26. Tuvid

26

TUVID

T he next morning, we stopped at Mystic Mocha on our way to the microbrewery, going inside rather than join the too-long queue snaking from the drive through and out onto Main Street.

"There you are," someone said from behind us as we waited our turn at the counter to place our order.

Since our tails were tied, we turned in unison.

Angie sighed.

I studied the male with very pale blond hair and a beard. He was about a foot and a half shorter than me and of a slighter build, though all humans were of a slenderer build when compared to most monsters. Not all monsters were huge, however. But orcs, ogres, and gargoyles universally outclassed them all, along with a few ice lords and the random vampire. Survival of the fittest and all that. It had been tough for our ancestors to eke out a living in caves and below the ground.

"Hi, Benjamin," Angie said, glancing up at me. "Tuvid? This is Benjamin Piles." The pained expression suddenly left her face, replaced by one touched with glee. "Benjamin? This is Tuvid Elresh, my fiancé."

She was discovering how being engaged to me benefitted her as well. I liked it.

I jutted my hand his way. "I've heard about you," I growled as he took it. "You're an asshole."

I'd learned plenty about him online, though I hadn't shared all of it with Angie. This man had tried to drive her out of business. That meant I needed to kill him. It was in a gargoyle's nature to seek revenge for his mate.

"Fiancé?" Benjamin gave my hand a sour look, though he took it, trying to squeeze mine hard.

What was he, a bridge troll?

I crushed his hand in return to the point he grimaced and hopped around, trying to break free.

If Angie hadn't nudged my side with her elbow, I would've held on longer, tightened my grip until I felt the slighter male's bones shift. Followed it up with a snarl in his ear that if he came near her or threatened her business again, he'd be dead meat lying in a pulp beside the road.

"Yes, we recently got engaged." Angie linked her arm through mine and smiled up at me.

"When's the wedding?" The twist on Benjamin's face deepened. "I didn't know you were dating."

"It was rather sudden. We tied tails recently," she said, flicking her hand to where the tip of her red strap-on was secured to mine.

"What would you like?" the ogre female asked from behind the counter, her golden face beaming our way .

We ordered coffees and muffins and while she put our order together, we turned back to Benjamin.

"A gargoyle?" Benjamin said with a sneer.

I extended my wings, though not far. I didn't want to damage the place or hit anyone in the vicinity. Just wide enough to startle Benjamin.

"Yes, isn't he amazing?" Angie pressed her cheek against my arm.

I leaned over and kissed the top of her head.

"But . . . But . . . I . . ."

"Really, Benjamin," Angie said as we took our order from the ogre. "Sputtering is unbecoming." She breezed past him.

I did the same, pausing to growl by his ear, savoring how he jumped. I followed it up with a smack on his backside with the tip of my wing.

"Don't you dare touch me again," he snarled at my back.

I didn't turn.

"I have some power in this town," he bellowed as I strode over to open the door for Angie, following her outside and over to her car, still shouting. "I'm not afraid to use it!"

"Is he going to be a problem?" I asked Angie with a wince. "If so, I'll go apologize, though honestly, I won't enjoy doing it."

"Ignore him. He's all bluster."

"I smacked him with my wing."

She snorted. "You didn't."

"Sort of."

"Hard enough he could call it assault? "

"Maybe?"

"He's not naming it so far, so I suggest you let it go for now. We'll deal with it if he brings up charges. As for his power? His dad was our high school computer science teacher. That man could hack into just about any computer system out there. Probably still can. He does something top secret for the government now, which makes Benjamin think he rules the world or something. Ignore him like I try to do."

"Alright. I apologize to you, then."

"Why?"

"For making this situation awkward."

She grinned. "Keep defending me like this, and I'll be tempted to ask you to go smack him with your wing again."

"It's probably better if I don't do that."

"You're right."

We got inside her car. Well, she slid into her seat from the passenger side. I followed, scrunching myself into a ball on my seat with my knees against my chest and my poor wings protesting being bent over to keep from gouging through the roof.

I needed to buy one of the big trucks being sold to monsters. Twisting myself to fit inside her car was going to permanently bend my wings, though I savored riding this close to my mate.

She drove to the microbrewery, and we sat at a table out front, eating our muffins and drinking our coffee before going inside. I could tell she wasn't ready to face what she'd find. How could she be? Utter devastation awaited her. She'd taken over this business from her beloved uncle, and I knew she felt responsible for making sure it continued to be a success. None of this was her fault, though she'd blame herself.

Finding the front door unlocked, we opened it and stepped inside, but paused.

"There you are." Gracie greeted us with a smile, a mop in her hand. "Look around. Look!"

Angie's jaw dropped, and her eyes widened. "It's . . ."

"Amazing, right?" Emma said with pride shining in her voice.

"Exactly," a few others said at the same time. At least ten people—a mix of monsters and humans—stood inside the room, each with buckets and mops.

The beer was gone, and the floor gleamed as if it was brand new. Even better, most of the sour taint had left the air, leaving only a fresh, hoppy smell behind.

"After you sent us home early yesterday, we felt awful," Gracie said. "We started talking, and we came up with a plan."

"None of this is your responsibility," Angie said.

"Sure it is. How could we leave things as they were?" Gracie left her mop in her bucket and came over to give Angie a big hug. "You've worked hard since your uncle died to keep this place running. You not only kept it going, but you've also added more staff and expanded one of the lines. You're here every single day of the week, and we all see that."

"Everyone works hard."

"Sure, but who's the last person to leave each night?"

"Lots of times, you," Angie said, tears in her eyes .

"I mean, okay, I lock up, but you're often still here. I see the light on in your office when I walk out to my car."

"Sometimes," Angie said, taking my hand and squeezing it, "there are so many things that need doing to keep a business like this running smoothly."

"Who gave each of us bonuses last Christmas?" Emma asked, coming over to rub Angie's back.

Tears brimmed in Angie's eyes. "You deserve bonuses more than just at Christmas. You all give of yourselves each and every day. I know the bonus wasn't much but—"

"It bought my family a week's worth of groceries. How can you say that's not much?" a male yeti asked, his furry feet making swishing sounds as he shifted them on the hardwood floor.

"I was able to outbid someone for a Rockin' Rainbow Doll on eSlay, something I wouldn't have been able to do for my daughter," a woman said. "You should've seen her face when it arrived in the mail. She didn't think I could afford it, and I wouldn't have been able to without you, Angie."

"The point is, we didn't want to walk out yesterday and sit at home, waiting for you to call and tell us everything was all taken care of," Gracie said.

"This is our business too," Emma said. "We've put our hearts and souls into helping you keep it running. So, we got together and talked. Then we went to Shriek & Nail this morning, and we came in early to see if we could clean this place up."

Angie shook her head and looked up at me, truly crying now. I pulled the wad of tissues from my pocket I'd stuffed there before we left her house and handed them over.

"I hope you all punched in," Angie said through her tears. "Because I want to pay you."

"We don't want to be paid for something like this," a dragon shifter said. I'd met him mid-flight a week or so ago. Otherwise, I'd think he was a regular human—well, other than his monster-like, larger build. "No payment is needed. As Emma said, we belong here. This is a great place to work. We want to see it up and running again as soon as possible."

"You're all getting another bonus, then, because I can't ask you to do something like this for me without payment." Angie said it firmly, punctuating her words with a stomp of her foot.

"No one asked us to do this for you. We're doing it for Beastly Beer Co.," Emma said. "You own the place, but it's ours too. You know what I mean? We love it here. You're a great boss. This business means something to the community, and we want to get back to making great beer as quickly as we can."

"We wanted to help," Gracie added. "I hope you don't mind."

"Thank you," Angie said simply, smiling through her tears. "Thank you all so much."

"Well, well," someone said from behind us, walking inside the tasting room to join us. "This place doesn't look half bad. From the adjuster's report, I thought I'd find utter devastation." The yeti held out his hand. "I'm Ford, the state inspector. I stopped by to see what we were dealing with here, but things look pretty decent so far." He lifted a clipboard. "I'll need to take a look around, however, if that's alright with all of you?"

"I'm Angie Granger," she said as the others got back to work. "I own the microbrewery. Welcome. Please let me know if you have any questions."

"I will, my dear. I will."

We let the inspector poke around and went over to sit at one of the high-tops, me taking one of the seats constructed to accommodate those with wings.

"I can't believe they did all this," Angie said softly, watching as her employees finished and took their equipment into the main area to put it away in a janitor's closet. "I assumed the cleaning company would take days to do what my friends have done in a morning. I'd resigned myself to ripping up the wooden flooring. It's concrete beneath the wood, so at least that wouldn't need to be replaced, but I was truly worried about mold if the beer sat for any length of time. We'll have to make sure it completely dries out and sanitize everything. I'll have a construction expert lift some of the wood to make sure there's nothing unseen we need to worry about beneath, but for now, it looks amazing." She sent me a watery smile. "The tasting room might be back in business sooner than I ever anticipated."

"I've got an orc friend in the construction business." I pulled my phone from my pocket. "I can give him a call and see if he can fit in an inspection if you'd like. He might be available to do any needed work too."

"That would be wonderful." She extended her hand across the table, and we linked our fingers. "I can't imagine what I'd do if you weren't here. "

"You'd handle this. You're strong, Angie. I saw that right away. Look at how you confronted me when I accused you of taking those gnomes."

She raised a watery smile. "Yeah, I did, didn't I?"

"And don't forget the solid support system you have here in your friends. They would've stood by you while you took care of this. As for the kegs, I bet you would've come up with the same leads I have."

Her ex-boyfriend had the most to gain by sabotaging her business. However, I wasn't convinced the two incidents were connected. I'd be a fool to assume anything like that.

If the theft of her beer and this sabotage weren't related, that meant two people might be out to ruin Angie.