Chapter Eleven
A shower and change of clothes . . . his clothes, had Nate feeling alive after a restless night.
When he returned to Luna’s house to pick up Ash and proceed to the hardware store, Luna and Miley were already gone.
As Nate pushed the bright orange cart around the massive store, Ash tossed in box after box filled with everything one would need to alarm a small village.
“I’ve been looking for an excuse to do this ever since Nana died,” Ash said as he added two more boxes of window breaking sensors to the five he already had in the cart.
“Is the neighborhood that bad?” What Nate had seen of it, it seemed upscale and pretty void of criminal activity.
“No. The neighborhood is fine. Twenty years ago, there were some sketchy parts. It was great when I wanted to find trouble as a teenager. But eventually that element was priced out and the people who bought up the area turned it around.”
“Did you?” Nate asked. “Find trouble?”
Ash shrugged. “More than I care to admit.”
Nate had questions, but he kept them to himself. Stories of a mis-spent youth required beer. “If the neighborhood is decent, why have you wanted to alarm the place for years?”
“Luna and Miley. They can call me sexist, I don’t care. I see the aftermath of home invasions. What people go through when they come home to a house that’s been ransacked. Alarms and dogs deter criminals. Not black cats.”
“Looking out for your sister is admirable.”
Ash pulled an outdoor camera with a sensor light off the shelf and read the back of the box. “She fights me most of the time.”
Nate laughed. “She does seem strong-willed.”
Ash laughed. “How long have you known my sister?”
“We met last week.”
Ash stopped reading and looked up. “You’re kidding.”
“Nope.”
“Then why?”
Nate picked up another camera, this one had brighter lights than the one Ash held.
“What do you mean?”
“Why are you doing all this? Why stay last night, why pick her up from the airport?” Ash asked.
“I was on the phone with her when she realized her car wasn’t there. I’d have felt like a real piece of shit if I’d just said, ‘That sucks, talk to you later.’” Nate handed the box in his hands to Ash. “More lumens.”
Ash still stared. “No ulterior motives?”
Nate hesitated for a nanosecond. “No.” He shook his head. “No. I don’t get romantically involved with people I work with, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Huh.”
“I have a sister,” Nate told him. “Your concerns last night aligned with mine. Which is why I stayed. And this.” He indicated the cart filled with supplies. “I like doing this kind of stuff. Your sister and Miley seem like good people. Why not help out?”
Ash nodded a few times and went back to reading boxes. “You don’t work with Miley,” he said.
True, but Nate didn’t have the slightest tingle when he looked at Miley . . . Luna on the other hand.
Right as that thought popped in his head, Nate pushed it back.
“I think Miley would be a full-time job.”
Ash busted out laughing. “You nailed that. That woman never lets you live anything down.”
“Like the shitty prom date?”
Ash tossed the box into the basket and grabbed three more. “If you know the guy is a player, you don’t let your sister learn the hard way.”
“Sometimes that’s the only way we learn,” Nate said.
“Not Luna. She can be stubborn, but she’s hella observant and figures out the consequences long before she does something to reap them. Most of the time anyway.”
Nate considered the conversation about Landon and understood what Ash alluded to.
“But not Mr. Prom?” Nate asked.
“That’s the problem with attraction. It short-circuits your brain into seeing things that aren’t there,” Ash muttered.
“I thought that was whiskey.”
“That, too.” He laughed. “But Luna’s much better now. She spots the bullshitters and doesn’t even bother with a first date. And she overanalyzes everything.”
“That,” Nate said, “I already know about your sister.”
“I’d rather her overanalyze men to be safe than think we’re all great.”
“You sound like a skeptical father,” Nate said.
Ash pulled the cart down the aisle. “Someone has to do the job.”
Kempski had nothing.
The local police had nothing.
And Luna was screwed.
She’d called her insurance representative and told him what had happened. He was currently in the process of obtaining the police record and making sure Luna was clear to move forward with renting a car.
Luna and Miley decided a trip to Crystal and Clover was in order.
“The sage worked for the holey roof,” Miley reminded Luna.
Luna couldn’t argue that. The insurance guy confirmed what Harper had relayed and added that Luna was clear to move forward with the repairs.
The door to the shop chimed when they passed through.
Brianna was behind the counter talking with a customer. She glanced up and waved.
“Hi,” Luna said, smiling.
The scent of incense and candles instantly brought Luna’s hyper nerves to a simmer.
“Do we even know what we’re looking for?” Miley asked while she picked up a round pink crystal.
“Something to bring my car back would be nice.”
“If it were only that simple.” Miley put the crystal down and picked up another one, this time yellow.
Luna waited while Brianna finished with the woman at the register.
“Back so soon?” Brianna said.
Luna rolled her eyes. “My car was stolen,” she said, jumping right to the point.
“Damn.”
“I used other four-letter words. I wonder if there is anything in here that can call it back. Or at least stop my current bad luck streak.”
Brianna pointed to where Miley stood looking at the multitude of crystals. “Are you looking for crystal energy?”
“I’m looking for whatever will work. I saged my attic space like Jorden suggested and surprise, surprise . . . the insurance company is going to cover the cost of my new roof.”
“That doesn’t sound like bad luck to me.”
Luna couldn’t argue with that.
“I don’t like the weekly surprises.”
“What you need is a reading. That way you can anticipate and be ready for stuff when it comes.”
Luna liked the sound of that. “Do you do readings?”
“Kinda, but it’s Jorden you want. She’s in the back, let me go get her.”
Luna joined Miley when Brianna left. “A reading?” Miley said, her voice low.
“It can’t hurt.”
“Not unless Jorden tells you to put the rent money on the fifth horse in the sixth race.”
They both laughed.
“Hi, ladies.” Jorden walked up with a smile. “Brianna said your car was stolen.”
“Yup. At the airport,” Luna reported.
“Ouch.” Jorden narrowed her eyes. “Something else is going on.”
“What do you mean?”
“Step into my parlor,” Jorden teased and turned to Brianna. “Show Miley some personal protection crystal options.”
“Do I need protection?” Miley laughed.
“It won’t hurt,” Jorden said.
Luna glanced over her shoulder and caught Miley’s what the fuck face.
A small room, not much bigger than an oversize closet, was dimly lit with a desk in the center. The walls were covered in images showing the seven chakras and all their colors and symbols. There was a lotus flower tapestry, and a multitude of symbols Luna was completely clueless about.
A radio softly played music she’d expect in a spa. Soothing and soft . . . relaxing.
Once Jorden closed the door behind her, the room felt like a cocoon of silence. No windows, no ambient noise.
“Have a seat.”
Luna kept looking around the room. “I’ve never had a reading,” she admitted.
“That’s surprising. You seem intuitive. Like reading someone else’s character comes easy to you.”
Luna turned her focus to Jorden. “It does.”
“Turning that lens inward is difficult.”
Luna nodded.
Jorden lit a candle and removed three decks of what Luna assumed were tarot.
“How long have you been doing this?”
“Since I was eleven. My aunt taught me. Or more accurately, showed me how to harness my sensitivity.”
Luna had questions.
She always had questions.
Jorden smiled. “We’ll talk about me later. Let’s talk about you.”
Now she had more questions. The most pressing was, Did Jorden read minds? But Luna stayed silent and leaned back in the chair.
Jorden was a small woman. Her slight frame matched her five feet four inches at most. Her porcelain skin didn’t appear to have been touched by the sun her entire life.
Not an uncommon occurrence for people who’d lived in the Pacific Northwest most of their lives.
Her rich brown hair fell past her shoulders, even with the thickness gathered in a band at her neck and draped over one shoulder.
Jorden tapped the decks in front of her, each one different in colors and imagery. “Pick a deck.”
Luna immediately picked the one to her right. Dark wisps of contrasting color that felt like the time between autumn and winter. The deck in the middle looked more like spring, all soft greens and flowers. And the one on the left felt as nondescript as the back of a deck of cards in Vegas.
Jorden pushed the other decks aside. “Before we begin you need to know a couple of things. If we pull the death card, it doesn’t mean death as in someone is going to die.
Don’t let that scare you if it comes up.
The devil card is another one that has a bad reputation, but both of these can have very positive meanings depending on what is around them. ”
“Okay.”
She picked up a lighter and lit a stick of incense. After a long-winded sigh she asked, “What do you want to know?”
“If my lousy luck is going to change anytime soon. Is my car coming back? Is my insurance company going to give me enough money to replace my car?” So many questions fell out of Luna’s mouth. “Can the cards tell me all that?”