You know, don’t you?”
Sykes got up and paced. “You’re the one who’s going to find out what she felt, Ben. She may tell you. With the rest of us she won’t admit there’s anything in the world that’s not what she calls ‘normal.’ Her hair moved, or was moved. And she felt something. I thought I saw a separate shadow, but I couldn’t be sure. So was there something?”
Ben thought about it. “Didn’t you say that after Marley and Gray came together and Willow accidentally let everyone know she can see hidden events and feelings, past and present, you thought she was ready to join the fold?”
“Sykes is an optimist,” Marley said. She sat on the stairs and Ben was struck afresh by the appeal of the Millet women. “Willow has powers none of us had guessed at. She could see how Gray had suffered in the past, and how it affected him, but she only slipped up and let us know because she felt badly for Gray.”
Ben screwed up his eyes. “An advanced power, I should think. And rare. Where is Gray, did you say?”
“His office is still at his dad’s cottage in Faubourg Marigny. He’s either over there or out on the job. He’ll be back a bit later.”
“I may need him,” Ben said. He wasn’t above confronting Willow with solid evidence of how “normal” she was. “I’ll be seeing you.”
Ben gave Sykes a look that warned him to not follow him as he went after Willow. As powerful as Sykes was, he wasn’t the only one who could be around without others knowing it. The difference was that Ben used invisibility to travel to other locations, often returning without anyone being aware he had ever left. And in truly extreme situations he could manipulate time—which was a skill he had never told anyone about. It was dangerous and carried more responsibility than anyone could take lightly, but Ben was schooled in keeping the changes minuscule and returning time to its rightful place once he’d carried out what had to be done.
He held out his hand for the package containing the gun. Pascal grimaced, but handed it over.
“Good luck,” Sykes said with a sympathetic shrug. “I think it’s time for me to get back to work.”
“Thanks,” Ben said, going out into the Court of Angels.
Alone among the lush ferns bobbing over cobblestones, the tough, shiny leaves of gardenias and the stone angels—some not very angelic-looking—Ben collected himself.
This courtyard had intrigued him since he was a boy. The atmosphere was like no other place. Ben had seen and felt things here that he had never felt anywhere else.
Subtle things he had only mentioned to Sykes, whose experiences among the shadowed stone faces and occasional gargoyle poking from a door lintel were different from Ben’s, but no less intense.
Today he did not experience anything remarkable.
He wanted to see Willow on his own. He wanted her to at least give him a little opening into her life again, but if they couldn’t accept every aspect of one another, the incredible emotional and sexual power she wielded over him wouldn’t be enough.
Would it?
The patterns thrown by leaves shivered on red brick walls around all sides of the courtyard.
There it was, gentle laughter, almost giggling, so faint he strained to hear it. Automatically, he stared from stone figure to stone figure. They weren’t laughing.
Green-painted metal staircases zigzagged upward between randomly placed windows, stopping with a landing at each floor. The Millets’ flats faced him on each side, including Sykes’s, which was where Ben would live while he was back in New Orleans…unless Willow kicked him out….
He glanced up at Willow’s flat and barely pulled himself together enough not to jump. She stood at the open front door, leaning on the jamb, arms crossed.
It was definitely giggling he heard, and it saturated his senses.
To smile or not to smile?
Ben fashioned a restrained upward tilt at the corners of his mouth and strode to jog up the steps and meet the woman he wanted.
“Hey, Willow,” he said, arriving in front of her and keeping his demeanor more-or-less solemn. That wasn’t hard. He suddenly felt solemn…and insecure? Ben Fortune didn’t go in for feeling insecure very easily.
“Hey, Ben.”
The giggles faded into gusty titters that slithered away. He had always intended to do more research on the Court of Angels, but never got around to it.
“I brought your helmet up,” he said, feeling lame.
“Thanks.” She reached for the box, but he made no attempt to give it to her.
This was the first time since his return that he had stood so close to Willow. She really was a little woman. All the women in her family were small. He recalled his sister, Poppy, reminding him before he left for Kauai that he should “Look for a woman you won’t crush.” Poppy was tall and almost too beautiful. She had always been his friend, but in the past two years he had come to truly admire her.
“You’ve got my gun, too. How did you manage to get it from Uncle Pascal?”
“By letting him know you’re mature enough to make your own decisions.” Not completely true, but Marley had just about said that and Ben hadn’t disagreed.
“Thanks for that.” She smiled a little, but immediately bowed her face in the way he remembered so well. Willow talked a tough story, but she had a shy streak a mile wide.
“Are you going to invite me in?”
A frown came and went quickly. “Of course. Come in. I don’t suppose Winnie followed you out, did she?” She peered around him and down into the courtyard. “She likes to come up when Marley works late and Gray is gone.”
“Too much going on for her to concentrate today, I think,” Ben said, sensing Willow’s disappointment.
Willow shook her head as if the dog didn’t matter to her. “Gray doesn’t get back early most nights. He’s at his dad’s working. His dad is Gus Fisher—we look after his cottage and make sure everything gets done over there. Gus loves Winnie, too. Winnie likes to ride over to Gus’s in my trailer.”
He was no closer to going inside her flat. “Dogs and trailers match,” he said. “Not as much as dogs and pickups, though. I’ll have to take you to Kauai one day and you’ll see how every pickup has its dog in the back, or several dogs.”
She gave him a quizzical look, but at least she didn’t protest that she’d never be going to Kauai, or not with him.
Yet.
“Gray and Marley live here, then?” he said.
She nodded. “Yes. They like it here. Gray’s all over the place with what he does and it’s convenient for Marley to be close to work.”
“Marley looks happy.”
She smiled broadly. “They both are. They can’t keep their hands off each other.” She laughed at that.
Ben felt a spear of jealousy. “I’ve missed you,” he said. Everyone said he was fearless—this was a time to prove it.
Willow’s white, freckled skin turned pink. She had thick, auburn eyelashes that spread shadows across her shining eyes.
“Is it okay if I say that? Friends are supposed to care about each other.”
“It’s okay,” she said and walked into the flat, leaving him to follow her. “It’s dinnertime. Are you hungry?”
He barely stopped himself from saying he wasn’t. “Getting there,” he said. “I got in late yesterday and slept. Then caught up with Sykes. I think I forgot to eat.”
“Oh.” Her expression suggested she had not expected him to take her up on a vague offer of a meal. “Well, you’re in luck. It’s gumbo here tonight. I cooked a whole mess of it yesterday and it’s always better on the second day.”
He closed his eyes and made sounds of ecstasy. “Gumbo? When you live in the land of pork and poi, good as it is, gumbo sounds exotic. I’d love some, but there’s no hurry.”
That got him another look. He could see her thinking that he sounded as if he was settling in. If he were sneakier, he’d tune in and listen to exactly what she was thinking. That was generally against his principles unless
