The Hex With It (A Paranormal P.I. Mystery Book 2) Page 2

  I sighed. “Okay, but you have to let me do some of the talking too.”

  Derek smiled. “Absolutely. You can do all the talking. If you want I’ll just stand back and let you do the work.”

  I snorted. “Yeah, I believe that.”

  Derek stared at me for a moment and I wondered if I’d hurt his feelings. He should be used to witty comments. He was always making them. I was only doing what he did.

  “What time should I pick you up?” He took another drink

  “What time does the party start?”I asked.

  “When we arrive.” He laughed.

  I quirked an eyebrow. “I’m serious.”

  “Okay, I’ll pick you up at seven thirty.”

  “Fine, now I have to go back to work. And you’d better get a clean tuxedo.” I waved my hand.

  He stared for a second and a slow smile slid across his face. “I’m on it.”

  I watched as Derek strolled out of my office. A hint of his spicy cologne lingered for a moment. I forced the image of his handsome face out of my mind. Back to work for me.

  Chapter 3

  I hadn’t been looking forward to canceling the coven meeting tonight. It was nothing all that exciting. Nothing ever happened at any of the meetings. All we ever did was discuss potential new spells or spells that we’d cast. After that we’d just mainly talk about reality TV. Yeah, we really needed to spice things up a little bit. I had planned on working on that tonight, but I guessed I wouldn’t have that chance now. I would have to postpone it. The witches would be disappointed, of course. I would have to make it up to them somehow.

  So now I was at home preparing for the big event. Derek seemed excited about this evening. He always got wound-up about parties. I knew it would probably be some party that I had no interest in whatsoever. He claimed we had the potential of finding out information for a case. It would be great to solve it because that would mean a good chunk of money for us. Therefore that meant I had to go.

  I stood in front of my closet, trying to pick out exactly what I had to wear. My dresses for the Marilyn Monroe impersonation gigs was about it. Maybe if I didn’t wear the wig, one of the dresses wouldn’t be so bad. It looked like that was my only option.

  I slipped into the red sequined dress and then studied my reflection in the mirror. Not bad, I guessed. My hair was down, falling to my shoulders in waves. I didn’t look as if I was impersonating Marilyn Monroe quite as much without the wig. I would have more subtle makeup instead of the bright red lipstick—that would help as well. So I slipped on my red heels and grabbed the little clutch purse that I loved so much. I guessed this would have to do. Regardless,I was nervous about the party.

  I had just enough time before Derek arrived to cast a small spell. I just wanted something that would bring us good luck tonight, a spell that would help us achieve our goal in attending this party in the first place. So I hurried around my place, gathering the spices I needed for my spell. This would be for good luck and protection. I placed them in the small black cauldron and then recited the words for good luck. The familiar energy folded over me. With a flick of my wrist a glittering trail of sparks flew from the top of the cauldron. Power from the spell swirled and danced around me. I was just finishing when the doorbell rang. I rushed around hiding the supplies so that Derek wouldn’t know what I was up to.

  One last glance in the mirror, a swipe of lip gloss, and I hurried over to the door. When I opened it, I found Derek standing in front of me wearing his tuxedo. He looked so handsome that he actually took my breath away. I was speechless for a moment. That sheepish smile spread across his face. Did he know what I was thinking?

  “Is something wrong, Cece?” he asked.

  Finally, I managed, “No, nothing at all.”

  “You look lovely,” he said.

  I couldn’t hold back a smile. “You don’t look so bad yourself.”

  “Are you ready?” Derek gestured over his shoulder.

  “Ready.” My voice wavered from the nerves.

  We had just stepped out the door when Agatha hurried over to me. Agatha was part of the coven. She shoved a bottle toward me. “Here you go, Cece, these are the crow’s feet that you wanted.”

  I didn’t know what to do, so I hurried and shoved them into my purse. Derek looked at me with a peculiar expression.

  “Thank you, these will go nicely in my new dish that I’m preparing,” I said with a smile. I tried to wink at her so she would know what I was doing.

  She gave me a strange look and then said, “Yes, well, I’ll see you at the next meeting.”

  “Remind me to pass if you ever invite me for dinner,” Derek said as we walked away.

  I chuckled nervously. “Yeah, well, sometimes I like to try unusual dishes.”

  “I’ll remember that.” He quirked an eyebrow. “That was your neighbor? Those must be some weird meetings you guys have.”

  “Oh, it’s just a bunch of us getting together to discuss the neighborhood.”

  “Kind of like the neighborhood association?” Derek asked.

  “Yes, that’s it.” I pointed.

  He still looked suspicious of my excuse, but I headed to his car and said, “Let’s get to the party.” I hoped that would change the subject.

  After a short drive we pulled up to the huge mansion. Derek opened the car door for me and I got out. Instantly my eyes were drawn to the massive place. The three story brick house was surrounded by lush landscaping of shrubs, palm trees, and too many flowers to name.

  “Wow, this is amazing,” I said, peering up. “It must be ten thousand square feet.”

  “Just wait until you see the inside,” he said, looping his arm through mine.

  We walked up the path to the house. Once inside, immediately glasses of champagne were shoved into our hands. The dazzling chandelier lit up the room. The clink of dishes and the chatter was all very glamorous. It felt like I was in a movie, but this was reality.

  “Okay, I have work to do, so who are we looking for?” I asked.

  “Wow, Cece, you get right down to business, don’t you? You can’t even take a sip of champagne before you start working.”

  “Well, that’s why I came here, remember? I’m not here to have fun.” I scanned the crowd.

  “You should have fun more often,” he said, giving me that smile that made my insides flip flop.

  Derek looked out across the room as he took a sip from his glass. “There he is right there.”

  “Which one?” I asked.

  “Well, I don’t want to point now. I don’t want to call attention to us.”

  “Okay, what does he look like?” I asked.

  “The distinguished-looking man in the tuxedo. The one with the gray hair.”

  “That pretty much describes everyone here,” I said.

  “Cece, are you including me in that?” Derek asked. “I don’t have gray yet. Do I fit the distinguished part?”

  “You, distinguished?” I snorted. “Let’s just get back to business. Which one is he?”

  Absolutely I was including Derek in the list of distinguished gentlemen. He was the best-looking of them all. To tell him that would be a big mistake.

  “Okay, the man standing next to the lady in the green dress,” Derek said.

  “I got him now. You can slip over there and talk to him,” I said.

  Derek shook his head. “I can’t do that.”

  “Why not?”

  A waiter walked by and offered us more champagne. I declined since I hadn’t finished the first glass. Derek grabbed an extra.

  “He just won’t talk to me, but you can go talk to him. That’s why I brought you here, remember?”

  “I didn’t know that was part of the plan. Why won’t he talk to you? What have you done to him?” I asked.

  “Just trust me. You go talk to him, okay?”

  “Well, what should I say?”

  “I don’t know. You’ll think of something, but don’t just start asking about th
e case we’re working on.” Derek took another drink.

  I snorted. “I’m not that dumb.”

  Did Derek think I was naïve? I had learned a lot since I’d started this business. I liked to think of myself as a savvy businesswoman.

  I took in a deep breath and then headed over toward the man. This really made me nervous. I was awkward in these kind of situations anyway, and putting this kind of pressure on me made it even worse. When I stepped up to the man, he eyed me up and down and then smiled.

  “Good evening,” he said, soaking in my appearance. “Don’t you look lovely tonight.”

  With the way he was staring at me, I figured he’d be able to pick me out of a police lineup. Okay, now I was even more uncomfortable. This probably wasn’t going to work out well.

  “I just noticed you standing here. I thought I would say hello and thank you for such a lovely party.” That sounded kind of professional and not too weird, right?

  “Would you like another drink?” He gestured for the waiter to come over.

  This guy was giving me a bad vibe. The people he’d been talking to walked away. I wished they’d stayed.

  “No, I’m good.” I waved my hand.

  “Would you like to take a tour of the house? I can show you the upstairs,” he said.

  Well, he really wasted no time getting right to what he wanted. I was not going to deal with this.

  “You know, my husband is waiting for me, so thank you for the offer, but I’ll get back to him now. Thanks again.” I turned around and hurried back over to Derek.

  “What happened?” Derek asked.

  “Don’t ever make me do that again. He was totally hitting on me.”

  Derek laughed. “Oh, Cece, you’re imagining things.”

  “He invited me upstairs to his bedroom, Derek,” I said.

  “Then why didn’t you go?” Derek said.

  “Are you kidding me?” I scowled.

  “What? I didn’t mean you had to do anything with him. You could just take the tour of the house and ask him questions.” Derek sat an empty champagne glass on the table next to him. I hoped all those empty glasses weren’t his.

  “No way. I’m not getting into that kind of situation just to solve a case.”

  Derek held his hands up. “I didn’t say you had to. We’ll just have to think of another plan.”

  “You bet your sweet butt we’ll have to think of another plan.”

  Derek gestured. “All right, calm down and have another drink of champagne. It’ll make you feel better.”

  “I’m not even going to comment on that, Derek.”

  I studied the man, who by the way, was still watching me. There was something about him that I couldn’t quite place, as if I’d seen him before. I couldn’t stare any longer though because I didn’t want to give him the impression that I was actually interested in his proposal.

  But that was when he walked out of the room. He was headed for the back door that led outside. Derek grabbed my glass and set it on the nearby table along with the glass he’d just took off the waiter’s tray. “Come on, we have to follow him.”

  It was probably another bad idea, but I wanted to go. I really was kind of curious as to where he was going and who he was. I knew I’d seen him before somewhere. I just couldn’t place it at the moment.

  I hoped he wasn’t bringing another woman into some sort of spider web that he had set up. If I caught him making a pass at somebody else I would let him have it.

  We stepped out into the night air. The stars twinkled above and the air was still hot. We looked around and noticed there was a garden area nearby. People stood outside on the patio, talking and enjoying the night air. There were lights strung up along the area, but this man had walked beyond that.

  “Come on, Cece, we have to follow him. Be very quiet though.”

  “We’re not stalking him like prey.”

  “What? Do you want him to see us?”

  “No,” I said.

  “Well, then be quiet.”

  Derek and I followed him over to the garden, but then the man stopped to talk with another man. Just then my cell phone rang. My ring tone was the theme song from Mission: Impossible.

  “Are you kidding me? Why didn’t you turn it off?” Derek waved his hand.

  “Sorry,” I whispered as I fumbled with the phone.

  Finally, I got the music to stop.

  “We have to get out of here before he sees us.” Derek hurried away, leaving me alone out there.

  I was still watching the men, but they’re conversation was inaudible. Thank goodness they hadn’t heard my phone ring. I had to move closer so I could get a better position to hear them. I inched over and hid behind one of the rosebushes. Now I could hear the conversation better. It was still a little muffled, but it was much better. I might be able to make out exactly what they were saying. Or maybe a few words at the very least. I inched forward just a bit more.

  Just then, I stumbled in my stupid heels and touched the rosebush. A thorn pricked my arm and I screamed out. I tried to catch myself before making that loud noise, but it was too late.

  “Who’s there?” the man called out.

  I didn’t even want to look over to see their faces. They were ready to catch me, so I spun around and ran for the house. As I neared the door, I glanced over my shoulder. The men were coming after me. Guests were starting to watch the scene. I had to get Derek and get us out of there quickly before we were in serious trouble.

  I raced back inside the house and ran smack into Derek’s chest as he was headed out to get me.

  “Let’s out of here,” I said breathlessly.

  “What have you done?” he asked.

  “The guy saw me. He’s coming after me.”

  “Come this way.” Derek pulled my arm.

  We darted through the guests and over to door. Once in the hallway, Derek eased a door open and then motioned for me to enter. After a moment’s hesitation, I slipped inside the room. Rich wood shelves chock-full of books lined the walls all the way to the ceiling. Brown leather chairs and a giant mahogany desk sat in the middle of the room. The scent of cigar lingered in the air.

  “Maybe we’re safe for now, but I think they’ll search the whole house looking for me,” I whispered. “He’ll want to know why I was spying on him.”

  Derek was standing dangerously close. “You should’ve just made up some excuse. Told you that you should have gone on that house tour.”

  “Oh, will you stop it. I’m not going to do that. Do you seriously want me to go up there with him?”

  “No, of course not, Cece. I’m just teasing. Kind of…”

  Sometimes he made me wonder. Regardless, we had to get out of this room and escape the house without being caught.

  “If you’re going over to the window because you’re thinking of crawling out, then you need to have another thought,” I said, watching Derek walk across the room.

  “It’s not that far of a drop,” Derek said.

  “Are you seriously thinking of sneaking out the window?”

  “Do you have any other options?” he asked. “I bet that guy is inside looking for us right now.”

  I sighed. “No, I suppose not. Is it unlocked? Maybe they have an alarm.”

  “Yeah, they probably do have an alarm, but we have to give it a shot, right? What other option do we have?” Derek shrugged. “But if you want we can hang out here until they find us.”

  “Maybe they just won’t look in here,” I said.

  Derek shook his head. Yeah, that was probably wishful thinking.

  “Okay, I will go out first,” Derek said.

  I frowned. “Why do you get to go first?”

  “This is not a competition, Cece. Unless you want to jump down by yourself. I just know how you hate doing things like that. Remember when we snuck out of Grant Forrester’s house when he had that party so that your parents wouldn’t catch you? You thought you had been caught, but it was just the shrub attac
hed to your shorts?”

  I laughed. “Yeah, I was trying to forget about that.”

  “So I’ll go first and catch you. Remember, it’s not that much of a drop off.”

  I nodded. “Right, not that much.”

  He’d better not be lying to me.

  Derek opened the window and slipped out. I panicked a little bit because now I was in this room all alone. After glancing back at the door one more time, I moved closer to the window and peered out at Derek.

  “Come on, Cece,” he whispered.

  I looked back at the door again. Oh how I wished I could just walk out into that hallway and out the front door. I released a deep breath and then put one leg out the window.

  “I have to say the slit in your dress is nice,” Derek said.

  “Will you stop looking at my leg and help me?”

  Derek waved his arms as if asking a baby to walk for the first time. “Come on. I got you.”

  I moved my other leg through the opening. Without another thought I jumped for Derek’s waiting arms as if we were in a swimming pool. It didn’t quite work that way though considering there was no water to cushion the fall. We both fell to the ground with a thud, but somehow Derek was now on top of me. For a moment, the wind had been knocked out of me and I couldn’t speak.

  “Cece, are you okay?” Derek asked.

  I supposed I was fine other than the fact that I had a hundred-and-seventy-five-pound man on top of me. I couldn’t admit it to him, but I wasn’t hating it. We were on the ground in each other’s arms. Derek was making no move to get off me. And for that matter, neither was I. His warm body felt wonderful pressed against mine.

  “This is kind of romantic, don’t you think? With the twinkling stars and the dark sky above.” Derek smiled down at me as he lay on top of me.

  His spicy scent was intoxicating and his smile mesmerizing. I had to stop the tingling sensation in my body. The only way for that to happen was for Derek to get off me.

  “Romantic? Except for the fact that we have a couple of angry men looking for us.” Finally, I shoved on his body.

  “Well, there is that,” he said, rolling off me.

  Derek and I jumped up and ran around the side of the house.