He smiled and my stomach flip-flopped the other direction. “Good.”
I dragged my eyes away as he turned his attention back to the road. I stared out the passenger side window, wondering what in the Otherworld was wrong with me.
After a few minutes of silence, with nothing but the soft sound of a country song playing in the background, Nick asked me, “What do you think about Cassie and Chief Lincoln? That was kind of left field, wasn’t it?”
A laugh slipped past my lips. “Trust me, I’m just as shocked as you are, and she’s my best friend! I can’t believe she didn’t tell me about the date as soon as he asked.”
Nick laughed along. “Okay, glad it wasn’t just me.”
“They went to school together. Chief, or Jeffery, as she calls him, was only a couple of years ahead of her. He asked her to prom when they were in high school and she turned him down.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah. So, I guess he’s finally getting his chance.”
Nick shook his head. “Crazy.”
“What about you? You go to prom and all that back in your day?”
“Yeah. I went with the same girl both years. Clarissa Dunham. She was my high school sweetheart. College too. At least…for part of it.”
“Oh? What happened?”
Nick glanced at me and laughed. “You investigating the investigator?”
“I guess so!”
He chuckled and nodded. “All right. Fair enough. We dated in high school, decided to go on to the same college so we could stay together, but after two years at school, she decided she wanted someone else.”
“Yikes. I’m sorry, Nick.”
“It’s ancient history, really.” Something about his tensed grip on the steering wheel told a different story. “What about you? You and Adam together?”
I drew in a deep breath. “Yeah. It’s new.”
Nick smirked at me. “Don’t sound too excited over there.”
I laughed and brushed my hair away from my face, carefully tucking a strand behind either ear. “I’m awkward with stuff like that.”
“That didn’t stop you from asking me,” he pointed out, still grinning.
“Let’s just say, my past relationships haven’t gone well. My last boyfriend got tangled up with the wrong people. Horrible people, actually. He ended up in prison and I nearly got dragged down with him.”
“Wow! Are you serious?”
“Sadly, yes.”
“I’m sorry, Holly. I had no idea…”
It worried me that I hadn’t found a way to tell Adam about my ex-boyfriend, and yet, with Nick it came out easily. Of course, Nick couldn’t know that the bad guys Gabriel had been involved with were black magic wielding wizards, but the bare bones of the story remained the same.
“Like you said, ancient history.”
Except, it wasn’t really. Gabriel and all of the trouble he had caused were the reason that I was in Beechwood Harbor to begin with. The reason I was banned from going to any haven. And the reason my Aunt Bethany had all but abandoned me. She couldn’t risk being associated with me after what Gabriel had done to my reputation. Not when her husband was a big SPA leader.
I sighed, once again trying to release the tension in my chest. “Adam’s not like that. He’s a good guy.”
“Yeah. He seems…nice.”
I laughed. The few occasions when Adam and Nick had come face to face had been tense. To say the least. I had a feeling that if Nick was a shifter, they would both shift to their beast forms and have an all-out brawl.
I cocked my head at Nick, wondering what kind of animal he would be if he was a shifter. It was a stupid question. Shifters were born, not made like werewolves.
“A polar bear.”
“Excuse me?”
“Oh, nothing,” I replied, waving it off.
Nick turned onto a gravel driveway and we lumbered forward cautiously. A hundred feet down the path, it split into two. Nick took the one on the left and half a minute later, we arrived at a quaint cottage. It couldn’t be more than a thousand square feet. A single level that looked more like a gingerbread house than a home on a horse ranch.
“This is cute,” I said, peering out the front windshield.
The lights were on and right as we parked, a shadow flickered in the front window.
“Aha! He’s home,” Nick exclaimed, throwing the car into park. He fumbled to unbuckle his belt as quickly as possible.
We got out of the car and walked up the drive, only pausing for a moment at the bottom steps of the small porch.
“What do we do now?”
Nick smiled at me. “We knock.”
I rolled my eyes and marched past him up the three steps to the front door. “I meant who’s doing the talking?”
“That’s a ridiculous question. I’m the PI. You’re the muscle, remember?” He bopped me on the nose as he moved past to get to the door. “So, try and look fierce.”
He knocked before I could argue and the door cracked open, a sliver of light spilling onto the wooden planks under our feet. “Who’re you?”
“Mr. Price?”
The door opened wider and the beefy man rose up to his full standing height. He was a good six inches taller than Nick, leaving me nearly a foot shorter, and at least half as wide. I swallowed hard, my mouth suddenly dry. Magic pulsed on my palm and I bit the inside of my cheek to keep myself in check.
Nick better not piss this guy off.
“Who’s asking?”
Nick flashed a brief smile and extended his hand. “My name is Nick Rivers. I’m a private investigator, employed by Pearl Barkley to investigate the disappearance of her daughter, Katerina.”
Recognition flickered in the giant’s cold eyes but the rest of his face remained frozen, as if etched in stone. He reminded me vaguely of Gary, the violent gargoyle that had briefly lived at the manor and reminded me that while supernaturals had created a civilization, it didn’t make them all civilized.
I sincerely hoped Katerina’s boyfriend didn’t have fangs.
“You find her?”
Nick dropped his hand and raked it through his hair instead. “Mind if we come inside?”
“Who’s the girl?”
I stepped forward into the light. “Holly Boldt. I’m Nick’s partner. If we could come inside, we could explain everything and maybe ask a few questions. We won’t take up much of your time.”
The man glanced between us, his jaw working. “Fine. Come in.”
Nick ushered me forward. Sure, make me go in first.
Once inside, Bobby led us to a small living room. It was decorated with comfortable, but second hand looking furniture. The wallpaper border along the walls was peeling and faded. The windows were open, letting in the soft, early summer breeze that was rapidly growing colder as night fell. I shivered, but it had more to do with the look in Bobby’s eyes than the temperature of the room.
“You can sit if you want to,” he said, gesturing at the threadbare loveseat.
Nick and I each took a cushion and leaned forward in unison as Bobby situated himself on the couch across from us. “I’m sorry to have to say this, but Katerina was located earlier today. And I’m afraid that she was involved in an accident.”
Bobby frowned. “What kind of accident?”
“She was found at the bottom of a cliff, overlooking Beechwood Harbor.”
Bobby’s expression didn’t change. He looked at Nick, then me, and back again, before asking, “And? Is she at the hospital or something?”
Nick glanced down at his folded hands, his discomfort palpable in the small space.
I placed a hand on his, feeling them shake ever so slightly. “Bobby, Katerina didn’t make it. I’m so sorry. She was already gone by the time the rescue team reached her.”
Bobby cursed under his breath. “I knew something like that would happen. I told her so, too.”
Nick glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. It was clear he was just as startled by Bo
bby’s response as I was. “Umm…I’m sorry…I ’m not following,” he said, redirecting his attention to the hulking man across from us. “You thought she might end up—”
“Dead? Yeah.”
Nick sputtered. “Why’s that?”
“She went crazy. She was running with a rough crowd, from that damned bar she worked at. Katerina grew up sheltered. She didn’t know what she was getting into and I knew it was only a matter of time before she got in too deep.”
“Is that why you didn’t report her missing? You figured she was with her new friends?”
“I didn’t report her missing because I didn’t know she was.” Bobby reclined back. His calm demeanor was unnerving. “Listen, Katerina and I broke up a couple of weeks ago. She took all her crap and moved in with one of her friends. This girl, Jess, she’s the leader of the trouble makers. They work together at Lou’s. Ever since the two of them became friends, it was like Katerina was a different person. The day she left, I told her that she was headed down a dangerous path. She told me I was being a control freak and that I was suffocating her. So, I said, whatever, and let her go. Haven’t talked to her since.” He paused a moment, reflecting, and then added, “Guess now, I never will.”
He was holding something back. I could see it in his eyes. I wished I had a vial of the Loose Lips potion I’d used the last time I’d questioned a suspect in a murder investigation. The stuff came in handy!
“There’s one more thing I’d like to ask you,” Nick said, looking over at me for a beat. “If there is foul play involved, who would you recommend we look into?”
He shrugged his meaty shoulders. “How should I know? That’s your job, isn’t it? You said you were a spy, right?”
“Private investigator.”
“Same diff.”
“Actually—”
I held up a finger, cutting Nick off. “You said that you told her she’d end up getting into trouble. Obviously you had someone or something in mind.”
“Look, Jess and her work in a bar. They drink, party, probably go home with the wrong guys. It’s a ticking time bomb if you ask me. Me and Katerina had a good life here. But it was too simple for her. Too small. She didn’t want to stay in. She always wanted to go out, wearing these itty bitty dresses that attracted all kinds of attention. It was a constant argument with her. I’m sorry that she’s dead, but I can’t say that I’ll miss her. The girl I knew was gone a long time ago.”
The force of his statement hit me in the gut like a sucker punch. How could they have fallen so far from the happy, in-love couple they must have been when they first moved in together?
Nick gave a curt nod as he rose from the loveseat. I quickly followed his lead. “Thank you for your time, Mr. Price.”
Bobby didn’t bother standing and only offered a grunt as we shuffled for the front door.
Only when we were safely ensconced in Nick’s car did we both let out a collective shudder.
“That was weird,” I said, rubbing the chill off my arms.
Nick was still staring up at the house. I followed his eyes and noticed that Bobby Price’s hulking form was staring out the window. He spotted us looking up at him and the lights died, plunging the house and driveway into pitch black.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
NICK HURRIED TO flick on the headlights and turned over the engine before even bothering to buckle up. He threw it in reverse and backed down the driveway. Gravel sprayed up as Nick hit the gas a little too hard. He flipped around and we sped away from the small cottage. The fact that Nick was spooked startled me even more than the odd encounter with Bobby. Neither of us said a thing until we got back on the main road and were safely racing away from the ranch.
“That’s officially the weirdest interview I’ve ever done!” Nick announced, finally starting to relax in the driver’s seat.
I nodded vigorously. “You think he’s our guy?”
Nick shrugged. “I don’t know, but he knows more than what he’s saying. That’s for sure. My gut feeling is that he already knew Katerina was dead.”
“I agree. His reaction was almost…rehearsed.”
“That’s what I thought too.”
I sighed. “So, what now? What’s the next move?”
“I’ll check in with Chief Lincoln tomorrow. By then, they’ll have had a chance to examine the body and might be able to determine how she was killed and at what time she passed. That will help build a framework. We can only hope that there were more clues on her person.”
“I think we should go to Lou’s Whiskey Well, the bar she worked at, and see if this Jess girl can tell us anything about Bobby. If they were good friends, she has to know all the secrets behind their recent break up.”
Nick nodded. “Good plan. Let’s wait until tomorrow. Like I said, by then we’ll know more about what happened and can get more specific with our questions. You working?”
“Always,” I replied, sighing.
Nick chuckled. “Yeah. You’re kinda like me in that regard.”
I glanced across the console at him and studied the lines of his face again. I decided I liked the quirky way he smiled when he was amused with something. “Guess so. But, I’ll get to leave a little earlier than today. I don’t have to stay until closing time because Kirra and Paisley will work the closing shift. I mean…unless you wanted to get your sweep on again.”
Nick laughed. “Nah, I’m good. But I can pick you up from the shop when your shift ends and we can go to Lou’s. You think your boyfriend’ll go berserk?”
I grinned. Apparently he’d picked up on Adam’s not-so-secret hostility. “He’ll get over it.”
“All right.”
He pulled onto Zinnia, the main road through town, and Nick slowed. The streets were still fairly busy. The local pub, McNally’s, was lit up and a crowd of people were out on the front patio. The smell of the food piped in through the air vents and my stomach rumbled. For a fleeting moment, I considered asking Nick if he wanted to stop and get a bite, but that probably would set Adam off. Not that he hadn’t done the exact same thing with Evangeline.
Having dinner with Nick would be playing with fire and I knew it.
Nick dropped me off a few minutes later, and we said goodbye at the curb in front of the manor. I watched from the porch as he turned around in the cul-de-sac and drove off, throwing me a quick wave. I breathed deeply, drinking in the night air, before marching myself up the stairs. Boots was going to be cranky that his dinner was late, and my stomach was reminding me that I hadn’t had anything to eat for nearly six hours.
As soon as I walked into the manor, all hopes of having a peaceful dinner for two went up in flames.
“This is the last straw, fleabag!” Lacey bellowed from her place at the top of the grand staircase.
I winced and closed the door slowly behind me. Adam glanced over at me and flashed a smirk. “Hey, gorgeous. You’re just in time for the main event.”
Groaning, I brought my fingers up to my temples and rubbed away the dull pounding that was sure to lead to a massive headache.
A common side effect of living with Adam and Lacey.
“You want the main event, you mangy—”
With a snap of my fingers, a loud rumble, like thunder filled the foyer. I flashed an angry glare at Lacey, silencing her next tirade, and then pointed my glare toward Adam. “Guys, I don’t know what in the Otherworld I just walked into, but I want it to stop. Now.”
Lacey flew down the stairs, literally. She didn’t have wings—contrary to some vampire legends—but she could move fast enough that she levitated slightly off the ground. “Do you see what this mongrel did to my dress?” she spat, her eyes so black they looked like pools of pitch.
At her icy tone, I took a half step back and bumped into the door knob. I’d never seen her so angry before.
She was terrifying.
I cut a glance to Adam, silently questioning him. What had he done now?
Lacey answered for him. She spun to
the side, revealing streaks of brown liquid down the side of the silver, sequin-heavy gown she was wearing. I recognized it as the one she was planning to wear for her final interview in the Ms. Undead—or, whatever it was called—pageant. “I need to wear this tonight for the dress rehearsal!”
“What is that stuff?” I leaned over, daring her wrath to get a closer look.
“You should ask your mangy boyfriend.”
“Lacey…”
She growled. “He says it’s barbecue sauce.”
I pulled a face. “Do you have another dress you can wear instead?”
The flash in her eyes answered that question.
“Okay, okay. Before you two go off and kill each other, let me think of something. There’s gotta be a spell for this.”
Evangeline came in from the kitchen and glanced around the room at all three of us, her blue eyes open wide. “What’s going on? Is everyone okay?”
I nodded. “We’re fine. The thunder was mine,” I replied, assuming that’s what got her attention. Then again, it could have been Adam and Lacey screaming at one another. We were all just lucky that Posy hadn’t stumbled into the argument. If there was one surefire way to make her lose her patience, it would be Adam and Lacey arguing. I was usually the one sent in to break it up, like a rodeo clown.
Life at the manor was often time like being an unpaid paranormal babysitter.
I really should ask Posy for a break in my rent. Maybe a flat fee for every argument I had to settle.
Evangeline’s eyes landed on Lacey and she gasped. “What happened to your dress?”
I rolled my eyes when Lacey turned toward her sympathetic friend. “That beast sprayed it all over me.”
“Sprayed?” I repeated, shooting a confused look at Adam.
He grinned. “I was down at McNally’s.”
I grimaced, filling in the blanks. Occasionally, when Adam shifted into his beast form—a large, black dog, more in line with a grizzly bear than a canine—he wound up dumpster diving in the alley behind the popular pub.
“And you rolled in barbecue sauce?” I dared to venture.
Adam laughed. “No. But some people spotted me and threw their leftovers my way, taking pity on a poor, old stray.”
Twice the Witch: A Beechwood Harbor Magic Mystery (Beechwood Harbor Magic Mysteries Book 2) Page 10