Chapter Twenty-Six
Twenty-Six
Sophy did something to the crystal. The hologram winked out.
Luke contemplated the empty space where the ghostly image of Deke had been a few seconds earlier, silently running the new data points.
After a couple of minutes he realized that Sophy had not spoken.
He looked at her. She was sitting on the hassock, stroking Bruce, who had his head on her knee. Her eyes glistened with unshed tears.
“What is it?” he said, unsure how to handle the situation. “Are you okay?” Stupid question. She was not okay.
“They’re both gone, aren’t they?” she said, sounding numb. “Hatch and his gang murdered them. We’re too late.”
He tried to think of a way to soften the obvious conclusion, but inspiration did not strike. “It’s possible.”
She closed her eyes. Tears slid down her cheeks.
Some of them landed on Bruce’s head. He pushed more heavily against her.
For a beat Luke stood very still. He wanted to take her in his arms but he was not sure if she would welcome comfort from him.
Hell, maybe she blamed him and the entire Wells family for putting Bea in harm’s way.
Feeling helpless, he grabbed some tissues off the dressing table and thrust them into Sophy’s fingers. Without a word she gave him the pyramid crystal and took the offering and blotted her eyes.
“Sorry,” she mumbled. “I realize you lost your uncle, too. Your poor grandparents. They’ve lost a son. I can’t imagine—”
He gave up trying to resist the impulse to hold her. He set the crystal on the table and reached down to grip her shoulders. She did not try to draw back when he pulled her close. Instead, she sobbed into the fabric of his shirt.
For a timeless moment he held her, and while he did, he found himself contemplating a couple of dots out on the psychic plane.
“You—we—should not leap to conclusions,” he said finally.
Sophy sniffed and raised her head. There were teardrops on the lenses of her glasses but hope sparked in her eyes.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Nothing has changed as far as the data is concerned. We just have more information now. Yes, it’s possible Bea and Deke didn’t make it out of the compound alive.
But this is Deke Wells, action hero of the Agency, and Bea Harper, a woman with a talent for channeling crystals.
They are smart people and they knew they were surrounded by danger. They would have had a backup plan.”
“They did. They left clues for us. We are their backup plan.”
“I’m not saying they’re alive, just that we can’t rule out that possibility. Deke has a talent for disappearing, and if he did go off the grid, he would have taken Bea with him. For whatever reason, they handed the assignment to us, and Deke made it clear we’re on a tight timeline.”
“You’re right—we have a mission.” Sophy sniffed, angled her chin in a determined way and took a step back. “We have to find the source of the unstable energy in the area and call in the Foundation.”
“There’s nothing more we can do tonight. It’s been a long day. We both need sleep.”
She glanced around. “Maybe we should take shifts so that one of us can stand guard at all times.”
“No need. We’ve got Bruce.”
Bruce’s ears twitched at the sound of his name.
Sophy smiled a little. “We do, indeed.”
“We’ve also got the latest in Wells, Inc.
security tech,” Luke said. Relieved that she was no longer crying and hoping like hell that he had not given her false assurances, he went to his duffel and took out two small devices.
“One for the balcony door and one for the front door. If anyone tries to open either, an alarm will sound and they’ll get a stiff jolt of electricity. ”
“Good to know,” Sophy said. She looked weary but committed.
He contemplated the bed. They were two adults. A few pillows down the center would ensure they did not accidentally come in contact with each other during the night.
Unfortunately.
“Do you mind if I ask why your uncle thinks you’re reluctant to take control of Wells, Inc.?” Sophy asked.
The question caught him off guard. He had been focused on the sleeping arrangements. It took him a beat to recalculate.
“It’s a long story.”
She held up a hand, palm out. “Never mind. It’s none of my business.”
“It’s okay.”
He lowered himself into a chair, leaned forward, braced his forearms on his thighs, and loosely linked his fingers. He took another moment to think about what he was going to say. For the first time since the disaster he wanted to talk to someone. No, not someone—Sophy.
“I come from a long line of psychically talented physicists, engineers, and inventors. But I didn’t get that kind of ability. That’s why I was chosen to become the next CEO of the company.”
“I, uh, have heard that rumor. It seems odd, though.”
He smiled wryly. “No one with a lot of engineering talent wants the job and the family doesn’t want to turn it over to someone who isn’t a Wells. That leaves me.”
“But you do have a talent.”
“I can see some light from beyond the spectrum. That gives me good night vision but that’s about it. They call me No-Talent Wells for a reason.”
She frowned. “You said you were good when it came to connecting dots.”
“I am, but that’s hardly a psychic-grade talent.”
“Says who? No one knows where the line between intuition and psychic talent is.”
“It’s just the way my brain works.”
She tilted her head slightly and narrowed her eyes. “What about your ability to manipulate someone’s aura the way you did mine when I came out of that vision trance at the cabin?”
“The situation with you was…unique.”
“Seriously?”
“I was acting on the old principle that two auras are stronger than one. I didn’t expect the resonance thing. That was a shock.”
“A shock?” she asked a little too politely.
He’d screwed up. Again. “A surprise. A good surprise. It’s just that I’ve never had that happen before, so I was—”
He decided to stop before the hole he was digging for himself got any deeper.
Her smile was as cool and polished as the silvery sculpture on the pedestal.
“You were shocked,” she concluded.
He looked at her.
She waved one hand. “Forget it. If it helps, I was just as shocked as you were.”
“Okay. Yes, that helps.”
Not really, he decided. It didn’t help at all, because she was making it clear she was blowing off the resonance incident. He was not going to be able to pretend that it wasn’t important. He had a feeling he was doomed to dream about it for the rest of his life.
“I think you are underestimating the value of your ability to connect dots,” she said.
“I told you, the problem with that skill set is that sometimes you convince yourself you can see connections that don’t actually exist.”
“I understand. I’m the one who wonders if she’s seeing ghosts, remember?”
He frowned, trying to parse the distinction. It wasn’t the same thing. Was it?
“Call me psychic,” she continued briskly, “but I sense that at some point in the recent past there was an unfortunate incident related to dot connecting.”
“Something like that.”
“It shook your faith in yourself. In your judgment. Who was she?”
He straightened and sat back in the chair. “How did you know there was a woman involved?”
“The guilt trip you’ve put yourself through combined with the fact that you’ve concluded you’re no longer the right person to take control of Wells, Inc. It doesn’t take any psychic talent to figure out that the source of the problem is a relationship gone bad.”
“Her name was Victoria. Victoria Ellsworth. She worked in the company library. Everyone liked her. She was smart, gracious, helpful.”
“Pretty?”
“Very,” he admitted.
“Professionally dressed at all times? Neat little suit. Pumps. Serious glasses. Hair in a bun?”
He frowned. “How did you know?”
“Red hair or blond?”
“Red. What is this?”
“I assume she was creative in bed?”
The rush of heat to his face alarmed him. “What the hell?”
“I’m just looking for connections between dots. You know how that works.”
“Look somewhere else, damn it.”
“Relax. It’s clear what happened. You fell for the secretly sexy librarian fantasy.”
“What?”
“It’s a staple. Sweet, innocent librarian takes off her serious glasses, lets down her hair, and transforms into a passionate sex kitten who tells you that you are a sex god. It’s not as popular as the nurse and dominatrix fantasies, but it’s a standard.”
“This conversation has gone off the rails.” He gripped the arms of the chair and started to push himself to his feet. “I’m going to bed.”
“Never mind.” Sophy flapped a hand in a sit-down gesture. “Get to the good part of the story. You two had an affair?”
To his amazement, he sat down. Or maybe he dropped back into the chair. Hard to tell the difference.
“We were sleeping together,” he said. “Not that it’s any of your business.”
“Hey, we’re partners. You met one of my exes and you know I’ve got another who is a stalker. Seems only fair I hear more about Victoria.” She frowned in disapproval. “I assume there are no rules against fraternization between management and employees at Wells, Inc.?”
“I wasn’t working for the company at the time, so technically it wasn’t an issue.”
“You were still employed at that agency your grandmother mentioned?”
“Yes, but that’s not important. What matters is that I was wrong about Victoria and I still don’t know how or why I didn’t see the truth until it was almost too late.”
“What happened?”
“I got back from closing an Agency case and I was in a mood to celebrate. We had dinner at her place and spent the night together. Toward morning, I woke up from a dream.”
“A dream?”
She sounded surprised. As if he wasn’t a normal man. Maybe he wasn’t a normal Wells, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t human.
“I dream just like everybody else,” he said. Sort of, he added silently.
“No need to get mad. I wasn’t criticizing. Tell me about your dream.”
He should stop talking, he thought. But for some inexplicable reason he kept going.