Page 1 of Just a Little Wicked (Wicked Sisters #2)

Missy

Winter, I know you don’t have your phone so you aren’t getting these text messages, but I’m going to keep texting you anyway. When you turn your phone on, you’ll see all you missed by so rudely running away.

Missy

Like this morning I caught Holly and Connor coming in from the orchard and she had leaves in her hair. Meanwhile, I haven’t been on a date in weeks.

W inter Celeste gazed at the sparkling expanse of water and wondered if she’d managed to cheat death. She probably should have been more certain for someone cursed to see the tragedies of the future.

The boat shifted beneath her rubber boots, and her fingers flexed on the metal railing meant to keep lobstermen from pitching into the icy Maine waters.

It had been five weeks since she’d packed her clothes in a bag, set her cell phone on the table, and left home.

Five weeks since she’d told her two sisters, Holly and Missy, that she needed a little vacation.

She’d promised them everything was fine, that she just wanted a short break from running the apple farm.

But the truth was that nothing was okay.

Ever since Winter had had The Vision several months ago, she’d had trouble sleeping. Could barely eat, could barely function . But then she’d had an epiphany: there was a way to stop the gut-wrenching vision from coming true.

Run from it .

So she’d told her sisters she was going to the south coast to catch what was left of the tourist season in Lobster Cove, and then she’d headed north.

Winter had been hopping towns ever since, never staying in a single place longer than a few days and picking up odd jobs as she went.

Because in that devastating vision, everything started with a simple job offer.

If the monsters couldn’t find her to offer her the job to begin with, then the chain of events that led to her family’s deaths couldn’t be triggered. Everyone she loved would stay safe.

Winter breathed in the bitter air, the brine of the ocean filling her nostrils as the boat rocked beneath her feet.

At home, there would be a layer of frost sparkling on the apple trees, and her older sister, Holly, would be filling the bird feeders and ordering branded merchandise for their store.

The three Celeste sisters had been running Wicked Good Apples ever since they’d been old enough to reopen the family orchard after their mother’s death.

Their two aunts, who also lived with them, were currently traveling.

Sometimes Winter missed her family so much that late at night, when she stared out her latest motel window at the choppy sea, she ached with emptiness.

A sharp gust of wind snapped her out of her longing.

It was November, so even the thick, cable-knit sweater she wore beneath her rubber overalls couldn’t keep out the chill.

When she’d first arrived on the coast, it had been difficult to find a job on a lobstering boat.

She was small, with red hair and freckles, so most people thought that meant she was weak.

The first several lobstering boats had laughed her right off the docks, until one man had given her a chance—mostly to watch her fail.

She’d later found out that he and his crew had placed bets on how long she’d last.

They’d all lost.

After that first lobstering gig, it had been easier.

News had traveled swiftly that a redheaded pixie was making her way up the coast and knew where the lobsters were every time.

Word of mouth in rural Maine had done wonders for her reputation, and soon she could walk up to any boat and take on a few days of work.

Because they were right—she did know where the lobsters were. Every time.

A late-migrating gull screeched overhead, wheeling against the steely sky.

The boat was chugging away from the dock toward the heaving, open ocean.

Other than the man who’d hired her, she hadn’t bothered to get the names of the small crew.

She hadn’t even glanced inside the cabin.

It was pointless to learn anything about them, or to make friends, when she’d only be leaving in a few days.

“Of all the lobstering boats in the world, you had to walk onto mine.”

Winter’s lips parted and her eyes widened before she slowly turned.

Chills that had nothing to do with the temperature erupted across her skin.

She lifted her gaze up, and up, until she met the cold blue eyes of the man towering over her.

With his blond hair and broad shoulders, Erikson Grimm could have fooled anyone into thinking he was a Viking from ages past if they didn’t already know he was the co-host of Grimm Reality , a nationally beloved ghost-hunting TV show.

Last spring, brothers Connor and Erikson Grimm had heard that Wicked Good Apples was haunted, and taking advantage of their financial distress at the time, had weaseled their way into filming three episodes of Grimm Reality on their orchard.

In truth, Connor Grimm had wanted to expose what the Celeste sisters were on national TV, but that was before he’d fallen in love with Holly.

Halfway through filming the episodes, Erikson had arrived to help his brother, and from the moment he and Winter had met, they’d clashed like steel swords.

Erikson was playful and easy-going. Winter was fierce and silent.

Erikson had women falling at his feet. Winter had no interest in relationships.

Erikson was everything Winter disliked in a man. Yes, he was handsome—and he knew it—but she liked serious men, with serious goals in life, and Erikson Grimm was the least serious person she’d ever met.

“How did you find me?” she gasped. She was a seer, so she wasn’t often surprised, but then again, she’d never been able to “see” anything involving Erikson Grimm. It perplexed and infuriated her to no end.

Erikson wrapped his large hands around the railing. He was wearing a gray knit sweater that looked far too good on his large frame, and his eyes were as deep-blue as the ocean roiling beneath them. The wind raked through his short, blond hair as he glowered down at her. “You didn’t make it easy.”

But, how ? She’d been so careful! She’d only used cash for weeks, and she hadn’t given her real name anywhere. How could this goofball playboy have managed to track her up the coast?

She continued to stare at him, her brow furrowed. When he realized she wasn’t going to speak until he answered her question, he leaned closer, and in that deep timbre said, “You leave a big reputation in your wake, Elf.”

“Don’t call me that,” she said automatically.

She and Erikson hadn’t spent much time together while he was filming, and still he’d managed to give her an annoying nickname.

It seemed everything he did was designed to irritate her.

But this . . . this was too much. She never would have guessed that the brother who was the silly to Connor’s serious, had the persistence and intelligence to track anything down, much less a whispered story about a woman who knew where the lobsters were.

Then again, she supposed that was his job—hunting down rumors of the unbelievable.

Her surprise morphed into panic as she glanced over his shoulder at the rest of the crew, who quickly pretended not to be watching them. If Erikson had found her, then the Shadow Council could find her.

Failure made her fingers prickle and her breathing shallow. “Why are you here? Do my sisters know where I am?”

He continued to study her with an intensity that, if Winter were less fierce of a person, might have been intimidating.

“Holly is worried about you,” he said finally, “and if Holly is worried about you, then Connor is worried about you. Unfortunately, I’ll do anything for my brother, even hunt down a heartless woman who disappears weeks before her sister’s wedding without so much as a single text or phone call to let her family know she’s still alive. ”

“Heartless!” The absolute nerve of this idiot.

He didn’t know anything about her. Well, he knew she was a Wicked—which was quite different than a Witch, thank you very much—but just because he was in possession of one of the greatest-kept secrets in the world, it didn’t mean he knew her or her reasons for leaving.

“Yup. Heartless is what I’d call someone who runs out on her family with barely a few words and doesn’t bring her cell phone to check in.

Your sister and my brother are getting married in four days.

Do you think they’re excited about the wedding?

Or do you think Holly is too busy worrying about you ? ”

Winter felt a pang of guilt before reminding herself she’d left to keep Holly safe.

She couldn’t tell her sisters why she had to leave because she’d known they’d try to find another way, and there was no other way.

The vision that had kept her nights sweaty and sleepless had starred the Shadow Council, the only governing body the Wickeds had.

Entirely unaccountable to anyone, the Shadow Council was a ruthless assassin squad that had initially formed to neutralize any Wickeds that risked exposing their species.

Over time, they had evolved into a power-thirsty oligarchy.

They already had some of her family’s blood on their hands, and she refused to let them take more, even if it meant hurting her loved ones in other ways.

Winter’s expression iced over, and Erikson laughed softly. “There we go, for a moment I thought maybe you had a heart.”

Winter leaned past him and shouted to the captain, “Turn the boat around.”

“But we?—”

“ Now .”

The weathered captain stared at her for a moment before his eyes flicked to the giant man beside her, then he gave an abrupt nod. The boat made a slow arc in the water, and not far in the distance, the dock reappeared.

“You did your job,” she said coolly. “You found me, so you can report back home that I’m alive and well.”