Missy Makes Mayhem (Missy the Werecat Book 5) (19 page)

“We’ll see.  At least they’re enjoying themselves here tonight.  That’s a good start.”  Missy paused to take some deep breaths, drawing air into her mouth and parsing all the various scents over her tongue and across the roof of her mouth.  Doing this, as well as using her nose, her scenting ability was greatly magnified.  She looked at Mike and Tracy and smiled.  “Ummmm … that’s a
very
good start.  Just as you said, Troy’s reputation is about to change.  Wow!  This is going to be fun to watch, however long it takes!”

Tracy exclaimed, “You can’t possibly
scent
that, Missy!  Tell me you’re joking!”

“Oh, I think I can.  Besides, it’s not just their scents but their energies and other things.  And, don’t forget … I’ve had some experience now.  First, you and my brother, then Oliver and Candy.  Yep.  When a witch finds their special someone?  There’s just something about them which
all
my senses can detect ... everything somehow combines and … we’ll see.  While it’s possible that I’m wrong, we’ll just have to wait and see.  But, I doubt it.”

Mike laughed at Tracy’s incredulous expression.  “Hey, I learned to trust Missy’s senses about things long before she started trusting them.  So, I’m sure she’s right.  And, like she said, it’ll be fun to watch.”

Nov 3, 2019

When Ben arrived at West Point with Sandy, he first went over to the Admin Office before bringing her to the Visitor’s Center.  Missy had arranged for him to make a formal presentation to the academy of the Salvatore D’Amato Endowment.  She had brought over Sal’s letter of intent earlier and had explained what this was all about.  Five million dollars for the advancement of female cadets … yes, a very worthy cause.

Since the D’Amato organization was a well-known, multi-million dollar conglomerate having many legitimate businesses, no embarrassing questions were asked or comments made concerning any of its criminal enterprises.  True, those mobster activities were almost as well-known but since they were all rumors, with no clear and definitive substantiation, there was very little taint associated with the academy accepting this.

Missy knew Sandy would be very impressed and allowing her to watch as the Superintendent accepted her father’s gift would set the right tone.  She didn’t attend the ceremony, preferring to get introduced to Sandy without any outsiders being present.  Although she wasn’t there, Ben explained to everyone how all the recent magazine articles about Cadet McCrea had greatly influenced Sal in making this gift. 

On their way over to finally meet with Missy, Sandy again asked Ben if this was all real.  After reading all the things he and her father had shown her about Missy, she had started to doubt this famous West Point cadet could truly be the witch who’d sent those text messages and had saved her from Buck.

Ben chuckled and said, “You’ll see for yourself, soon enough.”  He was very glad Missy had agreed to this meeting as Sandy had been driving her father crazy ever since they’d explained things to her.  It was almost as though they’d said Santa Claus was real.

And then, at last, they were ushered into a small conference room where Missy was waiting for them.  Her boyfriend Mike was there, of course, as were Alice and Mark Mathews.  Ben had talked to Alice many times but this was their first time meeting face to face.  Likewise, this was the first he was seeing Alice’s husband.  They all stood up when he brought Sandy in and Missy gave them a big smile.

Once the individual who’d shown Ben and Sandy in had left, closing the door so they’d have some privacy, Missy said, “Welcome to West Point, Sandy!  Ben asked if he could bring you here to meet me and I’m very glad he’s done that.  It gives me an opportunity to express how sorry I am for the terrible ordeal you’ve just been through.  And, it gives me a chance to introduce you to Alice Mathews, someone whom you can talk to about things.  She can help and she can be trusted.  That’s important since, aside from myself, she’s probably the only other woman your father and Ben will ever let you discuss any of those things with.”

Sandy was quite in awe of Missy, both at how open and friendly she was being and simply by her presence, looking so impressive in her cadet uniform and wearing all those military decorations.  “I’m so pleased to meet you, Missy!  But, my father wants me to not talk about …”  She paused, looking at the others who hadn’t been introduced yet, and then finished, saying, “… things.”

Missy laughed.  “This is Alice’s husband Mark and this big, handsome guy?”  She turned away from Mark and reached over to hold Mike’s hand.  “Mike is
mine
, my better half, only we’re not allowed to get married until after I graduate from the academy.  But, he knows
everything
about me.  We have no secrets.”

Ben decided he may as well speak, giving his assurances about the situation.  “Alice is Director of the Roseanne Fund.  And, yeah … we can trust her.”  He had explained to Sandy about the Roseanne Fund, briefly; and as he’d told Mike, he was hoping Missy would support his story that all the damage she’d done to Sal’s place by lightning had all been about that Fund.

Sandy was still feeling a bit unsure but when Missy gestured for her to sit in one of the chairs, she sat down.  All the others sat also and the six of them were then seated around a small table.  There were some magazines and a few large books on the table, all with military titles.  They were seated near some windows and could see the Hudson River off in the distance.

Missy said, “I realize it’s shocking for you to learn about me, my being a witch with supernatural powers and everything.  I do ask that you keep my secret.  Alice can tell you how shocked she was finding that out about me.  I was her close friend but she had no idea what I was capable of doing.  Not until she was about to be raped and murdered by a couple of guys who had kidnapped her.  When I came to her rescue, killing those guys?  She was very surprised.  Just as you were.”

Sandy stared at Missy and then at Alice.  She was actually shocked all over again, hearing this, and said, “Wow!  I can’t believe we’re sitting here, talking about this so calmly.  About you killing people.  I mean, my father told me you were a witch.  And, I guess there’s no other explanation which makes any sense for what happened.  But still …”

Alice giggled, “Missy only kills people as a last resort.  She’s really not an
evil
witch, in spite of what I keep threatening Ben with … just so you know.”

Missy rolled her eyes and giggled also.  Then, she drew some energy in and allowed her eyes to fill with yellow speckles.  “It’s true I’ve done some things, using my powers to get what I want.”  She pointed at the table which slowly rose a foot up in the air and hovered there.  “I may have even gone a bit overboard last year, giving Ben and your father that demonstration … convincing them to help with my Roseanne Fund.  Only, my little parlor tricks probably wouldn’t have been sufficient.  Your dad is one of the most powerful crime bosses in the world, after all.”

The table dropped back down onto the floor but all the books and magazines continued to float in mid-air.  Sandy was mesmerized.  Missy lowered all but one of the books which she slowly moved around and then dropped it onto Sandy’s lap.  She said, “See … no strings attached!”

Sandy actually picked the book up and looked at it for several seconds.  She then carefully deposited it back on the table.  She looked at Missy and said, “This would be really freaking me out if I didn’t already know what you did to save me.”  She decided not to comment on Missy’s reference to crime bosses.  Instead, looking at Alice, she asked, “Was Missy invisible when she rescued
you
?”

Alice said, “Oh, no.  Maybe had she merely been invisible, I wouldn’t have been scared quite as badly.  Then again, I was already so scared, it probably didn’t matter.  What’s important, Sandy, is I do know what you’ve been through.  And, you can talk to me.  I can come down once a week for the next few weeks, if you’d like.  I go to school up in Boston during the week but I usually come down on the weekends to see some of the girls our Roseanne Fund is helping.  And, you can call me on the phone.  I even do Skype or Facetime with many of the girls, once they get to know me.”

“Ben tells me this Roseanne Fund is all about helping young girls.”  Sandy looked at Ben and then added, “He says many of them are related to girls in the business.  And, yeah … I know what kind of
businesses
my father’s organization is into.  Missy is correct about him being a big crime boss.  That’s why they had this little war which I’m also not allowed to talk about.”

Missy said, “Well, you can talk about that with Alice.  You can talk about
anything
with her, right Ben?”

As Sandy watched Ben nod his agreement she realized Missy was really the one in control.  She was so used to watching everyone kowtow to both Ben and her father that seeing Missy take charge was even more convincing than witnessing her do her telekinesis stuff.  And, she could
feel
the energy coming from Missy.  She realized she had so many questions she wanted to ask.  “Will Alice talk about
you
, Missy?”

Now Mark laughed.  “My wife
loves
talking about Missy but she can’t do that with very many people, since it’s all such a big secret.  That’s why I have to hear it all.  So sure, she’ll talk about her with you.  Only, Missy has many, many secrets and there are some which Alice can’t share with you.  Is that okay?”

Missy stood up and said, “Hey, I’m right here!”  She laughed.  “I’ve got to leave now and get ready for my Rifle Club match.  But, stay and talk with the others for a bit.  Mark is my brother’s closest friend and has actually known me since I was a little girl.  You can probably get him to tell you stuff even Alice doesn’t know.”

After some more farewell remarks to all the others, Missy pulled Sandy into her arms and gave her a tight hug.  She whispered, “I’m really glad I was able to help find you in time and stop Buck from what he was about to do.  Now, you take care, Sandy!”

Ben watched as Missy walked out and was more impressed with her than ever.  He could see the way Sandy was idolizing her new hero and realized, because of that, Sal’s relationship with Missy was going to change, yet again.  What a strange turn of events!

He knew Sandy would be bonding with Alice as well.  As he now studied Alice, who was very pretty with blond hair and blue eyes, he couldn’t help being somewhat surprised by her.  He knew she was often called the “crazy mob lady” due to her role with the Roseanne Fund.

That title didn’t really seem appropriate for such an apparently innocent young woman.  Then, of course, he recalled how Alice would call him with specific instructions concerning various men.  Once any girl became part of the ever increasing group being taken care of by the Roseanne Fund, that girl was never to be bothered or molested again.  Whenever Alice gave him a name?  He’d better have Sal’s enforcers make certain that guy knew what dire consequences awaited if he didn’t leave the girl alone.  Otherwise, there were those dire consequences he and Sal might face, from Missy.

Sal was going to have to make a lot more changes in how he ran his businesses, now that his daughter was growing up.  Ben realized these changes were probably what Missy and Alice had always wanted but they had patiently bided their time, using their Roseanne Fund to influence things rather than demanding them outright.

-----

Missy returned to her room late that night and found Tracy still awake.  Tracy and Sharon had tag teamed while making sure Cadet Melo didn’t get anywhere and, sure enough, they’d probably saved yet another girl who worked in the Mess Hall.

Tracy explained how Melo had apparently lined up something with the girl but when she and Sharon kept stumbling upon them, all innocent and accidental, their interference had been enough to end the date, at least for that night.

Missy said, “Good!  I’ve got to deal with him soon.  We can’t have him causing any more problems.  These next few weeks will be especially busy for me, but I’ll find some time.  Don’t worry!”

“How did your match go?  Did Army win again, thanks to you?”

“Oh, yes!  Thanks to me and the others, including Emily.  She scored another personal best for herself tonight.”

Tracy laughed.  “Maybe she’s inspired not only by you but by the interest my plebe Donald has been paying her.  We Quigby girls will now have to tease him mercilessly, after seeing just how much the two of them seem attracted to each other.  What have we done, what have we done?  Oh, shame be upon us!”  They both laughed at that.

Missy said, “Speaking of mutual attractions, is it true Troy came back again and spent all day with Sally?”

“Oh, yes.  She even told him all about her last boyfriend and how he wanted to date others.  You know what Troy told her?”  Tracy chuckled.  “He said he was going to continue visiting her whenever possible and that, unlike he-who-will-forever-be-nameless, he will
not
be dating anyone other than her.”

“Really?  I sensed he was very smitten but that’s going much faster than we thought, isn’t it?  What about his reputation?  Even more important, what does Sally think?  Does she even like him enough to say the same?”

Tracy grinned.  “Oh, she’s interested all right.  And, she’s not exactly dating anyone else.  If he keeps coming around, she’ll keep seeing him.  But, she’s insisting things stay completely platonic.  He has to observe all the academy’s rules about no public displays of affection and she’s not ready for him to take her anywhere in private.  She did give him her email address.  We’ll have to see how that goes.”

“Well, as I recall, my brother wooed you with his constant emails for many months.  Then, of course, you jumped his bones when he was visiting you at home over Christmas last year.”

“Very funny!  And, as you know, my sex life with your brother is one of those topics we don’t talk about.  Geeeezzzz!”

Missy laughed.  “Sounds like someone didn’t get any this weekend!  Oh, right … John couldn’t get down here, so no treats for Tracy!  Ha, ha!”  She really enjoyed teasing her roommate.  “Just so you know, not that it matters.  But I didn’t get any either, in spite of Mike coming down and being here both days.  Such is the life of a busy cadet, especially when surrounded by all her many responsibilities.”

“Well, Sharon and I did our part, so you can’t blame us.  How did it go with Sandy’s visit?  And, you got to see Alice and Mark again, right?”

“Things went really well, I think.  I could sense Sandy was excited about having Alice to talk to now.  There’s no one better able to help her.  You know, I never let anyone think I’d been a victim and, since I really never was, that wasn’t all that difficult.  You and I have been lucky, Tracy.  There are lots of girls who do become victims and that can be so devastating to their self-esteem.”