Witch Way to Turn (12 page)

Breena was pissed, and the silence freaked her the hell out.
Tell me not to see him. Tell me you want me for yourself. Tell me never to speak to you again. Anything!

He didn’t say a word. As far as she could tell, he didn’t even breathe.

“Alrighty then.” She stepped around the stone-like figure.

His jet-black curls still stuck out above the aisle of batteries when she looked back. As she kicked the door to the warehouse open, she wished things could be different with Myles. Easy. Like with Orin.

Fat chance.

If wishes came true, she’d have custody of Jenny.

She tried her best not to think about the boys. Instead, she focused on how best to get Jenny’s cellphone to her. At least she had some control over that.

* * * *

Breena pulled into the two-pump gas station at the end of Dogwood Drive. While the almost empty Beetle gurgled away her hard-earned money, she called the house. To her relief, Jenny answered on the second ring and said she was alone.

Once Breena had filled up, she left the CITGO. At Norma’s, she parked behind the shed so she could make an undetected escape if Evil One and Two came home.

“Hi, sis!” Jenny jumped into her sister’s arms, wrapped her legs around her and nearly knocked her down as Breena met her on the steps.

Returning the hug, Breena breathed in the fruity smell of Jenny’s shampoo. It’d only been a day, but she hated the separation.

The swelling from her bruised eye had already gone away and it wasn’t black anymore. Although the yellowish color didn’t look the best, at least it proved Jenny was healing. As Jenny hopped down, she landed a little shaky on her left leg.

Breena held her sister’s hand. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” Jenny poked at her eye to show it didn’t hurt.

My little trooper
.

Then she noticed why Jenny favored her left leg–a huge red welt on her shin. “Jenny, what’s this? They did this?”

Jenny looked down at the weathered porch.

Breena got down on her knees and lifted Jenny’s chin, forcing her to look her in the eye. “This isn’t your fault, Jenny. Norma and Susan are bad people.”

Damn bitches
.

She’d gotten used to taking their shit. She’d taken it for Jenny too, when she could. And now she had gone and made things worse. At least before, she’d been able to stop by. Granted, she’d been treated the same during her visits as she had when she’d lived there, but she’d managed to buffer more than a few beatings.

Somehow, some way, she’d get Jenny out of this mess. Breena didn’t care how fast her sister healed, the mental scars would last a lot longer. She was proof of that.

“Bea, don’t worry. Doesn’t really hurt.” Big saucer eyes peered up at Breena.

She wanted to scream or cry. Maybe both. But not here. Not in front of Jenny. Breena would be her rock. Miss Dependable.

“You’re strong, Jenny.”

Jenny grinned while she mock-flexed her scrawny arm. Breena couldn’t help but relax a little and let loose a smile.

It won’t always be like this
, Breena promised her sister silently.

She needed to take both their minds off the abuse, or she might do something that would land her in jail. Then she really wouldn’t be any use.

“Hang on a sec.” Breena raced to her car and came back with the Radio Shack bag. “Got ya something.” She panted. Maybe a run might be a good idea from time to time, especially with the way she’d been eating lately.

“A present?”

“Yup.”

Jenny beamed.

Breena motioned her sister inside. “Come on, you can open it while I do some of your chores, then I’ve got to head out.”

Jenny’s grin turned into a pout almost instantly.

Breena died a little inside every time she left Jenny here. But the other part of her felt a sense of…relief.

Am I a bad person?

She decided not to walk that rhetorical path right now. Instead, she opted for the semi-normal. “What did you do today?”

Jenny jumped onto the bed with a little less
oomph
than usual before dumping out the contents of the bag. “Watched TV, read, ate lunch with Myles, did chores–”

“You ate lunch with Myles?” Breena cocked her head to the side.

“Yeah. He brought me a Hardees’ cheeseburger.”

“Did he say why he stopped by?”

“He wanted to make sure I was all right.”

Breena raised an eyebrow at Jenny and bit the inside of her lip, then walked over to her sister’s side to tear the plastic off the cellphone for her.

“Thanks, Bea.” She giggled. “Now I can put his number in my phone.”

“You sure can.” Breena smiled. “So, did he say anything else?”

“Nah. But I did tell him his glow was brighter when we stayed over.”

Breena froze. “What did he say?”

“He was surprised. He didn’t know he glowed.” She plugged her new cell into the wall and played with the settings.

“Jenny, you shouldn’t tell people they glow.”

“Why not?” She looked at Breena like she’d grown a second nose.

“Because it could be dangerous.”

“How?”

She scooted Jenny off the bed and straightened the covers. “I’m not sure exactly.” Breena went down the hall to the bathroom to scrub something. Jenny trailed along behind her, leaving her new present to charge.

“He asked if you glowed too.” Jenny watched while Breena got the cleaner and brush from under the sink.

Why would he ask that?

As far as he knew she was totally normal. She’d never mentioned anything otherwise. “What did you say?”

“Yeah. Sometimes.”

Breena clicked her tongue before she sprayed the toilet bowl with cleaner. Didn’t take much elbow grease to bring out a sparkle since she’d cleaned it two days before. Never hurt to be overly thorough when dealing with Norma though.

“Jen.” Breena gave her sister a stern look before putting away the cleaning supplies.

Jenny shuffled after Breena all the way to the bedroom, blowing air out her nose. Pouting no doubt. Her eyes were probably squinted too. “What’d I do?”

Breena glanced behind her.

Yup. Narrowed eyes, thin lips, crossed arms.
Jenny’s childish rants did nothing to help her case. But the rare tears she shed wrenched Breena’s insides into knots.

“Please don’t tell people about the glowing. Especially not about
my
glow.”

“Why?” Jenny never passed up an opportunity to ask why.

“Like I said, I don’t think it’s a good idea.” Breena sat next to her on the bed, handing Jenny the cellphone. “So, did he say anything after you told him ‘sometimes’?”

“Uh, yeah.” She glanced up from her new toy. “He said you were really brave. And that no matter what happens, he’d be there for both of us.”

Well, great.

Breena felt even worse, if that were possible. But as big a jerk-wad as she’d been, she couldn’t help wondering why Myles glowed. What normal human being glowed?

Unless neither of us is human
, her mind offered.

Okay, it was one thing if Orin wasn’t human. And maybe she would come to terms with her own non-humanity…but, Myles? Not human? What the hell could he be?

She shook off the thought. No way could she deal with
another
paranormal situation right now.

After she’d vacuumed the living room, swept the rest of the downstairs–including the porch–she kissed Jenny goodbye and made her pinky-swear not to talk about the glowing thing to anyone else. She also gave her strict instructions to keep the cellphone hidden. No telling if it would set Norma off.

Norma and Susan passed Breena in their beater Jeep Cherokee as she flew by the gas station. She couldn’t tell if they’d noticed her. She prayed that Jenny would keep a low profile a little while longer. Just until Breena figured something out.

* * * *

When she got home, she found a forest green strapless dress with a pair of pewter strappy sandals on top of the card table. Folded in half, like a tent, was a thick piece of paper. She opened it.

For tonight. Can’t wait, O
.

Smiling to herself, she took the gift back to her room to get ready.

Taking the longest, hottest shower possible, Breena scrubbed just a tad too hard, trying without success to scrub away some of today. Why would Myles just assume she’d spent the night with Orin? It’s not like she ever did stuff like that. Seriously, he couldn’t even give her the benefit of the doubt? And what had Myles expected her to say when he’d said he cared about her?

Ever since the blue light shot out of her hands and she’d woken up in Myles’s apartment, things were different between them. She couldn’t nail it down exactly, but her relationship with Myles had changed. What that meant, she didn’t know. But every fiber of her being told her something wasn’t right.

She dried off, put on a couple more layers of makeup than her norm then slipped into the billowy, satin dress. It was beautiful. She
felt
beautiful, and hell, she deserved to go out with someone who liked her wholeheartedly. Someone who didn’t pull back every time they got close.

Fussing with her hair, she heard a knock at the front door. She decided to leave her hair down.

Orin wore a charcoal gray, two-button suit with a forest green tie that matched her dress. His bangs were perfectly swept to the side and the golden ring around his green eyes almost twinkled as he looked at her

“You look stunning.” He held out a small clear plastic box.

A wave of heat flooded her cheeks. “What’s this?”

“For you.” He lifted the lid to pull out the corsage. African violets. “They remind me of your eyes.”

She let him place the flowers on her wrist. “Thank you. I love it. And the dress.” She did a quick twirl.

“I’m glad.” When Orin smiled, she couldn’t remember what she’d been worrying about earlier.

And she didn’t want to.

Chapter 10

Did Orin just order for her?

Hell’s bells.

So not cool.
Breena knew how petty it seemed, but the little things turned into big things.

Of course, he had bought her the awesome dress, and she was pretty sure he’d spring for dinner too. She’d never been to Cafe 242 before, a fancy by-reservation-only kind of place with very little seating. The restaurant–a renovated Victorian house located at 242 Main Street in downtown Hickory–was the closest “big city dining” within an hour’s drive.

Still. She made her own decisions.
Myles couldn’t tell her who to date, and Orin wasn’t going to tell her what to eat. Petty-schmetty.

“Excuse me, ma’am.” Breena looked at the waitress. “I’d like the fillet, medium well, and the potatoes au gratin with a sweet tea.”

“Certainly.” She took their menus.

Orin eyed her for a minute before his sexy laugh burst from his lips. “Feisty tonight.” As he reached across the table to stroke her knuckles, his ears rose. But they retracted in less time than it took for her to blink. No one would even notice, considering how dark they kept the room.

Cutting her gaze to him, she pursed her lips with a raised brow for added effect. A modified Jenny-move.

“Sorry, Breena. I don’t normally do this. I thought ordering for a woman was part of dating etiquette.”

“Um, maybe in the 1950s. What don’t you normally do?”

“Date, per se.”

“What
do
you normally do?” She immediately regretted the question.

He thought for a minute. “Stuff.”

Oh boy, did she imagine stuff. She even imagined
them
doing stuff. But she told herself that would be moving too fast. She wouldn’t make the same mistake she’d made with the computer geek.

“So you mean to tell me, in three hundred years you’ve never had a girlfriend?”

“Guilty.” He looked sheepish.

“Why?”

“My job keeps me…” He looked down at his hands, opened them flat, palm-side up. “Busy.”

“Here you are.” The waitress handed Breena her sweet tea and set Orin’s water in front of him along with a mini loaf of bread.

When the waitress flitted off to check on other customers, Breena turned her attention to Orin. “Why won’t you talk about your job? Are you part of the mob?”

“No. But I did realize the other night what I do for a living isn’t always right.” He sawed into the bread with a dull steak knife and lifted a piece in her direction as if to change the subject.

He wasn’t getting off that easily. “What exactly
do
you do for a living?” Tearing the slice apart with her fingers, she savored each warm chewy bite.

“Does it matter?”

Breena shrugged. “You tell me.”

“Someday I will. But tonight is about you.”