“It does, unfortunately.” His knee bumped mine, and I sucked in my breath. Electricity travelled through my body at the contact. If he felt the jolt too, he said nothing. My hand was on my neck before I could stop the movement, and I forcibly controlled my breathing. Liquid pooled between my thighs. There was something seriously wrong with me. Had I suddenly become a sex addict?
His eyes met mine, but there was no sign in his gaze he had the slightest idea what was going on with me. “You okay?”
I smiled making my hand drop into my lap. “Little jumpy lately.”
“Our powers are always a choice. You chose not to use yours for twelve years. I’m surprised they didn’t die.”
“Me too.” I wanted to get through story hour and get to where he would send me and how much I’d be earning to do the things I was finally willing to undertake. “Anyway, this ghost flew into the room. No one could see it except me. It wouldn’t leave me alone. I wanted to send the thing on, silently, as I’d done so many times in the past, only I didn’t seem to be able to right then.”
“Because it had been over a decade. Try stretching muscles you haven’t used in months. Years? Damn, that must have hurt.”
“The thing was crazy. I’ve never seen anything like it.” The ghost had darted right, left, everywhere. I could see it, like a madman throwing itself at me over and over again until I’d had no choice but to scream, to yell. I’d rid the room of its presence but not before I’d also come across as a crazy person to everyone in it. “Maybe the least said about the terrible night the better.”
“You got rid of the ghost and everyone saw or didn’t see as the case may be.”
“I found myself having to defend my behavior. They thought I was drunk. Maybe I should have pretended to be. The only one I cared about was Levi, my ex-husband, and how it would be explained to my kids. He didn’t take the news well. He was rightfully upset.”
Malcolm hissed through his teeth. “Rightfully upset? Doesn’t marriage usually require one partner to support another when their life goes to shit?”
“I’d lied to him from the day I met him, and he alternates between terror for our children, anger at me for concealing my truth, and thinking I’m utterly nuts.”
“Selfish shit.” Malcolm rolled his eyes.
I snapped forward. “Don’t do that. We don’t know each other. You don’t know Levi. He’s a very good man. And when you say those things, you make me want to defend him. Doing so gives me a headache since defending him forces me to go through my own culpability over and over again. We’ve been divorced for six months. I can’t keep paying for the choices I made. I don’t want to have to take his side with you.”
He held up his hands. “You are loyal. I’ll give you that.”
“That’s my story. I’m qualified for nothing. It suddenly dawned on me if I was going to have to live in the dark world again, I might as well actually live in it.”
“Alright, Sage. Here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to test you. There’s a house in southeast Austin that has a pesky spirit running around. The realtor would like to sell the house. She contacted me to get rid of it. Shouldn’t be too much for you to handle if you really are as good as you claim to be. I have to say, I am impressed you can do this at all considering how long it has been. Not one practitioner in a million could have gotten rid of that ghost after twelve years out of the game.” He nodded at me, and I had no idea why. Whatever went on inside Malcolm’s head, I couldn’t follow his train of thought at all nor did I want to. “You with me?”
“Sure.” Only I wasn’t because his brown eyes had specs of gold in them, and I was mesmerized looking at them.
“Great. Then here’s the deal if I accept you after the test. I don’t have a lot of rules, but I expect them followed. One, you work only for me. If I hear you’re taking jobs from other brokers, we never work together again. Want to work in a different town? I’ll set that up for you. Different brokers have different standards. I vet the jobs for you, and I keep you as safe as I can. You start doing business with someone else, and I can’t control the situation. I like control. Got me?”
I forced my mind to focus. I was as bad as Dex. “Got it. I don’t know how I would find a broker to do that, and hell, as you said, I’m loyal.”
“If you’re good at this, you’ll be fielding offers. I run Austin. I run San Antonio. If you’re mine, I run you, too. Got it?”
I wanted him to run me, only I suspected not in the ways he meant. “Got it.”
I was saying, “Got it,” an awful lot. I had to come up with another way to answer him.
“You’ll get paid the day after the job every time. We deal in cash, and we keep each other’s secrets. I make sure you get paid, that no one screws you out of it, and I take thirty percent of your take. If you get threatened or injured in any way by the human element, I take care of that, too.” His eyes flared when he said that; I wondered how many times he’d actually handled one of his people getting hurt and what exactly he did.
“Okay.” Not better than got it, yet all I could manage.
“You take care of yourself out there. You grew up in the business. I don’t take newbies, and I don’t want to have to instruct you like one. Take precautions. No starting a job at midnight or three in the morning.”
The witching hour and the devil’s time. I woke up every night at three a.m. Even when nothing was wrong—just to see the clock turn three-zero-one…
“This goes sour in some way, if you run into the police and you use my name, you won’t like what happens. We’ll be done, but that’ll be the least of your problems. I don’t exist. Got me?”
He really needed a better way of asking me, too. “Sure. Although, I have no intention of running into the police. Ever.”
“You might be surprised. You’re also not going to report me to IRS. This is cash only. I don’t care how you manage your income and what you tell them, but if I appear on some form, we’re going to have the same problem.”
I held up my hand before he could say got it. “Makes sense.”
They might arrest me for tax fraud, and I wouldn’t tell them about Malcolm. Not for anything in the world.
“Then we are good.”
I was so far from good I couldn’t even see it from where I sat, but at least now I knew there would be the chance for me to have a future where I didn’t live month-to-month wondering what I would do if and when Levi suddenly stopped feeling at all generous to me.
Malcolm pulled a card out of his pocket and handed it to me. All that was on it was an address. “This is where I’m going?”
“Tomorrow at eight p.m. The realtor doesn’t want a lot of people noticing what you’re doing. I’ll be there when you’re done to see how you did.”
“How do I get in touch with you if I need you?”
He was silent, so I looked from the card to catch his gaze. “We’ll work that out tomorrow. If I don’t like what I see, you’ll never hear from me again or be able to find me for whatever reason.”
“Sounds ominous.”
Malcolm laughed, this time the sound containing some warmth in it. “Good word.”
“Can I ask you something?” I kept talking before he could answer. I didn’t want him to say no. “When did you decide to give me a try? Because all I’ve gotten from you is hostility and disdain. I wouldn’t have given me a shot if I felt about me the way you do.”
“When you didn’t automatically send off my ghost. Not one in a thousand could have resisted the urge. There are reasons for my reasons.”
“Hold on.” I put my hand on his arm; the jolt from before didn’t happen again, but this time it was a small, low burn. I didn’t pull back, and he didn’t make me. I liked the heat. He was warm, and I’d been so cold; I hadn’t noticed how much. I didn’t know if it was a good heat or a bad one, but for the moment I’d take it. “That was before we even spoke. You put me through this when you always intended to give me a shot?”
&n
bsp; “That’s right, Sage. My rules. My way.”
I let my hand go. “I hate that name.”
He dug into his pocket and passed me a hundred dollar bill. I stared at it for a second. Since it didn’t seem to have any relation to what I’d just said, I had to ask the obvious. “What am I supposed to do with this?”
“Buy something sexy. People don’t want their houses cleared by Sally Homemaker. Sex it up. You’re hot as hell beneath those clothes. Let’s see a little leg.”
I guess he must have been done with me, or maybe it was the man in the dark cape who approached him that ended my pre-trial interview with Malcolm. I didn’t know. Either way, he nodded toward the exit like he wanted me to leave, and like that I was gone.
Show a little leg?
And had he said I was hot…?
I had to get a grip. And fast.
Chapter Four
“He said you were hot? That rocks. You are hot, you know. A total babe.” Victoria leaned forward. She’d bought me a latte, and we sat together outside the Coffee Bean watching the traffic whizz by on 183. She wore a blue sweater with holes in it and a pair of jeans that had patches all over them. Victoria always looked like a million dollars. I was wearing my black yoga pants and a long, blue, boring tunic.
“Thanks.” I really hadn’t felt hot last night, and I certainly didn’t now. My yoga pants used to be my armor. These days they were for comfort and when I just felt like not getting really dressed but had to leave the house regardless.
“And when you touched him, he actually jolted you with electricity?”
“My repeating it again doesn’t make it any less true.”
That whole evening had a surreal feeling. I’d woken in the morning with the feeling I could let the entire experience disappear if I wanted it to. I could simply not appear at the address tonight, and Malcolm and I would be done. I had been so tempted, I’d all but decided to take the disappearing-from-view approach when the phone rang and Victoria wanted me to meet her.
The kids were at their dad’s for the weekend. Levi hadn’t texted needing any assistance. It seemed like a great idea to rehash my bizarre sexual neediness for a man who’d threatened me no less than twice. Heck, maybe more since I’d been so fixated on him I’d all but forgotten I should have been very carefully considering whether or not I wanted to be in his presence at all.
“Wow. I think this means you have to be getting over Levi. You’ve never reacted to another man like that. Wonder why that is?”
I drummed my fingers on the table before I sipped my drink. “I don’t think so. Levi is”—I sighed—“still my everything. There’s something about Malcolm; maybe it’s supernatural. Maybe I’ve been away from people like me for so long, my body simply craved his energy. With Levi, it’s different. I wanted to spend my life in his arms, and damn it, when I’m being honest, I still do.”
She took my hands. “I get it. You’re a romantic. You have a big, giant heart.”
“Lately I feel like a total narcissist. Enough about me; what’s going on with you? Did you plan that trip?”
The thing about Victoria and her husband deciding to remain childless was that it meant they had more disposable income than Levi and I had ever had. They took all kinds of trips. One day they’d decide to go to Paris, and the next week they’d be there. I envied her the freedom even though I’d never trade my kids in for anything in the world.
“I think we’re between Scotland and Iceland. I’ve never been to either place.” She shrugged. “I’m not feeling enthusiastic about going. The universe is telling me I should stay where I am. Maybe because of you.”
I held out my hands. “Don’t you blame your lack of travel excitement on me. I need you to go. How else am I to live vicariously through you?”
“I think I’m supposed to stay here and help you get right with things.” She squeezed my fingers in hers. “Starting with getting you something sexy you can wear to your trial tonight.”
Malcolm’s hundred dollars burned a hole in my wallet. I should have handed it back. He didn’t get to tell me how to dress. There had to be boundaries. He was my broker, not my pimp. My mother never looked sexy for work. She always wore the same black pants and black sweater to every job. Maybe my dad thought she looked sexy in her outfit; however, I doubted the rest of the world considered her attire to be anything other than dark.
“I’m not doing it. I’ll return the money tonight. He can’t decide what I wear. End of story.”
The wind picked up around us, and I shivered. Victoria raised her eyebrows. “You know I’m really a witch, right? I’m not Wiccan or Pagan or any of the other religious backgrounds people adhere to. I’m a full-fledged, make-things-happen witch. I even have a cauldron in the basement—don’t ask; it belonged to my grandmother.”
Where was she going with this? “I know. You explained the first time I met you, and since then I’ve seen you do certain things.”
One time Victoria had gotten really mad at a person trying to return a dress that had obviously been worn many times. The curtains in the store caught on fire for a split second before going out as fast. If I hadn’t believed her before, I did then.
She continued, “I have to say, the stuff you see, the abilities you possess, I can’t do any of them. And part of me is frightened for you. If Malcolm can make things easier, safer if you will, and he wants you to wear something sexy? I think you should probably not piss him off. I think Malcolm will be a good person for you to befriend.”
Was it too early in the day to start drinking? A headache formed between my eyes, and I rubbed at it. “Listen, here’s the truth. I know this whole thing is nuts. People with no paranormal ability somehow find a way to survive, to pay their mortgages and their bills. I could work at the grocery store or wait tables. I could go to someone else’s shop besides yours. I put away a calling when I decided what I wanted was a normal life. That’s all fallen apart. I need to see if I can do this, if I’m still the person I was raised to be.”
The sound of the cars whizzing by was my only answer for a while, and I wondered if I’d spoken too much. Truth was, I didn’t know who I was anymore without Levi, and I knew that sounded pathetic even in my own head. I had a powerful mother, a strong father, and I’d gotten everything I wanted in life before I’d blown it. I hardly had room to complain about the cards I’d been dealt. I had to go back to where I began and see if I could find myself again.
“So no sexy outfit for Malcolm then?” She nodded. “Maybe just put on a skirt you already own?”
My phone beeped, saving me from having to answer her. I did have a couple of nice outfits I could put together. I thought about my purple dress, the one I’d never worn to our anniversary dinner because we’d broken up by then, and wondered if I could manage to clear a house of dark energy without somehow having my breasts fall out of the outfit. Then I read the text from Levi.
Think you’d better come to Lacrosse. There’s been a situation. Kids are not hurt.
Gray’s lacrosse games were on Sundays. We all went as a family and then ate dinner together, just like we did before the divorce. Levi and I both felt that giving the kids some semblance of sameness was important. If things changed in the future, we’d have to adjust. For now it still worked.
Saturdays, however, were practice, and whichever one of us had the kids that day took Gray. It was pretty status quo. Gray practiced with twelve other kids while Dex and Molly amused themselves on the playground nearby. If Levi thought I needed to be there, then there was something very wrong.
My heart rate kicked up, and I jumped to my feet. “Gotta go. Something’s wrong with Gray. Sorry.”
Her eyes widened. “Go. Let me know he’s okay.”
“Right.” I ran from the coffee house toward my car.
The trip to the fields should have taken fifteen minutes. I made it in ten. Levi had said the kids weren’t hurt, and I wanted to believe him. Only the longer I drove and the more my hands sweat, the mo
re I wondered if he’d lied. He wouldn’t want me to have an accident getting to them. Maybe he’d lied to keep me calm until I got to the scene.
If one of them were truly hurt, he’d have them on their way to the hospital or at least the doctor. He wouldn’t have me meet him at the field; he’d have me go straight to where they were.
There wasn’t an ambulance to be seen anywhere. On the other hand, two of the other boys held ice packs to their lips. I looked for Gray, my breath held until my gaze landed on him. Levi squatted by his side. The coaches flanked them, and all together they faced a man I didn’t recognize. I rushed over, searching the crowd for my other two babies until I spotted them on the nearby swings.
Okay. I could breathe. All of my loves were unharmed, physically at least. Still, a weight settled on my shoulders. Levi wouldn’t have called me here the way he did if everything was copasetic.
I picked up speed, and by the time I reached them, I had to catch my breath. I needed to exercise. It had to go on the list. The ever growing list …
“What’s going on?” I squatted until I was at eye level with Gray and Levi. Well, with the latter at least, who looked at me while my son refused to meet my gaze at all. “Someone want to tell me what’s going on?”
One of the coaches whispered to the other, loud enough for me to hear at least part of what he said. I distinctly made out the words “divorce” and “behavior.” So, it was that kind of an incident? When we’d been married, if one of the kids acted out, they were kids being kids. These days all inappropriate things my kids did were considered a result of his father and me divorcing. Hearing the excuse made by those outside of Levi or myself made me cringe. Were we really doing such a bad job meeting our kids’ needs that they fell into some kind of category of “troubled” that they’d not been in before?