Heart of the Witch (Witches of Keating Hollow Book 2)

by Deanna Chase

  “Xavier… I mean Victor. The guy who is supposed to be driving that vehicle over there.” Drew pointed at the Honda, ready to rip someone’s head off. He was being played. He knew it was Xavier he’d seen at the marina. The two men had made eye contact. Drew had seen the man’s face, one he’d know anywhere as it was almost a mirror of his daughter’s. This man must’ve switched vehicles with Xavier at some point, which meant he’d just been led on a wild goose chase.

  “I don’t know. That guy who called himself Victor paid me fifty bucks to drive around for forty minutes. He told me to leave the vehicle here when I was done.”

  “He just paid you fifty bucks to drive, and you did it without question?” Drew asked, his eyes narrowed in suspicion.

  “Hey man, I’ve got an electric bill to pay. Fifty bucks is fifty bucks.”

  “And you’d never seen him before?”

  The man shook his head. “I was coming off a fishing job when he asked if I wanted to make some extra money today. That’s all I know.”

  Drew fumed while the man disappeared into the restaurant. Drew followed, but only to take a look around and see if Xavier was waiting around inside. But as he expected, Xavier was nowhere to be found. Drew retreated and jogged over to the Honda. Inside, he spotted a hat, a scarf, a pair of gloves, and an extra jacket. He was certain he’d seen Xavier wearing the scarf the day he’d walked out of the Sunshine Hotel. If he could get his hands on it, he might be able to track Xavier. But the doors were all locked.

  “Damn,” Drew muttered. He ran back into the restaurant and forced the man Xavier had hired to drive in his place to accompany him back to the parking lot.

  “I have rights,” the man said, glaring at Drew.

  “You could also be arrested and taken in for questioning. Or you can open that door and hand me that scarf.” Drew didn’t really have any grounds for arresting the man. There certainly weren’t any laws forbidding him from driving around town. Drew hadn’t turned his lights on and asked him to pullover. But he could take him in for questioning and would if he refused.

  “Fine. Geez. Keep your pants on.” The man pulled out a set of keys, and in no time he had the door open.

  Drew reached in and grabbed the items of clothing. Now all he needed was a body of water. “Thank you,” he told the man then jogged back to his SUV.

  The Elk River was close, but the ocean would provide him with more energy. Making a snap decision, Drew hightailed it north to the closest beach. It was a gray Tuesday afternoon and to Drew’s relief, the beach was deserted. The less distraction the better. He parked his SUV, grabbed the scarf, and jogged down to the water’s edge. Pure energy poured into him from the crashing waves, filling him up, making him hum with the intensity of it.

  Drew fell to his knees in the sand, held on to the scarf with both hands, and concentrated on Xavier. The man’s face flashed in his mind, clear as day. Then there he was, standing in front of the Keating Hollow elementary school. Drew was frozen in the vision, forced to watch as Xavier held his arms out to Daisy, scooped her up, and holding her close to him in a protective embrace, started to run.

  “No!” Drew shouted and took off for his vehicle.

  Chapter 23

  As soon as Noel got off the phone with Drew, she started to get nervous. She wasn’t one to discount that nagging feeling. And the fact that Drew was caught up in an investigation that had to do with her ex made her uneasy enough that she grabbed her keys and headed straight for her vehicle. If she had her way, she’d be the first one in the pickup line when school let out. Once she had Daisy safely by her side and Drew was back in town, she’d start to relax again.

  “Going to get Daisy,” she called to Alec.

  He glanced up from his spot behind the check-in counter. “Already?”

  “Yeah. I don’t want to get caught in the line today.” She waved and disappeared out the back door. But when she clicked the key fob to unlock her car door, nothing happened. “Crap,” she muttered, adding get a new battery to her mental to-do list as she used the key to open the door.

  Once she was belted in, she shoved the key into the ignition and… nothing. “No. This isn’t happening.” She tried again. Nothing. The car was completely dead. “Dammit.”

  Frustrated, she hopped out of her five-year-old SUV and ran back into the inn. “Alec?”

  “Hey, I thought you left,” he said.

  “My battery is dead. Do you think you could jump it?”

  “Sure.” He put his pen down and followed her outside. While he positioned his truck next to her vehicle, Noel pulled out the jumper cables. It took a little bit of maneuvering, but eventually they got the cables attached and her SUV running.

  “Thank you,” she said, relieved as she jumped back into her SUV. “I owe you one.”

  He waved her off. “Don’t even worry about it. It all washes out in the end.”

  She smiled at him and pulled out of the small lot. When she stopped at the light, she glanced at the clock and gritted her teeth. Jumpstarting her battery had taken longer than she’d thought. School was just getting out, and Daisy could already be waiting for her. While she waited for the light to turn, she checked all her settings to see what could’ve drained her battery. It didn’t take long to realize that her lights had been turned from Auto to On. Noel’s hands started to sweat as she gripped the wheel tighter. She never changed the controls. And since she was the only one whoever drove her vehicle, someone else had done that. Had that been on purpose, she wondered?

  Had Xavier come to town and purposely sabotaged her vehicle so she couldn’t get around? The idea sounded crazy, but so was the fact that he was in Eureka and associated with an unidentifiable dead man. What in the world was her ex up to?

  Noel drove a little faster than she should to the school and tried not to lose it when she found herself at the back up the pickup line. All she wanted in that moment was to get her daughter home where she could keep an eye on her.

  The line seemed to move slower than molasses, but in reality, Noel knew it was going about as fast as it usually did. She finally rounded the turn, giving her a view of the kids waiting to be picked up.

  And the man walking up to the school with his arms wide open.

  Xavier.

  Noel lowered her window just in time to hear her sweet girl cry, “Daddy!”

  “No!” Noel cried, hearing the word echo in her mind as she leaped out of the car.

  Daisy flung herself into Xavier’s arms. He scooped her up, holding her tightly.

  “Put my daughter down right this minute,” Noel demanded, wind kicking up around her as if it had a will of its own. The leaves in the trees rustled angrily. A trash can fell to its side and rolled. Kids let out startled cries, surprised by the rush of power streaming from her.

  “Noel, stop!” Xavier ordered as he ran to her, Daisy clutched in his arms. “Rein in your magic. No one is taking Daisy.”

  She didn’t believe him. Why else was he there? “Hand her over.”

  “No.” Daisy buried her face into his shoulder, holding on with everything she had. “I don’t want to leave Daddy.”

  Noel stood on the sidewalk in front of the elementary school, heartbroken, and completely pissed-off. “What do you think you’re doing?” she asked him as she pried her daughter out of his arms. “You’re breaking her heart. You know that, right?”

  “No, Mommy, no. I want Daddy,” Daisy whimpered, wrapping her legs around her mother while simultaneously trying to reach for him again.

  “Noel, please,” he said. “Let me explain.”

  “Are you insane?” She whispered angrily. “I can’t believe you did this. Where did you think you were going to take her?”

  “Nowhere,” he said, holding his hands up and taking a step back. “I just wanted to see you both.”

  “So you came here? Are you out of your mind?” She stalked over to one of the teachers who was headed straight for them. After apologizing and briefly explaining the si
tuation, she stalked back to her car and got Daisy situated in the back seat. Her daughter reached for her dad and whimpered the entire time. Once Daisy was buckled in, she kissed her on the cheek and tried to soothe her with comforting words, but nothing was going to calm her down, and Noel knew it.

  Noel turned to Xavier, who was hovering. “Get in the car. If you try anything or say anything to upset my daughter further, I’ll castrate you, got it?”

  He nodded once and hurried to get in the vehicle before she changed her mind. And she almost did. Everything inside of her wanted to pull him out of her SUV and kick the crap out of him. How dare he show up at Daisy’s school like this. How dare he try to see her without talking to Noel first. He had some balls.

  Noel fumed the entire way back to the inn. Once they were out of the car, she grabbed Daisy’s hand and jerked her head at Xavier, indicating he should follow. But instead of going inside, she led the way around the back and settled into one of the patio chairs while he sat in the porch swing. Daisy flung herself at him and snuggled in close.

  The scene was almost unbearable for Noel to watch. She turned her head and shivered in the cool afternoon air. If she was cold, she knew Daisy must be freezing. She waved a hand, instantly warming the air around them.

  “Your magic is stronger now,” Xavier said.

  She shrugged. “It always is when I’m angry.”

  “Right… I didn’t mean any harm,” Xavier said, wrapping his arm around his daughter.

  “Is that why you sabotaged my vehicle? It was clever of you to make it look like a mistake,” she said, her tone dripping with sarcasm.

  “What do you mean sabotage your vehicle?” His brow was wrinkled in confusion. “Didn’t you just drive it to the school?”

  “The battery was dead, Xavier. Are you seriously denying that you somehow turned the lights on?”

  He glanced away and tapped his foot nervously as he said, “I just wanted a little time to say goodbye.”

  “You’re something else, you know that? Couldn’t you have just asked me? Or were you too afraid of what I’d say?” She wanted to slug him. If he hadn’t been holding Daisy, she might not have held back. “I bet you’re the one who kept calling the inn and hanging up on me.”

  He sucked in a breath but didn’t answer her. She took that as a yes. Noel hated that Daisy was present for the conversation she couldn’t put off. She and her ex had things to discuss, and most of them weren’t suitable for Daisy’s ears. “Where are you headed this time, Xavier?”

  “South, I think.”

  “South, you think?” Noel sighed. “Daisy, sweetheart?”

  Her daughter lifted her head and peered at her mother.

  “I need you to go check on Buffy. Can you do that for me?”

  “But Daddy’s here. I don’t want to go,” she said, barely holding back a whimper.

  “Daddy and I need to discuss some grown-up things, sweetheart. I know you miss him, but we need a few minutes. I promise you he won’t leave before you get to spend some time together.”

  “But I don’t want you to leave,” she said, looking up at him with tears in her eyes.

  “I know, sweet pea. I don’t have a choice, but I won’t leave without saying goodbye.” His expression was so loving and gentle, but all it did was manage to piss Noel off further. Where had that man been all this time?

  Reluctantly, Daisy slid off the swing. She dragged her feet and glared at her mother until she turned the corner and disappeared out of sight. A few moments later, they heard the back door open and slam shut.

  Silence fell between them. Noel just stared at him, waiting for him to say whatever it was he came to say.

  He cleared his throat. “I need to apologize.”

  “Yes, you do,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. “But not to me. To your daughter.”

  “To both of you,” he insisted.

  She let out a huff. “It’s wasted on me, Xavier. Nothing you say is going to make this right.”

  He grimaced as he nodded his agreement. “I know. But I’m still sorry. So very sorry for the way that this all went down.”

  She blinked. “Sorry for the way it went down? Not sorry for leaving?”

  “Of course, I’m sorry for leaving. But I didn’t have a choice. I had to. Otherwise…” He ran a hand through his thick hair. When he glanced back up, his green eyes were pleading with her. “There is so much to explain. I didn’t want to leave. I had to. Please, Noel, just listen while I get this out.”

  “Fine. I’m listening.” Her tone was short and full of skepticism. Nothing he could say would make this better, but she couldn’t deny that she was intensely curious. Just where the hell had he been, and why had he left so abruptly?

  “There are things you don’t know about my past,” he said.

  “Clearly.”

  “I meant my past before we met.” He leaned forward and glanced away again.

  “You told me you grew up in Oregon,” she said. “You were an only child, and your parents died in a car accident.”

  He turned back to her. “None of that is true.”

  She couldn’t say she was surprised. His past was nonexistent. There had to be a reason why it vanished from all viable records. “I’m listening.”

  Xavier stared her straight in the eye and spit it out. “I grew up in a crime family.”

  Honestly, it was what she’d been expecting to hear. How could she not when his past had been all but erased? But it was still a gut-punch that made it hard to breathe. Finally, she forced out, “Are you still a participant?”

  “Not a willing one.”

  She closed her eyes, not sure she wanted to hear anything else. “In that case, you should probably leave. It’s not safe for Daisy.” Or him for that matter. If Drew happened to show up, things would not go well for Xavier.

  “I will, but there are things to say first,” he said.

  “Then you better just lay it out there.”

  He did just that. Xavier explained how he’d been forced to be a drug runner for his uncle from the time he’d been eight years old. As a teenager, he’d been there when his uncle executed three rival drug dealers and forced one of the leader’s daughter to join their crew. He’d taken an interest in her and tried to force her to be his girlfriend. Xavier had helped her escape before anything could escalate, and that’s when he left and never looked back. He’d managed to find an earth witch who was skilled at manipulating technology and had paid him an obscene amount of money to make him disappear. Shortly after that, he’d landed in Keating Hollow, hoping to lead a normal life. Then he’d met Noel.

  “So, you went on the straight and narrow. Good for you. Except I deserved to know about your past before we got married and started a family, don’t you think?”

  He nodded. “Yes. But I was desperate to put the past behind me. I never had any intention of returning to that life.”

  “Yet, you did. I guess I can thank you for not involving me and Daisy.”

  Pain flashed in his green eyes, and the man just looked gutted. “That’s why I left, Noel. They found me.”

  She sucked in a sharp breath, pain radiating from somewhere deep in her soul. He hadn’t left them because he stopped caring. He’d left to protect them. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she whispered.

  “I didn’t want you anywhere near any of that, Noel. Why would I want that for you and Daisy?”

  “But… we loved you.”

  He slid off the swing and dropped to his knees in front of her, grabbing her hands. “I never stopped loving you both. Never.”

  She stared down at their connected hands and knew she couldn’t say the same. The love she’d felt for him had turned to resentment and something close to hatred. She wasn’t proud of that fact, but after watching her daughter suffer so many nights because she missed her dad, she just hadn’t been able to forgive. Maybe now, with answers, she could find a way forward. “Where have you been all these years?”

&nbs
p; He tightened his grip on her hands, closed his eyes, and said, “I don’t really know. Not long after I left here, I was drugged, force-fed a potion that left me with no memories.”

  Holy balls. This was just getting worse and worse. “And now? What happened?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know exactly. Some of it’s coming back to me, but it’s fuzzy, to be honest. Victor stole my identity because I had no record. He was also the one feeding me that potion. Then he showed up dead, and I came back to myself. As my memories started to come back, I ended up here. You should know… I saw Daisy last week.”

  “You what?” She pulled her hands out of his, ready to spit fire.

  “Please, Noel. I wasn’t fully myself yet. I didn’t understand. All I knew was that there was something… someone here that I needed to see. I showed up, saw her, and a flood of memories came roaring back. I thought she might’ve seen me, but I wasn’t sure. I was so confused. I took off so I could sort it all out.”

  She suddenly started to feel overwhelmed. His story was fantastical and almost unbelievable. But at the same time, she knew he was telling the truth. She could feel it in her gut. “Is that the only time you were here in town before today?”

  He shook his head. “After I sorted out my memories, I came back here. I wanted to see you, talk to you, explain. But…”

  “But?” Her heart was hammering against her ribcage.

  “I saw you with the town cop.” He moved back to the swing and stared at the ground. “I knew I could never talk to you when he was around, so I waited until the time was right.”

  “Until you could send him on a wild goose chase?” she filled in.

  He nodded. “If your boyfriend hauls me in, there’s no doubt I’ll end up incarcerated. I’m pretty sure all of Victor’s crimes are going to fall on my head. I need time to sort it out.”

  “And when you do?”

  “I’ve already decided I’m going to the authorities. I can’t live this life. I want what we had before, Noel. That was all I ever wanted.”

  She stared at him, her heart broken. Then she shook her head. “I can’t go back, Xavier. Not now. Probably not ever. You lied to me. You left me. But more importantly, you didn’t trust me. And Daisy…” A small sob got caught in her throat. “She’s suffered because we were blindsided. I’m sorry, but I can’t be a part of that again.”