Sizzle and Burn

some other bad guy.”
    “I got the same impression.” Andrew exhaled slowly. “I’ll tell you something, though.”
    “What’s that?”
    “Even though I’m suspicious of Zack’s reasons for contacting you, I must admit I think we all owe him.”
    Raine widened her eyes, amazed. “Good heavens, why?”
    “Gordon and I have been concerned about you lately.”
    “You knew I was feeling a little low.”
    “You weren’t just a little down,” Andrew said meaningfully. “We were starting to wonder if you were flirting with full-on depression.”
    “Hey, I wasn’t that bad off.” She stopped, thinking about it. “Was I?”
    Andrew smiled. “It wasn’t as if you didn’t have some legitimate reasons. In recent weeks you’ve lost your only known blood relative, the woman who was the closest thing you had to a parent. Then Mitchell dumped you. On top of that, you had to deal with Vella’s estate. Last but not least, you stumbled into another crime scene yesterday.”
    “At least that last situation had a more or less happy ending. Could have been a lot worse.”
    “True. But yesterday evening when we talked on the phone, I could tell that even though you found that young woman alive, you were bracing for the usual nightmares. I could hear it in your voice.”
    She shrugged. “The nightmares are part of it.”
    “You always say that. Tonight, though, when you walked through the front door with Zack Jones, you looked different.”
    “I did?”
    “It was as though you had bounced back and were ready to take on the world again.”
    Raine tossed the whisk into the sink. “Zack told me that Aunt Vella’s depressive episodes were not related to her psychic talents.”
    Andrew took a moment to absorb that information. Then understanding lit his face.
    “I’ll be damned,” he said softly. “So that’s why you’re feeling so much better. Jones reassured you that your little eccentricities aren’t going to land you in an institution.”
    “He seemed very certain. He said that psychological problems related to psychic talents manifest themselves much earlier in life. Late teens or early twenties. Evidently the Arcane Society studies that sort of thing.” She hesitated. “He also said that if Aunt Vella had contacted the Society, their experts might have been able to help her.”
    “You know, I once suggested to Vella that she do just that,” Andrew said.
    “Really? What did she say?”
    He swirled the wine in his glass, looking troubled. “She just cried and said that wasn’t possible. Something about it being too late. She feared the Society and J&J. Didn’t trust anyone connected to either organization. She’d have been horrified if she knew about Zack Jones.”
    “I know.”
    He exhaled deeply. “I think there’s something you should know. When you told me that a man from J&J had contacted you, Gordon and I both went cold to the bone. We were afraid that history was about to repeat itself.”
    She wrinkled her nose. “Hardly. It’s not like I’m engaged in any illicit drug research.”
    “That’s not what I meant. Wilder Jones didn’t just show up out of the blue one night and burn down your father’s lab. He and Vella had an affair.”
    Shock rendered her speechless for a couple of beats.
    “They were lovers?” she finally got out.
    “For almost two months. Wilder Jones seduced Vella, lied to her and used her to find your father and the lab.”
    She sagged back against the counter, utterly floored. “Why don’t I remember him? The first and only time I recall seeing Wilder Jones was the night he and his men stormed into the lab.”
    “Vella was afraid that if you knew she was dating you would become anxious about the possibility that she might leave you. She would never have done that, of course. She would have found a way to keep you with her, even if she had married. She would not have left you with your father. But until she was certain that the relationship with Wilder was going somewhere, she thought it best to shield you from it.”
    She shook her head. “I’m stunned. I had no idea.”
    “Vella fell for him hard. She told us she was in love for the first time in her life. Gordon and I used to take care of you on the nights when she and Wilder wanted to be alone.”
    “No wonder she went hysterical the night Jones and his men destroyed the lab. She was betrayed by the man she loved. She blamed herself for everything: my father’s death and the destruction of