“Jo… That’s not—”
“Elisabeth,” LaRue interrupted me, opening my car door. “I expected you to come alone.”
“She tried,” Jo told him. She stepped out of her side of the car. “I wouldn’t let her. Besides, you know you’d rather have me here, watching.”
She gave him a smile I’d never seen her wear before: seduction and authority. Jo as the dominatrix, the woman in charge. Oh God, this had all gotten out of hand so very quickly. I grabbed LaRue while she walked up to the house.
“She thinks we’re going to sleep together,” I hissed.
He grinned.
“We’re not!”
“But something made her think so?”
“Yeah, me! I was trying to keep your stupid secret and now she thinks something is going on.”
“But something is going on.” He turned to the side and I saw a truck rumble up the driveway. “I stationed Samuel along the road. “He was meant to send you a message when he saw them.”
“He did.” I jerked my head to the right where our guests were getting out of the truck. In the moonlight, Nala looked tall and lean, her partner’s body was equally trim. Both of them had long tawny hair, with dark tan skin the color of sand. I wondered if their eyes were green like Noah’s. She walked up to me with her hand forward, ready to shake mine.
“I’m sorry, you told me your name on the phone but I forgot it. I’m Nala Renji.”
“Elisabeth Hicks. Call me Hicks.”
“This is my husband, Raj.”
“And this is Mr. LaRue, who made the unfortunate purchase.” We all shook hands, although I noticed they hesitated to touch him. Remembering what I’d heard from the woman at the animal breeder, I quickly added, “He bought the cub as a pet for his wife.”
“You’ve had lions before?” Nala asked him.
“In India, many years ago. We lived near a preserve.”
“My family might be from the same area,” Raj told him. “Is Noah inside?”
“He’s upstairs asleep.”
“Why don’t we reunite you all?” I led the way, hoping Jo was downstairs in bed, waiting for a night of sex that wasn’t going to happen. LaRue had the sense to take the lion cub out of the dog crate before his parents arrived, and, most of all, that this turned out okay.
Jo stood at the bottom of the stairs, her hand on the rail. She’d changed from her jeans into a gown made of floating gray silk. It could have been a nightgown, but the way the slippery fabric clung to her curves, I suspected she never slept in it. Her blonde curls fell around her heart-shaped face in a perfect halo but the fire in her eyes was anything but angelic. She might talk about not being jealous, but she didn’t get dressed up like that without intending to remind LaRue of how desirable she was.
“Jo, this isn’t what you think,” I tried to tell her. Behind me Nala and Raj were chatting with LaRue. Poor Douglas held the door open, looking completely confused. “Just give us twenty minutes upstairs, then I’ll make LaRue explain everything.”
She shook her head, stubborn, but her eyes barely went wide when she saw the two new additions. Nala and Raj made an impressive picture on the landing before the stairs. Her eyes were dark green, his were green-brown, but with the hair and the cut features they did look a bit like professionals, the kind of people who got paid to give pleasure.
“Where are we all headed?” she asked, her voice soft and seductive. Her lack of shock made me wonder if another woman and pair of paid lovers was a typical Wednesday night around her place.
LaRue’s eyes locked on her body, not moving as he introduced her. “My wife, Josephine.”
“Who should stay downstairs,” I told everyone.
“Non, she should be wherever she wants to be,” LaRue replied. He was completely taken in by her. I wanted to smack the love-sick puppy look off his face.
“Then, upstairs?”
Jo led the way. Up the stairs, with me behind her, LaRue beside me, his eyes watching only her, the two werelions behind us, and then Douglas. A strange parade that stopped abruptly at the end of the hallway, where Jo opened the door to a stunning master bedroom. The blankets and sheets were all deep plum satin, a dark masculine purple. The bed itself had no footboard and a mound of pillows in front of a fabric headboard. Putting my hand on it, letting my magic open, I got a ghost of emotions, lust and desire but no love. LaRue and Jo didn’t use this bed when they were alone. I shivered thinking about the people who came here, and wondering if they walked out. Did LaRue kill when he seduced? Did Jo? We’d never talked about it, and looking down at those cold sheets I didn’t want us to. Ever.
Something in the middle of the bed stirred, a sleepy noise. In a pile of pillows and blankets, baby Noah slept, looking like a tiny lion. Jo’s eyes were on LaRue, watching him watch me on the bed, but when I looked at Noah, she did, too. She immediately caught her breath, and reached out for him. In a second, she held the lion cub like a child holding a stuffed toy. The rest of us were forgotten.
“He’s adorable, and he’s magic,” Jo spoke softly, her words catching in the lion’s tall ear.
“Jo, don’t!” She was good with spell work, too good. She could turn him back into—
Noah cried, a long lusty howl, angry at being turned back into a baby. A strong arm grabbed my shoulder. Nala couldn’t handle it anymore; she’d been away from her baby too long and now she was coming in. She pushed me aside and I nearly hit the floor. As I recovered, Jo looked down at the baby in her arms. His crying stopped the moment he saw his mother. Tension filled the air. LaRue would kill them both to give Jo the baby if she wanted it. She looked like she wanted it. I could feel her heart fill with longing even though I was steps away from her.
“He’s beautiful.” Jo’s voice was the barest whisper. She kissed the boy on the top of his head, then held him out to his mother. “A baby is a treasure to be cherished.”
“Thank you.” Nala took the baby in her arms and wept as she held him. Her husband had followed her into the room and now the whole family hugged, joyous at coming together again.
“Douglas, will you see our guests out?” Josephine asked him. “I think they’re ready to spend some time alone together.”
“Thank you again,” Nala told her. Jo only nodded, her eyes misty, then she turned her back. Douglas led them all down the stairs and I heard the front door shut.
“Josephine,” LaRue said her name softly, and I wondered if she was crying. I didn’t know how to slip out quietly enough.
When she turned, her eyes were filled with fury, not tears. “How dare you? You stole a child?”
LaRue tried to defend himself, but her anger scared his English from him. In three words they were yelling in French. I didn’t know what she was saying, but she was pissed. I wanted to help him explain how he hadn’t known but it seemed pointless in the face of her rage. For the second time in two days, I prepared to take the coward’s way out and run downstairs.
“And you!” Jo switched back to English. “Not another step. You’re always telling me I’m just as strong as the rest of them but you didn’t call me about this? You left me some bullshit message that I shouldn’t come over? Then tonight you let me think it was about sex? What the hell, Elisabeth?”
“I—”
“Don’t. Either of you,” she screamed. “You should have called me.” She turned to him. “You should have told me…” For a second, words failed her. “I can’t believe you both think I’m so much of a child that you couldn’t tell me.”
“It wasn’t like that,” I squeaked.
“Really? Then how was it? Tell me exactly how long you’ve had this baby and just failed to mention it to me? Because what? I was busy?”
“You were upset,” I shouted back, losing my own temper. Now LaRue shrank back, looking for a way out. “You’re depressed and you’ve been that way ever since the baby showed up at the bar. So, no, we didn’t mention it to you. And forgive us if we didn’t want to be the ones who pushed you over the edge.
We care about you. How very stupid of us.”
We were both quiet. Jo slowly sank down on the bed, her soft gown pooling around her body.
“I’m not… I wasn’t… It’s just…” She gave up and let her hands drop to her lap.
“I know. I wasn’t either.” We hugged, her eyes shiny with tears again. We started babbling at once, apologizing, explaining, but then laughed about it. Hugging each other over how stupid we’d been.
“I’m sorry,” she decided.
“Me, too,” I told her.
“Perhaps, you two could kiss and make up?” LaRue asked from the other side of the room.
Jo chided him in French and I threw a pillow at his head. We both started laughing at him and the whole thing.
“Are you going to find out who took him?” she asked me.
“I don’t know. That’s what had me so messed up earlier tonight. I think I should but…I don’t know if I’m strong enough to take that on, and there are other things going on, you know?”
She nodded. “I think I have some things to work on, too.” Her eyes went to LaRue, who climbed on to the bed behind her, putting his arms around her. “I’m sorry I didn’t talk to either of you about how the baby was getting to me.”
LaRue whispered something to her that I couldn’t make out.
“We’ll live. Just don’t do it again.”
“You, too,” she told me.
Satisfied the fight was over, I looked around the room. “Did you sleep with that bartender guy in here?”
“Oh yeah. Twice where you’re sitting.”
“Ick.” I stood up quickly. “I’ll let you two work things out.”
“You could stay, Elisabeth; you can always stay,” LaRue offered yet again.
I shook my head. I needed to talk over the trafficking and what I was going to do about it with someone who knew about it firsthand. I left the two love birds and headed over to Ted’s place.
10
It was late when my car rounded Ted’s block. I called, expecting to find him alone but when he said hello his voice was guarded.
“What’s up?” I asked, immediately on edge.
“My mom and dad are here.”
I chewed on it, trying to figure out what my play was. Nothing came up, I didn’t know how to handle that. “I’m practically at your driveway, should I come in or leave?”
“Come on in. Might as well make it a party.” He sounded grim and when I told him I loved him, he didn’t reply. A minute later I knew why. The living room held more tension than a coiled rattler. Dave and Susan sat on the couch, not close to each other, but not stiffly apart either. Ted stood, his back to the wall, his body stiff, arms held at the sides where he could reach for a gun, except he wasn’t wearing one. Whatever was happening it wasn’t good. I headed for one of the living room chairs.
“How’s my favorite girl?” Dave asked me, and before I could answer he hugged me.
“A little stressed this evening,” I admitted.
“Nothin’ a beer won’t cure, I suspect.”
“Oh I don’t know.” Ted came back from the kitchen and handed me a tall glass of water, a sure sign that I wasn’t meant to relax.
“Why don’t you tell me about it?”
Susan sat next to him silent. Vincent and Amy were nowhere to be seen, and I didn’t catch even a hint that William was in some other room. Just family, but a family that was at war. No one was going to tell me what had been going on before I walked in.
“Okay.” I took a drink, trying to pick out what to reveal. To hell with it, they were grownups, they’d deal. “Three nights ago, a friend asked me to watch a lion cub he’d bought for his wife. Turns out the cub was a werelion. I’ve been tracking his parents down so I could return him. Today when I went to their house a couple of guys shot at me.”
“At you or at whoever they found?” Susan asked, her tone damn near civil.
“Whoever they found,” I decided. “I was in the back. They came in looking for the mother. I figure they were going to shoot her.”
“They were traffickers.” Ted said it like it was a fact not a question but I nodded in agreement anyway.
“That’s the problem.” I turned to Dave. “I feel strongly about this, I do, but I’ve got my own shit to deal with right now.”
“Like werewolves that won’t go away?” Susan moved her head to the side with a smile. She could be decent when she wanted to, probably when she thought it would help her get what she wanted.
“And other things. Honestly, before the werelion showed up I was looking forward to a vacation. But now, do I do what I know is right even if it might break me, or do I do what I want to do?”
Dave gave a low whistle from his spot on the couch. “That’s a beauty, all right.”
“You do what’s right,” Susan instructed. “You won’t be able to live with yourself otherwise.”
Ted snorted, but kept any verbal comments to himself.
“Is that what you would do?” I asked her.
“I’d hunt them down and kill them. That’s how you protect yourself, your family. I’d kill anyone who hurt my child.”
“Unless you were fucking him,” Ted reminded her.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Susan looked at him, her eyes sparkling with bitterness.
“Exactly what I said. You watched that bastard beat me for years and never lifted a finger.”
Dave and I held perfectly still. This fight had been a long time coming and I bet neither of us wanted to see it glossed over.
“He was teaching you what you needed to survive. Do you think you would have lasted in the Pack without him?”
“Do you think I wanted to? Do you think for one minute I wanted to hunt people down like an animal, or see them eaten if they didn’t turn? What part of that was your idea of a good childhood?”
“It’s what we were,” his mother replied, her voice firm. “You never wanted to deal with that. You always dreamed about getting rescued and waking up back home. We weren’t going to wake up back home. If you didn’t learn to live in the Pack you’d die.”
“No. You’re wrong.” His voice rose with each word. “I did wake up at home. I made that happen. It took a lot longer than if you would have helped, but it happened.”
“I can’t believe you!” She was shouting now, her voice almost as loud as his. “You think I didn’t want to leave? I couldn’t. You couldn’t. We had to make do.”
“Bull shit.” He crossed the room to stand in front of her. She got up, both of them furious. “You liked it there. You didn’t stand up for me because it’d ruin your little world. You liked being Alpha. You enjoyed what you did.”
She her hand came up, trying to smack him but Ted caught it.
“No,” he commanded. “People don’t hit me anymore.”
Dave grabbed her and tried to pull her back. My own arm had come up without conscious thought, and at the end of it was my gun, filled with silver bullets waiting for her. Silent tension threatened to push all the air out of the room until Dave finally said, softly, “Sue, honey, why don’t you head back to your hotel? I think maybe I should have talked to Ted on my own after all.”
“Edward should be able to deal with it.” She used his first name like a bat, trying to beat him up with it. He dropped her arm but didn’t move back. I kept her in my gun’s sights. I might not want to kill her, but I would shoot.
“Poor little witch, you’re just all mixed up, aren’t you?” She turned nasty in the blink of an eye. She was goading me, trying to get me to start the fight so she could finish it. I knew better.
I kept my voice calm and said, “You should go. This isn’t helping anything.”
Now it was her turn to open her mouth but not say anything, until finally she stomped out of the room. Outside I heard a car door open and slam shut, then heard the wheels squeal down the street. When the noise ended, Dave let out a deep breath.
“I think a beer or three would be a great idea.
” He headed past me to get himself one. “She always had a bad temper.”
“You don’t say?” I put the gun back in the shoulder holster so I could take a beer from him. After a deep swallow, I passed it on to Ted. His drink was mechanical, his eyes locked on the door like he expected her to come back.
“It was rough,” Dave admitted. “She never fit in, that frustrated her. She could never be normal, even before…” He took another long drink, then looked at his son. “I came to say I was sorry. I shouldn’t have let her manipulate me into giving out your number.”
Ted nodded, but the expression on his face didn’t change.
“I always want to believe the best in her. But she doesn’t make it easy. You know, when it was over, when she could have come home, she didn’t because she thought it would upset you.”
“She never asked me that.”
“No, she wouldn’t. Not her way to ask. She just knows and acts like that’s all that matters.”
“Why are you telling me this, Dad?”
“Because I’m sorry. Because the two of us were happy without her. Because you were doing so well, and now she’s back in your life, and she’ll screw it up. And I hate that that’s my fault.”
“It’s not your fault, it’s hers. She’s responsible for her own actions, always has been.”
“I know…but…”
Ted gave him a hard look.
“Okay, okay, I know.” His father set the empty beer bottle down. “Just…don’t let her ruin your life again.”
“Never happen,” Ted promised.
“I won’t let it,” I added.
Dave smiled at me. “That, I believe. You were pretty scary yourself for a second there, ready to shoot at anyone.”
“Sorry about that.”
“Don’t be. It’s not a bad way to be.” He smiled at both of us. “I suspect my meddling here is done. It was good to see you, Elisabeth.”
“Good to see you, too,” I told him, even though the evening had been anything but.
“Good luck sorting out your conscience and what you should do,” he told me as he hugged me goodbye. He gave Ted a hug, told him he loved him, and then he left the two of us staring at each other.
Missing, Suspected Dead: Elisabeth Hicks, Witch Detective Page 15