Eight months of marriage, and I saw something I had never seen in Roman’s eyes. A tear formed that he had to wipe away. His lips quivered, like he wanted to say something, but instead, he pulled his father into a strong man-hug. A few pats on each other’s backs, and Roman stepped away right after he whispered, “I’m glad you’re here.”
As Joe closed up the storage unit, Roman nodded back towards the main entrance where a little building stood with an employee inside. “I need to talk to someone about my unit. I don’t know which of these it could be.”
Walking towards the little guard’s reception area, I noticed the glass door on the back of the building, and my mind began turning. Spell Solutions had said they delivered my items to the back door here on Segway Street. None of these storage units had a back door, but the main entrance did.
The door opened with the ringing of a bell. Roman smiled and stepped up to the desk. “Excuse me, but my name’s Roman Sunward and I just discovered I have a storage unit here.” He slipped his photo ID across the desk. “Could you just let me know which unit is mine?”
The man wearing a dark green security shirt typed a few clumsy strokes into the computer. “You’re unit 117.”
He nodded. “Thank you.”
“Anything else?” The guard asked.
Roman was about to shake his head, but I interrupted, still turning things over in my mind. I took Roman’s spot at the desk. “Do you get deliveries here?”
“From time to time,” the guard said.
“Do you have a log? Track them?”
He shook his head. “No. We just keep them here at the desk until they’re claimed.”
“What about a big delivery?” Like boxes and boxes of merchandise.
“Same. We keep it here. Are you looking for something?” he asked.
I nodded. “A few weeks ago, probably half a dozen boxes came from Spell Solutions.”
“Yeah, I remember that delivery. Nobody claimed it.”
“Do you know where it went?”
He shrugged. “The city took care of it.”
“The city?” Like the Mayor? My mouth dried. I was close…real close.
“Yeah. The city owns this building. They probably threw the boxes in the spare units…and if nobody claims them in a month or so, they’ll probably be disposed of or auctioned off.” He looked over my shoulder to where Roman stood. “Are they yours?”
I snapped my head around and glared at my hubby, hoping he’d get the point.
“Yes. They’re ours. Ettie owns Ettie’s Enchanted Effects downtown and the items accidentally got delivered here.”
The guard stood up and pulled a ring of keys off his belt. “Well, let’s take a look. If they’re yours, that’d be great for you to get them out of here. Give me a minute and then meet me down at unit 302.”
Perfect. Roman could confirm…and show me…why he still had a storage unit, and then meet the guard to find my merchandise…and hopefully, confirm how it ended up here.
Chapter Ten
We walked down to Unit 117 that was in Roman’s name.
“I swear that I had no idea I had this unit,” Roman said. “All I did was call the desk and reserve a unit for her…I just needed Marie gone and out of my life. She was making me feel…desperate for love, I guess.” He laughed, and my stomach turned. Was that why he had latched on so tightly to me these past weeks? Was he feeling desperate for love? “I didn’t even know if Marie ever actually used it. I never paid a single bill. Let’s see what’s inside.” He looked around, and started to snap his fingers, but I stopped him.
“Isn’t that breaking and entering?” I asked.
Roman arched an eyebrow. “How could it be? My name is on the lease.” And with a snap, the three of us stood inside a building completely dark. I waved my hand to fill the room with enchanted lights.
This unit was filled with items similar to Joe’s, only dumpier. A worn-out sofa, a few lamps that were missing shades, a few bookcases, and piles of old cardboard boxes.
“It’s all junk. Why keep a storage unit filled with garbage?”
“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Joe paged through a row of dresses on a rack. “It does appear these items belong to a female.”
My chest hurt, thinking that I accused Roman of hiding things from me. There was nothing of importance here.
“Do you think I’ll ever fully trust people again?” I sat down on an old armchair and sighed.
“You will,” Joe said. “If an old fuddy-duddy like me can start to change my beliefs, I know you’re capable of it, too.” Joe turned away, walking around the unit.
Roman put his hand on top of mine on the armchair’s armrest. “We just need to put an end to all this mystery surrounding us. Imagine how much more time we’d have together, if we weren’t so focused on work, the shop, and whoever’s sabotaging us.”
I turned his words over in my head. “Do you think I’m too focused on the shop?”
“I’m not going to lie,” Roman said. “The past three months have been harder than I expected. I didn’t realize how quickly I got used to coming home from work and always having you there. How much I enjoyed spending our weekends together. Now, we barely get any time together.”
Barely any time? That’s funny, because I thought Roman was always around. I tried to turn it around from his perspective, and he was right. All the quality time we used to spend watching old movies, making dinner, and hiking in his woods were gone. I lived, breathed, and slept Ettie’s Enchanted Effects. And it was worse now that someone was out to make me fail. It made me have to spend twice as much time ensuring I succeeded.
“Is that why you’ve been clingy?” I asked.
“‘Clingy’?” Roman laughed. “I wouldn’t call trying to spend time with you, clingy.”
“Yeah, but it’s not the best time together. I’m preoccupied with the store and can’t give you the attention you deserve.”
“I’m just happy to spend any time with you.” And I imagined, he feared we’d grow apart like he had in his last relationship. What an idiot I had been, missing the warning signs.
I shook my head. “That’s not fair to either of us. At this point forward, we need to make it a point to have more date nights.” I ran my hands through my hair. “In fact, there’s a couple’s trivia night coming up down at BB’s. I’d love for you to be my partner.” I wasn’t going to participate, as Roman wasn’t the best at trivia, but I realized it didn’t matter if we flopped terribly, it was about the time together. “And I think we need to make it a point to be better at communicating with each other. It seems like we both keep trying to fix things without telling each other what’s even going on.”
Roman gripped my hand and pulled me to my feet. “That sounds about right. Date night would be a perfect avenue to both spend time together and to make sure we have a chance to chat about what’s on our minds.” He brushed his hand against my cheek and leaned down and kissed me.
Joe cleared his throat. “I’m still here. And we should get to unit 302. The guard’s probably waiting for us.”
We laughed, but gave a nod, letting Joe snap his fingers and move us outside unit 302.
The security guard met Roman, Joe, and me outside, jumping nearly a foot off the ground when the three of us appeared out of nowhere.
“Sorry,” I said. “We didn’t mean to sneak up on you.”
The man’s chest filled with a deep breath, then he slowly blew it out. “I should have expected it. I knew the three of you were witches. I mean…I’ve heard of Ettie and Roman. The whole town has…and I assumed,” he looked at Joe, “that you were a relation of some kind.”
I glanced at Joe, but he didn’t correct the guard. Maybe he was truly changing his ways.
The guard stuck his key into the padlock on the door. “The city has five units here that they store their supplies and unused equipment in. Unclaimed items get tossed in this particular unit until they’re claimed.”
/> As soon as I stepped inside and saw the pile of boxes with the Spell Solutions logo, I knew I had found my items. “This is it! I’m so happy since my shelves are as bare as a naked mole rat’s back. This merchandise, along with the pickup I made at Magic Express earlier today, and I’m back in business!”
“For how long?” Joe asked. “You need to figure out who’s out to get you. Who’s so against magic kind that they’d go to this extreme?” He rubbed his head and whispered out of the guard’s earshot. “If we can figure it out, Watersedge might be a place I can call home.”
“I think you’re already calling it home,” I playfully replied. “I’ll get Officer Gates on it.” I pulled out my phone, realizing that I missed a text from her. I opened it, reading that Gabby had already spoken with Natalia about her hamster collection. “Ugh.” My shoulders slumped and my stomach seemed to fall to the floor.
“What’s wrong?” Roman rubbed my back, ever so gently.
“Gabby says Natalia has been out of the hamster business for months already. She confirmed the bill of sale of all her hamster items, but you’ll never guess who bought her stuff!” As I read the name, it all clicked in place.
“Mayor Raab?” Roman said.
I looked up. “Yes, how’d you know?”
He pointed to the far corner of the storage unit we stood in. “Because there are about fifty hamster cages right over there.”
“Whose unit is this again?” I asked the security guard.
“It’s vacant, so the city uses it for storage.”
“When you say the ‘city’ who do you mean?”
“I don’t know. The Mayor used to use this to hold all her campaign items. Since then, it’s been a hodgepodge.”
“Does Mayor Raab still come down here?”
The guard nodded.
That was all the info I needed. I snapped a photo of the cages as well as my boxes of merchandise and sent them to Gabby. At this point, I didn’t want to touch anything. It was time for the police to finish their investigation.
Chapter Eleven
Two hours after discovering the hamster cages as well as my missing shipment down at Dockside Storage, Roman, Joe, and I had put all the merchandise I had picked up from Magic Express onto the shelves and I was dead tired. It had been a long, long day.
Gabby, dressed in all her officer gear, pounded on the glass of my shop’s front door. When I opened it, she picked up a box beside her. “I thought you might be needing some inventory.” She carried in one of the boxes from Spell Solutions. “The others are on the sidewalk beside my squad.”
“Nobody needs to hurt themselves by carrying them,” I said with a smile. I snapped my fingers, lifting the boxes in the air and having them magically float inside. “Have you found anything out yet?”
“Of course. You do have the best police force in Watersedge on the case.”
Roman laughed. “The only police force in Watersedge.”
“Well, Officer Duncan and I went down to Mayor Raab’s house to discuss the findings, and guess what happened?”
“She admitted everything?” I dryly chuckled.
“No…but it’s hard to deny when we found evidence on her property.”
“What kind of evidence?”
“The enchanted pencil kind.” Officer Gates pulled a lime green pencil that had been snapped in half out of her pocket. “And the precinct got a search warrant and checked on Mayor Raab’s finances. She had purchased something from the magic web right when this all started going down. When she was approached about the findings, she asked to see her lawyer. I think we’re close to getting her to admit it.”
Roman shook his head. “That’s sad. Her entire campaign and future were thrown away because she doesn’t like magic.”
“Remember she lost a child to magic addiction. Her son had been purchasing cheap, bogus spells online and had died because of one. That’s enough to fuel even the slightest evil seed,” I said.
“Well, let me help you get these items on the shelf and you’ll be ready for business tomorrow.” Gabby opened the box she had carried in.
“I don’t open until Wednesday,” I corrected.
“Well, I’ve been hearing the talk of the town. They’re all desperate for some type of item from Ettie’s. No sense in keeping them waiting.”
And Roman and I could use the cash to pay our bills. I think special Tuesday hours this week were appropriate…but I’d close early so I could be home by the time Roman got out of work. We were long overdue for some quality time together.
I swirled my straw in my virgin Bloody Mary across a high-top table from Roman in the back of BB’s, waiting for the couple’s trivia to start. Gabby and Alma joined us as soon as they arrived.
“No Norm tonight?” I looked at Gabby, then I turned to Alma. “And where’s your hubby?”
“Remember that Norm hates trivia?” Gabby said. “You’re lucky Roman loves it.”
I was lucky Roman did anything to make me happy.
“Fergus is at home, doing the same ol’, same ol’. Watching the baby and working on his ‘baby’,” Alma said. “And who says that couple’s trivia has to be married couples?”
She wrapped her arm around Gabby. “There’s nothing wrong with attending trivia with one of your BFF’s for a partner. Besides, if we win the little trip to Vegas, I wouldn’t want to go with Fergus, anyway!”
“So, did you hear?” Gabby asked with a sly smile like I should know something.
“Hear what?” I asked.
“Mayor Raab stepped down from office today. She still hasn’t admitted anything, but we have so much evidence on her, there’s no chance she wasn’t the guilty party,” Gabby said.
Mayor Raab stepped down? My heart fluttered from a combination of excitement and guilt. Sure, it wasn’t my fault Mayor Raab had stooped so low due to her hatred of magic, but opening Ettie’s Enchanted Effects had put her over the edge.
Beneath the table, Roman squeezed my hand. “It’s not your fault. She should have never been Mayor. With people like her in power, this world will never be a safe place for our children.”
Yes. Our children and the future of magic kind. The reason I first married Roman. I took a deep breath. Maybe with all this drama behind us, we could focus on actually starting a family.
Gabby pulled me out of my thoughts. “And how’s your shop? No more attacks?”
I shook my head. “No more attacks. Everything is going great. It was my best week on record and I already had to reorder, as all my inventory depleted quickly. News about me being sabotaged has brought lots of people out to show their support.” As I was speaking, my eyes roamed to another familiar face, but this one caused my heart to beat frantically. Brittany and a man I didn’t quite recognize were heading right towards me.
Gabby and Alma noticed and stepped away, making room for Brittany.
She didn’t waste any time. “I owe you an apology.”
My jaw must have fallen on the table, and I know I swallowed wrong, as I had to cough to clear my lungs. “An apology?” I croaked.
She nodded, not a bit of smugness on her face. “It’s no secret that I don’t like magic, but I had no right to take my prejudice as far as I did. It’s just when Matthew grew a tail, I couldn’t see past the one family I knew who could be responsible. I never thought somebody else could have done it to set you up. Never even thought anyone else could curse a child…especially not Matilda. She, of all people, should have known how crazy a curse on your flesh and blood would make you.”
My shoulders sagged. There was a lot of tension between us, but we were neighbors. As much as I wanted to not accept her apology, I knew I had to, otherwise I’d be holding on to my stubbornness as long as Joe had done with Roman…and all that did was hurt both of them. “I’m sure Mayor Raab cursed the children because she knew that would be the most effective way to persuade the citizens of Watersedge to hate witches as much as she did. But, Brittany, know that I’d never curse anyone,”
I said. “Especially not a child.”
Brittany nodded. “I realize that. And if it’s any consolation, someone worse could have rented the place next to my church…like PETA.”
I held in my laugh, not sure if she was being funny or not.
“Have you met my husband, yet?” Brittany asked. “Reverend Jacob Fleming?”
I eyed the man next to her. Thick glasses and red hair. I could see the resemblance with his sister Natalia. No wonder she ended up in Watersedge. Roman and I shook his hand.
“I’m sorry about my sister. She’s not ready to apologize yet, but I’m sure it’ll come. She’ll warm up to you…or she’ll be forced to leave town like what happened in Crystal Caverns, but that’s not our problem to solve.” No, I guess it wasn’t. As long as Natalia wasn’t sabotaging me, she could go on with her prejudice. All it did was eat at her. “During the coffee hour after our Sunday service, I hear great things about you and Ettie’s. You’ve made a lot of difference in the lives of the people here in Watersedge…and not with any sort of magic. Your people skills are amazing.”
“People skills?” I laughed. “You must mean my training as a social worker.”
“Ahh,” Reverend Fleming said with a raised eyebrow. “Makes a lot of sense. Well, we’re happy to have you.”
Roman and I finished saying our pleasantries with Brittany and her husband, and they settled down at the table next to us.
That was progress.
Chapter Twelve
“The three trivia teams entering our final round, eligible to win the five-night stay in the beautiful Las Vegas suite that was donated to us from the casino resort—be wary, they only want your money—are…” The announcer pushed a button which filled BB’s with a drumroll. “Better Late than Pregnant.” The room applauded as a couple I had seen once or twice in Ettie’s stood up and cheered with the crowd for themselves. “And team number two is Faith Factor.” Brittany and her hubby stood up and clapped. “And our final qualifying team is…The Quizzards of Oz!”
Magic Underground: The Complete Collection (Magic Underground Anthologies Book 4) Page 225