“Your mouth, Nina—mind it!” Wanda reminded with a shout, even as they attempted to drag her out of the courtroom, the heels of her midsized pumps digging into the floor. “Remember, you’re in a court of foolish law!”
Harry was there suddenly, shoving his way past the onlookers to shield her from the quickly growing chaos of the crowd. She tugged at his shirt. “What’s going on?” she yelled up, panic rising in her chest as people began to react.
But Harry didn’t answer. He just looked over his shoulder and smiled at her, then pointed to the courtroom doors.
Mara’s eyes flew to the opening where Darnell stood, holding on to the arm of none other than . . .
Uh . . .
Wait. Who the hell was that?
CHAPTER
18
The courtroom erupted in loud bursts of outrage and overall chaos as Darnell tugged the man toward the council.
One of the council members grabbed the gavel and pounded it hard, holding the microphone to it in order to amplify the sound. The screeching echo of gavel against wood had everyone scrambling to see what was going on. The crowd settled, leaving only a distant hum of curious whispers.
“Identify yourself!” Griffin demanded with a harsh order, pointing his knobby finger at the stranger.
Darnell patted the man on the back, and gave him a toothy smile. “You up, brotha. Time to sell it.”
“Who are you?” Charles Knotts roared, making the man’s spine almost crumble. But Darnell stood behind him, giving him an anchor to hold on to. His big hand clamped on to the gentleman’s shoulder, resting there to keep him upright.
The man with the raven hair looked down at his feet, his hands trembling, making his overly large gray suit ripple. “Guido. Um . . . Guido the Witch Doctor.”
Mara’s eyes flew open, then upward at Harry. “That’s Guido?” she mouthed, shocked.
Harry nodded with a wide grin. But his smile held a secret she didn’t understand.
She’d have never recognized Guido without his witch doctor getup. He looked so vulnerable, afraid—entirely different without his head full of feathers and garish makeup.
“Just wait and trust me, okay?” Harry murmured, running a hand over her head.
“What brings you to disrupt this proceeding?” Griffin demanded with another crash of the gavel. “This is official pack business. Not witch doctor business.”
As Guido shuffled his feet, searching for his words, Nina, Marty, and Wanda lined the back of the courtroom by the entrance. How strange . . .
Mara shot a question with her eyes up at Harry, but he simply smiled and squeezed her shoulder.
“I’ll ask you again. What brings your disruption to this proceeding?”
Guido’s Adam’s apple bobbed along his reed-thin neck when Darnell nudged him again. “I have information about what happened the night Harry Emmerson was allegedly turned by Mara Flaherty.”
More gasps erupted from the courtroom, forcing Mara to gasp with them, until Charles smacked the gavel against the wood surface again. “There will be silence in this courtroom, or I’ll have you all removed at once!”
Guido sucked in a gulp of air, fidgeting with the buttons on a suit that hung off him like it belonged to his father.
“Explain,” Charles prompted, raising his bushy eyebrows in question.
“So it went like this. I was all doin’ my witch doctor thing a few weeks ago when I got a call from this lady who wanted a love potion. You know, I love him, he doesn’t notice me, make me irresistible to him, right?”
Each council member leaned forward in their seats high above Guido, anticipating his next words.
Griffin gave him a sharp nod. “You have our attention.”
“Anyway, she sounded pretty desperate, and even though I suck royally at witch doctoring, it’s like I told your wingnut friends back there.” He hitched his thin jaw over his shoulder in the direction of Nina. “I gotta eat. So I told her to c’mon over. And she did.” He paused, shuffling his feet until Darnell patted his shoulder to reassure him. “Wow. All I gotta say is holy nutballs. You people sure make ’em crazy.”
“Meaning?” as yet unheard from council member number six, Davis Eaton asked.
Guido held up a thin, pale hand. “No disrespect to your kind, but man, this lady was certifiable. She kept going on and on about how she was sick of hearing her friend talk about this guy all day long. How she was tired of pretending her friend was right for this guy when she was the one who was right for him. She said she was sick of keeping her love for him a secret while her friend blathered on about this guy. All this while she was sweating and pacing, her eyes all round and wide.”