Chapter Ten
Ten
“What the hell happened when Rivington tried to kiss you the last time you read a scene for him?” Luke asked.
Sophy focused on the view of the road through the windshield of the SUV. Bruce was riding in the back seat, front paws braced on the console. He was clearly thrilled with the outing. Mack was ahead of them, leading the way to the site in his vehicle.
She was too warm because she was dressed for the read in her usual gear—long down coat and boots—but it was morning, not the middle of the night.
The sun streaming through the windows of the SUV was heating the interior.
The conversation was making things worse because it was awkward.
Embarrassing. She could feel herself turning pink. Or a blotchy red. Probably blotchy red.
“So you did overhear that conversation in the kitchen,” she said.
“Hard not to. The house isn’t that big.”
“If they are standing too close, some men and some women sometimes get…excited…when I come out of a trance.”
“Sexually.”
She cleared her throat. “Well, yes. There’s a lot of energy in my aura in those first few minutes. It can send mixed signals.”
“Rivington took advantage of the mixed signals?”
She wasn’t sure how to respond to that. Did she even want to respond?
“We’d had a few dates by then,” she said.
“But they had all ended before we got to the bedroom stage. I made it clear I was in no rush. I wanted to take things slowly because I thought our relationship had real potential. I didn’t want us to get distracted by sex, not if things weren’t doomed. He seemed fine with that.”
“Define potential.”
“You know what I mean. We enjoyed each other’s company. He seemed to respect my crime scene reading ability, even though he couldn’t bring himself to admit that I might have a sixth sense for the work.”
“He prefers to think that you just have a keen eye for details.”
“I’m pretty sure Mack has a little talent himself, but he writes it off as intuition. At any rate, we seemed to be moving toward a serious relationship. I decided to risk a stress test under controlled conditions.”
“You were planning to take off the sunglasses.”
“Yes, but I intended to do so slowly. Carefully. I wanted to try to explain what was happening and that it was just a matter of adrenaline and paranormal biophysics. But he grabbed me and things went horribly wrong.”
“How wrong?”
“My sunglasses flew off. I didn’t have time to explain anything. Mack saw my eyes. He looked like he’d seen a monster. He leaped back, stumbled, and fell. I scrambled around trying to find my glasses. But they had skidded under a table. I finally got them on but by then it was too late.”
“He ran screaming into the night?”
She winced. “No. He’s a homicide detective. Worked in San Francisco. He’s seen some scary stuff. He didn’t scream, but he was badly shaken. I knew the relationship was over.”
“A failed experiment that didn’t even get off the ground.”
“That’s a very cynical way of looking at it,” she said, annoyed. “It makes me wonder, again, why you didn’t have a problem with my eyes last night.”
“I told you, I apparently have some immunity.”
“I’m not sure I’m buying that. I know you’ve been labeled No-Talent Wells.”
He groaned. “Some nicknames really stick.”
“Trust me, I’m aware of that. They call me the Housekeeper, remember? But here’s the thing. Aunt Bea has advised Chloe and me not to believe everything we heard about the Wells family.” Sophy paused deliberately. “Something to do with their reputation for secrecy, I believe.”
“This isn’t a good time to go into the feud.”
“True,” she admitted. She reached over to rub Bruce’s ears. “You mentioned your psychic-grade vision. Is there anything else I should know about your paranormal profile?”
“Nope. I’m just good at connecting dots,” he said. “It’s not a talent—more like a character flaw.”
“Why do you say that?”
He hesitated so long she wondered if she would get an answer.
“Sometimes,” he said finally, “I’m afraid that one of these days I will start seeing connections that aren’t real.”
“Ah, got it,” she said. “I wouldn’t worry about that, if I were you.”
He shot her a wary look. “Why not?”
“If you ever get concerned, you can hire me or Chloe or Aunt Bea to tell you if you’re in danger of falling down a conspiracy rabbit hole.”
“What makes you three experts?”
“We’re librarians. We are duty-bound to establish the credibility of sources. We know how to do research. We can help you confirm or dismiss your theories.”
He concentrated on his driving for a moment. Then his mouth twitched a little in a small smile. “At triple the usual rates?”
“Of course. I told you, special prices for members of the Wells family.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Luke said. In the blink of an eye, he was all business again. “Here we go. Rivington is turning onto Hudson Road. Whatever happens, remember our number one priority.”
“Protect the families.”
“This isn’t only about protecting Deke and Bea. We’ll be doing Rivington a very big favor, because he’ll be in way over his head if it turns out the runner was murdered by paranormal means.”
“I know,” she said.
They followed Mack onto Hudson Road. Luke stopped the SUV behind the other vehicle. He rested his hands on the wheel for a moment and studied the scene. “If this was a murder, whoever dumped the body didn’t even try to hide it.”
“No,” she said.
Luke climbed out. Bruce bounded across the console and onto the ground.
Sophy took off her regular glasses and let them dangle on the rhinestone chain.
She replaced them with the oversized sunglasses.
The visions were never as strong in daylight as they were after dark, and neither was the fever.
But she knew from past experience that she would still get the scary eyes.
She got out of the passenger seat and joined Luke and Bruce. They all walked toward Mack, who was waiting beside his vehicle.
“Why the Hollywood shades?” Luke asked quietly. “You said Rivington has seen your trance eyes.”
“I’d rather not go through that embarrassing scene again. Oddly enough, it’s hard on my ego when people lock eyes with me and then proceed to panic. Go figure.”
“Your eyes didn’t bother me last night.”
“Yes, well, evidently you’re different.”
“As in, not normal?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“I know what Mack saw when he got a good look at your trance eyes,” Luke said, “because I’m pretty sure I saw the same thing.”
She stopped in mid-step. Shocked. “How bad was it?”
“It wasn’t bad at all.”
“What did you see?”
Luke smiled an edgy smile that sent a little flash of lightning across her senses. “I saw power,” he said, “a lot of it. And it was sexy as hell.”