Thieves About Read online

  “What question?” He forced himself to meet my eyes as he fisted his hands.

  I couldn’t tell if he was being completely honest with me or not since his aura was all over the place, so I decided to fuck with him like he kept seeming to do to me. I uncrossed my legs as I caught his hand and pulled him closer. I put it on my waist, bringing the other there as well while he moved between my legs. Then I reached up and pushed the dress off my shoulders a bit as I lowered his head, pressing my lips against his ear.

  “What are you trying to pull now, Detective?”

  “Nothing, I swear,” he murmured, sniffing my hair as his hands massaged my hips. “My apartment is a shithole, and I woke a few days ago to find a rat staring at me.”

  “You poor thing,” I cooed, nibbling his ear. “But forgive me for not buying it.”

  He let out a deep moan and moved closer. “I swear it’s true.” He hissed as I moved his hands under my breasts. “There is no blood in my brain.”

  “Then answer me fast,” I chuckled. “Why come here? There has to be another place—any other place without enchanters.”

  “Not at this price, with these amenities and killer food. Please?”

  “Please what?”

  “Please don’t kill my application. I thought they checked with you, and I already gave notice at my apartment.”

  Crap. That would be over the line, and I would deserve his anger. “You so much as listen in on a conversation that’s private, and I will not only toss you out on your ass but put you in the ocean, you get me?”

  “Yes, I promise. I just want real sleep without loud neighbors who don’t care I’m SPU and some smell I still can’t figure out. I won’t bother anyone.” His lips moved along my neck. “I thought about what you said, and I was wrong. I’m sorry.”

  “For what?” I pushed, moving my hands to his belt, undoing it and his fly which about set him off. “What are you sorry for, Remy?”

  He shivered at hearing his first name on my lips. “Wolves can get tunnel vision. I did, and I pushed too much. It wasn’t my business, and I kept going instead and it was too much. Asking for your taxes was way too far.”

  I slid my hand into his boxer briefs, teasing him as I licked the shell of his ear. “Do you want to put this in me?”

  “Yes, fuck, so much, Soraya. I would do anything to be with you.”

  That was what I wanted to hear. I shoved him away from me and smirked when he frowned. “Sorry, I don’t fuck people who hate magics and would make the exception to associate with one because they let their dick do their thinking.” I stared at his hard dick and took in a slow breath. “It’s not bad, but it’s attached to someone who doesn’t do it for me.”

  And then I popped back to the front desk, leaving him in that state and having a hard time not laughing at that. Asshole. He should have checked with me himself that it was okay after the last conversation we had where I’d kicked him out of the building.

  I assured the front desk that everything was fine and relayed what else I needed them to handle before Hunt reappeared. Then I popped over to Willie’s Alpha house again, showing up in the room of one of the wolves I’d played with, that first wolf and best kisser of them. I waved my hand and enchanted the room in a sound bubble.

  “Enchantress, I thought you left,” he greeted, jumping up from his computer and the video game he was playing.

  “I did, but your Alpha left me unsated. Want to play with me instead of that game?”

  “Fuck yes,” he growled, wrapping his arms around me before mashing his mouth to mine. He ripped off the dress and ravaged me, his passion and just about everything else why I’d picked him.

  After a few rounds, I almost considered learning his name and thinking about making another appearance for fun. But he was loyal to his Alpha and would tell, and would be put in the middle as so many were when it came to me and the power people wanted access to.

  And there were so many, many men in the world I’d never sampled.

  Why limit myself with repeats?

  2

  I woke the next morning with an odd feeling, that type that says something happened in a dream and you would want to remember it but can’t quite catch it. To most people that was annoying.

  For me, it was downright terrifying because it normally meant I’d had some glimpse of what was to come… And it wasn’t clear enough to catch. But it would come to me, and the way it had happened in the past wasn’t good because it was normally too late or not enough time to change anything.

  They also always seemed to be negative. Which was awesome.

  Even better, it left that doom and gloom feeling bubbling inside me.

  I tried my best to ignore it and headed to the bathroom. The spell I’d put on my mirror showed it was Saturday and the normal Saturday list of what had to be done. Top of the list was laundry… Which was best I didn’t do. No, the building staff did it for me as I was boss, but also the vice presidents’ and some of the other executives of my companies. They also had free weekly cleanings from the cleaning company, but I did my own.

  For obvious reasons. Even if they were my coven and employed by me, that did not mean they should be trusted to that level.

  When I used my power to change my clothes, I sent them to the hampers I had in the master bathroom, as sometimes I also did it the old fashioned way before a shower or bath. Every Saturday morning, I sent the contents of those hampers down to the laundry room and after they were cleaned whichever way, they were put on the shelf and hanging rack that was mine down there, and my magic would bring them up and put them away in my apartment.

  Much, much better than me doing it, especially when I’d not graduated from the old ways of washing boards and whatnot. The new machines made my head hurt with all the options and labels on clothes.

  Fuck it. I was boss, and someone else could do it.

  Once through the list and morning necessities handled, I popped downstairs to find Andrew’s latest gift in crates all around the lobby. I walked over to the nearest one instead of the front desk like normal. Picking up the large, natural sea sponge, I felt that tingling up my spine that let me know my magic wanted to play and a spell was taking form.

  I made my phone appear and called the sender, smirking when he immediately answered.

  “Soraya, you finally called. Am I forgiven?”

  “No, of course not. Where did you get these sponges from?”

  “How can you ask that when I’m not forgiven?” he growled. “Why am I not forgiven yet?”

  I rolled my eyes, tired of teasing him and losing patience with this charade when it was obvious he was never going to catch on. “Oh, I’m so sorry, did I miss where you apologized? Did any of these gifts have so much as a note with the words?

  “No, because you’re ancient and awesome and you don’t believe in demeaning yourself to apologize. It’s ridiculous, Andrew. Apologizing is not humiliating. Everyone here laughing every morning at your gifts that I roll my eyes at is humiliating, but your idiot pride doesn’t even get that.”

  “Then I’ll just stop sending them,” he seethed. “You really just let your coven laugh at me?”

  “You are fucking kidding me, right? Do you remember what you had three of your nest sitting there to watch? What you did to try and humiliate me?” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Tell me or don’t, but that information won’t make me forgive you. It will just keep me from getting even more agitated with you and do something else maybe.”

  “Greece,” he blurted. “A company in Greece that specializes in Mediterranean sea sponges. Farming. It’s—they do sustainable farming so it doesn’t hurt the environment. I thought you would like that since I heard on the news you were doing some sort of idea of cleaning the air with sponges.”

  I nodded then remembered he couldn’t see it. “I started with sponges for washing cars, the cheap ones that I didn’t know were synthetic, but we have loofas we bespell and a provider, so I’m going to try those and see if natural ones work better. But I might have another idea for these, so thank you.”

  “So I’m forgiven?”

  “Maybe in a few decades, but not before you say the words and mean them, really mean them, idiot.”

  I hung up, not willing to spar with him or get into it.

  “Boss, Jerome and Keegan wanted us to ask if you’re heading to the bath products factory after your lunch meeting?”

  I frowned. “Yes, I already confirmed that yesterday with…” I realized the seat next to him was empty with who was normally on shift. “She went into labor?”

  “Yeah,” he chuckled. “End of her shift yesterday. So that explains it. I’ll let them know.” He set on the counter my normal water bottle for working out that had the electrolytes stuff I liked in it. “And there are two birthdays today.”

  I nodded, taking the files from him. One was a little girl about ten and the other an adult who worked for me. Most might think it silly to celebrate the adults’ birthdays, but I wasn’t just their boss but their coven leader.

  And everyone deserved a cake and something nice for their birthday.

  “Got it. Thank you. I’ll handle the sponges later after I think on them a bit.”

  “Have a good walk, boss.”

  I gave a wave as I headed to the elevator, taking it down and getting on my normal treadmill… Doing my best to ignore Hunt was there. Maybe it was time to get a treadmill in my apartment?

  I shook my head, not about to change my routine because of him when it was my building and certainly in a way he would know he was the reason. I’d rather eat glass. I couldn’t even get miffed he was there working out when he was moving in that day, like didn’t he have enough to do, because I knew our moving procedure and one of the enchanters would go to his apartment and move it all with magic.

  It made things easier and smoother to do it that way as opposed to bringing outsiders who could try something while they were in the building. That might sound paranoid, but that was exactly what had happened after I’d opened the building and several times, which was how the current procedures were put in place.

  Making my tablet appear, I pulled up the new marketing and product campaigns Jerome and Keegan were proposing. Spring was a good time for both companies to do both, but Helen was left out of that sort of thing… Something she was not upset about ever. She was actually very happy she didn’t have that sort of company to run.

  The first group were spring cleaning deals for Good As New, the cleaning company. Fifty or hundred dollars off the first appointment—depending on the size of their house—was good, but a lot of places did that. The flyer and social media ads were bland too as if they knew I wouldn’t like it.

  However, top to bottom free kitchen cleaning for new customers was bolder, brazen in our faith they would call us after they saw what we could do. Which they normally did. Also, it was something people would tend to share on social media with friends, as we did all the appliances and everything, and we were nationwide, so it wasn’t limited to an area.

  And I even liked the ads. Done and done.

  Next were the Easter products for kiddies. I nodded as I looked them over. Carrot shaped bubble bath bars, good, good. Colorful egg bath bombs safe for children, awesome. Those were safe, and we’d learned after our first year doing it that having duckies that melted in water made kids scream in horror.

  Bunnies too. Whoops. Live, learn, and that had been a lot of refunds even though we had told them that was what it would do so it really wasn’t our fault. Just not the best idea.

  Keegan had found a dozen people with decks willing to let us test how to make the deck and fence cleaning idea work, knowing if we broke it, we bought it sort of thing. But that had me holding off on looking over those ads as it depended on how much magic was used and all of that. Same with the sponges and condom ideas.

  We had already decided to do the three nocturnal fun charms, and while some people might say it was stupid since it was something that could easily be slipped into a shoplifter’s pocket, they’d obviously never been inside a Magical Healing. It was posted right when people walked in that they also entered a spell that would light them up like a Christmas tree if they stole anything.

  We didn’t have many—or really any—shoplifters after the first reports went out that it really did work. I did however get a lot of stores demanding I share how I do that or give them the same thing. My answer when people demanded anything of me was always the same: hold your breath and wait for me to do it, and I’ll tell the paramedics where you are so they can revive you.

  Assholes.

  After that and my normal walk, I took two calls with Alphas who we bought ingredients from that wanted to speak to me while I did resistance training. Nothing big, mostly discussions or ideas on expanding, the typical call with one report of worry that they were still getting tons of unseasonable snow. I assured them like I always did that if there was a problem, we had the magic to fix it and wouldn’t just drop them.

  Hey, I understood needing the reassurances. They weren’t just some big, uncaring corporation, but an Alpha who people relied on for protection and everything to survive.

  I did catch Hunt looking over at me, and I smirked at him since I knew he’d be curious as to what the calls were, except he couldn’t hear any of it. I was smarter than most, and my bluetooth, hands free device was bespelled so no one could hear me when I used it or the person I was speaking with.

  Next was my yoga routine where I worked out what I wanted to do with the sponges and how to make it happen, popping up to my workroom ten minutes in to get started. When I had everything I needed in the auto mixing kettle and it required time to cook, I popped downstairs for breakfast and to find one adorable little girl.

  I smiled brightly at her as I saw the excitement in her eyes. I threw back my head and laughed when I saw what was in her head. I’d started a trend with the kids. After giving Matthew such a massive frog for his birthday, every child since had wanted something like it. This little girl loved pandas and wanted a ginormous panda bear.

  Oh, the parents were going to roll their eyes at me for taking up so much room in their apartments for one toy.

  Still, I did it, making everything panda appear for her party, including cute panda pajamas she really wanted all her friends to wear with her. I kissed her hair and laughed again when she just about passed out in excitement.

  And there was Hunt watching again. I swallowed down my feelings at that, reminding myself I’d been in the workroom for a while so it made sense he would get breakfast after he worked out too, not that I’d gotten a stalker.

  Maybe it was both, but I was old enough to not let it get to me.

  Sure I was.

  Next I went to the other birthday girl, biting back a smile when I saw what she wanted. I gave her a wink and made a box appear with the lingerie set she’d wanted, along with a bit of liquid courage for her to wear it for her boyfriend that night in the form of a spray. I kissed her cheek and wished her luck, knowing the kitchen would have covered both cakes so everything was set otherwise.

  I went to go get my smoothies and rolled my eyes went Hunt was there too… Until I saw where he was standing. I yanked him out of the way just in time as an enchanter who worked for the cleaning company appeared.

  “Good morning, boss,” he greeted, dipping his head before ordering.

  I told him the same and turned to Hunt. “Weekends are super busy for anyone who works for Good As New. That’s why the marked-out area.” I gestured to the large piece of cardboard on the floor with the colored tape in an X. “They will pop in and out all day to get refueled so they can go and go.”

  “Got it, sorry,” he muttered, scrubbing his hand over his head as he stared at it. “I didn’t even see it. I’ve been zoned out all morning. My goodbye present from my neighbors was to be complete assholes my last night there. I got maybe four hours of sleep, and I just gave up and thought I’d try to change my mood by working out where it’s so nice and quiet. My stuff’s being moved after lunch, and then I can just crash.”

  I blinked at him, pretty clearly saying I don’t care, but his aura did match what he was saying, flashing all the colors of exhaustion. Part of me stupidly hoped that if he started getting better sleep, maybe he wouldn’t be such an asshole.

  Probably not.

  I thanked the workers for my coffee and protein shake before heading to my table and eating everything I’d ordered while looking over numbers, numbers, and more numbers. And then more numbers that I needed to know before my lunch meeting.

  It was a lot to retain or even process and filter through of what parts I needed to handle.

  Next I brought all the sponges up to my workroom, and the potion was ready by then. I dunked a few in and hung them to dry over the kettle so they were coated but would dry and not drip. I popped over to the warehouse and handled pallet after pallet of what we would need for the next week, all while picking up more protein shakes as I did.

  Then came lunch and my meeting. I quickly flicked my wrist and changed, using my power to freshly shower myself and put on a suit before popping down to the cafeteria.

  “Thank you both for coming,” I greeted, smiling brightly at the two very confused men and the two men with them that seemed along for the ride.

  “Ms. Devil, I had everything ready for our meeting at my office as you—”

  “And you put that on your schedule, yes, Mr. Mayor?” I waited until he nodded. “And so people knew where I was going to be. They could find out the date, time, and location of where I’d be and away from the safety of my buildings. I’m sorry for changing the plan on you and having my security bring you to me instead, but you understand why I had to do it. You might be mayor and police chief of a blue city in a red state—”

  “But we’re still a red state and most there hate supernaturals more than gays, pot, and anti-gun people combined,” the police chief finished for me, probably knowing that better than I did. “And you’re seen as the American leader of all enchanters.”