Free Shadows (Black Raven Book 1) by Stella Barcelona Page B

a meltdown.
    Please leave, she thought, as she felt him following her down the stairs like a tall, dark, annoying shadow. Just get the hell out of my coffee shop and my life .
    Once downstairs, Skye joined Sarah behind the counter. If Sebastian was leaving, he wasn’t going right away. Instead, his dark-haired partner entered the coffee house and talked to Sebastian for a few seconds.
    Leave. Just go.
    In a low voice, Sarah asked, “Chloe, is everything alright?”
    Skye nodded as the two men approached the counter. The dark-haired guy gave her a slight smile and a nod. He introduced himself as Pete St. Paul, and ordered to go a cafe-au-lait and an apple peanut butter muffin. His words revealed a Southern accent and a nice-guy persona that working with Sebastian hadn’t yet snuffed. Probably a recent hire , Skye thought. Sebastian ordered a double espresso, with a splash of cream. In contrast to Pete, Sebastian had no accent that made him seem nice. He was just deadly serious and studying her in a way that put her on edge.
    Run.
    She had to get the heck out of there, but she sure as hell didn’t want him following her. How long did she have before the marshals got there? Could she believe what he’d told the person on the phone, or was that bullshit? For all she knew the marshals were parked around the corner, waiting for these two to leave, and for her and Spring to make a run for it.
    God. She was as paranoid as her father. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Where the hell are you, Dad?
    When Pete tried to pay, Skye waved him away. “Thank you for helping with the dog.” Now take your pushy friend and go .
    Out of the corner of her eye she observed Sebastian swallow the cupful of espresso. As he placed the small to-go cup into the trash, Skye exhaled.
    Please. Please leave. Go.
    Sebastian didn’t immediately follow Pete out the front door. Instead, he walked to the rear of the coffee house, to the icing room, where Skye could see Spring’s three-tier cake spotlighted on the worktable that was positioned in the center of the plate-glass observation window. The window was designed to provide customers with a view of Spring as she worked on her confectionary masterpieces. Skye could see her sister at the sink, methodically washing and drying her decorating tools, and putting each in its place in the travel box that she always carried with her.
    Treating the Do Not Disturb that hung on the glass door of the icing room as a suggestion, and one that he wasn’t taking, Sebastian knocked on the door.
    Spring turned, freezing before she even saw for certain who was at the door.
    “No,” Skye called across the room as he reached for the doorknob, a surge of panic running through her veins. “Don’t open the door.”
    Skye closed the distance between the counter and the icing room as fast as she could, mentally bracing for Spring’s yell as Sebastian opened the door. When Spring was absorbed in her work, she didn’t like to be disturbed by anyone but her big sister, and, in the world that Skye had created, where most of Spring’s odd rules were honored, the icing room was Spring’s domain. Customers could stand at the glass window and watch Spring decorate cakes. She liked to have an audience, as long as strangers from the audience didn’t talk to her. No one but Skye, though, could open the door of the icing room. It was one of Spring’s many compulsions, one that Skye indulged. The path of least resistance worked best for her sister, and Skye considered anything or anyone who threatened the hard-won peace the enemy. Currently, Sebastian was arch-enemy number one.
    Braced for hysteria, Skye barreled into the room, hard on his heels, almost colliding into his back. There was no screech from Spring, nor was there a high-pitched yell of terror, or any other resistance to Sebastian’s uninvited presence. Spring was smiling at him.
    Heart in her throat, with every pulse point in her body pounding, Skye stumbled