Peril for Your Thoughts (Mind Reader Mystery) (21 page)

His body language registered alarm once more
as he inspected my neck with a worried expression on his face, then he shined
his little flashlight in my eyes and studied my pupils. “Are you feeling dizzy
or nauseated? Headache? Between the blow to the head and the loss of oxygen,
you may have a concussion.”

“I would have died if it wasn’t for Prissy.”
I blinked. “Oh, my gosh, where is Miss Priss?”

I tried to get up, but Max blocked me. “We’ll find her.
Don’t worry.”

Boomer came from down the hall with Jaz in
tow, carrying Miss Priss, whose calico fur still stood on end. Prissy leapt
from Jaz’s arms the second she saw me. She pranced over to me in a dignified
fashion even though I could tell she was worried by her stiff gait. She was so
like me. She gingerly sat on my lap, not daring to lick my arm. She knew better,
bless her little heart. She kept everyone at bay, protecting me like my sweet
little hero. I stroked her fur so she would know it was okay.

“The coast is clear. No one is in the house
except you two,” Detective Matheson said.

“Why would someone be in the house? Nothing
looks tampered with or stolen?” Jaz said, all rumpled and looking half
asleep still.

“Because I stopped them first,” I replied
with a hoarse voice. I rubbed my neck and tried to swallow through the pain.

Max helped me to my unsteady feet.

“Holy crap, are you okay?” Jaz asked,
sounding fully alert now.

“I’ve been better.” I looked at Boomer. “Is
Bobby still in jail?”

He nodded. “And Wilma is still in the
hospital, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“So what does that mean?” Jaz asked, looking
a little concerned.

“That the killer is still out there, and
they’re not going to stop until they get what they want.”

“Which is?” Jaz asked, looking downright
scared for the first time.

“You dead or behind bars is my guess,”
Boomer answered with a serious tone. “Now are you going to listen to me?”

“What’s going on?” Nik asked, still in his
wrinkled pajamas and bare feet with dark messy hair sticking out in every
direction as he burst through the door and took in the scene before him. He
looked like he’d just rolled out of bed. I guess Jaz wasn’t the only sound
sleeper.

“Someone broke in, but Kalli stopped them,
and then they tried to kill her, but Miss Priss saved the day,” Jaz blurted,
sounding like a chipmunk near hysteria.

Boomer patted her back, and she launched
herself into his arms. He didn’t even hesitate, wrapping his strong arms around
her securely until she stopped shaking.

Nik’s piercing blue eyes settled on me, and
I wished he’d do the same. I wouldn’t be so lucky based on the hard angry look
he was nailing me with. I swayed. Max quickly caught me, leaving his arms
securely locked around me, only his touch did nothing to settle my nerves. I
didn’t have the strength or energy to move away, so I just stood there, which
did not help my situation any.

“Let me get this straight. Someone tried to
kill you, and you called him, even though I was right next door?” he asked
accusingly.

“Um, hello. I didn’t call him, I called 911.
The number one is supposed to call in an emergency. If you would just listen to
reason and quit being ridiculous, I would explain,” I said.

“No need. A picture’s worth a thousand words.
I’ll just take my ridiculous self and go, since I’m obviously not needed here,”
he responded and then walked out my door—and, I was afraid, out of my life for
good.

That’s right, pal. She’s finally mine
.

“Never gonna happen, Max,” I said and found
the strength to step out of the obviously confused EMT’s arms. So much for
being safe and so much for my seduction. I had a feeling after today, it was
never
gonna happen
with Detective Dreamy either, and at this rate, I wasn’t sure
I wanted it to now anyway. So there.

Stubborn mule!

A couple hours later, I sat waiting for my walking papers in
the hospital, hoping they would release me soon. Most people hated the smells
and sounds of a hospital, but the smells of cleaning chemicals and antiseptics
and monitoring devices actually comforted me. I just didn’t like doctors and
nurses who poked and prodded and invaded my personal space way too many times.
This time I didn’t have a choice.

Turns out I did have a concussion and a bruised neck, but
other than that, I was going to live. You’d never know it according to my
mother. She’d literally rallied the family, and they had shown up at the
hospital before the ambulance had even arrived. It was uncanny how she knew
what was happening all over the town, virtually seconds after it happened.

“She doesn’t look good, Ophelia,” my yiayia
Dido said. My pop and papou were down in the cafeteria, no doubt giving advice
on how to improve the food, but the women had refused to leave my side. “I
don’t like her color.” Yiayia shook her head, and her gray bun slipped a bit.
She pulled some aloe out of her apron pocket.
“Don’t put that stuff on me, Yiayia. I’m fine. People are going
to think we’re even weirder than we are,” I said, looking around. A couple of
nurses and doctors walked by in the hall, but no one so much as glanced inside
the room.

“Oh, posh. Who gives a whoopty whoo what
anyone thinks? Besides, I’ve changed the diapers of most of these people from
back in the day when I ran my daycare service. No one would dare say a word
against me. They know better.”

“Whoopty whoo, whoopty whoo, I give a
whoopty whoo,” Frona chanted while bouncing on my bed.

“Her color’s fine, Ma,” my mother said to
Yiayia as she grabbed Frona’s arm to still her.

“Thank you,” I said, shocked that my mother
finally agreed with me on something.

“It’s her head I worry about.” She
reached into her polyester pocket and pulled out her roll of Duct tape. “Here,
let me cover that bump.”

I knew I had spoken too soon. “Good Lord,
you two.” I slid off the bed before either of them could touch me, feeling much
stronger than earlier so long as I didn’t move too quickly. “I’m the one who’s
fine. You’re the one I’m worried about,” I said to my mother, pointing my
finger in her face.

She froze and looked alarmingly guilty,
which was
never
a good thing. Patting her black beehive, she asked,
“Why?”

“You know why.” Eleni snorted, then gave her
a whoops-I’m-sorry look.

“What aren’t you telling me?” I stated
suspiciously, crossing my arms over my hospital gown. “I saw that man follow
you yesterday from the steps of the jailhouse. He’s not from around here, yet
I’ve seen him in town lately.”

“Kalli’s got a boyfriend, Kalli’s got a
boyfriend,” Frona sang, spinning in circles while sitting on the chair with
wheels.

“I told you all. Detective Stevens is not my
boyfriend,” I replied in exasperation.

“Not McDreamy,” Frona continued, “Mr.
Cleany. Cheater cheater pumpkin eater.”

“Mr. Cleany?” I rubbed my temple, my
headache threatening to come back.

“Squeaky clean, baldy bean,” Frona kept
singing and spinning, her lopsided pigtails twirling away.

“For the love of Zeus.” Eleni stopped the
chair, and Frona fell on the floor giggling. “Frona, stop it. You’re confusing
poor Kalli.”

“Wait a minute,” I said, almost afraid to
hear the answer to my next question. “You mean the bald man I saw wasn’t after
Ma?”

“I knew this would happen,” my mother said,
wringing her hands and pacing about the room. “That floozy has you mixed up in
that awful online dating. I’ve always said no good can come from the Twitter.
Imagine people twitting about. It’s just wrong, I tell you. Wrong!”

“Highly improper,” Yiayia agreed, tsking and shaking her
head.

“Twitter, Twitter, twitting about,” Frona jumped back on the
bed. “Whee, I want to twit.”

“You are a twit,” Eleni snapped, and Frona stuck out her
tongue.

“Look what it did to Jazlyn,” Ma continued. “Landed her
floozy fanny in jail. You’ve already wound up in jail twice. I don’t want to
see you wind up a floozy too, or worse, dead. That man looks downright scary if
you ask me.”

“It’s not the Twitter, it’s the Internet,
and it’s called tweeting, but never mind that.” I swept my hand through the
air, my energy sapped already. “And stop pacing. You’re making me dizzy.” My
mother stopped walking and faced me. “What makes you think I met this man
through online dating?” I asked warily.

“Because he’s been asking for you all over
town. It’s a good thing we have Ballases everywhere. He knows you’re Greek, and
he knows your name is Ballas, but he obviously doesn’t know what you look like.
At least you were smart enough not to post your picture. We’ve been running
inference and sending him on wild goose chases all over town. He said he tried
your number, but it’s disconnected.”

“I changed my phone carrier, remember?” I
had told my family and work, but no one else yet.

“Of course I remember. How could I not?” My
mother harrumphed. “First you leave me and now you cut me off. I can tell when
I’m not wanted. My only daughter is trying to obliterate me right out of her
life.”

My yiayia patted my mother’s hand and gave
me a disapproving look.

“Ma, come on. You know I don’t want you out of
my life. I didn’t cut you off. I just got on my own phone plan. I’m almost
thirty. I figured it was time I got a life of my own.” Forget failure to
launch. In my family you were condemned if you failed to stay.

The scary part of this whole ordeal was trying to figure out
who this guy was and how he had gotten my old cell phone number. Thank goodness
I had changed it and he didn’t know what I looked like. I could work with that.
I didn’t want to worry my mother by making her think there was a virtual stranger
scary guy on the loose who was after me. He could be one of Scott’s enemies and
out to stop me from looking into the case further. Or he could be one of
Bobby’s enemies and maybe Bobby had been the real target all along. Or he could
be the father of Wilma’s baby and trying to stop me from finding out. He could
very well be the guy who broke into my house and attacked me last night.

Oh my gosh, he could be the killer!

In the meantime, I had to keep my mother from locking me up.
If she knew the truth, she wouldn’t ask anymore. She would insist I go home
with her, and she had enough backup to enforce her wishes. Not to mention
Detective Dreamy was mad enough not to stop her from kidnapping me. Nope, for
all our sakes, I would stick with the online dating angle and deal with the
consequences that bit of information would bring.

“You’re right, Ma. Bad idea on the whole online dating
thing. I should have been more careful. But I don’t need Baldy anymore because
now I have Detective Dreamy. Do me a favor and keep the bald man off my trail,
would you? The last thing we both want is for him to interfere with my
relationship with a nice Greek boy.”

She was thrilled to have something to do. To
have a purpose. To feel needed. I could tell she was on a mission. “Don’t worry
about a thing. I’m on it,” she said to me, then turned to Dido. “Let’s rally
the troops, Ma. It’s time to get to work. You know what to do.”

And I knew what I had to do. I hated to
admit it, but Nik was right. I didn’t feel safe one bit.

“You were right,” I said, walking into
Detective Steven’s office in the police station. I hadn’t been in there since
he and Detective Matheson had questioned Jaz the morning of the murder. The
walls were still white and the desks still bare of any personal effects. This
really was a place of all business, which made it hard to talk about anything
personal. But I knew I had to set the record straight for both our sakes, even
though I still felt he’d overreacted. I just hoped he could move past
everything that had happened because I still hadn’t given up on us.

“Excuse me, what was that?” Nik asked,
sitting back and locking his hands behind his head, getting comfy. “I couldn’t
possibly have heard you. Could you repeat that?”

“Very funny.” I walked inside and shut the
door. Boomer wasn’t there, so it was now or never. I took a breath and then sat
in the chair across from Nik, folding my hands in my lap so I wouldn’t fidget.
I’d come straight from the hospital so I still had on my yoga pants and zip-up
hoodie. Now I wished I had stopped home to don a suit. I would have felt much
more confident saying, “You were right, and I was wrong, and I’m sorry.”

He slowly lowered his arms and stared hard
at me. He had showered and donned his typical jeans, dress shirt, tie, and
sport coat, clearly giving him the advantage. I couldn’t help it. I started to
fidget until he finally made up his mind about something. He said, “Apology
accepted.”

I sighed, rubbing my temples.

His gaze turned soft and concerned. “How are you feeling?”

“A bit of a headache and a little sore
throat, but I’ll live. And for the record, you overreacted big time. I didn’t
call Max. I called 911. I wasn’t thinking straight and 911 was about all I
could handle. Besides, do you really think I have your cell phone memorized?”

“I’m an ass,” he said, and I blinked in
surprise. “I figured that out once I went home and cooled off. “I’m the sorry
one for acting like a jerk. I got jealous. I admit it. Jealous people sometimes
do stupid things.” He cleared his throat, which suddenly sounded as hoarse as
mine, before adding, “Truth is, I hated seeing you in another man’s arms. It
wouldn’t have mattered who it was.”

I read the sincerity in his eyes, and my
body warmed with pleasure over his admission. I couldn’t help smiling a little
on the inside as things were most definitely looking up.  “Apology accepted,” I
repeated his words softly and then bit my bottom lip.

His gaze dropped to my mouth as he said, “Guess
my pride was a little stung after you bolted on me the night before. I thought
things were going well. I thought we were on the same page in wanting to see
where things could go between us. I apologize if I was wrong.”

“You weren’t wrong, and we were on the same
page. We still are, I promise.” How did I say this without giving away that I
could read his mind? I stood and started to pace. I might be adopted, but there
were some things I definitely got from my mother. “I could just tell you
weren’t totally focused on me,” I went on, talking with my hands. “You had a
lot on your mind, so to speak. And you know I have quirks. This whole romance
thing is hard for me. So in the future,” I paused to watch his intense gaze
lock on mine, and then added, “make no mistake, Detective, there
will
be
a future.”

“I can live with that.” His grin came slow and sweet. “You
were saying?”

“In the future, do me a favor and don’t think about anything
but me.” I could feel my face flush fire red but knew if we were going to have
a chance at all, then I had to go for it. “And, um, think about
exactly
what you want to do to me. And don’t leave out any details.”

“Seriously?” he asked, his eyebrows shooting sky-high as he
stood.

I backed up, but then shook off my embarrassment and
conjured my inner Jaz as I added, “Definitely. Think you can handle that, big
guy?”

“Um, gee, let me think about that.” His gaze turned heated
as he started walking around his desk, slowly stalking me. “When I kiss you
next time, you want me to think in explicit detail about making love to you.
About all the things I want to do to you. About every place I want to touch
you, and kiss you, and—”

“Yup, that’ll work!” I bumped into the wall behind me,
trapped as I tried to calm my rapid heart rate and erratic breathing. “Trust
me.”

“Then trust me when I say, hell yeah I can handle that.” A
chuckle rumbled deep in his chest as he came to a stop mere inches before me.

I had to admit I liked this lighter, more playful sexy side
of him. “Good.” Feeling daring I said, “Care to give it a try right now?”

“You never cease to amaze me, Ms. Ballas.”

“Remember, think sexy,” I blurted breathlessly.

“No problem there.” He braced his hands on the wall on both
sides of my head and leaned in. His lips were a fraction of an inch from mine
when someone knocked on the door. He closed his eyes, and I could see his cheek
pulse as he ground his teeth, struggling for control. After a moment, he said
in a husky voice, “Hold that thought.” Taking a step back, he barked, “Come
in.”

We just stood there by the wall, looking awkward and guilty
of something even though nothing had happened yet as Boomer barged through the
door. He looked at Nik and then at me and then raised his brows.

“What’s up?” Nik asked. “What’s the emergency? And there’d
better be an emergency.”

“Oh, right.” Boomer shook off his confusion over us and
refocused “Maria Danza has just been arrested.”