Lily wiped her hands with a wet paper towel, and walked over to make sure the latch on the plastic gate of the toddler pen was securely latched.
“You’ve got to come see this,” TraceyAnn exclaimed. “There’s an ambulance and I’m trying to see who’s on the stretcher that’s being loaded in. It looks like it might be one of the Ops crew — even Puma’s there, so it’s got to be a big deal.”
“Oh no,” Lily was worried for her roommate. “Hope it’s not Jordy —she’s in Ops.”
“You mean Hadeez?” TraceyAnn’s voice had a nasty tone. “Probably not, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she wasn’t involved in some way. At the very least she’d probably be happy about it, she’s such a weirdo.”
Something about glass houses flashed across Lily’s thoughts, as she joined TraceyAnn at the window. There was indeed an ambulance, with the insignia of St. Joseph’s Medical Center on the side, and a small crowd milling around of people wearing either t-shirts or vests with the word OPS on it. Lily saw the familiar face of the HR Director. Next to her, a tall man stood to the side, with a quiet air of authority, his features settled into a grim expression. He was built, broad-shouldered, with glossy black hair that was tied back, and a large chain and ring of keys hanging off the left hip of his worn denim jeans.
“Is that Puma talking to Rika?” Lily asked. To her relief, she was able to pick out Gabe and Jordy in the cluster around the ambulance.
“Sure is,” TraceyAnn said. “In fact, I’ll go outside and find out what’s going on.” She didn’t wait for a response before gathering up her skirt and rushing out.
Lily turned around, just in time to see Brady unlatching the door to the toddler pen, two of its inmates ready to break for freedom.
She sent a quick, silent prayer for whoever was being put into the ambulance, and rushed over before Clover joined in the kiddie prison break.
* * *
Jordy watched with satisfaction as her nemesis, Trish, was being loaded into the ambulance. The girl had passed out in pain after the paramedics took her vitals.
It had meant that she was spared the agony of every bump and jostle of her broken body being carried by stretcher and then transferred into the vehicle, but Jordy didn’t need to be greedy. It was already enough that Puma was quietly telling the HR Director how it was really unlike Trish to drink while on duty. How out of character it was for her to bring up a six-pack of pre-mixed margaritas to the top of one of the dovecotes and proceed to chain them. The fall was inevitable.
Trish was permanently out of commission, whether or not her injuries healed, because how could be she trusted again? And now she would have to be replaced, stat.
Rika nodded, she knew what the head of Ops was saying was right. As generous as Simon was with the employee benefits, it was stuff like this—although notexactlylike this weirdness—that explained why they were chronically understaffed and so quick to hire. The Faire was one big spectacle, and as the saying went, The Show Must Go On.
Puma wasn’t one to wallow. He was already looking for a replacement right hand person, and his eyes lit on Jordy.
“You,” he said. “You’re taking over for Trish as of right now.”
Jordy gulped. Even though that’s exactly what the spell was supposed to achieve, Jordy still couldn’t believe it was happening. Puma was normally way too cautious, too hard to impress. Yet here he was, like a confirmed bachelor zapped with a love potion. He was acting like the Puma version of being lovestruck: trusting, looking at Jordy like there was nobody else that would do. Trish wasn’t the only one acting uncharacteristically because of the spell.
Jordy blinked. Puma was looking at her expectantly. Nope, he still hadn’t said “Psych!” or “Just kidding!”
Shit. It was really happening. She could let herself feel the pride bloom in her, her chest puffing out as all eyes were turned to her. To Puma’s recognition of her.
Jordy tried not to swagger as she came closer to her new direct boss. He had a huge set of metal keys on his left hip, but everyone in Ops knew that he had a second set of keys in the vest pocket closest to his heart —the flat cards that allowed access all over the Faire, and not just gangboxes, vehicles, and the huge cargo containers where supplies and spare parts for machinery were stored.
He tossed her a smaller set of both types of keys, which she caught easily. They still had a metal initial T on the keyring: they had been Trish’s. She’d be taking that off the first chance she got.
“Catch up with Rika later for all the paperwork.” Puma said. “Right now we gotta hit the ground running.”
“I gotchu, I gotchu,” Jordy said, her short legs moving double-time to catch up with Puma’s long strides. She stuffed the precious keys deep into her pocket, careful not to jostle the bandage around her wrist.
Wow, that was fast,she thought. She had just barely finished scrubbing clean the ritual drawing in her blood, per Cadmus’s instructions, off the floor of the shared room she slept in when she heard the ambulance’s arrival. Her wrist might still be throbbing where she had cut it, but the pain was well worth it.
That Cadmus dude was legit.
