Gone With the Witch (15 page)

After the magick shop, she bought some Doc Martens chukka boots and two pairs of spikes,
then
they headed
across the parking lot toward Aiden's motor home, stop
ping when they saw the crowd gathered around it.

They continued to the periphery. "What's going on?" Aiden asked a bystander.

"Oh," the guy said, "that's the tail wagon, or should I
say the dragon tail wagon?"

"Never heard of it," Storm said.

The guy pulled a folded newspaper from his back
pocket, the kind famous for fractured stories about movie stars giving birth to alien babies. The owner unfolded the paper and flicked the front page.

Storm read the headline: "Woman Keeps Sex Slave Handcuffed to Bed."

chapter
Twenty

AIDEN whipped the newspaper out of her hand.

"Oh, look, dear," Storm said, trying not to g
ri
n. "There's
a picture of the sex slave, spread-eagle, all right, but it's too
dark to tell what he looks like or if he's wearing clothes.
Too bad" She took the paper from him to look at his pic
ture more closely.

"Let's see what it says,
dear,"
Aiden replied, taking the
paper back. " ‘Observers testified to seeing a man they
called the Silver Fox, and to speaking with his keeper, Snapdragon McGee, a
nymphomaniac
who says she keeps her slave well-paid, well-fed, and very happy.'
A nymphomaniac, hey?"
Aiden raised a brow.

"Is that all?" Storm asked the bystander.

"No, turn to page five for more pictures."

Storm swallowed. "Oh, goody"

Aiden found page five. "Yep, here's a picture of that Snapdragon dame. Oh they think that's an alias because of
her dragon motor home. She looks good, but she's cover
ing her face.
Too bad.
Still, bare legs that go on forever and
a tailcoat over nothing but a ... well, whatever you call
it."

Aiden swatted Storm's arm with the paper. "Why don't you
ever wear anything like that?"

Storm put her hands on her hips. "Why can't you be satisfied with me the way I am?
Men!"

"Quit whining," Aiden said while their informer looked
on with an understanding smile. Aiden shrugged at the guy.
"I can't imagine why people think this could be the same motor coach"

"Turn the page," the guy said. "There's a great picture. The coach was parked under a streetlight."

Aiden took a deep breath, and Storm's heart picked up its beat. "You're right," Aiden said.
"Great picture."

Storm started walking away, and Aiden followed her,
and by the time the guy yelled for his paper, they'd ducked
behind a van and were threading their way between cars.

Aiden took Storm's arm, and they hunkered down be
hind a Honda Element. "I should probably beat you now as
a matter of principle."

"But that was fun," she lied.

"McGee, your nose is growing."

Aiden's cell phone rang. "Crap," he said. "It's King.
You think they get that newspaper on the islands?”

“
Answer it. I wanna talk to Harmony."

Aiden answered and put it on speakerphone. All they could hear was the sound of King laughing. "Hey, Silver Fox," Harmony broke in. "Let me talk to my sister."

"I'm here, Harm"

"That's how you got him to go with you? You cuffed
him to his bed
an
d
hijacked his motor home? I thought you
were going to seduce him into it."

"I did ... in a way. Are you having a good time?”

“
Hell, it's my honeymoon, but 'I don't think I'm having
as much fun as you are."

"I resent that," King said, no longer laughing.

"Well then, let's go buy some handcuffs, Paxton.”

“
Good idea," King said, and the line went dead.

Aiden folded his phone and put it back in his pocket.

"I'm never gonna hear the end of this."

"You think those gawkers will ever leave?" Storm
asked.

"Eventually, they'll get tired and go home."

"I'm glad we left the air on for Warlock."

"I'm glad I bought the optional generator so we could."
The Honda owner caught them crouching and looked
like she might call for help.

"We're hiding from my abusive ex," Storm said. "Is he still there, honey?" she asked Aiden.

Aiden stood, looked around, and shook his head. "No, I
think we're safe. Thanks for the use of your shield. Nice
car, by the way."

The woman nodded as she watched them go.

Inside the mall, Aiden stopped and stared her down.
"I've got an idea."

Storm cringed. "But I'm too young to
die."

"Then shut up and follow me" They cut through the
mall and went out a side door at the opposite end, circling back to the exit nearest the coach. "You wait here at the door," Aiden said. "I'll be right back. Be ready. We might have to make a quick getaway."

Storm watched him sneak up behind the coach, which was backed up to the building and sandwiched between a
couple
of buses. She was glad the crowd had gathered by the front of the coach, near the door, because Aiden was able to open his garage, unnoticed,
an
d
slide his Harley down a ramp. He left their purchases in the garage, locked it, and walked his hog to where she was waiting.

He handed her a motorcycle helmet, put on his own, and
when she got on behind him, they took off.

She was surprised when he parked near the carnival where they'd awakened that morning.

"You offered me a ride on your Harley the first day, remember?" she said, getting off.

"A motorcycle ride isn't really the kind I was offer
ing."

"I knew that. What now?" she asked. "Gonna feed me to
the tiger?"

"No, but dumping you in a mountain of elephant poop sounds pretty amusing."

"The poop or the tiger?
Didn't we have to read that
story in grammar school?"

Aiden caught her in an affectionate shoulder hug. "
Lets
take a walk on the midway and grab some carnie junk food
for supper. Amusements like this always attracted me, but—"

"But?"

He shrugged. "No fun going to a carnival alone."

That was all Storm needed to hear. Aiden didn't know it,
but that was the closest he'd come to saying he was glad
they were together. "Good enough," she said. "What are we
gonna do about the crowd around the camper?"

"They'll get tired of trying to see through the shades. When it gets dark and no lights go on, they'll give up and leave. Even gawkers get hungry."

A few minutes later, sausage rolls and pizza in hand,
they sat in the swinging seat of a gigundous Ferris wheel and started their slow climb as each seat emptied and refilled.

At the top, Storm stole a bite of his pizza and made a sound of ecstasy at the decadent taste. "The world looks beautiful from up here," she said. "Look, I see the merry-go-round
. '
I love carousel music, and 'I can smell ..." She sniffed. "Belgian waffles with strawberries ... and baby powder."

"It sure does look beautiful," Aiden said, but he hadn't taken his eyes off her. He hadn't caught the baby powder reference, either.

"I haven't been on one of these since my eighth grade date with Melvin Pickles."

"Neither have I"

He was watching her with such
intensity,
he hadn't
heard anything she said. "So you dated Melvin Pickles, too?"

"What?"

"Do 'I have pizza sauce on my nose?"

"No," he said. "You have a lot of layers, and discovering
them is fascinating and disconcerting. You thought the spirit
of your baby was attached to you. And you were filled with
joy when you did. Wanna tell me about that baby of yours?"
He looked so concerned, so caring, that Storm had to work
not to tear up.

She looked out over the midway at the lights and balloons, couples hand in hand, couples pushing strollers.
Happy families.
That's what she'd sensed when she pulled into the empty lot last night. Carnivals must set up here regularly.

She looked at Aiden, watching, waiting.

She usually didn't talk about it, but she sensed his will
ingness to hear it, and more surprising, she wanted to share
it with him.

She sighed. "I was a junior in high school, and 'I got pregnant
. '
I knew that I'd be on my own. My father would be no help." She fought her emotion, but Aiden got fuzzy.

He handed her a clean napkin, but she refused to use it.
"I wished 'I wasn't pregnant, wished the baby would just
go away, you know." She shrugged. "And it did
. '
I miscarried."

She rolled her aquamarine ring around her finger. "I
was afraid that I'd inadvertently gotten rid of my baby with
wishful magick, which would make me worse than my mother."

"Oh, Storm." Aiden gathered her close.

"I can't believe I told you," she said. "I didn't know that
I already loved that baby until I lost it. I miss him every
day. Not that I'm sure it was a him, but 'I
sensed ..
.
him
... almost the minute 'I started to bleed, like he was saying good-bye."

Aiden nodded his understanding. "That's why your sisters don't take your talk of crying babies seriously." Storm crumpled the napkin. "They think
it's
grief.”

“Maybe it is."

"I never heard my baby c
ry
.
'
I only sensed his presence. Your baby, 'I hear."

"
And other babies, you hear, too, judging by your stunt at the
mall."

"That's right," she said, pleased all over again. “As long
as we're sharing," she said as the Ferris wheel began pick
ing up speed, "do you have any idea who the woman
attached to you is?"

"Not my mother. She wasn't attached to me in life.
Claudette, I guess, Claudette Langley, an old girlfriend.”

“
You must have had other girlfriends."

"I did, but none of them are dead, that I know of, and Claudette was ... my most recent ... companion."

Dragon's blood, he couldn't even say
relationship.
"Did Claudette pass away while you were together?"

"No, she dumped me, or 'I assumed she did, because one
day, half my closet was empty. No good-bye. No explanation, though we'd had a disagreement earlier."

He shook his head with regret.
"A
few months after we split, a mutual friend told me that Claudette had died in a car
accident."

"She lived with you in your motor home when you were
together?"

"On and off for a couple of years. I had a smaller coach then. It was nice, but she wanted a house."

"Attached to the ground.
In one place, you mean.”

“
Roots, that's what she said. She wanted roots.”

“Which you can't grow."

"I think 'I must be root challenged." For half a beat, his expression changed. He blamed himself for Claudette's
death. Storm knew it as well as she knew his child was out
there.

"I'm no better for you, Storm, than I was for Claudette.”

“I'll be the judge of that
. '
I take it she couldn't have been
pregnant when she left?"