Lure of Song and Magic Read Online Free PDF Page A

tried it anyway and got a disconnect. Swearing, he studied the text again. The sender had used a capital T, as if she was about to name a song. Ten bloody million songs began with The .
    He couldn’t curse away the spookiness of the message. Did the sender know where he was? Know he’d met with Syrene? Why had they cut off so abruptly?
    He waited to see if another message would come through. The phone remained silent. Maybe the message was too long to text and the sender had given up and decided to email.
    Oz checked his email online. Just the usual work messages. Nothing from the Librarian.
    Apprehension niggled at his gut. The person who knew he was hunting Syrene had been interrupted trying to reach him. After these last few years fraught with disaster, disconnects left him itchy.
    Trying to work out the knots of tension, he rotated his shoulders and rubbed the back of his neck. The damned black shirt was fine for the air-conditioned office but too warm for the sun.
    Why would singing a particular song help find Donal? He assumed that was what the Librarian had been trying to tell him. Would the song somehow lure the kidnapper from his lair?
    His phone number and email address were on his website, so it wasn’t difficult for every nutcase in the universe to reach him. But there was something more urgent about these Librarian messages…
    Of course, part of the problem awaited him just a few yards ahead. Mothers were already slamming the doors of their SUVs, picking up their toddlers at the day care. The sight of all those tiny, helpless little kids had him breaking out in a cold sweat. Donal couldn’t defend himself. That had been Oz’s job. And he’d failed.
    The images of what could be happening to his boy had given him ulcers and kept him awake at night. He’d never sleep until he knew Donal’s fate.
    The contract and his hot date could wait. Oz called the office and told them to let the accountants review the documents and he’d be in to sign them tomorrow. He left a message on Rita’s machine and then blocked her calls. She wouldn’t take kindly to being stood up, and he didn’t have the patience for more tantrums today.
    His hired grunt would go to work in the morning, keeping an eye on the singer so she didn’t escape. Tonight, Oz would cover the bases.
    Releasing the parking brake, he turned the Porsche onto the road, back into the tiny town of El Padre. He’d seen a B&B sign when he’d driven through earlier.
    ***
    Tossed to the red mat in her family room, Pippa retaliated by lashing out with her heels. Lying with her back to the mat, she caught Park in the abdomen and tossed him over her shoulder with her legs. Her quads were stronger than her biceps.
    As their instructor gracefully rolled into a ball and sprang back to his bare feet, Lizzy clapped. “You got some hostile mojo working for you tonight, girl!”
    Park, their five-foot-four instructor, bowed in agreement. He was nearly seventy, but until Pippa’s day from hell, he’d easily kept his students in line. “Miss James is ready to teach her own classes.”
    â€œNot me.” Winded from the moves Park had put her through, she sat cross-legged on the mat. “I’m not trustworthy.”
    At Park’s puzzled expression, Lizzy explained. “She’s afraid she’ll beat the crap out of her students if they don’t behave.”
    Pippa enjoyed Lizzy’s blunt honesty. Her friend’s brashness could be painful, but Pippa always knew where she stood with her, and that made it easy to relax in her company. Liz was nearing thirty, divorced, mother of two toddlers, and thought she had life figured out. Pippa didn’t disabuse her of the notion.
    â€œMy temper is not trustworthy,” she amended, for Lizzy’s sake. “And teaching a class would be a responsibility I’m not ready to assume.”
    â€œLike making a TV show?” Liz