Page 5 of Guarded By the Gargoyle

Now, he stopped hitting me if the kitchen table had some crumbs on it. He no longer went into a furious rage if dinner wasn’t exactly what he wanted and ready the minute he walked in the door. Because half the time, he didn’t even show up for dinner, leaving me in peace.

At the same time this was happening, Pop-pop started getting thinner and looking his age—which he never had before. His thick black hair finally turned silver and then started to thin and his booming voice got softer.

I’m ashamed to say I didn’t put two and two together—I just thought Pop-pop was aging. It wasn’t until later that I suspected there was a link between my Grandfather’s gradual illness and my husband’s loss of interest in me. I was too busy trying to get free of my awful marriage to consider why Carlo was slowly loosening his stranglehold on my life.

Finally, I dared to present him with divorce papers. With Pop-pop’s encouragement, I had gone to a lawyer he knew ofwho specialized in no-fault divorces. All I needed was Carlo’s signature and I would be free.

I really expected him to lose the strange calm that had come over him and beat me when I showed the paperwork to him. Instead, to my incredulous relief, he signed—actually signed and let me go!

That very night I moved back in with my Pop-pop, who continued to get thinner and weaker. I had never heard from Carlo again…

Until now.

Now my ex was standing in the front of my shop, his eyes narrowed as he stared at me. It was as though I was an old acquaintance that he used to know from high school—someone he was trying to place.

“Hey, uh…uh…” He snapped his fingers like you do when you’re trying to remember a name or a word that’s on the tip of your tongue.

“Yes, officer? How can I help you?” I asked blandly, not giving him any help.

Carlo didn’t answer my question.

“IknowI know you from somewhere,” he said to me. “Your face is so familiar!”

My heart was pounding in my chest but I tried to keep my expression calm. My suspicions about why Carlo had let me go were cemented in that moment.

Remember I told you I was pretty sure that my Grandfather had something to do with it? Well, now I wasabsolutelysure. He must have put some kind of spell or curse or something on my ex to make him lose interest in me and then, to eventually forget me completely.

But now he was back in my shop and I could almostseethe memories flooding back into his head.

“Carlo—that’s Willow, your ex,” his partner Josh said, frowning. “You telling me you don’t evenrecognizeher?”

“Willow?” A look of dawning comprehension broke over Carlo’s cruelly handsome face. “Oh, yeah—Willow!”he said, striding over to me.

“Hi, Carlo,” I said, still trying to play it cool. “I thought your precinct was across town.”

“Yeah, well—they moved us. This is our new beat,” Josh answered for him.

I saw a brief flash of frustration on his face and knew at once what had happened. Carlo had probably roughed a suspect up and gotten the department sued for police brutality again.

I say “again” because it most definitely wasn’t the first time this had happened. Carlo had gotten more complaints than almost any other officer on the New Orleans PD but instead of suspending or firing him, they just kept moving him around and giving him second, third, and fourth chances.

And now, apparently, his new precinct was the one right near my shop. Of all the lousy luck.

Still, I tried to keep calm.

“I see,” I said coolly. “Well, is there anything I can do for you? I was just setting up the shop.”

“Anything you can do?” Carlo repeated stupidly. He was still staring at me, looking more and more like a man who has woken up from a dream. Did that mean the spell my Pop-pop must have put on him was fading? I certainly hoped not.

His partner, Josh took charge.

“We saw a shoplifter run in here,” he said to me. “Black male, maybe five’ two—curly hair, brown eyes, probably around sixteen.”

Carlo blinked.

“Oh yeah—the little fucker ran right in here.” He nodded. “So where is he?”

I could feel the little boy trembling against my leg as a surge of indignation ran through me. There was no way he was a day over twelve, but I knew Carlo and his partner would pretend otherwise so they could rough him up.

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