Page 24 of Jacob Michaels is Not Here

“It’s a hooded cloak.”

“Style, baby.” Carlita tapped my cheek again. “But the meaning is the same.”

“I guess.” I nodded. “So…what will happen?”

Carlita sighed and gave a small laugh. “Baby, I’m an Oracle, not a psychic. Right now, I’m just a busted ass drag queen trying to get these shitheads to recognize my obvious talent.”

I smiled.

“If you want the future…maybe talk to Lucas.” Carlita went stone-faced.

My smile disappeared.

“My boyfriend is not a psychic,” I stated firmly.

“Your boyfriend knows things.” She twiddled her fingers in the air vaguely. “What is to come. That’s closer to being a psychic than I will ever be. Of course…he’s having a bit of a memory problem himself, isn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“Pity.”

“Oma says if he gets his memories back, he’s in as much danger as we are,” I said. “Do you think that’s true?”

“That’s a better question.” Carlita popped her tongue approvingly. “Well, of course, he is, sugar. Even if he doesn’t get his memories back. And you know why.”

I was chewing at my lip.

“No one can hear us, sugar.” Carlita shook her head, then waved vaguely around us. “I took care of that.”

“Are you sure?”

“He hasn’t found me for several centuries—and I’ve said his name plenty of times here.” She shrugged. “I would say I am nearly one-hundred-percent sure that we are safe.”

“Good.”

“Lucas having his memories back only puts one person in danger, Rob.” Carlita continued. “And it ain’t himself.”

I frowned. “Who?”

“You, baby.” Carlita looked at me like I was stupid. “You mean so much to him as it is. And he, of course, is everything to you. If he gets all of his memories back, well, baby, he’s going to be as protective of you as you are of him. When it comes time, you’ll both be trying to push the other one out of the line of fire. The firemen will abandon the fire.”

Staring intensely into Carlita’s eyes, I wondered why she had repeated an expression that the man in the black hooded cloak had used.

“You only have one job, Rob.” She shrugged. “Lucas will distract you from that. That is why Esther Jean Wagner doesn’t want you to…do anything…to change what Lucas does or doesn’t remember. That’s why she’s kept him close ever since you left. To make sure he stays ignorant to everything that went on, is going on, will happen. Lucas could be collateral damage…or cause it. And she doesn’t trust you to keep that from happening.”

“Bitch.”

Carlita snorted, amused.

“Sorry.”

She waved me off. “Esther Jean cares about you, Rob.” Carlita shook her head at me. “If she didn’t, she wouldn’t give a damn what you did or didn’t do. Maybe you should do as she says?”

“Maybe.”

“Besides…how could you give Lucas his memories back without tipping off your friend in the cloak, after all?” Carlita asked slowly. “I mean…he has ears everywhere magic can reach, right?”

Carlita’s eyes twinkled as she leaned in. I watched her for a moment, then she blinked at me and pulled back just as something dawned on me.