“A phone call?” Helen asked.
Simon shoved in. “Wait, what are you talking about? Some of us in the room have no idea what’s going on.”
Kincaid was glad the other man asked. He for one was clueless. He did know, however, Jake was acting out of fear, and even though Selma was defensive and combative, she too was scared. Their emotions were as real as his own.
He met Amber’s gaze and silently said, He believes she’s in real danger.
Agreed. Do you feel this or are you assuming?
Just a knowing. Your gift?
Aye.
“I sent a love potion to a guy in Arizona,” Selma started to explain.
“Several potions.” Jake rolled his eyes.
“Several. And they worked! Just not for him. The girl he wanted ended up realizing her love for someone else.”
Kincaid glanced at Giles and laughed. “Love potions? Seriously?”
“Hey! Don’t judge. A girl has to make a living. Anyway,” Selma tossed her hair over her shoulder as she explained. “The guy was pissed and sent a nasty email—”
“Threatening email,” Jake corrected.
“Then he left a message on my home phone,” Selma told them.
Now that wasn’t a laughing matter, Kincaid thought. The nutcase was probably only that, but that didn’t make him any less of a threat.
“This is the man you think murdered the couple in Arizona?” Helen asked.
Jake swung his gaze from Helen to Selma. “Murdered? What are you not telling me, Matilda?”
“I don’t know if he was that nutcase or not. I got spooked after I saw a newscast. I’m probably paranoid,” Selma told Jake.
Jake rested his hands on his hips and stared at her. “And when did this newscast air?”
Selma shrugged, glanced at her feet. “I don’t know…last weekend.”
“When you came over to my house?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
She’s lying.
“I knew there was something bothering you!” Jake yelled. “Why didn’t you say something then?”
The two of them had their fight while everyone else watched. Seemed Jake was handling everything perfectly. If Selma had been threatened, she needed to be with others. Why she lived outside of the manor was a puzzle to Kincaid anyway. They were stronger together. Always had been.
“Oh, c’mon, Jake. Like you’d believe me. Besides, I didn’t want to bring it up with your girls around. You have enough to worry about.”
“You don’t get to tell me when I can and can’t worry.” Jake moved within three inches of her body.
She glared at him. “And you don’t get to tell me what to do just because we slept together!”
Helen gasped.
Oh, my. Amber’s words shot into Kincaid’s head.
I take it, that’s a new thing? He asked her.
Aye.
Kincaid smiled. He liked this new gift, he decided. The ability to talk to Amber without anyone else hearing them was already turning out to be beneficial.
“You’re right,” Jake told Selma. “It doesn’t. I’ll let everyone here tell you how stupid it is to try and fight an unknown enemy by yourself. My guess is they’ve all done it more than once.” He poked a finger in her chest. “You, on the other hand, haven’t.”
“Jake—”
He placed a finger over her lips. “I’ll find the bad guy. You keep your skinny ass here and stay out of my way.”
“But—”
Kincaid spoke at the same time as Simon. “He’s right.”
“Selma?”
Kincaid nodded for Simon to continue.
“Jake is right. You know he is. You’re safe here.”
The tension in the room slowly drifted to a low purr. From down the hall, Mrs. Dawson issued a request.
“Amber, Helen? Why don’t you prepare one of the rooms for our guest? Selma, dear, can you please help me in the kitchen. You do seem to have a way with herbs.”
Selma growled at Jake as she walked past him, and Helen and Amber moved in the opposite direction.
“Stubborn woman,” Jake whispered under his breath.
Chapter Twenty-One
After two painfully quiet days and nights, Kincaid wanted, no needed, to break free.
He purposefully let Amber have the room and slept anywhere but at her side. He didn’t want her feeling pressured, didn’t want her questioning his intentions. Not that he knew his intentions. He was a married man in the blink of an eye, and he had no way of knowing how to handle the new status in life.
He’d watched his wife slowly come out of the shell he’d seen her in since they met. Her smile was brighter, her personality bigger. She wore pants with the encouragement of Selma and Helen, and managed to keep herself out of his head whenever she wanted. Something he had yet to master.
Still, when he cornered her in the yard, she appeared shocked. “You and I are leaving here in one hour,” he told her.
She blinked. The smile on her face didn’t fall as she turned away from her friends to speak to him. “Leave?”
“A date. You and I. One hour.” He turned then and left the other women to explain the word that circled in her head like a cloud.
A date?
Ask Helen and Selma. They’ll explain.
She was quiet then, until a half hour later when the inevitable question was asked.
What shall I wear?
Kincaid stood before the bathroom mirror and smiled as her question popped in his head.
Women were predictable about that same question throughout all times. What you have on is fine.
He found Simon in the library with Giles. The two of them had been bent over the books for some time, neither of them taking notice of him. “Amber and I are leaving for a few hours.”
Simon and Giles sat motionless as they took in his words.
“Leaving?” Simon asked.
“A date. We won’t be gone long.”
“A date?”
Kincaid held his ground through Simon’s stare.
“Yes.” He lifted his hand. “I need the keys to the R8.”
“My car?”
“I’d take Mrs. Dawson’s Lincoln, but I’m more familiar with the power of yours.”
Giles sat forward. “You have an R8…as in a combustible engine Audi? Really?”
Simon gave a curt nod, his eyes never leaving Kincaid’s. “Where are you going?”
“Dinner. Alone. We’re bonded, Simon. She’s safe with me.” The man took his role as protector seriously, but Simon had no idea how seriously Kincaid took the role.