Peril for Your Thoughts (Mind Reader Mystery) (18 page)

The bathroom door burst open, and the steam in the room
swirled around my head.

“We heard the scream and came as quickly as we could!” Jaz
blurted, then jerked to a stop. “Whoa….” She gaped at the sight of me standing
in the bathroom, wrinkled and disheveled. My hair was falling out of its
chignon as I held an empty glass of wine in one hand, a full beer in the other,
and unattractive beads of perspiration dotted my face.

I opened my mouth to speak, but my mind proceeded to go
blank.

“You’re a hot mess if ever I saw one.” Her gaze dropped to
the boxers on the floor, and her eyebrows arched higher.

I slid the boxers behind me with my toe and then pressed my
lips together before I said or did anything to make me look even guiltier.
I hadn’t done anything … well, okay, I guess I had … but certainly not what she
was thinking, judging by the expression on her perfectly made-up,
non-disheveled face.

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 for 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.