"Nah, tell me where she really is. Is she hiding out with Irina? I know they’re both wi—"
"Max!" Sam scolds, shooting daggers at me.
Josephine’s face twists in consternation, but she waves me over and slides into the booth next to me. "I’d appreciate it greatly if you could keep your voices down." She closes her eyes briefly and inhales through her nose. "We have never harmed anyone."
Sam snorts at that, shaking his head in disbelief.
"You disagree?" She challenges him.
"Yeah. My wife had to go to the hospital because of your sister… I wouldn’t exactly call Irina a saint."
Jo grabs my coffee cup, swirling it slightly in her hands—the black liquid turns creamy before my eyes as she takes a small sipand my mouth gapes. For a person who refuses to confirm my suspicions, she’s not trying very hard to hide her powers.
"Olive chased her, and she slipped trying to grab my sister." She flips her hand absentmindedly in the air. "An unforeseen mishap."
Sam grumbles something under his breath before excusing himself to the restroom. While I wish he’d stay, it’s probably for the best that he doesn’t.
"What about Sadie? Why is Beth forcing her to do this stupid puzzle? It doesn’t even mean anything."
Josephine grabs the salt shaker, sprinkles a hefty amount on a small coffee saucer, then snaps her fingers. Watching the salt, I’m not sure what I expect to happen… but it looks the same to me.
A small laugh rolls out of Jo—probably at my expense. "Did you think I was going to show you something special, Maxwell O’Reilly?"
Why is she using my full name? How does she even know it in the first place?
"I, uh, I’m not sure how to answer that, honestly." She makes a tutting noise with her tongue, as if I should have known better, or at the very least, given her a more truthful response.
"Maybe try to be honest. You are the one who came to my diner and questioned me." Jo sipsmycoffee, clearly not giving a single fuck about stealing it. "Why do you care so much anyway?"
That one is easy to answer, but I hesitate, not knowing how much I should share. "I care about her. Sadie is one of a kind, and I don’t want to see her get hurt."
"I’ve known her longer than you have, Maxwell." Jo places her hand on top of mine, and a shutter rolls through me. My heart rate increases, thumping so loudly I can hear it. "Sadie belongsto us. She’s family. We would never harm her… we only ever aim to help."
She slides out of the booth, my coffee still in her hand.
"That doesn’t answer the question," I blurt out.
Jo spins on her heel, leaning over our table to whisper to me. "Sprinkle some pepper on that plate, and you’ll find everything you need to know."
With that, she scurries away, punching in our order on a computer screen before refilling some coffees for guests seated at the bar. I watch her mill about performing normal tasks as Sam slinks back into his seat, eyeing me suspiciously.
"Couldn’t help yourself, huh?"
I grab the pepper shaker, lightly tapping the base in my palm as I consider testing what Jo suggested. "Nope." Turning it upside down, I sprinkle a fair amount on top of the salt, deciding to go for it.
"What are you—"
The salt and pepper crackle on the plate, bouncing around as if each individual fleck is dancing.
"What is happening?" Sam asks, leaning in to get a closer look.
"I don’t know. She poured the salt and told me to add the pepper to find out what Ineedto know." I pull the saucer closer, staring into the vibrating particles. But just as I’m about to chalk it all up to some odd chemical reaction, both the salt and pepper move to the outer edges of the plate. And sitting smack in the middle… is a Golden City Flames logo.
I blink rapidly, convinced I must be imagining it. But Sam pulls out his phone and takes a picture. He stares at his screen, and his jaw drops open.
"What?" I reach across the table to grab it, and my hand knocks into a coffee mug, spilling hot liquid all over the table and my lap. "Shit… that’s hot."
My brother spins the device so it’s facing me. But there isn’t a picture of what we both just saw. Instead, it’s one of only my hands wrapped around the very cup of coffee that I just spilled.