“You know something, don’t you?” Lily cornered Nolan in the living room. She had wanted to ask him that very question all through the awkward meal.

Polly had insisted they eat, despite the fact there had been someone setting fires on the lawn. The woman had ended up doing most of the talking during the meal to distract them. And, as much as Lily wanted to stand up and shout how ridiculous it was to eat after such an event, every time she tried, her legs felt shaky and she found herself reaching for another slice of pizza, as if shoving food into her mouth would plug the noise about to come out. The impulse didn’t appear to be completely hers.

Why Polly had invited the man to the house was beyond her. He wasn’t inspecting anything, and he didn’t look like he wanted to be there. Actually, he looked like he’d been forced at knifepoint to sit at the table with them—a table that showcased a live lobster who stared at them while they ate.

Nolan had avoided Polly’s questions by giving non-answers, and there was some kind of weird thing going on between Nolan and Dante. Her brother had practically glared in the man’s direction.

When he didn’t answer, she prompted, “Well?”

“I know a lot of things.” It was like the man tried to be frustratingly obtuse on purpose. Each time Nolan spoke, his words seemed measured and purposefully enigmatic.

There were times in life when you met someone, and the conversation flowed naturally. She felt like that should have been the case with Nolan, but for some reason there was a block between them. He kept himself on guard.

“About the fire,” Lily clarified.

For a brief moment, she had considered letting the flames have the house. Her emotions were torn when it came to the Goode Estate and Lucky Valley. Maybe it would be better if there was no house to move to. The urge to run away was strong.

“You were about to say something before Polly dragged me inside,” Lily insisted. “Do you know who’s threatening us?”

He looked as if he might lie to her, but then sighed. “Your family doesn’t have the best reputation in town. People here are afraid of you. I wouldn’t expect them to show up at your door with a welcome casserole anytime soon. So, no, I can’t say who did it. I can say there are probably several people who could have done it.”

Lily appreciated his frankness. “I’m not my ancestors. I don’t know who they were or what they did.”

“I believe you.” He nodded. “But I’m not sure that will matter.”

Lily sat on the couch. The firm cushion wasn’t inviting, but she didn’t care. She braced her elbows on her knees, leaned over and ran her fingers into her hair to hold her head. Her voice soft, she asked, “Have you ever been drained to the point of emotional exhaustion?”

He didn’t answer. She didn’t expect him to. It was an overshare of information.

Still, that didn’t stop her from looking at him expectantly. “How do I fix it? Who do I need to win over in town? How do I find out who wants us gone enough to do these things? Are we in danger?”

Nolan stared at the empty fireplace next to the couch.

“Never mind. This isn’t your problem. For all I know, you probably want us gone too. You did try to convince us to sell at the attorney’s office.” Lily leaned back. She looked at the fireplace that held his attention. She considered the light fixtures and old furniture. She tried to imagine living in the old house with Jesse and Dante.

Home. That is all they ever wanted.

Echoes from the past whispered along the edge of her consciousness. There were memories on the fringes of her thoughts, memories from childhood that she never thought about. She had never let the past stop her, so why should she start now?

Lily stood. “I’ll contact you when we’re ready for the next inspection. And we will be ready. You can let whoever know that we’re not leaving Lucky Valley. I don’t care if every contractor in a hundred-mile radius turns us down. This is our home now, and we’re going to—”

“I’ll help you.”

The words were quiet, and she wasn’t sure she’d heard him.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that.”

His eyes met hers. “I said I’ll help you. I know this town. For the most part, they’re good people, but you won’t know what you’re getting yourself into if you go poking around. Things are not what they seem, and people like their secrets.”

“Why would you help me?” What was his angle?

“You have to bring this property up to code, that’s just the law, but in my past career I was a contractor. Actually, I worked almost every job on a construction site. I can get you up and running.”

She stepped closer, studying his face. “Why would you do all this?”

“Because the trust would pay me, and I need the work.” His arms lifted over his chest as if that would keep her from coming closer. “I know you might find it a conflict of interest, the code inspector also working to fix the codes, but I give you my word that I’m fair. If at any time you find it otherwise, you can fire me and refuse to pay.”

“I still don’t understand why you would do this.” Lily felt there was more to him, and she wanted to peel back the layers to see what he was hiding. “It won’t make you very popular in town if we’re as unliked as you say.”

“I wouldn’t say unliked, as much as feared.”

Instinct told her she could trust him. Logic told her to be wary. Which did she listen to?

“Where did you two run off to?” Polly called.

Lily grabbed Nolan’s arm and pulled him toward the front stairs. She tried to walk softly so Polly wouldn’t be able to find them. She gestured that he should stay quiet and follow her.

Lily tiptoed as fast as she could, but a stair creaked. She bit her lip, freezing to see if Polly had heard.

“There you are,” Polly exclaimed from below.

“Nolan has agreed to work for the trust.” Lily motioned to the top of the stairs. Saying, he agreed to work for me, seemed too strange. “We’re going to make a list of where I’d like him to start.”

“Not as interesting as a rendezvous, but I think it’s an excellent idea. I like a man around the house.” Polly grinned.

“Hey, what about me?” Dante asked, his voice pouty.

“Someday, you’ll be a man, Florus.” Polly disappeared from the bottom of the stairs and Lily continued up. “Don’t be in too big of a hurry to grow up.”

“I’m twenty-six,” Dante stated.

“Yes, and such a big boy you are, too.”

Lily couldn’t help the small laugh. Hearing a sound, she glanced back to see Nolan trying to suppress his amusement.

Lily moved to the master bedroom on the second floor so they could talk privately. A giant wardrobe sat against the far wall. The dark wood had been carved to depict mythological woodland creatures along the top and mermaids swimming around the bottom. It matched the thick paneled sides of the bed frame.

“Your aunt is a character,” Nolan said. “She must have been fun to be around as a child.”

“I wouldn’t know. The first time I talked to her was like a month ago when she called me to say I needed to come to Colorado to claim my inheritance. I almost hung up on her for being a phishing scam, but she knew enough information about my mother to make her sound credible.”

Nolan glanced around the room. “You want me to start in your bedroom?”

Lily looked at the made bed. “Oh, I guess. I didn’t really think about which room would be mine.”

He pointed behind her. “I’m assuming that bright blue luggage is a little too girly for your brother, and not girly enough for Polly.”

He was right.

“I don’t care where you start. Just get rid of that stack of citations you gave me,” she dismissed. “What do you mean, feared? What did my relatives do?” Running footsteps sounded overhead. Lily looked up at the ceiling. “What is that?”

“Every old house makes its own noises,” Nolan dismissed. “You’ll get used to it.”

“You don’t think it’s another animal, do you?”

“No.” He seemed fairly confident, so she let it drop. “To answer your question, Lucky Valley was founded by the Goodes and the Crawfords during the 1800s as a refuge for certain types of people who weren’t wanted in the old country. Jedediah Crawford had struck gold, and the Goode family had the money to set up a full mining operation. They combined forces and together they built this town.”

“Go on,” she prompted when he paused. Getting conversation out of him was like trying to get a straight answer out of Polly—darn near impossible.

“All I know are the stories I heard as a kid.” The light through the window had dimmed, and he reached to flip on a light switch. The lights flickered. “I’ll fix that.”

“The stories you heard as a kid…” she reminded him. There was no way she was letting him go until she heard why someone wanted to burn the lawn and spray paint the house.

“Some say the Goodes became greedy. Some say the Crawfords became careless. Others claim it was a pact with the devil. And a few think maybe it was the very first of the bad luck curse. The one thing everyone agrees on is that the Goodes and the Crawfords did not get along, and it was that feud that began the run of bad luck the town became known for.” Nolan walked to the window and looked out. His shoulders lifted as if he took a deep breath. “Out there, in Unlucky Valley—that’s what locals call the remains of the first town—there were a series of calamitous events. In the span of three days, a church went up in flames, a disease spread out over the crops, and the mine caved in.”

“And they think my ancestors did this?”

“They think it was a byproduct of the magic being used between the feuding families. Everyone in town had a family member who died that day, most had more than one. The two families couldn’t agree on a way to save the miners and refused to work together. Their individual efforts weren’t enough, and by the time they’d dug through to where the men were holed up, a hundred and eighteen workers died.”

“That’s tragic. So did my ancestors sabotage the mines? Or skip corners with safety?”

“They say it was magic.”

“So they magically dried up crops, destroyed churches, and ruined their money making gold mines? That makes little sense. Why would they do that? It doesn’t seem like it was beneficial for anyone.” Lily shook her head. “Maybe it was nothing more than plain old bad luck.”

He stiffened. “I wouldn’t dismiss the stories in front of others, if I were you.”

“I didn’t mean to insult anyone, but I’m still trying to determine how a mining accident—in a time where there were probably hundreds of unsafe mining accidents in this country—equals my siblings and me being evil.”

“Well, your mother…”

Lily sighed and nodded her head. “Right. Never mind. Now it makes sense.”

Marigold wouldn’t have helped the family reputation.

“I don’t want to speak ill of the dead,” he said.

“The last time I saw my mother, she was standing outside my apartment window, tapping her fingernails on the glass while muttering nonsense. She was too thin. Her hair looked like wild birds might have been living in it, and her black lace dress was in tatters. When I tried to go outside to get her help, she’d vanished. All that was left was a strange symbol drawn in blood on the glass. So please, don’t feel the need to sugarcoat anything on my behalf.”

“They say she stirred dark magic when she married a Goode and awoke the old curse. Like I said, I was a kid at the time, but I remember people shunning her in the streets. We were all scared of her. Bad things were happening, and every misstep was blamed on your family. I remember her how you described—thin, almost skeletal, with overgrown hair and nails. She always talked even though no one was there to answer her. We were told to stay away from Marigold Crawford Goode, or she’d steal our souls and leave us wandering.”

“I don’t know about soul stealing.” Lily surprised herself at the small defense.

He again turned his attention toward the window. “You didn’t ask me why the people who came here needed a refuge.”

“Wasn’t it because of religious persecution, or people being exiled, or potato famines, or something? My history is a little rusty, but I’m pretty sure that’s why most people came to America in the first place.”

“That’s true, but the one thing that joined everyone in Lucky Valley, the one thing that still joins us is,” Nolan turned, his eyes glowing with the inner light of a shift, “we’re all supernaturals.”

“Supernat…” Her words trailed off as she stared at him. At first she tried to tell herself it was a trick of the overhead light on his face, but as he stepped closer, the yellow glow didn’t leave. “So you’re a witch too?”

“No, only the Goodes and Crawfords are witches. The Dawsons are werewolves, shapeshifters. No matter who we marry, that always seems to come out as the most dominant gene, at least in the males.”

“Are you…?” She reached her hand out, compelled to touch him. “Are you going to shift now?”

“No.”

“But…” How cool would it have been to see a real live werewolf? Then again, maybe not. That usually didn’t end well in movies. She wasn’t sure if she should feel disappointed or completely freaked out. Maybe she was broken. All of Polly’s crazy had done something to her mentally.

“I’m not a circus act.”

“You brought it up, not me.” Lily crossed her arms over her chest. “I think it was a fair question, considering you went all crazy eyes on me.”

The glow went away. “I don’t have crazy eyes.”

“Um, yeah you do.” She nodded several times.

“I do not. They shift to improve my vision.”

Lily sighed. “I guess all I have to do is prove to the town that I’m not my mother, and that I’m not going to open an unsafe mining operation anytime soon. Shouldn’t be too hard.”

“I have shifter eyes.” He hadn’t let her comment go.

“Fine. You have shifter eyes.”

“Thank you.” The lights flashed overhead, and he studied the light fixture. “What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I’ll turn this into a bed and breakfast. There’s so much room, and I’ve worked in customer service for years. I could hire a few people to help out. I need to earn money for what isn’t covered by the trust fund. A girl’s gotta eat.” Lily didn’t know what compelled her to say such a thing, but the moment it was past her lips, a bed and breakfast felt like an actual business plan. She wasn’t sure about having people staying in her home, but this didn’t feel like her home. Maybe she could live in one the cottages, away from the guests.

“The bathrooms will need to be updated.”

Lily chuckled. “That’s it? No, you can’t do it? No, the town will never let that happen?”

“You’ll need a bigger water tank. Individual heaters. It can get warm in the summer months, so I’d recommend individual air conditioning units in the rooms, as well. As to the rest, your sanity remains to be seen, and tourism is good for local economies.”

“Even if it’s tainted Goode-Crawford tourism?”

“Lily, I won’t lie to you.” He touched her arm. Warmth spread from his fingers, causing her to shiver. She couldn’t pull her gaze from him, watching for signs of a physical change. “Supernatural threats are not like human ones. This won’t be easy. You won’t know how much danger you’re in until you figure out who is threatening you. If it’s a couple of kids daring each other to taunt the witch, you’re fine.”

“You don’t think it’s kids, do you?” She continued to study his expression, trying to decipher what he was not telling her.

“There is no way to explain to you the people who call Lucky Valley home. Hollywood movies only touch upon a small percentage of what’s real, and they often get it wrong.”

“I’m a witch without magic witch-powers. I’m a Goode and a Crawford who doesn’t know a single thing about her families. What I don’t know could probably fill a dozen spell books, but the one thing I am is a fighter. I’m not afraid. I’m not going to quit. I’ll solve any mystery that is put in front of me. So, mystery of the lawn-burning, spray-painting bandits is priority number one. Then the mystery of my missing witch powers if I even have them. And finally, the mystery of the creaky noises, leaking basement appliances, and the hopefully disappearing stack of citations will be last.”

Nolan’s fingers tightened briefly and then released their hold. “I believe you. It’s a good thing you hired me.”

As he tried to leave, she touched his arm to stop him. “Why a good thing?”

“You’re clearly determined. I think it’s going to get you in trouble, especially in this town.” A small smile curled the side of his lips. “You’re going to need protection, even if you don’t realize it yet.”

At that, she laughed. She was hardly a damsel in distress. “And what makes you think you can protect me?”

His eyes flashed with gold as he stepped backward toward the door. He pointed at his chest and said, “Werewolf.”

The parting move would have been confident if not for the fact he tripped on a gnome placed near the door. She hadn’t noticed the statue until he was stumbling out of the room into the hall.

Lily waited until she heard him right himself. “Gee, I feel so much safer already.”

“You should,” he said, not coming back into the room. “I’m really good at what I do.”