“How do you know all of that if you’re not around to see it?” Beau asked as she squeezed some of the large bottle of hand sanitizer we kept behind the bar into her hand.
“We have security cameras in the house. When I’m out, I open the app on my phone and wait to hit the speaker button so I can scare the shit out of him. I’ve watched him change Nik’s dookie diaper twice, and that’s his regime for it.”
Ironically, we knew some of her secrets because of those cameras, too. Where else would Levi have found out she called Nik Klaus? Or the fact she played catch with her dogs by throwing a butt plug for them? The butt plug that was meant to have been thrown out months ago.
I had the same system in my home, but I had it locked down tight so that my family couldn’t watch the stupid shit I got up to.
“Is that why he freaked out when you got the plug stuck in your…” Beau whispered quietly, looking at Charlotte’s butt.
Groaning, I covered my ears with my hands and moved away from them, singing, “La, la, la, la!”
When I was far enough away, I dropped them and looked around the bar. At one of the tables—with the rest of her witches in waiting was—Shonelle Harsden—one of the biggest bullies I’d ever had the misfortune of meeting.
And one of her victims was walking toward me with a huge smile on her beautiful face, Bonnie, followed by her mom, who was one of the best people I’d ever met in my life.
“Where have you been?” I squealed as she reached me. “I feel like I haven’t seen you in months.”
“I’ve been working on the Atavism project, having tests and reading through some of the case studies,” she replied, waving at the girls behind me.
“I heard about what happened to two of the people on it,” Charlotte said gently, joining us. “I’m so sorry.”
I hadn’t heard anything about what they were discussing. “What do you mean? What happened?”
“Two of the people involved in the case study were found murdered,” Bonnie whispered. “A week after they joined the list, their bodies were found in a car outside of Chicago.”
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry!” I knew how much this study meant to Bonnie and the fact she was working with the people when they died… Fuck, that was bad.
Smiling sadly at me, she shrugged. “I hope they find who did it. It could be a coincidence, but the police haven’t revealed much about the crime scene yet, so I don’t know if it’s linked to our study or not.”
Seeing that she wanted to change the subject, I introduced her to our group's newest addition.
“Bonnie, this is Sadie Dahl, our resident Brit, and fountain of knowledge on bacteria and viruses. Sadie, this Bonnie Blue Butler, one of the most beautiful and unique women you’ll ever have the pleasure of meeting.”
Sadie was uncharacteristically quiet when she shook Bonnie’s hand, but when she should have released it, she said, “I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but you’ve got to be the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Bonnie froze in place, but her mom, Sheila, beamed with pride beside her. “I keep telling her that, but she never listens to me. Sheila Butler, by the way,” she introduced herself to Sadie, holding her hand out.
Releasing Bonnie’s, Sadie shook it. “You created a princess, Mrs. Butler.”
“I know,” Sheila winked.
Leaning over the bar top to hug her, Beau squeezed her tight. “Do you recognize the name, Sadie?”
Looking blankly at me, Sadie shook her head. “Uh, no? Should I?”
“Think of the movie Gone With The Wind.”
Sadie’s reaction this time was shocked. Unfortunately, this was something Bonnie had been bullied about her whole life. It hadn’t just stopped at kids being nasty to her, though. Their parents had attacked Sheila in the street for her choice in name, too.
“I can’t say I’ve watched it,” she replied slowly and carefully. “But I’ve heard about it.”
“No,” Sheila whispered, confusing all of us. When she saw our expressions, she explained, “She wasn’t named after that movie.”
“But…” Beau started, looking shocked.
“No,” Sheila said firmly. “I named her Bonita because after she was born, the nurse kept saying that and staring at her. We were in shock, but so in love with her at the same time, and the name was the perfect description for Bonnie, so we took it. Her middle name is Bluebell after my grandmother, who was from Scotland and loved the bluebells that’d grown in the fields around the village she’d grew up in. I’ve never even watched the movie, so I didn’t know until she started kindergarten that there was a character in it with the name Bonnie Blue Butler.”