“She was in pain from exerting her shoulder and I wanted to check on it,” Jack said, holding up his hands and refusing to make any sudden moves. “I’m actually glad you’re here. Your sister won’t listen to reason. Maybe you will.”
“Why would I possibly listen to anything you have to say?”
“Because … Ivy could be in danger,” Jack replied simply.
“You know who’s going to be in danger? You,” Max said. “You’re a jackass.”
“I may be a jackass … okay, I’m definitely a jackass … but that doesn’t mean that Ivy isn’t in danger,” Jack said.
“You have exactly thirty seconds to tell me why that is,” Max said. “After that I’m beating your ass.”
“Make sure you take him outside to do it,” Ivy called from the refrigerator. “I was shot. I shouldn’t have to clean the house, too.”
Jack frowned. “You shouldn’t be making jokes about that. This is serious.”
“Oh, you’re turning it into a soap opera all on your own,” Ivy replied. “I don’t have the energy to get worked up.”
Jack rolled his neck until it cracked and turned his attention back to Max. He explained about the ballistics match and what it meant, Max asking the appropriate questions and shooting the occasional worried look in Ivy’s direction. Twenty minutes later, Max was all caught up.
“Is that it?”
“Isn’t that enough?” Jack challenged.
“It’s a mess,” Max agreed. “I honestly hope you find who is doing this. Whoever it is wants to torture you. I feel bad for you.”
“Don’t feel bad for me,” Jack said. “Just … take care of your sister.”
“Oh, that’s what I’m doing,” Max said. “We need to take this outside now.”
“What do you mean?”
“I have to kick your ass,” Max explained. “She’s my sister and you broke her heart. It’s my job to kick you in your special place and make you cry.”
“I already want to cry,” Jack muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. He cast a forlorn look in Ivy’s direction as she mixed something in a bowl behind the counter. “Watch her. Keep her safe.”
“It’s too late for that,” Max said. “You already hurt her more than any bullet ever could.”
“If you think I’m proud of that, I’m not,” Jack said. “I can’t … if something were to happen to her … .”
Max’s expression softened before he caught himself. “I’m sorry. You still need an ass whooping.”
Jack rolled his eyes. “Is that what will make you feel better? Your sister smacked me across the face earlier. She seemed to enjoy that.”
“You’re not bleeding so she obviously didn’t do it hard enough.”
“No one is going to fight,” Ivy said, injecting herself into the conversation for the first time in almost a half hour. “It’s done. Leave him alone, Max. He has enough on his mind.”
“Are you honestly going to protect him?” Max was incensed.
“I’m honestly going to … let him go,” Ivy replied, wiping her hands off on a dishtowel and crossing the room. “You should probably go, Jack.”
Jack’s heart lurched. He knew what she was saying and it hurt. “Ivy, when this is over, we can start again. It will be better. I promise. I just … I have to keep you safe. That’s the one thing that I need to do above all else.
“Just give me a few days,” he pleaded. “We can start again.”
“We can’t go back,” Ivy said, her voice cracking. “You picked this as our outcome. You made the decision for both of us. You did this. Now you have to live with it because I can’t let you break my heart twice. Now … go.”
Ten
“Well, well, well. You don’t look so bad for someone who was shot … other than that dirty look on your face.”
Felicity Goodings studied Ivy from behind the counter of her magic shop the next morning. In truth, while Ivy was a beautiful girl, she looked downtrodden and miserable right now. That wasn’t enhancing her beauty.
“Ha, ha. You’re so funny I forgot to laugh.” Ivy hopped up on one of the stools across from her aunt and let loose with a dramatic sigh that would only be welcome on a teenage television show.
“Is something wrong, dear?” Felicity tamped down her laughter. When she first heard Ivy was shot she was in her car and on the way to the hospital without giving it a second thought. She never had children of her own, so her sister’s children became surrogates. She loved both Max and Ivy with her whole heart.
After talking to Max, though, he explained Ivy was in no mood to be smothered – at least by family – and it would be better to wait to see her. Felicity knew it would only be a matter of time before Ivy came to her.
They were kindred souls – even though Ivy refused to acknowledge the magical things sprouting up in her life – and Felicity was convinced Ivy was coming into her own as a witch. She would never tell her niece that, though. The girl wasn’t ready for something like that.
“Why would anything be wrong?” Ivy asked, sarcasm practically dripping from her tongue. “My life is perfect. Haven’t you heard?”
Felicity pursed her lips. Something was definitely going on here. “Why are you so depressed?”
“I was shot.”
“I know you were shot. You were the lead story on the local news two days running.”
Ivy knit her eyebrows together. “I was? I didn’t know that. Did they use a photograph? I hate the way I look in photographs.”
Felicity couldn’t rein in her smile this time. Of course that would be the thing Ivy focused on. “They used a nice photo of you and Max,” she said. “I believe your brother supplied it from his own personal stash. He looked very handsome in it.”
Ivy scowled. “That means I probably looked goofy, doesn’t it?”
“Actually you looked beautiful,” Felicity countered. “It was taken last summer at the nursery. You had a beautiful skirt on, and a bright
