Jake. That little pat on my shoulder had been meant to be encouraging and nothing more, but it still seemed as though I could feel the weight of his hand against my flesh. At the same time, I recalled the way he’d held me the night before, had let me cry into his shoulder when the burden of my sorrow became too much to bear. While it was happening, I hadn’t thought much about the embrace except that I was glad of the human contact, but now I remembered so much more — how warm his arms had been, how the steady beating of his heart had reassured me I wasn’t as alone as I thought. He’d smelled good, too, of something that reminded me of pine needles but might have just been his aftershave.
A strange warmth went through me then, a sensation so novel, I had to pause for a moment and try to identify what it was.
Need…desire.
Okay, and that was just crazy. I barely knew the guy. Plus, he was my cousin.
Distant cousin, I reminded myself, even though I tried to push the thought away. I shouldn’t be thinking about him like that. He was watching out for me because I had no one else, but I knew I shouldn’t mistake his casual thoughtfulness for anything more than what it actually was.
And even though I wanted to go to him, I made myself stay there on the couch. I pulled in a breath and watched a small puff of a cloud move across the sky beyond the window, and I didn’t move again until the impulse had passed.
Even so, I knew I’d turned a strange corner in that moment of need…and had absolutely no idea what to do about it.
8
The entry in his contacts list for Connor’s cell phone stared up at him, even as Jake stood in the kitchen and gazed down at his phone. He knew he needed to make the call, but for some reason, he hadn’t yet been able to make himself touch the screen and initiate the contact.
Taffy nudged him with her nose, and he leaned down to scratch her behind the ears, grateful for the excuse to delay phoning Connor. The dog’s wiry reddish-brown body wriggled in delight, feathery tail beating against his leg. As he’d thought, she’d been a little miffed about being abandoned, but since Jeremy had fed her and walked her and taken her home with him the night before so she wouldn’t be alone, it wasn’t as though anyone was going to call him out for animal cruelty or something.
Jake still didn’t know exactly what kind of dog she was — his veterinarian cousin’s best guess had been a mix of papillon, chihuahua, and pomeranian — but he’d found her hiding behind the trash cans at his former condo, barely more than a puppy, starving and scared. He’d coaxed her out with food and the lure of a peanut butter–scented tennis ball he got at the local PetSmart, and ever since that day four years ago, she’d been his constant companion. Sometimes he’d wondered if he might have gone crazy with grief after Sarah’s death if it weren’t for Taffy’s comforting presence.
For a moment, Jake’s thoughts went to Addie, who was currently suffering a different kind of loss, if no less painful. Maybe it hadn’t been a good idea to leave her alone. But he reassured himself that she knew to come over to his house if she started to feel hinky about anything, and besides…he really wanted to be able to make this call without worrying about her listening in.
Of course, that meant he actually had to make the damn call.
Setting his jaw, he touched the screen and lifted the phone to his ear. A few rings, and he prayed the damn thing wouldn’t go to voicemail. This wasn’t the sort of news he wanted to leave in a message.
However, just before the fourth ring, he heard Connor’s voice. “Jake?”
“Hi, Connor. Hope I wasn’t interrupting anything.”
“Not really. Anthony and I were just going over some numbers, but I was about to call it quits and head up to Jerome for a late lunch with the family. What’s up?”
Jake ran his free hand through his hair and pulled in a breath. You can do this. “We’ve already found one.”
“An orphan witch?”
He wanted to wince at the term, but then, he was the one who’d first started using the phrase to refer to witches or warlocks who’d been born outside a clan. Connor couldn’t know that the witch in question was an orphan in every sense of the word.
“Yes. A weather-worker. She was living in Kanab, Utah. Um…there were some complications. Federal involvement.”
A pause. Then Connor said, “Shit.”
There’s an understatement. “I know. It got a little dicey. Addie’s mother was shot.”
“Addie is the witch?”
Jake didn’t miss how Connor hadn’t bothered to ask who was doing the shooting. They’d decided at the outset that Jake wouldn’t be armed, even if he might be going into questionable situations in his quest to locate those clan-less witches and warlocks. His telekinetic power was its own weapon, one that was effective, if not necessarily lethal.
He cleared his throat and said, “Yes. Adara Grant.”
“She’s okay?”
“She’s fine. Shaken up, as you can imagine. She’s at the cottage right now.”
“Alone?”
“It’s two doors down,” Jake said patiently. “She’s fine. There’s no sign that anyone followed us when we left Kanab. But I’d like you to meet her.”
“Well, sure,” Connor replied, as if that should be obvious. “I suppose I should welcome her to Wilcox territory. Any idea who her clan is?”
Here we go. “Um…she’s one of us.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes. She says her father’s name was Jackson Wilcox.”
Dead silence. Jake pulled the phone away from his ear, wondering if the call had been dropped, although deep down he knew that wasn’t the real reason why he hadn’t heard the primus’s response.
Then Connor said, his tone flat, “That’s impossible.”
“I wanted to think that, too, but she says her father met her mother in Flagstaff when she was here for a skiing trip. Says he told her mother that he was a widower with two boys. The stories line up.”
“Except for the part where there’s no way the curse would have allowed my father to have a daughter.”
Since Jake had thought much the same thing, about all he could do was shrug. However, because Connor wasn’t there to see the gesture, he said, “I know it seems impossible, but…how could she make up a story like that and get so many details right?”
“I don’t know,” Connor replied. Now he sounded troubled, as if he’d begun to realize that just because he didn’t want to admit that Addie’s story was possible didn’t mean it wasn’t true. “Shit. This is just…I don’t know what to do with this, Jake.”
“Meet her,” he said at once. “She…she looks like one of us. Her magic is really strong. How it happened, I have no idea. When I first visualized Trident Enterprises, I never imagined this sort of scenario occurring.”
“Guess you should have.” Now Connor’s voice was wry. “I mean, when you’re out there tracking down clan-less witches and warlocks, there’s a good chance they’re in that situation because their witch or warlock parent was running around on someone.”
Jake supposed he was right. “Your father wasn’t running around on anyone, though,” he pointed out. “Addie’s twenty-four, so your mother had been gone for quite a while by the time he met Lyssa Grant.”
Another long pause, during which Connor was probably doing some mental calculations. “Right. I guess I would have been around fourteen when they got together. My father wasn’t with us for much longer after that, though. I’m surprised he had the energy for a fling.”
Jake wasn’t sure how to respond to that comment, so he decided it was better not to say anything. Jackson Wilcox had passed away from a heart attack when Jake was just a little kid, and he honestly didn’t remember much about the man who’d occupied the primus position before Connor’s older brother Damon took over.
“Anyway,” Connor went on, apparently guessing correctly the reason for Jake’s silence, “can you bring her down to Jerome? We’ve been planning to get back up to Flag, but that proba
bly won’t happen until the end of next week at the rate we’re going, and I doubt you want to wait that long.”
No, definitely not. Jake didn’t know whether Addie would be too enthusiastic about another car trip so soon after arriving in Flagstaff, but he figured he would do what he could to make the drive interesting. Maybe take the back way overland through Williams and down into Perkinsville to reach Jerome via country roads. If nothing else, it would be a good way to stretch his new vehicle’s legs, so to speak.
“Sure,” he replied. “We’ll grab something to eat here in Flagstaff and then head to Jerome. Expect us around four or so.”
“I will — and I’ll let Angela know.” Connor let out a gust of breath that was clearly audible on the phone’s speaker. “This is going to be fun to explain to her. But we’ll be ready.”
“Thanks, Connor. See you then.”
Jake ended the call there and looked down at the phone to check the time. A little after one. Not too late for lunch; he’d had it in the back of his head that he needed to do something about getting them some food, but it wasn’t until he’d been talking to Connor that he realized he really couldn’t haul Addie down to Jerome without taking her to lunch first.
Since he’d already fed Taffy and refilled her water bowl, he bent to pet her again, saying, “Sorry, girl — I need to go out for a few hours.”
Her brown eyes met his, and one ear cocked slightly. Seeming to sense that she was about to get abandoned again, she went up on her hind legs, dancing around, trying to show what a good dog she was and how she wouldn’t be any trouble.
“You’re way too good at the whole guilt thing, you know that?” he inquired as he scratched her behind the ears again. Then he said, “Okay, okay. You can come, too.” He knew that Connor and Angela had a dog, but if the two animals didn’t get along, he could just leave Taffy in the yard or whatever. Besides, judging by the way Addie’s beautiful eyes had lit up when he mentioned his dog, he had a feeling she would like to meet his pet.
Taffy immediately dropped to all four paws and began circling him, tail wagging furiously, as he went to the table in the foyer where he kept her leash. After clipping it to her collar, he led her outside and locked the door behind him, then went down to the cottage.
When she opened the front door in answer to his knock, Addie looked surprised to see the dog. However, she smiled almost immediately and kneeled down to pet Taffy, whose tail went a mile a minute as it swept some dust from the wooden boards that made up the porch floor.
“Looks like you brought me a visitor,” she said, and Jake grinned.
“Well, I kind of got guilted into it,” he admitted. “Anyway, I talked to Connor, and he wants us to come down to Jerome.”
“Now?” Addie asked, looking somewhat aghast. She glanced down at herself, at the floral short-sleeved blouse and jeans she was wearing. “Like this?”
“You’re fine,” he told her. “Connor and Angela are pretty casual people.”
This piece of information didn’t seem to reassure her. “I don’t know….”
“It’s going to be okay. Connor really wants to meet you.” Something of an overstatement, but Jake didn’t want to make the situation any more awkward than it already was by telling Addie that Connor was more shocked than anything else by the sudden appearance of a heretofore unknown half-sister. “And we can get lunch in town before we head down to Jerome. I figure you must be hungry.”
She appeared vaguely startled by the mention of food, as if such a thought hadn’t even crossed her mind. “What about your dog?”
“Not a problem,” he answered easily. “It’s nice weather — there are lots of places in Flagstaff with pet-friendly patios. What’re you in the mood for?”
“You pick,” she said. “You know the town, and I don’t.”
Fair enough. He had a place in mind, something relaxed and low-key but with great food and a nice little slice of Flagstaff history. “Okay,” he replied. “I’ll take you to Tourist Home.”
“That’s the name of the restaurant?” she asked, now looking almost amused.
“Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it,” Jake said. “Let’s go ahead and lock up here, and then we can head out.”
“You’ll have to do it,” Addie told him. “You didn’t give me a key.”
He grinned at her. “You’re a witch — you don’t need a key.”
That remark only made her blink. “Excuse me?”
“Watch.”
He reached over and closed the door, then touched the latch. At once, it made a soft click as the tumblers settled into the locked position. “Try it.”
She reached over and pressed down. Naturally, nothing happened. Eyes wide, she looked back at him. “How did you do that?”
“It’s something all witches and warlocks can do. Go ahead — try it. Unlock the door.”
“I don’t know how,” she replied, tone exasperated.
“You don’t have to know how,” he said. How was he supposed to explain something that should have been second nature to her? But then, he’d been raised in a witch clan. He’d always known he could do such a thing because he’d seen other Wilcoxes lock and unlock doors with nothing more than the power of their minds ever since he was a little kid. Addie had no such context, no reason to believe he wasn’t asking her to do the impossible. “Just…think it. Think about the door unlocking when you touch the latch. That’s all you need to do.”
For a few seconds, she hesitated. But then he watched her breathe in, as though steeling herself to make the attempt. She reached out and touched the latch…and it pressed down as soon as she made contact.
Her eyes flared wide with astonishment. “It worked!”
“I told you it would,” he replied. “Now, try locking it.”
Seeming a little more sure of herself this time, Addie reached for the latch again, laying her fingers on it for just a few seconds. The click of the latch was clearly audible.
“How…?” she began, then paused, as if she wasn’t sure exactly what she’d meant to ask.
“Like I said, it’s something all witches and warlocks can do. Same thing with fire — we can’t all summon fireballs or anything quite so spectacular, but pretty much all of us can point at a candle and have it light, or do the same thing to logs in a fireplace.” Jake smiled, thinking of all the times he’d used that particular talent to get a fire going in the winter. It definitely beat fussing with kindling and wadded-up newspaper. “You can try that later…it would be a little conspicuous if you lit the porch on fire or something.”
Her mouth quirked, pretty and full. “Like I’d do anything like that to this house. It’s way too cute.”
He was glad she approved of the place. While it wouldn’t be her permanent home, she still might be staying there for a while, and he wanted her to be comfortable.
“Good to know,” he said. “And now you’ve proven to yourself that you can control one of your talents. When you start training with our weather-worker, it won’t seem so strange.”
That comment made her expression shift to something thoughtful, as if he’d suggested something she hadn’t considered before. However, her tone was noncommittal as she replied, “I suppose so. When will that be?”
“Probably tomorrow,” Jake said. Although he knew exactly who he wanted to guide Addie through coming to terms with her weather-working gifts — while it was a fairly common talent in most clans, the Wilcoxes only had one person who’d been born with it — he hadn’t reached out to the witch in question yet. He knew she wouldn’t say no, but there might be some logistics to get worked out. “For today, though, it’s all about meeting your family.”
“‘My family,’” she repeated, looking a little sad. He could tell that she must have been thinking about her mother, and he wondered if he should reach out and offer some kind of reassuring gesture. But then something about the set of her shoulders seemed to stiffen, and she added, “I’m looking forward to that. Let’s head o
ut.”
And she made her way down the porch steps, Taffy pulling at her leash so she could tag along. Jake watched both of them for a second, then followed them down the stairs.
He wished he knew Addie well enough to guess whether she’d been telling the truth.
Randall Lenz picked up the phone before it rang a second time. “You have something for me?”
“I think so,” Agent Dawson responded. “Surveillance video in a convenience store in St. George picked up a couple who look as though they could be Adara Grant and her companion. Sending it over now.”
St. George was located roughly fifty miles west of Kanab and would have been a likely destination. If the footage truly proved the couple had been there the day before, then he stood a good chance of figuring out where they’d headed after that. His instincts about those sorts of things had always been good; in fact, it was the hints his intuition had provided that allowed him to be so successful in his work. Maybe that was part of the reason why the whole Adara Grant debacle had rankled so much. He wasn’t used to making those sorts of mistakes.
“I’ll take a look,” he said, not bothering to thank Dawson. After all, she was only doing her job. “If it checks out, then I’ll go investigate in person.”
“Got it. Good luck, sir.”
She hung up, and his phone beeped, indicating that he’d gotten a new message. He clicked on it, determined it had come from Agent Dawson, and watched as the grainy black-and-white footage began to play.
On a screen that size, Lenz couldn’t make out a lot of detail, but he saw enough. A slim woman with long dark hair entered the convenience store, accompanied by a tall dark-haired man in a T-shirt and jeans. The woman inspected the kiosk containing sunglasses for sale, selected a pair, and then went to meet her companion at the counter. He took the sunglasses from her, had some sort of dialogue with the clerk, and then handed several bills to the man, although the images were muddy enough that Lenz knew he’d never be able to tell exactly what denominations those bills actually were.
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