The Vegan and the Wolf by Julie Steimle (red white and royal blue hardcover txt) 📕

“But don’t you need it?” Audry asked.

Mr. Dell put an arm around his wife’s shoulder. “I’ll keep her safe until we can get her another one.”

“I am sure Howie would want you to have it,” Mrs. Dell said.

Audry flushed. Yet she also tucked the tazer into her pocket.

Mr. Dell handed her the payment in cash. Audry went back in to get him a receipt. By this time, Harlin had been dragged off the café floor and Audry was told he had been thrown out the back door. When she came out again, the Dells were gone. But a tip was on the table, along with a business card.

Audry picked up both and stared at them.

A one hundred dollar bill and a card that said: H. Richard Deacon, Executive in Training, Deacon Enterprises Inc. Ltd. And his personal phone number was penciled on the back with the note: In case of emergency.

Shivers ran down her arms. He really did want to talk.

Of course if Harlin saw it, it would definitely confirm his suspicions about her and Rick Deacon.

Audry texted her brother Doug and let him know about Harlin showing up at work and what had happened.

A few minutes later, her brother texted back:

Classic. I would have loved to watch him get tazed. Keep that tazer.

It made Audry chuckle.

Near the end of her shift, Vincent showed up. He was in another suit, a gray one with a green tie. His hands were in his pockets and an inquiring look was on his face as he peeked into the café. When he saw Audry he said, “Ah ha! There you are! Did they cart of the creep or is he lying dead somewhere?”

Audry shrugged. “I haven’t seen him since Mrs. Dell tazed him.”

“Mrs. Dell?” Vincent gaze curiously on her.

She was about to explain she was Rick Deacon’s mother when Rick’s request to keep her identity a secret came back to her. “A customer who was there at the same time.”

“Ah.” Vincent nodded. Then, rocking on his heels, he said, “As soon as your shift is done, let’s go to lunch.”

“No deli this time.” Audry pointed a finger at him. “I get to pick.”

He nodded, chuckling. “Fine.”

Vincent found a vacant seat and waited. A couple times a waitress came over to take his order, but he waved the first one away and then second finally got him to order a coffee as he was occupying a seat in their café which could go to someone else.

When Audry finally clocked off, she looked around for Rick Deacon who had said he would return to talk to her. However, she had a feeling him leaving his business card was a sign he had changed his mind and was unable to return. He wasn’t waiting outside.

Shrugging, Audry went to Vincent who was reading something on his cell phone. “I’m ready. Someone was supposed to meet me, but I don’t think he intends to show up.”

Rising from his seat, Vincent left his tip under his coffee cup. “Who were you going to meet?”

Audry rolled her eyes. “I’ll tell you on the way. I have a bad feeling Harlin might still be lurking about and I really don’t want him to overhear.”

Vincent looked around at the city road and sidewalk, searching for her ex. If he was there, he was well hidden. With a shrug, he said, “Ok. Let’s go.”

They started to walk down the sidewalk, Audry leading the way toward the bus where they could hop on and go to this little shop that sold vegan dishes that even Vincent would like. But as she went along, she heard her name get called out in the distance. Then she heard it louder.

“Audry!”

Turning around, she saw Rick. He was breathless, jogging up to her. Same clothes, hair windswept, and sweat on his face. For a second, he took her breath away.

“You couldn’t wait even a couple minutes?” he protested, catching his breath.

Audry blushed. “I… I thought when you left that card you—”

“Oh.” Rick nodded then looked up to Vincent, extending a hand. “Hi. Rick Deacon. And you are?”

Vincent smiled, grasping his hand in a business-like shake. “Vincent Williams.”

“My cousin,” Audry added, to make sure he knew it wasn’t her ex.

Vincent smirked at her and so did Rick.

“Is he your new bodyguard?” Rick asked, smiling sardonically.

Audry chuckled, shaking her head.

“Kind of,” Vincent said, grinning more wryly. “Does this mean you are aware of her stalker problem?”

Rick looked immediately to her. “Has your ex gone stalker level?”

Audry nodded.

“I thought you just said he was just looking for me?” Rick appeared a little confused. It made him look boyish, which was kind of cute.

“He is,” Audry replied. “Both are happening.”

Rick seemed to flinch at the idea, like he knew what it was like to be stalked—which he probably did. The fact that we went around without body guards was actually kind of weird. There were people who wanted him dead after all.

“You should get a personal protection order taken out on him,” Rick said, nodding to himself.

Vincent snickered, looking to her.

“Already done,” Audry said. “It just needs to be served.”

“I see.” Rick nodded. Yet he looked to Vincent. “Um, there was actually something I needed to talk to Audry about, but I think we can have that conversation another time.”

“Why don’t you just come to lunch with us?” Vincent said, not at all annoyed with having another person in on their lunch date.

But Rick laughed, shaking his head. “No, thank you. Actually, I really need to get back to my mother—” He then stiffed, eyes widening that he had said it out loud, especially looking at Vincent.

“Your mother?” Vincent was immediately intrigued. “Then you reunited with her? When?”

Rick came close to them and whispered with a look, “It’s a secret. Can I, uh, ask you not to share this news with anyone? At least not until my mother decides to go public? It is a matter of her own personal safety. You must understand.”

His earnestness was disarming.

Vincent nodded, his mirth slipping right off. “Of course. Lips are now sealed.”

Reassured, Rick nodded to himself, genuinely relieved. It was amazing that he trusted Vincent so quickly. Then again, Audry realized it was more like he trusted her and her judgment. She could feel it. It was like he was used to trusting her with his life—though she could not imagine why. They hardly knew each other.

“But may I ask how you found her again?” Vincent was overwhelmingly curious.

Smiling kindly, Rick shrugged. “I actually just bumped into her. I was visiting a library in a town where a friend of mine was studying veterinary medicine. Audry, you met him. My friend Randon Spade. Anyway, she was in the library with her two kids, and we recognized each other.”

“And that was it?” Vincent emitted an incredulous laugh at the story. “You hugged and ‘happily ever after’?”

Rick shook his head, eyebrows raised. “No… Quite the reverse. She freaked out, and a lot of things happened. But my friend Randon helped smooth things over. He knew her—or rather her cat. And once all that mess got cleared up, we finally were able to mend some bridges—at least between her and me.”

Audry nodded, thinking on that and what she had overheard in the café.  “But not with your father.”

Shaking his head, meeting her gaze, he said, “It is best they don’t see each other, for now. Besides, my mom is happy with Mr. Dell. And safe.”

Safe. That was his concern for her as well, considering Silvia. Audry could tell. He hardly knew her, but he wanted her safe from certain things and people whom he knew to be dangerous.

So Audry said to assure him, “Don’t worry about me and Silvia Lewis. She creeps me out, so I don’t hang out with her or anything.”

Rick nodded, sneaking looks to Vincent as he said. “That’s fine… Just, don’t do her any favors either. It might sound completely innocuous, but—”

“You mean like her asking for one of your hairs?” Audry blurted out. She couldn’t help herself. It had seemed so ridiculous.

He slapped a hand to the back of his head as if looking for missing hair while his eyes widened on her. Looking at her sideways, he said, “You didn’t…?”

Audry shook her head, surprised at his reaction, and yet not. “But I was briefly tempted.”

Rick took his hand from his head, now sheepish. But he understood perhaps what Audry meant.

Vincent stared at her, puzzled. “Why would anybody ask for somebody’s hair?”

With an offhand-ish façade, Rick replied with raised eyebrows, “Maybe they were into voodoo. Or scrying.”

Unfamiliar with that word, Audry blinked at him. “What’s scrying?”

Rick gazed almost sadly on her, as if he was afraid for her to safety in mentioning it. “It is a… uh… practice where a person who believes in magic takes a personal item from someone, interweaves it in a pentagram or around a crystal, then uses a map to find someone… maybe to find someone who does not want to be followed or is in hiding.”

Incredulous, Vincent stared at him. “You mean witchcraft?”

That chill swept over Audry as Rick nodded. He looked tired as if thinking about the subject was exhausting. “Some people believe in it.” He then looked to Audry. “And I would not recommend getting entangled with anyone who believes in it.”

“But isn’t that prejudiced?” Vincent asked, always the open-minded gentleman. “I mean we’ve got some cousins that—”

“You can call it what you want.” Rick nodded to him, frankly not arguing, but firm in his view. “But I have lived among people who practice—for lack of a better word—witchcraft. And I have seen them harm people in the name of witchcraft.”

Audry drew in a breath. He was making it real. And the thing was, he had never once mentioned this before—not in all their previous interactions. Clearly it was something he didn’t like to talk about, but was a dark part of his life. Something he dreaded to bring up because it was so awful.

“My best friend’s girlfriend, she’s got a six inch scar up her right arm—which those witches did to her around winter solstice,” Rick explained with deep meaning.

“That’s—” Vincent burst out in an incredulous laugh, unable to believe it.

“It doesn’t matter if they actually do magic,” Rick cut him off, trying not to be creepy. “The fact is, they took a knife and cut into her arm, and had they locked my friend Michael Toms in a cupboard and nearly starved him to death because he was their original intended sacrifice. Jessica was actually searching their building at the time to find him.”

“But I heard that he was kidnapped by some cult,” Audry interjected, really confused now. The kidnapping had been in the news ages ago.

Rick nodded to her, recognizing the reference. “This was after that. Michael had no idea that his grandmother was a witch. She had given him up to the coven for sacrifice—but Jessica had gotten in the way. That was why they tried to switch to her instead.”

Vincent stepped back and stared at Rick. “Are you for real?”

For a silent moment, Rick cringed, his head hunching between his shoulders. But then he said, “I know it sounds nuts. And honestly, I would never have brought it up. It is too creepy, and I would not want to inflict this on anybody. But Audry is in close contact with an intensely connected witch from my hometown—Silvia Lewis—and I am worried for Audry’s safety.”

That resonated with her. That dream phrase “his vegan” echoed in her head.

“She says she wants to leave the coven,” Audry murmured, feeling a little dazed.

“What?” Rick narrowed his eyes on her, clearly not believing it.

Sighing, Audry explained, feeling in the middle of a chaos she had not intended to enter, “She asked me to get one of your hairs so she could send it back to her coven to get her out of hot water for going to NYU against their wishes.”

Rick drew in a breath. He leaned away, staring more. Blinking at