by Sharon Joss
“Let go, Rhys. I need to get closer.”
Instead, his grip on my boot shifted and he began pulling me back.
“If I let go, you’re going to fall. You won’t be able to get back and that cord isn’t going to hold you.”
I had to see what I already knew was inside that cavern waiting for me. I felt an irresistible pull, which had nothing to do with gravity, and everything to do with compulsion. I had to scratch that itch.
“No!” I kicked away his hand. Immediately, the startled bats went crazy. They swarmed the cave, seeking to escape; several flew into the tunnel and banged into me. The crevice was too narrow to protect my face with my hands; the best I could do was turn my face into my shoulder until the bats settled down.
Rhys yelled at me, which only made things worse. The stench was awful, but I needed to check out the cavern floor. Without Rhys holding my boot, gravity dragged me closer to the entrance. I was so close.
I inched forward. My hands and elbows cleared the lip of the tunnel, and dangled uselessly into the thin air in front of me. It wasn’t until my chin reached the edge that I could see the bottom. Satisfaction bloomed within me. I knew it. Even through the swarms of bats, the entire floor of the huge cavern was covered with thousands and thousands of djinn.
Ahhh. I knew it. I switched off my headlamp and some thirty feet below me, the glowing eyes of thousands of djinn lit up the blackness. They must have been there for centuries. Like an invisible army. In a far corner, at the very edge of my vision, I spotted two materialized djemons, seated on a small cot next to an old camp stove. I strained forward for a better look, and began to slide forward.
Panic shot through me. “Pull me back, pull me back,” I called to Rhys. I braced my legs against the walls of the tunnel, but the weight of gravity was against me. The pressure from the line around my waist, increased. My useless arms waved helplessly in front of me, unable to help.
“Let go, I’ll pull you up.”
The line bit into me, and I feared it would snap. “I can’t, I’ll fall.”
“I’ve got you. But you’ve got to stop bracing yourself. Make yourself small, and I’ll pull you up. Do it, Matt. Trust me.”
I fought to control my fear. Blood pounded in my brain, I was certain to fall headfirst and break my neck. What had I been thinking?
Get a grip Mattie. I took a deep breath, then forced myself go as small and limp as possible.
Steady pressure on the line dug into me as the thin rope took my weight. I tried to tell myself the nylon cord was strong enough to hold me, but worried that the rock could cut right through such a light line in no time.
Inch by scraping inch, Rhys pulled me up the chimney. First my shoulder, then my elbows pulled back up to where they touched inside the walls again, and I was able to help Rhys as he hoisted me back in. My view of the cavern floor disappeared. As soon as my hands were inside, I thrashed about for leverage.
“Damn it, girl, don’t fight me,” Rhys yelled. The bats got riled up again with all the yelling, and I had to force myself to remain limp. Each pull dragged me farther up into the tunnel, and eventually, I sort of reverse caterpillared myself to help. When Rhys grabbed my feet, I sobbed with relief. He dragged me free of the tunnel in one long pull and I fell into his arms.
He hugged me tight, breathing hard and planted a kiss on my forehead.
Shivering with cold and fear, I hugged him back, savoring the heat of his body.
“You had me going there for a minute.”
I couldn’t stop shaking. “I saw hundreds in there, Rhys. Thousands. And someone’s been inside. There’s a chair and camp stove set up. What do we do?”
In the yellow glare of the lamps, his eyes gleamed cold as he considered what I’d said. “There must be another entrance. What did the journal say?”
“What journal?”
“Madame Coumlie’s. What did it say?”
Oops. “I didn’t get a chance to read it. Sorry.”
He gave me a look. “Well, read it. We’ll talk to her tonight and figure out what to do.”
Oh man. I was planning to have my showdown with Lance tonight. “Sorry, no can do. Tonight isn’t good for me. I’ve got something I have to do.”
He put me down. “More important than this?”
There was no way I was going to put off talking to Lance. “Well, no, but it’s something I have to do. Someplace I have to be.”
“All right.” He said it like it wasn’t a problem, but I knew better.
I steeled myself. I could almost feel the doors slamming between us. Rhys picked up his pack without a word and headed back toward the entrance. I followed, and we were silent until we exited the cave and he locked the grate behind us.
After two hours on the cooler, the warmth of the July afternoon felt wonderful. Thunder rumbled around us, and the air smelled strongly of ozone. The storm was breaking right on top of us; quarter-sized splats of rain slapped the trees.
“We’re going to get wet,” I said.
“Looks like.”
I had to run to keep up with him. By the time we made it back, were both soaked to the skin and shivering, and I was shaking with exhaustion. Everything hurt.
“I want to swing by and tell Madame Coumlie what we found,” Rhys said.
My teeth chattered uncontrollably. “I’m dropping Mina off with Lance tonight. That’s why I can’t go with you. I need to talk to him. Why can’t Porter and the FBI handle things from here?”
“Why would you do that?” Rhys kept his eyes on the road as we wound our way back down the hill, the truck in low gear. “I thought she was with you for safekeeping. From what I hear, Lance is in big trouble.”
Why was it that Karen and Bunny and Rhys knew more about my brother than I did? “Why, what have you heard?”
“No more than what was in the paper this morning.”
Here we go again with the paper. I swore I would start reading it every day. “What did it say?” My shivering wasn’t just from the cold any more.
Rhys braked to a stop and turned to face me. “The Sentinel had a huge spread on the Night Shark serial killings this morning. The article showed pictures of the victims and the missing. Lance was identified by name as a person of interest. Everybody is looking for him.”
“Oh crap.”
CHAPTER 20
I remembered staring at the slapping of the windshield wipers in the truck, and Rhys hustling me through the back door of Mystic Properties, but not how I ended up in the shower with Rhys’ naked arms around me. The hot water beat against my sore back with soothing pulsations. I’d stopped shivering. Dressed only in our underwear, I could feel how very happy Rhys was to have me there. I rejoiced my decision to wear lacy blue bra and panties this morning, and not the white cotton. I felt positively sexy.
I curled a lock of his wet hair behind his ear, and he gave me a relieved smile. “What happened?”
“You went to lunch without me. You got here under your own power, pulled my clothes off, and dragged me into the shower. Not that I’m not happy to oblige.” He leered at me and grinned. “Blue is my favorite color.”
He reached behind me and turned off the water, and helped me out of the tub. Rhys’ dark brown briefs complimented his tan. He handed me a towel, then grabbed another for himself.
The news about Lance came flooding back to me, and I remembered Mina. “Oh crap, what’s the time? I can’t be late for Mina.” I started rubbing my wet hair.
“Relax. You’ve got time. Your jeans are here, but your shirt is soaked. I’ll bring you one of mine. Be right back.” He disappeared and I heard his tread on the stairs above my head. He must live upstairs. Interesting.
I stripped out of my wet undies, dried myself off, and shimmied into my hot dry jeans. Wearing jeans without underwear made me feel a little slutty, but in a good way. I wrapped the towel around my shoulders and was wringing my hair out into the sink when Rhys came back.
“You decent?” He waved
a t-shirt at me from the doorway, and hooked it on the doorknob without looking in. I wrapped my lingerie into the wet towel and slipped the tee shirt on.
What on earth was I going to do about Lance? I needed to talk to him; about the murders and the gambling and everything else. But I also wanted to talk to Madame Coumlie, correction, my great-grandmother, and find out how to get those djinn back into their prison under Sentinel Hill, and figure out where they escaped from in the first place.
I emerged from the bathroom and found Rhys pouring two cups of fresh-brewed coffee. The rain had stopped, but the skies outside were still dark.
“I have a plan,” Rhys said, and handed me a cup. He held my gaze, and the unspoken tension between us hummed. “A compromise.”
“I’m listening.” The coffee smelled wonderful. So did Rhys.
“We pick up Mina and head over to Madame Coumlie’s. We need to tell her what we found. I imagine she’ll get a kick out of meeting her great-great granddaughter.”
“I don’t think so. I’m not ready to let her meet my niece yet, not without some ground rules first. Look what she did to me.” I held out my hand and showed him the black crescent mark. Yellow bruises encircled my wrist. “Besides, I really need to talk to Lance.”
“What about a sitter?”
“I’m the sitter. She’s my responsibility. I don’t want to leave her with anyone else. Anyway, I need to explain to her about the djinn. I don’t want her to accidently name them, like I did.”
“Okay, take Mina and go see Lance now. I’ll get hold of Frank Porter and report what we found in the caves. Give me a few hours. Meet me here at, say seven? We’ll go talk to the Hand then.”
It was a good compromise. I wasn’t sure about leaving Mina with Lance, although I’d have better prospects of getting him to talk to me if she came along. But with Hector out there somewhere, I couldn’t take the chance. I had to think about what was safest for Mina. I decided to drop her off at her mother’s house after I talked to Lance.
“Make it eight.” I kissed Rhys on the cheek, which was about all I trusted myself to do, and headed out to my car. Man oh man, how did my life get so complicated?
#
I arrived at Shoreline Elementary School just as classes got out for the day. Ten minutes later, the crowd outside the school had thinned and most of the cars had left, but I still hadn’t seen any of Mina. A warning tingle came over me, and I got out of the car. Mina knew we were going to see her dad after school. She wouldn’t forget about something like that.
I decided to check her classroom, in the unlikely event she had detention. Mina never had detention. Talking to the teacher, maybe. She wouldn’t like it if I came up to the classroom, especially looking like I did, but too bad.
Mrs. Godfrey’s fourth grade class was the last classroom on the first floor. With every step, my warning tingle got louder. I reached Mrs. Godfrey’s room and peeked in, both my fingers crossed.
“Hello, Mattie.” Mrs. Godfrey was putting supplies away in one of the big cabinets at the back of the classroom. She didn’t look happy to see me.
“Where’s Mina?”
Mrs. Godfrey frowned. “She was picked up at noon. By order of Child Protective Services. The office tried to reach her father, but couldn’t get hold of him.”
My gut twisted inside me. I wanted to scream. “You mean Violet, don’t you. Does Lance know?”
“They went through the principal’s office; all the papers were in order. I got a message to release Mina early, but didn’t know anything until after. I did what I was told.”
I didn’t wait to hear any more. I ran out of the classroom over to the main office and demanded to know what was going on. The school administrator, Andrea Gregson was sympathetic.
“There was nothing we could do. Mina was released into her mother’s custody. She had a court order, Mattie, I’m sorry. Violet brought Child Protective Services with her.”
“How could she get a court order?” I already knew the answer to that one. With Lance on the short list for murder, Violet wouldn’t have any trouble persuading the courts that Mina would be better off with her. She would be safe with Violet, but I hated the way this whole thing had played itself out. Lance would be furious, but had no one to blame but himself.
“Maybe it’s for the best.” Andrea put her hand on mine and tried to reassure me. “Lance has a lot on his plate right now.”
“What are you talking about? Does he already know about this?”
“No, not yet. I’ll tell him tonight.”
I gave her a blank look. “Excuse me?”
“Mattie we’re getting married. No ring yet, but I’ve got him working on it. My divorce became final yesterday.”
Exasperation tore though me. “I don’t believe you. Lance would never --.”
She smiled like a cat with a mouthful of cream. “I found the perfect ring over in Pittsford. Two carats, emerald cut.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “My brother doesn’t have that kind of money.”
“You’re just jealous. You don’t know him as well as you think you do. He’s quite the pool shark. All he needs is the right encouragement from the right woman. He’s making money hand over fist now, thanks to me.”
I wanted to scream. “You can’t be serious. You can’t be marrying my brother, you’re not in love with him.”
She arched her neck at me. “He’s not your anything anymore. He’s mine now. And when I say jump, he asks me how high. We’re going to make a lot of money together. You don’t have anything to say about it.”
#
My fury kept Rusty’s pedal to the metal as I drove out to Sterling to confront Lance. In my whole life, I couldn’t recall ever being this mad at him. He’d hidden his relationship with Zoey, and now this affair with Andrea. I didn’t like her one bit. If I’d stayed a minute longer, I would have slapped her. Better to save it for Lance. What was he thinking? Why didn’t he tell me?
Sheesh. The thought of Lance and Andrea was just awful. She wasn’t one bit interested in Lance. When it came to marriage, Andrea Gregson was a four-time loser. I could just see her draining Lance’s bank account and taking off when someone better came along. She was using him. She was poison.
My cell phone rang.
“Hello, Mattie? Garr Russ here. Your friend Karen introduced us the other day at my restaurant.”
My stomach fluttered. Be still my heart.
“Oh hi.” I struggled to keep the car on the road. “Of course, I remember. I enjoyed meeting you.”
The flicker of thrill quenched somewhat by guilt over my near-naked shower with Rhys. Don’t be silly Mattie. Man oh man, here was my potential future boyfriend actually calling me.
“I’m planning a little sunset cruise out on the lake this evening. Just a few friends and a couple of bottles of wine. Would you be interested in joining us?”
I went all tingly. A real date. My thoughts returned Rhys. Handsome as he was, Rhys seemed to be pretty involved with Madame Coumlie, Cavewoman Barbie, the FBI, and a whole universe of dark things that didn’t belong in my world. Garlan Russ, on the other hand, was a respected member of the community, an entrepreneur, and heir to a huge fortune. Any girl would be flattered to go out with him. Too bad it was tonight. “It sounds wonderful, but I’m afraid I’ve already got plans for this evening.”
“I’ve got a thirty-eight foot Bertram. You’ll love it. You don’t get seasick do you?”
“Sounds great.” I imagined myself sipping champagne and nibbling appetizers as the sun drifted toward the horizon. I had a short white skirt that showed off my legs. I wondered what his friends would be like. “Can I take a rain check? How about next week?”
“Let me tell you something, Mattie. When I see something I want, I go after it. I’d like to spend some time with you. What about tomorrow? Dinner?”
Wow. Determined, wasn’t he? “I’m flattered, and I’d love to go out with you, Garr. Really. But I’m going to be kind of bus
y for the next few days.” I hoped he knew just how hard it was for me to turn down his invitation.
“Ah. There’s someone else?”
“Not exactly. It’s a family issue. I’m not sure if dinner tomorrow will work for me. I’d hate to say yes and cancel at the last minute.”
“Breakfast then. You’ve got to eat. Come on Mattie. Give me a break here. I’d like to get to know you better.”
Why not? “Breakfast I can do. Where do you want to meet?”
We agreed to meet at Killer Dave’s the following morning, and I hung up feeling more cheerful than I had in days. I had a new yellow sundress I hadn’t worn yet. That would be perfect. Then I remembered the black eye. Oh, right. I checked the mirror, and it was all kinds of purple and ugly. Tomorrow wouldn’t be any better. Oh man. I couldn’t let him to see me like this. No way.
I started to call him back to cancel, but decided to wait until after I talked to Lance. One thing at a time, Mattie. After talking to Garr, my anger at Lance had almost evaporated, but I still had to convince my brother to square things with the FBI. He had to turn himself in. I was positive that this whole thing could go away in about a twenty-minute conversation with the authorities. Obviously, they had the wrong guy. After that, we could focus on the House of Cards fiasco, getting him the hell away from Andrea Gregson, and rehab. What a mess.
CHAPTER 21
I parked in the visitor lot, and hiked through the field to the entrance of the Sterling Renaissance Festival, metaphorically putting on my armor for the confrontation with Lance. I promised myself I wasn’t leaving until he agreed to come with me to talk to the FBI and then go back to rehab.
