Free spies and spells 02 - betting off dead by tonya kappes Page A

ground work with Forest over the past three months.” He held up three fingers. He leaned to the side and stuck his hand in his pocket. He held a very large yellow diamond ring in between his fingers. “You are going to have to keep this on at all times during the investigation.”
    A gasp escaped me. A smile jelled into my expression of shock.
    Even if it was pretend, I got excited. The giddiness shook me to my core. My mouth dried as I tried to swallow Mom’s and Auntie’s words about my feelings about Mick might be more about him and not SKUL. Maybe my life’s journey was more than SKUL. There was a tickling in my mind that my life’s journey was also about Mick.
    Mick laughed.
    “We don’t leave any stone unturned.” He grabbed my finger and slipped the ring on.
    Little displays of fireworks popped around his head. My smile broadened in approval as my heart sang with delight. It was as if I was having déjà vu and this had happened to me before. I felt a warm glow flow through me before it was rudely interrupted by Vinnie’s circuit screen going nuts with flashing lights and beeping noises.
    “Darn car.” I tapped the screen with my finger. Vinnie was not happy. “What can I say, it’s an old car.”
    “Yeah, I’ve heard you say that a few times.” His jaw clenched, his eyes slightly narrowed. “Anyways, we’ve been married for five years. We met at Bellarmine University where you went to school to be a nurse and I went to school to be a teacher. We were tired of the old humdrum life and got into betting on the ponies. We got lucky and ended up making millions from it. SKUL fixed all the records to prove it and overnight they changed all the paperwork and photos to yours.” He also pulled a photo out of his pants pocket. He handed it to me.
    It was a picture from last night. It was the exact moment when Sherry had walked into the house and seen the Spell Circle. The photo was from Sherry’s angle and a panoramic view of our kitchen. The Spell Circle in their full regalia, Mom and Lilith’s mouths were gaped open because I was sure this was taken when I informed them that I was no longer going to work at The Brew, and Auntie Meme was levitating in her chair. Then there was me. I was facing Sherry with an anxious look on my face.
    My mind searched for a plausible explanation, but I had none. There was no sense in wasting a spell on the photo because Mick was immune to my spells.
    “I had Sherry wear a body camera to get a quick picture of you and this is what was transmitted back to me.”
    “Auntie Meme’s book club is reading Harry Potter .” A tremor touched my lying lips. “You know. . .”
    “Like last time they were reading a Halloween book in the summer and dressed the characters’ parts.” He rubbed his chin. “Or the time they were reading Gone With The Wind and dressed in the period clothing?”
    “Exactly.” I took the photo from him and shoved it between the seat, giving Vinnie the go ahead to destroy it when we got out of the car.
    “If that’s what you’re going with,” Mick said his standard reply when he questioned the weird things that happened around me that seemed to have odd explanations. Those happenings were always tied to my witchy heritage.
    But like Auntie Meme said, I couldn’t tell Mick about my family. First off, he’d never believe it. Second, we’d be run out of town if anyone found out. A good old-fashioned witch hunt. At least, that’s what Auntie called it. I recalled her telling me stories about how she’d been on the receiving end of a few of those and it didn’t sound like any fun to me.
    “We don’t have children because we travel extensively and don’t have any pets either. We live in a modest home like most of these people do because it’s a good cover for the illegal betting we do and now we are going to get into this.” He pointed as a few more couples had gathered around. Most of them had steel cases.
    “What’s in the cases?” I