Page 61 of Phoenix Rising

“Thanks, Jackson.” He didn’t know if that was a first or last name, nor did he care.

Jackson pulled the locking gate across the entryway and bolted it before leaving. Elijah turned his attention to the computer. He accessed the registration files for tonight’s session. There they were! Henry and Tina McKay. Seeing their names gave him a thrill. He clicked the print icon and waited for the paper to spit out of the machine. It was still warm when he ripped it out of the tray, frowning as his eyes scanned the sheet. For an address, they’d scribbled,wherever the road takes us. Under the cell phone number, they had written,sure, butyou wouldn’t let us bring it. For email, it simply saidyes. That was it.

Elijah’s back hit the chair. Damn it, didn’t Helen check the paper when they turned it in? How had she let them get away without answering anything? Elijah’s pulse pounded in an erratic rhythm. He thought he might be having a heart attack. He had no way of contacting them!

#

“That was very naughty of you, Mr. McGrath,” Talia chided her husband as he navigated the roads back to the resort. “Mauling your poor, unsuspecting wife in the parking lot of a church, in front of cameras, no less.”

“First of all,” Hunter drawled as he reached over and threaded their fingers together, “the mauling was mutual. Second, it’s not a church. It’s a place to fleece unsuspecting sheep.”

“Fleece sheep. My, you are the witty one, darling.”

He ignored her sarcasm. “Third, I was throwing a bone at Elijah by doing it in front of the cameras. You know how much he loves to voyeur on other people’s sex lives.”

Talia growled, remembering the videos they had found in his secret lair. “Bastard.”

“Yes. And finally, you, my dear loving wife, have never been unsuspecting a day in your life. You came out of the womb kicking and screaming, ready to take on the world.”

Talia tossed back her head and laughed, so in love with her husband, it wasn’t even funny. “You are right about that, darling. Now pull over so I can continue what you started earlier.” She reached for the zipper on his pants.

His hand clamped down on her wrist to stop her progress. “I would in a heartbeat if the road wasn’t so frighteningly narrow, I wasn’t driving a rented quarter-of-a-million-dollar vehicle, and we weren’t going to meet our coworkers.”

Work. Right. The old Talia lived for her job. This one lived for her husband. “Well, the second act will have to wait until later.”

He looked at her with scorching heat in his eyes. “Count on it.”

Chapter Twenty

Now that they’d confirmed Guru Phoenix was indeed Elijah, or Richard Caraway, Reese was convinced it was the story Paige had been working on before she disappeared. Keeping his identity hidden was enough motivation for Elijah to silence her. As always, Audria was on the same wavelength.

“Since we’ve zeroed in on Elijah, I’ll have the office dig into Spiritual Beginnings’ background and finances.” She typed a message on her phone and hit send.

It threw Reese for a loop to see her with her blonde wig and brown eyes. She might’ve fooled others, but he’d have known her anywhere. She was gorgeous, but he preferred her natural coloring.

Audria noticed him staring while they were stopped at a red light. “What?”

“You look so pretty.”

Red tinged her cheeks. “Thanks.”

The light changed, and he accelerated. “It was the right call for Talia and Hunter to skip out before Elijah could speak to them,” Reese decided.

“I agree. It completely threw him off his game. Now we have tomorrow morning and afternoon to talk to his sister and dig into his business before the retreat.”

After they parked in the garage, they stopped by Waterfall to see Christian nursing a drink at the end of the bar. He looked up and spotted them. When Audria motioned with her head, he tossed some bills on the counter and slid off his seat.

She and Reese headed to the bank of elevators and waited for one to arrive. When it did, they stepped inside. Christian darted in at the last minute. They waited until they were back in the honeymoon suite before they spoke.

“Did you discover anything?” Audria asked.

“The place is a total meat market. People hooking up right and left. I filmed Ramsey conducting four drug transactions. What about you?”

A knock sounded on the door, and Reese got up to answer. Talia and Hunter came inside.

“Guru Phoenix is Richard Caraway, Elijah, or The Lightkeeper,” Audria told Christian. “Take your pick of names.”

“Ah, so there’s the smoking gun.”

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