Psychic Series Boxset: Books 1-3

by Lisa Freed

  “New rooms? Why?” His hand smoothed at his already perfectly gelled in place hair and I saw his eyes move over my head and fix on something behind me.

  “Tall man with a full head of gray hair?” I asked, not bothering to turn around.

  “What?” His eyes jumped back to me, a bit of color bloomed in his tan cheeks as his tongue darted out to lick at his upper lip. “Let’s go inside your room okay?”

  I had the new room keys in hand so foolishly tried one of them before remembering that the key for this room was in my purse. And as often was the case, it had made its way to the bottom of the bag where it hid. Digging through it, I could hear Mateo’s breathing speed up as he stood next to me. He was closer than he had ever been before and I could feel the air moving around him in waves from the slight tremors of his body.

  “Are you okay?” I asked, locating the right key and inserting it into the lock.

  “Yes, yes…” Mateo said, even as his breath whooshed in and out.

  The door opened inward and I stepped inside with Mateo crowding right behind me. I had barely gotten the key out of the lock when he grabbed the door from me and slammed it shut.

  “What the hell is going on?” Lance yelled, bouncing up from his position on the bed, the water bottle clenched in his left hand with water squirting out the top onto his pants and the bed’s comforter.

  Mateo had his back pressed against the closed door, his chest visibly rising and falling.

  “It’s fine, Lance,” I say, grabbing the open water bottle from him and closing it with the bottle top that was on the nightstand. We were switching rooms so I wasn’t that concerned over the wet comforter. “This is Mateo.”

  I look over at Mateo, feeling my brows go up. He looked a lot better than he had just a moment ago in the hall. I had assumed he saw the same ghost that rode up in the elevator with me, but surely the guy wasn’t that scary. Was he? And I thought Mateo said he blocked them out. Hmmm…. another lie?

  “Mateo, there are bottles of water on the table if you need one,” I offered.

  “Yes, thank you.” He went over and without stopping emptied one in a single chug.

  “Who’s Mateo?” Lance asked, sounding rather peevish as he flapped at the wet material of his pants.

  “You know how Victor helped you? Well, Mateo has been my personal guide while I’ve been in Greece.” I gave Mateo a wink.

  “Why does he keep looking at me like that?”

  Mateo was eying Lance with some intensity. He tossed his empty water bottle in the trash then looked at Lance again. “I’ve never seen a person who’s been previously possessed before.” He walked closer to Lance as if to get a better view.

  “What does that mean?” Lance snapped, getting off the bed and moving away from Mateo’s swerving gaze.

  Those intense dark eyes moved to land on me. “He doesn’t know?”

  “Know what?” Lance demanded.

  I put my back to Lance and faced Mateo. “No,” I said simply putting a finger to my lips in the Shhhh sign.

  “Know what?” Lance repeated, louder this time.

  I pivoted around to Lance “You don’t know when our flight home is, neither do I. We’ll look into that and get it booked when I’m done talking with Mateo.” I gave Lance a bright smile.

  “Huh, oh, yeah, we do need that. I don’t think I have any luggage, maybe I was mugged.”

  “I think you were,” I said gently. “Why don’t you watch some more TV while Mateo and I chat over on the balcony?”

  “I could do that,” Lance said, walking over to the bed and sitting down. “Hey, it’s wet here!”

  Mateo had already moved over to the sliding glass door leading to the small balcony and I followed quickly behind him, shutting the door once we were both out.

  “Is he always like that?” Mateo asked, peering around me to look in at Lance who had hopped over to the dry side of the bed.

  “No, Victor said Lance’s been off since he left his body. I think all that body snatching has affected Lance.”

  “And where is Victor now?” Mateo questioned.

  “As far as I know, still at his hotel.” I turned away to look out over the city, feeling the warm early afternoon sun beating down on my bare arms.

  “And his plans?”

  “He said he was going to visit his family.”

  “We could find out his brother’s phone number and call him.” Mateo offered.

  “And do what?” I countered. “People don’t like bad news from the dead or news that the brother they killed now has a human body and wants to come over for a family dinner.”

  “You said he has a body? Whose? And why did he leave Lance’s?” Mateo stopped watching Lance and sat down at one of the small patio chairs.

  I sat but my leg bounced restlessly. “He said Lance stood out too much, he has some scary drug dealer’s body now.” I laughed. “That part shouldn’t surprise me, with Victor being a drug dealer and all. I guess this guy is a somehow hooked up with his family.”

  “That would make sense,” Mateo mused, his head turning back to the sliding glass door as Lance stood in front of it staring out at us.

  I got up and opened the door.

  “I’m hungry,” Lance announced before turning and going back to slump on the bed.

  “Please come to lunch with us,” I begged Mateo.

  “Absolutely. Don’t worry, Teresa. You got Lance back and we’ll figure out if anything more needs to be done about Victor.”

  “Thank you,” I whispered, resisting the almost overwhelming urge to throw myself at him for a hug. I was not a big hug person but lately, I could fully appreciate how powerful they were. John was in for a huge hug when I got home.

  With Mateo’s help, I safely got Lance to a restaurant in the open marketplace. At first, he whined about having to walk, but the fresh air and exercise did him good because he was considerably more himself when we claimed a small table near the street. It was Mateo that seemed to lag. He approached the door to the hotel room slowly and with obvious trepidation only seeming to relax when I opened it and declared the hallway empty. I made a strong mental note to bug him more on the subject of ghosts when Lance wasn’t around.

  Mateo ordered for us and while he was up at the counter, Lance leaned close to me and whispered, “Who is this guy again and how do you know him? I don’t like him.”

  Looking up at Mateo’s broad back, I felt that warm curl of desire that pulled at me whenever I stopped and thought about him. When he turned and threw me a beautiful smile, my toes curled up in my sneakers.

  What was there not to like about Mateo? Lance, befuddled or not, was clearly jealous.

  My theory was reinforced during the meal. It was awkward, no way around it. Lance whined about the food, the whole wasted trip, his lack of memory, phone, on and on he went, sometimes with his mouth full of salad. And when he wasn’t complaining he was shooting nasty looks at Mateo, who for his part, largely ignored Lance.

  I found I had little pity for him, though I really should. I mean the poor guy had almost a week of his life taken from him and if anyone deserved to grumble and lament, Lance certainly did.

  “So, what’s the plan?” Mateo asked me.

  I blinked and continued chewing on my mouthful of salad. Did he really think I’d come up with something in the last thirty minutes?

  “I don’t know. I got Lance back, but Victor has a body and is planning-I don’t fully know what.”

  Mateo leaned closer. “You said he’s visiting his brother?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, that’s a clue,” Mateo whispered.

  “Yes, but there’s nothing I can do about that,” I whispered back. “Remember, we already went over this.”

  A waiter approached our table and Lance began talking with him, I noticed this out of the corner of my eye but didn’t see the harm.

  “We could stake out the brother’s house…what’s his name?”

  “Andre,” I su
pplied.

  “Andre and the sunbathing wife,” Mateo put in with a grin.

  My eyes narrowed. He liked those pictures a tad too much. A thud sounded on the table and my eyes moved over to Lance who was presently drinking down a large gulp of bright maroon wine.

  Where had he gotten that?! I made a swipe for the glass but Lance was too quick for me and finished it in a noisy slurp.

  “Teresa, maybe you should get Lance home to America and I’ll worry about Victor for you?”

  My gaze moved back to Mateo briefly but I wisely looked over at Lance again and caught him pulling a bottle from his lap and drinking directly from it.

  “Lance!” I grabbed it and managed to pull it away from his mouth but not his hand. We played tug of war with it for a few seconds before Mateo got up and wrestled it away then returned to his seat.

  “Really?” I asked Mateo, my eyes volleying between him and Lance who was lifting his glass and trying to coax the last few stubborn drops of wine into his mouth.

  My mind was torn. I needed to get Lance home, my blood pressure and stress level have zoomed up after only an hour or so in his company. But I still felt like Victor was my responsibility.

  Mateo put the wine bottle on the table in front of him, leaning forward slightly in his seat, his dark eyes intent on my face. “Teresa, I’m right here in Athens. I have some free time and you can’t stay here indefinitely.”

  It made sense, it really did.

  “You seriously don’t mind?”

  A large grin lit Mateo’s handsome face. “This is the most excitement I’ve had in quite a while. It will be an adventure for me.”

  I spared a glance at Lance who was looking around at the other early lunch goers.

  “What about earlier? Something spooked you in the hotel’s hall.” This was a test, could I really trust Mateo.

  He sat back in his seat abruptly. “You already know why. I block them, he shouldn’t have been able to get in. I’m not brave, like you, Teresa.” His eyes studied the hard-plastic tabletop.

  I wanted to reach out and touch him, actually, I wanted to do a lot more than that but restrained myself. “Mateo, it’s not a matter of being brave, it’s just I’m used to them. I fully understand though. Thank you for being honest with me.”

  His eyes rose, something glimmered in their dark depths and for a wild moment, I thought he would lean over and kiss me.

  Instead, his head whipped around to the left and he got up from the table. It was then I realized Lance was no longer with us. He had joined a group of four young women and appeared to be trying to mooch a glass of wine from their bottle.

  Mateo seized him by the arm and brought him, protesting loudly, back to our table.

  I jumped up and tossed my remaining Euros on the table, it wasn’t enough. Biting my lower lip, I looked at Mateo who was a step ahead of me and already pulling some Euros from his wallet with his free hand. He kept a firm hold on Lance with his other and somehow juggled both the struggling man and his wallet.

  Looping my right arm through Lance’s left, we left the market, walking as rapidly as Lance’s stumbling feet tolerated.

  “Teresa, what we were talking about?”

  Inwardly, I sighed. There was really no choice. I couldn’t send Lance back on an international flight by himself and no way did I want to babysit him or drag him all over Athens to check up on Victor. “You’ll keep me updated?”

  “On any developments. Besides, maybe he’s happy in his current body and you’ll never hear from him again,” Mateo said smoothly.

  “Yes,” I replied, not finding as much pleasure in that idea as Mateo might have thought I would. Victor, though a troublemaking jerk at times, was still my friend and had been for almost ten years. Him popping in and out of my life was the norm and I looked forward to the times he was in.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Back in the room, Lance sat on the bed watching TV while I was on my phone trying to get us booked on a flight back home, the sooner the better. Thankfully, the hotel had excellent WIFI and could do it entirely online. Otherwise, I might have had to ask Mateo to take over.

  Either the wine he had guzzled at lunch hit him hard or it was a combination of the scotch from this morning coupled with the wine that made Lance a sad, mopey drunk. It didn’t matter which it was, the effect wasn’t pretty.

  “We used to date,” Lance said to the room. “But I mentioned marriage and kids and boom! She dumps me and never wants to talk to me again.”

  Mateo had a bottle of water in hand and was leaning against the far wall keeping an eye on Lance while glancing at the TV from time to time. I noticed Lance had captured his full attention though with his comments.

  “You offer a woman everything and they toss it back in your face. Trust fund girls. Should have known I wasn’t good enough.”

  Harsh sobs broke the sudden silence. I looked at Mateo who was throwing me panicky looks and hand gestures, then over at Lance who was blubbering and wiping his face with the edge of his shirt.

  I rolled my tight shoulders but remained hunched over my phone, trying to swipe through the options as fast as I could.

  “Oh, sheesh!” Mateo’s voice shot up as Lance popped up off the bed and dashed for the bathroom. Loud, stomach-churning puking sounds carried out to us.

  “I hope that’s in the toilet,” I muttered, my words muffled by my hand over my mouth in disgust.

  Mateo held his large, long-fingered hands up in front of him. “Hey, I’m not checking. He’s your ex-boyfriend.”

  I went to toss my phone down on the bed but thought better of it, I didn’t want to start this process over again. I carefully put it on the desk, shot Mateo a moue and headed toward the closed bathroom door. Hand on the doorknob, I heard the sound of the shower starting.

  Easing open the door gingerly, I didn’t see a putrid mess on the floor, but before relief flooded me, I also noticed the absence of Lance’s dirty clothes. I was amazingly calm as I reached out a hand and pulled back the thin, white shower curtain.

  “What are you doing?” I yelled at Lance, who was fully clothed in the shower and rubbing white foamy bubbles all over his shirt.

  “Hey, beautiful,” Lance said, grabbing at my now almost empty bottle of shampoo and squirting the remainder of it in his palm. “I got a little sick, sorry about that. So gotta clean up.”

  I tugged the curtain closed and left the bathroom, my fingers massaging my forehead in tiny, tight circles.

  “He okay?” Mateo asked, trying to look away but I caught the small smirk on his face before he did.

  “He’ll be fine. I’m going to need you to go buy him some clean clothes though.”

  He faced me again, inky brows raised up. “Shirt and pants?”

  “And socks, shoes, and underwear, please.”

  Mateo headed to the door and fired off a parting shot, “However did you resist marrying that jerk?” He was still laughing as the door closed behind him.

  I grabbed my phone off the desk and plopped down on the bed. I was not happy. Not with Mateo, Lance, nor Victor. My life would be a whole lot easier without men. I should just stick with cats.

  To my relief, something was finally going my way, I could get us on a flight leaving in four hours. It would be tight but if I called for a taxi the minute Mateo returned with the clothes…yes! I hit purchase and jumped off the bed to begin repacking.

  Lance came out of the bathroom while I was stuffing a handful of clean clothes into my suitcase. I looked up and saw him on the bed, one of the small towels wrapped snugly around his lean waist and his hairy junk hanging out, fully exposed.

  “Where did what’s his name go?”

  I tried to ignore his package and his question, instead I went into the bathroom and found his clothes scattered all around in big wet puddles. Grabbing the remaining towels, I used one to pick up his clothes and deposited each item in the soiled TP bin. The other one I tried to soak up the water with but not even that and the bathm
at were enough. The floors were still shiny with smeared water.

  I rubbed my damp hands on my dress and realized I needed to change into something comfortable and stretchy before the flight.

  Back in the bedroom, I found Lance exactly where I left him except now he was minus the towel, which he was using to dry his hand. I’ll admit with the towel over his head shielding his eyes from seeing what I was doing I snuck a few more peeks at his crotch. Having been intimately acquainted with it, I rather missed it and all the wonderful things his dick made me feel.

  “Why are you packing?” Lance asked, pulling the towel off his head, his blue eyes soft and questioning.

  I whirled around to grab another handful of clothes. “We’re going home, very soon.”

  “Thank goodness! This trip has been a nightmare! Pam dumped me. I got mugged. If that nice Victor guy hadn’t helped me, no clue what I would have done.”

  “Pam? Who’s Pam?” I dropped my clothes, my eyes pinned to his face with his rapidly filling with bright red blood.

  I had always found a blush so appealing on Lance, it made him look so much younger and more vulnerable. I shook my head to dispel those crazy thoughts. It was bad enough remembering how awesome in bed he was, I couldn’t afford to fall for his other charms again.

  “Ahh. She’s a paralegal in the firm…”

  “And?”

  “Well,” Lance began fidgeting with the towel. He stood up and wrapped it securely around his waist, then moved it so that the opening was near his leg, not his crotch. “I kinda slept with her after we broke up,” he admitted not looking at me.

  That perfume on his bed! Another woman! My temper sputtered to life, but I wrestled it down. What did it matter? We were over and it’s not like he had cheated on me.

  “So, what does Pam have to do with you being here if she dumped you?”

  “I don’t know,” he rubbed at his face which had a healthy growth of stubble going on. “Maybe she drugged me or something and convinced me to go to Greece.”

  I busted out laughing. “Pam sounds like a real winner if you think she’s capable of this,” I wheezed out.