“Maybe they’re sacrifices or something.”
“Sacrifices?”
He didn’t smile, but I could tell he was fighting the effort. “I’m serious. Caitlin, the girl who died, was blond. Andrea, that girl I told you I talked to the first day, was blond and she’s missing. Now these girls have appeared out of nowhere. What if they start going missing?”
“Well ... .” Braden looked to be at a loss for words.
“You think I’m crazy.” I jutted my lower lip out and folded my arms across my chest. “I’m not crazy.”
“I didn’t say you were crazy,” he argued hurriedly. “I would never think that. You’re the most grounded person I know, but that’s not saying much, because I spend my days with Aisling and Jerry most of the time.”
“There’s something very strange going on here.”
“I agree with you, but I’m not sure I can get to human sacrifices.”
“Why not? It makes sense. Cults often base their belief systems on blood magic. They might not realize what they’re doing, but it almost always comes back to a blood ritual of some sort.”
“Okay, but these women are alive,” Braden pointed out, adopting his most rational tone. “There is one dead woman, yes, but she didn’t have ties to the cult. We don’t know who killed her. For all we know, that little street rat you saved is the guilty party.”
I glared at him. “It’s not Knight.”
“How certain are you that you’re right?”
“Very certain.”
“Okay.” He held up his hands in surrender. “I don’t want to fight, Izzy. I get that you’re upset, but you can’t control these people. I think you’re right to call my father and let him handle this. You need to get out of here, take a break. I think visiting your aunt is probably the best thing for you.”
I sucked in a breath to calm myself. I was lashing out at him unfairly. He was on my side. Heck, he was always on my side. Even from the very start, when we’d barely known each other, he was fighting for me. He didn’t deserve this.
“I’m sorry,” I said once I was reasonably certain I had my emotions under control. “I shouldn’t take this out on you. It’s just ... I’ve only been in charge a few months. What if they fire me over this?”
“They won’t fire you. This isn’t your fault.”
“I don’t think they care.”
“And I think you’re worked up.” His fingers were gentle as he brushed the hair from my face. “Honey, I get that your emotions are on overload given everything that’s happened. These people are freaks. There’s only so much you can do.”
He was right. I was letting them get to me. That’s exactly what Titus wanted. I sucked in a breath and searched the crowd for him, finding him almost immediately. He was back under his tree watching us, a smug smile on his face. He was obviously enjoying the most recent developments.
“I’m heading to Aunt Max’s store,” I said, making up my mind on the spot. “I’ll call your father on the way. Maybe he can work some magic and get rid of them.”
Braden didn’t look convinced. “Either way, he should know in case this blows up.” He cupped the back of my head and forced my eyes to him. “It’s going to be okay. There’s no reason to freak out.”
That was easy for him to say. He didn’t have a cult camping in his backyard. “It’ll be fine.” I forced a smile for his benefit. “There’s nothing to worry about. I’m just peachy.”
“I don’t know that I can date someone who uses the word ‘peachy,’” he teased. “That’s a lame word.”
“Then I guess it’s good you already love me.”
“I definitely love you.” He leaned in for a kiss. “Take a break from this place. Get some perspective. We’ve faced way tougher things than this.”
AUNT MAXINE’S STORE WOULD’VE FIT IN with the kitschy storefronts on Essex Street in Salem, or any of a number of streets in New Orleans. In Royal Oak, it should’ve stood out. The entire city was home to unique retail experiences, so it slid right into the backdrop. It was warm, comforting, and cozy, all the things I needed today.
“There she is!” Aunt Max beamed at me from behind the counter, where she was bagging herbs. Dressed in her usual floor-length skirt and peasant blouse, she looked rested and relaxed. On any other day, I would be thankful for that. My mind was jumbled with other problems today, so I barely noticed.
“Are you alone?” I scanned the store for signs of additional workers. Aunt Max often preferred working the counter to dealing with customers, leaving her employees to handle stocking shelves and general maintenance. The store looked empty as far as I could tell.
“Would you prefer someone else help you?” she teased, smile at the ready. When I didn’t return it, she dropped all pretense of happiness. “Oh, geez. What sort of trouble have the Grimlocks gotten you into now?”
“They haven’t gotten me into any trouble,” I replied. “They’re great. Well, except for Emmet and Mary. They suck. Other than that, everything is fine with the Grimlocks.”
Maxine’s eyebrows hopped. “Emmet and Mary? Cormack’s parents?”
I shouldn’t have been surprised she knew them. My aunt’s history with the Grimlocks was longer — and much more storied — than my own. “You’ve met them?”
She nodded, her smile returning. “They’re ... shall we say unique.”
“They’re driving everyone batty. Aisling has taken to making inappropriate sexual demands of her husband in front of them so Cormack will banish them to her room.”
“She’s staying at Grimlock Manor?” Maxine looked amused. “I thought she was venturing out on her own more these days. I know Cormack wants to be involved in Lily’s day-to-day life, but Aisling doesn’t need to live under his roof.”
“She’d been spending more time at her townhouse until ... well ... the gate thing.” I still felt guilty about that. Aisling disappeared on my watch. Sure, I crossed over to retrieve her, but the outcome could’ve been very different. If Aisling had been lost for all time her family never would’ve recovered. “I’m not even sure they’ve talked about Aisling spending more time at Grimlock Manor. It’s just a fact of life right now.”
Maxine nodded in understanding. “That was a terrible ordeal. I don’t think Cormack could stand losing one of his children. Losing his wife was hard enough. It almost crippled him. To lose Aisling ... .” She shook her head.
“He was going to go in after her,” I supplied. “That was the plan. Griffin couldn’t — even though he really wanted to — because that would be akin to leaving Lily an orphan. He knew that’s not what Aisling would’ve wanted. Cormack decided he would do it.”
“But you did it instead,” Maxine noted. “You could’ve been lost over there, too.”
“But I wasn’t. I had a feeling it would be okay. I knew the terrain from the visions I’d been getting. It all worked out.”
“Yes, and you met a god in the process. You haven’t spoken much about him.”
I shrugged, sliding into one of the stools next to the counter. “There isn’t much to say. He dropped a bomb on me in the form of a huge ongoing threat, one I can’t even focus on right now because of the stupid cult, and then he sent me back. I feel like I should be doing something, but I’m being pulled in a million other directions.”
I expected Maxine to smooth away my fears. Instead, she was silent. When I risked a glance in her direction, I found her brow wrinkled and her face tense with concentration.
“What did I say?”
“I guess you lost me at cult.” Maxine’s smile turned tight. “What’s the deal with the cult?”
“Oh, I guess you haven’t been watching the news.”
“I don’t particularly like the news. It’s always depressing.”
“Yes, well, that’s why you miss things.” I caught her up on the past few days, enjoying the myriad emotions that washed over her face. It sounded crazy when I laid it out. She didn’t interrupt even once, though. “So, basically
that’s it. Braden thinks I’m melting down for no reason, but I’m not comfortable with news crews at the aquarium.
“I mean, it was bad enough when the cult first showed up and started walking in circles,” I continued. “Now, it’s so much worse.”
She was silent for a beat, chewing on things, and then she broke into a broad grin, the last response I expected.
“This isn’t funny,” I snapped.
“Of course not.” She patted my hand in a soothing motion. I was so irritated I wanted to snatch my hand away. I managed to refrain. “I wasn’t laughing at you.”
“Yes, you were.”
“Fine. I was laughing at you a little. You have a right to be upset. I was merely wondering how far off the rails you had to careen for Braden of all people to think you were acting irrationally. He’s one of the more high-strung Grimlocks — and that, my dear, is saying something — so you must’ve been quite the sight to behold.”
“It’s not as if I was ranting and raving,” I protested.
“But?” She folded her arms and waited, as if she expected me to wriggle out of an answer. That’s exactly what I wanted to do, but I held it together.
“But ... they make me uncomfortable.” I averted my gaze and stared at the counter. “I don’t know how to explain it. My skin crawls whenever I’m around them.”
“Uh-huh.” She clucked her tongue, drawing my eyes to her. “Your grandfather is still anti-religion, correct?”
I balked. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“I’m simply pointing out that he was never a fan of organized religion.”
“This is a cult.”
“Which is a very organized religion,” Maxine pointed out. “It’s so organized, in fact, that most people find it crazy. Apparently you’re one of those people.”
I huffed out a sound halfway between a groan and a protest. “I don’t have a problem with religious people. I’ve never really seen the point in going to church or anything, but I get having faith. I have faith. It’s just in something entirely different.”
“You have faith in yourself and your friends. Your grandfather, however, has always been militant in his disdain for religion. I believe you might’ve picked up on that from him.”
“I ... that’s neither here nor there.” I decided to change tactics. “There’s something very wrong with this group. Really wrong. A young girl is dead because of them.”
“You assume a young girl is dead because of them,” Maxine countered. “You have no proof.”
“What more proof do I need? These people showed up on my island and that very night she was killed. That can’t be a coincidence.”
“In theory, I would agree.”
“In theory?”
Her smile never wavered. “It’s just that you said yourself that this man was a conman, one who had crossed paths with law enforcement multiple times. Why would he leave a body out for someone to discover?
“If you’re right and he’s performing blood rituals, why not hide the body?” she continued, barreling forward before I could answer what I assumed to be a rhetorical question. “There are plenty of places to hide a body on that island. Why leave it out in the open?”
“I don’t know.” I hated to admit it but she had a point.
“You seem to think that the cult members somehow found the body of the man who slit his own throat in Cormack’s neighborhood last night,” she continued. “That body hasn’t been found, has it?”
“No.”
“Then why leave the other out so that anybody could stumble over it?”
“I don’t know.” I rubbed my chin, annoyance coursing through me.
“You’re not just here to tell me about the cult.” Maxine adopted a knowing expression. “You have something else on your mind.”
It had to be now. “Did you know that your employee Olive Westborn used to be part of a cult that was essentially wiped out about fifteen years ago?”
Maxine’s mouth dropped open. “Are you kidding me?”
“No.”
She reached for her teapot. “You’d better tell me more.”
Twenty
Olive had the day off and Maxine refused to call her in. She did say she would talk to her when she showed up for her next shift the following day, but I couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that might be too late.
After a few more cups of tea, over which Maxine grilled me about the older Grimlocks and how they were interacting with their grandchildren, I decided to return to the island. As much as I didn’t want to be part of the media circus, I didn’t see that I had a choice. If I wanted answers, I was going to find them there.
I parked at the boathouse and took my golf cart. I figured it would be easier to avoid people with a smaller vehicle. Then, rather than approaching from the front, I parked on the side of the building and watched the hoopla while sipping from a bottle of water.
“What are you doing?”
Paris took me by surprise. I shrugged. “Living the dream?”
She laughed at my response before sobering. “I’m sorry I frightened you.”
“You didn’t frighten me,” I reassured her. “I just ... get lost in my own head sometimes. I didn’t hear you, or feel you for that matter. I’m usually more on top of things.”
She nodded in understanding before sliding into the open seat next to me, resting her feet on the cart’s dashboard. “How did the visit with your aunt go?”
“Not well. Olive wasn’t there. My aunt refused to call her in on her off day. She has a weird sense of what’s right and wrong.”
“I get where she’s coming from. There’s every chance Olive isn’t involved.”
“What are the odds of that? I mean ... Titus’s sister died as a result of the assault on a compound several hours north of here. She was a member of a cult. Now he’s running a cult.”
“I’m not saying that Titus’s decision to start a cult is a coincidence,” she reassured me. “I think he has a very specific plan and he’s moving the pieces in place to implement it. Olive, though, might have nothing to do with any of this.”
“She’s working for my aunt.”
“Maybe because she wants to keep one foot in the paranormal world. When I was with them my head was a mess. I was angry at Zoe at the time. I thought she’d abandoned me after college. I see now that Aric was simply trying to keep her safe when he closed them off to outside forces, but I was still frustrated.
“Zoe was my lifeline for a lot of years, and even though she could be nicer when she says it, she’s not wrong about me having bleeding tragic taste in men,” she continued. “I’ve never been good at picking out the good ones. I lucked into Heath, but I’d been burned so many times that when we crossed paths I insisted Zoe and Aric check him out before I committed to him.”
I tilted my head, considering. “Zoe said you dated the head of the cult. I’m guessing he was only interested in you because of your ties to her.”
Paris nodded without hesitation. “Exactly. And I was too dumb to see it. I’m still angry at myself.”
“But you guys obviously worked through it. You put the cult behind you, right?”
“I was never in the cult to be in a cult,” Paris explained. “I was aimless and looking to fit in somewhere. I just wanted to belong. Quinn convinced me that I belonged with him. What I didn’t see until it was too late was that he was manipulating me.
“I betrayed Aric and Zoe.” Her eyes remained fixed on the crowd as she forced out the words. “I led dangerous people to them. In the end, Zoe had to do some horrible things to save her own parents — and us — and keep random strangers safe. She’s always done the right thing even if she has to be dragged kicking and screaming to the finish line. I, on the other hand, don’t always make the best choices.”
I studied her for a beat, unsure how I was supposed to respond. I opted for the truth. “Nobody is perfect. I’ll bet Zoe doesn’t think she’s perfect. You only think that because
of perception.”
A small smile played at the corners of Paris’s mouth. “Actually, Zoe does think she’s perfect. That belief is reinforced by Aric, who thinks she walks on water. Sami, of course, is a typical teenager, so she always brings them back to reality.”
I could see that. “Zoe strikes me as the sort of person who only keeps those she finds important and valuable in her life. Obviously that includes you.”
“We made things work. That doesn’t change the fact that I betrayed her, and I did it because Quinn convinced me it was the right thing to do. He said Zoe was dangerous and should be eradicated. I knew better, but I was so desperate to believe.”
Something occurred to me. “You’re telling me this because you think the people participating with this cult feel the same way.”
Her smile was enigmatic. “I’m saying it’s possible. I obviously don’t know all of these people.”
“I need to figure out their motivations,” I mused. “Someone here killed Caitlin and left her body behind for discovery. My aunt had a very good point: Why leave the body in the open? There are plenty of places to hide a body on this island. The fact that they did what they did suggests they want to be discovered.”
Paris’s face lit with intrigue. “A distraction maybe?”
I jabbed a finger in her direction. “That’s exactly what I was thinking. It makes sense and yet ... I just don’t know. What were they trying to distract us from?”
“I think the only way to find out is to ask them.”
I fixed my gaze on the three blond newcomers. “I have something else I want to ask them first. Are you okay working with Oliver on your own?”
Amusement flitted through her eyes. “I’ve been working with him alone most of the week. I’m fine. I’m not worried about him being a vampire or anything.”
“It sounds as if you’ve worked with vampires before. I would love to hear that story one day.”
“I don’t know that there’s much to tell from my perspective. He and Zoe were tight.”
“And Aric was jealous,” I noted.
“Aric was ... conflicted ... for a time.” Her smile was back. “Our life at Covenant College wasn’t that of normal teenagers. We were always fighting some battle or messing with another faction. Aric was torn by duty. He ultimately picked Zoe despite the fact that it shook the foundation of everything he knew.
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