Wicked Charms (Lizzy and Diesel 3)

“Oh, of course, well, actually he doesn’t know. Just not enough hours in the day to get to everything. Lots of time to tell him about the treasure. Lots of time. The more pressing issue is to schedule a meeting between the two of you. Mr. Ammon received your text and was very disappointed. Perhaps you would be able to attend a meeting later today. Four o’clock or five o’clock, perhaps?”

“No.”

“Ha-ha. No? Ha-ha. That’s a good one. Just no.” He smoothed out his tie. “The thing is, Mr. Ammon has tasked me with ensuring your presence at Cupiditas sometime today.”

“It’s not going to happen.”

Rutherford pressed his lips together. He removed his pocket handkerchief and waved it, and four men in suits appeared out of nowhere. One of them tagged me with a stun gun, there was a loud buzzing in my head, and my legs collapsed. I was scooped up and tossed into the back of an Escalade.

By the time my nerve endings stopped tingling and my muscles started working again, I was at Martin Ammon’s doorstep.

“Oh my, that was something, wasn’t it?” Rutherford said, smiling wide, like this had been the fun experience of a lifetime. “I’ve never seen that before. Very impressive display of weaponry.”

“You’re an idiot.”

“Yes, yes. Ha-ha. I’ve heard that before.” He motioned to the men. “Help M

iss Tucker into Mr. Ammon’s office. He would like to have a moment with her before the ceremony.”

“Ceremony?”

Rutherford pressed his hands together. Hard to tell what it signified since he was always grinning. Glee? Terror? Nervous excitement?

“Yes!” he said. “Finally. This is the day we’ve all been waiting for. This is to be the rebirth of Mammon. Very exciting. Very wonderful. Yes, indeed. Big day. Big, big.”

“You’ve found the Avaritia Stone.”

“Mr. Ammon knew exactly where he’d left it. It was in his sock drawer! Imagine! It just brings a smile to my face.”

I went slack-jawed. Didn’t he know his face was in a perpetual grin? The man looked like the Joker. He had to have cheek muscles that could crack a walnut.

I was marched into Ammon’s office and placed in front of his desk like a seven-year-old standing in front of the principal. The security force and Rutherford retreated to the far wall and stood at parade rest.

“Miss Tucker,” Ammon said. “I’m glad you could find time for this meeting. It’s really very important to me. I like to keep everything neat and tidy. Now that I’m recovered from my concussion, I thought we should have this meeting prior to the ceremony. I want your mind to be at ease. As you know, I have your signed contract, which gives me total control over everything you’ve ever owned or created. In fact, I’ve already begun to produce products under your brand. So you can rest easy when you’re gone that your legacy will live on.”

“You put coloring and preservatives into my cookies!”

“It makes the product much more cost-effective. When I put your picture on the label with all your wholesome blondness the consumer will never think to check the label. It’s genius, isn’t it?”

“It’s awful!”

“Now that you understand all this, we can move on to the real reason you’re here. The holy ceremony to release our lord Mammon requires that all elements be in place at the time of the ceremony. We need the human who carries Mammon and will assume his very soul. That would be me. We need the Avaritia Stone. I have it here on my desk. And as you can see, I also have the coin and the Blue Diamond. At the last moment we realized we’d completely forgotten about the diamond. Fortunately we were able to locate it in your kitchen.”

“We didn’t want to disturb you while you were at work,” Rutherford said. “I was sure you wouldn’t mind if we looked around your house. We were very careful not to disturb anything. Although I’m afraid we did slightly destroy your door, but we’ll reimburse you for the repairs. And goodness, your cat is quite ferocious. Ha-ha. He’s quite the attack cat.”

“You better not have hurt him,” I said.

“Oh no. No, no. Goodness, he’s a delightful creature. I gave him a bite of muffin before we left. I hope that was all right.”

“And last but not least,” Ammon said, “we need to sacrifice a high priestess with special abilities. That will be you.”

Oh boy.

“I’m not a high priestess,” I said. “I’m a baker.”

“You’re too modest. Your abilities are apparent.”

“You won’t get away with this. You’ll be arrested and sent to jail.”