Sidney studied her handsome husband’s face. He seemed to be troubled and she had no clue why. Although she had some guesses. She took his hand and then stepped into his arms, closing them around herself.
“You okay, baby? You seem a little preoccupied tonight.”
After helping Bree prepare food, she had run home to shower and change and wait for Ike to get home. Now they stood around Adam and Bree’s huge kitchen island, along with Emily and her boyfriend, FBI Special Agent Emmett Fox. Bree was putting the cannoli Emily brought for dessert away in the fridge, and they were waiting for the others to arrive.
Isaac’s arms tightened around Sidney’s waist and he pulled her closer.
“I’m all right. Just got a lot on my mind, is all.”
“Is it the firefighter case?”
Ike looked at her, and she could see the decision in his eyes. For a split second, he was going to give her the easy response. The one designed to stop her from worrying. But he couldn’t not tell her the truth, and she loved him for that.
“No. It’s something else. Something I’ll tell you all about once we get home, okay?”
His tone was serious, and Sidney studied his eyes. “Should I be worried? Is this about the thing with Detective Wayne?”
“No, it’s not about Wayne. Although we need to talk about that later too. But this is something else. And no, you shouldn’t be worried.”
Too late.
She already was. But she trusted him above all others so, she touched his face with her fingertips. “I’m not sure I believe you. But I’ll let it drop until later.”
He leaned in and kissed her forehead. “Thank you.”
“Promise me you’ll try to have fun tonight?”
“I promise.”
“Okay.” She wrapped her arms around his middle and he squeezed her tight for a moment.
Adam walked into the kitchen and took Bree by the shoulders. “Did you do it?”
Bree suddenly looked caught off guard, and Sidney wondered, along with everyone else, what their hosts were talking about.
“No. Not yet.” She sounded pained as she stared at her husband. “I tried earlier, but… it just got… weird.”
Bree wasn’t making any sense, and Sidney grew more curious.
“Well it’s now or never, babe,” Adam said to her. “You have to do it before your sister gets here. You know Bronwyn will blab it without a second thought.”
“What are you two talking about?” Emily demanded to know with a sly grin on her face.
Bree turned to face them all and Sidney recognized the smile on her face as a nervous one. It brought back the look of nervousness she’d seen on Bree’s face earlier when they were cooking.
An anxious itch ran up Sidney’s back.
“Well, my sister knows this already so, if I want you all to hear it from us, it’s pretty much got to be right now. ”
“Know what?” Emily placed a hand on her hip, staring at them with blatant suspicion.
Bree and Adam exchanged a look, and he placed his hands on each of her shoulders from behind, almost as though he were giving her his strength. Bree turned back to the rest of them.
“Adam and I are… expecting baby number two.”
Emily let out an excited squeal, rushing toward Bree with outstretched arms. Ike and Emmett both laughed and got in line to congratulate them.
A wave of jealousy hit Sidney’s stomach right before it was smacked down by joy. She took a deep breath to stop both of the extreme emotions from pulling her under, and plastered a smile on her face.
“I’m so happy for you both!”
She joined the round of hugs for both expectant parents. Then Bree grabbed her arm and gently pulled her off to the side of the kitchen.
“I’m so sorry, Sidney.” Bree’s tone was hushed and apologetic.
“About what?”
“I wanted to tell you earlier while we were alone. That was the plan. But then I chickened out. I just didn’t know how to bring it up. And then I put my foot in my mouth about being tired all the time, and things got weird.”
“No. Bree, stop it!” Sidney’s stomach felt raw, like the jealousy was trying to eat her alive. But she couldn’t let it get the best of her. She couldn’t let it steal her happiness for her friend.
Sidney took both of Bree’s hands in her own and looked into her eyes. “I don’t want you to feel like you’ve got to tiptoe around me whenever the subject of babies comes up. I am so crazy happy for you. You know that.”
“I do know. I just… I didn’t want to feel like I was rubbing your face in it.”
“Don’t be silly. Please. I’m fine. I’m going to be an auntie again!”
Bree burst into tears and Sidney pulled her into a tight embrace.
“Oh, Bree.”
She hated this feeling. Extreme emotions were warring in her belly and it was making her nauseous.
“Stupid pregnancy hormones,” Bree said when she finally pulled away. “Okay. We’re good?”
“Of course we are!”
Bree smiled, still wiping tears. “Good. I’m going to get the first batch of pizzas into the oven.”
Sidney nodded, and Bree walked away.
When she was gone, Sidney turned toward the wall and closed her eyes. She took another deep breath to steady herself. Then she felt Ike’s strong arms come around her from behind, and she exhaled and leaned back into him.
“It is so like you to comfort a friend when you’re the one who’s hurting.”
His whispered words made the tears she’d been fighting spring to her eyes. A few fell. She couldn’t stop them.
Isaac kissed her temple and his arms tightened around her. She felt his lips at her ear. “Our turn is coming, darlin’. Sooner than either of us thinks.”
Sidney wiped her cheeks and reached a hand back to caress his face. “Did you see that in a vision?”
“Nope. But my grandaddy told me he’s already seen our children, and that they’re beautiful.”
Ike’s grandfather, Sterling Taylor, was where Ike had inherited his psychic gifts from, so if Sterling said he’d seen it in a vision, Sidney trusted it.
She turned around in Ike’s embrace and wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Keep reminding me of that, okay?”
“As often as you need to hear it.”
“Thank you for always knowing just the right thing to say to prop me up.” She ran her fingers through his hair.
Isaac smiled at her. “It’s my job to prop you up. I take it very seriously.”
Sidney laughed, despite her warring emotions, and she kissed his lips.
“I love you, Sid.”
“I love you back, baby. So much, you don’t even know.”
He initiated the kiss this time, and it was so deep Sidney felt it down in her soul.
The doorbell rang and the house began to fill up with family and friends. Bree’s sister, Bronwyn, was the first to arrive with her date — some guy named Ken that Isaac had never met, and who made it a point of shaking the hands of each of the men in attendance, like he was running for political office or something. When he offered his hand to Isaac he was left hanging.
“I don’t shake hands. Nice to meet you though.” Isaac’s tone was pleasant, but that didn’t seem to matter.
“What kind of a man refuses to shake the hand of another man?”
The guy sounded personally offended, but Isaac didn’t care. He was done apologizing for who he was. He stared the guy in the eyes.
“The kind that has his personal reasons for doing so.”
It was a simple response, and Isaac could tell it didn’t exactly go over well. The guy looked him up and down before he smirked and moved on. Isaac heard him mumbling to Bronwyn though.
“What the hell is with that guy?”
“Just drop it, Ken,” Bronwyn whispered. “It’s not an insult. Ike just doesn’t shake hands with anyone.”
Pete and his fiancée, Jada, arrived next, armed with a large container of homemade snickerdoodles for the dessert table. Hiroshi and Miku Sato were next to arrive.
“What is this?”
Bree sounded intrigued when Miku presented her with one of those very elaborate fruit jelly cake things that looked like it took all day and a feat of engineering to make.
“Well, we keep getting invited to these lovely gatherings, and you all make such wonderful food for them. I just wanted to reciprocate.”
“Miku this is stunningly beautiful! You made this yourself?”
“I did.”
“This must’ve taken hours.”
“It was no big deal.”
“It’s a very big deal and I’m going to need the recipe.”
Isaac grinned and watched Bree lead them off to the large kitchen where everyone was gathered. He knew they should be in there with everyone else, but at the moment he was standing in the middle of the cavernous living room, attempting to check up on Sidney.
Bree’s news had hit his wife harder than he knew she wanted to admit, and Isaac was slightly worried. She had excused herself and walked off toward the bathroom when the doorbell rang, but she’d been gone for several minutes now.
He glanced around wondering where in his brother’s huge house she had gotten to.
A hand came down on his left shoulder.
Isaac jumped, swerving to the right, and glared at Adam.
Adam raised both hands in surrender.
“Just me.”
Isaac sighed and rolled his eyes. His brother never cared about, and almost never abided by his no-touch hang-ups.
“Are you ever going to stop doing that?” Isaac’s tone was exasperated.
“Probably not.” Adam grinned at him.
Isaac chuckled, then glanced around once more.
“Listen, mutant, I just wanted to let you know that I’m really sorry about upsetting Sidney. Bree was supposed to tell her earlier when they were here alone, cooking, so that she wouldn’t be blindsided in front of an audience. I don’t know what happened.”
“Adam, you and Bree don’t have to apologize to us for expanding your family. It’s not your fault that Sid and I haven’t gotten pregnant yet.”
“Well, I know, but… I just hated seeing the look on her face when our news came out. And yours, for that matter.”
Isaac frowned. “I didn’t have any kind of look back there.”
“No, I just hated seeing your face.” Adam delivered the line without even the hint of a smile.
“Fuck you,” Isaac smirked at him, trying not to laugh, and Adam looked proud of his joke.
“Seriously though, man. I am sorry that our news upset her.”
“Don’t worry about it, Adam. She’ll be all right.”
He sounded much more certain of that than he felt. But as if on cue, Sidney came down the stairs. A suspicious smile graced her lips when she looked at them.
“What are you two up to?”
“I was just apologizing to Ike for being so much more handsome than he is, that’s all.” Adam turned back to Ike with an apologetic expression. “It’s all right, buddy. Sid loves you anyway. Isn’t that right, doll?”
Sidney laughed at them but didn’t answer.
Isaac shook his head and wrapped his arm around her. “Don’t laugh at his jokes.”
“Why not? He’s funny. After all, everyone knows he’s just a poor substitute for you, baby. He doesn’t even have any superpowers.”
Isaac drew his mouth into a perfect ‘O’ and looked at his brother.
“Ouch!” Adam’s expression was full-on I’ve-been-insulted-and-I-didn’t-expect-it. “That stings.”
“I think my woman just burned you, butthead.”
“I think she did too! I’m going back to the kitchen where the people are nicer.”
Sidney smiled. “Don’t be too hurt. You know I’ve gotta stick up for my man.”
“Yeah, whatever.” Adam winked at her and retreated to the kitchen, leaving them alone.
“Hey.” As soon as he was gone, Isaac turned his attention to his wife. “You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m good. I just wanted to splash some cool water on my face. Didn’t want to look like I’d been crying. Although… everyone probably saw me crying, didn’t they?”
“If by everyone you mean me and Adam, yes. But it was only me and Adam.”
“And Emily and Emmett and Bree.”
“Bree was too busy putting pizzas in the oven. And it’s not like Emily and Emmett would ever ridicule you for getting emotional. Em understands what we’ve been going through.”
“I guess.”
She sounded truly embarrassed that her emotions had gotten away from her, and Isaac just wanted to make things better for her.
“Come on. Jada and Miku are both here already, and Miku made some kind of magical fruit cake or something.” He knew she’d be happy to see both of her friends. He took her hand and led her into the kitchen where the first pizzas were being sliced and plates were being filled.
As usual, their brother, Oliver was the last to arrive with his date, the always-questionably-dressed Taffy. This evening’s ensemble was a skin-tight pair of Daisy-Dukes with a red and white checkered top that was tied in the front, revealing all of her flat, toned abdomen, and a pair of five-inch hooker heels. And apparently the top didn’t have any buttons because her large boobs were threatening to fall out of the deep V-neck opening.
Luckily, she had a visible black lace bra under there to help contain the madness.
“I swear to all that is holy in this world, if that woman’s tits fall out while we’re playing charades, I will kill Oliver with my bare hands,” Bree announced when Oli and Taffy entered the kitchen. “And I have the raging hormones to do it. I can’t believe he’s still bringing her to these things.”
“He just does it to get a rise out of the rest of us. If we all act like we accept Taffy and that her clothes are no big deal, he’ll stop doing this crap.” Adam sounded certain as he tried to calm his wife.
“I don’t care why he does it. I’m just sick of looking at her man-made boobs all the freaking time,” Bree said, staring across the room at the interloper.
“I’m pretty sure those are real.” Pete said before he took a swig of soda.
Jada gave him a death stare. “And how would you know that, Pete?”
Pete suddenly looked like a kid caught coming in after curfew. “Well… I mean, come on… they just move so… you know… naturally.”
“You’ve been watching them move?” Jada asked, her eyes boring into Pete’s.
“No. I mean… well, they’re right there! Hard to miss.”
“That’s right, Pete.” Adam smacked Pete on the back. “Don’t you back down, buddy. Man sees something astonishing, he’s gonna look, damn it!”
Everyone laughed, even Jada.
Well, everyone but Bree. “All I’m saying is, that exposed bra better be a damn good one, or I won’t be responsible for my actions.”
“Don’t worry.” Emily nodded in a leave-everything-to-me sort of way. “I got you covered, sister-in-love.”
Once everyone had filled their plates at least once, they all drifted into the living room where the games began. Their game night gatherings had grown enough to have multiple games going on at once. So while Emily and Emmett steered Oliver and Taffy off to the Trivial Pursuit board, the rest of them broke up into two teams of five and played Pictionary, the men against the women.
Isaac was happy that Sid had rebounded so well. He smiled as he watched her help the women kick their butts in this round.
“Oh, my turn!”
Bronwyn’s date, Ken, stood abruptly, his wrist inadvertently brushing against the back of Isaac’s hand.
Isaac jerked his hand to his chest, cradling it.
Razors sliced open his flesh, acid hitting the wounds.
Isaac curled in on himself, balling his hands into fists.
The flash assaulted his brain like shockwaves.
He saw Ken yelling at a woman, and putting his fist through a wall.
Ken shoving an elderly man.
Ken dumping a plate of food into a woman’s lap.
“You okay, baby?”
Sidney’s hand on his face pushed him out of his trance.
Panting, Isaac stared into her beautiful eyes. She was kneeling in front of him.
“You good?” she asked again, smiling at him.
“Yep. Thanks for the assist.”
Sidney smiled and kissed his lips. Then she returned to her side of the room with her teammates.
Isaac re-situated on the sectional, scooting off to himself. He glanced around to find everyone watching him. A couple of them, like Adam and Pete were grinning and shaking their heads.
“I can’t take you anywhere, man,” Pete joked.
Isaac half grinned. “Proceed.”
They laughed and got back to the game, but he noticed Bronwyn’s date shooting him strange looks as he drew his picture. Isaac didn’t even try to guess the image. He simply sat back and studied the man, trying to figure out the things he’d seen.
When the round was over, and the women victorious, Isaac went into the kitchen to sample all the desserts. At least, that was the excuse he told himself. The truth was simpler.
Bronwyn had walked into the kitchen to steal another slice of pizza, and Isaac nonchalantly followed her.
He quietly cleared his throat and approached her.
“Hey Bronwyn. How you doing?”
“I’m good, Ike. How about you?”
“Can’t complain.” He realized in that moment that he had no clue if Bree’s sister was aware of his abilities or not. If he said something to her she might think he was completely off his rocker.
Dread splattered in his stomach like a flying paint ball.
He grabbed one of the snickerdoodles and glanced around awkwardly. He had to say something. In the four years that his brother had been married to Bree, Ike had gotten to know her little sister some. Bronwyn was a beautiful, sweet girl. A girl he considered to be family. Sort of.
“Um, so how long have you and this Ken guy been going out?”
“Actually, this is only our third date. We met in the grocery store, if you can believe that.” Bronwyn picked a piece of pepperoni from her slice of pizza and stuffed it into her mouth. “He seems like a pretty nice guy though.”
Isaac’s only response to that statement was his raised eyebrows. He felt like he was fighting with himself. Should he or shouldn’t he? What if she thought he was meddling? That it was none of his business?
What if she was your sister?
“Well…I don’t know about that.” His gaze hit the floor for a second.
“Oh, no.” Bronwyn’s shoulders fell, and she stared at him in the most peculiar way. “You saw something when he touched you.”
It wasn’t a question, and Isaac was caught off guard.
“Oh, that’s why Sidney went over to see about you.” Bronwyn nodded like she understood it all now. “I’ve heard a lot over the years from Bree and Adam. I’m aware of your gift, Ike. That’s why I told Kenny to drop the whole stupid handshake thing before. What did you see?”
The dread that splattered in his stomach began to drip away.
“Let’s just say that Ken has some anger issues. Some severe anger issues.”
Bronwyn stared at him, and he wondered what she was thinking.
“Anger issues?” she repeated his words as though she didn’t believe him.
“I saw him screaming in a woman’s face and putting his fist through a wall during the argument. Shoving an elderly man to the floor. Dumping a plate of food into a woman’s lap. Anger issues. He’s an angry guy, Bronwyn.”
Isaac paused for a second to give her a chance to absorb what he was saying.
“I don’t know why, and I don’t know how far his anger would go. Now if you want to stick around and find out, that’s on you. But I sure as hell wouldn’t trust him dating my sister. And I bet with Sid’s past, she would be warning you to be careful with that one too.”
He stole a couple more snickerdoodles and glanced her way once more before he turned to leave the kitchen.
“Ike?”
He stopped and looked back at her.
“Thanks for looking out. I appreciate being your honorary sister.”
He smiled at her and left the kitchen. When he ventured back out to the living room Hiroshi snagged his attention.
“Hey, Ike.” Hiroshi smiled at him.
“Hiroshi, you know, I’m sorry that you keep getting roped into my family’s crazy gatherings, man. You can decline with no hard feelings.”
Hiroshi laughed at his obvious sarcasm. “Yeah well, our wives seem to think we’re friends, so let’s not upset them.”
In truth, Hiroshi had been one of Isaac’s closest work friends for several years, so it was slightly odd to him that they had only recently begun socializing outside of work. That was completely due to the friendship that had sprung up between Sidney and their Realtor, Miku Barlow.
Miku and Hiroshi met at Ike and Sid’s housewarming party the year before, and embarked on a whirlwind romance that sped straight to a justice of the peace in Hawaii. They’d only been married a few months.
“I’m willing to pretend if you are.” Isaac grinned, but it was fleeting. “Hey, just out of curiosity, are things getting any better between Miku and your mom?”
It was a tricky situation, and Isaac didn’t envy Hiroshi’s predicament. His mother had been ridiculously pleased when she discovered who he was dating. Hiroshi said that Miku being only half Japanese was better than not being Japanese at all, according to his mother. And she’d been very welcoming to Miku at first.
But all that changed when he and Miku took a trip to Hawaii to visit her parents and came home married.
“I wish. That woman can hold a grudge like nobody’s business.”
“Wow. She’s still angry about the eloping thing?”
“She is still convinced that Miku and her parents somehow pressured me into marrying her on our trip. Even after we presented her with rock solid proof that Miku’s parents were miles away and nowhere around when Miku and I decided on a very big whim to get married.”
“I’m sorry, man.”
“You and me both.”
“Your dad can’t talk some sense into her?”
“Believe me, he’s tried.”
“Well, I hope you and Miku aren’t letting it get to you much.”
“We’re not. In all honesty, I think having Miku in my life is teaching my mother some much needed lessons in proper boundaries. It’s good for her.”
Isaac laughed out loud, and Hiroshi grinned.
“And the wedding we let her throw us on New Year’s Eve has helped a lot. She feels like she got to see us say our vows.”
“The things we do to keep the peace.”
“Right?”
The night wore on and Isaac did his level best to keep his word to Sidney and try to have a little fun. But with everything weighing on his mind — the firefighter case, Sid’s situation with Ronan O’Dwyer, and now this crap with Janelle Mandrake and her shenanigans, not to mention this unpleasantness with Bronwyn’s date earlier — having fun was a tall order tonight.
Instead, he tried simply to not be miserable the whole time. He joined games when pressed, but mostly he stood back, stuffed his face, and watched everyone else have a good time.
“You seem to be having about as much fun as I am tonight, my friend.”
The statement came from Emmett Fox as he drew near, plate in hand, and Isaac grinned at him.
“I’ve got too much on my mind to really be in a game night kind of mood I’m afraid.”
“I hear that,” Emmett said before he stuffed one of the fried ravioli in his mouth.
“What’s your excuse?”
Emmett licked marinara sauce off his fingers. “Same as yours. Too much on my mind.”
Isaac nodded, and a memory came back to him. A memory that was months old. He and Emmett had collided in the detectives pit and Isaac heard a name in all the skin-to-skin pain induced confusion.
“Landry.”
He and Emmett stared at each other, and Isaac knew they were both remembering that incident. He had no clue what it was about. Only that it was a top secret, mystery case Emmett had been working on at the time.
“Yeah.” It was all Emmett said, and Isaac got the feeling the case wasn’t going well.
“Still unable to talk about it?”
A look of fleeting possibility and regret flickered across Emmett’s features before he made eye contact with Isaac again.
“Need-to-know and all that.”
“I get it,” Isaac nodded. “I can see that it’s still bothering you though.”
“Guess I can’t deny that. And I wish that I could tell you what was going on.”
Isaac shrugged a shoulder and Emmett’s expression became earnest.
“No, truly. I actually think we could use your abilities on this case, cause we keep hitting a brick wall. I’ve even suggested it, but the Special Agent in Charge is reluctant to bring in a psychic he’s not familiar with.”
That news didn’t exactly hurt Isaac’s feelings. Especially not with Janelle Mandrake’s threats to do an exposé on the subject.
“Well, no offense, Emmett, but I don’t really think I’m ready to take my freak show out on the road, so to speak.”
“Not even to help find a serial murdering child pornographer?”
Isaac’s heart dropped down into his stomach and went splat.
He stared at Emmett and disgust flooded his system.
“Yeah,” Emmett mumbled. “It’s pretty bad.”
Isaac looked away for a moment. Emmett’s words brought memories of the Lullaby Case rushing back to Isaac’s mind. There was no way he would ever not help find a child killer.
“I’m not sure what you think I could do.” His voice was suddenly hard as steel. “But I’m available if you need me.”
They looked at each other again and Emmett nodded.
They didn’t say anything else for a long moment, and Isaac simply added Emmett’s case to the list of things occupying his mind. Then a question came to him.
“I thought the FBI already had psychics in place that you guys worked with. Why do you need me?”
“Our go to psychic moved out of the state. And it’s a hell of lot cheaper to call on you than to fly her out for a consult.”
Isaac grinned. “You mean I could get paid for this gig?”
“Don’t get excited. It’s not much.”
Isaac chuckled, but then he grew serious. “You know, I could put you in touch with another psychic who has a lot more experience working with people than I do.”
He was thinking, of course, of Geneviève.
“Does this person have your specific skills?”
“Which skills are you talking about?”
“The way you shook my hand and told me all about my past. The way you saw me kissing your sister long before I ever did. Is this person as good as you are?”
Emmett’s total confidence in him took Isaac by surprise and he wondered if he would ever feel that confidence for himself.
Sidney had it in spades, confidence in him and his abilities.
His grandad had it too.
“You need to start believing in yourself, baby.”
It was something Sidney said to him often, and when she did he would feel his chest swell with faith, self-possession, and courage.
He could feel those things now bubbling just below the surface when he thought about her encouragement.
“All right. Give me a call if you need me.”
“Thanks, Ike.”
When the night finally ended and they said their goodbyes to everyone, Isaac took Sidney’s hand and led her down the perfectly manicured walkway to his car. Once they were on the road, Sidney turned to him.
“You want to talk now? Tell me what’s been on your mind all night?”
Isaac sighed. He wasn’t even going to ask how she could tell. He was more than aware that his wife could read him like a well-worn, dog-eared book.
“Well, let’s start with my conversation with Detectives Wayne and Penski.”
“Uh oh.” Sidney’s voice was full of unbridled trepidation. It almost sounded like it was choking her. “Is it bad?”
Isaac hesitated for only a fraction of a second. There was no sense in trying to make this more palatable. “Yes.”
“How bad?”
“It seems Wayne’s little bomb the other day was meant as a warning. To you and to me.”
“What kind of warning?”
“The fraud detectives are looking to crack down on all the known document forgers in the area. I don’t know what brought on this wave of vigilance, and it doesn’t really matter. But in their routine surveillance of Ronan O’Dwyer, they captured you on camera, exchanging money for forged papers.”
“Oh, my God.” Sidney sounded terrified. Her hands flew to her mouth.
“Seems Penski has a buddy in the fraud division — a Detective Carlisle — who passed along this info. Carlisle also told them that fraud was discussing the possibility of letting O’Dwyer slide. Giving him special treatment because of his association with you, and the work you’re doing at Hope House. That is the part that concerns me most.”
He glanced over at Sidney as he drove.
“A known criminal receiving special treatment because he’s connected to you, and therefore to me. That does not sit well with me, darlin’. Not to mention we could both go down for it if the guys in fraud wanted to push it.”
“Oh, my God,” Sidney repeated, sounding even more forlorn. “Isaac—”
“The good thing is that, thanks to the boys in the domestic violence unit, who seem to be founding members of you and Zoe’s fan club, everyone in the fraud division now knows where you work and what your association with O’Dwyer is all about.”
“How is that a good thing exactly?”
“It’s good because they all know that you and Zoe are in the business of helping ladies escape their abusers in extreme cases. They may not be able to say it publicly, but they admire that. So much so that they’re willing to unofficially help you where they can. They also appear to respect the fact that you’re my wife.”
That part, Isaac still couldn’t get over. The respect in Carlisle’s voice and his eyes when he’d spoken with him earlier. Not to mention the kind things he’d said.
“Well, that’s all very nice, but… I still don’t understand. You said Wayne was trying to warn me. Warn me of what?”
Isaac stopped at a red light and looked over at her. “His warning was meant to get you to back off on facilitating any runs for a while. Or at least, to back off from obtaining papers from O’Dwyer. Just until the fraud guys have run the course of their operation.”
“Stop getting papers from O’Dwyer for a while? That’s what he was trying to say?”
“Basically, yes.”
“But who else am I supposed to go to in the meantime?”
The light turned green and Isaac stared at her in amazement for a second before he took off again.
“No one, Sidney! You’re supposed to go to no one. That’s what he was trying to tell you.”
He hadn’t meant to raise his voice, but it had been an extremely long day and he was more than frustrated.
“It wouldn’t be right for Wayne to just come out and give you inside information on a police bust. But out of respect for me, he was trying to give you a heads up. I spoke to this Detective Carlisle myself before I left for the day, and he reiterated the same thing. And he assured me that you would not be in any trouble as long as you heeded the warning to cool it for now. It’s just too damn risky. Not only for you, but for the both of us.”
Sidney said nothing, and he could see that his outburst had hurt her feelings. He reached over and took her hand, giving it a light squeeze.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell. And I’m not angry at you. I’m just… I’m very upset at the situation. I know we talked long and hard about this before you ever facilitated the first run, and I gave you all of my objections back then. I laid out all of the potential risks.”
“Yes, you did. And I understood them. But ultimately, you made the decision to give me the name of someone who did reliable work, and you have no idea how much I appreciated that, Ike. I knew what it could end up costing you, so the gesture wasn’t lost on me. And you don’t need to worry. I have no intention of doing anything that could come back to hurt you. If you need me to stop… I’ll stop.”
Isaac glanced over at her as he turned onto their street. “Just like that? You’ll really stop?”
“I can still help women who need to run, right? I just can’t obtain illegal documents for them.”
“Right.”
Sidney nodded. “Zoe and I will just have to get more creative, that’s all.”
“Sidney—”
“Don’t worry. I promise, nothing illegal.”
Isaac sighed. “All right.”
He pulled the car into their driveway and shut it off, wishing he could shut off his brain just as easily. Something wasn’t sitting right in his system. What was this aching, empty, almost sour feeling in his stomach all about?
“There was something else on your mind earlier. Something you said you would tell me all about once we got home.” Sidney looked around at their front yard. “We’re here.”
Isaac nodded and unhooked his seatbelt. What the heck was he supposed to say? How was he supposed to give her this information? How could he expect her to understand what he was about to say when he didn’t even understand it himself?
“Isaac?” Sidney reached out and ran the back of her hand over his cheek. “Baby, what is it?”
Isaac turned and looked her in the eyes. “Another woman asked me out on a date tonight. And I agreed to go.”