The Hidden Grimoire by Karla Brandenburg (pride and prejudice read TXT) 📕

“You leave my daughter out of this.”

“No. I know what it’s like to be discarded by the people who are supposed to love you. Is that your plan, Jason? When you can no longer deny the truth, are you going to turn your back on her?”

“Don’t you talk to me about my daughter.”

I flattened a palm against my chest. “I can help.”

Between the tic and the purple color suffusing his face, I wondered for a moment if Jason might have a stroke.

“Stay out of my life,” he growled. “It’s bad enough Georgia calls for you in her sleep. She’ll forget about you with time.”

“No. She won’t. She needs guidance and she needs love. I can give her both those things. Can you?”

“I’m her father.”

I reached for his arm. He didn’t pull away, but he did stare at my hand as if it might burn him. “Jason. If you must think of me as a witch, think Glinda, not the Wicked Witch of the West. I use what gifts I was born with to help people, not to hurt them. And, if it helps you to know, karma is real. People who set out to hurt others pay a price.”

He stared at me, still twitching. With measured words, he said, “I would appreciate if you didn’t keep your meeting with Sharon. And I would appreciate if you stay the hell away from my family.” He pulled away and walked out, nearly running into Kyle in his hurry to leave.

Kyle glanced after him, then at me. “And?”

I shrugged. “Same story, different day.”

“Even after you helped find his lost daughter?”

“Oh, he did say thank you for that, right before he told me to stay out of his personal business.”

“And?”

“We have an appointment to keep with the other woman.”

Ash yawned and meowed at the same time, making a funny sort of noise from where she sat upright on the counter, waiting for me.

“But first,” I said, “I’m taking Ash home.”

“I’m still coming with you,” he said.

Kyle had made it clear he didn’t want me to deal with Jason on my own, without a bodyguard. I didn’t need one, but after one confrontation, I could use an ally for what promised to be another. “I wouldn’t expect any different.”

Half an hour later, we arrived at the Hillendale Pub, where Sharon sat at a booth, tapping a toe, repeatedly tucking her hair behind her ears, first one side, then the other. She looked up, saw us and jumped to her feet, a frightened glint in her eye. She surveyed the pub, then eased into her seat.

As Kyle and I slid onto the bench across from her, she stared into the glass of clear soda in front of her.

“This is a waste of time,” she told the glass.

“What is?” Kyle asked.

She shot a quick glance first at him, then me, then her glass. “Look, I just wanted to tell you to watch out for LeAnne. I thought I was wrong after she got pregnant, that she’d changed, but no.”

“Wrong about what?” I asked.

She tucked her hair behind her ears again, then tapped her glass. “Forget it. I’m transferring back to Madison. The person they got to fill my position didn’t work out. It’ll be better for everyone. Really. Better money. Better position.”

“Sharon.” I leaned on the table. “What’s going on? You didn’t want to talk to me about your job.”

She met my gaze. “What are you going to do to me? You killed Narcy. I was hoping you’d help me. Make Jason see. Make him understand. Break the spell that witch has over him.”

The second time Sharon had referred to LeAnne as a witch. Intentionally? She had spent time with Narcy, after all. Three years was a long time to hope Jason would leave his wife.

I gentled my voice as if talking to a skittish colt. “First, I didn’t kill Narcy.” Did Sharon understand the magic? “She tried to kill me, and karma stepped in.”

Sharon shook her head. “She wouldn’t. For all the times she stepped in to defend me, I never knew her to hurt anybody.”

“I was there,” Kyle added. “Narcy set Brynn’s house on fire, and when the windows exploded from the heat, a shard caught her in the neck. If Narcy would have waited until she got help, she would have survived, but when she pulled it out, she bled to death.”

A tear slid down Sharon’s face. “Why? Why would she do that? She said she’d found a place to start her own business. She was going to move closer to me.”

“My business,” I told her. “Except it wasn’t for sale.”

“So she tried to kill you to get it?” Sharon asked.

“She told me she could take from me anything she wanted.”

Kyle reached under the table and squeezed my hand. He’d been a pawn in her demonstration of power.

Sharon snickered. “Now that sounds like her.”

Pieces came together in my mind. Sharon dating Jason, LeAnne winning Jason’s affections. Was it fate? Or had LeAnne given fate a boost, the way Narcy had?

“When you say LeAnne’s a witch, you’re avoiding using a coarser term, right?”

Sharon laughed. “No, she’s a bitch on top of everything else.” She steadied her gaze on me. “She’s like you.”

Like me? I hadn’t seen the glow in her eyes, hadn’t sensed anything extraordinary about her. Had I missed something?

Kyle tensed beside me. “We should go.”

“No. Wait,” I said, but when Sharon didn’t say anything more, I probed her thoughts telepathically.

Sharon shook her head. “Narcy used to do that. It isn’t going to work.” She finished her drink. “This was a mistake.” She pushed against the table, rose to her feet and walked away.

“Do you want me to stop her?” Kyle asked.

“No.” As Sharon left, I sorted through all the things she’d said, and the things she didn’t say.

Had LeAnne seduced Jason the way Narcy had seduced Kyle? The picture Sharon painted of Jason’s wife didn’t match the woman I’d met, Georgia’s mother. I’d liked LeAnne, hadn’t sensed anything extraordinary in her. Then again,