by Sandra Cox
She grasped Maureen’s hands, leaned over and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Thank you for saving my life, my dear friend. Sleep now.”
Maureen’s eyes closed and her ragged breath turned deep and even as exhaustion dragged her back under.
Sabina felt nearly normal, which meant Maureen must feel like hell. She swung her legs over the bed and headed for the bathroom. Hopping in the shower, she sighed with pleasure. Not even the beauty amulet could remove the grime that had accumulated on her body from the rock fall.
Her palms flat against the cool marble, she leaned against the shower stall and let the water wash over her in ecstatic hot spurts. She stood like that ’til the water turned tepid than lathered herself from her head to her toes. Finally, she stepped out of the shower, wrapped a towel around her and meandered down the hall looking for Johnny’s daughter’s room.
She found it. The second door on the right held a treasure trove of outfits. Sabina threw on a long-sleeved ivory tee shirt and a pair of jeans that she had to roll the cuffs up on then padded into the hall.
Her hand on the mahogany rail, she looked over the catwalk and saw Bella fixing breakfast. Moving her nose up and down in a feline gesture, she sniffed. The smell of eggs and coffee assailed her. Her stomach growled loudly reminding her of just how long it had been since she’d eaten.
She took the stairs two at a time. Bella looked up and saw her. “Good morning, shug. You’re looking wonderful!”
As Sabina walked into the kitchen, she glanced at the rooster-shaped clock. “Bella, it’s only six thirty. What are you doing up?”
Bella gave a huge yawn as she moved her spatula through the bright yellow liquid in the skillet. “I figure from now on one of us needs to be awake at all times and on guard. I’ll catch a few hours’ sleep after breakfast. How’s Maureen?”
“She looks terrible.”
“She’ll be better after she’s slept.”
Sabina peered over her shoulder. “What’s the white stuff in the saucepan?”
“I made grits.”
Sabina peered at them uncertainly. “I’m not familiar with grits.”
“You’re in for a treat, sugar.” Bella grinned.
Sabina nodded noncommittally then walked to the cabinet, plucked out a mug and poured herself a cup of fresh coffee from the coffeepot sitting on the counter. She sipped then buried her nose in it and closed her eyes. “Um. Life is good,” she said then thought of Adam and sat the coffee cup down abruptly. The hot liquid sloshed over the sides and onto her hands.
She wiped the liquid off the back of her hand with her fingertips, biting down on her lip. Are you alive? Are you safe? I’ll find you. I swear I’ll find you. She fisted her hands, her nails biting deep into the fleshy part of her palms.
Bella pushed a loaf of bread at her. “Make us some toast.”
Sabina forced open a rigid hand to take it. Mechanically, she popped bread into the toaster.
“Adam will be okay, shug,” Bella said, echoing her thoughts. “He’s tough and smart. He’ll hold out ’til we find him.”
“Do you think she’ll hurt him?” Sabina whispered twisting the bread wrapper with sharp hard turns.
“If she does, she’ll have us to answer to won’t she?” Bella scooped the eggs onto tan plates flecked with brown then poured the grits into small brown bowls.
Sabina smiled gratefully. “Yup, she’s about to tangle with twenty-first century Wonder Women.”
The toast popped out of the toaster. Sabina grabbed it, buttered it and plopped it on the plates and carried the plates to the table. Bella followed with the coffee then went back for the grits.
“I called Johnny last night,” Bella said.
“And?” Sabina pulled out a wooden chair from the butcher block table and sat down.
“He said to keep an eye on the news.” She winked at Sabina as she slid into her chair. A small television sat on the counter. “Can you reach the remote, sugar?”
Sabina looked at the distance from the counter, got up, grabbed the remote and sat back down and pushed the power button.
The broadcaster, a perky brunette sprang into vivid color. “Dead body found beneath the rubble…”
They looked at each other, horrified.
“You don’t suppose…”Sabina began.
“She’s probably talking about some other rubble,” Bella interjected, her coffee cup posed at her lips.
“Johnny Morelly, a close friend of the family.”
Sabina put her head in her hands and groaned.
The anchorwoman continued, “Identified the body by a bracelet that he himself had given the singer.”
Sabina rubbed the growing pressure between her eyes with her middle finger.
“Look there, shug.” Bella pointed with her coffee cup to the screen.
Sabina looked up and saw Johnny’s swarthy face fill the screen his expression solemn. “She was soon to become a member of my family. Sabina Comti was about to announce her engagement to my nephew, Adam Morelly.
“My nephew has disappeared, no doubt devastated by the news. I don’t want this to turn out to be another Romeo and Juliet enactment, so if anyone knows of the whereabouts of my nephew Adam Morelly, please contact me.
“Her two friends, Bella Tremaine-McHenry and Maureen Wolfe are in deep mourning in my cabin in North Carolina. Please give them the privacy they deserve.”
The camera zoomed back on to the news anchor. “That was Johnny Morelly talking about Sabina Comti. A tragic end to one so young and beautiful, who had so much to live for.”
The two women looked at each other. Bella bit down on her lips as if trying to contain a nervous giggle.
“My family will just die,” Sabina groaned.
“No dear you’re the one that died.” This time she did bust out laughing.
“My family!” Sabina’s eyes widened and she jumped up, knocking the chair backward in her haste. “I must call them. They’ll think I’m dead.”
“You can’t.” Bella sat down her cup, sobered. “I know this is hard on you and horrible for them but you can’t. Word mustn’t trickle back to Victoria. You’re our ace in the hole.”
Their glances locked.
Protest welled up in Sabina’s throat and fought to escape her lips. She read sympathy in Bella’s eyes along with raw determination. Sabina sank back in her chair. Throwing her head back, her eyes closed, she took a deep gulp of air then straightened her shoulders and looked at Bella knowing all animation had left her face. “You’re right.”
Bella reached over and grasped her hand, her warmth and the slight charge of the beauty-creativity amulet tingling through Sabina’s blood. “It won’t be for long. I promise you.”
Sabina shook off the depressing thought of her family’s pain. “You don’t suppose he killed a woman do you?” she asked, her thoughts returning to the body in the grave.
“I prefer to think he borrowed a corpse from a mortuary,” Bella said firmly. “If it was a closed casket, I doubt the mortician is going to admit to losing a cadaver.”
Sabina took a deep breath. “Yes, of course.”
“Eat your breakfast, shug,” Bella urged, scooping up scrambled eggs and popping them in her mouth.
Sabina nodded and took a small bite of her rapidly cooling eggs, no longer hungry. She fixed her eyes on the newscaster who was talking about the latest recall of toys made in China.
Bella yawned.
Turning her attention to her friend, she studied Bella critically. “You need to get some rest, Bella. You looked a little haggard.”
Bella’s brilliant eyes widened. She touched her amulet, ramping up the glamour, set her napkin on the table and stood up. “Fine,” she said flouncing out of the kitchen.
Sabina grinned then turned back to the television.
“Another mysterious bank robbery has occurred in Charlotte, North Carolina, the second in the South, in twenty-four hours. It was just discovered moments ago. This time the night guard was killed.”
Sabina’s breath went out in a whoosh as if she’d been hit in the pit of her stomach. A guard killed, an innocent individual just trying to do his or her job. Had Victoria deprived children of a parent? Her hand tightened around her coffee cup. She and the sisterhood would stop Victoria. They had to. And they would find Adam.
A hard knot tightened in her chest. The knot had been there since she woke up and found Adam gone. She no longer thought he’d gone of his own free will. She closed her eyes and focused on Adam, trying to reach him with her mind.
She concentrated harder, centering.
Her breath caught in her throat. She could barely breathe. Black waves of despair washed over her, desolation nearly drowning her. He thinks I’m dead.
She opened her eyes, blinked panting, amazed she’d been able to reach him. They didn’t have amulets to link them but maybe they had love. Once again, she closed her eyes, projecting. I’m alive. I will find you. She put every ounce of her being into her thoughts and sent them spiraling into space.
For a moment the blackness she felt lightened to gray then blinked out like a candle blown by a gust of wind. What did it mean? She stared at her plate of cold scrambled eggs.
A rush of determination coursed through her. She had to get Adam back but to do that she had to find Victoria. She longed to rush out of the house and go flying to the rescue but fly where?
Victoria would come to them. She wouldn’t be able to resist coming after Bella and Maureen. She hated the three of them with every breath in her body and in particular Bella and Maureen. Sabina, she thought no more of than a bug to step on and pluck the power amulet from. But Bella had brought her particular humiliation and Maureen had escaped her clutches.
Oh yes, Victoria would come and when she did, they would be ready for her. Cold steely calm stole over her. Sabina wasn’t a violent person, she didn’t believe in it. But in this case she was willing to make an exception. She got up and shoved her chair back from her table. Surely Johnny Morelly had a gun around here somewhere.
* * * * *
She watched the news with unholy glee. Sabina Comti was dead. Now nothing stood between her and Adam Morelly, except a few chains. She giggled, saliva bubbling and running down from the corner of her mouth.
So Bella Tremaine-McHenry and Maureen Sinclair were in mourning. How appropriate. It would be the work of a minute to find out where they were. And when she did, she’d take the other two amulets. They couldn’t stand against the power amulet. Then she would have three of the five. She walked to the window and looked up at the sky. “Are you proud of me, Daddy?”
Chapter Thirteen
Sabina padded silently to the study. The cold wooden floors under her bare feet reminded her she needed to find some socks to put on. The temperatures had dipped into the forties and the house felt chilly.
She walked into the den, concentrating on the picture of a sailboat behind the desk forcing her eyes away from the deer head that hung over the door. She abhorred hunting. Folks could talk all they wanted to about “harvesting” and keeping the numbers down but it all came down to the thrill of the hunt, that some men and women just plain enjoyed the kill. How could it possibly be a rush to take the life’s breath from another living creature? She’d never understand.
Getting her mind back on business, she walked to the large mahogany desk. The surface was so shiny she could see herself in it. With two fingers, she absently smoothed out the frown line on her forehead. She slid open the right hand drawer where she would have expected a gun to be but the drawer held only papers. Puzzled, she sat down in the oversized leather desk chair and opened the middle drawer. As she crossed her legs, her knee brushed against cold steel.
Rolling the chair back, she bent over and peered under the desk. Strapped to the underside of the desk was a gun the size of a cannon aimed at whoever stood in front of the desk. All you had to do was pull the trigger. “Good thinking, Johnny.” She stretched her lips in a grim smile and went through the rest of the drawers. In the bottom right drawer beneath a stack of papers was a Glock. Yes this room would definitely do for a showdown.
Getting up, she walked across the room, punched the elevator button and rode to the master suite. As she got out, her eyes, like magnets, went to Maureen, lovely Maureen, earth mother extraordinaire, who used herself over and over again to heal others. If it wasn’t for the woman lying in this bed, her mangled body would be lying in a cairn of stone.
She walked to the bed and pushed the stray hair back from Maureen’s face. Maureen shook her head from side to side and murmured in her sleep.
Eyes narrowed, Sabina studied her friend. Her color seemed a little better, less translucent and gray. Her eyes were not as sunken. But she still had a way to go. Ah well, uninterrupted rest would take care of that. But how long did they have?
She rubbed her arms, her hand lingering on her bare left forearm. Her arm ached like a bad tooth and her skin felt too tight over her bones. Victoria was coming. She could feel it.
Should I wake Maureen and warn her? No, she needs her sleep, needs to regain her strength, to fight the evil coming. Her jaw set, she bent over and opened the drawer on the night stand.
The drawer was empty except for a small derringer. She grinned. She was coming to appreciate Johnny Morelly more with every passing minute. She stuck the gun in her pocket and walked into the huge walk-in closet. Men’s clothes hung on one side and women’s on the other. The woodsy scent of cedar filled her nostrils. In the corner stuck between a navy-blue pin stripe suit and a black suit was a machine gun. She shook her head. Even with the power amulet, Victoria would have to move like lightning to stay out of the range of that thing.
Then again, she was afraid she might take her friends out in the process if she tried to use it. Probably better to let sleeping dogs lie or in this case let machine guns lie. We’ll see. At least I know its there.
She looked in the next room and saw Bella sleeping peacefully, her hand tucked under her pillow, on a queen-size bed with bears cavorting around the edges of the coverlet. Sabina shook her head. Bears and moose seemed to be the theme in the bedrooms. She approached the bed and slid open the bedside table. If Johnny was true to form, there should be a gun here too.
The drawer stuck. She gave a yank causing the lamp on top if it to rock. Quick as liquid silver, Bella rolled over, her ladies’ derringer pointed straight at Sabina’s heart.
“Sorry, sugar, reflex.” Bella stuck the gun back under her pillow.
Sabina blinked a couple of times and clutched her chest. “Jeez, Bella, you scared the life out of me.”
“Well, shug, I can’t say you did too much for mine either and I can ill afford it at my advanced years.” Bella pulled herself up on the pillows and leaned back against the headboard. Touching her amulet, she gave herself a quick glam.
Sabina grinned in spite of herself.
“What are you doing?” Bella asked smothering a yawn.
“A gun inventory. This place is an arsenal.”
“Really?” Bella brightened. “Though I shouldn’t be surprised.”
“I’d forgotten your love of guns.”
“I don’t believe in hunting and I don’t believe in killing. But I do believe in protecting yourself.”
“Um,” Sabina responded, tapping her lip, her thoughts elsewhere as an idea began to form.
“What are you thinking about, shug?”
“Bella, do you mind if I borrow your amulet?”
“Of course not. Whatcha got in mind?”
“I think I know how to put a kink in that hellion’s tail and hurry her visit to us.”
“By all means, then.” Bella took off the amulet and handed it over. As their hands touched, electricity surged into both of them.
“Wow,” Sabina said as she slipped it on her arm. “That never fails to surprise me. Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of it.”
“If I was worried, I wouldn’t have given it to you.” She slid back down on the
bed and nestled into her pillow. “Wake me in a couple of hours.”
“Will do.” She had no intention of waking Bella. Bella had spent the night standing guard. Now it was her turn. Walking out of the room, she closed the door behind her then checked out the rest of the house. She found at least twenty guns before she was through. Good lord. They could protect themselves against a small army.
After she’d made a mental note of where each gun was located and what type it was, she grabbed a cup of coffee and headed for the study.
She set the coffee down, turned on the computer and touched the creativity amulet. She didn’t consider herself a geek but working in the bookstore she’d stayed abreast of everything that was going on in the cyber arena. And she had a friend.
Sabina grinned. Marcus had never admitted to being a hacker but there was nothing he couldn’t do with a computer including make it talk. She’d had a problem a year or so ago with identity theft. He’d shown her how to protect herself and how to get her money back. There had been no need to go to the police.
“Okay, baby, talk to me.” She sat with her fingers poised on the keyboard then began to type, the keys clicking beneath her fingertips. She chewed on her lower lip thinking, then once again touched the amulet. It would be too soon for Victoria to have laundered the bank money though she was betting the jewels were already in underground pawn shops.
It took her a couple of hours but she finally managed to get hold of Victoria’s social security number and all her credit cards. “Bingo. And now the fun begins.”
There was an orphanage in Italy she’d love to donate to but it would raise flags sending huge sums of money out of the country. “Let’s just see what we can find here in the States.”
She did a search and decided on an orphanage in Philadelphia, a battered women’s home in Detroit and a soup kitchen in Charlotte. “Christmas a couple of months early,” Sabina murmured, grinning, as she ordered extravagant items these people would enjoy but never be able to afford.
When she’d maxed out Victoria’s cards, she turned her attention to her bank account and transferred money to Maureen’s horse rescue program.
