Page 3 of Ogre on Patrol (Monsters, PI #5)

Chapter 3

Ellie

W e left Monsters, PI, Thain carrying Crouton who licked his chops and kept straining in my direction to share his tongue with me. Finally, I took him from Thain and held him while he gave my chin kisses.

“He always loved you,” Thain said softly as we crossed Main Street and entered the parking lot on the other side.

What about Thain?

Ugh. I couldn’t go there.

“I missed him.” I’d always had a soft spot for this dog.

Thain stopped on the other side of the road, his gaze searching my face. “What about me? Did you miss me too?”

I wanted to growl. Snarl at him that he was the reason we broke up. But years had passed without him reaching out, without him replying to my text messages, without him answering my slamming fist on his apartment door.

After all this time, how dare he ask me something like that?

“Not as much as Crouton,” was all I could croak out. I nudged past Thain and strode to my car. “Take your own vehicle, please. You can follow me to my place.” I couldn’t bear to be in a tight space with the male I used to love. It was going to be challenging enough working with Thain on a professional level. If we had to sit close together… If I had to breathe in his scent…

The barriers I’d erected around my heart were going to start falling apart.

He jogged to catch up to me. “I could ride with you.”

“No room.” My hedge magic might be best for making plants grow, but I could also do simple spells. I subtly swirled my finger in the direction of my car and held back my smile when everything worked as it should. “See?” I stopped beside the vehicle, tilting my head toward the passenger and back seats loaded with bags of soil and empty clay pots. “There’s only room for Crouton, because he can ride on my lap.”

“I could ride on your lap,” I swore he muttered.

“Excuse me?”

He grimaced. “I’ll follow you, then.”

“Delightful.”

“Delightful.” He strode past my car to a big truck parked in the spot a few past mine and opened the door. “You’re going to have to be close to me sometime, Ellie,” he warned as he climbed into the enormous vehicle. Sitting, he shot me a glare. “If you keep looking at me like you are right now, I’ll begin to think you’ve been pining for me all this time.”

“In your dreams,” I snarled, opening my own vehicle door and climbing inside, settling Crouton on my lap. Buckled, I started my car, not looking Thain’s way.

The drive through Mystic Harbor should've calmed me, the salt-tinged breeze swirling through the cracked window and the crunch of wet gravel under my tires the perfect soundtrack to chase away my troubles. Not today. Today, a smug ogre in a rumbling truck mirrored every turn of my little compact car in the rearview mirror, his glaring headlights a reminder of all my mistakes.

I groaned, resting my hand on Crouton’s head. “Why is he still so...” I peered in the mirror again, catching sight of Thain’s big hands gripping the steering wheel, controlling the vehicle with ease. Back in the parking lot, his golden skin had glowed even in the dull light. I’d loved stroking that skin. Holding him while he kissed me.

And his ridiculous jawline still looked like it had been sculpted by a lovesick teenager. How dare he be devastatingly handsome? Shouldn’t ogres age faster or, I don’t know, grow warts on their chins or something like that?

Crouton let out a little huff from my lap and tilted his head toward me, his big brown eyes filled with something dangerously close to sympathy.

“Don’t look at me like that,” I grumbled, stroking his silky ears. “I'm not pining for him.” Not too bad.

Not at all !

The fact that I was internally arguing about it proved I wasn't even convincing myself.

By the time I reached my driveway, my patience had worn thinner than the threadbare mats in my greenhouse. I hated this. Hated that I had to depend on Thain and hated even more that knowing he was near reminded me of every time I used to reach for him, trusting he’d always be there.

Until he wasn’t.

We'd met, started falling, and then it was over after barely a few heated kisses.

Surely what we'd felt back then was worthy of more than no replies to my reaching out?

My brakes squeaked as I pulled into the driveway, my small Cape Cod house materializing through the mist on the left with the row of greenhouse marching out behind. After stopping and turning off my car, I popped open the door and climbed out, Crouton tucked under my arm like a plump purse with a greedy tongue. Thain’s massive truck growled to a stop, practically crawling over my car, all but spitting out the ogre himself as he stepped onto my gravel drive.

He adjusted his t-shirt that hugged too many of his muscles and wiggled his broad shoulders in a rolling way that was completely unnecessary after such a short trip.

He whistled, scanning the well-kept flowerbeds lining the drive, the cozy window boxes on my white-painted, single-story home, and the neatly clipped grass between my house and the greenhouses out back. “Nice place you’ve got here. You bought it after. ”

“Indeed. It does the job.” I kept my tone clipped. “Follow me.” I strode past my house, toward the largest greenhouse, without throwing him a second glance. If I met his eyes, he’d probably start a conversation. Or worse, dish out another compliment about the hard work I’d done here. My tenuous grip on my heart couldn’t take anything like that.

When I reached the first building, Crouton wriggled to get down. His little legs scrambled, and the moment his paws were free, he ran circles around Thain like he’d been reunited with a long-lost battle buddy.

Figures.

“This way.” I stomped to the farthest, smallest greenhouse and stepped inside, stopping near the center aisle still shouting devastation. The damage was even worse now. Wilted ordrids sagged like deflated balloons, and shards of glass caught the weak light filtering through the misty sky. Taking a step back, I hugged my waist. My lower lip quivered, and I released a long sigh, even though I’d sworn I wouldn’t give Thain the satisfaction of seeing me distraught.

“I'm sorry,” he said grimly. “Let me look around?”

At my nod, he passed me, holding Crouton to protect his feet from the glass. Thain made his way carefully to the outer wall, where he crouched by the broken panels, picking up a piece of glass and turning it over to examine it from all angles. His brow creased in concentration, a familiar expression that had once made my knees quiver. Probably still would, if I was stupid enough to let him even a fraction of the way back in .

Some ogres could do magic as well. Thain was particularly good at discovering an object’s history from touch alone.

“What do you think?” I asked.

“I think someone definitely had it out for these windows.” He grunted, tossing the shard back onto the dirt. He stood and walked past the benches, trailing a fingertip along the edge as he went. “Ordrids are high-value plants.”

“They are. That’s why I’m paying you to figure out who did this.”

He cast me a sidelong glance, his lips quirking on one corner, a move that used to make shivers coast through me. “Any ideas who has it out for you?”

“Not so far.” Though there were a few people he could look into. I'd fill him in once he'd finished checking out the damage. “These ordrids were my babies. I’ve spent months growing them. Coaxing them with subtle magic. The adults were generating young, and they’d started singing. Buyers were already lining up for the pale pink ones. Such a rare color.” My eyes stung with tears I refused to shed in front of this male. I'd save them for later when I was alone inside my house and could let my sadness rip.

“Any other questions, Detective?” I asked with a sniff.

“Yeah, a few.” He crouched down again to inspect the fallen petals scattered on the greenhouse floor. “I'm sure you have enemies.”

“Why so sure about that?”

“Everyone has them.”

“Not me.”

He huffed. “No disgruntled customers?”

“None of those either.” I rolled my eyes. “If I knew who it was, I wouldn’t have hired you. Detective Carter would’ve arrested them already.”

“You spoke with him recently?”

“Before I went to Monsters, PI. He didn’t find any clues, and I got the idea he wasn’t going to do much about this crime.” Non-magicals just didn’t understand.

Thain stood, dusting dirt off his knees. “Any current or ex-boyfriends who might be pissed off at you enough to do something like this?”

I'd dated no one since him, but he'd have to drag the words across my very soul before I’d expose them. “Excuse me?”

“I’m sure you’ve been with other guys since me.” Oh, those probing eyes. I wished he’d take them away from me.

Heat rose to my cheeks, but not the good kind. It was more the angry, I-can’t-believe-you said that kind of heat that made my temples throb. “It’s none of your business if I’ve been with anyone since you.”

“It’s a fair question,” he said, tilting his head like I was being the unreasonable one here. “If you ended things or... did something to them like you did to me, they might strike out. Emotions can make people do crazy things.”

Like I did to him? It was the other way around. But again, I wasn’t going to rehash the past. It would remain behind me, thank you very much.

“Asking about my dating history isn’t in your job description,” I said.

At least he had the decency to look sheepish. “Fair enough.”

“I’ll humor you this one time. No. There are no ex- or current-boyfriends with emotions going wild.”

Why did he look relieved?

He pivoted back to the ruined plants. “Any former employees who might be out for revenge?”

I sighed. “Valerie Greene might be a suspect. Or she might not be. She didn't leave on the best of terms.”

“What happened?”

“It’s a long story.”

“I'll need to hear it if you think I should put her on the list.” Pausing, he pinched a broken edge of the glass between his fingers, tilting it against the light like he was waiting for it to confess something. “These pieces tell me that the person, though I can't pick up if they’re male or female, was extremely angry with you when they did this. They smell faintly of burned sandalwood.” His intent gaze met mine. “Know anyone who uses rituals with infused flames?”