Chapter 18
Tess
Connor Murphy’s new pub was full of Dead Enders having a great time when we got there, which boded well for the new venture. Jack and I introduced Alejandro and Rose to lots of people we knew, and then we found a table near the dartboard. Jack and Alejandro started a game that involved darts, beer, and trash talk, and Rose and I drank ginger ale and talked about magic and eccentric families.
The place was gorgeous. Connor had bought the old firehouse that dated back to the 1800s. Our current fire department had moved to a new building outside of town when firetrucks had gotten modern and huge, but this building in downtown Dead End had been built to accommodate the old horse-drawn fire trucks. It had served various other purposes since the city sold it but had been vacant for a couple of years. Aunt Ruby had told us Connor paid a very reasonable price for the building and the city gave him some perks for establishing a business there. Nobody wanted empty buildings downtown.
He’d renovated the interior with everything a modern pub needed but kept several touches from the old firehouse days. Framed photos of the old wagons, pulled by horses, lined the walls, and the fireman’s pole still stood in one corner. There was even the front part of an old fire truck repurposed as a decorative booth.
When Connor stopped by our table on his walk around the place, he was grinning ear to ear, flushed with well-deserved success. He was twenty-seven; a medium-tall, slender guy, maybe an inch or two taller than me, with dark auburn hair and lovely chocolate-brown eyes. I’d noticed more than one woman’s attention on him as he made his way around the room, and I knew he was single, so maybe the pub would be a success in more ways than one.
“Tess! Thanks so much for coming. What do you think, one business owner to another?”
I’d been happy to talk about ideas and strategy with him when he’d joined the Dead End small business association, and I was thrilled for him tonight.
“Connor, I’m delighted for you! This is gorgeous, and I think you have a hit on your hands.”
“Thank you so much! I hope so. I’ve poured everything I have into it, that’s for sure. The grand opening is next Saturday, so I need you all to win that game. Then the whole town can come in and celebrate!”
“Absolutely. Connor, this is?—”
“Hi, Rose, nice to meet you!”
She smiled at him. “It’s a great place. I wish we had a local pub near us that was half as nice.”
“Come visit anytime!” He glanced to his left when someone called his name. “I guess I’d better be moving on. Tess, I’ll get you that refill on the ginger ales.”
“Did you tell him we were coming?” Rose asked.
“No, why?”
“He knew my name.”
I laughed. “He also knew we needed refills, and he never glanced at our glasses. No, Connor’s a precog. But it’s a very minor gift. He can see maybe thirty seconds into the future. Not long enough to see the lottery numbers, unfortunately.”
“Handy for knowing what drinks people want, if you’re a pub owner,” she said.
Meanwhile, every person who walked up to the darts board with an eye toward claiming the next game with the winner watched Jack and Alejandro play for a few minutes and then walked away. Hard to compete with a man who had shifter reflexes and strength and another with a magical gift for targeting anything he aimed at.
I tuned in with half an ear. The current trash talk was Alejandro telling Jack his grandmother was a Persian show kitty and asking did Jack need his fur combed out before the next round. Jack laughed and ordered another round of beers from the server—a youngish guy I didn’t recognize—and then threw three bulls-eyes in a row.
“Kitty cat that, P-Ops.”
Shaking my head, I turned back toward Rose just in time to see the front door smash open with way too much force. I was halfway up out of my chair before I remembered.
This past year had put me in the bad habit of jumping into danger, face first. I needed to sit down and take a long look at my life choices. Maybe take up something peaceful, like knitting. Nope, those big needles might be too dangerous when the next crisis came up. What did I know about embroidery?
The door smasher was Probie Truckman, followed by a half-dozen of his family members. They looked around and then headed straight for Brenda, who was standing by the bar with a few friends, including Lauren from Lauren’s Deli and Mellie from Mellie’s Bakery.
(See what I mean about Dead End business names? Connor’s Pub fits right in.)
“Jack,” I said, quietly enough that only a tiger with Superior Tiger Hearing would hear me. “Trouble.”
He and Alejandro had already picked up on it, though. They’d put the darts down and moved closer to our table.
“I think I’ll go get us more drinks,” Jack said in his normal speaking voice.
“I’ll help carry them,” Alejandro said cheerfully.
“We don’t need more drinks, and you’re not on duty here, Alejandro,” Rose said tightly, her gaze on the belligerent newcomers surrounding Brenda’s group. “Aren’t any of your Dead End police here, Jack?”
I stood and gave Jack a hug, surreptitiously scanning the room. “I don’t see Andy, and Susan isn’t here yet, either.”
“Like I said, we’re going to get more drinks.” Jack kissed the top of my head and ambled toward Ace’s family members, who were getting louder and louder.
“—did you do to him? We know you were the last one at his house,” Probie shouted.
Connor hovered in the background, trying to calm things down. “Hey, free drinks for all of you. Let’s?—”
One of the Truckmans stepped toward the pub owner and punched him in the stomach. Connor made a strangled oof sound and doubled over. Jack snarled loud enough that almost everyone else in the bar went silent. Hearing a tiger snarl or roar—even one in human form—was a humbling experience. Somewhere way back in our primitive cave person days, a saber-toothed tiger probably ate one of our ancestors, and our lizard brains still remembered that and froze at the sound of an angry apex predator.
Probie swung around, fists clenched at his sides. “Listen, Shepherd, this is none of your business. I just want to find my cousin, and we know this b?—”
“Watch your words carefully,” Jack said with icy calm.
Probie gulped audibly but didn’t back down, so he was either very brave or very foolish. “This … woman … was at Ace’s house. She saw that his place was trashed, and she even saw the blood, and she didn’t have the common curtsey to call the police.”
I resisted the urge to call out, “It’s courtesy, not curtsy.”
Jack, to his credit, didn’t laugh in Probie’s face. “You’re right,” he said instead.
“And I … what?” Confusion washed over Probie’s expression.
“I said I agree with you.”
“Hey!” Brenda said.
Jack held up a hand. “He’s right, Brenda. You should have called the police when you were still at Ace’s house. However, Probie, Brenda had nothing to do with Ace’s disappearance. So, how about I buy you a drink, and we all calm down and try to figure this out?”
I clutched my head with both hands and groaned. “Oh, no.”
Rose nodded. “Oh, no, is right. You never tell an angry person to calm down.”
The Truckmans, who’d been on the verge of backing off, all puffed right back up. Probie raised one fist and took a swing at Jack, who blocked it.
Another Truckman sucker-punched Alejandro in the back.
“Oh, no, he didn’t,” Rose said, raising her hands. “Hey! You! Keep your hands off my husband.”
With that, she murmured something beneath her breath, flung her hands toward the Truckmans, and a surgically targeted blast of wind lifted Probie and his crew up off their feet and out the front door.
Alejandro turned and blew a kiss at his wife, and Jack flashed a big smile at the heroic witch standing next to me.
“Well. Guess you showed them.”
“Nobody messes with a Cardinal witch,” she said darkly, and a tiny thrill of fear shivered down my spine, because I could see in her face and posture the history of her magical family. I’d heard they were a force to be reckoned with, but seeing was far more powerful than hearing.
She looked tired, though, and I remembered it wasn’t her first or even second magic expenditure of the day.
“Maybe now we should go home,” I suggested. “Long day. I’m ready to get some sleep.”
I wasn’t really all that tired, but I didn’t want Rose to feel like she had to tough it out for the rest of us.
She gave me a grateful smile. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing, but I’m just tired enough to let you get away with it.”
Alejandro strode past me and swept his wife into a fierce hug. “Querida, we talked about this. Please don’t waste your energy on unimportant matters.”
“He hit you,” she said indignantly. “Nobody hits my husband.”
Alejandro’s smile was incandescent, and he kissed his wife with the kind of passion that wasn’t usually seen in Dead End eating establishments. I looked away from their private moment and saw Jack talking to Brenda.
When I caught his eye, I gave him a signal that it was time to go, and he nodded.
“Let’s head home,” I said to Alejandro and Rose.
Connor stopped us near the door. “Thanks, Jack. I sure didn’t need a fight in my new place on the first night.”
“No worries,” Jack told him. “And you should thank Rose. She did the heavy lifting.”
Connor thanked Rose warmly, and she smiled at him. “You’re very welcome. I wish you lots of success with this place. It’s wonderful.”
Alejandro clapped Connor on the back. “You really should consider investing in a?—”
“Bouncer, I know,” Connor said grimly. “Top of my list now.”
By the time we said goodbyes and made our way out, I noticed Brenda wasn’t standing with her group anymore. When we hit the street, the first thing we saw was Probie and Brenda having a heated discussion.
“Brenda? Are you okay?”
She waved me away. “Fine. We’re just talking. See you soon, Tess.”
“No problem here,” Probie told Jack, holding his hands up. “Nothing for you to worry about.”
“Are you sure?” Jack asked her.
Brenda nodded emphatically, so we headed home. Rose and the babies needed to rest.
* * *
Unfortunately, this was Dead End. We found out the next day that there absolutely had been something to worry about.