Other people from the flight were bustling around them, grabbing suitcases off the turnstile and then hugging friends or relatives who’d come to meet them. She decided not to press the point in the middle of baggage claim, and they walked out the nearest set of glass doors to the ground transportation area.
Philip approached a cab to see if the driver was otherwise engaged, and Wade came trotting through the doors. Without bothering to ask, Eleisha pushed her thoughts into his, and before he could stop her, she caught a clear image of him in a stall of the men’s room fishing his Beretta out of the suitcase and strapping the holster under his canvas jacket.
He almost tripped at the sudden mental invasion. In seconds, she was at his side.
“Eleisha!” he said aloud. She was breaking their pact about asking permission first.
“You brought your gun?” she hissed in his ear. “In your suitcase?”
“They wouldn’t have let me carry it on the plane,” he answered dryly.
“You won’t need it. Julian won’t come anywhere near us.”
“We don’t know what we’re walking into, and you seem to have lost some perspective.”
She stared at him, hurt. Those were harsh words coming from Wade. Why couldn’t he and Philip see that Rose was no threat . . . and neither was Julian anymore. Not to her. She had terrified him into leaving her alone.
She turned away from Wade.
Philip was motioning them over. They loaded their bags into the taxi and climbed into the backseat, suffering in the awkward silence. Eleisha handed the driver Rose’s address.
Normally, Eleisha liked to look out the window at new places, but the ride was so tense, she simply sat there, dwelling on unpleasant possibilities. If Wade was carrying a gun, what might Philip have in his suitcase? At least he hadn’t stopped in the men’s room, too. But she was beginning to wish she’d left both of them back home at the underground.
For such a long ride, the time seemed to pass quickly, and before she knew it, they were stepping onto the curb of Jones Street on the outskirts of Chinatown.
Philip looked about with unguarded interest. Even this late, the streets were alive with lights and people. Eleisha stood facing a decaying apartment building, but an Asian shop owner just down the block was signing for a delivery of open boxes of bok choy. At this hour?
“There,” Wade said, pointing at the apartment building. “We need to go to the second floor.”
This was the first thing he’d said since leaving the airport, and his voice was tight. Eleisha moved to block both her companions from moving forward. At this point, she would have preferred them to stay out here, but Philip would never agree. So she said, “Rose is a lot more scared than either one of you, and we’re walking into her home. You remember that.”
Philip glared at her but didn’t answer.
She walked into the building and up one flight of stairs. If Wade pulled that gun, she’d knock him unconscious.
Moments later, they were standing in front of apartment 2-A. The hallway smelled stale and brown paint peeled in flakes off the outer frame. Eleisha raised her hand to knock and then suddenly lost her nerve. With no phone number, she hadn’t been able to call. How would Rose feel about the three of them just . . . arriving here.
Another thought occurred to her. “Wade, don’t try to reach out telepathically yet. If she doesn’t know about our abilities, you’ll just frighten her.”
Philip reached past her head and pounded on the door.
“Philip!” she said. “Stop it.” Then she leaned closer to the door. “Rose, it’s me. We’ve come to get you.”
Nothing happened for almost a minute. What if she had gone out? She wasn’t expecting them.
Then a calm voice, with the hint of a Scottish accent, said, “What is your name?”
“It’s me. Eleisha.”
The door cracked and then opened.
And Eleisha was finally face-to-face with Rose. After all their letters, they were standing two feet apart. The first thing she felt was surprise. She did not know why, but she had pictured Rose as petite with gray hair. The woman before her was slender but nearly as tall as Philip. She had long brown hair with a few silver streaks. Her eyes were deep brown with flecks of yellow. She wore a white sleeveless rayon dress that reached the floor and silver hoops in her ears.
“Eleisha?”
The second that word left her mouth, Eleisha knew everything was as it should