72 St. Margaret’s Way Chapter 7
James left work the second the clock hit four. No one was in the living room as he left, so he didn’t need to make any excuses. When he arrived at the wellness fair, he hurried over to Adele’s station. “I’m here,” he said as she turned around.
Had anyone ever been so gorgeous? It was like she set his whole body on fire without having to do a single thing. “You are,” she said as her last customer left.
“What do you need from me,” he asked. “I’ll do anything you want.”
She studied him and he took the opportunity to bask in her attention. “I know you will,” she said, a mischievous smile spreading over her face. “You’d kill everyone in this room if I asked you to.”
Was she asking him to? James would do it, but he wasn’t sure how. “Of course.”
“Good. You didn’t tell anyone about me, right? I’d hate to have to tell you to leave me alone.”
“No!” James exclaimed. “No, I swear I didn’t tell them anything. I promise!”
He’d be nothing without her, she was everything to him. But he was at her mercy and when she smiled again, he almost dropped to his knees.
“Give me your key.”
“My key?”
“The key to your headquarters. On St. Margaret’s Way. Oh, and your house key.”
He took his keyring out of his jacket pocket and slid the headquarters key off of it, struggling slightly with the old metal loops. Then, after a little more difficulty, he took off his house key and dropped them both into Adele’s waiting hand.
“Thank you,” she said.
“Of course.”
He waited hopefully, like maybe she’d have some other task for him. Adele studied him with a slow smile. “So you’d do anything for me,” she said.
“Anything, I swear.”
“Hmm…”
She tapped her finger thoughtfully against her chin and he suppressed a yawn. “You’re not excited to see me?” Adele asked.
“What? No,” James said. “No, no, I’m so happy to see you.”
“But you’re yawning. That doesn’t seem like you’re excited, it seems like you’re bored. Am I boring? Do you not want to be here?”
“Of course not!”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“I’m tired,” he admitted. “I stayed up late thinking about you.”
“Me?” Adele put a hand to her chest, almost theatrically. “That’s so sweet.”
The tinkling little laugh she let out made him dizzy. “If you love me, you won’t sleep,” she said.
“Of course, no.”
“Just stay up and think about me.”
He could do that. It would be simple, especially if he was thinking about her. However long he needed to, he’d do it to make her happy.
She laughed again, the sound sharp, but still beautiful. “Yeah, let’s do that. That’d be funny. Stay up and think about me all night.”
He nodded rapidly. “Yes, absolutely.”
She looked behind him as though she was expecting someone. James turned around too. “There’s nothing here for you,” Adele snapped.
James spun back around, chastened as Adele glared at him. “There is nothing here for your investigation.”
“I wasn’t!” he protested. “I canceled the investigation.”
Her anger melted into relief. “You did?”
“Yeah,” he said quickly. “We’ll figure out where it’s actually coming from and go from there. But if the source isn’t here-”
“Which it isn’t,” Adele said sternly.
“Of course not.”
“And you won’t let anyone come near me.”
If the weird behaviors and hallucinations had nothing to do with the fair, then what could it be? He’d heard about people tampering with water supplies before, could it be that? Or maybe it was connected to some kind of new social media that the younger members of the team might be more familiar with.
“James!”
Adele sounded angry and scared and James was mortified at his lack of attention. “Tell me you won’t let anyone come near me,” she insisted.
“I won’t let anyone come near you,” James assured her. “I promise.”
He was tempted to try to reach out and comfort her, but she stood up straight and glared at him. Something a little mean sparkled in her eyes and James was unsure where this was going. But whatever she did to him, he’d deserve it.
“You would do anything I told you to do,” she said. “You are literally not going to sleep because I said not to. If I told you to kill yourself, I don’t think you’d even hesitate.”
“No,” he said. “Whatever you wanted me to do, I’d do it to make you happy.”
Why did she look almost unsure for a second before she smiled at him? “Good.”
***
James knew his body was trying to go to sleep, but if Adele wanted him awake, then he was awake. And honestly, it wasn’t even that hard. He didn’t need to try to focus his thoughts on her, they kept steering back to her regardless as he lay awake all night. And if he was aching and his head pounded when he started getting ready for work the next morning, then that was the price he paid for her attention. That was fine.
Once he was dressed – though he didn’t bother shaving – he stumbled out of the house and considered his options, trying to keep his thoughts straight. Work was five minutes away, so normally he’d just walk there. But he was going to the wellness fair at lunch to give Adele every penny he had and he wanted to get there as quickly as possible.
As he’d made that plan yesterday, he’d distantly thought about rent. He’d need to figure that out. James wasn’t going to ask Graham to cover for him. That wasn’t Graham’s responsibility. Plus, what if he asked questions? Or guessed about Adele? James didn’t see how he could connect it to her, but he’d have to keep some money out of his next paycheck to cover rent. Hopefully Adele wouldn’t mind.
He’d drive. The additional five minutes it would take to get back here at lunch time were five minutes he wouldn’t have with her.
As he drove to work, he definitely wasn’t falling asleep. Adele told him not to, so of course he wouldn’t. But he jerked awake as his car tire hit a curb with a grinding sound on his way down St. Margaret’s Way. James couldn’t wait to see her, to show her he had pulled all of his money out of the bank and she could have it. Maybe she’d love him then.
James didn’t know if he’d ever be that lucky but it was a little hard to think right now. When had he last eaten? She’d said not to sleep, but nothing about eating. So even if he had no appetite, maybe he should get something at work before his shift started.
As he got there, Madelyn was coming up the stairs from the gym, red-faced and sweating with a towel over her shoulder. “Hey,” she said with a smile.
“Hi.”
He expected her to keep going upstairs, but she stopped on the landing, looking at him. “What?”
“Graham asked me to let you know you sent too much for rent,” she said. “He texted you, but didn’t hear back.”
Right, James vaguely remembered receiving that. “Hang onto it,” he said.
As tempting as it was to take that for Adele too, that would be suspicious, right? And if he’d given two months’ worth of his share, then that covered him through March, temporarily solving that problem.
“Are you alright?” Madelyn asked as he attempted to do the math in his head. “I’m sorry, but you don’t look very good.”
James was too tired to play into the obvious joke that he knew would make her feel better. He smiled though, still trying to be reassuring. This was all a good thing, even if it hurt right now. “Yeah, of course,” he said, running a hand down her arm. “I’m fine. Thanks for letting me know, I was just confused.”
Christ, he was tired. There were lights flickering around him that he was pretty sure were not actually there. But he’d do whatever Adele wanted. There must be a reason for it.
Not only was he caught up in thoughts of her as he moved toward his office, he was also considering the case, now that he was sure there was nothing for them at the wellness fair. Where were these things coming from, if not the wellness fair? Where could they be originating?
Maybe if he really focused, he could solve this by Friday anyway and get them completely off of Adele’s case. Was there a new cult in the region? Or something in the water? He’d considered that yesterday too, it was a possibility. He’d have to remember to stick with filtered water for the time being. And remind the team. They needed to know.
Wait, how could he…what had James been thinking just then?
Fang was laying on the couch as he passed by. James reached out to pet her, but her ears went down flat as she growled at him. “What’s your problem?” he muttered, then kept moving.
About twenty minutes after he got there, he had Amelia start the morning meeting. Though he didn’t quite know why they were even having a meeting today. Right now it was just James, Madelyn, and Amelia on, with Graham and Gabriella coming in later.
Gabriella had sent him her initial report on the time anomaly and he needed to decide how to proceed there. They’d need at least two people to go to the house, plus someone on comms. Even if the Foundation said one person in the field was fine, James didn’t trust that during anything involving time strangeness. So today he’d have to focus just long enough to get that done for Gabriella’s safety.
Amelia took the lead on a brief presentation about a possible demon house in Fitchburg, but James barely heard it. He was thinking about Adele’s hair. It wasn’t blonde exactly, there were strands of red in there as well. What was that? Strawberry blonde? That suited her, very cute.
“James?”
That was the second time someone had called his name. He jerked himself away from his strawberry-colored thoughts to see Amelia frowning at him. “James, are you alright?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he said, hoping his voice sounded normal. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Okay.” She didn’t look convinced. “Me and Graham can either take that one or wrap up Mama’s when he gets here. There’s not much left to do there.”
“Fine.”
Madelyn scooped up Fang as she walked by the computer station where Madelyn was sitting. Again, the cat saw James and growled, ears flat and furious as she trembled in Madelyn’s lap. “Jesus Christ,” Amelia said as Fang hissed at him. “Sweetie, what’s wrong?”
“Maybe she’s sick?” Madelyn suggested with a frown, petting Fang gently. “Did Bradley say anything about her last night?”
“No,” Amelia said as James considered how early he could take a lunch break and go back to the fair without it being suspicious. “He’s off today, but I can text him.”
Fang leapt off of Madelyn’s lap, knocked over her cane, and raced out of the room toward the bedrooms with a terrified yowl. Madelyn watched her go with concern.
“James,” Amelia said. “I wanted to check too. What’s the plan with the wellness fair?”
The wellness fair. Where Adele was. Stabbing Amelia would be fast, but it wouldn’t be painless. But like Bradley, she hadn’t put Adele in danger yet. And James loved Amelia, he didn’t want to hurt her. So he squeezed his fists tightly in his lap and tried to stay calm.
“Oh, yeah,” James said. “That’s a dead end, don’t bother. We need to figure out a different approach.”
Clearly that was not what the others were expecting, because Amelia looked even more concerned. “James,” she said. “What do you mean, it’s a dead end?”
“I mean, it can’t be the cause,” he answered, an edge of impatience in his voice as his heart started hammering, making his head swim slightly. “We investigated it. There’s nothing for us there.”
“We’ve barely begun initial observations,” Amelia said. “What the hell are you talking about?”
Shit, this was bad. He needed to get down there and tell Adele. But he could not let his team go there. For her sake and for theirs. “It’s not worth investigating.”
“Why not?”
Amelia looked far too worried right now. “It’s fine,” he said to her, forcing a smile through his terror, hoping that would ease some of the concern. “Don’t worry. We’ll figure out what’s really going on.”
“The Foundation seems pretty sure it’s food,” Amelia insisted as she walked over to the dining room table and picked up a folder. James’s heart sank. “From the wellness fair. That’s the only connection between all the victims. James-”
“Maybe it isn’t food though,” Madelyn said. “They might just be a little off. What about that bracelet stand you took those pictures from? Or maybe the one you mentioned with the soaps and lotions. Could it be coming from there?”
There was no way she was talking about Adele’s stand. He’d kill her. “Don’t you ever fucking accuse her of anything like that,” James snapped, standing up quickly. Lights sparkled around him for a second, but he pushed them aside as much as he could.
Madelyn’s eyes went wide and she pulled back in her seat. Even as he moved toward her, he felt guilty about it. Madelyn didn’t deserve to be afraid. But she couldn’t talk about shit like this, like she understood anything at all.
“Listen to me, Madelyn,” James said, knowing on some level that he was reaching a point of no return, but too angry to stop. “You talk about Adele like that ever again and I will fucking kill you. I’m serious. It’ll be easy, you can’t get away from me if I decide to do it.”
He raised a fist and two things happened at once. Amelia rushed toward them as Madelyn swung her cane into James’s side, just under his left ribs, with contact that should have hurt. But he barely felt anything as he staggered backward, nearly falling over.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Amelia yelled at James, throwing herself between him and Madelyn, who was standing now too.
“Nothing,” he said, standing up straight and glaring at Madelyn. “Sorry, I know I was harsh. But Adele hasn’t done anything wrong. And we’re not going to taint her by trying to drag her through the mud like that because you’re jealous that she’s saving the world and your life is fucking over.”
In an impulsive, furious move, he swept the nearest computer monitor, the one Amelia had the presentation running on, off the desk. Amelia screamed as it slammed into the floor, pulling the tower down with it and sparking as the screen shattered. Both women looked terrified and, as bad as he felt about hurting them, that was how they needed to be.
“I need to run an errand,” James said, and before anyone could stop him, he was out the door.
