Life's a Witch (27 page)

“What are you doing out here?”

They didn’t answer or move.

“Stephen, Dakota and Charlie, I see you,” I said, raising my voice so it would carry over the rising wind. “This is private property. What do you think you’re doing out here?”

No response.

“Okay, I’m going to start shooting,” Aunt Tillie said, pumping her shotgun. “I have the right to protect my property from snot-nosed little punks who threaten my life. Do you feel lucky, punks?”

“You can’t shoot them,” I whispered. “They’re not doing anything.”

“They don’t know that,” Aunt Tillie said, aiming her gun at a spot high on the tree they hid behind.

“I … wait. What are you doing?”

“Watch and learn.” Aunt Tillie pulled the trigger before I had a chance to cover my ears, the deafening roar stunning me for a moment. I watched with grim detachment as a high branch fell, causing the boys to race out of their hiding place and stop about fifteen feet away from us.

“What are you doing here?” My ears rang, so I focused on their lips.

“We were only going for a walk,” Stephen sneered. “That’s not against the law, is it?”

“It is when you’re on private property.”

“There aren’t any signs,” Dakota said.

“I’ll show you a sign,” Aunt Tillie snapped, raising the shotgun again.

I couldn’t even get an admonishment out before the boys scattered, their excited exclamations telling me they were running for it and not looking back. “That was stupid,” I chided. “We both know why they were here. We should’ve gotten them to confess before you scared them off.”

“They’re teenage boys, which means they’re naturally stupid,” Aunt Tillie replied, nonplussed. “That doesn’t mean they’re going to admit to trying to steal pot before a thunderstorm.”

“You know they could turn you in for firing that gun, right?”

“Only if they want to admit what they were doing here,” Aunt Tillie replied. “Besides, I’ll deny it.”

“How are you going to explain this to Chief Terry and Landon?”

“I’ll say I was shooting skeet and had no idea they were out here,” Aunt Tillie answered. “You need to learn to think on your feet. The easiest lies are often the best.”

“If that’s true, why do you tell so many outrageous lies whenever you get caught doing something wrong?”

“I’m old and I have to get my jollies somewhere,” Aunt Tillie said. “I … .”

The sound of footsteps to our right caused us to swivel, Aunt Tillie with her gun at the ready. Instead of teenage boys, though, our new foe was much worse.

“What in the hell are you doing out here?”

Aunt Willa and Rosemary seemed surprised by our presence – and terrified of the gun. They gripped each other’s arms as they exchanged a worried look before focusing on us.

“I … we were out for a walk and we got turned around,” Aunt Willa said. It was clearly a lie. “We’re trying to find our way back to the house.”

Aunt Tillie narrowed her eyes. “You’re full of it.”

“You’re carrying a gun,” Rosemary said.

“You always were a bright one,” Aunt Tillie deadpanned.

“Why do you have a gun?”

“We were hunting,” I lied.

“Hunting?” Rosemary wrinkled her nose. “For what?”

“Rabbits,” Aunt Tillie and I replied in unison, causing each other to laugh.

“I don’t think that’s what you were doing at all,” Aunt Willa said.

“Well, I don’t really care what you think we were doing,” Aunt Tillie shot back. “We know you weren’t lost out here. This is the second time you’ve been caught wandering around our property without permission. Do you know what happens the third time?”

Aunt Willa remained silent, although I could see her throat working as she swallowed.

“You become the rabbits if we find you a third time,” Aunt Tillie informed them. “Come on, Bay. It’s time for dinner, and we need to get inside before the storm hits. I hope we’re having rabbit. It will get me in the mood for future hunting.”

Love her or hate her, you have to admit the woman has style. I didn’t bother to hide my smile as I followed Aunt Tillie toward the inn. Things weren’t looking up, but they were definitely getting more exciting.

Twenty-Seven

“Why are you wet?” Landon looked me up and down as I flipped on the library pedestal fan and stood in front of it to dry my hair. We were almost back to the inn when the rain started. I could be a lot wetter, so I wasn’t going to start complaining … well, at least not yet.

“I was outside with Aunt Tillie when the storm started.”

Landon sipped his drink, his eyes thoughtful. “How did that go?”

“Yeah. Is she still mad she didn’t get the money you found?” Marcus asked, reclining in one of the chairs across from the couch. He’d been discussing something with Landon when I entered, and I didn’t bother to make apologies about interrupting them. They often whispered to each other when they thought no one was looking these days.

“She’s actually … .” I didn’t know how to answer. Even though my conversation with Aunt Tillie ended with us running through the woods and her firing a shotgun to amuse herself, what happened before was fairly eye opening.

“What’s wrong?” Landon asked, leaning forward. “Is she going to curse you again?”

I chuckled. “No. She says she’s not really angry with us, and the curse wasn’t nearly as much fun as she thought it would be,” I replied. “She’s still going to punish us, but it will probably only be with ill-fitting pants and zits.”

“What’s bothering you then?” Landon pressed.

“She’s worried about Aunt Willa and why she’s here,” I answered. “She’s angry with Willa and she misses my grandmother. I think it’s a lot for her to take on right now. We were easy marks.”

“Wow. I wouldn’t have thought I would ever hear you taking up for Aunt Tillie like this,” Landon said. “It sounds like you had a nice talk.”

“We did until … .” I pursed my lips. This next part was going to royally tick him off. “Someone tripped the wards while we were in the greenhouse. She has somehow rigged a real daisy to make screeching sounds when it happens. I need to ask her about that, because it was wicked cool, by the way.

“When we ran out there, we found Stephen, Charlie and Dakota lurking by the pot field,” I continued. “They couldn’t find anything and … well … I should probably mention that Aunt Tillie put on her combat helmet and grabbed a shotgun before we left the greenhouse.”

Landon leaned forward, his face murderous. “What?”

“It’s about to get worse, so you might want to brace yourself,” I warned. “I tried to talk to them and they refused to come out. I could see them hiding behind a tree. I didn’t want to move too close to them because I knew you would have a heart attack and kill me if they didn’t do it first … .”

“I am so terrified to hear the ending of this story I don’t even know what to do with myself,” Landon muttered.

“I have a feeling I know how this ends,” Marcus supplied.

“Before I could stop her – and I really tried, I promise – she fired the gun and … .”

Landon hopped to his feet. “Please tell me she didn’t shoot one of those kids and leave him out there to bleed to death!”

I scowled. “Yeah, that sounds exactly like something I would do,” I deadpanned.

Landon’s expression softened. “I’m sorry.” He held up his hands to placate me. “The idea of that woman running around with a gun and easy targets is horrifying. Please continue.”

“She hit a tree branch and it fell down, so they scattered,” I explained. “They told us they were lost, but I didn’t believe them. I wanted to question them further, but Aunt Tillie … had other ideas.”

“I can imagine,” Landon said, brushing my hair out of my face. “Well, at least she didn’t kill anyone.” He pushed me closer to the fan and ran his fingers through my hair to untangle it. “Those kids are obviously desperate to get their hands on product. They’re not even trying to hide that fact now. That means we’re dealing with something bigger.”

“Like organized drug dealers?” Marcus asked.

Landon nodded. “I don’t like that everyone keeps trying to come out here to get product,” he said. “It’s as though there’s a big pink elephant in the room. Everyone knows it’s there, but they can’t see it.”

“That would make it an invisible pink elephant,” I said. “If we had one of those we would be rich and never need to work a day again. We could live on love and hide from everyone we don’t like.”

“You’re cute,” Landon said, tweaking my nose. “I still think these kids have to be working with a larger distributor to be this bold. Someone must expect money from them in lieu of the pot we burned.”

“And we took the money from the cave,” I interjected. “They’re probably doubly desperate now. Do you think they know we took it?”

“I think Chief Terry’s secretary has a huge mouth,” Landon replied. “I think that she tells everyone in town what’s going on whenever she can because she likes being the center of attention. She knows you guys were the ones who found the money. That means everyone will know before the day is out.”

“I know this is going to sound strange, but I’m more worried about Aunt Willa right now,” I admitted. “They were out wandering around the woods, too. They seemed surprised when they happened upon us.”

“Oh, good grief,” Landon grumbled. “She didn’t shoot at them, did she?”

“No, but she did give them a second warning and threatened that they wouldn’t like it if we caught them a third time,” I said, smiling at the memory. “We told them we were rabbit hunting and if we found them wandering around the property we would make them the rabbits next time. Aunt Tillie had a lot of swagger in her step when she sauntered off with her gun. She even managed to pull off the combat helmet.”

Landon chuckled. “That actually sounds funny,” he said, moving away from me and settling back on the couch. “We still have a problem because of that field. If those kids are in real trouble, they’ll keep coming out here, because Aunt Tillie isn’t as terrifying as whatever they’re facing.”

“How are you going to combat that?” Marcus asked.

“There’s only one way I can think of,” Landon said, rubbing the back of his neck. “We’re going to have to haul all three of those kids in and offer them protection for information.”

“What if they killed Nathaniel?” I asked, turning so the fan could blow at the back of my hair. “You can’t offer them a deal until we know who killed him, and he’s not exactly being forthcoming.”

“I know. It’s … a mess.” Landon sighed.

“I need to go find Thistle,” Marcus said, getting up from his chair and moving around me. “She’s probably saying every nasty thing she can think of now that the curse has been lifted. No poor schmuck will be safe now that she’s in control of her tongue again.”

Once it was just the two of us, Landon fixed me with a curious look. “What else did you and Aunt Tillie talk about?”

“What makes you think we talked about other stuff?”

Landon shrugged. “I don’t know. You seem … calmer.”

“Do you generally find me overly dramatic?”

Landon cocked a challenging eyebrow. “Do you really want me to answer that?”

I made a disgusted sound in the back of my throat. “We mostly talked about how much she missed my grandmother, and how Clove is going to move in with Sam soon.”

“That’s not all you talked about,” Landon countered. “You told her what I said about us living in the same house one day, didn’t you?”

“Did she already tell you that?” My cheeks started burning.

“Ha! I knew it!” Landon said, shuffling to my side. “She didn’t tell me. I know you’ve been constantly thinking about it. I know you.”

“I guess you do,” I conceded. “I feel strange that you know me so well.”

“Get used to it,” Landon said, smiling. “You know you kind of look like an angel with your hair flying up like that. Only someone who knows you would realize you’re really an evil witch.”

“You’re so funny.”

Landon gripped my chin and gave me a kiss. “I love you, Bay. Everything is going to work out like it’s supposed to. Stop freaking out and enjoy it.”

“You sound like Aunt Tillie.”

“This is the only time I will ever take that as a compliment.”

THE DINNER
table was busy with chatter when we arrived, and it seemed Aunt Tillie and her gun warred for top billing with news of the pot field burning.

“This is all so exciting,” one of the female guests enthused. “We have drugs and guns … and combat helmets. It’s like a television show.”

“That would only work if it was
The Walking Dead
and I was paired up with Daryl,” Aunt Tillie replied dryly. “If you try to stick me on something like
Dancing With the Stars
, we’re going to have a problem.”

“And that’s before everyone realizes you have negative rhythm,” Thistle supplied.

“I liked it much better when you were being nice this morning,” Rosemary said, smiling as Brian handed her a dinner roll. Why is he here again? I hate him.

“Yes, well that wasn’t my natural state,” Thistle countered. “I’m much happier this way.”

“So as long as you’re happy and everyone else is miserable, you’re okay with that?” Aunt Willa challenged.

“Yes.”

“We all like her better mouthy,” Aunt Tillie said. “I thought I would like her nice, too. It turns out I was wrong. See, it does happen occasionally.”

“Like when you threatened me with a gun?”

“No, I was definitely right when I did that,” Aunt Tillie replied, causing Aunt Willa to scowl.

“When did you shoot at them?” Mom asked. “You weren’t out in the storm, were you? You’ll get sick if you’re not careful.”

Aunt Willa was incredulous. “That’s what you’re worried about? You’re not upset that she held a gun on me?”

“You’re obviously still alive,” Landon interjected. “She couldn’t have gotten very close.”

“That’s a great attitude for law enforcement to have,” Aunt Willa hissed.

“Hey, if she actually shot you – or was aiming at you – I might be more concerned,” Landon said. “I happen to know that she didn’t aim that gun at you and was shooting at other things, so you’re only making trouble to make trouble.”