Blood and Fire (McClouds & Friends #8)(86)

She blinked rapidly as she stared up into the sky, eyes welling full of tears. “They will?” Her voice was that of a lost, hopeful child.

“Of course. You’ve been very brave. You’ll be rewarded. I promised.” There was only so much a satellite could pick up. But he fancied he saw Zoe’s eyes dilate, her cheeks flush. “Now go!”

She leaped to obey, climbing like a mountain goat. The promise of a Level Ten reward series could move mountains.

Whatever worked. At the moment, he could not afford to be fussy.





19


Lily glanced around at the people gathered in the room lit with m





ellow lamps and crowded with big squishy couches. She felt shy and on the spot.

“He has to lock it,” Lily repeated. “That’s what Howard said. That Bruno has to lock something. That he’d understand when he saw it.”

“But you didn’t. So what the hell are you supposed to lock?” Sean gave Bruno a look that was almost accusing.

Bruno shook his head. “Not a f*cking clue.”

“Strange,” Sean mused. “It would make more sense if he was supposed to unlock something. A code, a door, a safe, a password?”

“That’s all Howard said.” Lily felt as if she’d failed them somehow. “I didn’t get it, either. Then the nurse interrupted us. The one who murdered him.” She hugged her knees, sunk deep into the plushy couch. After weeks spent trying to avoid notice, the relentless, concentrated attention of this group of people made her feel like she was going to collapse in on herself, twitching and babbling.

Their attitudes didn’t help, either. Not that they were rde. Far from it. They’d saved her ass, patched her up, fed her, clothed her, given her painkillers and antibiotics and anti-inflammatories, plied her with caffeine and sugar. But even so, she sensed a wary wait-and-see feeling in the air. The vote was still out on Lily Parr.

Bruno sensed it, too. It made him defensive. He sat right next to her, his arm flung possessively across her shoulders, daring them all to disbelieve a word she said. Touching, since yesterday he hadn’t believed her, either. Who would? She wouldn’t, if she were them.

All of the McCloud brothers except for Kev were there, Davy and Con and Sean, as well as Sean’s wife Liv. Their hostess, the terrifyingly beautiful Tam Steele, was the owner of the house perched on the cliff over the Washington coast near the coastal hamlet of Cray’s Cove.

Aaro was there, too, looking sullen and traumatized after his ugly morning adventure. His eyes were haunted shadows. He wouldn’t meet anyone’s gaze. There was an ethereally beautiful, dark-haired girl named Sveti who sat in a corner, listening. She had sad eyes, a faint accent. Lily hadn’t yet puzzled out her relationship to the others. And Miles, a muscular, shy guy with a big nose. And Zia Rosa dominated the room like an out-sized Paleolithic goddess. Bruno’s great aunt resembled a huge bulldog, with black bouffant hair and a shirt with fuchsia polka dots and a pink plastic-bead necklace. Zia Rosa scrutinized Lily with an expression that could only be described as avid. It was unsettling.

“Lily’s exhausted and injured,” Bruno said. “She needs sleep—”

“Your father said that Bruno would understand.” Sean’s older brother Davy broke in, his gaze inwardly focused. “But what was he supposed to understand? What was ‘it’? An object? A place?”

Lily laced her fingers together, examining the memory again. She hoped she hadn’t revised it herself in having thrashed over it so many times. She addressed the oldest McCloud, a lanternjawed guy with the same keen, bright green gaze as his brothers. “He said Magda told him that her son would understand when he saw it. But Howie never had a chance to say what ‘it’ was. That was when Miriam interrupted us.”

“Miriam, the nurse. Who then morphed into Miriam, commando warrior,” Connor McCloud said.

Bruno bristled. “What are you implying? I saw that bitch in action, and believe me, she was bad news.”

“I’m not implying anything. I’m just getting this all straight.”

“We’ve got it as straight as we can get it tonight,” Bruno said. “Sean was there. Rehash it all with him if you’ve got doubts.”

“Hey.” Lily patted his tense, knotted forearm. “It’s OK,” she told him. “I’m not sleepy after all that coffee. Chill.”

“I don’t want them hounding you,” he fretted.

“There’s hounding, and there’s help,” said Tam quietly.

Lily turned to the other woman, whose arms were draped over her very pregnant belly. “That’s for sure,” she said. “Hound away. Finally I have other brains to work with besides my own. It feels good.”

It was difficult to hold Tam’s gaze. A trait that many people in the room shared. These people had been through a lot, and survived. Their eyes saw past masks to the cringing stuff she would rather hide.

Tam Steele was so beautiful, one’s eyes got sucked to her like a magnet at first, but soon after came a strange desire to let one’s eyes skitter away from that golden laser slice of comprehension.

The paneled sliding doors opened. Another man she hadn’t met walked in. Good-looking, with raven hair, chiseled features, dark eyes with an exotic gypsy slant. He gave a nod of greeting to everyone, eyes resting on Lily and Bruno for the X-ray once-over that she was almost getting used to, and then he wove across the room to crouch behind Tam.