This Strange Addiction by Julie Steimle (e book free reading .txt) 📕

“Which was?” Audry listened with bated breath.

Jessica cringed more, weighing her words. She said, “He fell among… some dangerous, manipulative people. And yeah, they were into some kind of cult. He didn’t even realize it until way later when he was dealing with withdrawals.”

Audry stared, trying to recall what she had overheard at the conference that day. Something about moon bonding. He had been part of a moon worshipping cult, probably, if only briefly.

“Rick didn’t tell any of us about it until after Daisy miscarried,” Jessica murmured.

They knew that detail? Audry lifted her head, trying to read Jessica’s face.

“I think he was secretly planning on meeting up with her back then, intending to leave everything because he was so take by them. By her, really,” Jessica said, shaking her head. “He was mess. I’m not exactly sure what they did to him beyond what she did to him, but Rick had to be watched constantly to keep from running back to them. He wasn’t in his right head when he first came back from his internship that summer, especially right after his rescue. All of us could see it. He was different. Evasive. And he couldn’t focus on school once he got to Brown—and it was his dream to go to Brown. You see, he had been an exceptional student in high school. You know, a really hard worker. An honors student.

“Because everything was going so bad, and he hadn’t told Andy (or the rest of us) about Daisy at all—though we already knew by that time, because his dad told us—that was why his father had him stand in for him at conferences—so he would have some responsibility and pull himself together. Rick wasn’t recovering much at all before then. And that Daisy was sending him scented letters—which Henry had to intercept and burn because… because…” Jessica clenched her teeth and shook her head. “Rick even hid them around the house so he could still smell her. They were secretly corresponding.”

That was something. Admittedly, this was much like Hogan with Cara, though the whole uncles chasing him away still sounded hokey. In fact, Rick sounded like he would have run back to that woman.

“So was he planning on marrying her?” Audry asked, that question alone making her feel for him.  

Jessica cringed then nodded. “Yeah. He was. He felt guilty for getting her pregnant, and he owned up to it. He wanted to make it right. But when she miscarried…” Jessica shook her head, lifting her eyebrows, “that changed everything. James was there when she had called him.”

Remembering the blonde beefy forest ranger, Audry finally recalled where she had seen him before. He had been there at that first conference.  It had been many years back, and the same conference where Rick had signed her permission forms for her Master’s research. Back then, though James was less beefy and had a bit of chub on his face. A boy scout.

“…and he had finally admitted to James about what had happened—though we knew already,” Jessica said with a shrug.

“You knew?” Audry stared. “How did you find out if he didn’t tell you?”

“I told you. His father told us.” Jessica shrugged more. The baby let out another burp. Cradling her neck, Jessica wiped Ivy’s mouth and cooed over her, lowering her baby so she could see her face. “Hi… Hi little one.” Then Jessica drew in a deep breath and said to Audry, “His dad wanted us to guard him just in case they came for him.”

Audry paled. “So they are a cult.”

Jessica shrugged. “In a way. It’s hard to explain.”

Climbing over the couch to sit next to Jessica on the cushion, Audry asked, “In what way? What makes them not a cult? I overheard them talking about moon bonding, moon charms, and moon rituals.”

Cringing, Jessica lifted her eyes to Silvia as she came in. She colored more. “Um, it’s complicated.”

“Who is this Daisy?” Silvia asked, clearly having overheard some of it, but not all.

Sighing, Jessica replied, “A secret.”

Moaning, Silvia rolled her eyes. She then looked to Audry. “The Deacons are surrounded by secrets.” She then shot Jessica a terse look again. “Is this secret so bad that I can’t hear about it?”

“You might act on it,” Jessica replied with a cringe. “And we’re handling it, so please don’t stick your hand in it.”

“Handling it?” Silvia chuckled, leaning on the couch arm. “Maybe. But what are you guys really talking about?”

“Hogan,” Jessica said, looking to Audry again. “And how Audry is throwing herself away on him.”

Groaning, Audry stood up.

Silvia laughed, nodding to Jessica. “I know.”

Shaking her head, Audry stalked away to the kitchen. “You two are terrible.”

“We love you too,” Silvia said, cackling while leaning on the couch arm.

Randon came around that afternoon with Matthew, talking with Silvia about something. Audry overheard a bit when she was leaving Jessica and the baby in their room as they were now sleeping. “…the house. He can watch the place on the outside. Your wards are doing great, but they are prowling around here. As for your ex, we’ve taken him into custody for his protection, and he has agreed to give witness in a court of law. He might have enough evidence to link the two murders to them… but it is not enough. Silvia, we might need you to scry for them—”

“No can do,” Silvia bit back. “If I am scrying, they are sure to find me. I can’t scry for anything while they are loose. You understand? It puts me on the map and all shadowing gets nullified.”

“Then maybe we should let Audry loose from that.”

“No way! It protects her just as much as me. No one seeking to harm her will be able to see her as long as the spell stays, even if I stay here and she goes back to New York. In fact, any predatory figure won’t be able to bug her. This is a super plus. A win. Because you know they will come after her if they went after Harlin.”

Audry stiffened. Had those witches gone after Harlin? Or was this about going after him to find her before this?

“And what about her fiancée?” Matthew asked. “What if they target him to get to Audry?”

“I don’t care what happens to him,” Silvia muttered.

“Hey!” Audry marched up. “You’d better care. If anything happens to Hogan—”

“We won’t let anything happen to Hogan,” Matthew said with a nod.

Silvia rolled her eyes.

But Randon nudged her in her side and pointed to Audry who was glaring at her.

“Sorry,” Silvia said. “I’ll try to be a little more sensitive. But you know I don’t like him.”

Moaning, Audry shook her head. She then said to Matthew, “What is going on with that case? Do you have any leads?”

He cringed. “We do and we don’t. Our leads are not submittible as evidence. But we do know their target was Silvia, and those two women were just in the way.”

Audry cringed. She glanced back to Silvia who was staring at her shoes. “Oh crud.”

“Now, you’re mostly safe. But you’ll need to drive your car back to New York to the police station so we can impound it again,” Matthew said.

With a frown, as this was highly inconvenient, Audry nodded.

“Silvia will stay here,” Matthew said. “And we will guard the house. But—and I need to let you know this—we expect them to follow the car back to New York. They might not, but it is most likely they will.”

Audry stared.

“We already have someone watching your fiancée to keep him safe,” Matthew said with reassurance.

Silvia huffed as if it was not a worthy cause.

“And,” Matthew shot Silvia a chastening look though Randon smirked at her, “we will make sure you get home safely without being tracked.”

Audry nodded.

“Just… don’t complain about our methods, ok? You might not like them.”

“But they’ll work,” Silvia cut in with an encouraging nod.

Leaning back, Audry wondered what he meant by that.

Then a knock was at the door. Rick immediately stepped in. He was carrying a load of newborn-size diapers in several bags. He looked to Audry first then Silvia. “Where do you want them?”

Laughing, Silvia pointed to the bathroom.

Sighing, he carried in the heaps of throwaway diapers into the room. With a look to Audry, he said, “Don’t worry. I made sure they were biodegradable.”

She shot him a dirty look.

He then also held out a container of talcum powder. “What about this? The lady said to make sure I got the kind without aluminum in it.” Despite being a little peevish talking to her, averting his eyes from Audry as he spoke, it was kind of cute seeing him carrying around baby stuff. He had also brought in a stuffed pink bunny made of soft fuzzy cloth.

Taking the talcum powder, Audry shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m not the expert. I’ve never really even babysat.”

“I have,” Silvia said, and plucked the talcum powder and bunny from Rick’s fingers, walking through them. “Leave it to me.”

“I thought you had a niece and nephew.” He said to Audry then stepped back, with a glance to Matthew. “How is everything going?”

Her mouth was open in shock. Of course he knew that. But it was really presumptuous, all the same.

Wincing a little, Matthew pulled Rick aside to talk with him in private.

Randon stepped away, then next to Audry. “So… you’re getting married. Congratulations.”

Audry glanced to him. She wondered if he was just saying that to be polite.

“Thanks,” she said, then lifted up her ring hand to show him.

Chuckling with a nod, Randon smiled. “I take it you are not into big rocks.”

She shook her head. “Nope. They’re impractical. I’d have to constantly take it off while working. And I figure if we are going to spend so much on a ring, it ought to be one I would never want to take off.”

Randon grinned at her. Then his eyes lifted to Silvia. “Can I ask—How long have you been rooming with Daniel’s sister?”

“How well do you know Daniel?” Audry asked, wondering as Hogan’s warning words echoed in her head again to be careful while she was surrounded by Rick’s friends. It was becoming a bit much to take.

Chuckling, Randon replied, “I met him around the same time Rick found his mother again.”

Audry’s eyes widened on him. “No kidding.” That put it about the time her ex, Harlin, had started to stalk her. That wasn’t that long ago.

“Rick’s mom lives in the town where I studied veterinarian medicine,” Randon said. “And I didn’t even know it was her until I called Rick to help me deal with a problem in town—and he bumped into her, I think, at the library. The rest spilled out from there. I used to treat their cat, Mohair.”

“Oh.” Audry was amazed. This explained a lot.

Silvia stood by, listening in. She had come from the bathroom where she had been arranging things for the baby’s stuff.

“Anyway, Daniel came with his buddy James, and I got to meet Jessica and Andy also,” Randon explained, thinking on it. “I didn’t really meet the rest of them until today. But they saved my hide back then.”

“Oh?” Audry wondered now what about. All of Rick’s friends seemed to be connected in that way—rescuing one another. It was odd they were always in circumstances where they needed to be rescued. It was as if trouble just sought them out.

He nodded, yet said with a glance to Silvia also. “My mother and older sister were both practicing witches.”

Audry drew in a breath. She recalled Matthew saying something about that, but she had never been sure how much of it was real.

“I had been hiding from them since I was a kid when my father grabbed me and ran,” he said. “Because they used to experiment on me.”

“Experiment?” Audry felt sick, staring at him. She realized this was why he had gone to Gulinger Private Academy. He had had been hiding from his own family who had abused him.

But he got a funny