Authors: Nikki Jefford
“And you didn’t think to share this
information with me or Raj?”
Adrian shouldered a couldn’t-care-less shrug.
“It’s not as though I was going to help her.”
“What? Her kiss wasn’t good enough?”
Adrian had the audacity to laugh. “You made
the better offer. Power over pleasure.” Adrian winked.
“That’s it,” Gray said, storming to the door.
“I’m out of here.” When she reached out for the door handle, her
hand collided with Adrian’s abdomen. The weasel had teleported
between her and the front door.
Two could play at that game.
Adrian must have recognized the look on her
face. Before Gray had the chance to visualize the outside of the
building, his lips formed a mischievous grin. In an instant, Gray
felt lightheaded. She no longer stood between Adrian and the door.
Nor was she outside the building. No, she’d appeared inside
Adrian’s bedroom, followed by the avenging bastard himself,
grinning like the devil.
“Never done that before,” he said, puffed up.
Adrian looked around the bedroom. Then his eyes landed on Gray.
A tremor ran down her arms to her fingertips.
Her body trembled. It wasn’t from fear, and that’s why Gray had to
get out. She headed for the doorway, too shaken up to attempt
teleporting.
Adrian whistled. “Graylee Perez jealous on my
account. I never thought I’d live to see the day.”
Gray whipped around. “Don’t flatter yourself,
Adrian. The only thing I’m feeling right now is disappointment. I
expected more—even from you.”
Adrian snorted. “Right, ’cause you’ve always
had such high expectations of me.” He approached Gray slowly until
he was within inches of her. Adrian’s eyes penetrated her. Gray
held her breath. Adrian leaned in closer still. “From the moment we
met you’ve been using me.”
Gray could hardly breathe, let alone swallow.
His gaze held her in a trance.
A pain stabbed at Gray’s chest.
“I want you,” Adrian whispered.
Gray shivered involuntarily. No, she promised
herself she wouldn’t let it happen again.
Gray swallowed before finding her voice. “You
already had me.”
“I want you again.” Adrian put his hand on
her cheek. “You want me, too.”
“How dare you?” Gray cried out. Why was she
suddenly cemented to the floor, unable to take a step toward the
door? Gray would have liked to blame it on Adrian. To convince
herself he’d frozen her in place. But she was standing there of her
own free will.
“That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?” Adrian
glanced at the bed. “You enjoyed our time together?”
“Our time is over.” Finally Gray’s feet were
obeying her commands to leave. She stopped in the doorway and
turned her head to look at Adrian one last time before leaving.
“I’m seeing someone about getting this spell reversed.”
Adrian raised an inquisitive brow. “Wasn’t
that the plan all along?”
For a moment, Gray said nothing. Her lips
pressed together in a tight frown, her gaze leveled with Adrian’s.
“You should leave Barcelona, Adrian. It’s not just your show that’s
over.”
Adrian studied her a moment. Gray held her
breath. But the avenger merely smiled and said, “I’m not leaving
until you tell me you want me to go and mean it.”
Gray nodded once and then turned. She walked
down the hall, out the door, down the stairs, and onto the
street.
She’d mean it, all right. She just needed
Señor
Ortega’s help, and she needed it
now.
It wasn’t even eight when Gray set out the next
morning. The only people out that early were impeccably dressed and
on their way to work, unlike Gray in the sundress she wore every
third day. She clutched her purse to her chest as though hiding a
concealed weapon rather than a child’s wand.
Gray ducked inside a café for a shot of
espresso then continued up the street. She’d felt so lost when she
first arrived in Barcelona. Even growing up in the suburbs of
Seattle hadn’t prepared Gray for city life on this scale. The
street traffic nearly drowned out her thoughts. The buildings
dwarfed her. The roadways and side alleys made her feel like an ant
in a never-ending maze that twisted in on itself like some kind of
impossible labyrinth.
Right after Gray and Charlene had gotten
their driver’s licenses, they’d driven into Seattle and spent the
day shopping in the city. Gray had used the Space Needle as her
guide, like the needle on a compass. As long as you had one, you
couldn’t get lost.
Gray’s present compass was the Sagrada
Familia. The church’s eight spires shot out of the stonework, high
above the surrounding buildings.
Señor
Ortega
operated from a building in line with the gothic structure. From
what Gray recalled, his office had one of Barcelona’s best views of
the church. She had plenty of time to make her way there, so she
stopped for another espresso.
Bad idea.
Gray’s senses went from jolted to wired in
one gulp.
When she found the building it was still
twenty to nine so she paced on the street. At ten to nine, she
resumed her pacing on the fifteenth floor, just outside the waiting
room door.
A woman in a pencil skirt approached with
keys jingling at exactly nine to unlock the door. Gray followed
directly behind her. The woman snapped and the lights came on. She
turned and looked Gray up and down with an expression of
boredom.
“S
eñorita
Perez, you
do not have an appointment today.”
“No,” Gray said, slowly. “But this is an
emergency.”
The receptionist flipped open the appointment
book on her desk. “In that case, I can work you in on Tuesday at
ten o’clock.”
Gray’s jaw dropped. “But that’s next
week!”
The receptionist lifted her nose.
“
Señor
Ortega is a busy man.”
“Can I at least ask him a question?”
“
Sí
, on Tuesday.”
Gray narrowed her eyes. Why were there so
many bitchy witches in the world? “Fine,” Gray said, grudgingly.
“Put me down for Tuesday.”
The secretary picked up a pencil and
scratched something into the book. Gray would have preferred she
write in pen. Not that it mattered. Gray couldn’t afford to wait
till the following week.
She waited in the hallway and pounced on
Señor
Ortega the moment he rounded the
corner, briefcase in hand. “Please,
Señor
Ortega, I know you’re busy, but I desperately need your help.”
The Spanish warlock stopped in his tracks,
eyes widening behind rimless glasses. Gray felt momentarily
embarrassed at rushing into her speech before formally greeting
him.
“Forgive me,
Señor
Ortega,” she tried again. “It’s just that your secretary said you
couldn’t see me till next week.”
Ortega frowned. “Is this about the matter you
discussed with me earlier?”
Gray shook her head and glanced up and down
the empty hallway. “No, this is something entirely different. I’ve
recently become the victim of a spell.”
Ortega’s frown finally softened. “Come
inside, S
eñorita
Perez. If you want to
wait I’ll see if I can squeeze you in between appointments.”
Gray almost reached for the warlock’s hand to
shake it. “Thank you,
Señor
Ortega. I
really appreciate this.”
She followed him into the waiting room. The
secretary smiled when her boss entered then scowled when she saw
Gray on his heels.
They spoke in rapid Spanish, reducing Gray’s
comprehension to a few choice words. At the end the secretary
glowered at her. It was
Señor
Ortega who
said, “Take a seat, S
eñorita
Perez. We’ll
see what we can do, but you may have to wait awhile.”
And wait she would.
“
Gracias
,” Gray said, looking from
Ortega to his secretary.
The secretary’s stormy gaze didn’t dissipate
until a middle-aged woman walked in and approached the front desk
to check in. Gray could’ve sworn
señora
secretary went out of her way to be extra cheerful to the client
with the actual appointment. She had never been that friendly to
Gray—even when her name was on the schedule.
Gray didn’t have the energy to return the
woman’s glower. She was too busy wringing her hands in her lap,
watching the clock on the wall erase time with each pass.
Maybe she didn’t have an appointment, but it
was hard not to get agitated when morning started going on noon and
ten minutes had passed between Ortega’s last client and the present
one.
Gray had given up on her stoic—sit up
straight—posture an hour ago. Her flip-flops were in front of her
chair. She’d pulled her legs up and rested her head on her knees.
The secretary waited until she’d closed her eyes to call out,
“S
eñorita
Perez!”
Gray’s eyes flew open as she started in her
seat.
“S
eñor
Ortega will
see you now.”
Gray’s annoyance faded the moment she entered
the warlock’s office. “Thank you for making time for me.”
The room smelled like incense. There was a
high-heeled shoe on top of Ortega’s desk. It reminded Gray of
Cinderella’s glass slipper, only this one was black. Ortega pinched
the shoe between his fingers, dropped it into a Ziploc bag, sealed
it shut, and tossed it inside one of his desk drawers.
So much for showing Ortega the wand. He’d
likely confiscate it and seal it away like the shoe. It might be a
toy, but it was also important enough to Adrian to take it with him
on his travels. She squeezed the top of her purse shut
instinctively and took a seat in front of Ortega’s desk.
“You said someone had put you under a spell,
S
eñorita
Perez.” He got right down to
business. “What kind of spell?”
Gray pressed her lips together; feeling
embarrassed all of a sudden. Confiding in a practical stranger felt
invasive. Gray got over her hesitation when she saw Ortega eye his
watch.
“I’m under a love spell.”
Thankfully Ortega didn’t so much as crack a
smile. He inspected Gray’s face from behind his rimless spectacles.
“How did this happen?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I came to you. Who
would do this to me?”
Gray didn’t appreciate the way Ortega
chuckled. “S
eñorita
Perez,” he said,
resting his arms on his desk. “The answer is simple. The person you
now find yourself in love with and the person who cast the spell
are one and the same.”
“He said he didn’t do it.”
Ortega laughed harder.
Gray glared at him. “I know how that sounds,
but I swear to you he was as shocked as I was. He wanted nothing to
do with me the moment he figured it out.”
That, at least, made Ortega stop laughing.
“Forgive me, s
eñorita
, but in ninety-five
percent of the cases I’ve dealt with, the love spell is cast by the
individual who wishes to be the object of affection.”
Gray leaned forward. “And the other five
percent?”
“Are done as practical jokes.”
Gray bristled at that. “This is no joke.”
“Not for you, but perhaps some person wishes
to make a fool of you by interfering with matters of the heart. A
jealous rival, perhaps?”
“No,” Gray said, shaking her head.
“Let’s begin with the object of your desire.
Did you know him before the spell?”
Gray’s jaw tensed. “He’s the man I talked to
you about earlier. The one I wanted to banish from my life.”
Something flickered across Ortega’s eyes.
“Ah, I see. Someone is definitely out to hurt you. Any idea
whom?”
Charlene
. Gray couldn’t help herself.
It was the first name to pop in her head. And the timing was
awfully suspicious. But what was the motive? Then again, her sister
had done a lot of foul things to Gray back when they were body
sharing.
“My sister recently arrived in town . . .
unannounced.” Gray said slowly, thinking out loud. “We’re not what
you’d call close.”
Ortega snapped his fingers. Gray looked
around, expecting something to appear, but when nothing happened
she concluded that the warlock merely snaped his fingers.
“Sounds like you found your answer,” he said.
“I suggest the direct approach. Ask your sister to return the
object she used to control your emotions and then bring it to
me.”
Gray didn’t remember scooting to the edge of
her seat, but she nearly fell forward. “Object? What object?”
“Think hard, S
eñorita
Perez. Are you missing something of
sentimental value?”
It took Gray only a second to think. “Yes! My
luck amulet. It was in my purse and then it went missing.”
Ortega grinned. “Most likely after all this
began?” He raised his brows.
Gray no longer cared that he’d made her wait.
The man was a genius. Vinuesa had said that a Frenchman called for
her. Charlene had probably come by and nabbed the amulet from her
purse one of the nights she’d left it in her room while clubbing.
There was no pinpointing the exact day it went missing. Gray had
returned it to her purse after she caught Carlo macking on the girl
in the club. She hadn’t noticed it missing until she packed up her
things and left Benita’s sanctuary. But the timing fit, all
right.
Wonderful. She could break the spell and get
her luck amulet back at the same time. A momentary feeling of
relief flooded Gray’s senses. She thought she’d lost the amulet
forever.
“What will you do with the amulet once I get
it back?”
“The object will require cleansing.”
“Can I have it back after you remove the
spell?” Gray frowned, picturing her luck amulet sealed inside one
of Ortega’s Ziploc bags.