Page 85 of Séance

Ellis helped James gather the kids into our boat and rowed them to shore a safe distance away.

Just in time for the fucking police to pull up.

What seemed like seconds later, both women were placed in the back of the squad cars and hauled away.

“They are taking her downtown,” Ellis says, dragging his hands through his hair, his glasses askew and spotted with water. “I called our lawyer to sort things out. He’ll meet us there.”

“She’s wounded.” James slowly unthaws, peering at us with a confused expression. “Why aren’t they taking her to the hospital?”

Oh fuck.

I carefully step back from James, motioning for Ellis to do the same.

James isn’t pissed, he’s triggered, which is infinitely worse.

The man already has questionable morals, but seeing a woman hurt makes them vanish completely. Unfortunately, when triggered, he usually comes out swinging. We have to tread carefully. The last thing we need is for him to disappear for days on end, stirring up chaos.

Having one of our team in jail at a time is plenty.

I glance at Ellis, and he nods his head. “I’ll stay with him. Go.”

I don’t need to be told twice.

I jog back toward my car, climb behind the wheel, and gun the engine. I thought Rue’s calming presence would be a good influence on the others.

Apparently not.

She’s just as much trouble as them.

Images of her staring at us from the back of the squad car hit me hard, and I grit my teeth, still able to see the blood dripping off her pale face. She didn’t say a word when they pulled her from the water or cuffed her.

She didn’t even ask for help, which pissed me off.

What the hell had she been thinking?

As I weave in and out of traffic, not caring that I’m going fifteen miles over the speed limit, I race toward the station. I’m not sure if I’m more pissed at her for risking her life for those kids or getting hurt.

If she told us…

We would be in jail next to her.

I tighten my grip on the steering wheel until the plastic groans in complaint.

The misguided fool was trying to protect us.

While I am furious at her for putting herself in danger, I can’t fault her reasoning.

She doesn’t know the rules yet, so she will get a pass, but if she pulls a stunt like that again, throwing herself into danger without backup, then I’m going to toss her over my knee and tan her curvy little backside.

A single question niggles in the back of my mind.

How did she know what was going to happen?

I’m also shocked by the dirty way she fought. Though untrained, she was utterly brutal. She didn’t even flinch whenshe was hit, didn’t show any pain or weakness. She just popped back up and went after the woman again and again like the pain didn’t register.

It took harsh conditioning to be able to ignore pain that way and didn’t happen unless a person was trained in the most brutal way…through blood, sweat, and tears.

More and more questions about her past rise like a specter to haunt me. It’s past time that I do some digging. I’m done waiting for answers. I pull into the police station with a screech of tires. Instead of heading inside, I pull up the information Ellis collected for the business I wanted to invest in—the one Rue said her father owned.

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