Chapter 71 #18
He nodded and got in the back seat behind Jack. He kept his head turned enough to keep an eye on Kali because being within reach of the man was a bit like riding in a car with a savage dog and hoping the chain didn’t break.
Beth listened to Kali’s grumbling and whining until they were several miles out of town.
Then she slipped her gun out of the holster, checked that the safety was on, and stowed it in the large purse tucked near her feet.
It wouldn’t be easy to pull out the gun if there was trouble, but it also wouldn’t be in easy reach if Kali made a grab for it.
After removing the flyer from her purse, she said, “Stop the car, Jack.”
Jack stopped the car and put it in park before looking at her.
Beth released her seat belt and twisted around to face Kali—and hoped she didn’t scare the crap out of Colin.
“All right, Mr. Kali. Ever since we left the town, you’ve been bitching about us interfering with you seeing just one more thing, so we’re going to let you out and you can go ahead and see whatever you want to—but first, you’re going to give me a couple of answers.”
Kali looked sullen. “What answers?”
“What do you want me to tell your wife? Should I tell Detective Kali that we found you and were going to bring you home, but you were selfish enough not to give a damn about what she’s been going through because you wanted to see one more thing?
Should I tell the administrators at Jackson University that they should hire someone else to fill your position? ”
“You have no right to say anything to anyone,” Kali snapped. “I’ve only been gone…”
“For weeks.” Beth saw the shock in his eyes, but that was quickly replaced by denial.
“You’ve been gone for weeks.” She thrust the flyer over the seat so that it was right in his face.
“You’re officially listed as a missing person, and every precinct in the six towns around the Fate River has this flyer posted on a board to remind all the police officers in those towns that the spouse of one of their own is missing. ”
“I…” Kali looked confused.
“The friend who took you across the river in his boat? You promised him you would be back in two hours. When the time was long past and he returned to Jackson alone, he went to your house and told your wife what happened. You’ve been gone for weeks, Mr. Kali.
Weeks when your wife waited for the phone call saying you were found alive—or that your body was found.
And now you sit there like some five-year-old who had spent an afternoon going on all the rides at the county fair and was whining because the grown-ups said it was time to go home and wouldn’t let you go on one more ride. ”
Kali looked out the window with a yearning that was like a sickness.
“Jack, what are the odds of finding someone again if they’ve been lost in Wyrd and they walk away from a chance to go home?”
“No odds,” Jack replied. “If he walks away now, you should tell his wife to sever all legal bonds with him and consider herself a widow.”
Beth hopped out of the SUV and opened the back door. She stared at Kali. “Either you stop whining and come with us to Destiny Park, or I unlock the cuffs and let you go—and I tell your wife you chose to disappear.”
“She won’t believe you,” Kali said. “She loves me.”
“I’m a cop. She’s a cop. She’ll believe me.”
Kali hunched in the seat and said nothing.
Beth closed the back door and returned to her seat. She fastened her seat belt and looked at Jack.
Jack grinned. “You’re impressive when you’re pissed off.” He put the car in gear and took off.
If any of the roads had speed limits, she hadn’t seen any signs. Not that it would have mattered. She let the world outside the car go by in a blur while she pictured the pavilion and the ornamental lake.
Destiny Park. We’re going to Destiny Park.
Several hours into the trip, Beth realized that Jack’s speed wasn’t just about preventing Yaron Kali from doing anything foolish. Jack wanted to get them back to the park before the sun went down—and Kali saw something the Arcana really didn’t want him to see.
62
*Lucas, we found Yaron Kali. We need to get him across the river before dark.*
Despite the communication reaching him as a faint whisper—which gave him a good idea of how far away Jack was—Lucas heard the strain in his brother’s voice. Whatever had happened over the past couple of days had taxed Jack’s stamina to its limits. *Can he be trusted if we let him stay overnight?*
*No.* Jack was gone.
Lucas called Tom Castelletti’s cell phone, and looked at the sky as he waited for the man to respond. Even with summer’s extra daylight, it was going to be close.
“Castelletti.”
“Send your patrol boat,” Lucas said. “We found one of your people, and he needs to get across the river now.”
“Does the person need medical attention?” Castelletti asked.
“I don’t know. Assume he will.” Lucas ended the call.
Justine and her sisters walked into his office, a question in their eyes.
“They’re on their way back,” he told the women. “They found Yaron Kali. Jack says the man needs to cross the river tonight.”
“We have considered this man’s desires and balanced the scales.” Justine’s voice held a bone-deep cold. “We want you to impose a cost on this man if he ever tries to return.”
“What payment will keep the scales balanced?”
She told him. “We snipped off fifteen years from the thread of his life for the trouble he has already caused.”
“And the other two people who are still missing?”
The three women looked at one another before Justine said, “They didn’t come to the park and seek our help, but they came to Wyrd in secret for a reason. For sanctuary.”
“I think when the neighborhoods change places during the autumn equinox, those people will be someplace other than Wyrd,” Lysandra said.
“But they will be settled in a place that suits their spirits,” Zerah said.
*Jack’s coming,* Mia Skov said. *He requests assistance.*
*Patrol boat is approaching the dock,* Ethan Sharpe said.
Lucas walked past the Ladies Three. “I’m going to help Jack. Ethan will keep an eye on the patrol boat.”
“Beth?” Justine asked.
“I don’t know.” Jack hadn’t mentioned her, but he would have said something if she wasn’t all right.
Then again, this assignment had tapped out Jack’s strength, so he wouldn’t make assumptions about Beth.
Lucas strode toward the area where the vehicles were kept.
As daylight began to fade, he felt the pull of the stars and the moon.
The Arcana couldn’t stop the truth of what they were from being revealed.
They could only choose who knew that truth.
Which meant that getting Yaron Kali on the patrol boat and getting his own people safely out of sight was going to be difficult.
The SUV bulleted up the road and slid to a gravel-spewing stop.
Beth hopped out of the passenger seat and stumbled before she righted herself.
She looked exhausted, but she didn’t look injured, so Lucas focused on the problem that was sitting in the back seat.
He opened the back door of the SUV and started to drag the man out before realizing Kali was handcuffed to the vehicle.
No time to let Beth unlock the cuff. Lucas simply grabbed the metal links between the cuffs and yanked, breaking the metal—and possibly a bone in Kali’s wrist.
Jack came around to that side of the vehicle. Between them, they hauled a protesting Kali through the park and down the beach to the dock where the patrol boat waited.
“I’ll take him,” Lucas said, leaving Jack at the end of the dock since Ethan was waiting for him.
Ian Kuhn climbed out of the patrol boat. Good. Someone who was supposed to be familiar with Wyrd and the Arcana.
Lucas swung Kali around so they were face-to-face.
“Judgment has been passed for the trouble you’ve caused.
You have forfeited fifteen years of your potential lifespan.
Every time you try to set foot on our land again, it will cost you another twenty years.
If you’re selfish, you’ll make your wife a widow within a year.
Think about that.” He shoved the man toward Kuhn. “Get him out of here.”
He and Ethan joined Jack at the end of the dock and waited just long enough to watch the police wrestle Kali into the patrol boat and pull away from the dock. Then the three men hurried up the beach, not stopping until they knew they would be out of sight of the humans on the water.
“Kali isn’t the only one we brought back,” Jack said. “Beth is taking the other one to the hotel.”
“Then I’d better talk to her,” Lucas replied. “You should get some rest. You can tell me what happened in the morning.”
“She was good, Lucas. She met the challenge and didn’t flinch.” Jack gave him a tired grin. “And she’s pretty impressive when she’s pissed off.”
High praise coming from Jack Frost.
Lucas headed for the hotel. Whoever Beth Fahey brought back with her was going to have to deal with the truth about the Arcana.
63
Beth smiled at the woman behind the check-in counter. The woman glanced at Colin, then at her.
Yes, Beth thought. He’s human but…
“Whoa,” Colin said softly.
Beth turned and stared at Lucas Frost. She’d seen him before in starlight and moonlight, but in the hotel’s artificial light, she appreciated that it wasn’t just the antlers that made it obvious he wasn’t human. There was a subtle difference in his face and the way he moved. And right now…
She’d always thought saying someone was swelled with anger was a phrase used only in stories.
Lucas hadn’t turned into the Hulk, and he wasn’t popping the seams of his shirt, but he was more than the man she’d seen the other night when he was helping her understand her own heritage. And he was furious.