Goddess of Summer Love: a Cursed Luck novella by Kelley Armstrong

Author:Kelley Armstrong [Armstrong, Kelley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781989046463
Publisher: K.L.A. Fricke Inc

Chapter Nine

I’m at the shop the next day, helping Kennedy. Hope is with us. There’s been no sign of Rian. He’d apparently been MIA at the grand opening because his parents dragged him back to Boston. Quite literally. They sent an SUV to pick him up, with no advance warning.

As Kennedy muttered when she found out “Gotta love parents who kidnap their own kids.” Rian was recalled to the home front, and that had Aiden fretting this morning, so Kennedy insisted he drive to Boston and check on him. Aiden promised to return by lunch and spend the afternoon helping in the shop. In other words, par for the course this weekend. A ruined Grand Opening, followed by an exciting late-night bit of sleuthing, and then couple-separating family drama.

The pendulum of Fate swings back that morning, as we discover, to my relief, that the ruined opening was not a portent of things to come. The shop is busy enough to keep Hope, Kennedy and myself hopping all morning, with Marius helping customers carry items to cars, as we sell half the large items to antique-shopping tourists.

Of course, that starts Kennedy fretting that her grand opening looks more like a going-out-of-business sale. One worried text to Ani, and within an hour, three locals show up with antiques to sell on consignment. I’m not always a fan of small towns, but when the right people live there, they can be a wondrous thing.

We also have five people stop by to ask about a “cursed” object they own: either selling it or having it uncursed. The family business is closed this weekend to focus on Kennedy’s shop, but a note on the door directs people here. Those who fear grandma’s silver vase is cursed now have two options in Unstable: pay to get it uncursed or sell it to Kennedy as is. In Boston, she’d kept the phrase “formerly cursed objects” to herself. In Unstable, it’s a selling point.

A young couple is inquiring about one of those right now—a Victorian pendant brought from the Boston store that actually had been cursed. Kennedy is regaling them with the tale when the local police chief comes in. Kennedy looks startled, but the chief only nods and motions that she’ll speak to Hope instead.

I walk over as the chief asks Hope whether there were any problems with the shop last night.

“Any sign of intruders? Anything missing?”

Hope shakes her head. “We have a security system. It didn’t go off. Most things of real value are too big to steal. The jewelry and whatnot goes into the safe at night. Kennedy opened that this morning. Everything present and accounted for.”

“Good.”

“I heard other alarms after the fire,” I say.

The chief looks from Hope to me. Hope performs the introductions, and then Chief Salazar addresses me directly with her answer. “We’re still investigating, but there seemed to be a few break-ins and a few thefts. Oddly, unrelated.”

“Unrelated to the fire?”

She shakes her head. “No, I’m sure they’re related to that. People taking advantage.

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