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It took me a moment to realize who was hollering outside my door. Ugh. Nigel. It had been years since I’d heard his voice in person, and he sounded just as annoying as he did over the phone.
Shit. How the hell did he find me?
Nigel had claimed he found me through the business, but since providing wards meant there was always someone trying to mess with me I wasn’t stupid enough to list my real address. Like I said, I used a P. O. box.
“Who is he?” Zayn demanded. “An ex?”
Ooh… Was that jealousy I heard in his voice? He wasn’t on the couch anymore and was standing between me and the door, looking kinda pissed.
“No. Just an acquaintance from when I was younger. The idiot wants me to have a kid with him so he can inherit the family fortune.”
Zayn frowned, and I realized I had to do a lot more explaining.
So I did.
“How did he find you?”
“Through my business, Auntie Syl’s Wards & Witchery. It was my great granny’s company, but she handed it down to me. I’m listed publicly as the owner.”
Zayn raised a brow. “Impressive. Wards take a lot of magic to upkeep.”
“It’s a small client roster,” I said, waving it off dismissively. “I only have about a dozen clients at any given time, so it’s manageable. And many of them have been with the company since Great Granny Syl’s time, so it’s mostly maintenance now.
“Anyway, this Nigel guy wouldn’t take no for an answer. He kept emailing, messaging and calling, raising the offer. And when that still didn’t work, he started threatening me. I’ve been getting messages from him every day telling me I’m making the biggest mistake of my life and I’m going to regret it. But I didn’t think he’d figure out where I lived.”
Zayn scowled. “I’ll scare him off.”
“Maybe it’s better just to ignore him?”
Just then, the asshat outside started pounding on my door again.
“Open up. I know you’re in there.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I just don’t know how he found my home address. The business has a P.O. box here in Darlington for receiving mail and is listed under a virtual address.”
The banging outside got more aggressive. “Open up, Sybil, or you’re going to regret this.”
Zayn let out a low growl and stood from the couch. “I’ll take care of it.”
“Wait.” I started to stop him. Too late.
He slammed open the door. “Hey, twerp. You keep pounding on that door like that, and I’m going to pound your face in.”
Oh. No introductions. Straight to threatening the guy. How efficient.
“Yeah? And what’s it to you, pal?” Nigel stomped over and peered around Zayn’s huge form and into the apartment. His eyes landed on me.
“Well, for starters, you got the wrong fucking apartment. Sybil lives here. With me.” Zayn seemed to grow taller as he spoke. “If you want to get to her, you’ll have to get through me first.”
Nigel sneered. “Wow, Sybil. You’d rather live in this dump with him? I could offer you so much more. All I want is one magical kid.” The idiot actually tried to barge into the apartment.
Zayn grabbed him and tossed him out into the hallway, but Nigel didn’t get the message. He shoved his way in and grabbed me by the arm.
“Hey!” I wrenched my arm away.
Suddenly, a low hiss came from Zayn’s throat. His eyes flashed silver, and for a horrible moment I thought his snake would burst out, despite the charmed watch. Zayn grabbed Nigel and shoved him against the wall. Hard.
“Ssstop touching her,” Zayn hissed, his forked tongue darting out past lips that were starting to widen out toward his jaws as his serpent threatened to take over, watch or no watch.
