Sinful Magic (Book 3 of the Ink series)

Chapter 30

I wanted to kill the mayor.

I wanted to rid Cherry of his evilness once and for all.

Slade and I took our places at the table. The mayor was finished and was busy mingling with all his fans.

"Where did you two wander off to?" Nona asked, trying to sound upbeat and positive as she conversed with the two of us.

"We checked out the hall," I said. Slade zipped my skirt the rest of the way up and patted my lower back.

Dad grabbed another shrimp from the appetizer in the middle of the table. "I've heard that one before." He muttered to himself.

I ignored him. "So, the mayor thinks this was drug related."

Nona nodded. "Isn't that a shame?" She eyed Slade.

He nodded in agreement. "Just awful."

I held the laughter at his tone. "Strange if you ask me."

Nona lifted her wine glass. "Nobody asked you."

I rolled my eyes. "Good thing they didn't." I snapped back.

Dad slapped a hand down on the table. "So, Slade. How is it you always end up so lucky?"

Slade cleared his throat. "I don't know what you mean."

"Sure you do. Every time it seems you run into trouble you seem to find your way out of it." Dad leaned back in the chair he sat in with a smug grin on his face.

I squeezed Slade's leg. "Dad, I said be nice."

Slade placed a hand over mine. "It's fine. I have nothing to hide. I've made bad choices in my life, but fighting and protecting the people I care about, I'll never feel bad for that."

I admired him for standing up to Dad. This made me even prouder to be sitting right beside him.

Dad pressed on. "I don't feel like you protected my daughter all summer, running around with that blonde, the one who is dead by the way."

I lifted the glass pitcher on the table. All of a sudden my mouth was dry.

"She's still alive isn't she?" Slade said. "I did what I had to to keep her safe, sir."

I eyed dad.

"You have a funny way of showing it," Dad said. "She may be alive but she is far from the daughter I'm used to."

I swallowed the water and crushed an ice cube glaring at dad. Nona watched fascinated with the conversation going on at the table between my boyfriend and her beloved son.

"We all have faults; I was taught to keep my opinions to myself when I don't like someone," Slade told him. "But if you want to go there, I think your daughter is amazing and I'm willing to accept her any way she is."

Nona's face lit up, a smile of all things pinned upon it. "At one time I would have told you to fuck off, but after that response, I take that back." She told Slade.

I smiled, happy he won her over.

"Furthermore, sir, if you want to blame anyone for how things turned out you might want to take that up with the mayor. Once again I was looking out for someone I cared about the night your daughter turned into something you don't understand." Slade leaned back in his chair and threw an arm around me. "Sometimes we can't help who we become. But that doesn't stop us from living."

I kissed him on the cheek, in awe of him for having my back.

But unlike Nona, dad didn't smile. He stood, took his drink and walked away.

"Why can't he let it go?" I asked Nona. She dropped her napkin standing up.

"I'll talk to him, sweet pea," she said.

"No, I'll talk to him." I jumped up. But Nona shook her head refusing to allow me to do so.

"Let me talk to him," she said again. I sat back down and watched her race to Dad before he took off for the exit.

I glared at the mayor.

"Careful, you don't want to unintentionally kill him," Slade teased.

"It wouldn't be unintentional," I said. "I could do it and nobody would know."

Slade took me by the chin.

"What did we just talk about?"

I sighed. "That I shouldn't kill the mayor." I rolled my eyes.

"Quit being so stubborn about this," Slade said.

I watched the mayor shake hand after hand. All of a sudden it was K in line for the meet and greet. One by one he got closer and closer to the mayor. K's eyes moved around the room, taking in his surroundings.

I tried to find Hutch. There he stood over in the corner a smirk on his face. K and the mayor's hands interlocked, the mayor gave one of his famous megawatt smiles.

The crowd erupted in screams of panic.

I jumped up. The mayor dropped to his knees.

"If you're doing this you better stop," Slade said taking off from the table to get a closer look.

I hurried through the crowd, eager to see what happened. I pushed past two women and there he was, writhing in pain. K released his hand and he fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes. He stared up at all the onlookers, unable to speak, to beg for help.

"What's wrong, Mayor?" K asked standing over him. "Someone might want to dial 911."

Several people scrambled for their phones. Tucker pushed through the crowd to get to his dad. "What the hell is going on?" Tucker asked. Nobody answered.

Slade took me by the arm. "Are you doing this?"

I shook my head. "No. I swear." I wasn't upset that it happened though.

Someone claiming to be a doctor tended to the mayor while Tucker watched. He turned on Slade and me.

"I can't believe you would come here and do this to him," Tucker said. "After everything that has happened."

I couldn't believe he accused me, well I guess I could. "I had nothing to do with this."

Slade tugged me through the crowd before things got ugly. "We need to get out of here."

Everyone rushed in while we tried to leave. Before we made it to the door Nona stopped us. She grabbed my other arm and stopped us in our tracks.

"What the hell is going on?" Her eyes were large. I think she was afraid it was me.

"I swear I don't know what is happening to him," I told her. "We need to get out of here. Because unlike you nobody else is going to believe me when I say that."

She stepped aside letting us leave. I was thankful for the cool air that hit me in the face and for the feeling of wide open space and making it out of there.

"If it wasn't you, then it was that guy Hutch runs around with," Slade said as we headed back to Henry Park.

I agreed with him. "He was fine until K shook his hand." The moment K touched him it seemed the mayor went from healthy to knocking on death's door. I still didn't understand.

"Is he a witch?" I said, trying to figure it out. "How could he be, he needed Hutch's help. If he was a witch of any kind he wouldn't need Hutch for anything."

"I don't know," Slade said. "Your guess is as good as mine."

I couldn't get K's easy demeanor out of my head as he waited for his turn to meet the mayor. Was it his plan the whole time?

"What if Hutch wanted to kill the mayor?" I said to Slade.

He opened the door to the RV letting me go in first. "We don't know that he is dead. What we do know is something is not right."

I was afraid to know.