Shanna Swendson - Don't Hex with Texas

“I’m not sure we want that sort of people in this town. I bet they brought their drugs with them.” She was still grumbling as she went up the stairs.

“We’ll have to be careful if we want to keep her out of things,” Owen said.

I sighed. “I know. I’d assign one of the guys to look out for her, but I’m running out of brothers. And to think, I always thought I had too many of them.”

The problem soon resolved itself when Granny showed up with an armload of books and family photo albums. “These may be of help to you,” she said to Owen. She put the books on the kitchen table, then handed Owen a bottle full of murky liquid. “I also made you a potion. It’s a recipe I got from my Gran. Best thing for restoring you after a lot of magic. You need to be careful about that in these parts. You can wear yourself out real fast.” She settled in at the table, making herself at home, and I knew that Mom wouldn’t stand a chance of getting away for the rest of the afternoon. Granny was better than a prison warden.

I felt like a chicken leaving Owen to deal with Granny alone, but they seemed to be getting along fine, so I didn’t feel too bad about heading over to the motel. My main worry was that Granny might accidentally poison him with her magical home remedies while I was gone.

“You said you needed housekeeping help?” I said to Nita when I got there. Then I noticed the new decor in the lobby. The faded prints of local sights from an old chamber of commerce calendar were gone, replaced by framed album covers. Bright fringed throws covered the vinyl lobby chairs.

“Oh, bless you!” Nita said. “The housekeeper I did have quit this morning. She said she wasn’t coming back until these guys left.”

“Why? What did they do?”

She waved a hand in a dismissive gesture. “I’m not entirely sure, but I got the impression there was some kind of harassment going on. You know rock and rollers. I hate to make you face all that, but it seems like most of them are out for the afternoon.”

“I’m sure I can cope.” I gestured around the lobby. “I see you’re already carrying out your new theme.”

“Yeah, great, huh? Oh, and come look at this.” She gestured me back behind the desk and pulled up some files on her computer. “I took these pictures Monday afternoon. He must have gone out for a long walk because he came straggling back later that day. Look at that thing he’s wearing around his neck. It’s not big enough to be proper bling, but it’s too big to be a good man necklace.”

I bent over and squinted at the photo of a tired, sweaty Idris as she enlarged the picture on the screen.

His shirt was unbuttoned almost to his waist, which was not a pretty sight, and he had a medallion of some sort hanging on a leather cord around his neck. “There’s no telling what it is,” I said, wishing we could zoom in more and see if there was writing on it, but I knew it would only get fuzzy if we tried to enlarge the picture any more.

“I really don’t know what to make of these guys. The leader’s been holed up in his room most of the day, but I think he’s out now. And I guess I’d better let you get to work.”

“Just give me the key and tell me what to do.”

“Make the beds, change out towels, wipe things down, empty the trash, put out new soap. We don’t change linens daily unless someone asks for it. If anyone left a tip, keep it, but with this bunch, I wouldn’t count on it.” She made an exaggerated “what are you gonna do?” expression, then sighed.

“Rock and rollers. At least nobody’s really trashed a room yet.”

She gave me a master key, and on my way to the housekeeping closet, I stopped by my truck to get the bag of candles. I put them on top of the housekeeping cart, which I made sure was stocked with soap and towels. Consulting the list, I went to the first room, knocked on the door, shouted,

“Housekeeping,” then when there was no reply, I opened the door.

It looked like someone had held a wild party in there. Before I did anything, I put out one of the candles and lit it. I hoped that having burned it at all would get more of the slightly off-target magic into the room for a maximum reaction. Then I snooped around. There wasn’t much of interest to find.

It could have been any twenty-something man’s motel room, with dirty underwear left lying on the floor next to crumpled wet towels in the bathroom and clothes strewn around the bedroom. I couldn’t find any evidence of magic or anything that looked like magical paraphernalia.

My spying done, I emptied the trash, made the bed, switched out the towels, and straightened the bathroom. Somehow I doubted that these guys were likely to notice the finer points of motel housekeeping, and this wasn’t a mint-on-the-pillow establishment to begin with. I blew the candle out right before I moved on to the next room and left it sitting there on the dresser.

I went through the same routine with each of the other rooms. Most of the guests were doubling up, which meant twice the mess. It reminded me of my brothers’ bedroom when we were growing up. I left two candles in Idris’s room, one in the bedroom and the other in the bathroom, because I really wanted him to suffer. I was fairly certain I felt the tingle of magic as I entered his room. He was smart enough to ward his room with Owen around, though it was kind of a futile gesture when I was around, too, but I didn’t find anything particularly incriminating or useful in there.

Two hours later, I put the cart away and dragged myself back to the office to return the master key.

“That’s a harder job than you expect it to be,” I said. “I left the dirty towels in the cart. Did you need me to wash them?”

“No, Mom takes care of the laundry. Thanks so much for your help.”

I was on my way back to my truck when a rental car pulled up in front of the office. I paused, waiting to see if there were more members of Idris’s gang arriving. But then a very familiar figure emerged from the car. It was Rod, Owen’s best friend. I took that as a sign that Owen wasn’t in too much trouble. Sending Rod was more like giving him a partner in crime than a babysitter. I was just about to run to greet him when another person got out of the car. It was Merlin, the CEO of MSI. That was kind of mind-blowing, when you thought about it, to consider that Merlin, the Merlin of Camelot fame, was standing outside the motel in Cobb, Texas. It also probably meant that either they thought this thing with Idris was a really big deal, or Owen was in really big trouble.

I darted around the corner of the office bungalow before they could see me and got into my truck.

Then I hesitated, torn between conflicting loyalties. If I warned Owen, that would in a way be a betrayal of Merlin and the company. It wasn’t a good idea for him to charge off and take matters into his own hands. On the other hand, I didn’t work for MSI anymore, and Owen was my friend who had cared enough to risk his job to make sure I was okay. That sealed the deal. I started the truck and pulled out of the parking lot.

Owen met me in the driveway, with that uncanny knack of his for knowing where I’d be and when.

He didn’t look worried enough to have already known what was going on. “Your backup is here,” I told him as I got out of the car.

“They haven’t called me yet.”

“I’m guessing it’s a surprise. Owen, Merlin himself came. With Rod.”

Normally, he turned various shades of pink and red with strong emotion, but this time he went a sickly gray color. “Oh. Where are they?”

“I saw them pulling up at the motel as I was leaving.”

“Do they know you know they’re here?”

“I don’t think they saw me, and I didn’t say anything to them.”