Page 113 of Dream Weaver

“I’m sure I can’t.”

She smirked. “You haven’t asked me what I’m offering in exchange.”

Right. Like she was here to close a fair deal.

I tossed my hammer from one hand to the other. “I’m not interested in anything you have to offer.”

“Oh, I think you are. Just consider, what is your daughter worth to you? What if I could make that custody case go away?”

The custody case she’d bankrolled. I was sure of it now.

“Like any judge would award Jay custody,” I scoffed, sounding more confident than I felt.

She slid a manicured finger across Bob’s workbench. “Maybe. Maybe not. But custody battles cost money. Lots of it.”

Money she had, and I didn’t.

“And the process can be so confusing, even harmful to an innocent child…” she went on.

I swallowed hard. She had a point there.

“But I can make all that go away,” she cooed.

The itch at the back of my mind became a burn.

“No need to do things the hard way,” she said, friendly as can be. “All I need is that brazier, and that custody case will go away, along with Jay.”

Tempting, but no way.

“You mean, scraping at vortexes with the ax you stole isn’t getting the results you wanted?” I said, laying out my suspicions.

Her eyes flickered. Obviously, her efforts had failed so far. The question was, what result was she after?

“That’s my business, not yours,” she snipped. “Just make me that brazier.”

“I’d rather face that custody suit, thank you.” I made a show of cleaning up my workspace. I did keep hold of my hammer, though.

“You think I don’t have other forms of collateral?” Liselle arched an eyebrow. “Say, this town.”

I frowned. What did she mean?

“Let’s say misfortune rained down on beautiful Sedona.” Liselle circled me, predator that she was. “Just think — if a wildfire were to strike here at the peak of the dry season, and the winds were to kick in…”

A bush swayed, scraping my car in the back lot. But that was hardly the tempest Cooper and I had survived at Devil’s Bridge.

Magic was a cloak that shimmered around the shoulders of powerful witches and warlocks. But Liselle only had the barest glint, and most of that came from the dazzling effect of her dress.

Then again, it didn’t take a tempest to whip a tiny fire into an inferno. A small, steady breeze at the right time and place could be just as dangerous.

“Just imagine — all that property damaged, all those lives at stake.” Liselle sighed sadly, like she was watching a documentary and not actively plotting arson. “All those firefighters, risking their lives…”

I tensed. Was she that ruthless?

The sparkle in her eyes said yes. Very.

My mind jumped to Cooper, Rich, and the other members of the Yavapai crew. To those killed in action, like Kevin and Peter…

Then I froze, recalling what Cooper had said.

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