The Spirit Tree (26 page)

The commissioner nodded toward Aaron and motioned for him to come forward. “Allow me to introduce Detective Burns, the second primary investigator on this case. It was under his direction that we brought in nontraditional resources on the case.”

Aaron said something under his breath. The reporters began shouting questions at Aaron as he stepped forward. Bryson pulled me into the protection of his arm and led me to the fringe of the crowd. I turned my head and watched as Aaron stood behind the podium addressing the reporters. He reminded me of a political candidate, smiling and waving.

A reporter called out, “Inside sources tell us the nontraditional resource is a psychic? Is this true, Detective Burns?”

I held my breath, and Bryson whispered a few choice curses. Aaron’s smile faltered, glancing toward me and Bryson. One or two of the cameras turned, following his line of vision, straight to me and Bryson.

“We’ve used every available resource to locate the Rivera children,” Aaron replied a moment too late. “We won’t stop searching for the children until they’re found.”

Another reporter shouted from the crowd, “So you believe the children are still alive?”

Bryson tightened his grip on me, tucking me against his chest as he hotfooted it out of the parking lot. Once we were on the sidewalk, he slowed his pace. “Change of plans. You’re riding with me.”

I nodded. “Please tell me we weren’t on camera.”

“I’m not sure if we were—not that it matters. They can’t link you to the case, or the rumors of psychics.” Bryson looked uncertain as he unlocked my door.

I left a message for Aaron as Bryson pulled onto the highway and grew quiet.

“Tessa, I’m glad you called me this morning.” Bryson glanced at me and smiled. “It means a lot.”

Before I could respond, my cell phone rang. “It’s Mae.”

“Answer it.”

“Hello?” I forced a smile, hoping it would leak into my words.

“Tessa Marie, I just saw you on the TV with those two guys. I can’t believe my baby girl was on the TV. Are you a police psychic?” Darlene’s voice pierced my eardrum.

“No, Momma. I was visiting Aaron at the station, and we happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.” I tried even harder to force myself to smile. The last thing I needed to do was tick off Darlene.

“Don’t lie to me, little girl. You and I both know the women in this family are psychic. Just yesterday, I told Earl he was going to get a flat tire on the truck. Lo and behold, he had a flat tire this morning.” Darlene said something I couldn’t make out.

“Momma? Can I talk to Mae for a second?”

“Whatever you have to tell her, tell me. She’s watching the news.” Darlene’s voice rose and grew more grating.

“Please tell her I won’t be home for dinner.” I hoped Mae would pick up on my code words for—I’m going to be busy for a while. After being kidnapped, I promised Dottie and Mae I wouldn’t leave town without letting them know. Mascotte and Ocala were definitely out of town.

“Oh, pooh. I was hoping we could talk. I think we should open a shop to do psychic readings—”

“I have to go, Momma. We can talk later. Love you.” I hung up and put my head in my hands.

Bryson asked, “Did I hear that right? Your mother, I mean, Darlene saw us on television and thinks you’re the psychic?”

“Yes.” I pulled my fingers down my face, stretching my eyelids and cheeks. “Let’s not talk about it.”

Bryson nodded. “Deal.”

Ten minutes passed when my phone rang again. This time it was Dottie.

“Hello?”

“Tessa, honey, you need to hear this.” The line went quiet, and then Darlene’s voice filled my ear. I strained to hear what she was saying. I pressed the phone hard against my ear.

“Yes. I have information . . . missing kids . . . that detective . . . hired my daughter . . . his girlfriend. Hang on. Mae, leave me be. I’m on the phone. Yes, I’m back. That tall fellow . . . all three dating . . .” I heard bits and pieces of the conversation. Enough to give me chest pains. I put my finger in my ear, struggling to hear.

“Them three are having a ménage a twat. No wait, that’s when there’s two girls and one guy. What do they call it when it’s two guys and a girl?” Darlene barked out a laugh. The sounds of a struggle came across the line. I feared I would stroke out, right there, in Bryson’s SUV—pop an aneurism and die where I sat.

I disconnected and gently set the phone on the console. “I’m sorry, Bryson.”

Before he could ask, I threw my head back and screamed—one long shrill sound erupted after the next until I disintegrated into hysterical laughter.

Bryson turned white as a sheet and eased the car off the road. He started to reach for me but stopped short. “Tessa?”

I looked at him, still laughing like a lunatic. “She told the news station we were having a ménage à trois.”

“Darlene?” He seemed to have a hard time wrapping his brain around what had happened.

“Yup. Darlene told someone at the news station I was psychic and sleeping with you and Aaron.” My laughter turned to tears.

Bryson made a hissing sound as he leaned over and drew me into his arms. “She’s insane. No one will listen to that nonsense. It’ll be all right, baby. Everything will work out.”

I nodded and curled closer to Bryson. An unwelcome sense of déjà vu struck. Hadn’t I been in the same position with Aaron just hours earlier? I started to pull away, when the phone rang again. This time Bryson picked it up and powered the darned thing off.

“Bryson, I kissed Aaron. I mean, he kissed me, but I kissed him back.”

He tensed but continued to hold me.

“I’m sorry. He’s acting so weird and I’m so freaking confused.”

“Tessa, we don’t have a commitment. Who you kiss is your business.”

“I know, but . . .” I pulled away.

“But what?”

“I thought . . .”

He tucked a curl behind my ear and smiled. “You want me to tell you not to kiss anyone?”

Did I? Maybe? “I don’t know. I guess I do.”

“Don’t kiss Aaron or anyone else. Consider yourself off the market from now on.”

I nodded, trying to puzzle out what that meant. “Off the market.”

“Feel better?” He smiled. When I nodded, he kissed the top of my head. “Let’s go find those kids.”

Aaron caught up with us after being sidetracked by the press conference. He and Bryson sat in the front seat of the unmarked police car listening to the scanner while I went on a food run. We parked outside the Los Com Padres Meat Market, and lucky for us, they had a hot-dog cart. I didn’t look forward to another fast-food meal, but I jumped at the chance to get out of the testosterone-filled car.

I took my time walking back, juggling three hot dogs loaded with condiments and three cans of soda. My balancing act was worthy of the Ringling Brothers.

“Any word?” I handed the food through the window before climbing in.

“No, but they don’t usually use the radio to announce raids,” Aaron said between bites.

“Then why are we sitting here listening to it?”

“It’s more interesting than top forty?” Aaron chuckled as he turned in his seat. “So, can you two do some magic or something to find the kids?”

“Doesn’t work that way.” Bryson crumpled the empty foil wrapper. “It’s all about intention. Since we don’t know what’s going on, we can’t do much.”

“We didn’t think this through very well.” I handed Bryson the remaining half of my hot dog.

Bryson inhaled it. I caught a spark of jealousy in Aaron’s eyes. Was he jealous I chose to share my food with Bryson? Aaron turned away and kept quiet. Good for him, because I didn’t enjoy playing the rope in their game of tug-of-war.

“I have an idea.” I leaned forward. “Aaron, you can go to the scene, right?”

“Yeah.” He nodded, narrowing his eyes. “No one except Samuels knows I’m not on duty.”

“Good. Like Bryson said, we need to know what’s happening in order to help. You can text or call us with information, and we will do what we can from here.”

“Such as?” Aaron didn’t seem convinced.

“If the killer tries to run, we can do something to slow him down, make him go to sleep or something. I don’t know.” I waited for Bryson to help me out, but he only nodded.

“Can you do that?” Aaron asked Bryson, clearly not trusting my opinion.

“Yes, that would give us an intention.” Bryson finished his soda.

“I’ll see what I can find out.” Aaron glanced at us and started the car.

Bryson climbed out, but before I could do the same, Aaron took my hand and held me in place. He stared at me and nodded. “Thanks, Tessa.”

“Be careful, Aaron.” I hopped out, and Aaron drove away. When I turned, Bryson stood beside me with his arms folded over his chest. “What?”

“Just making sure he didn’t try to kiss you.”

I shook my head. “Thanks, I guess. I have a strange feeling about this case.”

“So do I.” Bryson clenched his jaw. “Let’s go.”

Bryson drove until both sides of the road contained nothing except orange groves. It amazed me how quickly an area could change from suburban to rural. He pulled off onto a dirt driveway and angled the SUV between two rows of trees.

“Is it safe to park here? What if it gets towed?”

Bryson held up a hand and closed his eyes. By the time he finished the chant, I felt an overwhelming desire to get out of the vehicle. One minute everything was peachy, the next my skin crawled over my bones. “What did you do?”

“No one will bother the Rover. If they notice it, they won’t want to come near it.” He pulled his shirt over his head.

My eyes widened, forgetting what we were there to do.

“We’ll need our clothes when we shift back.”

“Oh.” I couldn’t understand what had come over me. Bryson was an attractive guy, but I’d never felt such a physical pull to another person.

“Get your head out of the gutter, Tessa.” Bryson opened his door and pulled his boots off.

“I’ll wait until you’re done.” I couldn’t look away from his muscles as he bent to remove his jeans, wiggling in his seat until he was bare.

“Tessa, I’ve seen you naked several times now. Quit stalling.”

“Sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I, um, I’m having impulse-control issues.”

“This is unusual for you?” Bryson chuckled.

“Sexual impulse control.”

“Ah. Yeah, that could be your spirit animal leaking through. I feel it, too.”

“You do?”

“Yes, but we don’t have time to worry about it now. Focus.”

I removed my clothes, though I had no intention of opening the door and exposing myself to anyone who happened to be in the grove. I hadn’t figured out how to shift inside of a vehicle. Feeling eyes on me, I turned to see Bryson watching with a look I’d only seen on his face a couple of times. He looked thirsty, but not for water—for
me
. “Get
your
head out of the gutter. You said we didn’t have time for sex.”

“Later. We will have time later.”

I tumbled out the door, not wanting to risk him changing his mind. Not when my body reacted as it did to his expression. We would both combust if he touched me.

I shifted from human to a burst of flames before I got control of my emotions. I could have sworn I heard Bryson chuckle before his spirit animal called to me from the air.

We soared high enough to clear the sentinel pines dotting the landscape. We found the gathering of police vehicles surrounding a small house. Bryson dove low and alighted in a tree near the gathering. I landed in some brush, near where Samuels stood arguing with Aaron.

“The guy is inside with an arsenal of weapons. Right now you’re a civilian. You need to go.” Samuels put his finger in Aaron’s chest.

“Come on. We aren’t in range. I’m not going anywhere,” Aaron fired back.

I caught movement through a window. Were the kids in there? I couldn’t hear much from inside the house over the noise of the police. I hopped deeper into the brush and took flight, circling over the house twice, before landing on a clothesline in the backyard. Bryson landed a few feet from me on the edge of the roof. His dark, predatory eyes searched the area before turning to me.

My spirit animal called to him, reacting to Bryson stronger than I had in human form. Birds didn’t go into heat like dogs, but I imagined this was darn close. He must have felt the same, given his preening each time I glanced at him. If his control slipped, we were both in trouble.

A single set of footsteps and one set of lungs working rapidly echoed from the house. They’d moved the kids. I caught Bryson’s eye and shook my head. We flew in the direction of Bryson’s SUV.

Bryson arrived at the car and shifted, ahead of me. I landed in a nearby tree while he dialed his cell phone. “Aaron, the kids aren’t there. What kind of car does Miriam Warner drive?”

When Bryson disconnected, he turned to me. “She’s in an older-model white Dodge Caravan. My guess is she’s heading for the interstate. Which way? North or south?”

I cocked my head, shook out my wings, and flew north. South meant going into Orlando. People from up here avoided the city. Finding one car on any number of back roads seemed impossible, but burning off some energy might help calm my other urges.

A hawk in flight can pick out the movement of a field mouse from a hundred feet away, and can dive at speeds of more than 150 miles per hour. A preternatural hawk and firebird can enhance their hunt with ancient magic and spells. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find an old lady and two small children in an old minivan.

Bryson circled back toward the car, and I followed. We shifted back to human form and dressed. When we cooked up the plan, I thought we would find the kids and save the day. We had magic, and we could fly; I thought we were invincible.

“The police will find them, Tessa. We did the best we could.” Bryson slipped his shirt over his head.

“I know, I just thought . . .” I buckled my seat belt and checked my phone. “Aaron called several times. What should I tell him?”

Bryson eased the car down the dirt path. He stopped to wait for traffic to pass before pulling out onto the main road. “Tell him we were busy trying to find the kids with magic.”