Authors: Ciana Stone
Mahoney, would you mind slicing the cake?”
Clara cut them each a big slice. Ana took a bite and closed her eyes. “Oh my!” she
exclaimed. “You made this? This is the best thing I’ve ever tasted.”
Ana wasn’t acting. The cake was a little slice of paradise. She gobbled up every
crumb and reached for the knife to cut another slice. That’s when she realized that Cole
and Miss Mahoney were both grinning at her.
“Oops, sorry,” she said with a grin. “Acting like a little pig, aren’t I?”
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Clara’s heart had melted the moment the girl dug into the cake. For a moment all
Clara could see was Charity. Try as she might, Charity could never master the art of
baking. But when Clara would bake, Charity would stuff herself like a child, crooning
and humming like she was in seventh heaven. Just like Ana did now.
“You go right on. Eat as much as you want. There’s more where that came from.”
“Thanks!” Ana beamed at her and cut a big wedge of the cake.
Cole laughed at the size of the slice. “Somebody’s gonna have to do a whole lot of
whatever it is Chase said you do every day to work out.”
“Yoga.” Ana put her hand over her mouth to answer.
“Yoga?” Clara asked. “I always did want to learn that. I heard it’s good for the
circulation.”
“Oh, yes.” Ana nodded enthusiastically. “And keeps the spine loose and flexible
which is so important. I could teach you if you like.”
“Maybe.” Clara smiled and sipped at the tea. “Now, Cole says there’s something
important you need to talk to me about.”
Ana suddenly felt nervous. She wiped her hands on a napkin and bolted down her
tea. “Yes. Yes, there is. It’s about Chase and his father.”
“No sense in discussing that. Those two been butting heads for as long as I can
remember. That’s not likely to change.”
“But I think it can,” Ana argued quietly.
Clara’s eyebrows rose and Ana quickly explained. “Cole and Clay and Caleb have
told me what they know about the situation between Chase and Charlie. Chase
is…well, you know him better than I. To say the least, he’s close-mouthed about it.”
Clara chuckled. “Close-mouthed is a nice way of putting it.”
Ana laughed with her. “Yeah, well, he does have a way of clamming up when he
doesn’t want to talk. But I think it’s a real shame the way things are for Chase and his
dad. They were both devastated by Charity’s death, but the truth of it is that it wasn’t
Chase’s fault. Charlie just had no one else to blame, and Chase accepted the burden of
shame and clung to it.”
“That’s as good a way of putting it as I’ve ever heard,” Clara agreed. “But righting
that wrong isn’t something that’ll be done easy. I’ve worked at it for years and, if
anything, am further away from the goal than when I started.”
“Well, now you’re not alone in that effort,” Ana said with a smile. “Because I want
to help.”
“No offense, but I don’t see how you could possibly help. Charlie would probably
call the law on you if you stepped foot on his property, and the chance of Chase asking
his daddy back here is a long-shot to say the least.”
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“Maybe not.” Ana grinned. “I’d be willing to bet that they’d band together real
quick if, say for example, something happened to you.”
“I don’t think I like the sound of this.” Clara folded her arms over her chest.
“Well, you haven’t heard my plan yet.”
“Okay, let’s have it.”
Ana gave Cole a wink. “Just suppose that Chase and his father thought you’d had a
heart attack or something, that you just fell out on the floor and had to be transported to
the hospital.”
Clara barked a laugh. “Well, first of all everyone knows I’m strong as a horse, and
second, even if that did happen, they’d likely just send me flowers and wait for me to
get back on my feet to cook for them.”
“Hmmm…” Ana considered it for a few moments then her eyes brightened. “Okay,
so what if you were kidnapped?”
Clara’s laugh was full-blown this time. “If I was the queen mother I suppose that
would raise a ruckus, but I’m just a housekeeper, girl. No one’s going to pay any
ransom for my sorry old hide.”
“I think you’re wrong,” Ana argued.
“Oh, you do, do you?”
“Yes. Chase loves you. You’re his Mama C. He’d gnaw off his own arm for you.
And Charlie would too.”
“I doubt that,” Clara scoffed at the idea.
“Well, I don’t. I think Charlie cares a lot more for you than he lets on. And I bet you
ten dollars to a donut that if he knew you loved him, you’d be Mrs. Russell before you
could turn around.”
Clara’s face flared with color. “Hush your mouth, girl. Charlie Russell don’t have
feelings for me.”
“I say he does. And so does Fergi.”
“The Duchess of York? Cole, check that tea. I think Ana’s been brewing up
locoweed.”
Ana laughed and so did Cole. Clara cut Cole a sharp look. “You want to clue me in
on what’s so damn funny?”
“I’m sorry,” Ana apologized and rose to go to the door. “I didn’t mean Sarah
Ferguson. I meant my familiar, Fergi.”
She opened the door and let out a strange whistle. “Oh, I forgot,” she said over her
shoulder. “I didn’t tell you. I’m a witch.”
“What?” Clara blurted at the exact same moment Fergi landed on Ana’s shoulder.
Clara jumped in her chair and grabbed Cole’s arm.
“Holy shit!” Cole threw himself over Clara protectively.
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“It’s okay,” Ana said as she walked back to the table and took a seat. “This is Fergi.
Fergi this is Clara Mahoney and Cole Russell.”
Fergi chirped and twittered at the two people cowering on the other side of the
table. “She won’t hurt you,” Ana told them. “Really.”
Cole got back in his chair, staring at the hawk in amazement. “Why aren’t her
talons digging into you?” he asked.
“Oh!” Ana hadn’t thought about that in a long time, probably because few people
ever saw her and Fergi interacting. “There’s a charm on me that protects my skin from
her talons. We worked it out when Fergi first came to me because we wanted to be able
to touch.”
Clara’s hand was over her heart and her eyes were as round as quarters. “Good
lord, girl. That’s the biggest hawk I’ve ever seen!”
Ana reached up to stroke Fergi. “Yes, she is magnificent, isn’t she? And heavy.
Fergi, if you get any bigger I’m going to have to start lifting weights. How ‘bout
hopping over there to that free chair?”
Fergi did just that. One hop and a small flap and she was perched on the back of the
chair, balancing as the chair wobbled. “Now.” Ana directed her attention to Clara. “You
want to hear my idea?”
“Chase have any spirits in the house?” Clara asked in reply. “I think I might need
something stronger than tea if I’m going to make a pact with a witch and
her…familiar.”
Ana chuckled and got up to fetch the bottle of bourbon she’d seen in the kitchen
cupboard.
“Okay,” she said as she poured a good portion of the liquor into Clara’s cup and
then Cole’s when he raised his teacup. “This is the basic idea…”
* * * * *
Chase mopped his face with his bandana then stuffed it in the back pocket of his
jeans. He was going to strangle Cole. Thanks to Cole’s timely absence, Chase had gotten
roped into helping with the calf castration.
“Hey!”
Chase turned in the direction of the shout. A tall, dark-haired man leaned on the
fence. “See what that fella wants,” Chase yelled at Caleb, then nodded to Clay that he
was ready for the next calf.
Caleb walked over to the fence.
“Can I help you?” he asked as he approached the stranger.
“You Chase Hawks?”
“Nope, Caleb Russell. That’s my brother Chase, back there.” He jerked his thumb
over this shoulder in Chase’s direction.
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“A guy in town said I should talk to him about work,” the man said and extended
his hand.
Caleb gave the man a once-over. From his ponytailed hair to his sneaker-clad feet
he had city written all over him. “Got any experience?” He took the man’s hand.
“I’m a fast learner,” the man replied with a smile. “And you’d like to give me a
chance.”
“Uh…right. Yeah. Okay,” Caleb said in a slightly dazed manner. “Sure, you can
bunk in with Danny in cabin five. Just go back past the barn and turn left and you’ll see
the cabins. You got your gear?”
“Actually, I don’t have gear. And I don’t work with cows. I am good with an engine
though. Bet you have some machinery that could use a rehaul or tune-up.”
Caleb blinked several times. “Uh, well…yeah, yeah, as a matter of fact we do.”
“Excellent,” the man said with a smile. “Then why don’t I get settled and in the
morning you can show me around and get me familiar with your operation.”
“Uh, sounds like a plan,” Caleb agreed.
“See you in the morning…boss,” Giovanni said with a smile and turned away.
Caleb scratched his head and took a step after the man but Clay yelled for him so he
turned and went back to work.
Giovanni got in his car and followed the directions Caleb had given. The cabin was
actually a small wood-frame house. Not much to speak of, but as he discovered when
he entered, it was clean and comfortable.
“Yeah, this will do just fine,” he said as he took a seat on the couch and threw his
feet up on the coffee table. “Just fine.”
It had been much easier than he’d anticipated, locating Fiana. Actually, the
insurance company had done the work for him, calling about her car, which had been
taken to a garage in Arizona.
Giovanni had left that same day and driven almost nonstop until he reached
Safford. It was a next-to-nothing town as far as he was concerned, but did possess
something of great value, namely a café where the waitress was as tired of the local
yahoos as she could be and wishing for a handsome stranger to roll into town and make
all her dreams come true.
Enter Giovanni Sardo. Inside two days he had little Sandy Wingate, waitress and
eager fuck partner, eating out of his hands. She’d filled him in on all the gossip which
included someone called Chase Hawks, who had run over a woman in town and then
taken her home with him. According to Sandy, the local mechanic, Rusty, had towed in
the woman’s car and it was registered to a Fiana Stillwater. Strange name as far as
Sandy was concerned, but made for interesting gossip.
He figured Fiana had told the cowboy some sob story about getting beat up and
suckered him in. But had she told him the truth? That when she walked out on him she
brought the roof down on his head? Literally. He had thirteen stitches in his scalp to
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prove it and no one got away with that. Just like no bitch got away with walking out on
him.
Fiana had a lesson coming and it was going to be a hard one. The thought of it gave
Giovanni a hard-on. Funny that he hadn’t realized earlier how exciting it was to cause
pain, the rush that it brought and the power it infused him with.
He laughed. Fiana had teased him more than once about his weak powers. He’d
even overheard her once say that the bloodline of the Sardinia witches must be very
diluted because his powers were almost nonexistent. Boy, was she in for a surprise.
Ever since he’d spilled her blood, his power had increased dramatically.
Soon he’d teach her a lesson. She’d realize that she was nothing compared to him.
And then she would die. But not fast. Giovanni was going to take his time and enjoy it.
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Chapter Twelve
Ana was waiting on the porch when Chase pulled up in the yard. One look at her
and he knew something was wrong. “What’s eating at you, Fancy?” he asked as he
stepped up on the porch.
“Your father hired Gio— Giovanni.”
“Giovanni?” he asked with a frown then almost immediately his eyebrows shot up.
“Your husband, Giovanni?”
She nodded, wringing her hands in front of her. That worried Chase. He might not
have known her long, but he knew her well enough to know that she was not the handwringing, worrying type.
“Are you sure about that? Why would Charlie hire him? From what you’ve told me
he doesn’t know anything about ranching.”
“Well, it wasn’t really your father who hired him. According to Fergi, Caleb hired
him. But that was only because Giovanni charmed him.”
Chase chuckled. “Honey, I don’t think Caleb’s his type. That boy’s to-the-core a
woman’s man.”
“Not that kind of charmed.”
“You mean— Shit! Are you telling me he’s a witch?”
She nodded. “His power has never been very strong. At least it wasn’t. According
to Fergi it is now. He charmed Caleb into hiring him, and he’s not really doing ranch
work. He’s working on some of the machinery or trucks or something.”
Chase took her hand and led her to the porch swing. “Are you— I mean, is Fergi
sure?”
“Positive.”
Chase pulled her close to him as they sat. “Don’t fret about it, Fancy. I’ll take a ride
over there in the morning and make sure he’s given the boot good and proper.”
“That won’t help.” She looked up at him. “If he’s here, he plans on getting even and
you firing him won’t change anything except to make him mad, and when he’s mad