ESCANTA: A James Thomas Novel (The James Thomas Series Book 1) by Brooke Sivendra

receiving the note, she’d stayed awake all night—the fear obliterating her tiredness. She’d taken a knife from the kitchen block, however useless the idea, and inspected every inch of her apartment. She’d then barricaded the front door, sliding a dining chair under the handle, and huddled on the sofa until sunrise. When her security guys arrived they took the scroll, installed additional cameras in her apartment, and told her not to leave without a bodyguard. But Deacon Thomas was right: if they’d gotten in before, they would get in again. And next time they might leave more than just a scroll behind for her.
    Mak opened up Google and typed James Thomas into the search bar.
    It was a common name and millions of results came up but nothing seemingly relevant.
    Thomas Security
    No website, no phone number, nothing. Mak hit the News tab but it proved fruitless.
    Maybe I’m going about this the wrong way , Mak thought. This time she typed Jayce Tohmatsu . If you want to find the security, find the client. Hundreds of news items surfaced but Mak didn’t have time to look through them as Cami walked back in, closing the door behind her. Mak quickly closed the browser and reopened her email. Although Cami probably couldn’t see her screen, it wasn’t a risk Mak wanted to take.
    Forget him , Mak thought to herself. You shouldn’t even be looking him up . The voice in her head was the sensible voice, the one that obeyed logic and reason. But still she wanted to know. She couldn’t forget his eyes, the way that he looked at her, the way that his hand had felt wrapped around hers. He was like a puzzle waiting to be solved.
    Her office phone rang and she jumped, piquing Cami’s attention.
    Mak took a settling breath before she answered.
    “Mak Ashwood.”
    “Mak. Hi, it’s Jared from forensics. You’re there late.”
    “I’m one week out, so I’m going to be here late every night,” Mak said. “What’s up?”
    “I ran the DNA analysis from those two unsolved murder cases you asked me about. Unfortunately there wasn’t a match, not even close.”
    Hmm , Mak thought. She was sure there was a link in the cases, but she couldn’t find it. She made a note to review the evidence again. “Thanks anyway, Jared.”
    “You’re welcome. So, in this crazy schedule of yours, do you have time for a drink?”
    Mak should’ve been expecting this. They’d been flirting for months but, with the case building, she hadn’t given him much thought these past few weeks.
    “Um, things are…” She looked across to Cami, who seemed to be paying her no attention, but she thought that unlikely. “Can I get back to you tomorrow evening? I’ve just got to sort a few things out and then I’ll know where I’m at.”
    There was a brief silence on the line before he answered. “Sure, just let me know. I’ll leave you to it.”
    He didn’t sound pissed off, but he didn’t sound thrilled either. If he’d asked a week ago, she would’ve said yes, but so much had changed in a week.
    “The food is here,” Cami said, standing up.
    Mak nodded her head and wrote down Jared’s name on her to-do list. She should meet up with him, after all she had no reason not to. She’d call him back tomorrow and agree to a drink. God knew she could use one to relax after the past few days. She felt wound up like a jack-in-the-box ready to spring out, scaring the living hell out of whoever was around.
    While Cami was out of the room, she reopened the browser and at the same time her mind repeated the words: Forget him.
    She did it anyway, quickly browsing through the articles. She doubted he would be mentioned in any of the speculatory pieces on Jayce’s family so she kept scrolling until she came across the articles from Kyoji’s funeral. There it was: a picture of Jayce, Zahra, and James. Given the angle of the photo, the camera was taken from the right side of the path that led to the temple. Jayce’s and Zahra’s bodies were obscured by