And this one didn’t seem ready to move on to the next plane, perhaps for good reason.
“Couldn’t the company program new machines in your favor?” She hoped she was following his complaint.
“They wouldn’t! Not family. I was good enough to kill for them but not to marry them!” The floor-height exit lights blew out.
In the distance, it sounded like the air conditioner exploded and whimpered a dying sigh.
As another explosion blew outside, Evie fled, collapsing in Jax’s arms just as the building descended into total darkness. An alarm shrieked.
Lawyer-man swung her up as if she were feathers and raced through the dark to the exit.
* * *
Sparks flewfrom the transformer at the pole just outside city hall. The battery-operated alarm shrieked. Jax could hear more alarms going off all around them. The whole block was probably out.
That Evie had allowed him to sweep her up terrified him. She was all but lifeless, except for shallow breathing. Where the hell did he take her? They’d walked over. It was nearly a mile back to the house or an urgent care center.
His office.The electricity was probably blown, but he could climb stairs in the dark. He had keys in his pocket.
Evie was stirring by the time he reached the building. Apparently small town office lobbies didn’t require locks and security guards. What mattered more was taking Evie somewhere safe so he could make sure the fiend hadn’t zapped her into eternity.
Demon? Ghost? Or Evie’s imagination?He hadn’t seen anything except Evie and a few papers flying around in the damned cold draft.
She was struggling by the time he reached the top of the stairs. Jax set her feet down but supported her as he hunted for the lock in the dark. He’d ask for battery-operated emergency lights on Monday. Weren’t there fire codes?
“Next time, flashlights,” she muttered, leaning into him.
She was alive! And relatively sane. “No next time,” he countered, finally opening the door.
Jax half carried her inside. The reception area ought to have a damned sofa. Still supporting her weight, he steered her into his office and the leather Morris chair.
“You could have called Roark with the van. You didn’t have to carry me.” She sank into the chair and bent over to rest her head on her arms in classic no-faint mode.
“Didn’t want his truck anywhere near whatever just happened back there.” Jax rummaged in his desk. He didn’t do sugar, but he usually had gum and breath mints. He brought her both.
She took the mints. “Water?”
Jax frantically looked around. He’d meant to stock some—cup. Bathroom. He filled his coffee mug at the faucet and carried it to her. He really was spoiled when he reached for bottled water instead of a faucet.
Evie leaned against the enormous chair back and sipped the water.
Jax paced. He glanced out at the twilight-lit street. People were emerging from bars and restaurants, looking to see if others were affected by the outage. What the hell had just happened?
He didn’t want to push her, but he was going crazy here. He had heard only Evie’s murmurs until the air exploded.
“Souls are more emotional energy than intellectual.” She finally spoke. “Or this one is. Clancy is in a hell of fury and betrayal. And he said he killed someone, which is probably why I can’t send him on.”
“Shit.” Unable to tolerate separation any longer, Jax returned to the chair and picked her up. She weighed next to nothing, but he already knew that. He sat down with Evie in his lap. “Tell me.”
He was honestly believing she’d talked to a ghost.And the ghost had caused an electrical storm that blew a transformer? Or had that been coincidence?
He concentrated on Evie’s disjointed run-down of what she’d thought she’d heard. It almost made a crazy kind of sense. “Not good enough to marry?” he asked. “Who would Clancy marry? The bitch who may or may not have thrown a cat?”
Jax tried to relax into the chair with Evie leaning against his chest, but he was strung tight, waiting for more IEDs to explode.
She shifted so he could reach his pocket. “Does your cellphone work? Can you look up Clancy’s name? Did R&R do any research on him?”
He didn’t want to look at his damned phone, but what he wanted had to wait. Evie focused and sitting still meant trouble.