Page 4 of Fresh Old Bounties

Dru’s glare reached volcanic intensity. “‘Oh?’ He’s trying to buy the Corner Rose and all you have to say is ‘oh’?”

“Bad, very bad. We should kill him and bury his body in Ian’s cemetery.”

A harrumph of approval came from under me, and I kicked one of the stool legs.

Dru looked like she was actually considering my suggestion. Reveling in it, really, judging by the way she licked her lips.

“Was it a bad breakup?” I ventured.

And regretted it immediately as her fulminating stare attempted to bore a hole through my head.

“He broke up with me after my parents gave him my job at their company. My job! The one they had promised me! He went behind my back and conned them into thinking he was better for the position.”

I winced. “Ouch.”

“Elijah Preston is a cold, soulless bastard who deserves to rot in Hell.”

“Totally.”

She thumped a fist against the counter. “I will not let him buy my store.”

“Of course not.”

She fell silent for a few seconds, probably going through every highlight of her relationship with this Preston man. Or every way she could dispose of his corpse without getting caught.

“You wanted to work for your parents’ company?” I asked, trying to distract her. And satisfy my curiosity. In the witch business, it paid to multitask. “Are they in the antique business?”

“They own a stationery store chain,” she said distractedly, obviously still mulling over the best way to deal with her ex—Ian’s cemetery or the shifter’s forest hole for unwelcome guests. “Tabbies.”

I gasped with excitement. “Your parents own Tabbies? Oh, my God. Last Halloween I got their?—”

She glowered. “If you say ‘witchy stickers,’ I’m going to shove them down your throat.”

“Horrible, horrible stuff.” I shook my head in obvious disappointment. “So ugly. I burned it all up.”

Dru snorted but appeared mollified.

I wanted to ask if she was trying so hard to get the Corner Rose as a way to show her parents they had made the wrong choice in hiring her ex over her, but then it was kind of obvious, wasn’t it?

“Can you make some kind of potion to knock him out for a few days?” she asked casually. “A little something that’ll keep him out of the way while I fix this.”

“Sleeping potions don’t last that long.”

“I was thinking more like food poisoning,” she muttered. “A week living on the bathroom floor might teach him a lesson.”

I ignored that. “I take it he’s still working for your parents?”

She answered with a glare.

That would be a yes, then. “So they’re trying to expand Tabbies into Olmeda? Interesting.” And smart, but I wasn’t about to say that out loud. The Tea Cauldron and the Corner Rose were part of the old, charming part of Olmeda. While most shops in the area catered to tourists, a stationery shop with the correct merchandise angle could do quite well.

“You can’t let that happen,” Dru said.

I blinked in surprise. “Me?”

“Preston can’t get the Corner Rose.”

“But there’s nothing I can do. It’s not my building.” I had written her a letter of recommendation for the bank and attempted to have the Witch Council give her a hand. Since Dru was a demon and not a witch, that hadn’t worked out. Like my letter to the bank.

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