Bait N' Witch (Brimstone Inc. #3) - Abigail Owen Page 0,27

fifties station.

As he came in, she glanced over her shoulder and smiled like she did each night when he showed up for his cup of tea, though a distance lingered in her eyes that hadn’t been there until the colossal mistake of kissing her the other night.

“What are you cooking?” he asked. I should just go to my office and leave her alone.

“Sauce for lasagna. My mother’s recipe.”

“You’re not afraid of burning it again?”

She chuckled. “I’m onto your tricks now, mister.” She tossed a wink over her shoulder, then turned back to the stovetop, her back to him. “Something bothering you?”

Greyson startled. How had she guessed? Usually people found him hard to read. Leaning a hip against the island counter, he crossed his arms. “What makes you ask?”

She didn’t turn around. “You usually go straight into your office when you get home.”

Yup. He should’ve listened to his instincts. The problem was, his instincts were telling him to ask her for help. He never asked for help. “So?”

She lifted a shoulder. “My mother always said I had an intuition for when people needed help. So…?”

Well, hell. Telling her about the girls’ middle-of-the-night wanderings had eased a burden for him. Like sharing the weight of the problem. More than he’d expected. Suddenly he wasn’t alone in dealing with it, in worrying about it, and, even though the mystery loomed large, he’d felt…lighter…ever since.

Maybe she could do the same for his daughters now? Greyson pulled out one of the stools and plopped down onto it. “This morning the girls asked about how their mother died.”

Rowan stopped stirring. “I thought your wife died in childbirth?”

“That’s only part of the story, and, apparently, some parents have been talking, because kids at school tipped off the girls.”

Rowan was quiet for a long moment, but, with her back to him, he couldn’t see her reaction. Finally, she put the spoon down, turned off the burner, and turned to face him. “Kids can be cruel sometimes,” she murmured.

“So can adults.” He wouldn’t mind hunting down the adults who’d helped spread this information. However, the truth had come out broadly among his kind last year. He’d just been waiting for the chain of gossip to reach his family.

“What did you tell them?”

Greyson ran a hand through his hair and blew out a breath. “That I’d talk to them about it tonight. But I have no idea what to say.”

To his surprise, Rowan circled the counter and pulled out the stool beside him. Her hair brushed his cheek as she sat, and her wildflower scent drifted around him. Then she leveled those silvery gray eyes on him. “Tell me first.”

Greyson blinked, distracted by her proximity, and had to retrace their conversation. “What will that achieve?”

She gave him a patient look. “Consider it a dress rehearsal. And I can tell you if something would be too much for a twelve-year-old girl to handle.”

Something tight in his chest eased a little. Maybe this wouldn’t hurt to try.

“Right. Okay.” He tapped a finger on the counter, thinking of where to start.

She laid her hand over his, calming his nervous movements with her warmth. He froze, then glanced at her.

“The best place to start is usually at the beginning.” She gave his hand a gentle squeeze, then sat back, that wall going right up between them. A brick at a time, but solid.

He tried not to miss the contact, the connection. Instead, he focused on telling her the story.

“My wife and I were both low-level hunters with the Syndicate. In fact, that’s how we met. We worked a particularly difficult abuse-of-magic case together, and our supervisor decided we should be partners. We worked together for a year before I got the bright idea of kissing her over dinner one late night.”

Greyson smiled at the memory. “I haven’t thought of that maybe since Maddie’s death.”

Rowan gave him a soft smile but said nothing. A good listener. He knew that already from their late-night cups of tea.

“We married a year after that, and she was pregnant a few months later. During that time, we were assigned a case where a warlock was using magic for various illegal ends—theft mostly, some cases of assault, and he was escalating.”

Now the hard part.

“What we didn’t know was he was tracking us. The night Maddie went into labor, he showed up at the house, almost as though he were a Seer and knew the time had come, although, as far as I know, he didn’t have that ability.”

Greyson could still