Page 45 of The Rainbow Recipe
KK finally shouted in Evie’s head. “Smoke!”
A whiff of pungent air seeped inside the cabinet.
“Oh, crap. Rube, can you see fire?” Evie debated bursting out of her hiding place, but she hated blowing her cover for a ghost’s unreliable warning. She waited for Rhonda to leave, but the clerk was tapping into her phone.
“Camera isn’t picking up—” A litany of curses followed. “Flames just shot out the back. Get out now!” he shouted in her ear.
Almost in the same moment, Jane rushed from the kitchen. “Fire!” She headed for the boutique door.
Wide-eyed as she finally noticed the smell, Rhonda clattered on her heels ahead of her, grabbing the knob first.
The door didn’t open.
Evie watched in horror as the clerk rattled the knob and shoved harder.Nothing. Jane shoved her aside. The door wouldn’t open. Evie couldn’t see flames but the stench grew stronger. If Jane couldn’t go out the back and the shop door was locked...
Both women and Evie turned to study the front exit—a locked mechanical door protected the glass exterior. Unless they knew how to open it...
“It’s a trap!” Jane shouted, freaking out and slamming into the shop door as if her scrawny frame might break it down. She bounced off it and hit the floor, where streaks of small flames now crept along the wall toward the bags of trash.
Accelerant, Evie concluded. Someone had poured flammable liquid beneath the door.
Twenty-two: Pris
Italy
There werereasons Pris blocked her mind from the mental aberrations of others. Vincent Gladwell’s irrational hatred of the twins was one of them. Did she act on a reaction that was only in her head?
She couldn’t take chances with children involved.
As Vincent disappeared into the farm office with Leo, Pris packed up the lunch basket and hastily ushered the twins into the car. Once she had them buckled in, she texted Dante. He didn’t answer.
Gladwell’s animosity toward the children had shaken her—badly. She’d lived with her insane gift for nearly thirty years, had learned to block bad vibes, and wasn’t easily shaken anymore. That Gladwell’s hatred was strong enough to penetrate all her barriers was a warning she couldn’t ignore.
What could Vincent have against the twins? If she was interpreting his ugly thoughts correctly, he wished two adorable innocentshadn’t been born. Why?
Was this why Lucia had left her babies with Dante, to protect them?
Personally, she’d like to get up in Gladwell’s face and shake a fist and learn what he knew about Kit-Kat...but the twins’ safety came first.
Dante still hadn’t answered by the time she had the children settled and turned the car toward home. She could run back and pick him up if he needed help, but he was a big boy. There were plenty of eager students willing to wait on him hand and foot.
Once back at the villa, she parked the car behind the gate so it couldn’t be seen from the drive. The twins thought it all a great game when she steered them in through the back door. She sent them to the bathroom, had them wash their hands, then settled them at the kitchen table with the rest of their lunch and an educational video on Dante’s laptop.
Then, she spent forever hunting through the villa for exits and making sure they were all locked. She pushed a heavy cabinet in front of glass French doors. The ancient windows couldn’t be secured, leaving her feeling unsafe.
Telling herself she was being paranoid, she munched bread and cheese and settled in the kitchen with her phone and an internet session. She texted Evie and company for more information on Vincent, warning them that he might be more than an incompetent businessman.
In return, she received a flurry of incomprehensible texts about Evie and fire. What the...? Pris counted back hours—it wasn’t even mid-morning there. How the blue heavens had Evie got into trouble at this hour?
In a rising state of panic, she Googled Afterthought and found breaking news about a fire in a boutique engulfing a hundred-year-old building. What didEviehave to do with this?
Her level of alarm rose as she watched a news video of a bulldozer smashing through the metal door on the building she’d once considered for her catering service, the one La Bella Gente now leased.
Only Jax and his merry madmen would highjack a bulldozer to break through a wall—and that meant Evie was in there. Why? How...
Dante texted saying he was going to the hospital with the injured student.
Flinging curses at his oblivious head, Pris texted back that Gladwell was in town, and she thought he was a threat to the twins. She had no idea if that was true. She simply felt it in her bones.
