Catastrophe
Page 33
He transported us back to the Office. The lights cast the same warm, familiar glow they always did. It was comforting that no matter what happened, the Office was always the same. It was home. Within minutes he set heaping plates of fried food on the bar: fried clams, fish, and chicken. I collapsed onto the stool and tucked in, feeling more like myself with every bite. The tiredness vanished and another case was solved.
When I looked up, Sy was leaning against the back of the bar, watching me eat.
“Was some of this yours?” I asked with a full mouth.
He shook his head, a grin toying at his full lips that I knew from experience were soft and persuasive.
Despite the smile, something was obviously on his mind, but he didn’t say anything. I’d learned long ago not to ask questions I didn’t want the answer to, so I took another bite. I wasn’t blind or completely oblivious. Sy thought he loved me, and maybe he did. Life-or-death situations tended to bring those feelings to the surface. They did for Thomas and they probably did for Sy too. It was just the way most people worked. I had been trained my whole life to be a warrior, and nothing got in the way of that more than emotion. Leilah was partly right when she accused me of responding emotionally. I let the case get to me more than I should have, but no matter what happened, I wasn’t ready to profess undying love for anyone. Whatever stuff girlfriends were supposed to be made out of, it wasn’t in me.
“Are you going to see Thomas again?” he asked.
I shook my head. “I doubt it.”
He quirked an eyebrow. “How do you feel about that?”
“I never wanted to see him this time,” I said. Thomas and I were poisonous to one another. We were too much alike. We were both willing to have hot, casual, meaningless sex, but it would always become complicated and I’d never be able to trust him.
“When do you leave for Paris?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. The sooner the better, probably, but Leilah didn’t give me a deadline. I’ll give it a few days. Maybe hang out at Olivia and Holden’s for a while.”
Sy chewed on the side of his lip. “I feel like this is my fault.”
“What?” I asked before plopping my next couple clams into my mouth.
“The council’s interest in you. You shouldn’t have to do another case for them.”
I shook my head. “It has nothing to do with you.” And it didn’t. I’d met Leilah while I was trying to find a way to save Baker. Holden made the introduction, not Sy. Besides, I was a big girl. All of this had been my choice. I didn’t need to blame someone else for my decisions. “We’re good. You and me, right? Things will go back to normal.”
Sy nodded, looking down at the floor. “Absolutely. You have plans tonight?”
I crossed my legs. Sy wasn’t wearing his typical uniform—t-shirt and torn jeans. Instead, he had on a button-down and what looked to be new jeans. Tomorrow I’d have to go back to New Orleans and get my car, but tonight I was free and grateful to still have all of my lives. Maybe a night out with Sy was just what I needed. No strings attached would never work with him, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be an excellent distraction for at least tonight. “Nope. What’d you have in mind?”
“I’m ready when you are,” a female voice said behind me.
Katrina, a human witch who was friends with Sy’s cousin, moved up and sat down beside me on a stool. “Hey, Femi,” she said brightly.
“I hate to ask you this, and if you are at all tired and just want to go home and crash, please say no, but would you mind watching the bar for a couple hours?” Sy asked.
I blinked a couple times, looking back and forth between them. Her hair fell down her back in soft curls and she wore a tight flowered skirt. My mouth went dry. They were going on a date. “Sure. I’m fine.”
“Thanks, buddy.” He winked at me and tapped the bar twice. “If you have any problems, just call. The kitchen is closed, so you don’t have to worry about food. You know where everything is. I anticipate it being fairly quiet.”
Katrina threaded her arm through his as he came around the bar to meet her. Together they walked out of the Office, smiling and laughing.
A knot formed my chest that made it hard to breathe. Sy went out with different women all the time, but this time felt different. Sy and Katrina? When the hell did that happen? I moved around behind the bar, my appetite suddenly gone.
“Can I get a beer?” a voice said.
I continued to stare at the door like they would walk back through any second. Maybe he was just helping the coven with something. Maybe it wasn’t a date.
“Beer,” the voice insisted.
I turned my head slowly toward the annoying bounty hunter. “I will stab you.”
“I can wait,” he said, taking a couple steps back.
I looked back to the door. She was definitely girlfriend material. The knot in my chest grew. He wasn’t going to wait forever, a voice in my head told me, like that was at all helpful. Not that I expected Sy to wait. I didn’t know what I expected from him. That wasn’t the point. The point was I didn’t want anything to change between us. I liked it just the way it was. I liked knowing he would always be here. I liked flirting with him. I liked talking to him.
Sy always came back to me. It wasn’t like Katrina somehow mattered more than the others, even if she was Selene’s friend. My pep talk wasn’t helping the knot, so I rubbed at it. It was just a date. It wasn’t like they were moving in together.
I took a deep breath and squared my shoulders. Nothing was going to change. I nodded to myself. Everything would stay the same…unless it didn’t.
Check out more books by Liz:
URBAN FANTASY/PARANORMAL ROMANCE
The Sekhmet Bounty Series
Sweet Little Lies (A Sekhmet Short Story)
Catatonic (A Sekhmet Short Story)
Catastrophe
Catacombs (Coming Soon)
Catapult (Coming Soon)
The Guardian Trilogy:
Secrets
Choices
Consequences
Be Light (Guardian Trilogy Christmas Short Story)
Snow and Mistletoe (Guardian Trilogy Christmas Short Story)
Good Tidings(Guardian Trilogy Christmas Short Story)
The Jinn Trilogy:
Ember
Inferno
Vestige
Without a Map (A Jinn Trilogy Short Story)
The Easy Bake Coven Series:
Easy Bake Coven
Hungry, Hungry Hoodoo
Pickup Styx
Tiddly Jinx
Ghosts in the Graveyard
Ollie, Ollie Hex ‘n Free
Frost’s Bite (An Easy Bake Coven Short Story)
If the Broom Fits
Stark Raven Mad (Coming Soon)
Moonlight Madness (Coming Soon)
The Knead to Know Series
Knead to Know (A Knead to Know Short Story)
Fairytale Ambrosia (Coming Soon)
Psyche Souffle (Valentine’s Day Knead to Know Short Story)
Ghostsnaps (Coming Soon)
MYSTERY
Dark Corners
Dark Passing
Dark Obsession
The Ninth Floor
MANY AUTHORS CLAIM to have known their calling from a young age. Liz Schulte, however, didn't always want to be an author. In fact, she had no clue. Liz wanted to be a veterinarian, then she wanted to be a lawyer, then she wanted to be a criminal profiler. In a valiant effort to keep from becoming Walter Mitty, Liz put pen to paper and began writing her first novel. It was at that moment she realized this is what she was meant to do. As a scribe she could be all of those things and so much more.
When Liz isn’t writing or on social networks she is inflicting movie quotes and trivia on people, reading, traveling, and hanging out with friends and family. Liz is a Midwest girl through and through, though she would be perfectly happy never having to shovel her driveway again. She has a love for all things spooky, supernatural,
and snarky. Her favorite authors range from Edgar Allen Poe to Joseph Heller to Jane Austen to Jim Butcher and everything in between.
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