That was my knee-jerk guess, and my guesses had a tendency to be pretty damn good. That meant someone had told her to do it, but not why, because I’d bet my last dollar she really was blind to the shadow world.
A few people drifted out of the house and into the overgrown front garden, as if all they’d heard was a simple knock.
Crap! So they hadn’t all left? I pinched the bridge of my nose for a moment. I should have waited to pull my stunt show.
“Let’s begin, shall we?” Monica’s voice was not wobbly at all, though she’d locked her knees together.
“Wait,” called out a voice that made my skin crawl. Any anger I felt toward Missy was burned up by the fury that this one’s voice lit in me. It felt like a ticking time bomb.
“Um, Breena,” Crash breathed out my name. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but you’re hurting me. Ease off.”
I barely heard him as he peeled my fingers off his arm, my hands settling into fists at my sides, fingertips biting into my palms. My eyes were all for the lanky bastard who strode down the middle pathway toward the porch. His eyes were all for Monica, and he didn’t once look my way. No, that’s not entirely true. He glanced at me, but didn’t seem to realize it was me. Ass.
Himself wore a three-piece suit and tie, a jaunty cap to hide his mostly bald head, and three days’ worth of stubble. I suppose some people would think it made him look more approachable. I just wanted to kick him in the balls and be done with it. Okay, maybe I wanted to kick him in the balls, and then stomp on them when he went to the ground.
Of course, he swept the yard with his gaze as soon as he joined Monica on the porch, and he did a full-on double take when he saw me.
A look of satisfaction flashed across his features, then anger. He leaned into Monica and pointed me out, saying something as he did so. She glanced at me and frowned, and shook her head as if disagreeing with him. I thought I heard her say something about letting all bidders bid.
“That son of a . . .” I breathed out a number of my more creative curse words, several that my phone liked to autocorrect to duck. Ducking limp dick. Mother ducker. Jaw ticking, I stood my ground.
“He’s not going to let you bid, is he?” Crash asked quietly.
My entire body shook with a hot rage that built with each passing second, and I couldn’t answer him with anything but a shake of my head. I barely noticed that Crash had stepped away from me at first, and when I did, my anger only redoubled. He was acting as if I were contagious. Of course, he wanted the house for his own reasons—he wouldn’t want an association with me to ruin his chances.
Monica beamed his way, and even winked at the crowd or, more specifically, Crash.
“Let’s begin, shall we?”
3
Monica the realtor held her hand up, and started the bidding at one hundred thousand for my gran’s house, the house that was supposed to be mine. I lifted my hand in answer, but her gaze swept right over me, and she pointed at someone to my right.
My jaw ticked and I tried again at one hundred fifty thousand. Again and again, her eyes and hand swept over me. I forced myself to look at Himself at her side, and he had the nerve, the ducking nerve!, to give me a smug smile that didn’t reach his eyes. His hands were at his sides and he spread them a little, palms facing me as if to say what did you expect? Of course, he might also be getting back at me for the little display Corb and I put on for him.
Rat bastard indeed.
I had twenty thousand in my bag as a down payment, but I wouldn’t be able to use it if I couldn’t get a bid in. Not that it looked like it was going to matter—the auction was already above my pay grade.
Gran appeared in the doorway, and her eyes flicked to my far right, her left. I followed her gaze to Crash, who was bidding, but she shook her head, so I moved it further to the right. Missy stood there, silently bidding with just a flick of her cane when it was her turn.
Monica called out, “Four hundred thousand.”
Missy lifted her hand. The house was now far out of my league.
I blew out a breath I’d sucked in as Crash nodded in response to Monica’s query for more money. They were the only two left in the auction; the rest of the group was just watching now to see the outcome.
What was I going to do?
Think girl, think! I heard my gran’s voice say, although this was my inner gran, not her ghost. You aren’t some inexperienced woman. You’ve got years of life experience under your belt, and years of working at a law firm too. You’ve got to do something or you’re going to lose any chance you have at getting the house.
If I could distract Missy long enough . . . maybe Crash would get the house. If he didn’t have to pay as much, then maybe he’d be grateful? What his gratitude would do for me I didn’t know, but something told me Missy was more dangerous. For now, anyway. For all I knew, she’d been in on Hattie’s plan. I didn’t want her to increase her strength with whatever Gran had hidden for me in the house. All of that flashed through my brain in milliseconds and I came to a quick decision.
I strode across the garden, pushing several tall stalks of herbs out of my way to get to where Missy stood. She was so intent on her bidding war with Crash that she didn’t notice. Kinkly floated down from a tree branch to land on my right shoulder, light as a feather. “Careful,” she warned.
When I stood right behind Missy, I whispered, “I have her book.”
Missy whipped around and stared hard at me. “What?”
A chance was all I was going to get. I didn’t take my eyes off her as I flipped open the bag on my hip and pulled out the red leather-bound book, cradling it in my arm. I knew she’d recognize it. The front cover, hand etched with a crescent moon and a spattering of stars, was one of a kind, much like the handwritten pages inside. “This is what you’re looking for, isn’t it?” I stared down at the book, stroking the cover. “Written in her hand.”
“Give it to me,” she hissed, reaching for it. I jerked it away from her hands. “Celia left that book for me, and someone stole it from the house.”
“Going once.”
I shrugged. “I bought it fair and square. It doesn’t bother me none that you had it first.”
Her eyes about bugged out, which was not a good look on her. “Bought it? From who?”
“I don’t think that really matters, now does it? I mean, I paid for it, and it’s in my possession. I have the letter of the law—both human and shadow world—on my side.” I smiled suddenly. “You wouldn’t want to go against the council, would you?” The council being the thirteen supernaturals who oversaw the shadow world in Savannah. From what I understood, there was a mishmash of supernaturals on the council, from witches to necromancers, from shifters to leprechauns.
It was probably an idle threat. I didn’t have much clout, plus I’d only met one of the council members, Darv, and he was a pretentious little prick who thought he was smarter than anyone else because he had a pair of balls dangling between his legs.
“Going twice.”
I stared hard at Missy as her head started to turn toward Monica. “You won’t believe what I found in here.” I tapped the book and her eyes whipped back toward me, narrowing so rapidly I thought for a moment that she’d closed them.