Paul had lived in the house next door to her grandparents when she’d lived with them as a teen and they’d been best friends ever since, keeping in touch over the years. He was like the brother she’d never had and he’d be more than willing to take care of her father for her. Most important, she could trust him to keep her whereabouts a secret.
With the cash resources she had saved and allocated for her father’s immediate care, Paul would be able to handle getting her dad settled while she got herself out of town.
Once she was safely on a plane to Boston, she’d have plenty of time to figure out how to handle Mike.
SHE’D BE BACK. It was only a matter of time, Marshall thought. Not because Amber loved the life the way he did, but because they were a team. She’d been raised at her father’s knee and she’d learned all the tricks of the trade, but she had something extra. She’d been blessed with a memory as gorgeous as the rest of her.
And she was his. Oh, sure, she’d married that cop and at first that pissed Marshall off. But he realized she needed a wake-up call. She’d done the same thing once before, gone to live her life in L.A., but she’d come back.
To him.
As soon as she needed someone to lean on, she returned to Marshall. She’d be back again when that stupid, straight-as-an-arrow cop broke her heart. And he’d be waiting with open arms.
CHAPTER FOUR
COURT HAD BEEN a breeze thanks to a green public defender straight out of law school. The guy didn’t know what he was doing, which meant Mike got out in time for lunch. He headed directly to the cafe near the station to meet his cousin Derek, who’d called early this morning, needing to talk.
Mike had a gut feeling his father, Edward, was causing trouble again, in one of his unpredictable irrational attempts to protect the family from the curse. It didn’t seem to matter that the curse had originated centuries ago and those who had perpetuated its belief were no longer wreaking havoc in his hometown.
The Perkins family had settled on the coast and made their money in real estate and shipping. Just recently, Mary Perkins, the descendant of the original so-called witch who had placed the curse on the Corwin family during the era of the Salem witch trials, was in jail for blackmail, conspiracy and a whole host of other crimes. Meanwhile, her granddaughter and namesake was in a mental institution until she was deemed fit to stand trial for arson. She’d burned down the Wave, a nightclub that had been an institution in the town of Perkins. Both women had used the Corwin curse to hold on to power in the town. With them out of commission, the younger Corwin generation, Mike, twenty-seven, Jason, twenty-six and Derek, thirty-two, hoped the old stories would die out. Unfortunately, their fathers wouldn’t let it. The older generation still believed in the curse.
Mike’s father most of all. Or at least, he was the one who’d taken fear of it to the most extreme.
After Mike’s experience in Vegas with Amber-meeting and marrying, half convincing himself he could have something special with this woman, a
Almost.
He arrived at the cafe to find Derek already there. The cousins were similar in looks, with dark hair, but Derek kept his short while Mike avoided the barber’s chair.
“Hey, cousin, how’s life treating you?” Mike asked, sliding into the plastic-cushioned booth across from Derek.
“Pretty damn good considering.” Derek grinned, the same smile he’d been sporting since marrying his high- school sweetheart, Gabrielle Donovan.
“Considering the curse?” Mike asked knowingly.
Unlike Mike, who just didn’t deal with the curse, Derek had openly avoided it, breaking up with Gabrielle before college to avoid the fate of the rest of the Corwin men. Later, he’d gotten another woman pregnant, married her hoping to have a family and a child without invoking the curse because there’d been no love involved. The marriage had failed anyway. And Gabrielle, a successful author, had returned to prove to Mike’s stubborn cousin there was no such thing as a curse-just coincidence and bad choices. She was still proving it, every day of their almost year-long marriage. Though Derek was wary, he was too much in love to live without her.
Derek leaned forward on the table. “Considering your father is making us insane.”
“Can I take your orders?” a waitress asked, interrupting at just the right-or wrong-moment.
Derek shut his menu and ordered a hamburger and fries.
“Make that two, please,” Mike said.
They both ordered colas and the waitress left, leaving Mike to return to the subject at hand.
“Okay, what’s the old man done now?” he asked.
Derek’s gaze darkened. “He’s into voodoo.”
Mike wasn’t surprised. In the last few years, his father had taken to alternative religions to ward off the curse. Juju dolls hung from the trees lining the path leading up to his secluded house and he’d erected ancient totem poles for protection. Mike didn’t understand Edward’s reasoning and didn’t want to try. The farther he stayed from the insanity, the better.
“What’s going on?” Mike reluctantly asked.
“He’s spooking Gabrielle and you know that isn’t easy to do.”
As an author who made a living dispelling paranormal beliefs, Gabrielle wasn’t easily scared. If Edward was upsetting Gabrielle, he must have gone too far. “Tell me.” Mike gestured to Derek to continue.
“Well, we wanted to keep it quiet, but about six months ago, Gabrielle had a miscarriage,” Derek said, his voice low.
“Damn.” Mike shook his head, absorbing the news. “I had no idea. I’m sorry,” Mike said to his cousin.
Derek inclined his head, acknowledging the words. “According to the doctor, it was a freak thing. There’s no reason to think it will happen again or prevent us from having a healthy baby.”
“Thank God.” Mike expelled the breath he’d been holding.
“And we’re trying again.” Derek grinned once more. “But your father found out about the miscarriage. We figure he overheard Gabrielle and her friend Sharon talking about it in town.” He shook his head. “Ever since he’s been obsessed with protecting her.”
Mike muttered an expletive under his breath. “I’m sorry. All it takes is the slightest problem when a Corwin man is in love and my father loses it.”
Derek shook his head. “He’s already lost it, Mike.”
Mike knew. He just hated facing it because, too often as a child, he’d feared ending up like his father. As an adult, he prided himself on how well he had things together. He had a job as a cop, a career that enabled him to protect others, something he never quite felt he’d been able to do for his father. Edward fought his own demons. Mike fought other people’s, at least in a way, and remained sane.
“Look, we know my father has issues.”
“Right. The problem is, he’s spreading the insanity now. Gabrielle came home the other day to find red dust sprinkled outside the front door.”
“In Boston or Stewart?” Mike asked, since his cousin and his wife had a house in their small hometown village of Stewart and a Brownstone in downtown Boston. Gabrielle had lived in Boston before she’d gotten back together with Derek and they’d kept her place as a city retreat or an office in case Gabrielle was on deadline and needed peace and quiet.
“Stewart. But thanks for reminding me. I’m going to have to check the brownstone before I leave. I’d hate for Gabrielle to find a present from your father next time she visits.”
“I’m sure your place in Boston is fine. I can’t see my father going too far, can you?” The man rarely went into Stewart, let alone ventured beyond the town lines.
Derek shook his head. “But you never know. The red dust was followed by a string of juju dolls across the doorway. Gabrielle said she was damn near decapitated by the fishing line he used.”
“I’ll talk to him,” Mike promised. “I’ll call him tonight.”
“I think he disconnected his phone line. Afraid of traveling spirits or some such nonsense.”
