“I apologise, Mrs Hannah.”
“Don’t apologise.” Her voice unfurled like a whip. “Just do it right next time.”
Yikes.
Laughter bubbled up my throat, accompanied by a sadness that was no mystery.
She took me in. Her red lipstick had leaked into a few of the wrinkles around her mouth, and the sight drew a smile to my lips.
“You roll in something before coming here?” She blinked as though seeing me for the first time.
Grimacing, I stared down the length of my splattered body. “Went to meet a client who thought I wanted to put him in a home.”
Mrs Gaughton patted my arm. “Can’t win ’em all, dear.”
Ain’t that the truth. Hell, I’d just like to win one round at this point.
I unscrewed the cap, leaning forward to feel the ground around the lavender bush.
“Wondered why it hadn’t died,” she muttered, glaring at the plant.
Say what? “I thought you wanted it alive? You asked me for tips.”
She hugged herself. “I do. I want it to flourish like Betty Neesin’s.”
Was she sure? Sounded like she had a personal vendetta against the poor bush.
“Not that I don’t appreciate it, but why are you watering an old lady’s plant?” she asked after a beat. “Are your messed-up body chemicals affecting your brain? I see those ads about mental health on the TV.”
Lawdy.
“There’s a lot wrong with my body chemicals,” I told her, lopping a smile her way. Especially my sex hormones. “But no. Just thought I’d help out.”
I became entirely focused on watering the lavender, emptying the entire bottle in the soil around it before plucking out a couple of tiny weeds. I squeezed out my top so some of the compost juice dripped around the bush.
Ha! Take that, you old jerk.
When I straightened, two keen eyes fixed on my face.
I peered down immediately, screwing the lid back on the bottle. “My grandmother died.”
A weathered hand reached out and gripped my forearm.
“Oh, Basilia. Your grandmother who loved lavender?” Her voice warbled.
I nodded, glancing at the half-alive bush—a weak shadow of the estate’s lavender tiers.
“I’m so sorry, Basilia. You meant a lot to her, so I know she meant a lot to you.”
“How do you know that?” I whispered, clutching her forearm in return.
She smiled, displaying dentures smeared with red lipstick. “Because young women don’t become like you without someone’s devotion.”
My heart squeezed and the pain of it spliced through me.
“Won’t you come in for a cheese and onion toastie and peppermint tea? I stocked up on supplies in case you returned.”
She had? For a stranger?
I loved this woman.
“I don’t want to traipse compost sludge through your house, but how about I return in a few days for lunch and to check on the lavender bush again?”
Mrs Hannah glared at the plant once more.
What was her deal?
The older woman sighed heavily and faced me, mouth setting. “Between us both, we’ll have the entire garden blooming.”
Something was up, but it wasn’t any of my business. “Sounds good to me.”
Really, really good, actually.
Smiling to myself, I slid back into the middle seat of the SUV. None of the vampires said a word.
Mr Triffz was my last appointment of the day, and I’d already secured a house in Pink earlier that afternoon, a referral from Vernon Yersaw, my first success—I really was getting a rep for giving people far more money for their property than anyone else. Usually, I’d race back to see how much commission I earned through the house purchase. Now, I had so much money, I didn’t know the exact billion-dollar amount after my absence.
“I don’t want to go back just yet,” I announced.
Kelsea slid me a twinkling look. “You don’t want to wash all that crap off?”
“There is that…” I peered through the windscreen. “Are we near Traitor’s Lane?”
Laurel zipped through Orange toward the freeway. “We are.”
“Let’s go that way.”
She caught my gaze in the rear-view mirror, her Indebted cloak descending. “What’s out there?”
“Guess you’ll have to find out.”
“No, really. I need to know for security reasons.”
My smirk slid away. “A little waterfall.” Owned by the ill-tempered Lygons, if she wanted to get technical about things. Growing up, everyone snuck in there to swim.
Josie snorted. “Laurel was playing you, Miss Tetley.”
Dammit.
I folded my arms, dislodging more grime. “Fyrlia kidnapped me once. The triplets are after me for real now. And they’re fucking psychos. If Laurel asks me a security question, I’m always going to answer.”
“Which is exactly the right thing to do,” Jillian piped up from the row behind. She was the youngest of my crew at forty-nine and tended to remain mute unless there was a chance to prove herself.
“Just here,” I said, leaning forward to point. “We’ll walk the rest of the way.”
Laurel’s gaze flicked up. “This is legal, right?”
I chh’d. “Course. Come on!”
Grinning, I led the seven Indebted along the quaint back road that formed the border between Orange and the estates. To my left, opulent wealth. To my right, behind a wall of trees, sat moulded walls, cracked paint, and missing roof tiles.
Stopping to remove my heels, I ducked through the treeline, waving them after me.
“Miss Tetley, the sign says No Trespassing,” Josie murmured.
“Hmm, what?”
I picked up the pace, and in no time stood upon jutting boulders, staring across a few metres to the clear water below.
Whoa. Higher than I recalled.
“Oh,” Kelsea gasped, her blue eyes popping at the sight of the waterfall. Water erupted an arm-length down from our position atop the rockface, pounding into the pool.
“Have you seen a waterfall before?” I asked her.
“Only in pictures. I was born into servitude.”
I gritted my teeth but bit back on my angry rant so as not to taint the moment. “Well, now you have.”
I looked anew, trying to remember the first time I saw a waterfall, and whether I appreciated the sight as much as the vampire beside me.
A few furtive glances confirmed at least four of the Indebted were seeing a waterfall for the first time. Laurel was one hundred and forty when her father committed his crime, so she didn’t appear overly excited. Josie and Vie were appreciative, but not wondrous like the others.
I eyed the drop, taking note of where the boulders were. “Time for a bath.”
Stepping back, I ran and leaped from the rockface.
I yelped as a body crashed into mine mid-air. Arms wrapped tight around me. The water came rapidly to meet us, and we plummeted through the surface.
The cold tightened my chest, and I struggled until the arms loosened.
Kicking for the surface, I scowled at a drenched Laurel, sucking in air. “What did you do that for?”
“You didn’t check the bottom,” she snarled an inch from my face. “You had no idea how deep that water was.”