His response was immediate. He used the arm around her waist and once again pulled her closer so that their bodies were flush against each other. The soft kiss suddenly became deeper, hotter, and unlike any that Emily had ever experienced.

  Her body responded to his touch, a warmth spreading over her that felt comforting and exciting at the same time. His hand moved upward from her waist to cup her chin as he continued to kiss her.

  She heard a moan escape from beneath her lips and she didn’t even care. She wanted him. Oh god, how she wanted him.

  And then, the moment was shattered as the door of the little bedroom area was thrown open and James burst in. “It’s three in the afternoon, are you … oh, shit. Sorry!”

  Emily had broken away from Greg the very moment that James entered the room. She shoved Greg backward so hard that he almost fell off the other side of the bed with a look of shock written all over his face.

  “Sorry!” James called out again as he backed out of the room and shut the door. “I … shit. Just sorry!” Emily could hear his voice as he moved away from the door and further into the motorhome.

  Emily felt her face flaming, embarrassment overthrowing every other feeling. “Oh no,” she breathed out. “Sorry for shoving you. I … he surprised me.”

  “You and me both.” He scooted back toward her and leaned in, giving her a light peck on the lips. “But there is absolutely no need to be embarrassed.”

  “Well I already am. I can’t help it.”

  “It’s cute.”

  She crinkled her nose in mock horror. “No. Not cute at all. And to make things worse, you and I are both completely aware that he likes me.”

  Greg closed his eyes for a moment and then nodded affirmation. “Yeah, he does. I wouldn’t worry about that, though. He isn’t the type to get all crazy over stuff like that and, take my word for it, finding us kissing isn’t going to stop him from flirting with you. It’s in his nature to be a ladies man.”

  “Seriously? He … he would be okay with this … with us?”

  Greg leaned up on his elbow, his eyes glimmering mischievously. “That depends, is there an us?”

  “I … I don’t know.”

  “I would like there to be an us, quite honestly. Even a casual, getting to know each other, dating, type of us, would be fine with me.”

  Her heart felt like it was beating a mile a minute. Did he really just say that he wants to date her? “You barely know me,” she answered.

  “That is the point of dating. To get to know each other.”

  “Um…” Her voice seemed to catch in her throat. “Okay.”

  “Okay what? Okay you understand or okay that you will date me.”

  Once again, heat flamed up into her cheeks. Why was he putting her on the spot?

  “I just want to hear you say it,” he told her softly, as if he had read her mind.

  “Okay. I will date you.”

  “Good.” He dropped a light kiss onto her forehead. “Now let’s get up and see what’s going on out there.”

  Feeling on top of the world, Emily scooted out of the bed. Greg still had his clothes from yesterday on, so he grinned and left her alone in the room. Quickly, she exchanged her shorts for jeans and put her bra back on underneath her tank top. Once she was fully dressed again, she left the RV. It didn’t take long to locate everyone, since they were all sitting around in lawn chairs outside of Lou’s cabin.

  Greg stood behind Dan, his arms crossed over his chest. He looked slightly put off and Emily guessed that he probably just heard something he didn’t like. She ignored the curious gazes as she crossed the lawn and found an empty seat next to Liv.

  Liv raised her eyebrows questioningly and wore an amused grin, but said nothing. Thank goodness. Emily seriously did not want to be put on the spot.

  “What’s going on?” Emily asked.

  “We’re going back,” Jack told her. “I can’t leave here until I go back and check it out.”

  “Oh.”

  “I know I probably won’t get any answers. I want to know if she lived through all of that and, going back … I don’t know.”

  Emily nodded. She understood the need to see the destruction for himself. A glance at Greg and she could tell that he wasn’t excited about the situation at all. She, on the other hand, understood why Jack felt the need to go and actually wanted to see it for herself as well.

  Greg began to pace. “Any one of us could be sent to prison if we are caught out there. I don’t know about you guys, but I didn’t get through all of this just to end up behind bars.”

  “We won’t get caught then,” Jack insisted.

  “A nice thought,” Greg retorted. “But there will be police and investigators of all kinds out there picking through the rubble to find out who did this and why. You know that as well as I do.”

  “I’m going,” Jack told them. “It’s my mother, so I have a reason to be there.”

  Emily nodded. “That’s true. They won’t question him as much. It is his home. I can go with him, I might be able to get a feel for something while we’re there.”

  “Shit.” Greg ran a hand through his hair in a frustrated manner. “Fine. But only you two.”

  Emily caught his eye and their gazes locked. “You sure you want to?”

  “Yes. I’m not worried. As long as I’m with Jack, it should be fine.”

  “And you two will make it fast. Like, really fast.”

  “They should take a cab or something from downtown.” Liv leaned forward in her seat. “That way we don’t have to take any of our vehicles that might be recognized later.”

  Greg nodded. “Good point.”

  It wasn’t until later, while sitting in the backseat of a taxi with Jack beside her, that she questioned why she had volunteered to do this. Maybe she had been high on confidence after what happened with Greg earlier.

  Everyone else was in the RV, waiting for them at one of the large, local parks in the area. They figured it was best to look like tourists, simply passing through. She and Jack were to take the taxi there, have him wait for them and take no longer than ten minutes before getting back into the taxi and heading back.

  As they drew closer, Emily could smell the smoke that still lingered in the air and it wasn’t much longer before she was able to see it as well. She glanced at Jack, but he wasn’t looking at her, his eyes were directed at the houses that lined the beautiful streets.

  Finally, the taxi pulled up in front of what was left of the house. The gate was open, which was unusual. But, a closer look told them that there were several vehicles parked in the yard. A couple of police cars and at least one unmarked car. A couple of firetrucks and an ambulance were also present. The destruction of what used to be a home was so far away from the road that they hadn’t even bothered to put up the yellow caution tape that marked most crime scenes.

  “Can you wait here, please?” Emily asked as she slipped out of the back seat. “We won’t be any longer than ten minutes. “My friend is just checking on his mother.”

  “Sure. No problem,” the cab driver told her. Then, he shifted into park and took out his cell phone. Emily shut the door and prayed that he would do what he said and wouldn’t leave them here.

  She turned and Jack held out his hand. “We should probably look like we are a couple. Gives them less questions.”

  Emily stared at Jack’s hand and then looked up at him. Was he serious?

  “Oh, knock it off, it’s for ten minutes, Seer.”

  “Fine.” She took his hand and grasped it firmly in hers. “Ten minutes.”

  Then, they turned and strode through the massive iron gate and down the drive. One wing of the mansion still had some of the structure standing, but the rest of it had been reduced to a huge smoking piles of wood, stone and marble. Here and there, a pillar or wall still held strong, but for the most part nothing was left.

  As they approached, Emily saw a couple of people in fireman gear poking around. The EMT’s were hanging out by their ambulance, but she couldn’t see anyone else until they had nearly reached the vehicles. Then, a police officer in a black uniform stepped out from behind one of the cars. “I’m sorry, but this is a crime scene. I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

  “I’m sorry.” Jack released Emily’s hand, sounding dramatically emotional. “This … this is my house. My mother’s house anyway. I just arrived with my girlfriend and found … all this.” He spread his hands out, gesturing to the rubble the mansion now was. “I need to find my mother.”

  The officer’s green eyes softened and he rubbed his chin. “Oh, I’m so sorry, son. I can’t answer your questions, but Detective Johnson might be able to help you out. She’s over there.” He gestured in the general direction of the left.”

  Emily let her eyes drift over the piles of wood and stone. “What happened here?” she asked softly.

  “It’s still being investigated to the actual cause, but seems there was an explosion or two. They will rule if it was accidental when the investigation is finished.”

  “Oh my goodness. This is awful.” Emily let her hand flutter up to her throat. “Oh, baby…” She reached down and gripped Jack’s hand again. “Let’s go see the Detective. Thank you, Officer.”

  She and Jack strode off in the direction that the officer had indicated. Finally, they found a tall woman wearing black slacks, red heels and a fitted jacket, standing underneath a palm tree and staring out at the scene before her. She had her blonde hair twisted into knot at the back of her head, and when she turned toward them, Emily noted that her lips matched her shoes.

  “Hello.” Emily called out. “Detective Johnson?”

  The detective narrowed her eyes into slits and moved to meet them. “Yes. Can I help you with something?”

  Jack gave her the same story they had told the other officer. “I just really need to find out what happened here and where my mother is.”

  Detective Johnson let out a long sigh. “I feel awful that you had to come home to find out that this happened. I don’t know yet who all was taken to the hospital, but I know that several were. There may be more under the rubble, it might be a while until we have a better count. I would go check the hospital and see if your mother is there.”

  Emily noticed that there were pieces of the home that had been scattered all over the place in the blast. She left Jack to talk with the officer and backed away, making it look as if she were staring at the entire place in awe. Eventually she neared a larger chunk of marble and knelt down to touch it.

  She had never intentionally touched something that wasn’t directly correlated with the vision she was seeking, so she had no idea if it would work. Visions rarely worked on command. It was usually a crap shoot on if she got any information or not.

  When her fingertips made contact with the warm marble, she closed her eyes and thought of the Empress, demanding information from the material beneath her skin. Nothing happened. Frustrated, because she had really hoped this one time it would work, she removed her hand from the marble and lay it on the ground beside it. Again, nothing happened.

  “What is she doing?” Detective Johnson asked.

  “Oh. Don’t worry about her. She’s really into energies and herbal tea and shit like that. She’s probably wishing a blessing for those who were injured or perished.”

  “Oh.” Detective Johnson wore a look of shock.

  Having heard the entire thing, Emily glanced up and threw Jack a glare for his trouble and also for letting a little bit of the real him show. He had been all manners and worry over his mother, he needed to keep that up.

  She stood and trekked back to them. Jack slung his arm around her shoulder. “I know it’s hard here, baby. We’re leaving soon.” He nodded to Detective Johnson. “Thank you for your time. We’re going over to the hospital now.”

  Emily lowered her eyes to the floor and then looked out over the destruction. “I hope she’s there. This is so awful.”

  “I hope so too, for the both of you.” Detective Johnson nodded to them. “If not, here is my card. Give me a call and I will let you know if they have found her or you will get a call anyway, being her next of kin.”

  Jack reached out and accepted the card. “Thank you,” he glanced down at the card, “Lana. You’ve been a huge help.” He slipped the card into his pocket and then guided Emily toward the driveway.

  Emily had hoped that they would garner more from this visit. They strode past the ambulance and she reached her hand out, skimming her fingertips along the side of the vehicle.

  It was as if she tripped and fell into a dark hole where she kept tumbling downward, over and over, with no solid ground in sight. Then, a flash of white light was so bright that she threw her arm up, instinctively covering her eyes.

  When she felt the light fade behind her closed lids, she removed her arm and opened them. There, laying unconscious on a hospital bed, was Camille Walker.

  The entire room was white. White walls, white sheets, white floors, everything. Emily could see nothing beneath the sheets, with the exception of her pale, expressionless face.

  Tubes were connected to her somewhere underneath the thin blankets. And a monitor with red and green graphs beeped silently next to her.

  She was alive.

  Then, she snapped back into reality and she was standing beside Jack by the ambulance again, her hand no longer on the ambulance, but held between Jack’s larger hands. “Are you okay?” he whispered, his eyes full of concern. “Did you see something?”

  Emily nodded, gently pulling her hand away from his. “She met his eyes. “Your mother is alive.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  GREG

  Everyone in the RV except Dan, who was driving, had piled up near the door as they turned into the drive of the farmhouse.

  The front door flung open wide and Lucy emerged at the front of the pack. She hurried down the steps and was running across the driveway to meet them. Hannah, David, Steph and Ethan were right behind her. Greg smiled through the windshield because it looked like Hannah was chastising Lucy for running out into the driveway with the RV trying to pull in.

  Jack opened the door and jumped out before the motorhome was even stopped. His boots hit the ground and he ran for Lucy. They met in the middle and he swept her up into his embrace, lifting her feet off the ground and holding her to him.

  “Screw it.” Dan hit the brake and shoved the shifter into park. “This is good enough.”

  As soon as his feet hit the gravel, he lifted his eyes to the sky and whispered, “Thank you,” to the heavens. He had never, even with all of the dangerous stuff they had encountered, been so happy to be alive and in his own yard again.

  Lucy, her face covered in tears, was sobbing into Jack’s shoulder. “Thank God your home. Thank you for coming home.” She kept repeating the same thing while Jack held her close, his eyes closed while he was likely repeating his own silent thanks to the powers that be.

  Greg let Lucy be with Jack, but he hugged Hannah and Steph. Then Liv, Dan and James moved in around them and joined in for a group hug. Even Ethan and David eventually decided to participate and threw their arms around an Estmond.

  “Let’s go into the house.” Hannah squeezed out of the hug. “We made a family dinner.”

  Greg’s stomach growled. “What did you make?”

  “Chicken Alfredo, salad, and garlic bread.”

  “I am so hungry,” Greg admitted. They hadn’t stopped much on the return trip, since they all wanted to get home as quickly as they possibly could.

  Turning, he located Emily before heading into the house. She stood near the RV, watching the reunions with a gentle smile and eyes glittering with happiness. He loved that about her, that the happiness of others was important to her. He loved that she was selfless in nature and that she would sacrifice so much to help another person. Not that he wanted her to sacrifice anything, he just loved what kind of a person that made her. She was a kind soul.

  He strode over to her. “Come on. Let’s go inside.”

  She took his hand without hesitation and let him tug her across the driveway and up the stairs into the farmhouse.

  Hannah, Steph and Lucy had already set the table and had the food warming in big crockpot-style warmers on the table. Huge bowls of salad were also set out with heaping plates of garlic bread covered with red checkered clothes.

  “It’s all ready,” Steph told them. “Come in and sit.”

  Once they were all around the table and had their plates loaded with food, they began to discuss what happened with the Empress. Greg had really hoped they would be able to avoid that talk at least until the next day. He had heard enough about that woman to last a lifetime. He just wanted a little bit of normal before they had to go back to worrying.

  James and Jack did most of the talking as far as describing what had gone down. But when they got to the end, the part where he and Emily had gone back to the mansion, Jack passed the conversation over to Emily.

  “When I touched the ambulance, I saw the Empress in a hospital room. She was unconscious and hooked up to machines. One of those machines regulated her heart beat. So I know, at the time of the vision anyway, that she was still alive.”

  “Dammit,” Lucy whispered. “I was really hoping that we could just be done worrying about what she is going to do next.”

  “I think she might be in a coma, but I can’t be sure.”

  Lucy tilted her head thoughtfully. “Maybe I should go pull the plug.”

  “Lucy!” Hannah swatted at her sister.

  “I’m serious. Have any of you even considered that.”

  Greg nodded. “We have. But, we decided that with all the cameras and records of visitors, doing that wouldn’t be a very good plan. We’re trying to avoid jail time.”

  Lucy frowned. “Yeah.”

  “And,” Greg added, “From what I understand, they have a pretty deep investigation going on with the mansion and all that happened there. The last thing we need is for any of us to show up at the freaking hospital.”

 

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