“I really hate to bother you this late,” I said, “but I’m a friend of Ian O’Rourke’s. He gave me your number and told me that if I ran into trouble, you might be able to help. Well, I’ve run into a lot of trouble.”
The woman had a vaguely southern voice. “Now that you mention it, honey, Ian did call and talk to Gill. All I heard was that someone named Moira might want to get in touch.”
“Yeah, that’s me. I just tangled with a house full of sorcerers. Although I got away, I’m pretty beat up. Right now, I’m about thirty miles east of Sacramento driving a sedan that got smashed in two different places. I’m not sure if it will get me to my motel room tonight, but assuming it does, is there any chance you could come to meet me early tomorrow morning?”
“Let me ask Gill to see if he has anything critical scheduled.” Katie must’ve put her hand over the receiver because all I heard were low murmurs. Then she came back online. “Gill is getting on in years and needs his beauty sleep, or so he claims. Anyway, tomorrow morning should work out fine.”
I hadn’t realized they were an elderly couple, so I felt guiltier than ever about calling. The car continued to run, and if it broke down, I had over a thousand bucks in cash in my purse. So, I could afford a tow truck and a ride back to the motel. “That’ll be great. Let me give you the directions to my motel for the morning, and don’t worry about starting early. After I’m there, I should be fine for a while.”
I didn’t mention the worsening throbbing in my shoulder and chest. I’d have to tough that out until morning. I couldn’t go to an emergency room because they’d ask way too many questions.
I passed on the directions and thanked Katie again for agreeing to help. After I hung up, I kept hearing new noises coming from my trusty sedan. Plus, the temperature gauge kept rising. By the time I made it to the motel, steam was coming off the front of the car.
The dim lights over the parking lot revealed incredible damage. The panel behind the left rear wheel was smashed in, and the wheel well had been crushed. Metal just touched the tire and had worn part of the tread off. The back bumper and trunk were severely damaged, and the trunk wouldn’t open.
Then I checked out the front. It had suffered even worse. One headlight was broken, and I was surprised that some cop hadn’t stopped me along the way. The front bumper was gone entirely, and the grille had shattered. Chunks of it were embedded in the radiator, which caused a steady drip of green fluid onto the asphalt. The radiator must’ve held just enough fluid to get me back.
Louie grumbled when I showed up in his office to ask for a container to collect the drippings. He said he didn’t run a junkyard, but he gave me a plastic bucket to stick under the radiator so my car wouldn’t make a mess in his parking lot. Strangely, he didn’t ask how I’d smashed up myself and my Honda. Maybe he was more used to crazy customers than he’d let on.
I locked myself in my room and flopped on the bed. It’d been a wild night. I’d survived, but then a nasty thought occurred to me. I’d put Suarez on notice that I was after my sister. One of my big advantages, the element of surprise, was gone for good. He’d probably draft in extra muscle and fortify his defenses. Even worse, he’d be furious that I got away. He couldn’t make me suffer, but Dana was under his thumb. I’d doomed her to a night every bit as bad as the one I was about to go through.
I undressed and tried to rest, but each breath became more painful than the last. My shoulder went from throbbing to stabbing agony. My toiletries bag contained a bottle of ibuprofen, but nothing stronger. Tanner had kicked an oxy habit before I’d met him, so he’d made sure no opiates existed in his home. The next time I mounted a rescue mission, I needed to be a helluva lot better prepared. I took four pills and hoped my kidneys would survive the overdose.
The ibuprofen didn’t help a bit. I could only sleep for a few minutes at a time.
-o-o-o-
Sunday, January 17th
BY SIX A.M., I gave up on trying to rest and took a shower. That didn’t go well either, thanks to being unable to move my left arm at all. Then I dressed and went out to greet the new day.
It was light enough for me to see the Honda better. The left rear tire was flat, and the radiator had stopped dripping. The rest of the car contained lots of dings and scratches I hadn’t seen the night before, and I wondered when I should call Gracie to give the news that I’d trashed the Accord. I certainly didn’t want to disturb her at six-thirty in the morning.
My body hurt even more than the night before, so I took four more ibuprofen. Then I walked two blocks to a quick-mart for breakfast.
While I drank a cup of coffee, I wondered how Suarez had taken his anger out on Dana. I would’ve preferred to take the punishment myself, but it wasn’t an option. Dana had probably paid a terrible price for my screw-up. That thought threatened to bring up the cheap powdered donuts I’d just eaten.
Then I got a call from Katie. “Neither Gill nor I know our way around Northern California, honey, but I wanted you to know we’re leaving Napa now. My best guess is that it will take us a couple hours to get there.”
I wasn’t very familiar with this part of the state either, but her guess sounded reasonable. “Take your time. I’ll be waiting in the motel room.”
Waiting was one thing I was good at. Gladiators got lots of practice. We could only spend a certain number of hours each day training, and I fought twice a month. That left plenty of time to kill.
I laid on my bed and read another billionaire leprechaun e-book. Normally, I would’ve lost track of time, but my aches and pains kept intruding.
When I got to one of the steamy parts, my cell phone rang. Unfortunately, the caller ID said Ian O’Rourke. He was the last person in the world I wanted to chat with, but I owed him. So, I answered.
“I hear you’ve gotten yourself in a wee bit of bother there, lassie.” For some reason, he’d put on a fake Irish accent. All the other times we spoken, he talked like a Midwesterner with some Southern in his voice.
“Katie or Gill called you?” I asked.
“No,” he said. “I’m glad you’ve talked to them, though. It just so happens, there are several stories online about you crashing a gladiator party near Placerville, California.”
He had to have some kind of access to the sorcerer’s social media, but I knew he wasn’t going to tell me the details unless I became his disciple, bound to keep his secrets. So, I gave him a brief summary of my escapades at Suarez’s house. He listened without criticizing me, which I appreciated.
“And before you say anything,” I added at the end, “sure, I’m very sorry for the terrible night that Dana has suffered thanks to me.”
“Hey, you don’t work for me,” Ian said, “so I’ll keep my opinions to myself until asked for them. How’d you happen to run into Suarez?”
“Sheer stupidity. At the top of the stairs, I’d focused solely on Dana. I should’ve checked to find out where he was before making my getaway.”
“How badly did you get beaten up?” he asked. “The reports I saw said you left tens of thousands of dollars in property damage in your wake and flattened one guard.”
I told him about my shoulder and the ribs. “To be honest, I’m pretty sore. You wouldn’t happen to know any good witch healers in Sacramento, would you?”
“No, but I can ask around. I’ll call you back.”
That was damned nice of him. The man didn’t owe me any favors.
-o-o-o-
BY EIGHT-THIRTY, I figured it was late enough on a Sunday to call Gracie.
She sounded chipper. “Hey, I just got an email from Ian saying the Accord is probably toast. What happened?”
I gave her a different summary, the damage to the car. Then I gave her the address for the motel.
“I’ll have our roadside assistance service tow the car to the insurance company’s nearest claim center,” she said. “I think I mentioned before that the deductible is five hundred bucks. I’ll t
ake it out of your cash.”
“Absolutely,” I said. “I’m so sorry I destroyed the car.”
Her voice became quieter. “Your heart was in the right place. We do rescue operations all the time, and I have to tell you, they often go astray. That’s the nature of the beast. Anyway, get whatever you need out of the Honda. I doubt you’ll see it again.”
After I signed off with her, I pulled my few possessions out the car. Luckily, I didn’t have anything in the trunk.
Ian called me back with an address for a healer in downtown Sacramento.
My throat burned as he came through for me one more time. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all you and Gracie and Gill and Katie are doing for me. I grew up in an incredibly selfish world, and the only true friends I had were my mom and sisters.”
“We’re here, waiting for you to come to your senses,” he said. “But we won’t wait forever. Take a week or two to recover from your ordeal. I expect that you’re as emotionally beat up as you are physically, and you’ll need time to heal. The good news is, you’ll never meet more supportive folks than Gill and Katie.”
The more I talked, the more my ribs ached, so I thanked him again for his help and signed off.
Despite the ibuprofen, all my moving around was taking a toll. I lay in bed and propped my Kindle up on my chest with a pillow. By staying as still as possible, the aches slowed to a dull roar.
-o-o-o-
EVENTUALLY, SOMEONE KNOCKED at the door. I checked the peephole. A pretty, middle-aged redhead with a blazing smile stood outside. She wore a loose-fitting peasant dress over her slim frame, slim except for a big bulge at the middle. Either she was hiding a beach ball or she was extremely pregnant.
Her right arm rested around the shoulders of a tiny, bald guy with a wrinkled face. He was at least eighty. His hand shuddered as he held a cane.
They had to be Gill and Katie, so I opened the door and invited them in. “Thank you, so much, for coming this far.”
Gill stepped in to the room first. He walked easily, unlike me. After he looked around, he cackled. “Ain’t nothing to write home about, is it?” His voice had a strong Texas twang.
I started to explain about not having a credit card, but he held up his hand to stop me.
“Just picking at you. From the look of your face, you had a tough few days.”
That was the understatement of the week. I simply nodded.
Katie stepped in, and her smile almost made my knees buckle. It reminded me so much of my Mom’s, although they didn’t otherwise look alike. Katie’s hair was flaming red, while Mom’s was light brown. Katie was much shorter and slim, and Mom was tall and stocky, like me.
Despite all the differences, when Katie hugged me, I felt like I was holding my mother for the first time in six long years. Tears poured down my face. I’d reached my breaking point.
“Oh, baby,” she said, “You’re all done in, aren’t you? Let’s get you comfortable in the car. Gill and I can grab your things.”
I couldn’t do anything but follow her.
She led me out to one of those fancy European SUVs. I tried not to groan as I sat in the front passenger seat. Katie leaned it back for me.
“Ian O’Rourke told me the name of a healer in town,” I said in a husky voice. “I hope you won’t mind going there next.”
Katie secured my seatbelt. “Of course not, honey. I was going to suggest that we find someone closer than Napa, but you were smart enough to take care that. Terrific. You just relax here and don’t worry about a thing.”
But I remembered I hadn’t checked out. “Wait a second. I need to settle up with the manager.”
Katie shook her head. “I’ll take care of it.”
“He has a three-hundred-dollar deposit,” I said.
She nodded and waddled away.
Gill brought out my suitcases and loaded them in the back. His back barely bent under the weight. The man was healthier than I’d first imagined in seeing his shaky hand.
In a few minutes, he’d cleared out the motel room. Katie and Louie visited it, and he gave her an envelope. She smiled at me and climbed into the driver’s seat. Gill sat behind her.
When all the car doors were closed, she laughed and handed me the envelope. “Good ol’ Louie pretended to forget how much of a deposit you’d paid. I had to refresh his memory.”
Gill laughed, too. “Nobody’s better at that than you. I sensed his tricks.”
“So, you know,” Katie said, “Gill reads minds like most people read the newspaper. I’ve never managed to pull anything over on him, and neither can anyone else.”
That was a good thing to know, but I was surprised to hear about his powers. I could sense her aura easily, but he’d seemed entirely non-magical earlier, even when I shook his hand. Nobody was supposed to be able to hide their powers when touching another magician. He’d been the first to fool me completely.
Leaving that surprise aside, I fished the healer’s address out of my jeans pocket and read it to Katie. Then I explained how it was getting harder and harder for me to speak.
“No problem,” Gill said. “I talk enough for both of us.”
They chatted away about Napa and wines and France while Katie followed the SUV’s sat-nav directions to the healer’s address. I hardly noticed where we were going.
-o-o-o-
WE PULLED IN front of an old brownstone townhouse in downtown Sacramento. Katie helped me out of my seat, and we walked together toward the front door. My legs were turning to Jell-O.
At the picket fence, I felt a weak ward. A moment after I hit the doorbell, a woman’s voice from inside the house said, “Who’s there?”
“I’m Moira, Ian O’Rourke sent me.”
“He didn’t tell me you were a sorceress,” she said through the door.
Yelling was making my chest burn, so I merely said, “I’m not, not really.”
A thirtysomething woman with brunette hair and a long black dress open the door and stared at me with narrowed eyes. “You’d better mind your manners, or O’Rourke will have hell to pay.”
I was so beat up I could hardly move, much less attack the frightened woman.
I was about to say so, but very pregnant Katie smiled at her and shook her hand. “It’s okay. Thanks so much for helping us.”
The woman grumbled as she led us into her living room, which was dark and smelled of a cat’s litter box. Her furniture was covered with dust. The healer obviously wasn’t much of a housekeeper.
Beggars couldn’t be choosers, though, so I thanked her for helping me and praised the one bright spot in the room, a warm fire.
“I’ve got bridge club in twenty minutes, so let’s get this over with,” the healer said. “Where are you hurt?”
I told her how I’d knocked a sorcerer down with my left shoulder, and she removed my flannel shirt. Her hands were soft and gentle as she let her fingertips graze over the skin covering my shoulder. She spoke in Gaelic and almost instantly, the stabbing pain in my shoulder ended.
A strong feeling of relief flooded through me. “Thank you, so much.”
For the first time, warmth came to her eyes, and the corners of her mouth turned up. “I’ll bet that really hurt, too. Your collarbone was cleanly snapped in two places.”
Then I told her about getting whacked in the ribs with the flashlight. Once again, she ran her soft fingertips over my skin, hardly touching the brown and purple bruise. It quickly shrank until it vanished, and I could finally breathe easy again.
“I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this,” I said. “I can pay you. What would be fair? Five hundred dollars?”
“Nah,” she said. “O’Rourke already took care of it. I’m planning to visit Monterey in a few weeks. He offered to put me up for three days at the inn. Were always trading favors with other clans like that, so you owe them, not me.”
Katie and I thanked her again and left. On the way bac
k to the car, I made a mental note to thank Ian the next time I spoke to him. I was running up a huge debt to the guy.
When we got back to the SUV, Gill asked, “All better?”
“Yes, indeed,” I said. “I feel like my old self.”
Then I helped him sit in the front passenger seat. I didn’t need the extra comfort anymore, and it was their car, not mine.
He said, “While you two were fooling around inside, I found us a place to eat. It’s close to the river.”
They’d been chatting about crossing the big Sacramento River earlier. He gave Katie directions to a fancy old restaurant called The Firehouse, which happened to be located right off the water. It was a beautiful old place that had once been a fire station.
While we relaxed over lunch, I asked Katie about her baby. She and Gill beamed at me.
“I have a grown daughter who lives in Boulder, so this is my second child.”
“Boy or girl?”
“We didn’t know,” Gill said, “but we’ll find out soon. She’s due in two weeks.”
When I heard that, I felt guiltier than ever about making them drive so far to save my stupid ass. It was turning out that my screw-ups were affecting lots of other folks besides me. “I can’t tell you how—”
“Hush,” she said. “We were looking for something different to do today anyway. Given the shape you were in, we were delighted to help.”
That was exactly the way my mom would’ve reacted, and my heart ached so much I could hardly breathe.
Chapter 11
WHEN WE FINISHED eating, I paid the bill. Gill argued for a moment, then gave up. It was the least I could do.
Katie drove us toward Interstate 80, and I was finally relaxed enough to see some of Old Sacramento. The city fathers had done a great job of saving historic parts of the town along the river.
In the privacy of our car, Gill asked me about my campaign to save Dana, and I told him everything, the good and the bad. I couldn’t sugarcoat things when they’d worked so hard to help me out of my jam.
Finally, he said, “Bah! Your fuckups are bush league. I got my ass shot off once. Bet you can’t say that. And I accidentally set a house on fire that my wife and I were living in at the time. Burned the place to the ground. If you want to achieve something, like saving your sister, you have to take a few risks. Wish I’d been there to help ya.”
Freedom (The Sorcerers' Scourge Book 4) Page 10
