Soul Snatcher: Tarot's Pawn Shop Book 1 by Jenn Mitchell

Author:Jenn Mitchell [Mitchell, Jenn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HHMB Publishing
Published: 2024-11-02T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

Itook Maggot with me to the vault. I figured Pandora was more than capable of handling things topside if anything went down. I also wasn’t sure I wanted to be alone with her in case she was still pissed at me for reading her.

For an orc, Maggot was surprisingly easygoing and almost as strong as Ox. He was definitely growing on me. It didn’t take me long to figure out where Ox had stashed it. It was in his workshop; he was predictable when it came to stuff like that.

When we neared the top of the steps, the storeroom was so quiet I thought maybe Mallis had changed his mind and killed them all. Okay, maybe not all of them, but Benny for sure. I stopped on the last step and peeked around the doorframe. Mallis and Lenos were still sitting in the same chairs, Benny appeared to be playing solitaire, and Pandora was leaning against my desk cleaning her nails with a dagger.

I stepped into the room and looked around until I spotted Ox sitting on the floor near the back door. Chet was lying beside him with his head in Ox’s lap. I felt my chest tighten and my eyes fill with tears. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do if Ox didn’t snap out of it soon.

Mallis flicked his hand at Lenos and like a good little lackey, Lenos scurried forward and took the Soul Snatcher from me. He carried it back to Mallis and laid it in his lap. Mallis ran a hand across its surface then nodded. He stood up and started toward the front door with Lenos practically tethered to his coattail. When he reached the doorway, he called back over his shoulder, “Daniel, do let me know how you fare with Archer Cardwell and your missing dwarfette. It should make for an interesting tale.”

I held my breath waiting for the bell over the front door to chime as they left. As soon as it had, Ox petted Chet on top of the head and said, “Good job pouring on the sad, buddy. You earned your tacos with that performance. Now let’s get moving.” He pushed himself up and brushed the dust off his pants as if everything were perfectly normal.

“Wait, so you’re okay now?”

“Of course. I’ve been okay the whole time, but I needed Mallis and Lenos to think I wasn’t.”

I ran my fingers through my hair and took a few deep breaths in through my nose. “I know that I’m going to regret asking, because it will give you an excuse to point out how I’ve missed some startlingly obvious detail that even a blind squirrel could’ve seen, but why the act?”

Ox smirked. “Hey, at least you’re getting to the point where you can see it coming. That’s definitely progress, Danny boy. When we walked in the back door, Mallis did nothing. If he had it in him to kill, I doubt he would have hesitated to kill me on the spot, considering what I’d done to them at the auction.

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