Dangerous Lover

by Maggie Shayne

  “I think so. Someone slipped us something. As soon as we came to a stop, that red car skidded to a stop right behind us. Men got out. They had guns. We got out and ran, and after that….” He shook his head in frustration.

  She came to him, put her hands on his shoulders. “Cory, that’s a lot. It’s coming back to you, bit by bit. And that was a really big chunk of memory, important memory. You’ll have it all soon.”

  He nodded. “I wish I knew if he were all right.”

  “We can call the hospital, check on him.”

  “That would be good.” He lifted his head, and she stared down at him, lost for a moment in his eyes. She started to tip forward, to move in for a kiss, but stopped as the memory of that entry, and what it might mean, came to life once more, demanding attention.

  “What about that entry in your brother’s planning calender?” she asked, her words a bare whisper. He didn’t answer, so she rushed on. “I can’t believe it means what it seems to mean. It can’t be right. My heart wouldn’t steer me this far off base.”

  He licked his lips, averted his eyes.

  “Cory?” Her heart started to ice over, as if a freezing wind had blown across its surface. “Does that name—Kelly—does it mean anything to you?”

  He licked his lips. “I’m not sure. But I think…I think she might be my wife.”

  She gasped and flinched away from him, feeling for all the world as if he’d just slipped a tiny, razor-sharp blade between her ribs and right into her heart.

  “I’m sorry, Selene. But maybe we’d better cool it for a while. Until I get my head straight, at least.”

  She tried to read his face, but her eyes were too wet with tears to let her see him clearly. But even without seeing his eyes, she knew, she sensed that he wasn’t nearly as devastated by this revelation as she was. How many times had her sister Mel warned her? Never let yourself be more into a guy than he is into you. It only leads to hurt. Let him do the chasing, let him pursue you, make him woo you and win you, and don’t give your heart too soon. Don’t give it at all, not until you’re sure of him.

  Well, she’d ignored every bit of that advice, hadn’t she? Made an idiot of herself over this man, this stranger, all based on a gut feeling. An intuition.

  But I was so sure!

  Maybe it was wishful thinking. Maybe she’d been wrong the entire time.

  She forced her hands to return to her sides, told herself it wasn’t appropriate to be touching him, not if he were married.

  But she’d slept with him.

  “We didn’t know,” she said, maybe to herself. “Neither of us knew.” She focused on him, saw guilt in his eyes. “I give you my word, no one outside this room will ever hear about it from me.”

  “I appreciate that. Especially knowing how seriously you take promises you’ve made, and secrets you’ve vowed to keep.”

  “Are you…are you okay?” she asked.

  He lowered his eyes. Of course he felt guilty, he’d cheated on his wife last night. “I wish I could undo it,” she said. “This is totally my fault, Cory, I was so sure…. I’m—I’m sorry.”

  “It’s all right.”

  She shook her head slowly. “No, it’s not. It’s really not.”

  He guessed he’d learned something about himself in the wee hours of the morning. He’d learned that he had a conscience. He must have, because it was beating the hell out him. He’d also learned that he was a total asshole.

  The name Kelly didn’t mean a thing to him. It didn’t spur a single memory, or a single emotion. Nothing. It was just lines of ink scrawled on a calendar. Nothing more. Sure, the notation suggested he might be married. But to be honest, he didn’t think so. He hadn’t been wearing a ring. There was no telltale mark on his finger, as if he’d been wearing one prior to the attack. There was one on his right hand, a nice, wide one, that matched the size and shape of that class ring.

  And yet, he’d led her to believe otherwise. It had seemed like a good idea at the time. She was getting way too serious about him. All her talk about fate and predestination—for the love of God—after all of three days acquaintance. What the hell was he supposed to do? It wasn’t like he could ditch her—not when her life might be in danger because of him.

  He shouldn’t have had sex with her. He knew damn well that had been a mistake, had known it even as it happened. After that—hell, she was more infatuated than ever. He had to cool her off, had to do something to slow her down, get her to let go of this certainty that they were somehow meant to be. It was insane anyway. And wasn’t it just as cruel to let her go on believing that nonsense as it was to shoot her crazy dreams down?

  He sat across from her at a booth in a small diner later that morning. They’d stopped for breakfast on the way to Texas. There was a deep hurt in her eyes. Deeper than he thought it should be.

  They ordered breakfast, and then he went to the pay phone in the back to call the hospital and check on Casey. By the time he got back to the table, the food had arrived. He had pancakes and sausage. She had a Belgian waffle. He had coffee, she had herbal tea. They couldn’t be more opposite if they tried.

  “How’s your brother?” she asked as he sat down.

  He glanced at her. “You tell me.”

  She lifted her brows, and he shrugged. “Use your ESP or whatever you call it.”

  “Yeah. Right. Don’t rub it in, okay?”

  He frowned and then got it. “I wasn’t. I was serious, you’ve been right on the money so far.”

  She shook her head.

  “You knew when those guys were coming to the cabin. You found Casey in the woods. You—”

  She held up a hand. “Don’t. Don’t try to humor me, Cory, you don’t believe in it, you never did, and maybe you were right all along. Frankly, right now, I don’t believe in it either.”

  “Oh, come on Selene, don’t say that.”

  “Why not? It’s true. I was wrong Cory, about the most important thing ever. How can I trust in my own feelings, my intuitions, my powers—in anything ever again?”

  “Selene—” He reached for her hand, but she pulled it away.

  “I’ve been stupid and more than that, I’ve been selfish. Indulging in romantic fantasies when one of my best friends is dead and the rest are in danger.”

  “You’ve been knocking yourself out to protect them, to find the truth,” he argued. “You’re doing all you can.”

  “Just tell me how your brother is doing.”

  Hell. Maybe he’d done more than just break her heart this morning. And he was damned if he knew what to do about it.

  “They wouldn’t tell me anything. Denied any gunshot-wound victim had even been brought in.”

  She nodded slowly. “The police are keeping it quiet. The killer left him for dead, they probably figure it’s best to let him go on believing that.”

  “Was that a psychic thing or—”

  “Educated guess.” She nodded at his plate. “Your breakfast is getting cold.”

  For some reason he didn’t have much of an appetite.

  She pushed away from the table. “Be right back.” Then she walked back to the pay phone, and made a call of her own. She returned two minutes later. “He’s stable, but still unconscious. They’ve got him under guard, but discreetly, and the hospital staff are under orders not to tell anyone anything about him. They were all over your phone call until I told Jimmy it was just us. He said he’d call them off, but I imagine they’ll know exactly where we called from by the time we tip the waitress.”

  “Then we should hurry.”

  She nodded. “No reason to panic. There’s no way for them to know where we’re going. I imagine they’ll assume I’m heading for Mexico.”

  “Why would they assume that?”

  “I disappeared the night my best friend was murdered. In some peoples’ minds, that makes me the most likely suspect, even though Jimmy says the chief is pretty much convinced I’m innocent.”

  He closed his eyes
fast and hard. What the hell had he done to this beautiful young woman’s life? Sighing, he wolfed down a few bites, gulped the coffee.

  “Don’t rush, Cory. What’s going to happen is going to happen.”

  It was almost as if she didn’t particularly care what happened. He latched onto the first thing he could think of to snap her out of it. “Whatever is going to happen, can go ahead and happen—but not until after we’ve warned your friend in Texas.”

  Her head came up, her eyes holding a bit more life than before. “You’re right. Gotta keep our priorities straight here.” She took a big drink of her tea, and got to her feet. Her waffle was barely touched. “Let’s go.”

  Caleb sat beside Marcy as the police—the State Police, who had taken over the investigation—questioned her. He could have wished for a more conservatively dressed client, but she refused to “conform to the authorities’ notion of what looks respectable.” Her words, verbatim. She wore a black leather mini-skirt with pointy-toed, ankle-high boots and black stockings. Her camouflage-print tank top showed off the Nile Goddess tattooed on her arm. Every piercing on her body sported a jewel, from the dozen or so in each ear, to the one in her nose, to the one in her belly button. She wore so many necklaces and bracelets that she jangled every time she moved, and her jet-black hair matched her eyeliner and nail polish.

  “I told you, I have no idea where Selene might be going. And it’s ridiculous what you’re thinking. She had nothing to do with Tessa’s death. She loved Tessa.”

  “She left town on the night of the murder. She called from Texas, so we assume she’s heading for the border. You were with her just a few hours prior to that murder, Marcy,” the detective said. “Look, you don’t want to be charged as an accessory in a double homicide, do you? Just cooperate.”

  “I think my client has answered all your questions,” Caleb said. He was nervous. This was a State Police detective in charge of the case now. He was no longer dealing with a handful of good ol’ local boys, who knew and loved the Brands. This guy wouldn’t give Selene the benefit of the doubt, or a crumb of a break. “Marcy came forward of her own free will, and has been more than cooperative. You and I both know she’s no accessory. And threatening her isn’t going to give her knowledge she doesn’t already have. So either arrest her, or we’re out of here.”

  The detective eyed him, lowered his head, shook it. “You shouldn’t have this guy representing you, Marcy. You know the chief suspect is his sister-in-law. Any advice he gives you is liable to be more for her sake than your own.”

  “I think that’s slander, Detective. And being a lawyer, I would know.”

  “It has to be a lie to be slander.”

  “And it is.” He reached for Marcy’s hand.

  She took it and rose to her feet, turned for the door, but paused and turned back to the detective, jewelry clinking and clanging like church bells. “Caleb is an honest man, and the best attorney for miles around. I trust him. And I trust Selene.”

  “You just be sure you don’t trust them all the way to a jail cell, Marcy. Even if you end up cleared in the end, it wouldn’t look good for you in that custody battle you have coming up.”

  She narrowed her eyes on him, lifted her dagger-tipped hand, forefinger and pinky extended, the others folded down. “You son of a—”

  “Easy, Marcy.” Caleb covered her hand with his, pushing it down before she could fling whatever she’d been about to fling at the detective. A curse, he suspected. And hell, he didn’t need that on the video of this interview.

  She shot him a look, then glared at the cop. “Don’t you ever threaten me again, Detective. Just…don’t.”

  He stood there with his brows raised and one hand hovering near his gun, as if he’d felt the full impact of the shot she’d just been about to fire.

  Caleb didn’t know what he thought about all this Witchcraft stuff. But there had always been something very real and very special about Selene. And he was seeing now, that the same applied to her friend, Marcy, but in a different way. And he had to admit to a certain curiosity about it all.

  He banked that for the moment, though, and took Marcy back out to the car. They got in. He drove. And he said, “You know, he has a point about Selene being my sister-in-law.”

  “Would you sell me out to save her?”

  “Of course not, but—”

  “Wouldn’t matter,” she said. “If there was a way I could get her out of this, I would.”

  He sighed, nodded. “I’m worried about her. We all are. She’s not safe out there alone, especially not with this guy. She doesn’t even know him.”

  Marcy smiled a little. “Yeah, she does.”

  He sent her a questioning look.

  “Not the way you’re thinking. It’s just…well, hell, Caleb, you might as well know the truth. I’m pretty sure this stranger of hers is going to be your next brother-in-law. Probably better get used to the idea.”

  He lifted his brows. “I think you’d better expand on that. Are you telling me she’s been seeing this guy—that she knew him before—”

  “She never set eyes on him before that night. But she thinks he’s her destiny, and I agree with her. You know she’s never wrong about shit like this. And you don’t have to worry. If Selene thinks he’s all right, then he is.”

  He sighed, more worried about his kid sister-in-law than he had been already. “He was being chased by killers, Marcy. That doesn’t exactly suggest he’s some kind of stellar citizen.”

  “Oh, come on. He could be a cop for all you know.”

  It had occurred to him. But if there were a cop missing from anywhere within a few hundred miles, he thought the local police would have heard about it by now. “I don’t think Selene’s in any real danger of being prosecuted for this. That cop was blowing smoke. They want her back here so they can question her, but they’d have to be idiots to still suspect her in any real way, when all the evidence points to someone else. I just wish there was some way we could make sure she’s all right.”

  Marcy glanced at him. “You want me to tell you what I wouldn’t tell them.”

  “It would help. And it wouldn’t go further.”

  “You wouldn’t get into trouble for keeping something like that to yourself?”

  “I might. But Selene’s more important. She’s family, Marcy.”

  She licked her lips, then slowly, she nodded. “She’s going to a campground in Texas to find the fifth member of our circle. She’s at a campground there for the weekend.”

  “You got a name for that campground?”

  She held his gaze, and nodded.

  Chapter 11

  “This is it. Right there,” Selene said, pointing to a carved wooden sign at the end of a narrow dirt road.

  “Merry Meet Campground. Cute.”

  “It’s a common greeting among Witches. Merry meet and merry part, and merry meet again.”

  “Uh-huh.” She seemed anything but “merry.” She seemed…deflated. Her usual boundless spirit seemed to have gone to sleep. “You suppose they get a lot of business?”

  “By all accounts, they get all kinds. They run a great campground, and most non-Witches wouldn’t recognize the name as anything all that unusual.”

  “I suppose not.” He took the turn onto the dirt road, and followed it for a mile, before finally coming to a log structure marked Office. He parked in a small area, where only one other vehicle rested.

  “This won’t be easy. Maybe you’d better wait here,” she said.

  “Why would it be hard? I mean, she’s a witch and you’re a witch, so can’t you just tell them that and they’ll let you talk to her?”

  “Uhm, no. Just because I’m a witch it doesn’t mean I’m entitled to crash someone else’s party. People register in advance and pay to go to these things, and once in session, they’re closed and tightly guarded to protect the attendees.”

  “Well, I’ll come along, if you don’t mind.”

  She frowned at him, ti
lting her head a little to one side. “Still don’t trust me?”

  It surprised him that not trusting her hadn’t even entered his mind. He was thinking about protecting her. Which made sense, right? He was the guy, he’d brought disaster raining down on her life, and there were killers after them. Naturally he was feeling protective.

  “You think my being there will hurt your chances of finding her?” Answer a question with a question. Great way to avoid giving an answer.

  “Not really. I just think—”

  Someone tapped on his window, and he damn near jumped out of the seat as he swung his head around.

  A heavyset, smiling woman with a mop of brown curls stood there in a Born Again Pagan T-shirt, and a pair of khaki shorts with numerous pockets. He rolled down his window. “Hello.”

  “Merry meet,” Selene called.

  The woman met her eyes, and her smile grew warmer. “I’m afraid we’re closed for a private event this weekend.”

  “I know, the Gathering. One of my coveners is here, and while I know it’s against the rules, it’s really important that I see her.”

  The woman’s smile died. She lowered her eyes, shook her head. “I can’t even confirm whether she’s here or not, hon. We guarantee our guests’ privacy—”

  “I know. I know that, believe me. But…Bonnie, is it?” she asked, glancing at the woman’s name badge. “Bonnie, her life is in danger. I’m not exaggerating.”

  Bonnie’s gaze snapped back up to Selene’s, wide and horrified. But still torn.

  “Look, let me give you her name and a note,” Selene said quickly. “You don’t have to confirm or deny she’s here. Just get the note to her if she is.” She was digging into the glove compartment for a scrap of paper even before she finished speaking.

  Bonnie nodded. “I can do that much. That’s not violating anyone’s privacy. Okay, I’ll do that.”

  “Thanks.” Selene had located a pen and was scribbling a note, while Cory was beginning to feel as if he was nothing more than a seat cover. The two seemed to have forgotten his presence even as they talked around him.

  Selene passed the note to Bonnie, reaching right across his chest to do so. “Tell her I’m staying close by until I hear from her. I put my cell number on the note. Okay?”