Free Crushed (City of Eldrich Book 2) by Laura Kirwan Page B

and mentors, and she and the kids were headed down to Tyrone to stay with them until things settled down.
    Her eye swollen shut, standing in front of her shattered house beside her packed-up minivan, Patrice looked even smaller than she was and—for the first time since Meaghan had met her—vulnerable.
    “Don’t argue with me,” Meaghan said as she handed Patrice a check. “Neither of you can work right now. You don’t need to be worrying about money on top of everything else.”
    “Meaghan, I can’t,” she said, shaking her head.
    “Yeah, you can. Matthew took good care of me and Russ. Plus, I get paid well and where the hell am I going to spend it in Eldrich? Take it. Let me help.” Meaghan pushed down the tears that threatened to spill. “Let me do something. This shit is magical and I let it happen and—”
    Patrice cut her off with a furious glare and a hug. “You did not. They did this to him. Find out why. If you love him, find out why.” She let go of Meaghan and climbed into the minivan.
    “You’re going to the bank with that check, right? If you don’t deposit it, I’ll get Natalie to magic it in there somehow.”
    Patrice gave Meaghan a wan smile. “First stop is the bank, then out to Lynette’s to pick up the kids.”
    Meaghan waved as Patrice drove away. She wiped away a stray tear and then turned her attention back to the house where a couple of workers were boarding up and measuring the windows. Meaghan hadn’t told Patrice, but she planned to buy them new insulated windows, with safety glass, rather than merely repair the old ones.
    Kady was minding the office while Meaghan and Natalie helped Patrice pack. Now Natalie walked up with a mug of coffee, which she handed to Meaghan. “I put a tracer spell on her and Lynette’s got the kids. To make sure they’re okay.”
    “You know any witches down there?”
    Natalie nodded. “A few. But Tyrone is close enough I can keep track of her myself.”
    “You hear anything about Jamie?” Meaghan sipped her coffee. She needed the caffeine. Between learning that Natalie was her sister and worrying about Jamie, Meaghan had slept very little the night before, even less than normal. But on the up side, no sleep meant no nightmares.
    “He’s still in the hospital down in Williamsport,” Natalie said. “The doc’s clued in. He dummied up a quarantine order to keep Jamie away from prying eyes and to keep him from having a psych eval on his records. It would raise too many questions.”
    “How long will they keep him?”
    “A few days at most or the state health department or CDC will start paying attention.”
    “And that would be bad?” Meaghan asked.
    “What do you think?”
    Meaghan nodded. She couldn’t see the feds being able to wrap their brains around black magic as suitable grounds for a quarantine. “So where’s he staying when he gets out of the hospital?”
    Natalie sighed. “Well, with me, of course. I’m furious with him for what he did to Patrice, but I still love him. And I’m powerful enough to protect us both.”
    “You didn’t see him last night. He beat himself up far worse than he did Patrice. It’s not him doing this.”
    “I know it’s not him. It’s those bastards screwing with him.” Natalie shook her head. “I’ve never seen Patrice scared like this before. She and Jamie were solid. They hardly ever disagreed about anything. If they can make him hurt Patrice, none of us are safe.”
    “Will you be safe?”
    Natalie’s face grew grim. “If Jamie tries anything on me, I’ll kick his ass so hard he won’t have an ass left to kick. Double for those Order freaks.”
    “Well,” Meaghan said, “at least now we don’t have to worry about finding him new office space. Thank God for FMLA.”
    The estimator from the window company walked up. He was from Williamsport and not clued in, but Buzz Hallam trusted his boss. “Got my measurements. I’ll run up some estimates for you at a few different price