Page 59 of Phoenix Rising

Elijah donned his robe, slid on eyeglasses he didn’t need, and pulled the hood over his head. It was another measure to disguise himself. Hopefully, in a couple of years, the Feds would give up looking for him and he would be free to show his face.

After grabbing the remote, he punched the button to kill the lights and made his way to the dais. When he turned them back on, he was pleased to see another packed house. This was his calling.

“Welcome, everyone. I am Guru Phoenix Valo.”

Thunderous applause greeted him, and he basked in the moment. He waited for it to die down before he launched into his spiel. “You are here because you’re interested in a power greater than yourself.” He liked to move around as he spoke. “Spiritual awakening is a call to a higher state of deeper mental awareness and—”

Elijah froze, his brain not believing what his eyes were seeing. Was his mind playing tricks on him? He closed his lids and opened them again. Dear Lord, it was Henry and Tina McKay! He’d been thinking about them, and then,bam!They appeared. It was another miracle from God!

Tina was even more beautiful than he remembered, and Henry more handsome. His body twitched beneath his robe. There was zero recognition in their eyes. They didn’t know it was him.

Elijah wanted to stop the sermon and go to them, but the other people had paid big bucks to hear him preach. The only problem was that his long-since memorized speech had flown from his head when he’d spotted the McKays. How would he get through the next hour with thoughts so scrambled that he didn’t know how to put them back together again?

Chapter Eighteen

Christian sat at the end of the bar in Waterfall and kept one eye on Raphael Ramsey and the other on the door, hoping Aja Blue LaLonde would appear. So far, she was a no-show, much to his regret. Their encounter had been brief, but it’d made a lasting impression on him. He hated to think someone might be stalking her. The urge to protect her was overwhelming in its intensity. She looked perfectly capable of taking care of herself, but he wanted the job.

Christian shook his head. Chances were he’d never see her again. They were two ships passing in the night. Best to put her out of his mind and focus on his job.

Ramsey had been in a mood, slamming glasses on the counter and greeting customers with a grunt. Someone wasn’t happy. Was it because he was guilty?

Christian kept his phone in front of him, pretending he was looking at it. He hit record when a man approached the bar and motioned for Ramsey. Sure enough, Ramsey took something from his pocket, placed it in a napkin beneath the bar, and slid it to the newcomer. The man grabbed it and left money on the counter. Ramsey might not be going down for breaking into Audria and Reese’s room, but he would be for dealing drugs.

“Excuse me.”

He turned to see an attractive woman smiling at him. She was dressed provocatively and holding a drink, but she couldn’t be a day over eighteen, if that. Ramsey must not check IDs closely.

“We saw you sitting alone, and my friends and I were wondering if you wanted to join us.”

She pointed to a table of equally lovely and not-of-legal-age women. They all wiggled their fingers at him and giggled.

He smiled and turned back to the woman who’d approached him. “Thank you for the offer, but I’m waiting for my wife. She had a late meeting.”

Her smile dimmed as her gaze lowered to his ringless hand, but she nodded. “Well, if you change your mind . . .”

“Thanks.”

She sashayed back to her group, and he resumed his surveillance. Waterfall seemed to be a local pickup spot, as all the tables and most bar seats were full. People were mingling and laughing, and he figured plenty of hookups were about to happen.

That made his mind stray to Aja Blue. Something about her name rang a bell. He typed it into his phone, and his head jerked back at the thousands of instantaneous hits. Holy hell, she was famous! No wonder her name sounded familiar. Christian clicked on a link. She’d been a child actor, starring in her own show calledAja Blue and Polly Too. Now he remembered it, but he’d never watched it when he was younger. He had either been watching sports on television or outside playing them. The website described the sitcom as two precocious children getting into mischief. He recalled it’d been a big hit at the time. Was she still an actress?

Christian clicked on a link titled Aja Blue Designs. The fresh, professional site was filled with furniture and home accessories. From a drop-down menu, he found information on the designer, one Aja Blue LaLonde. After her meteoric rise in Hollywood as a child and teen on television and the big screen, she’d stepped away from acting and the limelight to attend college, where she’d earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture and a master’s in interior design. She’d never returned to Hollywood and instead started her own business. From all accounts, it was wildly successful.

Norfolk, Virginia, was listed as the location of the headquarters. That was a long way from Los Angeles. Long way from Sedona, Arizona, too.

While continuing to monitor Ramsey, whose mood had grown darker, if possible, he perused other websites, searching for any information he could glean about the mysterious and stunning Aja Blue LaLonde.

#

Audria shook her head. Guru Phoenix was off his game. His last speech had been an intriguing mixture of information and substance. His voice had been authoritative, and his movements confident. He had been borderline mesmerizing. This was a discombobulated jumble of random thoughts and incoherent sentences, making it extremely uncomfortable to sit through. Audria wasn’t the only one to notice. Several people fidgeted in their seats while others flat out got up and left.

It was safe to say Elijah had most definitely recognized Talia and Hunter.

“I would say we sufficiently rattled him,” Talia murmured.

“Yes, and there’s no telling how long he’ll ramble on,” Hunter said. “We should make our escape now.”

“Good idea,” Talia said. “When he turns around, get up quickly, and I will follow.”

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