“Am I that obvious?”
“Maybe. Maybe I just want to keep hold of you so I know this is actually happening.” Jacqueline whistled out a breath. “You’re sure this is going to work?”
“You remember what Ma Sweets said.” Arlo’s voice became grim when he mentioned his foster mother. “Everyone at Hideaway works together to keep pack together.”
“Shifters look after their own.” Jacqueline’s voice was soft, and sad. Arlo bent his head to kiss her hand where it lay on his shoulder.
“If she wants to keep saying that, then she’ll need to play ball,” he said.
Or else admit that it’s all a lie, and the only people the Sweets look after are themselves.
He tightened his grip on the steering wheel.
“And what about the kids?”
Arlo blew out a long breath. “You already know I’m not good at connecting the dots,” he said. “Well, I think I’ve just figured out one of the other things the kids were keeping on the down-low.”
He’d called on Jacqueline’s landline before he left, asking Harrison to make sure the kids all knew they were coming back, but Tally’s lonely panic was still fresh in his mind. He didn’t want to put any of them through that again.
H
e felt the Weaver kids a mile out from Hideaway and clenched his teeth. It wasn’t the skull-busting agony he’d felt the night he sailed in to find Jacqueline diving into the waves, or the pure unhappiness of the morning before. The kids’ packlessness throbbed like an old bruise.
Don’t worry, he thought, wishing his telepathy reached further. We’re on our way.
Jacqueline squeezed his shoulder as they crested the rise that swept down to Hideaway Cove. “Can you reach them yet?”
He hadn’t said anything about mindspeaking to the kids. Jacqueline was just on the same wavelength as he was. He shook his head. How did I end up with such a perfect mate?
“Give it to the ice cream parlor,” he said, nodding towards Tess’s café. Its windows sparkled in the morning sun. “Wait a minute…”
“Hmm?”
*Tess?*
Tess’s voice hit his mind like a splash of sea spray. *Arlo. Good. Come on down, everyone’s here.*
“Strike that,” Arlo said to Jacqueline. “They’re all at the parlor.”
She frowned. “Why? What’s going on?”
“One sec.” Arlo concentrated. *Kenna? Dylan? Tally?*
The seal shifters’ minds sparked at his contact. There was another presence with them: Eric, he guessed. Harrison was there, too, which meant at least whatever else was going on, the kids probably hadn’t tried to stage a midnight escape.
He reached further and groaned.
He parked outside the parlor and opened the passenger door for Jacqueline. “The Sweets are here,” he warned her.
“Good to know.” Jacqueline narrowed her eyes. “Don’t worry. Now that I know what their deal is, I can handle them. Besides… I’ve been connecting some dots of my own. I may just have an ace up my sleeve.”
He gave her a questioning look, but she just smiled.
The bell above the door jangled as he pushed it open.
Someone had pushed all the café tables into a square in the middle of the room, and everyone was seated around them. Harrison and Lainie on one side, with Ma and Pa Sweets opposite them. The Weaver kids and Eric were seated facing the door. Kenna had a familiar scowl on her face that melted away when she saw Arlo and Jacqueline, and Dylan jumped up.
“You’re here!”