Split at the Seams Read online

  “Don’t pretend you don’t know what’s really going on. I have to keep him away from the werewolf hunter. I’ve already told you that.”

  His jaw was clenched so tight, a vein wobbled. “It doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

  “You’re right, because this isn’t your problem anymore.”

  “I don’t like the way he looks at you.”

  Anger rolled around inside me, blinding me with rage. “Like I said, it’s not your problem.”

  “You’re enjoying playing nurse with the dog. That’s it, isn’t it? That’s why you don’t want me anymore.” He shook his head. “You’re actually choosing him over me.”

  My cheeks burned and I couldn’t meet his eyes. “Papan’s a friend. I’m just helping him stay safe.”

  Jonathan stepped closer and leaned down, his lips near my ear. “Has he been warming your bed? Because I know I haven’t. You’ve refused every attempt at physical contact I’ve tried since he’s been here.”

  I pressed a hand against his chest to push him away and slapped him with the other. “How dare you! Just get out!”

  His eyes were shiny as he recoiled.

  I didn’t move, just glared at him. My heart was pounding so loudly I could hear it in my ears.

  “Why are you so gung-ho about protecting him?”

  “He saved my life!”

  He closed the distance between us and grabbed me by the shoulders, digging his fingers into my skin and pushing my back against the wall. “This isn’t over. I think you’re just upset right now.”

  “Get your hands off me.”

  Jonathan grinned, and it shook me to the core. I’d never seen him act like such a jerk, but I was glad he was showing his true colors now. This violent, jealous streak was making this a hell of a lot easier.

  “You’ve always wanted him instead of me. I was just a temporary filler, wasn’t I?”

  “Just go.” I glared into his eyes, ready to tell him the truth when I caught a glimpse of Papan standing in the doorway.

  “You better get your hands off her before I make you,” Papan said, flexing his hands at his sides.

  Jonathan’s smile widened when he dropped his harsh grip on me.

  I hated the way things were turning out, but what had I expected? There was bound to be some sort of casualty in all of this. I tried to keep my hands from going to my shoulders to rub away the pain.

  “Sierra, I know you didn’t mean any of what you just said,” he whispered. His chocolate-brown eyes had darkened to almost black, and his olive skin looked a little waxy. I’d never realized how much jealousy could affect a person physically. “I’ll call you later.”

  Don’t bother. My heart was still pounding so hard that I couldn’t get the words out.

  Jonathan finally turned away and headed for the door.

  Papan stepped in front of him, towering several inches above him. “If you ever lay your hands on her in anger again, I’ll break them.”

  Jonathan laughed, smacked him with his shoulder and kept walking to the front door. He slammed it shut behind him, and I could hear his manic laughter all the way down the driveway.

  “Are you okay?” Papan’s voice had lost its edge. He sounded softer, concerned, but he kept his distance.

  I nodded, trying to calm my racing heart with shallow breaths. Jonathan had dug his fingers into my skin so hard I could still feel the bruising pressure. “He’s just having trouble dealing with what I said to him. And he’s jealous.”

  “That’s no reason to grab you like that.”

  “No, it’s not.”

  “So…does he have a reason to be jealous, Foxy Lady?”

  I looked up and met his gaze. “I don’t know—why don’t you tell me?”

  Papan took a step forward, just the one. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but I heard what you said to him. I’ll never forget what you’re doing for me, Fox.”

  “That’s not what I asked.”

  “I think you know how I feel about you. If you don’t, maybe I need to spell it out for you.” His sexy grin returned and a shock of dark blond hair fell over his eyes. “Are we playing the same game again, where you pretend you don’t know what’s really going on?”

  “Why didn’t you do anything when you had the chance, months ago?” Oh, God, my heart was running for a different reason now.

  Papan took another step and shrugged. “I guess it took some jerk that smells funny to make me realize.”

  “What do you mean, he smells funny?”

  “I’m not sure what it is, but he smells like sulfur and dirt. But let’s not talk about him.” As I stood there with my arms around myself, waiting for Papan to reach me and have all of the fantasies I’d been dreaming about lately come to life, a knock stopped him in his tracks.

  “Damn!” he cursed, pushing a hand through his hair. “Are we ever going to get this out in the open?”

  “It’s probably him.” The last thing I wanted right now was to see Jonathan again.

  Papan sniffed the air. “It’s not him. You can open the door.”

  “Are you sure?” My skin burned but I chased away goose bumps with my fingers. I took a moment to collect myself, sighed, and then walked past him as I headed for the front door, calling, “Hold up, I’m coming!”

  Papan grabbed a hold of my hand as I passed him and rubbed his thumb along my palm. I paused long enough to meet his gaze, before he dropped my hand.

  I somehow made it to the door and pulled it open. Oren McKee charged inside in a blur of black-and-white. He always wears black everything, and his hair is white and long. Today, it was in a tight braid that swung down his back. His wardrobe also doesn’t seem to take any notice of the seasons. It’s always long-sleeved shirts, pressed trousers and shiny shoes.

  “I thought you weren’t home. Thank God you are!”

  “What’s up? What was so important you couldn’t just call?” So I could finally get this thing with Papan sorted out. I was looking forward to hearing what he had to say. Surely I hadn’t just imagined my ex-boyfriend—I’d just broken up with Jonathan, right?—roughing me up and Papan coming to my rescue. Not that I needed rescuing. I could take care of myself, but it still felt nice to know he cared enough to warn someone away from trying to hurt me.

  The thought made me sad. Was I becoming one of those girls who made up excuses and put up with someone’s crap to spare him the pain?

  Oren stopped in the foyer, didn’t even seem to notice Papan, who disappeared into the living room.

  The blare of the TV echoed out the doorway seconds later. He knew to stay out of Oren’s way. He also knew the old man might be annoying but he didn’t mean me any harm. If anything, he was always trying to help.

  Oren McKee and I have a fragile relationship, if you can call it that. I get pissed off with him a lot. Sure, he’s charming, mysterious and has a groovy Irish twang embedded into his Aussie accent, but he also happens to be a powerful witch, and my biological grandfather. A fact I recently found out. I can’t say I’m thrilled with the revelation.

  “Sorry to barge in on you, Sierra, but I think I might’ve gotten a lead on your grandparents,” Oren said, his light blue eyes staring into mine.

  My heart skipped a beat. He was helping me track down my missing grandparents, who are both ghosts and were somehow snatched after a tear in the fabric between patches—the different lines of spiritualistic existence—made it possible.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Sorry, it’s not something I can simply explain, I need to show you.” His light eyes were wide.

  “Right.” Everything with him was always about showing. The last time he said something like this, we ended up in the cemetery and he stole a bit of essence from me. That’s when I found out he was a witch who also happened to hunt witches. “I’ll need a little more info than that.”

  “Must you always be difficult?” he snapped as if I were a child.

  I cringed, because reacting this way
made him sound like a parent or grandparent and I didn’t like it.

  “Don’t speak to me like I’m ten years old. When it comes to finding out about where my grandparents went, I will be difficult.” Was our relationship ever going to be remotely comfortable? “Tell me what you think you’ve found.”

  Oren stopped in front of me and grabbed my hand. His icy fingers stung my skin. “Sierra, I think I might be on to something here, but I can’t explain it. Just come along and let me know what you think.”

  I opened my mouth to answer when the phone rang.

  I shook his fingers off mine and rushed to the side table where the phone sat. My skin thawed out when I left his cold presence. I was really going hot and cold today.

  “Hello?” From where I stood I could see the back of Papan’s head as he lounged on the couch, switching between channels.

  I should be doing the same on my day off.

  “Oh, thank Goddess you’re there!” my assistant Ebony said, breathless.

  “Eb, what’s wrong?”

  “You gotta get into the office ASAP! There’s someone here I think you need to talk to.”

  “Ebony, I’m kinda in the middle of something.”

  “Well, get out of it,” she squealed in my ear. “You have to come right now.”

  “Can’t you handle it?” She’d been handling her own cases for weeks now and I was getting some great feedback from our customers.

  She sighed into my ear. Ebony was always about the drama. “Look, that’s what I’ve been doing all day, okay? But this…no, I need you.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “And I really don’t want to spend any more time with this person than I have to, so can you hurry? Please.”

  I rolled my eyes in frustration, catching Papan’s eye. He was watching me intently.

  Breaking eye contact, I said, “Sure, Ebony, I’ll be over as soon as I can, all right?”

  “Cool, just hurry.” And with that, she hung up.

  I lowered the phone back into its charging cradle with a hundred thoughts running through my mind. What, or whom, could make Ebony so edgy she needed me there, when she’d been doing so well on her own for weeks? And why couldn’t I catch a break? All I wanted to do was sit on the couch beside Papan and talk.

  “Is everything okay?” he asked.

  “Sure,” I answered, avoiding his eyes.

  “You don’t look okay.” He made a move to stand up.

  “Papan, it’s just work stuff. You know how easily Ebony freaks.” I didn’t want him to get worried, and I certainly didn’t want to be reminded about Ebony’s claim that she’d slept with Papan. It bugged the hell out of me, I couldn’t help it. “I have to go.”

  “We have to go,” Oren called from the hallway.

  I’d almost forgotten about him. I sighed. “Will this take long, Oren?”

  “Why?”

  “I need to get to the office. Ebony needs me.”

  “I thought it was your day off.”

  I wasn’t even going to ask how he knew. “There’s no rest for the wicked, I suppose.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “Okay, okay. This can wait a little longer. Go take care of business and I’ll be waiting outside your office block in an hour. Don’t be late!”

  “Yeah, yeah.”

  Oren turned a stern look my way. “Sierra, I think I’ve finally found something.” He continued on his way and left without a word of goodbye.

  I didn’t like the glimmer of hope in his eyes—it could become contagious. And after all the hours of wondering and trying to figure out what had happened to my grandparents and where they could be, hope was the last thing I needed to fixate on.

  “He doesn’t waste a word, that’s for sure,” Papan said, sitting up.

  I stepped into the living room, trying to fight the compulsion of sitting beside him and ignoring everyone else. With my stomach full, I would’ve preferred the date we’d made. “Will you be okay on your own?”

  “Of course, Fox.”

  “Good, I’ll catch you later.”

  “Hey, Fox.”

  I raised an eyebrow and met his gaze. “Yeah?”

  “We need to finish what we started. I’ll wait up for you.”

  I nodded, feeling all nervous and shy. What was this, high school?

  “We sure do,” I whispered, stepping out of sight and back into the hallway. I didn’t want him to see me blushing like a silly school girl with a huge crush.

  Things with Papan were changing as quickly as everything else in my life. Even though it excited me, it also scared the hell out of me.

  Chapter Two

  I have an office situated in the center of Serene Hills, the only part of the suburb where the ground is mostly flat, and where many independent small businesses thrive. Most stores in this part of town actually do quite well because they’re all specialized in one field or another. There are also several accountants, lawyers, real estate and tax agents—a few of which have offices in the same building I do. The local pub thrives, as well as the selection of cafés and other dining options lining the area.

  When I decided to move my business away from home and into an office, this seemed like the best place to be. The rent is reasonable and the location’s centralized.

  I stepped out of my car and crossed the busy road to reach the red-brick building some might call an eyesore.

  The sun was as tenacious as it gets on a typical, hot afternoon in the Sydney suburbs. My lower back was drenched in sweat, which collected at the waistband of my jeans. It also caused my T-shirt to stick to my sweaty back, but I managed to peel it away as soon as I strolled into the building.

  Not all the heat was to do with the season. Papan had a lot to do with it too, but I couldn’t focus on him without remembering what happened with Jonathan.

  So I pushed it all away and instead waved at Benita, the accountant whose office was situated directly below mine. Hers was relatively small, so she liked to keep the door open to spy on everyone who walked in and out of the building. She even had her desk sitting parallel to the door.

  She smiled and waved back, before adjusting her glasses and returning to the paperwork in front of her. She was a quiet woman with frizzy dark hair, and didn’t engage much in useless chatter. She didn’t have a receptionist or assistant and took care of everything on her own, though her husband liked to pop in during lunch and after work to help. They looked happy together, and had only been married about three months. Both Ebony and I had attended their wedding in November.

  I took the stairs two at a time, but when I reached my floor, I glanced down the darkened corridor and decided to take the next flight up.

  Taking my time up the stairs to the third floor, and eager to see the workman I’d finally arranged to meet, I was looking forward to surprising Papan. He didn’t know, but I planned to have his office fixed. Both windows in his office, as well as the glass on his door, had been shattered by a certain werewolf hunter, and the last time I’d seen the inside, it had been a mess.

  As I approached his door, I felt good about doing this. He’d refused my help when I offered it, but we were friends, and I wanted him to get his business back on track as soon as he could step out of the shadows again.

  “What the hell?” I quickened my step and stood on tiptoes when I reached his office. I peered inside, shocked. Not only was the glass already fixed and his name neatly displayed on the door, but the inside appeared to be spotless and both windows had been replaced.

  “Are you Sierra Fox?”

  I spun around, ready to defend myself, but calmed down when I noticed it was just a man dressed in a handyman’s uniform. He looked a little disheveled and his unshaven face glistened with sweat.

  Trying to remain calm, I caught my breath. I really had to start relaxing, or I was going to have a heart attack.

  He took a step back. “Sorry, miss, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  “It’s okay, I’m fine. I didn’t see you there. And yeah, I’m Si
erra.” After everything that had happened to me lately, how stupid of me not to check the shadows. It might just be a harmless handyman now, but next time it could be a rogue ghost. Or something much worse.

  There were plenty of worse things out there. I’d encountered a few already, and the thought of running into more made me sweat a little.

  “I’m Mike from Odd Jobs, we spoke earlier.”

  I nodded and pointed at the door. “How did you fix it so quickly?”

  He rubbed the back of his neck and frowned. “See, that’s just it. I didn’t fix anything. It was like this when I got here about five minutes ago.”

  “It was already fixed?”

  “Yes, Miss.”

  Who the hell fixed it? I was pretty sure Papan hadn’t arranged for anyone to fix it. His idea of dealing with the damage had been to tape a cardboard box in front of the glass hole, and kick things aside.

  “I’m sorry to have wasted your time.”

  “It’s okay, but I need to charge you for coming out here. The boss man won’t be too happy if I wasted time on an appointment without payment.”

  “Sure. Just charge me for a standard quote.”

  He nodded, scribbled a few things on the clipboard in front of him and I ended up paying for a quote that would never happen. Before, having to waste money needlessly would’ve annoyed the hell out of me, but today I didn’t mind. Though, I’d have to ask Papan if he knew anything about this.

  “Thanks,” the handyman said.

  “Sure, sorry for wasting your time.”

  He smiled and made his way down the corridor. I watched him until he disappeared down the stairs, before glancing at the hallway window. That too had been shattered the night Papan’s office was totally trashed. He’d changed into a wolf and jumped out of it while trying to escape Vixen.

  I shook myself out of the reverie and decided I couldn’t keep putting off whatever was waiting for me in my office. Besides, time was ticking and Oren would be waiting outside soon. He was very persistent and wouldn’t stop until he showed me whatever he thought he’d found. I was trying not to think about it too much. He’d tried to find out what could have happened to my grandparents’ ghosts for weeks, but hadn’t turned up anything. That he thought he was on to something should make me happy, but I just didn’t want to be disappointed again.