“Well, I appreciate that,” I started, even as my mind was already made up that Roy and I were just friends and friends we’d remain.

  “We should probably get back to our boys before they worry about whatever girl talk we’re having,” she said with a laugh as she stood up and started for the door of the diner. There was a little pep in her step now that hadn’t been there before and I had to wonder if she’d somehow gotten something off her chest at the same time I had?

  I watched her walk away and then stood as I sighed loudly into the pitch-black night before walking back toward the entrance to the diner. I opened the door and started to enter, but was stopped by a familiar rank smell that wafted toward me, carried on the breeze down the sidewalk. Closing the door, I turned around to face the street and curled my nose in disgust as a second later, dawning realization overcame me.

  It was that same awful smell from the night I’d ventured into Hollow Cemetery when I found the remains of Darragh and Cranough! Yes, it was that same smell of rot and decay and that had to mean that whoever had been present at the graveyard when both had met their ends, was now loitering around The Broomstick diner! I looked around, squinting into the near darkness surrounding the building to see if there was anyone in the darkness, but I couldn’t see anyone or anything. For all intents and purposes, I was alone out here.

  Now uncomfortable and slightly nervous, I opened the door and stepped inside the diner, my attention immediately drawn to a scene unfolding near the bar area. When I recognized those involved, I groaned as I headed in that direction.

  Ramona was cornered against the far wall, situated at one end of the bar, between two adjoining areas. Her adversary’s back was facing me, but it only took me a second or two before I recognized his hair, his build, and his clothing. It was Angelo.

  Ramona was arguing quietly with him, but his responses weren’t as quiet, though I couldn’t make out exactly what he was saying. As to what in the world Angelo could possibly want with Ramona was beyond me—she wasn’t exactly his… type.

  I could see she was on the brink of tears, so I made a beeline for the two of them, intending to position myself between them. When I walked up to them, though, Angelo didn’t even notice me—until I stepped in front of him, blocking his access to Ramona.

  “What the hell are you doing?” I demanded, glaring at my brother, who glared right back at me.

  “Mind your own business, Fifi,” he growled, managing to get a grip on Ramona’s arm, despite my best efforts to keep him away from her. It was then that Roy and Marty emerged from behind me. Poppy was just behind them, and all three wore expressions of shock and concern.

  “What’s going on?” Roy thundered in a voice that hinted to the feral sasquatch within him.

  “I was just trying to find that out,” I answered, keeping my eyes on Angelo, who ignored us as he wrapped his fingers around Ramona’s arm, just above her frail wrist, and attempted to pull her out from behind me.

  “Let her go right now!” I yelled at my brother as Roy took a step closer. I turned and gave him a look that said I wanted to handle this situation myself. Roy just nodded and took a step back, but made no motion to leave, which was just as well because it felt good knowing he and Marty and Poppy were there for backup. Not that Marty would really be able to hold his own against Angelo, since Marty was just a human…

  “You don’t know what she’s done!” Angelo growled back at me.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “Whatever it is, I’m sure you deserved it,” I answered. “Now back away from her before I’m forced to get Roy involved.”

  Angelo paused for a moment or two, but then stepped away from Ramona, apparently not wanting to take his chances with an angry sasquatch. At least he still had that much sense.

  When Angelo was a safe distance from Ramona, I felt my anger get the better of me. Things with my brother had always been strained, but this was now the last straw. “I’m sick and tired of you,” I seethed. “I’ve already given you multiple warnings, Angelo, and you haven’t listened to one of them.” He gave me an expression that said he didn’t give a damn about me or my warnings. “Anyway, congratulations because you’ve pushed me to my breaking point.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means we’re done.”

  “Done?”

  I nodded. “I want you out of my house and you’re fired from Hallowed Homes.”

  His expression then turned from angry to downright hostile. “You wouldn’t dare!”

  My jaw was tight. “My family duties only extend so far, and you’ve already used more than your fair share of my goodwill.”

  “Our parents,” he started, but I interrupted, shaking my head.

  “They’ll understand or they won’t understand. Either way, I don’t care. All I do care about is the fact that I’m done with you—as my brother and as my employee.” I glared at him, unwavering. This moment had been a long time coming, and I felt justified in my decision. Bea was right—I should have done this years ago. “And I don’t want to see you ever bullying another of my employees again.”

  That brought up an interesting subject—just what was Angelo doing with Ramona? Was he trying to intimidate her into quitting? Was she just the first on his list of my employees? I had a strong feeling that’s exactly what he was trying to do—ruin me by getting all my employees to quit.

  “You have no idea what you’re involved in,” he snarled as he looked at me. Though his comment was cryptic, I didn’t want to push for an explanation. Whatever Angelo had to say, he could keep it to himself because as of this moment, I was finished with him. For good. And if our parents had something to say about that, they could say it.

  “I want you and your stuff out of my house by tomorrow morning,” I hissed back at him.

  His glare deepened. “You are so clueless about what’s going on right underneath your nose,” he said on an acidic chuckle. “You have no idea how much I’m going to enjoy watching everything go to hell around you.”

  He gave Ramona a look of raw contempt before smirking at me and walking away. Then he shook his head at Roy, laughed snidely and started sauntering out of the restaurant.

  My blood was boiling, not only due to Angelo’s bizarre words, but also because I didn’t like the fact that he’d manhandled Ramona—someone who was like a toothpick… well, an incredibly frail, six-foot tall toothpick. Ramona was equally as delicate mentally. How dare my brother give her cause for alarm? And why would he?

  “Are you okay?” I asked her.

  She nodded, but refused to look me in the eyes. Instead, she flagged down the bartender and asked for her check. I looked at Roy and gave him an expression that said everything was okay now. He nodded and led Marty and Poppy back to our table as I turned to face Ramona again.

  “Can you… tell me what happened?”

  She shrugged. “There isn’t really much to tell. I was having a late dinner and Angelo turned up to talk business, or at least that’s what I thought he wanted to talk about. But then he just ended up yelling at me and when I’d had enough and attempted to leave, he pinned me against the wall.” Her lower lip quivered. “Then you showed up.”

  Much to my surprise, she burst into tears. Reaching forward, I grabbed a few napkins and handed them to her while she sat back down in her swivel stool and dabbed at her eyes. Wraiths weren’t known for being very emotional types and they didn’t like being touched in general, so I kept my hands to myself and just tried to comfort her with my presence.

  Hopefully she’d get control of herself soon, before any humans nearby took note of the black wetness streaking down her cheeks. Hags, wraiths, and others of that ilk cry black tears that have the consistency of thin motor oil. And because we were in the midst of a human establishment, Ramona had to be careful about anyone seeing her and the blackness coming out of her eyes.

  “What was Angelo yelling at you about?” I asked once she seemed to calm down a bit.

  She shrugged as she wiped away the last of the black smears on her face. She pulled out a small mirror from her purse and checked her reflection, dabbing at a few small dark specks that remained. I watched as she retrieved a small compact and pressed a bit of makeup into the blotchy spots left behind to cover them up.

  “He said he was planning to take over Hallowed Homes when it inevitably went belly up,” she started, as my blood boiled with anger to hear her words. “He was planning to buy it from the bank, because he was fairly sure you’d go bankrupt and wouldn’t be able to keep it.”

  “How nice,” I managed.

  She nodded, as if to say she understood my anger. “Of course, I told him he was delusional, and that I enjoyed working for you and Hallowed Homes.”

  “I appreciate that,” I managed with a smile, but I was still beyond upset with my brother. “What else did he say?”

  Ramona shrugged. “After his comment about Hallowed Homes, he changed the subject and started talking about… other things.”

  “Other things?”

  She nodded and looked down at her long and bony fingers. I could tell she was uncomfortable. “Things that were upsetting,” she continued. I thought she might start crying again, but when she looked up, her face was dry, just twisted into a mask of disgust.

  “What sort of other things?” I almost didn’t want to ask, but I had to know. I had to understand just how much my brother wanted to destroy me.

  She managed to hold the tears back as she spoke, but she was trembling and her long fingers nervously shredded the remains of a napkin on the bar in front of her.

  “He said that when he takes over Hallowed Homes, I wouldn’t have a position there unless I performed certain… favors for him.” If it were possible for a wraith to blush, that’s exactly what she did.

  I felt my stomach drop and was instantly repulsed. I just didn’t understand how Angelo could demand such awful things from Ramona. It was just… wrong on every level. If it were possible for a wraith to blush, that’s exactly what she did.

  “What sort of favors?” I asked, even though I really didn’t want to. But, I had to know because this wasn’t like my brother. As terrible as he was and was proving himself to be, I just didn’t think in a million years he’d come onto Ramona because she… just didn’t look anything like the women he usually got sexually involved with. They were of the bombshell, curvy and gorgeous type and Ramona… well, Ramona looked more like a skeleton—a librarian skeleton.

  “You know…” she said, looking down at her hands. “Sexual favors.”

  I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to even respond, but I couldn’t suppress the shock flowing through me. I’d never known Angelo to have anything to do with less than model-perfect women. And it wasn’t as though he was down on his female luck—his incubus powers made him irresistible to anyone he set his sights on, so he had few issues in that area. Even when he’d used his powers to sway clients while Ophelia was in charge of Hallowed Realty, he was picky about the women he chose.

  Still, Angelo had no shame. I couldn’t help but think this was just another game of his, but his reasoning was unclear… until it wasn’t. Angelo was hell-bent on taking over Hallowed Homes, as Ramona had mentioned. And that meant he was doing his best to force me out. What better way than to attempt to scare my employees away? In coming onto Ramona, an older and decidedly spinster-like woman, he was trying to make her so uncomfortable that she quit. It wasn’t that he actually had any sexual interest in her.

  “I’m going to go home now,” she announced as she stood. “This has been a most tiring evening.”

  “Okay, Ramona. And once again, I’m very sorry for whatever my brother said to you.”

  She nodded and gave me a quick smile, before disappearing out the door. I clenched my teeth as I tried to calm down, but there was little chance of that happening. I just couldn’t understand Angelo or his gall. Or his complete hatred for me—because, truly, that’s what this had to be. The fact that he was conspiring to take my business away from me and approaching my employees and trying to intimidate them—it showed how little I meant to him. And after I’d opened my house to him, allowed him to live with me while his floors were being installed… Bea and Libby were right—my heart was too big where my brother was concerned and he was making a fool of me.

  Well, not any longer. He and I were done for good. It was one thing to undermine me constantly, but to sexually harass and threaten my employees was another.

  I took a deep breath to calm myself and walked back to the table where Poppy and Marty were looking back at me with expressions of curiosity on their faces.

  “Everything okay?” Marty asked.

  I nodded as I noticed the missing fourth. “Where’s Roy?”

  Poppy gave me a quick but slightly nervous smile. “He left. Said he had to get up early tomorrow.”

  “Oh,” I answered.

  Rather than interrupt whatever conversation Poppy and Marty were having, and really not wanting to feel like the third wheel, I made my excuses and walked back to Hallowed Homes, where I’d left the 4Runner. It was then that my phone beeped with an incoming text. When I glanced down at it, I realized it was from Roy. It read: “Hey, I didn’t want to hang out with Marty making cow eyes at Poppy all night, so I took off. If you need a place to crash tonight, just come by. I’ll make up the couch and sleep there again. You can have my room.”

  I thought about going home and having to watch Angelo pack up all his stuff. And then I thought about having to see Angelo at all and decided I’d take Roy up on his offer.

  So, jumping into my SUV, I fired up the engine and headed for Roy’s. All the way there, I thought about my estranged relationship with my brother and sorely wished things could have been different between us. For as long as I could remember, going back to when I was a little girl, all I’d ever wanted was a big brother who loved me and took care of me—a big brother who protected me. And all I’d gotten was… Angelo.

  Well, no brother was better than having him as a brother, and from this point forward, I vowed to myself that I would cut all ties with him.

  When I reached Roy’s house, I put the 4Runner in park and killed the engine and then I just sat there for a few seconds, trying to motivate myself to get out and walk up the steps and knock on the door and inevitably explain everything that had just happened.

  I could already feel the weight of the world on my shoulders, but eventually I managed to get out of the 4Runner and then I trudged across the driveway and started up the stairs. I didn’t even get the chance to knock on the door before Roy pulled it open. Upon seeing him, and his concerned expression, something inside me broke, and I erupted into a fit of tears right there on his front steps.

  “Come on,” he said as he took a step forward and pulled me into his arms and I sobbed and probably snotted all over his t-shirt.

  He walked me inside, shut the door behind us, and led me to the couch, which was enjoying the heat from an enormous fire in the hearth. He sat me down and then kneeled in front of me as I continued to bawl and feel sorry for myself.

  “It’s okay, Fifi, everything is going to be okay,” he said as he reached up and pushed a stray tendril of my hair behind my ear.

  “How can you say that?” I asked, shaking my head as I tried to wipe away my tears with my arm. “When you don’t know that everything is going to be okay? As of right now, everything is going to shit.”

  “What happened?”

  So I told him about the conversation with Ramona and every awful detail she’d told me. He reached behind himself and produced a glass of red wine he must have been drinking before I arrived. Handing it to me, he gave me a big grin.

  “I think you need this more than I do.”

  I nodded, because he was right. And in the next minute, I downed the whole thing.

  “Fifi, believe me when I tell you that I think Angelo is the biggest asshole Haven Hollow has ever seen,” Roy started as he reached for the empty glass and placed it back on the coffee table. Then he took both of my hands in his. I wasn’t sure if he was offering me to feed from him, but my body immediately reacted by doing just that.

  “But,” I started.

  “But it doesn’t seem… right that he would have tried to seduce Ramona.” He shook his head. “I’ve seen the quality of woman Angelo bothers with and Ramona… isn’t it.”

  I nodded. “I don’t think he had any plans of… going through with… it,” I managed, feeling uncomfortable talking about sex with Roy. We just… we were friends and conversations like this seemed off-limits somehow.

  “Then?”

  “I think he was just trying to make her so uncomfortable that she’d quit working for me. And I believe she was only the first on his list of my employees to bully.”

  Roy nodded. “That makes more sense.”

  He stood up and started for the kitchen, the hardwood floors beneath him squeaking with his sizable weight. I couldn’t help my gaze as I took him in from head to toe, noticing how his broad shoulders tapered into a narrowish waist and then ended in legs that seemed to go for miles. He was wearing his boxers and a t-shirt and I could clearly see his thigh muscles as he walked. Not to mention the muscles in his back and arms that seemed intent on driving me to distraction.

  “You want another glass?” he asked as he lifted the bottle of wine and smiled at me.

  I just nodded and watched him grab a second glass as he walked both it and the bottle back to the couch. He sat down beside me and started refilling my glass, as well as his own. Then he handed one of them to me.

  “Cheers to your life settling down and all this crap fading away,” he offered.

  “Cheers,” I answered as I gave him a smile and suddenly felt beyond grateful for his friendship.

  He took a few sips of his wine, then set it down on the coffee table, and pulled me into the crook of his body as he wrapped his arms around me. He was so warm, and he felt so good and I could feel the succubus within me pulling his energy, but he didn’t seem to mind. Maybe he hadn’t said as much, but I could still tell. It was all I could do to keep control of the demoness within me and keep my carnal needs subdued.