Chapter Fifteen The Warning
CHAPTER FIFTEEN THE WARNING
I sat with my elbows on the table, watching my phone. It vibrated against the wood and made the peas on my plate quiver. The number on the screen was Jack’s.
‘He’s not going to stop calling.’ My mother’s words squeezed themselves out through a mouthful of dried pork chop.
‘I’ll deal with it tomorrow.’ I wanted to talk to my uncle, but it was late and I could barely keep my eyes open, save for the hunger. I swallowed the mountain of mashed potatoes in my mouth and scowled. ‘Why did you have to tell him so soon anyway?’
‘I didn’t tell him. I told Ursula because I don’t want you going into work tomorrow, and when he called the diner, she told him about it.’ My mother shrugged and popped a forkful of peas in her mouth.
My phone started buzzing again, exacerbating the headache that still lingered at the base of my skull. I picked it up and swiped my finger across the screen. ‘Hi, Jack.’
‘I’m outside, let me in.’
‘What?’
‘Open the back door.’
He hung up. I crossed to the kitchen window. He was just a shadow lingering by the bushes, carefully out of range of the motion detector, so I could barely make him out at all. Where did he come from?
‘Is he here again?’ My mother’s voice was teeming with bewildered disapproval. She stood up. ‘What is he doing?’
I unlocked the door and he slid inside, shutting and locking it behind him.
‘Sophie,’ he panted, his cheeks blotted with circles of pink.
‘Where did you just come from?’
He waved my question away and crushed me into his shoulder so hard I thought I would lose my breath. I hadn’t hugged Jack since I was a child. I was used to him showing his affection in other ways – expensive presents, a shift off at the last minute, or random phone calls. But there was something about the hug that made it better than all that – I felt protected. ‘I’m so glad you’re safe,’ he said.
He released me and I stumbled backwards, my hand clutching my chest. I was getting a tight feeling in the base of my throat. I swallowed it, hoping it would go away, but the way Jack was looking at me with my father’s eyes, so full of worry and relief, made me want to cry.
‘If I had let anything happen to you, Mickey would have broken out of prison just to kill me,’ he said, trying and failing to lighten the mood.
‘What are you doing here?’ I mushed the words together to distract myself from the lump rising in my throat. Behind me, my mother was hovering. I could almost feel the suspicion seeping through her skin.
Jack rubbed the buzzed hair on his head. He was unusually dishevelled, his typical suave suit replaced by loose-fitting jeans and a nondescript black sweatshirt. He didn’t look half as important, or affluent, as he usually did. ‘I’ve been calling you all day, Persephone.’
I grimaced. He must have meant business. ‘I was in the hospital.’
‘I heard. I was going out of my mind with worry.’
‘You and me both,’ said my mother. She drifted over to the sink and started to fill the kettle for tea.
‘How are you feeling?’
‘Where have you been?’ I asked at the same time.
Jack rubbed his eyes. ‘All around the state,’ he replied wearily.
‘Doing what?’
‘Business things.’
He was being curt. He never talked to me about his other business ventures. I knew it had something to do with investments and interest rates, which was why I never bothered to press him about it. The boredom would have overwhelmed me.
‘Are you back now? In Cedar Hill?’ I was surprised at how childlike the hopefulness in my voice sounded, and felt embarrassed because of it. I had obviously missed him more than I’d realized. He was the only real male presence in my life, and without him, it felt emptier than it should have been.
He shook his head grimly. ‘Not yet. Not completely.’
My mother had been busying herself at the stove. She passed a mug of peppermint tea to Jack. He took it with an arched eyebrow for good measure.
‘Thank you, Celine.’
‘Before you ask, there’s no booze in it.’
I winced. It had been going so well. He took a sip without breaking eye contact with her, levelling whatever his response would have been for my benefit.
‘Couldn’t this visit have waited until a more reasonable hour, Jack?’ My mother’s voice was edged with disapproval. ‘Do you always have to do things in the dead of night?’
He ignored her this time, setting his mug down on the table. ‘What happened last night was really serious,’ he said to me. ‘And on your birthday, no less!’
‘I know,’ I said, biting my lip to stop it from wobbling.
‘Do they know who spiked your drink?’
‘No,’ I responded, feeling tired of the same question already. The police had already interviewed me at the hospital, and that hadn’t exactly been helpful. It’s not like there were any leads, and I was pretty convinced I would never regain full memory of the night. I knew, too, that Robbie Stenson, whenever he resurfaced, was going to avoid me for ever. He had finally texted Alex back to say he was out of town for ‘family reasons,’ and that he didn’t realize how out of it I had been. He actually thought I liked him and wanted to kiss him, and he was sorry my ‘boyfriend’ got so angry about it and interrupted us. If he was so apologetic, he could have texted me , but he didn’t even bother. And the only other person who had any knowledge of the forgotten parts of my night was my ‘angry boyfriend’, Nic, who was already doing a trophy-worthy job of avoiding me.
‘Was it someone at the party who spiked it?’ my uncle Jack continued his pointless interrogation.
I gave him the same answer I gave the police. ‘Yeah, but there were so many people there, it could have been anyone.’
Jack nodded thoughtfully. ‘Was there anyone you didn’t recognize? What about that new family on Lockwood Avenue?’
‘No,’ I replied resolutely. ‘In fact, if it wasn’t for that family, I might have ended up in way worse condition.’
‘What?’ he snapped, the softness in his voice disappearing.
‘One of them found me on my way home and brought me to the hospital.’ I left out the part about Robbie Stenson; I didn’t want my uncle thinking about me kissing a boy. Besides, I could barely think about it myself without feeling my skin crawl.
Jack set his mouth in a hard line, squaring his jaw. ‘How do you know he wasn’t the one who drugged you in the first place?’
‘What are you talking about?’ I didn’t bother to keep the mounting irritation from my voice. I would not let Jack taint this good deed with his preconceived notions of Nic’s family. ‘He didn’t drug me. He wasn’t even at the party!’
‘I don’t know,’ Jack grumbled. He looked to my mother, but she was staring past him, evidently fed up with his visit. She had done her best; she had lasted four minutes.
I released a sigh that turned into a yawn. ‘Even if he did drug me by magical intervention , then why would he bring me to the hospital and get them to call Mom?’
‘I’m sure there are ways he could—’
‘Please,’ I said. ‘Just stop. You’re being paranoid.’
‘It’s exhausting,’ added my mother, her voice clipped. She folded her arms across her chest and moved closer to me.
I covered my mouth, stifling another yawn.
‘OK,’ Jack conceded. ‘I’m just worried, Sophie. Can you understand that? I want to make sure you weren’t targeted.’
I may have been tired, but I wasn’t too exhausted to register the oddness in my uncle’s statement. ‘Why would someone target me?’
My mother bristled beside me. Her tolerance for Jack’s paranoid mutterings had run out a long time ago. After all, it was this habit that had led my father into the mess that had gotten him thrown in prison. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘I don’t know,’ he said, more to himself than to us. He dragged his hands across his face and through his hair. I surveyed him: his bloodshot eyes, his week-old stubble, his blotchy skin. Even his lips were pale.
‘Sophie’s OK, Jack,’ my mother said, biting back whatever else she might have wanted to add. It was clear he was troubled about what had happened to me, and there was no point antagonizing him for it. ‘I think you need to get some rest. We all do.’
‘OK,’ he relented. ‘I’ll go.’
He smiled at me then; it was a sweet, hopeful sort of smile with just a shadow of something darker.
‘When are you coming back?’ I sounded like a child again, but I couldn’t help it. I wanted my uncle close by. He was the unpredictable, wilder half of my calm, measured father, and right now he was doing his best to be both of them for me. He might not have been succeeding very well, but we were still bonded, he and I. And even though my mother would never dare admit it, without my father, we all needed each other.
He ruffled my hair. ‘Soon,’ he said gruffly. ‘I’ll call you.’
He paused with his hand on the door. ‘And remember what I said. Keep to yourself.’
‘I will.’ I lied easily this time. Jack’s paranoia had only made me more determined to find out exactly what was going on around me. And I suspected some of those answers were in the Priestly house.