“You can believe that if you like, my dear, but I will find you and you will give me what I want. Until then, I suspect that you’ll be hearing about the second tragic death of someone at the bureau. Best of luck, beautiful Priscilla. We’ll meet soon.”
The phone went dead and Priscilla stood once again.
“Honey, where are you going?” asked River.
“I’m leaving. I have to leave. I can’t possibly stay here and put everyone in danger! I need to leave.”
“You can’t,” said Angel walking toward the young woman. “You have to understand that no one can find you here. No one. Whoever that man was, he’s dealt with us before and doesn’t want to again. That tells me we got the better of him. We’ll figure all of that out. But for now, you will need to stay here, close to all of us.”
Priscilla’s bottom lip started to quiver and Angel took another step closer to her.
“I can’t. I can’t put you all in danger. I care about River too much to do that.” Angel pulled her in for a hug, squeezing her tightly. Mary was behind him, tears in her eyes as she squeezed Priscilla’s hand.
“You’re staying because my great-grandson is in love with you and around here, that matters more than anything else in the world.”
CHAPTER TEN
It took nearly an hour for Priscilla to calm down enough for River and the others to talk her off the ledge of leaving Belle Fleur. When she was convinced that the security on the property would never allow anyone to find them, she finally gave in.
“Okay. Okay, I can see now that no one can find this place or get on the property. Although at some point I’d like to understand that technology better. Should I call someone about suspecting that Todd is dead?” she asked.
“We’ve taken care of that,” said Ham. “We have some friends that notified the bureau and they’re sending a special team out there. We’ve also ensured that River has extended leave due to all of this. So don’t worry about him.”
“I don’t know what I would have done without all of you. In fact, I don’t know what I would have done had River not insisted that I go to dinner with him that night. Obviously, she never expected that.” She looked at River and then the others with a pensive, thoughtful gaze. “We were a little late that night because of having coffee and then the traffic. Do you think that whoever killed her was waiting for us?”
“At the very least they were probably waiting for me,” said River. He turned to AJ watching as he was scrolling through two tablets at once. “Anything on voice recognition?”
“I’m close but nothing yet. He mentioned that he had interaction, most likely, with us at some point. That might help.” AJ never raised his head from the tablets, just a constant clicking of the keys echoing in the space.
“So far, we have a woman that was a spy for multiple countries, moved stolen goods, and was connected in some way to my deputy director. Right?”
“That’s right, honey,” said Patrick. “There’s not a lot for you to do right now. The comms boys will get all the information, we’ll monitor the noise on the web, and we’ll get our contacts in D.C. to feed us anything we need to know. Let River show you around the property and introduce you to some of our, uh, guests.”
“This isn’t everyone?” she asked waving at the throngs of people.
“Well. Mostly,” smirked River. “Come on, let’s take a walk.”
Ham watched as River left with Priscilla, then turned to AJ who was still working. AJ held up a hand indicating he was still working on it, signifying that his boss should have a little more patience. When he looked at the others, they all thought the same thing.
“Something is seriously fucked up. As usual.”
“I don’t think I realized how big this property is,” said Priscilla as they followed the path behind the big house. “Is that a cemetery?”
“It is. The Robicheaux Family cemetery, which includes everyone here.”
“It’s beautifully maintained. I love how they’ve preserved the history of the land and the people who have lived here.” River nodded, seeing Matthew and Irene walking toward them in the distance.
“Priscilla, I want you to know something. I would never, ever lie to you. Ever. What I’m about to tell you now will make you think I’m lying to you or at the very least, I’m crazy.”
“Well, that gives me all the warm and fuzzy feelings I need,” she frowned.
“Oh, he’s been like that since he was a baby,” said Irene.
Priscilla turned to see the woman, hazy but there, then suddenly in full blown color. She had a beautiful head of white hair, her sparkling eyes full of mischief and secrets. She was tiny in every way but there was a light to her face that instantly made her feel safe.
The man beside her glowed like a ring of golden fire. He was tall, over six feet and his shoulders were broad and straight. His salt and pepper hair seemed to have a sheen to it that she couldn’t place. The golden, whiskey-colored eyes smiled and yet were serious at the same time. Slowly, others with the same glowing aura about them, walked up behind the older couple.
“Did you drug me?” she whispered.
