Sorry, missed my Friday deadline. I’ll try to post The Sweetest Part 3 this week too. Happy reading!
“Where am I? What happened?” Jackson asked. He wrenched his eyelids open trying to make sense of things. He looked around recognizing his office. Sitting across the desk from him was Val. “What did you do?” he demanded. He tried to stand. He fell back in his chair weak from the magic.
“How do you feel?” Val asked. She crossed her arms over her chest.
Jackson was shaking with fear and anger. He decided to embrace the anger to outplay the fear. “Peachy. Why are we here?”
“Look, you have three choices. One, you can drink this potion,” she said, sitting a bottle with green goo in front of him. “It will make you forget everything about magic, about me, other than my awesome bakery.”
“Why would I trust you? It’s probably poisoned or I’ll wake up with you creeping over me again!”
“Look if I was a murderer I wouldn’t need your help at all. That asshole would already be planted by Jimmy Hoffa.” Val leaned forward to reach the Newton’s cradle on his desk. She pulled back a silver ball, releasing it. She watched them clang back and forth.
He raised an eyebrow. “You know where Jimmy Hoffa is buried?”
“Jackson, I won’t hurt you.”
He stared her down. “You already did when you did your voodoo on Alice and me.”
“She was already sleeping with her boss. I had nothing to do with them eloping. That was all her. Isn’t it better you know she’s a cheater now, instead of marriage and two point five kids later?”
“What are my other two options?” he asked, glancing at the scotch on his desk.
“You can leave and report me to authorities. I did drug you and kidnap you, basically,” Val said, following his glance.
“Or?” he asked.
“Or, you can help me finish my plan,” Val said. She got up and poured two drinks.
“She was really cheating on me?” Jackson asked.
“Yep, for a few years.”
He paled. They’d only been together two years. “What’s your plan?” He grabbed one of the glasses she poured.
“Sofia May works for you?” Val asked, taking a sip.
“Why?” he asked.
“She’s engaged to my ex. I want to make him pay.”
“What did he do that was so bad that you’d go to this much trouble?”
Val downed her scotch. She stared into her empty glass. “He’s very powerful. He has one of the highest positions in the magical world, which is weird. There are only four Area Coven Leaders on this continent, and they’re all from prominent wealthy lines of magic. He has a strange proportion of power for his background. He had little money, but he’s quickly rising through the ranks. We met five years ago. He was so smug, I wanted to put him in his place and he wanted to put me on my back. Two years ago I finally gave in. We got engaged shortly after. I didn’t realize that he was using my family connections to further his career, until later. I was blinded by love.”
Jackson raised an eyebrow. “He used you, so what?”
“I found out about his affair with a woman from the High Council. I gave him an ultimatum. And he told me I’d deal with it or he’d destroy my reputation. I told him I didn’t have a reputation to get out. He- He assaulted me with his magic. He did things that are forbidden.”
Jackson reached toward her and thought better of it. He grabbed the bottle and poured another round. “I’m sorry Val. If you want to get back at him for that, why did you do the same to me?”
She froze. “I never, never did that to you. I needed you for something. You would have said no.”
“What?”
“Well, we’re fake dating now. We went to a function together tonight.”
He stared at her, shocked. “The dinner?”
“Yeah. You’re in a political position and Max is making political allies. Will you help me?”
“Why not go to the police?” Jackson asked.
“We can’t go to the normal police, and he has our police in his pocket.”
“I’ll help you, if you promise to never use your magic on me again,” he said, extending his hand toward her to shake on it.
“That’s easy. I can’t use my magic,” Val said, swallowing the last of her drink.
He dropped his hand. “But, you broke us up and your magic bakery. You use magic all the time.”
She picked up the potion again waving it in front of him. “Potions aren’t considered magic, not really. Magic is way more powerful, but I promise only consensual potions and no magic.” She extended her hand to him and they shook.
