Chapter 20
TWENTY
Iwanted to be sullen for the ride back but seeing Wesley with his men — they really were thrilled to have him back — alleviated some of the fear I’d been dealing with.
Marianna had soup for him. They got him comfortable on the patio so he could watch the day-to-day activities of the ranch without fatiguing himself.
He was comfortable and happy. It really was the best setup.
I still didn’t like that I wasn’t the one chosen to take care of him. If I was truthful— something I refused to do out loud — I would have taken terrible care of him.
“What are you going to give me for being right?” Galen asked, breaking the heavy silence in the truck.
“Hmm?” I forced myself out of my reverie and focused on him.
“I was right,” he said.
“Do you want me to applaud?”
He smirked. “I want a prize.”
“What sort of prize?”
“I haven’t decided yet.” He hesitated. “Maybe you could invite some of your mainland friends to the wedding. That might be a nice reward.”
The suggestion threw me. I thought he was going to ask for a romantic prize. “You want your reward to be people you don’t even know at our wedding?”
“I want our wedding to be everything you ever dreamed of,” he clarified. “We’re only doing this once. You’re stuck with me for life. I want you to have the people you care about there.”
He was earnest enough that I didn’t dismiss the idea outright.
“I told you that I don’t know how I feel about that,” I said. “I’m not even in touch with any of them right now.”
“That’s easy enough to fix. Email them just as soon as we figure out what Declan’s deal is and catch them up on your life.”
“You don’t think it’s been too long?”
“No. It’s only going to get harder going forward. This is the perfect time to contact them.”
He had a point. There was just one problem. “When they ask what’s going on with my life and I have to lie because I cannot explain witches, elementals, shifters, sirens, and dhampirs, how is that a good thing?”
“Are you sure you have to lie?”
He was handsome to the point of distraction. He was also out of touch with reality.
“You live on an island where everyone knows the big secret,” I reminded him. “Most of the people here are paranormal. Those who aren’t know about paranormals.
“You lived with huge sand worms eating people,” I continued.
“There are goddess sea monsters sleeping in caves in the water. A few weeks ago, the island was surrounded by attacking sharks. That’s all normal to you.
If you believe in the paranormal on the mainland, you’re a crackpot.
If you keep insisting, the men in little white coats show up to commit you. ”
“You don’t have a single friend you think you could tell the truth?” he challenged.
“I don’t.”
He seemed to read my mind. “I’m sorry for suggesting it then.” He was appropriately contrite. “I just want to make sure all your dreams come true. The thought that you didn’t have any friends back home … .”
“I had friends,” I countered. “They might not have been the same sort of friends you were blessed with, but I had friends.” I paused a beat.
“When I think of my life on the mainland, it doesn’t feel like my life any longer.
I never felt as if I belonged back there.
I was always searching for something. I assumed it was my mother but now I’m not so sure. ”
“You were looking for me.” He broke into a wide smile.
“Your ego is amazing,” I said on a laugh. “I think I was looking for you.”
He puffed himself out.
“I also think I was looking for Lilac … and Booker … and Aurora. I was looking for Wesley, and this island.” I sucked in a deep breath. “I think I was looking for the magic.”
His expression softened. “I understand, but there must be someone from your old life you want to share your future with.”
“Why are you so adamant about this?”
“If you didn’t have anyone in your life you could trust with your darkest secrets, you were alone,” he replied. “I can’t stand the thought of you being alone.”
“If it’s any consolation, I didn’t know I was alone.”
“That makes it only mildly better.”
“How about this?” I leaned closer to him. “I’ve never been happier. Isn’t that the most important thing?”
“Yes, but I want you to have more than one person who is there for you at our wedding.”
He was talking about my father. “Wesley will be there for me.” I wanted to say that his friends would be there for me too, but the truth was they would be there for us.
Wesley would be too, because he was genuinely fond of Galen long before I arrived on the island.
My father was the only one who was mine.
“I guess I’m focusing on things that don’t need to be focused on,” Galen said after several seconds.
“You really are,” I agreed. “What’s important is us. The other stuff … it’s going to happen as it should.”
He grabbed my hand and squeezed. “You’re still wearing white, right?”
Laughter escaped before I realized it was bubbling up. “Absolutely. I will look like a virginal dream.”
“Yeah, don’t take it to a weird place.”
“I heard it as soon as I said it.”
“It creeps me out.”
He wasn’t the only one.
BOOKER, LILAC, AURORA, AND brODY met us in the parking lot of the Voodoo Lounge. The place didn’t look operational — there wasn’t a single golf cart in the lot and the windows were too dirty to see through — but Galen assured me it was indeed open for business.
“Who owns this place now?” I asked.
“Blaine Gordon,” Galen replied, looking down at his phone screen. “He purchased the bar about eight years ago.”
“Who owned it before then?”
“Michael Smith.”
I raised my chin. “Michael Smith?”
“It sounds like an alias,” Galen conceded sheepishly. “What makes it worse is I don’t remember meeting him.” He glanced at Booker. “Do you remember him?”
Booker shook his head. “And I’m with you on this one. There were stories about Michael Smith. Supposedly he was a badass, but I don’t know anyone who actually met him.”
“Which means he was likely never here,” Aurora surmised. “The stories were spread by the DDA because they knew he wasn’t here.”
“Declan likely owned the bar up until eight years ago. Then whoever is managing his business sold it.”
“And we think that’s the same guy managing his house?” I asked.
“It makes sense,” Galen confirmed. “I’ve placed a few calls trying to get Mosley on the line. He has yet to return a single call.”
“Which means we should probably track him down after this,” Booker said.
Galen bobbed his head. “As for Blaine Gordon, he is … what is the word I’m looking for?”
“A tool,” Aurora replied.
“That’s a bit simplistic, but you’re not wrong.” Galen’s mouth was a flat line. “He’s misogynistic, sexist, crude, and I think he might be the sort of guy to steal from a cemetery.”
“What makes you say that?” I asked.
“Two years ago I caught him trying to break in. Someone called about movement near the wall and I went out there. People are worried the zombies will get out, even though we’ve assured them that’s not possible.”
On a magical island where things could — and often did — go wrong, I understood their worry. “It wasn’t zombies you found out there.”
“It was Blaine. He had a crowbar and was trying to get through the door. He seemed frustrated but also as if he didn’t realize magic was blocking him.”
“He’s not paranormal?” I asked.
“Not to my knowledge. When I questioned him about what he was doing, he said he just wanted to look around. He refused to make eye contact.”
“Maybe he wanted to let the zombies out to cause mayhem,” I replied.
“He would have been in danger. I think he was looking to steal something. He struck me as an opportunist, not someone who wanted to die for a cause.”
“He still could have died in the cemetery,” Booker argued.
“Maybe, but I’ve learned the hard way that people don’t think that far ahead. Especially if they’re not paranormal.”
I considered it. “You’re warning me that he’s going to say sexist stuff and to not take it personally,” I deduced.
“We’re all going to take it personally. We need to try to hold it together until we get our questions answered.”
“That makes sense.”
“I’ll be the one asking the questions.” He slid it in there as if he wasn’t going alpha, like it was an accepted fact.
“Why can’t I ask questions?” I challenged.
“He won’t respect you.”
“Because I have a vagina?”
Galen made a face. “Why do you always put it out there like that?”
“Vagina is not a dirty word.”
“No, but the word frightens men,” Aurora said. “Whenever Brody is close to winning a fight I just start saying ‘vagina’ over and over again. He freaks out and capitulates within thirty seconds.”
“Is that why you do that?” Brody looked horrified. “I always wondered.”
Booker laughed. “You guys are weak. I have no problem with the V-word.”
“He doesn’t,” Lilac confirmed, “but show him a tampon and he cowers in the corner.”
Booker murdered her with a glare. “I am not afraid of tampons. I just don’t … get them.”
“I gave you a visual tutorial,” Lilac reminded him.
“Now that terrified me,” he said.
I grinned, then remembered we were on a mission. “We should do this.”
“We should,” Galen agreed. “Remember,” he threw out as we started toward the door. “I’m doing the talking.”
I didn’t argue with him. I didn’t agree with him either. If I wanted to talk, I would.
The Voodoo Lounge was pretty much as I imagined.
My slides stuck to the tacky floor as I crossed the threshold.
The tables were old, to the point of looking as if a stiff breeze could knock them over.
The chairs looked the same. There were patrons — and wasn’t it a little early to be drinking?
— at the bar. They looked over their shoulders, briefly, then stared forward.
They reminded me of cats. If they couldn’t see us, maybe we couldn’t see them.