Tiny Glitches: A Magical Contemporary Romance Read online

  “Perfectly fine.”

  The dark circles under her eyes, the dirt-smeared khaki pants, and the waist-length jacket on the balmy day all gave lie to her claim.

  “I’ve been looking for you, Eva. You’re a hard woman to find. I wouldn’t have known where to look if I hadn’t remembered Arianna da Via.”

  Dirty Coke-bottle glasses dropped onto her face, obscuring her eyes. She lunged for my arm again, and I stumbled out of her reach and into Hudson. He steadied me with a hand on my hip, and the heat of his palm rushed through me. I glanced up at him; then my gaze dropped to his full bottom lip.

  Wait, Jenny had been looking for me? And she had tracked me down through my best friend Ari?

  “What does Ari have to do with anything?” I straightened, focusing on Jenny. Ari would have mentioned chatting with a crazy woman from our past, and she definitely wouldn’t have told her where to find me.

  Jenny clamped a light brown fist around my wrist and jerked me between two parked cars and into the road. “I need to show you something. It’s urgent. We need to cross.” Jenny yanked, and my arm strained in its socket. A car horn blared and I jumped half a foot, planting my free hand on the car’s bumper to steady myself. Crap! She’d almost gotten me run over.

  “Let go of me!” My skin burned when I attempted to twist out of her grip.

  “Hurry!”

  “Let me go!”

  Jenny wrenched me forward, and against my will, I ran across the remaining three lanes of traffic, opting to extricate myself from the safety of the opposite sidewalk. Heavy footsteps followed, then Hudson caught up to us.

  “Who are you?” Jenny demanded, glaring at Hudson.

  Hudson draped a warm, muscular arm across my shoulder, trapping my free hand against his side when he squeezed me to him. “Eva’s boyfriend.” His fake possessive maneuver forced Jenny to release me.

  She eyed him up and down. “Fine. Actually, that’s better. We’re going right in here.”

  Jenny popped open the latch on the back of a horse trailer parked next to the curb. Hudson kept his arm around me like he belonged there. Jenny leaned around the side of the trailer to check up the sidewalk, then behind us, before scanning the rooftops.

  I remained frozen in place. For a second, when Hudson had made his ridiculous statement, a straitjacket had engulfed Jenny’s torso. It vanished just as fast, replaced by a bundle of arrows piercing her rib cage directly through her heart. Not good. Definitely not good.

  “Come on,” Jenny said. She pulled the trailer door open and slipped inside.

  “Any idea what’s in there?” Hudson whispered, dropping his arm.

  I shook my head and examined the trailer. It was large and dark gray, with suspicious stains smeared across the bumper beneath the swinging door. And it smelled. Bad.

  My imagination conjured up plenty of graphic possibilities of what an insane woman would stash in a trailer: an injured horse, a sick person, a dead horse. A dead person?

  I shivered, missing the warmth of Hudson’s arm despite the eighty-degree heat and the sun on my shoulders. I couldn’t walk away and leave some creature—human or otherwise—at this crazy lady’s mercy. Gingerly, I pulled the door open wider. My heart pattered in my chest, and I tensed to run as I peeked inside.

  “You have an elephant!”

  Hudson yanked the door wider and stared over my shoulder.

  “Shh, keep your voice down.” Jenny stretched to her tiptoes to peer out the high windows on the side of the trailer. “Come inside and close the door.”

  Against my better judgment, I stepped into the trailer. Hudson eased in behind me and pulled the door shut.

  The elephant was small, no taller than my waist. Its wrinkled gray skin was crusted with dried mud and peppered with long wiry hairs. A stubby trunk the length of my arm curled back over its head. I amended my statement. “You have a baby elephant?”

  “Basically. Her name is Kyoko,” Jenny said.

  The elephant didn’t look injured. It looked perfectly healthy, if wildly out of place in a horse trailer in the middle of Los Angeles. The stench had to be emanating from the greenish brown piles splattered against the edge of the trailer. I craned to look up and down the sidewalk through the tall windows on the side of the trailer. “Do you have its mother around here somewhere?”

  “No. Listen up. I need you to keep Kyoko for a few days.”

  “What!”

  The elephant shifted, and the entire trailer shuddered.

  “For optimum success, here are the parameters,” Jenny said, her earlier agitation gone, replaced by a calm, almost clinical tone. She ticked points off on her finger as she spoke. “Kyoko doesn’t like loud noises, so no more yelling. She needs company; you can’t abandon her by herself. You will go to prison if you’re caught transporting or possessing an endangered species.” She flipped her hand to point at the elephant. Its long eyelashes blinked over large golden-brown eyes. “Don’t get caught.”

  Rapid-fire, the arrows shot from her chest and studded the floor in a straight line from her feet to mine. Even knowing they were insubstantial apparitions, I flinched and swallowed a scream. The remaining arrows burst from her chest and peppered the trailer’s walls. Had they been real, Hudson would have been dead.

  “Hold up. I’m not getting caught, because I’m not in possession of an elephant.” I waved my hands in front of me in the universal this-isn’t-my-problem gesture. “I don’t know what you’re involved in, Jenny, or why you think I would help—”

  “I chose you because of your”—her eyes flicked to Hudson, then back to me—“special relationship with power. It makes you unpredictable. I noticed it in high school. I watched you, studied you.” Hard brown eyes met mine. “I know several people in the government who’d be interested in my observations.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said through numb lips. Hudson’s curiosity bore into my flesh. His eyes darted between Jenny, me, and the elephant. I should have already been walking—running—away, but my feet had welded to the trailer.

  “Five computer lab crashes,” Jenny said, ticking off points on her fingers again. “Byron Davy’s spate of dead car batteries after prom—”

  He’d deserved every single one of them, the two-timing bastard, but I couldn’t summon my usual vindictive satisfaction. Each finger tick doubled my heart rate.

  “Twenty-two classes with no power. Three school brownouts—”

  “What are you saying? That you think . . . That you’d . . .” I couldn’t finish the sentence, but I needed to make her stop talking in front of Hudson. Somehow, this woman I didn’t know or remember had figured out my curse. She’d freaking studied me. The thought of one stranger knowing about my curse limned my veins with icy foreboding. Her threat to tell other people, to make me a helpless lab rat, overwhelmed rational thought.

  “All I need is for you to take care of Kyoko for a few days.”

  “I can’t.” I lifted a feeble hand in protest. Jenny snapped something cold and hard around my wrist. Metal clanged on metal, and I was handcuffed to a steel brace on the side of the trailer.

  “If you don’t help her, they’ll kill her,” Jenny said. She darted out of the trailer.

  “Wait! You can’t do this!”

  “Hey!” Hudson rushed to my side and gave the handcuff attached to the trailer a quick yank. It held firm.

  Jenny peeked around the back of the trailer. “It’s only for a few days. I need to get organized.” Pieces of black and white sheets like mutated Scantron forms coated her shirt. “It’s imperative you keep Kyoko’s existence a secret, for her and you. If you go to the police, I go to the papers, Eva. And don’t bother with the feds. The government can’t help you, and they’ll— Listen: Don’t trust the government and don’t tell them about Kyoko. If you do, we’ll all be dead.” Jenny ducked out of sight.

  “Are you crazy!” I shouted.

  The baby elephant trumpeted. I jumped. The handcuff snapp
ed against my wrist.

  “Ow!”

  “What the hell?” Hudson asked.

  “Stop her!”

  With eyes as round as saucers, Hudson leapt after Jenny. I stretched to look out the side of the trailer. He sprinted down the sidewalk, only to slow a few car lengths later. He pushed his hands through his thick hair and jogged back to me.

  “She got away,” he said.

  Peachy. Jenny was on the loose with my secret and I was shackled in a trailer with a baby elephant.

  I examined my imprisoned wrist, then the illegal, endangered animal. The elephant wasn’t tethered to anything. It snaked its trunk back and forth, a savage gleam in its eye.

  “Easy there, little elepha—”

  It charged.

  CHAPTER TWO

  The trailer rocked, the heavy metal frame groaning in protest. The trailer wasn’t wide, and before the elephant could stampede more than four steps, it mashed against me, pinning me to the wall. I scrunched my toes in my open sandals and braced for a mauling. The elephant flapped her ears and the hem of my skirt fluttered. My eyes popped open.

  “Good elephant, you don’t want to hurt me,” I said, wriggling to the side. “Please don’t eat me.”

  “I think elephants are vegetarians,” Hudson said, coming into view at the open back of the trailer. He stepped inside and pulled the door shut behind him.

  “It looks hungry. Maybe it’s starved beyond reason. And look at those feet. It could cripple me with a single step. Oh God, what are you doing?”

  The elephant snuffled me with her trunk. I backed up as far as my bound arm would allow. She followed. The moist tip of the trunk prodded my knee below the line of my skirt and beelined for third base. Dirty sandpaper skin scraped up my naked thigh.

  “No! No, no, no, no. Bad elephant!” I twisted and thrust my butt away from the elephant, the tendons in my shackled arm radiating fiery pain from my bruised wrist to my shoulder. Doubled over as I was, if the wild elephant charged, she’d slam into my solar plexus and rip my arm clean off.

  The elephant’s trunk reversed direction and constricted around my ankle. I squeaked. Bright brown eyes lifted to my face. The trunk tip released me to molest the straps of my sandals. I shimmied to the side, easing the pressure on my arm.

  “That’s a good elephant. Keep your trunk to yourself and I’ll—eep!”

  The elephant swung her head to look at Hudson, pivoting on a back foot, rocking the trailer. It took me a moment to recognize the incongruous sound.

  “You’re laughing? Now?” With my ass in the air and my body contorted painfully around an unpredictable killing machine, he had the audacity to laugh? Shooting Hudson a glare, I squeezed between the elephant and the wall of the trailer and straightened, sidling closer to the bar I was handcuffed to. The man had great crow’s-feet when he grinned, the bastard.

  Hudson stifled his laughter down to a smile. “She’s just checking you out.”

  “This isn’t funny. I’m trapped”—I rattled my handcuff—“in a death box with a wild animal who could crush me with its head.”

  “She hardly seems wild. Just curious.”

  “Then it can be curious somewhere else.” I fluttered my free hand at the elephant. “Shoo. Attack him.”

  The elephant tilted her head to look at me, then turned her attention to my satchel.

  “Oh no, you don’t.” I couldn’t stop her from crushing me, or eating me, but that didn’t mean I had to let her rifle through my oversize purse. I twisted my bag behind me and used my thumb and forefinger to tug the questing trunk away from the top flap. It was like trying to lift an anaconda with my pinky. The elephant’s trunk disappeared into my bag.

  “Out,” I said without an ounce of authority. The trunk slid deeper. “No. Bad elephant. Out.” I tugged on the trunk with three fingers. The elephant shifted closer and pulled the satchel toward her mouth. Her large round teeth looked like they could crush my forearm. I stepped back. The elephant followed.

  Gritting my teeth, I grabbed the trunk and pulled it free of my bag. I released it immediately and waited for the elephant to flatten me, curling my toes up again for good measure. The trunk slid around my free arm, hot but not as rough as it had felt against my inner thigh. It flexed and I froze, bombarded by visions of being dismembered. The elephant released me and veered toward the bag again. I took a deep breath.

  “A little help?” I asked Hudson.

  “Do you have food in there?”

  “Uh, some crackers, I think. And carrots.”

  “Maybe Kyoko wants them.”

  “I am not letting an elephant rummage through my bag!” I took a firm grip on the trunk and lifted it free of the bag. Again.

  “Give it here.” Hudson held out his hand.

  I slid the shoulder strap over my head, thankful Jenny hadn’t cuffed my other hand, and held my precious satchel out to a perfect stranger. Hudson took it and the elephant pivoted toward him. He took a step back, and the elephant followed him.

  “Oh, shit.”

  “Yeah, who’s laughing now?”

  Hudson darted out of the trailer and banged the latch home. Trumpeting, Kyoko body-slammed the back door. The whole trailer’s frame shrieked in protest, and the elephant trumpeted again. I staggered into the wall, clutching one ear with my free hand.

  “Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap,” I chanted. I was going to die. Killed by Elephant Tantrum, my headstone would read. Future generations would assume I was a circus performer. Oh, hell no.

  I slid the handcuff up the metal pole for a closer look. It was the real deal—solid metal with a single keyhole at each loop. I squeezed my thumb to my palm and made a point with my fingers, but my hand was still too thick to escape the steel band. The other cuff circled a bar welded at both ends to the trailer’s wall. I swiped at sweat on my forehead.

  The trailer bounced, and I spun to check the elephant. She prodded the seam of the door with her trunk.

  “You want out of there?”

  I jumped at Hudson’s voice and banged my head against the side of the trailer. I jerked my hand to rub my head, wincing when the handcuff snapped my wrist. Snarling, I turned toward the sound of his voice.

  Hudson stood on the outside ledge of the trailer, peering in.

  “What do you think?”

  “Hey, I’m just trying to help.”

  “Do you happen to have a handcuff key on you?”

  “Nope.”

  I didn’t know whether to be relieved or not. A yes would have been creepy, but it would have meant I was free. A no was less creepy but unhelpful.

  I eyed the elephant again. She didn’t look perturbed anymore. She looked relaxed. She looked . . .

  “Don’t you dare. Not with me right he—”

  The elephant lifted her tail and pooped. Noxious fumes blasted me, searing my nostrils.

  “Oh God!” I gagged and covered my mouth with my free hand.

  “Whew,” Hudson said, his voice muffled as he dropped back from the trailer.

  The elephant turned large liquid eyes toward me and batted long eyelashes. She stepped back, landing a foot square in the pile, then started for me.

  “Hudson. Hudson!”

  “Right here. Oh, man, it’s making my eyes water.”

  “Get me out of here!” The elephant stopped next to me, and I clamped my hand tighter over my nose and mouth, but it didn’t stop tears from forming. The elephant nudged my knee with her trunk, then dropped it to lay curled atop my foot. When I shifted my blurred vision, those large eyes stared at me.

  Nothing malicious gleamed in the elephant’s gaze. The way she pressed against me seemed almost like she was comforting me. Or herself. Trying not to breathe, I lowered my hand and reached for her head. The elephant didn’t move when I ran light fingers across the grooved crown of her skull. Leather and wiry hair stretched across a cast-iron forehead. I slid my hand over the divot in the middle, and one of her ears flapped.

  “Hang on. I’ll be
right back,” Hudson said.

  I wanted to give him a snarky response—shackled as I was, I wasn’t going anywhere—but that would have meant opening my mouth.

  It took an hour for Hudson to return. Or maybe it was only minutes. The lack of oxygen made the passage of time foggy. He was on the phone. Miraculously, the tiny gadget had withstood being brushed up against me.

  “You’ll have to send Matvei.” Hudson paused, then said, “Wade, I wouldn’t be calling if it were anything other than an emergency.” Pause. “Yes.” Pause. “Of course. I’ll let you— Hello? Wade?” This time the pause was followed by cussing.

  Ah, the familiar sound of someone too long in my company. The phone had died. It had been inevitable, especially since Hudson had stopped just outside the trailer.

  “I’m coming in,” Hudson announced.

  Kyoko perked up and trotted toward the back door.

  “Wait!” I yelled over the cacophony of the abused trailer. Hudson popped up beside me. “I think she’s planning on making a break for it.”

  “Nah. I think I know what she wants. I hope you don’t mind I went through your bag. Damn, it’s stinky in there.”

  Hell, yes, I minded. “You went through my—”

  Hudson thrust his hand through the slats. He dropped a cracker to the floor. Kyoko eyed it, then turned back to the door.

  “You could have asked first, you know,” I said.

  “Would you have said no?”

  “That’s not the point.”

  Hudson barked a laugh and stuck his other hand through the slats. This one held carrots. When he dropped one of them, Kyoko ambled over to investigate. Hudson disappeared, then the latch creaked before he slipped inside. Kyoko turned eagerly to him, and he tossed the remaining carrots to the front of the trailer. The baby elephant dashed after them. Hudson grabbed the side of the trailer and I braced my feet wide in the ensuing earthquake.

  “Now what?” I asked.

  Hudson approached, covering his nose in the crook of his elbow. I was ninety-nine percent sure that the hilt of a broadsword clearing his shoulder was an apparition. He wiped his palm on his pants, then pulled a slender packet from his back pocket. “Now we see if I can pick a cuff lock.” His voice was muffled behind his arm.