1
It was never promising when your boss called you late at night. At least, not in my case. I looked at the phone dubiously and answered it with severe misgivings. “Hello?”
“Mack,” Sylvia started out quite brusquely. “I’ve got two requests for you and a new destination I need you to be at tomorrow night.”
“Two? Oh boy, where and what?” I looked around, intending to signal my partner, but Brandon was somewhere else in the house. Jon caught me looking for him and pointed upstairs. I gave him a nod of thanks and headed for the second story, keeping the phone to my ear as I went.
“Here’s the fun part. One of the requests is in your hometown. Opelousas.”
I stumbled on the step. “Wha—why there?”
In Mach 2 seconds, Brandon appeared at the top of the stairs, looking down at me in concern. He’d changed out of his sweater for some reason and was in a clinging t-shirt that showed the muscular definition of his arms and shoulders in loving detail. He must have just changed, as his short-cropped black hair stuck out at interesting angles. Hadn’t he mentioned going for a shower earlier? He’d heard me even from the bathroom? I swear to you, the man has radar. An alarm. Something that goes off if I take a wrong step. He’s scarily good at appearing just as I lose my balance.
Sylvia still spoke, and I put the phone on speaker so Brandon could hear, waving him down. “—know that any request from family members of the FBI take top priority?”
“Uh, I did not know that, actually.” I shifted on the stairs so Brandon could stand facing me, both of us braced against opposite walls of the stairwell as we listened. In the mellow lighting of the stairwell, his copper skin glowed richly. I had a hard time not ogling him and actually paying attention to the conversation.
“It’s one of those courtesy things we do as an agency. Typically, if you’re related, we don’t send you in personally. Conflict of interest and all of that. However, we have leeway in our department because there’re so few of us. If we don’t have enough people on hand, or it’s time sensitive, we can justify sending you in. This will be one of those cases as everyone else is tied up at the moment. Your cousin Edmée DeVilliers put in an urgent request for a medium. According to the report synopsis I read, she’s got something in the house messing with her daughter at night.”
Grimness twisted my gut. “Cali’s four.”
“So you know this cousin?”
“Yeah, she’s one of the few relatives I like. Shit. I checked her house before I left, wanting her to have peace of mind. Cali’s birth was rough on everyone involved. Did she move?”
“As of two months ago.”
I had no idea why she would, but I could ask when I talked to Edmée. And I’d definitely be talking to her. I looked to Brandon and I knew why she hadn’t called me directly. My cousin no doubt had heard from my mother that my partner was still in training. Well, he had been until Friday. He’d passed all the tests. “Brandon, I need to go.”
“We do,” he agreed with a nod, as if this was a foregone conclusion. “Sylvia, you get me an address and we’ll pack up tonight, hit the road early in the morning.”
“There’s more than this one problem. I’ve got another one as well.”
“Of course you do.” Brandon’s smile was a touch too delighted. But then, he was a bit touched sometimes when it came to anything supernatural. “Same area?”
“Same area. I’ll email you both the file on it. You can read it on the way down. For my knowledge, are you driving or flying?”
“Driving,” I said. “It’ll take us a bit longer to get there, but I don’t want to cram everything I need into two suitcases and a carry-on.”
“I don’t blame you. Alright. Have you picked up the company SUV yet?”
“Uh, not yet?”
“Get that now. I’ll have someone meet you at the car lot. Brandon, if this vehicle doesn’t fit your legs, tell me. I’ll arrange for something else at the dealership.”
“What did you get us?” he asked, canting his head.
“Chevy Tahoe.”
“Oooh. No, I fit fine in those.”
“Good! I hate wasted effort. Get going, boys. Oh and Mack, I don’t want you to think you have to do this on your own. The second case I’m sending you on is…well, it has the potential to be a hotbed of trouble. If you feel like you need backup, please use the good sense God gave you and call me.”
That command worried me. Just what was the second case? “Yes, ma’am.”
“Keep me posted, gentlemen, and safe travels.” The phone clicked as she ended the call.
I expected Brandon to be excited, and he was, I could see it in those gorgeous golden-brown eyes of his. But overriding that was concern. He said quietly, “You don’t look excited about going home. Problem?”
“I’ll tell you on the way to the dealership,” I promised him.
“Okay. Let me get Don.”
I rolled my eyes. “I can drive.”
He leaned in and kissed me softly. “You can do anything. But please don’t drive. It scares the ever-living shit out of me.”
“When you put it like that, it’s really hard to argue with you.”
He kissed me again, quick and chaste, then bounded back upstairs and called for his brother as he went. I chose to go down, as my shoes were near the back door, and I nearly collided with Jon as I rounded the bottom stair.
Jon’s reflexes were better than mine, and he caught us both before we could take a tumble. “Sorry.”
He waved this off and asked in concern, “How bad is this, that you’re getting called in?”
“Not good,” I admitted. “FBI mediums are dispatched when it meets one of three criteria: One, it impacts a child. Two, physical harm has been dealt. Three, structural damage has occurred to the property. I’m really hoping it’s just because a toddler is involved that I’m being called in. But I know my cousin, and she doesn’t spook easily.”
“So if she put in a formal request, then this is more than sounds bumping in the night.” Jon nodded, his mouth firming in an unhappy line. “That’s why you’re so worried.”
After several weeks of living with him, I’d gotten used to him reading my emotions and didn’t deny it. “Yeah. I’ll give her a call in a minute and get the facts straight from her.”
“What can I do to help?”
“Can you pack us some sandwiches and snacks for the road?” I asked hopefully. Jon was a good cook and truthfully, fast food was death to me. Most of it had dairy. Or corn. Sometimes dairy and corn. Either way, not good for yours truly.
“Sure. Anything else?”
“Any of my specialty foods, please. As long as its non-perishable. It’s basically a ten-hour drive from here.”
“Ah. Yes, too long for anything perishable.” He patted me on the shoulder, promising, “I’ll be careful in my selections. Do you have laundry?”
“Dammit!” I’d clean forgotten the wash I had in the machine. “I’ll change that out before I go.”
Don and Brandon joined us at that point, both of them with jackets on. Then again, it was the end of March and we still had our bitterly cold days.