by Deanna Chase
Hatred was an emotion that Hope actively tried to avoid. It was tough when almost everyone in your life was a jackass, but she’d been conscious of trying to let her frustrations go. But that night, staring at Pam, hatred filled every pore of Hope’s being, and she wanted to claw the woman’s eyes out. How dare she touch Hope’s money and blackmail her into transporting her potions. Illegal potions that were used by the magical community to get high.
“Whatever,” Hope barked. “Give me the damn potions so I can get this over with. And give me my money back now.”
“You’ll get it when you get back,” Pam said.
Hope glared at her, knowing full well that the woman could be bluffing. There was a reason Hope hid the money in the first place. When she’d found out she couldn’t get a bank account without a guardian’s signature, she’d nixed that idea. If Pam was on the account, her money would be gone minutes after she deposited it, so she’d decided to keep her cash hidden. Unfortunately, she hadn’t hidden it well enough. Now her only chance of getting it back was to transport Pam’s illegal potions. Damn. “It had all better be there or—”
“Or what? You’ll leave? You’ll turn me in? You’ll call your social worker? Honey, you age out in a few weeks. No one is worried about you. And if you think I won’t bring you down with me if you call the cops, think again. Just do your job and let me worry about that stack of cash you’ve built up.”
Hope wanted to strangle her but managed to refrain. She needed to play nice until she had her apartment money back in her possession. “Where are the potions?”
“Follow me,” Pam said.
An hour later, Hope arrived at Ricky’s place of business in the warehouse district, potions in hand. The sleazy bastard patted her down before he’d let her in the garage he used as his home base and then proceeded to talk about what great assets she had. Hope ignored him, waiting out his disgusting diatribe until he got bored and finally paid her for the delivery. She was rushing out when the cops showed up. She went to jail that night, along with Ricky and three of his crew members. She stayed locked up until her eighteenth birthday.
When she was released, a courier met her outside the station with a box. It contained the money Pam had taken from her and paperwork for a short-term rental for a month. That was it. No note. No explanation. She assumed Pam had an attack of conscience for landing her in jail but hadn’t wanted her back at her house, and this was her way of absolving herself.
Hope had never forgiven her, but the money and the short-term rental had helped her when she needed it most, and she was grateful for the gesture.
Chapter Ten
Chad and Luna sat on a bench facing the river. He stared at Luna’s lovely profile and ached to brush his fingers over her cheek. The teenager he’d gotten to know during his time in Berkeley had turned into a strong, talented woman. One he admired more than anyone else he knew. Her quiet strength captivated him, and he knew if he wanted a chance at any sort of relationship, friendly or romantic, she needed the truth.
“Remember when I told you it was my fault you ended up in juvy?” he asked.
“Yeah. And I told you it wasn’t,” she said quietly. “How could it be? You were on your way to Chicago.”
He closed his eyes and spoke the truth he’d been carrying around for three years. “I’m the one who tipped off the police about the potions and told them I knew about an exchange happening that night at Ricky’s place.”
Chad felt Luna stiffen beside him, and when he opened his eyes, he saw her burning with betrayal. She jumped to her feet and glared down at him. “You… why? Why would you do that, Chad? Hadn’t you already hurt me enough? Do you have any idea what that night did to me? I lost everything that was important to me that night. I didn’t have much, but I had a future and a plan, and I thought I had at least one friend out there who cared about me even if he was getting on a plane.”
“I didn’t know Pam was going to make you deliver her potions,” he said, the words coming out in a rush. “I didn’t think you ever did that.”
“I didn’t!” she yelled. “But isn’t it crazy that the one night she basically forced me to do it, I’m the one who ended up going to jail?”
He’d had that same thought more times than he could count. “Listen, I’d like to explain if—”
“What’s to explain?” she asked, her voice full of heat. “You were leaving town and decided to butt in where you didn’t belong, and I paid the price. Is there anything else I need to know?”
“Yes, there is,” he said, turning to face her and staring her in the eye. “I did it to try to help you. Do you have any idea how upset I was that you were going to be there in that house with no one to watch over you, no one to stand in Leo’s way if he decided he wanted to do more than just leer at you?”
“I was there for years, Chad. He never touched me,” she said. But she shuddered because she’d always thought he was capable.
“You know why he didn’t, Hope?” He heard her real name on his lips and winced. “Sorry, Luna.”
She waved an impatient hand. “It hardly matters now. I chose a new name to escape my past, but it appears that’s going to be impossible. Not with you here to remind me of it every day.” Luna gritted her teeth as she addressed his question. “I always thought he left me alone because I’d made it clear I’d rip his balls off with my bare hands if he tried anything.”
Chad smiled at her, and he couldn’t stop himself from wrapping his hands around her bare arms as he said, “That was probably a factor. But I think he also stayed away from you because I never wasted a chance to let him know that I was watching him. I might have implied that my father had business associates he wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley.”
Luna’s eyes widened. “You did? How is it he never beat the shit out of you?”
“He knew my father,” Chad said, his expression darkening in the moonlight.
“Do I want to know who he was?” Luna asked.
Chad shook his head and flexed his aching hand. “When I knew I was leaving, I was worried that jackass would try something. I overheard him and Pam talking about a potions exchange. Leo was supposed to make the drop off. I swear to the gods, Luna, if I’d had any clue Pam was going to force you to do it, I’d have never done anything to get you in trouble. All I wanted to do was get Leo away from you.”
To his surprise, Luna sank back down onto the bench he was sitting on and let out a deep sigh. “You were just looking out for me, like you always did.”
“Yes. I should’ve told you.” He’d been such a bundle of nerves that day. After being blindsided by the news that his orchestra was dismantling and that there was a contract waiting for him in another city as long as he got there by the next day, his thoughts had been whirling. He could handle moving. But what about Hope? He’d been twisted up inside about leaving her behind in her horrible living situation. Then he’d acted rashly and gotten her in trouble.
“Yeah, that would’ve helped,” she agreed. “But then, you likely didn’t believe I’d ever be involved in any of that.”
“No, I didn’t. That’s not you.”
“It’s not.” She reached over and squeezed his good hand. “Thank you for believing in me.”
“I always did.” He squeezed her hand and held on, not wanting to let her go.
“She stole my school money,” Luna said. “That’s why I did it. She said she’d give it back once I made the exchange.”
He’d learned that the night she’d been arrested, but it didn’t seem like the time to bring it up. He wanted to hear what else she had to say. “Did you believe her?”
Luna let out a bark of humorless laughter. “No. But I had to try. I was desperate. Those people did everything in their power to keep me from going to college. In the end, they got their wish.”
“But you managed massage therapy school,” he said. “That’s something to be proud of.”
“Sure.” She leaned back against the bench and then sli
d toward him until her head was resting on his shoulder. “But they stole my opportunity to be a normal kid at college where no one knew I was the poor foster kid. It’s something I won’t ever get back.”
“Is that why you don’t want anyone in Keating Hollow to know about your past? So you can just be you on your own terms, without any labels or preconceived notions?” He was really curious. Because in his eyes, she had absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. Her past only made him admire her more for what she’d become.
“Yeah. But I also don’t want Faith to know I was incarcerated. The records are sealed since I was a juvenile, so it’s not something that shows up in a background check. And the last thing I want is for her to think I used to be some sort of criminal when I was really just a kid trying to survive a crappy foster home.”
Chad wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer for a sideways hug. “I understand.” He held up his injured hand. “I wouldn’t want anyone to know about the circumstances of how I managed this mess either.”
She took his hand between both of hers and started to massage.
He let out a small moan of approval. “That feels really good.”
“I know.” She grinned up at him. “Are you going to tell me what happened or…”
He pulled away slightly. “Yeah. That’s—” His phone started to ring. “Hold on.” After fishing the device out of his pocket, he frowned. He didn’t recognize the number. “Hello?”
“Um, Chad?” a voice he didn’t recognize said over the connection.
“Yes. Who’s this?”
“It’s Levi,” the kid said as his voice cracked. There was a sniffle before he added, “I need help.”
Chad grabbed Luna’s hand and pulled her to her feet as he stood. He was already tugging her back toward town when he asked Levi, “Where are you?”
“Parking lot of Pies, Pies, and More Pies.” The kid’s teeth were chattering, but Chad knew that unless it was twenty degrees cooler in Eureka, it wasn’t nearly cold enough for someone to be that chilled.
“Are you safe?” Chad asked.
“I don’t… I don’t know,” he said.
“Do I need to call 911?”
“911?” Luna asked in a loud whisper. “What’s happening?”
Chad shook his head. He had no idea. All he knew was that Levi sounded like he was scared and possibly in shock. “I’m on my way, Levi. Hang tight. If you need medical attention, just say the word. I’ll call someone to help.”
“No doctors,” the kid insisted and then hung up.
Chad cursed and sped up. “That was Levi. He’s in some sort of trouble. I need to go get him.”
“I’ll come with you,” Luna insisted.
“No, you don’t have to do that. It’s a couple hours roundtrip, and that’s only if he doesn’t need to see the inside of a hospital. I’ll drop you at your place so you can get some rest. You have a busy day tomorrow, remember?”
* * *
“Chad, come on. I’m not going to get to sleep until I know he’s okay anyway.”
He nodded. “All right.”
Chapter Eleven
Luna’s stomach was in knots. It had been forty minutes since Chad answered Levi’s call, and the worst sort of scenarios kept playing in her mind. What if he was caught up with selling drugs, or worse, prostitution? If he truly was a homeless teen, both were a more-than-likely possibility. She just wanted to wrap her arms around him, take him home, and reassure him everything would be all right.
Her wishes were naïve. She knew that better than anyone. Whatever trouble he was in would take a lot more than just a warm bed and a hot meal to fix. But she was willing to do whatever she could for him if he’d let her. Calling Chad had been the first step.
Chad swung the truck into the packed parking lot of Pies, Pies, and More Pies and swore. “Why is this place so busy at ten at night?”
“It’s because of the movie theater,” Luna said. “The patrons have started coming here for pie before heading home for the evening.”
Chad’s grip tightened on the wheel as he turned down the far row, looking for a place to park. “I just hope he’s still here.”
“Let me out,” Luna insisted. “I’ll start scanning the area and will text when I spot him.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. What if whatever trouble he’s in followed him here?” Chad said.
Luna rolled her eyes. “There are people everywhere, Chad. I’ll scream and make the biggest nuisance of myself you’ve ever seen. Please. I’m worried he’s hurt.”
Still unable to find a spot, Chad jerked the truck to a stop. “Be careful and text me if you see anything remotely unusual.”
“I will.” She jumped out of the truck and started trotting toward the building. Putting herself in Levi’s situation, she knew if she’d called someone because she was scared and needed help, she’d probably be tucked away somewhere out of view. Somewhere like behind the building, near the dumpsters. But when she rounded the corner, the only thing she spotted was a dumpster with garbage bags overflowing from the top.
After carefully checking the area, she trotted to the other side of the building and frowned. Something felt off, but she couldn’t zero in on what it could be. The side of the building faced an undeveloped field that had a chain link fence around it. Unless he was lying in a patch of overgrown grass, he wasn’t on that side of the building either.
She was just getting ready to round the corner back toward the main parking lot when the hair stood up on the back of her neck. She froze and then slowly scanned the seemingly deserted area.
Levi was there somewhere. She knew it deep in her gut.
A rustling sound came from somewhere off to her right. She squinted into the darkness and spotted a door in the side of the building that had been cracked open. Coming from the other direction, she hadn’t even realized the door had existed.
There.
She broke out into a run, her blood pounding in her ears. The air seemed to change around her. It was sparking with magic and making her skin crawl with unease. What was happening? Her stomach rolled, and she half expected to lose her burger. But she pressed a hand to her stomach, her own magic spreading over her skin and calming her insides.
“No! Don’t,” a boy said with a whimper. The voice was faint, but it was definitely Levi’s.
Luna’s heart raced. Someone was hurting him. She whipped out her phone and sent Chad a quick text letting him know her location and that Levi was in trouble. Then she flipped her ringer to silent and barreled straight through the cracked door.
The magic thickened around her, making her head dizzy.
“Luna,” Levi said with a gasp. “Help me.”
“Shut up, you ungrateful bastard. Do you have any idea where your homo ass would be if I hadn’t taken you in?” a deeper voice growled.
Luna blinked. She saw nothing but an empty hallway. But her vision was blurry, and she couldn’t seem to focus. Was this some sort of illusion spell? Levi and some other guy were clearly nearby, but they were invisible to her.
Taking a step forward, she pushed her arms out in front of her, trying to feel what she couldn’t see.
“Luna,” Levi gasped out. “No. Get out of here. It’s not safe.”
The sound of flesh smacking flesh rang in Luna’s ears. Levi let out a cry and then moaned. Unmitigated rage seized Luna, and instead of heeding his warning, she ran straight down the hallway, hand out until a rock-hard hand wrapped around her wrist and jerked her to a stop. It had been dumb to go in blind. She knew that. But leaving Levi on his own to be tortured by his abuser was unthinkable.
“Hello, princess,” the deep voice said in her ear.
Years of defending herself while being bounced around from one foster home to another kicked in, and Luna rounded on her captor, using her free hand to smash her palm into his nose. The minute the connection was made, the blurry illusion spell vanished, and the messy storage room came into view. Ther
e was no time to look around, though, because the man who was holding her wrist twisted her arm behind her back, nearly sending her to her knees. Instead, she steeled herself and stomped down hard on his instep, and when he loosened his hold, she threw her elbow back, slamming it right into his eye.
“You god dammed bi—augh!”
Luna landed a roundhouse kick right in his gut. When he doubled over, she brought both hands down, pummeling him on the back of his head. The man fell to the floor, his limbs still as he moaned.
“What the… Holy hell, Luna,” Chad said from behind her, his voice awed.
“It turns out foster homes are good for at least one thing,” she said as she turned and scanned the dimly lit room for Levi. He was pressed against a storage shelf, blood coating the side of his face and his eyes wild with fear as he tried frantically to get a hose untied from around his arm. Her eyes widened as she spotted a discarded needle lying on the ground.
She ran to his side. “Dammit, Levi. What did you take?”
“Nothing,” he cried, flinging the rubber hose away from him as he scrambled away from the drug paraphernalia. “He was trying to drug me against my will. Get me out of here!”
Without a word, Chad strode forward and easily lifted the young man into his arms, cradling him against his chest. “It’s all right, Levi. I’ve got you.”
Levi was stiff with fear radiating from practically every pore.
“It’s all right, Levi,” Luna said softly, placing a calming hand on his arm. “Chad is someone you can trust. I promise.”
Levi squeezed his fearful brown eyes shut, and after a moment, he let himself relax against Chad’s broad chest.
“We need to get out of here,” Chad said. “Before the ass clown wakes up.”
Luna stalked over to the discarded needle and used the heal of her boot to crush it before following Chad out of the building.
The parking lot was still overflowing with cars, and Chad had doubled parked next to the dumpster area. By the time they were settled back into the vehicle, there was a line of cars jockeying for his non-existent spot.