Page 106 of Bright Dark Curses

I shushed him, then leaned a bit out to study the dark recesses between the trailers and trucks surrounding us. The night remained silent even while Brimstone helped Ethan escape through the window in the back of the trailer. He’d then take him to a secure location while we waited for McKee to make his appearance.

A couple of minutes later, a text from Brimstone flashed on my phone: Safe.

Good. While I hadn’t been exactly ecstatic to involve Brimstone into our plot, given that he was dating Sonia and all that, we’d needed a big magic hitter to guard Ethan or he’d refused to help us.

With Ian in charge of Key and the strays’ safety, and Dru and Hutton refusing to do it, I’d had no other choice. Hopefully, he maintained a strong work-relationship separation ethic.

“You know he’s totally going to tell Sonia, right?” Dru whispered as I got back onto my feet.

Hutton grunted in agreement.

“I trust he won’t tell Sonia like he trusts me not to tell Ian about his illegal magic dealings and potions.”

“Ian totally knows.”

Yeah, Ian totally did. “Yes, but he figured it out by himself before I told him. That’s what matters.”

“If you say so.”

“Stop smirking.”

Dru’s smirk intensified. Now that she no longer needed shifts at the Tea Shop, there had been a marked increase in jokes about the way I ran the fake dark magic side of the operation.

“You should listen to your friend,” Hutton said.

I pointed toward the back of the small space. “And you should check out the area as you promised.”

With a glare, he slipped around the trailers and disappeared from view to cover our backs in case McKee or anyone else tried the more scenic route to Lee’s trailer. We had debated waiting inside one of the other trailers, since it would’ve been safer from being discovered, but if things went south, those precious moments of having to open the door and rush out might be the difference between one UNSUB in the wild and one UNSUB caught.

Dru joined me at the corner of the trailer. “You think Hutton will keep his word?” she whispered.

“Yeah, he’ll look out for anyone.”

“About my shop.”

“Yes,” I told her seriously. Because if this were my shop we were talking about, I would be stressed, not rolling my eyes.

“He better.”

“He knows better than to cross you.”

She let out a Hutton-like grunt, and we settled in to wait. We had given McKee a meeting time through the message conversation with Ethan, but we expected him to show up ahead of time.

He did not disappoint.

About five minutes later, Hutton reappeared behind us, all but giving me a heart attack.

“He’s here,” he warned in a low growl.

My heart redoubled its beat, and I held my breath. The crunch of loose pebbles and the splashing of puddles reached our ears, and a couple of seconds later a dark figure, tall and lean, walked up to Lee’s trailer. His gait had purpose, like he had no reason not to be there, and when he looked right and left, an errant beam of direct lamplight illuminated his face—Charles McKee.

Hah! I knew I’d been right.

He opened the door of the trailer and slipped inside.

I immediately sent Ian a text: McKee here.

He answered right away with a thumbs-up emoji. We’d agreed that even if our UNSUB showed up at the trailers, Team Key would remain at Ethan’s, in case a conspirator popped out of nowhere to help plant evidence.

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