8. Public Secrets

Chapter 8

Public Secrets

“ W e had a contract,” Mr. White said. “It brings me no pleasure to do this. You’ll have to forgive my lateness, but my employer wanted to give you a few extra days to see if events unfolded differently. Clearly, they did not.”

“What is he talking about?” Carol Raskin asked Oliver.

Oliver scratched his head, not knowing what to say next. Men in black coveralls removed wine bottles from the shelves and carefully placed them into cardboard boxes. They removed bottles of Red-Hearted Queen and other wine selections, leaving the shelves barren.

“I informed your husband pursuant to the terms with Red Heart Distribution and our partners, you must prominently display bottles of Red-Hearted Queen in your store or you’d be in breach of your contractual obligations. Considering you still have a display of The Neighborhood Witch in our rightful spot, you are failing to meet those obligations,” Mr. White said as he handed a piece of paper to Carol. “This letter spells out every violation in our contract and why we are taking the proper steps to remedy the situation.”

Carol read through the multi-page document, flipping through the stapled pages at a hurried pace. Oliver wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

“Per the contract, you won’t be compensated for your purchase price, and henceforth, all distribution agreements are considered null and void,” Mr. White said, picking up his briefcase. He pulled two business cards from the inner pocket of his navy suit jacket. He handed cards to Carol and Oliver. “If you have any questions, if you lawyer up to fight us, or want to sign a new distribution contract, you can contact me at this number. I bid you good day.”

He moved over to the men loading up the wine. After a brief conversation, he left. The men followed behind, pushing a dolly full of crated wine bottles. The shoppers, with confused expressions, murmured to themselves at what had transpired.

“Oliver . . .” Carol said. “Oliver, what do we do?”

Oliver’s face sunk as he took in his once proud and beautiful displays of wine. A kaleidoscope of offerings gone. Only barren shelves left behind. Oliver rubbed his hands together, staring past the empty shelves into a void only he could see. There was only the nothingness. White flashes of light engulfed the world around him until only the empty shelves were left.

What do we do? This will ruin us.

All ambient sound was gone—the voices of the shoppers, the background noise of commerce—all gone. He could only hear the raspy sound of his breathing in and out. The ever-accelerating pounding of his heart.

A hand touched his arm. Not any hand, but his calming influence. Oliver’s rock. His partner. The hand of his beloved Carol.

It pulled him out of the enthralling trance of his void. The world came back into focus as the white light faded back into the depleted shelving. His heart slowed. His breathing returned to normal.

“Oliver, what do we do?”

He gave her a hug, tapping her on the shoulder. “We’ll be okay. We’ll think of something.” He turned toward the untouched shelves featuring bottles of The Neighborhood Witch wine. “We’ll just have to sell more of their wine. We can do it.”

More eyes focused their attention on the Raskins as they stood amongst the empty shelves.

He turned Carol toward the direction of the office. “Let’s go someplace quiet and talk,” Oliver said.

Oliver’s arm still hugged Carol as they sulked toward the hallway in the back of the store.

“Oliver,” Hugo’s voice called out. “We need to speak with you.”

The Raskins stopped.

Hugo, Alice, and Ez rushed down the aisle at a quick pace. Esmerelda lagged, struggling to match the longer strides of Hugo and Alice.

“Hugo, what’s wrong?” Carol asked.

“We need to go talk in private,” he responded.

“It’s about the wine,” Alice said. She spun around, marching backward, as if she was searching for something. She was on guard, but Oliver had no idea what she was guarding against.

Oliver arched his eyebrows, shocked at Alice’s statement. He asked, “How did you know?”

“Know what?” Hugo asked.

“They were just here,” Carol replied. She handed Hugo the multi-page document. He frantically flipped through the pages.

Oliver rubbed his hands together. He added, “They took everything. We couldn’t do anything. It’s all gone.”

“Who took what?” Alice asked. “What’s all gone?”

“Let me show you,” Oliver replied.

He led them to the wine and liquor section. Aisle after aisle. Shelf after shelf. All empty. Hugo and Alice touched the empty shelves where the blackish-green bottles once stood. Their fingers dragged over the aluminum shelves before their eyes met each other with a flabbergasted expression.

“It’s all gone. Everything. The wine. The liquor. The beer. Everything,” Oliver explained. “Every distributor pulled their items from the shelves.”

Hugo turned to Oliver, his face sunken in disbelief. “Why?”

Oliver gulped. He averted his gaze, holding onto his answer. He couldn’t. He couldn’t tell them why. He knew it would devastate them both, especially Alice.

“Why did they take everything?” Alice asked.

Oliver couldn’t say it. The truth would crush Alice’s spirit. His eyes watered, overcome with guilt. He couldn’t utter the words, so the burden fell onto his body. Hugo and Alice followed his finger as he pointed to Alice’s wine display.

“My wine did this?” Alice asked.

Oliver nodded.

Ez examined the display. “They’re making a move.”

Alice hugged Oliver. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I couldn’t . . .” Oliver said. “I couldn’t take away your dream. Not after you worked so hard.”

“We need to talk in private,” Ez said.

“We can talk in our office in the back,” Carol offered.

Ez took off, not waiting for the others to join her. They all followed her down the hallway and into the Raskins’ office. Ez shut the door behind everyone.

“First, the restaurant, and now the market,” Hugo said. “They’re moving pieces on the chessboard, and we don’t even know it.”

“Who is doing what?” Oliver asked.

“You might want to sit down for this,” Hugo suggested.

The Raskins sat down.

“This is going to sound strange, but our neighbors are vampires,” Alice said.

“ Vampires ?” Carol asked.

“Like fangs and capes and turning into bats?” Oliver asked.

“Fangs, yes. Capes and bats, not so much,” Hugo said. “But yeah, those bloodsucking monsters.”

“We believe they’re targeting us,” Alice said .

“How do you know?” Oliver asked.

“Because they tried to get us last night,” Hugo said. “They invited us over for dinner and tried to hypnotize us.”

Oliver sat back in his chair. Vampires?

Memories of taking Carol to see the old Christopher Lee Dracula movies in their youth raced through his mind.

“So, do we need a lot of garlic or something?” Oliver asked.

“It won’t work,” Hugo said.

“It’s a myth,” Ez said. “It’s something you tell someone to calm them down.”

Oliver shifted his focus from Ez to Hugo, then to Alice, then back to Hugo, trying to find who would break first. The one to give away the prank.

Yes. This is all a prank. They’ll bring everything back, and we’ll all laugh .

He turned to Carol, his rock. She clenched her hand into a tight fist and pressed it against her lips. She glanced off into the distance, lost in thought. He wasn’t being pranked. This was real. They were dealing with vampires like in the old movies.

“Let’s think this through,” Ez said. “We don’t know if they’re targeting everyone in this room. I work in the beverage business. It’s a tough business. There are business disputes all the time. It could be a coincidence.”

Oliver pulled the business card out of his pocket and handed it to Hugo. “This is their card. Maybe you can call them and work something out.

Hugo took the card and flipped it over. He gasped. “Oh, shit,” he said as he slumped his head and drooped his shoulders.

“What is it?” Alice asked.

He handed the card to her. Her face turned pale and lost all expression.

Alice focused back on Oliver with narrowed eyes and a curled lip. Her solemn face now showed a hint of anger. “When did they first contact you?”

“Over a week ago,” he replied. “Their representative was in here a day before the launch. He gave me an ultimatum. Take down the display or lose everything. I called his bluff.”

“This logo is tattooed on Sebastian’s forearm.” Alice handed the card to Ez.

She took the card and flipped it over a few times to examine every corner.

“It’s them.” Alice ran a hand through her hair.

Oliver focused on a stack of papers, so he didn’t have to see the disappointment on Alice’s face. He couldn’t let her down, even though he risked it all and lost.

Oliver glanced over to Carol. Her face expressionless. Her hand still in front of her mouth. Carol’s eyes glazed over as she was enveloped in the shock. He tapped her forearm a few times before his hand came to a rest in hopes of comforting her. Carol snapped out of her haze and returned the glance to him, tears in her eyes.

“It’s all my fault. I’m sorry I put you through this,” Alice said. “I’m really sorry. If you had told me, I would have pulled every bottle from your store.”

“It’s not your fault, sweetie,” Carol reassured her. She placed both hands in her lap and sat up. “None of us are to blame.”

“No, it’s my fault,” Oliver said. “I told him no one comes in here and threatens me in my store. I can deal with this. I can fix it.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Ez said. “If they were going to target you, then they would have found anything. It was an easy target.”

Her words were like a warm blanket to soothe his frayed, anxiety ridden nerves.

“Ez is right,” Hugo said. “They would have found anything. They must have been spying on us for weeks. They knew about the restaurant and took it over. They knew about our connection here and acted. If not the wine, it could have been anything. How has the staff been?”

“We’re still understaffed,” Carol said. “They’ve been calling in sick. ”

“Some kind of illness . . .” Oliver said. He paused for a moment, then dragged his eyes toward Hugo. “Do you think . . . ?”

“As I said, they would have found any weakness,” Ez answered.

“So, what do we do?” Oliver asked.

“We need to go to your house right now,” Hugo said.

“I’ll put a protection spell on your house, so no one can enter without a special key,” Alice said. “They can’t get inside, and you’ll be protected.”

“You’ll have to close the store early,” Ez said.

“We can’t close early,” Oliver said. “Our weekday traffic is higher in the evenings.”

“You’ll be vulnerable at night,” Ez said. “They can only move at night and may try to strike. It’s the only way to protect yourselves and your employees. Close before sunset.”

“We can’t—” Oliver began.

“You must. No excuses,” Ez commanded as she slapped her hands on his desk.

Her short stature towered over Oliver in his well-worn office chair. Oliver had worked in the business for over fifty years. He had dealt with a lot of personalities and always stood his ground. With Esmerelda Honeydew, however, she was the only one who could slap his desk and command his attention.

She glared at him. “If you care for your staff and yourselves, you’ll close before sunset,” she continued.

“We’ll close before sunset,” he said.

Ez pulled back from the desk. “Kiddo, you put the protection spell on their house. I’m going to head back to my place and make some calls. Maybe I can convince the vampiric conclave to intervene.”

“Vampiric conclave?” Oliver asked. “You mean there’s more of them?”

“It’s comprised of the heads of the different vampire factions. Most of the vampires swear an allegiance to one of the different courts. It’s how they keep themselves in line without one vampire overtaking the rest. They tend to look down on lone wolfs, regardless of rank, and squash them to keep the rest in order. They may offer a sit-down with the Savinos and tell them to back off,” Ez said.

“You could tell them any further action against us could escalate the situation, and neither side would want that,” Alice offered.

“Good point,” Ez said.

“You mean, a sit-down like in the mob movies?” Oliver asked. “Why don’t you have a sit-down yourselves?”

“I’d highly advise against it. You don’t know what could happen,” Ez said.

“Oliver’s right,” Hugo said.

“Out of the question,” Ez responded.

“We’ve been playing catch up, while they’re maneuvering around in the shadows. If we go on the offensive, it could catch them off guard,” Hugo said.

“We’ll know their exact demands,” Alice added. “Then we can figure out our next steps.”

“You’ll be going in alone,” Ez said.

“Not if that vampiric conclave knows about it,” Hugo said.

“If anything happens to me, then it would be considered an act of war,” Alice added.

“Besides, we’ll be armed,” Hugo said. “I’ll have the stake and Alice has her magick.”

Alice glanced at Hugo. “I should face them alone. If you bring a stake, then it could escalate. If it escalates and goes sideways?—”

Hugo faced Alice, his eyebrows arched. “I can’t let you confront them alone. We do it together or neither of us do it. I’ll be armed. You’ll be armed. We’ll be fine. Trust me.”

Alice lowered her eyes for a moment. She nodded her head. “Okay. We do it together.”

Ez was silent. She rubbed her forehead, careful not to smear any of her blue eyeshadow and drawn on eyebrows. Her silence spread to the rest of the small office space. Everyone else stared at each other, unsure of what to do or say next.

“I can’t believe I’m going to say this again,” Ez said. “Oliver does have a good point. The sit-down might be our next best action.”

Oliver turned to Carol. “See, I’m good for more than one idea.”

“Stop it.” Carol tapped him on the arm. “You’ve had at least two before this. One was marrying me.”

Oliver winked at her.

Alice stood upright, pulling back on her witch’s hat. “Then it’s settled. We’ll contact them to get a sit-down in the next few days. Ez, you’ll contact the conclave and let them know. In the meantime, I’ll put the protection on your house,” Alice said.

“How are we going to contact them without knocking on the front door?” Hugo asked.

Ez handed him the business card. “Call their representative. I’m sure he’ll pass along the good word,” she said.

“This will work. I believe in this,” Alice said.

“Before I go, I wanted to let you know that it’s a wonderful display,” Ez said. “I’m really proud of everyone in here.”

Alice smiled. “Thank you. That means a lot to me.”

Oliver stood up and Carol followed. “Let’s go show them no one comes into our town and pushes us around.”

Esmerelda took a deep breath and exhaled. “Be smart. Be vigilant. Be ready. Follow the plan, and don’t do anything you’ll regret.” She checked her watch. “It’s getting late. The sun will be going down soon. We need to move now.”