Chapter Sixteen
Gabriel drove Kelly back to the castle and pulled up on the enormous roundabout, idling the car.
“You swear to me that they didn’t abuse you in any way?” he said for what seemed like the fiftieth time.
Kelly managed a smile. “No, there is no need for you to go sky-challenging anyone. They were no more than mildly surly. After growing up with my mother, mildly surly does not even register on the annoy-o-meter. It would take full-on bitch to even get me to blink twice.”
“I shouldn’t have let them take you.” He scowled.
“It was my choice, not yours,” she reminded him. “And there was no point in having you take on a dozen dragon centurions over a minor matter like that. You’re no good to me dead.”
“Ah-ha! But I am some good to you alive!” His tone was gloating.
She snorted and opened her car door. “You are twisting my words around. Are you coming too? You look like you’re about to drive off.”
“I’ve got some business to attend to in town,” he informed her.
“What business?”
“None of your business.” But he smiled charmingly as he said it.
“Are you going to go do something stupid?” she asked him.
He blinked in shock and gave her a deeply wounded look. “Who, me?”
She shook her head chidingly at him and gave an exaggerated sigh. “That means yes. Well, carry on. Call me if you need bail money,” she said.
“If you knew how many times my parents said that to me…” He grinned as she shut the car door and headed up the front steps.
Gabriel left the castle and drove into town. Specifically, straight to the Maplethorpes house. He knew that if he’d told his family he was going there, they would have strongly objected. That was why he hadn’t told them.
The Maplethorpes lived in a big, gaudy McMansion in a fancy subdivision outside North Lyndvale. The red barrel roof tiles and yellow stucco exterior were trying for Mediterranean, but the modernist angular style of the house’s body was straight out of the 1970s.
Their vast front lawn looked ragged and unmowed; weeds poked at random angles and snaked through the wilting flower beds that ringed the house’s exterior. There were big patches of yellow in the grass, as if it wasn’t being watered regularly. Was somebody having trouble making their water bill?
Probably. All was not well in Maplethorpe-land, Gabriel noted as he pulled up and parked. A tow truck driver had hooked up a Humvee to his vehicle and was climbing back into his seat, ready to drive off. So their big fancy car was being repossessed. Interesting.
Mr. Maplethorpe stood outside on the front porch, face red with fury. There were neighbors standing out on their front porches, watching with interest.
“Car thief! I’ll have you arrested! I’ve called the police!” Mr. Maplethorpe yelled, shaking his fist.
“Good. I got the repo order right here,” the driver said, waving a piece of paper out the window. Mr. Maplethorpe tried to snatch it from him, but the driver yanked it away from him and drove off.
Mr. Maplethorpe turned and directed his wrath at his neighbors. “What you looking at?” he screamed at them. The show was over now, so they ducked back into their houses.
Well, this was new. The Maplethorpe family always made a huge show of flaunting their wealth. They came to town dressed in designer clothing and jewelry from head to toe, drove flashy cars, announced their donations to charity in the local papers, and bought dinners for their country club friends at the most expensive restaurants in town.
But it appeared as if that might all be for show, or maybe they’d just lived beyond their means and it was catching up to them now. Gabriel had thought they only wanted Pandora to marry him for the prestige, but perhaps they also saw it as a financial bail-out. Everyone knew his family was wealthy.
Gabriel climbed out of his car and walked up to the front porch.
Mr. Maplethorpe looked startled as Gabriel approached the house. “What are you doing here?” he demanded nervously.
“I’m here to tell you to stop trying to frame my fiancée,” Gabriel snapped “See, I was sitting next to Kelly during dinner, so I know for a fact that she wasn’t muttering incantations. That means I know you lied to the police. You try to pull that crap again, and I will fry your fat ass and not worry about the consequences.”
Mr. Maplethorpe took a step back, his eyes bugging out with alarm. “Don’t you come near me. I’m personal friends with Principe Teague and I will have you arrested. Everyone knows that you’re a criminal!”
Gabriel snorted at that. “Then why are you trying to force me to marry your daughter?”
