DevilMayRide

21
“I think I should try to talk to Rhea,” Sadie said as she steered the car into the outskirts of Seattle.
“In the morning,” Maeva said sleepily.
She fell back asleep and dozed off for the remaining drive until they were parked a few houses down from the bed-and-breakfast and Sadie killed the ignition.
Maeva sat up and looked around.
“Where are we?”
“Parked around the corner from Onyx House.”
“I thought we agreed we’d do it in the morning?”
“Technically it is the morning.”
“It’s like three in the morning,” Maeva pointed out. “Okay, we’re here. So what’s your plan?”
“Um . . .”
“You don’t even have a plan?”
“In all fairness your snoring made it difficult to concentrate.”
“Hunh.” Maeva crossed her arms over her chest and scrunched up her face. “Okay, I’ve got it. You want to talk to Rhea, right? You’ve always seen this kid outside, right? So it’s not like we have to break in or something. Lord knows we don’t want to confront Joy, since she’s already not very happy with you. We’ll just walk around the gardens outside the house, keeping near the bushes so nobody notices us, and hopefully Rhea shows up.”
“Okay,” Sadie agreed.
They climbed out of Sadie’s car and gently closed the doors. Walking around the corner and slowly up the street, Maeva bent to Sadie as they ducked under a streetlight.
“So what killed your little niece anyway?”
“She fell out her bedroom window,” Sadie said.
“Jesus,” Maeva muttered.
“Yeah,” Sadie agreed. “One of the neighbors said Joy was working in her garden at the time and Rhea landed only a foot away.”
“So your brother kills himself and then a few years later his little girl falls out a window. It’s amazing Joy is still standing upright.”
Sadie thought about how Brian’s death just brought her to her knees emotionally. Losing a fiancé would’ve been awful, but losing your daughter in such a preventable accident would’ve been murder.
They ducked under the trellis archway and stayed along the cedar hedge as they circled the yard. The house was completely dark and the full shrubs added spooky shadows to the yard. The cool grass tickled her ankles. After a few minutes Sadie was getting discouraged.
“She’s a little kid. Maybe she doesn’t even come out at night,” Sadie said.
“She’s a spirit, Sadie. She has no concept of time and space as we know it. She can materialize or not as it pleases her.”
They stepped around the back of the house, and outside lights promptly lit the yard.
“Oh shit!” Sadie whispered, and jumped back into shadow at the side of the house. Maeva leapt back with her.
“I think they’re just motion-detector lights,” Maeva whispered in Sadie’s ear.
“What are you guys doin’?” a young voice asked.
Sadie whirled around to find Rhea standing there smiling and eyeing them curiously.
“She’s here,” Sadie said to Maeva, her voice still a hushed whisper.
Maeva turned and looked where Sadie pointed.
“I can make out only a whitish wisp of smoke,” Maeva admitted.
It was no surprise. Maeva’s skills were more along the lines of receiving messages from those spirits she herself actually summoned.
“Why are you whispering?” the little girl asked, her own voice lowered and followed by a delighted giggle.
“I don’t want your mom or stepdad to know we’re here,” Sadie admitted.
“You don’t have to worry ’bout Dad, on account of he’s not home. He went out and he’s not back yet.”
“So Joy’s home alone?” Sadie asked, looking up to the higher windows above them. Maeva’s gaze followed hers.
“Yep. ’Cept for she’s got a guest.”
“Right. I guess this is a B and B,” Sadie said, more to herself. She faced Rhea, then dropped down to one knee so that she was looking the little girl straight in the eye. “I want to ask you something important. I want you to think hard and tell me if you ever remember your mom talking about why your real dad died.”
“Oh, I know why he died,” Rhea said, nodding her head seriously. “I do. It was ’cause of a gun and that’s why guns are never, not ever, for kids to touch or play with.”
Sadie blew out a long breath and tried a different approach.
“Yes, it was because he got shot with a gun, but did your mom ever say why?”
Rhea pinched her face into a thoughtful look and tapped her pursed lips with the tip of her finger.
“It was on account of voices.”
“Voices?”
“Yep. Voices he heard, and then he came here and Daddy Tim told him he was gonna end up loony like his uncle and he’d be better off gone. Mom said his head and heart were all broken inside ’cause of voices.”
“Tim told him he was crazy?” Sadie’s tone was harsher than she wanted and she saw Rhea flinch away.
“You’re mad.”
“I’m not mad at you. I’m mad that your daddy is dead.”
“Tim’s my real daddy, you know, on account of Mom said so and since I never knew the other dad.”
Sadie sighed and looked into Rhea’s sad face.
“I wish I could’ve been your real aunt when you were alive.”
“You need to help her move on,” Maeva said, coming to stand next to Sadie. “You’re becoming attached.”
“She’s Brian’s flesh and blood,” Sadie whispered.
“No, she’s not,” Maeva said firmly. “Because she’s no longer even part of our reality. You need to help her move on, because it’s what you are called to do.”
“I don’t wanna go,” Rhea said, her bottom lip beginning to quiver.
“See what you’ve done?” Sadie demanded. “You’re upsetting her.”
Maeva opened her mouth to say something, then shut it again, tilting her head as if listening to a distant sound.
“You don’t have to move on if you’re not ready,” Sadie told Rhea.
“You better leave,” Rhea said. She looked off toward the front yard and lifted her finger to point. “One of the bad people is coming.”
Sadie looked toward the front yard where Rhea pointed. When she turned back, Rhea was gone. Then she heard it.
“A motorcycle!” Maeva and Sadie cried simultaneously.
By the time they heard it, he was already driving up to the front of the house. There was no way to get to Sadie’s car without walking right past the biker, so they hunkered down low behind a clump of shrubs that, hopefully, hid them while allowing them ample view of the front yard.
The Harley-Davidson made a final fwap fwap growl before it was turned off. Seconds later a man clad in black leather strode purposely through the vine-covered trellis and toward the front door. His leather jacket was new and fitted. The helmet he wore was the modern full-facial type and certainly not the black beanie Fierce Force members were known to wear. At the front door, the motorcyclist simply knocked once.
Sadie found herself leaning forward, her face against scratchy branches, in order to see. She could hear Maeva’s heavy breathing next to her.
The front door was opened by Joy. She was wearing jeans and a T-shirt and looked like she’d been expecting someone. When the man stepped inside, he tugged off his helmet. As he reached behind him to shut the door, Sadie saw his face clearly.
It was Scott Reed.
Sadie’s hand flew to her mouth to stifle a gasp. Maeva’s face had the same look of astonishment.
The door to Onyx House closed.
“Let’s wait a minute and then make a run for it,” Maeva suggested.
Sadie nodded.
After a minute or two, they got to their feet and carefully threaded their way between the taller shrubs in the garden. Once they were near the trellis, they bolted through the yard, down the street, and around the corner.
Once inside the car, they zipped out of the neighborhood as quickly as possible.
“He could be doing a story,” Maeva suggested.
“Maybe . . . ,” Sadie said, but it felt wrong to her. She opened her mouth to say more but heard the muffled ring of her cell phone sounding from the bottom of her purse.
Since Sadie was driving, Maeva dug out the phone for her. She looked at the display before handing it over to Sadie.
“It’s Zack.”
Sadie frowned. It was the middle of the night.
She took the phone and answered.
“Yeah?”
“Where are you?”
“I’m out,” she said huffily. He had no right to demand to know where she was in the middle of the night.
“You need to get your ass to your sister’s place. Someone’s taken Dawn.”