Yep. No question there. “I don’t ever want to see any of these clothes again. No telling what creepy crawlies have nested in them.”
Pierce ripped my Velcro knife sheath off, set it on the ground, then helped me out of my boots and socks, and tossed them aside.
Reality crept into my hormone-drenched brain. “Damn it all. I left my go-bag on the helicopter. Do you think Whitney will spot it?”
“Maybe. Anything critical inside?”
Pierce had stripped off my cargoes and underwear, and the soft Hawaiian breeze shivered over my bare, mud-caked legs. Clean. I wanted to be clean before sex. “No. My weapons are both here. Would you hand me the .380? Then we can toss the clothes.”
I wanted my brain to shift from mission-mode back into sex-mode. Best way to do that—Stripping him bare. The t-shirt went first. This game was best played with two active participants. Pierce smiled, expectant male written all over it, and then handed me the gun.
I bent to place it next to the knife holster, and on my way up, stopped to peel his pants off. “You, my love, are a perfect male specimen.” I ogled him shamelessly.
He helped me into the pool, and took his time washing the mud off, sending it back into nature. Our pool was spring-fed with sun-warmed water that lapped over us, caressed us. It was my happy place. And there was nothing on earth more intensely beautiful than sharing my body with Tynan. I loved him with my touch, sharing my heart, and connecting our souls.
PIERCE KISSED ME AWAKE WHEN the first colors of dawn spread across the sky. “Love waking up with you, Belisama.”
“Me. You. Too.” It was the best I could manage with my sleep-soggy mind.
His hand brushed over my ribs, then moved into a tickle.
“No. Can’t be morning.”
He slipped out of our sun porch bed, and lifted me into his arms. “You get forty-five seconds prep time.”
Prep time? Before? Damn it. He was going to toss me into the shower. I fought through a bleary-eyed dislike of morning, forced my eyes open, and panic set it. I squeezed my eyes shut. Tight. “Your parents. We’re naked. And you’re walking through the middle of the house.”
“Got it in one, Hot Shot.”
The scent of Siofra’s special Indian coffee wafted from the kitchen. “Oh, holy mother of the goddesses, tell me your mother isn’t watching us from the kitchen.”
He took pity on me. “They’re on the front porch having coffee.”
Time to open my eyes and face the day. Pierce turned into our bedroom, then kicked the door closed behind him. He set me on my feet next to the shower, turned it on, and adjusted the water. “Keep it short. Millie and Harlan are on the way.”
He strolled into the bedroom.
“Aren’t you showering?”
“Other bathroom. Faster.”
It was an excellent point. There was no way we’d be able to shower together without…playing. I stepped under the spray, shampooed the remains of yesterday out of my hair, used my favorite sea salt scrub to wash, and was dried and dressed in five minutes. No time to mess with my hair, so I piled it, wet, into a topknot, and then headed for the kitchen and a badly needed cup of Siofra’s coffee.
I topped off two mugs just as Pierce joined me, and handed him one. “Are we ready for this?”
“No choice.” He sipped his coffee, then trailed his finger down my cheek. “I’ve got your back, Everly.”
And that’s all it took for everything to be okay, no matter how it turned out.
Mille and Harlan knocked on the kitchen door at the same time Siofra and Lorcán joined us from the front porch. “Should I make another batch of my special coffee before we get started?” Siofra asked.
Millie inched her way between Siofra and me. “What is that incredible fragrance?” She turned to face Siofra. “I’m terribly sorry. How rude of me.” She offered her hand, then jerked it back. “It’s not…I’m not…I’m Millie, and that’s my husband, Harlan. We were Everly’s guardians during her childhood. And you must be Tynan’s parents.”
Siofra cradled Millie’s hands. “Yes we are. The pain must have been unbearable, but the scars are a true testament to your strength and courage.”
Tears trailed over Millie’s cheeks. I hugged her, then pressed a tissue into her hands. “It’s good to have you home, Millie.”
Harlan had set a casserole dish on the counter, and then exchanged some sort of complex handshake with Lorcán. They seemed comfortable with each other’s measure. All four of them.
I scooted next to Pierce, and rested my head against his upper arm. “Looks like we have a family.”
He blew out a soft chuckle, then cleared his throat. Loudly. “Let’s get this family meeting underway.”
“Go ahead,” Siofra said, keeping a tight hold on Millie’s hand. We’ll be listening while we whip up a fresh batch of coffee to go with the casserole.”
The rest of us took seats around the kitchen island. I took a huge gulp of coffee, not sure which question to start with. “Harlan, you and Millie were here, lived here with my parents when I was a toddler.”
He nodded, sharing a look with Millie, and she started talking while keeping her focus on the spices Siofra added to the coffee. “Yes, Child. We’ve always been with you. It was a decision that everyone, Aukele, Makani, Loyria, and James made together. Although Harlan and I grew up with your grandparents and studied Huna with them, we were unknown in your parents’ working environment, and were able to pass completely under their bosses’ radar. We’d planned it that way, and spared no little effort to retain our anonymity. I’m not exactly sure when Fred became aware of us.”
“In Everly’s third year, Sweetheart. If my guess is correct, it was about six months before he moved us to North Carolina,” Harlan said, and smiled at Millie, holding up his mug. “Write this recipe down, Mils. I like it.”
I’d never seen my childhood caregivers interact like this, and it twisted my brain into tiny knots of what-the-hell? It was nice, though, to see them happy and loving with each other.
Millie held up a small piece of paper with scribbles on it. “Got it. Yes, I think you’re correct, Harlan. That day was dreadful. We were all gathered because Makani had a series of visions that foretold an unspeakable future. Your grandmother was never one to shy away from the truth, and she didn’t sugar coat a bit of the future events she’d foreseen. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I believe the first thing she announced was her death, and then your parents’ murder. It left all of us sad and confused. After that she explained how Fred was the key to keeping you safe. Her oracle gift was the only reason any of us agreed to accept Fred’s protection.”
Everything Millie explained made sense to me, and fit with my theory of what went down. “If Makani had knowledge of this years in advance, why didn’t my family do something to change it?”
And that brought up another question. Where the hell was Aukele? I held up my hand. “Wait. Before you answer that, do you know where Aukele is, and why isn’t he here? With is telepathic abilities, he has to know we’re having this meeting.” I was more than a little frustrated.
Harlan eyed Millie, then held my gaze. “I believe he’s tracking Loyria’s nemesis.”
TWENTY-TWO
NEMESIS? MY MOTHER HAD AN archenemy besides Connor and Grady? “Are you talking about Ghost Guy?”
Harlan and Millie did twin nods.
Damn it all. Why didn’t these people tell me the stuff I needed to know? “You’re saying Aukele is aware that Ghost Guy was on our supposedly protected property. This dude got through a magical maze, and the best security system available without so much as tripping an alarm? Maybe he really is a ghost.” I twisted toward Pierce. “We never got around to discussing what you’d learned.”
He immediately responded to my silent question: did-you-plan-that-or-was-it-an-oversight? “Exhaustion. Other things took precedence last night.”
I rolled my lips tightly together. If I pressed him now, we’d end up discussing
our sex life in a parental group forum. Not going to happen. “Did you learn anything about him?”
“Not much. Looks like he was connected to the former KGB. We’re still working on it, but those files aren’t digital. Paper is harder to trace.”
Millie and Siofra passed around plates of egg and sausage casserole, then refilled our mugs with a fresh batch of Indian coffee before they sat down at the island. Millie took a swallow, then patted my hand. “To answer your first question, we did a great deal about your grandmother’s visions. One of those things was allowing Fred to place tracking implants in both you and your mother. It was one of the most difficult choices your parents made, as was our decision.” She smiled at Harlan. “We signed on to work with Fred in an effort to keep track of his manipulations.”
Harlan popped a bit of casserole in his mouth, then wadded is napkin into a tight ball. “And we kept our ears open for any clues about a threat to Loyria and James. Most of the spying we did for Fred was actually spying on him.”
Millie chortled. “Yes, we learned to be very adept and sneaky. As to your second question, Everly, we believe your ghost was Fion Connor’s boss. Loyria located him while we were in North Carolina, because she’d hoped to convince him to destroy the formula. The Cold War was long over by then, and she wanted to trace any possible connection between a case she’d worked on during her CIA years and the formula she’d discovered. It turned out they didn’t share any chemical similarities, but her intuition insisted there was a link. She never did figure out what it was.”
“Why would my mother have passed those four numbers to him?”
Harlan’s head jerked up. “What four numbers?”
Anticipation skittered along my nerves, a premonition that we were finally on the right track. “I found an envelope in Mom’s office. It wasn’t addressed, but I picked up an image of Ghost Guy from the envelope. The only thing inside was a single sheet of paper with four numbers written on it. I couldn’t tell which one of them wrote the numbers down, and there was no clue what they meant.”
Millie’s fork clattered to her plate. “What were they?”
I scraped my chair back and stood. “I have them in my files. I think I remember, but I want to be sure.” And I wanted a break from the intensity of our discussion. I hadn’t touched Millie or Harlan yet, and they had to have noticed. It was out of character for me. I always hugged Millie when I first saw her. Yesterday was excusable because I was covered in mud, but this morning, not so much. I sifted through a few pages, then pulled the one with the numbers, and headed back to the kitchen. “Nine, twenty-one, thirty-two, and eighteen. That mean anything to either of you?”
“Yes.” Millie’s voice shook. “I believe it’s the number of parts of each of the emulsified plants that’s needed to create the formula. I worked with Loyria long enough to know exactly which plants to use, and how to prepare them, but she never shared the exact amounts needed. She’d planned to give me that data before the murder, but Makani didn’t leave us with an exact date, and it happened before…” She swiped at her cheeks with the back of her hand. “I’ve slowly been attempting different combinations, but with no success. We brought a record of all my trials from the cottage. Harlan has them in his satchel.”
I reached for Tynan’s hand. “We’re close.”
Siofra and Lorcán had been listening while they ate, both seemingly content to observe the conversation, but now Siofra shifted in her chair. “I’m quite sure we’ll be able to create the lethal formula, and perhaps an antidote. But you’ve hinted several times that you want to nullify the possibility of the poison ever being made in the future. In my Circle of Nine experience, future energy work is quite intricate. Do you have any idea what will be needed?”
My stomach knotted, and I pushed my plate aside. “No, but I believe in feminine power, and we represent three generations of smart, gifted women. I refuse to believe we’ll fail.” I faced Millie. “I remembered a conversation you were having after Fion Connor blew up your car. My parents planned to leave information for me in cache points. One was in the Amazon, but—”
“Everything is here now. Harlan and I collected all of the files just before that section of the Amazon was closed to tourists.”
“Where are they?” A tinge of my inner bitch came out with the words. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you, it’s just that there’s some pressure from Fred for me to get this project completed. And I don’t trust Fred.”
Siofra and Lorcán nodded. Harlan and Millie looked resigned. Pierce growled.
My team encompassed an eclectic assortment of personalities. I quirked my eyebrows at Millie, clearly impatient for her answer.
“I don’t know, Child. We gave them to Aukele to secure in your house. He worked with the architects to design it, and knew it best.”
Harlan chimed in. “So we thought he should be the one to hide the files.”
I tossed my hands up. “Well, he’s inconveniently missing.” It was time for me to take control of this chaos. “Okay. Millie and Harlan, see if you can connect with the Hawaiian underground and locate Aukele. Siofra and I will tackle preparing the plants.” I pinned Millie with a look. “The odd ones in the garden are the ones that we need to work with, right?”
“Yes. Harlan, please give Everly my notebook. They aren’t toxic to touch, and are the formula is only lethal if it’s prepared in exact proportions and ingested.”
Harlan rummaged in his satchel, pulled out a binder, and handed it to me. “Everything we know is in there, and so are all of Mils notes on her experiments with the plants.”
I deliberately skimmed my fingertips over his hand when I took the notebook. Harlan was as open and truthful as a newborn puppy. I stood, then leaned around Millie to hug him. “Thanks. Both of you.”
And then I hugged Millie. Not so innocent. An image flashed of her helping Makani hide a folder. Millie was on a ladder, and my grandmother directed her as to where it should be stashed. The image didn’t show the location, somewhere in the ceiling, I figured, and I had to smash my lips together to keep from asking her where they’d hidden it. There was something about that folder, and I wanted to find it on my own without Millie knowing.
Lorcán stood and began gathering dishes from the table. “Can I help with anything, son?”
Pierce stood, clapped his dad on the back, then cleared the rest of the dishes. “You up to searching the property with me?”
Dishes deposited in the sink, Lorcán hitched up his pants. “Sounds good.”
Pierce gave me a quick kiss. “Stay out of trouble, Belisama.”
Everyone had a job, so why was my spidey sense beginning to tingle? “I’m going dry my hair, Siofra, then we can head out to the garden to collect plant specimens.”
She nodded, then picked up Millie’s notebook. “If it’s all right with you, Millie, I’ll scan through your notes and see if anything catches my attention?”
“Please do. Fresh eyes on a project like this are always welcome. Harlan and I will be on our way now. Oh, we should give you our cell number so we can stay connected if something comes up.”
While they exchanged numbers I sequestered myself in the bathroom. No hair dryer would be able to fix my mess of curls, but I wanted privacy to connect with my intuition. Since Ghost Guy was alive and missing, a double-check on our eclectic team’s safety would considerably reduce my worry threshold. I tugged the scrunchie out of my hair, turned upside down, and blasted the wet mess. It helped to clear my head, and no red flags popped up when I scanned everyone’s aura, so we were good to go.
By the time I returned to the kitchen, Millie and Harlan were gone, and Siofra had filled a backpack with Millie’s notebook, some water bottles, and granola bars.
“Something’s missing, Siofra, and I don’t know what it is. Do you have any ideas?”
“No, but I agree.” She added a package of brown paper bags to the backpack. “I have a stronger sense of my intuition when I’m at home, close to the
standing stones. Here I’m a mite off, still it’s as though we’re waiting for something…unpleasant.”
I shouldered the backpack. “Well, unpleasant or not, we have a job to do.”
We followed the trail to Mom’s garden, then headed into the protective maze for the living laboratory. “Sometimes I get tired of all the twists and turns we have to navigate just to do a simple chore.”
“Maybe one day you’ll be able to live without the safety precautions.” Siofra’s words were hesitant.
I stopped, turned to look at her. “No. I would never remove any of the barriers we have in place. Tynan’s life depends on them, and I’m not willing to take a chance with that. Not ever.”
Her hug was spontaneous, and tight. “Thank you. I fret, you know. Like mother’s do.”
We settled in to work with Millie’s notebook spread open on one of the boulders at the side of the garden, and my mother’s files on an adjacent flat rock. “If Millie’s guess was correct, we need nine parts of the first plant.”
“Yes.” Siofra ran her finger down a column of Millie’s trial mixtures. “I’ll check in with the plants. They might know which one we’re supposed to harvest first.”
I scrubbed at a tingle on the back of my neck, and immediately tuned in to my new intuitive listening skill. Nothing. Maybe it was just tendrils of unruly hair that had escaped my topknot. I freed my hair, shook it out, then sleeked it back up into a tight knot. Tingles gone. Time to work.
For the next two hours Siofra and I took turns communicating with the plants, comparing our results, and selecting the leaves that asked to be picked. It was backbreaking labor—bending, listening, checking and double-checking before we made our final selections. We’d collected what we thought were the correct amounts of the first three plants when my back muscles cramped in an unholy spasm, and I let out a loud groan.
a Touch of Intrigue Page 17
