Dangerous Tides (Drake Sisters 4)

Hannah nudged Joley with her foot. "Good philosophy. Wish I'd thought of it." She waved her hand toward the kitchen. "And you never stay on task. We might all perish without cookies."

"Did you do the ones with that butter frosting you make, Hannah?" Kate asked. "I love those."

"For you." Hannah smiled at Kate but turned to give Sarah a hard look. "But not for you. You sided with Jonas Harrington over the movie the other night. You're in the doghouse so no frosting on your cookies."

"Hannah," Sarah protested. "You can't deprive me for liking a movie you didn't like."

"I'm not depriving you because you liked the movie, you treacherous wench, I'm depriving you because you admitted it in front of the caveman and inflated his ego."

"I'm sure Sarah didn't mean to side with Jonas," Libby said.

Another round of laughter went up. "You're hopeless, Lib," Hannah said. "I'm showing you how to be Hagatha and you just can't grasp the concept."

A gust of wind blew through the house as the living room door opened, admitting a tall man with broad shoulders. Jonas Harrington, the local sheriff, slammed the door behind him and strode in as if he owned the place.

Hannah's gaze jumped to the huge window overlooking the sea, her heart pounding in sudden alarm. The fury of the wind whipped the dark clouds around, but failed to hide the blood-red circle slowly seeping into the blackened ring around the moon. Her hand went to her throat--a purely defensive gesture--as her gaze met her youngest sister's. Elle had the same knowledge of impending danger in her eyes.

"Hannah?" Libby ran her hand down Hannah's arm to comfort her. "Is something wrong?"

To distract her sisters, Hannah gestured toward the sheriff and groaned. "Speak of the devil. I swear, it's like you whisper his name and it conjures him up, just like a demon from hell."

Joley nudged Libby. "See, that's censoring. She was thinking way worse than that, right, Hannah?"

Hannah nodded. "You'd better believe it." She felt the instant shift of power in the room, the subtle flow of her sisters automatically helping her, keeping her from the curse of stammering or worse, having one of her panic attacks simply because someone other than a family member was with them.

"Baby doll," Jonas greeted Hannah, deliberately provoking her with a hated nickname. "It's impossible for you to teach Libby how to be a Hagatha. You were born that way. She, however, is nothing but goodness." He grabbed a handful of cookies as the plate floated by and expertly tossed his jacket on the couch without looking.

"Why don't your obnoxious guard dogs bite him?" Hannah asked Sarah. "The next time either of them wants food I'm going to remind them they failed in their most important job."

Sarah shrugged. "They like Jonas."

"They have good taste," Jonas said, smirking. He sat on the floor, wedging himself between Hannah and Elle. "Move over cupcake." He pushed his leg hard against Hannah's thigh. "I'm joining the family powwow tonight."

Hannah opened her mouth, then closed it abruptly, studying the grim lines etched around Jonas's mouth, noting the smile didn't quite reach his eyes. She knew, as did all her sisters, that when something went terribly wrong at work, Jonas sought the comfort of the people and the one place he called family and home. Hannah waved her hands in a graceful, complicated pattern toward the kitchen and at once the tea kettle whistled.

"Libby wants to be a bad girl," Sarah announced.

Jonas's eyebrow shot up. A slow smile spread across his face. "Libby, hon, there is no way you can be corrupted by the rest of your sisters. You're just too sweet."

Libby glared at him, totally exasperated. "I am not. Come on! You could help out a little, Jonas. I have the ability to be just as wicked as the rest of my family."

"Hear, hear," Elle said. "Well said, sister."

Joley nodded her head in agreement. "Not true, but well said," she agreed.

Hannah lifted her hand palm out and a mug of steaming tea floated out of the kitchen toward the circle of sisters. She caught it carefully, blew on it until the bubbles quieted and handed it to Jonas.

"So why do you want to be a bad girl?" Jonas asked.

"My life is boring. Borrrr-iing," Libby said, drawing the word out. "I want to have fun. I don't want to be the responsible one anymore."

"Then you're dropping your Doctors Without Borders and your Save the Whales and Support Big Cat Rescue causes?" Jonas asked. He snapped his fingers. "And you definitely have to stop recycling and your save the environment thing you do every year."

"Wait," Joley added. "You can throw out the save the rain forest as well. That should give you plenty of time to be a bad girl."

Libby kicked her sister with remarkable gentleness. "You're not being nice and neither is Jonas. You're laughing at me."

"No, I'm not," Joley replied immediately. "I love you just the way you are. You just have to accept that you don't have a mean bone in your body. It's why you can't think of anyone you'd like to put in a rocket and send to Mars."

"Jonas," Hannah said. "Because he's so bossy."

"Hannah," Jonas said simultaneously, "because she craves so much attention she's always showing her bod to every Tom, Dick and Harry who wants to see it."

"I'm a model, you toad," Hannah said. "I don't show off my body, I show off the clothes."

"And brilliantly, too," Kate said, blowing her a kiss. "I'll second Jonas for being mean to Hannah."

"It isn't fair to gang up on me," Jonas protested. "She was mean to me first."

"You said it at the same time," Kate pointed out.

"Only because I knew what she was going to say."

"Jackson Deveau." Elle named a deputy sheriff. "Because he annoys me no end."

"Illya Prakenskii," Joley added a heartbeat behind. "Because he needs to be off planet and he's just plain spooky." She rubbed the palm of her hand as if she had an itch.

"Frank Warner for breaking Inez's heart," Sarah said.

"I can't very well say Sylvia Fredrickson because she's turned over a new leaf," Abigail said, "so I'll just have to say I'm going with Joley on this one."

Everyone looked at Libby. She sighed, feeling the weight of their stares. "Not Jonas. He's bossy but really has our best interests at heart."

Hannah rolled her eyes when Jonas poked her.

"Certainly not Jackson. Honestly, Elle, how can he be annoying? He never talks, poor man. Illya Prakenskii helped us, Joley, and Frank's in jail paying for his crimes. Inez is hurt, yes, but she's a strong woman and understands that people make mistakes."

"So who would you send on a rocket to Mars?" Joley prompted.

"I'm thinking." Libby sipped at her tea, frowning. "There was one nurse who always made fun of me. She said I was flat-chested and not in the least attractive."

Hannah sat up straight. "Who is she? I'll have a thing or two to say to her."

The room thickened with sudden tension. Tea boiled in the cups.

Libby shook her head. "No, poor thing, she had such a horrible life. She has so many problems, it's really no wonder she isn't very nice. I felt sorry for her."

The Drake sisters blew on their tea before exchanging looks, but Libby was frowning in concentration. "I'll think of someone."

"Face it, Lib, you can't think of anyone because you just aren't mean."

Libby ducked her head. "I can think of someone. He went to school with me on and off and was in all the accelerated programs. He even attended Harvard when I did." She looked up at her sisters. "His grades were better than mine."

Jonas grinned at her. "I'll bet that really set your teeth on edge."

"It wasn't just that, Jonas, he doesn't believe in magic. He thinks we lie about our gifts and that my family members are charlatans and con artists. He's very arrogant and opinionated."

"Well, put his name on the rocket to Mars, sister," Elle insisted.

Libby sighed. "It's just that he has an incredible brain. The world really needs him. He won a Nobel Prize in medicine already. He's very gifted. No

t that he does it for the right reasons."

"He's a glory hound?" Kate asked.

"No, he could care less about publicity. He's totally a lab rat. All he cares about is the science. Well, science and adrenaline."

"You're talking about Tyson Derrick," Jonas guessed. "He's crazy. When he isn't working in the laboratory, he's working for the forestry. He's a total adrenaline junkie. Skydiving, racing, motorcycles, white-water rafting, whatever is available, he's the man."

"He has no right to risk his genius," Libby said.

"You haven't put him on the rocket," Joley pointed out.

Libby blushed. Color swept up her neck and into her face, turning her skin bright red. Scarlet. Crimson. It was the bane of her existence, that and being flat-chested.