And then her father became an apparition as well and vanished like all the rest.

“You are different from other girls, Jenna,” her mother would say, which was more than obvious in a thousand different ways. “But you have to pretend you are not. No matter what happens, you have to blend in. Like your father did. It’s the only way to stay safe. It’s the only way to stay free. And if they ever find you...run.”

She was utterly certain that something she was supposed to run from was now sitting across the table from her, exotic and coiled and still, like a cobra before it strikes.

“I want to make a bargain with you.” She reached over to brush the dust of the crushed nut into a little pile on the starched white tablecloth beneath his frozen hand. “Tell me the truth, and I’ll go with you without a fight. I’ll go willingly. If you tell me the truth. What do you say?”

He didn’t move, or blink, or speak. He only stared at her with narrowed eyes, calculating.

“I know it wasn’t what you were expecting, but I hope you’ll consider it. It’s a damn sight better than your own plan, at any rate.”

Jenna kept her face carefully neutral and didn’t allow the fact that she was mostly bluffing to distract her from what she wanted. She’d seen bits and pieces, had gotten so many images and impressions that much of it had been horribly garbled. But there was no way he could know what she’d seen.

She wanted answers. After that...he could go back to Sommerley, wherever that was.

Or he could go straight to hell.

Leander slowly leaned back in his chair and stared at her. He released a long breath through his nose. After a minute in which neither of them spoke and the rising tension in her body felt like a wire pulled close to snapping, the barest of smiles lifted his cheek. His voice, however, did not sound amused. It sounded guarded and shrewd and almost...admiring.

“You can read minds.” His fingers unclenched and he brushed the walnut dust from them without moving his appraising gaze from her face. “How very inconvenient.”

“Only yours so far. And this is a new development in my life so don’t expect too much.”

He reached down and began idly tracing an invisible pattern on the tabletop, his gaze following his finger, and when he looked back up at her again everything was between them, everything she’d felt since the first time she’d seen him, the hum of electricity and magic and the menace he exuded like perfume. “You seem remarkably serene for someone who’s just discovered something so unusual,” he murmured.

A knot formed in her stomach. “My entire life has been unusual. Moving from place to place, running from some phantom menace, a father who disappeared without a trace, a mother who drank herself to sleep every night, knowing I was different but never having any answers, never, ever knowing the truth.”

She stopped herself abruptly, looked down at the table, and blinked away the sudden moisture in her eyes. When she spoke again, her voice came in a whisper. “And believe me when I say I’m not serene. In fact, my breakfast is having some serious thoughts about making a reappearance.”

Leander leaned forward in his chair. “Jenna—”

But he broke off as someone new appeared at their table, a handsome young man, lithe and black-haired like Leander, with a widow’s peak and knife-blade, lingering eyes that hinted at ruthlessness and sensuality in equal measure. He lowered himself onto one of the chairs, sighed, and stretched his arms over his head.

“Couldn’t resist getting out of the room for a bit. Beautiful morning, isn’t it?” He grinned at her with an open voraciousness that belied his casual demeanor and slung his arm over the back of his chair.

Jenna knew this one. He was the other one from the parking lot, that first day.

Another followed just after, the stunning dark-haired woman who’d been with Leander that day also, wearing a dress so provocative a man walked straight into a wall as he gaped at her when she passed by. She gracefully sat down at their table as well, disregarding the look of icy fury Leander shot her.

Jenna ignored both of them and shifted her weight forward in the chair. A rush of rash determination flooded through her veins.

“All you have to do now is tell me the truth and I’ll keep my word,” she said to Leander. “I’ll leave with you. I didn’t see anything in your mind that made me believe you want to hurt me.” A flush of scarlet darkened her cheeks. “Quite the opposite, actually. I believe you may be the only person I’ve ever met who can answer the questions I have. And I have a lot of questions. But if I think you’re lying, or holding anything back, there is nothing that will compel me to move from this chair. There is nothing you’ll be able to say or do once my trust is gone to get it back. I chose a public place for this meeting for a very good reason. I will sit here in this chair and scream bloody murder until the police come and then I’ll run so goddamn far away you’ll never be able to find me again.”

The sounds of people talking and footsteps echoing and the clink of glassware seemed amplified in the sudden hush that followed. The woman and the younger man sat unmoving in their chairs, surprised. They glanced at each other, then at Leander.

But he was gazing serenely at her, effortlessly handsome and controlled, his composure recovered. “I must admit, I’m...almost at a loss for words. I can’t recall the last time that happened. If ever.”

“Tragic,” she said, to the obvious enjoyment of Christian.

Leander’s expression soured. “Just to clarify,” he said with an exaggerated patience that suggested his composure wasn’t quite so solid, “you will leave your home—all your friends, your work, your life—for places unknown, with persons unknown...just for answers to some questions?”

“Yes,” she lied. She had no intention of going anywhere with him.

He shook his head slowly back and forth. “You’re making things much easier for me, but, honestly, I don’t think I understand your reasoning.”

Jenna sat back in her chair, relieved and terrified in equal measure that he didn’t deny her accusations, didn’t try to assert his innocence, didn’t call her crazy.

For better or worse, so far he was going along with her demands.

She brushed her hair away from her face again with a flick of a wrist and gave a one-shouldered shrug. “You’re a man. I’m a woman. I’m sure there’s a lot of things you can’t understand about me.”

The beautiful dark-haired woman began to giggle, a soft, girlish laugh she tried to hide behind the perfectly manicured hand that flew to her mouth. But it built to a loud, delighted guffaw, and she threw her head back and gave herself over to belly-clutching laughs while Leander and Jenna stared at each other in silence.

“I think I’m going to like her, Leander. I think I’m going to like her very much,” the woman said when she could speak again. She wiped a stray tear from the corner of her eye and regarded Jenna with a new appreciation through her warm green gaze.

“Forgive me,” Leander said to Jenna, “for not introducing my companions.” He shot a steely glare at the woman first. “This is Morgan.”

Morgan smiled wide, her teeth a perfect sheen of white behind scarlet lips, and stuck her hand out, her expression open and direct. Before Jenna could even think of reacting, Leander’s hand shot out and snapped Morgan’s fingers together in his fist. Morgan froze and glanced over at his face but said nothing.

So he guessed how she had seen his thoughts. Clever. Very well, then. He still couldn’t know how much she had seen.

“And this is Christian,” Leander said, with a sharp nod toward the younger man seated next to him. Their similar features spoke to their relation, but Leander did not add more.

“I must tell you,” Christian drawled, gazing at her intently from beneath his lashes. A rakish smile played over his lips. “What a pleasure it is to finally meet you.” He broke into a huge grin. “The mysterious little stray gone so long from the nest is finally coming home—shouldn’t we have a party or something?”