“All right. My shop, or what will be my shop,” Layla corrected. “It’s been hit hard every Seven, and already took damage this time. Did anything happen there?”
“It used to be a junk shop.”
The tone of Gage’s voice, the quality of silence from both Cal and Fox told Cybil this wasn’t only significant. It was monumental. “A kind of low-rent antique store. My mother worked there part-time off and on. We were all in there-I think maybe our mothers got together to have lunch in town, or poke around. I don’t remember. But we were all in there when… She got sick, started to hemorrhage. She was pregnant, I can’t remember how far along. But we were all in there when whatever went wrong started going wrong.”
“They got an ambulance.” Cal finished it so Gage wouldn’t have to. “Fox’s mother went with her, and mine took the three of us back to the house with her. They couldn’t save her or the baby.”
“The last time I saw her, she was lying on the floor of that junk shop, bleeding. I guess that’s pretty fucking significant. I need more coffee.”
Downstairs, he bypassed the pot and went straight out on the porch. Moments later, Cybil stepped out behind him.
“I’m sorry, so sorry this causes you pain.”
“Nothing I could do then, nothing I can do now.”
She moved to him, laid a hand on his arm. “I’m still sorry it causes you pain. I know what it is to lose a parent, one you loved and who loved you. I know how it can mark your life into before and after. However long ago, whatever the circumstances, there’s still a place in the child that hurts.”
“She told me it was going to be all right. The last thing she said to me was, ‘Don’t worry, baby, don’t be scared. It’s going to be all right.’ It wasn’t, but I hope she believed it.”
Steadier, he turned to her. “If you’re right about this, and I think you are, I’m going to find a way to kill it. I’m going to kill it for using my mother’s blood, her pain, her fear to feed on. I swear a goddamn oath right here and now on that.”
“Good.” With her eyes on his, she held out a hand. “I’ll swear it with you.”
“You didn’t even know her. I barely-”
She cut him off, taking his face in her hands, pulling so that his mouth met hers in a quick and fierce kiss that was more comforting than a dozen soft words. “I swear it.”
Even as she drew back, her hands stayed on his face. And a single tear spilled out of her eyes to trail down her cheek. Undone, he lowered his forehead to hers.
Grateful, he took the comfort of her tears.
Nine
INSIDE WHAT WOULD BE SISTERS, CYBIL STUDIED the swaths of paint on the various walls. Fresh color, she thought, to cover old wounds and scars. Layla, being Layla, had created a large chart of the interior on the wall-to scale-with the projected changes and additions in place. It took little effort to visualize what could be.
And for Cybil, it took little effort to visualize what had been. The little boy, scared and confused as his mother bled on the floor of a junk shop. From that moment, Gage’s life snapped, she thought. He’d glued the pieces back together, but the line of them would be forever changed by those moments in this place, the loss suffered.
She knew, as the line of her life had forever changed at the moment of her father’s suicide.
Another snap in Gage’s, she realized, the first time his father had raised a hand to him. Another patch, another change in the line. Then another break on his tenth birthday.
A great deal of damage and repair for one young boy. It would take a very strong and determined man not only to accept all that damage, but to build a life on it.
Because the chatter behind her had stopped, she turned to see Layla and Quinn watching her.
“It’s perfect, Layla.”
“You’re thinking about what happened here, about Gage’s mother. I’ve thought about it, too.” Layla’s eyes clouded as she looked around the shop. “I spent a lot of time thinking about it last night. There’s another property a few blocks up. It might be better if I looked into renting that instead-”
“No, no, don’t. This is your place.” Cybil touched a hand to the chart.
“He never said a thing. Gage never said a thing, and all the times I babbled on about my plans here. Fox never… Or Cal. And when I asked Fox about it, he said the point was to make things what they should be, or preserve what they were meant to be. You know how he gets.”
“And he’s right.” Fresh paint, Cybil thought again. Color and light. “If we don’t keep what’s ours, or take it back, we’ve already lost. None of us can change what happened to Gage’s mother, or whatever ugliness happened since. But you can make this place live again, and to me, that’s giving Twisse a major ass-kicking. As for Gage, he said his mother liked coming here. I think he’d appreciate seeing you make it somewhere she’d have enjoyed.”
“I agree with that, and not just because this place is going to rock,” Quinn added. “You’ll put a lot of positive energy here, and that shoves it right up the ass of negative energy. That’s a powerful symbol. More than that, it’s damn good physics. What we’re dealing with breaks down, on a lot of levels, to basic physics.”
“Nature abhors a vacuum,” Cybil decided, nodded. “So don’t give it one. Fill it up, Layla.”
Layla sighed. “As I’m about to be officially unemployed, again, I’ll have plenty of time to do that. But right now, I’ve got to get to the office. It’s the first full day of training my replacement.”
“How’s she working out?” Quinn wondered.
“I think she’s going to be perfect. She’s smart, efficient, organized, attractive-and happily married with two teenagers. I like her; Fox is a little bit afraid of her. So, perfect.” As they started out, Layla looked at Cybil. “If you talk to Gage today, would you ask him? Physics and ass-kickings aside, if it’s too hard for him to have this place a part of his life-and it would be because Fox is-I can take a closer look at that other property.”
“If I talk to him, I will.”
After Layla locked up and turned in the opposite direction to walk to the office, Quinn hooked an arm through Cybil’s. “Why don’t you go do that?”
“Do what?”
“Go talk to Gage. You’ll work better when you’re not wondering how he’s doing.”
“He’s a big boy, he can-”
“Cyb. We go back. First, you’re involved. Even if you just thought of the guy as part of the team, you’d be involved. But it’s more than that. Just you and me here,” she said when Cybil stayed silent.
“All right, yes, it’s more. I’m not sure how more might be defined, but it’s more.”
“Okay, there’s the nebulous more. And you’re thinking of the little boy who lost his mom, and whose father picked up the bottle instead of his son. Of the boy who took more knocks than he should have, and the man who didn’t walk away when he could have. So there’s the sympathy and respect elements mixed into that more.”
“You’re right.”
“He’s smart, loyal, a little bit of a hard-ass and just rough enough around some of the edges to be intriguing. And, of course, he’s extremely hot.”
“We do go back,” Cybil agreed.
“So, go talk to him. Relieve Layla’s mind, maybe get a better handle on the more, then you can concentrate on what we have to do next. Which is a lot.”
“Which is why I can and should talk to him later. We’ve barely skimmed the surface of what we’re thinking of as the hot spots. And I need a fresh look at the Tarot card draws. Most important, I’m not leaving you alone in that house. Not for anything.”
“That’s why laptops were invented. I’m taking mine over to the bowling center.” Quinn gestured back toward the Square. “Further proof why I made the right choice in men and home base. I’ll set up in Cal ’s office, or the vicinity, and you can swing by and get me when you’re finished talking to Gage.”