Froggy Style

Froggy Style by J.A. Kazimer Read Free Book Online

Book: Froggy Style by J.A. Kazimer Read Free Book Online
Authors: J.A. Kazimer
Rose.”
    “One moment, sir.” Ms. Perky blew out a breath. “Here we go. The Rose is located on Eighth and Fairily Way. It says here they specialize in tattoos, taxes, and taxidermy.” Well, I guess that explained my tramp stamp. But the more important question was, did the Rose also specialize in murder?

Chapter 8
    “B ugger,” I yelped as a droplet of melting chocolate ice cream dribbled down my hand and onto my thousand-dollar silk shirt. I rubbed at the stain with the edge of my jacket. “Damn, this was one of my favorite shirts.”
    Standing in the doorway of the Rose, Karl glowered at the growing brown stain across my chest and then at me. “I told you we shouldn’t have bought ice cream. That we should’ve come straight here to stop your fiancée’s murder. But you just had to have an icy treat.”
    “I was hungry,” I said with a shrug. A prince had to eat, right? And I felt bad about the whole Beauty thing. Really. I’d messed up by hiring a killer, but in the scheme of things, was murdering my intended that big a deal?
    “Yes!” Karl yelled. “Murder, by definition, is a big deal, sir.”
    Oops. Hadn’t meant to ponder my withered morality aloud. My lack of principles always made Karl a wee bit nervous. Go figure.
    But Karl wasn’t finished with his moral outrage. “A woman’s life is at stake. A woman you vowed to love, honor, and cherish.”
    I stifled an eye roll, but just barely. Karl was blowing this whole thing out of proportion. It wasn’t like I purposely hired an assassin. Sure, I didn’t want to marry Beauty, or any woman, for that matter, but would I go as far as hiring an assassin? It had to be a mistake, like when one of the dwarfs “accidentally” caught Snow White coming out of the shower. These things happened. Sort of like a late-night booty call, but rather than a blow job, I got an assassin. I’d fix my mistake and everything would work out. It always did. It always would. I was the Frog Prince. Bulletproof, baby.
    “Think of what could happen if, for some reason, you cannot stop Sleeping Beauty’s assassination.” Karl’s voice fell as he gestured to the shiny doorway of the Rose.
    I glanced at Karl. “I never thought of it that way.”
    He nodded. “It does give one pause.”
    “Shit,” I said, the full weight of what I’d done rushing over me. “If I can’t stop Beauty’s murder, I very well might turn back into a frog.”
    Karl stared at me as if I’d grown an extra head or perhaps frog legs. His mouth opened and closed, but no sound escaped. Finally he took a shuddering breath. “That wasn’t quite what I meant, sir.”
    “Well, it’s a moot point anyway. Five minutes from now, Beauty will be safe and we’ll be on our way back to the hotel.” I grinned. “No one the wiser.”
    “You can say that again, sir.”
    I glared at my sarcastic servant and set my dripping ice cream cone in a trash can next to the doorway. In the reflection of the window, I adjusted the sleeve of my jacket and ran a hand through my black curls. The image of a rose wrapped in barbed wire graced the window, obscuring a part of my face.
    This was the place.
    “Let’s get this over with,” I said with a yawn.
    Karl gave a diminutive shake of his head and opened the front door of the Rose. The sweet scent of fresh blood swept over us as we entered the dim interior of the shop. A sign on the wall stated “The Rose: We Cater to Your Every Happy Ending.” I grinned at the irony.
    A dwarf with curly red hair and paint-by-numbers eyebrows glanced up from a stuffed Brer Rabbit in her hand. Cotton fibers leaked from its every orifice. “Can I help you?” she asked with a bored air embedded in the genetic code of a short hipster.
    “Um . . . yes,” Karl began. “My employer, Jean-Michel La Grenouille—”
    “Who?” the dwarf asked.
    A woman wearing a white tank top and black leather pants, her arms colored with enough ink to cover Mother Goose and her whole gander twice,

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