Witch of an Ex Read online

  Witch of an Ex

  Witch Reborn 4

  By Belinda White

  Copyright 2021 Belinda White

  Table of Contents

  Copyright Page

  Witch of an Ex (Witch Reborn, #4)

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

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  Chapter 1

  “What’s wrong with Taylor investigations?” Orville asked, giving me a look.

  He knew very well what the answer to that one was. I might be married to the man, but I wasn’t a Taylor. Hadn’t taken the name, and I didn’t intend to either.

  It wasn’t an issue of love. It was an issue of pride. I was dang proud of being a Ravenswind, and I would bloody well keep on being one too. Getting married didn’t change that.

  Good thing for me, Orville understood. He should. He’s known me practically all his life. Ever since his parents moved to Wind’s Crossing right before time for him to go into kindergarten. Well, except for that brief stint where he joined the Army and went off to see the world.

  He was still waiting. Looked like he wanted me to give him an answer even though he knew what it would be. “What’s wrong with Taylor and Ravenswind Investigations?”

  Orville made a face. “For one thing, it’s too long. For another, as much as I know you don’t want to hear this, I have to take the lead in the business. It isn’t a power play kind of thing, either. There are rules as to how an investigating business can be licensed. I have the law enforcement background—tons of it—that has allowed us to get our licensing through. People are going to expect the Taylor name to be front and center.”

  “People will, huh?” I had to give him a grudging point about the whole licensing thing. It wasn’t exactly his fault that the state had laws about that. Laws we had to adhere to if we wanted to hang out a legal shingle for business. Orville being an ex-sheriff for over a decade was the only reason we were beating my niece Amie to the draw on this one. Even though she’d started on her path to this months before we had.

  She’d been working on getting her license for over a year now. But without the experience to back her up, she had to complete a college education and get the degree. She was speeding through her coursework and pulling long study hours, but she still had a long way to go.

  Orville was still looking at me. “Okay, so maybe as long as they know I’m involved, the name might not be such a big deal.” He drew in a deep breath. “But as much as I hate to say it, I still don’t think your name should go on the sign. Not yet, anyway. You have to work for the agency for a few years before we can get you properly licensed. It really isn’t a pride issue for me, Opal. Personally, I like the sound of Taylor and Ravenswind Investigations. And we can always change it once you become certified.”

  Darn it all. The man just had to be logical about it, didn’t he? “All right, then. I guess I can work for Taylor Investigations until I get my papers.” I raised an eyebrow at him. “But once those legal papers are in hand, my name goes on the sign, or I open a business of my own. Maybe even go into partnership with Amethyst. Agreed?”

  He chuckled and pulled me in closer to his side. Easy to do as we were sitting on the sofa. “I really wouldn’t have it any other way. I couldn’t take competing with you. Wouldn’t be a good thing for our marriage.”

  “You got that right.”

  Orville was quiet for a minute. “About Amie, though. You know, we could invite her to work for us. She has the skills, and I think I’d feel a little better if she had us to back her up on cases, you know?”

  I nodded slowly. His words only proved that great minds really did think alike. I’d been having those thoughts lately myself.

  “I’ve been thinking about that too.” I hesitated. “But right now, we’re just getting started. I think maybe we need to get things rolling first. Then, once we have enough business coming in, it will make more sense to bring another investigator in.” I grunted. “Amethyst is my niece, you know. She won’t be looking to take charity.”

  I got an extra squeeze for that.

  “All that beauty and business brains to boot. I’m a lucky, lucky man.”

  “And don’t you ever forget it.”

  “Like you’d let me do that.”

  He had a point.

  “So, we’re good to go with Taylor Investigations?” His fingers were hovering over his laptop. He’d been cocky enough to have already gone online and designed the sign for our new partnership before starting the conversation. All he had to do now was push the enter key to order the thing.

  I pulled the laptop over onto my lap and picked up my reading glasses from the end table. I wanted a closer look at this sign before I signed off on it. Not that I didn’t trust my man, but still. Better safe than sorry.

  There didn’t appear to be anything to argue about. It was pretty plain as signs went. A basic wooden shingle with ‘Taylor Investigations’ burned into the wood.

  “You think the etching will be clear enough to read?”

  He blinked at me, then pulled his own reading glasses out of his pocket for a closer look. “Hmm. You may have a point. They do offer painted lettering. What do you think? Gold or black?”

  “Definitely black.” We didn’t want people to think we were putting on airs or anything.

  A few keystrokes and the enter button was pushed. It was official now. We were in business. Well, I guess I had to say that technically Orville was in business. But even though I might only be classified as an employee, I took that ranking very seriously. He’d better, too, if he knew what was good for him.

  He sat the laptop to one side. That was it for the business part of the night. Now it was cuddle and talk time. My favorite part of the evening.

  And I knew just what I wanted to talk about too. My mind kept going back to that earlier random thought about Orville’s brief stint in the Army. That, in turn, took my mind to something the Goddess had said. Something about how hard it had been for her to get him to return to Wind’s Crossing when he got out of the service. She’d made it sound like that hadn’t been his original plan.

  I kind of wanted to know why.

  “Can I ask you something?”

  He laid his head to one side to rest on the top of mine. “Uh-oh. If you’re asking me if you can ask, it must not be your average question. That’s rather worrisome. Lucky for me, I’m not a man to keep secrets from his wife, so ask away.”

  “It’s something the Goddess said right before we got married. She made it sound like you weren’t planning on coming home after the Army.”

  He shifted ever so slightly, one hand coming up to rub at his chin. “The Goddess told you that, did she?”

  I nodded.

  “Well, can’t really refute her, now can I?” He stiffened ever so slightly. “I’m guessing your question is why I wasn’t planning to come back?”

  “That would be the one, yes.”

  “In a word—you. You’re the reason, Opal. When I left for the Army, you were with Aldin McCoy. For all the world, or at least to me, it didn’t look like that was g
oing to change. I rather thought the two of you would take a trip up the aisle sooner rather than later.” He hesitated. “That’s one of the reasons I joined the service to begin with.”

  I pushed away just enough to get a good look at his face. “You left because of me?”

  “Well, yeah. You might not have known it at the time, but I’ve loved you ever since I first laid eyes on you, Opal. All the way back to kindergarten.” His eyes went slightly dreamy as he smiled. “I can still remember looking at that tall, thin girl with the long auburn braid and the attitude of a warrior. I believe you were making your point known to the teacher at the time, although I can’t remember what that point was. But I do remember thinking right then and there that you would be my forever girl.”

  I stared at him. “You were, what, five years old?”

  “Yup. But I was wise beyond my years. I knew love when it hit me right between the eyes.”

  “But you were a royal pain to me all the way through grade school! I thought you hated me.”

  He shrugged. “Little boys aren’t so good at love. Sometimes they show it in inappropriate ways.”

  “Yeah. Like gluing the end of my braid to the back of my chair.”

  Orville chuckled. “You remember that, do you? Guess part of my master plan worked then, didn’t it?”

  “Your master plan?”

  “To never let you forget me.”

  “Oh, it worked all right. My very first Karma spell was on you, just so you know. I think I was eight at the time. I wondered why it didn’t work.”

  “Now you know. I always had your best interest at heart, Opal. Even then.” He went silent for a few seconds. “Then we became friends in high school. I was just gathering up my courage to ask you out when bloody Aldin beat me to it. I’ll never forgive him for that.”

  “But you two were best friends.” Then I thought. They had been best friends, but now that I thought about it, once Aldin and I had become a couple, seeing Orville outside of school had become a rarer occasion. Now, at least, I knew why.

  “Well, he wasn’t a very good best friend. He knew I was going to ask you to the dance. And he made sure to beat me to it too.”

  “Oh, Orville. Why on earth didn’t you tell me? All those years...”

  He took a deep breath. “Aldin had a long talk with me. After I punched him in the gut out of anger, I thought I had to at least hear him out. What he said made sense.”

  “And what was that?”

  “That you were a Ravenswind. You were going to be a powerful witch. You deserved to be with someone who would understand you and have your back. Another witch. Someone like him.”

  “Sounds about like him.” I was quiet. “You stopped being best friends after that. He told me that was because you found out he was a witch.” I paused as Orville stiffened. “I thought you had a thing against witches. Truth be told, I was kind of holding out for you to be the one to ask me to that stupid dance. For the record, I waited two whole days before I told Aldin yes.”

  “That son of a biscuit eater!” A glance over showed the color rushing to Orville’s face. “He told you that? If I ever lay eyes on him again...”

  “You’ll have to beat me to him,” I said. I meant it too. That man had an awful lot to reckon for with the two of us. And all the years we’d lost together. Things could have been so different.

  Ruby could have had a father in her life. A good one. Not a good for nothing fire witch that ditched me at the very first signs of pregnancy. Although I had to admit, that was the nicest thing the man had ever done for me.

  Orville looked over at me. “Can’t you do a Karma spell or something on him?”

  I shook my head. “Have to have something of his to be able to pull one off. I don’t. Too many years have passed to have anything of his still around.” I grunted. “Burnt most of it years ago.”

  “Too bad.”

  Yeah. Tell me about it. I’d love to throw a really juicy Karma spell his way right about now. I’d make it a specific one too. Hit him where it hurt the man the most. We’d been together long enough for me to gather a few key points about the man’s ego.

  In hindsight, all I can say is that the Goddess works in mysterious ways. Some call it Karma, but I can recognize her hand in things a lot of the time.

  When Orville and I switched from couch cuddle time to bed cuddle time, we knew in our hearts that we’d most likely never get the chance to settle our old scores with Aldin McCoy.

  Trouble was, we knew wrong.

  Chapter 2

  In the past month since Orville’s retirement, we’d gotten rather used to being able to sleep all the way through the night. It was a good feeling, and we were enjoying it to the fullest.

  Part of that was the fact that Kimberly, Mason, and little baby Pearl had all moved up into the attic with Gray. They had a great big open space to be a family in. They all seemed to like that.

  The plus of that situation for me and Orville was that baby Pearl’s nursery was no longer right above our bedroom. She was still hit or miss about sleeping through the night, but she was getting better at it. Now, it didn’t really matter to the two of us. If she woke up needing a hug or a diaper change in the middle of the night, we never knew it.

  It was nice.

  The other part of the whole getting to sleep through the night thing was that Orville was no longer on call to the sheriff’s office twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week. If someone got in trouble in the middle of the night, they called Trevor, Orville’s son and acting sheriff, not Orville.

  Personally, I was thrilled about that. Sure, I felt for Amethyst as Trevor happened to be her man, and the situation had technically transferred the interrupted sleeping to the two of them. But what could I say? They were younger and better able to handle a little lost sleep.

  Time for the next generation to step up and do their part in my mind. If that meant a few phone calls in the middle of the night, then so be it.

  Better them than us.

  So when the phone rang at midnight, we weren’t in any way prepared for it. The first thought racing to my mind was the normal one. Someone in the family was in trouble. Namely, Ruby or Amethyst.

  It took us a minute to figure out which of our phones was ringing. It turned out to be Orville’s. He reached over and answered. On the third ring. We were out of practice at this.

  “Hello?”

  “Sorry to wake you, Dad.”

  I could hear Trevor’s voice come through the phone. Orville was nice enough to hold it far enough from his ear for that to happen. After all, the call hadn’t just woken him up. I had a right to know what was going on too.

  “I’m guessing you had a mighty good reason to do that.”

  “I do.” There was a pause. “At least, I hope I do. There’s been a murder, Dad. Someone you know. Benjie Drake.”

  Orville sat up in bed, throwing his legs over the side and shuffling his feet into his slippers. “What happened?” Then he shook himself. “You know what? I withdraw that question, son. You’re the sheriff now. You can handle this.” His feet came back out of the slippers and he laid back down. “But I would appreciate you keeping me posted on your progress.” Orville skipped a beat. “Don’t suppose this is an easy open and shut case, is it?”

  “Actually, it looks like it could be. We have someone in custody. That’s actually why I’m calling. He’s asking for you... and actually, Opal too.”

  “Who is asking for us?”

  “The man we arrested. He’s a stranger in town, but he says that the two of you know him and will vouch for him. Though I really don’t know what you guys vouching for him will have to do with anything. I mean, murder is murder. Of course he’s saying he didn’t do it. They all say that, though, don’t they?”

  As I said, the Goddess works in mysterious ways. The sudden gut-punch feeling in the pit of my stomach had me worried. Really, really worried. I had a bad feeling that She’d reminded me of Her words regarding Orville
earlier this evening in a slapdash effort to prepare me for what was about to happen.

  That might have been Her plan, but I can’t say it really worked. Still, at least I seemed to have a head’s up on the situation from Orville.

  “Who did you arrest?”

  “A man by the name of Aldin McCoy. He says you two used to be best friends. Is that right?” I could hear the doubt in Trevor’s voice even through the phone.

  Orville looked over at me. I lifted a shoulder. This was up to him.

  “You know what, son? You’ve got this. Between the two of us, yes, Aldin and I used to be friends. That friendship ended a long time ago. I’d appreciate it if you’d be willing to repeat a tiny little lie for me.”

  There was a pause. Finally, Trevor asked. “What lie would that be?”

  “Tell him I said I never heard of the man. Do that, and I’ll come in the morning and help you sort things out.”

  Another pause. “You really weren’t kidding about that friendship ending, were you?”

  “Not by half. If I came tonight, I’d be likely to deck the man. And hitting a man in handcuffs just ain’t right. Even if I’m not the law anymore.”

  “I see. Well then, I guess I’ll see you in the morning. Or, well, in a few hours. Sorry to wake you.”

  “No problem. I appreciate the warning.” Orville started to disconnect the call but stopped with his finger an inch away. “You should probably know, though, that it wasn’t just the two of us that were best friends. We had a little club back then. Benjie was in that club.”

  “Good to know. Thanks.”

  The call ended, and Orville turned to me. “He’s back.”

  “I heard that.” I sat up and shuffled into my own slippers on my side of the bed.

  “Where are you going?”

  I looked over my shoulder at him. “We both know we ain’t gonna get any more sleep until we find out what the devil is going on.”

  He took a deep breath. “I know. But there’s no sense in both of us going, is there?”

  I turned to stare at him. “There’s every sense in the world, Orville Taylor. We’re partners now, remember? Where you go, I go.” I paused. “Besides, if I heard Trevor right, the man asked for both of us. Who am I to disappoint him?”