Page 78 of Truthfinder’s Promise

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Meredith was fifteen minutes from home when she felt Valkyrie open the house wards to let someone through. Given the number of people staying in her home, keying her best friend in as a secondary control had seemed like a good idea.

Three minutes later a text came through to her phone.

Rebekah King is here. You are not.

Shit. She mentally tried to calculate whether Rebekah’s arrival coincided with the time frame Jensen had given her, but couldn’t remember the exact time he’d said. She had expected a heads-up before his grandmother got here. Shouldn’t he have had her flight number or something? Or shouldn’t she have called him?

When she didn’t answer the text immediately, Val sent another.

??? You can’t disappear in the middle of the night at a time like this. If you haven’t been kidnapped, I’ll kill you myself.

Geez, she’d left a note—that Jensen had taken with him, she realized. She should have texted her friends instead of going with the archaic written form of communication, but she hadn’t wanted to risk waking one of them up and having them insist on coming with her.

She was dictating a response text when another came through.

Jensen is gone too. He’d damn well better be with you. Do you have any idea how bad this looks?

And double shit. She sent back: We’ll be there in five minutes, and punched the gas. In the rearview mirror she saw the Escalade Jensen was driving fall behind, then accelerate quickly and catch back up. Her phone rang.

“Where’s the fire?” Jensen asked when she picked up.

“Your grandmother has arrived. We are both missing. Valkyrie is informing me it looks like a political nightmare.”

“She’s not supposed to be here for another three hours.”

“Apparently no one informed her of that. See you at the house.”

She parked by the front door instead of in the garage and Jensen slid to a stop behind her. She waited for him so they could walk in together. He threaded his fingers through hers, and she looked down at them before arching a questioning eyebrow at him.

He gave her an amused smile in return and brought their joined hands up to kiss her fingers. “To put to rest fears of political nightmares. A potential bonus is that my grandmother thinks you were so desperate to get your hands on me you dragged me out of the house so we could have some privacy. She will be thrilled we have such a healthy relationship.”

Meredith shook her head at him, unable to form a response to that. He sounded genuinely affectionate when he talked about his grandmother. Which didn’t mesh in Meredith’s mind with the kind of woman who could tell an eighteen-year-old to raise his own sister.

She tried to tug her hand free but he wouldn’t give, so that was how she walked into her house holding hands like a lovestruck teenager. The kitchen was so thick with tension you could cut it with a knife. The Shifters were all sitting very straight, their eyes downcast. Basically, they’d done everything except roll over and expose their bellies.

Meredith couldn’t figure out what was tension causing about the scene. Rebekah King sat at the end of the island, looking sweet and grandmotherly in a pair of cream slacks and a soft green sweater. She had one of Random’s muffins in hand and was beaming at him.

“These are wonderful,” she said. “You must try them with some of the apple butter I put in Meredith’s gift basket. If you like it, I’ll send you the recipe.”

The gift basket in question sat in the middle of the island. Meredith could see the jar of apple butter through the clear cellophane wrapping, along with a package of what looked like the beef jerky Jensen had asked if she liked, and a bright green something that might be a scarf. Maybe a shawl.

All heads in the room turned to them as they walked in.

“There’s my boy,” Rebekah said to Jensen, smiling. She looked calm, collected, and beatific. Apparently, whatever emotions she might have had about her grandson’s abduction and subsequent return had been gotten out over the phone, or were being reserved for private.

“Grams.” Jensen inclined his head, then dropped Meredith’s hand to move his to the small of her back, nudging her forward a step. “This is Meredith.”

“A pleasure to meet you, my dear.” Rebekah rose from her seat and strode over, holding both her hands out. Meredith took them and stood obligingly still for the air cheek kisses delivered next. Rebekah stepped back and gave her an appraising once-over. “Such a lovely young woman. It’s a delight to welcome you to the family.”

The part of her that was well-trained in etiquette answered on autopilot, giving the polite, “Thank you,” in just the right tone and warmth that she would use if she had actually gotten married and was actually being welcomed into a family she was now a part of. The rest of her was trying to piece together what Rebekah King was up to.

Meredith couldn’t question Jensen with her eyes, because that would involve actual eye movement his grandmother could see. Instead, she bestowed her questioning glance on the one person directly in her field of vision over Rebekah’s left shoulder.

Serenity toasted her with a mug of coffee and mouthed what looked suspiciously like, “Good luck.”

Comforting.