Ageless (4 page)

“What are you talking about?”
Violet was scared but she could feel something else bubbling inside
of her. Anger. “I don’t know what you are mixed up in, Margo, but
it has absolutely nothing to do with me and it is unfair that you
dragged me into it. I didn’t ask for any of this. I want to go
home. NOW.”

The pity had returned to Margo’s
eyes. “Oh, Vi. What’s happened has got everything to do with you;
you just don’t know it yet. Let me explain.”

“No!” Violet yelled. “Leave me
alone. Get out of here! You aren’t my friend, you never were my
friend, and I’m not going to believe a damn word that comes out of
your mouth from this point forward. Get out!” Violet swung around
and went to stand next to the window sill. She looked out and saw a
wide expansive lawn below her that led to a wooded area about a
hundred feet away. There was nothing familiar about it.

“Vi—” Margo started.

“Shut up and leave me alone,
Margo.” Violet refused to listen to anymore.

There was a long pause. Then Violet
heard soft footsteps crossing the floor, but they weren’t headed in
her direction. She closed her eyes, relieved. She rarely spoke in
anger, and Margo had a knack for always being able to cajole her to
her way of thinking. But whatever was going on wasn’t natural and
nothing Margo said was going to change her mind. Violet needed time
to sit and think and figure out a way to get out of
there.

She heard a soft knock on the door
and then the click of a lock. She hadn’t realized that they were
locked in the room. She turned to see the doors open. Margo stood
to the side with a small nod when the man from the library swept
into the room. Violet’s mouth dropped.

He looked exactly like she
remembered, except now he wore a pair of khakis and a button-down
purple shirt that made his violet eyes even darker. The outfit made
him look even older. In the library he had appeared curious and
friendly, but now his face wore a frown.

He dug his hands into his pockets
and then looked at Margo. “Judging by what I just overheard, things
don’t appear to be going as well as you assured us,
Margaret.”

Margaret?
Violet stared as Margo’s head bowed down even further. She had
never seen her strong and confident friend look so
subservient.

Margo mumbled something under her
breath and the man’s gaze swept back over her. “What was
that?”

“She said that she was doing just
fine until you came along with your antics, Jeremiah,” a cool voice
said. Violet saw another man lounging against the doorjamb with his
arms crossed, watching her intently. She saw a striking similarity
between him and the man standing in front of her. The man in the
doorway was equally handsome, except instead of black hair his was
dark brown. But the violet eyes were the same. “Margo couldn’t have
known those kids were going to call in Pamela’s crew too. Who are
you using to gather your intel? I’d say this is wholly your fault,
brother, as usual.”

Brothers. That explained it. Either
one of them would easily exceed any girl’s fantasy of the hottest
guy they could imagine. Both of them together in the same room made
Violet’s pulse race. It was hard for her to remember her own name
at the moment.

“Margaret had ample time to secure
Violet’s agreement to our plans. Instead, based on what I saw, I
think that she was a bit too enthralled with the idea of reliving
her childhood,” the man called Jeremiah said as he turned to smile
at Violet. Her heart skipped a beat as he stepped closer and took
her hand in his. “Welcome to my home, Violet. I apologize that I
did not have a chance to fully introduce myself yesterday, and now
we are doing so under such strange circumstances. I can assure you
that you will want for nothing during your stay here. All you need
to do is tell me what you desire.”

Violet blinked as the den in Mike’s
house flashed through her mind. She was certain whatever had
happened there would be classified as much more than simply strange
circumstances. Then she caught his glance down at her and the
appreciative twinkle in his eye. She remembered what she was
wearing and flushed. She was practically naked in front of this
strange and alluring man. She snatched her hand out of his and
pulled the afghan tighter around her shoulders to cover
herself.

“I don’t care who you are. I want
to go home,” she said in a much more confident voice than she felt
inside. His brief touch had made her knees go weak.

Loud chuckles filled the room and
Jeremiah whirled around. Violet saw that his brother was trying,
but not succeeding, in keeping his laughter at bay. “It is
refreshing to find someone who is immune to your charms,
Jeremiah.”

Violet wasn’t sure that immune was
the right word, but she had never been one to fall all over a hot
guy. Not that she had any real experience in that arena. Plus no
matter what Margo had said about being safe, there was definitely
an air of tension in the room. The people that surrounded her were
keeping secrets.

Jeremiah stalked over to his
brother and stared at him hard. “All right, Jonah. If you feel she
would be more receptive to
your
charms, be my guest. We’ll see if you have better
luck.” He shot a glare at Margo. “She needs to be ready by 8 p.m. I
trust I will find her more amenable or else you will be the one to
pay the consequences, Margaret.” With that, Jeremiah left the
room.

Margo’s face had turned ashen.
Jonah stepped into the room and put a hand on her arm. “He didn’t
mean it.”

“He did,” Margo said. She looked
distraught.

Jonah put his arm around Margo and
placed his chin on top of her head. “I’ll take care of Jeremiah. I
always do. Don’t worry.”

As Violet watched the intimate
scene in front of her, she found it surreal. All of the fuss and
Margo’s distress seemed to be about Violet, and she had no idea
why. Although ten minutes before she had no desire to get involved,
there was a part of her that still didn’t want anything to happen
to Margo. Violet felt hurt and betrayed, but she wouldn’t leave her
friend in the lurch, especially if she could help.

Violet cleared her throat and watched Jonah release
Margo. Then he approached her cautiously but with clear intent.
Although Jonah seemed more easygoing than his brother, he still had
the presence of a predator. Violet saw the elongated teeth again in
her mind and her eyes widened. She was certain that the man who had
caught her in the hallway was Jonah.

His eyes slipped down her still
form. She could see that he was as pleased by what he saw as his
brother, and she flushed. He stopped just in front of her and then
held out his hand. “Any friend of Margo’s is a friend of mine. I’m
Jonah.”

She looked at his hand but didn’t
put out her own. “Violet,” she said. She needed more information if
she was going to make sense of this mess that she was in, but
Violet realized that she was going to have to play nice to do
that.

Jonah smiled and she felt a burst
of pleasure inside. Her reaction to him, like her reaction to his
brother, was strange and primal, but not at all unpleasant, which
confused her even more. Jonah had been in Mike’s house. Like Margo,
that almost surely meant that he had participated in whatever had
happened there. But his open smile begged her to trust him, and she
found that she wanted to.

“Pleasure, Violet. I’m not sure
what Margo’s told you, but I for one am delighted to finally make
your acquaintance. It’s been a long time coming. You’ve caused
quite a stir around these parts.”

“I don’t understand any of this,”
Violet confessed. She wasn’t going to beat around the bush. “I
don’t know what any of you are talking about. It would really help
me out if you would all let me in on the secret.”

“Then allow Margo to explain,” he
said. “I understand that you’ve seen things that have frightened
you, but I can assure you that no harm will come to you as long as
you are staying in our home.” His words were formal and felt like
they were spoken by someone who was much older than he
looked.

“Was it you that I saw at Mike’s?”
she said. Her voice dropped to a low tone.

He nodded with a grimace. “I check
up on Margo from time to time and I stay close in case she needs
me. Last night that turned out to be a very good thing, for both of
you.”

Violet flashed a look at her
friend, who looked wore a dour look on her face. Was it because it
sounded like Margo needed help, or because she sensed that Jonah’s
obvious interest in her? “So if I stay here and let Margo tell me
what’s going on, you’ll let me go home?” she asked.

A sad look crossed Jonah’s face.
“The intention is not to keep you here against your will, Violet,
although it may feel that way. Talk with Margo. Ask her your
questions. Then you can decide.”

“So what’s happening at 8
p.m.?”

Jonah grinned and his eyes swept
over her again. “Why, it’s your coming-out party, Violet. You
wouldn’t want to miss it.” He winked at her and then turned on his
heel. He nodded to Margo as he pulled the double doors closed
behind him, leaving the two girls alone.

Margo held eye contact with Violet
until she heard the click of the lock in the door, and then turned
her attention to the armoire. Violet watched her sweep open the
doors and start to sift through whatever she was finding in there.
With Jonah’s words ringing in Violet’s ears, she slowly crept
closer to Margo.
A coming-out
party?

As she got close enough to see over
Margo’s shoulder inside the armoire, Violet gasped. There were
dresses in every color and design that she could imagine. Even to
her untrained eye she could tell by the resplendent fabrics that
each one probably cost a small fortune. Whoever Jeremiah and Jonah
were, they appeared to be rich.

“Are you going to stand there with
your mouth hanging open all day, or are you going to give me an
opinion on what you’d like to wear this evening?” Margo said
without turning around. She paused and pulled two dresses from the
rack, one a deep crimson red with a circular halter top, and one a
sapphire blue that was so dark it looked almost black. “You have to
make a grand entrance. Jeremiah won’t accept any less, so we have
to be sure that you are the most dazzling you can possibly be,
otherwise he’s going to blame me.”

Violet was speechless. It sounded
like Margo was annoyed with
her
. Spying a mirror on the inside of
the door, Violet decided to try putting aside her questions for the
moment. She nudged Margo out of the way so that she could see her
reflection, wondering what the men had seen that seemed to pique
their interest. Even in the simple nightdress, Violet barely
recognized herself.

It wasn’t that Violet was
uninterested in what she looked like, but over the years she had
grown used to being almost completely ignored by the members of the
male sex. That usually suited her fine because she found the guys
her age boring. Her clothes had gotten baggier, and she wore her
long hair swept up in a ponytail every day. Make-up seemed like a
waste of time when she wasn’t trying to draw attention to herself.
So seeing herself in the sweeping, fitted nightgown almost made her
eyes pop out of her head.

“Vi, I told you that you’re a
stunner and tonight everyone’s going to see what I knew you’ve been
hiding underneath all those baggy clothes all along,” Margo said,
holding up the red dress for her inspection. “My opinion? You
should wear this one.”

Violet wasn’t quite ready to talk
yet. For a moment, she allowed herself to enjoy feeling like she
was someone special. She took the hanger and held the dress up in
front of her. The dress had a plunging neckline that made her blush
as she thought of anyone seeing her in it. Then Margo handed her
the blue dress and pulled Violet’s hair up into a high pile on her
head so that soft curls fell down around Violet’s face. The blue
dress had a more modest neck and a fuller skirt.

Margo pulled a face. “Yep,
definitely the red. I hate it when Jeremiah’s right.” She took the
blue dress from Violet and hung it back up in the armoire. “He
handpicked almost every dress in here. I picked the blue. I have to
admit that the guy’s got an eye for what looks good on a
woman.”

She hung the red dress on the door.
Her eyes caught Violet’s in the reflection of the mirror and she
smiled shyly. “What do you say? Friends?”

Listening to Margo, Violet suddenly
wondered what else had been going on around her that she hadn’t
seen. Violet had the sense that she needed a friend more than
anything at the moment, and she realized that her earlier anger at
Margo had mellowed. She smiled timidly back at Margo.
“Friends.”

Margo was at her side seconds later
giving her a tight hug. “I’m so sorry, Vi. It wasn’t my fault. I
would never have allowed things to happen the way that they did if
I had known what Tesla was up to. Add in Jeremiah being all
impatient and it was just a mess, although I’m glad he sent Jonah
to find us. It could have ended really badly.”

Violet had no idea what she meant, but her mind was
tripping over the idea that things could have been worse than what
she had seen.