coven meeting at the safe house in Birmingham. After ditching his Audi and taking evasive maneuvers, he picked up the Camry from the new neighborhood where Anson had parked it. This time Steven attended the coven meeting in person. After they cast their circle, Josiah looked around.
Anson wore his usual mild expression. Maria stood with her arms crossed, looking ready to do battle. Richard kept his gaze fixed on the floor while he sucked at his teeth and looked like he was swallowing back a whole hell of a lot. Steven glanced around the group too, thin face friendly behind heavy-framed glasses.
He didn’t strictly need the glasses, Josiah knew. Steven wore them to keep people at a distance.
Of them all, Henry was the only one who appeared preoccupied. He stood reading through some papers with a frown.
“When you’re ready,” Josiah said to him.
Henry replied, “I’ve been ready for days.” When he looked up from his papers, his icy gaze speared Josiah.
That confirmed what he had already expected, and he nodded. “I see that Anson has given you all advance warning of what this meeting might entail.”
Richard’s face flooded with furious disgust. “So Molly Sullivan is pregnant… Really?” He barked out an angry laugh. “We’ve had our differences, but I didn’t expect you to be so goddamn typical.”
“I’m not so goddamn typical.” He kept his voice calm. “She’s that goddamn extraordinary.”
“If this devolves into a shouting match, I’m going to step out.” Henry sounded bored. He was already looking over his papers again.
“No shouting match on my end,” Josiah said. He stared at Richard, who flipped him off.
“I only want to know one thing,” Maria burst out. “How can you live with yourself if you walk away from us now? That’s like pulling out of everything we’ve worked so hard to achieve.”
He reached for patience. They deserved their chance to vent and react. “I’m not walking away now. Molly and I came to an agreement. I hate it, but she won’t budge. We’ve got eighteen weeks to try to find and take down that bastard. Whether we’ve achieved mission completion in that time frame or not, she’s coming back to Atlanta to talk to the police and claim her property.”
Everybody reacted.
Henry’s eyes narrowed. “Interesting.”
Maria’s voice turned shrill. “Tell her to stay away if she wants to carry that baby of hers to term. There’s nothing like the pain of losing your child.”
Richard laughed angrily again. “She’s a total fucking stranger, and you’re letting her dictate what happens to us? After all the time we gave you… Un-fucking-believable.”
Josiah’s resolve to keep hold of his temper vaporized. “You didn’t give me jack shit, Richard, not when I’ve financially supported all of you, and not when this has been your mission too. I’ve given you the time and opportunity to pursue your revenge—that’s why we all started working together in the first place. And she isn’t a fucking stranger to me, and I don’t let her do anything. Even if I don’t agree with the decision, she has the right to return home. If we try to stop her, that would be criminal confinement. She won’t be back here for four and a half months, so we need to pull our heads out of our asses and finish what we started.”
“But this might be perfect,” Anson said. He smiled at Josiah. “Look, I know you’ve got all the messy personal stuff to deal with… but remember when I said we might need to try to shake something loose? Molly’s return could do that very thing.”
“Christ almighty,” Josiah muttered in disgust.
Henry rubbed his jaw with the side of his thumb as he stared at a vista only he could see. “I like it.” His gaze snapped to Josiah. “But what if that fails too? What then?”
“She and I haven’t discussed the details of what comes next.” Other than the most important things of all. Her first ultrasound. Their first date. “But I’m putting her first. That means if she needs me to pull out of the coven, I’m going to pull out. I’ll set up a trust fund so you can keep going.” He gave Richard a hard look. “I won’t leave you in the lurch like some of you seem to think I might.”
Richard started to look somewhat mollified.
Then Steven spoke up with a smile. “I think we should break into Sherman & Associates. Or Russell Sherman’s house. Or both.” Everyone else fell silent and stared at him. “What? I’d love to get a