Page 38 of Witch Upon a Star
“It’s my ex,” she admitted softly. “He won’t take ‘no’ for an answer.”
The identical expression that crossed Ghost’s and Starbucks’ faces was murderous. It would be terrifying if it was directed at me.
“Did he rape you?” Ghost demanded.
Kora’s eyes widened and she sat up in shock. “What? No! No, nothing like that. He’s been stalking me.” As if realizing she was still holding my hand, she suddenly let go with an apologetic expression. I waved it off and pulled my arm back across the table. “He wants to get back together, but I don’t. It’s been over a year since our divorce, and he’sstilltrying.”
I didn’t know how long Starbucks and Kora had been sleeping together, but I had a feeling it had been a while. I felt Starbucks’ hand on my knee under the table. He gave me a reassuring squeeze.
“What has he been doing?” Starbucks asked Kora.
“Breaks into my apartment when I’m not there and leaves me gifts; flattens my tire and then ‘happens’ to find me on the side of the road with a spare; finds me at the mall or in town or at a club or wherever I am and pays for whatever it is I am getting so I ‘owe’ him…”
“Has he gotten physical?” Ghost inquired. He had his phone out and was texting as Kora talked. “Hurt you?”
“He… He grabs me sometimes, but nothing major. He’s never beat me,” she stressed, as if that was the line in the sand.
“Grabbing you is still hurting you,” Ghost growled.
Starbucks’ hand on my knee tightened. “If you didn’t feel like you could tell me this, why haven’t you gone to the police? Carlos wouldnotlet something like this stand.”
I got the sudden image of a young woman, scared and alone on a kitchen floor. Her face was battered and bruised…and she had no pants on. I had no idea who she was or what her connection was to our town’s sheriff, but I prayed she was okay.
“You don’t understand.” Kora’s expression was forlorn. “Heisthe police. He works for Cottonville PD.”
I had lived a relatively sheltered life, but even so, I was among the lucky women who had never had to experience the fear of being exploited or victimized by someone who thought themselves stronger than me. I didn’t need that personal experience, though, to know thatno amountof what Kurt—that was the name she’d used in my vision—was doing to Kora was okay. He didn’t need to beat her to be a danger to her.
And as acop? He had a lot of influence to manipulate the situation.
“Wouldn’t matter to Carlos,” Ghost said in answer. “I’m going to call him. Hold tight.” He got up, still on his phone. I assumed he wanted to find a quieter place to speak with the sheriff. Neither Dosia nor I had gone to high school with Carlos Santiago, but we knew of him. His family story was well known through town, with his father abandoning his mother after she’d been diagnosed with cancer.
All three of us watched Ghost’s back as he walked off. Slowly, Starbucks and I turned our attention back to Kora. Without Ghost beside her, she looked a little uncomfortable, like his presence blocking her in was the only reason she’d stayed and confessed what was going on.
“What does any of this have to do with you tricking me into getting you pregnant?” Starbucks asked her.
With everything else Kora had told us and my guilt over thinking her motives malicious, I’d forgotten about that. But my vision of her telling Kurt that she was pregnant was what had started all of this.
“I wasn’t…” Kora dropped her face into her hands. “I wasn’tactuallygoing to get pregnant. I mean, it crossed my mind for maybe a second, but I wasn’t going to do it. But then I thought, Kurt doesn’t need to know I’m not actually pregnant. And if he thinks it’s yours then maybe he’ll finally leave me alone. He already knows we were,” her eyes glanced over to me, “sleeping together. He hated it, but he wouldn’t go after you. At his core, he’s a coward. He’d never actually face you in a fight.”
“In a sense, you namedropped me as the father of your non-existent baby.”
“I was desperate,” she defended, a bit frantic. “I just needed him to stop. A friend of mine, her ex-boyfriend was awful to her and her new boyfriend. Then she got pregnant, and it kind of snapped him out of it. He’s got a great relationship with them now! I guess…” She shook her head, sadness washing over her. “I was hoping telling Kurt that I was pregnant would have the same effect. And in my defense,” she added hastily, “I never actually said your name. I just told himhewasn’t the father and let him assume.”
The same assumption I had made. Fuck. It had been a long time since I was so wrong about a vision. Yet, it made me pause. Why would that vision come to me in that way if the gods hadn’t meant for me to interpret it the way I did? What other logical assumption could I have made based on the information given to me?
Unless I was supposed to do nothing. What if, by interfering, I changed the course of not only Starbucks and my relationship but also Kora’s future? What if she was supposed to lead Kurt to believe that she was pregnant, getting Starbucks involved in her situation so he could save her? But thenwhat outcome would that have caused?Wassomething more supposed to have developed between Starbucks and Kora?
Starbucks’ left arm went around my shoulders and he ducked his head down to my ear. “Whatever it is you’re thinking about, stop it right now. I am not in love with her. I never was and I never would be. I am helping her because it is the right thing to do, nothing more.”
He had the wrong assumption of what was going through my head, but his words still helped. I didn’t know how long he and Kora had had a hookup relationship for. In all that time, they’d never become friends, never ventured beyond the bedroom to explore something more. I understood what he’d said to me just a little bit ago better now. In the little more than a day that we’d known each other, we’d been more intimate than he ever was with Kora.
And that knowledge meant everything.
I touched his leg under the table, a silent signal that I was good. He kissed my cheek before straightening.
Kora looked between us. “Wait. This isn’t your auction date, is it? This is a date-date.”
“Calliope’s mine,” Starbucks declared. The words were spoken like he was stating a common fact, like the sky being blue or the grass being green.
