Page 95 of Eagle Eye
Jack growled, strode over, and grabbed Logan by the front of the shirt. "Where did you go earlier? How did you justhappento be there to rescue Tess?"
"Thank you for saving me," I put in, although I'd wondered that too. "But forget that now. What about Aunt Ruby?"
Logan wrenched away from Jack's grasp and opened the bottle of water Susan handed him, drinking big gulps of it and then pouring the rest over his head. When he was done, he wiped his face with his sleeve and looked at me. "I saw your aunt walking with a man, and it didn't look like she wanted to be there. I called out to her, and she turned to see who it was. She looked scared. Terrified. She mouthed the word 'help,' and I started running toward them, but the man pointed something in his hand at the bank, and the two of them just … vanished."
He looked defiant, like he didn't expect us to believe him, but I just nodded. "Yeah. Fae trick. Just happened in my kitchen. Then what?"
He shrugged. "Then nothing. They vanished. I didn't know what to do, but then Susan arrived, and I described the man to her."
"It was definitely Mr. Washington," she said, her eyes furious. "When I get my hands on that man …"
"Get in line," I said dryly. "So, how do you know she's under the bank? And how is that possible?"
"I heard something. Arguing or yelling, coming from beneath the rubble. I tried to get someone to help, but nobody seemed inclined to believe me, until one of the firefighter ran over and sniffed the area."
"Sniffed?" I looked at Susan.
She nodded. "Good man. He's a wolf shifter."
"He said he knows your aunt, and he could scent that she was under the rubble. With snakes," Logan added.
"With a snakeshifter," Jack growled. "I'm going to turn him into a pair of boots."
I flinched but didn't disagree. Mr. Washington was hurting people I cared about. He'd lied to us. He might be hurting my Aunt Rubyatthat very minute.
"Boots would be too good for him. I want him in jail. For a very long time," I said. "Let's get her out! Now!"
Even with all of us pitching in to move the rubble, though, it took more than half an hour to dig our way into the bank's basement.
"Be safe, be safe, be safe," I chanted with each load of rock and stone.
Uncle Mike showed up too, but Shelley was with him, and she was hysterically crying and clinging to him, so he sat down on a bench near where we worked and held her, watching grimly over the top of her head, no doubt mentally urging us on.
I didn't want to even think about Uncle Mike without Aunt Ruby.
I didn't want to think aboutanyof us without Aunt Ruby.
I kept digging.
"Be safe, be safe, be safe."
Suddenly, bits of rock and stone levitated and floated through the air past me, and I whirled to see Shelley standing on the bench, the breeze whipping her hair back from her face, holding her hands out in front of her. Her mouth moved in what may have been a chant, and she focused on the rubble.
When I met Uncle Mike's gaze and he nodded, I realized she was using her powers to help us dig.
Go, Shelley!
Jack, next to me, and Logan, on the other side, dug and hauled rock with the strength of three ordinary men each, so our path was getting cleared faster than anyone else's. Helped to have shifter strength.
If Mr. Washington had hurt her, I'd stab him in the heart with his own stolen dagger.
I spared a thought for the talk I was going to need to have with Pastor Nash about my newly discovered violent tendencies and sent a quick prayer to Jesus to forgive me. But Jesus also knew Aunt Ruby. She'd talked to him her whole life and brought me up to do the same.
So I had to believe that He understood.
"Be safe, be safe, be safe."
When Jack and Logan worked together to heave a giant section of marble pillar out of the way, I finally saw the dark emptiness of open space and immediately jumped into the hole in the ground floor that they'd uncovered, ignoring shouts of my name.
