Page 45 of De-Witched

Her jaw gritted and she flicked her eyes away, annoyed. And her stomach dropped, along with the cardboard coffee cup she was holding. The lid popped off and coffee gushed out as she rushed forward, heedless of Gabriel’s demand. All of her attention was on the broken glass that littered the sidewalk and the spray paint that shouted obscenities to the public as they passed.

Then Gabriel’s hand gripped her elbow, pulled her around.

She wrenched away. “Sonny,” she threw at him and fled, hearing his curse and the sound of his Italian loafers pounding after her.

She didn’t care as she burst into the torn-up reception, as she took a sharp left toward where the overnight workers slept. It had been Sonny’s night. That was the thought that played through her mind on repeat. He was old. He could’ve been...

Rushing through the door to the room, she scanned it in seconds. Not here. Didn’t mean anything, she told herself, her knees weak. Didn’t mean—

“Leah.”

At his voice, she spun and made a sound in relief, just as Gabriel reached them. Sonny was coming out of the cat enclosures, phone to his ear.

“Calling the cops?” she asked, hearing the quiver in her voice. Her hands shook, so she smoothed them down her thighs. “When did it happen?”

“I left for one goddamned hour.” Sonny’s gaze flicked from her to Gabriel. “The animals are all right, thank Christ, but the windows...the walls...”

“We’ll clean it up. We’ll get it fixed. It’s fixable.”

“More bills,” he murmured, despair heavy in the words before his attention snapped back to the call. “Yes, I’m still here.”

He wandered away, talking rapidly. Leah watched him go, helpless.

“Goddamn it,” she said under her breath. “Goddamn it.” She aimed a kick at the wall, breath exploding out when her foot connected. More bills. More worry. More likely he’d want to wash his hands of the place. If she hadn’t plowed so much of her money into the bar, into her house...but he wouldn’t accept it anyway, even if she had enough to buy in.

Gabriel was a silent presence at her side. She didn’t know what she expected him to do. What normal people did, she supposed. Comfort her, offer words of reassurance, empty though they might be.

What she didn’t expect him to do was to walk away.

She deliberately didn’t watch him go. Why was she even mildly surprised?

Ignoring the fist in her throat, she went to grab a change of clothes and face the mountain of tasks ahead of her.

Gabriel was standing on the sidewalk, surveying the damage, as Sonny walked out to join him. They stood, side by side and in silence, for a long moment.

“Son of a bitch,” were Sonny’s first words. Lines dug deep grooves around his mouth, in his forehead, around eyes that spoke of annoyed anxiety. “This is just what we needed.”

Gabriel kept his gaze on the broken glass. “I can fix it.”

“You know a carpenter, a handyman?”

“Something like that.” Give him a moment alone with no prying eyes, it would be nothing to him. It was nothing to him.

“That’s something, I guess.” Sonny rubbed the back of his neck, then his face. “Jesus. I did not need this.”

The bite of wind nipped his cheeks as Gabriel slid his eyes toward the older human. “She was worried. About you.”

“Leah?” Sonny shrugged, stuffing his hands in his fleece’s pockets. “I’m fine.”

“She ran into the building.” The way his heart had squeezed, the air tight in his lungs. He hadn’t cared for it. “It could’ve been dangerous.”

“Leah thinks with her heart. And I’m fine. They took their opportunity, some cash from the office. Some drugs we keep on-site. Expensive ones.” Sonny pursed his lips. “Joanne from across the street is checking her CCTV, and Raj from next to her, but I doubt it’ll catch anything across the way.” He sighed. “I knew I should’ve upgraded the security.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“It was that or let a dog keep his leg.” Sonny ruefully smiled. “I think with my heart, too.”

“It’s foolish.” Gabriel returned his attention to the sad building. “Being practical is how you run a successful business.” It was how he’d increased efficiency in their product development by ten percent, looking at a problem as though it were a puzzle to be solved.

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