Davina appeared in the room and held up her bear for me to see.
“Can I ask a question?”
“Sure.”
“What was so special about the bear she had?”
He smiled for the first time since I met him. “Her mother gave her that bear the day she was born. It has a secret compartment in the back. She said that’s where she kept her hopes, her wishes, and her dreams.”
Chapter 17
I t took two weeks for everything to settle down. Priscilla was arrested and held without bail. The senator was dealing with the press, and Logan announced that Clarissa had left their security company days before she’d been arrested too.
Almost everything was right in my world again. West had been called away again but was due to return in a couple of weeks so we could start our case on Calinda Sparks and the missing diamond. I couldn’t even fathom a guess at what was more urgent than working on Calinda’s murder. It was just as well. Insight had been rewired, and I was hesitant to hook it back up and attach it to my head.
There was only one thing I had left to do. I stared up at the tall concrete building in front of me as men and women dressed casually came and went.
“I should have just mailed it,” I whispered to myself as I pulled open the big door and headed toward the receptionist desk.
The receptionist smiled as I approached. “How can I help you?”
“I’d like to see Logan Channing, please.”
“Do you have an appointment?”
“No, but if you could just tell him Cree Blue would like to speak to him and I’ll only be a minute.”
“Cree Blue?” she asked, rising from her seat. “You’re the psychic responsible for Charlie turning down the movie deal?”
“Yes,” I answered.
Her brow rose as she picked up the phone and hit some buttons. “Cree Blue is here to see you. She asked if you could spare a minute for her.”
I couldn’t hear the other end of the conversation, but I assume he agreed. The lady hung up the phone and handed me a badge. “Use that to swipe inside the elevators. Logan is on the top floor.”
“Thank you.” I smiled and headed for the elevator. I took it to the top. My stomach churned as Davina rode with me in silence. Her presence was still lingering, and until today, I had no idea why, but now I did. She still had unfinished business.
The elevator dinged, and I stepped off. Logan greeted me with an outstretched hand. “Well, this is a surprise.”
“I hope I didn’t catch you at a bad time.”
“I would say I’m happy to see you, but the last time we met, my life turned upside down.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. How are you holding up?”
“I’m a survivor, Ms. Blue. I’m dealing with it.” He sounded sincere, but I knew deep down he was just putting on a show for me probably like he did for everyone else.
“It’s okay to grieve. I’m sure your office will understand if you need to take some time,” I said, taking a seat opposite his desk.
“I’m working on it,” he said, sitting down. “I’m having to carry the load currently since Clarissa left the company.”
“Did they ever find the coins?”
“Nope. She said Davina double-crossed her and hid the coins.”
“You believe her?”
He shrugged. “The police searched both her and Davina’s places from top to bottom and never found another coin. I did find proof on her computer that she took down the bank security system, so she’s sitting in jail with my mother.”
“You lost everything, didn’t you? I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah I did, but I’m trying to look at it as my own personal do-over. No matter Davina’s flaws, all she wanted was to be happy. So I’m trying to take the same approach.”
“I hope you find it.”
“Me too.” He smiled. “So what brings you by?”
“Davina hasn’t moved on yet. She still has unfinished business.”
He stared at me as if unsure what to say, so I continued. I pulled out the bear from my purse and rested it on his desk before retaking my seat. “She wanted you to have this.”
He picked it up, and that was the first time I saw his facade slip. “Have you looked inside?”
“No. Whatever she placed inside was for you, not me or the police.”
He ripped open the Velcro on the back and pulled out a picture. He turned to show it to me. It was a picture of him and Davina smiling with a beach in the background. That was his true smile in the picture, not the one he’d greeted me with.
“You two looked happy.”
“We were.” He pulled out two pieces of paper. He unfolded one, and a tear slipped down his cheek. He cleared his throat and began to read. “I didn’t deserve you, but I loved you with every breath in my body and more than any riches I ever took. You’re the only man that I gave my heart to in my entire broken life. I promise to love you forever.”
“It’s almost like she knew she was going to die.”
He took a minute and a long deep breath before he set it down on the desk and unfolded the other piece of paper. His mouth parted as he stared at it. Any pain he was feeling was put on hold as he smiled. He turned it to face me. “She left me a treasure map.”
“Where does it lead?”
“To the church. She wrote a note at the bottom. I didn’t need the riches, all I needed was you.”
“Wow. I guess that goes to show you she was going to choose you.” I rose from my seat. “I should be going now.”
I walked to the door when Logan spoke. “I loved her with every fiber of my soul.”
I glanced back as I hit the elevator button. Davina was standing beside him with her hand covering her heart. “She loved you too.”
I rode the elevator down in silence and ignored the whispers from the employees around me as I walked out of the building and to my car. I turned the ignition and turned up the radio as I pulled out heading home.
Calinda was in the seat beside me, grinning like she belonged. “It’s almost time.”
“I know,” I answered and started down the road.
Butler’s voice carried through my speakers. I’d recognize it anywhere as I listened to the radio interview about his latest single he was playing for the first time. I slowed to the side of the road around the same spot where my tire had gone flat.
“I’d like to dedicate this song to a very special lady. Cree Blue, here’s a little Soul Food just for you.”
The familiar strums of the guitar filled the air. His voice was silky smooth. I closed my eyes, and just for a moment, that minute in time, I just breathed in the calm serenity, letting it mend the frayed fragments of my own soul.
Car brakes squealed beside me, and I slowly opened my eye, my head lolling toward the intruder infringing on my solitude.
West rolled down his window. “What are you doing, luv?”
“Soothing my soul,” I answered.
He pulled his car in front of me and got out. He held out his hand, making my brows dip.
“Take it,” he prompted.
I slid my hand into his and let him pull me out of the Jeep. He held me close as he began to sway until the song died down and other music filled the air.
“That was unexpected.”
“You were unexpected.” He rested his hand on my cheek and lowered his lips to mine. He kissed me tenderly until the first rain drop fell, breaking our connection. I glanced up at the sky as our laughter filled the air.
“Is your soul soothed?” he asked as I hopped into my Jeep.
Thank goodness I’d kept the top on this time.
I glanced at Calinda. “It’s getting there.” I grinned. “Are you ready to get to work? Calinda has been waiting.”
“Absolutely.”
The End.
Thank you for spending time with Cree and her crew. There are several books coming soon in this series. If you enjoyed the book please consider leaving a review by cli
cking here.
Next up is Dead Famous Release Date December 15, 2017
A dead actress. A missing diamond. A mystery left unsolved.
Psychic Cree Blue is at it again, and this promises to be her toughest case yet.
Normal people search for celebrities when they go to Hollywood. Cree Blue isn’t normal. She’s searching for a killer and a missing diamond whose ownership could change the destiny of a small country.
Given the mounting list of suspects and red-hot secrets with the potential to destroy lives, she’s willing to risk it all to find the truth, even if that means immersing herself in the secret lives of the rich and famous. Her only hope is that this trip to Tinsel Town doesn’t steal her life too.
Keep reading for a taste of Dead Famous
Cree Blue Psychic Eye Book 3.
This is unedited and subject to chance after my editor rips it apart.
Chapter 1
I squeezed the pillow over my face. Death by suffocation would have been more tolerable than bleeding eardrums. It was six in the freakin morning, and the obnoxious, off-key apparition haunting my room, sounded like a million cats fighting over the last can of tuna.
I yanked the pillow off my face and turned my best evil eye glare on the ghost floating across the room. Her designer ball gown didn’t faze me, nor did the tiara on her head, it was the ongoing song she was belting out at the top of her voice that was grating on my last nerve. “Calinda Sparks, would you please just SHUT UP.”
Calinda Sparks the once famous now dead movie star was a constant annoyance in my life. Her stunning beauty and highly praised screen performances would never make up for the new sounds she was tormenting me with.
Okay, so maybe I was cranky but who could blame me. This off-key dead actress needed to move into the light and out of my life.
She glanced at me and grinned as she floated across the room to stand over my bed. “People paid good money to hear me sing.”
“Go haunt them instead,” I grumbled and shoved the pillow back under my head. Rolling away from her, I closed my eyes and tried to get comfortable again. I still had four whole hours before I was needed downstairs. Four hours of dreaming of other things besides dead people, Brits, and my non-existent love life.
I closed my eyes and tried to let the dream world pull me back into its warm, inviting fold. The once lavish comforter felt itchy against my skin. The ticking of my alarm clock battled the crickets at my window continued now that the singing stopped. Both made my already pounding head hurt worse.
After thirty minutes of being able to unclaimed my perfectly good sleep, I just gave up. Today’s lack of sleep promised I was going to be a grumpy hot mess and I was blaming it all on the dead movie star.
****
I was on my second pot of coffee and cooking a proper southern breakfast my granny would have been proud of when Faraday and Freddie entered the kitchen. They were quite the pair, the almost retired cop and ex-mobster were a constant presence in my house, and this was one of the mornings that I was thankful to have some with a beating pulse to talk to.
They shared a concerned look as they entered. Faraday’s cautious steps were almost as comical as when he rested his palm on my forehead
“What are you doing?”
“I’m checking for a fever. Are you possessed?”
“I sure hope not. We can’t cure possessed, and I’m positive I don’t know any priest,” Frankie, the ex-mobster added.
I smiled and dished the eggs onto a platter and carried them into the dining room. “I wasn’t possessed, but I was woken by a ghost who loves to listen to the sound of her own voice.”
“Calinda has appeared again, has she?” West Archer asked walking into the kitchen; he stole a piece of bacon from the platter on my second pass.
Lord West Archer was my savoir and a pain in my butt. He’d dangled Calinda’s case in front of me to try and solve when the FBI had sent him my way. His disappearing and reappearing act was starting to give me whiplash-like a jolty ride at the carnival throwing me around into creepy clowns. He was here now, though. I wasn’t going to let him escape again unless Calinda Sparks promised to go with him. I’d never be that lucky, but a girl could hope, or maybe I could pay someone to invent a ghost blaster to send her off-key butt into the peaceful ever after.
I grabbed him by lapels of his suit and wrinkled the material between my fingers. “She’s driving me nuts and not in the cashew kind of way, the sucky kind of nuts that no one eats because they’re healthy for you and lacking salt.”
West’s lips twisted at the corners and he leaned in to kiss my cheek. “Find out who killed her and where she stashed the diamond and we can all enjoy the peace.”
I smacked his arm. “I’ve tried asking, and she won’t answer.”
“Lucky you, I guess you’re stuck with me a bit longer,” he teased and followed me and the others into the dining room.
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Other Books by Kate Allenton
Suggested Reading Order
BENNETT SISTERS BOX SET (Books 1-4 in one bundle, 1218 pages)
BENNETT SISTERS BOX SET VOLUME 2 (Books 5-7 in one bundle, 517 pages}
INTUITION (Book 1)
TOUCH OF FATE (Book 2)
MIND PLAY (Book 3)
THE RECKONING (Book 4)
REDEMPTION (Book 5)
CHANCE ENCOUNTERS (Book 6)
DESTINED HEARTS (Book 7)
PHANTOM PROTECTORS BOX SET (Books 1-4 in one bundle, 964 pages)
RECKLESS ABANDON (Book 1)
BETRAYAL (Book 2)
UNTAMED (Book 3)
GUIDED LOYALTY (Book 4)
CARRINGTON-HILL INVESTIGATIONS
DECEPTION (Book 1)
DEADLY DESIRE (Book 2)
SHIFTER PARADISE BOX SET
NOT MY SHIFTER/ SINFULLY CURSED
KARMA
SOPHIE MASTERSON SERIES/ DIXON SECURITY
LIFTING THE VEIL (Book 1)
BEYOND THE VEIL (Book 2)
VEILED INTENTIONS (Book 3)
VEILED THREATS (Book 4)
THE LOVE FAMILY SERIES
SKYLAR (BOOK1)
DECLAN (BOOK 2)
FLYNN (BOOK 3)
REED (BOOK 4)
LANDON (BOOK 5)
ALEXIS (BOOK 6)
GABE (BOOK 7)
JACKSON (BOOK 8)
LINKED INC.
DEADLY INTENT (BOOK 1)
PSYCHIC LINK (BOOK 2)
PSYCHIC CHARM (BOOK 3)
PSYCHIC GAMES (BOOK 4)
DEADLY DREAMS (BOOK 5)
CREE BLUE PSYCHIC EYE
DEAD WRONG (BOOK 1)
DEADLY VOWS (BOOK 2)
DEAD FAMOUS (BOOK 3)
HELL BOUND
MYSTIC TIDES BOX SET
MYSTIC LUCK BOX SET
MAID OF HONOR
HARD SHIFT
About the Author
Kate has lived in Florida for most of her entire life. She enjoys a quiet life with her husband, Michael and two kids.
Kate has pulled all-nighters finishing her favorite books and also writing them. She says she'll sleep when she's dead or when her muse stops singing off key.
She loves creating worlds full of suspense, secrets, hunky men, kick ass heroines, steamy sex and oh yeah the love of a lifetime. Not to mention an occasional ghost and other supernatural talents thrown into the mix.
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Visit Coastal Escape Publishing’s website at www.coastalescapepublishing.com
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