Page 26 of The Nowhere Witch

He was waiting for an answer with his smiling eyes. Poor sucker. He had no idea what he was asking for. He needed to be told.

“I don’t know if it’s a good idea to be seen with me socially. I’ve got some issues at the moment.”

“Really? I hadn’t noticed.” He actually laughed, as if none of my mess bothered him. “Seriously, I’m not worried about those issues.”

Gregor’s eyes shifted over my shoulder. I was facing him, my back toward the door, and I still knew Hawk was here. This crowd tended to be quiet to begin with, never wanting anyone to hear what they were saying. When the soft murmurs died down even more, it could only be due to one person.

The patrons who’d been talking at the bar got up. I didn’t want to turn around and deal with Hawk, but he was as stubborn as they came. He wouldn’t leave until I did if I was his purpose.

“Do you want me to handle this?” Gregor offered.

“No. It’s fine. He’s here for me.”

I turned, hating how my heart always did a little jump at the sight of Hawk. I was training myself to be a hardened junkyard dog, but somehow, deep in my chest, there was a golden retriever in there just jumping around, begging for attention.

I placed a coaster in front of Hawk, making sure he only saw the teeth and not the wagging tail.

“Can I get you a drink? There’s a special on pitchers today. You get a free shred sandwich with each one.”

I pretended to wait for his order when I, and everyone in that room, knew he wasn’t here to eat or drink. He’d come to torture me. Get me fired. Kill me. Maybe all three, and in that order.

“We need to talk,” he said.

That I hadn’t expected. Didn’t make me feel any warmer toward him. Well, except for the golden retriever that wanted to lick his face, but I was working hard on killing that damned dog.

“No, we don’t.”

Gregor stepped beside me. “Tippi, you don’t need to—”

“I’m fine. Can you watch the bar for a minute?” Now I wanted to kill Hawk and Gregor. The only thing Gregor had accomplished was forcing me into a conversation with Hawk.

I’d felt Gregor’s magic with an accidental brush of the hands the other day. He was no match for Hawk. I moved around him before he could continue trying to fight for me and got himself killed in the process.

I walked out of the bar, Hawk right behind me. If we were going to talk, this was not going to be a theatrical performance for the bar.

“Why are you here?”

“I need you to come to the broker house. I don’t want to talk here.” He took a step as if I’d just follow him. He still didn’t get it.

“That’s not going to happen,” I said, not budging.

“I’m telling you, we need to talk,” he said, staring at me as if I was short a few brain cells suddenly.

“This is it. This is all you get. A couple minutes in the street.” I waved my hands around, indicating the spot where we stood.

His jaw shifted. Oh, that placid lake had white caps now. Good. See how he liked it when he was treated like the disposable help.

“You want to make it difficult, it’s your call.”

“I do. I like it difficult.”

He was already walking off when I yelled, “The harder, the better.” It didn’t escape me that I sounded like I’d lost my marbles. The glances from the patrons about to enter Zark’s confirmed it. Oh shit. I hoped they hadn’t taken that to mean something of a more sexual nature.

It wasn’t my fault. If they’d had to deal with him as much as I had, they’d be a little wobbly upstairs too. But they didn’t. And why was that? Yeah, they all ran across the street when they saw him coming. The lot of them were big babies, and I would not be shamed by babies.

“We’re in a fight, in case you all wanted to know,” I told the looky-loos. “Because I’m not a scaredy-cat,” I added, just so they’d know who they were dealing with.

Then I went inside before I looked even crazier.