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“Miss Darla,” she answered, sadness coating her words.

I instantly felt sick to my stomach. Miss Darla was a widow whose husband had died five years ago. She mostly kept to herself and would never utter a cruel word to anyone. Whoever was doing this was a sick son of a bitch. They were picking people at random. Miss Darla and Tippy had no connection to each other whatsoever. They may have waved at each other in the marketplace, but that was it.

“Mercy?” Lily asked. “Are you still there?”

My attention snapped back to the call. “Yes. Sorry. I feel a little left in the dark this morning.”

“I thought you knew, especially after I saw Caleb. He said you’ve had a hard couple of days.”

I heard Bradley speaking in the background.

“What’s he saying?” I asked.

“Oh, just that you’d think a place like East Greenwich would be a safe haven for everyone who lives here.” Lily chuckled. “Bradley thinks I should buy a gun.”

I smiled at the idea of Lily with a handgun. Lily only needed the magic at her fingertips to protect herself, but we didn’t need to tell Bradley about that.

_______________

WHEN I ARRIVEDat the morgue, Caleb and Melissa still hadn’t responded to the text I’d sent them both to open the door for me. I saw Caleb’s car hidden near the back alley, so I assumed the cameras were already down. I placed my hand on the latch, using my powers to unlock it. I opened the back door and tiptoed as quietly as I could before reaching the autopsy suite.

Caleb sat against Melissa’s desk, and they snickered about something. I stopped moving toward them when he placed his hand on hers, stroking his thumb over her fingers. She smiled and blushed as his lips found the crease of her neck, and his hand moved and slid up her thigh.

I’m not going to watch this show.

Steadying my breath, I scurried around the corner behind the wall. Though my feelings no longer existed, and I knew they were dating, fucking, or whatever the hell their relationship was, I hadn’t witnessed it with my own eyes. Ezra just had a loud mouth and couldn’t keep a secret.

Seeing Caleb with someone who wasn’t me was different and confusing. It felt awkward to walk in on it. But I couldn’t stand in the hall like this, or I’d get caught, which would be painfully worse.

Once I cleared my throat, Caleb quickly retracted his hand from her exposed thigh.

“Hey, sorry I’m late for the party.” I glared at him, narrowing my eyes. “Hey, Melissa. Same killer?”

Melissa adjusted her shirt and climbed down from the counter, moving over to the steel table. “Yep.” She pointed to Miss Darla’s neck. “She has the same two marks Ryan Harrison had.” She slipped on a pair of gloves and parted Miss Darla’s lips. “Same tattoo of a black horse, too.”

I over-exaggerated my glare at Caleb since he didn’t even tell me he was coming here when I awoke this morning. “Looks like I need to go back to the club.”

“Fuck that!” Caleb snapped.

My body tensed. I understood Caleb was scared something awful would happen to me again, but this was my call, and I wasn’t going to be left in the dark because of one shitty night.

Melissa looked down, averting her eyes from us. She covered Miss Darla’s face by zipping up the yellow bag and stepped back. “I need to go enter a few notes into the computer; give me like five minutes.”

She hurried out, leaving Caleb and me ready to argue again.

“You’re not giving me orders to stay home!” I almost shouted that time.

“The hell I am.”

“This is about the coven, Caleb,” I reminded him. “Someone is doing this to get to us, and you can’t just take over and leave me out of it.”

The stubbornness of my own voice made me cringe, but Caleb was so infuriating sometimes; he brought it out of me. And I despised him for it.

“Oh, yes, I will,” he threatened.

I felt energy building up inside me. My magic was surging with my temper. I couldn’t control it; I couldn’t suppress it.

I slammed my hand onto the metal table next to me, and the energy that left me exploded through the room. It caused every piece of glass to shatter around us and metal objects to rattle violently.

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