6. Chapter Six #3
“Don’t sell her.” I could tell it was taking more of an effort for Daniel to speak the longer he did it.
They must be running him ragged at that place, I thought.
Getting him back to full health, hopefully.
“Carl hated being sold to. Lula’s even worse.
” The pause this time was one of the long ones.
“Just let her see you, okay? Let her see my babygirl.”
Marcie was crying openly now, with one hand pressed to her mouth to stifle her sobs so her father wouldn’t hear them. “Okay, Dad. I will. I promise.”
“Good.” This time, the pause was shorter. “Jack? Son, you there?”
Every time I heard him call me son, it was like a bolt went through me. This was no exception.
“I’m here, Daniel.”
“You taking good care of my girl?”
I let out a laugh, because otherwise I’d have been sobbing, too. “Always,” I said, meaning it right down to the bone. “I promise. Dad.”
For a single, shameful second, the urge burned in me to say something. To ask him.
Daniel. The money. The thing out west that Victoria keeps sniffing at, that someone might’ve hired a woman to protect my family over—what the hell is going on?
What did you build out there that you never told me about?
I didn’t ask. Vanessa would have stopped him, anyway—even though she’d given the phone to Marcie’s father, I felt certain she wasn’t far from his bed.
“We’ll make you proud, Daniel,” I said instead. “Both of us.”
“I already am,” he said, meaning it. “Looking forward to hearing the good news.”
The phone audibly shifted. A moment later, it was Vanessa’s voice coming through the line.
“He’s tired,” she said softly. “I’m going to let him rest. But we love you so much, honey. You and Jack. I believe in you both.”
“Thanks, Mom,” Marcie said, wiping her eyes. “Love you, too.”
The call ended.
For a long moment, there was silence in the car. The road ahead was nearly empty, winding through the hills. Trees pushed in on either side, throwing shade across the asphalt beneath the afternoon sun.
Marcie let out a shaky sigh and dabbed beneath her eyes. “You’re going to need to touch my makeup back up a bit before we meet Tallulah,” she whispered. “God, I didn’t expect that to wreck me the way that it did…”
Caroline reached over the seat and put her hand in Marcie’s. “You’re okay,” she whispered.
Slowly, Marcie nodded. “Yeah. I’ve got this.”
“You never didn’t have this,” I reminded her.
That got a smile out of her. “I still needed to hear Dad say it. I’m glad he called.”
“You don’t need to prove that you’re his daughter,” Caroline said with a shrug. “You already are. That’s the difference.”
She’s right, I thought.
And when I glanced into the backseat and saw the way the woman was staring at Marcie, it made me realize she was seeing, up close and personal, exactly the kind of thing she’d thrown a fortune away in order to remain inside of. Like we were all heroes or something.
To her, maybe we were.
Marcie reached for the window controls. “I need to roll this down for a second,” she said, a little green around the gills. “The nerves are getting to me. Feeling nauseous.”
“Here,” Caroline said, already pulling a tin from her bag. “Ginger chew. This should help.”
Marcie took it. “Thanks,” she said. “You came prepared.”
“Motion sickness,” she said, giving my angel a look that lingered a half-second too long as she snapped closed the tin. “I always keep them on me for car trips.”
“You keep everything on you,” Marcie said approvingly. “I think that bag of yours is enchanted sometimes.”
“It is,” Caroline replied breezily. “I’m a witch.”
Marcie laughed as she chewed the ginger, her color returning. I wasn’t laughing, though. It seemed to me that there’d been a lot of magic in my life since my semester in Stillwell. The Book of Rho, the hot springs, that ritual at my wedding…
I shook my head. Those Delta Rho girls treat the sisterhood like a coven sometimes, I reminded myself. That’s all there is to it. And Caroline is not a witch. No more than Samantha or Kiki is.
“You got any magic spells that’ll help us land this client?” I asked sarcastically. Or at least fifty percent sarcastically.
“You don’t need them,” Caroline said, winking at me again in the rearview mirror. “But if things really go south with Tallulah, I’ll sing for her.”
I blinked. “Sing?”
“I lured men to the jagged rocks of the Aegean Sea in a past life,” Caroline said matter-of-factly. “My voice is a deadly weapon.”
“‘I can kill with a word!’” Marcie laughed. “That’s from Dune. Jack loves that old sci-fi stuff.”
I did. But I had no idea to what extent Caroline meant any of this as a joke.
“Don’t worry, I would never do that to any of you.
The Avery family is a ship worth sinking, which is why so many people are taking shots at it.
” Her eyes held mine in the mirror a half-beat past comfortable.
“But I’m not one of them. I’d rather be the buxom lady on the front welcoming the new girls aboard. ”
“Ahoy, matey,” I said with a chuckle.
“If anyone’s the Avery family’s figurehead, it’s Kiki,” Marcie said. “But I like your chances.”
“I like them, too,” Caroline murmured. “More and more all the time.”
I could feel both women smiling at me.
I put my eyes back on the road. Harrington contract, I told myself. Top priority, Jack.
But damn if these girls weren’t trying to make this trip interesting.