Page 29 of Mochas and Minotaurs

Damn it. I was hoping to get my hands on them and do that myself. Somehow I didn’t trust the cops to find out anything, not if Arcane Development was involved. My research said that they had enough money to throw around to buy off the cops.

“Depends on if Arcane has already paid the cops off.”

“Not if they send Officer Hayes or Cooley. Those two are solid. Not only are they regulars of mine, but they’re the ones they usually send if it’s magic-related. This is just plain old vandalism, but it’smycoffee shop, and plenty of magical shit has happened in this parking lot before.”

“Yes, I heard about the troll,” I said. “You don’t happen to know anything about that, do you?”

“Nope. None at all,” she said in a tone that clearly told me she did.

“Let’s hope they send your officers.”

Another loud smash, this time sounding just below me, had me wincing. My newly frosted front windows! Oh no, they were going to go for my mirrors. Declan and I had just finished installing them.

“Fuck this.” I was going to save my mirrors. I rushed down the stairs and out into my gym just as one of the thugs stepped over the broken glass.

The streetlights filtered in wanly from outside, enough for me to see. I didn’t bother with the lights. Instead I growled, gave a sharp huff, and then lowered my horns, ready to charge.

“Holy shit!” the man yelled. “What the hell is that!”

He stumbled backward, tripping over himself to get away. I feigned a charge to hurry him out of my gym, even as the blinking red and blue lights appeared in the parking lot. Help was here. And I’d saved my mirrors just by bluffing.

Not wanting to be the one to talk to the cops first, mainly because I wasn’t sure if I should wear my disguise or not and also because I didn’t want to be the center of attention, I slinked back into the stairwell.

“Marcus?” Gigi’s voice came from my phone, and I realized I’d never hung up. Oops.

“Yeah?”

“Get back upstairs and watch your phone. I’m going to ask them to talk inside since it’s freezing out. That way you can meet them as yourself. I’ll call you over; come through the roof.”

She hung up before I could reply.

I removed the glamor spell and made my way back upstairs, nervousness brewing in the pit of my stomach. I had alwaysknown Arcane would be a problem, but this just brought it home. It had to be Arcane, because the thugs had been surprised to see a bull-headed man. If it was the dragon looking for me, then they would have been delighted to have found their prize.

After what seemed like much too long, I got a message from Gigi asking me to come over. I went through the roof as she’d suggested and found her waiting for me by her door on the roof.

“Are you hurt?” I pulled her close and patted her down, inhaling her scent into my lungs.

“I’m perfectly fine. I didn’t go downstairs.” She went up onto her tiptoes and pulled me down to give me a quick peck on the cheek. “Come on, Officer Cooley and Hayes are waiting in my kitchen.”

Officer Cooley was a friendly-looking brunette with her hair pulled up in a high ponytail. She was leaning against Gigi’s counter. Officer Hayes sat at Gigi’s dining room table, drinking a cup of freshly brewed tea. He had a blond cop ‘stache that made him look like he’d walked straight out of a 90’s movie. They looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it.

It was relatively quiet, mainly because there was a blanket tossed over Triscuit’s cage. But he was awake. I could hear him moving around inside.

The two cops introduced themselves, and Gigi added, probably for my benefit, that she’d already told them about the problems we’d been having with Arcane Development. I grabbed a seat at the table across from Officer Hayes who seemed much toocomfortable to be a cop investigating a crime in the middle of the night.

I couldn’t stop staring at him because I swore I’d seen him before. But where? Had he gone to my gym once? Lots of people came through, especially in January when New Year’s resolution drives were high. Was that where I’d seen him?

“Griselda says she’s already had one of her coffee bean shipments destroyed even though they couldn’t prove who was responsible. She said something similar happened to you,” Officer Hayes prompted.

“Yes. With my mirrors. Exact same story. They didn’t destroy anything else but my mirrors. The shipping company says they made a police report.”

Officer Cooley scribbled furiously onto her clipboard. “We’ll look that up. When we apprehended the suspects, they were speaking gibberish.” Her brows furrowed. “Like they were magically compelled not to tell who had sent them. We had another pair bring the troublemakers down to the station for holding.”

“The last time this happened, the Wizard’s Elder Council was involved,” Hayes said solemnly. “You might have heard about it on the news. They were kidnapping witches to try to reinstate The Wall.”

It was the strong sense of déjà vu that had me racking my brain for an answer.

“Hey! Now I realize why the two of you look so familiar. You came to investigate the breaking-and-entering at my old neighbor's place. Shelby. She’s the seamstress.”

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