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“If she doesn’t, I will. It broke my heart watching her worry they wouldn’t make it in time.” Ev sighs, leaning back and stretching out his legs.
“Speaking of breaking hearts, what’s going on with the three of you and Avery? Is she staying?”
“Smooth, asshole.” Jagger shakes his head.
“I hope so,” I answer.
“You mean you haven’t asked her?” Jagger asks, shocked.
“She should know we want her here,” Creed says.
“She reads lies, not minds.”
“We’ll talk to her. She has a lot going on. We don’t want to scare her off,” Ev says softly.
“I don’t think you need to worry about that. It’s obvious she likes you.” He looks at Ev. “All of you.”
“I hope so, because she wasn’t happy when these two kidnapped her. Imagine how pissed she’ll be if we’re forced to do it again.”
Creed elbows him while Slade and Jagger laugh. I scan the room, checking the corridor and the double doors, still feeling a little on edge.
“Anyone find this all a little anticlimactic?” Jagger asks after a few minutes.
“Not sure Salem will agree with that.”
“Not that, but the danger itself. Avery came back to warn us, and yet nothing’s happened.”
“So, the vision changed. That’s what we wanted, right? Maybe something one of us did helped. Maybe it was the kidnapping? Maybe we saved the day after all,” I joke, but Creed frowns. “What is it? I hate it when you make that face.”
“Ev, you ever find out anything else about the man and woman from the diner that day?”
“Paul ran a background check for me and didn’t find anything. Carly Keep had a history of mental illness. He didn’t say much about the boyfriend, Neil Fellows, though. I planned to do a little digging myself when things calm down a little.”
“What are you thinking?” I ask Creed. There must be a reason he brought it up.
“I’m thinking, what if Avery stepping in front of that bullet was the thing that changed the vision? She stopped everything from playing out the way her seer said, without even realizing.”
“As simple as that?” Slade frowns.
When I scowl at him, he shakes his head. “I didn’t mean it like that. Are you saying you think the shooter was the one who was supposed to hurt Salem?”
“I don’t know, maybe? Or maybe it was not getting shot that changed things. I’m here, not dead. Being killed would have meant the trip here would have left Salem with just Ev and Hawk. She would have been easier to grab.”
“Which would mean Creed was the intended target all along,” Jagger points out.
“Sounds good in theory, but there is no way anyone could have predicted when Salem would go into labor. Or, for that matter, that Oz and Zig would be caught up at Cooper’s place or that we’d be out of the state.” Slade laughs at us.
“That would be a good point if they didn’t have a kid who could see the future so anything is possible.” Jagger sighs.
I look over at Ev, who is quiet, and see him tapping away furiously on his cell phone. I sit and watch him, not liking the expression on his face at all.
“Carly didn’t just suffer from mental health issues. She’d spent a large portion of her life in a mental health facility. She was only discharged three days before the shooting at the diner,” he says, looking up at me.
Slade whistles. “I guess that explains a lot. Your cop friend didn’t mention that?”
“He said she had issues. It was my fault. I should have asked more questions.”
We all look at Ev now. “Why would you? She snapped, shot someone, and turned the gun on herself. You were not hunting for a suspect. The suspect was dead.”
