1 Witchy Business by Eve Paludan, Stuart Sharp Read Free Book Online Page B

way for her to get back in the coven’s good graces.
    I turned my attention back to Evert. His tattoos rippling with their own live moment on his skin—which was creepy, but fascinating—Evert moved over to look through the viewfinder of the camera aimed at Niall’s place. He glanced over to Rebecca, a crease of worry between his eyebrows.
    “Too late. By now, he’ll surely have guessed what she is.”
    “Yes, but that doesn’t have to be a problem,” she replied.
    “Rebecca, you know it won’t be that simple. What if—”
    “I’m not an—”
    “Hey!” I said sharply, standing up from the uncomfortable folding chair and crossing my arms over my chest. I tried not to get angry, but there was something about Evert that made me want to hit him and I was close to it. I wanted to do something to him, anyway. Maybe not hit him. “I am right here, you know. In the room.”
    Rebecca sighed, looking at me for several seconds, measuring just how ticked off I was. Her expression was indecipherable, and she’d already warned me about using my magic on her. “That’s the problem. Now that I think about it, this is just about the worst place for you to be right now, Elle. Could I persuade you to just let this one drop?”
    “You want me to walk away from the case? Just like that?” I did my best not to sound too hurt by that. Even so, I shook my head. “No. No way. You haven’t told me a thing, and I have my professional reputation to consider, Rebecca. I don’t get work from the big names because I walk away with the job half done. And there is the matter of my fee.”
    “Even so—”
    “It wouldn’t work,” Evert said, interrupting. “She’s here now. He’s seen her. And she is not going to back down from a case. I wouldn’t.”
    That felt almost like a compliment. Although exactly how much of a compliment it was to find myself compared to someone like Evert, I didn’t know.
    “Come on,” I said. “What do you two know that I don’t?”
    “I’m just trying to find a way out of this…mess,” Rebecca said.
    I shook my head. “Listen, I don’t know the details of whatever you two are working on…”
    “And you aren’t going to get them. Not yet.” Rebecca shook her head. “Stop fishing for details, Elle.”
    “It is what I do. I fish. And apparently, you two have a whale on your hook and no clue what to do with it.”
    I let that sink in. Rebecca swallowed hard.
    I kept going. “Whatever it is, Evert is right. Niall has met me now. If you’re worried that seeing a witch will spook him—”
    Rebecca rolled her eyes. “Must you speak like that?”
    “Like what?”
    “Like you were raised on a steady diet of American television.”
    “I might not have been raised on it, but I make no apologies for getting hooked on American television in adulthood. So I like Bewitched , so what?”
    “There’s a whole conversation full of reasons why that’s a problem,” Rebecca assured me. “We just don’t have the time right now. Just keep away from this, Elle.”
    Not a request this time. An order. And still one I couldn’t go along with.
    “If it’s just the thought of having me around your precious investigation that’s the problem, do you think that problem goes away if I leave? Don’t you think the insurers will send someone else? There is a lot of money at stake if the insurance company has to pay out that claim. And if they find out that you and Tattoo Man here are interfering—”
    “Hey!” Evert protested.
    I ignored him. “Listen to me, Rebecca. If the insurers found out that you were interfering with my investigation and they had to pay the claim as a result of my not recovering the stolen artwork, then you know they’d never talk to you again. Or me. You think that would make your job easier?”
    Rebecca drew in her breath. She had to know I was right. Not only were her referrals for services through the coven her livelihood, but without information from insurers, it would