Harmony showed me to a table for two on the second level of the upscale restaurant. I tucked the creamy white linen napkin on my lap. “How was your class the other night?” I asked as she poured me a glass of ice water.
“Good,” she said, placing it in front of me. “Next term, I’m going to have to try and lighten my class load. I think I bit off a little more than I could chew this time around.”
I smiled. “You were excited about starting school again. I’m sure that’s normal.”
“Maybe so. Luca will be your server,” she told me, glancing down at the host station where a few couples waited for early reservations.
“Thanks.”
Before too long, I had a glass of wine, a basket of hot bread, and a plate of lasagna. All was right in the world. When Harmony approached my table, I wondered if she was on break and wanted to join me, but as she neared, I saw the look on her face. Something was wrong.
“Harmony, what’s—”
“You need to come with me,” she said, her eyes round.
“What is it?”
She jerked her head and grabbed at my elbow. “Come on.”
I placed my napkin on the table and followed her downstairs, through the kitchen, and into a small break room. “Uh, Harmony, I don’t think I’m really supposed to be in here.”
“Look!” She pointed at a small TV screen. The nightly news was playing.
“Authorities have Lakewood Tower surrounded and we’re being told there is a hostage situation taking place inside. As of right now, no one is coming in or out of that iconic building.”
“What in the Otherworld?”
Caleb passed by in the background, barking orders at the other agents in their SPA jackets.
“The SPA is on the scene and has attempted to open a negotiation dialogue with whoever is behind this sudden attack. It all started after shots were abruptly fired just half an hour ago. At this time, we do not know the identity of the attacker or what kinds of demands he or she have made, but we will be watching this closely—”
I didn’t wait for more information.
“Stace!” Harmony called after me.
I raced through Luna and threw open the front door. It took a block before I caught my reflection in a passing window and realized Harmony was a few yards behind, arms flailing. “Stace!” she called. “Wait up!”
“Go back!” I yelled, my breathing hard.
“Not a chance!”
I huffed but kept running. Within minutes, we arrived at the scene in front of Lakewood Tower. The SPA had a magical perimeter erected, keeping the media and pedestrians away from the building. Looking up at the building, I saw the bullet holes in the windows on the top floor.
The penthouse level.
Stars.
I tried to pass through the barrier, but a jolt of magic kicked me back. Hard.
“Caleb!” I screamed above the chatter and noise of the crowd gathered to watch. “Caleb, over here!”
He marched toward me, his face set in stone. “What are you doing here? Go home. Both of you. It’s not safe.”
The cameras swung in our direction, trying to catch a glimpse of drama for their viewers at home.
“It’s Clive, isn’t it?” I asked.
Caleb glanced to his left and then inclined his head. “He has Charlene,” he said, keeping his voice low.
His radio crackled. “Boss.”
It was Meryl’s voice on the other end.
“Yes?”
“Boss, he’s saying he wants to talk to her.”
“Her, who?”
“Anastasia.”
Caleb went stiff, every muscle in his jaw and shoulders tensed. “Tell me you didn’t do what I think you did …”
Heat crept up my neck.
“It’s out of the question,” Caleb barked into his radio. “Find another way.”
Across the sidewalk, Meryl raised a phone to her ear and spoke into it, her words swallowed by the noise. Her face fell and she glanced at the phone in her hand.
Shots rang out from above. The crowd screamed and ran from the scene. SPA agents took cover and someone sent a magic shield above those gathered.
Caleb swore loudly.
“Send me up there,” I said. “I can talk to him. I know I can get him to let Charlene go.”
“She’s right,” Harmony said. “Think about it, Caleb. Her entire career is basically prep for this. She knows how to keep people cool.”
“Oh, so now being a wedding planner is the prerequisite to being a hostage negotiator?”
“Put me on the phone, Caleb. Your people can protect me.”
Caleb’s eyes were calculating and devoid of emotion as he glanced around, assessing the situation. “Fine. But you’re not going up to that penthouse. We’re waiting for backup. End of story.”
“Got it.”
Caleb waved a hand and made a space in the magic barrier for me. Harmony slipped in after me. He groaned but let her through before replacing the ward.
“Who is this guy?” Harmony asked.
“I’ll explain later,” I said.
Meryl handed me the phone and I pressed it up to my ear.
Clive was screaming in the background. “After everything I did for you, for us! All these years of looking out for you and making sure you had everything you could ever want, and in the end you still can’t see me!”
“I see you, Clive!” Charlene argued, her voice throaty like she’d been crying.
“Has he hurt her?” I whispered at Meryl.
“We don’t think so.”
I gulped.
“No!” he bellowed. “You don’t. Not really.”
“Clive!” I barked, trying to get his attention off Charlene. “This is Anastasia Winters. You wanted to speak to me?”
“I told them to send you up here,” Clive growled.
“That’s not going to be possible,” I said, my gaze catching on Caleb as he spoke with an agent. The man held a small crystal, and with a flick of his wrist, he sent it soaring up the side of the building. Caleb looked up at me and rolled his fingers. “Keep him talking,” he mouthed.
“Clive, I see you. So, why don’t you talk to me,” I said. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“You wouldn’t understand,” he said. “You’re beautiful and probably just like Charlene, overlooking the good guys, the ones who would actually give a damn about you, all so you can chase some bad boy image. Is that what you’re like, Anastasia?”
The crystal flew out of sight. Meryl stilled, her hands out, ready for something.
“No, Clive. I don’t chase bad boys. I like nice guys. Like—like you.”
Caleb continued rolling his fingers, urging me on. He handed Meryl a pair of strange looking glasses and she slid them on, one hand hovering in midair.
I struggled to force my attention back on the call. “You—you’re the kind of guy who sends flowers and calls for no reason. Right, Clive?”
“That’s right. Charlene, did you hear that?”
Suddenly, a crack echoed, cutting through the noise around me like the sound of a frozen lake breaking underfoot. A pane of glass, a perfect circle, fell from the sky. It was huge, at least six feet in diameter. And it was headed right for a cluster of agents.
Harmony whipped out her hands, sending a pulse of magic across the way. Another agent was one step ahead, and together, they provided an invisible net for the glass to land in. Harmony breathed a sigh of relief and backed off, letting the other agent bring it safely to the ground without shattering.
“What are you trying to do?” Clive screamed. “What kind of—”
Beside me, Meryl waved her hand, sending a bolt of magic streaking up the front of the looming building. The spell whipped up the side of the building like lightning and blasted through a cut-out window pane. A second explosion of light flashed, this time with a loud pop.
“Got him!” Meryl declared, pumping her free hand into a triumphant fist. “Here fishy, fishy.”
&nbs
p; She worked her hands, the gestures the same as if reeling in a prized trout. My gaze bounced between her movements and the building. I had no idea what we were waiting for. Then, I saw it. A glowing bubble, six feet across, floated from the window, using the cut-out as an exit, and slid down the building. Inside the giant orb was Clive Errol.
Harmony’s jaw dropped. “What. Was. That?!”
Caleb took the phone from my hand and hung it up. “That was a crafty little piece of spellwork, courtesy of the SPA. The goggles allowed Meryl to control the crystal, which first cut the necessary hole in the glass, then sighted on Clive so she could aim the spell properly.”
Meryl took the glasses off and handed them to Harmony. “Check it out. It’s pretty sweet.”
Harmony slid them on and her mouth dropped open again. “This is awesome!”
I smiled at her awe but it quickly slid away when I looked at Clive, hovering in his bubble prison. He flailed and kicked, but nothing he did worked to break the spell’s hold on him. When I was confident he wasn’t about to burst out, I took a step closer. “Where were we?” I asked. “Oh, that’s right. You were telling me all the nice things you do for the woman you love. Tell me, does that include killing? Would you kill for the woman you love?”
Clive’s teeth flashed and for the first time, I realized how pointy they were. Almost beast-like. I shuddered. “You killed Evan Stimpton because you knew that Charlene didn’t want to marry him, and you thought that with him out of the way, she’d realize she was supposed to be with you.”
“He didn’t deserve her,” he growled. “He was just a pretty face and a trust fund. That’s all he had to offer her. He was cheating on her with at least three other women. I tried to tell her, to warn her that he was a loser, but she wouldn’t listen. Well, I’ve got her attention now! Now she knows I’m not some weakling. Some pushover!”
“Why did you try to frame Guy? How did you know where he shopped for potion ingredients?” I asked, thinking of the shopkeeper’s identification of the bartender. It couldn’t have been simple chance.
Clive laughed. “He was the obvious choice! He hated Evan, almost as much as I did. Everyone knew it.”
“Mhmm.” I gave a placating nod, silently seething. “So you followed him and figured out exactly how to set him up?”
Clive didn’t answer, but from the almost rabid-looking grin on his face, he was proud of himself. He’d likely regret the entire conversation in an hour and hire the best lawyer he could afford—which, was saying something—to try and get him out of the full confession.
“Charlene will rue the day she said no to me!” Clive snapped when I turned my back. “You tell her. She just made the biggest mistake of her life! Where is she? I want to see her!”
“Ugh,” I groaned as Clive continued his rantings and demands. “Can’t you seal his mouth so we don’t have to listen to him anymore?”
Caleb smiled. “Afraid not. Nice work, though. We might have to see about getting you into our junior agent program.”
I barked a laugh. “Not a chance!”
Two agents came forward, magic cuffs at the ready, and Meryl released the spell on their signal. The bubble around Clive dissolved. One agent moved to cuff him but before he could, Clive writhed and then vanished, his clothes dropping to the sidewalk in a puddle.
Caleb tensed, magic pooling at his fingertips. “Ana, Harmony, get back!”
A brown ferret’s head poked out from one pant leg, and the small beast streaked toward a nearby storm drain. Meryl fired off a spell and nabbed the creature before he could slither into the gap, and an agent armed with cuffs swooped in, locking the magical bond around the animal and then drew a lead. “Come on, Mr. Errol. You’re under arrest for the murder of Evan Stimpton.”
Caleb stared after his agents, a stunned look on his handsome face. “I still don’t know how he knew which cup to spike.”
“Evan had a specialty cocktail and a different cup than the groomsmen,” I said. “It’s Guy’s signature. The reason I hire him for events like that. He can come up with a unique cocktail and brand it for the occasion. It would have been easy for Clive to know which one Evan was drinking from.”
“Then he set the stage to make sure Guy took the fall.”
I exhaled slowly, suddenly drained.
Caleb grinned at me as I sagged against him.
“What?” I asked, a little defensive. “Why are you smiling at me like that?”
“Because I’m in love with one of the baddest witches I know.”
My cheeks warmed. “Love?”
He stroked a finger down my cheek. “Ana, I’ve been in love with you since the day I first laid eyes on you. I’ve only waited this long to tell you because I didn’t want to send you running for your life.”
I laughed and leaned into him. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Chapter Fifteen
Evan’s killer was safely behind bars, and while I was glad for it, there was a renewed sense of restlessness that crept in to fill the chunk of time I’d spent puzzling over the mystery. Caleb teased me that I was welcome to apply for agent training any time. I told him there was an unsettling lack of glitter and couture in the agency and announced I was hanging up my detective’s cap for good.
There was still one question left unanswered, one that only my sister could answer. That is, if I could figure out how to ask without upsetting her. She’d grown more secretive in the past few days, always shielding her phone screen from my view and giving vague answers when I asked where she was going during the day. Wednesday had come and gone and I couldn’t stop wondering if she was with the real estate agent from the flyer, out looking at new places to live.
Why wouldn’t she just tell me? What was she waiting for? Was she going to slowly start moving out, little by little, and only drop the bomb when she came back for her last bag? I suspected she had a new boyfriend, or maybe he wasn’t so new. Maybe they’d been seeing each other for a while now.
When she’d first moved in, I’d told her no relationships. She had a tendency of throwing herself into them with reckless abandon, sacrificing her own plans and dreams to build her life around whomever she was dating. She’d agreed, but with her life back on track and her wild oats seemingly sown, I wondered if she’d decided she was ready to date. If that was the case, I could see why she was hesitant to tell me. After all, I’d never officially rescinded the rule.
Round and round the possibilities spun. An anxiety-fueled merry-go-round whirling in my mind anytime Harmony dodged a question, opting instead to flash an innocent smile and tease me that I was getting nosy like dad.
Maybe I was.
The following Monday, I vowed to shove it all to the back of my mind and focus on making plans for my next move. If I was really going to try my hand at opening my own business, I needed to start making some decisions. Armed with notepads, pens in a rainbow of colors, a day planner, and my phone, I set up camp at the dining room table, rolled up my sleeves, and dove in.
By the time I broke for lunch, I had a good start on the legal paperwork that would need to be filed with the haven to register the business, I’d called a few of my favorite vendors to set meetings to discuss partnership opportunities, and I’d played with some sketches, trying to come up with a business logo.
My phone rang while I was making a sandwich. Hoping it was one of the vendors I’d had to leave messages with, I licked a stray smear of mustard from my thumb and raced to answer.
“Anastasia Winters,” I said, slipping on my phone voice.
“Hey, it’s Holly!”
“Oh, hello!” I pressed the phone to the crook of my neck and went back to the kitchen. “How are you?”
“I should be asking you that,” she replied with a laugh. “A lot’s happened since we saw each other, it appears. Are you taking a page out of my book and chasing down killers now that you’re not planning weddings?”
I frowned as I sliced through a tomato. “How did you know about that
? Was it in the Herald this morning? Caleb said they wouldn’t use my name …”
“Oh, no. I barely read that thing. Harmony called me a little while ago.”
“Oh?” I set down the knife. “I didn’t realize you two had exchanged numbers.”
Holly paused. “She didn’t tell you?”
“That you’d given her your number? No.” I shook my head, more confused than before.
“No, no. I mean, about the—” she stopped herself and my curiosity ratcheted up another degree.
“Holly, what’s going on?”
“Bat wings,” Holly muttered. “This is awkward.”
“What is?”
She exhaled. “I offered Harmony a job. Technically, an apprenticeship.”
“You did?”
“We swapped numbers while you were speaking with your client, and we’ve been keeping in touch.”
My stomach sank. So, it wasn’t a mystery boyfriend. It was Holly. “Why wouldn’t she tell me?” I wondered aloud, more than a little stung by the revelation. “I’d have thought she’d be dancing on the ceiling over an offer like that.”
“Well, she hasn’t officially accepted yet,” Holly replied thoughtfully. “She asked me for a week. She had some other job offer on the table. At least, that’s what she told me. I’m planning on calling her later tonight after she gets off work to see if she’s made up her mind. I’d really love to have her come work for me, but if she can’t, I need to get someone else lined up.”
I turned around and leaned against the counter. “So, she’d be moving there? To Beechwood Harbor?”
“Yes. She has a room here in the manor if she wants it.”
“Wow,” I breathed. “That’s—that’s great.”
“I’m really sorry to dump all this on you. I honestly thought she’d told you about it.”
“Oh, no. Don’t worry about it. We’ve both been really busy. It probably just slipped her mind.”
Yeah. Right.
“You know, you’re welcome to come visit anytime you want,” Holly said gently.
“Thanks, Holly.” I nodded, my eyes closed. “A weekend at the coast is probably just the cure I need.”
We chatted for a few more minutes and then hung up. The front door opened as I carried my sandwich to the dining room. Harmony shut it behind her and toed off her sneakers. She wore torn jeans, a lightweight turtleneck, and an eggplant-colored bomber jacket. One hand grasped a coffee cup bearing the logo of the shop in the lobby of the condo building. Her messenger bag was slung across her chest, and I assumed she’d just come from her potion class. Then, half a beat later, realized it likely wasn’t safe to assume anything.
Witchy Weddings: A Magic Witch Mystery Series: The complete Touch of Magic series Page 41