Tiny Glitches: A Magical Contemporary Romance by Rebecca Chastain Read Free Book Online

leave Kyoko alone.”
    “Okay. I’ll be back.”
    I fervently hoped so. Until I watched him stride away, admiring the view, I hadn’t considered what I would do if he didn’t return.
    The shiny black SUV disappeared around a corner, and I turned back to the trailer. Kyoko dozed on her feet, trunk relaxed against the floor of the trailer. I sat back down. The fumes of her excrement had aired out while we were on the freeway, or else I’d become immune.
    The sun warmed my skin, and the city sounds soothed my anxiety. It was tempting to turn my brain off, but I forced myself to review my bizarre day. Taking Kyoko to Sofie’s was a temporary fix, and one I wasn’t happy with. I didn’t want to involve my aunt in anything illegal. I didn’t want to be involved in anything illegal. But it would give us time to find Jenny—or for Jenny to find me again—and for us to force her to take Kyoko back.
    Us was another topic to ponder. The superficial information Hudson and I had shared made great first-date material, but it didn’t provide much to go on when forming an opinion about a partner in crime. Other than the obvious white-knight broadsword, the apparitions I’d seen had been predictably useless. A sombrero, a pair of well-worn cowboy boots, and a few Monopoly pieces all told me nothing. Maybe Hudson liked Mexican cowboys. Maybe he’d played a lot of Monopoly as a child.
    There had been nothing vague about his actions, though. He had a hero complex, he reacted quickly, and he hadn’t flinched or backed down when he had a chance to extricate himself from this bizarre situation. All in all, pretty good qualities. Qualities I would have preferred to admire in a nice social setting, one that didn’t involve crimes, cars, or crazy women.
    Oh, yeah, or the pesky blackmail threat that could ruin my life.

CHAPTER FOUR
     
     
    “I did some thinking on the drive back,” Hudson said, taking a seat next to me on the trailer step and opening a container of Pad Kee Mao I’d set aside for him. When no brilliant solutions to Jenny’s blackmail had surfaced, I’d decided to refuel at the Thai restaurant. My own box of Pad Thai sat empty by my feet. “This smells good. Thanks. How’s Kyoko?”
    “Sleeping.”
    “She didn’t try to break out and trample you? Chew off an arm?”
    “Until you’ve been shackled in there barefoot, you don’t get to laugh.”
    “You’ve got to admit it was a teensy bit funny.”
    I arched an eyebrow at him. “You were about to prove you’re more than just a pretty face,” I prompted.
    Hudson grinned. “Okay, here’s a puzzle for you: How do we get Kyoko into the Suburban?”
    I stared at the thigh-high back bumper of the Suburban, then down at the trailer, whose floor stood a foot and a half off the ground. A dog could make the jump easily, but not a stumpy-legged baby elephant.
    “Well, crap.” I glanced around, looking for inspiration. No convenient loading dock, no steel-enforced plywood we could fashion into a ramp, no wheelchair lift.
    “Exactly,” Hudson agreed around a mouthful of food.
    We brainstormed while he ate and came up with nothing.
    “Where’s a weightlifter when you need one,” I joked, walking back from the trashcan.
    “You know . . .” Hudson jumped up onto the step and peered at Kyoko. He turned to look at me over his shoulder. “That’s not a bad idea. She can’t weigh that much, right?”
    “More than I can lift.” She had to weigh at least twice as much as Hudson. “More than I can lift even half of, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
    “No. Even if she played along and didn’t struggle, that would be too much for the two of us. But if we had help . . .”
    “You have weightlifter friends in the area?”
    “Not a single one. But I have cash.”
    Hudson’s idea turned out to be two parts of horrible. First, he wanted to pay the gangster-looking guys loitering around the tattoo shop to assist us. Second, he wanted me to enlist their