Page 46 of In Dangerous Water

“Cool.” Gabriella worked the stems into another bucket of water. “Would a hammer work?”

“Yup,” I said. “It’s what Brynn typically uses.”

“Will we see you both at the masquerade tomorrow night?” Gabriella asked, picking up her full bucket.

Before I could respond, Tim did. “Yes,” he said, giving my hand a supportive squeeze. “We’ll be there together.”

“Wonderful,” Gabriella said. “You two deserve to have some fun. Plus, we have security in place. If it would make you more comfortable, Tim, you and Cordelia can speak to Charlie. He’s the head of the security at the hotel.”

“We will,” Tim said. “Thank you, Gabriella.”

We said our goodbyes to Dru and Gabriella and started back toward the carriage house. Once we were far enough away to be private, I asked, “I’d love to go with you tomorrow as we originally planned; but considering everything, is it a good idea?”

Tim squeezed my hand. “I’ll never leave your side. You’ll be safe.”

“Tim,” I began.

“Then again…” He wiggled his eyebrows at me. “You will have your sisters and the daughters of Midnight...the old coven gang will be back together. That creep wouldn’t stand a chance.”

His cheerful words caught me off guard and I stumbled a bit.

“Problem?” he asked.

“Your acceptance of magick...well, you keep on surprising me,” I said.

He patted my hand. “Hey, a guy can have layers. I may not be a practitioner, but I grew up in Ames Crossing. I suppose that’s why I never asked you any questions about your magick. I already knew it was there.”

“I thought you didn’t want to know.”

His lips twisted in a wry smile. “Seems like we both assumed a lot about each other.”

“Yeah,” I admitted. “I suppose that we did.”

“Anyway,” he said. “In Ames Crossing, we have all sorts of paranormal occurrences. Remind me to tell you about the ghost that trashed the antique store. Or the guy who pretended to be a cryptozoologist. He was trying to convince the sheriff that his unregistered semi-automatic was to protect himself from the Piasa Bird.”

I slanted him a look. “I can’t wait to hear about that.”

He smiled at me. “What do you say we order a pizza for supper, and we can swap ghost stories?”

I went up on my toes to kiss him. “You’ve got yourself a date.”

We had our pizza for dinner, and afterward we cuddled on the couch to watch Halloween movies. With a contented sigh, I leaned my head back against his shoulder.

We were maybe a half-hour into our movie when his cell phone rang.

“Ignore it,” I said.

“Can’t.” He dropped a quick kiss on my mouth. “I can tell by the ring tone that it’s Austin.”

With regret I moved back so he could tug his phone from his pocket and take the call.

“Hi Austin…” Tim began. “What?” he asked loudly and jumped to his feet.

My heart slammed against my ribs. Reaching for the remote, I quickly clicked off the television.

“Okay,” Tim said after a moment. “Alton General. Got it. I’ll bring her. We’ll be there as soon as possible. I understand. Right. Bye.”

“What’s happened?” I asked him.

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