“I sent her packing and told her not to come back.” She pinned him with a steely gaze. “Why do I need to avoid her?”
“At the moment, I can’t tell you. In the near future, I should be able to.” He looked at her pleadingly. “As long as you stay away from her, you’ll all be fine. Clover, I hate having to keep anything from you, but this is my job. You know what kind of work I’m in.”
“If this were about anything other than my family, I’d understand completely,” she said frostily. “You know what? Fine. You do your job and I’ll do mine. Let’s keep our relationship strictly professional from now on. And I’m going to get my office moved. It makes more sense for me to work near Blue anyway. Unless you only want me working here as long as I’m your employee with benefits, in which case I quit.”
“Of course not,” Sam said, looking stricken. “I would never do that to you. Clover, please reconsider. There are reasons why I can’t tell you what’s going on.” But he was talking to Clover’s retreating back as she slammed the door behind her.
She heard the phone ring in his office and she heard him answering it.
Was she being unreasonable? Was she overreacting? she wondered as she drove back to the boarding house. She felt sick to her stomach at the thought of ending things with Sam – but she also couldn’t accept him withholding information that somehow involved her family.
She couldn’t see working for the McCoys permanently if she and Sam weren’t together. It would be too painful. What if he started dating again right away? Would he do that to her?
“Argh. Stop it,” she said to herself out loud. She was falling back into her old habits – thinking of herself as the girl nobody would want. She did believe that Sam really wanted her. She trusted him that much.
Still, she had a really bad feeling, a sense of danger hovering near her family. She needed to know what Sapphire had to do with it, and she couldn’t forgive him for keeping that information from her.
As she parked in front of the boarding house, her cell phone chirped. It was an unfamiliar number.
“Thanks for changing your mind!” the text said. “This is Twilight. This is my new number. We’ll be back after lunch.”
An icy sensation washed over her.
She called the number and it went straight to voicemail.
She tried calling Sapphire and it went straight to voicemail.
She rushed inside to find Imogen dusting the living room furniture. “What happened? Where is everyone?” she cried.
Imogen looked up, alarmed. “They went for a ride with their sister. She came in and said something about you changing your mind, they could have the laptops and cell phones, and that she was taking them all out to lunch… What’s wrong? Should I not have let them go?”
Clover ran her fingers through her hair, letting out a groan of frustration. “It’s not your fault. Is Autumn back yet?”
“No. Is everything all right? Do we need to call anyone?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so.” Clover was reeling. Should she call up and report a kidnapping? Sapphire was their sister; the police might not even take it seriously. All she’d done was come and pick them up for lunch. Without permission, granted, but the police were hardly going to see that as an emergency.
Should she call Sam? Maybe he could find them by using Sapphire’s cell phone? Did she even have a right to call Sam after breaking up with him? Screw it, this was her family. And Sam would understand the importance of family. And he’d told her that she should stay away from Sapphire – there must be a reason.
“Oh, there’s Autumn!” Imogen said, pointing out the window.
Clover rushed outside as Autumn trotted up, still in coyote form. Autumn shifted and picked up the folded-up clothes she’d left on the front porch.
“Where were you? I was getting really worried.” Clover’s voice was shaking. Okay, at least she knew where one of her siblings was.
“I just wanted some time alone. What’s wrong? Why are you freaking out?” Autumn bent to fasten her sandals.
“Sapphire just came by and picked up the kids while I was out. She’s up to something. She brought laptops and cell phones this morning, and tried to give them to you and the kids, but I kicked her out of here because I knew she must have stolen them. She doesn’t have that kind of money. So while I was gone, she came by, lied to them, told them I’d changed my mind, and Twilight just texted me and said they’d be back after lunch. And now nobody’s answering. ”
Autumn was staring at her intently, her eyes wide with alarm.
“I’ll call Sapphire,” she said abruptly, and pulled her cell phone from her pocket.
“I just tried. It went to voicemail,” Clover said, but Autumn was already punching in the number. Imogen was standing in the doorway, looking worried.