by Terri Reid
“Which is probably what he’d like,” Joseph said. “But let’s just say, for the moment, I believe you.” He paused and studied Donovan. “Which is, in part, because I stood in front of your car waiting for you to exit City Hall this evening and I saw the mayor’s curtain slide open when I was speaking with you.”
“Thank you for believing in me,” Donovan said. “At least for the moment.”
“What were you discussing with the mayor?” Joseph asked.
“He learned that I’d called 9-1-1 and reported the explosion,” he said.
“Before the event,” Joseph said.
Donovan nodded.
“So, a couple of questions,” Joseph stated. “Why would you call 9-1-1 before the event? Who told you about the event? Why didn’t you just call the Willoughbys when you found out about the event? And why did you telepathically warn Cat, if you didn’t plan on telling them about the event?”
“Right!” Hazel said, turning to Donovan. “Why?”
“I learned about the event fifteen minutes before it was supposed to happen,” he explained. “I called 9-1-1 because I thought if the fire department were here, at the scene as soon as it happened, they could mitigate the damage. I warned Cat telepathically because I didn’t want her to get hurt.”
“But why didn’t you call?” Cat asked him.
He paused for a moment and then sighed. “Because I knew that they would know that I called you and there would be repercussions,” he said, not meeting any of their eyes.
“Wow,” Hazel said, standing up and walking away from him. “Just wow.”
She walked out of the room and Joseph got up to follow her. “I’ll be right back,” he said softly.
Hazel was in the kitchen, her arms wrapped around her waist, staring out the window into the back yard. Joseph came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her back against him. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“He was my big brother,” she whispered, and Joseph could hear the tears in her voice. “I thought…I thought even when he went away that he was still on our side.”
“We haven’t heard everything yet,” he reminded her. “Try to give him the benefit of the doubt.”
She looked up to him, tears in her eyes and asked, “Is that what you do? Give people the benefit of the doubt?”
He smiled down at her. “Hell no,” he said. “I’m law enforcement. I think everyone’s guilty until they can prove otherwise.”
Her eyes widened in surprise and then she clapped her hand over her mouth as laughter emerged. “That wasn’t fair,” she said, laughing through the tears.
“No, it wasn’t,” he agreed. “But really, hear him out before you judge him. Okay?”
She sighed and nodded. “Okay,” she agreed, wiping her eyes with her hands.
They came back in to the room and Donovan looked up and met Hazel’s eyes. She stared back at him. “Tell me, Donovan,” she insisted, not breaking eye contact. “Tell me that you didn’t call Cat because you were afraid you’d get in trouble with the other coven.”
“No, that wasn’t the reason,” he said evenly. “I wasn’t afraid of getting in trouble.”
“Did the mayor cause those welts on your back?” Joseph asked.
Donovan nodded. “Although he could testify that he never laid a hand on me,” he explained. “The marks on my back were caused by the mayor.”
“Why?” Joseph asked.
“Because he learned that I called 9-1-1,” Donovan replied.
“And why did he let you leave?” Joseph asked.
Donovan took a deep breath and glanced over at Cat, then turned back to Joseph. “I told the mayor that I had called 9-1-1 because I needed to be able to verify my whereabouts just before the explosion,” he said. “Because I had visited the store this morning, I would be suspected of setting the explosives.”
“So, 9-1-1 was your alibi,” Cat said sadly.
Donovan shook his head. “Yes,” he said. “Yes, it was.”
Joseph studied the man who looked as miserable as he’d ever seen anyone look in his life. “You work downtown, right?”
Donovan looked up, surprised. “Yes,” he said.
“And there are a number of public places—bars, restaurants, stores, hell, even the library— where you could have gone to ensure you had a public alibi, right?” Joseph asked.
“Well…” Donovan began.
“So why would you risk calling 9-1-1 if your only motivation was to obtain an alibi?” Joseph countered.
“I didn’t think of the other…” Donovan began.
“Stop,” Joseph said. “So far you haven’t appeared to be a stupid man, so let me rephrase my questioning. You find out 15 minutes before the event that it’s going to happen. You immediately call 9-1-1 and then, somehow, you’re connected with Cat and you urge her to hide. A communication that will protect her, but you can hide from the coven. Right?”
“Right…” Donovan replied hesitantly.
“And then you go over to the mayor’s office where he beats you mercilessly for calling 9-1-1,” Joseph continued. “A call you knew he would find out about, especially if you hesitated to call Cat because you knew it would be discovered.”
Donovan shook his head. “Wait,” he said.
“So, what were you really protecting?” Joseph asked. “You or your cover?”
Chapter Twenty-six
Donovan stood up. “I think it’s time for me to leave,” he said abruptly, then walked out of the room.
Cat jumped up and ran after him. “Wait!” she called.
He stopped at the back door, his hand on the door frame. “Cat, go back into the room,” he said without turning to face her.
“I want you to tell me,” she demanded. “I want you to tell me who you’re protecting.”
He shook his head. “I can’t,” he said.
“Because you’re protecting yourself,” she cried.
He didn’t say anything, just stepped outside, and walked slowly down the steps. Cat ran to the door and watched him, tears running down her cheeks. “I wanted to believe you,” she whispered. “I really wanted to believe you.”
Then she turned and ran up the stairs to her bedroom.
Hazel turned to Joseph. “So, what do you think now?” she asked.
He shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said honestly. “But I’m going to find out.”
“He’s not going be out there,” she said. “He’s going to be long gone.”
“He’d better not be,” Joseph said, shaking his head. “I brought him in my cruiser.”
Joseph stood up and turned to Agnes. “I apologize for causing so much turmoil in your home,” he said.
She smiled at him. “Oh, turmoil is second nature here,” she said easily. “But I have to thank you for interrogating Donovan like that. It’s given me a lot to think about.”
“Me too,” he agreed. “Me too.”
He turned to Rowan and Henry. “It was nice meeting you.”
“I’m sure we’ll see you again,” Rowan replied with a smile.
He glanced over at Hazel and then turned back to Rowan. “I’m sure you will too,” he said decisively.
“I’ll walk you out,” Hazel said, linking her arm through his.
They left the great room and walked through the kitchen in silence, then they stopped at the door. Joseph turned to her. “You need to be careful,” he said. “I don’t want you to take any chances.”
“I’ve locked the goats down for the night and Henry has an apartment right over them,” she said. “So, they’ll be safe.”
“I’m glad for the goats, but they’re not the target,” he said. “It will take all three of you to defeat this Master. If the other coven can eliminate one of you, they win.”
“Eliminate?” Hazel asked.
Joseph took Hazel’s upper arms in his hands. “Think about this, Hazel,” he said. “Where would Cat have been normally at 5 P.M.?”
Wide-eyed, she stared
at him. “Locking up,” she said. “Locking up the store.”
“Right,” he replied. “And where was the most damage from the explosion?”
She gasped softly, replaying the scene in her mind. “At the front of the store,” she said. “It was all at the front of the store.”
“Do you think these people are playing games?” he asked. “They wanted to kill her. They wanted to kill your sister. And they would have killed you too. You need to realize that this really is a war. And you need to realize that you have enemies who want you or your sisters to die.”
Her face became pale and she shook her head. “I didn’t…” she stammered. “I thought…it’s been just a story for so long. I don’t think I realized…”
“Realize it now,” he said forcefully. “Realize it, and make sure the rest of your family realizes it. Because that’s your first defense.”
She nodded and then looked up at him. “Are you in danger now?”
He leaned down, kissed her gently and stepped back. “No more than usual,” he said. “I’m going to take Donovan home now. But I’ll be back in the morning. I want to walk around the store and see if I can find any forensic evidence.”
“Okay,” she agreed, then she placed her hand on his arm to stop him before he left. “I’m glad you’re on our side.”
He smiled at her. “Yeah, me too.”
Chapter Twenty- seven
Hazel locked the back door and walked back into the great room where Agnes, Rowan and Henry still sat. “We need Cat down here,” Hazel said, her mind awhirl with the things Joseph said to her just before he left.
“She’s had a rough day,” Rowan began. “Can’t we…”
But Agnes, watching Hazel, shook her head. “No, Hazel’s right,” she said. “We need everyone together.”
The soft steps on the staircase had everyone turning and watching Cat descending slowly. Her eyes were red and her face puffy from crying, but she had a determined look on her face. “I had a feeling I needed to be down here,” she said. “What’s up?”
Hazel took a deep breath and then looked around the room at her family. “I realized today that we could die,” she said softly, her eyes filling with tears. “I mean, I know all about the legend and our part in it. I’ve known that all my life. But today, I realized that people want to kill us so we can’t fulfill our destiny.”
She shook her head. “It all seemed like just words before, something that was going to happen in the future,” she continued. “But today, with the explosion and then the attack in the orchard, I realized they don’t care who they kill. They just want to take out one of us, so we can’t stop them.”
Rowan went over to her sister and put her arms around. “Sweetie, we’re all fine,” she said. “We don’t need to worry.”
Hazel gently pushed her sister away. “See, that’s what we’ve been thinking,” she said. “But we do need to worry.” She turned to Cat. “The explosion went off at 5:00 P.M. What would you be doing, what do you always do, at 5:00 P.M.?”
“I always lock the front door at 5:00 P.M.,” Cat replied.
Hazel turned to Rowan and Agnes. “Do you remember how the store looked before I fixed it?” she asked. “Do you remember which area had the greatest damage, with shards of glass embedded into the door and pieces of ceiling beams dropped from above?”
“Oh my,” Agnes gasped, placing her hands over her mouth. “The front door. Everything was focused on the front door.”
Rowan turned pale, and she stared at Hazel. “They wanted to kill Cat. These people, who have been our neighbors for years, they want to kill us.”
Hazel nodded. “The kind of damage, from the beams to the glass,” she said. “It wasn’t a veiled threat or something to scare us. They wanted to commit murder.”
“If Donovan hadn’t…” Cat began, then shook her head. “I wasn’t going to listen to him.”
“But you did,” Henry said. “And you are all safe. I agree that we need to take more precautions, that we need to start acting like we’re in a war. But we can’t overlook the fact that they attacked twice, and we won twice.”
Hazel took a deep breath. “You’re right, Henry,” she agreed. “We did win. When we work together, when we use our abilities as a team, we win. But Joseph said something that really struck home. We need to realize that this really is a war and realize that we have enemies who want us to die. Because realizing it is our first defense.”
Rowan nodded. “Okay, but what should we do next?”
“We up our game,” Agnes said. “Cat, what would happen if we closed the store for a little while?”
Cat shrugged. “Well, with the kind of traffic we’ve been having lately,” she said, “it really wouldn’t affect us financially. We can pay the employees for the down time, and I can still sell products through our online store.”
“Good,” Agnes said. “Let’s do that. I don’t want customers or employees hurt in the crossfire.”
She looked at Rowan. “We need weapons,” she said.
“Chemical warfare?” Rowan asked, aghast.
Agnes shrugged. “Well, herbal welfare,” she acknowledged. “Nothing fatal, just annoying—spells that will react to any kind of magic that crosses our boundaries.”
Rowan grinned and nodded. “I think Henry and I could start going through Grandma’s Grimoire tomorrow and see what we can come up with.”
Agnes turned to Henry. “Now, Henry,” she began, “about your abilities.”
He nodded at her. “I need to increase my skill level,” he interrupted. “I realized tonight that I bit off more than I could chew. In between helping Rowan, I’ll start exploring my capabilities.”
“Hazel,” Agnes asked, “what do you think?”
“I think it’s a start,” she said. “I still need to milk the goats and take care of them, but I can also work on establishing a stronger perimeter. I need to figure out how they were able to get into the orchard without any of us knowing.”
“And how they got to the goats,” Henry added.
Hazel nodded. “Yeah, I need to see if they left any evidence,” she agreed.
“Hazel!” Agnes exclaimed. “We just talked about—”
Hazel shook her head and smiled. “Joseph is coming back tomorrow morning to check for evidence around the store,” she explained. “I’ll have him walk the pasture with me and see if we can find anything back there too.”
“Do we trust Joseph?” Agnes asked.
Hazel nodded. “I do,” she said. “He’s on our side.”
Agnes turned to Cat. “Well?” she asked.
Cat smiled at her mother. “Joseph has some secrets that he’s not ready to share,” she said. “But he’s on our side. We can trust him.”
“Too bad he’s not our missing link,” Agnes said with a sigh.
Hazel’s eyes widened, and then she quickly looked away. “Yeah,” she finally said, keeping her voice even. “That is too bad.”
Chapter Twenty-eight
As he walked toward the car, Joseph watched Donovan pace back and forth behind the cruiser anxiously. Finally, Donovan looked over and saw Joseph heading in his direction.
“About damn time,” he muttered.
Joseph shrugged. “You could have walked.”
“I could have taken your damn car,” Donovan exclaimed. “But I didn’t.”
“Yeah, well, stealing a police car probably isn’t a very smart thing to do,” Joseph replied easily as he slipped into the driver’s side.
Donovan sat on the passenger’s side, and Joseph glanced over at him.
“What?” Donovan shouted. “You want to put me in handcuffs and make me sit in the back?”
Joseph shook his head slowly and bit back a smile. “And deny myself of your pleasant company all the way back to Whitewater? Of course not.”
“Go to hell,” Donovan muttered.
“See what I mean? Pleasant,” Joseph chuckled as he turned the car on and put it into gear. He turned th
e car around and then drove to the road, making a left turn to head back to Whitewater.
About a quarter mile down the road, he looked over at Donovan, who was staring out the side window into the dark fields that surrounded the Willoughby farm. “Do you think they’ll be safe?” Joseph asked, his tone now somber.
Donovan nodded. “Yeah, most of them don’t have the intelligence to plan one attack, let alone multiple ones,” he replied derisively.
Joseph thought about that for a moment. “Seems to me that the explosion at the store and tonight’s luring of Hazel out to the orchard were pretty well planned,” he replied easily. “Do they have some recruits you’re not aware of?”
Donovan swung around and faced Joseph. “No, they don’t,” he exclaimed. “They would tell me. I’m trusted. I’m one of them. I would know about any additional recruits.”
“Just like they told you about the planned explosion?” Joseph asked mildly.
When Donovan didn’t answer, Joseph let the quiet sink in for a few moments. Then he heard Donovan’s sigh. “I don’t know,” Donovan finally admitted. “I don’t know what they’re doing anymore.”
“They don’t really trust you, do they?” Joseph asked.
He shook his head. “Well, they don’t trust anyone,” he said. “But lately, I feel their distrust for me is growing.”
“You’re playing a dangerous game,” Joseph said.
Donovan glared at Joseph. “It’s not a game, dammit,” he growled. “I’m not like the Willoughbys. I’m not good or loyal or dependable. I’m selfish, I’m greedy, and I’m in it for myself.”
Joseph nodded. “Which is why you saved Cat’s life,” Joseph replied easily. “You know, the only one you’re fooling with your act is you…and maybe Cat. But that’s because she’s so afraid of loving you again that she’s hiding from the truth.”
Donovan shook his head. “You don’t know me,” he said. “You don’t know what I’ve done in my life.”
“You’re right,” he said. “But I do know that four women, four very smart and intuitive women, brought you into their lives and trusted you. They considered you a member of their family. They saw good in you and still do. And tonight, I saw at least one of them risk her life for you.”
