6
Jack found her just where her frantic call had said she’d be—hiding in the rear of the Book Corner in Penn Station. Her eyes were red, her face blotchy. Looked like she’d been crying.
“Thank God!” she said when she saw him. She fell against him, clutching and clinging like a drowning sailor.
“What’s wrong? What’s happened?”
Her call had been mostly incoherent, something like, Come get me, please come get me, I’m at Penn Station, please, please, please!
He’d rushed downtown.
“It’s Eddie,” she gasped and began to sob.
Aw, shit. Had something happened? Had they found him?
“He’s not hurt, is he?”
“I almost wish he were. This is worse. Eddie belongs to the Order!”
Jack stood stunned, cold—no, frozen, barely able to breathe. Eddie a member of the Ancient Fraternal Septimus Order . . .
“No way. It can’t—”
“It’s true! I saw the brand on his back! Just like we saw on Mister Sumter’s when we were kids, remember? Well, Eddie’s got one too! He’s a member!”
“Don’t you think he would have said something?”
She shook her head. “First off, we’re not all that close. He’s helped me out with certain professional matters, and making me hard to find, but we don’t sit down for regular heart-to-hearts. Besides, you know as well as I how secretive the Order is.”
“Not so secretive that he didn’t keep his shirt on.”
“I don’t think it even occurred to him. I think he must always work out shirtless and he took it off without thinking.”
“How did he explain it?”
“He didn’t. I didn’t give him a chance. I panicked and ran. Parked his car at Newark Airport, then called him and left a message where it was. I withdrew as much as I could from an ATM and took a train here.” She gripped the front of Jack’s shirt. “Do you think he’s been keeping tabs on me for the Order?”
Jack considered that, then shook his head.
“No. Whoever’s been out to get you lately didn’t know who you were or where you lived. If it is the Order after you—and I’m pretty damn sure it is—I doubt very much they have any inkling that Eddie’s your brother. You’re a Myers, he’s a Connell. And does he know you suspect the Order?”
She shook her head. “It’s never come up. He doesn’t seem to want to talk about anything related to what we’re after—doesn’t seem to want to know about it. It’s all too strange for him. But Jack, I can’t go back there. I can’t live with a member of the Order, even if he’s my brother. Not after what we know and what we suspect.”
“Eddie wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“But what if they connect me to him?”
Maybe she had a point.
“All right, I’ll rent you a hotel—”
“No hotel—please! I won’t feel safe there. The two of us are up to our necks in this and we need to work on it together if we’re to find any answers.” She looked up at him, eyes pleading. “Let me stay with you. Please? I know that’s probably like asking you to jab a sharp stick in your eye, but you’ll hardly know I’m there. I won’t be in the way. I’ll sleep on the floor. I’ll—”
He held up his hands. “Whoa. Stop. Enough. Sheesh.”
Jabbing a sharp stick in his eye . . . yeah, that pretty much nailed it.
“I don’t do roommates, Weez.”
Well, except maybe for Gia, but only Gia, and she’d never stayed more than one night, so that didn’t count.
“But I need to feel safe, Jack. I can’t go full focus if I’m always looking over my shoulder. You make me feel safe. Please? If not for anything else, for old times’ sake, then?”
Jack hated to hear her beg, but it was “old times’ sake” that was holding him back. He didn’t want to find her in his bed again.
She must have read his mind. “Hey, if you’re worried about a replay of the other night, that was just momentary insanity. You made it clear you’re in a relationship, and even if you weren’t—never happen again.” She sighed and looked up at him with big, dark, frightened eyes. “But I need to feel safe again, Jack. I really do.”
His turn to sigh. “Okay. But just for a while. Until we get this thing straightened out.”
She hugged him. “Thank-you-thank-you-thank-you!”
He hoped this wasn’t a mistake.
And somehow he’d have to find a way to break it to Gia that another woman was moving in with him.