by S. E. Smith
“I promised to tell you what happened. I thought it best to wait until we were alone,” Tonya quietly said as she stepped outside.
Max turned and looked at her. She gave him an unsteady smile and walked over to him. He wrapped his arm around her and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
“Whenever you are ready, honey,” he murmured.
She wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him. They all turned when Angela stepped outside. She held out a thick cotton wrap for Tonya.
“I thought you might get cold,” Angela said.
“Thank you,” Tonya replied, taking the wrap and pulling it around her shoulders.
Max didn’t miss the way Tonya looked at Ashure. It was obvious that she had deep feelings for the man. She might not be aware of it yet, but his tough-as-nails Snoop had let someone inside the wall she kept around her heart.
She walked over to Ashure while Angela took her place at Max’s side. They appeared to have a silent conversation before she turned and faced them. Ashure wrapped his arm around Tonya’s waist and pulled her back against his body.
“I promised you both when you took me in that I would always tell you the truth. I always have, and I always will—no matter how difficult it may be at times,” she began.
“And we appreciate that, though telling us something that you don’t want to isn’t a condition for our love, Tonya. You know that. It’s just, when Max told me that your name was on the missing person’s list, we were both frantic with worry,” Angela said, looking up at Max with concern.
Max nodded. “I had just found out that Morris Decker had been released from prison on probation the week before. You should have been notified since he’d tried to kill you. At the very least, I should have been. We were afraid that Decker had hurt you,” he explained.
Tonya shook her head. “I haven’t seen or heard anything from Decker,” she said with a shake of her head.
Max took a deep breath before he asked his next question. “That’s good. Now we—I—have to ask you a personal question. Are you pregnant?” he forced out, sharing the one thought that kept plaguing him from the moment he realized that his little girl had brought a guy home to meet him and Angela.
“What? NO!” Tonya squeaked in shock as she frantically shook her head. “No, I—Ashure—we haven’t—no, absolutely not.”
“Thank goodness—I mean, it would have been okay if you had been. Angela and I would love to be grandparents—someday—just not today,” he awkwardly breathed out. He winced when Angela elbowed him in the ribs and gave him ‘the look’ that told him that he needed to express himself a little better. “Although, we would have handled it just fine if you had been—today, that is. Okay, now that we’ve got that out of the way, can you tell us what happened to you?” Max asked in a slightly relieved tone.
Tonya looked at him with a nervous expression. “You heard about the disappearances in Yachats,” she stated.
Max nodded. Of course he had heard about the disappearances. The cases had made national headlines and were still prominent in every police department briefing.
“I figured if I could learn what had happened, that would be my big break. So I went over to Yachats,” she began.
“What did you find?” Angela curiously asked.
Tonya looked back at them with a haunted expression. “More than I ever expected. I met several people who I thought might have some useful information, but what really caused the warning bells to go off was one woman in particular who seemed different—and the sudden appearance of a CIA agent,” she said.
“Why would the CIA be involved? Everything I read about the case looked like a domestic situation,” he remarked with a frown.
“Perhaps the woman Tonya saw was from another country,” Angela suggested.
“Or another world,” Tonya softly added.
“World? As in alien?” he scoffed.
Tonya nodded. Max’s eyes narrowed when Ashure bowed his head, whispered in her ear, and pressed a tender kiss to Tonya’s temple. She nodded and looked back at him and Angela with a worried expression. Angela’s grip tightened on her husband’s arm.
“Perhaps it would be best to show you,” Ashure said. “Max, you asked me for the truth. Now, I ask you if you are ready for it?”
He scowled at Ashure as irritation flared inside him. “Of course I am—as long as it doesn’t involve a bunch of fairy tales,” he growled.
Ashure handed his beer bottle to Tonya, and she came closer to Max and Angela while Ashure moved back a step so the three of them could see him well.
“Even if the fairy tales are real?” Ashure countered. He waved his hand with a flourish.
Max’s mouth dropped open in shock, and he heard Angela’s soft hiss of surprise. He had been about to make a caustic retort, but now he was questioning his vision—and his sanity!
Ashure’s clothing had magically changed from the black leather jacket, button-up blue shirt, and jeans to an outfit straight from the History Channel’s Pirates. The black jacket was now a long, brown coat that hung open almost to his knees. Black braid loops ran down one side while polished gold buttons with small red jewels aligned on the other. His shirt was a pristine white with long sleeves and elaborate lace-edged cuffs that peeked out from beneath the large cuffs of his jacket. Between the coat and the white shirt, he wore a brown and black silk vest. Knee-high black leather boots, a long, ornate saber hung at his waist, and a large, dark purple tricorne hat with a long bluish-purple feather finished off his attire.
“I didn’t see that coming,” Max muttered.
“Neither did I,” Tonya admitted with a choked laugh.
Ashure removed his hat and regally bowed. “I am Ashure Waves, King of the Pirates and the denizens of the Isle of Pirates, one of the seven Isles making up the Seven Kingdoms realm, a world far, far away from here,” he reintroduced himself.
“Are you a magician and this is—like—some kind of magic show?” Angela asked in a confused tone.
Ashure chuckled. “I am not a true mage like those from the Isle of Magic, but I do possess magic from my mother’s side. My sire was a pirate, and my mother was a Sprite—or Fairy if you prefer that name,” he explained.
Tonya looked at them. “When I went missing, I fell through a portal to another world. That is where Carly, Jenny, Mike, and Ruth are, and I just found out Ross is there, too—oh, and Agent Tanaka from the CIA—I think,” she said in a rush.
Max opened and closed his mouth several times before he lifted a hand and ran it down his face. Angela leaned back against him in shock. He was having a hard time wrapping his head around it all.
“You fell—through a portal—into another world,” he slowly repeated.
Tonya nodded and bit her lip. “Yes,” she said in a barely audible voice.
“From what I can deduce, the portal Ruth created with the magic shell that Magna gave her became corrupted when Ruth misspoke the spell and more people than were intended hitched a ride. Spells can be quite fickle if they are not done correctly. Tonya ended up on the Isle of Magic while Ruth ended up on the Isle of the Giants,” Ashure explained.
“We aren’t sure what happened to Agent Tanaka, yet,” Tonya said.
Ashure shrugged. “I haven’t heard about him. He will probably appear somewhere. I can send out a search for him when we return to my world,” he said.
“Whoa, now wait just a damn minute. What is with this when we return to your world?” Max growled, releasing Angela and stepping forward.
Max swallowed when Ashure turned and stared back at him with unblinking eyes. In the darkness, the man’s eyes glowed with an unnatural light. An air of danger surrounded Ashure that was so thick, Max could feel the hair on his arms standing straight up.
“Angela, would you and Tonya please go into the house?” he instructed, never taking his eyes off of Ashure.
“Max,” Angela said, her voice laced with fear.
“No,” Tonya said, stepping in front of hi
m. She laid her hand on his chest. “Max, look at me,” she quietly requested.
He reluctantly tore his focus away from Ashure and looked down into her eyes. Confusion and uncertainty flooded him when he saw that, instead of fear, she was looking back at him with a confident and tender expression. He swallowed when she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his waist again.
“He would never hurt me. I know what you saw when you looked into his eyes. I’m not afraid, Max,” she murmured.
“How can you be so sure, Snoop?” Max mumbled.
She rose up on her toes and whispered in his ear. He closed his eyes as her softly spoken words rushed through him. For a fraction of a second, his arms tightened protectively around her before he opened his eyes and relaxed. He pulled back far enough so he could see her eyes again.
“Are you sure, Tonya?” he whispered.
“Absolutely,” she replied with a tender smile.
Max glanced at the clock next to the bed. It was almost two in the morning, and his mind was still spinning with everything that he had seen and heard. He turned his head and wrapped his arm around Angela when she sighed and curled up against him—laying her head on his shoulder.
“Calm the voices, Max. You can work on it again tomorrow,” she sleepily advised.
A silent chuckle shook his body. “You know me too well,” he murmured, pressing a kiss to her forehead.
“What did Tonya tell you, Max?” Angela suddenly asked.
“That everything would be alright, she’s got this,” he murmured, staring up at the ceiling.
“She’s falling in love with him,” Angela murmured.
“Yeah, I know,” he replied.
That was what Tonya had really meant. His throat tightened at the thought of losing her. It was one thing to fall in love and follow a guy halfway around the world. It was a completely different thing to fall for one who lived in another world! How the hell were he and Angela supposed to visit, play with the grandkids, and do all the other annoying stuff family was supposed to do?
Regardless of the fact that Tonya wasn’t his and Angela’s flesh and blood, she was their daughter. After Ashure’s sudden change of clothing, they had sat on the back patio and talked—and talked. Everything was different once he realized that it was all real, and every answer seemed to lead to another question.
By the time they had called it a night, there was no doubt in his or Angela’s mind that Ashure was from another world—a fantastical, unbelievable, alien magical world. He didn’t understand the physics or logic behind how portals or any of it worked. What mattered was that they believed him.
“Go to sleep, Max,” Angela muttered and rolled over onto her side with her back to him.
“Yes, love,” Max replied, rolling so that he could spoon her and wrap his arm protectively around her waist. “I love you, honey.”
“I love you, too,” she mumbled.
18
Tonya chuckled as she watched Squealer, aka ten-year-old Angie, squealing with delight when MJ, aka twelve-year-old Max, Jr. who was already taller than Tonya, touched the feather on Ashure’s hat. The electricity contained within the feather made the boy’s hair stand up. That was not easy with MJ’s tight curls.
“You look like the Frankenstein dude from Hotel Transylvania,” Tonya remarked.
“Jonathan. He is so dreamy,” Angie said with a wistful sigh, a flutter of her eyelashes, and a tuck of her hands under her chin.
“He’s a dork, just like you,” MJ retorted before touching the feather again.
Angie lowered her hands to the table and stuck her tongue out at her brother. “So says the boy who keeps getting shocked,” she sarcastically responded with an emphasizing bob of her head on each word.
“What are you two—?” Max asked as he stepped into the kitchen just as MJ and Angie burst out laughing again when they touched the Thunderbird feather attached to Ashure’s hat. He shook his head and headed for the coffeepot. “Never mind, I need coffee before I can deal with life this morning,” Max growled in a grumpy voice.
“Good morning, Max,” Tonya said with a laugh.
“Good morning, Daddy. Did you see all the cool tricks that Ashure can do? He made my marshmallows dance in my bowl,” Angie excitedly shared.
“He—” Max gave Tonya an inquisitive look before he shook his head and turned to the coffee maker. “I think the extra-large cup is going to be needed today,” he muttered.
“Short cup, love, remember what the doctor said about too much caffeine,” Angela commented as she walked into the kitchen.
“How can you handle this so calmly?” Max growled, nodding at the table.
Tonya saw Angela’s eyes widen before surprise turned to amusement. “You wouldn’t believe some of the things I’ve seen at the school fundraisers that you have a habit of missing,” she said, pouring a small cup of coffee for Max and taking the larger one he had already poured for herself.
“I thought they would be boring,” Max mumbled.
“I have to go in to work for a bit this morning—an emergency case. I’ll drop MJ off at the Community Center on my way into the city if you can take Angie over to the school for the car wash,” Angela said.
“Don’t forget that I’m spending the night at Matthew’s house,” MJ reminded her.
“And I’ll be at Jessica’s. I’m going home with her after the car wash is over,” Angie said.
“A night without the kids—well, almost,” Max said with a grin.
“Ha-ha. I’m going to show Ashure around some of my old haunts here in Portland,” Tonya commented.
“Be careful,” Max and Angie both automatically replied at the same time.
“If I had a dime for every time you two said that, I’d be rich,” she muttered.
“MJ, are you and Angie ready to go?” Angela asked.
“Yes,” they both replied.
Tonya watched her little brother and sister scramble out of their seats. They were always involved in one activity or another, even on the weekends. She smiled when Ashure, who was entering the crowded kitchen, quickly sucked in his stomach to let them pass. He gasped when Angie paused, wrapped her small arms around his waist, and gave him a fierce, affectionate hug.
“Thank you,” the little girl said with a big smile and shining eyes.
“You are most welcome,” Ashure replied.
“Let’s go. Never late is the rule,” Angela called out.
“I always hated it when they said that,” she murmured to Ashure when he came and stood next to her.
He gave her a startled look. “Why?” he curiously asked.
“Because it was a rule and—” she started to say.
“Rules were made to be broken,” he finished with her.
She looked up at him as Max, Angela, and the kids left. She heard the front door open and the voices of her family faded away as the door shut behind them, but right now, she only had eyes for Ashure. He must have felt the same because he pulled her into his arms and kissed her with a passion that left them both breathless.
“I forgot my—keys. Geez, I feel like we have a teenager in the house again,” Max said, interrupting them.
Tonya blushed and pulled away from Ashure with an uncharacteristic feeling of guilt. It took her a second to realize that she had nothing to be embarrassed about. She scowled at Max, who grinned broadly, picked up his keys, and jiggled them as he turned and walked back out.
“I can’t wait until he has to deal with MJ and Angie as teenagers,” she growled as Ashure muffled his laughter.
“Is your family always like this?” he curiously asked.
“Unfortunately, yes,” she said with a long sigh.
It was late in the afternoon when Tonya stopped in front of an empty lot surrounded by fencing. They had been all over the city. She had shown him places that she hadn’t thought about in years. This location was the last place she wanted to see before they returned to the house. Angela had texted her earlier, sugges
ting that they all should enjoy a nice dinner out since they were kid-less for the night.
The old, dilapidated hotel that had once taken up this city block had been torn down, and a new condominium development was under construction. The large sign showing the building coming soon was a far cry from what had been there before. She stepped forward and curled her fingers through the chain-link fence.
“This place has a special meaning to you,” Ashure guessed.
“Yeah, it does. I broke my first big story here,” she murmured. She lifted a hand and touched the scar on her throat. “I almost died here as well.”
Releasing her grip on the fence, she shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket, turned around, and continued walking. New lampposts that looked like the old-time gas lamps lined the sidewalk. The city had spent a lot of money the last few years revitalizing this section of the city.
“This has to do with the man Morris Decker, doesn’t it?” he asked.
“Yes. I was living with the Rollings at the time. They were an older couple, sweet and a bit naïve about teenagers, but nice. They had one son who never gave a shit about them. I guess they wanted to try again, but this time with a daughter. Why they thought I would be a good fit for them, I have no idea. Mrs. Rollings had been a stay-at-home mom her whole married life, and Mr. Rollings worked as a mailman. I think once their son escaped from the house of boredom, he never looked back. I’d only been with them a few months before Mr. Rollings had a heart attack. Still, it was long enough for me to get into trouble,” she calmly explained.
“You feel responsible,” he guessed.
She looked at him and nodded. “I did at first, but with Max and Angela’s help, I finally understood that I wasn’t the cause. I’d been skipping school to investigate a money-laundering and price-fixing scheme by a man called Morris Decker who owned a few businesses here in Portland. Word spreads on the street, especially if you hang out in the wrong sections of town. I thought if I could get the goods on Decker, I could sell the article and make some extra cash. It was better than hanging out at the school being bored to death or getting into fights,” she said.