Defeat the Darkness (18 page)

Next he studied the tins of tea and compared them to the various blends listed on the menu. Who needed this many flavors? What was wrong with the basics like black and green? Well, and Pu'erh, his newest favorite, not that he'd admit that to Tate.

The floor overhead creaked. It had to be that damned Sandra. He stopped to listen, tracing her footsteps, hoping she'd stay up there until Tate got back. On the other hand, he'd be just as happy to have her on her way right back to wherever she'd come from. He didn't give a rip what the woman thought about him, but he hated to see Tate in pain. If Sandra tore into Tate again, he'd stuff the woman back in her car himself—or maybe under it.

He'd done everything he could think of to get ready for any customers. Maybe while it was quiet, he should report in. He listened again to make sure that Sandra was still upstairs, then he stepped outside to call Devlin. The Paladin leader answered on the second ring.

“It's Hunter. I had company last night.”

“Gee, that's great. Were these the out-of-town relatives that you'd mentioned might be stopping by?”

Hunter stared at his phone in confusion before he realized that there must be someone with Devlin, someone not friendly to the cause.

“Yes, the one from out of town went home last night. The other two were local, but I figure they'll be back for another visit soon. I'll let you know if I hear from them again.”

“That's great. I know some of the other guys would like to see them, too. Say, can you hold a minute? I've got someone here.”

Hunter was on hold before he could respond, leaving him no choice but to wait. He considered hanging up, but it wouldn't do to piss off the man for no good reason.

Devlin clicked back in on the line. “Sorry about that. I don't think you've had the pleasure of meeting Colonel Kincade yet. He's the Regents' resident asshole, and he's really been on a tear this morning.”

“No problem. You wanted to be kept in the loop when I had activity. There were two humans and one Other through here last night. They came up from the beach this time rather than crossing through Tate's property. One of the humans stood guard on the trail while the other two went into the cave. The Other didn't come back out.”

“Could you follow the two humans when they left?”

“Not without being heard.” Especially with his leg, but he figured that was none of Devlin's business.

“Okay. Let's do this. I'm going to send D.J. back up there with some friends. Show them around and see if any of you can pick up any information from their trail. They'll be up this afternoon.”

How the hell was Hunter supposed to play tour guide for D.J. and company when he'd promised to work in the shop? He'd have to figure something out. “Okay, but there's no guarantee my guests will be back anytime soon.”

“I know, but now that we know they're still using that passage through to Kalithia on a regular basis, you'll need some backup. That is unless you like parking your ass out on that hillside every night.”

He didn't need help doing his job, but it only made sense to have someone ready to step in if something went wrong.

“Okay, send them.”

“Will do.” Devlin's voice warmed up a bit. “And Hunter, I do appreciate your doing this. I really want to stop these bastards, and your being there might just make that possible.”

As a rule, Hunter didn't deal with gratitude well. “Tell D.J. if I'm not at my place to try the tea shop.”

Devlin snorted. “Tea shop? Don't you know Seattle is the latté capital of the world?”

“Justice Point isn't Seattle.”

“No, I guess not. Keep in touch.”

As usual, Devlin hung up without a good-bye.

“What are you doing here?”

Hunter considered ignoring Sandra completely, but he figured that would only set her off. There were a couple of ladies sitting in the corner messing with yarn and drinking the tea he'd made. The last thing he wanted was to get into a shouting match with Tate's mother in front of customers.

“I'm keeping an eye on things so Tate could take a friend to the emergency room.”

He sipped his own tea and tried to figure out what
four-across was on the crossword puzzle. The clue was a five-letter word for an ancient weapon. He considered writing in “old ax,” but he doubted that was what they were looking for. Obviously, he'd gone wrong somewhere.

“Why didn't she ask me to cover for her?”

Was that hurt he heard in her voice? Surely not. But when he finally looked up, she did look a bit bewildered. Rather than point out that Tate had no reason to think Sandra would've volunteered, he gave a gentler answer.

“There wasn't time. When the Auntie Ms came in, it was obvious that Mabel was ill. The only way she'd let Tate take her to the hospital was if she knew Tate wouldn't have to close this place down. I was handy.”

Sandra seemed unsure about what to do next.

“Would you like me to make you a cup of tea?”

He didn't know which one of them was more surprised by his offer.

“I'd love some, but I can fix it.”

He had to admit that she looked pretty comfortable behind the counter, putting her tea on to steep and warming up a scone in the microwave. When she picked it up, he used his foot to push out the chair across from him in an unspoken invitation to join him.

“Thank you.” She broke off the point of her scone and topped it with some lemon curd. “Any idea when Tate will be back?”

“No. I guess it will depend on what's wrong with Mabel. Tate has my cell number, so I figure she'll call if it's something serious.”

He went back to his puzzle. Yeah, he'd had some letters
reversed. He crossed them out and smiled when he realized the “ancient” weapon was a sword. Well, that all depended on what crowd you ran with. True, some of his buddies fought with swords that had been handed down through their families, but blades wore out eventually. The Paladins kept their armorer busy making replacement weapons. Ancient was all a matter of perspective.

“Did you read something funny in the puzzle?”

Sandra had been so quiet that he'd almost forgotten she was there.

She pointed toward the paper with her teaspoon. “You were smiling.”

“No, I was just thinking about some friends of mine.”

When he didn't go on, she went back to stirring her tea. “I'd planned on talking to Tate before I left. Do you think she'll be upset if I'm gone when she gets back?”

Relieved would be a better guess, but he kept that thought to himself.

“I can always give her a message for you.” As long as it was civil and wouldn't upset Tate.

“Tell her that I'm going back to Edwin. I called him this morning, and we talked things out.”

“Does she know this Edwin?”

For the first time, he realized that Sandra hadn't bothered with makeup and looked more like her real age. He had no idea if that was good or bad.

“No, she hasn't met him, but he's a good man. If he has his way, though, she'll meet him soon enough.” She pushed her cup and plate to the side. “I've never had much luck with men sticking around, including Tate's father. I'm sure she told you that I drove him off.”

“The subject never came up.”

“Oh. Well, I've always suspected she blamed me for him not sticking around. He was on one of his extended trips, if you get my drift, when he was killed in a car accident. He wasn't alone at the time.”

“I'm sorry. That must have been tough for both you and Tate.”

“Yes, it was. She loved her father. So did I, but that never seemed to be enough for him.” She stared at the table, lost in thought for a few seconds.

“Anyway, Edwin wanted to make our relationship more permanent, and I panicked. He says he's willing to take things slower, but he still wants to marry me.”

“How do you feel about that?” God, he couldn't believe he'd asked that. It was none of his business.

“Scared. It seems like I've spent my whole life feeling that way. Who knows, maybe it's time to change that. He's a good man.” Then she smiled. “I guess I already said that, didn't I?”

“That's okay. Maybe you needed to hear yourself say it.”

She drew a shuddering breath. “Tell Tate I'm sorry about yesterday. What I said was unforgivable, and I'll understand if she doesn't want to see me for a while.”

The faint sound of a cuckoo clock could be heard from upstairs.

“Oh, dear, I hadn't realized it had gotten so late. I have to get packing. Edwin's expecting me for dinner.” Sandra started to get up but then stayed where she was. “Before I leave, though, I want to know what your intentions are toward my daughter. She's not the kind to sleep
with just any man who comes along. I hope you realize how special she is, even if I occasionally seem to forget that myself.”

Intentions? Other than to get Tate back into his bed as soon as possible, he didn't have any. Couldn't have any. Paladins made for bad boyfriend material, much less anything more long term than that.

“That's between me and Tate.”

He nodded in the direction of the two ladies still knitting away in the corner, hoping Sandra would think his reticence on the subject was discretion on his part. Nope, she wasn't buying that idea at all.

He held up his hand to forestall whatever she was going to say. “Like I said, Sandra, it's between me and Tate. I won't betray her confidence, especially with you. If she wants to talk to you sometime, fine.” Not really, but it sounded good.

He went on. “Judging from last night, I don't see her pouring her heart out to you right now. I'm not about to do it for her.”

Sandra drew herself up to her full height, a fierce look on her face. “Fine, but you heard me. She's inexperienced when it comes to dealing with men like you.”

Now that pissed him off. “You don't know anything about me, lady.”

He stood up. All too aware of the two women listening from the corner, he dropped his voice. “This conversation is over. Do Tate a favor and be gone before she gets back. Let me know if you need help with your bags.”

Then he walked away.

• • •

It was a relief to be on the way home. According to Mabel, the doctors had checked her from head to toe and back again without finding anything too alarming. The dizziness was from a combination of a middle ear and sinus infection.

Her elderly friend shifted restlessly in the seat beside her. “Thank you for taking me, Tate. It's nice to know that it wasn't my heart, but there's no cure for getting old.”

There was no denying that, so Tate didn't try. “Well, he did say that you'll feel better once that antibiotic kicks in and takes care of the infection.” She pulled up in front of Mabel's house. “We're home, ladies.”

She helped each of the sisters out of the car and then followed them slowly up to the house. When she had Mabel all settled in bed for a well-deserved nap, Tate made sure the other two were tucked up comfortably in their usual chairs in front of the television. Finally, she ran back out to the car to get the carry-out food they'd picked up on the way home. She'd gotten enough for the three women for lunch and dinner, knowing they'd be too tired to cook.

Satisfied she'd done as much as she could, she left them alone, promising to check in again later. Now back to the shop to see what disasters Hunter had run into serving tea. She'd thought about him off and on for hours, wishing she could've been there to see him pouring tea and bussing tables.

Hunter Fitzsimon was definitely a puzzle. There was
no missing the wary edginess he wore like a second skin, but he was kind to old ladies and the first to jump in with an offer to help. He mowed lawns unasked and had made her feel like the center of his universe when he'd held her in his arms.

Those were the positives. On the other side, he had no discernible job, pushed her away as often as he pulled her close, and obviously had some major problems arising from whatever had caused that horrific scar on his leg.

When she pulled into her driveway, she noticed her mother's car was gone. Would it be too horrible of her to hope that she'd really gone and not just made a run into town to pick up a few things? Maybe, but she tried not to lie to herself. Sandra was never easy to be around, and she'd been extra horrible this time.

That was when she noticed a large black SUV pulling in to park in front of the shop. How many customers had Hunter had while she'd been gone? She hoped he hadn't been inundated by too many or bored out of his mind by too few. Either way, she owed him big time for his help. Maybe she could slip in the back door and get in position to wait on these new customers and give him a break.

Hunter looked up from his book when she walked into the shop from the kitchen.

“Welcome home. How's Mabel? Is she okay?”

Her heart warmed at the concern in his voice. “The doctor said she'll feel better in a few days. She has a sinus infection and a middle ear infection.”

“I'm glad it wasn't anything more serious.”

Hunter closed his book and stood up just as the door opened and four men filed in with D.J. leading the way.

“Hey, there, Tate!” D.J. nodded at Hunter before stepping aside to let his friends walk past.

Before she could respond, Hunter screamed in outrage and lunged past her, almost knocking her to the ground. By the time she caught her balance, Hunter had shoved one of the other men up against the door frame and had his hands around the man's neck.

His victim frantically fought to pull Hunter's hands away from his throat, as did the other two strangers. D.J. had his arms around Hunter's waist, trying to yank him off the other man while Tate looked on in horror. As they rolled in her direction, she scuttled back behind the counter, wanting to hide but unable to tear her eyes away from the terrifying spectacle unfolding before her.