I knelt there next to him with bated breath.
We’d just found something.
“Jesus Christ,” Josh said as he revealed five tiny blue tablets. “D 20. Hayden was on D 20. Damn.”
I looked up at Josh sharply. “I thought D 20 only worked on witches?”
“It gives ordinary people a hell of a high. You know that. And this is one heck of a stash. Must have cost him a fortune.”
“… But does that change anything?” Despite the fact I’d technically been the one to find this, I was starting to play devil’s advocate. It was all very well that Hayden had been on drugs, but that was just another broken law to add to his growing list of crimes. It wouldn’t help us find him.
Josh looked at me thoughtfully. “What were you looking for when you found this?”
I shrugged. “A clue.”
“That’s it? Just a clue? You hadn’t refined your search at all?”
I shook my head again, my expression glum. All the excitement of finding these pills had worn off now that I appreciated there was precious little we could do with them.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Josh said through an epic sigh. “These will turn out to be important – just like the book.” He patted his pocket.
I blinked quickly. “Pull it out of your pocket,” I commanded.
Josh arched an eyebrow. “You work for me,” he began, clearly about to launch into some witty insult. He shrugged and sighed. “And you’re the finder, so sure, I’ll pull the book out of my pocket. You hold these – but don’t take them. God knows what would happen to you if you took any D 20. When I took mine, it felt as if I was going to explode – or worse, as if I was going to take everyone else with me. I wonder if anyone’s even tried D 20 on a finder.”
I frowned at him, a sickly expression marking my face. “Do you mind? That’s terrifying.”
“Don’t worry, Beth – I’m the greatest warlock in town, and I hold your protection order. There’s nothing that can happen to you under my watch.”
I could have pointed out so many things, but I didn’t bother. I watched as Josh handed over the pills and pulled the book from his pocket. You would’ve thought that… I would’ve felt something. That I should’ve felt something. Here I was, holding D 20, something that would make my powers go crazy, and yet… it just felt like I was holding half a face cream container of drugs.
Just five little blue innocent pills. That could, apparently, send my powers into overdrive.
… It took me a moment to appreciate that, then the possibilities started to sneak in. If my powers were sent into overdrive, I’d be able to find the prophecy, wouldn’t I? Heck, presumably I’d be able to find anything. More than that? I’d be able to use my truth magic. Surely I’d just be able to ask a question, and the reality would be revealed to me?
Out of nowhere, Josh snatched the pills back, screwing them back onto the base of the cream container.
“What was that for?” I protested.
“It’s not worth it, Beth. At all. Trust me. I’ve been there. It’s not worth it.”
“What do you mean you—”
“Here’s the book,” Josh said as he handed it over to me. “Time for you to do your magic, Miss Samson. What is in this book that can help us track down Isabella?”
It took me a while to pull my gaze off the face cream container. But once I settled my attention on the book, that familiar feeling that I’d found something raced through my middle. I nervously reached a hand out, plucked up the book, and breathed, centering my attention.
Josh went back to being a watchful hawk, though he himself had said no one would interrupt us here.
I started to leaf through the pages of the book. It was just a dogeared detective novel. Though I’d never heard of the author, that didn’t really matter. It looked like one of those cheaply-made, mass-produced pulp novels from the fifties.
I flicked to the back of the book, then looked up at Josh. I began to shrug.
“Beth, I believe in you,” he said out of the blue.
I blinked in surprise.
“Don’t look like that. You know I believe in you. You saved my life twice. You saved this city, too. Now concentrate. This book will help us find something. And so will these drugs,” he said, though he dropped his tone, and as he spoke about them, he shifted them further behind his back.
I nodded. I closed my eyes. I started to concentrate.
Not on Jason – not on the hope that I’d be able to track down the prophecy. I concentrated on Hayden. I still hadn’t even seen a photo of him – Ming’s secretary had sent through his name and promised that the rest would come later. So I concentrated on who Hayden would’ve had to be. A man who’d desperately tried to keep his brother safe his whole life. Someone who’d been so desperate to keep his brother safe, in fact, that it had pushed him to meld with a creature from beyond the fold.
I tried to get into the mindset of who someone like that would be. Of who his circumstances would have turned him into. I wasn’t one of those people who believed that some were good and some were evil, and that was that. I believed situations created people, often more than they did themselves. You take a saint, and you put them in a den of sinners, and that saint will turn. Because it takes somebody of extraordinary character to be able to withstand situations and retain their true morals.
Hayden, presumably, wouldn’t have had any choice in protecting his brother – it would’ve been a decision his parents would’ve made for him, and one he would have been living through the consequences of for the rest of his life.
A morose sense of duty descended upon me. It made my shoulders drop, and I swore I could feel the pressure building in the center of my chest.
Though I could feel Josh’s gaze on me, he didn’t bother to interrupt me and ask if I was all right. He simply watched with a keen gaze.
Though Ming had said that Howard had been mooching off Isabella, and that he hadn’t been right for her, maybe they’d been perfect for each other. Because maybe Isabella had been the one person who’d been able to sense and understand just how Hayden felt. She was an emotion reader, after all. And emotion readers had the hardest time pairing up with people. They often knew exactly what their partners thought of them, even when they were trying to hide it.
Hell, if Isabella was half as good as her PO suggested, she would’ve been able to read Hayden’s emotions with precise skill. And if Hayden had been planning to break up with her, she would’ve known….
“What are you thinking, Beth?” Josh asked quietly.
I didn’t answer. A man as desperate as Hayden would’ve spent his whole life protecting his brother, and wouldn’t know anything else. Though it would be easy to assume the drugs were a release, I doubted that. In fact, I doubted they were his at all.
My eyes widened and opened with a snap.
It was so dramatic, Josh actually pushed back as if he thought I would pop or something. He swallowed. “What is it?”
“They’re not his. Hayden wouldn’t take drugs. He wouldn’t be able to afford it. He’s spent his entire life protecting his brother and making up for the mistakes of his parents. He wouldn’t be that stupid.”
Josh opened his mouth, then closed it. There was a kind edge to his expression as he shook his head. “You can’t possibly know any of that, Beth. You’re making assumptions. You’re trying to draw meaning out of this situation – trying to connect disparate facts. It happens to the best of us.”
I looked at him, and I shook my head with as much passion as I could muster. “It’s not that – I know this,” my voice shook. “I… I think I’m starting to get into Hayden’s head. These aren’t his drugs,” I said as I pointed with a shaking hand behind Josh’s back.
For some reason, the only thing Josh appeared to note was my shaking hand.
“Hand them over to me,” I said.
Josh didn’t move.
I blinked at him. “Josh, come on – I’m on the cusp of someth
ing. I know I’m on the cusp of something.”
Josh looked at me seriously and shook his head. “Beth—”
I could have made a grab for them and almost did. They were starting to pull me in, whether I liked to admit it or not. But at the last moment, I clenched my teeth. “I have no intention of taking one,” I told him seriously. “I just want to figure something out.”
“What?”
“Has the face cream been used?”
Josh frowned.
He finally brought the container out from behind his back. He unscrewed the lid. The little, clear plastic secondary lid was still in place, and when he plucked it off, it was clear the cream hadn’t been touched. It still had that whip on top that made it look as if it’d been dispensed by a soft serve machine.
Josh looked right at me. “If you’re alleging Isabella was on D 20 – that is one hell of an allegation. She was on a protection order, and if she was taking drugs under Ming’s protection, that wouldn't just mean she’s taken off him – that would mean all his other POs will be assessed, and the government would be reluctant to give him another in the future.”
My shoulders drooped. “I don’t honestly know what I’m alleging – just that I’m pretty sure these were Isabella’s. What if… what if she was desperate, and she needed to use the D 20 to expand her powers? What if she was looking for Hayden?”
“Hayden broke up with her—”
“Bullshit. Hayden would’ve left because he was scared for her safety.”
“Another assumption.”
“Fine – cast your mind back to what we heard in the library. Jason was talking to Bradley about saving them both, meaning they’re both in danger.”
“But not that they’re still together. Beth,” Josh began, clearly about to put me in my place and explain for the thousandth time that this was not how good detective work was done.
“What if Hayden wasn’t the one attracted to Isabella?” I asked excitedly. “What if Isabella was attracted to Hayden because she sensed he could help her? A man who’d been helping his brother hide from the law his whole life. A man who was used to sacrificing for someone else’s protection?”
“Beth, you can’t just make things up like this. If we base our investigation—”
“What if Isabella has some kind of direct connection to the Cruze Gang? What if that’s how she got her D 20?” With every suggestion I made, my voice got steadily more excited.
As for Josh, he looked exasperated enough to give up. “Beth,” he insisted once more, “I know it feels like we’ve got something, but we’ve got nothing. You need to pare your magic back to what it was originally – and try to find Isabella or Hayden. Time is running out.”
“Who’s to say time hasn’t already run out?” a voice said from behind me.
Jason.
God, Jason.
He was here.
Finally here. And whatever was meant to begin between us was about to begin.
Chapter 5
I couldn’t move. I’m sure my expression would’ve been comical. Josh’s was. A far part of my mind that wasn’t terrified by Jason’s sudden voice behind me recognized that. Josh looked as if he’d just opened his bathroom door to find a dragon.
There was a set of hard and yet careful footsteps behind me. I had my back to the doorway, but I was fully aware of Jason as he paused in it. “Look what I’ve just found,” he said.
A thrill chased through my stomach.
“What—” Josh began.
“Am I doing here? I could ask you the same question. This is a crime scene. And you are just a bounty hunter,” Jason emphasized the word just.
I would’ve expected Josh to react to that statement – you know, clench his teeth and get all defensive. He didn’t. He swallowed. “We’ve been charged by Ming Chen to track down—”
“I know why you’re here – I’m just questioning why you were allowed into a crime scene.”
I had to speak. I had to speak, Goddammit. I couldn’t just kneel here and stare blankly in terror. I pushed a breath into my lungs, but it was shallow and weak. “This isn’t a crime scene,” I tried. “Isabella has simply gone missing—”
“It’s good to see you,” Jason said, his tone changing. It lightened, sounding momentarily as if it belonged to somebody else’s throat and not the arrogant git of a sorcerer.
I swallowed. I shifted a hand onto my belly, and I now used it to hold my nerves in check. Or at least I tried to. It wasn’t working.
Jason seemed to pause as if he was expecting me to reply. When it became clear that I couldn’t, he cleared his throat. “To answer your question, yes, this is a crime scene. One for Internal Affairs. Now, I ask if you don’t mind handing me over the D 20 you found and that book,” he said as his voice dropped low.
Josh didn’t complain. Not a single word. He stood up, cast his worried gaze to me, grabbed up the face cream container and the book, and handed them over.
I still hadn’t turned. I just couldn’t. It was looking stupider and stupider as time went on, but that didn’t matter. I didn’t want to make eye contact—
“You did well to find these,” Jason’s tone changed again.
It was so inviting, it made me want to turn, and though I tried to put the brakes on my feelings, I couldn’t. They got control of my body before I could stop them, and I finally pushed up. I stood and turned. And there was Jason. Exactly how I remembered him. Sure, I’d only technically seen him on two other occasions, but that didn’t matter. My heart… I swear it recognized every single one of his features, from his strong jaw, to his bright eyes, to the feel of him.
I was one of those women who knew that love-at-first-sight did not exist. Sure, I was still one of those stupid, hapless romantics who’d wanted love-at-first-sight to exist, but I’d been realistic. Now I wondered just how realistic it was as my heart frigging sang for this man. It felt like just clapping eyes on him was a door that opened in the center of my chest to some of the most exquisite feelings I would ever experience.
I battled every second to keep my expression neutral, or at least not to allow it to descend into total frigging adoration.
Maybe Josh sensed what was happening with me, or he wanted to push things along, because he cleared his throat and took a surreptitious step between us. “We were tasked with tracking down Isabella,” he repeated.
Jason finally tugged his gaze off me and locked it on Josh. “I’m aware of that. And I certainly won’t be placing any complaints with your department. That being said, what else have you found?”
Josh stiffened. “Though… I appreciate Internal Affairs appear to be running their own investigation here, I still have an obligation to follow through with my contract.”
“And you also have an obligation to share every single detail of your investigation with the Justice Department and its affiliates.” He brought up a hand and patted his chest on the term affiliates. “So, what else have you found out?” Jason slipped his gaze off Josh and onto me.
Just when I thought I was finally getting a handle on my feelings, they catapulted through me once more, doing so much damage to my ego, I swear I would be changed forevermore.
My mouth opened.
I was just about to tell him everything, and then I felt it.
Though Jason’s appearance had affected my tether to Max, it was still there. And right now, it saw me tilt my head dramatically to the side as I stared in the direction of the main door.
Jason frowned. “What are you doing?”
I rushed past him, and considering he was taking up most of the room in the doorway that meant I pretty much had to shove him out of the way.
I ran through the corridor, hooked a right into the lounge, and stopped.
Max walked through the front door. With his hand on the handle, he tilted his head up, and he looked at me in surprise. I mean, fair enough, I was about to throw myself at him and my expression would look as if I’d just been reunited with a long-lost lov
er.
“Beth? What are you doing here?”
“Max.” For some reason I was out of breath. What the hell was wrong with me?
I got my answer. What was wrong with me was the frigging man who stepped up from behind. “Beth,” Jason began. He stopped.
I wasn’t facing Jason, but I sure was facing Max, and I watched his expression crumple as he stared at his brother.
Jason took a hell of a sigh. “And what are you doing here, brother? Why has this crime scene turned into a party?”
“Crime scene?” Max’s brow compressed.
“Don’t tell me you don’t know. You’re here to find Isabella too, aren’t you?”
“Isabella who? I’m here to meet up with Hayden Spencer.”
“What?” My voice shook. “Why?”
“What’s going on here?” Max asked.
“Why were you here to meet up with a suspect?” Jason’s voice dropped.
Max obviously appreciated that something was up, because he straightened and got a defensive look. “I’m unaware of any investigation going on. I simply made an appointment to meet up with a Hayden Spencer at his apartment to look through his collection of arcane books. He contacted me and made the appointment three weeks ago. I contacted him to confirm this morning, and he told me the meeting was still on. I waited around, but when he didn’t appear, I knocked. The door swung open.”
“I’m sorry – he contacted you this morning? You spoke to Hayden?” I managed, incapable of keeping the excitement out of my voice. Because, truth be told, I was far more nervous to find Hayden than I was to find Isabella. Everything would come down to him.
Jason took a step in front of me, squaring off in front of his brother. “Give me your phone. It’s now part of an investigation. Did you speak to him, or did he text?”
“What’s going on here?” Max asked once more, though he had the kind of tone that told me he knew Jason wouldn’t answer.
“Give me your phone, brother,” Jason demanded.
Max could have – and probably should have – told Jason to piss off. Instead Max shoved a hand into his pocket, unlocked his phone, and handed it over.
Forgotten Destiny Book Three Page 6
