Witcher Upper - Amy Boyles Page 0,30

course I was nervous—too nervous. “My first question is, what was Sadie doing with all the money that she borrowed from y’all?”

“Our policy is not to ask what the loans are for. She came to us needing money, and we gave it. She made some payments, like I said, but the sum she owed was much more.”

I nibbled my bottom lip. “She wouldn’t have happened to pay by credit card, would she?”

It seemed ridiculous, that Sadie would pay a debt by credit card, but so did the entire idea of a wizard mafia. That made even less sense than the former.

The corners of Sykes’s eyes tightened and I explained. “I found several payments to a place named Frank’s. As far as I know, we’ve never bought supplies from there before.”

Sykes exhaled a line of smoke. “That’s us. We accept all forms of payment—cash, credit and debit.”

I hiked a brow. “Seems to me in your line of business that you wouldn’t want a paper trail.”

He steepled his fingers. “Let’s just say that in my line of business, as you call it, we have ways of moving money.”

So they were the mafia.

“One minute, Boss,” Georgie said.

“We have to wrap this up.” Sykes studied me. I felt like an eel crawled over my flesh, it was so creepy. “Do you have any more questions?”

It was risky, but I had to ask, so I leaned forward and narrowed my eyes. “It seems to me awfully coincidental that Sadie died after she was late with her payment.”

“Twenty grand to be exact,” Sykes said.

I felt Rufus’s fingers brush my shoulder. The electric jolt that rushed through me made my muscles tighten. He was trying to stop me from spilling my next words, but I had to know.

“Well, don’t you think it’s strange that she wound up dead?”

Sykes smiled at me, but no warmth touched his eyes. “You want me to say that we had her offed, is that it?”

“I didn’t think you’d admit it outright,” I muttered.

“Thirty seconds,” Georgie said.

I exploded. “Okay, what’s with all the time calling? What happens in thirty seconds?”

Sykes tapped on the partition, and the limo slowed to a stop. “What happens, my dear, is that it’s break time. Georgie and I have worked for two hours, and every two hours we get a twenty-minute break.”

I stared at him in disbelief. “What are you, union or something?”

He pulled the handle, and the door flung open. “Of course we’re union. You don’t think I’d spend my day collecting money from delinquent payers without being protected in some way, do you? Before we unionized, we had to work all hours of the night without breaks. Sometimes I didn’t even eat dinner. I’d be expected to rough someone up on an empty stomach. None of that anymore.”

“Time’s up,” Georgie said.

Sykes offered his hand to me, and dumb and numb from his strange explanation, I took it. “Clementine, it’s been wonderful meeting you. You have one week to bring me a sum of twenty thousand dollars. If you’re unable, I’m afraid I’ll have to take your company.”

Rufus took me by the arm and gently tugged me from the limo. When I stood outside in the bright sunshine, Sykes waved.

“Bye-bye, now. And don’t forget—one week.”

Without another word, the limo door slammed shut and they drove away.

Chapter 12

I stared at the limo as it pulled away, dumbfounded. Twenty thousand dollars. Somehow I had to find twenty grand or the unionized wizard mafia would take my business away from me.

It was so ridiculous that I started to laugh, a real belly laugh that had me doubling over.

“You’re in shock,” Rufus murmured.

“You’re still here?” I said. “I thought maybe with all the insanity that you were a figment of my imagination same as Sadie dying, my business being taken away and…heck, I don’t know what else, but give me a few minutes and I’m sure I can figure something out.”

Before he could answer, my phone rang. I wiped tears of frustration from my eyes and sniffed. “I wonder who this is? Dancing penguins calling to say that they’re repossessing the truck I paid for?”

He opened his palm. “Would you prefer that I take the call?”

“No thanks.” I pulled the phone from my purse. Liam’s name lit up the screen, and I immediately felt bad. He should have been the first person I called this morning, to see how he was doing.

I answered. “Hey, how’re you holding up?”

By the way his voice cracked when he spoke, I knew the answer was