All those questions and more ran through my head. Before I could decide which one to ask, Gunner took control of the conversation.
“Are you following us?”
“Heavens to Betsy, no.” Ezekiel vehemently shook his head. “I was actually here for another reason. It’s just luck I ran into you.”
That sounded unlikely to me. “You were here for another reason?” I folded my arms over my chest, practically daring him to lie. “What reason is that?”
He blinked several times and then pointed toward the window, to where a sign touted “magical fixes and powerful ointments.”
I frowned. “You need an ointment, do you?”
“I do. I have this weird rash.” As if to prove it, he lifted his shirt to show us a weird red mark on his stomach. It didn’t look particularly dangerous. It also didn’t look like anything I wanted to check out up close and personal.
“Lovely,” I muttered.
Gunner shot me a sidelong look and smirked then turned back to Ezekiel. “You said you were looking for us. How come?”
“I was hoping to talk to you about the things we discussed yesterday.”
I ran the timeline through my head. Was that meeting really yesterday? It felt as if we were far removed from that conversation at this point. “What were you hoping we would discuss?”
“All of it.” If Ezekiel was bothered by my overt mistrust, he didn’t show it. “You didn’t say much after we talked. I figured you would have questions. After I got back to my room, I realized you were probably in shock, or maybe you didn’t want to run those questions by me in front of people.”
It all sounded so rational, yet his presence bothered me all the same. “I’m not sure what you want me to say.” I held out my hands in what should’ve been a placating manner and yet I had to fight the effort to ball them into fists. “I’m still processing what you said.”
“I think you’re afraid to hear more.”
He was a bold old coot. I had to give him that. “Why would I be afraid? You don’t represent a threat to me.”
“Not physically, no,” he readily agreed. “Emotionally?” He gave me an appraising look. “You were a bold child, inquisitive. Even then, nobody frightened you. I always thought you would grow into a wonderful woman, or a complete and total psychopath because you had no fear.”
My mouth dropped open.
“Don’t say that to her,” Gunner snapped, moving closer to my side. “She’s not a psychopath.”
“Then she must’ve grown into a wonderful woman.” Ezekiel focused his attention on Gunner. “She’s obviously inspired loyalty in you.”
“She has.” Gunner bobbed his head. “The thing is, you’re not inspiring anything but suspicion right now. Maybe you should take a step back from this entire situation.”
Ezekiel kept his gaze on Gunner for a long beat and then barked out a laugh. “I like you. You’re just as fiery as her. Although you’re worried you’re overstepping your bounds in this particular case, you’re willing to risk it to protect her.”
“You have no idea what I’m willing to risk for her,” Gunner said. “Right now, you’re clearly making her uncomfortable. I don’t like it.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Ezekiel flashed a smile that trended toward contrite but didn’t quite make it. “The thing is, I’m an old man. I’ve been around a long time. While I don’t plan on kicking the bucket anytime soon, I also don’t have a lot of time to waste. If I can solve the mystery of what happened to Geoffrey and his family, that’s what I want to do. I’ve always wondered.”
Gunner made a grunting sound under his breath. He looked torn.
“It’s okay,” I assured him. Ezekiel made me leery, but I wasn’t afraid of him. If he was trying to manipulate me, I would sniff it out. And if he was telling the truth, that would become apparent eventually. “I want to hear what he has to say.”
“There’s not much to say,” said Ezekiel. “I told you what I know. I’m ready to hear what you know.”
I extended my fingers in front of me, briefly looked over my ragged fingernails, and then shrugged. “I don’t know anything. I have zero memories of my time before being discovered. In fact, I have very little memory of my time in the months after my discovery. My memory doesn’t really kick in until I’m a good six months clear of that event.”
Ezekiel cocked his head to the side. “Doesn’t that strike you as odd?”
I shook my head. “Not particularly. I was young. Most children don’t have memories of their first few years.”
“I was under the impression that you were around five or so when you were found. That’s what Drake said anyway. For the record, the last time I saw you I believe you were about three. That means you were out there with your family for two years.”
“Not necessarily. Isn’t it possible that I was with other people and they got sick of taking care of me? Perhaps I became too much of a burden because of my age or something. They could’ve easily left me behind years before. Perhaps I don’t remember because the people they left me with mistreated me and I don’t want to remember.”
Ezekiel immediately started shaking his head. “They wouldn’t have left you unless it was a last resort. I don’t know much, but I do know that. You were loved.”
“And you know that even though you spent limited time with my purported grandfather?”
“I saw you with him. He doted on you, gave you licorice whips when nobody was looking. He said he wasn’t supposed to give you a lot of sugar because it hyped you up, but he couldn’t help himself.”
Despite my resolve to hold Ezekiel at arm’s length, a ghost of a memory pushed into my brain. It wasn’t exactly a memory. It was more a
