“Thorn can’t help find Josh unless we give her something of his to touch,” Dominic added as he flipped the right blinker and turned down Nona’s gravel driveway. “Which we don’t have.”
“Oh, don’t we?” I pulled out the plastic wand from my jacket. I gave it a little wave and the diamond at the tip sparkled. It was like something a child would use to put on a pretend magic show. “How about this?”
“Where’d you get that?”
“Josh’s room.”
He grinned. “You amaze me.”
His smile made my heart flutter, and I decided not to add that it was only by accident that I’d taken the wand.
Returning the wand to my jacket pocket, I grabbed my phone and texted Thorn, asking if we could stop by her house. Almost immediately I got a reply. Thorn said her house was a zoo of noisy siblings multiplied by their friends, so she’d meet us at Nona’s.
I expected an empty driveway since my grandmother was away for the weekend, meeting with the CEO of a rival matchmaking business. So I was surprised to see the beat-up station wagon that Penny-Love often borrowed from her older brothers. Pen and I had talked about hitting the mall today, but not until this afternoon.
On the porch, Penny-Love was reaching for the door, keys flashing silver in her hand. She turned toward us, her coppery ponytail bouncing.
“Sabine!” she called, coming to meet me as I stepped out of the truck.
“What are you doing here so early?”
“Nona is swamped with new clients so I offered to work a few extra hours.” Penny-Love was a part-time “Love Assistant” for my grandmother’s business, Soul-Mate Matches. “Besides, something’s happened …”
“What?”
“Could you come inside with me?” I could see that her lips were trembling, as if she was close to crying. “I really need to talk. Privately.”
She meant not in front of Dominic, so I turned to him. “Do you mind?”
“No prob. I’ve got chores to tend to.” Dominic started to leave until Penny-Love called after him, “Wait!”
“What?” Dominic turned back, his brows raised.
“I almost forgot—a guy in a dark suit with a hideous orange tie was looking for you.”
Dominic frowned. “He asked for me?”
“Not exactly, but you’re the only Dominic I know. He was here when I showed up, and said he was a PI. I asked what he wanted and he said he was looking for Dominic Sarver. But your last name is Smith, at least that’s what Sabine told me, so I said he had the wrong guy. Only he still wants to talk to you. Do know Dominic Sarver?”
“Never heard of him,” he said.
“Well if you do, let him know the PI wants to talk about his uncle’s death.”
“Sure.” Dominic didn’t show any expression, but his aura swirled with dark, disturbing emotions as he walked away.
Penny-Love and I started toward the house but alarms were ringing in my psyche. Dominic had said he had chores, but he wasn’t headed for the corral or livestock pens. He was going to the barn—to his loft room.
I stopped abruptly. “Pen, I just remembered something I have to tell Dominic. Go ahead, and I’ll join you inside in a few minutes.”
Then I hurried after Dominic, catching up with him as he was starting up the staircase to his loft apartment.
“What’s wrong?” I demanded.
“Nothing.”
“Don’t lie to me. Your aura is insane with emotional colors.”
“Sabine, go back to Pen.” He didn’t look at me, his expression like stone. “I have things to do.”
“Your driver’s license is fake, isn’t it?” I guessed. “Your last name isn’t Smith. It’s Sarver.”
He gripped the stair railing tightly, his gaze sweeping around the piles of hay, bags of feed, and animal pens.
“Dominic Andrew Sarver,” he said after long seconds. “The PI was looking for me and he’ll be back. Only I won’t be here.”
The way he spoke sounded so fatalistic, like he was never coming back.
“But you … you can’t leave!” I gasped, shock quickly shifting to panic. “This is your home.”
“Not anymore.”
“But why?” My voice was breaking … along with my heart.
“My uncle didn’t die naturally.” Dominic pulled away from me. “I killed him.”
I followed Dominic up the stairs.
“You can not leave.”
He ignored me as if I wasn’t there, hastily pulling open drawers and throwing clothes into a suitcase.
“Dominic, be reasonable. Your uncle beat you and chained you outside, treating you worse than an animal. Even if you did kill him, if you hadn’t defended yourself, he would have killed you. You had no choice.”
“My choice was to leave him … dead.”
“You were only a kid! It’s amazing you even survived.”
“I had help.” Dominic looked up as the falcon fluttered down from his perch by the window then flew down to the corner of a dresser. He reached out to gently stroke the bird’s glistening feathers, his gaze drifting back in time.
“What did Dagger have to do with it?” I asked, puzzled.
“I was chained up by the dog house and it was raining. My uncle taunted me by leaving only dog food. I told him I’d rather starve. I would have, too, except Dagger brought me food.”
“Wow. He’s even more amazing than I thought.”
“I owe a lot to him.”
“So let him keep living here. He’s happy resting in the barn and hunting in the woods.”
“I’ve been happy, too … more than I deserve.” Dominic dropped his hand from the bird and crossed the room to his closet.
Before he could put more clothes to his suitcase, I moved quickly to block his way. “Listen, Dominic. Self-defense is a legal and moral defense. My dad’s an attorney and I’ve heard him talk about cases not that different from yours. There was this ten-year-old girl he defended who stabbed her father when he was strangling her mother. It was ruled self-defense and all charges dropped. Dad’s a great attorney. He’d represent you if I asked.”
“No.” Dominic scowled.
“But you need legal help. Running isn’t any way to live.”
“Neither is being caged behind bars.”
“That won’t ever happen with Dad on your side. He’ll prove you’re innocent.”
“But I’m not. I did it.” He pulled away from me, his shoulders drooping. “We fought. I hit him so hard he fell … and died. I just left him there. That’s something I’ll always have to live with. I was dumb to think that I could have a future and forget the past. I’ll handle things my way.”
“Can’t you let someone help you just once?”
“I did … once. That’s what brought me here.”
“Nona,” I guessed.
“Yeah. She told me she needed help around this place, and that if I let her teach me how to hone my psychic ability, I’d be helping her. I didn’t really believe that but I came anyway. I figured I’d stay a few weeks or a month, then move on like always. What I didn’t figure on was meeting you.”
“Stay with me.” I stepped closer, pulling his hand away from the suitcase and entwining my fingers in his, holding so tight he’d never go.
“You don’t need my troubles.”
“I want them. I’m part of them.” I looked deeply into his eyes, willing him to love me enough to stay. “We can work this out together.”
With his free hand, he stroked my hair gently. “Sabine, you have no idea how much I—” His voice caught. “I want to stay.”
“Then do it.”
“It’s complicated,” he murmured, bringing my hand to his lips and softly kissing it. “I can’t change the past.”
Longing ached inside me. I wanted to beg and cry and threaten him—anything to make him stay.
“I’m not the only one who needs you,” I said. “Nona relies on you.”
“I’ve relied on her, too. More
than you know,” he added in a tone that hinted at secrets.
“What do you mean?”
“I was a scared kid when I met Nona, and she offered help without knowing anything about me.”
“Wait a minute. Didn’t you tell me that Nona knew your mother?”
“That’s what she wanted me to say, since it made more sense than the truth.”
“And the truth?” I persisted.
“We met when I was trying to find a home for my uncle’s hunting dog. I wasn’t the only one my uncle beat on. He kicked and half-starved Volcano. Your grandmother saved Volcano by offering him a good home.”
“Kano!” I cried. Nona’s last husband, the artist, had a gentle black dog who followed him everywhere.
“You remember him?”
I nodded. “I loved that dog. But I never knew he belonged to anyone else. I nicknamed him Splatter because he’d wag his tail into my grandpa’s paints and splatter paint all over his fur. Sometimes the paint got on me, too.” I smiled fondly, then frowned as I recalled what came next. “Grandpa and Kano both died the same summer. Nona never remarried or got another dog. But that was like five years ago. Why didn’t you come here sooner?”
“Nona didn’t deserve my problems.”
“She would have wanted to help.”
“Back then I wasn’t such a trusting person.”
“And you are now?”
“Well … not so much.” He gave me a bitter smile.
“But you couldn’t have been older than thirteen or fourteen. How did you make it on your own?”
“I was tall for my age, so it was easy to pass for older. I worked on ranches, leaving whenever anyone asked too many questions. For a while I stayed with these retired teachers who home-schooled me. They got me reading poetry and going to the library. They guessed I was underage and hinted about wanting to adopt me …” His voice trailed off, his expression saddening.
“So why didn’t you stay with them?”
“They couldn’t afford to keep their ranch, so they moved to Arizona near their grandkids. I’d gotten soft staying in one place so long, so I moved on.”
“Didn’t you try to find out what happened to your uncle?”
“Sure. I searched online but there wasn’t anything. I even let myself hope I wasn’t a killer … that my uncle survived.” His blue eyes went cold. “Now I know.”
There was a ripple of music from my cell phone.
I ignored it until the third ring. When I saw who was calling, I swore under my breath and shut off the power, shoving the phone back in my pocket.
“Who was it?” Dominic asked.
“No one important.” I reached out for his hand and curled my fingers around his. “Dominic, please stay here. What about your horse-shoeing classes?”
“Doesn’t matter now.” He turned back to his suitcase.
“Running your own farrier business is your dream!” I argued, walking around so he’d have to face me. “You can’t give it up now. And you can’t give up on the people who love you, either. What about us? Don’t you care?”
He stopped, a pair of faded jeans hanging from his hand. “I care … too much.”
“Then stay, and we’ll deal with this together. So what if a PI showed up looking for you? Didn’t you hear Penny-Love? She told him he had the wrong person and sent him away. He’s long gone by now.”
“PIs don’t give up that easily. And I need to be free—like Dagger.” He gestured toward the bird, who’d settled on the wood perch by the high open window. “Jail would be a slow death. I’m sorry, Sabine. There’s no other way.”
“Please, Dominic.” I fought the urge to cry.
His gaze swept around the room, at wall paintings, bookshelves, photos framed on his dresser, candles, incense, and a glass bowl of crystals, as if this would be his last look. Frowning, he slammed his suitcase shut. “I’ll only take what I can carry.”
Dominic was too damned proud to stay for his own sake. He didn’t believe he deserved to be happy and had the stupid idea that leaving would protect me and Nona from his troubles. I’d have to try a different angle: hit hard and drastic.
“Dominic, were you lying to Mrs. DeMarco?” I demanded.
His suitcase slipped from his fingers to the floor with a startling thump. “What are you talking about?”
“Don’t you remember your promise to help Horse?” I folded my arms across my chest and pierced him with a steely look. “If you leave now, you’ll break your promise.”
“I’m no help to anyone now.”
“Then Horse will die.”
I wasn’t playing fair, but I was desperate. I was counting on his stubborn sense of honor. If I could just make him stay longer—at least until Nona returned—we could find a solution that did not include Dominic leaving.
But Nona wasn’t due back until tonight.
I could tell by Dominic’s expression, shifting from determination to doubt, that my accusation had cut to his heart. I felt guilty for manipulating him like this … but also hopeful, because it was working.
When he stepped away from the suitcase and sank down on the corner of the bed, I came to sit beside him. I placed my hand on his arm. “You’ll stay?”
His shoulders slumped, defeated. “I honestly don’t know.”
“Well, I do,” I said, with much more confidence than I felt. “And I know Nona will feel the same way. If the PI shows up again, we’ll cover for you and find out the whole situation. Maybe he only wants to ask you questions. He might not even suspect you of your uncle’s death.”
“He didn’t track me down after five years just for a few questions.”
“Well, he can’t do anything if he can’t find you. Nona and I will hide you.”
“And risk arrest for harboring a fugitive? Forget it.”
“Too late,” I said stubbornly. “You’re stuck with us.”
He said nothing for a moment, picking up a green crystal and rolling it between his callused fingers. His expression was dark, lost in thoughts. “I don’t break promises,” he finally said. “I’ll try to help Josh and Horse. Then I’ll handle things on my own. Okay?”
No, it wasn’t okay. But it was the best I could hope for right now. So I agreed.
“I’ll move my truck out of sight and then get on with my chores. There’s a gate latch that needs fixing.” He glanced toward the pasture. “You better go talk to Penny-Love.”
“I’d rather stay with you.”
“You want her to come looking for you?” he asked with a wry smile.
“She would, too. Promise you won’t go anywhere?”
He nodded, but it was a temporary kind of nod.
I reached for him, and murmuring my name, he opened his arms and I folded into his embrace. So close, so warm, so hard to believe this could all end. I pressed my cheek against his chest, hearing the quick thumping of his heart. I’d hold tight to him and never let go. What we had was real and deep, and I knew he felt the same way.
He loved me. But that wouldn’t stop him from leaving.
My world had cracked, splintering into brittle pieces. As I walked back to the farmhouse, my feet sloshing on the same path I’d taken a zillion times, everything around me looked different. The cloudy sky seemed darker, too, boiling with angry clouds and whipping out a biting cold wind that pierced my skin.
Dominic wanted to be with me and I wanted to be with him—wasn’t that enough? Why did that horrible PI have to show up? Dominic hadn’t meant to kill his uncle. But could he prove it? Running away and changing his name would look suspicious. He’d need a good lawyer, and fortunately my father just happened to be one. But how could I convince Dominic to hire Dad?
Sunk in despair, the last thing I wanted to do was to listen to Penny-Love about who was dating/cheating/lying/playing someone else at school. But she had no idea I was going through a crisis and there wasn’t anything I could do for Dominic, at least not until Nona came home.
When I entered the farmh
ouse, a cocoon of comfort blanketed me. I didn’t exactly feel better, but I was less anxious. The living room was full of familiar friends—a collage of framed photos over the TV, a blue-gold afghan Nona crocheted for me, and the wooden coffee table that I’d carved my initials into when learning my ABCs.
The air smelled comforting, too—vanilla cinnamon tea—and I followed the sweet scent to the kitchen, where I found Penny-Love at the table. Her eyes were puffy and red as if she’d been crying.
So I poured myself a cup of tea, then pulled up a chair beside her. I slipped my arm around her shoulders and asked her to tell me what had happened.
“My life is over. Jacques dumped me.”
Her hurt cut through me, and I could feel her pain—I was close to losing the guy I loved, too.
“Oh, Pen! He’s a jerk and doesn’t deserve you.”
“He didn’t even tell me in person. He texted me.”
“That’s brutal! No wonder you’re so sad.”
“Sad? More like furious.” She thumped her fist on the table, drops of tea sloshing from her cup. “This is not the way things are supposed to go. I’m the one who does the breaking up, but he beat me to it.”
“Excuse me?” I reached for a napkin and wiped the spilled tea. “You mean you were going to break up with him?”
“Not until after New Year’s. He hardly ever calls and we don’t have much in common.” She paused to sip her tea. “Do you have any idea how humiliating it is to get dumped right before Christmas?”
“Josh dumped me after Thanksgiving.”
“Not the same thing. You immediately hooked up with Dominic. I don’t have a new guy lined up. The girls on the squad will pity me—which is just wrong.”
I tried to follow her logic but felt like I’d taken the wrong turn in a maze. “I’m sorry,” was all I could say.
“Sorry! Don’t you get it?” She glared at me. “Being the rejected object of pity is ego-damaging. I hear my brothers talk all the time about ex-girlfriends, and I’ve vowed never to be the dumpee.”
“Sometimes it just happens,” I said sympathetically.
“Not to me. That’s why I have a plan.”
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