by Amy Boyles
When I reached Bender’s, I threw the truck into park and went inside. So Peachwood had an adorable main street called Peach Street. The light poles were painted a pretty peach hue, and the awnings of the stores were fun, springlike colors—robin’s-egg blue, lemon yellow, coral. It was simply a picturesque scene.
Bender’s sat slap in the middle of the street. The bed and breakfast rested atop the store. Colorful paint stripes ran straight down the brick face, making the business look whimsical.
I had just tugged on the front door when I heard a shout—something between a scream and a yell.
Oh no, Rufus had remembered his true identity and he had attacked Julie! That was my first thought, so I rushed inside, arms raised, ready and willing to take out the amnesiac wizard.
But when I got inside, breathless and absolutely panic-stricken, I discovered Rufus standing in the middle of the shop, a gaggle of children and their mothers surrounding him.
His arms were raised, and a sneer twisted his face. Fear rose in me, and I had my arm out, ready to touch him with a burst of magic. To heck with my secret being discovered. It didn’t matter if anyone knew.
I had never even told Sadie. When she asked about my past, my only response had been that I had made myself available to someone that I shouldn’t have, and had gotten involved in something I regretted. Which was why she had told me that night in the bar not to get involved.
But as I prepared to attack Rufus, he growled at the children and they…giggled? “That was when the hairy monster,” he explained, “got a horrible thorn in his foot. Do you know what happened next?”
One of the boys shouted, “He got a tummy ache!”
A little girl said, “His foot hurt.”
Rufus pointed at her. “That’s right. His foot hurt.”
I stared, stunned. Rufus wasn’t hurting the kids. Instead he was telling them a story—a children’s story—and they were eating it up.
He spoke with gusto and drama. The children laughed and clapped, happy at the entertainment.
I stiffened. This was only a facade. The real Rufus lay hidden deep inside that man.
A voice spoke beside me. “Morning, Clem.”
I smiled, the spell on me broken. “Morning, Julie.”
Besides Sadie, Julie Bender was the next closest friend I had that was my age. Her light brown skin always seemed to gleam under the lights, and her chocolate-colored eyes met me with kindness.
She handed me a paper cup. “Here’s your mocha. Chocolate, breakfast of champions.”
I tipped my head. “Thank you. What do I owe you?”
“Nothing.” She nodded to Rufus appreciatively. “He’s been entertainment and help enough.”
My jaw dropped. “Ru—I mean, John?”
She nodded. “Yep. Helped me serve the customers this morning, and now he’s entertaining the kids. Look at how they’re smiling. They all love him.”
I glared at Rufus. Yes, they loved him, but they didn’t know the real man behind the face. Underneath that skin lay a stone-cold villain, one that I had to keep the town safe from.
Chapter 10
I eyed Rufus as he finished up the story. The children, bless them, loved him. The moms, naive as all get-out, loved Rufus as well. Several approached after he finished, batting eyelashes and touching his arm gingerly.
Rufus, for what it was worth, glanced up and met my gaze. Hopefully he enjoyed the glare I threw him thanks to the deep hatred that I felt in my heart.
As one of the mothers spoke to him, he nodded absently, his gaze lingering on me. A tightness in my chest uncoiled, and heat rushed to my cheeks. I glanced away, annoyed.
“You might have a hard time getting John away from all those women,” Julie said. “I’m sure they’ve heard of his predicament and how he’s lost his memory.”
“I’m sure,” I nearly growled.
Julie lifted her brows. “Jealous?”
“What? Me?” I spat. “You’re kidding, right? Of him? A man who wears leather pants in a small town?”
She winked. “Very rock star, don’t you think?”
I sputtered, annoyed that I’d even mentioned it.
“Clem, I’m glad I found you.”
Shane Prader strode up, concern washing over his face. Before I could greet him, he wrapped me in a hug. It took all my balance to keep from sloshing hot mocha on him.
“Ooh,” I said.
He crushed me against his rock. Hard. Body. Wow. “I heard about Sadie. Are you okay?”
My heart felt like it would explode. “I’m dealing with it.”
Shane released me from the hug. “It’s just so unexpected. An accident?”
I dropped my voice. “That’s what Chief Sluggs thinks, but I don’t believe it.”
He nodded. “Yeah, Sluggs has a habit of labeling every suspicious death an accident.”
“He does?” This was news to me. “You’re kidding.”
Shane scrubbed a hand down his cheek. “Wish I was, but he’s known for doing that.”
“And he still gets re-elected?” I asked, incredulous.
Julie handed Shane a cup of black coffee, which he thanked her for. “No, I’m not, and yes, he still manages, election cycle after cycle, to remain in office. I think folks feel bad for him and hope he’ll die during his next term.”
I choked on a sip of mocha, nearly gagging with laughter.
Shane patted my back. “You okay?”
It took a second for me to regain my composure, but I managed nonetheless. “Yeah, I guess what you said shocked me, is all.”
Shane’s lips formed a grim line. “So you don’t think her death was accidental?”
I gripped his arm. “Shane, we found her smothered in poured concrete. There’s no way it was an accident.”
His brow stitched together. “We?”
My heart dropped. Great. Now I had the pleasure of explaining about Rufus. “Um, yeah. After I left you, I went for a drive and wound up finding this guy who’s suffering from amnesia. Anyway, to make a long story short, I ended up taking him to the barn so he could sleep there.”
Confusion filled Shane’s face, and my heart sped up. “You went out to the barn?”
Mayday! Mayday! Warning, I shouted inside my head. You are ruining it with Shane! Salvage the situation or he’ll never ask you on another date and you’ll never have the chance to kiss him!
I rubbed his arm and batted my lashes. “Did I tell you what a great time I had last night?”
His lips coiled into a cocksure grin. “Did I tell you what a great time I had?”
We stared at each other, and I felt the tension rise in the room and the humidity thicken. It was mine and Shane’s energy, our inner desires for each other filling the room with electricity.
“Excuse me.”
The rising energy dissolved as my gaze flickered to Rufus, who stood in front of us.
“How are you this morning, Clementine?” he asked casually as if he hadn’t interrupted what could become the most significant relationship I’d had in forever.
I glared hot coals at Rufus. “I’m great. Saw you enjoying yourself with the children. Telling them a story.”
He dismissed me with a wave. “It was only a fable that I improvised. They thought I was visiting from another country.” Rufus glanced down at his clothes. “I suppose dressing the way that I do lends itself to that.”
My gaze absently cut to his crotch, and I wanted to scream. When I glanced up into his eyes, amusement filled them.
I could strangle Rufus for so many reasons, but the main one right now being the fact that my cheeks burned something fierce.
Bless Shane for extending his hand. “Shane Prader. How do you do?”
Rufus shook it. “I would introduce myself, but alas, I have forgotten who I am and am relying on the hospitality of strangers until I’m able to remember. However, for the time being you can call me John.”
Shane frowned. “Maybe you should let the doc check you
out.”
“I’m afraid my malady might have a different cause,” Rufus said.
Shane stared at him, uncertain what to say, so I quickly swooped in.
“Well, it’s been great seeing you, Shane, but I’ve got to get John out of here. We think that if he can walk around, he’ll remember who he is.” I grabbed Rufus by the arm and started to drag him away. “Listen, call me, okay?”
When we were outside, I dropped Rufus’s arm as if it were on fire.
“Did I embarrass you?” he asked, his eyes glinting.
I could have killed him. “Your malady might have a different cause? What is that, Middle English?”
Rufus’s cheeks tinged red. “I apologize if my phrasing is off-putting.”
“It is,” I growled. “It’s very off-putting.” We reached my truck. “Come on. Let’s go.”
Rufus studied me. “I’m sorry about what happened to your friend. Are you sure you should be out and about? Maybe you should be at home, resting. I think that Shane fellow would love to bring you some chicken noodle soup.”
I stopped, my fingers curled on the door handle. I stared at Rufus over the hood. His face filled with sympathy, and it irked me. Yes, it did. First he’d told a story to the children, and now he gazed at me with a look I’d never seen on his face before.
He wasn’t supposed to be like this. He was supposed to be easy to hate.
“Maybe you should go home,” he repeated.
I exploded. “I can’t go home because I’ve discovered that my dead best friend drained our bank account dry. There is nothing in our business account. I can’t even buy a twenty-dollar milk can, for heck’s sake. Not only that, but payday is here and I don’t have a check for Liam to give his workers. Also, Sadie was charging insane amounts of money to a place called Frank’s—I have no idea what that is—and Tuney Sluggs declared her death an accident. An accident! Have you ever heard of such an asinine thing? No grown woman falls face-first in cement and doesn’t get up unless her face is shoved in it.”
Throughout my entire tirade, Rufus watched me quietly. When I finished spewing the mess that had invaded my mind, I waited to hear what he’d have to say about it. Was he going to tell me to go home? Because that wasn’t happening. A lot of crap had fallen on my shoulders all of a sudden, and the last thing I needed was to babysit an amnesiac wizard who didn’t remember that he had a penchant for playing Frankenstein.
“And now you have to take care of me,” Rufus said quietly. “Doesn’t exactly ease your stress, does it?”
Now I felt bad. Why did I feel bad? It was ludicrous. But there was no denying the feelings that lived in my chest. I felt like a violin and someone just struck my guilty chord.
Without a word Rufus rounded the hood and approached me, openhanded. “Give me the keys.”
I crushed them to my heart. “No. Why?”
“Because you’re in no state to drive.”
“Why? Because I’m emotional and a woman?”
His jaw hardened. “No, it has nothing to do with your gender. This has to do with the fact that you’re having an emotional overload. Goodness knows that I’m not exactly in the best of shape myself. I don’t even know my name, but I can still try to help you.” He thumbed toward Bender’s. “Unless you’d prefer I grab that ruggedly handsome gentleman you were talking to before you gazed at my crotch, that is.”
I barked a laugh. I needed that, to get rid of some of the tension rising in my body. As much as getting Shane to help me sounded great, I couldn’t ask him. He was everyone’s go-to guy in Peachwood. It wouldn’t do to bother him about any of this.
“No,” I said. “I won’t ask Shane.”
Rufus took the keys from my hand without a word of complaint from me. “So. How about the first thing we do is talk to the police, see what they have to say about your friend—Sadie, was it?”
I nodded.
“We go find out what they have to say about her.”
I shook my head. “It’s no use. They’re not going to change their mind.”
Rufus smiled. “They might not change their mind, but they might reveal something that will help us.”
“Help us how?” I asked, frowning. What was Rufus up to?
“We may just find something that will help us discover what really happened to Sadie last night.”
“What are you talking about?”
He leaned his back against the side of the truck, lounging on it as if it belonged to him. But it was more than that. Rufus looked natural, even in his leather pants, against my vehicle, as if he had always been there.
“Well,” he said, rubbing his jaw, “I’m talking about the fact that if no one in this town is going to investigate Sadie’s death, we might as well do it.”
“Are you insane?”
He smirked, his dark eyes sparkling. “Maybe so.” He opened his arms and let them fall to his thighs. “After all, I don’t know who I am, so there’s nothing pressing on me. As far as I’m concerned, I have all the time in the world. Also”—he wagged a finger—“I have the distinct feeling I’ve done something like this before.”
“What? Lost your mind?”
He chuckled. “No. What I mean is, I believe that I’ve looked into things, searched for the truth.” He touched his hair and glanced at the ground, embarrassed. “I know it sounds silly, but I have a feeling that this is part of who I am.”
So are other things, I thought.
I glanced at my truck and then at Rufus. He had a point.
“Besides,” he added, “you haven’t slept.”
I hiked a brow. “How can you tell?”
“It’s obvious.” He unlocked the truck and opened the door, gesturing for me to get in and slide over across the bench seat. “Now, will you do me this favor and let me play chauffeur today? It’s the least I can do to repay your kindness.”
I stared into his eyes, the darkness of them so fitting, yet they held sympathy and gentleness that I never thought to witness in him.
Don’t ask me why I did it, why I said yes, but I did. “Sure. Take me to the police station.”
Chapter 11
“Looks open-and-shut if you ask me,” Tuney Sluggs said.
Rufus and I stood in his office. Tuney had managed to wake up this morning with his wits about him since he wore his uniform, complete with cowboy boots.
“Chief,” I said, “there is no way that Sadie would have fallen into the foundation without getting out of it. Would you?”
He rubbed his chin, his hand scraping over his whiskers. “Well, I suppose,” he said, “if I was drunk, I might not. We’ll see what happens when toxicology comes back.”
Anger whittled through my veins. “I discovered this morning that Sadie was withdrawing money from the bank at an alarming rate and making large credit card purchases that I haven’t been able to account for yet.”
He grunted. “Sounds like a woman who likes to spend money.” He winked at Rufus as if it was an inside joke. “She wouldn’t be the first I’ve ever heard of who did that.”
My jaw opened, and I was about to spew a line of profanities at him when Rufus stepped in.
“Would it be possible to get the deceased’s personal effects? What was discovered on her last night? That is, if you’re finished with them.”
Tuney grunted again and waved at the doorway. “Sure. Tell the desk sergeant on your way out that I said it was okay.”
There was so much more that I wanted to say, but Rufus tugged me from the office.
“But I wasn’t finished with him yet,” I snarled.
“You were,” he said in my ear, his breath tickling my flesh. “If you’d spent one more minute with him, your head would have exploded.”
I scoffed. “That wouldn’t have happened.”
He stopped and shot me a pointed look. “You did not see the expression on your face.”
I folded my arms and scowled. “What expression was that?”
“Like you wanted to throttle
him,” he murmured. Without another word, Rufus took my elbow and walked me toward the desk sergeant.
A flashback of a time when I let Rufus lead me to another place seared my brain, and suddenly I was suffocating, unable to get any air into my lungs. Heaving, I yanked my arm away.
He stopped, whirled around. Concern filled his eyes. “Are you okay?”
My hands shook, and my mouth suddenly felt parched. I stared into his eyes. They appeared so much like they had that night and yet so different, the emotions not toying with me, not attempting to deceive me.
I got myself under control. “Yes,” I whispered. “I’m fine. Let’s just go.”
It took a couple of minutes for the sergeant to get Sadie’s things, but when he returned to the desk, he handed me a gallon-sized plastic bag filled with cement-caked clothes and Sadie’s small purse that she used after business hours, when she didn’t have to haul swatches and samples.
I immediately opened the bag and unsnapped the purse, looking for her cell phone. But the only things I found were keys, a tube of lipstick, a mirror and a tampon.
Not exactly what I was looking for.
My gaze cut to the sergeant. “Where’s her phone? Is Sluggs keeping it for evidence?”
The sergeant glanced down at a sheet of paper that listed all the contents that the police had collected. “There’s no phone on here. None was found.”
My brows stitched together. “That’s impossible. Sadie always had her phone on her.”
But then I remembered that I hadn’t seen Sadie’s car parked at the barn. “And did you find her car?”
He nodded. “It was discovered down the road a ways.”
Must’ve been parked where we couldn’t see it last night. “Was the phone in there?”
The sergeant shook his head. “If we’d’a found it, it would be in that bag. Sorry, but that’s all I’ve got.”
I thanked him and left, Rufus leading the way.
“Did you get her keys?” he asked as soon as we were out the door.
“Yes. They’re here.”