Post by StoryGirl83 on Aug 19, 2010 11:13:00 GMT -5
Chapter Twenty-One – Emily, the Spy
Flashback
with Brie, Reina, and Aaron Lloyd
Wyatt wasn’t back yet when the phone rang. Piper excused herself to go get it. “Hello?”
“Mrs. Halliwell, is Chris there?” Emily’s voice asked on the other end of the phone.
Piper frowned. “Aren’t you at work?”
“Yes,” Emily answered easily.
Piper’s frown deepened. Why was one of her employees calling her son while at work? “At my restaurant?”
“Yes,” Emily agreed again. “Drinka said it was okay for me to call.”
Piper sighed. “Fine. I’ll find him.” She put the phone down on the small entry table and headed back into the sitting room.
Chris was sitting on the couch trying to be polite to the two older Westcott girls. Leah was seated on the couch next to him, looking up at him questioningly.
Piper smiled. “Chris, Emily is on the phone for you.”
“Emily is?”
Piper nodded. “She wants to talk to you.”
Chris disengaged himself from the two girls and headed into the foray where he grabbed the phone. “Emily?”
“Hey, Chris,” she greeted. “I saw something a little bit ago that I thought might interest you.”
Chris blinked. “Um. Okay?”
Emily laughed. “There is a group in here. One of the men in the group came in looking like he’d just lost his best friend, but for whatever reason decided to come to this dinner anyway. About five minutes ago a woman entered the restaurant with a little girl. Drinka led them into the main room and took them over to the table with those men.”
“You’ve lost me completely, Emily,” Chris admitted. “Is there a point to this story?”
“When that man saw the little girl his face almost literally lit up,” Emily continued as if he hadn’t said anything. “Apparently the little girl was his daughter and she’d gone missing last night. He was up the whole night trying to find her and through the day. He had this business dinner and his sister, the woman, insisted that he attend, because apparently his boss wouldn’t have cared about his missing daughter. He came, but he was miserable.”
“I still don’t understand why you are telling me this, Emily,” Chris persisted.
“As they were headed out I heard them talking.”
“Aaron, Raina is fine,” Brie Lloyd insisted. “Right now what she needs is sleep.” As if to illustrate her point, Raina Lloyd snuggled up closer to Brie and yawned.
“Brie, she is not all right,” Aaron Lloyd insisted just as stubbornly. “My daughter needs me after this. I don’t even care about my job anymore.”
“I think you’d better. I don’t think your boss is going to accept ‘my daughter was kidnapped by a de . . .’”
Aaron slapped his hand over her mouth. “Brie you can’t just say things like that.”
“Why not?” Brie wanted to know. “No one is listening.” She nearly walked into Drinka Deguilio.
Drinka looked at her curiously. “I take it, everything went well.”
Aaron gave his sister a look.
Brie looked back at him sheepishly.
Drinka smiled. “Never mind all that. Subterfuge never set well with me.”
“Whatever are you talking about?” Brie asked.
Drinka just shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. Go home with your daughter, sir. I believe I can smooth things over with your business associates.”
Aaron frowned. “Who are you?”
“Let’s just say that I believe there is always a place for a little magic in peoples’ lives,” Drinka stated. “You daughter is very lucky. From what I understand thousands of children have not been so lucky.”
Aaron gulped. “Do you know what happened to my daughter?”
Drinka shook her head. “No, but I have a very good guess. I know some people.”
Aaron frowned at her, but just sighed. “Brie, hand Raina over. We’re going home, now. If you want to come, you can, but I’m not letting her out of my sight for a while.”
Drinka watched them leave and looked around the corner to where Emily was eavesdropping. “You hear enough?” she asked disapprovingly.
Emily shook her head. “That made no sense, but I think they were talking about something . . . never mind.”
Drinka shook her head. “Well, you didn’t hear anything worth repeating, so don’t.”
Emily nodded slowly and stopped. “I thought maybe she started to say demon.” She forced the last word out of her mouth, remembering that Chris had said Drinka knew about all that.
Drinka nodded. “She probably did. As I said, not worth repeating.”
“Not even to Chris?”
Drinka frowned. “What’s this about Chris?”
“That’s why he had to leave, isn’t it?” Emily asked, putting the pieces together. “He had something to do with getting this girl back to her father.”
“Perhaps,” Drinka agreed.
“May I call him?”
“Why?”
“To tell him about that little girl. If he had something to do with this, he’ll want to know that she’s all right.”
Drinka sighed and nodded. “Yes, go ahead, but not a word to anyone else. Understand?”
Emily nodded. “I understand.”
“That’s why I called,” Emily informed Chris. “Was that why you left work, because of that little girl going missing?”
“Not specifically her, but . . .” Chris stopped. “Look, I know you mean well, but you really need to stay as far away from this as possible. What we do is dangerous.”
“Yes, I know. You’ve already told me, but what difference could a phone call make.”
Chris groaned. “Thank you for telling me, Emily. I’ll see you at work tomorrow.”
Emily sighed. “Sure. Bye, Chris.”
Chris hung up the phone and stared at the wall opposite him. Was she trying to be involved in the world of magic? Didn’t she understand how dangerous it was? Maybe he should have just given her some brief explanation and made her leave when she’d come asking for explanations. Or better still, maybe he should have dusted her memory. Too late, now.