by Ann Charles
And have me risk being on the receiving end of Cooper’s jealous wrath? I didn’t think so. I was in enough trouble with the growly detective these days.
“No way. You’d stumble all over your tongue and then slip and fall in your own pool of drool.” I turned to Aunt Zoe. “I’m running out of time here. The DNA results won’t take forever. We need to think outside the box.”
Her blue eyes narrowed. “Outside of the box doesn’t have to include fraternizing with the enemy.”
“You know as well as I do that nothing in this world is black and white.”
“Violet, you don’t know how to kill a lidérc, let alone capture one. Trading information on a timekeeper in exchange for capturing a lidérc is hardly even-steven.”
“I’m not going to jail for something I didn’t do.”
She shook her head, refusing to give an inch.
“How about if I read up on how to catch a lidérc?”
“You? Read words?” Natalie guffawed. “Don’t buy her snake oil, Zoe.”
“Read what?” Aunt Zoe said. “If you’d taken the time to look at our family history book like I’ve asked you to many, many times, you’d know that the last executioner who tried to catch a lidérc went down in flames.”
According to Layne, the executioner had actually jumped off a cliff, which would be better than burning to death.
“You’re not going to bend on this, are you?” I asked.
She stood, facing off with me. “My job is to keep you alive to fight another day.”
“Well, it’s going to be pretty damned hard to fight while I’m rotting away in a jail cell, isn’t it?”
Aunt Zoe sighed. “Come here, kiddo.” I inched closer, wary. She grabbed me and pulled me into her arms, hugging me tight like when I was a little girl. She smelled like lemons and the chai tea she was drinking, homey and safe. “I don’t want to fight with you about this,” she said over my shoulder. “But I’m afraid you don’t understand who and what you’re dealing with here.”
I rested my forehead on her shoulder. “You’re right, I don’t. But how will I ever learn if I don’t stick my neck out now and then?”
“Fine.” She pushed me back, scowling at me. “Call Dominick and arrange a meeting.”
“Okay.”
“But I’m coming with you.”
“Deal,” I said, relieved at the idea of her there to keep me from turning this into one of my grand fuckups. Plus, I knew Doc would be less ticked at me when he heard Aunt Zoe was going to be there to keep an eye on Dominick.
She sat back down in her chair, picking up her pencil again.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to go along?” Natalie asked, swinging her legs. “I could try to seduce answers out of him, save you from having to stick your neck out.”
“You need to seek counseling,” I said.
“Or just have sex.”
I shrugged. “I’m sure we could find some poor sucker to take the plunge.” There was an easy target sitting about one hundred feet away at the moment, probably getting his ass handed to him by Doc at the poker table once again.
“Violet! You’re supposed to help me stay strong and avoid men.”
“Please, I’m only one person. That job would take a whole team of highly trained Special Forces men and women.”
“I’m serious,” she said, hopping off the table. “I want to stay strong for a year. While these last few months have been a little lonely at times, I’ve enjoyed not having to worry about how I look or compromise about my choices. And I’ve really loved not guarding my heart. It’s been stomped on by one too many cheating bastards. Being single is so freeing. Now I know why you stayed away from men so long.”
Uh, my staying away from men had nothing to do with any of the items she’d listed. Two children had been a surefire man-deterrent comparable to mace until Doc came along.
“I know what you mean,” Aunt Zoe told Natalie, her focus on her paper. “Relationships take too much out of a person. That being said, I wouldn’t mind a little friction now and then.” She looked up and winked at Natalie. “If you know what I mean.”
Natalie moved over to the back door, frowning out the window toward the house. “Yeah, I definitely do.”
* * *
Long after the kids had gone to bed and Natalie had driven off, I sat in the front seat of the Picklemobile next to Doc. We were parked in Aunt Zoe’s drive, which was as far as Cooper would allow me to range off the leash.
The pickup idled smooth and quiet, a testament to Doc’s abilities under the hood and a new muffler. When I was driving the old girl around, she liked to belch and hiccup and sputter, backfiring every time I turned her off.
I adjusted the vent, warming my hands in front of the heat. “Who won the game?” I asked.
“Harvey.”
“Seriously?”
“That old boy’s a shark. He plays the going-senile angle, but I’m beginning to suspect he spent a lot of time in Vegas. He took all of Cooper’s stash and half of Reid’s and mine.”
“Damn. I’m getting heated up with the wrong man tonight.”
He chuckled, patting the middle of the bench seat. “Come here and warm me up, Killer.”
I scooted over, settling into his side. The cab was heating up quickly, so I unzipped Aunt Zoe’s quilted red vest. “This would be more romantic if we weren’t sitting in my aunt’s driveway.”
“I’ll take what I can get right now.”
“I offered the couch, remember?”
“I’m not that desperate yet.” He draped his arm over my shoulders, his fingers stroking me through my sweater sleeve.
I rested my palm on his thigh, feeling his muscles under his jeans. “We could steam up your windows for a while.”
“That’s not going to cut it. I’ve taken enough cold showers since you started your little game of seduction last July, Vixen.”
“My game? All I did was stare at you like a love-struck groupie.” Something Tiffany had confirmed earlier this afternoon. “You’re the one who took advantage.”
He laughed. “Oh, that is rich, considering all of the times you undressed me with your eyes.”
My cheeks warmed, Tiffany’s earlier words still stinging me hours later, damn it. “Doc, if I ask you something, will you give me an honest answer?”
His fingers stilled. “Sure.”
I turned and looked up at him. “Do you remember that day I was showing you that house east of town and Tiffany showed up?”
“The day she slapped me?”
“Yeah.” I lowered my gaze, playing with my zipper for a second or two, trying to form my words so I didn’t sound pathetic. “Was it super obvious that I’d dressed to impress you?”
“You mean like a professional Realtor?”
I focused out the windshield, glad that the glow of the dashboard lights didn’t show how red my cheeks must have been right then. “No.”
He was quiet a moment. “I remember you said you were having trouble sleeping.”
“I think I was dealing with nightmares because of the Hessler house.” Between the stress of trying to sell it fast to save my job and the creepy clown décor, I was doing a lot of tossing and turning at night. Maybe that was after I’d heard the closing doors in the empty house, too, I wasn’t certain.
“I picked on you about your red eyes and wild hair, which you’d left loose that day.”
“That’s right. Then after we left, we had a conversation about you not wanting to sleep with your Realtor.”
His fingers began to stroke my arm again. “You said you weren’t going to have sex with me.”
“I had good intentions at the time.”
“I didn’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“I wanted to have sex with you.”
“Even then?”
“I’ve told you before, Violet. From the day you tripped over my box of books, I wanted you. I knew hiring you as my agent was a mistake because I wan
ted you in my bed, but I couldn’t resist.”
“So you didn’t think I was some sad, desperate single mom trying to entice you into my bed that day with the way I looked?”
“Sad and desperate? No. A single mom? Yes. Addy had made that clear to me by then, along with an eclectic list of your favorite things.”
“I wanted to duct tape her big mouth shut.”
His body shook with silent laughter. “I thought she was funny.” He stilled, quiet for a few breaths. “I found the fact that you were able to successfully juggle kids and a career sexy as hell.”
“I was dropping the ball a lot at that point on both fronts.”
“From my viewpoint, you were a smart, competent woman with killer curves I itched to run my hands over, incredible hair that smelled like peaches, and lips that filled my head with wild fantasies day and night. Encouraging you to date Hessler made me take to the bottle many a night.”
I captured his fingers and kissed them. “I wanted you to be jealous, but you seemed so unperturbed about me dating him.”
“What could I do? I figured you deserved a normal guy, not some freak who faced off with ghosts on a daily basis. I thought that maybe I could settle for a flirty friendship between us, but then there was that kiss.” He blew out a breath. “It knocked me for a loop. If Mona hadn’t interrupted us, I would have taken you right then and there.”
I laced my fingers through his. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Wanting me when I was at a low point in my life.”
“You’ve had me lassoed since day one, Boots.” He kissed my temple. “What made you ask about that day in the house?”
“Something Tiffany said.”
He sighed. “She’s grasping at straws.”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t let her see you bleed.”
“I’ll try not.”
“I’m in love with you, Violet.”
Tears filled my eyes. I blinked them away, swallowing the lump of emotion that filled my throat. Now was not the time to turn into a blubbering baby. Doc had just given me something more wonderful than any piece of jewelry or other expensive trinket. Something to treasure and hold close to my heart.
He cleared his throat meaningfully. “Now would be a nice time for you to reciprocate with your feelings for me, you know.”
Grinning, I turned in the seat, wrapping my arms around his neck. I stared up at him in the semi-darkness. The scent of his cologne filled me with a deep hunger for so much more than kisses in a pickup cab.
“Doc?” I said, my expression dead serious.
“Yes?”
“I think you’re really swell.”
He let out a bark of laughter, and then leaned down so his forehead touched mine. “I’m going to make you pay for that one.”
“If you say so, loverboy.” I pulled his mouth down, taking my time kissing him. The windows needed a little steam to help block out the world, and by the time I’d finished showing him how crazy I was for him, we had his driver’s side window mostly fogged over.
“Holy hell, Boots,” he said when I pulled free and sat upright. He shifted in his seat, adjusting. “You have the most amazing mouth.”
“That’s just a little something to remind you of what you’re missing by not sleeping with me on the rack tonight.”
He shook his head as if to clear it. “You make it hard to say no.”
“As long as I make it hard,” I said, tongue in cheek.
He reached for me again, but I dodged his hand.
“Seriously, Doc. If you’re not going to spend the night, we need to stop, or I’m going to crawl on your lap and make your horn honk.”
His teeth glowed in the dash lights. “Is that what the kids are calling it these days?”
It was my turn to laugh. I wrapped his arm around me again, settling back against him. “Now, why did you ask me out to your pickup tonight, Mr. Nyce?”
He pulled me closer, toying with a strand of my hair. “Tell me about this hellhole.”
“Didn’t Cornelius fill you in after I left?”
“He played the recording from his EVP. He told me he suspects the sounds are coming from a hole in the basement, but before I could ask what made him think that, he got a call from his contractor and had to go to the hotel immediately.”
I told him what I knew about the so-called hellhole, explaining that I figured it was more likely some sort of underground tunnel between buildings or a part of the sewer system.
“Did it smell?”
“No. Well, it had the usual musty sort of smell you’d expect.”
“Hmmm. Did you hear anything coming from it?”
“No, but I’m a dud.”
“Not really.”
“Yeah, but sort of.”
“You’re more like a complicated, hot paranormal mess.” When I frowned up at him, he added, “Which is the exact description of my dream girl.”
Smiling, I kissed the underside of his jaw. “What are you doing tomorrow at lunch, Gomez?”
“I’m spending it with … a distracting blonde. Which reminds me, we need to talk about what I read in your family history book.”
Oh, right. That was the original reason for our lunch date turned sex romp turned paranormal club meeting turned nothing.
“Do we really need to talk about that now?” I pulled his hand over so it rested on my breast. “Wouldn’t you rather touch my soft parts?”
“Always, but first tell me what’s going on with you and that book.” His hand stayed put.
“What do you mean?”
“You avoid having anything to do with it.”
I pondered that for several seconds. “I guess it scares me.”
“Why’s that?”
“It’s too real. Every one of those women suffered the same fate as me—their lives were turned upside down due to a genetic anomaly. They had to learn to kill or be killed. There was no middle ground.” I covered his hand with mine, holding him close as I explored my feelings about the stories of my ancestors who had come and gone. “The monsters they fought aren’t just fictional beasts in any old book. They are real. Potential enemies I may have to face myself someday. They have the ability to do horrific deeds. Caly taught me that lesson. Their mission will be to either torture or kill me, or both.” I leaned my head against his shoulder. “Do you have any idea how terrifying that is? How much I already worry for my kids? Any one of those creatures could come looking for me or Addy or Layne at any time. I won’t know when or where, it’ll just show up one day, ready to kill.”
“But don’t you want to know about those enemies before they arrive, weapon in hand?”
“To what end? According to Aunt Zoe, whatever methods the other executioners used to kill each foe won’t work for me.”
“You don’t know that for certain and neither does Zoe.”
“Maybe not, but one thing I do know is that what’s on those pages will give me nightmares. Correction, give me more nightmares.” I shuddered. “Last night, I scared my daughter so much with my screaming that she went to find you for help, but you weren’t there so she grabbed Cooper instead. Addy was trembling when I lured her out from behind Cooper. A scared little rabbit. I did that to her.”
“Violet, don’t,” he said, but I kept going.
“If I read that book, my mind will use what I read as fodder for new nightmares starring those creatures. I have absolutely no doubt about that, and since I can’t stay awake 24/7, they will be there waiting for me when I slip into dreamland with their sharp teeth, glowing eyes, and who knows what else.”
“Okay, Tiger.” He kissed the top of my head.
“Besides.” I smiled up at him. “You like to read about weird stuff like this. Why should I take that pleasure away from you?”
He traced the side of my face, ending at my neck. “Fine, I’ll be your eyes on this front, but I’ll need to share things from it that pertain to current events sometimes.”
“You’ll have to be forthcoming with me about everything you see and experience.”
“Does that mean I have a new excuse to talk to you every day?”
“You’ve never needed an excuse.” He leaned forward and brushed his mouth over mine. “Now, are you ready to hear about what I read?”
I leaned my head back against his shoulder, closing my eyes. “Let me hear it.”
“A couple of centuries ago, one of the executioners worked with what your aunt Zoe or someone else translated as a keeper of the clocks.”
“You mean a timekeeper?”
“The German word on the page was der Zeitnehmer.”
“Zite-namer?” I repeated, pronouncing it by sound. Maybe I should learn some German if I was going to keep at this gig. Or not. Hell, most days I had enough trouble with speaking plain old English.
“I’m guessing a ‘timekeeper’ is another name for the individual.” Doc shifted slightly, his hand sliding down to my ribs, pulling me closer.
“So what happened?”
“The executioner wanted to go back in time to stop an event that had already happened.”
“What event?” I asked, my eyes still closed.
“That’s not important. What matters is that she found a timekeeper willing to help her return to the past.”
“She traveled back in time?” I wondered how the timekeeper had done that. Did it have something to do with moving the clock hands?
“Sort of, but the way it was described was more like she stepped into another plane of existence, one where the timeline runs parallel to this realm.”
I tried to picture parallel timelines, but struggled. How did that work? Was there someone named Violet living this life in another plane? Did she have her shit together more than I did? Did she have an equivalent to Doc, Addy, and Layne?
“Did the executioner fix what she’d gone back to change?”
“Yes.” There was something in his tone that didn’t settle well.
I opened my eyes, staring out the windshield at the front of Aunt Zoe’s house, the only place I really felt safe. “There’s a ‘but’ in there, though. What happened?”