by Ann Charles
I’d made a wrong choice, and it had destroyed not just my own life, but my parents’ too. The self-loathing I’d lived with for many, many moons resurfaced, making my chest ache again, the wound re-opened.
I cleared my throat. “I told you, I don’t know who this Nora Mai woman is.”
“Clint seemed to.”
My breath caught. “He did?” I tried to keep the quivering I felt clear to my fingertips out of my voice.
“Her name was written on the back of a circus flier we found in his tent.”
What flier? Why my name? Who had written it? Clint? Someone else? Someone who knew about the bounty on my head?
“That’s intriguing,” I said in a pseudo-bored tone.
“Very intriguing, especially considering that it was one of the fliers Ming had made up advertising your services.”
Ahhh, so that was why Bruno was sniffing at my door, throwing my real name around, fishing for reactions.
I was more concerned about how Clint had come across my real name. Had he been looking into my past, or had someone else been asking him about it?
No matter the answer, I had to leave as soon as tonight’s show was over. I’d take Ol’ Blue and whatever else I could fit in one bag and catch the next bus out of town. Better yet, I’d hitch a ride on a freight train. That would leave even less of a trail.
“Electra,” Bruno said, drawing my gaze. “Tell me.”
I tried to smile. “There’s nothing to tell.”
He came closer. “Tell me,” he said again.
“I don’t know why Clint would have a flier of mine with that name. It must be a weird coincidence.”
He took the deck of cards from my hand. “Tell me.”
The temptation to lean into him and hide my face in his broad chest tugged on me.
My soul mate. I sighed, shaking my head. Why now? Why here? Why Bruno?
His hands framed my face, tipping it up to his. “Who is Nora Mai?”
If I told him and then disappeared with the wind …
“This Nora Mai’s death might be somehow connected to Clint’s killer,” he said. “If you have any information on her, you need to help me for Clint’s sake.”
Had my trail led the killer to Clint? Was his death my fault? My heart ached for the poor Shifter clown. “Nora Mai’s death has nothing to do with Clint’s murder,” I whispered.
His lids lowered into a squint. “How do you know?”
My guilt and fear won the game of tug-of-war in my head. I was in over my head. Before I ran off into the night, Bruno deserved to know the truth about how I might or might not fit into Clint’s murder. “Because I’m Nora Mai.”
His eyes widened, his hands falling away. “You are …” He took a step back, his face pale. “Why?”
That one word opened so many doors. I walked over to the curtain leading to the waiting room, peeking out to make sure we had no eavesdroppers. Then I returned and grabbed his arm, hauling him into my bedchamber.
“Years ago I got caught up in an ugly, sticky mess,” I said in a hushed voice. “My cousin came to me needing me to look into Ol’ Blue to help him find his girlfriend who he feared had been kidnapped. At least that was his sob story. He offered to pay me for my help. I was young, believed his angst was legit, and took his money. What I saw in my ball helped him find her.
“Only it turned out it wasn’t his girlfriend, but rather a woman who had betrayed him. A couple of days later, she turned up dead in the desert because of my naiveté. I was unsure if I should go to the police, worried they might pin the crime on me somehow since I was related to him.”
“Electra,” he started, then corrected himself. “Nora, you were innocent.”
I held up my hand to stop him. “There’s more. My cousin returned a few days after that, this time looking for an old friend. I told him I wasn’t going to help. He informed me then that he was a hit man for one of the local crime ringleaders. Then he held up a picture of my parents and told me that if I didn’t help him find this guy, he would shoot both of my parents in the head.”
Bruno sucked air between his teeth. “Fuck.”
“Exactly.” I grimaced. “My cousin promised this was the last time he’d ask for my help and offered me a big sum of money. I figured I could use the money to get away from him, but when I approached my parents about leaving the country with me, they didn’t want to go. They’d grown up in the Southwest and couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. I thought about telling them the truth about my cousin, but I decided their ignorance might be for the best in this case.”
I wrung my sweaty hands, remembering the fear and worry that I’d lived with during those dark days. “As you can imagine, it went downhill from there. My cousin kept coming back each month with a new missing person he needed me to find, promising it was the last time, paying me well each time. I told myself the people I found were criminals and probably had earned their fate, but deep down I knew better. My gift was supposed to be used to help, not kill. After a year of being manipulated and threatened at every turn, I knew I had to do something to stop him or I’d never be free.”
“So you turned him into the police and faked your death?”
“Basically. My death was one of the requirements for me to enter the Gone Were program. In order to become Madam Electra, Nora Mai had to die a public death.”
“Your parents weren’t in on it?”
I shook my head. “They think I’m dead.”
He frowned. “So, that’s your tie to Clint.”
I nodded even though it wasn’t a question. “But I didn’t realize Clint was part of the program until you told me.” I chewed on my lower lip. “Apparently, he knew about me, though.” I wondered if that was why he had been so kind to me from the start. Had Gone Were leaked my true identity to him? Was I put here under his watchful eye? He certainly made a point of keeping track of me each day, something I’d assumed was just friendly in nature. After all, Clint had kept tabs on everyone.
Bruno rubbed his jaw. “Was Clint’s death tied to you somehow? Or was it just happenstance that a bounty hunter came for him without realizing you were here, too?”
“I’ve been asking myself that since you told me about Clint being in the program.”
“No wonder you’ve been so skittish.”
“Wouldn’t you be if you were in my shoes? I was supposed to be safe here. Gone Were promised that if I did my part and put that bastard behind bars, they’d keep me alive.”
“Shit,” he said, looking around my tent. “We need to put you somewhere safer than this place. Someone could sneak in here and kill you as easily as they did Clint.”
“It doesn’t matter.” I decided to be open about my plans. “I’m leaving after tonight’s show.”
His mouth tightened. “You’re going to run away? How coyote of you.”
“Screw you, Bruno. I have to go. If I stay here and the bounty hunter finds me, I’m putting everyone around me at risk.” Especially Bruno.
“I won’t let you leave.”
“It’s not your choice.”
“I can protect you.”
“Like you protected Clint?”
He winced. “That’s not fair. I wasn’t here.”
“You can’t be everywhere at once, Bruno. If I leave, you can see if anyone else disappears to follow my trail. If they do, you’ll know who killed Clint.”
“Bad idea. If the killer follows, you are even more at risk and the criminal escapes our grasp.”
Those were two good points, damn it. “What, then? You want me to stay and be your bait?”
“I can keep you safe, Elect …” he stopped, correcting himself again. “Nora.”
“It’s not going to work.”
“You underestimate me. I may not be a purebred like you, but I can still protect you.”
I hated the frustration and hurt I heard in his tone. He didn’t understand that my reasoning had nothing to do with who his parents were. It went deeper th
an that.
“Bruno, you being a mixed breed has nothing to do with it.” My heart thumped so loudly in my chest he had to be able to hear it. “There is something else I’ve been keeping from you.”
His eyes searched mine. “You’re not really a purebred?”
“No, that’s true. I’m a full were-coyote.” I cringed in anticipation of my next blow. “I’m also your soul mate.”
He blinked, his head cocking to the side. “That’s not possible.”
“Why not?”
“Soul mates aren’t real. They’re fiction. Something they write about in those romance books Eugene and you read.”
“Soul mates are real, Bruno. They just aren’t always easy to find. Unfortunately for you, yours has a history of lying to save her fur.” I gave him a crooked smile. “And she’s a purebred with psychic abilities.”
He shook his head. “I don’t believe it.”
“Have you not been fixated with me since that first day we met?”
“Yeah, but that was because you were stealing from the monkey brothers’ food stand.”
“Oh, come on. How many times do I have to tell you that I wasn’t stealing? They told me I could have two frozen chocolate bananas because I was new.”
“The monkey brothers are never that generous.”
I threw my hands up. “You’re impossible.”
“And you’ve done nothing but lie to me from the start.”
“To protect you.”
He continued shaking his head. “I’ll admit I’ve been interested in you since that first time I found you stealing, but this thing between us is merely sexual attraction.”
“It’s more than sexual attraction, trust me.”
His gaze hardened. “What’s your game here? Are you playing up this soul mate thing in order to throw me off track somehow?”
“Damn it, Bruno. After months of shielding my scent from you, I finally come clean and you think I’m playing some fucking trick.” I bared my teeth at him, imagining giving the hard-headed Shifter a love bite right on the ass. That would teach him a thing or two about soul mates and pissing me off. “Do you think I want to have the one individual in this world I’m destined to love be you? I thought St. Bernard Shifters were supposed to be loyal and loving.” I played on his loyalty to his mother’s were-breed to give him some of his own medicine. “All I’ve gotten from you since day one was distrust and snarls.”
“I’m sorry I’m not more coyote for you, princess,” he snapped back.
That was it. I’d had enough of this shit. “Get the hell out of my tent.”
He didn’t budge. “Prove it.”
“Prove what?”
“You say you’ve been hiding your scent so I wouldn’t know you’re my soul mate. Prove it. Make me believe soul mates exist.”
“If this is some stupid trick to get me to have sex with you again …”
“I’m not looking for sex here, woman. I want the truth. I’m tired of being tricked and played by you. Show me something real.”
“Fine. Give me a second.” I turned my back to him, closing my eyes, focusing inward. One by one, I lowered what was left of the buffers I’d fixed between us, allowing my energy to flow freely, pure and straightforward.
I turned back to him. He stood where I’d left him.
I didn’t say a word. Instead, I focused on him, his strength, his loyalty, his big heart that kept him tangled up in everyone’s business. In return, I let him see the real me, lonely, sad, hungry for his love.
Holding out my hand, I said in a husky voice, “It’s nice to meet you, Bruno Maska. I’m Nora Mai.”
He dragged his gaze from my face, frowning down at my hand. Slowly, carefully, he reached out and took it. Energy sparked when our skin touched, heat flaring up my arm. Lust ran rampant through me, busting down any last remaining barriers between us. My love for him flooded my core, sending me hurtling toward a meltdown.
When his attention returned to my face, his cheeks were flushed, his eyes black with need. His breath picked up speed, his grip on my hand tightening.
“Do you feel it now?” I asked.
“You’ve been blocking this all along?” At my nod, he asked, “How?”
“It’s a trick my grandmother taught me long ago. The original purpose was to shield me from danger, but when it came to you, it was the only thing I could find that seemed to work.”
He pulled me toward him, his intent clear on his taut face. “I want to taste you.”
“Bruno, stop.”
“You don’t understand. I have to. Now.”
“I do understand. I’ve been living with this for months, remember? Why do you think I’ve been reading Eugene’s books?”
“How many?” He slid one hand around to my lower back, pressing me against him.
Oh, hell. I could feel his need, smell his desire, hear the lust in his voice. “How many what?”
“How many books?” His mouth lowered to mine.
“A lot,” I whispered, lost in his eyes.
“You should have shown me before now. I could have been taking care of you all along, both in and out of bed.”
“I’m a wanted woman,” I said, trying one last time to stop him.
“I know. I’ve wanted you since the first time I saw you.”
“Bruno, you can’t protect me. I have to leave.”
“Not without me.” His mouth came down on mine, his hands spanning my hips.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, plastering myself against him, like I had that night a month ago when I’d given into the love-lust. I sucked his tongue into my mouth, tasting him, teasing him, while my hips moved against his.
“I knew it,” he said in between kisses that were growing more frenzied by the second.
“Knew what?”
“I kept dreaming about you.” He kissed along my jaw. “About that night.” His teeth grazed my earlobe. “I couldn’t get you out of my head. I knew it was more than just great sex.” His hands slid up under my blouse, his fingers climbing my ribs. “But it was all so muddled in my head come daylight. I was going nuts, wanting you like crazy and not understanding why.”
I unfastened his jeans, even though we needed to stop. It was broad daylight and the circus gates would open any minute. “Say my name,” I ordered, sliding my hand inside his open zipper.
He kissed along my collarbone, his thumbs exploring my curves through my camisole. “Nora,” he said, his voice ragged with lust as I touched him.
I moaned in pleasure at the sound of it on his lips alone. There’d be no walking away from this now. Not without a shattered heart and way too many tears.
He lifted my shirt and bent down, taking me in his mouth through my satin camisole. “Bruno,” I gasped, squeezing and rubbing him with the heel of my palm. “I want—”
“Hello?” a voice called from the other side of the curtain. “Madam Electra, are you in here?”
Bruno froze, his forehead wrinkling. Runash, he mouthed the name of the head of security.
Shit! There was no hiding from her in a tent. Besides, she’d be able to smell me. Runash was a cougar Shifter. She could smell a mouse eating cheese on the other side of the big top tent.
I stepped back from Bruno, adjusting my clothes. “I’ll be right out,” I hollered to Runash.
“I just need a few minutes of your time,” she said.
I heard her sniffing and frowned at Bruno. His scent was hard to miss, and now it would be all over me.
“What’s this about?” I called, grabbing a bottle of perfume and spritzing my neck, chest, and skirt. I sprayed in the air several times for good measure, making Bruno cringe and wave his hand in the air.
“Just a question or two,” Runash said.
I stepped through the curtain, smiling at the newest security chief. She took her job seriously, keeping her hair short in a military-style cut and wearing the word SECURITY down her thigh, on her camp shirt, and across her hard-brimmed hat.
She sniffed again, frowning toward the curtain I stepped through. “Your relationship with Clint the Clown.”
Chapter Six
“Did I interrupt something?” Runash asked, nudging her square chin toward the curtain leading to my private quarters.
“No. Bruno is looking through some of Clint’s stuff from the box Kenneth sent over.” I lied smoothly, because while she might have a better sense of smell, I was a professional trickster. “I moved him behind the curtain because we’re opening early today, as you know.”
She nodded, sitting down in the chair reserved for paying clients. “I’d prefer we have this meeting in private.”
Bruno stepped out from my bedchamber, his face set. “Why would I need to leave, Runash?” he asked in lieu of a greeting. “You and I are both set on finding the same answer—who killed Clint.”
“Yes, but judging from the scent in the air, Electra has swayed you into believing she is innocent.”
My neck warmed at her hint at the smell of sex in the air. Rather than deny the truth, I owned up to it. “There wasn’t any swaying necessary. Bruno and I have been lovers for a while now.”
Her dark blond eyebrows climbed up her forehead. “You two have been keeping secrets,” she accused.
“Our private life is nobody’s business,” Bruno said with a calm I didn’t feel myself. “If you believe my relationship with Electra compromises my ability to find Clint’s killer, you’ll need to take that up with the owner. In the meantime, I’ll remind you that not only did the owner advise me to seek Electra’s counsel, but that I am lead on this murder case. Your role is only to assist me, as needed.”
Runash’s lids lowered into a menacing glare for a moment, then she blinked it away and gave him a brittle smile. “Duly noted.”
“What is your question?” I asked, bringing the focus back to her reason for showing up in my tent.
“According to Ming, the clown and you were together a lot the last few weeks of his life.” She sent a sideways glance toward Bruno, obviously trying to goad a jealous response from him. “Day and night.”