Page 44 of Killing Time

STANDING ON A CORNER

It turnedout that all Adam had to do to free us was open the front door and let us step outside.

“Jasper set it up so any Wilcox could bypass the spell,” he explained as the three of us paused in front of the cabin. The wind had picked up a little, not enough to signal the arrival of any early-season snow, but it rattled the dry leaves that still hung on the trees and caught at my hair, loosening a few strands from my quickie ponytail. “That way, if the enchantment did catch someone here, he wouldn’t have to drop everything to come to the cabin and take care of things.”

Oof. If only I’d known it was that easy. Being half Wilcox, I should have been able to just walk right out.

“Useful,” Seth remarked. His expression had been pensive for the last couple of minutes, as if he’d thought of something he wanted to discuss with me once we were alone.

Which was fine. I knew I had a whole hell of a lot of things I wanted to talk to him about.

“I think you’ll be all right if you do your best to act circumspect,” Adam told us. “Act like tourists and don’t show any undue interest in Wilcox-owned businesses or properties.”

“What if you own a restaurant we want to visit?” I asked, more to see how he’d respond than because I thought we’d actually do such a thing. While several of my Wilcox cousins owned restaurants or bars, the majority of my family gravitated toward work where they wouldn’t be so much in the public eye…for obvious reasons.

Adam smiled thinly. “We don’t,” he said flatly. “Jasper doesn’t like us to have that much contact with the public. So you’re free to visit any stores or restaurants or bars that you like. I’d advise a day trip to the Grand Canyon or a similar sort of excursion, just to keep up appearances.”

Seth and I had already discussed doing that very thing, mostly to maintain the illusion that we were an ordinary pair of newlyweds exploring the beauties of northern Arizona and nothing more. But a certain light flickered in his eyes, and I realized the Grand Canyon wasn’t the commonplace to him that it was for me. My family had visited there just about every other year throughout most of my childhood, but for him, the national park had been off-limits, situated as it was in Wilcox territory.

Well, I thought I could indulge him in this. As Adam had pointed out, we needed to do something to pass the time while we were waiting to see if he could discover where Ruby had been taken.

“And maybe Williams and Winslow as well?” Seth suggested.

“Not as much to see in those places,” Adam said with a grin. “But sure, depending on how long it takes me to dig up any useful information.” He paused there, smile fading a little as he looked around and seemed to realize the only vehicle in evidence was his big green Buick. “Did you walk all the way here?”

“No,” Seth replied, now looking much more relaxed than he had a few minutes earlier. “My gift can take care of that.”

“Translocation,” Adam said with a nod. “My great-grandfather could do that, too. It’s a useful gift.”

So our hunch was correct. Samuel Wilcox really had been Adam’s great-grandfather.

Luckily, his descendant was much nicer than the original man had ever been.

“It is,” Seth said. “So, you’ll leave a note at the hotel for us if you find anything?”

“I will. Give me a couple of days.”

He lifted his hand in a half-hearted wave before heading over to his car. Seth and I waited as he started up the engine and began to back down the long driveway leading to the private lane that would take him out to the highway.

Once Adam’s car had disappeared from view, Seth came closer and put his arms around my waist. I leaned my head against his chest, even though I didn’t need to do that for us to travel via his gift.

No, I just wanted to hear his heartbeat, to try to reassure myself that I’d done the right thing and hadn’t just given away any hope of rescuing Ruby by mistakenly confiding in Adam Wilcox.

If Seth had any thoughts on the subject, it seemed he wanted to hang onto them until we were safely back in our hotel room. A blink, and we were standing by the window where we’d left the curtains parted only a few inches, enough to allow some light into the room but definitely not enough for anyone to see what was going on inside.

Well, at least there wasn’t a horde of Wilcoxes standing outside the hotel with torches and pitchforks, so I supposed that was something.

Not that they’d ever do something so obvious.

A brief brush of his lips against my hair, and then Seth let go so he could gaze down at me.

“Did I screw up?” I asked.

He didn’t answer right away. His lips pressed together, and after a moment, he shook his head.

“I don’t think so. It’s not as if I have Adam Wilcox’s gift for knowing whether people are speaking the truth, but it didn’t feel as if he was lying to us or setting a trap or anything like that.”

From your lips to God’s ears,I thought. True, that was the impression I’d gotten as well, but part of me couldn’t quite stop itself from wondering if I had believed Adam’s motives were pure because I thought Seth and I desperately needed an ally here in enemy territory.

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