Chapter 2 #2
“No,” Paige said, lifting her head from her hands, “I mean, this isn’t helping.
” She wiped at her cheeks and blew out a sigh.
“I know you’re just trying to help, but I can’t even think of Devon without getting mad and upset.
He’s such a jerk. Why would he do this? It wasn’t enough to fake propose, and now he’s going to really rub it in with the false lead on my mom? ”
“Mmm, actually, I’m not one hundred percent sure the proposal was a fake.”
“What else could it have been? Surely, it wasn’t real.”
Dewey narrowed his eyes. “Why not? I mean, he did go through all the trouble to stage a car accident and kidnap you. Seems legit.”
“What kind of person does that? Who kidnaps the person they want to marry?”
“Vampires,” Dewey answered, without skipping a beat. “It may even be expected or encouraged.”
Paige screwed up her face. “What?”
“It’s probably a family tradition. Dominic likely did the same with Devon’s mom. And his grandfather with his grandmother, and so on.”
Paige’s lips tugged back in a horrified grimace. “ What ?”
“Ask him. I bet he’ll say good old Gramps nabbed Grandma and locked her in the tower–”
Paige waved a hand in the air. “And made her wear a long, flowing dress, yes, I know. I am still not convinced. This is real life, not a romance novel.”
“Where do you think authors get this stuff from?”
Paige poked the bridge of her glasses to push them higher. “Their imaginations.”
“Ha! Grandma Durand probably wrote Taming His Royal Bite-ness from the same tower room Devon put you in.”
“Ew.” Paige shook her head, crinkling her nose. “That’s not…never mind. Okay, mission successful. You’ve distracted me from my grief with your ridiculous notions about the ways vampires woo their brides-to-be.”
Dewey plopped down on the couch next to her. “Ridiculous notions? Paige, these are facts. I’m telling you…text Dimples and ask him. I bet you he confirms everything I just told you.”
“I’m not texting Devon. There is no way I’m opening the communication lines with him.”
“Afraid you’ll melt again over his dashing good looks?”
“No,” Paige said with a shake of her head, staring into space. “But you know who I could text about this? Not this , about my mom.”
“Ronnie? She doesn’t know anything, though. Like I said, she was a junior director at the time. She knew your mom, sure. But not a ton about what happened to her. Professor Higgins played that close to the vest.”
Paige snapped her gaze to Dewey. “No, not Ronnie. What about my mom’s archivist? Surely, they would know something.”
Dewey squashed his lips together. “Tough luck, Paige. Your mom was between archivists when she went missing, and the guy she worked with just before it died.”
“Died or… died ?” Paige widened her eyes and grimaced as she emphasized the last word.
Dewey screwed up his face. “What do you mean died or died? That’s the same thing.”
“I mean like died of natural causes, or died of murder.”
“Died of murder? Is that even correct?”
Paige pounded a fist on her thigh. “Stop picking apart my grammar and answer the question.”
“He ‘retired,’ then died in a hang-gliding accident.”
Paige’s eyes widened. “So, he may have been killed. Did someone tamper with his hang-glider?”
“Nah,” Dewey said with a wave of his paw, “he was just super bad at it. He crashed right into a cliff. Died on impact.”
Paige’s shoulders slumped. “Well, there goes that option, then.”
Dewey flopped back onto the couch and kicked his feet out. “I’m afraid the only option is to text Devon.”
“Stop saying text Devon. I’m not texting him. So he can sell me another pack of lies? Hard pass,” she answered, slicing her mitted hand through the air as she shoved a wayward lock of hair from her face.
“I’d be darned if I paid him for it. He should give it to you for free! He has a fortune to fall back on, he hardly needs the money. And given the whole beast mark thing, he owes you.”
Paige leapt to her feet and paced the floor. “I didn’t mean that literally. There has to be another way to get information.”
Dewey shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not sure how. Besides visiting the last known location, where could we find information? And even that’s a stretch. What are the odds that after thirty-four years, we’ll find a clue The Force missed?”
“I don’t know,” Paige whined, collapsing onto the couch next to him. “I’m not even sure I want to see the place where my mother was injured badly enough to die.”
Dewey patted her shoulder again. “I’ll keep working on tracking these charms, okay?”
Paige squashed her lips together, her forehead crinkling. “Thanks, buddy. I appreciate that.”
She drew her legs up onto the couch and hugged them to her chest.
“Do you want to continue with the movie?”
“Sure,” Paige said. “Maybe it’ll take my mind off what just happened.” She dug the remote from between the cushions and pressed play.
Dewey tapped around the on RP next to her, flicking his gaze between the screen and the television.
Paige patted his arm. “Take the night off. There’s really no rush.”
Dewey smiled up at her and tossed the device on the cushion next to him. “If you’re sure. I’d like to enjoy how absolutely asinine this movie is. They really make no attempt at being factual about mummies, do they?”
Paige chuckled at the statement when her phone buzzed across the coffee table. She stared down at the lit display, recognizing the library’s number. “It’s the library. Pause it.”
Dewey waved the remote at the television, freezing the image of the Egyptian desert on the screen as Paige snatched the phone and answered it.
“Paige, it’s Ronnie. Dewey’s with you, right?” Ronnie said.
“Yes,” Paige said, tapping around on the display, “got you on speaker.”
“Good.”
“Hey, Ronnie, what’s up?” Dewey asked, climbing to his feet.
“You need to get back here. We’ve got another code red.”
Dewey’s eyes went wide. “Code red? Again?”
“Yep. Get back here ASAP. This one is big-time trouble.”