Page 36 of Guarded By the Gargoyle

“No, no!” I exclaimed. “No, I didn’t mean…it’s just…he’s a cop.”

“A what?” He frowned. Already his twisted features had begun to revert to their usual angelic beauty but the limp body still dangled from his hands.

“A policeman—an authority figure,” I said, when I saw the confusion in his eyes. “I’m trying to say he’s going to be missed. His partner might come looking for him at any minute!”

“No need to worry—I will dispose of him,” Kael told me.

“Disposeof him?” I felt sick. It was like we were talking about throwing away Carlo’s body like a used tissue. His eyes were bulging out of his head and one had popped out and was dangling down on his cheek. The sight made me sick and Ilooked quickly away. “Where…where would you put him?” I got out at last.

“Don’t worry, Mistress—I’ll put him where no one will ever find him,” Kael promised. Without another word, he tucked Carlo’s limp body under one arm and stepped back through the red horizontal rift he had come through. The rift closed neatly behind him, like someone zipping up a zipper and then there was no trace of either my ex or my gargoyle protector.

I just stood there staring for a minute, unable to process what had happened. If it wasn’t for the dull ache in my throat where Carlo had choked me and the stinging pain on my inner thigh where he had pinched me, I would have thought it was all a bad dream.

But it was definitely real and my shop was still a mess. I went to get the broom and dustpan but as I reached for them, I felt suddenly dizzy. I stumbled and went down on my knees. Turning, I leaned my back against the kitchen wall beside the automatic cat feeder. Goddess, what waswrongwith me?

Miss Sassy seemed to have the same question. She came to rub against my legs and look up at me anxiously.

“Mmmmrow?” she asked.

I shook my head.

“I don’t know. I just felt dizzy for a minute. I think I’m in shock. He just…he killed Carlo. Not that he didn’t deserve it—I hated that asshole! But I’ve never…I didn’t expect…”

I couldn’t seem to finish my thought. Instead of talking anymore, I opened my arms and Miss Sassy climbed in my lap. She started purring at once, which always soothes me. I closed my eyes and petted my cat, trying not to think of all the bizarre things that had happened to me over the past few days.

Channeling Big Nicky’s angry dead wife, opening a door to the Pit, being chased by a Hell Hound, finding my way to Hidden Hollow, somehow gaining a gargoyle protector, andthen watching my ex-husband’s head get caved in by that same protector…it was a lot. Maybe more than I could deal with.

But I was going tohaveto deal because it was still a work day. In fact, I could hear someone banging on the front door right now.

“Hang on, I’m coming!” Counting my blessings that Carlo’s death hadn’t been especially messy—at least there was no blood to clean up—I got up on shaky legs and made my way to the front of the store.

When I got there, I was sorry I hadn’t just pretended that the shop was closed. It wasn’t a group of tourists standing there wanting to come in and buy novelty gifts and Big Easy t-shirts. It was Nicky Valentino and two of his thugs.

19

WILLOW

Inwardly, I groaned. Could this day get any worse? Should I open the door for them? Did I dare tonotopen it?

Reluctantly, I decided Ididn’tdare. They were certainly all “packing heat,” to quote one of my Pop-pop’s favorite crime dramas and they could shoot me through the glass windows of the store if I tried to run.

I unlocked the front door again and stepped aside to let them in. All three were wearing impeccable suits, just as they had been the night before, but Big Nicky was giving me a wary look as they filed in.

“Hi, what can I do for you?” I asked, trying to keep my composure. “And please don’t ask me to contact the spirit world again,” I added quickly. “That caused a lot of problems, if you recall.”

Big Nicky frowned at me.

“Idorecall that, young lady,” he said sternly. “But Ialsorecall that I didn’t get to talk to my dear mother on my birthday for the first time since she died. She misses me—she wants to know I’m okay. So I’m going to need you to sit in your little room and call her up.”

“You don’t understand,” I said desperately. “When I sent your ex-wife to Hell like you asked, I accidentally opened a portal to The Pit! And it still hasn’t closed. If I try again, who knows what might come out of it?”

The Mob boss’s frown deepened.

“That sounds like a load of horse shit to me! Now, I want to talk to my mom and you’re going to get her for me!”

I thought of how his dead wife had said he was a “mama’s boy”—I tended to agree with her.

“Listen, you don’t understand—” I began.

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