by Amy Boyles
The slip of paper was still in my pocket. My fingers trembled. My thumb slipped a couple of times as I dialed.
“Everything okay?” Parker said.
“Oh yeah.” I stared at my phone and pressed Send.
Another cell in the room rang. And rang. And rang.
“Is that yours?” I said to Parker. “It might be your wife.”
He pulled it from his pocket and glanced down. “Not her.” His face darkened. “I know it’s you, Pepper. Put the phone down.”
“Pepper,” Collinsworth squealed.
When I looked up, Parker Moody had a gun leveled at me. Why didn’t anyone use magic to hurt anyone else in this town? It never ceased to amaze me that in a cove full of witches, the main instruments of death were knives and guns.
Time to get original, people.
“You stole the potion,” I said.
He smirked. “It was all I ever wanted. Lori Lou told me about it. You think I wanted to date her?”
“You’re evil,” the rabbit said. “She was a wonderful person.”
Parker waved the gun at Collinsworth. “Stand beside Pepper.”
The rabbit did as he was told.
The puzzle clicked together. “That night when something exploded, you were working with the potion.”
He smiled again. “It can be volatile. Took me a while to figure out which bottle it was in and then how to perfect it. Like I told you, I’d been working on a healing moonshine. Bottling that will make me a millionaire.”
“At the expense of someone else’s life.”
He scowled. “We argued the day of the turkey hunt. She wouldn’t give it to me. Yes, I killed her. I lifted Carmen’s fingerprints from her store. It was easy to frame her. I also placed the cobwebs back in her shop to keep suspicion off me.”
“And the other argument you had with Lori Lou? The one about the trash bags?” The front door was far away and Parker weighed a good one hundred eighty pounds. There was no way I could dash past him with the rabbit.
“All the other arguments were for show. No one could find out about us. My wife suspected; that was enough.”
“You won’t get away with this,” I said. “The police are on their way.”
He crossed and blocked the front of the door. “All I have to do is kill you and say you left before the police arrived. Then I’ll dispose of your bodies later. The rabbit will be easy.” He smiled like the devil. “I love stew.”
“You evil man.” Collinsworth launched himself at Parker. The moonshine maker opened his hand and swatted the rabbit away.
“Good try, Bugs.” Parker smiled with amusement. “But you’re no match for me.”
The rabbit wasn’t, but I should’ve been. After all, I was a head witch. I could make whatever magic happen that I wanted. All I needed was to believe it.
I wanted to shove Parker into his own moonshine. The guy deserved it.
I thought him against the wall. Parker didn’t just stumble backward, he flew across the room and smashed into a triangle of glass jars.
Glass shattered and exploded. Purple- and lime-colored moonshine spewed over the floor, making a giant puddle around Parker.
This was my chance. I grabbed Collinsworth and raced to the door. I was a foot from it, my fingers stretched to grab hold when Parker’s voice rang out.
“Not so fast.”
I was frozen. I couldn’t move. Whatever magic Parker had, it was stronger than mine.
A wet hand wrapped around my neck. “You’re not going anywhere, Pepper. You’re mine.”
TWENTY-THREE
Parker Moody had me. I was going to die, Collinsworth would become stew and Carmen would go to jail for a crime she didn’t commit. Unless Farinas got her off the hook.
I doubted it.
Parker dragged me across the room. I kicked and yelled. I tried to focus on pushing him away, but my mind was shattered. There were so many thoughts. I’d never see my family again. I’d never talk to Axel.
Axel.
No one would know what happened to me. That single thought filled me with anger. Anger I didn’t know I owned.
I was angry that Axel just left, angry that Parker would win, angry that my hair would look awful when I died.
Yes, girl, I wanted to look good in death. I didn’t want to look bad.
Suddenly Parker’s hands were off. I whirled around to face him. I was a volcano of regret, frustration and pure unadulterated rage.
“You don’t get to win, Parker.”
I thrust out my arms. Parker flew to the wall. He straightened, shook himself off and launched toward me.
His hands wrapped around my throat. I fell backward. I kneed him in the groin. He moaned and rolled off.
Rope. I needed rope.
He swept his arm under my feet. I hit the floor. Pain radiated from my tailbone to my jaw. I kicked but he grabbed.
I tried to push away the pain, but it all came crashing down. I got one knee under his chin and knocked his head to the side.
I rose stiffly to my feet.
The look of pure hatred in his eyes made my blood freeze. “You’re mine now.”
“No, she’s not.”
My heart stopped. I couldn’t move. Every cell in my body recognized that voice. It was the one thing I’d yearned to hear over the past few weeks. The one sound that always soothed me, righted me, made everything perfect when I heard it.
I held my breath because this wasn’t real. It couldn’t have been real. I didn’t want the moment to be ruined, but I had to look. I had to know.
My gaze slowly lifted to the doorway.
Axel Reign stood inside Magical Moonshine. The waffle-patterned shirt he wore fit him like a second skin. His jeans were slung low. His hair was a little longer, his face a little gaunt, but his blue eyes burned with fire.
Our gazes locked. My stomach fell into the earth. It was probably on its way to China, never to be seen again.
Also, I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t know where that had gone, either. It was somewhere floating around space probably. I might suffocate. Axel might have to give me mouth-to-mouth.
I could deal with that.
His lips twitched. “Hey.” It was husky, low. My knees wobbled.
“Hey,” I squeaked like a mouse.
Way to sound sexy, Pepper.
Parker stretched. Oh, was he still here? “I can take you both.”
A silly thought entered my head. I cocked my chin to Axel. “Do you really think he can take us both?”
“No. He can barely handle you.”
I scoffed. “I was losing.”
“Don’t sell yourself short. You were coming back.”
I laughed. “You think?”
When his lips tipped into a luscious smile, I almost died. “You had it, Pepper. I was only going to help wrap him up for you.”
Parker moved to do something. Without turning from me, Axel raised a hand, palm open. Parker froze.
I giggled. “You are so powerful.”
His blue eyes twinkled. “What can I say? You inspire me.”
Parker seethed. “I will break this hold.”
Axel shook his head slightly. “I doubt it.” His gaze washed over me from head to foot. It didn’t bother me when Axel looked at me like that. It made me feel good, like he was seeing inside me.
“I’m sorry I left.” He took a step forward.
“It hurt. It still hurts.”
“I will get out,” Parker said.
Axel moved his other hand in a horizontal line like he was closing an imaginary zipper. “That should keep him quiet.” A dark shadow crossed his face. “I know I hurt you. I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”
I cocked my head but said nothing.
He exhaled. “Look, I’m not good at this. You know I’m not. Relationships terrify me. You terrify me.”
“Ouch.”
His lips coiled. “In a good way. When I was gone, I ached for you. Every part of me missed you. I realized w
hat a god-awful mistake I had made. I need you.”
My knees trembled.
Axel took another step forward. “Without you, I was only a shadow of myself. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t get enough air. You are air to me, Pepper. You are my life force.”
Whoa.
He took another step. Axel wasn’t even breaking a sweat keeping his power focused on Parker.
He slid a hand over my cheek. Fire lit from my belly all the way to my crown. No one touched me like this. There was some weird thing with Rufus, but Axel’s touch was like he said—it was life.
There was no comparison.
“Like I said,” Axel continued, “I’m not great at relationships, but without you, I am nothing. You are my everything.” He stopped, looked away. A shadow of a smile graced his face. “I know I don’t deserve it. I left. I was scared. If you tell me right now that we’re over, I’ll understand.”
The world was crashing down. Here Axel stood telling me everything I’d wanted to hear, everything I had hoped in my heart. The earth shifted and I was falling. There was only one person who could catch me.
He was standing right in front of me.
“I…I…” Words sounded so stupid, so small in comparison to the swelling of my heart. There wasn’t a phrase or a saying that could envelop what I felt and what I wanted.
“I missed you so much.” The words caught in my throat. They came out with a half sob. My gaze darted away. The emotion was too much. It was more than I could handle.
No. It wasn’t. I could do this. I’d endured so much in his absence. Axel’s rightful place was beside me. He needed to know that. The words would come. I only had to trust.
“You abandoned me.” Okay, not the start I expected.
Axel grabbed my hands. “I was wrong. I ran away from you and myself when I should’ve been running toward you and only you.”
The crushing feeling returned. I nodded slightly. My noggin felt like a stupid bobblehead. “You left.”
Still I kept bringing up the past when he wanted the future. It couldn’t be helped. I’d waited so long to talk to him. These were the words that needed to spill from my gut.
“I will never, ever leave you again. I was hopeless without you. I am hopeless. My heart was broken. I did it to myself when I never should have.”
My own heart hurt from his words. His pain was mine, and I hated it.
“Do you know how many times I saw something and said, ‘Wow, Pepper would love that’?” He glanced at the floor. “This is so stupid, but I carried around a bag of jelly beans in my pocket the whole time I was gone.”
“You should’ve asked for a lock of hair.”
He barked a laugh. His beautiful blue eyes darted to the ceiling. “I should have. I have been so foolish, Pepper. So stupid and foolish. Will you forgive me?”
“Can I see the jelly beans?”
He slid a hand into his pocket. When he pulled it out, he revealed a crumpled ziplock bag of my favorite flavors.
“That lemon looks really good right now.”
He dropped them in my palm and closed his hand over mine. “They’re all yours.”
His gaze hooked mine like a spear to my spine. My breath staggered.
“Pepper Dunn, I love you. Will you forgive me?”
So many thoughts, so many, but the only one that mattered was the one that fell from my lips in that moment.
“There’s nothing to forgive.”
He slipped his hands around my waist and pulled me into a soft, breathless kiss that could’ve lasted forever. Seriously, the world could’ve burned down around us, but all that would’ve mattered was that Axel was back and I loved him.
We stopped kissing when the front door opened. I slid my hands from Axel’s neck and let him hold me protectively as we whirled to face who had entered the store.
“Hey, Axel, Pepper,” Garrick Young said. “Got a call about an attempted murder?”
Axel pointed to Parker Moody. “He’s right there. Pepper can tell you everything.”
TWENTY-FOUR
I explained everything to Garrick Young while Axel held my hand and stroked the inside of my elbow.
Frankly, it made it impossible to concentrate.
Garrick arrested Parker Moody for the murder of Lori Lou and also arrested Becky Ray for Collinsworth’s attempted murder.
She had wanted to kill the rabbit after all. Turned out the mob was pretty ticked that their supply of potions was going to be gone, so Becky had tried to make up her own recipes but couldn’t get it quite right. To get rid of all the evidence, she decided to get rid of Collinsworth, too.
I probably would’ve been next.
And the rabbit got his happily ever after as well. Carmen was released, and Farinas came to her senses and realized she couldn’t live without Collinsworth.
Thank goodness because I didn’t have room for one more pet in my house. A dragon and a talking cat were quite enough.
“I’ll miss you.”
It was the next day and Collinsworth stood on the porch. He wore Lori Lou’s handkerchief around his neck and a brand-new set of clothes that Betty had whipped up for him.
Granted, it was a monogrammed sailor-boy outfit, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.
I think my grandmother thought the rabbit was a real boy underneath all that fur.
Maybe his nose grew, too, when he told a lie.
I cuddled him to my chest. “I’ll miss you.”
“Thank you.”
He turned to leave. “Wait. Did you drop your British accent?”
I swear he blushed. “Yes.”
“Will wonders never cease.” I kissed the top of his head and settled him on the porch.
He took my hand. “I will always remember you, Pepper Dunn.”
“And I’ll always remember you.”
Farinas was waiting for him beside her car. He hopped away, to his new life. I smiled as the attorney whisked him into her arms and tucked him into his brand-new car seat.
Probably made for a toddler, but whatever. The rabbit was happy. That was all that mattered.
Amelia stepped onto the porch. She stretched her long arms over her head. “How’re you doing?”
“Good. Great. How’re you? How’s Dicky?”
She hitched a shoulder. “You know, for as crazy about him as I was in high school, it seems that those feelings are gone.” She arched her back and rolled her shoulders. “I never thought it was possible, but it’s happened.”
“I’m sure Cordelia’s happy.”
She smirked. “Ecstatic.”
I laughed. A cool breeze blew across the porch. I hugged my arms and tugged my cardigan tighter. “I guess things are finally getting back to normal.”
Amelia smiled. “I think so. Listen, I’m going for a run. I’ll see you later.”
She sprinted down the steps and was off. I inhaled the crisp fall air and smiled. Things had indeed gotten back to normal.
An SUV I didn’t recognize rumbled to the curb. It was an older model and was decked out for what looked like a guided tour through the Savannah. There was a ladder on the back, a rack on top, big tires.
I’d never seen it before. I wondered if Garrick had gotten a new vehicle.
The door opened, and Axel crossed around the nose of the vehicle. “What is that?” I said.
He smiled at me. The world bloomed inside my chest. “You like it? I got rid of the truck and the mustang for it. It’s older. Needs some work. I’m slowly restoring it.”
“It’s cool. Rugged. Like you.”
He stopped on the sidewalk and gazed up at me. Thick, dark lashes framed his cool blue eyes. We stared at each other.
“I didn’t see that vehicle last night.”
“Last night you needed me to walk you home.”
I nodded. He had and I did. I needed as much time with Axel as I could get. So I could imprint every part of him on me.
Not in a weird way, but more of in a se
ntimental one. Once I’d admitted to myself how I felt about him, I didn’t want him absent in my life.
He jiggled his keys. “So. You got dinner plans tonight?”
I took one step down.
He approached a few paces.
“No, I’m free.”
We stood so close I could feel the heat radiating from him into me. I was like a sponge, absorbing his energy and life force.
Axel threaded his fingers through mine. He lifted his face and gently kissed me, tugging at my lips.
We parted. He smiled. The world ignited when he said, “Well then, it’s a date.”
It certainly was.
* * *
<<<<>>>>
THANK Y’ALL
Pepper’s adventures continue in SOUTHERN MAGIC CHRISTMAS.
When Pepper meets Axel’s parents for the first time, there is Christmas cheer to spare. But when someone winds up murdered, will one of his parents become suspect number one?
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Also by Amy Boyles
SWEET TEA WITCH MYSTERIES
SOUTHERN MAGIC
SOUTHERN SPELLS
SOUTHERN MYTHS
SOUTHERN SORCERY
SOUTHERN CURSES
SOUTHERN KARMA
SOUTHERN MAGIC THANKSGIVING
SOUTHERN MAGIC CHRISTMAS
SOUTHERN POTIONS
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SOUTHERN GHOST WRANGLER MYSTERIES
SOUL FOOD SPIRITS
HONEYSUCKLE HAUNTING
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