Wicked by Any Other Name Read Free Page B

good” face. As a witch whose gift was for revenge spells, she knew the art very well. While she never did anything that would fatally harm someone, she did believe in making miscreants suffer greatly for their sins.
    â€œI don’t know why I had to be the first.” Stasi stared at the now empty plate. “How many lemon squares were there?”
    â€œI dunno. I think Mrs. Benedict brought over a couple dozen.” Blair also stared at the plate. “Do you think Bogie snuck up here and ate some?”
    Stasi shook her head. “No, we sat here and ate every one.” She rubbed her tummy, starting to feel the effects of sugar overload. “I’ll get the ginger tea.”
    ***
    â€œWhen do I get my day in court?”
    Carrie Snyder Ferguson Simpson James Anderson accepted the cup of coffee Mae handed her and took two sips, setting it down on top of the notes Trevor Barnes had spread out on his desk for a case he needed to file that morning. Mae cast a disapproving glance at Carrie, then stared at the cup, which carefully shifted itself to the right and off the papers. Mae smiled at her boss’s look of disapproval and disappeared from the office, literally.
    Trevor pushed his dark blond hair off his forehead. He’d get a haircut today, he thought. He looked at his new client and narrowed his blue eyes. She was a nightmare, he realized belatedly.
    A powerful wizard who dealt with every facet of preternatural law, Trevor Barnes was less used to dealing with the residents of the non-supernatural community. He didn’t take many cases where mortals were involved, except those few that caught his interest. He was no longer amazed when humans tried to sue a vampire for breach of contract because the vampire refused to turn them. They refused to consider that it was against vampire law to turn someone for money. But there were many unscrupulous vampires out there, and it was better in Trevor’s view if the vamp absconded with the money, leaving the human to deal with his still-mortal condition, rather than abandon a newly turned vampire to fend for itself until an enforcer from the Vampire Protectorate had to be called out to destroy it before it harmed too many others.
    He rarely interacted with witches as plaintiffs or defendants since they didn’t get on well with wizards and vice versa, and they tended not to cross into each other’s jurisdictions. And now he was going to be pushed into dealing with one in court. He had a strong feeling this client wasn’t going to settle.
    He had been surprised when Carrie Anderson marched into his office two months ago and informed him she wanted to retain him to sue a local witch for alienation of affection. When Trev asked her why she didn’t seek justice through the witches’ community, she tartly informed him that they protected their own. She wanted justice and knew he would get it for her.
    Trev’s first instinct was to turn her down, since he really wasn’t all that excited about having a mortal for a client, but the idea of suing a witch because she had ruined a woman’s love life tempted him. Business had been rather bland lately, with only the usual dry cases that didn’t offer him a lick of challenge. It wasn’t long before he regretted his decision. It had only taken a bit of research on his client to realize that the woman was pretty much bonkers, and now he was well and truly stuck with her thanks to the Wizards’ Code in legal matters.
    Carrie was suspicious of everyone, and her past husbands headed the list. Her paranoia about being cheated on drove her first husband to an oil rig in the Atlantic with a vow never to return. Her second husband took off for Alaska with the same promise. Number three did the unthinkable and died of a heart attack, leaving behind several children and a pile of debts that prompted Carrie to waste no time latching on to husband number four. Trev’s