We both laughed, but it didn’t have any humor.
“Anyway,” I continued, “we did a lot of talking, and it changed some things between us. You know that we were close for nearly our entire lives until she left. But what I didn’t tell you is that I loved her, man. I loved her so goddamn much. I never had the balls to tell her, and it nearly crushed me when she left, but I never got over her. I’ve always carried a torch.”
He grinned at me and held out a hand for a fist bump. “I knew I chose right when I set you two up.”
“Yeah, yeah, Mr. Eharmony.”
He chuckled.
“We’re . . .” I laughed. “Well, I’m not entirely surewhatwe are. But we are together—sort of. We’re trying some things on for size. I know where I stand, but it’s all super new, and we haven’t had a chance to reallytalkabout it yet. Still, things so far are fan-fucking-tastic. I just thought you should know.”
“Yeah, buddy. I love this. It’s awesome. But . . . wait. I should probably be more selective who I let my sister date, right? I mean, you were raised in a cult.” He paused for a minute, the corner of his lips twitching. “Oh, wait. So was I. And so was she.” He looked over at me, a shit-eating grin on his face.
“I’m glad you can make light of it.” I shook my head and rolled my eyes. “But how about we tell her that she has a brother first before you get all overprotective. Besides, weren’t you just patting yourself on the back for setting us up?”
“Shit. Yeah, I was. Okay. But if you hurt her . . .” He looked at me again, and the look he had was anything but playful.
“Never. I would never.”
He fist bumped me again, and we turned into a drive with a gorgeous plantation house at the end of the lane.
Just as I was about to comment on it, my phone rang. I checked the screen and saw that it was Judith.
I wondered why my foster mother would be calling. She didn’t do it often. And given everything that was happening right now, I found it incredibly suspicious. I silenced the call and put the phone back in my pocket, a weird prickle crawling up my spine.
Chapter20
~Larken~
Dev and I cast the spell on everyone in the room. It went much smoother and easier than before Lamour because they’d already been hypnotized. We just had Harper reactivate them, and Dev and I worked our magic—literally.
We then tested it with Burke and Reagan, who never seemed to be without each other these days—which I thought was adorable. Why shouldn’t people find each other after death?—and everybody had been able to see and talk to them. Me, included. Which was great. I loved that it wasn’t limited to just my apartment.
I honestly didn’t know how long it would last. It wasn’t something I had planned, after all. But I would enjoy it while I could. If it did wear off, I might ask Dev to help me do something similar to what we’d done for the team. I didn’t need the hypnosis, so it should be easy enough for us to do.
Van opted out, saying he would be fine not seeing, and Sky agreed to have the spell reactivated but made sure that we could remove the enchantment easily if she decided that she’d had enough. Harper hadn’t hypnotized herself before, obviously, so she would remain non-seeing, as well.
We only had to do Turner when he arrived—if he arrived.
My instincts had been screaming that something was going on there, and I hoped that I would be able to get to the bottom of it soon. I liked him. We’d clicked almost instantly when he joined the team, and I really enjoyed our friendship and working with him. But ever since I’d come clean about my past, things had been strange and strained. Some of that could be explained away, he’d been sick and had to deal with something with his family, but he hadn’t been answering my texts either. And that wasn’t like him. We were always going back and forth about TV shows and whatnot.
“Hey, girl,” Hanlen said and came up to me, bumping my shoulder with hers.
“Hey, yourself.” I smiled at her.
“Do I detect a . . . healthy glow about you today?” she asked, waggling her brows suggestively.
I groaned. “Seriously? How can you even tell that?”
“It’s the investigator in me. I can read people like a book. So, I’m right?”
I let out a sigh. “Yeah . . . I came clean with Kholt last night over dinner, and he stayed over.”
“Yeah, girl, get it.” She did a little dance.
“You are incorrigible.”
“I rather see myself as encouraging.” She laughed. “Sky, Dakota, Harper, Lennie,” she called. “Come here.”