Page 60 of The Most Wanted Witch

Spike and Braid were outside the office nineteen minutes later, arguing with each other.

“What do you think they’re fighting about?” Zab asked. The two of us stood in front of the plate glass, watching the brothers as they shouted and did a lot of finger pointing.

“Not sure, but it does give the appearance of guilt. Problem with those two is they might be guilty of so many different things that it could have nothing to do with this.” I sipped some tea, since I didn’t dare drink cocoa within sight of Bibbi these days, even though Gillian was still at work and it was probably poison-free.

“They better not have screwed us over,” Bibbi said. “I say we leave them out there for a while until one of them freezes and the other cracks.”

I glanced back at Bibbi, so nice and innocent when I first met her, and saw the glint of rage and steel in her eyes. She might’ve been one of the toughest people in Xest, masquerading as this cute chick I called a friend.

“She’s a little scary, isn’t she?” Zab whispered, noticing my attention.

“Just a little, but she likes us, thankfully. We probably don’t want to get on her bad side, though.”

Bibbi just laughed, thinking we were kidding. Or maybe not.

Hawk walked back into the offices, scanning the place until his gaze narrowed on the window. “What are those idiots doing?”

“They don’t appear to want to come in,” Zab said.

We’d been watching them bickering back and forth for a good five minutes already.

Hawk walked to the door and held it open for them. They stopped talking the second he did. Braid nodded to Spike; Spike then nodded to Braid, as they silently argued who was going to go inside first.

“Inside.” Hawk pointed at the bench along the wall.

Braid lost the fight, walking in first. The two of them took a seat, whispering things to each other that appeared to be a continuation of their argument, if their wrinkled-up faces and jerking movements meant anything.

Hawk let them continue to fight it out for a minute until Braid turned to Hawk, his eyes scanning the rest of us, as if he were determining how bad their odds were.

“I don’t know what you were told, but we didn’t do anything. We had nothing to do with her.” Braid pointed to me. “Or the gangs or any of the evil shit happening. We know our place. We stick to the small stuff.Thisain’t small stuff.”

“This is going to be easier than expected,” Zab said.

“How many Whimsy witches and warlocks have you brought over in the last six months?” Hawk asked.

“That’s why we’re here?” Braid squinted.

“Answer the question,” Hawk said.

They went back to looking at each other, as if there was a trap here that they couldn’t spot yet.

“I don’t care if it’s two or twenty. There is no wrong reply. Just answer,” Hawk said, stepping closer to them.

I was itching to get into the fray and start interrogating them myself. Their fear seemed to be focused mostly on Hawk, and my instinct told me to let it stay there. There was plenty of talk around Xest about Hawk, not that anyone whispered the rumors to me. There were reasons Hawk cleared the sidewalk like no one else in this place, even if I didn’t know them.

What the hell was Hawk that he could call anyone in and they’d come running? He wasn’t completely human, as evidenced by the creature he could become. This was a very good reason why I should never have kissed him and enjoyed it. It was always a good idea to know if the person you were clinging to like life depended on it was even a human.

The two of them were back to the silent debating. Braid shrugged and Spike nodded, as they came to some agreement.

“Should we count the two times we brought her over?” Braid asked, pointing at me again.

“No,” Hawk said.

“Then none.”

“If you’re looking for more Whimsy witches, it’s not our fault. It’s been slim pickings,” Spike added. “We’ve been trying.”

Braid nodded, completely missing the point of this conversation. We didn’t care if there weren’t more witches and warlocks, only that nothing was adding up. How had Marvin kept the factory running?

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