Hannah nodded. “Oh yes, that’s when my treatments stopped.”
But Sadie had still been withdrawing money recently. Why, if Hannah was cured?
“Were bills still coming in?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No, they were done. All paid for.”
Why was Sadie still borrowing from the mafia?
“I’m sorry, dear,” Hannah said. “If I could take it all back, I would.”
My heart broke for her. “I’m curious.”
Hannah ironed a napkin flat with her fingers. “About what?”
“What did you do?” I leaned in. “You know, to make the entire town turn against you?”
“Oh, I—”
“There she is, Sheriff! There’s the woman who attacked us!”
That voice, the one that interrupted Hannah, I knew it well enough that I didn’t have to turn and look to see whose ugly face it belonged to, but I did so anyway.
I glanced over my shoulder to see Tuney Sluggs standing beside good old truck driver Buddy and his nasty friend, Buddy Junior.
Buddy Junior, the first guy that I’d knocked out, pointed an oil-stained finger at me. “That’s the woman who attacked me! I demand you arrest her right now!”
Chapter 16
Tuney Sluggs crossed over and wiped a hand down the stubble peppering his chin. He wore his uniform, complete with cowboy boots. There was no bathrobe and slippers today.
“That’s her,” Buddy sneered. “She did something to me and my friend—attacked us somehow, and the next thing I knew, I was knocked out.”
I rose. “Chief Sluggs, I’m afraid this is some sort of misunderstanding. I don’t know what that man is talking about.”
Buddy Junior stomped his boot on the floor. “It was assault, plain and simple. Now, arrest her.”
Shane came out from around the bar. “Whoa, Chief. What’s going on here?”
The chief glanced at the two men. “They came into my office complaining that they were assaulted in your bar.”
Shane glanced from Sluggs to me and back. “I was here that night. So was Clementine, but from what I understand, another woman knocked both of them out.”
Buddy Junior shook his head. “Wasn’t another woman. Was her.”
What, did he always forget to use pronouns and speak in caveman? If I ever doubted that using my power on him had been a bad idea, all that indecision was washed away simply because Buddy Junior. couldn’t even form a simple sentence.
Sluggs placed his hands on his hips and sighed. “Clem, what have you got to say for yourself?”
My gaze cut to Junior. The sneer on his face mingled with the look of triumph glowing in his eyes angered me. He looked happy that he had returned to the scene of the crime and managed to catch me, a woman, who had wounded his tender ego.
“What do I have to say?” I repeated to Sluggs.
Shane stared at me, and I could feel his gaze boring a hole in the side of my head. Okay, so more people than I ever imagined were magical in Peachwood, but that stopped at Shane. He wasn’t magical—I just knew it, and I didn’t want him to know that I was. End of story.
“Yes,” Sluggs said. “What do you say to these men’s allegations?”
All of them stared at me, even Hannah from the booth. The pressure to tell the truth weighed on me, but so did the pressure to protect myself.
