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“I don’t have any solid information, Claire. All I know is Sebastian Cavanaugh isn’t comfortable with the Mayor. He seems to think that he’s up to something. If Sebastian is worried about him, then I’m worried about him. And I’m worried about you getting on his bad side.”
A common fairy tale witches were told about finding their warlock mate was that he would want nothing more than to protect us. To see us safe from harm. A true mate bond would mean that the witch was a part of him and losing his mate would mean losing part of himself.
Whenever Jack expressed concern for my well-being, I wanted to lean into that belief. That Jack was, in his way, acknowledging that we were truly mated.
But then I remembered all the times he helped others in the community. He enjoyed taking care of people. He wanted to take care of his town. His attempt to protect me had nothing to do with a feeling that I was his real mate. Mistaking his concern for me as something other than his need to serve and protect was a surefire way to heartache.
“Just be careful, Claire.”
I tried not to let my smile look bitter. Because I knew the biggest danger to me these past few years hadn’t been the Mayor or even the ones who had once tried to abduct me and bond me to someone unwillingly.
These days, my biggest danger was the man who was now sitting across from me. I was all too aware of what he could do to me and my heart.
“I’m always careful, Jack.”
* * *
Going home wasout of the question. Being so close to Jack had sent my body into a tailspin. If I went home, the only thing I would do was lie in bed, twist and turn as my body ached for Jack.
Instead, I went back to the offices of the Gazette. The thought that what had happened last time - my remote orgasm I’d shared with Jack - briefly made me question my decision to go to the paper.
But I knew that there was little chance of what had happened to me that night happening to me again. That night, I’d been certain that what I was experiencing with Jack had been shared only between the two of us. Now, I wasn’t so sure. It put a damper on any other future remotely shared orgasms.
The other night hadn’t been my first shared remote orgasm with Jack. Now, I questioned whether he had been with someone else for those shared experiences as well.
What I couldn’t do was focus on anything that combined the thought of orgasms with Jack Beaumont. I was already fighting too hard to keep my desire for Jack under control.
It didn’t help that, in the past few days, he had touched me more than he had in years. Had dared to allow himself to be closer to me than he usually did. Those touches had only been the smallest of touches, and yet they made my heart flutter. I could remember each touch with startling clarity. The touch of his hand to the small of my back at the cabin. How he had picked me up and carried me, caveman style, back to the car when I’d tried to walk back to town (not my greatest moment). That last incident would be fodder for my fantasies for years to come. Hell, even just the brush of his leg against mine under the table at the diner had been enough to send me spiraling into the depths of need.
I wanted everything and got nothing.
I refused to wallow in my misery, though. The strange quietness of the Gazette offices at night was what I needed. That need to be alone while not being completely alone.
The buzz that had overtaken the paper earlier in the day was completely gone. Now, there was only the rustling of paper and the occasional shift of a body in the offices as the other two inhabitants moved about, completely unconcerned about me.
There were no real leads I could share with the public about the disappearances. It made the article I was writing about Taryn’s disappearance feel underdone. The article barely summarized what everyone already knew.
The one highlight of the article was the inclusion of my conversation with the mayor. I knew that my painting him as an aloof, unconcerned public official would do nothing to put a dent in his chances of reelection. It seemed nothing would. Still, any light shown on his unprofessional behavior was yet another chip in the veneer. At least, that was what I told myself. Carlton was pleased with my impromptu interview with the mayor. If for no other reason than it showed him in a different light than any of the puff pieces the human press was currently churning out for him. Carlton felt that my interview with the mayor made for pretty explosive copy. I wasn’t so convinced, but it was the one thing that kept me from throwing up my hands and trashing the entire article.
But even with the highlight on the mayor’s behavior, there was nothing I could tell the public about Darla and Taryn. As far as they knew, Darla was nothing but a blip and Taryn was simply out to lunch.
Meanwhile, two witches were missing, and it didn’t seem like anyone could do a damned thing to help them.
Even among the witchkind of Mystic Springs, few seemed to know about Darla’s disappearance. Taryn’s disappearance was another story entirely.
For all the good it did us. None of us were any closer to finding her than we had been the moments after she went missing.
The police scanner crackled on my desk. The wild whoosh of heat coming on in the building was the only other sound except that of the night owls who were still working in the office. Something was soothing, yet unsettling about the off-hours sounds of the Gazette.
I’d done my best to pay attention to every bit of static on the scanner. Even though the human cops were aware of Taryn’s disappearance, there was nothing coming through about the search for her. I had known not to expect anything of the sort with Darla’s disappearance since the human cops didn’t know. But I expected a little more chatter regarding the other missing witch. The human cops only knew that she was a young human girl who had gone missing. Shouldn’t they be exhausting their numbers searching for her?
The scanner squawked as the female dispatcher’s tired voice came over the line.
“We’ve got some reports on some downed power lines out by the Andersons’ farm,” the dispatcher said. My ears perked up. The confusion in the dispatcher’s voice was evident.
“From what it looks like, at least according to the person who called, there’s been another sudden storm that’s come through the place.”
The dispatcher’s voice grew wary. “Don’t know what’s up with all this spontaneous weather, but it would be nice if someone went out there to check it out.”
