Hidden Magic (6 page)

Less than a minute passed before the waitress arrived carrying two plates. She started to put the burger in front of Zander, then stopped and crinkled her nose before setting it down for Jilly.

Jilly grinned triumphantly as the woman gave Zander her quesadilla.

“Y’all need anything else?” the waitress asked.

Zander switched their plates. “How about some eye of newt?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Excuse me?”

“Nothing. Just an inside joke.” After the waitress retreated, he shook his head. “That was a coincidence.”

“Maybe, maybe not.”

She took a bite of her food but her stomach protested. “What do you have to lose by letting me see Hannah’s things? Maybe I’ll hit on something that gives you the information you need to find her.”

Lines fanned out from the corners of his eyes and mouth. “Her family’s been through so much. I don’t want to get their hopes up. And I don’t even know if they’ll agree to let you in.”

“I guess there’s only one way to answer that. Can’t we just try? Please? What have you got to lose?”

Something she’d said must have gotten through to him. She could see it in his softening expression, in the way he dropped his shoulders almost imperceptibly. He was considering allowing her to help.

She moved in to seal the deal. “I’d hate to have to explain to your grandmother that I was willing to work with you, that I’d gotten some vibes from Hannah’s necklace but you wouldn’t give me a chance to explore it further.” When it came to someone’s life, she had no problem tightening the emotional thumbscrews.

Muscles around his jaw ticked.

She wished she could read his downcast gaze.

“You don’t play fair.” He shoved away his half-eaten burger.

She held back a cheer, but tempered her exhilaration with the knowledge that her new identity might be compromised somehow in the course of the investigation. After all, they wouldn’t allow her access to much without running some sort of background check on her.

Suddenly she was famished. She scarfed down the rest of her meal in record time but Zander hardly said a word.

He’d yet to give an official okay, but she felt it coming. After the waitress dropped off their check, he downed the dregs of his beer, then slapped money on the wood table. “Ready?” He strode away before she’d even replied.

Okay, so she’d pissed him off. Shouldn’t bother her because if he was mad at her, he wouldn’t come on to her anymore. So why did she have that sinking feeling in the bottom of her stomach? She slid out of the booth and hurried to the front of the restaurant to catch up to him.

At least he held the door for her as they left Murphy’s. He unlocked the car and opened it for her but his face remained impassive.

Even in the low light of the parking lot she could see that his aura had turned red. Not that she had any doubt he was angry with her. His body language came through loud and clear.

And scroll up and now scroll down She held onto the side of the car door, rather than get inside. “Are you mad because I said I was going to tell your grandmother you didn’t give me a chance?”

He marched around the car to face her, only inches away. His jaw quivered as if he was holding back a tsunami of emotion. Why was he so angry? And why did it bother her so much?

She trembled under his stare. Maybe she’d gone too far. “Look, forget I said that. I won’t mention anything to Nell regardless of what you decide.”

His demeanor seemed to relax but only a little. “I never said I couldn’t handle my relatives. But I sure as hell don’t like being threatened.”

Threatened? Being alone with an angry male was stirring up some painful memories. Would Zander lash out at her for what she’d said? She took a backward step. “Okay, I can see how you’d interpret it that way, but I really hadn’t meant to threaten you. I’m sorry.”

“If I accept your help it’s because I want to find Hannah not because I’m afraid of my grandmother.” The intensity of his stare didn’t lessen. His breath was coming in short, ragged bursts and strangely, so was hers.

A clear red glow surrounded him. Holy cow, all that energy had nothing to do with rage and everything to do with passion, the lustful kind. Alarm bucked through her.

Goddess help her. She wanted him. So badly that her fingers shook and her heart tattooed a heavy beat against her ribs.

Zander roughly grabbed her upper arms and yanked her against his body, the evidence of his need pressed to her belly. His eyes blazed with unmistakable arousal that mirrored her own.

She didn’t want to kiss him, it would only make things so much more complicated. But how was she supposed to fight the fiery intensity of her desire? It had been so long since a man had touched her, wanted her. She knew every flavor of loneliness and she desperately needed salvation.

His lips crushed to hers, seeking entry. No, demanding it.

He gave her the most scorching kiss ever. Those damn warning bells were ringing like crazy but she shoved them to the back of her mind.

He tasted of beer and heat and pure male as he sucked and circled her tongue. His fingers dug hard into her arms but she didn’t care. Nothing else mattered. The universe shrank to the parking lot, the two of them, this moment, this kiss.

She slid her hands inside his jacket, down his sides and helped herself to the feel of that muscular torso that his suit jacket had kept hidden. Nothing like this had ever happened to her before. Sure, she’d been kissed, she’d made out with men and slept with a few but the wanting had never felt so overpowering. Like she yearned to rip his clothes off and touch every sinewy inch of him. And she wanted him to touch her, everywhere.

A car pulled into the lot, breaking the spell between them. He backed up, still grasping her shoulders. Then he tucked her under his arm and turned her away from the people heading into the pub.

He let her go and she suddenly felt cold and alone.  A purely male growl rumbled in his chest. “This is why we shouldn’t work together.”

She hugged her arms around her body but it didn’t make up for the loss. “I don’t understand.”

“I have this attraction to you like…it’s too strong, too intense. It’ll cloud my mind if I have to work with you every day.” He took another step away and folded his arms. “If I’m around you and I can’t touch you…God, I’ll go crazy.”

His pronouncement had her reeling. Strange as it felt to have a man come on so strong, she understood his dilemma. Her feelings had taken her by surprise too, but she couldn’t act on them, not again. Just the idea of becoming involved with Zander—with any man—had her dizzy and confused. And a cop no less. She needed to get away from him or she’d end up losing control.

But then she flashed on Hannah’s picture, felt that same connection to the frightened girl. “Maybe I can do some investigating on my own. What if I go directly to her parents and—”

“No! Absolutely not. You can’t approach them or I’ll arrest you for harassment.”

She gasped. “You’d arrest me?”

He wiped a hand over his face. “Yes. No. I mean, they won’t go for that. Hell, even if we presented you as someone we were working with I’m not sure they’d consent to have you in their home. They’re very private folks, really conservative.”

“Oh.” She looked down at what she was wearing, which wouldn’t qualify as conservative in any galaxy.

“It’s nothing personal. Well, part of it’s personal. See? You’re already knocking me off balance.”

She had to admit he was doing the same to her. But touching Hannah’s things, being in a space that bore traces of her, that was what she needed to get more of a foothold on her connection to the girl. How was she just supposed to abandon her? She could barely swallow past the lump in her throat. She took a minute to rein in her emotions. “Whatever this is between you and me, we have to keep a lid on it. The most important thing is finding Hannah. Whether she’s alive or… We have to get to her. You have to let me help, Zander.”

He shook his head and her her hopes were dashed.

* * * * *

Zander parked in front of a cottage nestled into the woods. He half expected to see Goldilocks and the three bears sitting on the porch. Jilly had hardly said a word to him the whole way from the pub except to direct him to her place. Shouldn’t matter to him so much but he’d kick himself if he’d completely screwed things up with her.

He hooked his arm over the back of her seat and cringed when she backed away from him. “Does this have to mean we can’t explore whatever this is between us? Because I wasn’t the only one enjoying that kiss before. I’m just a clueless guy, but I think I know when a woman is turned on.”

She wouldn’t look at him so he took her chin between his fingers and turned it toward him. Her eyes were huge and lovely, even in the dark. “I’m not going to lie and tell you I’m not intrigued by the
vibes
you supposedly got from Hannah’s necklace.”

“Supposedly?” She folded her arms across her chest. “So you still don’t believe me?”

This wasn’t going as he’d planned. All he’d set out to do was get to know her, let her see that he was more than a cop. That he was a man. “I didn’t say that. I have a hard time swallowing anything supernatural.”

“Really? Are you a religious man, detective? Billions of people believe that a man rose from the dead then performed miracles or that another man parted a sea and had a conversation with a burning bush. Yet you find it hard to believe that I can see things that are invisible to you. Certainly I can’t look into the future even though science has proved that past, present and future are all happening simultaneously.”

His temples started aching. “What science would that be? Nothing I ever learned in school.”

She shook her head. “Ever heard of quantum physics? Albert Einstein? Maybe you ought to do some research. But I’ll give you a super short lesson. Quantum physics holds that some things are changed by our observation of them, beams of light traveling through holes in a screen for example. It’s a classic quantum physics demonstration. Look it up. And Einstein? Well, he’s the one who first theorized that time is an illusion and everything is happening at once. If that’s true, then why is it so strange that I can see the past and the future?”

None of that made any sense to him but he’d do just about anything to get her to stay and talk to him longer. “I’m just a simple cop. I don’t claim to hold all the answers.”

She glared at him. “You’re awfully quick to shoot down all possibilities other than the most logical though.”

“It’s my job to find the most likely scenarios. To use the process of elimination and deduction to come up with answers.”

She blinked, seemed to study him. “I never thought about it that way but I guess that’s true.”

“So maybe we can agree to disagree about a few things. I promise I won’t discount…whatever it is you do. I’ll try not to be so closed to all the possibilities out there.”

She lowered her gaze and he sensed the walls she’d erected around herself were showing a few cracks, maybe enough to let him in.

His cell buzzed before he could say anything else. He checked the display. When he saw his boss’s name there, he straightened and answered the phone. “Hey Van, what’s up?”

“State’s crime lab just emailed me the results from Hannah Saxon’s car,” the sheriff said.

Zander braced himself for unwelcome news. He hadn’t held out much hope since the car had been mostly submerged for several weeks. “And?”

“They found traces of blood in a crevice. It’s not Hannah’s.”

He shut his eyes a moment as he offered up his silent thanks. “That’s great.”

“Did you find that psychic person your grandfather wanted you to see?”

He glanced across the seat at Jilly who was pretending to dig in her purse for something but it was clear she was paying close attention to his conversation. “I did.”

“Good. I’ll assume she was about as much help as we figured. Now we can move on from there. I know he’s your grandfather, but it pisses me off when politicians get involved in how we run our investigations. They have absolutely no business.”

He turned away from Jilly. “Right. Well, she did get a little…vibe or something from Hannah’s necklace. I’m thinking about taking her over to the Saxon house tomorrow to see if she can get more.”

Sheriff Van Horn didn’t say anything for a long beat. “I guess it went better than expected with her then.”

“Yeah, not bad. I’ll fill you in tomorrow.”

“I can’t wait to hear about it.” The sarcasm in his tone came right through the line.

Zander hung up then faced Jilly.

“So it went better than expected with me, huh?” Her pretty eyes sparkled with amusement. “Your boss had some news on the case, didn’t he?”

Had she used her psychic senses for that or had she merely overheard what Van had said? “I can’t share that information, sorry.”

“I understand.” But her pursed lips told a different story.

“I don’t know how the Saxons will feel about having a psychic involved.”

“Does that mean you’ll let me work with you?”

He rubbed the bridge of his nose. “It means I’ll think about it tonight and let you know in the morning.”

She uttered a soft gasp. “Thank you.”

“I’d have to get the Saxons’ permission to take you in their house and frankly, I’m not sure they’d go along with something like this.”

“Maybe I should explain to them about quantum physics and Einstein’s theory of time and space. Or you can if you want. Oh, but you still don’t believe so maybe that’s not a good idea.”

Maybe she really could help. The sooner he solved the case, the sooner he could allow himself to explore his attraction to Jilly.

He just prayed when they located Hannah, that they’d find her alive.

* * * * *

Jilly locked the door to her cottage as the sound of Zander’s car receded. At least he was
considering
letting her work with him. He obviously wasn’t fully convinced that she could help. Something held him back from that definite yes. What else could she do to sway him in her direction?

She crumpled onto her sofa and closed her eyes. “Goddess, help me to steer him to my way of thinking.” When she opened her eyes, her gaze landed on her bookshelf and she knew the Goddess was telling her something. But what? There were more than a thirty books on psychic powers, spell work and tarot.