I was right. Jack didn’t like it. But he didn’t have room to talk after I poked a finger into the hole in his jacket.
“Knife? Bullet wound?”
“Sword,” he said sheepishly. “Some guy who believed he was the reincarnation of Lancelot was kidnapping people to serve in his ‘court.’ He challenged me to a duel.”
“A duel? Aduel? Tell me you didn’t—”
“I shifted into tiger, and he peed his pants.”
“Ah.”
“But first, we had to fight through his thugs. That wasn’t nearly as entertaining.” From the grimace on his face, it hadn’t been, and I wouldn’t enjoy hearing about his adventures, either.
First, though, we walked outside to meet Susan. She was back in uniform, her hair neat and her clothes pressed, but her eyes were hollow, and it looked like she’d lost ten pounds since Monday.
“Jack. I’m very glad to see you.”
“Hey, Sheriff,” Jack called, and then he muttered to me, putting an arm around my waist: “Can’t say the same, considering.”
I hushed him. “Back on the job, I see?”
“Yeah. Enough people saw me driving around when Aunt Cordelia was … at time of death. And Mrs. Quindlen had stopped me to complain at pretty much exactly TOD. Bubba McKee got a new boa constrictor, just when she was starting to feel safe letting her cat out at night again.”
“You lost your aunt? I’m so sorry, Susan,” Jack said. “Why don’t you come in and have some iced tea?”
She shook her head. “No. Thanks, but no. I just needed to tell Tess the news.”
“What news?” Dread snaked through my stomach. Things had been going from bad to worse.
“My dear cousin,” she said grimly. “He disappeared. Isn’t answering his phone. In fact, his phone has vanished, too, according to the phone company. And we still haven’t found a hint of Henrietta.”
“Do you think he’d hurt her?”
An odd expression crossed her face. “I hadn’t thought of that, Tess. I was more worried that the crazed woman with agunhad made good on her threats to you that she was going after Ish, to be honest.”
I wasn’t sure why my first instinct had been “Ish is a danger to Henrietta,” instead of “Henrietta, the threatening, gun-toting, self-confessed bank robber is a danger to Ish.” Something about him …
“Ish? Crazed woman with a gun who threatened Tess?” Jack’s voice was a low rumble, and I didn’t have to see them to know that amber sparks would be shining in his green eyes. “We really have a lot to talk about, don’t we?”
“Tess cooked breakfast for her,” Susan said dryly. “The parole-violating stalker. Today.”
“Nice, Susan.” I glared at her. “Remind me why we’re friends, when you just threw me under the bus?”
“Breakfast?”
I turned to Jack and poked him in the chest. “Sword? Thugs?”
“Oh. Yeah.”
“Anyway, be careful. This Henrietta Quirksley seems to be unhealthily fixated on you and Ish was paying an odd amount of attention to you, too. Whatever is going on now, I really don’t want you to get caught in the middle of it and get hurt.” Her dark eyes softened. “You’ve been hurt enough, Tess.”
She wasn’t wrong.
“Hey! I’m at least a little less hurt now than I was this morning. An Atlantean high priest just healed my gunshot scar!”
Susan rolled her eyes. “If you don’t want to talk to me, you can just say so, Tess. You don’t have to make up wild stories.”
“But—”
