played again, blown up and magnified. In the next video, they saw it again, but highlighted in bright blue like a hockey highlight of the puck. It ran beneath her office door. Less than a minute later, the footage went blank.
“Now, watch the upper left corner of the screen very closely before Grace goes down,” Griff said.
They watched again. The mouse was there, zipping by. It left the screen, then suddenly the man in black was there, lunging into frame and crashing a blackjack against the back of Grace’s head. Ellie flinched.
“It’s a shifter. A fucking mouse shifter. I’ve already asked the town council for their help. It’s likely they’ll give it. No one wants a criminal in the shifter community.”
“Especially one misusing their gift to assault old ladies.”
“And rob homes,” Griffin said tersely. “Hopefully Hepburn gets back to me today or tomorrow with what I asked for. If there are any mouse shifters in the records, I’ll question them. We’ll have a better idea of the type of evidence to seek, too.”
“Oh, thank God. Do you really think this guy robbed me, too? And wrecked my home?”
“I have a hunch that he did. But you know, even then, it didn’t have the feeling of a robbery. It felt too personal for that. A burglar wants to get in and out. Wants to get the job done. This guy lingered to deface the property he couldn’t carry. This wasn’t just a robbery. This is all personal, Ellie.”
17
Having Griffin’s support meant everything to her. She’d crashed for a few hours that evening before heading into the bakery the following morning, a new determination in her. Griffin feared the perpetrator would make another appearance while she was alone in the bakery, but she didn’t fear him.
Whoever the guy was, she wouldn’t allow him to win. Wouldn’t allow him to make her afraid of her own business and the place she’d built with love.
As she kneaded the dough, she got into the zone and let her imagination take her far away. Griffin wanted to take her and Emma to Disney World that summer after Maddie and Dean’s wedding, and she hadn’t made up her mind yet if she could leave the bakery for a week.
Of course I can. That’s why I’m hiring more people. I can’t do it all.
Ellie smiled. For the first time in three years, she could finally admit that accepting help wasn’t admitting weakness.
A boot sole touched the ground not so far behind her.
Acute shifter hearing determined everything in one sound. A man. A big man. She didn’t need to see his reflection in the pan in front of her to know he was coming in slowly with a blasted blackjack in his hand.
Ellie’s thoughts fled to the pistol less than twenty yards away. A witch could have teleported into the storefront to grab her purse and handgun. Of course, a witch wouldn’t need a handgun. She’d wiggle her magic fingers, cast a hex, and her assailant would piss himself.
Unfortunately, Ellie was no witch, and phasing through walls wasn’t a swan maiden specialty. She dashed for the front, where her purse sat on the counter, but the intruder followed hot on her heels. He caught her by her bun as she reached the door between the kitchen and bakery, using it as a handle and yanking her backwards. Ellie kicked and she fought, driving her elbow backward into her assailant’s stomach. He gasped, and she heard the breath leave his lungs.
They were evenly matched when it came to size; she a plump swan maiden, her attacker a man under six feet tall. Kneading dough and working in a kitchen had toned her muscles, making her strong.
And at six-foot-one, with shifter genes improving her strength, she overpowered him with ease. Her fists flew, one hard punch after the next, crushing her knuckles into whatever soft tissue she found. She hit his nose, then his mouth, half-blinded by her own tears. His teeth scraped her knuckles, and his fingers gouged her skin.
But Ellie fought wildly as any swan would while under attack, kicking and screaming.
He grabbed her, arms around her waist, and he lifted her off the floor.
“The fuck you don’t!” she shrieked at the top of her lungs before grasping mentally onto the small garter of her feathers she wore beneath her jeans. Would it be enough?
It was more than enough. The swan maiden magic came rushing at her like she’d donned the full cloak, transforming her in an instant.
Then her attacker had forty pounds of furious, irate swan in his arms, and the joints of her wings were far more powerful than her human fists. He shouted in surprise and tried to drop her, but she was fast and vicious, angry as a goose pursuing a meddling human at the lake.
All of her fury welled to the surface. Indignation that he’d dared to unlawfully enter her business, outrage that’d hurt Grace. Unbridled, white-hot rage that he’d violated her home and taken a beloved gift from her child.
“Fuck! Stop, Ellie! Stop!”
She knew that voice.
And she did not stop, even when she heard the front door bursting open and Griffin charging inside with one of his officers.
* * *
Ellie did not need saving. Griffin knew that before he arrived, but when he stepped in to find Chad Brunswick bleeding on the floor behind the counter, still in the ridiculous horse disguise, he thought the startled expression on the horse mask fitting for the situation.
The fucker saw Griff and transformed, trying to flee as a mouse, but Ellie was faster than that. Her bill darted out fast as a cobra, and she grabbed him off the floor. Griffin watched her fling him into the wall where he struck it and lay stunned.
Breathing, but stunned. He fell out of the transformation, groggily muttering gibberish at them in his human form.
“Guess you didn’t need me, after all.”
He really wanted to take her into his arms and hug her, but Ellie wasn’t a woman who appeared in need of consoling. She was spitting mad, feathers all ruffled. There was blood on her white feathers, but it didn’t belong to her.
That’s all that mattered.
Ellie turned human again and stared down at the unconscious mouse-man. Her breaths came rushed and heavy, her cheeks flushed red with fury. “How did you know I needed you?”
“A hunch. Was driving by for my usual patrol and saw it all through the glass.” Griffin aimed a weak smile at her. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to read this fucker his rights.”
It didn’t take long to haul Chad to his feet, handcuff him, and get him into the squad car.
It took even less time to slam him into a cell with silver-etched charms scribed into the bars. The metal destabilized shifter abilities, and he’d never be able to pass through it. Magic-users were useful for a lot of things, and controlling shifters was one of them.
Not that he suspected Chad would try to escape when there was nowhere, no shifter community, where he could flee.
Griffin was positive he’d try to cut a plea deal with the DA, and that was fine with him if it meant he’d rolled over on his conspirators and Ellie had a chance at recovering her belongings.
By the time he finished putting the fear of God into the crook—and definitely thought he would give up Ellie’s personal belongings—it was long after sunrise.
Which was why he didn’t expect her to walk into his office and sit on the edge of his desk as he completed his paperwork.
“Shouldn’t you be in bed?”
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