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Chapter One
I first realized my sister and I would never be friends the night she confessed to stealing money from the mob.
Here was the thing: when your eyes were glued to a gym bag overflowing—correction, vomiting—one-hundred-dollar bills, were you supposed to rejoice with glee?
You were if the money was legitimate.
But this situation was far from aboveboard.
“Cammie, what have you done?”
I stared at my sister. She tried to run fingers through her black teased-up hair, but that cobweb of tresses was glued together tightly. She grimaced and her shoulders sank in, making her look small. A gusty sigh rushed from her lungs, and she peered up at me with an apology in her eyes.
“I’m sorry?”
I closed my lids in frustration and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Are you asking me if you’re sorry or telling me?”
“Both,” she squeaked.
My lids snapped open. “Where did all this money come from? You’re broke, remember? Using my money to fund your picnics with leprechauns.”
A tiny frown line appeared between her brows. “Leprechauns?”
“Never mind.”
Perhaps I should hit the brakes and back up. My name is Paige Provey, and I’m a middle-aged witch with little control of my gift. That’s not even the most important detail right now as my sister, who is also middle-aged (in fact, she’s older than me and should know better) appeared at the cottage I was staying at a few days ago and has been mooching off me ever since. We’d just buried the hatchet we’d held against one another for our entire lives when I discovered in her possession a gym bag filled with money. It was so stuffed it reminded me of a twice-baked potato bursting with cheese and potato guts.
“Where did this cash come from?” I demanded.
Snow, my resident phantom, floated over from the kitchenette and raked her opaque fingers across the money. She studied it with an eye cocked in curiosity. “There’s so much. You could rent a bigger cabin, Paige.”
Was no one but me concerned about the origins of said cash? “Cammie, if you don’t tell me right now, I’m kicking you out of this cabin tonight.”
Cammie’s eyes brimmed with tears. “Okay, I’ll tell you. I was dating this guy who may or may not have been involved with the mob.”
Cold dread seeped into my chest. “Are you telling me that he was?”
She lifted one shoulder and tipped her head in apology. “He may have been.”
I exhaled and dropped onto the couch. I scraped my fingernails over my scalp, letting them bite into my flesh. The pain felt good. It actually felt more real than this crazy train of a night I was on.
When I looked up, Cammie had her nose tipped to the ceiling and was staring at it as if she were an innocent victim of a stowaway duffel bag filled with dirty money.
“Start at the beginning,” I told her.
Snow floated over and sat by me. She tucked a strand of blonde hair behind an ear and gracefully crossed one leg over the other. She entwined her delicate fingers, placing them on her knee, and watched Cammie with all the attention of an enraptured socialite.
“I would love to hear it,” she said.
“It all started when I met Newman, that SOB,” Cammie started.
“Oh, I knew a Newman once,” Snow told us eagerly. “He was tall, dark and handsome.” Her nose wrinkled as if from recalling a troubling memory. “But Newman would sometimes disappear, and then in his place, there would be a dark spot in the sky.”
I patted her hand in sympathy. “I’m pretty sure you’re confusing memories of Superman with your actual life.”
She touched her cherry-red lips. “No, I don’t think so.”
Yes, I think so. I turned back to Cammie. “Keep going.”
Cammie dug through her purse and pulled out a pack of gum. She lifted it in offering, but I turned her down. She unwrapped a stick and shoved it into her mouth, real ladylike.
She spoke through obnoxious smacking. “Well, Newman was all charming and loving at first, and he always had wads of cash—I mean big fistfuls.” She lifted her hands in the shape of claws holding invisible money. “We had a great time until I caught his butt cheating on me.”
Snow shook her head sadly. “Isn’t that the way it always goes? They’re wonderful until they’re cheating on you.” Her gaze darted to the ground. “Yes, that’s how it is.”
“Snow, do you remember something?”
“No, I don’t think so.” She paused before a big bubbly laugh tinkled from her throat. “I was just going on about nonsense. Don’t mind me.”
I watched her carefully for a moment. Snow didn’t recall much from her life as a human, other than that she’d lived in Willow Lake, where I was currently vacationing to recharge my nonexistent writing career after being canceled and humiliated on national television. But instead I was entertaining my thief of a sister and hanging out with ghosts.
You could see how my life was going.
“What happened with Newman?” I asked my sister.
Cammie wretched and spit the gum into her hand. She tossed it into a trash can, mumbling, “Lost its dang flavor after only two seconds. I ain’t ever buying that crap again.”
“Newman?” I impatiently reminded her. “What happened?”
“Oh, right.” She brushed her hands on her thighs. “Well, I caught his butt cheating on me at the hoedown bar and so I broke into his truck and stole this here duffel bag.” She patted the money proudly.
So much to unpack in that sentence. Hoedown bar? She broke into his truck? I decided to push on rather than request details. “Did you know what was in the bag at the time?”
“Nuh-uh. No clue. But I found out when I got it home and opened it.”
My heart seized like the hand of death had reached into my chest and squeezed it. “And you came here? You didn’t return it? Newman may not have even known it was stolen.”
Cammie clicked her tongue in triumph. “Oh, he knew. I smashed out the back window. There was no ignoring that.”
Jeez.
She continued, this time in a more somber voice. “When I got home and peeked inside was when I figured out that I was up a creek without a paddle. I suspected that Newman wasn’t on the up-and-up, and then the money proved it. I was so proud of myself for listening to my instincts.” She tapped her temple smugly. “I’m a real smartie.”
My eye twitched. I was unknowingly housing drug or blood money, and she was proud of herself? I swallowed several deep gulps of air and told myself we could figure this out.
I rose and paced the claustrophobically tiny room. “Okay, we can fix this.”
“Oh, there ain’t no fixing it,” my sister murmured.
“Cammie,” I screeched. She jumped in fear. “This is not the time to contradict me. We, you and me—”
“And me,” Snow offered.
My eyes snapped in her direction. “You do not count. You are a ghost.” I inhaled another gulp of air and closed my eyes, trying to think. “Okay. We’ve got to return the money.”
“No can do.”
My lids flipped open. “What do you mean, no can do?”
Cammie scoffed. “What am I supposed to do? Call my cheating ex-boyfriend and tell him I’ve got his money?”
“Yes.” The word exploded from my mouth. “That’s exactly what you’re supposed to do. Cammie, how could you have been so childish? You’re my older sister. You’re supposed to make good decisions, not bad ones.”
She shrugged as if it was no big deal. As if no one would track down a bag stuffed full of cash and kill whoever had stolen it.
“It’ll be fine,” she insisted.
I marched over to the bag, shoved my fist inside and closed my hand around a wad of cash. When I pulled it out, wrapped bills cascaded down my arm and plopped onto the floor. I thrust the fistful of cash under her nose.
“It will not be fine. Newman or his boss will come looking for this, and when they discover that both of us know about the money, they will kill us. Do you understand?”
Her gaze cut to the floor. “But Newman’s nice.”
“Not when it comes to this, he’s not. Cammie, I don’t care what you have to do, but within two days I want this money gone. I want it out of here, and I want to be alive and well.”
When she looked up at me, her eyes glistened with tears. “But he’ll kill me for stealing it.”
So Cammie knew. Of course she did. My sister’s whole we’ll-be-fine display was only an act. I sighed and slumped onto the couch. I opened my fingers, and the cash poured back onto the duffel.
I dropped my forehead into my hands. “You came here as soon as you discovered the money, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“And you haven’t spent one dime of it, have you?”
“No.” I heard her gulp. “Paige, what are we gonna do?”
First of all, I nearly spat, it’s not we, it’s you. “Call Newman. Arrange a meeting.”
Her voice thinned. “Where?”
I sighed and slumped back onto the couch. “Out on the lake, someplace secluded.”
“I know just the spot,” Snow offered.
She told us about it, and I nodded. “That sounds perfect—easy to find but remote. Tell Newman that.”
“And what about the gun he’ll be bringing? Or the other men who’ll be ready for us?”
“Leave that to me.”
One side of her mouth curved into a smile. “You gonna call that hottie Grim to help?”
“No, I am not going to call that hottie Grim. I have my own plan. Or I’ll have one by then. Listen, don’t worry about that. I’ll come up with something.”
Cammie watched me cautiously. She knew that I saw ghosts, but she didn’t know the rest—that I possessed powers with a life of their own. Between now and my meeting with Newman, I needed a quick and dirty method of using magic that would scare the mob off Cammie for good. So that she’d never have to worry about them retaliating.
Grim would help, I knew. But our relationship was too young, too fragile for me to call him and announce I was in trouble with the mob. Pretty sure we’d never survive that blow.
No. I had a better idea than dragging him into this.
“I’ll call Newman,” Cammie said suddenly, shoving the money deep into the mouth of the duffel and zipping it tight. “Tomorrow. And then we’ll meet up.” She slung the bag over her shoulder and mumbled, “I’m sorry, Paige. For all of it—appearing on your doorstep, for stealing your money to buy groceries, and for lying.”
I couldn’t spit out a thank-you or even an, I forgive you. By appearing on my doorstep, Cammie had yanked me into this madness. She had dragged me into a relationship with the mob, one I’d never asked for.
As soon as this was over and the money returned, I’d give my sister a hug and show her the door, shoving her over the threshold if need be. How could I trust her after this? After she jeopardized my life?
We were different people—Cammie lived on the fringes, a life of surviving month to month, of loving men fiercely and then collapsing when those relationships crumbled into flaming piles of dog poop only weeks later.
I was the opposite—weighing the pros and cons of situations as if they were the scales of justice. I pondered over consequences before leaping into decisions, and I certainly didn’t date men with thoughtless abandon. Being recently divorced did that to a person.
Take Grim, for instance. We have off-the-charts chemistry. How could we not with his wavy dark hair, eyes that glinted like gemstones, and his muscular body kissed with golden sky. Let me rephrase that, how could I not have chemistry with him?
We do. I do. But the last time we found our bodies touching and my fingernails scraping over his back, he basically said that he promised himself he would never get too attached to a woman. Even though he confessed that, one-half of me wanted to ignore his words and give myself to him totally.
But what a blow that would be to my psyche. I couldn’t survive being emotionally crushed right now. And I would be if I handed the keys to my heart to him (along with my body) and after he turned that key, he then tossed it over his shoulder, where it plunged off a cliff.
My chest tightened just thinking about that.
But back to Cammie.
As she slid the bag into a closet with her foot, shoving it in until it couldn’t be seen (yes, still with her toe), the knowledge that we’d never be friends hit me.
We were sisters, but we would never be anything else. We were too different, unable to understand one another. I would help her become untangled from this mess, but after the duffel bag was back with Newman, I would show my sister the door.
Cammie plopped back on top of the couch, and she pulled the throw blanket up to her chin and nested it between her legs. “So. What do we do now?”
I handed her my phone. “Now you call Newman. Not tomorrow. Now.”
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