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Time dragged,but I was grateful I’d wandered to a quiet place, one with no nightlife. The rare car drove by along the street, but the trees and the foliage defended me from the headlights. Every rare now and again, birds called to each other, and some animal or another rustled through the bushes. To my relief, they left me alone. It’d been so long since I’d attempted to use my magic offensively I doubted I’d have the control needed to deal with a mouse let alone a person.

Long after the temperature dropped to frigid and I questioned my idiotic decision to hide in bushes rather than seek out somewhere warm, a car turned on the street heading in the general direction of the library. It stopped, its taillights casting a red glow on the sidewalk, and after a few moments, everything fell dark and a door closed. A second door opened and closed, although I couldn’t tell if the vehicle had multiple people in it or the driver had gotten something out of the backseat.

A backseat would make a comfortable enough place to nap. As it was, I would struggle to extract myself from my rock-infested hiding place. When I did get up, I expected to hurt from head to toe, to go along with my serious case of hungry.

With the help of one of the palms, which jabbed into my hands, I staggered to my feet. My right foot lodged various complaints, but the pain remained on the ‘sore from use’ spectrum rather than ‘broken and possibly scheduled for amputation’ side of things. As such, I ignored its whining, hid behind one of the larger trees nearby, and peeked around the trunk to see who had come calling to the small area in the dead of night.

A few minutes went by before two silhouettes came down the street from the direction of the library, and as they drew closer I recognized Bradley and his father. That he’d brought his father along relieved me.

Bradley’s father could handle most anything—including pursuing older clues in case they came upon a dead end rather than a live me. They talked in hushed tones and headed for the beach’s parking lot, which wasn’t all that far from my hiding spot.

Bradley’s father tensed, and he eased his stride. Then, he said in a tone loud enough for me to hear, “You check the beach, and I’ll check up here.”

Rather than reply, Bradley waved and hurried on his mission to check out the beach.

Bradley’s father waited for his son to disappear from view down the slight hill leading down to the ocean before turning in my direction, crossing his arms, and without a doubt, raising a brow. “Are you just skittish, or you got a reason to be hiding back there?”

“Can it be both?” I replied, and I grimaced at the hoarseness of my voice.

“Sure.” He headed over, and he pulled a small water bottle out of his pocket, which he held out.

The lure of having something to drink drew me out of hiding, and I grabbed it, muttered a thanks, and guzzled it down. “Mostly, that spot is just a bunch of rocks, and after sitting on a bunch of rocks, I wasn’t in a hurry to fall on my face.”

“That’s a good and fair enough reason. We’ve got your cane in the car, but you look stable enough.” Bradley’s father stared at my shoes. “You’re not wearing a boot.”

I leaned against the tree, ignored the scrape of the bark, and wiggled off my sneaker to show him my sandy foot and its myriad of scars. “I spent most of the last however many months sedated, I think, with a few respites here and there. But when I finally really woke up, I got a working foot as compensation.”

“And that explains why you didn’t find a way to come home sooner. You couldn’t, not when sedated and under the knife.” Bradley’s father took hold of my ankle and brushed the sand off, poking, prodding, and rubbing at my foot. “Minimal swelling, and everything feels like it’s in place. I feel a few screws, probably a pin or two replacing some missing bone, but that’s much closer to what your foot should feel like.” Once satisfied I had a foot, he put my shoe back on.

“When did you take over my doctor’s job?”

“We all went in for schooling to keep busy while looking for you. As I told my boy I’d drag you back kicking and screaming if needed, you’re getting tossed over my shoulder and delivered.”

I took off my glasses and handed them over. “I’m ready for basic humiliation as long as it means you’ll feed me.”

He took my glasses so I wouldn’t break them. “Honestly, I’m preventing him from grabbing you, swinging you around until you get sick on him, and otherwise making a damned fool of himself.”

“I could hide behind you. That would also prevent the grabbing and being swung around.” Being grabbed and swung around sounded so much better than the various rejections I’d conjured during the wait. “Did he do anything horribly embarrassing when I emailed him?”

“He has a notice set up for your email address, so when your email arrived, his phone told him. Within ten minutes, he’d booked us a flight, then he showed up at my house, dragged me out by my ear, shoved me in my own damned car, and shoved his phone at me to go over your email while he took us to the airport. He didn’t want to leave his car at the airport.”

Bradley never failed to amaze me. “How did his mother handle your kidnapping?”

“He said I would be returned in a day or two, so she’s fine with it. We’ve gotten used to him dragging one of us off if he has found a lead on you. We made him promise he would take one of us with him. He’s trying not to drag Ren all over the planet.”

“Ren thinks I ran away on purpose?” I guessed, bracing for the beginning of my living nightmare.

“No. Why would you think that?”

I pointed at myself. “I’ve done it before?” I frowned and regarded the older man, trying to figure out how my expectations, which involved everyone being angry at me, hadn’t manifested.

“No, you were shot and kidnapped. That is not a foundation for someone to run away. It was clear you’d been shot, and then you were dragged off by someone in a gas mask after they bombed the area. Most have accepted you’d probably gotten killed after you’d been taken, but I’d raised Bradley to be stubborn from his first breath, and he was never the quitting kind. Your parents are quietly holding onto hope for the same reason. The rest are realists and are trying to come up with ways to help Bradley get over your loss.”

“Was that before or after they had a rage-fueled fit over meeting with a senator about a library donation?”

“There was no rage-fueled fit. You met with a donor about a donation, and as there was evidence of the donation going through at the time of the meeting, with an additional donation being made shortly after, it’s generally been accepted you were doing your job for the library. Investigators confirmed Senator Westonhaus had inquired to make a donation for your library, so while everyone was on edge about who you were meeting with, no one could fault you for doing your job. We all underestimated your relentless drive to help people, however.”

“I don’t remember anything about it,” I warned him. “Honestly, I hadn’t even realized I’d been shot until I checked the news in the library. The scar isn’t in a place I usually look.”

“You took a pretty hard knock to the head after you’d gotten hit in the arm. You’d shoved the senator out of the way and took the round, so we think you may have spotted the shooter somehow. You hit him as hard as you could on a lame foot, got shot, and went down in a heap.”

“What did I hit my head against?”

“Asphalt.”

I grimaced. “That sounds like a good reason to have no memory of the incident.”

“You do not have a good track record when it comes to hitting your head against things.” Bradley’s father sighed. “We have your purse, your tablet, and your laptop. Your things had been left on the street or in the senator’s vehicle, and they were given to us shortly after the police audited the scene. It was determined you were only taken due to your interference with the murder attempt. The kidnapping seemed to be fairly haphazard, as it was fairly easy for Senator Westonhaus to be recovered. According to the senator, he was taken to a different vehicle, and he wasn’t sure if you’d survived. There was a great deal of blood, so he was under the impression you’d been shot in the head rather than the arm, thus leading police to abandon the search for you, instead looking for a corpse rather than a living woman.”

I pointed in the general direction of the house I’d been held in. “I was held over there somewhere in a nice family home. Three stories. They used a lot of illusions on where I was held. I was cuffed, but they had some form of guilty conscience, so the cuff was padded.”

“Removed the padding and slipped out of the cuff?”

I nodded.

“Good girl. All right. If you’re going to hide behind me, do so. Lean on me if you want. Get the weight off your foot before I have a heart attack.”

I obeyed, sighing in relief at his warmth, and resting my cheek against his back. “My foot’s fine. As fine as it gets. I walked on it all day, and honestly, I feel like I could walk on it more.”

“You’re frozen through is what you are, so you’re probably hurting without realizing it. You don’t have a scrap of fat left on that body of yours. Bradley grabbed something at one of the airport convenience stores for you, but it’s not Chinese. We figured you’d eat just about anything until we could get you in range of a Chinese restaurant. And since it was the first time anyone had used your email address, we figured you’d probably sent the email, especially as you’d done so through a library, or so your email claimed. I’m thinking it was you who’d sent that email.”

“I”d say the odds are slim someone else used my email.” I yawned, and as my pride had already taken a hike, I made myself comfortable against his back. “I shouldn’t be this tired.”

“It’s four in the morning, you’re freezing your ass off, and you don’t have a scrap of fat on your bones right now. It’d be stranger if you weren’t tired, Janette.” Bradley’s father whistled, a sharp, shrill sound that cut over the nearby surf washing over the sand. “And if you fall asleep, don’t worry about a thing. Nobody is going to think less of you for being tired. We have a hotel booked in San Francisco, and we took it for two nights in the hopes we’d have to give you a chance to relax before taking you home to more chaos.”

I peeked around his back to spot Bradley scrambling up the incline. “What is it, Dad?”

“Come fetch your woman before she falls asleep where she’s standing. She dragged herself out of some bushes after you went down to the beach. Her voice is hoarse, she’s freezing her ass off, and she’s exhausted, but she looks intact enough. And before you start your fretting, her foot is fine, but you can’t grab her and swing her around right now. You can very gingerly carry her to the car and get her warmed up in the back. I’ll drive while you fret. Janette, do at least try to maintain a basic relationship with coherency until we reach the hotel.”

“I can do that.” I hoped.

While Bradley didn’t run, he hurried to join us, sidestepped his father, and looked me over, his gaze settling on my face. He frowned and pressed the back of his hand to my forehead. “You’re paler than a ghost and freezing.”

“I’m pretty sure I already said she was cold. Go get her to the car,” Bradley’s father ordered. “She’ll warm up soon enough. Just make sure she’s buckled in before feeding her. While you do that, I’ll look to see if there’s anywhere that’s open to get her something else to eat.”

“Would you prefer to walk? Is your foot all right?” Bradley brushed my hair out of my face and tucked it behind my ears. “You have sand all in your hair. Did you have a good time at the beach while you were waiting?”

I shoved my hand into my pocket and pulled out my collection of tiny shells and my piece of sea glass, straightened, and showed him my treasures. “We should go to the beach every year at least once.”

“I think we can handle that,” he replied, and he smiled. “How’d they keep you from making your escape sooner?”

“Sleeping prisoners can’t cause much problems, and when I wasn’t sleeping, they provided books. There were also illusions that did a good job of making it hard to get out, but I figured it out. I can walk to the car.”

“Without your cane?”

I nodded, and I pointed at my foot. “It’s sore, but it’s mostly better. I can wear shoes again.”

It hadn’t been long ago when I’d doubted I’d ever manage to escape a cast or a boot.

“Dad?”

“I had a look at it. Somebody installed pins at a minimum, and they did a hell of a lot of reconstruction work. She’ll need to have it scanned to see what was done. I’m more concerned about how they kept her so drugged she had no idea she’d been shot in the first place. She hadn’t noticed the scar until she saw the news reports. Whoever had her wanted her healthy, and while she’s thin, that’s probably because of sedation and lack of exercise. I’m thinking about how to handle the situation, because the last thing she needs is to be swarmed by the media. And you’ll be swarmed, Janette. They caught you saving Senator Westonhaus’s life on camera.”

Bradley worked his arm around me, pulled me away from his father, and pointed in the direction of where they’d parked near to the library. “Walking will help you warm up and keep you awake, and after we get you something to eat and to the hotel, we can talk. We have a lot to fill you in on. As I’ve refused to register you as dead, you’re still in the cell, and we’re still trying to operate, but it’s been hard.”

“You’re not angry?” I whispered.

Shaking his head, Bradley pulled me close to his side, and then he sighed and kissed my temple, a lot like my father did when determined to make me understand everything would be all right. “Not at you. No, I’ve learned if you can save someone, you will, so I have chosen to be proud of you. I’m upset you were shot, and I’ve been worried sick, but I was never mad at you. Your mother is really mad you got shot, but she does still love you even though she’s really mad you were shot and then kidnapped. Your father isn’t talking to me right now because he feels I should have kept you out of trouble. I told him I wasn’t your babysitter, you could go do your job as a librarian without me getting in your way, and it wasn’t your fault your work required you to meet with a politician. Mostly, he’s mad that I supported your decision to do your job without trying to control you. He’ll forgive me eventually.”

“He better forgive you.” It’d been so long since I’d had human contact I pressed as close as I could, shivering at the thought of being alone again. “Is Ajani all right?”

“Ajani is fine, although she keeps looking for you, and it’s heartbreaking. I’m looking forward to taking you home to your fluffy goddess. I got us an apartment near to where you work.”

“Don’t you mean where I used to work? People are usually fired after not showing up for a few months, and the public library doesn’t have the funding to keep people who are missing on the payroll.”

Bradley shook his head. “The public library system went to bat for you; the branch, with the expansion and renovation, will need extra bodies, so they’re leaving your employment spot open for a period of two years to give investigators a chance to find more leads. Two years was the best they could swing, but you still have your job. Senator Westonhaus insisted on donating extra to cover your wages until you were found or the two years ended. He claims it was only fair, as you’d saved his life. He also handled making sure your apartment’s lease was broken without penalty. I handled moving your stuff out to our new place. I figured you would get upset with me if I paid rent on a place you weren’t living in. I would have involved you with every step of the process, but for obvious reasons, I couldn’t.”

I struggled to comprehend I could step back into my life after so long locked away. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

Bradley tugged me in the direction of the vehicle. “Let’s get you back to the hotel. Then you can decide how to handle things. We’ve been seeing therapists and specialists on this sort of thing in case we found you. It can be an adjustment going back to life, depending on how your captors treated you.”

“I’ve been alone the entire time. I never saw anyone. I was always by myself, and whenever they wanted to come in to where I was kept, they sedated me with some form of gas, I think. I vaguely remember my foot becoming really infected, but they treated it with pills; they would drug me, bring food, and each meal would have the pills I needed to take. I took them, because I knew my foot was infected.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Bradley replied. “Obviously, if they wanted to have killed you, they would have, and deciding to take unknown pills when you have no other viable choice is sensible. You did the right thing, since you have a working foot and you seem okay enough.” To make it clear he wanted me at the hotel yesterday, he herded me to the car, keeping a close eye on my stride to make sure I didn’t limp, trip, or fall. “I don’t know what they did to your foot, but you’re walking a lot better now.”

As he took me where I wanted to go, I forced my sore, tired feet into motion and walked under my own steam, although I kept close. I recognized I wouldn’t have done the same before having been locked away for a maddening period of time, but I decided to ignore what I refused to change until I had no choice but to face the problem. “They fixed it, and I don’t understand why.”

“I don’t, either,” he admitted. He eased his arm away from me long enough to unlock the rental car and open the back door for me.

The vehicle was still warm from the drive to the beach, and I snuggled into the seat before putting on my belt. Bradley closed my door and circled the vehicle. He snagged a plastic bag from the front before joining me. “I got you a roast beef sandwich since that was the closest thing I could find to one of your favorites. There are also a few drinks in there. The roast beef is heavily accompanied by cheese and horseradish.”

He had me at roast beef, and I grabbed for the bag before digging inside, snagging a rather large sub, which had been tampered with. I wouldn’t ask where he got the jar of horseradish, but I appreciated it. He’d gotten me a variety of fruit juices, and I opted for the cranberry to become my first victim. I delayed eating long enough to slather on the horseradish before beginning the serious work of devouring my breakfast in record time.

Bradley’s father got behind the wheel and laughed. “All right, Bradley. You were right. The horseradish was a necessary acquisition.”

“I’m just glad you picked a grocery masquerading as a twenty-four hour gas station. I almost regretted having gotten the sandwich in the airport. Don’t choke, Janette.” Bradley took the cranberry juice I’d selected, twisted off the cap, and closed it again, holding onto it. “I guess watch where you drive, Dad. And if you spot another one of those stores, we better stop. I don’t think that’s going to be enough.”

I expected to get halfway through the sandwich before it won and I passed out, but I would do my best to meet his expectations. Swallowing, I reached for the juice, and he removed the cap so all I had to do was drink and hand it back to him, so I could resume eating. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. So that you’re prepared, your parents are the unhappiest of our circles. Mickey and Beatrice have been fighting because Mickey thinks a lot like I do. Neither one of us were willing to give up on you, so we’ve been doing the majority of the work. Beatrice thinks you’re stubborn, but she’s determined to be realistic about the situation. Mr. Tawnlen has led the charge regarding therapy, but he’s more like me and Mickey; he wanted us all prepared for when you showed back up, but he’s also been trying to prepare us if your body showed up. Your dead body, that is. I don’t think he’s prepared us enough for your living body. I’m not feeling very prepared,” he admitted, fiddling with the cap before screwing it back into place. “I thought about running away to Hawaii.”

“Hawaii?”

“Hawaii.”

“Why Hawaii?”

“Well, if we’re on an island, preferably one with few other people, I’m not going to lose you.”

I could see benefits to escaping to an island with few other people, although the idea of an uninhabited island was enough to make my skin crawl. I glanced at Bradley, who couldn’t seem to stop smiling. “Mr. Hampton? I think he needs therapy,” I said, before giving my sandwich my full attention.

“Oh, I know he needs therapy. That’s why we have been keeping a close eye on him. After you see a doctor, if you want to go to Hawaii for two weeks, I’ll tag along and get a tan while you amuse yourselves. Two weeks might be long enough to give sufficient warning for the grouches back in New York.”

That didn’t sound promising. “Was it meeting with Senator Westonhaus about the donation? I mean, I didn’t tell anyone because people were already pissed at me about the funeral.”

“That’s part of it.” Bradley’s father started the car. “Two weeks might get you ready to meet with everyone and clear out the air.”

In a way, understanding there were problems we would need to solve helped more than it hurt. I expected problems. Someone couldn’t vanish for so many months without problems cropping up, assumptions being made, and tempers flaring. That my disappearance was tied to a senator actively working on a bill meant to enslave many Americans wouldn’t help my cause any. But I might be able to overcome those challenges with some time, effort, and a few heart-felt apologies. “I’m not apologizing for helping to catch the goats.”

Everything else would be addressed in time.

Bradley snorted, and then he laughed. “There was a video of you wrangling a goat, and you looked so happy to be playing with a goat. As such, we now have several goats that currently live with your parents. It was a bit of a failed peace offering. I suggested if word got out they had goats, and you heard about the goats, you might show up. They were offended, but they’re now the grandparents of our new pets. The goats are part of why they’re not talking to me right now. Apparently, they expected you to magically appear about ten minutes after agreeing to house the goats for a while.”

“You bought goats?”

“I bought us goats. I bought an entire little herd of goats. We have three girls and a boy. And we’re apparently going to end up with baby goats, and I should be sorry about this, but I’m really not.”

“You really bought goats?”

“Ajani likes the goats. She rides them. I harness trained your fluffy goddess, and she tolerates it because when I harness her, we go to visit the goats. Your parents are actually really tired of me coming over to play with your cat and the goats.”

Bradley, in the span of almost nine months, had lost his mind. I could understand how the stress might get to him, but to buy goats? “Mr. Hampton?”

“I encouraged the goats. You were really happy in the video, and we thought if we found you, you’d like to have goats.”

I regretted my memories of the goats—and the subsequent shooting—were fragmented at best. “You should question me properly about everything leading up to the goats,” I stated between bites of my sandwich. “Maybe I know something useful.”

Bradley chuckled. “We plan to do that after you’ve gotten rest. Right now, you’ll eat, rest, and relax. I’ll get Dr. Mansfield flown in as soon as she’s able, and I’ll reach out to a few contacts here to use their equipment and some staff, then you can go through a medical exam done by someone you trust. The therapists we’re seeing have been pretty clear about that. We need to work within your comfort zone, and adding a lot of unfamiliar elements, like medical staff, might be a problem.”

“I mean, finding out it’s been almost nine months was a shock, but I don’t think I’m going to be that much of a mess.” I took out some of my annoyance on my sandwich, decided I needed more horseradish, went for the jar with the same general voracity of a frenzied shark, and doctored my sandwich until the horseradish stood a chance of slaughtering my taste buds. “I will not react well if you leave. I have figured that out on my own.”

“People are social, and after nine months of being alone, that doesn’t surprise me,” Bradley replied, staring at the jar of horseradish. “They didn’t feed you anything spicy, did they?”

I thought about it, scowling as I realized I hadn’t had a single speck of spice since I’d been kidnapped. “Not that I can recall. And I think I got so bored before I escaped I kept forgetting to eat. They provided a cooler with things to make sandwiches between sessions of gassing me out, and they’d provide something hot after. I think I ended up only eating the warm food, usually steak, because it was in front of me. They provided books, but at one point, I used them to create castles. I have mastered building arches with books.”

“You stopped reading books?”

“Oh, no. I’d read them once or twice before they joined the pile. They never provided enough books. Honestly, I cost them a fortune in newer releases. I think they were just going to the local bookstore and buying out the stock of anything even remotely interesting and keeping track of what they’d already gotten. Honestly, I want to go rob the place just for the library. Because the room I was kept in? It’s now a library. A good library, too.” I polished off the rest of my sandwich and sighed my contentment before stealing my juice back from Bradley. “For the first while, it was like a really good vacation. I had access to a decent tub, they kept it stocked with stuff to make bubbles, and they decided good behavior should be rewarded with cake and coffee. That part? Honestly, I didn’t mind it. It was just damned lonely.”

“Bradley, your job is to keep her company until she explicitly asks you to give her space. Librarians are social creatures, even when they’re introverted, and I’ve found all of the librarians in my life are hardwired to need to be doing things with people or they slowly go mad.”

“Most humans slowly go mad in seclusion, Dad. That has nothing to do with her status as a librarian. It has everything to do with people needing to interact with other people to maintain their base mental and emotional health. Which is why I’m stuck with you or Mom if I even make it look like I’m about to go anywhere other than the store or to handle work affairs. And I only get away with handling work affairs because Ren keeps following me around.”

“Ren follows you around because it’s his job to follow you around, although he does appreciate doing his regular job more lately, though he has expressed concerns you are attempting to take over the entire stock market by force.”

“I don’t have nearly enough money to do that, Dad.”

“Not from a lack of effort.”

“Well, if you hadn’t mandated I drag you everywhere I go when Ren wasn’t around, I wouldn’t have had the time to try to take over the stock market by force.”

Obviously, something had happened during my forced extended stay at an unconventional hotel. “Mr. Hampton, why did you mandate he have a babysitter at all times?”

“One of the psychologists determined he was at a high risk of anxiety and depression due to your kidnapping, and they—all three who came to the same conclusion—did not want him to be alone in case it was determined you had died. Honestly, I think you’re going to emerge from this better off than everybody else. A fear of being alone is much easier for us to work around than the various triggers we’ve developed in the past few months. And no feeling guilty, unless you invited yourself to be kidnapped.”

“I would not do that.” I hesitated, finished off my juice, and put the bottle in the bag before grabbing my next victim. “And I only left the first time because the one doctor gave me a bad feeling and Bradley had said he didn’t want to see me unless I was back in my prime. And I was working on that.”

“I’m not mad at you for that,” Bradley stated. “I poorly worded that, and I hold full responsibility for having goaded you into running off until you were better. Really, I’m the reason I have my current set of problems, although you’re going to have to tell me if you don’t want me around all the time. Our hotel room has two queen beds, but I’ll share with Dad if you don’t want somebody that close.”

“I am not responsible if I get up and crawl into bed with you,” I replied with a shrug. “I’m also not responsible if I end up on the floor. They just made me a nest of blankets and pillows, so it’s been a while since I’ve actually been in a bed.”

Bradley muttered curses. “I’m not sure I should be involved with investigating whoever did this to her, Dad. If I get my hands on them, I’ll be going to prison.”

Me, too. Instead of saying that, I kept quiet, my guilt keeping me close company. The first time I’d disappeared, I could at least pretend I had good reason, and Bradley’s acknowledgment he’d goaded me and contributed to my flight helped me cope with it.

This time, I hadn’t been at fault for my disappearance, but I’d become aware of the deep consequences of having been missing and presumed dead. I supposed my inability to claim responsibility made it harder for me to accept.

Had I been given a choice, I wouldn’t have left my family, friends, or my fluffy goddess.

I’d grown to treasure them all.

Chuckling, Mr. Hampton navigated through the small town before merging onto a highway headed south. He let us stew for a few minutes before saying, “There are reasons they bar anyone involved from working in investigations. It clouds the water and makes it harder to get an unbiased view of the truth. If we’re going to investigate what happened, we’ll have to either exclude the portion where Janette’s involved, or we’re going to have to learn how to truly be unbiased rather than determined to make the pieces fit when they don’t. It’s a problem. We’re also going to have to evaluate just how serious we are about getting to the bottom of this.”

“We need to,” I stated. “And I’ll do it alone if I must.”

“Well, someone is determined.” My future father-in-law made a thoughtful sound in his throat. “Beatrice won’t be stopped, either, so we have two librarians itching to figure out why this is going on and how to stop it—if we can. My wife’s determined, although her focus is on the bill more than the politicians backing the bill. Three librarians all pointed at the same problem is a force to fear. The others should come around given some time and a good argument. Honestly, once they find out you were locked up for almost nine months? I expect the little things they were grousing over won’t seem at all important now. Most of them have already come to the conclusion you did the right thing attending the memorial service. It’s a game of consequence, and there are no winners in that sort of fight. It’ll work out. We really just all need to sit down, talk about it, and make sure we’re on the same page. I’ll help with that, and so will that brat of mine in the back with you.”

Hoping I wasn’t about to make a critical mistake, I said, “Senator Westonhaus told me that he got his marching orders from the top. He was told he would support the bill, and that was that. The others did, too. And that it isn’t uncommon for politicians to quietly disappear if they don’t do what the uppers want. I’m not sure if I should believe him or not. But then he decided to run for President?”

At the rate Bradley cursed, I worried he’d lose his temper altogether. “President Castillo is backing Westonhaus’s campaign, so there might be something to it. No, there’s been talk for years that the government is just one big sham, and that a few people at the top run the entire show. President Castillo being one of those show runners. Of the supporters of the bill, Westonhaus is more moderate, especially now. Moderate politicians can win presidential campaigns, as they’re more likely to draw in votes from both sides of the fence. No, it’s been something I’ve suspected for a while. But why this specific overhaul? That’s what we don’t understand.”

I fell quiet, spending the rest of the drive to the hotel contemplating what I’d been told—and if it made any difference at all in the grand scheme of things. What could a few vigilante librarians do, no matter what sort of magic we packed? Magic wouldn’t help us if the law turned against us even more than it already had.

Few would be safe under the new legislation, and while Senator Westonhaus had talked a good talk, I recognized his pretty speech sounded too good to be true, from what I could remember of it.

I also recognized it had been months without being able to write down what he’d told me, which meant my memory might be flawed.

“I don’t like being a pawn in a political game,” I muttered.

“I don’t, either. I got my fair share of time in the limelight, and I still have politicians on both sides of the fence trying to get me to make statements supporting their campaign or answer questions about you. I dodge most of it, so I’ve gotten a reputation of being overly sensitive, as I refused to acknowledge you were likely dead. After six months, they tack on the presumed dead because the odds of finding the victim alive are slim. We were shown the statistics. I just like telling people you’re very bad at being a statistic and live to buck statistics.” Bradley paused, and he heaved a sigh. “You’re going to say it, aren’t you, Dad?”

“I will if you won’t. It’ll probably be less embarrassing for you if I say it, mainly because you’ll splutter. It’s dark enough she won’t catch you blushing, at least.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Bradley grumbled.

I had missed far more than I liked, and if Bradley thought I would ignore an amusing story involving him, he would soon learn otherwise. “Well, now I need to know, Mr. Hampton.”

“He will appreciate when he can take you home and he won’t have to fend off eager bachelorettes determined to heal him from your loss. Using their bodies. Once, a set of triplets showed up at the house wearing rather skimpy bikinis. Bradley had graced us with his presence because he couldn’t go anywhere in the city without someone showing up and bothering him, so he’d decided to bring his problems to my house.”

Unable to help myself, I burst into laughter. “Bradley! You didn’t. Where did you find a set of triplets in bikinis?”

“The library,” he groused.

While all sorts showed up at the library, I’d never met a set of triplets in bikinis at work. “Why were they in bikinis at the library?”

“They wore skirts at the library. They were half an inch from showing off their panties if they leaned forward,” he complained.

I stared at him, blinking. “Were they pretty triplets?”

“No.”

Mr. Hampton snickered. “They were pretty, but they aren’t his type. You’re his type, and he was not at all interested in having a set of triplets cure him of his loneliness.”

Bradley bowed his head. “Yet you and Mom invited them in.”

“Well, they’d come a long way from home just for a chance to heal you. It seemed rude to leave them on the doorstep, and they were already dressed to use the pool.”

“He ran and hid in his room, didn’t he?” I guessed.

“No. He ran and hid in your room with your cat. We couldn’t get him to come out for several days. He would just say the triplets would get him. I thought we were going to have to drag him out from under your bed at one point.”

“Were the triplets too much for you?” I grinned at Bradley. “Do you need me to buy a bikini to make up for it?”

“Yes. Yes, I definitely need you to buy a bikini to make up for being hounded by scantily clad triplets. While our apartment doesn’t have a pool, I happen to have a pair of parents who have a pool and probably wouldn’t mind me bringing you home to them.”

“I certainly wouldn’t have flown across the country if I minded you bringing her home, Bradley. Don’t mind him, Janette. Onto the serious question. Are you ready to try to talk to your parents? They’ve been pretty upset lately.”

“Can I push it off until after I’ve had some sleep?” I whispered.

“Absolutely. We’ll be at the hotel in ten minutes, and as soon as you’re settled, I’ll call them and let them know you rescued yourself and got a hold of Bradley to handle what you couldn’t. That should leave your pride intact.”

“Thank you.”

After some sleep, I would begin putting the scattered pieces of my life together, beginning with my parents.