“We pushed you into a physical location.” Camber lowered her head. “That’s how he found you.”
“We don’t know that.” I used the counter to pull myself to my feet. “Girls, this isn’t your doing.”
I ought to have known better, I did know better, but I also wanted to pretend this was my real life.
“What will you do?” Camber stared out the glass storefront. “What should we do?”
“I’m going to pretend this didn’t happen.” I shredded the card into tiny pieces to void its tracking spell. A fire would have worked best, but the agent already knew this location. The trash was safe enough. “That goes for you too.” Black Hats were forbidden to harm humans. “He said he’s in town for the day, right?”
“Yeah.” Arden shuffled in place. “You should go home once the coast is clear. Maybe stay there a few days.”
“I wouldn’t want that creep to catch you out in town,” Camber agreed, “or to follow you home.”
Closing my eyes, I pictured my go bag, the one I kept in the closet by the front door. I had money in the front pocket, three changes of clothes, a pair of shoes, an athame, a spell kit, and pollen for my familiar.
I could rush home, pick it—and her—up, and disappear again.
All it would cost me was everything I had built in the last four years.
“I need to think.” I had to settle on an exit strategy if this went south. “Can you guys handle the store?”
“Weird that you should ask.” Camber tilted her name tag toward me. “It says here I’m a manager.”
“Whoa.” Arden flashed hers at me. “I got one too.” She dropped her mouth open. “We must have both put quarters in the same bubble gum machine.”
“Maybe it was a misprint,” I countered, “and your boss was too cheap to correct the problem.”
“Then our boss really shouldn’t have cut us both keys too.” Camber shoved me toward the back. “Shoo.”
“Go home,” Arden urged me. “Take a bubble bath, drink some wine, and think about next steps.”
Wine was the last thing I ought to reach for in this mood. I wouldn’t stop chugging until I couldn’t think.
Hmm.
Maybe she was onto something.
“Thanks.” I grabbed my book then lingered on the threshold to the rear exit. “Call if you need me.”
“We will,” they chimed, lying through the perfectly straight teeth I helped finance.
Crossing to the shopping center’s dedicated employee parking lot, I made it three steps before rock-hard arms encircled me, lifting me way too high and leaving my shoes dangling a foot above the pavement.
A scream lodged in my throat, and magic singed my tongue in a spell I could spit at my attacker, but there was a familiar weight to the careful hands linked at my navel. “Clay?”
Stones tumbled in his throat as he spun me toward him. “Miss me, Dollface?”
The smile cutting his rough-hewn lips forced mine into an unwilling curve to match.
“Nice rug.” I rang my fingers through his short blond wig. “Still using Gorilla Glue?”
The unique texture of his skin required an industrial-strength bond to keep his hair in place.
“I had to look good for my best girl.” His grin kept growing wider. “It’s been too damn long.”
“I just finished breakfast.” I covered my mouth. “Maybe put me down if you don’t want to wear it.”
Seven feet tall. Four hundred pounds. Arms like tree trunks. I wasn’t going anywhere unless he let me.