Destiny's Wrath (Destiny Series - Book 3) by Straight, Nancy (manga ereader txt) 📕

“Would you be willing to make an official statement about what you do know?”

I looked at Max, and he shook his head. I couldn’t say no, but saying yes wouldn’t help anything. “I may know someone who may be able to provide you with information. I need to get in touch with her. She knows Samael better than I do.”

“What’s her name?”

I hesitated for a second and saw Maggie’s eyes pleading with me. “Renny. Her name is Renny. I’ll contact her and see if she can help.”

“What’s her number?”

“I think I should call her first before I give you her information.” It occurred to me I’d never called her on the phone before. I knew Max had her number programmed into his cell, but I couldn’t be sure she hadn’t been listening in on our little visit, and I didn’t want her angry with me over this.

“Let me see if I have this right: You think Jimmy was somehow influenced by this Samael guy. You don’t know anything about him, other than his first name. You know someone who knows Samael better than you, but you won’t give me a means to contact her. Little lady, you are dangerously close to impeding a police investigation.”

Dennis stood up to walk us out to the truck. As we crossed the door’s threshold, just out of Maggie’s hearing, “I don’t know what you two planned to accomplish today, but if this Samael doesn’t exist, I’m going to find you both. Maggie doesn’t need anyone giving her false hope right now; she’s hanging on by a thread.”

“Oh, he exists all right. My guess is that Jimmy will be too scared to talk about him.”

Dennis handed me his card, “If you see him, or think of anything that’ll help me find him, you better pick up the phone.”

Max and I got into the rental car and made our getaway. We had just cleared the media gauntlet when he murmured, “Well, that went better than I expected.”

“Were you in the same living room as I was?”

The grin that I love erupted, “It could have gone much worse. The cop could have thought we were accomplices. He could have put handcuffs on us for withholding evidence. Maggie could have opened the front door and invited all the news stations in. Yes - that went better than expected.”

“You are so hot when you think you’re going to be arrested.” I leaned over, close to his ear and whispered, “There is no one I’d rather be locked up with.”

There wasn’t much conversation on the way back to our motel. We still didn’t have a game plan on how we could possibly help Jimmy. It’s not like we could send a priest uninvited to a jail. This whole situation didn’t make any sense. The last time we were involved with Samael, he was adamant about not screwing with people’s destinies. It couldn’t possibly have been everyone’s destinies to be slaughtered, especially the children. He should have tried to stop it. Maybe he wasn’t to blame? Maybe this Jimmy really was a psychopath who was going to erupt no matter what.

As I stood inside the motel room contemplating whether we were wrong, I felt Max come up behind me. His lips found my neck and gave me goose bumps. I stood there enjoying the shiver as he wrapped his arms around me, caressing my abdomen. I turned to embrace him and my lips found his. It was amazing that he was still able to bring out the “frisky” in me with almost no effort on his part.

“Lauren, I think we should talk.” Renny’s voice echoed in my mind. I ignored her as her voice echoed a few more times. I was otherwise occupied, so I didn’t respond and I blocked her communication.

A minute or two passed before I heard Max’s voice, frustrated and loud. “For Pete’s sake, Renny, she’s right here.” A short pause from Max and he responded to the silence, “I don’t know, ask her yourself!” More silence, then, “Fine.”

Max rolled his eyes and backed away from me, the frustration in his voice for Renny melted away as he talked to me, “Renny really wants to talk to you. She’s on her way here.”

I knew we didn’t have much of a choice. As much as I needed to recharge with some alone time with Max, the reason we were here was Jimmy. Renny had answers that we wouldn’t be able to get anywhere else.

Not long after, the three of us were sitting around a little dinette table in the motel room. Renny began, “I know you two harbor much guilt about the murders here. I’ve already told you both: you had no hand in them. There is little that could have been done to prevent them. You both need to return home. Your presence is not needed, and your involvement is not desired. I wish you both the best of luck in the future, and I look forward to seeing you under better circumstances.”

Max leaned toward her and began speaking before I could get a thought formed in my head, “I don’t think this was our fault. I think it was yours!”

Renny is telepathic. She looks a little like a younger, lighter-skinned version of Whoopi Goldberg. She wears shoulder length dread-locks, a welcoming smile, and right this second - eyeballs as big as olives. You would think that no one could sneak up and surprise her like that, but Max must have been blocking his thoughts from her because she was completely taken off guard. “My fault? I did not even know who Samael’s host was! You cannot possibly levy the blame on the Council.”

“What you don’t seem to get: when Samael was in me - I was in control. He didn’t have the kind of influence on me that he did on that kid. If you would have let him be, I would have figured out a better solution than letting him