However, he didn’t see the harm in reaching out to Glynis to let her know that Michael and Audrey were on their way, and that he had an idea where Rosemary had gone. Instead of calling, he sent a text, figuring that was the easiest way to get the information to her without getting embroiled in a long conversation. He’d come in to work because he was needed at the church, and therefore his time wasn’t entirely his own while he was in his office. In fact, he was waiting for a couple of parishioners who were due to arrive for some marital counseling. In the past, he’d sometimes felt like a fraud when offering such advice, considering he’d never been married, had never had a relationship last more than few months since Lois dumped him back in college.
Now, though, he knew what it felt like to passionately care about another person, to want to do whatever it took to make sure she remained in his life. Even if it meant dropping everything to take another flight out to Indiana…assuming that was what they eventually decided to do.
One way or another, though, he’d make sure Rosemary returned safely. Now that he’d opened his heart to her, he didn’t want to imagine his world without her in it.
His phone let out a soft ping, letting him know he’d received a text. Will fished the phone out of his jacket pocket, heart beating harder with the irrational hope that it might have come from Rosemary, even though he knew she probably couldn’t risk anything beyond the single message she’d already sent.
But no, the text was from Glynis. Brief, but it made him relax ever so slightly.
What do you need from us?
At the moment, he didn’t think there was much Glynis — or Rosemary’s sisters Isabel and Celeste — could do. However, Will reminded himself that all three of them were powerful psychics, and maybe there was a way they could help without having to get directly involved in the fight.
Try to see if you can get any visions or impressions about what’s happening to Rosemary, he texted back. I’m only guessing that she’s in Greencastle, so some corroborating evidence would be helpful. And I assume Michael will want all of us to get together once he and Audrey and Fred arrive, but I’ll keep you posted on that.
We’ll do our best, Glynis replied. Celeste is working at the shop today, but I’ll get in touch with Isabel and let her know what she needs to do.
Thank you, he typed, and a response came back almost immediately.
I wish we could do more. But I’m trying to stay positive.
It’s going to be okay, he told her.
He only hoped he was right.
Just as Gerald had indicated, there was no lunch or sightseeing in the offing once they were done at the lab — not that Rosemary was in the mood anyway. The four of them piled in Daniel’s Range Rover and headed back to Greencastle without saying much. At that point, it was more a waiting game than anything else. Maybe there had been a moment when she could have slipped away and made her escape, but if such an opportunity had existed at all, she hadn’t recognized it for what it was. And although she supposed it might be somewhat easier to get away from Caleb than if she had his father and Gerald Gates keeping an eye on her all afternoon, she had a feeling that someone would be watching, making sure she didn’t try anything.
Somewhat to her surprise, Daniel didn’t take them back to the house, but dropped her and Caleb off in Greencastle’s quaint downtown area, only a block away from the restaurant where she and Will had shared breakfast just a few days earlier. “I figured you two would want to get lunch,” Daniel said pleasantly, sounding like a completely normal father instead of the part-demon creature he actually was. “I need to get back to the bank, and Gerald has his own duties at the high school.”
Rosemary wanted to protest, but she was hungry. Might as well have something to eat on Caleb’s dime, even though she didn’t much like the idea of being seen around town with him. Doing so would only reinforce the false belief that she was his girlfriend or something.
“No problem,” Caleb said easily. “I’ll find something to keep her occupied.”
That remark sounded ominous, but Daniel only smiled. “Sounds good. Have a nice afternoon.”
Caleb nodded and closed the car door, and the Range Rover moved off in a direction Rosemary assumed was back toward the Lockwood mansion. She crossed her arms and gave him a skeptical look. “I’m surprised your father is okay with leaving me with only one babysitter.”
“Do you need more?” he inquired.
She didn’t answer right away, but instead tried once again to send herself back to California, back someplace where she would be safe. All right, relatively safe, but worlds better than being here in Greencastle.
Of course, nothing happened.
Sunlight flashed off Caleb’s teeth as he grinned at her. “You’re not going anywhere, Rosemary. Word went out to make sure the whole town was locked down.”
Since there was apparently no denying what she’d done, she gave what she hoped was an unconcerned lift of her shoulders. “Can’t blame a girl for trying, can you?”
“Nope,” he said. “Come on — let me buy you lunch.”
Acknowledging her momentary defeat, she nodded and followed him as he led her down the street, past the place where she and Will had eaten breakfast, and on toward what appeared to be a brewpub, in another of the ubiquitous brick buildings. Since it was past one by that point, the place wasn’t quite as crowded as it might have been at noon, but there were still plenty of people enjoying a sandwich and a beer. However, they were still able to get a booth toward the back, which Rosemary guessed was probably a good idea. She kind of doubted that Caleb would want anyone overhearing the sorts of things they were going to discuss.
And while it probably wasn’t smart to drink too much, she figured one beer couldn’t hurt. They both ordered brown ales and got some beer cheese dip to start, then settled down to wait for their food.
In a way, it all felt so relentlessly normal that Rosemary found her situation almost surreal. She should not be sitting here with Caleb in a brewpub in Greencastle, Indiana. He was supposed to be dead, and she was supposed to be back in California with Will.
And yet, here they were.
“Is this all a ploy to keep your mother from finding out I’m here in Greencastle?” she asked, and Caleb’s mouth twisted in amusement.
“Not really.” He paused for a moment as their waitress came back with the beers they’d ordered and a promise that their cheese dip was on the way, then continued. “After all, my father can make her believe whatever he wants her to believe.”
Rosemary stared at him. “That’s horrible.”
“Not as horrible as her finding out the truth about the man she’s married to.” A shrug, and he added, “She has a nice life. I don’t think she’d even want to know. But anyway, I know it probably wasn’t fun for you to be stuck at my parents’ house. I convinced my father to let you go back to the DePauw Inn tonight, since the entire crew has been put on alert and will make sure you don’t try to slip away under cover of darkness.”
The thought of all those half-demons and quarter-demons watching her from wherever they lurked made a chill move down her spine, but Rosemary did her best to focus on the positive. At least she wouldn’t be expected to return to the Lockwood mansion, could spend her evening of waiting for the paternity test results in the far more neutral territory of the hotel that was adjacent to the college.
“Should I thank you for that?”
“Only if you want to,” Caleb replied, then went silent again as the waitress returned with their dip.
“Anything else?” she asked.
“Maybe in a little bit,” he said. “Thanks, Cheryl.”
She sent him a sunny smile, then headed back toward the front of the brewpub to check on another table.
“Do you know everyone in Greencastle?” Rosemary asked, trying not to sound too sour.
“Pretty much,” he admitted. “It’s not a very big place.”
And clearly, Caleb was well liked; she couldn
’t miss the warmth in their waitress’s eyes as she looked down at him. Younger than he was, and than Rosemary, too, probably in her early twenties, so too young for them to have gone to high school together or anything.
She had to wonder how Cheryl would react if she ever found out there was a little more to Caleb Lockwood — and his father — than met the eye.
“But it has to be like that for you in Glendora, doesn’t it?” he said then, and Rosemary chuckled despite herself.
“Hardly,” she said. “I know that downtown where the shop is located looks all quaint and cute, but Glendora’s actually a pretty big place. At last count, the population was over fifty thousand people.”
“Really? It doesn’t seem that big.” He lifted his beer and took a sip. “But okay, then yeah, it’s about five times the size of Greencastle.”
“I’m surprised you all have been able to blend in someplace that’s so small,” Rosemary remarked.
A shrug. “It’s not as hard as you might think. Like I told you before, we’re mostly just trying to live our lives.”
“Just innocent bystanders.”
That comment made him grin. “Right. But I can tell from your expression that you don’t believe me, so we’ll leave that aside for now.”
“Okay,” she responded, capitulating for the moment because she knew better than to argue with him in a public place. While it might have been satisfying to try to out the Greencastle demons and let everyone in this town know exactly who they’d been dealing with all these years, she knew that sort of thing sounded easier on paper than it was in real life. Any attempt to divulge the truth about Daniel Lockwood & Co. would probably only result in everyone thinking it was about time for her to go back on her meds. She was the outsider here, while the demons had been a part of this town for several generations.
Their cheese dip arrived, along with a basket of crostini for dipping, and although most of the time, Rosemary would have tried to avoid such obvious carb consumption, she had to admit the food was fabulous. Besides, all this stress had to have burned a lot of calories, right?
“Good?” Caleb asked, and she nodded.
“Really good.”
“So, what are you going to do when the test results come back and tell you that you’re one of us?”
His question caught her with some drippy cheese on her lip. She licked it off, trying her best to ignore the way he watched her tongue, gaze far too intent. Were they back to that? He had to know there was no way in hell she’d ever be with him again.
Although the room was warm enough and the borrowed cashmere sweater she wore cozy against her skin, Rosemary couldn’t quite prevent herself from shivering a little. She didn’t want him to be attracted to her. The situation was complicated enough already.
“I don’t know,” she said honestly. “Anyway, the first thing would be to convince me those results were genuine.”
Although he’d been wearing a halfway amused expression, one corner of his mouth lifted in a partial smile, he sobered abruptly, dark gaze focusing on her face while she did her best not to blink and look away. “Wasn’t that the whole reason why we went to the lab?” he demanded. “I thought the point was that we couldn’t meddle with those results.”
“You can’t?” she asked. “Why not?”
He hesitated for a second or two, gaze moving toward the main part of the restaurant, as though he wanted to make sure there was no one in earshot who could possibly hear what he was about to say. “We’re not good with large-scale automated stuff, big organizations. Yeah, if you and Gerald used that at-home kit my father showed you, then we could have gimmicked that somehow. But something that went to a big commercial lab?” A shake of the head, followed by, “That’s a totally different story. It’s kind of the same reason why I spent some time in L.A. getting a few credits under my belt. My story had to seem plausible. It wasn’t as if we had the ability to hack IMDB to make it look as though I was some sort of indie wonder or the director of the next Marvel movie or something.”
In a way, Rosemary supposed that made sense. Actually, she felt strangely relieved by this confession, if only because she’d begun to wonder how far the demons’ powers really extended, whether they truly had the ability to meddle in whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. But they weren’t omnipotent. They had their blind spots and their weaknesses, just like every other living creature.
“So anyway,” he went on, “that means whatever those test results say is the truth. The courier can hand them directly to you, if you like. That way you can see them before anyone else, before anyone’s had any opportunity to meddle with them or alter them or whatever.”
“That might help,” she said, wondering whether she should feel grateful, or worried. Yes, she’d come here because she wanted to learn the truth about her father and her past, but on the other hand, if the test results turned out to be something she really didn’t want to see, then she wouldn’t be able to convince herself that the demons had somehow interfered with the results and changed them to reflect what they wanted and not the actual truth.
“Then we’ll do it that way,” Caleb told her, then dipped another piece of crostini in the cheese and took a bite. “I’ll let my dad know. I think the plan was to call me when the courier was about a half hour away, and then I’d come by and get you and take you to the house.”
She looked at him, a little confused. “You don’t live at the house?”
Her question got a derisive chuckle in response. “I’m twenty-nine years old, Rosemary,” he said. “You seriously think I live at home?”
“Well, I — ”
He waved a hand and continued, cutting her off. “I’ve got a loft above one of the businesses here in downtown.” A familiar glint entered his eyes as he added, “I’d be happy to show it to you after we’re done eating. It’s only a few blocks away.”
How about no? she thought. No way in the world would she allow herself to be alone with Caleb in his loft. Being with him like this was just barely tolerable, mostly because they were in a public place and she knew he couldn’t misbehave too badly.
“That’s all right,” she said, then sipped some of her brown ale. “I’ll take your word for it. I was thinking that after lunch I’d go straight to the hotel and hang there for the rest of the day…and evening.”
He didn’t look terribly surprised by her plans, which clearly had been designed for maximum demon avoidance. “That’s no fun. I was thinking I could take you to homecoming tonight.”
It was her turn to lift an eyebrow. “What, are we suddenly back in high school or something?”
“The homecoming game,” he amended. “The dance is tomorrow night. Obviously, I have no plans to show up there.”
“Well, thank God for that. Anyway,” she went on before he could respond, “like I told your dad, I’m not much for football. I think it’s better if I just stay in the hotel. But feel free to go to homecoming and bask in decade-old glory if it floats your boat.”
For a moment, Caleb didn’t say anything. He ate another crostini well coated in cheese, washed it down with some beer, and then said, “You really don’t like me, do you?”
She gazed back at him steadily. “Is that a trick question?”
“No.”
For once, the mocking edge to his voice had disappeared. Likewise, he seemed almost earnest as he stared across the table at her. For just the barest second, Rosemary felt almost bad for her harsh comment…and then wanted to shake herself. This was Caleb Lockwood, after all, the man who had lied to her about who and what he was, who’d attacked her and sent Will to the hospital with a concussion. He could make all the puppy-dog eyes in the world — it wouldn’t change the fact that he was a part-demon lying sack of shit.
“You haven’t given me much reason to like you, have you?” She drank some more of her beer, wishing it could have a more relaxing effect on her nerves than it currently seemed to be doing. “Maybe once I might have felt a little sorry for you
, but — ”
“‘Sorry for me’?” he cut in, expression now one of disbelief. “Why in the world would you feel sorry for me?”
“For being born into family of — ” Rosemary stopped herself there as an older woman passed by their booth, presumably on her way to the restroom. Lowering her voice, she went on, “For being born into your family. I know it must suck to be put in a situation you really don’t have any control over. But it’s also not like you tried to rebel, is it? You never told your father to take his stupid plans for world domination and shove them, did you?”
Caleb leaned against the back of the booth, eyes narrowing. “He’s not attempting world domination, for Chrissake.”
She reflected on the incongruity of a part-demon swearing by the name of a man who should have been anathema to their kind but decided not to remark on it. Instead, she made herself shrug and say, “Then what’s his whole deal with the footage? Why’s it so important?”
“It needs to be hidden so no one ever sees what’s on it.”
Was that truly what Caleb believed, or was he only telling her what she wanted to hear? “That’s not what you said when you first met me. I seem to remember a whole lot of blather about how important it was for the world to know what was on that hard drive, to see the truth of what Colin Turner captured at the Whitcomb mansion.”
“I know what I said.” He ran an exasperated hand through his hair, mussing it slightly. Once upon a time, Rosemary might have thought doing such a thing made him look rumpled and adorable. Now, though, she could only gaze at him and wonder if he’d done it on purpose in an attempt to make himself appear more attractive to her. “And yeah, it was a lie, okay? I was telling you what I thought you’d want to hear.”
She should have been satisfied by such a comment, but right then, she found herself wondering if it was yet another lie. “So, if it was so important to you to make sure no one ever saw that footage, why didn’t your father trash the hard drive as soon as he had it in his possession?”
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