“Think about new glasses frames. We need to find you a local optometrist.” Evie diverted the kid as they climbed into the two-seat utility van—not a kid-friendly place by any means. Maybe sheoughtto think about safety and get a real van with seat belts.
Loretta climbed in back to play with her techno-toys and Reuben revved up the engine.
“Where you want to do your shopping?” he asked, steering for the interstate.
“We should stop by Ariel’s and see how she’s doing,” Loretta called from the back.
“What, you want to find Roark’s body in the driveway with his throat cut?” Evie asked. “Let Jax referee that brawl.”
Reuben was uncomfortably silent. He was a nerd who didn’t talk much anyway, but Evie was sensitive to vibrations. She tuned in her third eye and read a lot of muddy water playing havoc with his aura. She trolled through looking for a source, but Reuben mixed his chakras badly.
“Are you upset because I’m in this seat instead of Roark?” she guessed, keeping her voice down so Loretta wouldn’t hear.
“Nah, ain’t upset. This a business.”
“But Roark is supposed to be part of the business. He’s the one you usually do security detail with. I’m not a tech like him.” Evie watched his root chakra and solar plexus pulse with grays. Huh. Dented self-esteem and... she wasn’t certain, but his courage was shaken.
“This job don’t need no tech. We be fine. Just tell me where to let you and tadpole off.”
Evie raised her eyebrows. “You’re thinking to check out those addresses alone?”
He shot her a look of disgust. “This here van is a highly specialized piece of equipment designed to look innocuous. You think you and the tadpole peering out windows gonna reflect that goal? I know what I’m doing. You go shopping, and text me when you’re done.”
Ah, Evie began to see the nuances here. Roark was the badass who usually drove the van and handled the hardware. Reuben’s skill was with the software, hiding in the back. And they had him acting as a chauffeur. Pretty huge come-down for a PhD in engineering.
“Y’know, I could get all uppity and women’s rightsy and complicate your life right now,” she warned. “But I’m a practical person. Loretta needs training and school clothes. You don’t need a lot of help parking the van and doing your thing just to collect info. But we need to stay connected. You can tap phone lines, but I tap lifelines. We have to work together.”
He grimaced but eventually nodded. “I had to beat Roark up a few times before he got that cooperation thing. We’ll figure it out.” He cast her another dubious look. “You’retrainingthe tadpole?”
“If you have talent, you have to learn to use it or it goes to waste. I don’t know a whole lot about what Loretta does, but I know to ask questions so she can work things out on her own.” Which was essentially what Evie had done. Mavis couldn’t read auras. She’d freaked when Evie had seen ghosts—and hauled her back to Afterthought where the rest of their weird family lived and could help.
“You need textbooks,” Reuben decided. “A witch library with how-to manuals.”
“I’m told there are such things, but if you haven’t noticed, we’re a little isolated. We’re poor and not much inclined to travel either, so I have no idea where to find a book on witches. Our library certainly doesn’t carry them.” Evie had always wondered if there were others like her and her family in the world, but she’d not spent much time hunting.
“And you don’t waste energy telling the world about your weirdnesses, so no other witch has got a reason to look for you. Makes sense. But we have to come to terms with advertising our skills, so you’d better be thinking about it.”
“If the world wasn’t so full of whackos, I’d hire myself out as a ghost-buster. But just mention the spirit world, and everyone who ever lost a loved one would be on my doorstep, and all the cynics would be poking fun. It’s a tough balance.” Occasionally, she did actually give the subject a thought.
“So, Sensible Solutions, it is, without explaining how we do what we do. Works for me, ‘cause I ain’t explaining what I do.”
“You have to stop the illegal stuff sometime, don’t you? How much of what you do will get you arrested?” Evie had spent a few nights fretting about the difference between hacking for information and hacking to steal valuables.
Reuben shrugged. “Unless I steal government information and post it on the web, they’re not coming after me. Far bigger fish to fry, and they’re lousy fishers.”
Evie laughed. “With an F or a PH? Either way, it’s good to know. But you’re walking a fine line. I don’t want you crossing where it’s uncomfortable.”
“That’s a fine line too. Tossing those trolls attacking Larraine is probably illegal as hell, but I feel real good about it.”
Remembering her tendency to trespass, Evie understood that. “Good thing we have our own lawyer.”
She hoped Jax would stay around. Might depend on how much trouble they got into. Or how often.
* * *
Workingwith someone else’s computers was beyond frustrating. Roark didn’t want to mess with Ariel’s obsessive controls, but setting up his software in her computers required tinkering with the innards...
He needed to be in the van. Or back in the cellar where he and Reuben had set up a whole control room. His laptop had a ton of RAM, but he needed the speed of multiple processors.