Peril for Your Thoughts (Mind Reader Mystery)

by Kari Lee Townsend

  Nik had already shut the water off and finally opened the shower curtain with a towel wrapped around his waist, thank goodness. He hadn’t dried off. Drops of watered dripped from his hair as though he’d quickly shaken it, streaming down his bronzed body in small rivulets. Great! That made me guilty as charged.

  Boomer came to a stop right behind Jaz, wearing the same expression she had worn a moment ago, with a firm grip on Wolfgang. The beast whined harder when he spotted me. His massive body started his usual shake and quiver, and I knew what was about to happen before he’d so much as twitched. My eyes zeroed into tunnel vision, and everything happened so fast. The St. Bernard lunged, and I yelped, hopping into the tub right behind Nik. I wrapped my arms around his slippery wet torso, which thoroughly soaked my white silk blouse, as I tried to climb his back, which felt like the Rocky Mountains.

  Not an easy task in a pencil skirt, mind you.

  “What are you waiting for? Save me,” I shrieked, scratching him with my nails as I tried to get a better grip. Panic tended to push a normally sane person to near hysteria, and right now I was teetering on the edge of lunacy.

  Save you? More like save me. He grunted. First Ma and now Kalli. Full Greek, half Greek, non-Greek … it doesn’t matter. These women are crazy! “He’s not going to get you, but you’re going to get a big surprise if you don’t quit wiggling,” Nik replied in exasperation, holding his towel in place before I kicked it off, which I was dangerously close to doing as I dug my toes into anything that might give me a better foothold. He stilled my progress with his other hand, by gripping my ankle. “Boomer, for Pete’s sake, take Wolf outside! Some backup you are, partner.”

  Boomer cursed under his breath. “At least someone’s getting lucky,” he muttered as he walked away to do Nik’s bidding.

  Lucky? I’ll pass. If this is lucky, then I’d rather be shot after the day I’ve had, Nik thought, and then said, “You can get down now, Ballas. The big bad wolf is gone. You’re safe.”

  “Good. I don’t much care for crazy men and their insane dogs,” I replied in a huff and shimmied down his back, then stepped out of the tub, smoothing my skirt as I tried to regain my dignity.

  He gave me an odd and definitely suspicious look over my choice of words, and I didn’t even care if he found out about my gift, which did not feel like a gift at this point. He made me so mad. He pushed my buttons even further when his gaze dropped to my breasts. I glanced down and gasped, crossing my arms over my shirt as I realized I looked like the winner of a wet t-shirt contest. There was literally nothing left to the imagination when a white silk shirt and lace bra got wet.

  I cringed. “Do you mind?”

  “Sorry.” He looked away, flushing slightly. “Call it a reflex.”

  Ugh, men!

  “Would someone please tell me what’s going on?” Jaz asked. “And why is it I always seem to be the last one to find out?”

  “Yeah,” Boomer said as he joined her in the hallway. His eyes bugged, making me acutely aware that my crossed arms didn’t cover much.

  I grabbed the hand towel by the sink and held it in front of me. “Seriously?” I snapped. “What is it with you guys?”

  “Sorry. Call it—”

  “A reflex,” I cut him off with an eye roll. “So I’ve heard.”

  “I was going to say call it a libido thing, but a reflex works too when you put all that on display.”

  “I did not put anything on display, thank you very much,” I ground out.

  “And why the hell are you two drinking in the bathroom?” he said with a puckered brow as if I hadn’t uttered a word. “Doesn’t washing each other’s backs work better if you’re both in the shower?”

  “You’re such an animal.” Jaz rolled her eyes.

  “If I recall, you’re the one with claws,” he replied, leaning over her menacingly, “and they definitely came out tonight.”

  “Wait, when?” I asked, for the first time noticing she didn’t look as put together as I thought. Her makeup was a bit smudged, her clothes a tad rumpled, and her hair ever so slightly out of place. The average person might not notice, but I knew Jaz. She didn’t go anywhere without looking picture perfect in every way.

  “You first.” Jaz shot me a sharp look that said, Don’t change the subject, missy, you’re not getting off that easy.

  “Yeah.” Boomer focused his frustration with Jaz on Nik and me. “I want to know why you two were playing spin the bottle in the bathroom while I was out playing cops and robbers.”

  “Oh, for the love of Zeus, that’s not what we were doing,” I said.

  “Then what exactly were you doing?” Jaz asked.

  “Great question,” Nik said, teaming up with them and staring me down.

  “Which I will gladly answer if the lynch mob will allow me to change,” I replied.

  “I don’t know. I kind of like the view,” Boomer smirked.

  “I’ll take that beer now,” Nik said, glaring at Boomer as he added, “and meet this knucklehead and you ladies at your place in five after I do the same. The sun’s long gone.” He glanced at my wet blouse again as he said, “It’s starting to rain.” At first I thought he was making some comment about my blouse being wet and him being in the towel, but then he lifted his gaze to my eyes as he finished with, “I need to let Wolf back in.”

  That was all I needed to hear.

  Five minutes later after we were all dry, fully clothed, and safe, the four of us sat at Jaz’s kitchen table. The guys each had a cold beer, while Jaz and I were on glass number two from the rest of the bottle of wine.

  I had on my yoga pants, a warm fleece pullover, fuzzy socks, and the thickest bra I could find. Nik had on an old pair of police academy sweats and a worn out T-shirt that somehow looked sexy. Or maybe it was the way he had towel dried his hair, which curled up at the ends in the most adorable way. Or the fact that he smelled amazing. How could he make me mad at him one minute and yet want him the next? Maybe I really did have something wrong with me—other than the usual, that is. My eyes locked with his, and his crinkled at the corners until I looked away.

  “I’ll go first since I have a feeling our story is much shorter and less interesting than yours,” Boomer said, eyeing Nik and me like we were unwrapped Christmas presents, and he had the itch to sneak a peek.

  “Fire away,” Nik said, and then took a sip of his longneck before adding, “This ought to be good. Let me guess, your story involves one Jazlyn Alvarez.”

  “It’s a free country.” She inspected her perfectly manicured nails. “I have a right to go shopping like anyone else.”

  “Yes, but you don’t have a right to disturb the peace,” Boomer replied, his tone turning bitter as he rolled up the sleeves of his work shirt and loosened his tie. “I have a job to do, which involves trying to save your pretty little hide, but you won’t let anyone do that. You’re so damn stubborn you just have to try to do everything yourself, don’t you?”

  “I knew you still thought I was pretty,” Jaz said teasingly, then took a dainty sip of her wine.

  “Not gonna work this time, Alvarez,” Boomer growled.

  “You two done?” Nik asked dryly.

  “Jaz, I told you to stay away from Vixen,” I chimed in.

  “And I did … at first, anyway.” She looked down in a guilty fashion. “But you were gone so long. I can’t help it I got worried. I went to get my nails done and tried to stay out of it, but then I saw Ana’s front window display with my fabulous finds, and well, I kind of sort of lost it.”

  “That’s putting it mildly, considering you caused a big scene and would have trashed her window if it wasn’t for Max.” Boomer shook his head, then looked at Nik. “She’s lucky she’s friends with Max Rolland. He somehow talked Ana out of pressing charges, or Jaz here would have found herself behind bars again. That’s all we would need for the captain to see.”

  Nik scrubbed his face and muttered a curse behind his hand.

  “I didn’t ask f
or your help,” Jaz said quietly, then looked us each in the eye one by one before raising her chin and adding, “Any of you.”

  “No, you didn’t,” Boomer replied in a serious tone. “But sometimes you need it, whether or not you want to admit it. We all do.” He reached out and squeezed her hand. “You need to start letting us help you before it’s too late.”

  “Okay,” she said, staring down at their joined hands and nodding her head, then she sat up straight, pulled her hand away, and took a deep breath. “But enough about me.”

  “I agree. Enough about Jaz,” Nik said, nailing me with a hard look. “What I want to know is what Kalli was doing at Vixen when I specifically told her to stay out of our way and away from this case.”

  “What she said,” I gestured to Jaz. “It’s a free country, and I was just doing some shopping.”

  “I knew you agreeing so quickly with me to behave was too good to be true.”

  “All I did was look around. I wanted to see how Jaz’s finds were doing, which they rocked by the way. But I was surprised to see Johnny slip into Ana’s back room. He didn’t look too happy. Now I know why. She used him to get at Jaz’s collection, and then discarded him like a broken zipper. I just can’t believe they’re each other’s alibis.” I shuddered, trying not to relive in mind what I’d seen.

  Nik had just taken a sip of his beer, which he promptly spit all over as he sputtered, “You watched the tape?” He used the back of his hand to wipe his gaping mouth as the judge’s gavel slammed “guilty” in my head, and I resisted the urge to run and grab the mop or sanitary wipes.

  I jerked back from the table to avoid the drops, and my chair tipped over. Jaz jumped up and wiped down the table with disinfectant as though it had become second nature, bless the woman. “What do you mean, they’re each other’s alibis?”

  “Wait, what tape?” Boomer asked. “And what the hell were you doing in his bathroom?”

  “I was bringing a peace offering after our argument, when his beast scared me.”

  “His beast, huh…”

  Nik ignored that comment and explained everything we’d found out about Ana and Johnny. And while Ana might be Jaz’s arch nemesis and Johnny might be out for revenge, neither one had done anything illegal. The time stamp on the surveillance tape proved neither one could be the killer. And While Ana beat Jaz to the punch in showcasing the fabulous finds, she hadn’t actually stolen anything. She’d simply been tipped off on what and where to order, but she refused to tell who the real mole was. I’d kind of suspected that anyway because Johnny wasn’t smart enough to be the mole.

  “So where does that leave us?” I asked.

  “Back to there is no us,” Nik said firmly. “You stay out of trouble for real this time,” he said to me, then gave Jaz a stern look as he added, “and you let us help you by doing our jobs.”

  “You get that, Alvarez?” Boomer asked.

  “Oh, I get it, Matheson. And I promise you this. You won’t be getting any from me anytime soon.”

  My jaw fell open.

  Nik’s eyebrows shot up.

  Boomer’s eyes narrowed.

  “Any more trouble from me, that is.” Jaz scowled, but I could see the sparkle in her eyes. “Geez, people, get your minds out of the gutter. Apparently Kalli isn’t the only one with spring fever.”

  “Did you hear the news?” my mother said through the phone on Thursday morning.

  “Ma, I have two days until my deadline to get my book of designs done. I haven’t heard anything but the pounding in my head.”

  “I’m sure that’s what that poor widow said this morning.” My mother tsked.

  “What do mean?” I took a sip of strong coffee, knowing I was going to need it to get through this conversation with my mother. Actually, any conversation with my mother.

  “That outsider, Wilma Parks.”

  “I pretty much figured out the who by the word widow. It’s the what I’m asking about.”

  “The what? What are you talking about?”

  “The news, Ma! You’re the one who called me. Are you ever going to tell me or just keep torturing me?”

  “You’re so touchy. Are you sure you’re over the rabies?”

  “Don’t start on that again, or I’m seriously going to lose it.” I dumped my cup in the sink, my stomach turning sour.

  “Hmph! If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you were going through your change.”

  “I’m twenty-nine, Ma, not forty-nine.” I popped a couple of tums, hoping the lining of my stomach wall hadn’t burned off from all the acid churning about in there. Then I reached for the bottle to scan the label and make sure I hadn’t gone over the maximum dosage per time period.

  “Then start acting it and give me some grandbabies.”

  “Ma! Can we get back to the news please? The widow, her headache, what happened?”

  “Oh, yeah. The news. Now I remember,” she said, and I slapped my forehead, ready to hang up. “She fell down the stairs of The Bistro. If she had gone to Aphrodite’s, that never would have happened.” Ma sniffed sharply.

  “Was she hurt?” I asked more calmly as I strove for patience.

  “She hit her head, but the baby is fine, thank goodness. At least she’s giving her mama a grandbaby.”

  “That’s nice,” I said, trying not to groan and quickly changing the subject. “Did she say what happened?”

  “That’s the juicy part of the news. She says someone pushed her. No one was around her at the time, and she didn’t see who it was, but someone is out to get her. Poor thing, as if she hasn’t gone through enough.”

  Maybe the killer was after her for some reason. Maybe she knew something about Scott that none of us did. Or maybe she was the killer and faked her own accident to take suspicion off herself. That was a whole lot of maybes …

  Maybe it was time I started asking some serious questions.

  I made my excuses and hung up with my mother, then headed to the hospital to pay Wilma Parks a visit. Hopefully the detective hadn’t heard the news yet, and I’d slip in and out before he arrived. The last thing I needed was to get into more trouble with him. A short while later I picked up flowers in the gift shop and made my way to her floor. I knocked, and she said to come in without even looking to see who it was, making me wonder if she was expecting someone. There was a pastry box next to the bed. Obviously Maria had been there.

  “Did you forget something?” Wilma’s gaze made contact with mine, and she blinked. “How did you know I was in here?”

  “Small towns and Greek mamas.” I shrugged.

  She smiled slightly. “Enough said.” Her smile faded, replaced by a wary look as she glanced behind me. “No sidekick today?”

  “It’s just me,” I said and handed her the flowers. “These are for you.”

  She slowly took them, sniffed, and then set them on the table beside her. “Thank you. They’re lovely, though I’m not exactly sure what prompted them.”

  “Putting our differences aside, no one deserves to be pushed down the stairs, especially someone who is expecting a baby.” I went for sympathy and compassion, letting on that I believed she had really been pushed. I was alone so I would have to play good cop bad cop by myself. Maybe if I got her to let down her guard, she would slip up when I pounced. With Ana and Johnny ruled out as suspects, that only left Wilma, Bobby, and Maria. I was running out of time, and frankly, I was getting worried about Jaz.

  She relaxed. “It was traumatic, I must say. First I lost Scott, and now I nearly lost the baby. I don’t know what I would have done if that had happened.” Her words said one thing, but once again, her expression told a different story. She was hiding something, I was sure of it.

  “Well, it didn’t. You were lucky. Just focus on that. And maybe try to remember what exactly did happen.”

  “I was pushed, just like I said.”

  Her statement sounded rehearsed to me. “And that must have been so scary,” I replied carefully. “Do you have
any idea who would want you dead?”

  “Scott had a lot of enemies,” she stated with an almost bitter tone. “It could have been anyone.”

  “Do you think maybe it could have been someone who was after you?”

  Her sharp gaze focused on me, making her look like anything but a victim. “What on earth for?”

  “Well, you did just come into a lot of money from that big life insurance policy you took out right before Scott died.”

  Her guard came back up, and she stiffened. “I did that because I had just found out I was pregnant. I wanted protection for myself and the baby because I knew Scott had lots of enemies. His days were numbered a long time ago, unfortunately. And while I loved my husband, I wasn’t about to go down with his sinking ship.”

  “Or maybe you sank his ship permanently to cash in on the life insurance policy since he gambled away all of your money, especially after he found out your baby wasn’t his. He refused to let you divorce him by threatening to ruin your reputation. Somehow I doubt love is what you felt for him at the end.”

  “How dare you!”

  I jabbed my finger in her direction. “How dare you try to pin this on my best friend.”

  “How dare you obstruct justice,” said a familiar male voice from behind me, and I felt something cold and hard clamp around my wrist.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Something I should have done from the start,” Detective Nik Stevens said from beside me. “Locking you up for your own good.”

  “What?” I gulped, feeling the blood drain from my face.

  “Looks like Jaz won’t be the one to find herself back behind bars these days.”

  “You wouldn’t dare,” I said, terrified of what his thoughts might be.

  Wouldn’t dare? How about you, sneaking into my house? Now there’s a dare I never thought would happen. “You can’t say you weren’t warned.”

  “And you know what they say about payback,” I stammered, the familiar frazzle from knowing his thoughts doing all sorts of crazy things to my insides. “I would have thought you’d learned your lesson from the last time.”

  Oh, there’s some lessons I’d like to teach you, but I’m not sure you could handle them. And at the moment, I’m not sure I want to teach you them. But no matter how hard I try, I can’t get that kiss off my mind. “Care to add threatening an officer to your list of crimes?” He leaned in until our faces were about an inch apart and added in a dead serious voice, “You have the right to remain silent, Ms. Ballas. If I were you, I would.”