Protector(48)

“I know Connor and Angela will, and that’s the most important thing, isn’t it?”

“Maybe.”

If she’d been in his position, maybe Caitlin would have felt similarly disinclined to cling to false hope. Unfortunately, there was no way of knowing how anyone was going to react to all this, just because nothing similar had ever occurred. At least, not that Caitlin knew of. Yes, Damon Wilcox had kidnapped Angela, stolen her right out of her bedroom, but that had turned out okay in the end, because of Connor. Somehow Caitlin doubted such a happy ending awaited her friends at the hands of Matías and his cronies.

It wouldn’t come to that, though. Danica was…well, clearly Matías was using her as his personal sex toy, but the vision hadn’t shown any cuts on her arms, or anywhere else. She seemed to be okay physically, although Caitlin prayed with all her might that her friend wouldn’t remember anything of what she’d done with the renegade warlock once this was all over. At any rate, she didn’t seem to be in any immediate physical danger.

Roslyn…Caitlin didn’t want to think about that, because they had cut her. Did her absence from last night’s vision indicate that she was already dead?

No. That couldn’t be true. Caitlin wouldn’t let it be true. The only reason she hadn’t seen her cousin in the vision was that she’d been off in another room somewhere, probably with Jorge and Tomas. Then again, that wasn’t a very encouraging thought, either.

She pushed away the remnants of her scone, appetite gone, and Alex asked, “All finished?”

“I think so.”

He dug in his wallet and dropped a couple of ones on the table for the tip. “Then let’s go. Maybe some more fresh air will clear both our heads.”



* * *



Alex decided to take Caitlin out of Tucson proper and over the hill to the Old Tucson Studios park, partly because it was a nice drive, and partly because they needed something to fill up the time while waiting for her next vision to show itself. She gazed, wide-eyed, out the car windows, staring at the saguaro cacti that marched up and down the hillsides, standing there like silent sentinels.

“They’re kind of creepy, don’t you think?” she asked at last.

“The saguaros?”

“Yes…like they’d shift their positions the second you turned their back on them or something.”

Well, that was a nice friendly image. He really hadn’t thought about the cacti one way or another, even though he’d grown up with them all around him. His father grumbled about the saguaro, just because they were protected plants, and you couldn’t cut them down or dig them up, even if one did happen to be in the way of your current landscaping project.

“That’s quite an imagination you have,” Alex remarked, slowing down as they began to wind their way up and over the crest of the hill, down into the valley where the studios were located.

She didn’t smile, though, but only shrugged and said, “I suppose so.”

Now, what was that about?

But the small frown that had been tugging at her pretty arched brows faded as she gazed out at the vista ahead of them. “Wow, it’s….” She broke off, stared out the windshield, then said, “It’s so beautiful. I guess I hadn’t expected it to be like this.”

“Because the southern part of the state is supposed to be hot and dry and dusty?”

“Yeah, something like that.”

Well, at least she was honest. “You’re coming at a good time of year. It was a nice rainy winter, so things are pretty green. But I’m glad you like it.”

“What’s it called?”

“The Santa Cruz Valley. We’re not going too far into it, though, just to the studios.”

“I still can’t believe there’s a movie studio out here.”

Alex said, “Why, because we’re not in Hollywood?”

“Something like that.” Then she did smile, just a little. “But we have a recording studio in Jerome, so I suppose it all evens out.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. It’s on the lower level of the old high school. The other floors are rented out for artist studios now.”

That sounded very cool. When he’d gone to meet Angela, to see if he was “the one,” he’d driven straight in to Jerome and met her, shared that one ritual kiss, then basically turned around and headed for home. At the time he’d been fighting his disappointment and really didn’t want to stop and look at any more of the town.

Now, though…now he didn’t feel quite so disappointed.

“I’d like to see that,” he told Caitlin, and her expression brightened even more.