Wickedly Dangerous (Baba Yaga, #1)(106)
But his relief was short-lived as Fake Melissa stepped forward and confessed to making up the entire thing after Maya blackmailed her. She apologized so abjectly, it made it easy for Liam to insist that he wouldn’t be pressing charges. Once that was dealt with, he had Molly take Fake Melissa back to his office to wait for him. A few signatures on a stack of papers, and he would be free. Although free for what, he wasn’t sure.
Belinda and her parents came over to talk to him and Baba, Mary Elizabeth holding tight to her mother’s hand. The girl still seemed a bit foggy, and remembered only hazy nightmarish images between the time Maya had snatched her from her backyard until she had seen the sheriff across a strange room, but Liam thought that was just as well. Children were resilient, and Mary Elizabeth had the best medicine of all to heal her, the loving arms of her family. Mariska and Ivan beamed from ear to ear, their smiles so wide it was as though the sun had come out after months of only clouds and rain.
He watched Belinda hug Baba, who seemed taken aback for a moment, but also warily pleased. But then, he reminded himself, her life probably hadn’t included many hugs up until now.
“Thank you so much for everything you’ve done,” Belinda said, tears of joy sliding down her cheeks. She looked down, noticing the quiet little girl standing by Baba’s side, drinking in all the unaccustomed chaos and humanity with wide brown eyes. “Well, hello! Who’s this?”
Belinda looked at Liam, baffled. “Was there another missing child we didn’t know about?” She glanced around the room, as if looking for another set of exultant parents.
Baba nodded. “Yes and no. This is my daughter, Babs. Maya stole her before she came to this area. I followed Maya here trying to find out what she’d done with Babs, and that’s how I got involved with this whole thing.”
Belinda’s mouth formed a stunned “Oh, my.” She struggled to keep a straight face. “How interesting.”
“And once she realized I was here, Maya kept trying to get me in trouble, tampering with my herbs and spreading nasty rumors about me, to keep me from discovering where she was keeping Babs and all the other children. She must have seen Peter Callahan and his connections as a way to make an even bigger profit on the children she stole.”
Mariska shook her white head, smiling indulgently. “So that’s your story and you’re sticking with it, eh?” Belinda grinned, obviously pleased with the neat fairy-tale ending.
“Well, we’re very glad you came to town, no matter what brought you here,” Ivan said, patting Baba’s arm fondly, and beaming down at the little dark-haired girl.
Belinda suddenly looked alarmed. “Oh, dear. I never did the last impossible task! Is that going to cause a problem?”
Liam raised an eyebrow at Baba. She hadn’t mentioned anything about impossible tasks to him. Of course, getting information out of her was something of an impossible task in and of itself. He was still trying to get a straight answer on whether or not there was something between them. Well, clearly there was something. But what, he still didn’t know.
Baba looked around her at the joyful crowd, at Liam restored to his rightful place, and then down at the small child holding resolutely on to her hand. She winked at Belinda and said. “I think between us we’ve managed to achieve even more than three impossible things. I suspect that tradition has been more than satisfied.”
Seeing the Ivanovs and Belinda so happy, and Mary Elizabeth safely home where she belonged, Liam could feel his own face breaking into what was no doubt the first genuine smile he’d let out in days.
Then Ivan said in a calm tone, dropping the words into the conversation like tiny, Russian-accented bombs, “I suppose now that you’ve gotten your daughter back, and all the children have been returned to their parents, you’ll be leaving us.”
And Liam felt the smile slide away, to the place where things go when dreams die.
THIRTY-THREE
THAT EVENING, LIAM and Baba sat together on the couch in the Airstream, careful not to look at each other. Baba stared out the window at the plume of dust that floated through the calm summer air, barely visible in the vanishing red taillights of three motorcycles on their way to somewhere else. She supposed she’d soon be on her way too. For the first time in her long life, that thought lacked its usual appeal. Perhaps because something else appealed to her more.
What the hell was she going to do now?
She stole a glance at Liam. Like her, his eyes followed the sight of the Riders disappearing down the road. Unlike her, he was clearly pleased to see them go. Not that they hadn’t all gotten on well enough, she thought—just too many alpha males in one room for anyone’s comfort. It was like having a cage full of lions . . . and only one steak.
Even Chudo-Yudo had finally said he was going to take a walk and not to expect him back until morning. She had a sneaking suspicion that he was going to pay a visit to a female German shepherd that lived up the road. She didn’t begrudge him a little fun after the last couple of weeks, and she could easily watch the Water of Life and Death for him. It wasn’t as though she was going anywhere. Yet.
Little Babs had gone home with Mary Elizabeth for the night, because Belinda had suggested quietly to Baba that the best way for the child to adjust back to human life was to spend some time with another little girl. Belinda had an evening of Disney movies and popcorn planned, and Babs had begged to go. She’d never seen a movie either. Baba couldn’t say no.