by
Mallory Crowe
Copyright Page
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Fonts used with permission from Microsoft.
Copyright © 2017 by Mallory Crowe
Mallory Crowe (2017-4-18). Long and Lost (The Bewitching Hour Book Three)
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright
FREE BOOK
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
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“Derek? I think you have the wrong person. I don’t know anyone named Derek.”
Derek felt the apartment physically start to spin as the rage bubbled up inside him. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he tried to think of how he was going to deal with this. He then opened his eyes and looked at his beautiful girlfriend, who stared at him as if he were a stranger. “You’re serious? This isn’t some stupid joke?”
Her brow furrowed as she took a step back. “Are you sure you don’t have me confused with someone else?”
“No, I don’t have you—” He broke off as he realized that he was starting to yell, which seemed to freak Sam out more. He didn’t want to freak Sam out. He loved her. He wanted to track down her grandmother from hell and show her exactly what he thought of her newest game, though. “Claudia. Claudia did this. She never liked me and she wiped your mind.”
Sam’s eyes narrowed and he knew he finally had her attention. “You know Claudia?”
“Yeah. The bitch hates me. Listen, Sam, I know you are under the influence of... something, but you have to believe me. You love me. I love you. We’re together. Us against everything.”
She took another step back. “Love? Wait. How long were we together?”
Derek winced. “A week,” he said, rounding up.
“A week? And this is a love at first sight thing?” she asked, the disbelief evident in her voice.
“We were neighbors. Do you at least remember the old apartment? The shithole one before you became Claudia’s kept woman?”
“Yeah. I lived there for years.”
“You moved out because things got heated between us and didn’t work out. We reconnected last week while you were looking into the arsons.”
“I moved out because Claire needed a place to live and I needed to be close to my grandmother.”
“Claire!” Finally, something he could use. “Call her. She knows. She likes me. We saved her life. We did it together. What do you remember about Tommy Collins?”
“Tommy Collins was a psychopath. I killed him to save Claire.”
“And then I arrested you.”
She shook her head. “I think you need to leave.”
“Sam—”
She held up a hand. “Just... stop. Nothing you’re saying makes any sense.”
He closed the distance between them and took her hand in his. “Magic, Sam! Don’t you tell me this isn’t possible.” He held on tightly, willing her to remember. Just give him something....
But he could tell from the flash of fear in her eyes that she wasn’t close to having a clue who he was. “Fine. It’s possible. But right now you’re kind of invading my personal space and I need you to back off.”
For a long moment, he didn’t move. He didn’t want to let her go. He didn’t want Claudia to even have this small victory. But then a beeping cut through the silence of the apartment and Derek bit out a curse as he let her go. She eyed him warily, as though waiting to see whether he was going to attack her or spout more nonsense.
Damn it, she was afraid of him. Sam was never supposed to be afraid of him. Even when her mother had drugged him that night so long ago and he’d been half out of his mind, Sam hadn’t been afraid of him.
She took a deep gulp. “That’s my phone. I need to answer.”
“Fine.” He backed away. “Go. I’m sure Claudia needs her precious granddaughter to do her bidding. But you ask about me, okay? Derek Pierce. Ask Claire. Ask that guard dog of yours, Bastian. Because you’re going to remember. I’ll make sure of it.”
“I—” The phone rang again, whoever it was apparently insistent on getting through. “I’m sorry,” she said weakly, no real emotion behind it.
And why would she care? She had no idea who he was. Somehow Derek made it out of her apartment. He didn’t remember moving. Did he back out? Turn and walk? One second, he was there and then he was gone. He was still angry. No, angry was an understatement. He was furious. Livid. Incensed. Hurt.
He wasn’t a fly to be swatted away. An inconvenience for Claudia to deal with. He and Sam were real fucking people and their minds weren’t Claudia’s playground. He leaned against the wall of the hallway.
He didn’t know what to do. Fuck, the precinct was a wreck after the mind control Heather Harris had worked on everyone and he needed to be there, but he didn’t know how to move his legs right now. He needed to get Claudia to fix this, but there was a good chance she’d just kill him if he ran in, making demands.
Before, Sam was his protection. Claudia could kill him with a blink, but she wouldn’t want to risk her granddaughter’s wrath. Now that they knew Heather Harris, Sam’s sister, was the one behind the Tommy Collins killings, Claudia’s family was fracturing in half. She couldn’t risk losing Sam.
But now Sam didn’t give a damn about him. He was half surprised Claudia hadn’t taken care of him before he had a chance to reach Sam at all. Hell, she was the most powerful witch out there. When she cast a spell, she probably had no doubt that it worked completely.
Claire. She was the key to this. He had to get to Claire before Claudia did.
Filled with resolve, he pushed away from the wall. He was halfway to the elevator when his phone rang. Hoping it was Sam, he looked immediately, but it was a work number. His boss, Captain Voss. “Yeah?” he said gruffly as he hit the down arrow.
“Derek,” said Voss, uncharacteristically using his first name. Never a good sign.
“What’s wrong?”
“First of all, I don’t want you to freak out.”
Sam got out of her BMW and looked at the mess in front of her. The drive to Staten Island at nine o’clock in the morning had been hell, and now that she was confronted by the swarm of police cars and uniformed officers, she knew the day wasn’t going to get any easier.
And that was saying something, considering how it had started. The only thing she could think about while she was bumper to bumper on the bridg
e was the guy from this morning. She wanted to say crazy guy, but when magic was involved, she could never be too sure. Would Claudia do something so drastic? So desperate?
Sam had no idea. Her grandmother had always been a bit of an enigma. But considering everything that had been going on, Claudia probably wasn’t pulling any punches.
Maybe she’d had a good reason. Sam didn’t know anything about this guy. Maybe he was an asshole. Maybe he had been working with Heather. Maybe.... God, she didn’t know. There were too many possibilities to guess.
But her boyfriend? She hadn’t had a boyfriend in years. Not since Jackson in high school. Sure, she and Jackson had hooked up here and there since, but no official relationship status in forever. The whole thing seemed so unlike her. Not that Derek himself seemed unlikable. Physically, he was damn near perfection, at least to her. He was big. Really big, even taller than her, with broad shoulders, short dark hair, and rough stubble on his face that, even when she thought he might be crazy, she wanted to reach out and touch.
So... yeah. Maybe if there was anyone she was going to break her celibacy streak for, it was going to be someone like that. But there were too many variables to determine how much of what he said was bullshit. And considering she had ten dead bodies to deal with, she’d focus on that for the moment.
It was easy to find Bastian. He stood alone, arms crossed over his chest, and regarded the investigation as though planning his next move. Good, because he was going to have to take the lead on this one. He was in the normal Armani suit that all the sentries wore.
Sentries... what a joke. Claudia’s normally feared army had been fractured by Heather. Somehow she’d turned at least ten (but who knew how many in total) against Claudia. It was turning into an all-out civil war. A war one side had been planning for years and had blindsided the other with.
Now Claudia’s inner circle was smaller than ever. Bastian seemed to be her right-hand man, which surprised Sam considering she’d never heard of or met him before a few days ago. So where had he been hiding all these years and how did Claudia really know him? All personal questions she was going to ask at some point when there weren’t people being killed all around them. At this rate, she’d never know.
“Hey,” she said as she approached.
He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. “This isn’t good.”
“I want to think you’re talking about the people who lost their lives, but I’m guessing that’s not it.”
Bastian uncrossed his arms and looked around them. It was an industrial part of the borough. Factories with broken windows and parking lots with broken bottles. The building that had been targeted was smaller. A utility company providing gas to local residents. “I don’t get it.”
“That’s why we’re here, isn’t it? To investigate?”
“Heather was here.”
A cold tremor went down her spine. “What?”
“We had a tip that she was spotted in the area right before the bodies were discovered.”
“That doesn’t mean—”
“Follow me,” said Bastian, not letting her finish. He held the yellow crime scene tape up for her. None of the local cops stopped them, indicating that Bastian had already used his influence to get them access. The side door to the dark-red brick building was propped open by a stand-up ashtray, and the bodies on the ground immediately came into view once she was inside.
Sam winced. She wanted to seem professional and capable but she just wasn’t prepared for sights like this. She held a hand over her mouth, and when she tried to speak past the shock, no sound came out for a moment. Finally, she found her voice. “What happened?”
“No idea. Calls were going unanswered, so the supervisor at corporate had a neighboring station come over. Night shift is a smaller crew. All ten were dead on the scene. No external trauma. Cameras went down right beforehand. Last thing they saw was a petite blonde walking toward the building.”
“Bastian, she didn’t do this.”
“She’s killed before. A lot.”
“But why? I don’t think Heather has ever set foot on Staten Island. Nothing about this screams ritual, dark magic or not.”
He nodded. She was sure he’d considered all those things too. “You have to agree with one thing by now, though.”
“What?”
“Your sister is more than capable of this.”
Sam sucked in a breath and looked down at the guys. They were various ages. One looked as though he was barely out of high school. Another probably had grandkids. What a waste. “Do we have a list of names?”
“An officer is getting a list of everyone who was found, everyone who was scheduled to be here, and everyone who was scheduled to come in for the morning shift.”
“You think she took someone?”
“We can’t rule it out.” Bastian’s gaze went over his shoulder and his features hardened. He said a low word harshly under his breath, but it sounded distinctly... Russian? Was Bastian Russian? She filed that away for later as she turned to see what had upset him.
And then she said her own curse under her breath. Derek walked inside with a look of utter fury on his face. “Him.” She glanced to Bastian. “He was at my apartment this morning.”
Bastian stepped into Derek’s path and held out his hands. “Detective—”
Derek walked around, his shoulder slamming into Bastian’s as he started to walk through the bodies, looking at each one carefully.
Sam gave Bastian a questioning look. If he knew who Derek was, that kind of gave his theory some merit. Except there were probably thousands of people Bastian knew and she didn’t. It was a big city. “You followed me?”
Derek ignored her. “Where are the morning guys? The shift after this?”
“Detective Pierce, you need to leave,” said Bastian, his calm energy a stark contrast to the nearly frantic Derek.
Sam reached out. If Derek really did know her, maybe she could defuse the situation. She set her hand on Derek’s arm and he reacted as though he’d been shocked, pulling away and then staring into her eyes. There was such a mixture of betrayal, anger, and... fear staring back at her.
“Don’t touch me,” he bit out before he turned and walked farther into the building.
Sam exchanged a quick look of concern with Bastian before they both followed him. If he was going to cause trouble, they’d need to be there.
Derek slammed open the door to the main hallway and then turned into the third door on the right. The halls were beige and brown and even though they appeared to be freshly swept, there seemed to be dirt permanently engrained into the floor.
As she and Bastian reached the door that Derek had opened, it finally hit her. Derek had been here before. And then one of the guys in the conference room he’d just walked into was pushing out of his chair, and he and Derek gave each other a tight hug.
Sam’s mouth dropped open in surprise. This wasn’t about her. He hadn’t followed her. Whatever had happened here, it was all related to Derek.
Derek held his dad tighter. Even though Voss had assured him that Bob Pierce wasn’t one of the bodies, he couldn’t stop his heart from palpating until he knew for sure.
“I’m still here,” said Bob. “You know it would take an army to bring me down.”
Derek tightened his grip, taking a second to appreciate that he could still hug his dad. Ten families were torn apart tonight. He should feel bad, but all he could feel was a flooding relief.
“I’m gonna get to the bottom of this, Dad. Promise.”
“I know.” Then a tension crept into his father as he backed away and looked over Derek’s shoulders. “Who are the suits? CDC? Homeland? Some of the guys are thinking terrorists might have—”
“They’re outside consultants,” said Derek vaguely, knowing they were still in earshot of the fifteen or so other blue-collar workers all crammed into the small conference room. “I have to go over a few things. Have you called Mom yet?”
Bob
shook his head. “Nah. Ain’t no video cameras out there. Don’t want to worry her until she can see me alive and in the flesh. You know how she gets.”
Derek nodded, even though he didn’t really know what his dad was talking about. If anything, his mom was the more level-headed of the two. Bob probably didn’t want to call when there were no answers for what happened.
And Derek didn’t think he’d be able to give his family any comfort. Because he already knew what was responsible for what happened. Magic.
“You sit tight. I’m going to see where they are in the investigation.” He patted his dad on the shoulder before he went back out to where Sam and the guard dog waited in the hall. “Tell me everything.” He could see they were both confused that he and Bob were related, so he had a sinking feeling they knew nothing.
“They think it was Heather,” said Sam hesitantly, as though she still wasn’t sure she should be telling him anything. “She was spotted in the area.”
“She came here for me.”
Bastian narrowed his eyes. “We don’t know that.”
Derek scoffed. “Yes we do. I almost killed her and she shows up where my dad works and ten people end up dead? This was a warning to stay the hell away.”
Sam shrugged weakly. “It could be a coincidence.”
“You know how I feel about coincidences and murder.” Her lips tightened and he realized what he said. Of course she didn’t know what he thought about it. She didn’t even know him. “Where is your sister?”
“If we knew that, we wouldn’t be here,” said Bastian.
“You’re a fucking wizard. Do some hocus pocus and find her.”
Bastian cocked his head as he regarded Derek, and for a moment, Derek thought he might be about to get hexed or something. But Bastian seemed to let the insult go as he carefully said, “There are no wizards, and don’t you think we’ve been trying locator spells? Heather is using dark magic to shield herself. Claudia is doing everything magically possible. We’re her muscle on the ground.”
“She wants muscle but she cut me out of the picture? I knew she was a bitch but I never knew she was an idiot.”
Long and Lost (The Bewitching Hour Book 3) Page 1