“No time like the present,” Dallas added. He nodded toward the phone. “Give her a ring.”
I twisted to face him, setting my glare on him. “Don’t rush me. Now, sit down. The both of you.”
I flicked my gaze to Steele.
They exchanged a glance before sighing and taking a seat. Dallas sat on the foot of the bed behind me while Steele brought his chair closer. Once they were settled, I tapped the phone icon on the message.
The line started to ring. On the third, Maxine answered, filling the room with her voice. “Well that was fast.”
“You have no idea how great of timing you had,” I said.
She laughed. “I get that a lot.”
“What news did you have?” Malachi asked, sounding anxious and nosey.
“Uh… hello, strange, male voice,” Maxine said. “Who was that?”
I pushed Malachi back and said, “Sorry. I have three men surrounding me who are being overly protective.”
“Lucky woman,” she breathed and then added, “But about the news… I had a vision.”
“A what?” Dallas asked.
“She’s that type of friend?” Malachi asked, sitting back. He smirked. “Interesting.”
I tried to ignore them and focus on the screen of my phone. “A vision about me?”
“Yes,” she continued. “You were behind bars. Charlotte makes an appearance, and she seems overly proud of herself.”
“Sounds right,” Dallas said, leaning in closer.
“Your news doesn’t sound very good,” I muttered.
“I’m sorry,” she said and sighed. “I understand it’s not the greatest news, and I have no idea what it all means, but I hope it helps.”
“Thank you,” I said and frowned.
“Hold on,” Steele said, holding up his hand as though we were in some sort of video conference. “I have a question.”
“Okay…” Maxine said. She sounded hesitant. “Go for it.”
“This is Steele,” I said. “He’s the inquisitive one.”
“Nice to meet you,” she said. “What is your question?”
“How often do your visions come true?” he asked.
She was silent for a moment before she responded. “Well, I never did a study or anything of the sort. Besides, that is not how this works.”
“How does this sort of thing work then?” Malachi asked.
“And now we have Malachi,” I mumbled.
“Well, Malachi,” Maxine started. “My visions are not an exact science. The future is never written in stone, and I’ve never dissected my gifts like this before. I simply get glimpses of images, symbols, feelings, smells, things that conjure specific meanings.”
“What you just described seemed to have a lot more detail than your explanation implies,” Dallas added.
“Maxine, this is Dallas,” I said.