Who knew that Jax’s neurodivergent sister could make such a difference in a few short months? Without speaking more than two words at a time, probably. Love was a marvelous thing.
Drinking in the scents of turkey and dressing, the happy excitement of friends and family, she was slow to notice the raven’s cry of warning or Jax’s silence at the front door until Psycat prowled through the doorway, snarling.
Pris looked up, as if receiving a mental alert. “Are we expecting anyone else?”
“We invited Sheriff Troy, but he was going out of town to visit his daughter.” If the sheriff wasn’t in town...Uninvited guests could be hazardous to the health.
Alarmed, Evie eased toward the passage into the hall. She peered around the corner and saw Jax blocking the entrance, his stance decidedly that of military alert.
She gestured at Pris. “Find an army to guard the stairs and send the men around front.” She hated playing paranoid games but Jax’s aura screameddanger.
If Troy wasn’t in the sheriff’s office to prevent Matthew from bonding out...
She knew precisely who was at the door. The question waswhy?
Heart pounding, she started to station herself behind the armoire they used for coats, but Pris grabbed her shoulder. “You guard the stairs. This one is mine.”
Spooky Pris knew something Evie didn’t. Giving her cousin a quick look, Evie dashed to the kitchen to gather her troops. And Loretta thought missing spoons constituted how things could go wrong!
Pris heard Matthew Gladwell shouting,““Where’s Nick? I was told he’s here.”
Arms crossed, Jax blocked the front doorway with his quarter-back frame. Picking up the appetizer tray in the hall, she elbowed him to one side so she could step out on the porch.
Glamorpuss Matthew wore several days’ beard, dark shadows under his eyes, and a rumpled suit that looked as if he’d slept in it. He didn’t even give Pris a second glance, although she’d removed her apron, wore her very best brown velveteen dress, and had dyed her gray streak red and orange for the occasion.
Out of spite, she held out the appetizer tray. “Take a chance?” she taunted.
Apparently startled out of his panic, Matthew finally looked at her and blanched. “What areyoudoing here?”
“Poisoning intruders? Getting even with the man who ruined my business?” She waved the goodies under his nose. “Ooooo, maybe witch that I am, I’m channeling Lucia, who wants to punch you in the face, then cut your throat.”
Behind her, Jax snorted. Pris invaded Matthew’s personal space with the tray, forcing him to back up. Over his shoulder, she could see Roark and Reuben positioning themselves behind the overgrown azaleas at the bottom of the front steps. She prayed Dante had gone to his children. This was the man who’d ruined her business with his lies. The battle was hers.
Matthew looked decidedly more nervous but held his ground, as if he really didn’t understand what the rumors he’d spread had done to her. “I just need to see Nick, then I’ll leave.”
He should be very, very afraid, but Pris merely tilted her head and studied Lucia’s killer. “You hit her, didn’t you? I can see it in your mind.” Well, she had KK’s journal to verify her guesses, but he didn’t need to know that. A good con meant keeping the victim on an emotional precipice. “You had Lucia on the edge of that well, and you smacked her, just as your father did you and Katherine. Except he was smart enough not to do it near a dangerous hole.”
“You’re b-being ridiculous,” he stammered nervously. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. If Nick isn’t here, just tell me.”
Pris bit into an olive-adorned chip and set the tray down on the porch rail so she could gesture. “We all know what you did.You killed Lucia.Like the ghoul you are, you’ve been stealing artifacts over her crumbling bones. What I want to know is why you want to kill Lucia’s children? They’re babies! Even if they’d seen their mother murdered, what could they possibly do to you?”
“I don’t want to kill babies,” he shouted. “You’re crazy. I still think you poisoned Kat!”
She shrugged. “Kat says otherwise. Witch, remember? We have proof that your father poisoned your sister. We know almost everything else, and the police will soon. But that one tiny thing really bothers me. Your father hates Lucia’s children, why?”
Wide-eyed and frightened, Matt backed up again. He glanced behind him and spotted Reuben and Roark looking massive and pissed and blocking his exit. He tried to look over Jax’s shoulder, but that wasn’t happening. Jax was built like a brass door.
“Nick!” Male-model shouted above Pris’s head. “I just need the keys to my office! They told me you have them.”
“All your stores and offices are off limits,” Jax reminded him. “The police are still examining them for evidence. Did they give you back your passport? I think not.”
“He has a fake,” Nick called from the hallway behind Jax. “And there’s probably cash in the safe. He’s about to scarper.”
“Nick, you dick, you’re fired!” Matthew screamed.
“From what?” Nick called back. “Or are you planning on climbing over Lucia’s bones some more and starting up again? I’ll give Vincent some credit—he at least knew how to hide the money. What have you got?”
Pris pressed her fingers to her temples in an age-old, meaningless, gesture for psychics that she saved for idiots. “Oooo, I can see it in his head now. Matthew is planning on retiring to the Caribbean on the money he and dear old dad stashed away. And now I think I’m seeing a little more... ”
