Chapter Seventeen
Mel stared at the card on the table, her head whirling.
“Is that bad?” Daniel asked.
Her dad pulled Mel close. “What do you mean, ‘for her safety’?”
Determination. Concern. That was Daniel. Doubt. Anger. That was her dad. Disbelief. Fear. That was her mom still staring at the card. Mel wanted to clamp her shield down hard, but she needed to send.
“I haven’t dropped a card in years,” her mom said in a haunted tone.
Mel broadcast peace and trust until everyone began to calm down.
Her mom reached out and touched the card. “Two of Swords.”
“What does it mean?” Daniel asked.
“It means stalemate. Where it fell represents a balance between equally matched opponents.” Her mom looked at Daniel. “A duel that cannot be won by either party. Jumping out of my deck like that, it can only mean these things are changing even as we speak.”
“I’m so sorry, Mel,” Daniel said to her, his brown eyes dark with regret. Then he looked at her parents. “I know this is alarming, but—”
“I know a place we can talk. Craig’s next show isn’t for a good while.” She motioned them out, putting a hand-lettered Returning Momentarily sign on her table. “Across the way. Upstairs.”
“What’s all this about, Missy?” her dad asked, waving at a couple of people passing by who recognized him.
“Daniel has saved my life twice now,” she said. “If he says I’m not safe, then I’m not.”
“Twice?” her dad said.
“Everyone upstairs,” her mom said.
Mel pointed Daniel toward the stairs as her mom motioned to a young girl in period dress who was dusting the pottery on the shop’s shelves. She nodded and waved them up.
The room at the top of the stairs was small, but private enough with the door shut.
There was a card table with several mismatched chairs and all the windows were open.
A balcony overlooked the lane below so they could hear the sounds of the fair.
Mel had used this little room many times to take a brief break from the dust and bustle below.
“He saved your life twice?” her dad repeated. “Did your mother know about this?”
Mel sighed. “Dad, it’s been a crazy week, and I didn’t want to upset you any more than I already had.”
“Melissa Kohinoor Noblett,” he rumbled.
Mel winced. Daniel’s eyebrows went up. “Kohinoor?”
“We were jumped by two pickpockets in Florence. Daniel fought them off,” Mel said.
“Pickpockets aren’t—” her dad began.
“With knives,” Mel added. “They were after my backpack, and one of them used a knife to cut into it.”
Her dad relaxed a fraction. “Well, pickpockets will slice anything of value off you and run, but—”
“It wasn’t a simple pickpocket,” Daniel said, looking at Mel. “They were determined to get that backpack off of her, at any cost.”
Her mom sat and folded her hands on the table. “Is this tied to what came out in your cards, Daniel?”
Her dad sat and placed a hand over her mom’s.
Daniel nodded and turned his chair to straddle it. “Mel uncovered something big for a story and hadn’t realized it,” he said. “I came to confirm some details with her so we could notify the proper authorities.”
Mel relaxed a bit and saw her mother do the same.
“What did our Mel uncover that requires ‘the proper authorities’?” her dad asked.
For the next few minutes, Daniel told them the story he had told her about the data found on the origami honeybees.
“Your brother-in-law is with the government?” her dad asked.
“Former DEA. He still has friends there,” Daniel said. “But that part is out of our hands. My concern is with Mel’s safety.”
Her dad looked unconvinced.
“We have reason to believe those thugs were hired by someone who thought Dr. Ricci had slipped her the data,” Daniel said. “At first, just to try to retrieve it. When they didn’t succeed in Florence, we think they followed her to America and became more desperate.”
Mel felt ill. “The fire?”
Daniel nodded.
Her father’s jaw was set. “But why? If you have the data in the right hands now, why would they still be after Mel? Surely, she’s not in danger now.”
Daniel huffed out a breath. “They don’t know that. And, at this point, they need to find out who she has told and if she’s given anyone access to the proof.”
“But once your brother-in-law pulls his strings, won’t they realize—”
“Perhaps, but it will take time, and Nick thinks whoever is behind all of this might no longer be in contact with these guys. So, until he works his way through the bureaucracy and those behind it all realize they are toast—”
“I see,” Craig said.
Mel could feel everything warring inside Daniel. Doubt. Fear. Frustration. Distrust. Then he glanced over at her, and it slid into something else. Affection. Attraction. Love.
Love. Mel felt dizzy. It had been him in the audience. It had been Daniel falling in love. With her.
Mel fought not to send that same emotion to everyone in the vicinity. She grabbed for her pendant.
“So, why are you here, and not some federal agent or something?”
“They’ll be skeptical of this kind of thing until they can get their scientists on it. And that’s time we don’t have. Plus, we don’t have proof on the fire yet,” Daniel said calmly.
“How would they even know she’s here?”
Her father should have been a lawyer. Probably would have been, if his talent hadn’t led him elsewhere.
“If Daniel thinks I’m not safe, then that’s enough for me,” she said firmly, looking at her father and sending trust.
She saw her mother’s hands twitch, wanting her cards. “Craig.”
“Mel, stop that,” her father said.
Mel flushed. Dammit.
“Why are you so certain?” her father asked again.
Daniel was trying to follow all the exchanged looks. Finally, he turned to Mel and took a deep breath. She thought of the Hanged Man card and what her mother had said about sacrifice.
He took her hand. His face went blank.
“Oh, Daniel.”
Her mother stared at their linked hands. “Is that how he sees things, by touching?”
Fear. Frustration. Helplessness.
“I think so. But he dreams too,” Mel said.
Daniel let go of her hand and blinked. “It still happens,” he muttered, almost to himself. “They’re still after her.”
Fear. Love. Love.
“What do you mean, see?” asked her father.
Mel shut her mouth and let her mom take charge.
“Daniel is a seer. That’s how he saved Mel from the fire.”
“You knew this?”
“No. She didn’t,” Mel said. “And Daniel didn’t really confirm my suspicions until now.”
Mel watched as Daniel took in her parents’ reaction.
Surprise. Curiosity. Hope.
Her father looked at her. “Missy?”
Mel knew what he was asking and nodded sharply.
“What still happens?” her mother asked.
Daniel looked at her parents, then at her.
“They’re at the festival.” Daniel hesitated before adding, “They’re armed. They know who you are and what show you perform in.”
Mel’s mother gasped and grabbed her father’s hand.
“One of them shoots at people…out there.” He looked at the door, then at the balcony. Worry. Fear. Guilt. Acceptance. Trust.
“Mel?” her mother asked.
Daniel shook his head. “No. They kidnap her.”
For some reason, Mel wasn’t surprised. It would take something like that to produce the fear she read.
“What do we do?” her father asked.
“I’d like to take her back to Woodruff Mountain, to my home, until they get the message calling them off.
They don’t know me and don’t have any reason to think she would be with me since we left Italy.
Eventually, whoever is behind this will either be caught or they will manage to scuttle back into the dark.
Either way, once it comes to light, there won’t be any need to come after Mel. ”
“Why is the mountain safer than here? She could… We could…” Her father stuttered, looking around.
Even as she gripped her pendant and tried to calm down, Mel could tell he was blowing holes in every plan he thought up on his own.
“You might persuade security here to keep an eye out for these guys,” Daniel said, “but from what I’ve seen, they would be hard pressed to pick them out of the crowd.
The one I saw was wearing a hooded black cape over civilian clothes.
I could identify them, but it’s not like we have photos of them to hand out.
I doubt we could get a police sketch artist to help in time.
” Daniel looked at the balcony again. “These guys will nose around and eventually find out she’s not here.
Hopefully they’ll contact their employer, whoever it is, and find out the jig’s up.
” He looked at Mel. “But if you want to stay here. I’ll stay with you. Do what I can.”
“I need to make a call,” her father said.
Daniel’s head went up. He had risked everything: exposure, ridicule, betrayal. Mel could see it all in his face as he looked at her father. “Dad.”
Her father looked at her and Daniel and suddenly looked contrite. “Thank you. Thank you for saving Mel and being honest with us,” he said. “I apologize for being… For interrogating you. I get a bit overprotective when it comes to my girl.”
Daniel relaxed and nodded. “Thanks, Mr. Noblett.”
Mel got to her feet. “Who’re you calling?”
“A friend at the RV park. Just a friendly call. If anything’s happened since the fire, I’ll get an earful without having to ask a single question.”
Her dad went out on the tiny balcony, searching for his phone in the depths of his costume. Her mom rapped her fingers on the table. “I need my cards,” she said.
Mel sat and took her mom’s hand.
“Mel, are you all right?” Daniel asked.
She raised her chin. “I’m surrounded by the people I trust most. I know you’ll keep me safe.” She said it as much for herself as for him. “I’m okay.”
He sank into his chair, looking stunned. It seemed none of them had reacted the way he’d expected. Mel wondered how he would react when he learned about her talento.
“You?” Mel asked. “Are you all right?”
“I’m great,” he said, but the way he said it belied the words. She reached out. Surprise. Hope. Trust. Confusion.
Her mom, always the comforter, reached for Daniel’s hand. He flinched.