Repossessed (22 page)

The clerk frowned. “It was declined. You got cash?”

Declined?
She tapped her fingers on the counter. Remain calm, a simple error. “There has to be some mistake. Could you run it again?”

He tried again and shook his head.

“Here.” She fished in her purse and pulled out her corporate bank card. If this was empty, she’d seriously drop dead in the middle of this convenience store. Especially after the episode with the loan sharks.

An impatient couple behind her with handfuls of chips and beer huffed.

“Sorry,” the clerk said. “No good either.”

Tessa didn’t bother taking the panty hose back. The store faded away as she shuffled to Rob. There had to be a mistake. A bank error. A robbery based on a fake identity attempt. Didn’t she hire an accountant to track her money… She could hardly breathe in air as the realization hit: something had happened to what little money she had left. And now she had
nothing
.

He turned to her, his hands stuffed with candy bars. He glanced at her empty hands. “You need some cash? I got a few bucks.”

A few bucks and some change was the least of her problems right now.

She glanced at the cash register and froze. A man wearing a skull-cap pulled out a gun and jabbed it at the clerk.

“Open the register and gimme me the money!” the robber spat. The clerk’s arm jerked as he pressed buttons on the register, his eyes never leaving the barrel.

They were a few feet away. Close enough for Tessa to smell the guy’s overpowering aftershave. Her left leg moved back. She was in mid-step when Rob’s hands locked on her waist.

“Don’t,” he warned.

The gun twisted in their direction and her mouth popped open like mailbox. Her heart thundered in her chest. Using magic right now in front of the clerk, robber, and all the patrons wasn’t an option she could risk.

“Don’t even think about moving.” The thief turned to the man frantically grabbing the meager amount of bills in the register. “C’mon, I don’t have all day!” Once the money was stuffed into his pocket, the thief bolted for the door. She expected him to flee, but he stopped in front of them.

Dark eyes flashed to her purse.

He reached out and tried to snatch it from her hands. For some reason, her stupid fingers disobeyed and they locked on the expensive handbag as if it were a precious child. The man’s face contorted in rage as Rob’s voice was heavy and angry against the back of her head. “What the hell are you doing? Give it to him.”

She released the purse as the robber pointed the gun at her shocked face. The handbag fell to the floor. The sound of the released safety echoed in her ears. The instant he tried to fire, Rob shifted behind her, reaching forward with his right hand to touch the barrel.

“No,” Rob whispered.

A surge of power coursed from Rob’s hand like a missile into the robber’s firearm. The burst of magic raced along the gun into the thief.

The snarl on the man’s face faded as his eyes drifted upwards and his body collapsed on the floor. Dumbfounded, the clerk leaned over the counter to see the robber knocked out.

This day wasn’t getting any better.

Rob snatched the purse off the floor and grabbed her wrist. He pulled her out of the store. “Don’t look back and keep moving.”

As they ran from the store, her heartbeat fluctuated from troubled to furiously pounding. One block down the street turned into many. She didn’t even pay attention to the street signs. Anger blanketed her fear as they slowed down to stop at a busy intersection.

His released her wrist touched her face. “You all right?”

“I wish I was.”

Not only had they witnessed a robbery, but her business bank account was empty, too. That only meant one person was behind this.

She tore through the purse, tossing out anything that kept her from finding her phone. Her hands trembled as she flipped it open. She should’ve called 911. Her aunt was gonna need an ambulance after she was done with her.

Rob turned to her with a frown. “Tessa, what’s wrong?”

Her mouth struggled to form words. “That vindictive…”
Aunt Daisy
.

When the light turned green, Tessa darted across the street and dialed the number for the twenty-four hour line for her corporate bank account. As the electronic voice gave her balance—a negative one—her heart dropped to the pavement. When she switched to her personal account, she knew what was coming. The blow wasn’t physical, but her gut twisted when she heard the words every person dreads:
You have insufficient funds in your account, please contact customer service to take care of this matter. We thank you for being…

Rob’s phone rang and he stepped to the side to offer her some privacy. She glanced around, not realizing she’d stopped in front of a storefront. Another call needed to be made and she might as well do it right now. She pressed the buttons on her iPhone screen hard enough to hurt her fingertips. Her aunt’s office line rang and rang. She wouldn’t be in, but who knew when bitter family members who stabbed others in the back put in their hours.

Aunt Daisy’s cell phone went to voice mail on the first ring. Her cheerful voice echoed through the phone, sending Tessa spiraling into a pit of fury.

“Daisy Kilburn, whatever did I do to you?” she spat. “Call me tonight. Not tomorrow. We need to resolve this once and for all.” She ended the call. It took every ounce of willpower not to throw her iPhone into the street.

A warm hand touched her shoulder. “What’s going on?” Rob asked.

A tear slid down Tessa’s face. Her voice broke. “The shit’s hit the side of the cauldron pot. I’m broke.”

Twenty minutes later, a text message from Daisy read:
In town, meet at the Café Du Monde in Midtown
. She was in town? Well, won’t that make the happy family reunion even better?

Rob asked Tessa multiple times if she wanted him to accompany her to meet Aunt Daisy, but she declined his offer with a heavy heart. She wasn’t sure what the outcome would be tonight, but afterwards, she had a feeling her mood would be too sour for anyone to endure. And anyway Tessa might need somebody to bail her out of jail if she got arrested for
assault
.

Not long after trying to calm down, Tessa walked into Café Du Monde, an upscale coffeehouse. The place resembled a luxury Starbucks for clientele that desired cups of coffee from organic farms in exotic locations. A rather nice place to visit, but not in her current mood.

Tessa spotted her aunt at a booth reading a Danielle Steel novel. It was rather hard to miss her—she wore a wrinkled sundress that was two sizes too big and a misshaped hat to cover her over-processed curly blonde hair.

After she slid into the booth, a waiter stepped up to the table to take her order.

“I’d order something, but I don’t have the
funds
.” Tessa’s eyes never left her aunt’s. “Could I have a glass of water please?”

“Of course.” The server slowly backed away.

With fingers gripping the table to prevent curse words from jumping out of her mouth she spoke. “Interesting to see you here in New York as this went down.”

“I had vacation time coming,” her aunt replied sweetly. “You picked the perfect time to call.”

She shook her head. “Cut the bullshit. If you have ruined me, I will sue your ass so fast—”

“I haven’t done a thing to you. You shouldn’t send invoices that you can’t pay.”

“Then it’s your responsibility to handle my bills. I review the reports you send me every quarter.” Tessa’s voice began to rise. A few heads turned her way so she lowered her voice. “There weren’t any discrepancies.”

“Well, there were those invoices from early in the spring. And then there were those bills from when I went on vacation for those two weeks in Hawaii. Hawaii was lovely that time of year. Especially compared to Chicago in the dead of winter. Did I show you the pictures?”

Her right foot tapped the floor in a nervous fit. “Aunt Daisy, what bills?”

“Oh, yeah, there were just so many that I put them in this box. Here. I didn’t have the time to enter them all.”

With a thud, Daisy placed a box on the table crammed to the hilt with bills. A firebomb could have gone off in this establishment and Tessa wouldn’t have left the seat to rush for the door.

“How could you?” Her shaking hands touched the bills as the feeling of lightheadedness steadily increased with each unpaid invoice.

“These things happen all the time with the larger firms. A missed bill here, a mislabeled file there. I mean with my firm handling two Fortune 500 companies, a slip up here and there usually gets caught during the audit.” Aunt Daisy sipped her coffee. “I wonder if you’ll survive until that point.”

“You can’t do this to me.” Her voice rose again. “No matter how much you feel about what Grandma did to you, doing this kind of thing to people is...” She reached for the words. “Fucked up.”

“It’s done and over with now. You need to start liquidating your assets and handling your business as you prepare to close it.”

Tessa couldn’t believe this raving lunatic was droning on as if her aunt hadn’t had a hand in Tessa’s downfall. After a huff, she stuffed the bills she’d pulled out back into the box. “This isn’t over by a long shot. You’re going to pay for this.”

The older witch laughed before slamming her empty cup to the edge of the table. “What will you do?” Smugness oozed across the table. “Ask for help from my mother?” She snorted. “Perhaps she’d love to know how you squandered her money and couldn’t cut it in New York.”

“No thanks to you.”

“Sweetheart, I prolonged the inevitable. You can’t manage a business, nor can you assume the role of the perfect girl for my mother. Welcome to reality, sweetie.”

Wow.

Anger pulsed from her legs up to her arms.

She whipped out the water witch wand and pointed it at her aunt.

Normally she wasn’t prone to violence, but after realizing her aunt had rendered her penniless, she couldn’t escape the driving need to scare the shit out of her. With the power of the wand trembling in her hand, masking their encounter would be easy.

Aunt Daisy’s eyes widened as if she pointed a loaded gun.

“What-what’s that?”

The wand wavered in her hands. “You’ve never seen a water witch wand before?” With a flick of her wrist, Aunt Daisy’s cup flew across the table from the edge to teeter on the opposite side on the handle. Then with another flick, the cup bounced across the table before landing inches from her aunt’s nose.

Aunt Daisy recoiled, her mouth wide. “Don’t.”

“I could hurt you right now as much as you hurt me. But then what would I get? I’d be as miserable as you are.” Tessa’s fingers ached from her iron grip on the wand’s sharp knobs. “Look at you. Sitting there alone with no one to love, a dead-end job you hate, and no aspirations for something better.” Her voice broke as her aunt gulped. “I should hate you, but instead right now I feel sorry for how much of a loser you are.”

The coffee cup drifted back to the table as she withdrew the wand. With as much dignity she could muster, Tessa picked up the box and left the café. Her aunt sat silent in her seat.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Dating Tip #16: Your date should never refer to you as “Sugar Daddy.” Anyone using the word values how well you can pay the bill for dinner and not how well you can be a lifetime partner.

Rob’s time was up. Kaput. The fat lady had sung her last tune, left the stage, and now the janitors swept the floor. He’d accomplished what he’d wanted to do though. The debts had been paid and now his aunt and uncle could rest easy. But other things had come up. Like Tessa. She had pain he wished he could take away.

A day had passed since his failed date with her, but a problem even bigger than money bothered him. He stared at the cell phone in his hand. He’d been sent a brisk reminder to report to base. Since he’d been cleared, he’d be sent overseas immediately. So he had to finalize things. It should be simple. Just call up Tessa, tell her to meet him for dinner and say his goodbyes. In a perfect world, he’d tell her he would come back soon, but life was never that simple. Not with the way their relationship had progressed. Could their relationship endure with potentially thousands of miles between them?

He didn’t want to let her go like this.

He dialed her number. Part one done.

“Hey, Rob. What are you up to?” she asked.

He swallowed. “Nothing much.”

“I just met with my staff to tell them I’m closing the agency.” She tried to sound like she wasn’t hurt, but her pain swam just below the surface. “Not the best news so I used happy hour to let them down gently.”

“I’m sorry about that.” He sighed, trying to form words that would get things moving.
Dinner. Dinner.
Ask her out for dinner. “You interested in another trip to Limbo?”

He rubbed his forehead.
Epic fail.

“Where do you want to meet and do I have enough time to take a shower?”

“I’ll text you the address in East Village. Take all the time you need.”

Surprisingly, she didn’t take much time at all. She appeared all too eager for another chance. It hurt him even more to see her that way.

“This’ll be an easy job,” he said. “Matter of fact, I’ve already contacted the party and they want to give it to me.”

“That’s a new one.”

Rob chuckled. “I’d be out of a job if everyone turned in what they owed.”

“I think with the world swarming with people like my aunt and Dagger you’ll never run out of folks trying to screw over others.”

“This will be a quick trip. No crazy people, no spellcasting, and under no circumstances, diving into the ocean to hide from demons.”

Tessa followed him to the apartment. Rows of high walk-up apartments and townhouses dotted the street.

“Please tell me our destination is on the second floor,” she asked.

“Exercise is good for the soul. We have five flights of stairs. As if you have room to talk, your apartment is on the third floor.”

“And I bitch and moan for each one of those steps.”

He grinned. “Well I like the results.” He smacked her butt.

They didn’t have far to go. The fifth floor was well-lit with white doors and numeric labels on the sides. Rob knocked on 5C.