Tempted by Fate (37 page)

“You need backup?”

She shrugged. “There’s always a first time. So are you coming?”

Forty minutes later, they pulled up to Max’s loft, behind a black sports car that he recognized as Gabrielle Sansouci Chin’s. “It seems we aren’t the only ones visiting,” Ramirez said when they were on the sidewalk.

“No. The gang’s all here.” She turned to him and squeezed his hand. “Promise me you’ll keep an open mind. That you’ll listen objectively like the detective that you are before you judge.”

He cocked an eyebrow, honestly worried. “You’re not making this sound good.”

“I know.”

Before he could say anything else, the door opened and Max frowned at him. “Ramirez. What are you doing here?”

Steel infused Willow’s backbone and her tone. “I invited him,” she said, not giving Prescott room to argue.

Max narrowed his eyes at her, obviously wanting to say something but trying to hold his tongue.

Willow rolled her eyes. “You had to know it was inevitable.”

“But I was holding out hope I was wrong.”

Ramirez looked back and forth between Willow and Max. “Anyone going to clue me in on what’s going on here?”

Max snorted. “Are you sure you don’t want to cut and run? Now’s your last chance.”

Willow glared at Max. “Thanks for the support. And, I hate to point out, you were the one who called to invite us over.”

“I invited
you
over.” He pointed at Ramirez. “
He
wasn’t included in the deal.”

“Your wife is included.”

“Because she’s
my wife.
”

Willow glanced at Ramirez quickly before facing down Max again. “My point exactly.”

Max went completely impassive, studying the two of them. Ramirez couldn’t resist the urge to slide his hand around her waist.

Willow rolled her eyes. “Can we take this inside, guys?”

Max grunted and waved them in. In the living room, Rhys sat on a couch, his girlfriend, Gabrielle, curled next to him, her shoes kicked off and her legs curled under her. Carrie sat apart from them, obviously next to Max, based on the large impression in the cushions next to her.

When Ramirez and Willow walked into the room, they all stared in an array of different emotions. Gabe gaped, Carrie gave him a wicked wink, and Rhys surveyed them as impassively as Max had.

Ramirez felt an undercurrent, volatile and potent, course
through the room. It was almost tangible—like an electric shock—making his skin tingle. Strange.

Carrie was the one who spoke first. “I knew it,” she said smugly. She turned to Gabe. “You owe me a hundred bucks.”

Gabe looked back and forth between him and Willow. “I think that’s a reasonable price of admission for the show we’re about to see.”

Willow frowned at them. “You people aren’t helping matters.”

“No, we’re not,” Rhys said sympathetically. “It might have to do with the fact that we invited you to come over, not Inspector Ramirez.”

“Nevertheless, he’s here, and you’re going to have to deal.” Willow exhaled deeply. “I’m going to tell him.”

Gabrielle muttered things under her breath; Rhys squeezed her leg. She glared at Ramirez then, but at least she did it in silence.

Carrie watched with concern, which did little to relieve Ramirez’s growing anxiety. He needed everyone to just get to the point.

He frowned. “Can we stop tiptoeing around this and let me know what’s going on?”

“Good luck with this one, girlfriend.” Gabrielle smirked. “I can’t say I envy you.”

“Thanks.” Willow shot the other woman a dark look before she turned to Ramirez. She hesitated, but then took his hand in hers in the end. “I have special powers. We all do.”

He stared at her, not blinking. “Okay, now that you got that joke out of the way, tell me what this is about.”

“That
is
what this is about,” she said. “It’s a complicated
story, but, in a nutshell, we’re all Guardians of ancient Chinese scrolls. Our scrolls empower us with individual powers to help us do our duties.”

“In short, we’re Jedis,” Gabrielle said gleefully. “Welcome to the Force, Inspector.”

Ramirez was the one who gave Gabe a dark look this time. He returned his attention to Willow. “The thing with the tree? How you seemed to disappear?”

She nodded. “Part of my powers.”

Ramirez wanted to scoff and deny existence of any such thing, only he’d witnessed Willow’s powers, as she called them, with his own eyes. He couldn’t explain them, and that made him want to refute any possibility that they existed.

And yet…

His grandmother was proof that the unexplainable did exist. While he was growing up, she defied everything he believed in, on a daily basis. He remembered how Lita told him sometimes shades of gray replaced pure black and white. He shook his head. It seemed Willow’s entire life was a constant state of gray.

“What?” she asked softly.

“Is this it? Anything else in your closet?”

“This is it.” She squeezed his hand. “I swear.”

He nodded, trying to process. As he looked around the room, his gaze rested on Carrie. “You’re a Guardian, too?”

She shook her head. “I’m in your boat. Although I knew about the myth. I just didn’t know that it was more than a cool fairy tale.”

He looked at Gabrielle, Rhys, and Max.

Gabrielle shrugged. “You knew something was
different all along. You smelled it. It’s got to be good, knowing you were right.”

“That’s one way of looking at it.”

Willow tugged his hand, pulling his attention to her again. “Metal—I mean Max wanted to discuss some Guardian business today. Let’s get that out of the way and then you can ask me anything you need to. Okay?”

As if he had any other choice. Gritting his teeth, pissed but not sure why, he nodded.

She didn’t look any more relieved, but she seemed to compartmentalize that and turned to Max, who’d sat back down next to his wife. “You said this was important.”

“Carrie found some information that’s pertinent to us all.”

All eyes turned to Carrie.

Carrie looked at him. “Rick, you’re going to want to be sitting when you get this information.”

“Jeez, that bad!” Gabrielle exclaimed.

“It’s a doozy,” Carrie replied in her usual cheery voice. “You guys know how Wei Lin separated all the scrolls because together they wielded way too much power for anyone to control? And by ‘you guys,’ I really mean you, Rick. Because I think we can safely assume everyone else here is up on the myth.”

Ramirez gave a curt nod. “I’ll read the Cliffs Notes later if I need to.”

Gabrielle chortled. “I can’t believe it. You joked. This chick must be good for you.” She turned to Willow. “Stick around. You seem to be humanizing him.”

Willow bristled but said nothing.

Rhys sighed. “Love, is it really wise to provoke her?”

“Maybe not wise, but it sure is fun.”

Carrie cleared her throat. “If you guys are done, I’ll get on with this. It’s important for all of you.”

The room fell silent. Ramirez studied each person as they turned their attention to Carrie. They paid attention to her, like her words had weight, even though she said she wasn’t one of them.

“Okay, here’s the gist,” she began, her cheeks flushing in excitement. “Wei Lin always knew the scrolls were meant to be together. ‘
The five elements coexist in harmony, an endless circle of give and take,
’ he wrote. Separating them was a temporary stopgap that wasn’t supposed to last forever.”

“It wasn’t?” Gabrielle asked, sitting up alert. “I thought the families were forever cursed to carry their burdens.”

Ramirez frowned. “
Cursed?
”

Rhys smiled mildly. “Gabrielle is less than pleased with her role as a Guardian.”

“Because it
sucks,
” she said emphatically. “If you ask me, phenomenal cosmic power is overrated.”

“Especially if you don’t have a handle on it,” Max commented quietly, obviously meaning for her to hear it.

“Hey.” Gabrielle started to leap off the couch, pointing a finger at him. “You—”

Rhys tugged her back. “You can tear him to pieces later, love, with my blessings. After Carrie finishes.”

Carrie wagged a finger at her husband. “Behave.”

Max scowled, but neither did he say anything further.

Willow watched the other players like a tennis match. Ramirez wondered what she made of this. Her life sounded solitary—working as a group had to be a foreign experience.

“What was I saying before the children got out of hand?” Carrie tapped her chin in thought. “Right—Wei Lin and his vision. He always meant for the scrolls to be reunited.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

All eyes turned to Gabrielle, and Carrie sighed.

Gabrielle threw her hands in the air. “What? Am I supposed to raise my hand to talk or something? I just wanted to express that the third rule is that the scrolls need to be kept apart.”

Carrie nodded. “That was a rule Wei Lin put into place, but it was only temporary. Until the messiah came to reunite all the elements.”

“
Messiah?
” everyone exclaimed at once.

“Messiah,” Carrie repeated resolutely.

Willow stared incredulously. “You’re saying some religious person—”

“Not a religious person,” Carrie interrupted. “I didn’t mean
messiah
in the literal Christian sense. I meant there’s going to be a Chosen One who unites the scrolls once and for all. And it seems to be happening now.”

“How do you know that?” Rhys asked, his skepticism thinly veiled.

Carrie shrugged. “By virtue of the events. Gabe said that all her life she’d been told that you guys were supposed to stay away from each other. I think you’re being staged.”

Rhys nodded. “It’d explain why we all ended up in San Francisco.”

“That we’re all being lured into a holding pattern, waiting for this Chosen One to arrive and unite the scrolls.” Max turned his wife’s face toward his, his expression
stonier than usual. “Does this mean we have to give up our scrolls?”

“I don’t know.” She held her hands out to forestall any other questions. “I only know that you guys have all gathered in San Francisco after centuries of being in separate corners of the world. I also know that, after all these centuries, I conveniently found a document that told me what was happening.” She raised her eyebrows. “I’m a good researcher, but that’s not just skill, it’s luck. And I kind of think it was time for answers to surface, at least for someone who wanted to find them.”

Willow shifted forward. “So you’re saying this information is out there for anyone who wants it.”

“Yeah, pretty much.” Carrie wrinkled her nose.

“That sucks,” Gabrielle said succinctly.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Carrie repeated with a grin.

“All the elements aren’t gathered,” Prescott pointed out.

Ramirez frowned. “There’s another one?”

“Water,” everyone said at once.

“Great.” He rubbed a hand over his neck. That was all he needed—another one coming into his city and wreaking havoc. Because these Guardians seemed to attract crime like bees to honey.

Rhys regarded Carrie. “Is that all?”

“Is that all?” Gabrielle squeaked, folding her legs under her to face him. “Isn’t that enough? And why aren’t you more upset? The universe is playing marionette with our lives, and all you, the biggest control freak in the room, can ask is if that’s it?”

He lifted her hand and kissed the inside of her wrist. “It doesn’t help to get worked up about things one can’t control.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Does that mean you’re plotting something?”

“Would I do such a thing?”

“Yes,” she said without hesitation.

A slight smile curled the corner of his lips.

Max sighed. “It’s all downhill from here. They’re going to start making out, and I’m going to gag.”

Carrie whacked his shoulder.

“I agree.” Willow stood and faced Max. “Thank you for including me in this discussion.”

Max was silent a moment and then shrugged. “Fate decided by making you a Guardian. If I had my way, I’d keep you away.”

Ramirez glanced at Carrie, who sighed and shook her head.

Willow didn’t show any signs of taking offense, but Ramirez knew her, so he saw the stiff, defensive set of her shoulders and the way her hands flexed, as if ready to attack. To the rest, she just tipped her head and headed to the front door.

Hell.
He stood to follow her, but he addressed the room first. “I’ll have questions, you know.”

“Of course you will, Inspector,” Rhys said mildly. “Like it or not, by accepting her, you’ve become one of us.”

Ramirez stalled and stared at the British man. He didn’t know what to say to that.

Now wasn’t the time to puzzle it out—he needed to catch up to Willow. He nodded at everyone, kissed Carrie on the cheek, despite Max’s growl, and headed for his parked car.