Chapter 40

Mom went to open the front door. I stuffed the key into my pocket as I moved into the darkness of the kitchen. I walked over to the doorway closest to the entry and pulled out my phone. I wanted to use the camera feature to look around the doorway and see who was there without letting them see me.

“Mrs. Connor, is Seth here?”

I recognized the blue hair. It belonged to Stefany from Shirley’s. There were also two brunettes and two blondes. I knew them from school, but I couldn’t recall their names. As confused as I was about their presence, I was thankful it wasn’t the Sheriff. I let out a sigh of relief, heard mom invite the girls in, and stepped back into the kitchen.

I watched mom walk by, leading the girls to the living room. One of them asked, “Lisa? What are you doing here?”

“What am I doing here?” Lisa said with venom. “What are all of you doing here?”

“We’re here to see Seth,” said another girl. “What’s it to ya?”

“Excuse me?” Lisa said, sounding ready to rumble.

I suddenly realized that I would rather face Anna and the Sheriff than deal with what waited for me in the living room.

Mrs. Hartwell came back into the kitchen and spotted me. She stepped closer and asked, “What are you doing in here?”

I looked at her, giving her my best incredulous stare, and then glanced toward the living room. “I’m hiding.”

She pointed. “You have to get out there and take care of this.”

“I know,” I said. “But I’d rather deal with them one at a time. After all, that’s how the counter works.”

She sighed. “Fine. I’ll bring in Lisa,” she said, but got no further.

Stefany of the blue hair came around the corner, spotted me, and ran into the kitchen. “There you are!” she said and threw herself at me.

I had just enough time to set my phone on the counter before being knocked to the floor. The girl was stronger than she looked. I struggled to get her off me, but then the others found us and I was swarmed by kisses, gropes, and giggles.

It was a moment out of a beloved nightmare. I had always dreaded the day my girls grew too impatient to wait their turn and simply tie me to a bed and have their way with me, several at a time. Sure, it would be fun, in a submissive sort of way, but I never really considered that sort of thing happening with a group of girls I barely knew.

What confused me was that I knew where and when I saw Stefany, but I had no idea when I had crossed paths with the other four.

Someone pulled the girls off me one at a time. I finally realized the other women in the house each held back a girl, leaving me to deal with Stefany. She was brazen enough to grab my face and kiss me in front of everyone – and she didn’t hold back either. Her kiss wasn’t a simple pressing of lips. She ate at my mouth, tongued me, and sucked on my lips. I had to admit, she was good.

I pulled the key out of my pocket, and then I decided to be brazen myself. I grabbed one of her breasts. Apparently, the women in the Hartwell family were all sizable in the breast department, because she more than filled my hand. I would have enjoyed feeling more of her, but she pulled away in surprise. Not off me completely, but far enough back that I was able to slip the chain over her head.

Much like Mrs. Hartwell, Stefany quickly realized what she was doing and stopped. She sat up, though she was still straddling my groin, and looked around. “Oh my God!” she said, covering her mouth. “What am I doing?” Then she looked down at me. “You ... you...” Then she rolled away, stood up, and went to hide behind her aunt.

I stood up too, looked around the room at the other girls, who continued to struggle against the others, and raised my voice to be heard. “Shut it!”

The girls all stopped calling out to me. The sudden silence was deafening.

I looked and spotted Stefany. She ducked behind Mrs. Hartwell. “Stefany, I slipped a necklace on you. It has a key on it. I need it back please.”

She didn’t say anything or come out of hiding, but after a minute, she reached out and tossed the key towards me.

It landed on the island counter and I grabbed it. I looked around at the other girls. I knew them from school, but none of them was in my class. The only place that occurred to me, where we might have crossed paths, was during the parade. Yet, if that were the case, wouldn’t more women show up? Why only these girls? I never laid eyes on them, but then I wasn’t sure that was even a requirement. Maybe Rho could help me later. For now, I had to counter the spell on them.

I moved around the room, placing the necklace on each of the four girls, and waiting until they seemed to come back to themselves. When I finished with the last one, all five were ready to leave, no explanation required. Mrs. Hartwell walked the girls to the front door and saw them off.

The only person left in need of the counter was Lisa. Yet, she had followed her mother’s lead and pulled one of the girls off me, rather than join in on the fun. I couldn’t imagine why. She didn’t act jealous of Olive, but she was willing to fight with the girls. Why?

Alyssa opened her mouth, ready to ask a question when Mrs. Hartwell returned. “Now, Seth, if you would do that for my daughter too?”

Mom and Alyssa didn’t say or ask anything. I knew they would, once everyone was gone, but for the time being, they were accepting that my actions helped those girls.

I looked at Lisa. She looked from my face, to the key in my hands, and back to my face again. She shook her head. “I don’t need it.”

“Lisa,” her mom said with a gentle touch to her arm.

Lisa pulled away from her. “No, I said I don’t need it.” Then she looked at me. “I don’t know why those girls acted the way they did. I don’t know what Seth did to make them stop, but I’m not involved. I’m not affected.”

Mrs. Hartwell looked at me with eyes full of meaning. She wanted me to do something.

I looked at the key in my hand, and so Lisa could plainly see what I was doing, I dangled it over the island counter and let it fall. It was quiet but distinct as it landed and the chain made a pile.

I looked at Lisa. She smiled but it didn’t feel right. Yes, she was under the influence of the key, and I would have to find a way to put the key on her without her realizing it. I stepped around the island to stand closer to her, took a breath to ask her a question, and someone knocked on the front door again.

“I’ll get it,” Alyssa said and left.

I looked at Lisa again. “Why do you believe you don’t need the key?”

She shrugged but never said anything. I heard movement coming from the entryway. It wasn’t a group of giggling girls this time.

“Mr. Connors,” said Sheriff Humphreys.

I stood there frozen because the key laid on the counter behind me, and I had planned to use my phone to record my future conversations with the Sheriff. It too, lay on the counter, out of my reach.

I took a deep breath and focused. There were several people behind me. I also spotted two deputies through the sliding glass door at the back of the living room before Sergeant Rawlings and Officer Jenkins stepped around the corner into the breakfast nook. It seemed the Sheriff wanted to make sure he had enough people to keep me from running. I never planned on running.

Quietly, I renewed the two defensive spells on myself from earlier, the shield and the aura of truth. If I needed anything more than that, I was in real trouble.

I turned to face the Sheriff. Two more deputies flanked him and behind those men stood Anna Begley. Olive was nowhere in sight.

Sheriff Humphreys nodded toward the living room. “So, it’s true. You found your father.”

I looked around at his show of force. Rawlings met my eyes and gave me a small nod. I took it to mean, ‘well done,’ and nodded back. When I looked at the Sheriff, I asked, “Are you staying for dinner?”

The Sheriff frowned. “Dinner? We’re not here about dinner.”

“Oh, too bad,” I said and glanced at Mom. “We were about to decide which restaurant to order from. No one feels like cooking or going out, because – and I’m sure you already know – my dad is dead.”

The Sheriff didn’t flinch. He knew. “Well, we know what that means then.”

I met his gaze. Of all the things I wanted to say, I decided on the obvious. “There’ll be a funeral, after my family and I decide what to do with his ashes.”

His brows lowered. “I don’t doubt that your family will want a funeral, but I don’t see how any of their decisions includes you.”

“I do, Sheriff,” Mom said, stepping closer. “He’s my son, a member of this family, and he brought home the remains of my dead husband. He has done nothing to warrant this kind of behavior from you or the Newton Grove Police Department.”

Anna stepped in at that point. “Mrs. Connors,” she said with a smooth, calm tone. “Let the Sheriff do his duty. I’m sorry it has come to this, but your son...” she shook her head, “he’s not the good boy he’s led you to believe.”

I glowered at Anna. “Stay away from my mother.”

Anna looked at me, blinked innocently, and placed a hand at her chest. “All I’m trying to do is help keep the situation calm.”

I shook my head. “No, you’ve inflamed the situation. You’ve pushed and convinced others of rumors and lies.”

She opened her mouth, feigning shock. “How dare you! I would never do such things.”

“Interesting, that’s not what Olive said,” I said.

“None of it matters,” the Sheriff interrupted, and then he pointed at me. “You and I had an agreement.”

“What agreement?” Mom asked and looked at me.

“I’d like to know that myself,” I said, looking at the Sheriff. “Because, as I recall, our agreement was for me to be out of town by the end of the day on Saturday, which I was.”

“You’re still here,” he growled at me.

I shook my head. “Check the lines, Sheriff. Our house sits outside of the city limits. I’m not in town and neither are you.”

“But you are in my county.”

“I’m not arguing that,” I said. “What I don’t get is why you want me to leave the county before my business is finished.”

“Your business IS finished,” he said.

“No, Sheriff, it isn’t,” I said, knowing we could debate the issue until the end of time. “You want me to leave before the funeral, before the reading of my father’s will. Why?”

He flinched, realized it, and his face reddened with anger. “You need to leave.” Then he waved a hand. “Arrest him.”

I stepped away from the island and adopted a relaxed defensive stance Greta favored. I looked at each deputy. “If any of you touch me, I will consider it assault and defend myself.”

The Sheriff laughed, “What are you going to do? Use a baseball bat?”

“I have never used a weapon against anyone else,” I said. “I don’t need to now.” I waved an arm behind me because I knew Mrs. Hartwell and Lisa were still there. Once I heard them move, I stepped back.

The deputies didn’t seem to care who was in the way. One reached for me and the other pulled out a pair of handcuffs.

I pulled on Greta’s skills. I grabbed the wrist of the deputy reaching for me and twisted it behind his back in an arm lock. I followed that up with a quick kick at the other deputy, catching him in the gut, making him stop to catch his breathe. Then I pushed the arm-locked deputy into the other, knocking them both down.

I stepped away from everyone, towards the utility room. Lucky for me, there wasn’t any laundry waiting on the floor to be washed. “I dodged Riley and Leo on Saturday. They were bent on putting me in either the hospital or the grave. Do you really think I’m going to stand here and allow you to man-handle me?”

The Sheriff pulled his sidearm. He didn’t point it at me. He only held it in his hand. “If you continue to resist arrest, I will be forced to shoot you.”

“You’ll shoot an unarmed man?” I asked, “In front of all these witnesses?”

He grinned. “It’s protocol when you cannot safely subdue a suspect.”

“Suspect of what?” Mom asked.

“Stay out of this,” the Sheriff barked at her.

Anna pulled her back, “Mrs. Connors, stay out of this.”

There it was again, that similar phrasing. I knew enough about magical bonds to call up a quick spell and see a bond between Anna and the Sheriff. He was her Fonte. It certainly made sense, their shared desire to send me packing, one way, or another.

Mom turned and pulled her arm from Anna’s grip. Anna was shorter than mom was by several inches, but she felt every bit as big glaring back at the taller woman. I suspected she was trying to use her power on mom, but the deputies were on their feet again. I couldn’t help my family if I was being forcibly ejected from the county, possibly the state.