Repossessed (14 page)

Her mind kept flashing to him protecting his side. The fight must’ve hurt him pretty bad. She kept the card holding his phone number, itching to check on him. But was she satisfying her need to see him again or simply to see if she could use him to find her scroll?

The evening shows on her television didn’t distract her from her wandering thoughts. Her gaze darted to the phone across the room as if it would ring any minute now and the loan sharks would be on the other line.

Time to go for a quick walk for some ice cream. She’d buy something fattening for good measure.

The trip for ice cream didn’t cheer her up like it was supposed to. Perhaps she should’ve gotten three scoops of gooey double brownie fudge instead of two. She expected to come home to an empty apartment, but she found Rob relaxing with his feet propped up on her coffee table.

She couldn’t hide her smile. “How did you get in?”

“An unlock spell. I could’ve waited outside, but breaking in and making myself at home with your ghost cats seemed much more appealing.”

Tessa placed her keys on the tiny stand near the door. “What are you doing here?” She plopped down on the couch while he watched a baseball game on television. A single cushion seat separated them.

“My aunt cooked some homemade New England clam chowder for you. I put it in the fridge.” He gave a soft laugh. “Something about it bringing luck to water witches.”

Tessa sighed. She could use some luck about now. Was he here to see her or was it something else? “A job tonight?”

“Yeah. There’s something that needs to be done tonight.” The velvet smoothness of his voice brought delicious chills down her back. He continued to face the television, his hands kneading the soft purple pillow from the couch. She squirmed in the seat as his hand grasped the pillow. She shook her head. Pillows weren’t erotic objects.

“How are you feeling?” she croaked.

A small smile. “Much better.”

“What happened? Did you break a rib perhaps?”

“An old injury I can’t shake.” His words faded away.

She reached out and touched his satchel on the coffee table. Her fingertips rode the ridges along the soft leather. “This is beautiful.”

“It was my dad’s.” He picked up the bag and offered it to her. “He told me the leather used to construct this came from an elder warlock in the family.”

Tessa lifted the flap and marveled at the foreign symbols burned into the material along the lighter inside. “What language is this? Is this all Chinese?”

“Most of the top row is Korean.” His warm hand brushed against hers to point out the difference. “My dad said most of those are spells to more-or-less give me access to his old stuff. All wizard coats use the same means to create compartments for holding weapons and tools of the trade in their pockets.”

“So most of your wands and such are from overseas?”

“Yeah, they’ve been in the Shin family for a long time. My dad never took the time to tell me what everything does, but through trial and error I’ve figured out a few things.”

A faint whisper emerged from the bag. She almost dropped it. “What was that?” A chuckle came next.

“You’re not very good at keeping secrets, Harabeuji,” Rob whispered.

Tessa quirked a brow and pursed her lips. “So the voice is Ha-rah-bow-jee? Is the bag enchanted?”

“Someone, I don’t know who, trapped Harabeuji’s spirit into the leather. Through circumstances my ancestors never revealed, Harabeuji has come to serve the Shin family. I don’t know his real name, so I call him grandfather in Korean.”

A hard-to-hear response, in a language other than English, flowed from the folds.

“What’s he saying?” she asked.

Rob sighed. “All right. All right, I’ll tell her. Harabeuji says you have good taste in purses, but the Coach knockoff has gotta go and...”

She couldn’t stifle the chuckle from the back of her throat. “You’re kidding me, right? That was a present from a friend. I just can’t throw it away!”

“I wish I was kidding.” Rob switched his gaze to the bag and spouted something in what had to be Korean. She couldn’t tell.

“What did you say to him?” she asked.

“My bag spirit is feeling chatty today. He also said you remind him of a fire witch named Sooin. She…was capable of so much, but never showed how powerful she was until it was far too late.” He chuckled. “She had such a quick wit and timeless beauty he couldn’t forget.”

Heat tickled her cheeks as she sounded out the name.
Sooin.
“Very pretty.”

“All right, Harabeuji.” He threw a glare at the satchel. “I don’t know why you’re doing this, but you owe me.” He spread his palm across the front pocket, his eyelids fluttering. After coughing deeply in his chest, Rob’s voice deepened, cracking with old age.

“My sweet Sooin lived in a different time,” Harabeuji began. “A turbulent time when those animals, who you would call the Mongols, swept in from the north to take over Goryeo. Slowly they crept south, closing in on the city of Gaesang where I lived. During the invasion, I was hired as a magician to protect the family of an affluent scholar while Sooin acted as a protector for their children. An elder wizard named Nokwon provided support as a healer. We didn’t always get along, but we got the job done.” He paused as in thought. “I don’t remember much about the night the compound was attacked. It’s all a blur in my mind. One moment the guards called us to action and in the next the night sky lit up as if on fire. The men scrambled like frightened children at the unnatural light, leaving me alone to face what couldn’t be Mongol troops.”

“Wow,” she whispered.

“I have fended off countless humans. Most of them ruthless and armed, but in my opinion, the deadliest foe for any warlock is another warlock with equal skill. Men who are driven are far more dangerous than you’d imagine.

“That had to be what happened when the compound’s west wall exploded and an unseen force drove me into the main house. Our attackers closed in from all sides, leaving me, Nokwon, and Sooin to defend the family. Not long after I got inside, my memories became hazy.” Rob’s jaw tightened. “The last thing I remember was hearing the children screaming from down a long hallway. I felt a blow to the back of my head. As I collapsed, Sooin called out my name and all I could think about was how I couldn’t reach her.

“I wished I would’ve…” Rob’s hand slid away and his eyes opened.

“Would’ve what?” The once quivering satchel had become still in her lap.

“He’s quiet now.” Rob appeared thoughtful for a moment. “He’s never told me about Sooin before. And I’ve heard countless tales. On repeat.”

“So what does that mean?” She had to ask.

Rob snorted. “That he needs to keep quiet before he gets into trouble. I usually don’t reveal Harabeuji to others, but he’s apparently taken a liking to you and trusts you.”

She ran her fingers over the lettering again. “You could’ve stayed quiet about him. Yet you mentioned his name to me.”

Rob shrugged, yet she caught the smile in his eyes.

She laid the satchel back on the coffee table and a silence fell over them. The images on the TV didn’t hold her attention. She’d learned so much tonight about Rob and his bag spirit. What other secrets did he keep? A sigh escaped her lips as his bicep clenched under his shirt.

“What are you watching?” she finally managed to ask him.

He flipped through the channels. “Nothing much. Highlights of the Mets on the local ten o’clock news.”

“You were gone for a while there,” she blurted, unsure of what to say. “I didn’t know if I’d have another chance to enter Limbo.”

He huffed. “From the way you sound, I’m not sure if I should feel used.”

“I didn’t mean it like that.” She looked away. “I-I didn’t know if you were hurt in a hospital somewhere.” Or if he had run off to never return.

“We have to wait until the place opens. We can head there soon enough.” He was silent after that.

The news droned on in the background as her mind lingered on the things that bothered her: her business and the scroll. She didn’t want to admit Rob had somehow jumped into the pile. The sounds of the television faded for a moment as her head bobbed.

“The first time I went on a job was the hardest,” he whispered, drifting a bit closer to her. “I needed to make some fast cash. And Clive didn’t want to spend his valuable time going through a resume I didn’t want to write.”

She lessened the space between them even more.

He chuckled softly. “Would you believe my first job was to repossess a mask from Dagger?”

Her lunch with the disturbed warlock came to mind. The scent of his cigarette and his black eyes made her shiver.

“He said you two had a history.”

“Yeah. I picked an interesting night for the break-in. A long weekend. Most warlocks like Dagger are busy trying to scope out a magic-magnet for the evening, so I took advantage.”

“I can’t believe there are women out there who’d want to jump from a broomstick to the bedroom with that psycho.”

“Evidently, within the many boroughs of NYC, there’s a small group of witches who get off on that.” He continued to speak. “So there I was, thinking this would be an easy, in-and-out of this guy’s penthouse apartment. I broke in easy enough. Managed to search a few rooms. For some jobs, Clive doesn’t have exact coordinates for retrieval. I was in the process of searching his bedroom when I heard activity in the front room. After checking the windows, or for a hiding place in an adjoining room, I settled for a heavy mask spell in the bedroom closet.”

She yawned, but couldn’t stifle the giggle. “He didn’t do what I think he did? Please tell me he didn’t with you in there?”

Rob chuckled. “He did that... And more.”

She ignored Rob’s subtle move to snake his arm around her shoulder. The warmth from his body was pleasant.

“At first I thought, he’ll find me. If he’s at the top of his game, then I should expect him to fight, but he didn’t.”

A commercial flashed across the screen with an advertisement for a cruise line. Rob stared at the sea with longing.

She slapped his shoulder playfully. “I want to know what happened.”

“I sat in the closet for two hours masking myself while Dagger got spanked by some woman he called Hilda.”

She covered her mouth with her hands. “
He
got spanked?”

“Oh yeah. ‘Dagger, you’ve been a naughty boy.’ Every man’s got secrets.” Rob shrugged. “Some of them involve paddles.”

“Wow, when I met him he came off as dangerous. Little did I know he could purr like familiar on demand.”

He turned to her, his eyes serious. “Dagger is dangerous, Tee. Just because I caught him in a compromising situation doesn’t mean he couldn’t take us both out. He has an arsenal of demons. Shit even I don’t mess with in my line of work.”

From confident witch to lowly spellcaster tugged down a peg or two, she crossed her arms.

Using his left hand, he slid his fingertips along her arm. She sighed softly. “Dagger kind of reminds me of my first client also.”

“I wouldn’t see a man like Dagger using a matchmaker service.”

“There are men out there who think they’re ready for love.” She turned to talk directly, but caught him staring at her profile. She avoided his gaze and focused on the television. “But they’re more suited for a mental hospital. My first client was the worst imaginable. I expected some glamorous CEO to walk through my door. Instead, I got a pompous jerk who complained every step of the way.

“You see, I was new at owning a business, at matching people for love professionally. All I had were hours of advice from my grandma.”

Rob nodded his head leaning closer to hers. She tried so hard to keep talking.

“My client had gone through practically every matchmaker in the NYC area. No one wanted to work with him. And after a few days I understood why.”

“I thought you had it easy. All you have to do is place some guy in a room full of women. Wait for the dames to jump him.” He gave a brief chuckle that died as he nibbled at her neckline. Tessa’s toes curled. His warm lips brushed against a sensitive spot under her earlobe.

“It’s never that simple when it comes to men and women. We all want different things, but if someone isn’t ready for a relationship, then they may unknowingly do everything to mess up their chances.”

“Like not giving in to what they need?” He kissed her nose, only return to her neck.

She leaned back, hoping she wouldn’t push him away. “You left a bunch of hickies on my neck last time,” she teased.

A single finger brushed against the side of her right breast. “I could add more if you like,” he whispered as his tongue darted out along her neck, searing a path to his next target.

“Tessa, are you there?” The paper-thin voice of Grandma Kilburn wafted from the kitchen.

She scrambled away from Rob. Thank goodness her grandmother’s ghost materialized and dematerialized from the same spot each time. Tessa might’ve been a grown woman, but who wanted their grandma catching someone feeling them up?

Grandma loved popping up like this. Her last impromptu visit was during a date night nearly a year ago. Tessa had managed to get the guy to go to second base after a romantic candlelight dinner, and Grandma decided she’d visit New York and teach her granddaughter the finer details of managing clients.

Grandma stopped when her opaque form reached the doorway to the living room. “I see my granddaughter has a guest. Is this a bad time?” Her grandmother didn’t wait for an answer, simply sitting down between them. A chill passed through Tessa’s body as Grandma Kilburn hovered close.

Rob stood quickly like a nervous gentleman. “Ma’am.”

Grandma glanced at Rob before speaking again. “It’s been many months since I’ve checked on you. I feel awful about that since I used to visit often.”

Tessa sighed. Advanced notice would’ve been nice.

“I’m sure your business is doing well and growing. Your mother is constantly bragging about your exploits.”

Did her grandmother know about her problems? “Y-you know how she is.”

Rob sat down in the chair next to the couch.

“Yes, I know,” her grandma said. “Quite unfortunate that she never had your aspirations. I always assumed it would have been her to take over my business. But apparently, she found true happiness with her local shopping center after meeting your father.”