“Want me to stay on the phone until you fall asleep?”
The sheets smelled like fabric softener and the mattress was exactly the right combination of hard and soft. “I’m not six.”
“I know. And I know you hate sleeping alone.”
“Yeah, my life sucks. Gran’s up to something and all I get is a business, an apartment…”
“An assortment of sex toys.”
“I’m going to regret telling you about them, aren’t I?”
“Probably.”
“Good night, Michael.”
She hung up before she could tell him she missed him and eventually fell asleep with the phone cradled in her hand.
“There’s a Gale staying in the apartment?” Heavy black brows met in a vee over his nose. “You’re certain of that?”
He shrugged. “Alysha Gale ordered take-out this evening. I just got word from one of my sources. She had it delivered to the store.”
“I knew it was too good to be true when the old woman disappeared. Damn. Damn. Fucking damn!” One scarred fist pounded the words into the desktop, hard enough the silver letter opener slid off the pile of paper.
He caught it before it hit the floor.
“We’re too close to the day,” his boss continued, ignoring both the letter opener’s fall and its subsequent retrieval. “We have no choice but to stay and see it through. No choice for me but to stay and face the danger inherent in yet another fucking Gale!”
“All right.” He kept his voice low, calming. Things happened when his boss lost his temper. Things that could attract attention, and—right now—attention was the last thing they wanted to attract. He knew that for a fact because not attracting attention had been a part of every conversation they’d had since Catherine Gale had first appeared on the scene and, for the last month, not attracting attention had moved to the top of the agenda. “I’m still not exactly clear on just what you think she’ll do.”
“There’s no way of knowing what she’ll do. That’s the fucking problem! You say black, and they’re likely to say white just to be contrary. Controlling harpies, the whole lot of them!” Nostrils flaring, he took a deep breath, then another, and finally growled, “We need to know if she’s here because of me. If Catherine Gale got suspicious before she disappeared and passed those suspicions on.”
“This Alysha Gale could be here merely to take over the store. Or because of them. You told me that the Gale women were not known for their subtle reactions. That if Catherine Gale knew you were here, we’d know.”
“I know what I told you!”
He held up a hand in apology as the vein in the older man’s forehead throbbed.
“I need to know what Alysha Gale knows.”
“About you?”
“About everything! The last thing I need is to have them stumble on the situation and destroy me all unknowing with their incessant need to meddle. Wouldn’t those controlling harpies love that. Find out what she knows!” A beefy finger jabbed the command toward him.
“And what happens then?” He rested his hand on his weapons case.
“That depends on what you find out. I’ll reevaluate when I have more information.”
THREE
It took her a moment to realize the sound dragging her up out of sleep was her phone and a moment after that to find it in the bed.
“Alysha Catherine.”
Only the aunties ever used both names. Half asleep, it was impossible to narrow it down any further. “Auntie…?”
“Bea, Alysha Catherine. It’s Auntie Bea.”
Auntie Bea was one of the David is too powerful to be trusted group. Allie felt her lip curl.
“Don’t curl your lip at me, young lady. Why are you still in bed?”
She took the phone away from her ear and peered at the time. “It’s twenty after five.”
“It’s twenty after seven.”
“Calgary,” she sighed. “Time difference.”
“That’s no reason to be lying about.”
Allie considered it a very good reason to be lying about and thought about mentioning that had she still been working in Toronto, her alarm wouldn’t have gone off for another ten minutes and so she’d still be in bed and Auntie Bea could just fuck off and die, but two time zones weren’t distance enough for something that stupid. She sighed. “What’s the problem, Auntie Bea?”
“Have you figured out what your grandmother is up to?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I just got here yesterday evening.”
“And you’re still in bed?”
“Twenty after five,” Allie repeated, yawning. “Good-bye, Auntie Bea.”
There may have been a protest, but Allie barely heard it as she closed the phone. No one should have to deal with an auntie at five twenty in the morning.
Or at five twenty-three.
Or five thirty.
Her body, still on Ontario time, insisted it was time to get up…
Five forty-five.
… and refused to be convinced otherwise no matter that the room was dark and the bed, although empty, was comfortable.
“Fine.”
Auntie Vera called as she got into the shower. Auntie Meredith called during her not entirely successful attempt to make coffee with the space age coffeemaker she found in one of the kitchen cupboards. Allie wasn’t willing to agree with her father that the aunties were frightened, but this level of annoying meant they were definitely worried.
Dmitri’s youngest sister, Ashley—one of the pre-ritual mass of cousins—called just as she pulled her jeans out from under the bed and discovered that a lemon meringue pie didn’t exactly fit in the watch pocket.
“It’s just Kristen’s being all like totally annoying, and I could come out as soon as school’s over so that you won’t be alone.”
“If I’m still here,” Allie pointed out, using the legs of her jeans to wipe up the mess.
“Why wouldn’t you be? I heard Auntie Catherine left you a junk store.”
“How do you know about the store?”
“I heard my mom and Auntie Carol talking. Your mom told Aunt Ruth and Aunt Ruth told Auntie Vera and Auntie Vera told Auntie Carol and Auntie Carol…”
“I know how it works.” She dumped the pie still clinging to her jeans in the toilet and caught the charmed penny as it fell. As long as the penny was not currently holding a pie, anyone in first or second circle could provide baked goods. Dead or alive, Gran wouldn’t appreciate her plumbing clogged with pastry. “If I’m still here, Charlie’ll be here.”
“Charlie never stays.”
Ouch. But true enough. Allie rinsed the penny off in the kitchen sink and carried it to the fridge. Charmed change kept most Gales alive through college and university. “We’ll see.”
But they both knew it meant yes.
“You’re my absolutely favorite cousin ever! Gotta go. First bell. Bye!”
And it was all of six thirty-two.
She looked at the penny lying in solitary state on the second shelf, set the phone down beside it, and closed the refrigerator door. Charlie liked to send hers on taxi rides, but Allie preferred to keep hers closer to hand, just in case.
She toasted and ate a bagel—Gran had left a bag in the freezer—drank a bad cup of coffee, stared out the window at the traffic passing below, and reminded herself that she’d made the decision to come west so she could just cope with how weird it felt and get to…
Coffee slopped over the side of the mug as she jerked back from the glass.
Shadow.
Big shadow.
Big fast-moving shadow.
Too big. Too fast.
Heart pounding, Allie leaned forward. The street ran essentially east/west and the long shadows thrown by the early morning sun ran parallel, so it could have been nothing more than a small plane flying north/south. A traffic plane. Up there to report on the traffic. Unfortunately, a traffic plane didn’t explain the pigeons she could see crammed under a newspaper box across the street.
Or the way the trailing end of the shadow seemed to be lashing.