Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 77039 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77039 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
It’s got to mean grandmother.
When I saw the word, a feeling of relief settled in me—a relief that my own mother isn’t ill. That was my fear—that Mom and Dad were acting strangely, keeping me at arm’s distance, because Mom’s breast cancer had recurred.
That fear dissipated instantly when I saw the word grandmother. My mom isn’t ill. This message refers to a grandmother, and not my mother.
My grandmother?
Or Brendan’s?
Or someone else’s?
I know for a fact that both my grandmothers are dead, so it can’t refer to my grandmother.
Or…perhaps is alive, as part of the message, is also part of the anagram.
I return to the anagram maker program and type in Darth Morgen is alive.
Again, hundreds of results.
The first is alderamin oversight.
I have no idea what alderamin means, and when I search the term, I find it’s the name of the brightest star in the constellation Cepheus and an anime series.
No. My gut again. It’s telling me that is alive means what it says. Darth Morgen is the puzzle…and I figured it out.
It’s grandmother.
But whose grandmother? Both of mine have been dead and buried for years. Decades, in the case of Daphne Steel.
What can it possibly mean?
And what does it mean in relationship to the tower card that I drew, which left me with goose bumps of fear dashing over me?
My mother isn’t ill.
My grandmothers are dead.
I assume Brendan’s are as well.
So what does this mean? And why did Brendan and his father get the same message?
I don’t know.
But with everything that’s going on? With my family keeping things from me and the rest of the cousins, and with the cards I’ve drawn…
I’m frightened.
Very, very frightened.
Chapter Two
Brendan
“I’d prefer to speak to you alone,” Ryan says.
“So would I,” Pat agrees.
“Fine. That gives you a minute and a half each.” I shrug. “Which one of you wants to go first?”
“Since you’re dating my daughter, I’m going first.” Ryan walks to the other side of the bar.
“You got a problem with that?” I say to Pat.
“I suppose not. Would it matter if I did?”
“I don’t fucking care what either of you has to talk to me about. Stay here. I’ll be back in a minute and a half.” I follow Ryan to where he has settled himself at a table near the pool tables in the back of the bar.
He sits, his hands clasped in front of him. I take the seat across from him, and he meets my gaze. His light-brown eyes seem troubled. I’ve seen the look. Every bartender has. Eyes slightly narrowed, a gaze that seems unfocused. It’s the classic look of someone who’s distressed about something. Could be anything. I’ve heard it all from across the bar. But Ryan Steel isn’t troubled because of a work conflict, a bill he can’t pay—he’s a Steel after all—or a doomed relationship.
“Spill it,” I say. “You’re down to a minute and fifteen seconds. And if this is about your mandate that I take you to my safe-deposit box in Grand Junction for those documents, it’s not happening. I don’t take orders from anyone. Not even Ryan Steel.”
In truth, the documents were in a safe at my parents’ house, but I brought them to my place after Thanksgiving dinner. I lied to Ryan yesterday, but he’s still not getting them. I expect an argument, especially since I laced the last part with sarcasm, so I brace myself.
“It’s not about that.”
No argument? Color me surprised.
“Good.” I check my watch. “A minute and ten seconds.”
“You may want to give me more time than that.”
“I’ve got somebody else waiting to see me, and—”
“That guy waiting to see you is…” Ryan rubs a hand over his forehead, his knuckles white. “Fuck, this is so fucked up.”
Tell me something I don’t know.
I massage my temple. “Is it? Maybe you ought to tell me what’s going on first, and I’ll make my own assessment.”
Ryan shakes his head, raking his fingers through his gray-speckled brown hair.
Ava doesn’t look a lot like him. She looks more like her mother. But in his distressed expression, I see Ava. I see the same look Ava had as she was looking at those tarot cards after doing the reading for both of us.
Something is bothering Ryan Steel, and it concerns his daughter. Why else would he be here? The only link Ryan has to me is Ava.
“Is Ava all right?” I ask.
“Seems you would know better than I would.”
Interesting choice of words for Ryan. Sure, Ava and I are dating, but she’s very close to her family. Has she been avoiding them? Not from where I’m sitting. It’s Ryan and Ruby who have been avoiding her.
“I just left her, and she’s been…”
“Been what?”
I pause a moment, searching for the word I want. “Concerned,” I finally say.
Concerned is too tame a word, but I owe Ava some discretion.