Forever: A Novel of Good and Evil Love and Hope Read online

  “Well, so do I!” she shouted.

  He turned to her, genuine surprise on his face. “What personal interest do you have?”

  Suddenly, her eyes were on fire. This wasn’t the joking, laughing, devil-may-care Darci he’d seen up until now. “This is my one chance to do something with my life, that’s what. What’s out there for me with a degree from a school that most people don’t even recognize as a school? What chance do I have to compete against women like the ones I saw in New York? They have education and experience. They have skills that are valuable in the workplace. But what can I do? True Persuade someone into . . . into. . . .”Abruptly, she turned away, not able to say any more. If she did, she was going to start crying.

  When she turned back to him, she was calmer. “Let’s put it this way,” she said quietly. “If you send me away, I’ll return here to Camwell, and I’ll spread it around town that I want to join this coven, and—”

  “Are you blackmailing me?”

  “Yes,” she said simply.

  Adam looked at her with pleading eyes. “I have relatives who could hide you,” he said softly. “I could call them and they could come and get you. They’d keep you safe until this is over.”

  “But without me, it won’t be over, will it?” she said. “If I am the one they want, then this thing can’t be solved without me, can it?” She took a deep breath to calm herself. “Why won’t you tell me all that I need to know? I haven’t known you very long, but I’m sure that you’re the kind of man who would only use a psychic as a last resort. I can’t imagine your being involved in spells and curses. How long did you work on this ...whatever it is,before you got so desperate that you went to a psychic and did what she told you to do?”

  “Three years,” he said softly.

  Darci blinked at him. “You worked on this for three years before you found me?” She wanted to get him to tell her what had driven him to work on this for all those years. But she didn’t want to see that closed look on his face, didn’t want to risk his shutting down again. “But now you’re going to throw all those years away in an instant?” she asked quietly.

  “I can’t put another human being in danger. These people have done....”

  “Something personal to you,” she said flatly, and with resentment in her voice at his not trusting her enough to explain.

  “Oh, yes,” he said quietly. “Very, very personal.”

  “Then I must stay and help you,” she said, her hands turned palms upward in a gesture of begging. “Please let me stay. You need me. You can’t do this without me. Please.”

  Adam had to turn away from the look in her eyes. He knew that every word she’d said was right. He did need her. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to accomplish anything without her.

  But he also instinctively knew that before this year was over, another, as she described them, “short, skinny blonde from the South” would disappear. And later her body would be found far away from Camwell. And her left hand—

  As Darci said, he wanted to stop this. With every breath he had, he wanted to stop this. Turning, he looked at her. “You’ll have to obey me,” he said at last. “And you’ll have to stay near me at all times. You can’t put on your cat suit and run off by yourself.”

  “Did I mention that I’m a coward to the very marrow of my bones?” she said softly, her eyes alight.

  Adam shook his head. “There is nothing cowardly about you, Darci T. Monroe. Nothing even remotely resembling cowardice.”

  For a moment she stood there looking at him. “Isn’t this where the hero and heroine fall on each other and make mad, passionate love?”

  Adam laughed, and when he did, she knew that she’d won, really and truly won. He would let her stay. He wasn’t going to send her back with her tail between her legs to have to listen to Uncle Vern say, “I knew she couldn’t hold a job like that one.” She wasn’t going to have to hear Aunt Thelma say, “I would have been proud of you, but it looks like you’re gonna be your mother all over again after all.” And she wasn’t going to have to face her mother looking her up and down, blowing cigarette smoke in her face, then smiling in that way that made Darci feel that no matter how many college courses she took or how well-spoken she was, she was never going to rise above where her birth had placed her.

  “You know what?” Darci said at last. “I want to take a shower. Would you mind . . . ?” Pointedly, she nodded toward the doorway.

  “Sure,” Adam said, seeming to be glad the great emotion of the last minutes was over. “Take some time to think this over,” he said. “And I will, too. Maybe we’ll both decide that this isn’t worth the risk. Maybe we’ll decide that—”

  She closed the bedroom door on him because she didn’t want to hear his negativity. And the truth was that she wanted to get into the shower and cry. She wanted to cry because she was scared. Really and truly afraid.

  8

  AFTER DARCI SHOWERED, she dried off, put on her nightgown, slipped her arms into the thick terry-cloth bathrobe that said “The Grove” on the pocket, then walked into her bedroom. The first thing she noticed was that there were no suitcases full of clothes on the end of her bed. And when she looked into the closet, she saw that it was empty; the drawers of the chest were standing open and empty.

  Immediately, panic seized her. He hadn’t changed his mind, had he? He wasn’t going to send her away after all, was he?

  Flinging open her bedroom door, Darci ran toward the living room. But the room was dark. Confused for a moment, Darci turned back and saw that Adam’s bedroom door was open a few inches and there was a light on inside. Slowly, she pushed open the door. He was sitting up in the bed nearest the bathroom door, wearing a T-shirt, the bottom half of him covered by the bedcovers, and he was reading.

  “Take that bed,” he said, without looking up.

  “Really?” Darci asked, stepping inside the room. “You know, don’t you, that I sleep nude?”

  “Not anymore, you don’t!” Adam said quickly, then looked up at her sternly. When Darci just stood there with a grin on her face, Adam put his book down and looked at her, unsmiling. “All in all, I think it would be better if you stopped making these . . . these overtures and these....”

  “Invitations?” Darci asked, smiling.

  “Whatever you call them, I think you should stop them. If you’re going to stay and help me with this, you’re not going to be allowed out of my sight for even minutes. And I am not going to leave you alone to sleep in a room with windows where anyone could. . . .”Again he trailed off, as though the thought of what could happen to her was too much for him to think about. “Now, get into that bed and stay there,” he said.

  But Darci was still standing in one spot and smiling broadly.”Sure thing,” she said as she took off her robe, then slipped under the covers. “Did you find out anything about the dagger yet?”

  “No,” he said, with his head down, still reading. “Tomorrow, we’re going to spend the day researching. I’d like to know more about....”He glanced at her, then involuntarily down at her left hand.

  “Me too,” Darci said, her smile disappearing. It was the thought of what she’d seen and heard today that took the merriment out of her. Suddenly, she was exhausted. Turning on her side, she pulled the covers up to her shoulders and said, “Good night, Adam”, then she let her body relax fully. Soon, she had the soft, slow breathing of a person asleep.

  Adam looked at her in disbelief. Could anyone over the age of four go to sleep that easily? he wondered. Looking back at his book, he knew that he wanted to read some more, needed to, but then he yawned. It had been an exhausting day so maybe he’d be able to go to sleep this early, too.

  After turning off the bedside lamp, he snuggled down in the covers, closed his eyes, and was instantly asleep.

  In the bed next to his, Darci smiled. True Persuasion worked every time, she thought, then did indeed go to sleep.

  “Nothing,” Darci said in disgust. “I found out absolutel