I had just turned away from the jewelry rack after finding a pair of long, sparkly earrings I knew Sydney would love when I noticed the man standing a yard or so away, over by a table full of sunglasses. His gaze was intent on me, and I looked away immediately. True, I’d tried to dress up a little bit, just in case I did get to see Chris, and was wearing the dark green top Sydney had bought me and my favorite pieces of turquoise jewelry, but I didn’t think I warranted that kind of inspection. There were plenty of other girls in the store better-dressed…and prettier…than I was.
The stranger said, “Hello, Angela.”
Immediately my hackles went up. “Do I know you?”
He smiled. Even though he looked as if he were a good deal older than I — maybe as old as thirty-five — he was very handsome. His gaze intent on me, he replied, “My name is Damon Wilcox.”
Ice flooded my veins, and I immediately took a step back. “How did you know I would be here?”
“Does it matter?” The smile widened, and I couldn’t mistake the predatory gleam in his dark eyes. “I thought we should talk.”
“We have nothing to talk about. Except,” I added, “that I’m here with five members of my clan, so — ”
“Five? I suppose I should be honored that you think I merit that kind of a response.”
I opened my mouth to reply, but almost out of nowhere my Aunt Rachel appeared, flanked by those five bodyguards we’d just been discussing.
“You should not be here, Mr. Wilcox,” my aunt said coldly.
“I needed to do some shopping,” he returned, smile never fading.
“You can do that in Flagstaff. You have your own mall there, don’t you?”
“But not this store. They have such a good shoe selection, and I happen to have very large feet.” This last was said with a wink sent in my direction, and I felt heat flood my cheeks. Even I knew what that “large feet” comment was supposed to imply.
“That doesn’t matter,” Phil put in, voice harsh and quite unlike his usual jovial self. “We had permission to be here. You don’t.”
“And what makes you think that?”
“Because Maya de la Paz would have told us, that’s why,” Rachel said. Her normally pretty, rounded features were set in a mask of loathing.
“Interesting.” He slanted another one of those sly glances in my direction. “It seems we have a stalemate, then.”
“I don’t see how,” Allegra Moss said in acid tones, “considering there are seven of us and only one of you.”
“About that….” he drawled, and from the clothing racks in the center of the store came five men and two women, all of them black-haired like their primus.
Shit. My mind raced, wondering how on earth we were going to get out of this without having a magical showdown right in the middle of Nordstrom Rack. Everyone in my group edged closer to me, clearly ready to do whatever it took to protect me from the clutches of the Wilcoxes.
“Ah, but you forget that you are all in my territory,” a new voice chimed in, and I looked past Damon Wilcox and his clan members to see a small woman with gray-streaked black hair and olive skin stop in the aisle just past us, her arms crossed over her chest. Behind her was a group of seven men, one of whom I realized I recognized. Alex Trujillo, Maya de la Paz’s grandson.
I’d never met her, but I knew at once she was the woman who now stared up at Damon Wilcox with the expression of someone who’d found a particularly disgusting species of cockroach infesting her pantry.
“You do not have my permission to be here,” she said clearly. “The McAllisters, they know how to follow the rules of propriety. I have allowed you and members of your clan here before, out of courtesy, but I see you do not give me that same courtesy. Leave, and do not expect to come back any time soon.”
His gaze shifted from her to the watching de la Paz men, then over to us McAllisters before coming to rest on me for a brief second. Another smile, and he said, “If I have offended, I do apologize.” He made the briefest of gestures toward his own clans people, then turned and moved past us, heading toward the front door. The other Wilcoxes fell in behind him. A minute later, they were gone.
I let out the breath I’d been holding. Maya de la Paz approached me and said, “Prima, I apologize for this intrusion. We were keeping watch, just in case, and it seems our caution was merited.”
“No need to apologize,” I said quickly. “Really, thank you for coming to help. That could’ve gotten…nasty.”
Her mouth twitched. “That one has been nasty for many years, I am afraid. I hope this will not deter you from your shopping. I will have the people from my clan stay with you and watch over you. I do not think the Wilcoxes will try anything again.”