“I owe him, Opal. And one thing you and Mom always taught us was to pay our debts.”
“Yes, well, there are exceptions to every rule. Even that one. But this might not be one of them.” She took another swig of Lily’s awesome lemonade. “Remind me to get her recipe for this. I can never get mine to taste this good.”
“Can I ask you something, Opal?” Something had been weighing heavily on my mind for quite a while. Might as well ask it now while Opal was actually being approachable. That wasn’t likely to last for long.
“You want to know why your magical signature is so close to Archimedes’, don’t you?”
I’ll never be fully convinced she can’t read my mind. But it saved me from having to form the words. I just went with a nod.
She shook her head. “I wish I knew, child. That’s the one thing that’s bothered me most in all this. I realized the similarities right from the beginning. They weren’t as strong then, because you hadn’t really come into your magic, but they were there. Now . . . you’re almost a match for him. And I don’t have a clue how that could be.”
“Maybe I can shed some light on that for you.”
Wait, I knew that voice.
Opal and I whirled around to find Mom standing right behind us, the door leading back into the house still open.
What the hell was she doing here?
And more importantly, what light?
Chapter 7
OPAL WASN’T HAPPY WHEN Mom insisted that we go back inside to continue our family reunion. But, like me, she was far too curious not to follow her, anyway. I could only wonder if she had the same feeling I did.
That all of our lives were about to change.
Arc and his family were still seated at the table, but the food had been put away. It was a good thing Lily had a big table for eight. We even had a chair to spare.
Mom looked at the chair with a bit of sadness. “I really wish Ruby were here for this, but there is no helping it at this point. The time has come.”
She was sitting directly to the left of Senior, which I thought was a little odd. At least, I thought it was odd until she reached over and they grasped each other’s hands. The look she gave him sent chills down my spine. I’d been right. Whatever was coming would be life-changing information.
“You are going to probably be upset that we have kept this from the two of you for so long, but I’m a firm believer that the Universe, Fate, or whatever you want to call it, would be a better judge of when the right time of illumination would be than I would be.” She smiled at me and Arc in turn. “And it would seem the Universe has spoken in a very resounding voice.”
That’s when the butterflies in my stomach kicked in. A quick glance at Arc showed me that he was just as clueless as I was. That was something, anyway.
“Oh, Sapphire, you didn’t! With an Earth witch?” That was Opal. She must have the same mind-reading ability with Mom that she had with me. That, or I was just a tad bit slow with hints and clues. Not a good thing for a wannabe detective.
Mom raised her head a little higher. “That kind of prejudice is exactly why this news has taken this long to reveal itself. And why I felt the need to hide it from you.” Mom’s eyes sought out mine, and they looked sad. “I have a confession, love. I haven’t been traveling the world. Archie and I have been back from our honeymoon for weeks now.”
“You’re married?” And more importantly, I wasn’t invited?
She must have just realized that little fact would probably get my attention in the wrong way. “I wanted you there, love, but—”
“But I’ve always been able to read you like a book. If you knew, then I’d know,” Opal said, giving Mom one of her signature looks. “But this isn’t the news you have to share, is it?”
Mom shook her head. “A part of it, but no, not the most important part.”
I wasn’t getting it, even if Aunt Opal was already on board. What could possibly be more important news than the fact that Archimedes Mineheart Sr. was now my stepfather?
“Arc, Amie, obviously you know now that your magical signatures are practically the same. Part of that is because of the familiar binding—which I totally want to hear all about, by the way—but another part, the foundational part, is because you two are family.”
It took Arc’s horrified look to get me on board. Here I was still thinking she meant in a step-family kind of way. His look said otherwise.
Then I remembered Lily’s horror at the thought of the two of us dating. Oh my Goddess, no. She wouldn’t keep something like that from me all my life. Would she?
Mom shoved a paper bag across the table to me. In times like this, I tended to hyperventilate. In times of real crises, I was fine. But if there wasn’t any immediate danger, then my emotions could get the better of me in a heartbeat.
I started breathing into the bag. It helped, but my heart and mind wouldn’t stop racing. Both down the same track.
Arc was my brother.
I had a brother.
AFTER THE BOMBSHELL that Mom dropped on us, it took a while to get my breathing under control. Once I did, I left. Arc stayed behind, now a guest of Lily’s. She’d offered me her second guestroom, but I wasn’t exactly in the mood for company. Even if there was a door between us.
I needed to be alone. Or better yet, with Ruby. I decided that I needed to be the one to tell her. Not Mom, not Opal, me. The only bad part was that I didn’t have it in me to make that long of a drive. I was kind of amazed I’d made it to the hotel in one piece, actually.
Once inside, I speed dialed Ruby’s cell phone.
“Hey, Ams, what’s up?” Then a few seconds of silence. Guess I should have marshaled my thoughts together before dialing. “Oh no, Mom’s there, isn’t she? What has she done?”
“It’s not Opal. Well, I mean, yes, she’s here, but she isn’t why I’m calling. Mom’s here too.” And once again, my verbal well ran dry.
“Sapphire’s there? How? When did she get in? Is she okay?”
My brain was still whirling. Maybe calling Ruby this soon hadn’t been such a great idea after all.
“Amie? Are you okay?”
“Yeah, it’s just . . .” There just wasn’t an easy way to do this. “Arc and I are brother and sister, Ruby. We’re related.”
Now the silence was coming from her end. It must be catching.
“I’m coming. You’re still at the Oak Hill Lodge, right?”
“Yeah, but it’s just me for now. Arc stayed at . . . friends. We both need some time to think this through.” Then I glanced at the clock. It was almost eleven. Far too late for Ruby to try to make it here tonight, as much as I wanted her to. “Look, now that I think about it, I probably shouldn’t have called you with this. I was just in shock, and, well, I wanted you to hear it from me.”
“You’d better be glad you did call, missy.” Missy? She was a whole two minutes older than me.
“Yeah, well, please don’t do anything rash. Truthfully, I think your mom might need you more tonight than I do. She looked pretty shaken.”
More silence. Once again, I lost.
“Don’t come tonight, okay? It’s too late to try to get a ride, and I’m pretty wiped out after the day I’ve had. Maybe Opal can bring you down tomorrow night after the shop closes?”
“You sure you’re okay to be by yourself tonight?” Her voice was soft. I knew she had to be torn between me and Opal. I was trying to make it easier for her, dang it.
“I’ll be fine. I mean, hey, I have a brother, right? Isn’t that something both of us always wished we’d had?”
She gave a dry laugh. “We had Opie. That’s every bit as good.” Then she must have realized that it wasn’t such a good idea bringing him up at a time like this. Not when I was already hurting from his absence. “Sorry, Amie. I shouldn’t have brought him up.”
“It’s okay. I do miss him, though.” I had to get off the phone soon. If I started crying, there was no way in heck she wouldn’t find her way
here tonight. And suddenly, I really did just want to be alone.
Besides, I had Sonya’s computer to crack.
Hopefully, that would distract me from the emotional turmoil my body was reeling with right now. And maybe even help us catch the killer so we could get our lives back to normal.
Whatever the new normal was.
Chapter 8
IT DIDN’T REALLY MATTER how long I stared at the computer’s login screen. The password wasn’t going to magically appear. Technology might seem like magic, but it wasn’t. In fact, the two didn’t play well with each other at all.
Even if I had the control I should have on my new abilities, I’d be afraid to spell the computer. For one, it was the laptop of a witch and was most likely warded for that. Especially seeing as the side business Sonya was doing wasn’t exactly on the legal up and up. For another, with my habit of overdoing things, if I could get the spell to work, it would probably wipe out the hard drive.
I stared a little longer, but no new ideas came to me. There was no way I was getting this done on my own. I needed help.
I needed the hot geek. Of course, getting his help might have been a lot easier before slamming his mom into a wall last week with my new found power. But then, she had been trying to kill my aunt and cousin at the time, so at least it had been justified.
Besides, what choice did I have? I needed to know what was on this thing, and the little flashing cursor was just sitting there mocking me.
A call wouldn’t work, either. If Tommy really did get out of prison on a super-secret government hacking gig parole, his phone lines would be being watched. Or, more to the point, listened in to. I’d have to make a drive back to Wind’s Crossing.
Surely they weren’t actually watching his place twenty-four hours a day. Even if they were, well, who was to say I wasn’t there for a booty call? It wasn’t like the attraction wasn’t there. It was. It was just super complicated.
The drive took a full hour. I wasn’t pushing things. The very last thing I needed right now was a moving violation. My bills were racking up as it was, and those things weren’t cheap.
By the time I pulled up outside Tommy’s new loft apartment, it was going on one o’clock in the morning. The absence of light told me that Tommy was likely fast asleep. Just like I should be.
Taking a deep breath, I opened the car door, stepped out, and lugged the computer case up the steps to Tommy’s door. It took a couple of minutes before he finally answered.
Dang. My friend Opie had a six-pack too, but Tommy’s had a little added muscle. I knew this because Tommy wasn’t wearing a shirt. Or long pants. In fact, he had on the cutest little pajama shorts I’d ever seen. Emphasis on the little.
I’d be lying if I said he wasn’t surprised to see me standing there right on his landing.
He blinked at me a couple of times. Like I would disappear or something.
“Hey, Tommy. I’m sorry I woke you up, but I could really use your help with something.” I hefted the laptop case so he’d get the hint.
He sucked in some air and bit his lower lip. We must have stood like that for a full minute before he finally said. “Sure, Amie, I can help you with that.” He lowered his voice. “Not here. Give me a minute to get dressed, and I’ll meet you down below.”
He was even faster at dressing than Opie. It was only seconds later that he came out of his door. Of course, it doesn’t take all that long to throw on a T-shirt and step into flip-flops.
When he reached me, he said, “Let’s walk.”
We waited until we were a good half block away before either of us said anything.
“They really do have you on a short leash, don’t they?”
Tommy made a face. “You have no idea.” He glanced down at the laptop bag. “I can’t touch that, you know. They make me take lie detector tests sometimes.” He shivered. “I really don’t want to go back to prison. And if I get caught, it’ll be a longer sentence. They made that abundantly clear.”
Now I was feeling guilty about coming. Who was I to put his freedom in jeopardy?
“I shouldn’t have come.” I started to turn around, but he reached out a hand and stopped me.
“I didn’t say I wouldn’t help you. I just can’t do the actual work. You’ll have to.”
Still sounded risky to me. What if they asked just the right question when he was all hooked up? That didn’t change the fact that I needed help. And he was the smartest person with computers that I knew. I mean, he had to be if the government drafted him from prison, right?
“What if I told you that I got a computer from a friend’s estate and that all I needed was the password to get into it? The . . . estate didn’t know it.” I spoke slowly, trying to come up with a plausible story that might not get him into trouble with the Feds. “I’d really like to be able to access the computer because I know my friend kept a lot of photographs and stuff on the computer, and I’d love to have them.”
Kind of sort of the truth. In part, anyway. Sonya wasn’t exactly a friend, as I’d never even met her. Did friend of my new found brother count for anything?
He thought about it and then nodded slowly. “I can work with that.” He paused. “Do you have a paper and pen?”
After a brief ramble inside my purse, I came up with the back of an envelope and a mechanical pencil. Close enough.
“Okay, the first thing you do is get a USB drive. Then you download this software from another computer onto the drive.” He scribbled briefly on the back of the envelope. “Once you’ve done that, search the internet for this software, and you’ll find some videos that will show you exactly how to do it. If you even need them. It’s really simple. Once you have the software on the drive, you basically just plug it into the estate laptop and then do a reboot. The instructions will pop up from there for you to reset the password.”
He was stepping a lot lighter now. I think he was relieved that I hadn’t asked him to do any major hacking. That hadn’t been the plan tonight, but depending on what the computer gave up in the way of files, I still might need that. I’d just have to find some other way to get it.
“What do you know? I was able to help you and keep my word to the Feds, too. All I did was give you the name of a software to reset your password. What could the harm in that be?”
I bit my tongue and smiled at him. He didn’t need to know that technically the laptop should be in the possession of the police instead of me.
“Thank you, Tommy. This helps a lot.” We turned the corner of our around the block walk and started back toward his loft. I didn’t say what I really wanted to. We both knew that if it had come right down to it, Tommy would have helped me. No matter what I’d asked. He was a good friend. A better one than me, obviously.
He shrugged. “I owe you. Especially after the whole my mom trying to kill your whole family thing.”
We walked a few more steps in silence.
“There’s no way for us to get past that, is there?”
I knew what he meant, even if he wasn’t spelling it all out. He wondered if there was still a chance between us.
The question deserved some thought, so I took a minute. Finally, I shook my head. “I really don’t think there is, Tommy. Let’s face it, right now your mom is hanging by a really slim thread. If we got together as a couple, I think that thread would snap.”
He blew out a breath. “Yeah, that’s what I think too.” Then he gave me a sad smile. “It’s too bad, though. I really think we would have been great together. Now we’ll never know.”
I blinked the sudden moisture out of my eyes. What was it with me losing the men in my life lately? Not lovers, but friends. Somehow, that only seemed to make it worse. I didn’t want to lose Tommy. But was it fair to keep him locked into friendship when he wanted more?
“I think maybe you’re right. You’re a hell of a guy, Tommy Hill. And just so you know, you’ll never be Fat Geek again. You’re Hot Geek now.”
He gave a little laugh
. “Hot Geek, huh? I think I like the sound of that.”
We reached the bottom of his stairs, and I stood on tippy-toe to brush my lips against his. “Goodbye, Tommy.”
He pulled me in for a hug, and we stood there in the light of the moon for several seconds before he finally whispered, “Goodbye, Amie.”
Then he walked up the stairs and went inside without ever looking back. I got into my car and drove a couple blocks before having to pull over.
It was hard to drive when you couldn’t see the road through your tears.
Chapter 9
I’M NOT SURE HOW I made it back to the hotel, but I did. I’d been tempted to head for the farmhouse, but that wouldn’t have been fair to Opal and Ruby. They had day jobs at the shop. They needed their sleep.
Apparently, even in the midst of all of this, so did I. I woke up at nine in the morning, still fully dressed, on the hotel bed. After dealing with the whole where the heck am I thing of waking in a strange bed, I used the bathroom and then popped open the computer.
I was lucky enough to already have a USB drive, so I started right in. Tommy was right. It was easy. Which was scary in a way, but good for me now. Within a half hour, I was in and with full administrative power too. That meant that the computer files were fully visible and accessible. Go me.
The first thing I did was take a really close look at her desktop. Then I found myself staring. Arc had thought she was computer smart. But then, Arc had thought a lot of things about Sonya that had turned out to not be true. This just might be another of them.
Because right there on her desktop was a little file icon titled Online PWs. If PW meant to her what it meant to me, my job today would be an easy one. No Tommy Hill required. Which was good, because after last night, no way was I bringing him into this again. There was just too much risk involved.
Relatively Familiar (Accidental Familiar Book 2) Page 5
