“And here I thought you came for me,” Aisling groused.
“I did come for you. Your constant calls home were getting to be a bit much ... and your brothers wouldn’t stop giving me grief. Even Braden took up for you and said getting pregnant wasn’t a big deal.”
“It’s not,” Aisling agreed. “If I’d come home from the honeymoon pregnant, would you have been so upset?”
“I don’t know. I still would’ve known what Griffin did to my baby even under those circumstances.”
I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing at the aggrieved expression on Aisling’s face.
“We were sleeping together in your house ... and quite often,” Aisling pointed out. “You had to know it was coming eventually.”
“Maybe I wanted you to have time to settle.”
“And maybe we don’t always get exactly what we want at the exact time we want it,” Aisling countered. “It’s done. I’m going to have a baby. We have to move forward.”
“I know.” Cormack ordered Aisling’s hair. “We’ll move forward.”
“We have to get Griffin first. That means going out to visit the cult.”
“I understand.” Cormack heaved out a sigh and shifted his gaze to Booker. “I don’t suppose you have any strong and magical friends you could rope into a potential fight? I would rather not risk anyone if it’s not necessary.”
Booker’s grin was impish. “I have a few ideas. What do you have in mind?”
23
Twenty-Three
I had no idea how Cormack managed to secure a vehicle, something that should have been an insurmountable feat. He had two men with him, both dressed in suits — very Men In Black, frankly – and he loaded us in the vehicle before taking a moment to talk privately with Booker.
I had no idea what they were talking about, but the conversation looked serious. When I spared a glance for Aisling, I found she was impatiently drumming her fingers on the seat.
“He’s trying to drive me insane,” she hissed. “He knows I want to get out there and find Griffin but, no, he has to take his sweet-ass time playing kissy face with Booker. Because that’s important.”
“I don’t think they’re playing kissy face.”
“My father is very charming. If anyone could seduce your cupid, it’s my father. I swear I’m going to ... .” She mimed something vicious with her hands that I couldn’t quite make out.
“Is that code for athletic origami or something?”
Her glare was vicious when it landed on me. “Do you think you’re funny?”
I held up my hands. “I’m sorry. I don’t think you’re doing yourself any favors by getting all worked up. There’s no reason to freak out.”
“Oh, I’m not freaking out.” Aisling stomped her foot as hard as she could on the floor to get her father’s attention. “Right now!”
Cormack calmly raised a finger in silent admonishment and continued talking to Booker. When he was finished a few minutes later, he strode toward us, an air of cool sophistication wafting off him as he fastened his seatbelt. “We’re heading out.”
I glanced through the window, to where Booker was talking to Lilac. “What about Booker? We might need help.”
“He’ll be right behind us. He’s gathering a few friends.”
“Oh.” That made me feel a little better. “Aisling and I know where we’re headed. We’ll lead you there and they can catch up.”
“We’re meeting at your grandfather’s ranch,” he countered, ignoring the protesting sound Aisling made. “We won’t be there long. He says that’s the closest place for our group to assemble. Can you sit up front with my driver and direct him?”
“I guess.” I shifted my eyes to Aisling, who looked as if she was about to throw herself on her father and start kicking. “Are you sure this is the best way to go?”
“I’m sure that I don’t know what we’re walking into and I want to be as prepared as possible. We might only have one chance at this. I want to make sure it’s a good one.”
That sounded reasonable to me.
THE DRIVE TO WESLEY’S farm felt longer than normal. The driver went the speed limit, which irritated me, but I managed to bite my tongue and keep from verbally lambasting his driving skills. Aisling was another story.
“Pull over right now and let me drive,” she bellowed from the back seat, where she was pinned between her father and the other man he’d brought with him.
“Ignore my daughter, David,” Cormack instructed. “She’s overwrought. I think she needs a nap. In fact, if she doesn’t stop causing a scene, I’ll make sure she doesn’t leave the farm we’re heading to.”
“You and what army?” Aisling snapped.
“I won’t let you serve as a distraction, kid.” Cormack was firm. “We need to make sure Griffin is all right. Right now, we don’t even know if he’s in trouble. That’s an assumption you’ve made, and I’m not sure it’s correct.”
“He would’ve called by now,” she insisted, fury propelling her to grab his wrist. “You know he would have returned my call. He wouldn’t torture me like this.”
Cormack’s expression softened. “Not on purpose, no. Maybe he doesn’t get cell service out there. Have you considered that?”
One look at Aisling’s expression told me she hadn’t considered that. “Galen said there are only two cell towers on the island,” I offered. “It’s possible they aren’t getting service. We didn’t stop to see how many bars we had on our phones when we were spying.”
“See.” Cormack winced as he removed his wrist from Aisling’s iron grip. “You must calm yourself. I can’t remember the last time you were this worked up.”
“Yes, you do.” Aisling’s eyes went flat as she stared out the front window. “It was when we got word that the building Mom was collecting her soul in fell ... and she wasn’t out yet.”
Cormack exhaled heavily. “I guess I do remember. Your reaction didn’t help then, and it won’t help now. Griffin needs you to be strong, not this mess of moods. I’ll blame your pregnancy hormones for this little outburst — which is vastly different from your other outbursts because of the emotions attached — and ask that you calm yourself.”
He sucked in a cleansing breath, never breaking eye contact with his lookalike daughter. “Now, tell me about this pregnancy. I didn’t get a chance to talk to you at the wedding. Are you having a boy or girl?”
Whatever she was expecting, that wasn’t it. Aisling’s mouth dropped open and a strangled sound escaped. “We don’t know. I’ve only taken a home pregnancy test. We won’t go to the doctor until we get back.”
“All right.” Cormack nodded curtly. He reminded me of the sort of man who had a list of questions to ask and he’d just ticked one off. “Do you want a boy or a girl?”
“I don’t know.” Aisling leaned back against the seat, and to my surprise, rested her head against her father’s shoulder. “We’re probably safer with a boy, but you always said karma was going to get me, so I’m convinced it will be a girl.”
“Little girls aren’t so bad.” He patted her knee. “They’re simply a different sort of trouble. You’ll be fine. You’re not alone. You’ll always have me ... even if your husband is a demented pervert who needs to be smacked around a bit.”
“We need to get him back.”
“We will. I promise you. You need to calm yourself first. You won’t be of much use in a fight if you’re crying. What did I always tell you when you were little about crying?”
“Only do it if I really wanted you to buy me something special.”
Cormack snickered. “I don’t believe I used those exact words.”
“You said to only cry when it matters, when it’s important.”
“We don’t know that anything has happened yet,” he stressed. “We’ll know soon. If you expect to go on this little adventure with me, you need to hold it together. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Good.” He pressed a kiss to her foreh
ead. “Everything will work out. You’ll see.”
WESLEY OBVIOUSLY expected us because he was waiting on the front porch when we pulled into the driveway. Cormack helped Aisling out of the vehicle before striding straight toward my grandfather and shaking his hand.
“Thank you for letting us meet here to strategize.”
“No problem.” Wesley’s eyes moved to me. “Booker called and told me what’s going on. Are you sure this is the way you want to do things? We don’t even know if Galen and Griffin are in trouble. They could be fine.”
“They could be,” I agreed. “They might also be in real trouble. From what Casey told us, she participated in Taurus’s fertility ritual because she was desperate. He told her there would be a price. He didn’t mention that price would be her husband.”
“He also made her put up goofy masks and a pornographic painting in her house,” Aisling added. “The guy is all kinds of bonkers. I don’t trust him ... and I want to make sure Griffin is safe. I don’t care if we look like idiots going in as long as we find our people.”
“Fair enough.” Wesley held his hands up in a placating manner. “Booker is bringing a few friends. He said he would be about thirty minutes behind you. What can I do to help?”
“I don’t suppose you have an aerial map of the area, do you?” Cormack asked.
“As a matter of fact, I do.” Wesley led us into the house, directing us toward his first-floor study. I hadn’t spent much time at the farm, so I was naturally curious as we navigated the hallways. I made a mental note to visit again when I had time for a real tour. I spent most of my time on the front porch when I visited. That should probably be rectified.
“This is good,” Cormack noted when Wesley laid out the map on a table. “Where are we on this map?”
Wesley pointed. “And the cult camp is right about here.” He pointed again.
“Out of curiosity, where did they used to be?”
I gestured toward the correct spot on the map. “There. Why does that matter?”
“I’m simply trying to get the lay of the land,” he replied, his gaze intense. “When were they informed they would have to move?”
“Years ago,” Wesley replied. “The hotel has been planned for a good seven or eight years. Barry has been running around in the wilderness for a very long time, since right after he graduated from high school. It was a slow move to Crazy Town. At first he kept his house and simply started hanging around the beach during the days.
“Then it turned to nights and weeks at a time,” he continued. “For at least two years he kept coming into town and acting like nothing was different. During that time, more and more people started gravitating toward the area.
“You should understand, no one realized it was a cult right off the bat,” he said. “We thought they were just hippies grouping together to party on the beach. It was all bonfires and the occasional public fornication. Nobody was getting hurt.”
“Along the way it changed, though, correct?” Cormack prodded. “When did you start to notice that things were going south?”
“I guess it was sometime in year three.” Wesley scratched his cheek as he accessed his memories. “Barry got a notice from the DDA because he wasn’t keeping up his property.”
“Why would the Downtown Development Authority care about a residential issue?” Cormack asked, puzzled.
“Apparently the DDA is big and scary here,” Aisling volunteered, moving closer to her father to study the map. “It’s not like the DDAs by us that are just in it for the money. These guys have actual rules and are supposedly terrifying.”
“She’s right,” Wesley acknowledged. “Our DDA means business. After six warnings went unanswered, the DDA seized his house and demanded he show up for judgment.”
“That sounds ominous.” Cormack slid his arm around Aisling’s back. “Was he flogged or something?”
“No. We don’t flog. He brought his followers to the meeting, though, and that’s when we realized things were getting out of hand. He insisted everyone call him Taurus — even though half the people at the meeting were laughing — and he spouted some nonsense about not being beholden to the government.
“The DDA members responded by saying his property would be seized and sold at auction if he didn’t take care of it,” he continued. “He kept spouting his nonsense, so they seized the property. They sent movers in to pack up his stuff, put the money he made from the sale in an account for him, and had the sheriff deliver everything to Barry on the beach.”
“Galen?” I asked, trying to picture my boyfriend serving as a delivery boy.
“No, this was before he was elected,” Wesley replied. “Barry accepted his stuff, took the bank book and then kicked the sheriff off his land. He said a divine entity — I can’t remember the name he gave the god he created — had given him the land to start a commune. The sheriff told him that’s not how things worked. Barry argued and all the people he had staying with him started yelling and screaming. Sensing he was outnumbered, the sheriff came back and reported what had happened.”
“They were obviously allowed to live there for some time,” Cormack pointed out.
“Because they technically weren’t hurting anyone,” Wesley explained. “The development was in the beginning stages even then, but until they were ready to break ground no one wanted to borrow trouble with Barry and his followers.
“Then the original group that wanted to build the hotel lost its financing — I think the president of the company died under mysterious circumstances or something — and it took another few years for a new group to come in,” he continued. “In that time, Barry’s group tripled in size from what we could tell ... and they got weirder and weirder.”
“They’re clearly a cult,” Cormack said, his eyes on the map as he kept his hand moving over Aisling’s back. It was a similar technique to the one Griffin used to calm her. I couldn’t help but wonder if Cormack purposely taught it to his future son-in-law, or it was something Griffin picked up. “When they got final notification that they were being forced to move, how did it go down?”
“That was an ugly business.” Wesley rested his hip against the table as he folded his arms over his chest. “The DDA sent in a variety of business owners, all able-bodied men and women, and Barry didn’t have a choice in the matter. They were forcibly moved.”
“To the spot where they are now?”
“No, to a spot in the ditch across the road. Barry remained behind long enough to pout and whine, claiming the developers were angering the gods, but the land was surrounded and a couple local witches put up wards to keep him out.”
Hmm. That was interesting. “Obviously the wards worked,” I offered. “Otherwise he would’ve simply moved back to the spot as soon as everyone left.”
“They did, and Barry moved on,” Wesley said. “When he picked a place so close to my farm, I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. They’ve been mostly quiet. On calm nights you can hear the drums. And I guarantee there’s a lot of sex happening out there. Sometimes they don’t wear clothes when they’re wandering around the countryside. For the most part, they mind their own business. That’s what I care about.”
“This here.” Cormack tapped the map. “This looks to be a rather large body of water. Is it a river?”
Wesley shook his head. “No, that’s an inlet, even though it doesn’t look it. There’s ocean access to the north. See, follow through here.” He used his finger as a guide. “It’s saltwater, but turns to fresh water in the basin because there’s a freshwater river feeding it from this side.”
“How big is the lake?”
“A few miles. They’re using it as a backdrop to their camp. I’m on that lake occasionally and I see them.”
“I’m assuming he picked this location because nobody can approach from that direction,” Cormack supplied. “That means he only has to defend on three sides.”
“And that west side is really nothing but rock and difficult to traverse,�
�� Wesley noted. “It’s more like defending only two sides.”
“That puts us at a distinct disadvantage,” Cormack said. “I don’t know that we have the brute force to take them on.”
“You won’t need brute force,” Booker announced as he entered the room, Lilac close on his heels. “I’ve got reinforcements moving in through the inlet. They’ll be in position in twenty minutes. Barry won’t be able to fight them. They’ll stay hidden unless they’re necessary.”
“What sort of reinforcements?” I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me.
“Aurora,” Booker replied simply. “She has some friends and they’re going in.”
“Who is Aurora?” Aisling asked.
“She’s essentially a mermaid.”
“Mermaids are real?” Aisling was incredulous. “I always said I wanted to be a mermaid. Now I feel ripped off.”
Cormack made a sympathetic noise with his mouth as he patted her shoulder. “It’s okay, kid. You’re already more than most of us can handle. If fins were added to the equation, everybody would be too exhausted to fight you.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
My eyes drifted to Lilac, confused. “No offense, but why did you bring Lilac?”
Booker’s smile was grim. “Because there’s a good chance we might need her. She can bring the fire like nobody’s business. She’s a good person to have on our side.”
I was confused. “What fire?”
“You’ll see.”
“I’d rather you tell me.”
He was done being patient. “You’ll see. Now, let’s get going. The reaper wants her husband back and I’m dying to save Galen so I can hold it over his head for the foreseeable future.”
That sounded about right. Things were about to take a turn. I just hoped everybody lived to complain about it.
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