Change (17 page)

“
Tabitha, take
these away.” Cora pushed the box towards Tabitha.
“Jack...”

“
I'm fine.”
His teeth were gritted as he said the words. “Read the
card.”

She picked up
the card which shook violently in her hand.

Looking
forward to meeting you, although I wish it was under different
circumstances.

Enjoy the
gift; every woman loves her diamonds, right?

Ciaran

Was it bad of
her to think that note was rather reasonable? It states he doesn’t
like the circumstances which pretty much summed up how she felt. It
also lacked a kiss on the end of it. That was heading in the right
direction.

Before she
could ask Jack what he thought, t
he bell
above the shop door tinkled and a woman walked in. She smiled and
started walking around the shop. They couldn’t discuss this whilst
the customer was still in the shop. Cora scrunched the card up in
her hand and threw it in the bin. Jack moved to sit at the little
table next to the staircase. His face held a mix of
emotions.

Cora dealt
with customers as Tabitha dealt with the stock. She looked over
occasionally, trying to catch Jack’s eye, but he wasn't looking at
her. She felt out of sorts, off rhythm, when they weren't talking.
She missed the brush of his hands on hers and the soft kisses he
would place on her forehead and nose.

They avoided
conversation but the tension in the room was reaching breaking
point. Jack remained seated at the table with his back bolt
upright. His face set in hard lines as his eyes continued to glare
at the door. Cora knew he waited for whatever came next.

Jack stormed
up and out of his chair just as the bell above the door tinkled.
Cora hadn’t realised someone was even approaching.

“
Jack,”
Tabitha warned.

She accepted
the flowers and chocolates from the person. What else could she do?
Throw them back at the man who was only doing his job? She wasn’t
going to shoot the messenger, even though Jack looked ready to.
Jack reached for the note before she had chance to rip it
up.

Chocolates
remind me of the colour of your eyes, looking forward to getting to
know you.

Ethan

x

“
He has to be
bloody joking!” Jack shouted, making her jump.

“
Jack,” Eli
urged.

Cora turned to
look at Eli. Where had he come from?

“
Cora is also
struggling to cope with this,” Eli argued.

“
Yeah, I
understand that, I do, but she doesn't have to watch the person you
love being sent bloody gifts so they can date that person. This is
one big bloody mess!”

She lost the
ability to speak. He was right, of course, he was right. No, she
couldn't imagine what he was feeling. Before she could reassure him
that none of them meant anything, another delivery walked through
the door.

“
This is
becoming quite ridiculous,” Tabitha barked.

She watched as
Tabitha accepted the gift and flowers and locked the
door.

“
There will be
no more bloody deliveries.” Tabitha slammed the gift on the counter
and stepped back, huffing out a breath.

Cora stopped
her mouth from hitting the floor. Tabitha never swore. Ever.
Tabitha’s reaction alone told Cora this situation was getting out
of hand. Not only was she opening the gifts from different men, but
three other people were staring at her whilst she did it. Talk
about it being awkward.

Pushing the
flowers to one side, the shop was looking more like a florist than
a witch shop. She ripped the paper off the gift and gasped. She
hadn’t meant to, and she couldn’t say whether it was a good or bad
gasp. The present just surprised her.

In her hands,
Cora held a copy of
Jane
Eyre
. She'd been reading this in Edinburgh,
this exact copy which must have been many years old. But how did
the person know? She had really enjoyed what she'd read on that day
and was planning to buy the book for herself.

Cora was
shaking her head in shock when Jack's quick hands took the note
that had been pushed aside by the book. Jack looked at the words,
his lips pulled tight and read it out loud.

Cora,

I saw this
and thought of you, as the saying goes.

Perhaps I
could be your Mr Rochester...

Forever
yours,

Quinn

Xx

16

TOO
MUCH

Jack scrunched
up the note and threw it on the floor before looking at Cora who
appeared shocked by his outburst.
What did
she expect?
He thought
.
Jack chewed on his words, but he
couldn’t find any that wouldn’t offend someone. Instead, he growled
and stormed out of the shop.

To be fair, it
was probably the wrong thing to do at the time. But at that moment
his vision was fogged with some much red, he was struggling to see
past it. Blood pounded in Jack’s ears as his anger surged through
him.

How could Jack
stop this bloody thing from happening? He had to stop it. He had to
think of a way because he couldn't, no he
wouldn’t,
let another man touch her.
Kiss her.

Jack could
admit that he was rather protective of Cora, and he had every right
to be. He loved her. He would take a bullet for her. Or perhaps a
lightning bolt or two. Jack knew she could handle herself, he just
didn’t like this whole situation. When you loved someone you
couldn’t think about another person kissing them without wanting to
throw up, or punch the other man.

Jack felt like
punching the other man.

“
Jack, wait,”
Eli called.

Jack continued
striding down the main street but slowed his rampant pace to let
Eli catch up.

“
Jack, this is
hard for Cora too.”

“
I’m not
arguing that. I know it is, but bloody hell, it sticks in my gut.
It makes me want to lash out at everything. I can't control this
and I can't stop it. It’s like a runaway train that is travelling
head long into me at a frightening speed. What the hell am I meant
to do?” Jack sighed, feeling some of his anger disperse.

Eli walked
alongside him in silence, they walked by the colourful cluster of
houses on the corner and headed down towards Laura’s house. Jack
still considered it Laura’s house. He always would. The silence
helped to contain his anger, the steady rhythmic beat of their feet
also helped.

“
I can imagine
it’s difficult-”

“
No, Eli, it’s
more than difficult. Imagine my sister, your wife, imagine you’d
been through everything Cora and I have been through. Then think of
her receiving
four
presents,
four
propositions from
four
different men whilst you have to sit back and
watch her date them. Tell me how you would feel, tell me that you
wouldn’t want to punch every man who came near her.”

Eli blew out a
breath. “I’d feel like shit. I'd want to bash someone's head
in.”

“
Yeah,” Jack
said as he stopped outside the tree filled entryway to Laura’s
home. Ayden would be there. “I need a drink, you coming?” Jack
nodded towards the house.

“
Yeah,” Eli
sighed and walked with him.

Ayden opened
the front door before he could knock. It was like the man had a
sixth sense for trouble. “Is there a problem?” Ayden
asked.

It wasn’t good
that this was now the first question to be asked when greeting each
other. Life definitely needed to change.

“
You could say
that,” Jack replied, walking past Ayden into the living
room.

The room
hadn’t changed much since the last time he'd been in it. Jack
noticed that there were still feminine touches around the place.
The purple and pink throw over the back of the sofa, the little
dish of that smelly crap on the coffee table. The one big change
was the picture of Ayden and Laura that was sitting on top of the
fireplace.

Jack walked
over and looked at the woman who could make a room light up with
her smile. He missed her smile. He’d realised since her death that
she’d become a sort of mum to him during their training sessions.
He wished he’d had time to tell her that she was.

“
So what’s
happening? I was only there yesterday. Has something new
happened?”

Jack slumped
down on the sofa and looked at Ayden. The man looked better.
Ayden’s face was clean cut and his eyes were a sharper blue. Jack
knew they would turn to ice as soon as he told him the problem.
Ayden had lost a little bit of weight, but his muscular build
allowed this without him looking ill. Jack still wouldn’t edge his
bets against the man who messed with Ayden.

“
Yes, you
could say that things have changed... but before we go into the
thing, can we get a drink?” Eli asked.

“
Sure, help
yourself.”

Eli left the
room as Ayden sat down next to him. Jack took a deep breath and
decided to get it out there.

“
So, you know
that Cora would receive news about the men that...”

“
Yeah,” Ayden
answered so Jack didn’t have to continue to try to explain the
awkward situation.

What do you
call them anyway? Soon to be fiancé’s? His stomach tilted and
thrashed with a deadly mixture of anger and vomit.

Before Jack
could continue, the door opened and Clay walked in. Clay smiled at
Ayden and gave a little bow in his direction. “Eli rang me and told
me to get here as soon as I could. Has something
happened?”

“
Jack was just
explaining that Cora found out which coven members are trying to,
yer know...” Ayden explained.

“
It’s bloody
ridiculous!” Clay boomed as he dropped down onto the sofa. “They
have no right!”

Jack looked at
Clay with wide eyes but he didn’t feel surprised. Clay’s sand
coloured shoulder length hair was pulled back with a rubber band.
His green eyes held the anger. Was Clay pissed for Jack or was he
being protective over Cora because of his feelings for
her?

Jack shook his
head. He had four other men to contend with, he wasn’t adding Clay
into the mix. Clay knew his place, and he wouldn’t overstep the
mark. Jack was sure of it.

“
Well I’m with
you there, Clay. Please continue, Jack.”

“
Well, four
presents turned up today, each one of them with a stupid love sick,
soppy note. Quinn is one of them-”

The growl from
Ayden and Clay stopped Jack’s explanation; it made his lips quirk
ever so slightly. Knowing they didn’t like Quinn made Jack feel
better about this. He knew he had their support whenever he needed
it.

“
Well, Quinn
gave her the book she was reading when we were waiting for
the
court case
to
continue. He told Cora he would be her Mr Rochester.”

Ayden shook
his head, a look of disgust was plastered on his face.

“
Tommy, you
remember him, tall, skin head, one that stood up for the Leeds
coven...” Ayden and Clay were nodding so Jack continued. “Well, he
sent Cora some flowers. His note was the first one that hit me like
a bullet. Kisses and all that shit. From then on, I was already
bleeding out from the first hit. Ethan, I don’t know which coven
he’s from, but he sent her flowers and chocolates with a card that
said her eyes are the colour of chocolate. How would he know? Was
he even at the meeting for Christ’s sake?”

“
Jesus,” Ayden
winced.

“
Yeah, I
know,” he sighed. “Then someone called Ciaran sent her flowers and
earrings, his note wasn’t as bad but still, bloody earrings. I
swear Ayden, the shop is starting to look like a
florist.”

“
So what are
you going to do?” Eli asked as he walked steadily into the room
with drinks in his hands.

He must have
been listening to the conversation from the other room.

Jack took the
cold glass and sighed. “I haven’t got a clue. I’ve not handled the
situation too great. I just walked out of the shop.”

“
Well, firstly
you can’t let this get to you.” Ayden stopped when he saw the look
on Jack’s face. “Harder done than said, I know, but you need to
fight, and fight bloody dirty if needs be,” Ayden snarled. “You
suck it up and you resort back to the little cocky shit I didn’t
like at the beginning of everything.”

Jack laughed.
“Thanks, and just so you know, I wasn’t exactly fond of you
either.”

“
So we need a
plan, something to make you stand out amongst all those men,” Clay
suggested.

“
Well, we’ve
been through everything together so I have that,” Jack stammered
over this unfamiliar ground he would have to journey on.