The Dark Glamour (666 Park Avenue 2)

I completely forgot to ever mention her again after the jet touched down.
André swirled his thick red wine inside the crystal balloon of his glass and watched her expectantly. She stared into his black eyes intently, trying to read something from them the way normal, non-witch women so often claimed that they could.
The last time I was in a Michelin-starred restaurant on this side of the ocean with a too-handsome man, he was playing me, too,
she recalled sadly. When Malcolm had swept her off her feet, she had imagined having a real family, a loving partner, and an unshakable place in the world. To an orphan who had been raised in near isolation by a grandmother so fearful that she had cut herself and her ward off from the world, those hopes had been irresistible. Even her six successful years in Paris hadn’t been enough to allow Jane to shake off the lonely confusion of her childhood, but Malcolm’s arrival had promised to finally do the trick.
But I’m not fooled this time, and surely I have more reasonable expectations than I did back then,
she reminded herself hopefully.
Now all I want is to be left alone.
    ‘I’m here about Malcolm Doran,’ Jane heard herself say, and felt momentarily dizzy with her own daring. She had no idea if it was brilliant or stupid, but the die was cast, so she finished the roll: ‘And Jane Boyle.’
    André stared at her for what felt like for ever, while her heart tried to pound its way out of her chest. There was no mistaking the predator behind his handsome face this time; he looked as though he might leap across the table to go for her throat.
    Emboldened by his total shock, Jane swallowed another bite of mackerel in a way she thought actually passed for nonchalant. ‘Do you know where they are?’
    André finally seemed to collect himself, although he picked up his fork and set it down a couple of times for no apparent reason. After the third time, he set it carefully on the tablecloth, and Jane saw a real smile playing around his lips. ‘Ella, once again you amaze me.’
    ‘I figure they couldn’t have stayed hidden so long without each other,’ she pointed out, hoping her adrenaline would pass for conviction. ‘After all, he’s got all that money, and she’s got . . . other gifts.’
    ‘And you think they’re in London,’ André prodded, and then frowned. ‘But now you “may” have to go to the Continent. Ella, darling, have you been playing me the whole time with this London nonsense?’
    ‘Have you?’ Jane countered. ‘You said you were thinking of “making a stop” here – which I assumed was a convenient fiction anyway – but now, three days later, we’re touring the city and sipping wine like we’ve got all the time in the world. I can’t help but wonder if we’re not following the same lead.’
The same
fictional
lead,
she reminded herself sternly.
So keep it simple and vague.
    ‘Katrin and I have been looking for them as well, of course, for some time now,’ he admitted casually. He went on to say more – she could see his mouth moving – but a crazy roaring sound had filled her ears. It was as if she were standing directly under a waterfall.
    Of course they have.
She felt like she might laugh out loud, or burst into tears, or fall to the floor in a seizure. Katrin’s sharp body and short black hair appeared clearly in her mind, but unlike the times when she had only half seen André’s sister, this time she knew exactly what the woman’s face looked like. It really
had
been a coincidence that Mystery Witch, who had been stalking Caroline Chase all over town, was also staying at the same hotel as Ella Medeiros. Her being there had nothing to do with Ella at all . . . she was just staying in the same hotel as her brother.
When she lost track of me in New York, they thought I might have gone . . . gone back . . .
‘You’re going to France,’ Jane concluded dully. Her tongue felt thick and clumsy. ‘You thought – she might have gone there. Home.’
    André shot her a strange look, and she thought she might be stupidly repeating what he had just said. But she couldn’t help it; she couldn’t make her ears or even her eyes focus right. Everything was swimming in front of her, even André’s dangerous purr of a voice.
    Lynne hired them,
she thought frantically; almost hopefully.
Finding me was a condition of the merger.
But things were starting to make an even uglier kind of sense than that. If Lynne found Jane alive, she