part0012

“I was going through the website to buy some tickets to one of the hockey games, and I noticed the stars on most of the shops went down, but especially yours.” She pointed to my shop’s little page.

Two stars. The hot cider was mediocre at best.

Two stars. It was meh.

One star. The place was dirty.

There were about ten more negative reviews that were posted last night. Before that, most of the reviews had been positive and glowing.

“How is this possible? My place is never dirty! The only place that’s dirty is my room!”

Maya took her phone back as I stood and kicked the stools legs.

“The other shops have basically the same reviews, just small changes.” Maya pondered.

I paused. Darcorp. That sleazy yuck face arsehat. He’d been strange yesterday.

“It’s that cockroach Samuel. Who else would have any reason to do this?” My fingers ran through my hair. “Ugh!” My foot kicked the bar stool leg again and I jumped up and down. “Ow!”

Billy turned off the stove, moved around the island, and picked me up. It was like I was a pillow. That was hot. He put me on the island next to Maya, who rolled her eyes at me.

“Let’s see.” Billy shook his head as he bent to look at my foot. His touch was comforting. “It’ll be alright in a few minutes.” His hand ran up my thigh, making me shiver.

“Okay, do that later, you two.” Maya reached up and slapped Billy in the back of the head. “Are we all set for yoga tomorrow?”

“Oh! Right!” I smiled happily. “Yes, and Quinten is going to come with Eirlys and her other mates.”

“Well, that’ll make the kids happy.” Maya sipped her tea. “So, you going to tell me about your other mates?”

Billy froze for a second before he blew out a breath.

“I need to meet them, too.” He brushed a kiss on my forehead. “Invite them to dinner tomorrow.”

“Holy shite. Did my brother just do something mature?” Maya blinked as I snorted.

“Why are you here again?” Billy glared at his sister. “Shoo. Go away.”

They started bickering good naturedly. I left them to it. I needed to talk to Eirlys and see if she had any ideas about what to do about the reviews.

I also needed to get Titus’ information. Not to mention, I needed to talk to Jack Frigging Frost. I was going to give him a piece of my mind for what he said.

Thinking about my other two mates made me blush. Especially thinking about that make out session with Titus. Oh my God. That man could kiss. His tongue was out of this world.

Jack, on the other hand, I just wanted to smack his head a few times with my paws. Possibly rip up his clean clothes and pee on them.

I was in front of Hot Cider’s before I realized I’d driven on auto pilot here and gotten out of the car. There was a paper taped to the front door. It had a soft scent of lavender on it.

I had a few minutes to get ready before opening, so I opened it as soon as I unlocked the door.

It was from Titus. My heart rate kicked up.

Oh, yeah. Talking was a good idea. Maybe after there would be kissing. Because that was a very good motivator for me.

Just as the store opened, a customer stepped inside and I had to put away the letter. The day was busy. I wasn’t sure why, but there was an influx of people skating and shopping today. I’d had a pleasant conversation with a new resident of Silver Springs.

She was a short thing, barely five feet. She was round, like me, and she had long auburn hair. Another redhead to add to our arsenal in the town! Her green eyes were distracting because her pupils were slightly elongated like a cats but she was human. It was possible that she had a relative in the past who was a shifter.

“Hi!” Her attitude was refreshing with how bouncy she was. “I’m Vida Simmone. This is my first time to the rink, but a nice old lady outside said this was the place to get a drink to warm up with.”

“It certainly is the place for a good drink. Stiff or not.” I gestured to the menu. “What are you in the mood for?”

She tapped her foot, as if she couldn’t quite keep still. “I have to go to work in a few hours, so I should be good. Can I try the original?”

“Sure can.” I rang up the drink and took her payment. “I’ll have that ready in a minute.”

Instead of going to one of the tables, she sat at the counter. “This place seems so magical. I love it so much.”

“It really does, doesn’t it?” If only she knew. “It’s one of the many reasons I opened up my shop here.”

“The only thing that kind of made me sad about this place is that I saw Darcorp was putting up a shop. This place just doesn’t give off the kind of vibe to have that kind of place.” Vida took the hot cider from me as I placed it in front of her. “Oh! This is so good!” She didn’t even blow on it before gulping it down.

I liked that she didn’t like seeing Darcorp. Hearing it from a customer was nice.

“Some of us aren’t too pleased either, but we have great customers like you, so we aren’t too worried.” That was a big lie.

After Vida left, I rolled my shoulders. There were no new customers, so I had a chance to call Triple E. Eirlys picked up on the second ring.

“Triple E. Eirlys speaking. How can I help you?” She sounded distracted.

“Hey, uh, it’s Cider. I know we’re going to see each other tomorrow morning, but I was wondering if you’d noticed the new reviews that popped up overnight?” I started to wipe down the counter.

“Hey. Yeah, actually, I saw them this morning. Think it’s Darcorp?” She sounded weary.

“I think it’s Samuel, at the very least. He’s the manager, in case he didn’t end up at your place yet to introduce himself. He was being all sleazy yesterday after closing. Most of those reviews are all the same except for the names of the shops. I was thinking we could contact the website host and see if they could do anything?” Some of the flavor bottles needed to be refilled and I bent under the counter to grab some new ones. “And I was thinking about getting back at him. He has such a super fancy car. I have a few things that could be done to mess with it.” Placing the box of new bottles on the counter, I mumbled, “dear readers, please don’t do any of these pranks for the author will not be responsible for damages.”

I had several rolls of saran wrap that I hadn’t used the past few months. That would be perfect. I grabbed a few of the rolls.

“What was that last part?” Eirlys spoke louder over someone in the background.

“Nothing! Just making a reminder for myself is all. So, what do you say? Take the battle to them?”

“Yes. He started it. Let’s do it.” I could hear the grin in her voice. “No one messes with the Silver Springs Ice Rink family. We will make more plans tomorrow.”

We hung up. That’s when I noticed the zamboni on the ice. Jack.

My fox bristled. I needed to talk to him. There had to be a reason he was being such a jerkwad.

As I flipped the sign on the door, letting any customers know that I’d be back in a few minutes, and walked out, Titus was there.

Tall, sexy, dangerous Titus. His blue eyes made my toes curl just by gazing at me.

“Hello, Cider.” That deep voice.

“Hi.” My voice was barely a whisper as he leaned into my space, his lips brushing mine.

“Where are you headed off to?” His fingers brushed along my cheeks.

“I was going to go yell at Jack for being a dick.” But Titus was distracting me with his touch.

He paused, his hands resting on my shoulders. “Jack?”

“Yeah, so, looks like I have three mates now.” I leaned into him, forgetting that I was holding rolls of saran wrap for a few brief moments. “Surprise?”

Titus threw back his head, letting out a large belly laugh. His chest heaved as he fought to calm down, but every time he looked down at me, looked to the rink, he started all over again.

I started to tap my foot. “Are you done? I don’t know why it’s so funny.”

“No, dear one. I’m not laughing at you.” Titus wiped at his eyes. “Jack is an old friend. I can only imagine what he said to you. He’s a little bit of a grump.”

I stopped my foot as he pulled me against him again. “ Oh. So, it’s not because it’s me?” That eased tension in me I hadn’t been aware had been there.

“Baby girl.” Titus’ husky voice filled my ears. “There is absolutely nothing wrong with you. Jack has his own issues.” His lips caressed my neck. “Why don’t I talk with him?”

“You don’t need—oh God.” My voice squeaked as he bit down on my collarbone with soft pressure. “We’re in public!” I hissed but didn’t give much of a fight.

“Does that turn you on?” His hands moved to my backside, stroking my back.

“Surprisingly, yes.” I shuddered. “But, I own a store here and I can’t afford to get arrested.”

“Mmm. You have a point.” Titus gave a cocky tilt of his head. “I’ll talk to Jack tonight. Then we can all talk together. Does that sound good?”

“Actually, yeah. Um, Billy wants to meet you, too. Maybe we can all have dinner?” I was suddenly feeling shy. “I have tomorrow off. Would that work?”

His fingers went back up to cup my cheeks. “I will see you tomorrow evening with the jerkwad.” His amusement made my spine tingle. He gave me a lingering kiss before he walked off.

I ended up watching him until he was gone. I shook my head. Damn. I had something to do.

The parking lot was full, but as I moved around, sniffing the air for Samuel’s scent, I made sure there wasn’t anyone around when I finally found it.

His scent stunk. It permeated the air around the sleek luxury sedan. It was black. Which was perfect. I got to work.

No matter what someone thinks. It takes time to wrap a whole car with hundreds of feet of plastic film. I had to duck behind the car a few times when someone came into view. It took about thirty minutes to finish. I took a picture and scurried back to the store.