by Maher Tegan
Mangroves and Murder
An Enchanted Coast Magical Mystery
Tegan Maher
@2021 Tegan Maher
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form, by any means electronic or mechanical, including but not limited to photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system currently in use or yet to be devised.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or institutions is entirely coincidental.
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
A Note from Tegan
The Haunted Pendant
Connect with Me!
Other Series by Tegan Maher
About Tegan
Chapter 1
"Here you go, Fiona," I said, sliding two margaritas across the bar to a gorgon who was a regular at the resort. "I'm sorry for all the chaos. It's spring break, and for some reason, we got an influx of college kids this year."
I had to raise my voice three decibels just so she could hear me apologize over the blaring jukebox and the rabble-rousing group of werewolves celebrating nearing the end of their post-secondary educations. I flicked my wrist toward the source of the music and turned it down, then wished I could do the same to the group when they booed me.
She gave me a patient smile. "Don't worry about me. I feel bad for you. I've seen what you've gone through for the past week, and I wouldn't wish that on my enemies. Well, not on most of them anyway, and that’s coming from a woman who can turn people to stone. You're a saint for putting up with that without casting a single curse on any of them."
I returned her smile, and for the first time that day, it was genuine. "Believe me—it’s entered my mind a time or two. These are on the house. We're just glad to see you, and thank you for taking it all in stride."
She waved me off, and the tips of her expensive bedazzled nails caught the sunlight streaming in through the fronds of the tiki. "Don't think anything of it. We’ve been coming here since you opened, and rarely do we have to worry about anything like this. Like I said, I just feel bad for you guys." She shoved a twenty-dollar bill across the bar and gave me a final wave as she turned toward the table she and her friends had commandeered by the infinity pool.
As I watched her leave, a foam football zoomed across the bar and smacked me in the shoulder. I ground my teeth and did my best not to sling it back at whoever threw it. I did, however, throw up a barrier that would allow us to pass drinks and whatnot across the bar but wouldn’t let anything enter it. I wish I’d thought to do it hours ago.
"Dude, I'm so sorry," a surfer-boy werewolf said, giving me a fake, thousand-watt smile as he held out his hand for the ball. I was sure that worked on ninety-nine percent of the male-loving population he turned it on, but I wasn't in the mood. That was about the tenth time it had happened, and he was about one condescending comment away from having it surgically removed.
I returned the fake smile, and I not-so-gently thrust the ball back across the bar at him. “If you were sorry, you wouldn’t keep doing it. There’s an entire beach down there if you want to throw things.”
Bob, my Bigfoot best friend and fellow bartender, put his giant hand on my shoulder as he took the football from me. "I've got this. Pour yourself a beer and go do some paperwork in the office."
I felt bad because the first thing I felt when he said that was relief, but it had been nonstop for a week. In fact, Bob had cut his vacation short by two days to help us. I didn't understand why we were suddenly attracting college kids when we'd always had more of an older, refined group. The why didn't really matter, though, because it was the reality that I had to deal with. Rather than fight Fate, I gave the kid a final tight-lipped smile and turned on my heel to do as Bob said.
Once I'd poured my beer and was settled comfortably in the office, I took a deep breath and an even deeper pull off the beer. I usually had enough patience for five people, but the extra chaos on top of the fact that I'd been bartending, co-managing the bar, and filling in for Blake, the resort administrator, when he needed to be away was taking its toll on me. I hadn't seen a forty-hour work week in over a year. Mine tended to run sixty to eighty, and I was running out of gas.
I opened the desk drawer and pulled out a couple manila folders full of job applications. It had been over a year since the manager of the tiki had met his demise at the hands of another angel, but we had yet to find anybody suitable to take on his job. Of course, he hadn't been suitable for the job either, but that was neither here nor there.
I flipped through the most recent applications, and for once, one of them caught my eye. I ran my finger over the tiny print of the application and reminded myself for the hundredth time to reformat them so that they were big enough to read. The woman was thirty-four years old, had fifteen years of experience in the restaurant industry, and had managed three bars in that time. Two of the three places had been high-end, and one of them had been for magicals only. That was a good sign. It meant she was used to dealing with some of the crap that we had to put up with on a regular basis.
Experience managing a human bar was great, but you also had to be able to deal with cranky witches, snarky werewolves, and mermaids who’d had too much to drink. That added an extra layer to the job that most people can't appreciate until they've done it. I set the application aside to review with Bob later since he had a decent eye for reading between the lines.
I’d just opened the second folder when some sort of chaos erupted out on the patio. It was so loud that even with the door closed, I could hear some of what people were saying. With a sigh, I slammed the rest of my beer and trudged toward the door, dreading whatever fresh hell I was going to have to deal with now. I made it to the bar just in time to see Bob vault over it and rush toward a group of werewolves who were throwing punches at each other. I rolled my eyes and reached for my last few drops of patience before I headed in that direction, too.
They’d overturned two tables, and several cups that had held sticky drinks a few seconds before were scattered across the brick pavers. Pineapple wedges and a few maraschino cherries that had been garnishes were strewn about, and the people who’d been sitting at those tables had retreated to watch from a safe distance. One woman, a young witch who’d stayed with us before, had a large pink stain on the front of her white bathing suit wrap.
"Knock it off!" I barked as I approached. "This is a family resort, not some frat house spring-break place that you rented in a college town."
I snatched one werewolf by his hair and put a little bit of magical oomph in it when I yanked him off the guy he was beating on. When I released him, there was hair tangled in my fingers, and I didn't even feel sorry.
"Dude," I replied through gritted teeth, giving him a look that would've melted plastic. ”For one, I'm not your dude, and for another, you just brought trouble to my tiki bar. That doesn't work for me, and if you say so much as another word, throw another football, or step one toe even close to the line, I'll ban you from here for the rest of your visit."
Bob had already separated the other three who'd been fighting. That was one of the benefits of working with a Bigfoot who has hands the size of baseball mitts.
"You can't do that," one of the other guys said, outraged. He combed his hand through his three-hundred-dollar haircut and smirked at me. "We paid good money to be here just like everybody else did." His buddies cheered him on.
I shrugged and met his gaze dead on, letting him know in werewolf speak that I wasn’t cowing to him. “I don't care what you paid for. You're dealing with the two people who have complete and total say over this entire area, and if we say your bounced, your bounced. Now, wanna start over with a little more respect in that tone?"
He glared at me but didn't say anything else. Instead he motioned to the three guys he'd been fighting with, who now appeared to be his best buddies. "Let's go to the casino. This is lame, anyway, and the drinks are watered down."
He spun on his heel to make his grand exit and ran smack into one of the hottest women Odin had ever created, literally. Stephanie, a Valkyrie who spent a lot of time here, stood with her legs braced and her hands on her curved hips. She looked like a swimsuit model in a gold bikini that shone against her tan skin and highlighted her fit figure, but if you looked carefully, she had the eyes of a predator. One look into their chocolate depths, and any person with a dram of common sense would have known they were treading dangerous waters. This guy lacked that dram.
‘Well, hello, gorgeous,” he said, pulling off a swagger even as he steadied himself. “What say you let me take you to the casino? I’ll let you blow on my dice for luck.”
Now, normally, I would have corrected the guy and pointed out his mistake before he regretted it. Today wasn’t a normal day, though, and I wasn’t feeling generous. I crossed my arms and stepped back to watch the show, unable to suppress the evil grin tugging at the corners of my mouth.
Stephanie arched a perfect brow, then kissed her fingertips, held up her palm, and puckered her lips like she was going to blow it at him. While he practically drooled in anticipation, her other hand snaked out and grabbed him by the front of his tank top and jerked him so close to her that they were nearly nose to nose.
“I have a better idea,” she purred, raw power pouring off her. From the fear in his eyes, I’d say the guy had realized his mistake even if it was a minute too late. “Why don’t you apologize to all these nice people you disturbed and to Destiny and Bob, tip them a hundred bucks for putting up with you, then take your little playgroup down to the beach so the adults can enjoy their vacations?”
He attempted to shrug her off and regain face, but she held tight and didn’t break eye contact.
“What are you?” he asked.
A deadly smile slipped across her lips as she took a sip from the umbrella drink she’d casually picked up with her free hand. “Me? I’m your biggest nightmare.” She shrugged. “I could have been your best friend, but that ship sailed without you already. Now run along.”
She gave him a little shove as she released his shirt, and he stumbled backward to catch his balance. All that college education must have paid off because he didn’t utter another word or even raise his eyes from the ground as he motioned to his friends toward the beach.
“Ah-ah,” Stephanie said, wagging her finger. “I think you’re forgetting a couple steps.”
He grumbled and shot her a glare that wouldn’t have been out of place on a five-year-old’s face but shoved his hand in his pocket and pulled out a money clip. “I’m sorry.” Slipping a c-note off the outside, he threw it toward me, then turned and stomped off.
I grinned as the bill fluttered to the ground, but Stephanie narrowed her eyes. “Do you want me to make him pick it up and hand it to you nicely?” she asked, tilting her head. “I gladly will. That pup needs a lesson in manners.”
“Nah,” I replied, feeling lighter than I had all day as I watched him stomp away. Though the other guys followed him, they kept glancing over their shoulders at Stephanie in confusion. I doubt they’d ever seen their buddy taken down by a woman. “That was good enough. I appreciate it.”
With them gone, the tiki area returned to its normal calm vibe, and I breathed in and out a few times to get back in the right frame of mind. I loved my job, but today was one of the few times when I’d forgotten why. It was nice to be reminded.
Chapter 2
Once the party crowd had left for the beach, it didn't take Bob and I long to get the tiki area cleaned up. Since I'd opened that morning, Bob told me to go ahead and take the rest of the afternoon and evening off. Dimitri, the evening bartender, was due to be there soon, and there really wasn't any need for two of us to stay on until he got there.
It took me a couple of hours to do the shift paperwork, and by then I’d calmed down and gotten my equilibrium back. Rather than head straight back to my place when I was finished like Tempest wanted to do, I decided to go for a walk on the beach.
The sky was a brilliant blue, and though it was hot, a nice breeze was blowing. I closed my eyes and pulled in a deep breath, letting the grandness of the view smooth my remaining ruffled feathers. I was a water witch, which meant being close to the ocean brought me closer to myself and kept me centered. It also fed my magic.
I was a little disappointed in how I’d reacted that morning. I didn't usually get rattled like that, but in my defense, the resort had been nonstop for months, which meant I’d been working a ton of hours even though Bob and I were splitting the managerial duties. My thoughts drifted back to the application I’d found earlier, and I vowed to give her a call.
The college guys must've found something better to do because the beach was abandoned. I spread my towel in the sand and took a seat, pulling my knees to my chest and wrapping my arms around them to stare out over the water. I’d just gotten comfortable when the water began to churn a hundred yards or so offshore. Before I could process what was happening, a long, tall structure rocketed through the air from the water and landed just a few yards from where I was sitting. It struck the sand with a thud that shook the ground, and I jumped to my feet, my heart racing a mile a minute.
After I determined that whatever was laying on the beach wasn't going to get me, I spared a look to make sure there weren't any more incoming missiles. A giant blue tentacle waved to me from the water, and I pulled in a deep breath. A kraken I’d dubbed Bart periodically chucked cans, sunken rowboats, and other garbage from the ocean. I wasn’t sure whether he thought he was being helpful or if he was just sick of seeing human crap in his water, but he’d never thrown an entire small building ashore. I glanced at him, then at the blue-and-white striped lighthouse, and something snapped.
I flung my hands in the air and snatched up my towel and purse. I’d finally hit my breaking point. “That's it. I'm done!”
Without another glance at the lighthouse or the kraken, I snapped my fingers and teleported back to my cottage. I was going on vacation before I lost my mind.
Tempest, who’d already gone home, glared at me as I popped in and threw my towel across the back of the couch. “What’s got your knickers all twisted?”
I ran my tongue over my teeth as I stomped into the kitchen to get a glass of tea. “Uh, let’s see. My idyllic workplace is being turned into a setting from Animal House, I haven’t had two days off in a row in months, and a kraken just threw a lighthouse at me while I was sitting on the beach tryin’ to get my head straight. Is it really too much to ask for just a few minutes of peace?”
Before I even made it th
rough my tirade, the weight of responsibility started to drag me down. I couldn't just leave a lighthouse lying on the beach, no matter how much I just wanted to walk away from it all. I sighed and said as much. “I have to go deal with it.”
"Don't be a dork," she said running her fluffy white tail between her paws. "You can, and you will just leave it there. Call Blake, tell him what happened, and then tell him it's not your problem, and you're going on vacation. Because that's exactly what you're going to do.”
Fighting the pull to do it myself, I did as she said and slid my phone out of my pocket to do as she asked. He picked up on the first ring, and I didn't even get the first sentence out of my mouth before he cut me off.
"Slow down, Destiny. Believe it or not, I do have a finger on the pulse of this entire resort. I knew about the lighthouse fifteen seconds after it happened, but by the time I got there you were already gone. Don't worry about it. It's not a big deal, and I’m taking care of it."
Blake was the administrator for a reason, and I had no idea why I felt such a responsibility to take on everything myself. I guess it was because my brain was so scrambled because he’d been gone several times on business, and during those times, I’d covered for him. It was hard to turn it on and off. “Of course you are. If you need me, call me.”
He laughed. “I’m not calling you. I heard about your morning. Relax.”
“I’m glad you said that,” Tempest called loud enough for him to hear. “We’re going on vacation.”
"I think that's a fabulous idea,” he replied. “Call Colin or Mila and tell them you'll be ready to go in half an hour. There's no need for you to stay here and worry about this, and it's high past time you took some time off. You have a month of vacation time stacked up, for Pete’s sake.”