I decided to drag Kinana into the search. In fact, I decided to drag everyone into the search.

We spent the morning waiting on coffee customers, the one person who actually wanted to buy a book, and making phone calls to everyone we knew, putting anAPB out on both Vijeeter and Loke.

Regardless of her first shock at seeing the state of my face (I had a mini-shiner, not a full-blown black eye but a killer bruise on my cheekbone and yellow discoloration under my eye), Kinana was excited. Kinana thought this was fun. Kinana had not been shot at or stun-gunned (yet).

She read romances, but she also read mysteries and detective novels. She was in the Kinky Friedman zone.

Kinana headed to Loke and Aries' house in the woods after the morning rush to put a note under Loke's door, telling him to call me the minute he got home, with a little PS to Aries, inviting her to Girl's Night Out next Wednesday.

I had decided that the morning's weakness with Natsu was temporary insanity and the aftereffects of sake. I was back to my decision that Natsu and I weren't a good idea. Most especially if he could (and would) leave me hot and bothered for whatever scary shit he did for a living.

I knew my control was slipping, but I had a new plan. All I had to do was not end up in his car, his company, his condo and especially his bed. That was the extent of my new plan.

The minute Kinana left, I called Vijeeter's parents in Clover Town. He had them as next of kin on his employment records. In order not to freak them out, I pretended I was an old friend from high school, calling to catch up.

"Isn't that a funny coincidence?" Vijeeter's mom said. "Two nice gentlemen came around yesterday saying the same thing!"

I glanced at Cana with my 'uh-oh' face and she returned an eyebrow raise.

Either it was Natsu or it was Everlue. One spelled disaster for me, and the other spelled disaster for Vijeeter.

I gave my name and number, disconnected and told Cana.

"Probably Natsu, he has ways," she decided.

Great.

"Tell me again why we're doing this?" she asked.

"Natsu and I have a bet, the kind of bet I don't wanna lose." It wasn't a total lie. If Natsu found Vijeeter, I would lose a lot: peace of mind, my grip on reality, things like that.

"So you bet Natsu you'd find Vijeeter before he did and return a bag of diamonds to a bad guy?" Cana stared at me like I'd had half my brain sucked out by brain-eaters.

"Yep."

"Girl," she drawled, "you're so gonna lose."

Lucky for me, Cana was into the underdog.

The door to Fairy Tail burst open and Sherry Blendy stormed in.

Sherry was at school with Cana and me and she was in our pack. Rumor had it that Sherry made out with Richie Sambora backstage after a Bon Jovi concert, but this had never been publicly confirmed or denied. Privately, though, she admitted to both Cana and I that it didn't happen, and thus, in secret, I reigned supreme with my Joe Perry encounter.

We'd stayed friends over the years but didn't see each other often. Sherry got married about twelve minutes after we graduated and now had four kids. Four kids, especially hellions like Sherry's, were a good reason not to see each other that often.

Now Sherry was Sherry Akatsuki. She was pushing a stroller and dragging a child alongside her, while an older one followed, carrying a purse the size of an overnight bag and a diaper bag stuffed full to bursting. All this done with such practiced ease it was as if they were all merely accessories, including the children.

"You hooked up with Natsu Dragneel!" she shrieked, causing the four customers who were calmly sitting around reading and enjoying their coffees in quiet surroundings to jump and stare. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Over the years, Sherry, too, had been drafted in some of my Natsu Maneuvers. Sherry, too, was on Grandine's Christmas Card List and therefore in her contact list, and therefore, no doubt, received a call. Perhaps, considering a day had passed, during the second wave.

"It only happened yesterday," Cana said.

Sherry ignored Cana. "Have you and Natsu done it yet?" Her voice was still, really, really loud and the four customers stopped staring at Sherry and swiveled their heads to look at me.

I sighed then said, "We're taking it slow."

"Slow!" Her eyes moved from me to Cana and back to me. They looked like they were going to pop out of her head. "I . . . you . . ." She made a strangled sound, and I was starting to get concerned. "That isn't possible. Slow isn't possible. Natsu Dragneel doesn't move slow. One second he's looking at you, the next second he's walking away and he has the little satin bow from your panties as a souvenir."

Mavis, I hoped it wasn't that fast. That would be disappointing.

What was I thinking? It wasn't going to happen at all.

"That isn't true," Cana replied. "He'd take the little satin bow from your bra. Not all panties have them but most bras do. Sometimes they're rosettes. He'd take those as well."

I stared at her.

"You're joking," I breathed, really not wanting to be a little satin rosette bouncing around with hundreds of other little rosettes and bows in Natsu's sock drawer.

Cana shrugged. "That's the rumor."

"Have you seen them? How many of them are there?" Sherry asked.

"I haven't seen them. It's just the rumor. I'm just keeping rumors straight. Maybe when Lucy stops taking it slow, we'll find out."

I calmed Sherry down with an iced hazelnut decaf latte and promised her I'd call her the minute I did it with Natsu. At this rate, post-coital, I'd be on the phone for a week. Once Sherry was settled, I noticed a guy who'd arrived practically the minute the door opened. He'd already bought three espressos, which he sucked down in one swallow, and he'd been reading a sports magazine now for three and a half hours.

He had maroon hair a week or two passed needing a cut, a killer bod, compact with muscles and not an ounce of fat. He was wearing a white T-shirt that contrasted nicely against his tanned skin, jeans and running shoes.

If he wasn't my height, I didn't have an ugly bruise on my face and I didn't already have enough man problems, I would have been flirting with him ages ago. I didn't do men my height or shorter. They had to be taller than me if I was wearing heels. That was a rule.

I watched him for a few minutes, thinking that had to be a hell of a magazine to require more than three hours of study.

Natsu told me he had a lot of men. Maybe men enough to go to Clover Town and sit in surveillance at Vijeeter's. Maybe men enough to hang out at Fairy Tail and keep an eye on me.

Fucking Natsu.

I sauntered over to the guy and stood in front of him until he looked up.

"Hey," I said.

"Hey," he replied and smiled. Definitely cute, and definitely not one of Everlue's steroid-ridden bad guys. The look of this dude said he would never hit a woman. Or at least I hoped so.

"You need another espresso?" I asked, giving my head a flirty tilt.

"Nah, thanks, I'm juiced up enough." He went back to reading.

Hmm. What did I do now? Never really had someone gone back to reading after I gave them the flirty tilt. Even if they weren't entirely interested, they gave more reaction to the flirty tilt. Maybe it was the mini-shiner.

"Good magazine?" I asked, and he looked up again.

"Yeah, the best."

I nodded and wished I'd worn a tank top or camisole that day so I could have leaned over and given him some of my power cleavage. My cleavage would have negated the effects of the shiner.

Instead, I was in jeans, a brown, hand-tooled belt, brown flip flops and a chocolate-brown fitted tee that said 'I do all my own stunts' across my boobs in yellow and red lettering.

"I'm not into sports," I told him and then sat on the arm of his chair, peering over the magazine to look at it. His entire body tensed. He turned his head to stare at me and I gave him a megawatt smile. "Though I like going to games and stuff. Do you go to games?"

"What are you doing?" he asked.

I gave him an innocent look.

"Who, me?" Then I winked.

His face went pale and his phone rang. He stood up to get it out of his jeans, and he stood so fast he nearly knocked me off the arm of the chair.

I righted myself as he said, "Talk to me."

Then his eyes cut to me and he handed me the phone. I stared at it, astonished, then took it and put it to my ear.

"Leave Erik alone. He's just doing his job," Natsu said in my ear.

I was a little shocked at the call. I just wanted to fluster Erik a bit.

How did he . . . ?

Fucking, fucking Natsu.

"What's his job?" I asked, my blood pressure ratcheting up a notch.

"Making sure you don't get kidnapped or shot at."

"Or do anything stupid?"

"That too."

"How did you know I was screwing with him?"

"Trade secret."

"Tell me or I'm moving to Galuna Island, losing myself in the jungle and shacking up with a local."

Silence, then a sigh.

"Fairy Tail is wired and there are cameras. We did it last night."

"What? Why?"

"Remember the conversation we had in the kitchen yesterday?"

I remembered every encounter I'd had with Natsu since I was five. I most vividly remembered those that occurred in the last twenty-four hours, and not just because they were the most recent.

"Yeah."

"You're on Everlue's radar. That's not good. I'm trying to keep you safe."

"By bugging my store?"

"That and anything else I can think of."

I stood staring at Erik, who was beginning to look amused.

"Do you remember the part of the conversation this morning where you said you'd be at Fairy Tail whenever you were done?" I asked.

I got silence, but I didn't wait for a response.

"Well, don't bother."

Cana and I walked up to Vijeeter's house.

Erik followed us there and was now sitting in his SUV watching us, but we were ignoring him.

Kinana had returned, no sign of Loke or Aries, but she'd taken the opportunity to, what she called, 'canvass the neighborhood'. As Loke lived in a quaint cottage surrounded by four acres of evergreen trees, I wondered what neighborhood she was talking about.

Nevertheless, she scored some points by learning that the dirt lane to Loke's cottage had been a hive of activity in the last day or so, including a sighting yesterday morning that could have been Vijeeter. No sign of Loke's return before or after Vijeeter.

This meant that Vijeeter was looking for Loke, too, or had been yesterday morning. Whether he found him or not was anyone's guess.

We stood on Vijeeter's porch and knocked. Vijeeter lived alone, in a bungalow that needed some serious renovation. I used to wonder how he could afford the bungalow. I didn't exactly pay him a fortune. It was on the outskirts of Magnolia, but close enough to Pearl Street to be a prime piece of real estate.

Now I knew how he could afford it.

No answer on the knock so we looked in the windows. I'd been to Vijeeter's dozens of times and it didn't look any different than normal.

"Be a shame to lose those primo pot plants. Do you think someone's taking care of those plants?" I asked.

Cana gave a shrug and then turned brightly to me. "I bet I know who'd know!"

"Who?"

"Natsu."

I shoved her shoulder. "Smartass."

Deciding to take a page out of Kinana's book, we 'canvassed the neighborhood', knocking on doors and asking people if they knew or had seen Vijeeter.

No luck. Most people were away at work. The ones that were in barely knew him and no one had seen him. He didn't seem incredibly popular, nor did Cana and I for knocking on their doors.

Somewhere between getting stun-gunned and our current adventure, Cana had business cards made up with her and my names and numbers on them.

When she gave the first one out, I nearly choked.

"Where'd you get those?" I asked her as we walked away from the house.

"I called Romeo. He made them up last night. Put them in my mailbox. Aren't they righteous?"

Dear Lord.

Romeo was a friend of ours, had been since high school. He was a computer nerd, worked at home programming PC games, barely ever left the house and he made a shed load of money. He also barely ever slept. He lived on energy drinks and cheese puffs and shopped for groceries exclusively at open-all-night convenience stores.

We headed to the emergency contact of Vijeeter's we hadn't yet gone after, the one whose beauty sleep I'd disturbed the day before. Vijeeter had recorded his name in the employee file as Nab "The Nabster" Lasaro.

The Nabster answered the door wearing a pair of filthy jeans, a black Hendrix tee so faded it was now gray over a thermal long-john shirt (even though it was firmly eighty-six degrees). He had scraggly hair of a dark brunette color and it was pretty clear we found out who was looking after Vijeeter's pot plants, with liberal sampling.

"Hey, dudettes," was his greeting.

We introduced ourselves and he smiled. "Dig it! I heard about you guys." He turned to me. "Vijeeter talks about you all the time, thinks you are the shit. Best job he's ever had, man, workin' for a rock chick."

I felt the first rush of warmth toward Vijeeter I'd had in two days.

"Hey1" Nab asked. "What happened to your eye?"

"Got hit in the face by a bad guy," I told him.

"Hope you kneed him in the nuts," The Nabster said, leaning forward to look at my eye.

"I bit him."

"That's good, too," he replied, though it was clear a knee to the nuts would have been the preferred form of retaliation. Unfortunately, by that time I was stun-gunned.

"We're looking for Vijeeter," I explained.

"Step in line, dudette. Everybody's looking for Vijeeter. Ehv-ree-bud-ee. Had dudes here all day yesterday asking about him."

"Who are these dudes? Do you know them?" Cana asked.

"Most of 'em, yeah. They want some product, if you know what I mean."

We nodded. We knew what he meant.

"Anyone else?" I said.

"Sure. First couple of guys I'm pretty certain were vice. You know, cool as shit, but still smelled like cop. Scared the bee-jee-zus out of me that they'd want to come in, but they weren't interested in me. Then two sets of dudes who need to switch pharmaceuticals or their muscles will explode, like The Hulk. Ka-pow!" He clapped and then jiggled his hands in front of his chest.

I looked at Cana then back to The Nabster. The first ones were likely Natsu's men. The last ones were Everlue's boys.

"Two sets?" I asked.

"Yeah, one set, two guys came to the door, two sat in the car. Second set was only two."

I had a gut feeling, so I described the shooters who started this whole fiasco, and he nodded.

"Yeah, man, that's them. The set of four was steady, but the twosome was nervous-as-shit, looked like they needed sleep. Hey, I'm sorry I haven't been to any of your parties. Vijeeter says your parties rock. He says you have pretzels and everything. I've never been to a party with pretzels."

Cana handed him a card. "If you see him or hear anything, let one of us know."

"Wow! A Rock Chick Card. That's the shit, man. Does, like, Axl Rose have one of these?"

"Not yet." Cana said.

"Cool." The Nabster nodded. "You wanna come in? I'm just about to slip in The Big Lebowski and light up a spliff. Would be cool to watch The Dude with a couple of Rock Chicks."

I declined, though I wouldn't mind watching The Big Lebowski. It was one of my favorite movies. So much so, it was a friend test. If you didn't like The dude and Lebowski you could be a friend, but would never be a good friend. Ever.

"No, thanks, gotta find Vijeeter."

"That's cool, come back whenever. Later."

We sat in the car and stared at The Nabsters house. Erik was on his phone in his SUV parked directly behind us.

"The second set are the shooters and it doesn't appear they're working together with Everlue's goons."

"So you have a four-way competition with Natsu," Cana said.

"Yeah, except I know what'll happen to Vijeeter if Natsu or I find him. I don't know what'll happen if those guys find him."

Cana kept staring at the house. "You sure we should be doing this?"

I answered truthfully, "Hell no."

"We still gonna do this?"

"Doesn't have to be a we," I told her.

She turned to me. "Girl, the cards have both of our names on 'em. Let's motor."

Best friends like Cana don't grow on trees, let me tell you. She liked The Big Lebowski as much as I did, that's all I'm saying.

We went back to Reedus's with Natsu's man, Erik, following us. We parked two houses down and noticed crazy Grizzly sitting on his porch, the goggles still on top of his head. Grizzly's house was directly across the street from Reedus and Grizzly looked like he spent a lot of time on the porch.

"We should talk to him. He looks like he keeps an eye on the neighborhood," Cana noted.

She was right. I knew she was right. I still didn't want to talk to him.

My phone rang and I looked at the display. It said, Natsu calling.

Shit.

I answered and put it to my ear.

"Hey."

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Looking for Vijeeter," I answered.

"Mavis, Lucy."

"He's my friend and he's my employee and you haven't been shot at and kidnapped."

"Leave it to me." He sounded kind of bossy.

"Not at the current price, no." I sounded kind of huffy.

"Alright, then this is no cost."

I felt a wave of relief sweep through me, followed closely by a wave of despair.

"Good, so I don't have to sleep with you?"

Cana's eyebrows went up.

"No, you're gonna sleep with me, just not as payment for finding Vijeeter."

"Natsu-"

"Go back to Fairy Tail. I'll be at your house at seven to take you to dinner."

I harrumphed.

Then I asked, mainly out of curiosity, because there was no way I was going to dinner with Natsu, that might mean inebriation, or kissing, or something else that would take my mind off my plan and that couldn't happen, "Where're we going?"

"Balsamico Grill."

For a second, I forgot about my vow to avoid all things Natsu.

"Oh. My. Mavis! How did you know? I love it there!"

"Honey, you demand your family birthday dinners are there every year. It's not hard to figure out you love it."

Then he disconnected.

Something about him calling me 'honey' and processing my desired birthday destination made my stomach flip over in a happy way.

"What's this about not sleeping with Natsu?" Cana asked.

I stared at Grizzly then looked in my rearview mirror. Erik was taking a call and shaking his head.

"You know how I'm saying Natsu and I are taking it slow?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I'm taking it slow. Natsu wants things to go a little faster."

"I see." Cana was grinning.

"What's with that grin?" I demanded.

"Girl, you are so not gonna go slow."

Great.

We got out of the car and walked up to Grizzly's house. Cana forged ahead without a care in the world. I drug my heels and looked back at Erik. He'd gotten out of his SUV, pulled a handgun out of the back waistband of his jeans and tucked it in full view at the hipbone in the front. He leaned against his SUV and crossed his arms.

"They come back, sportin' a bodyguard," Grizzly said by way of greeting, not looking at us, but looking at Erik. "So now, I suppose you want me to think you're serious. Especially now with you and a shiner. Jeez. You knee him in the nuts?"

"How do you know it was a him?" I asked.

"Girls don't go for the cheekbone," he answered.

"Oh." I didn't know that.

"Did you?" Grizzly persisted.

"What?"

"Knee him in the nuts?"

"I bit him."

"Bit him!" He threw his head back and laughed. "Next time, go for the gonads."

"Good advice," I said.

He looked at Erik. "Let me guess, trainee PIs."

"No," I said.

Grizzly swung his big head to me. "Bounty hunters?"

"Nope."

"Not cops," he said with derision.

"Un-unh."

"Feds?" This was said with incredulity.

"I own a bookstore."

Grizzly didn't answer. Grizzly was staring at me as if a second head decided to sprout out of my neck at the moment.

"I'm a bartender and back-up barista," Cana put in.

Grizzly still didn't answer. I noticed he had a cat in his lap and was stroking it. Two more cats sat on the cement railings of his porch and another one was curled up on his welcome mat, a welcome mat that had kitty-cat footprints printed on it.

"You like cats?" I asked.

"Who doesn't like cats?" Grizzly returned.

"I like cats," I assured him, and it was no lie, but I would have said it anyway because he also had a shotgun sitting across his lap.

"Me too," Cana said.

Grizzly looked at Erik then back to us. "Who's the guy?"

"Just ignore him, we are," I told him.

Grizzly shrugged as if it was all the same to him then said, "Good thing you did for Mr. Yajima. He has it rough. Told me you were the biggest score he had all day with your cupcakes."

I looked down the street to the corner store. Mr. Yajima was standing outside it waving at us.

We waved back.

"We gotta take care of the little guy, you know? Franchises are takin' over the fuckin' world. In ten years this great nation is gonna be wall-to-wall franchise and every mom and pop shop is gonna be out of business. The franchise was the beginin' of the fuckin' end for Fiore. That, and being able to turn on red. It's red, man, don't turn on red. Fuckin' Gran Doma."

I wasn't sure what Gran Doma had to do with franchises and traffic lights, but I wasn't going to disagree with a guy who had a shotgun on his lap and weird goggles on his head.

"We're looking for a friend of Reedus Jonah's. Reedus lives across the street."

"I know Reedus. I know who you're lookin' for too. Mr. Yajima told me. Reedus's had lots of visitors the last couple of days. Seen him before," he nodded at Erik then looked at us, "seen you before, too."

"His friend's name is Vijeeter, little wiry guy, chestnut hair?" Cana put in.

"The Coffee Man?" he asked, then didn't wait for an answer. "Yeah, Reedus brings coffee back for me. That guy is a genius."

"Well, Vijeeter is my coffee man, he works at my book store." I told him.

"No shit?"

"No shit," I confirmed.

"That's a great bookstore. Used to be you could read all day and not be disturbed. The old lady was cool," he noted. "It still like that?"

"That old lady was my grandma. She left me the store when she died, I just added coffee," I replied.

"You thinkin' of franchisin'?"

"No way." I threw up my hands for emphasis, just in case he had any doubts to my sincerity.

He nodded. "Then you're the little guy too. I'd come to support you, 'cause I read a lot, but I don't leave this block. Need to keep my eye on things."

"Sure," I agreed.

This guy was nuts, but I liked him anyway.

Cana gave him our card and he put his hand in his shirt pocket and gave Cana one in return.

All it said was, "Makarov, Cat Sitter," and had his number.

"You have a cat and go on vacation, you know who to call. Though, I warn you, I do both dry and wet food. I'm not into doin' just wet or just dry. They need a treat, but they need to keep their teeth clean. It's important."

We nodded our agreement and then jogged down to see Mr. Yajima.

"Me and Makarov have been looking for your Vijeeter, but we haven't found him," he assured us when we got to the door.

"Thanks, Mr. Yajima," I said.

"No Reedus, either. Now I'm worried and I think Makarov is getting worried, too. Lots of people coming to knock on Reedus's door. He's never been this popular."

"Vijeeter had a following. He makes good coffee and people miss him," I told him.

"I can see this," Mr. Yajima said.

I bought milk, corn chips, two diet sodas and all the ingredients for the macaroni salad and brownies I needed to make for Dad's BBQ. This cost me twice as much as it would if I'd just gone to the big franchise grocery store, but Makarov was right, we had to watch out for the little guy, especially me, as I too was a little guy.

Mr. Yajima's eyes filled up with tears as I brought all my stuff to the counter.

"You are an angel from heaven," he breathed.