Night Sea Journey, a Tale of the Supernatural by Paula Cappa

Author:Paula Cappa [Cappa, Paula]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Paula Cappa
Published: 2013-01-21T21:40:21+00:00

Chapter SIXTEEN

Kip walked by the Lucas Holt Gallery in the village. Her painting of the firehawk in the front window made her gasp, and she marched straight into the gallery.

“Take that out of the window. Right now.” She glanced around to be sure no one was about.

Lucas, on the phone, gave her a wait-a-minute gesture.

She put down her grocery bags. Before Lucas ended his call, she hauled the painting out of the window and into the back seat of her car that was parked on the side street. Back in the gallery, she gathered her groceries.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Lucas said.

She’d seen that sneer on his face before and turned abruptly before he could use it to bully her.

“Kip, that window display is bringing in potential buyers. Lots of hits on the Web site too. Dark Artemis is getting hot. I’ve got—”

“Not for sale.” She headed for the door.

“I thought you needed sales,” he called after her. “Grand-daddy’s trust getting a little thin these days, is it?”

“I’ll bring you something else tomorrow,” she yelled over her shoulder and with her free hand swung open the door.

“Good. I want the one with the locust and bloody horses. Cromwell is interested. He called me with—”

“I’ll think about it.” She let the door slam behind her.

“He’s offering five figures,” he shouted.

She stopped in mid stride.

The door came flying open before she could even turn around. “Kipper?”

She turned. “Five figures. You’re a liar, Lucas Holt.”

“Not today, Little Miss Hottie.” He eyed her up and down and the bags of food. “Oh look at you. What is this, dinner for two? This can’t be for that unspeakably dull carpenter, could it?” He grabbed the bags from her and pushed open the door. “We need to talk. Get in here.”

Reluctantly, she gave him twenty minutes. That was about all she could tolerate of his business chatter, notwithstanding he would likely sell Dark Artemis before autumn, especially since Cromwell was a regular buyer of her work. Five figures—she didn’t have many of those. With her mind focused on the evening ahead with Ray, she half listened to Lucas.

“Hey!” Lucas snapped his fingers. “What’s distracting you?” His attempt to lecture her on the virtues of creative isolation turned into an excuse to bash Raymond Kera. And he went at it far too aggressively.

“You don’t like Ray, do you? You know what, Lucas? I think you’re very unhappy. Why don’t you go back to your first wife? Emma was such treasure. Oh wait, she moved on, didn’t she? Smart girl.” She left Lucas sitting at his desk just a tad wounded.

Kip sped out of the village. On Dragonwood Road, highway maintenance trucks were cleaning up the debris. She drove farther down and saw Raymond’s car buried under a tree and two highway men sawing the trunk to release the car. Raymond stood waiting nearby. She pulled over and rolled down her window.

“Hey there, Ray, did you get my note?”

He nodded. “Tonight. I’ll be there.”

“You’re a prince. You feeling okay? You look a little pale.

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