by K. M. Waller
He tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear, and the gesture melted every doubt she had about falling in love with him. “We’ll take this one step at a time and adjust as necessary. Half the trick is having confidence that the plan will work.”
“I’ll let you have all the confidence, and I’ll keep all the worry.”
He winked. “Come on. We have a brooch to swipe.”
∞∞∞
Lex opened the car door for Amira. They walked past parked cars and groups carrying blankets and picnic baskets.
Being able to work outside the law in a somewhat disreputable manner came with the territory of working for the LSP. Each agent was trained on how to pick locks, use surveillance equipment to invade privacy, and bend a multitude of laws as long as it was in pursuit of the greater good. Without government regulations to hold them down, this meant agents lived by the codes of the agency. Even though he hadn’t wanted the training as a young teen, some of the skills had come in handy.
However, this would be the first time Lex had pickpocketed from someone. Not that it went against his moral sensibilities, but getting caught stealing from a public official would mean time spent in the local jail. He smiled while he envisioned the coronary Gramps would have if Lex had to be bonded for a petty theft charge.
The town park was the length of a soccer field with a white gazebo in the center. In the far corner a swing set and jungle gym hosted squealing boys and girls, their parents doing the pushing and advising them not to climb too high.
Amira pointed to a large white truck parked sideways in the grass. “They use the side of the truck as the screen. I see Mayor Henry directing the setup of the projector.”
“What’s the movie tonight?” he asked, keeping his tone light and casual.
She twisted her hands in front of her. “The Worst Witch.”
He didn’t contain his dry chuckle. “That’s a weird coincidence.”
“Not any weirder than anything else that has happened in the past few days.” She glanced down, and as if realizing her hands were betraying her nervousness, shook them out. “Have we considered the mayor a suspect? She’d do anything to find a way to bring in more tourists. And she’s pretty obvious with the witch hat and town theme this month.”
“A little too obvious. Would she hurt her future daughter-in-law to do it? They seemed to be cut from the same cloth. Plus, I’ve shaken her hand and the amulet didn’t warm like it does when I touch you.”
“I get a zing when you touch me.”
“What?”
“I guess it’s connected to the magic, but your touch zings me when you wear the amulet.”
That was a first. Why hadn’t she said something earlier? Because she thought you were spelled at first, and then you were trying to drag her sister in front of the Council, idiot. “I’ll try to stop touching you.”
“No.” Her charming small-town girl innocence lit up her face. “I mean, I don’t mind it.”
Blood rushed through his body, speeding up his heartbeat. When the assignment was finished, he’d take off the stupid amulet and try to recreate the zing without it. He glanced out over the crowd. Right now he needed to focus on the next task. “You’re sure the mayor will have the brooch on?”
“She’s never without it.” Amira squinted. “In fact, I think I can see the glint of the gems from here.”
Lex held out his arm, and Amira looped her arm through his. “It’s show time.”
They walked over to one of the food vendors and bought two large pretzels. Lex smothered his with extra mustard to a point it dripped on the ground. He whispered to Amira, “It’s a simple trick. I stumble and smear mustard on her jacket. You help her get it off and offer to get the stain out at the tea shop. Easy. She’ll have her brooch back before she notices it’s gone.”
“Sure, easy.” She took a large bite out of her pretzel. When she noticed him glancing at her, she shrugged. “I eat when I’m nervous and there’s no use letting my pretzel go cold. Besides, it looks more legit and less like a prop.”
He smiled at her rationalization. God, she was adorable.
They made their way through a maze of picnic blankets and lawn chairs, the September breeze pushing them forward.
“Don’t make eye contact. Let her call out to us,” Amira said. “Act like we’re looking for a place to sit down.”
Lex reached over and brushed a piece of the pretzel salt stuck on the outside of her mouth. “You’re a natural at this, you know?”
Pink blotches formed on her chest and crept up her neck. “You’re supposed to be looking for a place to sit down. Not at me.”
He turned away and made large pointing gestures with his hands. In a voice loud enough to carry across the field, he said, “What about over there?”
The mayor noticed them almost immediately. “Yoo-hoo, Lex! Come sit over here next to us.”
She waved them forward and Lex put his for-the-camera smile into place. “Patricia, you are looking very lovely this evening. I was worried you’d still be upset over this morning’s catastrophe.”
“Dara is resting, and my Patrick is on his way home in the morning to see about her. All is well that ends well.” She fluttered her lashes at him. “Did you see my spot on the local news station?”
“I must have just missed it.” He snapped his fingers and flung his pretzel in a gesture meant to show disappointment. The pretzel slipped from his fingers and missed the mayor, instead landing on the blanket next to her daughter Shelby. The girl’s hair covered most of her face, and she scooted away from the mess, never taking her eyes off of her cell phone.
Crap. He’d used too much mustard.
Amira poked him in the ribs with her elbow. She moved around him and crouched down next to Shelby. “Lex, what a klutz. Now you’ve made a mess of their blanket.”
The mayor snickered. “Those slippery pretzels. It’s fine, dear, no harm done.”
Amira used her napkin to pick up his pretzel and dangled it between two fingers. She narrowed her eyes and twitched her head toward the mayor.
“Let me get that.” Lex moved forward and grabbed the mustard-covered pretzel with his palm. A well-placed fake trip allowed him to stumble forward and plant the pretzel right into Mayor Henry’s lapel.
The mayor gasped, backed up, and tripped over the couple sitting on a blanket behind her. With her back on the ground and her legs high in the air, Lex cringed at the forthcoming embarrassment he’d caused the woman.
Amira groaned out loud behind him. The adjustment to the plan had made more of mess than he’d first calculated. At least he’d gotten the mustard on her blazer.
With zero smooth moves left, he helped the mayor off the ground and pulled her into a tight bear hug. He smacked her on the back three times. “Patricia, I am so sorry. Are you okay?”
When she tried to struggle out of his tight grasp, he locked onto the brooch and tugged hard. It came off with a rip, and he immediately passed it back to Amira’s waiting hand. He motioned her to go, while he continued the distraction. He picked up the mayor’s pointy witch hat.
The mayor flushed and sputtered. Lex moved forward and she held up her hands to ward him off. “I’m fine! Please stop helping.”
He dropped the hat back on her blanket. “I can’t apologize enough. You must send me the dry cleaning bill for your pantsuit.”
A couple of women Lex recognized from the Biddies Bridge Group rushed forward and handed Mayor Henry some napkins.
She sniffed and straightened to her full five-foot-three height. “I most certainly will, Mr. Dimas. Now if you’ll excuse me, I might have just enough time to run home and return before the movie starts. Shelby?” The mayor swiveled her head around. “Where did that girl get off to now? Shelby?”
Lex took the distraction as a sign to make his exit. He weaved through the onlookers who’d been drawn to the chaos. The small town would have enough gossip to exchange for a week or two. It struck him odd that he actually felt s
orry for poor Mayor Henry. Amira’s empathy had definitely rubbed off on him.
Amira had taken his car back to the Tea Haven. Lex trotted the three-quarters mile and kept to the shadows in case Chase had spies keeping an eye on the tea shop. Lex approached the back door from the alley. He tapped twice and wiped the sweat that had formed on his brow. Jordie greeted and ushered him in.
“Did you get everything from the herb shop?”
“The shopkeeper didn’t believe my story that I needed a homeopathic cold remedy, but she stopped questioning me when Goth-girl walked in. I think she expected me to roll this stuff up in papers, if you know what I mean.” He pinched his pointer finger and thumb together and pressed them both against his mouth.
Lex heaved a sigh, and then backpedaled over Jordie’s words. “Goth-girl. Do you mean Shelby?”
“Yeah, the mayor’s kid.”
“What was she doing in there?” Shelby must have left from the park right before Amira.
“I didn’t stick around long enough to find out.” He held out his camera and took a picture. “Is that mustard on your shirt?”
Lex glanced down at the front of his shirt. The mustard stain had come from hugging the Mayor. Sparsh was getting one heck of a cleaning bill after this assignment.
Amira walked back into the kitchen. “I’ve made the potion and trapped it in wax. I’ve put the melted wax in three of the four chairs. All we have to do is maneuver him to sit in one of those three and pick up the brooch at the same time. Then I’ll say the spell.”
“We get him to name the source first, and after he tells us a piece of information, we can use it to counter-blackmail him.” She glanced between them. “Is blackmail frowned upon in your agency?”
“No,” both men answered, almost in unison.
A thump, louder than a knock, came from outside the main dining area. It happened twice more.
Amira rushed into the front room, Lex close behind her.
She stopped, placed a hand on her throat, and groped at Lex’s sleeve. On the sidewalk in front of the plate glass windows, Samuel Chase slapped at his face and scratched his neck. Long red fingernail marks lined his skin like he’d tried to dig something out.
He banged against the door with his body. “Bees,” he screamed. “They’re all over me! Help! I’m being stung all over.”
Amira rushed forward, but Lex grabbed her arm, slowing her down.
“We have to help him,” she said.
“Look closely. There aren’t any bees.” He pointed to Chase. “It’s another spell. Let me try the amulet, but first I want to see if he’ll confess to the source.”
“He’s bleeding. We have to help.”
When Lex hesitated, Amira grabbed the leather thong around his neck and pulled it over his head. He didn’t try to stop her, but he would’ve preferred she went with his plan instead.
Lex turned to Jordie. “Call 911. Stay in the back and watch over our supplies.”
Jordie nodded, but took a few pics of Chase before he headed back to the kitchen.
Lex joined Amira on the sidewalk. Samuel had slid down to a squatting position, his crew filming from a half a block away. He swatted and mumbled incoherently.
Amira crouched close to Chase and put the amulet over his head. The counter-magic did its job within a few seconds, and his panic stopped while his head lolled to the side. Sweat and tears made his face shiny.
She balled up a fist and pretended to stab him in the arm. “Epi pen,” she shouted over her shoulder for the onlookers. Ambulance sirens wailed their approach.
Once they had Samuel in the emergency room, the doctors would realize there was no injection as well as no insect stings. Lex texted his contact at the hospital to prepare him for another patient intervention.
Amira cradled Chase’s head in her lap. The man had threatened her family a few hours ago and she still showed him compassion. She was a hundred times better than both of them.
“We can remove the amulet now,” he said.
She lifted the thong from Chase’s head. “This spell I recognize. An emotional manipulation on fear—like seeing what you fear most. Bee stings must be what Samuel Chase fears more than anything. This is bad.”
Lex bent down beside her and pressed a napkin from the tea room against the bleeding scratches on Samuel’s neck. There was no getting out of being on camera now. “I guess his ‘source’ didn’t appreciate being put on the back burner.”
A crowd of onlookers and Chase’s crew hovered nearby but kept at a careful distance. He could hear a few worried questions about the swarm of killer bees. The narrative almost wrote itself this time. He wondered if there were any apiaries nearby.
The ambulance slowed to a stop in front of them and two paramedics, a man and woman, rushed to Chase’s side. They took his initial vitals, and Amira explained his bee hallucination in a hushed tone.
They placed Chase on a stretcher and loaded him into the ambulance.
Amira closed her eyes and tilted her head back. “His producer will consider this an attack and release the videos.”
“We’ll deal with it if he does. I’ll make sure you have the LSP resources to combat any media attack Chase throws at you and your sisters.”
“We almost had the source.”
“It was a good plan.”
“It doesn’t matter. And nightfall is here. The Council is going to send some mercenary to get my sister.” Panic radiated from her in waves.
Lex pulled her into a hug and rested his chin on the top of her head. He’d keep the LSP and the Council at bay until they figured things out. Now he had an emotional investment too. The final rays of September’s sunlight vanished behind the pine trees.
Amira turned her head to the side, but she didn’t break away from his embrace. “I think we need to get Ris and Ally involved now. It might be better if I go over and talk to them first. I’ll bring them back to the Tea Haven and we can come up with a new plan.”
Lex glanced over her head at the crowd on the sidewalk. He squinted at a dark figure standing behind some of Chase’s film crew. Shelby, the mayor’s daughter, had a brown journal clutched to her chest with one arm. She held her cell phone out with the other hand as if she were recording.
He leaned his lips close to Amira’s ear and whispered. “Don’t make any sudden moves, but I think we’ve found our source. She’s holding one of your family’s spell books.”
Amira turned her head as if stretching the muscles. She gasped and turned back to meet Lex’s serious gaze. “No. It can’t be.”
Chapter Twelve
For a third time in less than three days, an ambulance pulled away from the front of the Tea Haven. The pinks and ivories that had once repelled him due to their cheerfulness now dimmed, as if shadows of gloom had latched onto the walls. Lex doubted she’d be able to sell the store to anyone who did the smallest amount of research. On Monday, he’d reach out to some of his real estate contacts to see what damage control he could wrangle.
But now they had to deal with the bad witch. Lex held Amira close to him and pulled her into the front dining area of the tea shop. He flipped the lock behind him. “Let’s leave your sisters at the library for now. It’s safer there.”
Jordie joined them, a chocolate chip scone in each hand.
Amira repeated her earlier words. “It can’t be Shelby. I don’t believe it.”
Lex wiped a hand across his face. “Jordie, keep an eye on Shelby, but don’t get too close. Let me know where she goes next.”
“Got it, boss.” Jordie shoved one of the scones in his mouth and trotted out.
Amira approached the plate glass window. “But Shelby? She’s so nice, timid even.”
“We had all the clues right in front of us, but we looked in the wrong direction. Out of all the women at the wedding shower, who were the two most visibly miserable? Shelby and Ris. We know it’s not Ris, and Dara didn’t appear to be too kind to Shelby.”
“Yeah, but Shelby’s
mom makes her more miserable than Dara.”
He paced the length of the tea shop, twisting his cell phone in his hand. “How close were Shelby and Ris when she dated Patrick Henry?”
“Shelby’s a few years older but they’ve always been friendly enough. That doesn’t mean that Ris told her about our witchcraft abilities.”
“Maybe she didn’t, but from what we saw in Ris’s closet, it wasn’t as if she were trying to denounce her heritage like you and Ally.”
Amira straightened a few boxes of tea behind the register. “Why would she involve Samuel Chase? Dara can make anyone crazy, but involving Samuel meant no going back.”
Lex typed in some notes on his phone. All the dots needed to connect. “You’re great at reading people. Tell me what you think would make Shelby use magic this way.”
She played with the charm on her necklace. “Her mother is always vying for the spotlight and that doesn’t leave much room for a shy girl like Shelby. Patrick is the most sought-after bachelor in Burberry, and that also doesn’t leave much room for her. Could it be as simple as a cry for attention?”
With the onset of recent reality shows embracing characters who behaved badly, he could see the attention theory sticking. “If she’s the bad witch having a tantrum, then she’s a very powerful witch having a tantrum.”
“But Shelby is human. Isn’t she? If the mayor had any witches in their history, she’d have used it as a gimmick.”
“She’s tapped into something. It’s possible she has a supernatural lineage that’s been long dormant. The amulet will bind any magical powers she has until the Council figures out what to do. She’s not a minor and will be held accountable for her actions.”
Amira snapped her fingers. “I bet she found something in her family tree when she put the museum display together. Her family is one of the oldest, and the mayor claims they came from Hartford.”