“Looking for the missing shifters,” I said with the calm I didn’t feel. “How can you be involved in something like this?” Please have a reasonable excuse.
Penny was the sweetest person I’d ever met. Or at least I’d thought she was. It broke my heart that she would have anything to do with the cruelty that had gone on here.
“I’m not,” she stuttered. “I’m doing the same thing.”
I gave her a flat look and Luci scoffed. “A likely excuse. Care to elaborate?”
“I know a shifter family and they asked me to find their daughter,” she said. “I did a locator spell that led me here.”
I knew she was lying as much as I knew my own name. But I had no proof. “I’m sorry, Penny, but we can’t let you walk away from here on just that information.”
But what to do with her? “Luci, can you put her in the barn and put up a ward so she can’t get out?” I asked.
He gave me a low bow. “I live to serve her majesty necromancer.”
But I didn’t miss the scathing look that accompanied that bow. He didn’t like me taking charge. He’d tolerated it for a while, but his patience was waning.
Well, that was too dang bad. We were here on my dime right now. As appreciative as I was that he’d rescued us, I had to do this right or the people behind the fighting ring might get away.
“Thank you,” I said stiffly.
I searched through Penny’s car but didn’t find anything. With no way of knowing if Olivia and Owen had made it back to the car yet to call Sam and Drew, I had to decide if we should wait here for them or take Penny’s car back to my house and wait.
If nothing else, I wanted to see what was in that shed. With the half-pressed coin outside it, surely there was something good inside.
Luci walked out of the barn and straightened his suit. “Well, as you seem to have things in order, and a vehicle to get yourself back to your home, I’m going to leave you to it.”
“Hang on,” I said, but he held up a hand.
“No, you’re doing so well on your own that you don’t need me.” He sniffed. “The ward on the barn will disintegrate if you walk through it. Only you. So don’t do that unless you’re ready for Miss Penny to leave with you.”
Crap. I’d offended him by taking the lead. “No, I’m sorry.”
Luci grinned at me with that familiar mischievous glint in his eyes. “Don’t be sorry. But I’ll see you later.”
With a snap, he disappeared, leaving me with Penny locked in the barn and no clue what to do next.
I pulled out my phone and realized it had no service. Ugh. I walked away from the barn hoping to get a signal, but with no luck. They must have had a spell for that, too.
The rumbling of a car engine made my pulse increase. I whirled around and blew out a breath in relief to see Drew’s cruiser driving down the service road.
When I reached the barn, he and Sam stepped out of the police car. I wasn’t sure how much Olivia had told them, so I recapped and filled them in about Penny. “I can’t believe she’s involved with something like this.”
“You’d be surprised what people are capable of.” Drew reached out for me, and I took his hand and allowed him to pull me into a hug. “How are you?”
“Sad and disgusted.” I breathed him in and instantly relaxed. I enjoyed the feeling of being wrapped in his warmth a little longer, then stepped back. “I have the kids at my house. Or did I say that already?”
I was so tired I was repeating myself.
Drew touched my cheek. When I raised my gaze to his, he said, “Let Penny out so we can take her in, then go take care of the kids.”
Nodding, I pressed a kiss to his cheek before leading them inside the barn. Just as Luci said, the ward holding Penny broke as soon as I walked through it. Not able to look at the older woman, I left her in Drew and Sam’s care.
When I drove onto the main road, my cell worked, so I texted Olivia to pick me up at Penny’s house. I had to take her car back anyway so the neighbors wouldn’t ask too many questions.
On the way to my house, I was having Olivia stop off at the liquor store so I could grab a bottle of wine. I was going to need it after this day was through.
Chapter Twenty
Owen picked me up from Penny’s. “Olivia is holding down the fort. Alfred didn’t know what to do with all those kids, so he took Larry upstairs. So, I think we are on our own for dinner. Also, I think Snooze packed up and left.”
A laugh burst from my lips. “Did you actually see Snooze pack up?”
He chuckled. “No, but he had his favorite toy in his mouth as he ran out the back door.”
“He’ll be back.” I was still smiling at the thought of my fat, immortal cat running away from home just because of a bunch of kids when we pulled into my driveway. There were a few cars I didn’t recognize parked out front. Must be parents picking up kids.
Before getting out of the car, I said, “I want to go back to see if we can get into that shed. Lucifer and I didn’t get a chance to check it out before Penny showed.”
“I’ll go with you.”
I was hoping he would offer. Sam was going too. He just didn’t know it yet. I wanted a bit of police presence at the scene.
Inside my old, cranky house was a form of organized chaos I wouldn’t have believed if I hadn’t seen it. The coffee table had been loaded down with snacks, both junk food and healthy fruit. There was even a veggie tray and cheese platter. A few of the younger kids were on the sofa watching a cartoon on TV, while a couple of kids at the dining table sat with plates of food. One, a little girl, was on the phone most likely talking to her parents from the way tears filled her eyes as she smiled.
It’d been a long time since these kids smiled.
And I wasn’t going to think about that. They were free from evil and going home to their parents.
Carrie emerged from the hallway carrying a clean and adorable little boy. His name was Sammie and looked just like my childhood BFF. Carrie smiled at me. “Welcome to Ava’s shifter day camp.”
“It sure looks like one. Where did the food come from?” I loved junk food as much as a college student, but I didn’t remember half the stuff in the coffee table spread.
“I picked it up on my way over.” Carrie walked to the sofa and sat down while drying off Sammie. Owen had gone up to his room to get out of everyone’s hair, his words. I had a suspicion he wasn’t comfortable around so many kids. Although he’d been great with them at the barn.
“Thanks for coming to help out.” Voices in the kitchen drew my curiosity so I thought I’d check it out.
Olivia was in there with someone's parents, talking privately, out of earshot of little ears. She looked over and introduced me to the parents. “This is Ava Harper. She discovered the…where the kids were.”
The last part of the statement held sadness and anger. I’ve never heard outright anger come from Olivia. Not even when we didn’t like each other in high school. Holding out my hand, I shook the mother’s then the father’s. “I’m a mom, too, but I could only imagine what you and the other parents went through.”