No Shoes, No Shirt, No Spells (Mystic Cafe Series) (28 page)

“
What the heck are you doing in my room? In my house?” I yelled.

Kim stood at the foot of my bed, staring at me with her arms crossed in front of her surgically upgraded chest.

She clutched the
Mystic Magic
book in her hands.

“
You stole my book?” I couldn’t believe my eyes.

“
Who’s to say that I didn’t find it?” She scowled.

“
Did you find it?” I raised an eyebrow.

“
No, I stole it.” She set the book on the edge of the bed, then straightened her shirt.

My voice rose. “Why would you do something like that?”

“
I overheard you.” She paced the length of the room, her heels clicking across the hardwood floor. That had been the sound I’d mistaken for boots clomping. “I want you to whip up some magic and make Rory love me like he used to.”

“
I can’t do—”

She cut me off. “Listen to me. I tried the magic myself but, after reading the book, I realize you have to have some kind of silly special talent for it.” She snorted. “I’m guessing you possess said talent, since you owned the book. Now get up and make some magic happen for us. I want sparks to fly.” She waved her hands.

I stared at her, my mouth agape. No words formed, she’d left me speechless.

“
Well, don’t just sit there with that goofy look on your face, get up. I’ll force you if I have to.” She tapped her foot against the floor.

By the expression on her face and the fact that she broke into my home in the middle of the night, not to mention stealing the book from the café, I kind of believed her about the whole ‘forcing me’ spiel.

“
Why did you break the window at the café?”

“
Duh, how else was I going to get the book? Stupid.” She rolled her eyes.

“
Um, calling me stupid probably won’t get me to perform the magic any faster.”

She straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin.
“If you don’t get up out of that bed and make some f’in magic happen, I’m going to pull every single hair out of your head.”

“
Okay, okay. I’m up.” I held my hands up in surrender.

Untangling my legs from the sheets, I stood from the bed, clutching my neck and wincing at the pain caused by the lumpy mattress. I made my movements slow so as not to rile her any more. She was acting nuttier than a family-sized bag of Snickers bars at this point, and I didn’t know when she’d completely snap.

“
I’m not sure I can make magic like you want. There are certain rules with this stuff, lots of rules, in fact. If a person doesn’t love you, I can’t make them, no matter how much magic I try.”

“
Bullshit,” she yelled. “It says right here.” She flipped open the cover of the book and fumbled through the pages. “Right here.” She pointed. “Page two-forty-six. Love Spells: Helping Someone Capture The Person Of Their Dreams. I want that.” She crossed her arms in front of her chest.

An ache formed in my chest knowing she had possession of
Mystic Magic
. I stared at her for a beat. “That’s the thing, Kim. Don’t you understand? Rory isn’t the person of your dreams.” I watched for a reaction. When she didn’t respond, I continued. “You don’t really love him. You just want him to love you so you can control him. Wouldn’t it be better to have someone love you for who you are, not under false pretenses? You deserve that.”

She stared back, as if the little wheel in her mind was spinning, mulling over what I’d just said. “How the hell do you know what I want? You work in a diner.” She smirked. “And by the way, I don’t think the food is as good as everyone raves it is.”

People raved about the café? Even after Grandma Imelda left? I smiled a little on the inside.

I shrugged. “Okay, but I do know because I can see it when you’re around Rory. Heck, you’ve even said as much.”

“
When did I say such a thing?” she huffed.

“
Um, pretty much every time I’ve ever talked to you.” Frustration crawled up my spine.

She shook her head. “Uh-huh, nope. You don’t know what you’re talking about. So much for the stalling, huh? Nice try. I know what this is about.” She pointed at me. “You want Rory for yourself. I know the two of you went out. I know he kissed you and I can see the way you look at him. Now get dressed and let’s go. Chop, chop.”

“
Where are we going?” I asked.

“
I’ve heard the magic will work better if we do it outside. I don’t want to take any chances of it not working, so we have to go.” She moved a little closer. “And you can’t go anywhere dressed like that. People will think you’re homeless.”

I rolled my eyes. My attire was hardly that hideous. The pink sweatpants were cute. “Okay, just let me put on some clothes.” I slipped out of my sweats, shimmied into a pair of jeans, and pulled on a T-shirt.

“
You know, Rory might be a little more interested in you if you bothered to dress up more.” She examined a nail while I pulled my shirt on.

“
I work in a kitchen, not really any reason to get dressed up.” Who was she to tell me how to dress? Fake Barbie had no right. I had to wear skirts and heels enough when I worked the other job and I hadn’t much cared for it then.

“
Whatever. I’m just saying. Rory doesn’t like that.” She wiggled her finger in my direction. “He likes his women put together. Very polished, like me.” She studied her reflection in the full-length mirror.

“
Rory works on a farm. I think that’s probably the opposite of what he likes.”

“
Oh, shut up and let’s go.”

I slipped on my tennis shoes. There had to be a way to stop her from carrying out this magic nonsense. I needed to get in touch with Tom, pronto. She tapped her foot as I stumbled from the chair and made my way to the bedroom door.

Kim followed on my heels as I moved into the hallway.

“
Question for you,” I said, traveling toward the front door. “What makes you think that this book isn’t just some gag?”

“
I watched you when you didn’t know it. You really should pay attention to your surroundings more.”

“
So you were stalking me?”

“
Stalking is a harsh word. I prefer to think of it as observing with great interest.”

The more she talked, the crazier she sounded. How could Rory have loved someone as looney as her? Had she ever been sane? She had to have been sane once, right? She must have recently plunged off the
deep end
. We made our way over to Kim’s shiny green car.

“
Get in,” she demanded.

“
Are you kidnapping me? Because in case you didn’t know it, that’s illegal and generally frowned upon.”

She chuckled. “You’re funny, a real comedienne.” She opened the car door. “We’re just going for a ride, you do what I want you to, and you’ll never be bothered by me again. Or Rory.” She smirked. “We’ll be out of your hair and on our way back to the city.”

As soon as I got the chance, I’d call Tom. I’d slipped my cell phone into my pocket when she hadn’t been looking. I climbed into the passenger seat and fastened my seat belt. I knew the first rule of evading kidnapping was never to get in the car with the perpetrator. Once they get you in their car it’s as good as over, but I didn’t think Kim would really hurt me, would she?

The worst that could happen was I’d do the magic and she’d go away with Rory. Not something I wanted but, like I said, that was the worst-case scenario. But I wasn’t lying when I told her about the magic. I’d read the spell before the book had disappeared—out of pure curiosity, mind you—and you can’t just be matched with anyone, it has to be someone you want and they have to want you too. Sure, I could do a spell that would work for a little while, but it wouldn’t last. But if I was wrong and they truly wanted to be together, well, this would seal the deal. I wasn’t sure I wanted to be the one who made that happen. If it happened on its own, there was nothing I could do about that, but I didn’t want to be instrumental in helping their disturbing love affair along.

Chapter
Thirty-Nine

Kim’s car smelled like vanilla cookies and coffee, but it was spotless on the inside. Her cell phone rested on the dash on one of those sticky pad holders. A prism hung from the rearview mirror. She backed out and onto the highway.

Music blasted from the speakers. I yelled over Britney Spears singing about holding it against her or something. “Do you mind at least telling me where we’re going? We could have done this magic in my backyard.”

“
You’ll find out soon enough, don’t you worry your pretty little head.”

She turned down the volume. “So, tell me all about your date with Rory,” she said, as if we were best friends chatting about boys.

“
There’s nothing to tell. I don’t consider it a date.”

“
You’re just saying that so I won’t be mad.” She scowled.

“
Somehow I don’t think it would work that way, you’ll be mad at me no matter what I say.” I shifted in the seat.

“
I won’t, I promise.” She steered around a curve.

“
We went to the fair.” I held onto the door handle. She really didn’t know how to drive that car. “Don’t you think you should slow down?”

“
Yeah, don’t tell me how to drive and I won’t tell you how to cook, although you sure could stand some lessons from Paula Deen.”

I’d like to tell her what she could stand.

“
Did he kiss you?” she asked.

No way was I being truthful with that one.

“
No,” I said.

“
Liar. I know he did. I saw you two in your tongue tango.” She shot a venom-laced glare at me. “Plus, Rory told me he kissed you, too.”

“
Rory told you he kissed me? Why would he do something like that?” My mouth hung open. She probably forced it out of him.

“
Never mind. Once you work your little hocus pocus, I won’t have to worry about him kissing anyone else, ever. He’ll be mine for eternity.”

She sounded like she was about to tie him up and keep him in her closet as a pet, only allowing him food and water. Next, she’d hug him, squeeze him, and call him George.

We moved through Main Street, past the historic part of downtown, and Mystic Café. What I wouldn’t do to be in there making pancakes instead of being trapped in a vehicle with this lunatic.

“
So that’s all you did? The county fair?”

“
We went for a walk after and you came along with your broken-down car. That’s it, and I can’t tell you anything else, because nothing else happened.”

This was getting old. I needed to change the subject before she really went berserk.

“
So you want to move away, huh?” I asked.

“
Yes, I can’t stand small towns. I want to be where I can see the action. I like to go dancing, to the theater and I have a favorite martini bar right around the corner from my apartment. They make a delicious Appletini. My place is great too, sure it’s a tad small, but Rory will love it.”

“
Uh-huh.”

After we made it through town, we finally pulled into the local park. The same park where I’d shared that fantastic first kiss with Rory. If Kim had anything to do with it, I’d never get a chance to feel his lips pressed next to mine again.

“
The park? You bring me to the public park to perform magic? I really don’t feel comfortable doing this in public. Not to mention I could get in trouble for doing this in public. There’s a magical organization that oversees this stuff, you know?” Okay, now I sounded like the nutty one.

“
Do I look like I care if you get in trouble?” She shifted the car into park.

“
No, I guess you don’t.”

Everything was all about her. She had the ‘me, me, me’ mentality down pat.

“
Come on.” She jumped out from the car and motioned for me to do the same.

I opened the door, but thoughts of driving off went through my mind after she got out. I wouldn’t be able to slip over to the driver's seat fast enough though, so I’d have to devise another plan. The cell phone in my pocket was my only option. I patted my pants pocket to make sure it hadn’t fallen out. It was still safely tucked away. I had to distract her long enough to make a call to Tom.

She reached through the rolled-down window and hoisted the book from the backseat. “This thing is heavy, why’d they make it so heavy?”

I shook my head. “I have no idea. It’s not at the top of my list of questions at the moment.” The item at the top of my list was simply how to get the book back.

“
We’ll go over to that picnic bench.” She pointed.

“
Fine.” I followed her. The thought of running crossed my mind, but I wanted the book back, so that was out of the question. I wondered what the organization would do to Kim when they found out she had stolen the book. What kind of punishment does someone get for messing with magic?

She plopped the book down on the table. She didn’t worry about damaging it. That was the least of her concerns.

“
You’ve got a lot of nerve doing this, you know?”

A smile stretched tightly across her face. “I call it moxie.”

“
You can call a weed a flower, but it’s still a weed.”