They walked toward the fireplace. The flames gave off shadows, some dancing across the wood floor. Giovanni stepped into one and felt the pull against him, the way the shadows tugged at his body. When he stepped out of that one into the next he had a shock. Sandlin’s shadow, thrown by the light, had connected with Giovanni’s. Like Sasha, he was a potential shadow rider, his shadow throwing out tubes to connect with every shadow around him.
Giovanni watched his face very carefully and saw the exact moment information and emotion hit him. Sandlin turned his head to look at Giovanni, to study his facial features. There was no guile whatsoever in him, but his shocking blue eyes were speculative as he stared at Giovanni.
“Do I know you?”
Giovanni shook his head. “No, I came with your sister to make certain you knew I would take good care of her.” He wanted to reiterate that Sasha was his sibling and that Giovanni was good for her.
“You feel … scary.”
Giovanni nodded. “I can be scary to some people. Not to you. Certainly not to Sasha.”
Sandlin frowned and shook his head. “I meant another word. I don’t like it when I can’t think of what I want to say.” His expression cleared, changed at once to glee. “Powerful. You’re powerful. Our shadows touch and I know you.”
Giovanni nodded. “That’s right. When our shadows touch, you can tell whether or not someone is lying to you, right?”
Sandlin sank into one of the armchairs. He gripped the arm with strong fingers. “I don’t like lies. They hurt my ears.” He rubbed at his temples as if remembering a painful experience.
“That happens to me as well,” Giovanni said. He caught Sasha as she started past him, pulling her to him so that her back was pressed tight against his front, his arms around her waist. He moved them both into the next shadow that touched Sandlin’s. The jolt hit him hard. All three were connected now, tubes reaching for one another, their shadows intertwining.
Sasha gasped and looked up at him, but he kept his gaze fixed on Sandlin’s face. The man felt it, too, that initial hit, a rush of information crowding in, too much to be analyzed all at once. Sandlin and Sasha definitely could have been riders, both of them sensitive to the pull of the shadows as well as to the intelligence pouring in. The ability in them was extremely strong.
Giovanni had known Sasha’s character from the moment their shadows had touched. He’d felt her sweet, compassionate nature coupled with her independent, fiery side. Sandlin had a will of steel, but his childlike, open qualities overshadowed that will. He wanted to please those around him, for the most part.
It was important for Giovanni to protect his woman, even from her own brother if it was necessary. Mariko, Ricco’s wife, had been targeted by her own brother and the woman who had raised the two of them. Giovanni wasn’t about to overlook any threat to Sasha. He was adept at reading shadows and hearing lies. He’d been trained from the time he was a child. He couldn’t imagine Sandlin being a threat to anyone, but he wasn’t about to make mistakes based on compassion or any other gentler emotion. Sandlin, for all his childlike ways, and the fact that he couldn’t hold on to information, at least anything in his memory banks, was a shrewd man.
“I’ve never felt anyone as powerful or as dangerous as you,” Sasha admitted in a low voice. “When all three of our shadows touched like that, your pull was so strong I had to move into you. That was extraordinary and a little scary. I’ve always been able to hear lies, and so has Sandlin. I can feel other people’s emotions, but never that strong. It’s nowhere near that strong.”
“I’ve been trained in the use of shadows,” he said by way of explanation. He couldn’t go into his family’s legacy, not there.
Giovanni stepped out of the shadow and led Sasha to the low-slung love seat across from Sandlin. The flames rose up, dancing, as if a breeze had entered the room. Sandlin watched him the entire way. He looked a pale child, helplessly watching a predator draw close.
“What have you been doing today?” Sasha asked as she settled on the small love seat.
Giovanni sat next to her, one arm sliding out along the back of the couch to circle behind her shoulders, trying to offer her reassurance. Her body trembled, small little continual tremors he doubted she was aware of. She kept her smile with a steady, concentrated effort as she regarded her brother.
He ignored her, staring at Giovanni. “You have done bad things.” It was a child’s accusation, sounding a little twisted coming from a grown adult.
Giovanni stayed in complete control, not wincing away from the truth, refusing to give away anything to Sasha through body language. He had done bad things, at least those things could be considered bad if the wrong people knew about them. He was a rider, and that meant his job was to bring justice to those who had escaped the law.
He nodded his head. “Yes, Sandlin, that’s true. I have done bad things. Not to your sister, but many people might say I’m a bad person, judging me on things they don’t understand. But I’m not bad to your sister nor would I ever be. Bad people are afraid of me, not your sister.” His voice rang with sincerity and he hoped Sandlin would quit regarding him with suspicion.
Sandlin continued to stare at him with the same frown that Giovanni liked seeing on Sasha’s face. She could melt him just with her expressions alone, which didn’t bode well for his future. She would be able to play him so easily and, sadly, he could tell he was going to be one of those men who gave her anything and everything she wanted. He bent his head to brush a kiss through her thick hair.
“You don’t feel like the other man did,” Sandlin said. “He felt funny. I didn’t like him.”
Sasha frowned at Giovanni. “Who’s he talking about?”
“Hell if I know. Buddy, you’re going to have to be more precise. Who felt funny to you?”
“He was just here,” Sandlin insisted, scowling at them, beginning to look petulant. “Right before you. He interrupted my reading, too. I don’t like that. Not when it’s at a good part. How am I supposed to figure out who did the killing when I’m interrupted?”
Beside him, Sasha had begun to tense up. He slid his hand under her fall of curls to wrap his fingers around the nape of her neck, massaging gently in hopes of easing the tension out of her.
“He gets agitated sometimes,” she whispered. “And he mixes things up. He might have been reading about someone coming into a room and interrupting the hero.”
Giovanni didn’t think so, and apprehension grew in the pit of his stomach. He leaned toward Sandlin. “Can you describe the man who came to see you tonight?”
Sandlin looked puzzled. “No. He was a man.”
Giovanni was silent, trying to think how to get Sandlin’s cooperation. “Can you give us clues and we’ll try to guess?”
Sandlin’s face lit up. Once more he looked like the sweet child he’d been when they’d first arrived. “Yes. We can solve the mystery. He wore a brown coat. A big one, with a hood.”
Sasha frowned, her eyes meeting Giovanni’s. “Do you think someone was really here tonight? We don’t know anyone here.”
“Don’t they have to sign in?”
“I thought so. They know me here and I’ve not signed in for the last month or so. Maybe they’ve changed their policy.”
“We’ll ask. I’ll want to speak to someone in charge,” Giovanni said. He knew once a Ferraro was involved, the Center would do just about anything to keep him happy. He represented the potential of millions of dollars coming their way in donations.
“You didn’t figure it out,” Sandlin said. “You need to think about it.”
“We need another clue.”
Sandlin looked deflated. Clearly, he didn’t have anything else he remembered. His face suddenly lit up and he fished something out of his pocket. Giovanni heard Sasha gasp. She went pale and leaned toward her brother to better see what he had in his hand.