Witches for Hire (Odd Jobs #1)(14)
“Those interfering tossers,” Jeremy growled.
Holding his hands up in front of him, Clive laughed nervously as he wondered how he was now at fault. “Please remember that I had no control over this situation.”
Simone grinned. “As long as you remember that we don’t need fixing.”
Her smile reminded him of Mia’s. So sweet and yet full of a painful promise if he ever disobeyed her. “Of course. All of you are fine the way you are.” Clive smiled just as brightly. My green card is fucked.
Chapter 5
“WHAT IF he and Edarra are really going out for coffee and not chasing the adult gremlins like they said they were?” Jeremy whispered. Witches for Hire was still prospering at the end of its second month leading into the hectic Halloween weekend, but he wasn’t a reformed pessimist yet. He laid a gooey egg the size of a golf ball on top of the straw-lined box. If either of them were too loud, a single hatchling would set off its brothers and sisters into joining it. They had collected ten others from the clogged pipes under the kitchen sink of the empty restaurant suffering from a devastating inspection score.
“If he was a lazy asshole, we’d have seen it by now, so shut up. I don’t want these suckers waking up on me.”
Even if gremlins were mindless creatures who could only wreak havoc, smashing them with the sledgehammer for carelessly waking them did seem harsh. Jeremy sighed. The gremlins were a sign that unsanctioned portals were popping up in Georgia or nearby states. The ones that the Council oversaw never had any problems with pests piggybacking on otherworlders. When Jeremy had accrued enough slime to never want to see underneath a sink again, he and Simone snapped the box shut. They lugged the heavy box to the back of Edarra’s SUV and found her and Clive standing, much too clean, next to it. I knew they slacked off!
“We lost sight of the creatures near the warehouses,” Clive said. “I’ll stay here until I catch them. Jeremy, why don’t you go with Edarra to the next job?”
Jeremy leaned back so only Simone could hear him. “I told you so.”
“I get to chill back at the office, so it only sucks to be you,” Simone whispered out of the corner of her mouth.
Jeremy glared at her but said to Clive, “I can do that. I just need to get out of these plastic coveralls.”
Edarra’s nose wrinkled. “You should wash your arms and face. You’re a little ripe.”
Jeremy continued wearing the expression of annoyance, but deep down, he was allowing himself to grow optimistic. Clive took some getting used to, but after his first month of settling in, he liked Witches for Hire. They all did their jobs correctly, and Jeremy was tempted by the urge to trust them despite having been taught many times how unwise it was. This could finally turn out to be the job he felt proud of and a reminder of why he’d decided to help solve others’ magical problems. A couple strolled by arm in arm, and Jeremy smiled at them. Without warning, the man took out his phone and snapped a picture of Jeremy.
Damn! I let my guard down. Tourist or mage, their phone was meeting its maker. When the couple was down the road, Jeremy pointed at the man, willing his phone to malfunction and lose its memory. “So rude.” He saw Simone turn her head toward him, to the couple, and then back to him. “What?”
She broke into laughter.
“What’s so funny?”
“I know why they took your picture. With that plastic crap over your suit, you look like Hannibal Lecter.”
Jeremy glanced at the plastic coveralls protecting one of his favorite suits and tie. “I don’t look like a serial killer!” he shouted at the man, who was almost around the corner.
The man shouted back, “That’s what Hannibal would say!”
“Wanker!” The man was gone, but Jeremy hoped he heard the insult. “I can’t wait for him to make a phone call and realize his contacts are gone.”
“Stop making witchcraft sound lame,” Simone said while rolling her eyes.
EDARRA TIGHTENED her hands on the wheel as she frowned. That car was behind us earlier.
“What’s wrong?” Jeremy asked.
Following a witch who had cast multiple concealment spells on his body to avoid paying his ex-wife child support shouldn’t have come with complications. Edarra pulled into a gas station. “Go inside and buy something quick, like a lighter.”
Jeremy looked at her and then back at their target. He unbuckled his seat belt and got out. When he returned within a minute, Edarra moved into the right lane.
She checked the rearview mirror again. The car she had spotted stayed behind their target. Good, it’s not us he’s interested in.
“We’ll lose him if you go slower.”
“Not if we keep up with the man who’s following this Cameron Gulley.”
“Wonderful,” Jeremy said as he put his seat belt on.
“We’re not chasing gremlins, so don’t complain.” After Clive had revealed his former knighthood, Edarra was more than happy not to volunteer to comb the sewers. She could do danger, but stomping in human waste was nasty.
“This job has bad juju written all over it.”
Fragile humans and their endless fear. If Clive had sent her alone, she wouldn’t need to worry about coddling the witch.
“Why did I have to get out of the car?”