Page 86 of Hopelessly Teavoted
“That’s super smart,” said Vickie. “She must really love your sister.”
“I think she does, yes.”
“But?”
“Never mind.” It wasn’t for him to share, but he had overheard Priscilla and Evelyn arguing a lot lately. Evelyn wanted to settle down.
Priscilla liked kids, but was happy to like them from afar. He was pretty sure—though it wasn’t his business to know for certain—that she didn’t want to have her own, and that Evelyn maybe did. But tonight, they all had a common goal, and Prissy wouldn’t want to mourn a good relationship before it was over. Sometimes things kept people apart, even when there was also love to hold them together.
Vickie squeezed his arm, pausing for a moment at the end of the long hall and looking down at the polished wooden floors.
“It’s still a shame you have to suspect your coworkers. Does anyone besides Chet seem competent enough to pull something like this off?”
“I don’t know. I mean, we have a few real assholes on staff, but I’m not sure being an asshole means you are also a murderer. It seems unfair to make that leap, even if there are too many coincidences to ignore completely.”
Vickie remained quiet, tilting her chin down.
“I know that look. Whatever it is you have to say, say it.”
“Fine. I want you to know this is true whether Chet is suspicious or not. Sometimes men let other men off for being ‘just assholes’ or ‘just creepy’ too easily. Like, sometimes those are the folks we should be looking into, who might be up to so much worse.”
Azrael opened his mouth to protest, then closed it.
“I hadn’t thought of it like that,” he said. The guilt over his gut reaction tripped him up, and he stumbled a little, lost in the thought that he had been about to justify other men’s bad behavior. And for what? Unwarranted loyalty to people he didn’t even know very well?
Vickie steadied him with a gloved hand, turning to face him.
“I’ve got you,” she said. “But you’re better than that, you know?Bebetter.”
He nodded.
“We think we’ve narrowed down a more specific tracking spell. One that might work to help us pinpoint who our person is. And if that doesn’t work, you and I can go through a staff directory and start investigating one by one.”
It wouldn’t be fun, sleuthing on his new coworkers. But he’d do it for Victoria.
He’d do just about anything for her.
CHAPTER 28Victoria
Priscilla sat at the head of the table, her plunging, gold V-neck dress shimmering with sequins that would have made a flapper jealous, a roast chicken on an ornate red cast-iron platter in front of her. To her right sat Evelyn, wearing a stunning crimson gown fit for a queen. The flowing sleeves of it tapered into lace at the tips, and the back dipped low under a gold linked necklace that hung glittering against her skin.
It was hard not to notice the constant refrain of Priscilla’s fingers strumming at the chain down Evelyn’s back, especially when all Vickie wanted, all she could not have, was for Azrael to touch her like that. Skin to skin.
Emily Lickinson, that prescient ball of fuzz, curled sympathetically around Vickie’s feet, rustling through the skirt of her gown, as the chair nudged itself under her where she sat to Prissy’s left.
Azrael, hair still a little rumpled from their abandoned cocktail hour even after washing up, sat a safe distance away on the other side of the table, though Vickie noticed that the mahogany rippled every so often, sliding her place setting toward Azrael with the softplinkof her fork and wineglass against the table.
“That’s quite enough,” said Priscilla, rapping at the table sharply with her knuckles, and it stopped.
“Why is it that the furniture always likes you better?” Azrael muttered from down the table, which seemed to have snuck its way around the reprimand by shortening and pulling Azrael’s chair closer. He was still farther away than Vickie would like, but if she reached out, her gloved hand could have touched his now.
Priscilla shook her head.
“Our dining room always has been hopelessly romantic.”
As if on cue, candles lit in the corners and the chandelier dimmed, spools of diamond-shaped light reflecting off the tiny crystals onto their faces. Everything seemed warmer in low lighting. More magical.
Evelyn smiled at Priscilla and placed her hand on top of the other woman’s. They exchanged a look that made Vickie’s insides twist.
