Fiery Gemstones (A Heston Witch Novella) (5 page)

“
Preston
…
,
Mr
William
,”
she started.

“
Oh no, Preston is
just
fine, little lady. I have a feeling we are going to be real good friends, you and
I
.

Only in your dreams buster, and my nightmares.

“
There is no easy way to say this.
Red Rock Haven
…”

“
Is a wonderful piece of property and its location is perfect for what I have in mind.
”

“
It
’
s
not for sale
,
”
she said bluntly.
“
We’ll never sell it. I think you should find another property, preferably as far away from
Silverline City
as you can find.
”

She accompanied her words with one more mental push but even before he opened his mouth, she knew that it wasn’t working.

“
Ms Heston. I don’t know what you might have heard about me but I am not the kind of guy who takes no for an
answer. I have a very good feeling
about
Red Rock Haven
.
I know I am destined to own it. What I do not know is why you are trying so hard to fight the inevitable. I am trying to be fair here, to give you a
reasonable price for your home
, but I will not be a
verse to taking it by force if I have to. I warn you, you may not like my
methods very much.”

As he spoke, Edna was surprised to find her natural response to tell him
‘Hell No’
was being
suppressed
. She found herself considering what he was saying.

He had been fair, the price he was offering was
actually
far above the market value for the property, the money would come in handy for her and her sisters.
Would it be so bad to sell the property and travel somewhere nice? Get away for a change?

The restaurant seemed to have faded away and all Edna could see was the promise of life once she was finally rid of that monstrosity called
Red Rock Haven
that was hanging round her neck like a millstone. There would be palm trees, sunshine and beaches. She’d have a
lovely tim
e once she was free.

What? Free from what? I love
Red Rock Haven
, it’s not a burden
.
It’s
my
home
, our home
.

She glanced over at Preston. His eyes were narrowed and he seemed to be muttering something under his breath as he stared at her closely.

Something is wrong here. He’s messing with my head. Messing with me. But
how?

“
Mr Williams,
”
she said frostily.
“
I
can see that
we have nothing left to discuss. It is obvious I can’t make you change your mind.
”

“
No
,
but I
almost got you to change yours
, didn’t
I. Pity it didn’t work but no matter
. There are many ways to skin a cat.
”

He reached out almost casually and emptied the remains of his vegetable s
oup over the front of his shirt
, then made sound
s
as if he was retching. To the casual eye it would appear that he had just vomited all over himself. His choice of attire made more sense to Edna now. He’d planned in advance. She had underestimated him. She wouldn’t make that mistake again.

“
Ms Heston, I
know we
‘ve had
our differences, but did you have to poison my food?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You know I didn’t poison you.”

“Then maybe it’s the food. Your restaurant must be serving spoilt food,” he said loudly as he got to his feet.

He was attracting the attention of diners near them and Edna noticed a couple turn and leave instead of taking their seats at their reserved table. Other patrons were looking concerned and she caught some whispers about stomach flu and other bugs.

“It’s a scam, don’t mind him. He’s lying,” she protested desperately
at the top of her voice
. “There is absolutely nothing wrong with the food
,
I promise.”

She looked at Preston, exasperation in her every facial muscle. He just smirked at her, smug satisfaction written all over his face. He was careful to slant his face so only she could see. “You know what I want.” He said for her ears only.

“You know what I
will get what I
want. There are no lengths I will not go to in order to get it.”

“And obviously no depths you will not sink to.”

“Sticks and stones, Ms Heston. Why don’t we just cut to the chase
,
huh? How badly do you want me to tell all these good people that this was all just a jest in poor taste?”

“You bastard.”

“You know, people always said I didn’t look much like my dad. Huh! Trust a witch” – he sneered the word – “to know what a wife can get up to.

She hissed at him in annoyance.

He laughed in her face then covered the sound of his mirth by groaning loudly. He took a couple of steps away, lurching and clutching at his abdomen.

“Oh God, my belly, what the hell did you put in that soup? Ooh! I think I just shat myself.” He rubbed his hand across his mouth, smearing orange carrot shards across it. He aimed another evil smirk at Edna while she stood there helplessly, then very deliberately rested his soiled hand on the very expensive-looking suit of a well-dressed man sitting two tables over.

“Oh man, do you know where there the toilets are? My belly’s killing me.” He glanced at the food on the table. “Did you get the soup as well?”

The guy visibly shied away from him, eying Preston with distaste. He pointed in the general direction of the convenience and dropped some money on the table.

“Come on,” he said to his date, “It’s past time we got out of this place.”
Before we catch something too
was left unsaid but Edna caught the thought as easily as if he had shouted it across the room. Along with thoughts about how he had wanted a quiet night in but had come to the restaurant in an attempt to impress his date.

“I’m sorry,” Edna said to him. “I’m so so sorry,” but it was too late. He wasn’t listening and all around the restaurant, the same picture was repeating itself. She looked around, The Happy Place was leaking clients faster than a sieve. She was too angry to cry or else she’d have been in tears. How dare that bastard come in here and try to destroy her family’s livelihood so carelessly.

Her eyes met Preston’s where he lo
u
nged against the walls near the gent’s room, watching the effects of his handiwork. He gave her one last smile as he made the universal sign for call me’ using his right hand, then he turned and sauntered away.

Edna was furious. She’d be calling him only over her dead body.
Red Rock Haven
belonged to the Hestons and there was no way they were going to sell up and leave to the first property
developer
that decided to stake his claim on it.  Nothing Preston could do or say that would change that.

Simply put, life sucks.

“
T
he insufferable jerk. The monumental jackass. There is something seriously w
rong with that man.”

Edna fumed as she yanked off the silver teardrop earrings that she had worn for the night.
“And he had this,” she stuttered with rage
,
“
this
smirk
on his face whole time. He just stood there and smiled liked a satisfied Cheshire cat.”

“
I
take it the charm-and-confuse-
routine didn’t go so well.
”

“
Not
even close, Eden.
It was almost as if he could see right through me. Like he knew
exactly what
I was trying to do and he
took perverse delight in letting me know that it wasn’t working.

She struggled to get out of her gown and wriggled a little trying to grab the zipper.
Her ring snagged in her hair and she gave a little yelp of pain. Things were not going well, even her wardrobe was
conspiring against her.
With an exasperated sigh she turned around and let Ethos unzip her. As the dress pooled at her feet she dragged on the oversized tee-shirt that she loved to lounge about in and slipped her feet into her fuzzy rabbit slippers. Feeling marginally more settled after the disastrous dinner she went to the en-suite to remove her makeup, trailed by both her siblings.

“But how come? That has never happened before.”

“I know, right.” She was genuinely puzzled.
“
My talents always work
. They always have.
Especially on townies.”

Edna’s telepathic talents and her gift for planting suggestions in people’s minds had always been legendary. Even when she was a child, she’d been able to manipulate the minds of the town folk with ease. Her gifts worked on her sisters and mum but only to reinforce suggestions of things that they actually wanted to do. She couldn’t force them to do stuff against their will. Just like she hadn’t been able to manipulate Preston Williams into changing his mind about acquiring Red Rock Haven.

“The
rotten low-life
!”

She remembered what Preston had said when she had called him that in the restaurant and she gritted her teeth.

The slimy, no-good …

She broke off her internal rant when she realised that her sisters were still talking. She took a swig of the cool glass of white wine she was using to smooth her ruffled feathers and paid attention to the conversation.

“
Preston is not a townie.
”

“But he wants to be,
quite
desperately I might add. The question is, why? What could he possibly want with
Silverline City
and with Red Rock Haven?”

“And who is he, I mean really,” Ethos queried. “Are you sure that he is just a property developer?”

“Even if he is, there is definitely more to him than meets the eye. He has to have some serious talents of his own if he was able to block Miss Brainwaves over there.”

Eden nodded her head in Edna’s direction. She didn’t miss the pissed off grimace that crossed her
sister’s
face.
Yep, Edna was still smarting alright.

“Still, a little humility is good for the soul.”

“Oh, bite me.”

“Sorry, I have a delicate stomach. I’m not sure pissed off Heston will agree with me.”

Despite her irritation, Edna found
herself grinning at Eden’s quip.

“You know I’m right,” Eden continued.
“
He must have a lot of hardware under the hood
if he could block your mind magic
with ease.”

“Without even breaking a sweat, I’ve never seen anything like it. It was a bit humiliating
,”
Edna
admitted sheepishly.
“
And
quite
scary. He was muttering under his breath at one point and I swear, he almost had me ready to sign over everything to him there and then.
I just felt this overwhelming urge to give him whatever it was he wanted even though my mind was screaming ‘Hell No!’ at the top of its voice.”

“Well, that proves it then. Whatever he is, he must have ties to the magical community and he must
have been well prepared
,
which means he and whoever he is working with must have
know
n
about your gifts
beforehand
.”

Ethos glanced at her sisters in turn and saw them nod as they pondered her words and agreed with her.

“
So what do we know
?”
She
asked.

“
Not enough, obviously,
”
Eden said wryly.

“
Tell me something we don’
t know,” Ethos shot back.

“
That’s the problem. There are too ma
ny variables, too many unknowns
, too many things we don’t know about this low life.
”

“
We know he wants Red Rock, we know you can’t see him coming and we know he has enough steam to block your gifts.
”