Kiss Across Chaos (Kiss Across Time #10) - Tracy Cooper-Posey Page 0,59

Mum,” Aran said, his tone…odd.

“Come here,” Taylor said and hugged Jesse, not Aran.

Jesse took the few seconds of the hug to pull her scattered thoughts togethers. “Hi Taylor,” she breathed.

Taylor gave her another squeeze and let her go. Her big brown eyes were shining when she stepped back to consider Jesse. “Veris won’t tell me what the hell is going on. There’s a dozen journalists at the end of the drive and I think one of them is the ABC, and the others are network affiliates. What have you been doing, Jesse?”

Jesse swallowed. “It’s…complicated.”

Taylor nodded. “It’s you. Of course it’s complicated.”

Jesse blinked. She was complicated? That was not something she would have said about herself.

Taylor went on. “Veris went up to the surgery to spy on the journalists and talk to the Chief about running them off, or not.”

“Can’t we all just go away and ignore them?” Jesse asked, wondering if that was too naïve a hope.

“That’s complicated, too,” Aran said from behind her, his tone wise.

“It is,” Taylor said, nodded. “We’ve had a bit of practice dealing with the media,” she added.

“And Athair scared the crap out of her with some of that experience,” Aran added dryly. “Do we really need to be here?”

“Veris wanted to speak to Jesse,” Taylor said. “Probably better to do it here than have Sydney over your shoulder, weighing in.” She smiled as she said it, with warmth coloring her tone. “Jesse, why don’t you head up to the surgery? I’ll take this chance to talk to Aran in person instead of by text.”

Jesse wanted to protest. To refuse. The last thing she wanted to do was be in a small room with Veris, who could detect more truths just by standing beside her than Sherlock Holmes had deduced in his entire career.

But she couldn’t refuse. It would be churlish, just to begin. It would be juvenile.

Gear up, Captain Hall, she told herself. She gave Taylor a stiff smile and a nod, turned and headed for the stairs.

Her heart was racing by the time she stepped into the surgery. There was nothing in here, now, but it had once held a small ER’s worth of diagnostic equipment and supplies. The built-in counter was empty. A thin layer of dust on the top tickled her nose.

Veris stood near the window. Not right next to it, where anyone glancing up could spot him, but close enough to look through and still be out of reach of the daylight that would reveal him. A cellphone hung between the fingers of one big hand, which made the oversized phone look like one of the old, small ones from ten years ago.

He put the phone on the bench as Jesse came in and turned to her. He didn’t look angry. He didn’t look upset, either. “You’ve been busy.”

Jesse spread her feet. She realized she had settled into the ready position, weight on both feet. She made her hands hang at her sides, instead of putting them behind her back. She was on the alert. Veris tended to do that to her.

“Not something I planned.” She just barely held back the “sir” that tried to follow.

Veris considered her. “Coaxing the world’s media to your door? It’s not your style.” His tone was one of agreement. “But they’re here, now, which means you miscalculated, Captain.”

Jesse nodded. “I did. I forgot to add a privacy screen to the registration for the pen name domain.”

“Ah. I wondered where the leak had sprung,” Veris murmured. He crossed his arms. “Congratulations, by the way. You’re a best seller.”

Jesse grimaced.

Veris tilted his head. His very blue eyes considered her even more closely. “No?”

Jesse sighed. “I just wanted to put the story out there so a few people might read it. That’s all. This, all this fuss, it’s not what I wanted. Not for this book, at least. It was just a throw-away story.”

“You said it wrote itself.”

“It did. But if I wanted this at all, it would be for one of the books with my real name on it. Why did it have to be this one, of all of them?” She threw out her hand.

Veris’ mouth twitched. He leaned against the counter and crossed his arms. “Life can be contrary, in that way. It’s always the thing you don’t have your eye on that blows up on you. The possibility you didn’t think of is the one that happens.”

“That’s just it. I didn’t think it was even a possibility,” Jesse admitted. “I’m a midlist author