by Sharon Joss
CHAPTER 20
I remembered staring at the slapping of the windshield wipers in the truck, and Rhys hustling me through the back door of Mystic Properties, but not how I ended up in the shower with Rhys’ naked arms around me. The hot water beat against my sore back with soothing pulsations. I’d stopped shivering. Dressed only in our underwear, I could feel how very happy Rhys was to have me there. I rejoiced my decision to wear lacy blue bra and panties this morning, and not the white cotton. I felt positively sexy.
I curled a lock of his wet hair behind his ear, and he gave me a relieved smile. “What happened?”
“You went to lunch without me. You got here under your own power, pulled my clothes off, and dragged me into the shower. Not that I’m not happy to oblige.” He leered at me and grinned. “Blue is my favorite color.”
He reached behind me and turned off the water, and helped me out of the tub. Rhys’ dark brown briefs complimented his tan. He handed me a towel, then grabbed another for himself.
The news about Lance came flooding back to me, and I remembered Mina. “Oh crap, what’s the time? I can’t be late for Mina.” I started rubbing my wet hair.
“Relax. You’ve got time. Your jeans are here, but your shirt is soaked. I’ll bring you one of mine. Be right back.” He disappeared and I heard his tread on the stairs above my head. He must live upstairs. Interesting.
I stripped out of my wet undies, dried myself off, and shimmied into my hot dry jeans. Wearing jeans without underwear made me feel a little slutty, but in a good way. I wrapped the towel around my shoulders and was wringing my hair out into the sink when Rhys came back.
“You decent?” He waved a t-shirt at me from the doorway, and hooked it on the doorknob without looking in. I wrapped my lingerie into the wet towel and slipped the tee shirt on.
What on earth was I going to do about Lance? I needed to talk to him; about the murders and the gambling and everything else. But I also wanted to talk to Madame Coumlie, correction, my great-grandmother, and find out how to get those djinn back into their prison under Sentinel Hill, and figure out where they escaped from in the first place.
I emerged from the bathroom and found Rhys pouring two cups of fresh-brewed coffee. The rain had stopped, but the skies outside were still dark.
“I have a plan,” Rhys said, and handed me a cup. He held my gaze, and the unspoken tension between us hummed. “A compromise.”
“I’m listening.” The coffee smelled wonderful. So did Rhys.
“We pick up Mina and head over to Madame Coumlie’s. We need to tell her what we found. I imagine she’ll get a kick out of meeting her great-great granddaughter.”
“I don’t think so. I’m not ready to let her meet my niece yet, not without some ground rules first. Look what she did to me.” I held out my hand and showed him the black crescent mark. Yellow bruises encircled my wrist. “Besides, I really need to talk to Lance.”
“What about a sitter?”
“I’m the sitter. She’s my responsibility. I don’t want to leave her with anyone else. Anyway, I need to explain to her about the djinn. I don’t want her to accidently name them, like I did.”
“Okay, take Mina and go see Lance now. I’ll get hold of Frank Porter and report what we found in the caves. Give me a few hours. Meet me here at, say seven? We’ll go talk to the Hand then.”
It was a good compromise. I wasn’t sure about leaving Mina with Lance, although I’d have better prospects of getting him to talk to me if she came along. But with Hector out there somewhere, I couldn’t take the chance. I had to think about what was safest for Mina. I decided to drop her off at her mother’s house after I talked to Lance.
“Make it eight.” I kissed Rhys on the cheek, which was about all I trusted myself to do, and headed out to my car. Man oh man, how did my life get so complicated?
I arrived at Shoreline Elementary School just as classes got out for the day. Ten minutes later, the crowd outside the school had thinned and most of the cars had left, but I still hadn’t seen any of Mina. A warning tingle came over me, and I got out of the car. Mina knew we were going to see her dad after school. She wouldn’t forget about something like that.
I decided to check her classroom, in the unlikely event she had detention. Mina never had detention. Talking to the teacher, maybe. She wouldn’t like it if I came up to the classroom, especially looking like I did, but too bad.
Mrs. Godfrey’s fourth grade class was the last classroom on the first floor. With every step, my warning tingle got louder. I reached Mrs. Godfrey’s room and peeked in, both my fingers crossed.
“Hello, Mattie.” Mrs. Godfrey was putting supplies away in one of the big cabinets at the back of the classroom. She didn’t look happy to see me.
“Where’s Mina?”
Mrs. Godfrey frowned. “She was picked up at noon. By order of Child Protective Services. The office tried to reach her father, but couldn’t get hold of him.”
My gut twisted inside me. I wanted to scream. “You mean Violet, don’t you. Does Lance know?”
“They went through the principal’s office; all the papers were in order. I got a message to release Mina early, but didn’t know anything until after. I did what I was told.”
I didn’t wait to hear any more. I ran out of the classroom over to the main office and demanded to know what was going on. The school administrator, Andrea Gregson was sympathetic.
“There was nothing we could do. Mina was released into her mother’s custody. She had a court order, Mattie, I’m sorry. Violet brought Child Protective Services with her.”
“How could she get a court order?” I already knew the answer to that one. With Lance on the short list for murder, Violet wouldn’t have any trouble persuading the courts that Mina would be better off with her. She would be safe with Violet, but I hated the way this whole thing had played itself out. Lance would be furious, but had no one to blame but himself.
“Maybe it’s for the best.” Andrea put her hand on mine and tried to reassure me. “Lance has a lot on his plate right now.”
“What are you talking about? Does he already know about this?”
“No, not yet. I’ll tell him tonight.”
I gave her a blank look. “Excuse me?”
“Mattie we’re getting married. No ring yet, but I’ve got him working on it. My divorce became final yesterday.”
Exasperation tore though me. “I don’t believe you. Lance would never --.”
She smiled like a cat with a mouthful of cream. “I found the perfect ring over in Pittsford. Two carats, emerald cut.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “My brother doesn’t have that kind of money.”
“You’re just jealous. You don’t know him as well as you think you do. He’s quite the pool shark. All he needs is the right encouragement from the right woman. He’s making money hand over fist now, thanks to me.”
I wanted to scream. “You can’t be serious. You can’t be marrying my brother, you’re not in love with him.”
She arched her neck at me. “He’s not your anything anymore. He’s mine now. And when I say jump, he asks me how high. We’re going to make a lot of money together. You don’t have anything to say about it.”
My fury kept Rusty’s pedal to the metal as I drove out to Sterling to confront Lance. In my whole life, I couldn’t recall ever being this mad at him. He’d hidden his relationship with Zoey, and now this affair with Andrea. I didn’t like her one bit. If I’d stayed a minute longer, I would have slapped her. Better to save it for Lance. What was he thinking? Why didn’t he tell me?
Sheesh. The thought of Lance and Andrea was just awful. She wasn’t one bit interested in Lance. When it came to marriage, Andrea Gregson was a four-time loser. I could just see her draining Lance’s bank account and taking off when someone better came along. She was using him. She was poison.
My cell phone rang.
“Hello, Mattie? Garr Russ here. Your
friend Karen introduced us the other day at my restaurant.”
My stomach fluttered. Be still my heart.
“Oh hi.” I struggled to keep the car on the road. “Of course, I remember. I enjoyed meeting you.”
The flicker of thrill quenched somewhat by guilt over my near-naked shower with Rhys. Don’t be silly Mattie. Man oh man, here was my potential future boyfriend actually calling me.
“I’m planning a little sunset cruise out on the lake this evening. Just a few friends and a couple of bottles of wine. Would you be interested in joining us?”
I went all tingly. A real date. My thoughts returned Rhys. Handsome as he was, Rhys seemed to be pretty involved with Madame Coumlie, Cavewoman Barbie, the FBI, and a whole universe of dark things that didn’t belong in my world. Garlan Russ, on the other hand, was a respected member of the community, an entrepreneur, and heir to a huge fortune. Any girl would be flattered to go out with him. Too bad it was tonight. “It sounds wonderful, but I’m afraid I’ve already got plans for this evening.”
“I’ve got a thirty-eight foot Bertram. You’ll love it. You don’t get seasick do you?”
“Sounds great.” I imagined myself sipping champagne and nibbling appetizers as the sun drifted toward the horizon. I had a short white skirt that showed off my legs. I wondered what his friends would be like. “Can I take a rain check? How about next week?”
“Let me tell you something, Mattie. When I see something I want, I go after it. I’d like to spend some time with you. What about tomorrow? Dinner?”
Wow. Determined, wasn’t he? “I’m flattered, and I’d love to go out with you, Garr. Really. But I’m going to be kind of busy for the next few days.” I hoped he knew just how hard it was for me to turn down his invitation.
“Ah. There’s someone else?”
“Not exactly. It’s a family issue. I’m not sure if dinner tomorrow will work for me. I’d hate to say yes and cancel at the last minute.”
“Breakfast then. You’ve got to eat. Come on Mattie. Give me a break here. I’d like to get to know you better.”
Why not? “Breakfast I can do. Where do you want to meet?”
We agreed to meet at Henry’s the following morning, and I hung up feeling more cheerful than I had in days. I had a new yellow sundress I hadn’t worn yet. That would be perfect. Then I remembered the black eye. Oh, right. I checked the mirror, and it was all kinds of purple and ugly. Tomorrow wouldn’t be any better. Oh man. I couldn’t let him to see me like this. No way.
I started to call him back to cancel, but decided to wait until after I talked to Lance. One thing at a time, Mattie. After talking to Garr, my anger at Lance had almost evaporated, but I still had to convince my brother to square things with the FBI. He had to turn himself in. I was positive that this whole thing could go away in about a twenty-minute conversation with the authorities. Obviously, they had the wrong guy. After that, we could focus on the House of Cards fiasco, getting him the hell away from Andrea Gregson, and rehab. What a mess.
