Chapter Twenty-Eight #2
She had a moment when she stepped back into the library, and quashed it. She would not let Dobbs spoil her amazing workspace.
And scattered on the floor she saw crystal beads. They’d gone through her, Sonya realized. They’d gone right through her.
And carried traces of her blood.
Because she didn’t want to touch them, Sonya got tweezers to pluck them up, put them in a little bowl.
She’d give them back to Cleo. So thinking, she gave Cleo’s bracelet a rub as she sat down.
Clover added Sia’s anthem “Unstoppable.”
“Damn right we are.”
But she felt a little more secure when the dogs settled down in the library with her.
When Trey pulled up to the manor, calm didn’t ride with him. He knew Sonya had downplayed whatever had happened. And if he hadn’t reached the end of the line, he was fast approaching it.
Whatever she’d gone through, he hadn’t been there. Instead, he’d been miles away in court over a case that should never have reached litigation. And wouldn’t have if the plaintiff hadn’t been so goddamn dug in.
The fact the judge clearly agreed with that assessment didn’t negate the wasted hours. And he’d waste a few more the next day before the judge ruled, he had no doubt, for his client.
That was the job.
As if to shed those wasted hours, he tugged his tie loose as he got out of his truck. Action, he thought, it was past time to take action, to stop playing defense.
His head snapped up when he heard a window open.
Clover, sunny hair shining, her young, lovely face projecting sympathy, leaned out.
“She’s okay, big guy. I know you had to worry, and you’re a little pissed off, too.”
“Delete little.”
She grinned. “Okay. But you need to be proud of her, and Cleo, too. They handled that twisted butthole of a bitch. I wanted you to know that before you go in. I love her, too, right? It’s way weird because I don’t feel like a grandma, but I really love her with all I got.
And Cleo, too. We’re doing all we can to help, I promise. ”
“It’s time to stop it. To stop her.”
After brushing back her hair, Clover leaned on the windowsill like a chatty neighbor. “Time’s like, you know, different for me, but yeah, I get that. Something’s happening, but I don’t know…”
She shook her head, lifted her shoulders.
“Something’s changing, but it started changing as soon as she got here. I feel more … I just feel more. You’re a good guy, Trey. Strong and steady. That’s what she needs. You, and your strong and steady. I just wanted you to know. Here comes Owen.”
She shot out another smile. “He’s a good guy, too. None of us feel so alone since you all came. Don’t go away, okay? Don’t give up on us. We need you.”
She faded away; the window closed.
“Damn it.” He rubbed at the tension in the back of his neck as Owen pulled up. “Goddamn it.”
She’d hit the target, and he couldn’t deny it. Nothing pushed his buttons more firmly than someone asking for help.
“Are we making an entrance?” Owen asked as he and Jones walked over.
“Clover interrupted mine.”
Owen glanced up. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. Let’s go find out what the fuck Dobbs pulled this time.”
“How pissed are you? I ask because on my gauge, you’re hitting about seven out of ten. High for you.”
“It was heading for nine before Clover. Seven’s about right. I’m in court handling a nuisance suit against my client while Dobbs goes after them.”
Trey paused at the door. “You’re not pissed?”
“I’m waiting to be pissed when I get the details. Hey, are we doing a Freaky Friday deal?”
Trey didn’t really want to laugh, but he did. “Okay, level down to six.”
The dogs rushed out to greet them and Jones. Mookie bounded with joy as if Trey had left town for a month. So the adoration and goofiness took Trey down to level five.
Until they got to the kitchen.
Cleo stirred something in a pot. Sonya chopped something at the island.
And she had a bruise on her face.
Before he could speak, Sonya slid off the stool and went to put her arms around him.
“I could’ve hid it with makeup.”
“Because I’m blind or because I’m stupid?”
“Neither. Because I’m really good with makeup. But I didn’t.”
After giving Sonya one long look, Owen stepped over. He turned Cleo’s face to his, studied it.
“Never laid a hand on me,” she told him. “Pour us some wine, get a beer if you’d rather that. We need to get this going, then we’ll tell you everything that happened, start to finish.”
“It was a hell of a finish.” Sonya grinned.
Trey’s level decreased fractionally when he saw it reach her eyes.
“Where else are you hurt?”
“Since I’m not going to strip down in front of my favorite cousin, I’ll show you later. Bruises here and there, but that’s starting in the middle.”
Clover went with Lizzo’s “Good as Hell.”
“Yeah, we were.”
Sonya carried the cutting board over to Cleo. “Chopped, minced, diced. I’ll start. You guys want out again? Okay, okay.”
“Sonya,” Trey said when she walked to the door to let the pets out.
“I was having a really good day,” she began.
“I think she likes to take swipes on my really good days. I’ll tell you why it was, and is, a really good day after.
I’d been up in Cleo’s studio, where she was also having a really good day.
Then I’m back at work, moving right along, when Clover sounded the alarm.
“I’d barely noticed the cold creeping in, or that damn floor fog she likes to do. Thanks.” She took the glass of wine from Owen. “And she was there, like when I went through the mirror and saw her with Patricia. Sort of gliding down the library steps. Like something with no feet. Like a snake.”
She drank some wine and told her tale.
Trey moved over, ran his hand over the back of her head. “You’ve got a bump here.”
“Do I? I missed that one.”
“Did you lose consciousness? Any double vision?”
“No, and no. I hit hard, and it hurt, but no concussion, no broken bones. Bruises, Trey, just bruises. You’re making me want to jump ahead, and we need Cleo to take over because it’s a ‘meanwhile, up in the studio’ sort of thing.”
“Meanwhile, up in the studio. Clover. Actual Clover, standing in front of my desk.”
Cleo dumped some of the wine Owen had opened into the pot, gave it a stir. Then she picked up her own and turned to the others.
“She told me Dobbs had Sonya trapped in the library, and was hurting her. She said: ‘We need help.’ Not Sonya needs help. We. I got the BB gun out of the desk—”
“You had it in your desk?” Owen interrupted.
“Since the last bird incident, yes. I ran down, but I couldn’t open the doors. I said they had to help me get them open, and they did. That crazy bitch had Sonya dangling off the floor, and she freaking smiled at me. Said she’d take two for one, and actually laughed when I pointed the gun at her.”
“She didn’t laugh long.”
Cleo grinned at Sonya. “She sure as hell didn’t.”
“The BBs worked.”
Now Cleo turned her grin to Trey. “My grand-mère’s magic BBs did. I shot her four times.”
Turning, she picked up a little dish from the counter. “Obsidian, two black tourmalines, selenite. Sonya found these when she went back up to the library.”
“Got tweezers, not touching them, because ick. Dead witch blood on them.”
“They went right through her,” Trey murmured. “Did some damage first.”
“They hurt her,” Cleo confirmed, then smacked Owen’s hand away. “Don’t touch. We may be able to use the blood on them. They scared her, and on the third and fourth hit, she went screaming into a panicked whirlwind, and poof.”
“And not a sound out of her since. Trey.” Sonya reached for his hand. “She hurt me, she scared the living fuck out of me. But I’m sitting here drinking wine. And dead witch aside, I’m betting I’m a hundred percent before she is.”
“You could’ve been here alone.”
“I never am. And I honestly believe if Cleo hadn’t come to the rescue with magic BBs and dead aim, the others would’ve found a way. They’re stronger, Trey, you have to feel that, too. They’re just more here.”
He thought of Clover leaning out the window. “All right, I do feel that.”
“She knows she can’t kill me—any of us—as much as she’d love to. She loses if she goes too far. She can only hurt and scare, and yes, she’s escalating there.”
“There’s gotta be a reason for that.”
Cleo looked at Owen with approval. “Yes, there does.”
“You’ve got an idea on that, Lafayette?”
“I do.”
Enjoying her wine, she leaned back against the counter. “She feels it, too. They’re getting stronger, not just the brides, all of them. So are we. Nothing she’s thrown out has worked in the long run. We’re all here, together.”
“There are four people, maybe not officially, but essentially, living in this house now. When’s the last time that happened?
” Sonya asked, then answered. “Since Patricia, since before Patricia. Clover and Charlie with some friends for a while, but what kind of friends were they to leave Clover at that point in her pregnancy?”
Gucci Mane expressed Clover’s opinion with “Fake Friends.”
“And that, the man I love, my best friend, my favorite cousin, isn’t us. She feels that. We’re more of a threat to her than she’s ever faced.”
“And you’re the biggest threat in that group,” Trey pointed out.
“No slap at female power,” Owen put in, “but it’s fucking hard to be somewhere else and know, at any time, something can come down.”
“And no return slap at male ego, because I know it is. But…” Sonya lifted a hand, let it fall. “That’s part of who we are, too, isn’t it? And I know, I just know, when it comes down to it, the end of it, we’ll be here together.
“It’s not just me, Trey. It’s never been just me.”
“Things started changing when you got here. That’s something Clover told me before I came in tonight.”
“Oh! Twice in one day? That’s—”
“A sign of something stronger,” Trey finished. “She said something was coming. She didn’t say, or didn’t know, what or when.”
“Samhain.” Cleo checked her pot, stirred, nodded. “The night the veil thins between the living and the dead. A high holy day, a major Sabbat.”
“That’s a witch thing, right?” Owen took a sniff at the pot himself. “Wouldn’t that be a big night for her?”
“Light kills dark,” Cleo said simply.
“Halloween,” Sonya murmured. “It seems really … apt.”
And it gave Trey what he felt was a solid bargaining chip.
“October thirty-first. That’s the line. If we don’t have the rings, or a clear and solid path to them, Owen and I go in.”
“The Gold Room? But—”
“It has to end sometime, Sonya. And at some point, you have to go on the offense. Add, for all we know, that might be the way to get the rings. Taking it to her. That’s as logical a method as any.”
“I might go along with that,” Cleo considered, “with one amendment. We all four go in. Sonya’s right. It’s going to be all of us.”
Since he’d expected that counter, Trey flicked a glance at Owen, got a half shrug.
“Agreed,” Owen said. “We’ve got that piece of her dress Jones ripped off. You’ve got her blood on those stones. I don’t know dick about that kind of thing, but there should be a way to use them.”
“She’s strongest there,” Sonya began.
“That could be the point,” Trey argued. “Up to now, it’s mostly been fending her off.”
“Excuse me,” Cleo put in. “Sonya and I both made her bleed.”
“So just think of what four of us, together, could do. And where she feels strongest and safest. We’ll prove her wrong.”
“We need Astrid’s portrait. I swear, I know we need that first.”
Trey brushed a finger over Sonya’s bruised cheek, and found his level had settled at about a simmering three. “If we do, and I trust your instincts there, then we’ll have it.”