Haven Witches Read online

  Haven Witches

  Haven Witches Mysteries Book 1

  Emma Watts

  Contents

  Also by Emma Watts

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  A Plea

  Newsletter

  About the Author

  Copyright © 2018 by Emma Watts

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Haven Witches is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  For my Family

  Also by Emma Watts

  Click here and sign up to be alerted to releases and updates on future books. http://eepurl.com/bMmdI5

  Witches of Crystal Cove: Murder Most Horrid

  Witches of Crystal Cove: Murder Most Peculiar

  Witches of Crystal Cove: Murder Most Sudden

  Witches of Crystal Cove: Murder Most Foul

  Witches of Crystal Cove: Murder Most Twisted

  Witches of Crystal Cove: Murder Most Odd

  Witches of Crystal Cove: Murder Most Mysterious

  Witches of Crystal Cove: Murder Most Ghastly

  Witches of Crystal Cove: Murder Most Frightful

  Witches of Crystal Cove: Murder Most Grim

  Witches of Crystal Cove: Murder Most Spiteful

  Witches of Crystal Cove: Murder Most Wicked

  Witches of Crystal Cove: Murder Most Devious

  Witches of Crystal Cove: Murder Most Cruel

  Witches of Crystal Cove: Murder Most Heinous

  Witches of Crystal Cove: Murder Most Careless

  Witches of Crystal Cove: Murder Most Troubling

  Witches of Crystal Cove: Murder Most Despicable

  All 18 books are now available.

  Absolute Murder: An Oceans Fall Mystery

  Desperate Murder: An Oceans Fall Mystery

  Shameless Murder: An Oceans Fall Mystery

  Chapter 1

  There are few things more embarrassing than moving in with your younger brother; actually, come to think of it, that’s not exactly true, but the events I’m about to share with you are.

  My name is Kelly Winters, I’m thirty-three years of age and I’m a witch… I think? Don’t hold me to that.

  Okay, I know that sounds like I just stood up in an AA meeting, or came out of the closet, but there isn’t any other way of stating it. That’s probably why I don’t tell people. I keep it to myself. It’s not because I don’t think anyone would understand, or that some coven is keeping tabs on me or even that I would be burned alive at the stake. Heck, we are living in modern times where it’s more acceptable to be different. No, it’s not to do with any of that, it’s just… well… it doesn’t roll off the tongue very well, does it? As let’s face it, it’s a tough pill to swallow. I mean, at least it was for me.

  I know, I know what you’re going to say. You’d think by now I would have figured it out, especially after all the weird things that have happened over the last four years but I was never able to connect the dots until I moved to the charming town of Haven on the West Coast. Perhaps it has something to do with the fresh air?

  My old green Chevy truck spluttered out a cloud of dark exhaust fumes as if giving up the ghost. The engine light blinked a solid orange, not to remind me that it needed an oil change but to remind me that I better get a new engine. I’d clocked more miles on that thing in the trip from Jersey to California than I dared think about. I didn’t even want to imagine what the thing was worth on the market. It had broken twice on the way over, and threatened to fall to pieces somewhere on I-80.

  Thankfully, a stranger’s assistance had got the thing going again.

  Don’t ask me what their name was as one minute they were there, the next they weren’t. That’s what I mean by strange things following me around.

  Now I know what you’re thinking. Why on earth would I drive over three thousand miles when there is this little thing called flight that was invented by the Wright Brothers? Jamie, my brother that is, would agree with you. You see, he’d told me to catch a plane but that would have meant paying some moving company to transport all my goods and that would have cost an arm and a leg and quite simply, I just didn’t have the spare cash. After being laid off from my job of twelve years, and going through a costly and brutal divorce, I was lucky if I had two cents to rub together.

  Okay, I’m lying. I’m petrified of flying.

  I still can’t wrap my head around how they manage to get that much metal off the ground, especially with my big butt in one of the seats. Anyway, I opted to downsize and U-Haul all my goods across the country because I would be staying with my brother I wouldn’t need the furniture. I ended up selling it on Craigslist. I swear I was ripped off.

  I pushed out of the rusted skeleton, stretched out my legs and rolled my head around to work out the tension. I got a few odd looks from the gardeners who must have thought I was there to rob the place. I gazed up at my brother’s oceanfront, two-story, fully restored white Victorian farmhouse. The exterior was stunning and the yard had been trimmed to perfection. For someone who wasn’t married, had no kids and wasn’t even dating, it seemed a little over the top. Did he really need all of this? It seemed so. It had eight bedrooms and sat on twenty-two secluded acres overlooking the wild Pacific Ocean. Off to the right were two historic barns, and a garden shed with an unimpeded view of the ocean. I’d taken a few wrong turns just to find the darn thing. The home itself was completely private, situated a good distance from the nearest neighbor and hedged in by forested lands to the south, north and east.

  From beyond the house I could hear the sound of crashing waves. I noticed sea stacks and wild beaches for as far as the eye could see. A deep summer sun bore down making me sweat.

  The door swung open and there he was in his full glory. Six feet tall, blond surfer hair, broad shouldered, chiseled jaw, built like an NFL player and dressed in nothing more than shorts, T-shirt and sandals.

  “Kelly!”

  He gave a jiggle as if he was doing some cha-cha on a cruise boat before heading out to meet me. “Jamie.” I cracked a smile. Okay, hold your horses right there. There are a few things I need to tell you about my beloved brother. Now don’t get me wrong. I love him to bits and would walk over hot coals for him — um, maybe not hot coals, that might be pushing things to the extreme, but you get the point. But here’s the thing. As grateful as I am for him letting me come and stay with him, he tended to flaunt what he had. What I’m trying to say is he wasn’t just wealthy, he was a bit of a celebrity — online that is. So how did he make his money? I cringe at the very thought of it. Are you ready for it? Making YouTube videos. I know, right, crazy but apparently it’s all the rage. Yeah, he has over ten million subscribers. Now, why anyone would tune into him was a mystery in itself. But apparently there is a whole smack of people out there who think he’s the bee’s knees. So what does he do? Prank people. Do crazy stunts and generally record anything that is liable to get him hits online. Is that a job? Can you get paid for that? Yeah, that’s what I was thinking whe
n he first told me about it. But strangely enough, there are those who love to see people make fools of themselves.

  “Ah it’s good to see you, sister,” he said wrapping his bearlike arms around me and making me almost forget that I’m his big sister.

  “Whoa, you’ll squeeze the life out of me.”

  “I’m just pleased to see you. How long has it been?”

  “Four years?”

  “Far too long.” He shook his head. “Come on in.”

  “I’ve got to get my stuff.”

  He threw up a hand. “Oh leave it. I’ll have Henry do it.”

  “Who’s Henry?”

  “My butler.”

  He wrapped his arm around me again and led me back to the house. “You have a butler?”

  He laughed out loud. “Kelly dear, I have everything. You wait until you see my chef Pierre.”

  Yep, this was going to take some getting used to.

  As we stepped inside, music was playing lightly in the background as I took in the sight of the room. “This is a lot of space for one person.”

  “You think? Eight bedrooms, four bathrooms, laundry room, pantry, dining area that will seat twenty. I was actually thinking of expanding.”

  “And by that you mean getting hitched and having twenty kids?” I said.

  “Kids? No way, not yet. I’m still young.”

  “You’re twenty-eight. I would have thought you’d be married by now.”

  “And disappoint all those California ladies out there? C’mon, Kelly, say it isn’t so.” He grinned and stepped back as I took in the sight of the hardwood floors, expensive décor and furniture. This was what he was all about. Wowing people. He loved to gloat about how well he was doing. Even though we hadn’t seen each other in four years, I’d been following his journey online, peering into his world like the other millions. I still couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that he’d managed to capture the attention of that many people, let alone make a living from it. Me, well, I’d scraped by doing anything: factory work, office temp jobs, retail and restaurant service. You name it, at one time or another I had done it. It was a far cry from my aspiration of becoming a police officer. That dream had ended after I injured myself in the last week of the academy. Well, I didn’t injury myself so to speak. We’d been doing this trust game where six of us were meant to catch a guy who had stepped up onto a ladder and then had to fall backward — it was meant to build teamwork and whatnot. Anyway, this one guy, I swear he was the size of four guys. Instead of falling back he somehow missed everyone’s arms and fell on top of me. When I managed to crawl out from his ass crack and emerged like a baby horse, my limbs weren’t exactly straight. Yep, he broke my leg. Though at the time I thought he had shattered every bone in my body. So that pretty much put a damper on that career. Of course I never told anyone that. I mean, can you imagine telling someone that a 260-pound man broke my leg by falling on me? No, I had to come up with some heroic feat, you know, like… that I had rescued a fellow recruit from an out-of-control car in a training session. Did people buy it? Nope, but it saved me from going red from embarrassment.

  “So what do you think?” he asked.

  I nodded and pursed my lips. “Great. Just great, Jamie.”

  “Oh and you are going to love this town. Seriously, everyone is so friendly. I kid you not, people will say hello when they pass you and that’s saying a lot for California.”

  “C’mon, I’m sure Californians are nice folks.”

  “Not the ones I met in L.A. Nope, out here it’s much nicer. Besides, it’s only ten hours’ drive to L.A., or five to San Francisco. If I need to get there for meetings, I just take the chopper.”

  “Chopper?”

  He smiled. “Man, I really need to bring you up to speed. How about we have a BBQ tonight? I’ll introduce you to some of my friends and folks here in the community. It’s a real-tight knit place, Kelly. You’ll soon see. This will be the best move you’ve ever made. Now can I get you a drink? Orange juice, vodka, beer?”

  “Tea would be fine.”

  “Tea? Please tell me you don’t still have those little tea parties of yours, do you?” He snorted.

  “Not since I was eight and thanks for bringing back that traumatic memory,” I said with a smile on my face. I don’t even want to begin to tell you what my brother filled the teapot with. Yeah, I think you guessed it.

  Jamie headed off into the kitchen. “Pierre!”

  I stood there staring around at the framed photos. Many of them were of Jamie surfing, skydiving and out on his boat surrounded by numerous scantily clad women.

  “Has madam selected a room?”

  I spun on the balls of my feet, startled at the sound of a posh British accent. Before me was a man in his mid-fifties, dark hair swept back, thin mustache, short, maybe five four, and dressed in a crisp white shirt and black pants with highly polished shoes. At his side was a beautiful dark brown and black German shepherd.

  “Oh sorry, you caught me off-guard there. You are…”

  “Henry Starling.” His head tilted. “And this is Winnie.”

  I stifled a laugh. Winnie? I envisioned some aristocrat carrying around a tiny white dog and giving it that name. It didn’t seem to fit the beast of a dog I was looking at.

  “Winnie. Well hello,” I said, stepping forward. She growled a little and took a step back.

  “Winnie!” he said, and the dog dropped down and looked as harmless as a fly. “You must forgive Winnie, she’s not used to strangers. Well, at least ones that haven’t been given the all-clear.”

  “The all-clear?”

  He didn’t clarify but turned his head toward a hallway. “Anyway, have you decided upon a room?”

  “You know what, Mr. Starling?”

  “You can call me Henry. Your brother does and so do his friends.”

  I gave a nod. “I’ll give you a hand.”

  “Oh I wouldn’t dream of it.”

  “No seriously. My brother might enjoy having people run around after him but I’m not used to it. In the big city where I come from, people don’t have any problem telling you where to go if you ask for help.”

  “Well, if you insist. Though you are probably going to get me into trouble.”

  I walked over to him, keeping an eye on Winnie. “Trouble from Jamie? Please. He might have a lot of money and be taller and bigger than me, but I’ll still put him in an armlock if he gets out of line.”

  I caught Henry snicker but his facial expression didn’t change. It was odd. I headed back outside. The gravel crunched below my feet as I made my way to the back of the U-Haul.

  “So how long have you worked for my brother, Henry?”

  “Eight years, ma’am.”

  I smiled and turned towards him. “Henry. Let’s get one thing clear right from the get-go. You don’t need to run around after me while I’m here, nor do you need to call me ma’am. I’m just Kelly. Okay?”

  His eyebrow shot up. I wasn’t sure if he was used to that but I certainly wasn’t used to having someone talking to me as if I was some countess from Downton Abbey. I unlocked the back doors on the U-Haul and pulled out a box and handed it off to him.

  “May I ask a question, ma’am? I mean…” he was quick to correct himself, “Kelly.”

  “Go ahead.”

  “How long will you be staying with us?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. Once I get a job and scrape together enough funds to rent a place in town, I’ll be moving out.” I leaned in. “You see the thing is, I like to throw these saucy parties. You know the ones with red lingerie, male strippers and whatnot. And well, I don’t think my brother will go for that. Do you?”

  He spluttered and his eyes widened. I started laughing and patted him on the back. “Just joking, Henry.” Off to my left I could see Winnie sitting there all poised and relaxed. I reached in and pulled out a piece of beef jerky from one of my boxes and tossed it to her. “Here you go, girl.”

  Oddly enough the
dog didn’t go for it. The jerky landed on the ground in front of the dog.

  “She won’t eat it without my go-ahead.”

  “Really? She’s that well-trained?”

  “See for yourself.” He turned to the dog. “Winnie, go ahead.”

  The dog scoffed it down like she hadn’t eaten in days.

  “Well isn’t that something?”

  I turned and grabbed out a few more boxes from the trailer. As we strolled back to the house, I threw out a few more questions to Henry. “Tell me, Henry, don’t you find it a little odd that my brother has cameras everywhere inside his house?”

  “At first I did. But you soon get used to it. He says it saves him having to hold it everywhere he goes. This way he can hit a button on his computer and we go live.”

  “And whereabouts do you stay?”

  “In the attic.”

  “Please tell me he didn’t confine you to some dusty old attic?” I was about to go off on my brother and Henry must have picked up on it.

  “I’ll show you. It’s nice.”

  We hadn’t made it to the front door when the roar of an engine caught our attention. I cast a glance over my shoulder and Henry turned. Tearing up the long driveway was a red Porsche. To say it was stunning would have been an understatement.

  “Does everyone have money in Haven?”

  “Just your brother’s friends.”

  The vehicle screeched to a halt outside and out came a guy who looked like he’d just stepped out of a GQ magazine cover, minus the suit. He was wearing aviator shades and had a Bluetooth earpiece in and was talking away to someone as he made his way over.

  “Yeah, yeah.” He laughed. “No, it’s going to be epic, man. Look, I’ll get back to you, there is something I have to attend to here. Right, yeah, okay. Speak later.”

  He tapped the side of the earpiece and removed his shades. Besides being in amazing shape, he had these dark brown eyes that drew me in. I felt my stomach do a few flips, and I raked a hand through my long dark hair. He flashed his pearly whites.