Chapter 4

The man stepped up to our booth. His dark brown eyes fixed on Grace. If I hadn’t already seen her reaction to his appearance and the storm of emotions in his aura, I would have said the look was love, but I didn’t know. He opened his mouth, took a deep breath, and said, “C’mon Grace. It’s time to go home.” His voice was low and calm, yet his tone held an inflection of command. He expected to be obeyed.

Grace, however, wasn’t holding anything back. The anger in her lavender aura was overrun by fear for only a second and it showed plainly on her face. She shook her head, in a jerky move. She might have been telling him no, and it looked that way, but I was sure she was trying to shake off her fear. It worked too because when she looked at him again she let all of that anger show in her glittering green eyes. It was a dangerous look. I would have paled if it had been directed my way. “I’m not going anywhere with you, Dan.”

If Dan had any control over his anger, I didn’t see it. His face however remained calm if a little flushed. “You and I need to talk,” he said. His voice was controlled, unlike the crashing waves of his aura.

“No,” Grace said and slammed her free hand on the table. “We don’t have anything left to talk about.” She closed her eyes and swallowed. The anger in her aura slipped deeper inside and when she opened her eyes again, she looked calmer. “I’m not leaving with you, Dan. It’s over. I’m not your girlfriend. I’m not your fiancé. You need to stop this because I’m not getting back together with you. Not now, not ever.”

Dan’s anger spilled out onto his face. “I’m sure as hell not leaving you with some punk kid,” he spat.

Eric’s eyebrows rose at the bait, but otherwise, he didn’t move or say anything. As long as I had known him, Eric was easygoing, even the person to help bring the bustle of a potential fight down with light humor and goodwill. Part of me was surprised by his reaction. It was the biggest rise I’d ever seen anyone get out of him, but I also understood why he reacted. After all, his new girlfriend was arguing with her ex.

Grace, however, had surpassed her fiery anger for something closer to white heat. Her anger rolled like something moving under the surface, massive crownless waves out in the deepest parts of the ocean. “Leave, Dan. Now,” Grace said. Her voice was low and level. I knew a few people who were considered at their most dangerous when they sounded like that.

Dan’s face easily portrayed his anger and determination. Unlike Grace’s anger, his aura had huge cresting waves that beat against his skin. “I’m not going anywhere without you,” he said.

“Dammit, Dan!” Rachel said. “You just don’t get it, do you? She left you. It’s over. She’s with Eric now and you need to move on.”

Dan’s anger exploded. He slammed a fist into the table and pointed a finger in Rachel’s face. “This is your fault. She wouldn’t have left me if you hadn’t gotten involved, Bitch!” With his last word, there was a flash.

The exchange had built so quickly that I hadn’t known what to think much less how to respond if things got out of hand. At that very second, though, something in me took over. Something about his accusation and the way he directed his anger at Rachel made me react. I didn’t need to think. I snatched his wrist and yelled, “Hey!”

His eyes flicked to me for the first time and I could feel the heat of his anger.

I held on as tightly as I could. I wasn’t about to let him do anything to Rachel. Words came to my mind and went straight to my lips without a filter. “Grace left of her own choice and with good reason from what we’re seeing. You need to leave, now. If someone in the café hasn’t already called the police, I will.”

He narrowed his eyes and his aura shifted enough that I knew I had something on him, but he wasn’t giving in yet.

I wasn’t either. I tilted my head to the side like I was twisting my point in and said, “Detective Stanfield will be happy to hear from me again. What about you?” It was a gamble. I was sure that Grace might have called the police previously, but I had no way to know whether Stanfield’s name would hold any bearing. He investigated murders, not domestic disputes. Regardless, I had to take the chance before this turned into something that would land us all in jail.

Dan stared at me and I met his eyes. I saw fear finally stutter through his aura and knew I had found a weak point. He jerked his hand out of my grip and stepped back from the table. His eyes flicked out at the rest of the café and all of the quiet watching eyes. He knew I had him, and I had witnesses to back me up, lots of them. He threw each of us a look and let his eyes linger on Grace. His aura shifted again when he looked at her. I didn’t understand what he was thinking, but he wasn’t as angry with her as he was with the rest of us. Finally, he turned and left, going out the same door he came in.

I looked around at the rest of the room. Everyone watched us for a second longer and then went back to eating, drinking, and talking amongst themselves. I was sure we were the topic of a lot of those conversations.

The girls were staring out the plate glass window, watching Dan leave. I slumped back in my seat and let out the air I’d been holding. Eric mirrored me on the other side of the table. “Dude, when I talked to Detective Stanfield this morning, he didn’t sound like someone who’d be happy to talk to you again.”

I shrugged. “It was a bluff. I had to say something to get him to leave, and I thought the name of a detective would work better than just a threat of calling the police.”

Eric chuckled. Grace turned back around, looked over at Eric, scooted close to him, and cuddled up against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her gently. She looked down at the table and her eyes widened. “Ral, your hand.”

I looked down at my hand, saw blood, and then felt the pain.

Grace reached for the napkin dispenser and asked, “How bad is it?” Eric was looking at my hand in dismay. Rachel turned to see what was going on.

I moved my fingers and realized it was the palm of my hand that was cut, but when? What cut me? It was the same hand I grabbed Dan with, but I was sure he hadn’t been holding anything. I thought about it. The palm of my hand was on the back of his wrist. When he jerked away, his hand was open and only the back of it touched me. So, what cut me?

Grace pulled out a bunch of napkins and pressed them into my hand. Eric watched and looked slightly pale. He said, “I didn’t know he had a knife.”

I thought about it more and remembered seeing his hands. He hadn’t been holding anything when he walked up to the table, and he never pulled anything out of his pockets. Where did the knife come from? To the others, I said, “I saw something flash when he pointed at Rachel – which was why I grabbed his wrist – but now that I think about it, I don’t remember seeing any metal.”

I looked at Rachel. Dan’s hand had been less than a foot from her face. “Did you see anything?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No. Not a flash or any metal.”

Eric was staring at my hand and with a thought, he glanced at Grace. “Damn. If Grace had left with him...” He left his thought there and all of us could imagine the kinds of things that might have happened.

I raised my hand to elevate it while clutching the napkins in my fist. “She didn’t.” I looked at her. “And I’d like to think he wouldn’t do anything to hurt you. I’m not saying what happened was good by any measure, but he didn’t outright attack anyone.”

Grace’s anger was filling her aura again. “I’ll give you leeway this time because you don’t know him Ral, not like I do. He’s always thought of me as his property, but for him to pull this...” she waved at my hand. “That’s just too much.” She pulled out her cell phone.

“Who are you calling?” Rachel asked.

“The police,” Grace said and looked at me. “He’s gone too far, Ral. Something has to be done.”

I reached across the table toward her with my left hand but didn’t touch her. “I don’t disagree, but think about this for a moment. I didn’t see a knife. Rachel said she didn’t see one either. What do we tell the police? He cut me with his fingers?” I shook my head. “We need something more than just that. They’re going to need the weapon.”

Grace’s anger rose in her aura. She gritted her teeth and closed her eyes. “I can’t believe you’d let him get away with this.” She opened her eyes again and that dangerous glare was directed at me. I was pretty certain she wasn’t angry with me per se, just the situation.

I shook my head in answer to her statement. “No, he shouldn’t get away with it, but I don’t think the police will be able to do anything about it.” I lowered my voice like I had when talking with Rachel earlier. “Besides, I’ve got enough on my plate with the police as it is. As Eric said, I doubt Detective Stanfield would want to hear that his only witness to last night’s encounter got into a knife fight today.”

Grace’s eyes and aura softened. It wasn’t much, but it was something. “You didn’t do anything wrong last night or today.”

I glanced at Rachel, knowing what I was about to say was taken directly from what she’d been trying to convince me of earlier. “I was the last person to see Anthony Hoyle alive. That’s not something I like the sound of personally, but a few hours later, I get into an altercation with your ex. Look at it from the police’s point of view. For that matter, think about what a defense attorney would do with it if the police figure out who’s responsible for Anthony Hoyle’s death. I could be discredited as their star witness, maybe even, because of this, become the reasonable doubt the defense attorney needs to make sure the killer goes free.”

Grace’s anger subsided more. The fire in her eyes was gone and she swallowed as my words sank in. She closed her eyes and shook her head. I could see her anger flare again but then slip further away. She snapped her phone closed and looked at me again. “Okay, I won’t call the police ... this time.”