She nods and pretends to zip her lips closed. Then she squeezes my arm. “You be careful.”
“Thank you, I will.” I watch her turn away, then stop for a second. Spotting Angelo, she heads that way, but I move closer to see what the twins are fighting about.
“I’m not ready!” Rain says, looking for all the world like she wants to smack Glade.
“I don’t care. Coming here was nuts in the first place, and staying longer is too dangerous. We have to go home.”
Rain crosses her arms and glares at him. Glade is going to have to bodily move her to get her to go anywhere. I walk over and try to diffuse the situation. “What’s up?” I ask, as casually as I can.
“I want to see Matchbox 20 tonight, and Glade-,” she shoves him with an elbow, “-is trying to make me go home instead. Jerk.”
“How long until the concert starts?” I ask her.
“It’s later tonight.” Her eyes search my face hopefully.
“What if we go home, take care of whatever Angelo needs - debriefing, I guess? - and then you and I escort Tawny and Carl home. That way, we can kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.”
Glade scowls, but Rain claps her hands.
I stop her. “You’ll have to clear it with Angelo. He’s the boss.”
She grins, sticks her tongue out at Glade, and runs off in Angelo’s direction.
He’s giving his men orders and talking to someone on a radio. I can’t help but smile at him - he’s so, so sexy when he’s working. It’s his element, and I doubt he’d be happier doing anything else. He looks up and our eyes meet. With a return smile and a nod, he turns away and bends down to hear Rain.
Glade stands beside me and watches, too. “You know you two are the perfect couple, right?”
The remark is so out of the blue that I turn to look up at him.
He shrugs and pushes dark bangs from his eyes. “It’s true. Everyone on the island sees you as the perfect team. A few people were even mad that you wanted to break the bond.”
I have no answer for that. “Well,” I mumble, “It was a difficult decision.”
He grunts. “I’ve seen the way you look at each other. Are you sure that it’s the right decision? A lot of people want what you have, Trinket - somebody to love them, a real partner. Why would you give that up?”
Chapter 20
“Was it hard? Saying goodbye to Tawny?” Angelo runs his fingers through my hair. We are sitting on the sofa at home, looking at the softly falling snow through the big picture window. It will be dark soon, but we haven’t turned on any lights.
“It was, and she’s determined to come back.” I smile. “She really wanted to flirt with Jones more.”
Angelo chuckles. “Too bad. I think Jones is busy these days.”
I pick my head up off his chest. “What do you mean?”
“Imala seems to be keeping him in line these days. I think he’s pretty happy about that.”
“Really?” I try to picture it and fail. “They hate each other - she thinks he’s a player, and he says that she’s too bossy.”
“Well, now it seems to be working for them.”
“Huh.”
“Yeah.”
We’re quiet for a minute. I really want to sink into the warmth of his arms and doze, but I’ve got questions. “Angelo?”
“Hmm?”
“If Penley killed Guthrie, what caused the marks on Guthrie’s face?”
“Oh. If it wasn’t for that stuff, he’d probably still be alive. He apparently was experimenting with the carnation mixture and made a bad batch. Then he accidentally splashed it on himself and it burned his skin.”
“But that wouldn’t have killed him.”
“I know. It hurt, though, and Penley jumped at the chance to do him in while he was distracted and injured.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah - Penley had been waiting for a chance like that for a while, I guess.”
Penley was locked up in a special holding cell, I knew, and if Angelo got his way with the Council, Penley would be there for a long, long time. At least Rain seemed to have gotten over him pretty quickly.
Speaking of Rain... “Do you think she’ll do well?” I ask.
“Rain? Of course she will. She’s strong and smart and determined.” He hugs me. “A lot like another woman I know.”
I laugh.
“Besides, being an agent will give her more time with Glade and help her work out some of that energy.”
“Plus, she’ll get to make regular trips to the mainland.”
“Oh, yeah - she’s already excited about that part.”
I twist around on the sofa to look at him. It’s getting harder to see his face in the dying light, but I don’t want to turn on the lamp just yet. Sitting here in the dark with him is cozy.
“And what about us?” I ask. “Are we making the right decision?”
He looks at me and doesn’t answer for a long time. My heartbeat picks up. “Angelo?”
When he speaks, his voice is soft. “I always thought that us - together - was a good decision, even before the mess with Dravo and the binding ceremony. I never once doubted what a great couple we make. If I said that, though, you’d disagree, just because you’re stubborn.”
I nod. He’s right. “I’m still stubborn, and we’re still going to disagree.”
He sits up and kisses me on the lips, tasting like butterscotch. “I know, but now making up will be a lot more fun.”
Willow Monroe
Thank you for reading! I have so much fun writing stories, and I get shivers every time I think of someone reading about the adventures of Trinket (or Starla, or Gemma!). Writing and publishing is a dream come true for me, and I hope you enjoyed reading about Trinket’s little adventure, too.
You can check out more of my books HERE. Meanwhile, I’ll be dreaming up the next cool escapade, and hoping that you are having plenty of adventures, too.
Have a happy day!
START A NEW SERIES!
GEMMA STONE MYSTERIES
When Gemma needs a new car, she calls on her friend and one-time fiancé Nick to help out. The used car salesman he finds sells her more than a Honda, though, and now Gemma has a dead body in the trunk, a sneaking suspicion of murder, and an entire police force who thinks that the victim is just another hooker.
Gemma knows better, and her search for answers takes her to the roughest part of town and inside the world of pimps, dirty senators, and one oddly threatening blues singer. Somebody murdered poor young Opal, and Gemma is determined to catch her killer.
Did you love Addicted Witch: A Jagged Grove Mystery? Then you should read Pumpkin Spice and a Body On Ice by Willow Monroe!
Cupcakes and murder – a recipe for disaster!
Starla Cupp lives her life on purpose, and it shows. She owns the best diner in Virginia, has the best friends in the world, and she’s the reigning Cupcake Queen of Sugar Hill’s annual dessert festival, which is only a couple of weeks away. Life is pretty darn good until she finds Nadine Krump, her arch-nemesis, dead on the railroad tracks behind her diner.
Now she’s famous for something besides her cupcakes, and everyone’s pretty sure that Nadine’s death was no accident. With the the sexy new police chief breathing down her neck and a possible killer among her close group of friends, Starla has to figure out what happened, prove herself innocent, and win a cupcake contest before the real killer gets away with murder.
Addicted Witch: A Jagged Grove Mystery Page 14