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Thanks to Kaye and Barb taking the kids for the afternoon, Ten and River sat at a table in Lobster Charlie’s feasting on chowder and hot buttered lobster rolls. River looked like he’d died and gone to heaven.

“Okay, little brother, spill it,”

River said between bites. “I know you had that dream again last night.”

“How did you know?”

Ten asked, wondering if River had a touch of his gift.

“You have this haunted look in your eyes and you’ve been a bit jumpy today. With Everly especially.”

River took a sip from his soda and seemed to be studying Tennyson.

“I hate this.”

Ten sighed. “Every time I see you, something is going spectacularly wrong. All I wanted was a peaceful and fun week to spend with you, Barb, and the kids.”

“You don’t have to worry about the kids. They’re thick as thieves together. It wouldn’t matter where we took them, they’d have a great time. Same goes for Barb and Kaye, who’ve become best friends. They’re comparing recipes and are going to treat us all to homemade dinner tonight. Who saw that coming?”

River laughed. “I suppose you did.”

“Actually, I didn’t.”

Ten remembered back to their first trip to Florida when River had been arrested for murder. “I was so caught up in trying to help you and being volcanically mad at our father for keeping you a secret, that I didn’t look too far into the future. Mom and I were both hurting and all I wanted was for her to smile again. Thank goodness for Everly being able to reach Dad and getting him to talk to us. Mom has come so far since our father died. I wasn’t totally sure how she’d react to finding out I had an older brother, but I did know that she wouldn’t take David’s duplicity out on you.”

“Kaye’s been like a second mother to me for these last few months. I love how she volunteered to stay with us for a few weeks after the Christmas break when my paternity leave was over. She was invaluable to Deb, Brooke, and Delta. To be honest, I didn’t want to send her back to you.”

Ten laughed. “I got that same impression from Mom as well. She loves the sunshine and warm days in Florida. It might not take much to get her to agree to spend a few months a year down there with your family.”

“I could never take her away from you. Your kids depend on her so much.”

“Ezra and Lizbet with be in school full time in a few years, which would free Kaye up to fly south for the winter. If she decides she wants to go before then, we’ll just have to enroll them in preschool.”

Ten loved the idea of Kaye getting to be a snowbird. If he could get away with it, Ten would do it too. He was sick of New England winters that lasted from November until May.

“I’ll take that under advisement.”

River pushed aside his plate and leveled Ten with a serious look. “You never answered my question about your dream. I’ll give you points for the way you were able to artfully turn the conversation away from you, though.”

The one thing he’d learned about River over the last year of their relationship was that he couldn’t get anything past his older brother. “I had the dream again last night, but I didn’t want to worry you with what I saw. You’re on vacation and deserve to relax.”

River raised an eyebrow. “I’m your brother. Do you actually think I can relax when something this big is upsetting you? And before you ask how I know it’s big, I know you. It’s written all over your body language. All that’s left now is for you to tell me what you saw, then we can make a plan of action.”

“It’s dangerous, River. I would never forgive myself if something happened to you.”

Dangerous was an understatement.

“You let Everly work on some of these cases. Why not me? I mean, yeah, my niece is cute, but I can drive.”

Ten snorted and started to laugh. “You got me there.”

He took a deep breath. “Okay, here goes. In the dream I heard shouting and then a gunshot. Two people were screaming. I tried to run toward the sound of the voices, but they kept moving further away. When I was finally able to break free from whatever was holding me back. I saw a body lying on the ground in a pool of blood. Celestina was hovering over it. She was one of the people screaming. I couldn’t get a good look at the body. When I tried to move closer, the picture got blurry. I realized Everly was nowhere to be found. She was the other person screaming in the dream. That was when Ronan shook me awake. He said I was shouting our daughter’s name.

“Wow,”

River said, shaking his head. “I don’t even know where to start with that.”

“There’s one more thing.”

Ten tried to picture the body in mind. All he needed was one small clue. Ronan’s platinum wedding band, the ridiculous strawberry charm Everly put on his left sneaker. Something, anything to help Ten identify that it was Ronan.

“Okay, now you’re scaring me.”

River reached out and took Ten’s left hand.

Ten was scaring himself as well. “I think the body is Ronan.”

“What?!”

River’s mouth hung open, making him look like a fish out of water. “You just said the person lying on the ground was too blurry to see clearly. What makes you think it’s Ronan?”

“Intuition and the fact that Everly was screaming. All I could think was that’s the way she’d respond if something happened to her father. It was this cry of pain like I’ve never heard in my life. It must have been for Ronan.”

River frowned and nibbled his bottom lip. He looked as if he were building up to something. “What if Everly’s screaming because she’s been kidnapped or hurt?”

Ten’s eyes widened. With his sights set firmly on Ronan, he hadn’t bothered to run that scenario. He had to admit that River could be right.

“Have you spoken with her? If anyone can help with your vision it would be Everly. She’s crazy gifted.”

Ten smiled. He loved his brother’s faith in Everly. “There’s one last piece of the puzzle. Everly’s gift isn’t working.”

“I had no idea psychic powers could come and go.”

River wore a concerned look.

“I accidentally locked my gift away before Everly was born. Thankfully a friend was able to teach me how to get it back. Now, I can turn it on and off at will. I taught Everly how to do it too.”

“Do you think that’s what she’s done here? Everly somehow managed to lock her gift away?”

“I thought so until just now.”

Ten took a deep breath. He could feel the pieces fitting together in his mind. “Everly couldn’t read me or tell me anything about my dream. That’s why she thought her gift was broken. But, when we were at the circus rehearsal yesterday, she knew who Celestina was without being told her name. There were a few other things she said in the last twenty-four hours that told me her gift was working just fine.”

“It’s just not working in relation to your dream.”

Ten nodded. “I think so.”

“What would cause that kind of thing?”

River looked exhilarated, as if he were enjoying helping Ten solve the mystery.

“Well, I can tell you that my gift doesn’t work so well on myself. When I tried to see my own future, things go foggy. Sometimes I can see a detail here or there, but nothing of consequence. Maybe Everly’s going through the same thing, but with me instead of herself.”

River shook his head. Fear flared in his eyes. “When you were telling me about the dream, you described the body lying on the ground as being foggy. The closer you tried to get to it, the less you could see. What if the body isn’t Ronan?”

“It’s me.”

Ten felt his heart pound in his chest. He tried to take a few deep breaths to slow the beat down, but it wasn’t working. “I need to call Ronan.”

“Phone’s ringing now.”

River held up one finger and started whispering into the phone. A few seconds later, he set the phone down on the table. “We’re meeting at Jude’s house in fifteen minutes. The kids are all at your house. I didn’t tell Ronan what we’ve been talking about, just that there might be a development in the situation with your nightmare.”

A development was putting it lightly. This was major breaking news. Ten thought back to the way Everly was screaming in his dream. He’d originally thought his daughter was screaming for Ronan, what if she was screaming for him?

The realization hit Ten like a tidal wave. How many times had Ten nearly lost Ronan? He’d been shot half a dozen times alone. He was always trying to figure out what he’d do if the worst happened to Ronan. What if the worst was going to happen to him?

Could Ronan stop it from happening? If so, would that mean Ronan would be the victim instead? Or Everly? Ezra?

Ten felt like his entire world was crashing down on him. His brain spun over how he could possibly save his own life.

What if it was already too late?

What if he was a dead man walking?

What would Ronan do without him?

How could their family survive his loss?

Ten had more questions than answers, but one thing was for certain, with the help of friends and family, he knew they’d find a way through what was to come. Together.