On Pins and Needles: Sierra Fox, Book 3 (34 page)

“I’m going to question her father again,” he said. “It’s probably the best place to start.”

“Gareth, I don’t think that’s a good idea…” My voice trailed off because my head was spinning. If Maya hadn’t been at the bookstore or at Jonathan’s, that left the Council, or…Eli Moss’s house. Why hadn’t I thought of that before? Every time someone mentioned the house, they’d claimed it lacked warmth and heart. Yet why would any of us have assumed she’d still be in plain view? I felt like such a fool. “Don’t go to that house.”

“Sierra, I have to at least check it out. It’s early, so hopefully he hasn’t gone to work yet. I’ll call you as soon as I find out anything.”

“Gareth, wait!” It was too late—he’d hung up and I had a terrible feeling twisting my stomach into knots. When the phone started ringing again, I picked it up right away. “Don’t go there, okay?”

Silence crossed over the line.

“Did you hear me, Gareth?”

A silky and very feminine laugh echoed in my ear and my body tensed.

“Who is this?” I asked, even if I already knew.

“Hello Sierra, this is Lamaya Anwar. Otherwise known as Maya, and I hear you’ve been looking for me,” she said with a crisp British accent.

“Who told you that?”

“Little old ladies can be very forthcoming when they’re finding it hard to breathe.” She purred into the line.

My stomach dropped. She had to be talking about Jonathan’s neighbor. The old lady might have come across a little too strong, but she didn’t deserve to die. “You killed her?”

“I did her a favor. She was already dying from a crippling disease.” Maya paused. “Besides, if you’d let me hit and grab you, or waited for me to get to Jonathan’s, maybe she wouldn’t have had to die prematurely.”

I wouldn’t react to her bait. “Where’s my sister?” My pulse sped up. “Why did you take her?”

“She’s safe, for now. And just so you know, I didn’t take her. She came home willingly.”

I refused to believe her. Why would Willow do something so stupid? “If you hurt her, I’m going to make you pay!”

Maya laughed again. “I admire someone who’s willing to throw around threats and will no doubt
try
to carry them out. But I’m not like my fellow brotherhood and haven’t underestimated you for a second.” She paused. “Troy and Mauricio were fools to think you wouldn’t retaliate.”

“Let her go,” I said.

“I don’t think so. I need her as much as I need you, but feel free to try,” Maya said. “I can do something that’ll make this easier for both of us. I’m going to tell you exactly where I am.” She rattled off the address that would forever be engraved inside my brain. “Feel free to drop in as soon as you can. We’ll be waiting.”
 

The undeniable sound of the doorbell echoed from her end.

“Oh, I’ve got a visitor,” she said, and it sounded like she was moving. “It’s the handsome but very nosey police officer. I have to go. I don’t want to keep him waiting.”

“No! Don’t do anything to him!” But she wasn’t on the line anymore. My hands were shaky, but I managed to dial Gareth’s number. The call went straight to voice mail. “Answer the damn phone!” I tried another three times but still no response.

“Fox, your coffee’s getting cold,” Papan called from the kitchen.

I couldn’t speak or move. All I could think about was the two brief conversations I’d just had and how they’d interconnected in the worst possible way. If I hadn’t told Gareth anything he wouldn’t have rushed over to the Moss household. Yet by the sound of it, he must have already been parked outside waiting. There was no way he could’ve gotten there so fast otherwise.

“Fox, what the hell’s going on?” Papan appeared in the hallway and his face darkened when he found me with phone still in hand.

“She just called.”

“Willow?”
 

I shook my head. “Maya just called and told me where she is.”

“What the hell? That sounds like a trap to me.”

“It’s more of a dare,” I whispered, clearing my throat. “She knows we’re looking for her and even killed Jonathan’s neighbor.”

“She killed the old lady?”

I nodded.
 

His frown deepened. “We need to think about this before making any rash decisions—”

“No Papan, I need to head over there right now.”

“Think this through. We can’t do anything stupid.”

I looked into his beautiful green eyes as mine blurred with tears. “I can’t let her kill Willow, and she’s also got Gareth.”

“How the hell did he get involved in this?”

I sighed. “He called before she did to remind me today was the day he had to file his report about Willow, and said he was going to try and question Eli Moss again. I told him not to go but he got there just as I was hanging up with Maya.” I conveniently left out the fact Maya told me my sister had willingly handed herself over. “They’re both in trouble and it’s my fault.”

Papan cupped my face in his big hands. “Fox, think about what you want to do. You’re going into her territory and we both know this is a trap. She’ll have the upper hand and ambush you.”

“I know, but there’s nothing else I can do. I have to risk walking into her trap in order to stop her from killing any more girls, stealing their souls, and doing whatever the hell it is she wants to do to Willow.” I exhaled, leaning my cheek closer into his hand. “I have to do this.”

He didn’t say anything for a while, just stared at me until he dropped his hands to my waist and pressed his forehead against mine. “This is a really, really bad idea, but I’m going with you.”

“I don’t want you to—”

“Just like you don’t think you have a choice, neither do I. There’s no way I’m letting you walk into this trap without backup.”
 

I managed a small smile. “You’re right. We need backup, and I know just who to call.”

“So do I.” Papan stepped away and I grabbed his hand, squeezing it.
 

“Thank you,” I whispered.

“You don’t have to thank me, Foxy. All you need to do is get out of this alive.”

I could promise him a lot of things, but that wasn’t one of them.

Chapter Thirteen

“I still can’t believe you know Saul,” Lavie called from the backseat.

“We go way back,” Papan said beside me.

“So do we, but he must trust you a lot to lend you one of his vans. He’s very possessive about them, especially this one.”

“Yeah, I guess.”
 

The three of us had been sitting inside the black minivan Papan had borrowed from a friend. His friend turned out to be the demon Lavie had mentioned several times. After hearing so much about this Saul guy, I was getting really curious. So far, I’d only crossed paths with dark, selfish demons so this one sounded like a nice change of pace.

I looked at the Moss house again. Aside from Gareth’s police car in the driveway, nothing else looked out of the ordinary. Well, except for the haphazardly parked car behind the constable’s. Just like Papan mentioned the night before, it was some generic small vehicle with most of its license plate blocked by mud.
 

“No, seriously, after I helped him exorcise a pesky but harmless demon possessing it, he hardly lets anyone near this van. Let alone borrow it.”

“
This
van was possessed?” I asked, suddenly feeling strange about sitting inside.

“A long time ago,” Lavie said. “Um, are you sure we shouldn’t call Oren?”
 

Lavie had asked the same question about a hundred times and I was sick of answering it. “I don’t want him involved in this.”

“Why not?” she challenged, sitting forward and hugging the backrest so hard it shook my seat. “We should have asked Conrad to come along too. You can never have too much backup, right?”

My ponytail whipped my chin when I turned to glare at her. “Conrad needs to be with Ebony, and Oren needs to be with both of
them
.” I’d called him before leaving the house and he’d claimed that while Ebony still wasn’t awake, she was mumbling and stirring in her sleep a lot. And this was apparently a good thing. “If you’re having second thoughts, we can drive you home—”

“No!” Her eyes widened as she shook her head vigorously, sending her red choppy hair all over her face. “That’s not what I’m saying.”

“Then what
are
you saying?” I didn’t want to get aggravated with her, especially since she’d agreed to come with us on such short notice and without hesitation, but we were only meters away from the house where my sister was being kept by a madwoman.

“Nothing, I just don’t want us to get killed. That’s all. There’s a funky vibe coming from that house.”

Papan turned enough to look her way. “Unfortunately, Lavie, that’s a chance we’re all taking. It’s a huge risk but Fox is right—you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. She just figured your demonic expertise would help since at least two of the
Obscurus
are inside.”

He hit the nail on the head, except he vocalized it a lot better than I had. If Maya was inside the square-edged house, so was Jonathan. I just hoped there weren’t any other
Obscurus
freaks hiding in the shadows.

I sighed. “Lavie, let’s get you home.” I shouldn’t have called her. It wasn’t fair to drag her into this mess.

“I don’t want to go home. I want to help stop these jerks once and for all.”

And I didn’t want to burst her bubble, because even if I made it out of this alive I doubted this would be their final attempt at getting their hands on me.
 

“Thanks.” I sucked in a quick breath.
Looks like we’re going in.
“Are you guys ready?”

Papan took my left hand and lightly touched the backs of my bandaged knuckles with his full lips. His intimate gesture not only reminded me of everything we’d done since discovering we wanted to be more than friends, but also about what I would miss if this was the end of the road.

“I’m ready to kick some ass,” he said.

“Me too!” Lavie ducked her head in between us and flashed a toothy smile. “Let’s kick some demonic ass.”

I chuckled, but it felt so dry it hurt my throat.
 

Once out of the van, I stretched my cramped legs and awkwardly checked my jeans pockets—the silver spikes were in the front, two small holy water bottles in the back, and my dagger was strapped to my boot. I could also now recite the self-protection incantation in my sleep.
 

I looked up and down the street, finding none of the surrounding driveways had cars parked in them. Even though it was still very early on a work and school day, this area felt a little too desolate. Almost as if no one had been here for a while.
 

A shiver raced down my spine.

My body felt tight and cramped in all the wrong places, tense but ready for this showdown.
 

I turned to look at Lavie—she was wearing a pair of baggy red overalls with a fitting black long-sleeved T-shirt underneath. If I looked long—and close—enough, the demonic seeds moving beneath her skin puckered the fabric. I had no idea what she was carrying in the way of weapons but she wore a blue rosary around her neck, a voodoo gris-gris talisman, and a Star of David pendant. Her pockets were also stuffed with things—some which I thought might be charms. She’d left her backpack in the backseat of the van.

“Are we going to knock on the front door?” she asked nervously.

I nodded. “You and I will go in the front, but Papan’s going in the back.”

She raised an eyebrow. “She’s probably seen us already and knows you’re not alone.”

“Personally, I don’t care what she thinks. She might expect a man by my side, but Papan won’t be going into the house as one.”

“How do you know the back door will be open?”

I shrugged. “We don’t, but he’s got other ways of getting in. Don’t you, Papan?”

“I sure do.” When he came around the car wearing nothing but his unbuttoned jeans, I thought Lavie’s eyes might pop out of their sockets.
 

“Yikes! What’re you doing half naked?” she asked.

“You’ll see,” I said.
 

He closed the distance between us, grabbed me with one arm and smacked his lips against mine for an open-mouthed kiss that left me breathless. “I don’t want this to be our last kiss.” His brow was furrowed. He turned and walked away, calling, “Be careful, you two, and don’t forget our plan.”

Our plan was simple—
don’t get killed
—and didn’t exactly fill me with much confidence. But that kiss had my skin burning up and wishing for so much more.

Lavie leaned closer. “Was
that
what I was supposed to see?”
 

“No, keep watching.”

Papan jogged onto the edge of the front yard and pushed the metal gate open. He stripped off his jeans and not long after became a wolf. Papan’s animal form appeared in front of the gate, glanced our way with his snout in the air, and turned to rush towards the back of the house.

“Ah! Wow, he’s a pretty wolf,” Lavie said.