Page 35

CHAPTER 35

D mitri took Betty home with instructions from Jackie to care for her with his promise to bring her into town the next day for a checkup. Jackie went in the kitchen to see what Quill was doing that had her so fascinated that she wanted to stay in Rocky Start (learning to bake like a pro thanks to Coral). Hermione went back to the bookstore to bedevil Oxley (and probably to sleep with him and steal his keys again). And I went back to Oddities to vibrate with tension in private. What with one thing and another, I’d never gotten to see Louise and interrogate her, my fault. I had to start carrying through on my promises to myself to be a badass.

Max came back with the news that Junior’s body was stashed at Melissa’s and Sid was turning to ashes with Jackie’s permission, which Luke had gotten when he’d gone to tell her what had happened at Pike’s (why Jackie would need to know all of that was a mystery, but it meant they were spending more time together, so yay for that). Marley followed Max in a minute later and said Coral and Pike were at Ecstasy for the night and his brother, Reggie, was in the spare room next to them in case anything else happened. Poppy said, “Are you going over there, too?” and he said, “Nope, I’m here,” and she nodded and relaxed a little.

And Maggs sat by the front door and watched everybody come and go and didn’t miss anything.

I was finding it exhausting keeping track of all those people, but somebody had to do it, and since I wasn’t wounded, drunk, or looking for a reason to knife somebody, that somebody was me. One of the problems with ex-spies is that they’re all loners who don’t want you to know where they are or what they’re doing, which would be fine with me except they were also retired and armed ex-spies in their seventies and eighties, most of whom should not be out on their own since they were erratic and short-tempered even before age made them grumpy and short-sighted.

I really needed to know where they all were. When you live in a town full of loose cannons, it’s important to know when the cannons start rolling, and I still had Louise, Bea, and the Ferrells on the loose.

And then there was Max, looking exhausted and serious but not grim.

“Now what?” I asked.

“I think it’s over,” Max said. “Junior planted a bomb on Pike’s truck, but Marley disarmed it.”

I swung around to look at the guy I’d been thinking of as a kid. “ You disarmed a bomb? ”

Marley shrugged and then grinned. “Yep.”

“ You could have been killed, ” I said, but Marley wasn’t looking at me, he was looking at Poppy.

Who was horrified.

“Pops,” he said, losing his smile as he went to her. “It’s all right. It was easy. And it’s all over.”

“Are you crazy ?” she said.

Since she was handling that numbskull, I looked at Max. “ How is this all over?”

“Junior was the new CEO of the Cauldron. Inherited from his mother. Even has the tattoo.” Max shook his head. “That’s something stupid I could see him starting up. The tattoo thing. New management leaving its mark. Literally.”

“And you think that means it’s over?”

Max frowned. “It’s logical. Serena ran the Cauldron. She’s dead. It makes sense he’d take over. And now he’s dead.”

“But you said Herc said he didn’t take over.”

“Herc lies. And the last time I talked to him, he fudged a bit when pressed about Junior and the Cauldron. Oh yeah, I found the box that rattlesnake was shipped in. Junior definitely put it in here.”

“Who the hell ships a rattlesnake?”

“Snakes-R-Us,” Max said, and I almost laughed.

But I was still finding it hard to believe that one death would end it all, even if it was that abusive creep Junior. There was always somebody else coming. We just needed to find out what that somebody wanted. And give it to him. That’s what I told Max.

Max sighed. “Look, Junior had motive. Revenge for his parents. He sent the killers after Coral and me and then he tried to take out Pike and you personally. And now he’s dead. Betty put three bullets in his head. And then Fernanda trampled him. He’s gone.”

“He went for you, me, Coral, and Pike. But Coral had nothing to do with killing his parents, and Luke was there when his mother died and he isn’t being targeted. It’s something else. This is all wrong.” I paused. “The Honey Pots think it’s a plan to destabilize Rocky Start.”

“Why?” Max shook his head. “Sometimes good things happen, Rosalie. Like you and me. Not often, but sometimes.”

I loved it that he thought we were a good thing—I still wasn’t sure that he wouldn’t look around and say something about the Appalachian Trail yodeling to him—but I put that aside to gloat about later.

I stopped arguing because the closest thing to proof I had, if it was proof, was that Louise knew something was going on, and that Bea and Dottie had run like rabbits when I said one of the group was a traitor. People knew things that I didn’t. That was bad.

Okay, I had no idea what I was going to do to get them to talk since I was not a violent woman, but I’d think of something.

You know, having morals is a real drawback in this town. Maybe I’d give those up along with the Cheery Boost.

Marley was over in the corner talking to Poppy, who was looking at him with real fear in her eyes; not afraid of him but for him. Really afraid for him. So whatever they had going, it was serious, but they weren’t all the way there yet, they were being too careful of each other—no touching, no kissing, no cute names, no high school romance stuff—although so much had happened that high school was probably long gone for both of them now. They were kind of circling, I realized, being careful of each other, which is always a plus in a relationship, so good for them.

“What’s with them?” Max said in my ear.

“I don’t think they know,” I said. “So I’ll go start dinner?—”

“Forget dinner,” Max said. “We’ll go to the Wok Inn. You’ve worked hard enough today.” He leaned down and whispered, “Wear that red dress that makes me crazy, Rosalie,” and I laughed because his voice tickled in my ear, and because that red dress had made him lunge for me the last time I’d worn it weeks ago, and he still remembered it.

“Yes, I will,” I said, and he kissed me, right there in front of everybody, and I realized we were doing touching and kissing and cute names, so I wasn’t going to be all superior when Poppy and Marley finally worked it out.

Love makes you stupid, but it’s good stupid.

Max called out to Marley and Poppy to tell them we were all hitting the Wok Inn that night. “It’s safe,” he told them. “And it’s been a four-crab day, so we deserve it.”

A four-crab-rangoon day was family code for “We’ve been through hell,” so Poppy nodded and went upstairs, and Marley looked back at us, confused, and followed her.

It definitely did not feel as though our problems were over. On the other hand, I had a red dress and a man who appreciated it. And I loved crab rangoon.

For tonight, I’d pretend we had a win.