Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
Hot chocolate and hotter kisses
Declan
It’d been hours since Grady had hauled Lily away, and I was still in a state of shock.
Gideon had me tucked away in a quiet corner of the pub and had been feeding me endless rounds of hot chocolate ever since.
Someone must have told him sugar was good for shock.
I’d half-expected him to lock me in his apartment, but he’d mumbled something about it being good to be around the pack, too.
Which just showed how rattled the wolf shifter was, if he was using words like pack to describe his friends.
The raven that’d been at the coffee shop earlier was now perched on a windowsill.
It stared at me through the window like it thought I’d get in more trouble if it looked away.
I knew I needed to deal with the bird at some point, ask questions about why it was following me around, and all that.
But not now. I couldn’t deal with anything more today.
But the shock didn’t seem to be wearing off, no matter how much hot chocolate I drank or how many people came over to sit close to me.
Because…
Lily. The creator of stomach-turning coffee flavors. The lover of awful pantsuits. That Lily… She was a murderer two times over, and she’d been trying her damnedest to bump that up to four by killing Paula and me. Sure, we were both safe, but it’d been so terribly close to going the other way…
Given all the strange things Lily added to her coffees, I doubted Paula had even batted an eye at the concoction she’d been served.
At least Gideon had known, thanks to Elwood and his garden.
Thinking about that poisoned brew again made me lightheaded, and my stomach churned.
Although the stomach churning could have been because of all the hot chocolate.
But still, how long would it take to get over someone trying to kill you? And I didn’t think I was the only one who would need time to come to terms with what’d happened. Gideon hadn’t left my side for a second since he’d busted through the coffee shop door like a superhero and saved everyone.
Seriously, though. I was getting worried about Gideon’s bladder.
Didn’t he need some time to take care of himself?
He couldn’t stay glued to my side for the rest of my life, could he?
But hanging out with a sexy and protective wolf shifter was one way to keep from being murdered, so I wasn’t complaining.
“Are you okay?” Gideon asked for the umpteenth time.
It was like he knew I was thinking about how close Lily had come to killing me again. Me! Like what the hell. I hadn’t even been in Ravenstone for a week yet, and already someone hated me enough to try to wipe me off the earth.
Elwood had always said my curiosity would get me in trouble someday. I just didn’t think it could lead to near-fatal consequences.
“Yep.” I nodded to emphasize my point. Was I lying? Probably. I took his hand in mine and squeezed it. “I don’t think I thanked you. So, thank you. I… I really didn’t see how I could get out and save Paula, too. If you hadn’t shown up when you did…”
“You don’t need to thank me,” he said gruffly. “I will always come when you need me. I told you that.”
“You did. And I hope it never comes to it, but if you ever need to be saved, I’ll be there for you, too.”
“No.” He shook his head. “You need to keep yourself safe.”
I rolled my eyes. “We’ll have to agree to disagree on that.”
“I’ll get you some more hot chocolate,” he said abruptly. Apparently, that was his cure for everything today, including me putting myself in some hypothetical danger.
Before I could stop him, he was halfway across the pub, heading for the kitchen. His phone rang. He glanced at the screen and stopped. He glanced at me. Then his mouth flattened as he swiped the screen to accept the call.
“What do you know?” Gideon demanded instead of greeting his caller like a normal person.
I couldn’t hear what was being said, but I suspected the call had something to do with Lily. I climbed out of my seat to stand closer to him.
“Hold on a sec. I’ll put you on speaker. Okay. Say that again.” Then Gideon glanced at me. “It’s Grady.”
“Lily made a full confession,” the sheriff said.
I doubted many other people got personal updates on murder investigations. It was pretty handy knowing the local alpha.
“I have questions,” I blurted out. My mind had been going in circles with so many questions all day, so it was hard to pick just one. When Grady didn’t refuse, I said the first one that popped into my head. “Had she planned to kill me all along?”
I hadn’t meant to ask that question first, but it just fell out of my mouth. And okay, yes, I was maybe a little self-absorbed, worrying about myself first. But I didn’t think anyone could blame me under the circumstances.
Gideon wrapped his free arm around me as we waited for Grady’s answer. Other people in the pub had quieted and were listening, too.
“She said she’d expected to see you in the coffee shop that morning. Said you were becoming something of a regular.”
Gideon squeezed me tighter, and he started growling. “So she’d picked the moonbane specifically for Declan.”
“Right,” Grady agreed. “Then, when Paula came in acting strange, Lily figured Jim must have said something to her and decided she needed to go, too.”
“Fantastic. I try to support someone, and instead of being happy, they try to kill me,” I muttered.
Since Grady had answered one question, I decided to try my luck and ask another.
“So, why Winston? Had she gone over to him planning to kill him that night? Because I swear, she didn’t look angry with him at the festival meeting. ”
“That one wasn’t planned.” Grady paused, and I could hear him flipping through pages in a notebook.
“Lily says she went over with the crystal as a gift for Winston, because she’d wanted his help.
Says she grabbed it on her way through the store that night and that she’d planned on paying for it the next day.
She’d asked if he’d be a silent investor in her coffee shop. ”
We’d all seen Winston’s reaction to that on the video recording.
“Apparently, she hadn’t liked how he said no,” Gideon murmured.
And wasn’t that the understatement of the year?
“After he was dead, she decided to look for Xalvador’s treasure. She found a bunch of… babies? Wait. Is that right?” There was a pause, and the sound of more pages being turned. “Not like children, but stuffed toys? I don’t know. One of my constables is looking into it.”
“Beanie Babies?” I asked.
“Yeah! That’s the one. She found them behind one of the walls.
So she stole those. She’d planned to sell them and get enough money to retire on an island somewhere.
But when she’d talked to Leon about them, he’d laughed at her and said they were worthless.
Sounds like Jim called right after that saying he wanted money from her or he’d show the police the video of her murdering Winston that he’d found on the cloud or whatever… ”
“And she thought she’d get rid of both of them by killing Jim and framing Leon,” Gideon finished for him.
“That was the infamous treasure? Beanie Babies.” I snorted. I slapped my hand over my mouth. Gideon appeared even more worried than he had a few minutes ago. And then the dam broke. Suddenly, I was laughing so hard I couldn’t stand up straight, and tears were flowing down my cheeks.
“We gotta go,” Gideon said to Grady as he ended the call. “Declan?”
“I’m okay,” I said, waving my hand in front of my face, but I couldn’t stop laughing.
Gideon stared at me like he was seconds from throwing me over his shoulder and carrying me to the nearest doctor to demand I be given something for hysteria.
He rubbed my back and made awkward little shushing sounds between pressing little kisses to the top of my head.
Eventually, the need to laugh eased, and I let out a shaky breath.
I gave him a wobbly smile and patted his chest.
“I swear I’m okay now. I promise.” I wiped my wet cheeks with the hem of my t-shirt before using it to clean my glasses. “But Beanie Babies? Fuck.” I shook my head.
“We should go upstairs for a bit. Rest.”
“Nope.” I grabbed his hand. “I feel much better now. I think I just needed some answers.”
“Okay…”
“Let’s check out the last day of the festival,” I said as I tugged him to the door. “I remember seeing something about magical snow cone ice pop things.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure,” I said. And I wasn’t even lying this time. It was like that conversation with Grady had lifted a weight off me.
Gideon must have sensed the change in me, because he came without protest. As we walked down the cobblestone sidewalk, I remembered the day I’d arrived. Just like then, the day was hot. The sidewalk was once again crowded with people eating ice cream cones. But today I found it… delightful.
Despite everything that’d happened with Lily, I was glad I’d come to Ravenstone. The raven that had been watching me in the pub circled the sky above us.
As we passed The Mystic Menagerie, Tulip was locking the door. She winced when she saw us.
“Elwood said I could close early today,” she said, sounding defensive.
“If you’re going to the festival, we’ll walk over with you.” I smiled at her.
“Elwood told me what happened,” Tulip said as she matched her steps to ours. “I knew I should’ve dragged that woman to the bottom of the pond when she bought all the nori from the grocery store and destroyed it by putting it in one of her awful drinks.”
I didn’t even bat an eyelash at Tulip’s threats this time. Was that a sign I was already becoming a local? But there was one thing that would really cinch that.
“I know I’ve talked about staying…” I glanced at Gideon.
“Did what happened with Lily change your mind?” He swallowed hard and squeezed my hand tighter. Maybe I should have waited to talk about this when we were alone, but now that I’d made up my mind, I needed to share my decision with him.
“In a way,” I said. “I think I need to make some firmer plans for what to do with my life.”
Gideon flashed a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“I think I’m going to become a baker,” I announced. As soon as I said the words, I knew it was the right decision. When Gideon and Tulip didn’t say anything, I cleared my throat. “No questions?”
“Here?” Gideon asked.
“Here.” I nodded.
Gideon exhaled. And this time when he smiled, it was real. Had he really thought I could leave him behind? “When you thanked me in the pub, I thought it meant you were staying, but then I wasn’t sure. After we talked to Grady, I thought you might want to put Ravenstone in your rearview mirror.”
“You should tell Sandy. He’ll show you around. There are two places available on Main Street,” Tulip said in a matter-of-fact tone as we dodged a little family peering inside one of the magical-looking storefronts.
It took me a minute to realize she was talking about the places Winston and Lily had owned. Did I want to have a bakery in a place where two men had been murdered or where Paula and I had almost been killed? I didn’t love either option.
But I didn’t need to make up my mind this minute. I had a festival to attend and magical treats to eat, and a sexy man to kiss.
In fact, I couldn’t wait to get started.
I stopped abruptly. Gideon swung around to check on me. Before he could ask me what was wrong, I flung myself into his arms and pressed my lips to his. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close. All around us, people hooted and hollered.
I had a feeling I was going to love it here.