Priceless

taking a long loop back to the highway. “At this point it doesn’t matter. We’ll find the other kids when we find India.” I tapped the steering wheel with my left hand. “They’re looking for something, children with certain abilities. Don’t you ever wonder about those cases where kids just up and vanish? They’re stolen by people like the Coven. But we’re running out of time if we are going to get any of them back.”
    “Stolen,” Alex grumbled from the back.
    I glanced back at him to see his lip curling up, and looked back to where I was going. The light started to fade, our day almost done. We would need the cover of night to break into the Coven’s stronghold and get India out. And maybe a pile of other kids.
    “I wish Milly was with us,” I said softly.
    “Why isn’t she here?” O’Shea asked.
    “Sorry, I’m not used to anyone but her riding along with me.” I turned back onto the highway and headed into Bismarck. Giselle’s place was loaded with gear, ready as my backup stash.
    “You didn’t answer the question.”
    My shoulders tightened, and I had to resist the urge to push O’Shea out of the Jeep at high speed. Taking one long, slow breath, I answered him, albeit through gritted teeth.
    “Milly’s a Witch, a damn good one, but she’s finally been accepted into the Coven, which means she can’t have contact with anyone outside of the group. In the past, she’s gone with me, always been my partner on the hard salvages. The ones I couldn’t do on my own.”
    Silence reigned for all of three seconds. “You’ve got me, you don’t need Milly.”
    I wanted to bash my head into the steering wheel; it would be less painful than trying to explain a lifetime of knowledge to one oblivious agent who thought he understood. I settled for shouting at said former FBI agent. “YOU AREN’T A WITCH.”
    “So?”
    Unbelievable. The arrogance of some people truly astounded me. Again, I struggled for control; a slight glance at O’Shea stiffened my spine. He enjoyed this back and forth. A smile curved up the edge of his lips and his eyes definitely sparked with humour. The bastard.
    Slamming my mouth shut on the response I’d been prepared to assault him with, like how stupid could he possibly be and what was he thinking taking on supernaturals as a human, I swallowed the words down instead.
    “You going to go all Ice Queen on me now?”
    Alex barked from the back. “Icy Queenie!”
    Good grief. Alex’s excitement and apparent happiness was infectious, and it took all I had not to laugh out loud.
    Biting down on the laughter that bubbled up, I stared at the road, focusing on the need to get to Giselle’s and get loaded up. My humour faded. This was going to be a bad hunt; really, really bad. Nothing had gone right so far, and my gut feeling was that it wasn’t going to change.
    The sky was dark when we pulled into Giselle’s yard, and I wasn’t expecting company, which was my bad. Lights flicked on, sirens came alive, and we were surrounded by police officers with guns drawn and pointed at us before the Jeep rolled to a stop.
    I glared at O’Shea next to me, wishing again it was Milly in the passenger seat.
    I hated being right.

~20~
    T he processing took about three minutes tops. O’Shea was cuffed and flung into the back of a police cruiser, and I was hauled out to the back of the Jeep for questioning, my hand never leaving Alex’s collar. If it came off, everyone would see him for what he was, which would create a shit storm of problems we did not need.
    From what picked up in the scattered radio squawks I could hear, there was an anonymous tip that O’Shea was with me and we were headed to Giselle’s. My gut was telling me that it was the black Coven getting inventive with ways to slow me down. I couldn’t prove my theory, but it was the only thing that made sense.
    Alex pressed hard against my leg, his teeth chattering, but he had enough understanding of the situation not to say anything. I tried my best to focus on what the officer in front of me said.
    “So, you’re telling me that Agent Liam O’Shea tracked you down and forced you to drive him . . . here?” The disbelief in the officer’s voice told me everything I needed to know. I was about to go down with O’Shea. Two birds, one big nasty, lying stone. There was no way I would be walking away from this.
    I let Alex’s collar slip through my fingers. “Find Milly.” He lifted his big dark eyes to mine and