Chapter 37
Chapter Thirty-Seven
A wet tongue against my face brought me out of it and I looked up at the sky to see Cash’s head hovering worriedly over me while Hank licked my face.
“Hank, stop,” I protested.
For the second time that night, Cash put his arms beneath my body and lifted me from the ground. It was enough to almost make me faint again.
I looked up at Cash to see his lips pressed together in a tight line. I didn’t have to be a mind reader to know he was pissed.
Cash walked inside the door, turning to pull it closed and locking it, and then proceeded to drop me unceremoniously on the couch.
“Hey,” I protested, pushing myself up on the cushions. Wasn’t I the victim here?
I watched as Cash began to pace the room, his arms swinging in anger.
“Of all the…” he began, and then stopped himself, blowing out a breath.
Hank hopped up on the couch and shoved his nose in my face before moving in next to me to watch the show. His furry body was a comfort to me and I reached out to stroke his back, incredibly grateful he hadn’t been hurt by Horace.
“You did a good job, buddy,” I whispered to Hank, and he turned and licked my hand, his sandpaper tongue tickling my palm.
“What?” Cash asked, so caught up in his anger that he hadn’t heard me.
“Um, nothing. Just telling Hank he was a good boy.”
I waited for Cash to speak. I may be stupid sometimes, but I’m not stupid enough to pull the pin on a grenade. And Cash was one big grenade of emotions about to go off over there.
“I come over here to see some madman in horns being eaten by fire, is that correct?” Cash’s words came out clipped.
I considered them carefully and then nodded, still not willing to speak.
“Would you care to enlighten me?”
I thought about what Miss Elva had said about not hiding things from the people you love.
I didn’t know if I loved Cash or not, but I did know there was a lot of potential there.
Which meant I couldn’t start our relationship based on lies.
Gently, I reached out a hand and patted the sofa cushion next to me.
“Why don’t you come sit down?”
Cash blew out a breath and ran his hand through his closely cropped hair, causing little pieces to stick up haphazardly.
“Got any beer?”
That sounded excellent right now.
“Yes, and could you get me a glass of wine too?” What? I could play the victim if I wanted.
When Cash finally settled in next to me and I had a cool glass of white wine to soothe my throat, I began to tell him about Horace.
“Wait, he summoned an evil spirit?” Cash’s beer was disappearing at an alarming rate as he took in my story.
“So it seems. Now, listen, you have to know this is not what Pagans are or do. He was just a fanatic,” I explained, sipping my wine. I didn’t want him to hear Luna talk about doing something Pagan-related in the future and have him fly off the deep end.
“Between Horace and the murderer, I’ve seen more magickal things in 12 hours of being back in Tequila Key than I have in my whole life,” Cash said carefully, leveling his eyes at me.
“That you know of,” I corrected him, enjoying the cool brush of wine that soothed my throat.
“What do you mean, that I know of?”
“Well, if you aren’t in tune with or expecting to see magick, you oftentimes won’t see the magick,” I shrugged.
Cash blew out a breath as he contemplated my words.
“So what happened to that guy?”
“I don’t know. That was Miss Elva’s magick. I should probably call her,” I said, realizing I might need to notify her in case Horace came back.
Cash reached into his pocket and handed me my phone.
“Hey, how’d you get this?”
“You dropped it on the beach.”
“My hero,” I sang out, delighted that he’d found it. What? Nobody wants to pay those stupid deductibles on the insurance for replacing a lost phone. Plus having to restore all those numbers? I shuddered at the thought.
“Miss Elva,” I said, when she answered the call. I could hear Jimmy Buffett in the background and voices laughing.
“You okay, girl?”
“Horace was just here. I used your pouch on him,” I said briefly and I heard her quick intake of breath.
“What happened?”
“A cylinder of fire and then he disappeared,” I said.
Miss Elva was silent for a moment and I waited.
“Then that was the right one to give you. That’s the devil’s work, right there. The pouch was meant to match his power so whatever he had going on was reflected at him tenfold.”
Huh. Well, wasn’t that interesting.
“You are a wealth of surprises, Miss Elva,” I finally conceded, too tired to think anymore.
“Child, just be glad you had it. Messing with the underworld is nasty business.”
“Is he gone now?”
“Oh, Horace won’t be coming back. I suspect the Goddesses are going to take good care of him,” Miss Elva chuckled and I felt reassured by her laughter.
“Thanks, Miss Elva.”
“You go on and have a good night. Squeeze that hunk of a man and give him a little time to process all this. He’ll come around.”
I hung up and eyed Cash as I waited for him to say something.
“Ring of fire.”
“What’s that?” I asked, tilting my head in confusion at him.
“You know, Johnny Cash. Ring of Fire. I fell into a burning ring of fire…” Cash sang creakily and I gaped at him like he’d lost his mind.
Cash sighed and rubbed his hands over his face.
“I’m tired. But I’m taking the whole ring of fire thing and the correlation with me being named after Johnny Cash as signs from the universe that I’m in the right place.
And that’s all I can process for the night. ”
A sign from the universe? Was this really my level-headed investor boyfriend? I gasped as he stood up and, yes ladies, threw me over his shoulder, taking the stairs two at a time to the bedroom.
Okay, so maybe he wasn’t so levelheaded after all.
But it looked like I was about to step into my own ring of fire.