Luring Levi (Tarnished Saints Series Book 2) (6 page)

“Oh look, they’re starting the ceremony,” said Angel. “Let’s go.”

Candace
was glad for the distraction, because another minute talking with Angel about the kids’ father and she probably would have spilled her guts just to have another woman to confide in.

Chapter 5

The ceremony was short and sweet, and Levi now stood in front of the crowd as Sweet Water’s new mayor. He held on to the large metal key given to him by Mrs. Durnsby that she said was the key to the town.

He found the whole thing amusing since the damned key was too big to actually open anything, and neither did he have a door anywhere in the entire town that he could actually use it on anyway. He was a mayor without an office, a man without a home, and also a man without a wife or family.

He hadn’t thought that would ever bother him, but since he’d been living with Thomas, he saw what kind of closeness and bonds came from being married and having children. He’d been feeling like part of that family until his big brother kicked him to the curb, sending him away and on his own.

He held the key up for everyone to see, and the crowd cheered. For him! No one had ever cheered for him before. This was a feeling he could get used to quickly.

He looked over and saw Angel with the kids in the distance, as well as Candace and her kids as well. The townspeople gathered around and the council stood behind him.

“Make a speech,” whispered Mrs. Durnsby.

“A speech?” He turned to look at her. “What am I supposed to say?”

“Tell them your plans and pro
mises for Sweet Water. They always like to hear that. And talk about the fair. We need to promote it and hopefully pull in more visitors through word of mouth, so make it good.”

“Oh, right.” He turned back to the crowd and noticed they h
ad all gotten very quiet. He hadn’t even had to bang the spoon to get their attention. He felt the dryness of his mouth, and for the first time this all started seeming a little too real. He just wanted to go back to bed and escape all the eyes watching him. But he knew they were looking up to him now – him – an ex-con, and he needed to take this opportunity and start making a new life for himself.

“Speech, speech, speech,” they all started chanting, only makin
g the knot in his stomach tighter.

He held up the key in h
is hand and waited for silence, holding the microphone in his other hand. As if they thought he was some sort of Greek god or something, they all fell quiet. He didn’t know what the hell he was going to say, so he just opened his mouth and started talking into the microphone. It squealed and everyone covered their ears. He stepped back behind the portable speakers and raised the mic and started again.

“As your mayor, I will promise to do my best to bring
more revenue to this town and get the name of Sweet Water known throughout the country.”

They cheered, seeming to like that. He nodded. This wasn’t as hard as he thought.

“One of the first things I’m going to do is to designate the old library as our new town hall. The books will be moved to the basement and offices built upstairs. An actual place to hold the council meetings will be constructed instead of having to meet in the church basement.”

“You can’t do that!” He heard Mrs. Durnsby from behind him.

He lowered the mic and looked over his shoulder. “Why not? I am mayor and in charge of the town, right?”

“Yes,” she said in a low voice. “But the council needs to vote on it first.”

“Well, since I wasn’t a part of the vote to make me mayor in the first place, we’ll just call it even.”

“What about getting this town a sheriff?” Bryce Thorton, the deputy called out. “I am overworked since the sheriff got arrested and thrown in jail. And this is only suppose
d to be a part-time job since it doesn’t pay much, and I have another job I need to go to as well.”

“Yeah,” said someone else. “And Sweet Water needs its own fire department. Last winter my house burned down be
fore the fire trucks from Paw Paw could make it through the snow to get here.”

“And we need more tourism to bring in funds so we can last the winter,” shouted another person.

“Get rid of the strip joint,” called out a woman. “It only tempts our men and makes our daughters think there’s nothing wrong with taking off their clothes.”

Levi
felt his head swarming. All of a sudden, being mayor didn’t seem so good. Everyone expected him to do something about all these problems. And the trouble was – he didn’t see them as problems. He rather liked not having a sheriff since he, as well as Thomas, had had their share of trouble. And he didn’t mind the strip joint. There was nothing wrong with a beer and a little entertainment for a man on a lonely night. But now, everyone wanted him to solve all their problems.

“Quiet down,” he said into the mic. “I will address all those issues, I promise. We’ll have a sheriff and fire department
too.”

“What about
the strip joint?” called out a woman.

Levi knew Burley’s bar brought in lots of men from the surrounding towns and therefore lots of revenue too. It was probably the most successful of all the businesses and without it Sweet Water would be a real ghost town. He really couldn’t close it. He’d have to find a way around it for now until he could think of a way to make everyone happy.

“Everyone’s trying to make a living anyway they can,” he told her. “Things will get better for everyone, I promise. But we have to take this one day at a time.”

“And how about tourism?” asked another woman. “At one time we had our streets packed in the summer, but not anymore. And you know no one comes up here in the winter with all our snow.”

“Well, we’ll fix that too,” he said. “I promise.”

The crowd seemed not to believe him and started to
get angry. Mrs. Durnsby walked up behind him and laid a hand on his shoulder.

“We don’t have funds for any of those things you’ve promised,” she said. “You have a lot to learn about being a mayor. You’d better stop pro
mising them the moon and start producing results quickly or they’re going to run you out of town on a rail,” she warned him.

“I’d like to tell you
what I’m going to do about attracting tourism and revenue right now,” he said, gaining their attention. “We have the fair coming up next week and for those of you who don’t already know, we have a celebrity guest judge here from the dining network in Chicago to help judge the food entries this year. Let me bring her up here. Candy, come join me, please.”

Candace had dragged her kids over to the meeting and was stopping a fight between them at the time and hadn’t even realized what Levi said until she heard him call her Candy over the mic. She looked up and shook her head. She didn’t want to go up there after he’d called her Candy in public. No one called her that – or at least out of the bedroom.

“I present
Chicago’s own food star and reviewer, Candy Kane,” he said into the mic so loudly that they probably heard it two towns over.

“Candy cane?” asked the woman who’d complained about the strip joint. “What is she, some sort of stripper, with a name like that?”

The crowd started laughing and she was ready to turn around and leave, but Levi made his way through the crowd right toward her, talking into the mic as he walked.

“Tell us, Ms. Kane, what can you do to help out Sweet Water?”

“What?” Her kids continued pushing each other, and she reached down, trying to pull them apart when Levi stuck the mic in her face. “Hello, I . . . I am happy to be here and will do whatever I can to help bring in revenue and tourism for the town of Sweet Water.”

Valentine decided to grab the mic right then and shouted into it, “Vance just hit me!”

The crowd laughed again, and Candace pulled her away, getting a scolding look from Levi.

“Well, Ms. Kane,” he said into the mic. “Since you offered, I think it would be a great opportunity for you to bring your network out here for a live show. What do you think?” he asked the crowd.

“No, I can’t!” She shook her head and waved her hand, but Levi just kept on talking.

“I believe that food competition show called
Sliced
is filmed at your studio, is it not Ms. Kane?” He pushed the mic in her face again, just at the same time that her son stepped on her toe.

“Ow!” she said into the mic.

“Ow?” Levi laughed. “I’ll take that as a yes, then?”

“Yes, it is filmed there,” she said, her attention on her kids
who were now in an all out fistfight. She tried to pull them apart.

“Then I think it would bring in lots of tourists as well as revenue if they filmed an episode of the show here.
Maybe we can even have some of the townspeople be contestants.”

Mrs. Durnsby grabbed the mic and spoke into it.

“Being mayor, you can compete, as I hear you used to cook and even had your own restaurant at one time.”

“What?” He looked out to the cheering crowd
and shook his head.

“The crowd likes the idea,
Mr. Mayor,” she said. “So who else should compete?”

“Well,” said Levi
taking back the mic. “How about the queen of the culinary world herself, Ms. Candy Kane?”

The crowd starte
d getting louder, and so did Candace’s kids. She could barely hear Levi over all the commotion.

Mrs. Durnsby grabbed the mic again and spoke into it.

“And the top two winners in the fair’s food entries with ‘best of show’ ribbons will be the other two competitors on the TV show.”

The crowd started cheering and shouting and whistling and Candace could no longer hear Levi and had no idea of what was going on.

“All right then,” said Levi. “It’s settled. Do you know any reason why we couldn’t make this happen?”

He stuck the mic in her face again, and although she couldn’t hear a word, she figured he wanted
her to agree with doing the show, which she would never do. So she spoke directly into the mic and answered loudly. “No!”

The crowd clapped then and smiled, and she didn’t understand why they’d be so happy. Not until she heard Levi’s next words and realized he’d tricked her into accepting.

“Since Ms. Kane has no reason not to bring her network here for a live show, we will do it. So tell all your relatives and friends about it. And reporters get this in the paper and even on the internet, because during the fair, we will be filming
Sliced
, right here in little ol’ Sweet Water.”

By the way the crowd reacted and the smiles on everyone’s faces, Candace realized that once again, she’
d been lured right into the web of the spider, the pompous man with too much power, Mayor Luring Levi Taylor.

Chapter 6

Levi was in such a good mood after what happened at the swearing-in ceremony, that he didn’t even mind the fact Mrs. Durnsby nominated him to compete on the cooking show that would be filmed there soon. He’d stayed away from coking for so long that he felt uncomfortable by her suggestion, but when the people all cheered at the idea, he realized maybe it was time he start doing it once again.

Candace had insisted on driving home, so he’d given her a quick lesson in driving stick shift. At first they all about got whiplash, but she was a fast learner and he was impressed. But then when the car started rolling backwards atop a hill at a stoplight and she’d almost hit the car behind them, Levi made her pull over so he could drive.

They’d pulled into the lot at Sweet Water Foods, the local grocery store, and Candace had decided she’d needed groceries. Levi was feeling generous and even offered to stay in the car and entertain her bratty kids while she shopped. To quiet them down he’d made up games with the overly large metal key to the town that was now in his possession.

He saw her
coming with two bags of groceries and jumped out of the car and grabbed them from her, placing them in the trunk.

“Thank you,” she said, settling herself on the seat and closing the door. “I just didn’t want to keep imposing on Thomas and Angel so I figured I’d cook our own food at the cabin from now on.”

He started up the engine, and she looked over her shoulder to her kids. “I hope they weren’t too much trouble for you,” she said.

“Not at all,” he replied, checking his rear view mirror. Both kids sat still as statues and
were as quiet as church mice. He’d told them that whichever one of them could be quiet all the way home and do whatever he told them to do for the rest of the day could keep the key over night.

“Why are you two so quiet?” she asked, but they didn’t say a word. Levi started to back out
of the parking spot. “Wait! They need to put on their seat belts first.” She reached over to do it, but he grabbed the back of her thigh gently, down low so the kids couldn’t see it.

“Just sit back down, Candy.”

“No. They need their seat belts, no matter what you think.”