The Hidden Grimoire by Karla Brandenburg (pride and prejudice read TXT) 📕

she? I know you have a hold on her. She calls out to you in her sleep. She asks to visit you. She’s only met you, what, twice?”

“Three times, I think. How long has she been missing?”

Jason tilted his head and sent me a searing gaze. “Don’t play games with me.”

I glanced at the woman beside him, Narcy’s foster sister. “How do you fit into all this?” I asked her.

“Leave Sharon out of this,” Jason said.

“Then why is she here?”

“She was babysitting.”

Well, well, well.

Obviously reading my expression, Jason followed up with, “It’s not her fault.”

“But it’s mine? Tell me, Jason, how am I responsible for your daughter’s disappearance while this woman was babysitting her?”

Sharon remained silent beside him. Was she using Georgia as leverage in her campaign to win Jason over?

And now Georgia was missing.

I closed my eyes and reached out to Georgia telepathically. Where are you, sweetie?

Georgia giggled in response. Mommy.

I opened my eyes and fixed my gaze on Jason. “She’s with her mother.”

“She wasn’t when we left.”

“Well, she is now.”

He stared me down a moment before he reached for his phone. Jason paled when LeAnne confirmed their daughter was with her.

“We looked everywhere for her,” he said when he hung up.

“Evidently not. Tell me. Why did you come here rather than call the police when she went missing?”

“Call it a hunch. How did you know where she’d be?”

We glared at each other in a standoff.

“Come on, Jason. Let’s go,” Sharon said, reaching for his hand.

I cocked an eyebrow at the gesture. Jason pulled away from Sharon. “You go on,” he told her. “I have a few more things to discuss with my cousin.”

Sharon shot me a nervous glance. “I’ll wait in the car.”

Rather than answer Jason’s question, I asked one more of my own. “How did Georgia disappear in the first place?”

“I’m under a lot of pressure to prove myself after the transfer. LeAnne’s on bedrest. Sharon is working on a project with me and offered to watch Georgia while I finish my part.”

Sharon, who was laying groundwork to win Jason over. Deflect. Distract. And when Jason wasn’t paying attention, make her move. I hoped LeAnne and Georgia didn’t wind up in the crosshairs.

“You know I’d be happy to watch her for you,” I said.

“I’ve got it covered. I don’t know what kind of influence you have over my daughter, but it has to stop.”

“Georgia and I share a connection. It’s called family. Some people feel that more deeply than others.”

He shook his head. “You did something to her. She wouldn’t just disappear.”

“Maybe not, but she might hide. You can try to explain away the unusual things she does,” I said, “but you know they started before she met me. I can help, if you’ll let me.”

“Sharon warned me you’d try to take her away from me. Sounds like she was right.”

I grunted. “You’re going to believe a coworker over your own family? Sharon has a different agenda.”

“I know her a lot better than I know you.”

“And does LeAnne know that?”

Which of course pissed him off. I had to wonder how far Sharon had gotten with him. Jason shook a finger at me, clenched his jaw, and stalked away.

Now I was worried. My encounter with Sharon had left me uneasy, and she hadn’t been paying attention while she was watching Georgia. As much as I didn’t want to cause problems between Jason and LeAnne, something had to be done. Jason’s family was at risk from influences other than mine.

I called LeAnne. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m on bedrest. Georgia’s cuddled up beside me and we’re reading,” she said. “All in all, I’m feeling pretty good. Thank you for the flowers, by the way.”

“I’m glad you enjoyed them. Listen, I don’t mean to butt in, but Jason said he’d asked someone to watch Georgia?”

“You mean Sharon? I can’t do much, and he’s stressed about work. I would have asked you, but she was here helping with their project.”

“This is none of my business, but Jason won’t listen to me and I think it’s important. Sharon. She came to me the other day to tell me she’d seen Jason in my shop with Georgia and she wondered how well I knew him. I’m very concerned that Georgia went missing while she was in charge.”

“You know how kids are. I’m sure Georgia was playing hide and seek and Sharon lost track of her. Georgia was chilly when she crawled into bed with me, as if she’d been hiding outside.” LeAnne sighed. “Thank you for your concern, and I’m sorry Jason bothered you, but I’m not worried about Sharon.”

I pressed my lips closed, holding back further arguments. “If you need me for anything, please call me.”

“That means the world to me,” LeAnne replied. “Honestly, I don’t know why Jason thought you’d know where Georgia was. It isn’t as if she would walk ten miles to find you. I’m sorry he troubled you.”

I disconnected, no further along in my mission to prove to Jason I wasn’t someone to be feared or reviled. If anything, the situation might get worse with me pointing out Sharon’s attentions.

Ash jumped to the counter and mewed at me. I reached out to stroke her fur.

“I’d heard stories about your life before Hillendale,” Cassandra said. “He’s your cousin?”

I nodded.

“I tell you what, if I were you, and I had the witchy powers people accused me of having, I’d have turned him into a toad on the spot.”

I laughed. “Seriously?”

“Tell me. Did you turn Jerome Hanson into a rat when you moved out?” The smile on her face indicated she was joking, and her good-natured ribbing shook me out of my irritation.

“My Uncle Jerome was more of a mouse type, but no, he’s still in his original skin. Even if he’s a tad milquetoasty. It’s his wife who ought to be transmogrified.”

“Milquetoasty? Transmogrified?” Cassandra laughed. “And if you could, what would you turn her into?”

Do what you will, but do no harm. I’d made accidental wishes in the past, a practice