Oceans of Fire (15 page)

“Won’t they know anyway?” Joley asked. “Your hit man friend must have known we’d come in here.”

“It wasn’t the same man who was at your house last night. I know his work. This is someone else.” The light from the torch spilled over them and Joley took a visible breath of relief. “How many enemies do you Drakes have?”

“You were the one he shot,” Abigail pointed out. Her stomach rebelled against the idea, lurching and rolling; she pressed a hand hard against it in protest.

Aleksandr didn’t reply but turned back to lead the way. It was slow going as they followed. The tunnel had less seepage and was sheer rock, but it was extremely narrow and the ceiling overhead was uneven and jagged in places.

“Careful here,” he instructed. “Step over this little wire.” He held the torch as high as possible in the confined space. “Do you see it?”

Once pointed out it wasn’t that hard to get over the obstacle and they hurried across the short distance.

“You’ve never admitted to having a great voice, Abbey,” Joley said as they moved into the small section of stairs that intersected with the mill’s staircase. “You have such perfect pitch. How could I not know that?”

Abigail didn’t answer. She stared at a spot between Aleksandr’s shoulder blades and kept walking.

“Both of you have an element not found in other voices,” Aleksandr said without turning around. “I’m guessing that would be magic.”

“Yes,” Joley confirmed. “I can weave certain spells, help Libby heal, make people happier, that sort of thing. It’s a wonderful gift and I try very hard to use it wisely. There have been times when it’s tempting to use it when someone really annoys me, but Abbey has never sung a single note in front of me. And my sisters can’t have known about her voice either or they would have told me.” She nudged Abigail in the back. “Why are you hiding your ability?”

“I’m not discussing it,” Abbey said, her voice tight.

Aleksandr glanced over his shoulder at her. “There seem to be a lot of topics you don’t want discussed lately. Your voice is beautiful and should not be hidden from the world. We often talked about our children and singing them lullabies but never once did you offer to sing to them.”

Abigail’s breath came out in a rush. Anger swirled to the surface even though she tried hard to contain it. “Yes, well, we both know things go wrong with my magic. Unlike Joley, mine is flawed. Or perhaps the wielder is flawed. I would never take a chance on harming one of my children.”

Chapter 6

ABIGAIL knew there was no hope of lingering any longer in her bathroom. Her sisters were waiting downstairs for an explanation. Worse, Jonas was wearing a path in the living room floor with his pacing. Leaving her hair to dry on its own after the warmth of a shower, she met her aunt Carol in the hall. Family members weren’t supposed to have favorites, but Carol held a special place in Abbey’s heart. She’d always made each of the girls feel incredibly special. Throughout their childhood she had always called, sent gifts and cards, and listened to them. Abigail put her arms around her aunt and held her. “I’m so glad you’ve come.”

“I know you’re having a hard time, Abbey,” Carol said. “We’ll get through it the way we always do, as a family. I don’t know what I would have done without you girls when Jefferson died. I leaned on you tremendously. I hope you know you can do the same. And your parents will come home if you need them. I can call them for you.”

“No, no, don’t do that. Mom and Dad will come home before the weddings. They’re having such a wonderful time together and I don’t want anything to mar that.” Abigail smiled. “All those years of raising us, they never really had time for each other, to just be alone. I know they both were looking forward to living in Europe for a couple of years. We’re adults and we don’t need them to come rushing home when we stumble a little.”

Carol hugged her a little tighter. “Is this a stumble or a fall? You feel… sad to me. Hurt. I can’t just kiss you better as much as I’d like to.”

Abigail smiled. “When I saw you back in the house, the world was a little brighter and the load lifted. I’ll be fine, Aunt Carol. I’m a Drake. We’re made of strong stuff.” She kissed her aunt on the cheek and started down the hall toward the stairs. “You would have been so proud of Joley. You know her one big fear is tight places and she handled it like a trouper.”

“Of course she did,” Carol said. “Hannah and Elle both woke at the same time and rushed out onto the captain’s walk. The rest of us took a bit longer, I’m sorry to say, but the girls had it all under control by the time we arrived to help.” She patted Abigail’s shoulder, reminding Abbey vividly of her youth. Carol had so often comforted her when she was a young girl struggling to contain her magic. “It will work out, honey, you’ll see.”

Abigail took a minute to study her aunt. Her hair was the color of rich champagne. There was laughter and warmth in her blue eyes. As always, she carried a camera around her neck. She loved her job as a Creative Memories consultant and believed wholeheartedly in her work. She had encouraged her sisters and then her nieces and nephews to take pictures at every event, to write journals and prepare beautiful scrapbooks for their descendants. Abigail was rather proud of her albums on dolphins and the places she’d gone to do research. She’d found it was a way to remember funny, touching, and dangerous moments. She couldn’t imagine Carol without her camera or her smile and somehow having her there with her familiar warmth gave Abbey a sense of peace as she went down the stairs to face her sisters.

Jonas halted his pacing as she entered the room. Her sisters fell silent. Joley lifted a hand and gave her a faint, encouraging smile. Carol shifted closer, pressing her arm with gentle fingers. “I’ll get you a cup of tea, dear. And you haven’t had a thing to eat.”

“Are you all right, Abbey?” Sarah asked. The eldest of the Drake sisters, she was the acknowledged leader.

Abigail nodded. “I can’t believe I’ve been shot at two days in a row. I’m beginning to think someone has a grudge.”

“Maybe someone does,” Jonas said.

“Only Sylvia Fredrickson, and I can’t imagine her hiring a hit man.” Abigail sank into a chair beside Hannah and leaned over to kiss her sister on the cheek. “Thanks. You and Elle saved us.“

“Elle lost her temper,” Hannah reported with a grin. “That ought to make your shooter easy to identify, Jonas,“ she added happily. ”And just in case you’re looking into Sylvia, she’d more likely go after me.“

“This is serious, Hannah,” Jonas said. “I want all of you to listen up, especially you, Abbey. You had no business going out to Sea Lion Cove after what happened last night and you know it.”

“Actually, I have business that can’t be put off,” Abbey corrected. “The dolphin was injured while risking his life to save not only mine, but Gene’s as well. He needs treatment and he trusts me to give it to him. I can’t very well hide in my room because some nutcase is running around with a gun.”

“I have to go with Abbey on this one, Jonas,” Sarah said. “She can’t let the dolphin develop an infection and possibly die from neglect.”

“Abbey,” Jonas said, “you witnessed the murder of an Interpol agent.”

“I didn’t see them all that clearly. Even with the full moon, I was a good distance away, Jonas,” Abigail pointed out. “If they think I can identify them, I can’t, so they’re being utterly ridiculous to risk exposing themselves in order to silence me. Well, unless I happened to run into one of them, face-to-face, on the street. I did hear the name Chernyshev and I wrote it all down and dated it to give you the report.”

“Then you did see them.” Jonas pounced on that.

Abigail shrugged. “They don’t have to know that.“

“What about the man Aleksandr was talking about?” Joley asked. “He was so certain the man wasn’t involved but—” She broke off when Abigail shook her head.

“What man?” Jonas asked. When neither Joley nor Abbey answered he glared at Abigail. “I’m not one to tell you what to do…”

A chorus of laughter drowned out the rest of his warning. “Jonas,” Kate said, “you always tell us what to do.”

“You’re so bossy it’s unbelievable,” Hannah contributed. “You’re a dictator.”

“You can’t open your mouth without giving us the manly decree,” Joley said. “Give it up, Jonas. Even you can’t say it with a straight face.”

“I only give advice when you clearly need it,” he defended with a faint grin. “I can’t help it if that means all the time. If you weren’t always in some kind of trouble, I wouldn’t have to give you lectures.”

“Actually you could have stopped several years ago,” Joley said. “We have them memorized. Just give us an indication of which one it’s going to be and we’ll recite them for you. My particular fave is the one where you tell us we have no common sense.”

“Ha ha ha, you’re all so funny!”

“Jonas, dear, do sit down,” Carol said. “You’re making me nervous with all that posturing. You started bossing the girls when you were about ten and you haven’t stopped since. They don’t mind—do you, girls?” She beamed at her nieces as she set a tray laden with sandwiches on the small table in front of them. “Eat up. There’s plenty for you too, Jonas.”

“Aleksandr Volstov is a very dangerous man. I can’t even begin to tell you how dangerous he is, Abbey.” All the teasing had gone from Jonas’s voice, leaving him deadly serious.

“I know he’s calling himself an Interpol agent and I’ve checked his credentials, but I can tell you, he didn’t start out that way.” Jonas pulled a chair close to Abigail, trying to read her expression. “You know me, hon. You know the places I’ve been. I was a Ranger in the army. I’m telling you, I can see it in him. I’ve met very few men in my life that have ever scared me, but this man is one of them.”

Abigail twisted her fingers together as she glanced around the room at her sisters. They looked alarmed, just as she knew they would be. Jonas might be bossy, but he told the truth and he could be dangerous when called upon. If he said Aleksandr was a danger to Abbey, her sisters would fight with everything they had, including magic, to keep her safe.

It was Sarah who asked, “Why do you say that, Jonas?”

“It’s in his eyes. The way he carries himself.” Jonas kept his gaze on Abigail. “The other night when I came up on you, with him standing over you and I had a gun on him, you were afraid he’d kill me, weren’t you?”

“Yes,” she answered, very low. “He’s had extensive training.”

“I’ll just bet he has. What’s he really doing here, Abbey?”

“I didn’t know he was here until I saw him at the harbor. I have no idea how long he’s been here either. I know less than you.” She worked at keeping her voice expressionless.

Jonas caught her chin in his hand, tilting up her face, studying the smooth curves. “He put that neat little circle right between your eyes, didn’t he? He slammed that gun into you hard enough to give you a bruise and he would have pulled the trigger if it had been anyone else.”

“I can’t say what he would have done,” Abbey protested, pulling her face out of his hands, “and it’s a smudge. He thought I’d killed his partner. You were pretty upset that night as well. All of us were.”

“You should have seen him examining the cliff,” Jonas said. “He knew exactly what to look for. He saw something I didn’t. I’ve gone back three times to try to figure out what he saw that we missed. He was like a damned bloodhound.”