Tides of Time (The Legacy Book 1)

by Luna Joya

  She shifted in her seat. They’d U-turned in the parking lot of Sunny Sol’s café earlier. “You know anything else about her?”

  Sam looped his thumbs in his pockets. “They called her the Sunshine Sweetheart. She starred in over a hundred films before her maid found her body in her car.”

  “Mabel.” Mina’s shoulders drooped. “Her maid’s name was Mabel.”

  “That’s right.” Sam stopped to answer a quick question from staff. “A lot of people believed Sunny had been murdered. Maybe by her jealous lover or her abusive ex-husband.”

  Cami swallowed hard. The poor woman. To have not one, but two scary men in her life. Cami had never recovered from Neil and what’d happened between them during their last fight. She lived in dread of him showing up again. “How’d anyone know Sunny’s ex abused her?”

  Sam’s jaw clenched. “Because he was a jerk and a con man. Their fights became legendary in the gossip rags.” It was clear from his tone the violence against the woman sickened him. “Sunny had a run of bad luck. Her fame brought death threats, break-ins, maybe even mobsters. Before her death, the newspapers ran photos of her with a gun and a dog for protection.”

  Cami recoiled. Sunny had tried to fight back, and she’d lost. What were Cami’s chances in her own struggle? Neil had threatened everyone in her family. She hadn’t been able to risk getting a dog for fear he’d use her connection with the animal against her.

  “How do you know all this?” Delia aimed her question at Sam.

  He shrugged one shoulder. “I research local history for my brother’s screenplays.”

  “Any films we’d know?” She’d adopted her prosecutorial interrogation intonation.

  “Deals.” Cami didn’t need Sam to be cross-examined in his own place. She’d wanted to know more about Sunny Sol, but not with Delia quizzing him about his qualifications.

  “Maybe.” He avoided the question and left the bill after Delia requested it. His gaze never left Cami. “You want anything else?”

  To touch the lock of hair that had fallen onto his forehead. To see more of his tattoo. To talk about his surfing. To ask him more about Sunny Sol’s abusive past. She swallowed. “No, but thank you.”

  Someone called to Sam from the kitchen. “Let me know if you change your mind.”

  “We will. We most definitely will.” Mina watched him go. Cami resisted the temptation. Barely. “He was totally flirting with you.”

  Delia tossed money on the table. “Work needs me. I’m heading outside to call the office. Mina, make sure you’ve eaten enough to replenish the you-know-what.” She didn’t talk about magic, especially in public. “Hey, Cami, your new boyfriend didn’t charge for your drink. I left him extra tip. Mina’s right. He’s cute. Great ass.” With those words, she cut through the tables toward the door.

  “Sunny Sol.” Mina dropped her napkin onto her empty plate. “It’s always cool to know I saw a real deal. Creepy, but cool.”

  Cami put her hand over Mina’s as much for her own reassurance as for her sister’s. “I’ll help you research her later if you want.” It’d give her someone to concentrate on other than Sam, and now she felt a connection to the actress.

  “Oh, a murder mystery. We can be the witchy version of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.” Mina speared the last strawberry from her sister’s plate.

  “Let’s not. After all the horrifying true crime stories you’ve heard from Delia, you still want to play detective?”

  “It’ll be fun,” Mina dared.

  “No way. Not happening.”

  Sam brought a tray of to-go drink containers to their booth. “I thought you might want this.”

  She thanked him.

  Mina chimed in, “Cami is going to help me find out what happened to Sunny Sol.” She slid from the booth and glided through the crowd, never stopping to check for dangers.

  Sam grinned. “Let me know if you need any help with that.”

  “Uh, sure.” She needed to stop staring. “We really enjoyed breakfast.”

  “Feel free to stop by anytime.”

  She watched him go. She’d always been a sucker for a man with natural swagger like Sam’s. His walk boasted confidence without arrogance, ease in his movements, and comfort in his own skin. That kind of man could handle anything coming his way and not miss one sexy step.

  She only glanced over her shoulder once on her way to the door. Sam caught her gaze and smiled. She slid the sunglasses on and slipped outside before she lost her stitched-together control.

  Vet residency, board certification, family, avoiding her ex, investigating Sunny’s abusive lovers. No sexy surfer in her safe plan. No matter how charming.

  Chapter Four

  Cami typed a quick search for information on Sunny Sol’s doomed love life into her phone and held the door so her younger sister could climb into the back of the car.

  Mina stopped with her hand braced against the car’s roof. “Thanks again for coming to get me.”

  “Anytime,” Cami promised, tearing her mind away from the abusive cycle Sunny endured. She could research it later. “Sisters don’t let sisters time slip alone.”

  Mina snorted. “You shouldn’t be going home alone after flirting with Sam.” She drew out his name.

  Cami ignored the comment and buckled the passenger seat belt. She yawned, ready for much needed sleep after work and magic.

  “He was totally into you.” Delia hurtled out of the parking lot.

  “I have over two years of my residency left, a paper to write for publication, board certification tests to pass.” A bad choice with her last boyfriend to get over. “I’ve got lots of things on the list to check off before I flirt with anyone.”

  “Your life plan again,” Mina mocked.

  “The plan to keep my career. Sam isn’t in it.” No gorgeous guys with swagger had made the goal list. However sad that might be.

  “Maybe you should add him.”

  Cami seized on the dreaminess in her younger sister’s voice. “Mina, is there a guy in your life you’re not telling us about?”

  “Why would you think that?” Mina clicked her fingernails on the window.

  “Because you’re not usually a matchmaker,” Delia said, her gaze on the rearview mirror.

  Mina sighed. “Maybe I’ve never met a guy good enough for either of you.”

  “You sure this isn’t about you?” Cami knew her baby sister well enough to suspect that everything eventually came back to her, and right now, she could take sister romance drama over magic messes.

  “Maybe.” Mina pulled a lighter with initials engraved into the silver finish from her shorts pocket. She clutched it in her closed fist. Cami had hit a nerve if Mina needed to cling to an instrument of her own element.

  “Come on, Mina.” Delia headed south toward Santa Monica.

  “We’re just friends.” Mina’s fingers flexed around the lighter.

  Which meant the Zippo wasn’t about her element at all, but about her mystery man. “You should bring him to Ama’s…”

  “No.” Mina’s immediate answer ended any further prodding. She slid the lighter back in her pocket. “It’s complicated.”

  “Fair enough. No more talk about men.” Fine by her. She didn’t want to discuss Sam. Or worse, Neil.

  Delia whipped across two lanes of traffic before their exit. “You at the same animal hospital tonight? You okay getting to work later if I drop you off at your apartment?”

  “Yeah.” She didn’t have the energy to ride her bike back from the vet clinic this morning. “It’s only a couple of miles away. I can walk it.”

  “You’ll Uber it.” Delia’s tone didn’t invite argument as she braked for the red light. “You’re still worried about Neil. For good reason.” She didn’t know the half of it. “And it’s not safe for you to be out walking at night.”

  Delia pulled to a stop by a fire hydrant in front of Cami’s apartment. It was the only parking spot open this close to the ocean. Her older sis
ter eyed the square, squat building with disapproval. “We need to move you some place safer. This dump has no security.”

  “Love you too, Deals.” She got the lecture every time Delia came here.

  Mina slid across and climbed out of the car behind her. “Thank you, Cams.”

  She hugged her sister tight, taking the last bit of comfort from the embrace before Mina

  scrambled back into the Mini and they were gone.

  Fatigue weighing her down, she trudged up the narrow, unlit staircase to the third floor. She had long since stopped trying to avoid the noisy treads. They all creaked and groaned from years of warping. The building super never fixed anything, including the railing that wobbled under her hand.

  She jiggled the key in the lock and undid the extra deadbolt she had installed at her own expense. The door knob stuck. Again. Using her shoulder, she shoved against the door once, twice, three times before it gave way.

  She stumbled inside and twisted the deadbolt, listening for the solid clunk of steel before she flopped onto the futon mattress. Ignoring the groan of protest from the metal frame, she snuggled into quilts spelled by her mother and inhaled the comforting scents of sage and cedar. She should wash off the stink of scared animals, dog vomit, and probably cat pee. Those were her last thoughts before she woke hours later.

  The setting sun cast long, dark shadows down the blocks of shops, restaurants, and bars of downtown Santa Monica by the time she left her apartment for work. Showered and as rested as she got these days, she checked her backpack again. She must’ve lost her sunglasses last night. A paystub, a paid utility bill, and lip balm had gone missing from the same zippered pocket. Maybe she’d ask to switch lockers at work. She swung the backpack over her shoulder and started the trek.

  Less than halfway to the clinic, the charm around her neck flared with warning of nearby danger, and she remembered why she didn’t go out anymore. She picked up the pace, checking faces as she hurried along. Not a single sign of her ex’s tall frame in the last glimmering threads of sunlight.

  She clutched one hand on the amulet and wrapped the other around her phone. The vet clinic was only about a mile away through residential, business, and industrial neighborhoods in the mishmash beach town.

  She squinted to gauge the distance if she stayed on the path carved into patches of light and obscurity by streetlamps flickering to life. Cutting through one of the smaller side streets would be quicker, but should she risk it?

  The necklace burned hot in her fingers. Picking the shortcut in a split-second decision, she dashed between the buildings. She realized too late she’d picked a deserted back alley of parking garages, trash cans, and loading docks.

  A pothole snagged her shoe, and she barely managed to catch herself before tripping to the hard asphalt. Twisting to see what had triggered her charm, frustration mounted. There was nothing, and yet it blazed. Her heart pounded with the old panic setting in. She ran, her feet slapping the pavement.

  The alley seemed to loom even darker and longer. She glanced over her shoulder, and her imagination raced to fill in the blanks of the shadows with the terror she’d known with Neil. Loud laughter and bright neon from the busy intersection ahead beckoned like a lighthouse.

  Suddenly, the amulet chilled to its normal cool metal. She stopped, brushing her hand over the charm to double check. She only felt the carvings and cuts of the insignia. An anomaly. A misfire. Nothing more.

  Embarrassment of how she’d overreacted chased the relief of knowing she’d been safe all along. Rubbing a hand over her flushed neck, she exhaled and ducked into a crowded deli.

  The smell of freshly baked bread filled her senses, and her stomach grumbled. She waited in line for a sandwich, ordering an Uber for the rest of her commute. No need to risk activating the amulet again.

  Four hours later, the tension in her shoulders popped as she shrugged the stethoscope around her neck. She reassured a pet parent whose cat had been stabilized in the ICU before excusing herself to see an emergency patient.

  She flipped through the hastily scribbled admission chart. The notes read: basset hound. Approximate age, five years. Possible intake of poisonous household cleaner. No vomiting. Noted lethargy.

  She pushed into the room. A familiar face greeted her.

  “Sam.” She blinked. His eyes so full of easy confidence and laughter earlier today now filled with worry and surprise.

  “Cami?” He stilled his hands where they’d been stroking a long basset hound on the examination table.

  “Who do we have here?” She rubbed the hound’s head, checking his eyes for dilation, tears, or cloudiness. The dog rewarded her with a slow tail thump.

  “Bogart.” Sam’s words came out rushed. “He stayed today with my sister in an office suite we share above the restaurant. She took him on a walk this afternoon, and he was fine every time I checked on him. But when I went up after closing, the safety lock on the cabinet under the bathroom sink had been broken, and I found drain cleaner spilled all over the floor. His bowl was full. He never skips a meal. He’s lazy, but he always comes to greet me. Tonight, he just lay there.”

  She checked Bogart’s muzzle and mouth. “Nose bleeds? Drooling? I mean more than normal basset hound puddles.”

  “No.”

  She moved further down Bogart’s body. No blistered skin. No reaction to her careful compressions of the swollen belly. “Any digestion problems you know of?”

  Sam shook his head. “My sister or I have been with him on and off throughout the day. We didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.” Sam’s hand skimmed hers where she’d buried her fingers in Bogart’s soft fur and rolls. “Please. I rescued him only six months ago, but I’m telling you this is not his norm.”

  Cami wasn’t prepared for the sensation zipping up her hand to her wrist from his one simple touch. The demands of her magic flared in response to tug at him, and she pushed it down. Bogart needed her.

  She bit her lip. Her elemental power had been the reason behind her breakup with magic, not the psychic bond. The elemental power she and her sisters possessed made up the crazy difference in her witchy family compared to other magical ones, not their psychic skills.

  Asking her abilities for an answer so quickly after using her element would bring a higher toll for her to pay later, but it might save Bogart an unnecessary pumping of his stomach.

  “Temperature?” she asked the vet tech who opened the door.

  “Normal,” he answered before gathering supplies and leaving again.

  Cami plugged the tips of her stethoscope into her ears to block out the world more than anything else. She tugged the diaphragm down Bogart’s torso. The dog’s heart bumped in a steady beat. She pulsed one thread of magic into Bogart, focusing solely on him and not his owner.

  Sorry about the bad touch with the thermometer, Bogie. I can call you Bogie, right?

  The hound lifted his head and raised his eyes to hers. He sent anxiety and discomfort down the line, but no pain.

  “Sam, I’m going to need you to stay calm so Bogart can do the same.” She slipped the stethoscope out of her ears. Kneading Bogart’s belly, she asked, “How did you know Bogart chose you when you adopted him?”

  He rubbed the back of his neck. “My sister Lottie had been nagging me about living alone so I went to an adoption fair. Bogart came right to me. With his sad eyes, I couldn’t leave him there. He was lonely.” The way Sam twisted his last word, Cami wondered if he was only talking about the dog. “He already had a name from my favorite time period. He’s a partially deaf, drooling goofball, but we’re a perfect match. He loves people. I’m sure he would appreciate a visit from a pretty girl.”

  Cami jerked her head, breaking the connection with Bogart for a second. Returning her attention fully to Bogart, she listened for answers to silent questions. “Sam, any strain when Bogart’s out doing his business?”

  Sam’s forehead wrinkled. “No. Although he hasn’t been going as often now you mention
it.”

  Cami smoothed a hand down the dog, checking one more time. She pinched a roll of fur, counting the seconds it took to fall into place. “Constipated, Bogart? Because you didn’t lick any of the bad stuff.” The dog whined. “Yeah, buddy. I know you don’t feel good. Some pup’s been indulging in too many treats and not enough water. Let’s get you hydrated.”

  “He’s okay?” Bogart bumped her hand for more petting and crawled to lay his head against her breasts. Sam huffed. “I guess Bogart’s fine if he’s flirting. He beat me to it.”

  Bogart licked her hand. Gah, one charming comment from Sam, and she’d lost her connection. She cleared her throat.

  “Let me take him in the back to see if he’ll drink or if we need to give him fluids. I’ll try a simple medication once you approve the cost. Let’s keep treatment as straightforward as possible. I’d like to order a blood panel to rule out any underlying issues. I can recommend a probiotic and diet to help in the future, and he’ll need a follow-up with his regular vet.”

  “Do you make house calls? Bogart hates the vet, and it’s obvious he adores you.” Sam gestured to where the dog rubbed against her. “Or do you work another night? We can come back and see you?” He blew out a breath. “This has to be the least sexy way ever to meet up with a woman I already wanted to ask on a date.”

  The door opened, cutting off any response she might’ve made. The tech helped her get Bogart into the back for treatment after Sam signed off on the costs and chose to wait rather than leave Bogart behind.

  She didn’t see Sam again for almost two hours. She treated other animals and assisted in a minor surgery in the meantime, but Bogart’s problem had been cured. He was happy, healthy, and ready to go.

  “All right, Bogie. Let’s get you back to Sam.” He’s probably every bit as much of a heartbreaker as you are.

  The basset hound trudged along beside her, his ears swinging low enough to almost skim the floor. She took a deep steadying breath before pushing open the door.

  Sam was asleep on the bench, his head slumped against the wall. Cami sighed and looked down at Bogart. She scratched the rolls of furry flesh at his neck. She needed to focus on the dog and not his handsome owner. Even one who made her catch her breath and forget everything else when he looked at her. She’d never felt a spark like this. It was enticing. And dangerous.