Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 92996 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92996 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
“Yes,” he murmured into the side of my neck, then planted a kiss there. “Let’s do that tomorrow. I’m ready. But right now, could you please hold me a little tighter?”
I kissed him instead, then made him get up and return to the bedroom. With the windows open and a warm breeze blowing through, the two of us tangled together, and Argos purring beside him, Lorne MacBain was content. So was I.
Neither of us moved again for a long while.
The following day, Monday, the ME reported that Tanner Murphy had indeed killed Allard Pace, the evidence confirmed that. Also, as I suspected, the demon had told us the truth. When Webb ran Murphy’s prints at the crime lab, she discovered he’d murdered a young couple in Denver, Colorado, back in 2022. The man had been Tanner’s drug-rehabilitation counselor. He and his wife were newly married. He was still wanted in connection to that case, having disappeared, seemingly off the face of the earth, after that killing.
It was concerning to everyone, when the mayor disclosed that information at her press conference, that Murphy was still on the loose, but as there was a history of him running, people, Lorne told me, were comforted. Plus, now that everyone was sleeping again, the hair trigger the populace had been wrestling with, had evaporated overnight. People were suddenly calmer and many signed up to become part of Lorne’s civilian patrol initiative that he’d been trying to get off the ground since the influx of tourists had begun last fall.
That part was good. The part that was bad was now there was a murder in our small town that locals and visitors were talking about.
Three days later, the town attended the funeral for Kathy Hayes. Her father thanked everyone for being there, and nothing was said about her being a witch. I left a piece of rose quartz on her headstone, which I knew she would have appreciated.
When I talked to Mal, he was horrified he’d employed a murderer, and Lorne promised to vet people for him going forward. Mal was very appreciative. The Abundant Life Church left Osprey two weeks later.
Allard Pace’s funeral was in Albany, where he’d moved from, and no one but Lorne and I made the trip. We met his brother, who took control of his estate, and we conveyed our condolences. He thanked us for being there. When Amanda contacted him, he was more than happy to sell her the property. He wanted nothing to do with Osprey, no matter how good a tourist attraction we had in the form of dead cultists. For her part, Amanda had plans to raze the house to the ground and turn the rest into a park. Once it was complete, she would then turn it over to the city for upkeep. I thought it was a wonderful idea.
A week later, Father Dennis let me know that he had been granted permission by his bishop to perform our marriage ceremony. Even though ours was considered a mixed marriage—as Lorne was raised Catholic and I was very much not—as well as us not wanting to have it in the church, the bishop had still been persuaded.
“How did you manage it?” I asked him.
“I simply told him that you and Lorne deserved every happiness, and he agreed.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You told him about the demon, didn’t you?”
“As though he would have ever believed such a thing, Xander.”
But the glint in his eyes told me he was fibbing a bit.
When Mal came over for dinner, he became so enamored of my greenhouse, I kept having to deliver things out there to him: a beer, a small plate of appetizers, a glass of apricot iced tea, a bowl of fruit… Lorne put his foot down when it came to taking his dinner out there. He’d barbecued steaks, and I had a great-looking portobello mushroom with all the same sides they had, and he insisted we all eat together.
“Will you come in and sit down,” Lorne growled at him.
“I just need to find out from Xander how he gets these roses to grow in here, and how is that elder shrub so large, and I have some questions about the hydrangeas out front as well. How on earth are you getting those colors?”
I was betting he would have even more questions as the night wore on. Things grew on Corvus that weren’t supposed to, and they changed color on a whim, which wasn’t helpful at all when a certified botanist visited.
“And are those pomegranates?”
Apparently, Lorne wasn’t the only one who liked them.
Argos went back to wandering the town at night, and Toby reported that sometimes my cat walked him to school in the morning. Toby was still concerned that Argos wasn’t getting regular checkups, but he had to agree that Argos didn’t appear to be needing any vitamins, and his teeth were always very white and very sharp.