By
USA Today Bestselling Author
Kim Richardson

My Aunt Beverly is getting married.

I should be happy for her. Right? But I’m not. Because I know this Derrick character is bad news. Call it my witchy instincts, but I’m convinced something is seriously off with the guy. So how do I prove it to my aunt?

The pressure is on as I only have four days to figure it out before the wedding—yes, four days until Beverly says, “I do,” to that slimy bastard.

As the clues start to come together, I have to wade through a pack of lies to get to the truth and find out who Derrick Baudelaire really is—and what he’s hiding.

But then the worst happens. While I’m trying to uncover Derrick’s dark secrets, Lilith comes calling. She’s ready to set her plan in motion. Her plan to kill her husband, a.k.a. Lucifer, the king of hell. And I’m her secret weapon.

Trouble is, this time, I might not make it back alive.

In spite of all the crazy that ends the previous book, life goes on and Beverly announces she’s getting married.

However, the groom to be is Derrick, the man who caused Beverly to get a boob enhancing spell, that thankfully has now expired. In a twist, three witches that look a lot like Dolores, Beverly and Ruth show up, they are claiming rights to Davenport House. They are Davina, Belinda and Reece, the Wanderbush witches, first cousins of the Davenports. It’s their appearance that casts doubt on a card that shows up with the RSVPs with simply the words HELP ME on it. Tessa isn’t convinced it’s some sort of prank and she’s going to investigate it anyway.

Tessa doesn’t trust this man and when they have him over for dinner, she finds him in her room when he was supposedly answering a call. This doesn’t end well for Derrick, or for Tessa. Her aunt doesn’t believe her over her fiancé, and as a result Tessa is uninvited from the wedding.

After that encounter she goes heads out to see Marcus.

This is a favorite scene.

The chief looked up at me from the dining table. He was eating alone, all proper and refined and sexy as hell. The gray T-shirt he was wearing seemed to be painted on, doing absolutely nothing to hide the ridiculous amount of chest muscles. He might as well just take it off. I wouldn’t mind. His black hair was wet, telling me he’d just taken a shower.

His lips curled into an earth-shattering smile. “Did you burn your father’s eyebrows off again?”

“No.” I kicked off my shoes and made my way to the kitchen in search of some wine. “Do you have any wine? I need a glass to calm my nerves. Make it a bottle.” It was to calm my nerves, yes, and tame the waves of anger and disappointment.

The sound of a chair pushing across the hardwood reached me, and then Marcus was in the kitchen with me, a bottle of Pinot Noir in his hand.

I frowned. “How did you do that?”

He grinned, the kind of smile that made my heart skip a few beats and made me want to rip off my clothes before I knew what I was doing. “Magic,” he purred, his voice low and rough, which had my blood pounding low in my lady regions.

I swallowed as I watched him grab a glass and fill it with thick burgundy liquid.

“I’m sorry I’ve interrupted your dinner,” I told him. Yeah, not really.

“You haven’t told me what happened.” The chief poured himself a glass and turned back to me, his gray eyes searching my face before resting on my lips.

I raised a finger and took a gulp of wine. Then another. “The scumbag grabbed me and kissed me.”

The glass in Marcus’s hand exploded. Then he went deadly still with wine dripping from his hand and fingers like blood.

Uh-oh.

Then the muscles on his neck and shoulders popped, literally popped as they bulged and moved under his skin. It was as though he was controlling his beast and wasn’t sure whether to say hello to King Kong or stay in his expensive-looking jeans.

Me? I’d prefer him in nothing at all. But hey, I didn’t come here to see him naked.

Yeah. Yeah, I did.

Rage shivered at the edges of his mouth. He stalked back and forth like a caged lion. He was furious. The fury in his eyes simmered, and a growl burst from his throat, making my skin erupt in goose bumps and my heart thrash faster. I froze. I was part terrified, part excited. Let’s be honest. I was a little horny too.

Having a sexy, strong man like Marcus show this much affection and protectiveness toward me was all kinds of hot. I didn’t care if you were thirty or seventy, it made you want to rip your clothes off and shout hallelujah at the top of your lungs.

He was silent for a long moment, his body shaking with rage as he pushed it away, bringing himself back under control. It was a monumental effort of will, and it was scary as hell.

He took a calming breath and asked, “Which scumbag?” His voice was a deep snarl that shook with suppressed rage.

“Derrick. The guy my Aunt Beverly wants to marry,” I said, watching him.

Marcus’s gray eyes met mine as he said in a very calm voice, which I was almost certain was scarier than his snarling voice, “He’s a dead man.”

Shit. Shit. Shit. “Wait. Just hang on a second. I didn’t tell you so you could go all ape-shit on him.”

“Dead. He’s dead,” repeated the wereape. “He’s going to regret the day he touched you. I’m going to remove his head from his neck.”

“Okay there, you overgrown baboon. I can take care of myself, you know.” I waved my hands in front of his body to the ridges of hard muscles barely contained by his teeny-weeny T-shirt. “I might not be blessed with Geralt of Rivia’s muscles and good looks like you, but I have magic. I’m more of a Yennefer. Besides, right now, he’s nursing some very sore balls.”

A smile twitched his lips, and I saw some of the tension loosen around his shoulders. “You hit him in the balls?”

I grinned, proud of myself. “You bet I did. Really, really hard. There was contact. I believe it was along the lines of a vasectomy.”

“Good.” Marcus grabbed a dishrag and began to mop up the broken glass and wine from the floor. “I’m still going to have words with him. You know that. I can’t let that go. He needs to know.”

“I know,” I said, smiling as I imagined Marcus squeezing Derrick’s neck until his head popped off like a dandelion.

“There’ll be some yelling.”

“I know.”

“Possibly a bit of violence.”

“You wouldn’t be you if there wasn’t.”

Marcus dumped the contents into the trash. “Did you tell Beverly what he did? Or any of your aunts?”

I sighed, remembering how quickly Beverly took his side. “I told Beverly.”

“And?”

“And… she uninvited me to her wedding,” I told him, my voice so bitter I could practically taste it.

He stared at me, mute for a moment. “She did? She couldn’t have.”

Saying it out loud sounded absurd. “Trust me. She did. She didn’t believe me. She believed that nasty guy over me.” A feeling of frustration and guilt bubbled up inside me at the memory of that conversation with my aunt. “I feel like I’ve been here before, you know, with the whole Dolores and the Sisters of the Circle thing. If you remember, she didn’t believe me either, that the Stepford witches were a bunch of evil-worshiping crazies. And look what happened.”

“You saved her, and now she loves you even more,” said the wereape, a smile on his handsome face.

“The point is… the guy is a cheating bastard. How do I get my aunt to believe me? She practically caught him in the act, in my room, by the way, and still, the witch thought I had hit on him.”

Marcus shook his head. “Beverly is a complicated woman,” said the chief.

“You say that like you know her, know her,” I teased, knowing full well that the chief thought of Beverly as his family, as his aunt too.

“I’ve known her for a long time,” said the wereape, and his voice grew soft. “I care about her, just as I care about all of your aunts. They’re part of my family.”

My heart swelled at the emotion in his voice. He really did love them. Could he be any more perfect?

“There’s no way in hell I’m going to let her marry him,” I said. “Not after what he did. Besides, if he did this to me, her own niece in her own home, I’m betting he’s done it before. And will keep on doing it.” I might be a tad prejudiced when it came to cheaters, having been cheated on myself, but this guy was oily, gross, and I wasn’t going to let my beautiful aunt marry that scumbag.

“What do you plan on doing?”

I cocked a brow and threw a smile in his direction. “Sabotage the wedding.”

Marcus stared at me for a beat. “You sure that’s wise?”

“Hell, yeah.”

“Beverly’ll never forgive you.”

“I know. But better that she hates me than marry that dirty bastard.” I hesitated, thinking. “Can you pull up everything you can find on Derrick Baudelaire? I know it’s not his real name, but it’s the only name I’ve got.”

Marcus leaned against the counter, facing me, and crossed his arms over his enormous chest. His biceps bulged, stretching the sleeves of his T-shirt even more. “Is he a witch?” asked the chief.

I dragged my eyes away, nearly having to literally pull my eyeballs from his ample biceps. Soooo distracting. “No, but he’s something. He’s paranormal, but I just haven’t figured it out yet. He’s pulling some hard magic. I could sense it. And I could also sense that he was using this magic to hide who he is or what he is. He wants us to believe he’s a werewolf, but I’ll bet my life he’s not.”

Marcus’s gray eyes rolled over my face. “Why do you think he wants to marry Beverly?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. It’s not like she’s rich, so it can’t be that. And he’s loaded. Maybe he’s got some mommy issues.”

The chief laughed, and it sent delicious tremors into my belly. “She owns Davenport House,” said the chief. “It’s worth a lot in terms of real estate and power.”

“Partly owns it,” I told him. “She’s only a part owner. Dolores and Ruth own the house too. I’m pretty sure Dolores is going to have him sign a prenup that keeps his dirty hands off Davenport House.” I thought of the Wanderbush witches and their claim to the house and wondered if they had any part in Derrick’s plan. But it didn’t make sense.

“I met our cousins today.” I relayed the strange encounter with my aunts’ doppelgängers, and my heart thumped harder every time he laughed. I would never get used to that laugh. That deep roll, the way his shoulders and biceps popped. It sent warmth pooling in my core.

“There’s something else,” I said, trying hard to focus as I thought back to the strange card I’d gotten this morning.

“What?” His face went hard again.

“Has anything out of the ordinary been happening in Hollow Cove recently? Or maybe in Cape Elizabeth that you know?”

“Like what?”

“A missing person?”

Marcus thought about it. “No. Not that I can think of, but I can check tomorrow if you want. Why? Who’s missing?”

“I got a card this morning while I was on wedding RSVP duty. It said… help me. Nothing else was on the card. My aunts said their cousins are taunting them, but I know it’s not them. Someone is in trouble out there. I have to find them. I don’t want to lose any more people. Not on my watch.”
Richardson, Kim. Rebel Magic (The Witches of Hollow Cove Book 9). Kindle Locations (717-792). fableprint. Kindle Edition.

When Tessa’s mother arrives things get even more interesting, especially with Obiryn around. It’s quite the living soap opera.

Iris and Tessa with some help from Ronin, take things with the mysterious card into their own hands and that leads to even more intrigue and danger.

I laughed, cried and screamed a bit at this book.

5 Contented Purrs for Kim!

Kim Richardson

Kim Richardson is a USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of urban fantasy, fantasy, and young adult books. She lives in the eastern part of Canada with her husband, two dogs and a very old cat. Kim’s books are available in print editions, and translations are available in over 7 languages.