The Hidden Legacy

robbery charge...and the third reason? Henry Walker.
Once Henry’s credentials were established as an ex-cop and a current private detective, the entire mood of the interviews changed. When I was finally allowed to leave, I went straight back to the agency, gathered up my things and left. It didn’t hit me until I pulled up into my sister’s driveway to pick up my son—all the things that could have gone wrong. Then I sat and shook in reaction for a while.
I loaded Eli in the car and thanked my lucky stars that Kayleigh had been on the phone with my mother getting her version of the events. Otherwise I’d have never gotten out of there so easily. Curtis had waited until I finished buckling Eli in, dropped a kiss on my cheek, and announced that he was proud of me.
My cell phone was blowing up, so I switched it to silent and decided to take Eli to the Marina, and to Mona’s Lobster Shack, for his favorite dinner. We sat at a four top table under the shade of an umbrella, and I listened while he filled me in on his adventures at daycare.
“What’s wrong Mama?” Eli asked.
I started to say, nothing, but couldn’t bring myself to lie to my little boy. Goddess knows he’d hear about the incident at the spice shop soon enough. So I decided to keep it light. “Grandma had some excitement at the shop today...” I began, and made an effort to make the whole thing sound silly instead of scary.
Eli giggled. “You really hit the bad guy in the nose with Grandma’s big broom?”
“Yeah, I did,” I admitted.
“Did it go crunch?”
I smiled. “It sure did. Nobody messes with our family and gets away with it.”
“Are the bad guys in jail?” Eli’s eyes were round with excitement.
“Yes,” I said, keeping it simple.
“You’re like Batman,” Eli announced.
“No I’m not,” I said. “And besides, I wasn’t alone. Mr. Walker was there and he helped your grandma and me.”
“Who’s Mr. Walker?” Eli asked, slurping his soda through a straw.
“I am,” came Henry’s voice from off to our left.
Henry Walker strolled right up and sat down in an empty chair across from me. “Hannah.” He nodded.
Eli’s eyes had grown large in his face. Stuck, I introduced my son. “Eli, this is Henry Walker. Remember I told you that he works with Edmund at the agency.”
Eli set his soda down on the table. “Mama says you helped catch the bad guys today.”
“Well your Mama helped too,” Henry told Eli.
Eli dove back into his french fries. “Nobody messes with our family,” Eli said, repeating my words.
Henry’s lips twitched. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Go away, I thought. I didn’t want him there. What I wanted was to wind down from the afternoon’s events, not have to deal with his misgivings and disapproval. “We’re eating our supper,” I said as politely as I could manage. “If you’ll excuse us, Mr. Walker?”
“I was hoping to talk to you about this afternoon.” Henry kicked back in his chair, clearly in no rush to leave.
“That will have to wait until tomorrow,” I said firmly.
Bottle green eyes assessed me, and my stomach dropped. He’d seen something. I realized. I’d tried to be careful with my powers, but in the heat of the moment I’d only been concerned with keeping my mother safe.
“Fine. We can talk tomorrow at the office.” He stood. “See you around kid,” he said to Eli and ambled off down the marina and towards his sailboat.
“That’s the pirate,” Eli said, watching him walk away with very large eyes.
“He’s not a pirate, Eli,” I said as patiently as I could manage.
Eli shifted back to me. “Captain Time thinks he is.”
“Finish your chicken fingers,” I suggested.

CHAPTER SIX
I spent the morning answering dozens of phone calls. Unfortunately they weren’t clients for the agency. Instead it was curious neighbors and friends of the family who’d heard about the incident at the spice shop and wanted to talk to me about it.
Between phone calls, I attempted to keep the office in order. Edmund had a court appearance this morning, otherwise I knew he would have been having a few words with me about yesterday. He’d said as much when I’d finally taken my phone off silent the night before.
To my relief, Henry Walker had not graced me with his presence as of yet. For all I knew he was on his boat, out on a case, or, I thought, sleeping upstairs in his apartment. As if my thoughts had conjured him up, I heard him coming down the stairs. I straightened my shoulders and reminded myself I’d protected my mother, defended myself from physical harm, and hadn’t done anything with my magick that couldn’t be explained away.
Probably.
I was pretty sure of that, anyway.
Henry went straight to the coffee machine and made himself a cup. I could see out of the corner of my eye that he had a notebook tucked under his arm, and once he had his coffee, he stopped in the doorway of the kitchenette, leaned against it and regarded me thoughtfully.
“Good morning,” I said.
“Hannah.” He sipped his coffee and continued to stare at me. Today he wore a gray t-shirt with a short sleeved blue plaid shirt unbuttoned over the top. His jeans were faded and torn at the knee. I appreciated all over again just how attractive the man was.
Damn it.
The stare was getting on my nerves, and I knew that he knew it. “You said you wanted to speak to me?” I asked, taking the bull by the horns.
“I do.” He tipped his head towards his door. “Step in my office, please.”
I stood and went to his office. I sat in the one chair for clients and smoothed my soft gray maxi dress over my lap.
Henry joined me and opened up the little electronic notebook. He propped it up to a standing position and began to type in a few commands. In a few moments a video flickered to life. It was the surveillance footage