He started laughing.
Avalon stopped smiling.
“Am I a mess?” she asked, her lower lip quivering.
He saw it and stopped laughing. “Oh, Avalon, you’re hardly a mess. I was just thinking about something.”
“What?” she asked.
“Find out.”
They watched her change. Her whole body morphed. She went taller, her head tipped to the side, and her eyes became vacant.
She tapped into the man in front of her. The second she was touching him, she could hear it all.
Oracle could see it.
He’d been thinking how lucky he was.
He’d been thinking how she was the sexiest woman he’d ever seen, and more importantly, she could see herself in his head.
She did look pretty.
Bishop had done a good job.
“I love you, Avalon,” he said. Gently, he kissed her softly on the lips. “You’re gorgeous. I’m lucky.”
She rubbed herself against his polo shirt to pick up some of his scent. Later, when she was trapped in the darkness, she wanted to think about him when she could smell his cologne.
“Shall we go?” Nate asked, tucking his girl beneath his arm. He wanted to help her out to the car, but mostly he craved her being against his body.
They were ready.
Outside, they got into Lucian’s large luxury vehicle, and Nate laughed.
“You realize the per capita income of Happy is not even close to this vehicle?”
He looked around. “What do you mean?”
Bishop laughed. She’d grown up the daughter of a cop and without a mother who bailed on them. She didn’t have a lot of money with her three brothers. Living in Lucian’s rich world was always amusing.
“We don’t really blend in.”
“I told him that, but then he wanted to bring a motorcycle, and I’m not riding that death machine again.”
Lucian grinned when he pushed the button to start the vehicle. He’d been locked away in his manor for a long time hiding. It was freeing to drive around.
He loved cars.
They were, at one time, his passion. “Next time, I’ll bring something less flashy.”
If there was a next time.
“What? A Bentley?” Bishop asked.
“We have one, so maybe.”
“Jesus. That’s not something people say every day,” she stated. “Can’t we just get a Prius?”
He laughed. “I don’t think I’ll fit in one.”
Nate genuinely liked them. They were normal people with extraordinary gifts.
It seemed like the right moment.
“So, Lucian, what are you doing for work?” he asked, as Avalon ran her hand up and down his leg. It was making it hard to think, but there was no way in hell he was stopping her.
He wasn’t a fool.
“I’ve been working on some law things. I have some estates I’m handling, and there are a free pro bono cases I’m lending my specific skill to—if you know what I mean.”
He did.
That was code for his gift. He was helping police out somewhere by giving them tips on where to find evidence.
“How about you, Bishop?”
“I’m making him coffee, a sandwich, sitting in his lap, which, may I add, is a pretty great perk, and that’s about it.”
Lucian heard it in her voice.
Bishop was as miserable as sin without her career.
He knew he’d never be able to give her back what she’d lost for him. When the city council saw they’d gotten married, they hadn’t wanted her touching anything law related. Because of him, she was tainted by proxy.
They thought Lucian had killed the man who broke into his home. She was dirtied by carrying his name and heart.
“Bored?” Nate asked.
“Why?” she asked, avoiding the question. She loved her husband, and she didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but the hours of boredom sucked.
“Are you always suspicious?” Nate asked, answering her question with one of his own.
“YES,” stated Lucian. “It’s her middle name.”
“I thought it was Doris?” Avalon stated.
“Christ! Out of my head! I don’t need that getting out,” Bishop stated. “How my mother and father gave me a cool first name but saddled me with Doris, I’ll never know.”
“It’s your great aunt,” Avalon added.
“Honey, that was rhetorical,” Nate offered, cluing her into what Bishop had really meant. “She knows where it came from.”
“Oh.”
Bishop laughed. “You’re a hoot, Avi. I like being near you. I like honest people who say what they think. Don’t worry. It doesn’t bother me at all.”
“Lucian is thinking about sex.”
He flushed. “Uh…”
“Yeah, I really, really like you,” she said, grinning at the sexy pirate behind the wheel.
Nate was amused.
As someone who led a team, he liked having people who worked well around him. He and Luke were like a finely tuned instrument. They operated in harmony. Maura and he were good together because she didn’t let him slack off. She was the hardcore one.
Jagger loved Avalon and treated her like a kid sister. Despite his difficult moments, that mattered to Nate. Avalon had no family, but the ones they surrounded themselves with on a daily basis.
Then there were the Monroes.
Lucian was a decent man. He didn’t mind Avalon’s gift, and Bishop gave Avalon an even more precious gift—friendship.
Yeah, they fit.
“I was thinking about something.”
“What?” Lucian asked, pulling into the parking lot.
“We’d like you to join our team. Avalon has so many more people to help, and we’d like you to help us.”
Bishop stared at him unsure if he was yanking her chain. “Are you freaking serious?” she asked.
“Most of the time,” Avalon answered. “You can tell when he’s not smiling.”
“Again, Avi, it was rhetorical.”
She laughed. “Sorry, handsome.”
“What would we be doing?” Lucian asked.
“This. We need someone to help Avalon. You’re a strong psychic, and she needs that.”
“I don’t know what I can do to help,” Lucian stated. “I’m not nearly as tough as she is.”
“No, but together, we’re very strong. I can use your mind to weave my way through the visions and find more cases. It’s very exhausting to listen to the static. I can amplify your gift, pull in some visions, and we can help more people. They don’t all have to be psychic. I want to give back.”
“And me?” Bishop asked.
Nate handled this. “You’d be a Fed. Granted, you’d have to work like I do, on the DL, but you’d be using your mind. You know you can’t give up being a cop, Bishop. No one who is meant to be one can.”
She knew he was right.
Idle hands were the Devil’s workshop—or so her father always said.
“Would you like that?” Nate asked. “I need backup in the field, and so does Luke. We can’t always cover the whole case alone.”
She did like that.
Only, this wasn’t only about her. Lucian had a job. He was an attorney. He had a life.
“Lucian?” she asked.
“I know you need this, Bish, baby. I know you miss your career.”
“Yeah, but I’d stay home with you if it was what you needed, Lucian. I told you I’d leave my job and follow you anywhere. I meant it. Yes, I miss being a cop. It’s all I really know how to do, but I wouldn’t risk being your wife for anything.”
He thought about it.
“On one condition.”
“What?” Nate asked.
“Our names stay out of it, you protect my anonymity, and we don’t get paid. I won’t use my gift to get money. That’s just wrong on so many levels.”
Bishop knew what he was asking. Lucian was three days past loaded right into mega
trust fund. She hated that he was taking care of her. She’d want to work.
“Lucian, you might be seen. Your face isn’t exactly unrecognizable,” she warned.
He was aware.
It was a chance he’d take for his wife. She’d taken so many for him.
“I don’t care. I’m in. You, Bish?” he asked.
She didn’t give him a second to put it in park before she was on him. Her mouth found his, and she kissed him hard.
When she set him free, he was staring at her. “Holy shit! You can have anything you want if you keep doing that.”
“Welcome to the team,” Nate offered. “The badge is yours. I’ll call my boss tomorrow and tell her you’ve been added.”
Bishop was giddy.
“Let’s eat some greasy bar food. I can’t wait to be sick to my stomach later,” she stated.
“We want to get sick?” Avalon asked.
Nate laughed.
Yeah, they were going to be a great addition to the team. That was for damn sure.
* * * O R A C L E * * *
Fire Bay
When she arrived there, she wasn’t alone. Elizabeth Blackhawk had backup. In fact, she was going to need it. This place was always haunted for her.
It was where she spent her childhood vacations.
It was where Samuel Trudeaux and Charlie LaRue tried to keep her on the straight and narrow.
Tried was the operative word.
It didn’t matter now. All of that was ironic, considering what she was about to do.
“Let’s get all of their important things out, Callen,” she stated.
“Angel, I hate that you have to do this. Isn’t there any other way?”
She closed her eyes.
“I wish. The only way to do this is to make sure they stay dead. It’s this or Avalon going back to being Oracle for the US Government. They don’t need to be tracked around the world. I have no choice.”
He got it.
Callen Whitefox hated seeing his wife suffer. He wished he could help her.
“Do you really have bodies coming?” he asked.
“Yeah, I really do.”
“A part of me is appalled, while the rest feels all spy-like and turned on. Can I use this in one of my books?”
She snorted.
Leave it to him.
Of course Callen would try to distract her.
“Thank you, my love, for trying to make this easier. I appreciate it.”
At the sound of a van, she waited.
When it came to a stop, another familiar face hopped out to join them. Christopher Leonard, her other partner in crime, was there too.
“Hey, Lyzee, I have what you need. Don’t ask. You don’t want to know where or how I found them. I feel like the freaking Grim Reaper collecting the dead all around town.”
Yeah, she wasn’t going to ask.
There was no way she wanted to know. Honestly, it was creepy and she’d rather not think about it. They were about to commit all kinds of felony.
“I want to get their personal things out. I know they have some photos, a wedding dress, and other files. Then, we burn it.”
Chris hugged her.
He knew how hard this was for her.
This was a memory. She was destroying it for a friend. She was doing it to keep Avalon safe, but it still had to sting.
“Honey.”
“I’ll be okay. We don’t have much time. The FBI is going to come here. They’re going to know this is where they are. The president is already sniffing around. They have to die.”
Callen and Chris began grabbing the corpses.
“Will this actually work?”
Chris nodded. “I paid off the ME bigtime. He’ll use the papers I prefilled out.”
Calen stopped him. “Thank you for this, Chris. I know what you just risked for this. Your career…”
“Is nothing without my sister. I’d die for her. Screw my career. She needs someone to save hers, and I’ll do it. It was cash. It’s not traceable. We’re covered.”
He hoped he was right.
They glanced over as she loaded up boxes into her rental van. She was grabbing anything that would be considered personal.
They worked in silence for an hour.
The bodies were placed.
It was time.
The hardest part for Nate and the others was that the team was going to have to live a whole new life—without the FBI having their backs.
They were going rogue, and there was no choice.
“Are you set?” Callen asked, still wearing his latex gloves to keep his prints off anything the FBI might check.
She stared at the house.
She could see herself running around there.
She could hear Charlie yelling her name.
There was Doc laughing.
It haunted her more than she thought it would. Only it didn’t matter. What she was about to do was for a friend. Once she did it, there was no going back.
“I’m ready,” she whispered, turning her back to her childhood and her past.
“Do it.”
Callen grabbed the gasoline they’d purchased four towns over in some tiny station. It was time to do the deed. It looked like he was adding arson to his list of crimes.
Oh well.
For his wife, he’d do anything.
When he was done, she picked up the match. He stopped her from doing it.
“Chris, load her up. I have this.”
He didn’t hesitate. He hurried her toward the van to protect her from what was to come.
Only he couldn’t.
Nothing could protect her from this. There was the sound of match meeting flint. Then there was the sound of her past engulfing behind her in a ball of flames.
The heat was so insane that she couldn’t help but look.
“Come on, honey. Let’s get out of here,” Chris said, tucking her beneath his arm.
She stood there transfixed for a moment as her husband headed her way.
“It’s done.”
Yeah, it certainly was.
And it never would be undone. The cage was not only open, it was smashed to bits.
Avalon Miller was dead.
And free.
* * * O R A C L E * * *
Happy
Thursday Night
They’d had a pretty good time eating and having a few drinks. Avalon had even been allowed a half a glass of wine. Granted, Nate had them water it down with seltzer at her request.
Alcohol and a psychic gift didn’t mix, and she didn’t want to get tipsy when they had a killer out there.
Now that they were finished eating, Nate knew it was time to get to work. He and Bishop had to do an interview.
“I’ll keep her safe,” Lucian said, seeing the look on the man’s face. It was crystal clear he was torn with leaving her side. “We’ll keep ourselves busy talking about my new career.”
“Thank you,” Nate said. “I appreciate it.”
When he got up, Bishop was right behind him. As they headed toward the bar, he was scoping out the crowd. Most of them were men, and all of them were halfway to shitfaced drunk.
This was going to be fun.
At the bar, he got the bartender’s attention.
“Yeah? Is there an issue? Was your food okay?” he asked, as he wiped down the counter.
“Actually, it was. We need to talk to you about something else,” stated Nate. “What’s your name?”
“Austin Ball.”
“We hope you can help us, Austin.”
“Okay, shoot. I have a few moments. The beers are all full. What’s going on?”
He winked at Bishop and then did something obscene with his tongue.
Well, she wasn’t having it.
She gave him the finger.
“I like them feisty. You’d look good riding my dick. Want to try?”
She rolled her eyes and then flipped out her badge. It had the desired effect.
/> It shut him up, and fast.
“I’m Director Nathaniel Carter. I’m with the FBI. This is my partner, Agent Monroe. We’re here investigating a couple of deaths.”
“Whose?” he asked.
“A Brianna Moyer. Know her?”
He laughed. “This is the only bar in Happy. We all knew Brianna. She was a sweet thing.”
“We were told she was in here meeting someone. Would you happen to know who?” Nate asked.
“Yeah, her new love interest. He’s one of the good ol’ boys from town.”
“Do you have his name?”
“Yeah, it’s Jared Walker. He’s normally here drinking, but he’s mourning her death.”
Bishop was making notes while Nate did his thing. Technically, he was the boss.
“When was the last time they were in here together?” he asked.
“The night she died. They came in, had a few drinks, and she left without him.”
“When did he leave?” Nate inquired.
“Maybe it was about an hour later. He got up, headed out, and forgot to pay his tab.”
“Did he say anything?”
“No. It was odd.”
Nate pulled up a list of the dead women on the phone. “Were any of these women in here?”
He read the list.
Raizy Lowery
Marian Hawkins
Kristine Hendricks
Bernice Parry
Annie Sherman
“Yeah, all of them, but not this year. I don’t know if you know this, but they’re all dead.”
Oh, he was well aware.
“Did Jared know any of them? Or were they in here with him?” he asked.
The man thought about it. “You know, he was. In fact, he dated a couple of them.”
“Really?” Bishop asked. To her, that was a giant red flag. “Which ones?”
“Raizy and Marian, I do believe. He was always chasing tail, and I recall him being all over them.”
Well, that was interesting.
They could tie the man to three of eight victims. Along with Karl Conway, they were the only two so far that had contact with more than one.
Interesting.
“Do you know where he lives?” Bishop asked.
Oracle Saving (The Phoenix Files Book 3) Page 21
