Free Spell of Summoning by Anna Abner Page A

she’d never hurt you. Not physically, anyway.” She laughed lightly.
    Charley McGovern, her realty rival, was a sophisticated, skinny social climber who wished she was as successful in Auburn real estate as Rebecca. But she never had caught up. If Rebecca went insane, Charley would have the town to herself. Rebecca could not picture the woman casting spells, though.
    “Thanks,” Rebecca said with almost zero feeling. “If you think of anything, though…”
    “Oh, sure. Of course.” She handed Rebecca a file folder with a bright plaid pattern on the cover. “The information you asked for.”
    Right. The background check on Holden. She accepted the file but didn’t open it. “How’s the Lane Street house coming along?”
    “There was an offer submitted last night.”
    “What? No one told me. Jessa, that’s unacceptable. I don’t care if we’re closing down. When an offer comes in, I know about it.”
    “I’m sorry. Derek called me. I thought he called you, too.”
    “No!” Damn them both and their vacation idea. She was a big girl. She could handle one offer. “And?”
    “The sellers are considering it.”
    “Okay.”
    “I thought…” Jessa put her arm around Rebecca’s shoulders. “You were going to take the rest of the week off?”
    “I was, but then all this happened.”
    “You should go home.”
    “That’s what everyone keeps telling me,” Rebecca grumbled. She arranged her two rings, one sapphire and diamond, the other a sterling silver braided band, lining them up exactly parallel to her knuckle bones. She exhaled, feeling a little better.
    Leaving Jessa to answer the phones, Rebecca found Holden sitting at her desk typing on her computer.
    She arched an eyebrow. Good to know he made himself at home wherever he went. “Can I help you?” she asked, only partly teasing.
    “Did you come up with a list?” he asked. “Pissed off clients and business competitors?”
    To the truth was, she’d sold her first condo at the age of eighteen and worked steadily closing deals ever since. Add up all those buyers and sellers, the opposing agents on each deal, the loan officers, the home inspectors, and the escrow people, and she could be talking one thousand or more different people that she’d worked with directly or indirectly over the years. It would be impossible to pinpoint one slighted notary public, one disappointed husband, or one pissed off competing agent.
    “There’s too many. Ten years of deals…” Rebecca shook her head. “But I’ll check my files. My tablet’s in the drawer.” She rounded the desk, and her arm accidentally brushed Holden’s shoulder. It was a nice shoulder. Strong. Firm. Yet if she ran her fingers over it, the skin would be baby soft.
    He turned, his mouth inches from hers. “Am I in your way?” His breath smelled like mint gum, and she, irrationally, wanted to taste it firsthand.
    “No.” Becca snatched up the thin, leather case. “I’m good.” She clutched the tablet in its case and his background check to her chest, tightening her grip until the cardstock pressed into her flesh.
    “Try to narrow it down.” Holden clicked quickly through at least three different occult sites. “This spell is new. Think of when the possession started and go back from there.”
    “I moved out of my house three months ago.” When the unexplained stuff had gotten out of control. Chairs sliding across the hardwood floor in an empty dining room. Lamps flickering on and off like disco lights.
    “What happened six months ago?”
    She’d been planning her move to Raleigh—giving notice to her leasing agent, scouting for a new office in the city, and breaking the news to her employees and loyal customers. Maybe one of them…
     “Well. Ready when you are.” Holden collected a fistful of pages from her printer and took the case and the manila folder off her hands before leading the way outside.
    “Lock up, Jessa,” she called on the way out. “I don’t plan on