Page 46 of Witch Queens: Tales from Oz

That’s a lie. I know exactly what I had been expecting. I thought Scarecrow would rip his lips off for talking to me that way. So, when he burst out laughing it caught me off guard.

I whacked his arm with the back of my hand, “What the hell?”

Scarecrow attempted to contain himself, but a wide shit-eating grin was still plastered across his handsome visage.

I cleared my throat, “No, Boq, there will be no rides for myself or anyone else for quite a while. I wasn’t implying that she spent the night as a sexual conquest.”

He looked perplexed, “Well, why else would she have been here?”

I gritted my teeth, not looking at my amused companion.

“Perhaps you know where she had been staying before she came to get the identification papers?”

Boq shook his head, “Haven’t a clue.”

“Why didn’t you get the money upfront?” I was getting perturbed.

“She had nice tits.”

There was a divisive snort from Scarecrow to which I didn’t address.

“So, you essentially gave her the keys to the Emerald City because she sucked on your dick?”

I was done with Boq. And just the tiniest bit sad that Dorothy hadn’t killed him.

Boq flushed, “Well, we never got to that, per say.”

My jaw was on the floor.

Scarecrow stepped in, “Boq, it is always a pleasure. It’s too bad that you didn’t get a phone number or return address. I think she might really like you. A hot chick like that, damn son, you could be tripling what you are bringing in. But you don’t know how to reach her again?”

Scarecrow let out the fakest sigh in history. And slowly I began to see the humor in all of this.

He was one sneaky son of a bitch.

“I don’t,” Boq’s face lit up, “But I know who might! She mentioned something about Prince Gregory. Could be that she wishes to see the Sapphire City first?”

**

AS I CLIMBED ON THEback of Scarecrow’s bike, I had to be impressed at his interrogation techniques.

The repulsive little creature had helped us.

The only sad part was that we were required to go to the Sapphire city. That and the thought of pigtails trying to get hot and heavy with Boq. I might require psychotherapy to get rid of that image.

“What now?” I asked.

Scarecrow turned on the bike, giving me a killer smile, “Looks like we are visiting royalty.”

Yeah, that is what I was afraid of.

The drive back through the sprawling countryside didn’t seem quite as enticing this time around. I wasn’t sure what appealed to me less, Boq or Prince Gregory.

But I had a dreadful feeling that it might be the former.

Not only that, but we had been out most of the day, and I was starving, tired, and knew that we still had a few hours until we reached the Sapphire City.

When his bike pulled off the yellow brick road onto a gravel path, I wanted to cheer.

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