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Chapter Six

At least once a day, I walk outside and say,

“Computer, end program.”

Just in case.

—Meme

When Michael first pulled up to the scene, Izzy saw the fire trucks and smoke and went into full panic mode. She pressed her hands over her mouth as her gaze darted frantically from one bystander to another, her breaths coming in quick, shallow gasps.

Michael watched helplessly as she jumped out of the car before he stopped and ran toward the ambulance. He slammed on the brakes, still several yards from the scene, threw the car in park, and followed Izzy into the thick of it.

A cop tried to stop her, but she ducked past him and forced her way through the throng of people to get to her daughter. They’d been informed she was in the ambulance.

When Michael got to the crime scene tape, the cop standing guard had learned from his mistake. He held up a hand—one he clearly wanted to lose—and shoved Michael back when he got too close. Or, well, he tried.

Michael obliged, stopping just long enough to lie through his teeth. “My daughter is in that ambulance.”

“The kid in the hospital gown?”

“Yes. She was abducted. I don’t know how she ended up here.” Here being a house fire on the west side of town. Did Ross start the fire? Had he tried to kill them both in some kind of murder/suicide thing? The mere thought weakened Michael’s knees.

Having given the officer enough of his time, he ducked under the tape and looked for Izzy’s dark hair. The cop tried to stop him again until he heard a woman’s voice. “He’s with me, Officer,” Carson said at his back. Unlike the agent, Michael had zero concerns about breaking traffic laws to get here. So, naturally, he’d beaten her.

He left Carson to deal with the cop and charged forward. He found Izzy sitting in the ambulance beside Emma, rubbing her back.

Emma sat staring straight ahead.

“Emma, sweetheart, can you hear me?”

She had swipes of blood on her face and hands.

“Emma,” Michael said, climbing in to sit across from them. “Are you okay, Squirt?”

Izzy put her ear to Emma’s chest. “She seems to be breathing okay.”

“That’s good.”

“Michael?” Emma blinked and gazed up, first at him and then at her mother, as though surprised to see them. “Mommy? What are you doing in an ambulance?”

Izzy laughed through a sob and gently took Emma into her arms. “Sweetheart, what happened? Are you hurt?”

An older officer walked up, his face displaying his experience through the lines and imperfections of aging. “She apparently jumped out of a moving vehicle and ran up to one of the women watching the fire.”

“What?” Izzy said, gaping at Emma.

“According to the EMT, that blood isn’t hers. Any thoughts on whose it might be?” he asked.

Michael had a good idea. The nurse’s. This would traumatize Emma for the rest of her life. Poor thing.

But Izzy was more concerned about how Emma got there. “You jumped?”

Still slightly out of it, she turned to her mother. “Celie told me to open the door and jump when he turned his head, so I did.” She looked at the palms of her hands, and a fat tear slid down her cheek. “But I fell and scraped my hands on the rocks.”

“Was Celie driving the vehicle?” the officer asked.

“I’ll take it from here, Officer,” Carson said, coming to the rescue yet again. She flashed her badge, and, unlike in the movies, he didn’t seem to care.

He just nodded and walked off to talk to one of the firefighters.

Another agent showed up, a young kid who looked like he’d just graduated with honors from Santa Fe Middle School. Carson sent him to question the woman who’d helped Emma and get a description of the man if she’d seen him.

“So, the fire has nothing to do with Emma’s abduction?” Izzy asked Carson.

“From what I’ve picked up, this fire has been burning for almost two hours. They’re just trying to keep it from spreading at this point. It’s a total loss. But this amazing young woman,” Carson said, beaming at Emma, “used the distraction to make her getaway.”

The scraped palms all but forgotten, Emma smiled. “Celie told me to. She said with all the cops around, he wouldn’t be able to grab me again. And if he tried, I should scream as loud as I could. But he didn’t even try, Mommy. He just stared at me for like ever and then speeded off down the street.”

Carson turned to Michael. “Is Celie special, too?”

“Very special. And very old.”

“Your face is old,” Emma said. When everyone gaped at her, she explained. “Oh, that was from Celie. Not me. I don’t think your face is that old.”

“Okay, then,” Carson said, fighting a grin. “How about you fill me in on everything that’s happened today while the EMT checks out…your daughter, is it?”

Michael lifted an unapologetic shoulder. “I figured it would get me past the velvet ropes faster.”

“That’s one way of describing crime scene tape.”

He followed Carson a few feet away and spent the next twenty minutes explaining everything—well, almost everything—that had happened that day, including Emma’s severe allergic reaction.

“You think it was planned to get them to the hospital?”

“I don’t know. Aren’t there easier ways to abduct a kid? It seems like a lot of work.”

“Do you think he honestly wanted to harm her?”

“I don’t know that either. Izzy is convinced her ex is behind this, but he supposedly doesn’t even know about Emma.”

“Is she his?”

“Yes.”

She nodded and took down all the info she could. “I’ll need a name and a last known address. I’m worried about the reaction, though, considering how careful Ms. Walsh is. I’ll send a team to her apartment.”

“We’ll meet you there.”

Carson tilted her head in question. “Shouldn’t you take the kid back to the hospital?”

“I’ll see what Iz wants to do.” He looked over as Izzy spoke to the woman who took Emma into her arms and brought her to the ambulance on standby. She was shorter than Izzy, rounder, with a bevy of dark curls and enough eyeliner to paint the Astrodome. Izzy threw her arms around the woman, and Michael could see the gratitude on her face as they hugged each other for a very long time.

He eased closer.

“I’m just glad she’s okay,” the woman said as they returned to the ambulance. “I can’t believe she was… I mean, I can’t imagine what you were going through. I saw her fall out of that SUV, and then the man just sped away. I thought he’d abandoned her.”

“I can’t thank you enough for looking after her,” Izzy said.

“Me, too,” Emma chimed in. “Thanks for looking after me, Mrs. Duarte. Your dad says hi.”

The woman chuckled and spoke softly to Izzy. “She must be confusing me with someone else. My dad died over twenty years ago.”

“Oh,” Emma continued, “and he said to look under the box in the closet. Not in it.”

The woman laughed and turned to go pick up her kids from school. “Early release day,” she said as she waved. Then, realization dawned. She stopped and turned back to Emma. “Under the box?”

Emma nodded, a bright smile plastered on her face.

The woman pressed her lips together in thought and walked away.

The other agent ran after her to get her contact info as Emma giggled. “She’s going to be so excited when she finds her grandmother’s squash blossom. She’s been looking for it for months. But wouldn’t it be gross now? All squished and rotting under a box in a closet?”

“That’s what’s under the box?” Izzy asked.

“Yeah. Her dad saw it there.” She squinted at the woman’s departing back. “She must really like vegetables.”

Michael shook his head. Just how gifted was she? He knew several people who could communicate with the departed. Was she one of them? “Emma, can you talk to ghosts?”

She shook her head, the motion sending her curls bouncing around her face. “No, but Celie can. She told me Mrs. Duarte’s dad is really nice for an American.”

Izzy laughed, the sound breathy like her voice, and climbed into the van again to pull Emma into her arms. “I was so scared, Pumpkin.”

“Pickle,” Emma corrected.

“I’m so sorry, Precious. I should have been with you.”

“It’s okay. I’m sorry, too.”

Izzy put her at arm’s length. “For what?”

“I didn’t know what to do when that man took me. Celie told me to be very still and do what he said because he’d hurt that nurse, and there was no telling what he would do to me if I made a fuss. Is she okay? The nurse?”

“She’ll be fine,” Michael said, reaching inside to smooth a curl over her ear.

Emma stood and jumped from the ambulance into his arms.

“Emma!” Izzy climbed down and offered him an apologetic look.

Suddenly, the floodgates gave way. The fear Emma had been keeping in check came bursting out of her, and she sobbed into the crook of Michael’s neck.

“I knew you’d come,” Emma said between sorrowful hiccups.

He pulled her tighter, wanting to protect her now more than ever. It was the tears. He was such a sucker for the tears. He’d never make it in the mental health industry. “How did you know I’d come?” he asked, patting her back as Izzy smoothed her hair.

She straightened and patted his face, her eyes swollen and her cheeks wet. “That’s why I wasn’t scared. Or, well, that scared. Celie told me. She said even though she hates you with the fiery passion of a thousand suns, you’re still good, and you and your friends would stop at nothing to get me back.

“My friends?”

She hiccupped again and nodded. “She said you have lots of friends with special gifts who can help if you need them to.”

This Celie was seriously starting to get under his skin. How much did she know about him and his ragtag family? If she was a demon, he wouldn’t let it slide. He would call in reinforcements, which would not end well for the supernatural being. Unless she was into being ripped apart by a departed Rottweiler named Artemis. “It was a very close call, and I was pretty scared, too. Your bravery is what saved the day, Squirt.”

She smiled and threw her arms around his neck again. He caught the barest hint of adoration flash across Izzy’s face, but for whom? Emma? Michael? The EMT who was still trying to bandage Emma’s hands?

Michael glared at the man just in case. He didn’t have a lot going for him. He didn’t need some nerdy kid stealing Izzy’s affection.

The EMT didn’t notice. It was probably for the best.

* * * *

An hour later, Michael sat beside Emma’s bed as Izzy administered a breathing treatment. She’d also given her another hit of Benadryl, so Emma lay struggling to keep her lids from closing over those beautiful gray irises.

“I’ve called for backup,” he said to Izzy.

Izzy stiffened but pretended not to. “Your friends? Are they coming here?”

“Just a couple. And, yes, they are.”

“Are they also members of the Bandits?”

“Former members. One of them was the local chapter’s president for quite a while.”

The muscles in her jaw contracted as tension built inside her.

“I’m going back to that area to look for the Jeep. He must be hiding out somewhere near there.”

“Oh. Okay. I’ve never had people over. Should I make snacks?”

He chuckled. “They can fend for themselves. And Carson already has a team scouring the kitchen. I don’t think you’d get much done in there.”

“True.”

“Is the girl coming?” Emma asked.

Michael frowned. “What girl?”

“Celie wants to know. She just said the girl.”

Ah. “No. If she knows what’s good for her, Elwyn is in school.”

“You’re just going to drive around?” Izzy asked, circling back to his admittedly lame plan. “And hope Ross’s accomplice was stupid enough to leave his vehicle in the driveway?”

After a quick chuckle, he said, “One can hope.”

“That’s a terrible plan.”

He couldn’t argue that. “What’s her story?” he asked, gesturing toward the creature in the bed with a nod.

“She thinks she’s British,” Izzy whispered.

Suddenly wide-awake, Emma’s eyes flew open right before she rolled them. “ I’m not British. Celie is. But don’t worry. I’m still in here, too.”

“That’s good to know.”

“Celie calls it cohabitation,” she continued. “She lives in a tiny part of me, like the corner of my bedroom.”

The thought still disturbed him. He’d seen possession firsthand. He was not a fan.

“It’s weird because I have all her memories mixed in with mine. Sometimes, I get them confused.”

Adopting a thick British accent, she added, “And she hates it when I’s talks like this. It’s cocky, you see—”

“Cockney,” Izzy corrected.

“—and it drives Celie crazy, it does. Not that I’s cares much. I learned it watching the old Mary Poppins , I did.” She threw her head back, laughing so hard she had to pull her knees up and hold her belly.

Michael and Izzy laughed with her, the sound absolutely precious, especially after everything that had happened today.

“She’s so mad,” Emma said, her bland American accent back in place.

Michael wiped his eyes and asked, “So, how does one get a walk-in?”

She sobered and flashed him a knowing grin. “Well, one first has to die.”

He stilled for the hundredth time that day, horrified yet again by something one of these two had said. He took a moment to let her words soak in, then asked, “How did you die?”

“Eloy Johnson pushed me off the monkey bars. Let’s just say I did not stick the landing. An ambulance came and everything. The driver said I didn’t have a pulse for two minutes, but then Celie walked in, and I came back to life.”

“She brought you back to life?” Michael asked.

“No, silly. That was the ambulance driver. Celie just encouraged me not to go into the light. But that’s not even the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.”

“Seriously?” he asked, a little worried about where this was going.

So was Izzy, if her expression was any indication.

Emma grinned at her and said to Michael, “Mom accidentally tased me once.”

“Emma,” she scolded softly.

She put a tiny hand to her mouth, leaned closer, and whispered to him, “She’d been drinking wine.”

Izzy glared at her. “Emmaline Isadora Walsh, you can’t possibly remember that. You were two.”

“You tased a two-year-old?” Michael asked, appalled.

“Not on purpose.”

“Wait,” he said as a thought occurred to him. “Can you use your ability on her?”

She rolled her eyes. “Don’t I wish.”

“Mommy!”

“Bedtime would be so much easier.”

“You don’t mean that. You would never.”

“Maybe not never .”

Emma crossed her arms and jutted her bottom lip.

“Remember Theo Lewis’s sixth birthday party?”

“Oh,” she said, uncrossing her arms and smoothing the blanket over her belly. “That wasn’t my fault.”

“What happened at Theo Lewis’s sixth birthday party?” Michael asked.

“Mother,” Emma said as though in warning. “Don’t forget, what happened at Theo Lewis’s sixth birthday party stays at Theo Lewis’s sixth birthday party. We pinky promised.” She held up her pinky as proof.

Michael doubted it would hold up in court.

Izzy dropped her head in shame and offered him an apologetic shrug. “I did pinky promise.”

“Can you tell me later?” he stage-whispered. “I’ll slip you a five.”

“Five dollars to betray my only daughter?” She crinkled her nose and looked up in thought before bouncing back to him. “Make it a ten and you’ve got a deal.”

“Ten it is.”

She winked at him.

Emma stared aghast, her mouth forming a tiny O. “The amount of cold, calculated betrayal in this room is astonishing.”

Michael snorted. “You have an incredible vocabulary for a five-year-old.”

“That’s because only part of me is five,” she said, pride brightening her face. “The rest is one hundred and sixty-two.”

“Well, there is that.”

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