[A Wicked Witches of the Midwest 10.0] Murder Most Witchy

by Amanda M. Lee

  Landon’s eyebrows arched. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “It means he thinks we’re liars,” Thistle supplied. “Keep up.”

  Landon’s glower grew more pronounced. “Really? Do you think I didn’t get that myself?”

  “You asked,” Thistle reminded him. “It’s not my fault you’re slow.”

  “We’ll talk about this later,” Landon warned.

  “Now that I know your form of punishment involves withholding marshmallows from hot chocolate, somehow I think I’ll survive.”

  “I did that for her,” Landon said, jerking his thumb in my direction. “I won’t do that for you.”

  “You really know how to suck the fun out of life, don’t you?” Thistle’s tone was mild, playful even, but Landon’s expression told me he wasn’t in the mood to play games.

  “Okay, I think we’re getting off on a tangent here,” I said, holding my hands up as I stepped between them. “What part of the story do you have trouble with?”

  “The part where you woke up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason,” Noah replied. “What woke you?”

  “I’m not sure,” I admitted, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. “I was down for the count, but something caused me to bolt awake.”

  Landon’s expression was thoughtful. “Did you hear something?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t think so. It was storming. Maybe I sensed something, but … I’m fairly certain I didn’t hear anything.”

  “You sensed something?” Noah didn’t look convinced. “Like … magic?”

  I stilled. I didn’t like the way he used the word, as if it was somehow toxic or I was a huge joke. “More like my inner danger alarm either heard or registered something outside the house,” I clarified. “Or maybe it was the fact that I was attacked here a few days ago and I was already edgy because I feared someone would climb through the window and try to choke me to death again.”

  Noah had the grace to look abashed. “I wasn’t accusing you of anything.”

  “That’s exactly what you were doing,” Thistle countered. “Why would we make up the fact that we saw someone outside? What could we possibly gain from that?”

  “Help in your attempt to convince law enforcement that Bay isn’t a murderer,” Noah answered. “You would do anything to protect her. Fabricating a shadow in the middle of the night hardly seems like a lot of work.”

  “Oh, I’m so going to enjoy being mean to you,” Thistle muttered, her temper flaring. “When was the last time a woman made you cry? Wait … it doesn’t matter. After today you’ll have to start counting all over again.”

  “I’m guessing that it happened the last time he had sex with someone,” I offered. “He probably stripped naked and she laughed. Before you know it … tears.”

  Thistle snorted. “That makes perfect sense.”

  “That’s not true,” Noah protested. He was young and could be baited with relative ease. “I’m great in bed.”

  “I’m not going to believe it until I have independent confirmation – and your sister doesn’t count,” Thistle said. “Or your mother, for that matter.”

  “Don’t talk about my mother!” Noah exploded, extending a finger. “My mother is a saint.”

  “Oh, geez.” I exhaled heavily, fluttering my bangs. “What is it about boys and their mothers?”

  “I guess some people simply never want to grow up,” Thistle replied. “What were we talking about again?”

  “The fact that Noah thinks that we’re liars,” I answered.

  “That’s not what I said,” Noah barked. “There are no footprints out here. There are no broken bush branches. The only people who saw this supposed intruder all happen to be related to you. There’s nothing out here but a shovel.” Noah kicked the shovel for emphasis. “Does anyone want to explain why the shovel is here?”

  “I threw it when I saw the shadow run for the woods,” Thistle replied. “I’m pretty sure I hit him, too.”

  “Him?” Noah cocked an eyebrow. “Can you verify it was a man?”

  “Well … .” Thistle broke off, shifting her eyes to me. “Actually I can’t. It was too dark. All I saw was movement. I threw at the movement, but … I can’t absolutely say it was a man or woman. It was dark.”

  “And you?” Noah turned to me.

  “I can’t say what it was either,” I admitted. “I know it was a man in my house the other day. I don’t know about last night, though.”

  Noah chewed his bottom lip as he nodded. “Okay, well … there’s still nothing we can do. There’s no proof anyone was out here. If there were footprints or something else to go on that would be a different story. All you have here is innuendo … and a shovel.”

  I wasn’t expecting more from Noah, so I couldn’t muster much outrage at his words. Landon was another story.

  “You suck,” Landon hissed, taking me by surprise with his vehemence.

  I put my hand on his arm to calm him. “There’s no sense getting worked up. We knew it would go this way. You had to tell him. You did. Let it go. I mean … it’s okay.”

  “No, it’s not okay.” Landon’s hand was gentle as it landed on top of mine. “I’ve been telling you to trust in the system because it works. I’ve always believed that. Bu this system is rigged against you.

  “Davis is so focused on getting ahead at work that he refuses to look anywhere else. And this guy … well, this guy … he wants you to be guilty because he was convinced last go around that you were guilty and somehow got away with it,” he continued. “They’re both so fixated on their own agendas that they’ll never look past you.”

  That was hardly news. “That’s not your fault.”

  “It feels like my fault,” Landon said, his voice low. “I brought this into your life. I was supposed to keep you safe, protect you and make you happy. Instead, you were attacked, and this idiot won’t even look for the guy who did it.”

  “If you don’t stop insulting me I’m going to … .” Noah broke off, unsure how to continue.

  “What?” Landon challenged, his eyes flashing.

  “He’s going to tattle on you to your boss,” Thistle supplied. “That’s what mama’s boys do.”

  “I’m not a mama’s boy!” Noah exploded, gesturing wildly.

  Instead of shrinking back in the face of his rage, Thistle smirked and drained the rest of her coffee. “I think my work here is done.”

  “Aunt Tillie trained you well,” I said, grinning.

  Noah shook his head, our repertoire serving to annoy rather than amuse. “You think you’re funny, don’t you?”

  “Most of the time,” Thistle replied. “We value comedy above all else. Er, well, actually we value sarcasm above all else. Comedy is a close second, though.”

  “And how about you?” Noah asked, shifting his attention to Landon. “Do you think they’re funny?”

  Landon shrugged. “Most of the time. I wasn’t particularly thrilled when they went snooping around in the dark last night, but I got over it.”

  “Yes, he punished by withholding marshmallows,” Thistle supplied, snickering.

  Noah ignored her. “When I first started at the office I was in awe of you,” he said, keeping Landon pinned in his gaze. “I wanted to be just like you because you closed every case that crossed your desk and you were diligent.”

  “Are you telling me this for a reason?” Landon challenged.

  “I’m telling you this because my opinion of you has changed,” Noah replied. “Everyone laughs behind your back now. They say you gave up your place on the fast track for a woman. I didn’t believe them at first, but I’ve seen it with my own eyes. You’ve lost your focus. You picked a woman over the work.”

  Landon didn’t appear bothered by the statement. In fact, he seemed amused. “I got the better end of that deal. You’re too young to see it, perhaps too blind to what’s right in front of you. Either way, I don’t care.

  “What I do care about is that you�
��re making Bay miserable and you’re doing it for a reason I can’t quite fathom,” he continued. “I’m done trying to reason with you.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means that I’m done trying to reason with you,” Landon repeated. “I’m going to solve this one on my own. You might not be willing to delve deeper, but I am. I won’t quit until I have all of the answers.”

  “You’re not to get involved in this investigation,” Noah reminded him.

  “Well, you just said it yourself, Agent Glenn,” Landon said, extending his hand for me to take. “I’ll do anything for my woman. That includes clearing her of murder. Now, if you don’t mind, we have work to do.”

  Noah’s mouth worked, but no sound came out.

  “In case you’re confused, he basically told you to get off our property,” Thistle said, grinning. “By the way, he’s a lot nicer than I am. I’m done trying to reason with you, too. I’m simply going to go all Aunt Tillie on your ass instead of being reasonable.”

  “I … don’t know what that means.” Noah was clearly flustered.

  “It means you should go,” I called out, letting Landon lead me toward the door. “We don’t need you to solve this. We never did.”

  Twenty-Four

  “So what’s next?”

  Landon ran his tongue over his teeth as he regarded me from a stool in the kitchen twenty minutes later. I gave him a bit of time to sulk – although not a lot, because I didn’t feel as if we could risk it now that Landon was essentially ready to go to war with Davis and Noah. He had drawn the line in the sand and we needed to make a plan.

  “I don’t know,” Landon admitted, taking me by surprise. “I’ve never been the one going around the law before.”

  “Oh, it’s easy,” Thistle intoned, sauntering between her room and the kitchen so she could grab another mug of coffee. “I think you’ll find that breaking the law is so much easier than following it.”

  Landon narrowed his eyes, his annoyance evident. “Thank you so much for your profound … insight … on the situation.”

  “Oh, someone is crabby.” Thistle adopted a singsong voice sure to drive Landon round the witchy bend. “Do you need a hug?”

  “Not from you,” Landon grumbled, pulling back from the counter and focusing on me. “I’ll take one from you, though.”

  He surprised me as he slipped his arms around my back and tugged me to him, burying his face in my freshly washed hair. He inhaled deeply and I remained still until he seemed to center himself a bit. When he pulled back his smile was in place, although it felt a bit forced.

  “Better?”

  Landon nodded as he straightened the part down the middle of my hair. “You always make things better.”

  “I’m totally going to puke,” Thistle complained.

  “And I’m totally going to make you eat it,” Landon shot back.

  Thistle and I exchanged an odd look, disgusted.

  “What kind of threat is that?” I asked finally, confused. “You’ll make her eat puke? That’s kind of gross.”

  “Kind of?” Thistle cocked a confrontational eyebrow. “That’s totally gross.”

  “You guys say you want to make each other eat dirt all of the time,” Landon pointed out. “How is this different?”

  “Because dirt is not vomit,” I answered automatically, my stomach shifting. “And to think I was hungry before this conversation.”

  “You and me both,” Thistle muttered.

  “It’s the same thing,” Landon protested.

  “Not even close.”

  Landon looked to Marcus for help. “Will you tell them it’s the same thing?”

  “I don’t think they’ll believe it.” Marcus was almost always calm, and today was no different. “They’re girls.”

  “Oh.” Landon nodded, as if understanding suddenly slipped into place.

  “What is that supposed to mean?” I asked. “Are you saying that we can’t understand the vomit thing because we’re girls?”

  “Pretty much,” Marcus replied, unruffled by the notion of a potential argument. “You can’t understand because it’s a guy thing. It’s like us when you guys have your periods.”

  “Oh, gross.” Landon’s face twisted. “Don’t try to help me. I’d rather be in the witchy doghouse than think about that.”

  I flicked Landon’s ear. “You’re on my list.”

  “Gladly.” Landon smacked a kiss to the corner of my mouth. “We need to make some decisions about what we’re going to do.”

  “You found something outside,” Marcus pointed out. “I saw it when you were out there with Agent Glenn. You bent to pick something up. I swear I thought you were going to show it to him, but then you changed your mind.”

  That was news to me. “You did?”

  Landon nodded as he reached into his pocket, retrieving a scrap of fabric. It was bright white and fresh – it looked to be a boring cotton blend of some sort – but it clearly hadn’t been outside for an extended period because it wasn’t faded.

  I touched the fabric, wrinkling my nose. “It’s wet.”

  “It rained last night and there was dew on the ground when we went out there.”

  “And?”

  Landon shrugged. “And I saw footprints in the area where the shovel landed. I know Noah saw them, too, although he made excuses and said I was seeing things.”

  “He seems mighty obsessed with the fact that you chose Bay over FBI domination,” Marcus noted, making me realize he’d been listening at the back door even though he hadn’t ventured outside to join us.

  “Honestly? I would like to hate him for that, but all I can muster is pity,” Landon admitted. “When I first joined the Bureau I felt the same way. I didn’t have time for anything personal. Everything was about the job. Everything was about closing cases. That’s all that mattered to me. Noah’s attitude isn’t exactly unheard of in law enforcement circles.”

  “What changed for you?” Marcus asked.

  “Bay.” Landon answered without hesitation. “From that first moment I saw her at the corn maze – the first corn maze – I felt … something. I’m not sure I can give a name to that initial emotion. It was probably lust, though.”

  “Oh, nice.” Thistle wrinkled her nose. “That will make a lovely story to tell your children one day. ‘Daddy took one look at Mommy and wanted to jump her bones.’ Do you think they make a Hallmark card for that?”

  Landon ignored the sarcasm. “What do you want me to say? I knew I wanted her the moment I saw her. Love wasn’t part of that initially. That came later.”

  I pursed my lips, amused by his expression. “I think it came later for both of us.” I grabbed his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “It’s okay.”

  “What did you feel when you first saw him?” Marcus asked, flicking his eyes to me. “I wasn’t around regularly when all of that drama was going on. I was still trying to get up the courage to ask Thistle out.”

  “Yes, I remember that time fondly.” I smirked at the memory. “Thistle kept buying animal feed even though we have no animals at The Overlook.”

  Thistle scorched me with a dark look. “Did you have to bring that up?”

  “What happened to all of that feed?” I asked, legitimately curious. “You didn’t throw it away, did you?”

  “I donated it to a petting zoo in Traverse City.” Thistle’s smile was rueful. “I spent two hundred bucks on the stuff, so I didn’t want to throw it out.”

  “I knew you didn’t have animals, yet I never wondered for a second what you were doing with the feed,” Marcus admitted. “How sappy is that?”

  “Very,” Landon answered. “I’m generally sappier, so I’ll let it go. As for when we met, I’d have thought that Bay was terrified of me then. It’s okay. She was supposed to be terrified of me.”

  I nodded sagely despite the fact that fear wasn’t the most prominent emotion the day we met. I didn’t want to cause a big scene. Thistle, of course, refused to
let it go.

  “She wasn’t afraid of you.” Thistle let loose with a derisive snort. “She said you were too hot to be a biker. She thought you were hanging around with them to up your street cred or something. She never believed you were as hardcore as the rest of them.”

  Landon shifted his eyes to me. “Is that true?”

  “Of course not.” The lie flew out of my mouth before I had a chance to consider whether or not fibbing was the best plan of action.

  “She knew you were a big marshmallow from the start,” Thistle added. “Of course, she probably didn’t realize you were so dastardly as to punish her by withholding marshmallows at the time. That’s might’ve changed her opinion of you had she known.”

  I worked hard to avert my gaze even though I felt Landon’s eyes roaming over me. Finally I heaved a sigh and risked a glance in his direction. “I … .”

  Landon cut me off before I could think of something to say to ease the situation. “Were you frightened of me at all?”

  I decided now was the time for honesty. “Frightened? No. I thought there was something odd about you. I thought you had the potential to be a pervert – and I was totally right. But I wasn’t afraid of you. I’ve never been afraid of you. I’m sorry if you want me to say otherwise, but … I believed in my heart you wouldn’t hurt me, even from the beginning.”

  “Yeah? I never want to hurt you.” Landon brushed his knuckles over my cheek. “I don’t ever want you to be afraid of me. If you think I’m going to be upset because I’m not nearly as terrifying as I thought I was … well … I can’t really find the energy to do that this morning.”

  “You shouldn’t feel bad about that,” Thistle said. “We grew up with Aunt Tillie. Nothing is terrifying once you’ve been in a truck with her while she’s plowing snow.”

  “That’s very true.” Landon ran his hand over my back, taking on a thoughtful expression as he nursed his coffee. “Returning to the problem at hand, we are at a disadvantage because we don’t have a lab and we can’t question people on an official basis.”

  “That’s never stopped me before,” I argued. “I don’t have the authority to question people, but I do it anyway.”