Peril for Your Thoughts (Mind Reader Mystery) (24 page)

“Don’t even
think about it, Detective,” Natasha growled out in the most menacing voice I’d
ever heard as she grabbed me by the hair and yanked me back, pressing the sharp
edge of my fabric scissors against my jugular.

I
gasped. Damn, I should have been more careful in where I’d left them. I had
worked in the living room last night, setting them on the end table when I’d
finished, having been too tired to clean up. That was so unlike me. I lived my
life by a certain set of rules, and tidiness and order were at the top of the
list. But I’d been so frazzled lately, and look at what happened. Now I was
paying the price.

“Natasha,
what are you doing?” I was having a hard time processing the fact that she was
fired two weeks ago yet had shown up anyway and had lied to me all along. Why?
What could she possibly want? It wasn’t my fault she got fired.

“Shut
up!” she yelled at me. I stood very still when she pressed the scissors harder.
I’ve worked too hard not to get what I
deserve. Erickson treats Marcus better because he’s a man. That’s not fair,
dammit.
“I’m taking what belongs to me.”

“Is
this about my book?” This couldn’t be happening to me. It dawned on me that I’d
only given her my new cell, assuming she was going to pass it along to Mr.
Erickson and the rest of the Interludes staff. No wonder Marcus hadn’t been
able to reach me. I tried to appeal to her feminist side. “You were right all
along when you said it’s so hard to make it in this business. I had no idea,
and I can only imagine how you must feel after how hard you have obviously
worked. If you let me go, we won’t say a word. You haven’t done anything yet.
There’s still time for you to do the right thing by letting us go, and then you
can be on your way.”

I
could feel her hesitation.
Maybe I could
make a run for it. They don’t know everything yet. As long as they can’t link
me to that guy’s death, then I should be—

“You
killed Scott?” I blurted, then mentally smacked myself when her arm stiffened
again.

“How’d
you know that?” she shrieked, sounding on the verge of a mental breakdown.

“A
hunch,” I said.

“You
can’t prove anything.”

“You
were looking for the book, weren’t you?” Marcus said in an accusing tone.
“Erickson was right to fire you after he found out you were leaking information
to our biggest competitor. I just can’t believe you were desperate enough to
kill for it.”

“Oh,
my gosh,” I said, feeling sick as the truth dawned on me. “This whole time the
murder had nothing to do with Scott or Jaz. It had to do with me and my book of
designs. First Full Disclosure, then Jaz’s car, and then our house. All because
of a silly little book.”

“That
wasn’t just any book. It was going to help take Interludes to the next level. I
couldn’t let that happen after what they did to me. Their competitor was
willing to pay me big bucks to beat Interludes to the punch. They appreciate
what I can do for them. That guy just caught me by surprise and got in my way.
I couldn’t let him live after he’d seen my face. The fashion business is war,
and there are always casualties when it comes to war, Ms. Ballas. I suggest you
get used to it,” she snarled. “I should have finished choking the life out of
you when I had the chance. Now give me the damn gun, Detective.”

“Easy,”
the detective said, carefully setting his gun on the floor in front of him. “No
one else has to get hurt.”

“Kick
it to me,” she hissed. After he complied, she said, “Now handcuff yourself to
Marcus.”

“Listen—”

“No,
you
listen. Do it now, or I’ll slice
her throat.”

“Okay,
okay,” he said, doing as she asked with slow careful movements. “Just calm
down.”

“It
won’t matter,” Marcus said. “She’s going to kill us all anyway because we’re
the only ones who know she’s the murderer.”

“Very
good, Marcus,” Natasha said. “You’re not as dumb as you look.”

“And
I’m not as helpless as you think,” I said as I jabbed my elbow into her
stomach, catching her off guard.

She
stumbled back a step but didn’t drop the scissors. I bolted to the nearest exit,
which happened to be the door to our deck. Running down the stairs, I headed toward
the front gate when I heard her behind me.

“Freeze,
unless you want to get shot.”

I
jolted to a stop, holding my hands up and slowly turning around to face her.
Just as I feared, she had picked up Detective Stevens’ gun along the way. She
continued walking down the steps, looking around to make sure we were alone,
then she positioned herself between me and the gate with her back to the fence.

I
had her exactly where I wanted her, and she didn’t even know it.

“Did
you really think you could get away from me so easily?” she asked, looking a
little crazed. I hoped I never let the fashion world turn me into a monster
like her.

Trying
to reason with her hadn’t worked, so I did the next best thing and stalled,
hoping my hunch was right. Nik couldn’t help because he was handcuffed to
Marcus, so I had to get creative and find help from other sources. “Did
you
really think you could get away with
murder?”

“I
already did.” She raised the gun.

I
swallowed hard and prayed my instincts were right. I spoke a little louder.
“One time was a fluke. You can’t possibly kill three more people and think
you’ll just walk away.”

“Don’t
yell at me. You’re the one who chose to live at the end of a dead-end road.
There’s no one out here except the detective, and he’s tied up at the moment
while Jaz and his partner are still at her store. In fact, pretty much the
entire town is at her store.” She stared me down. “I know. I checked.” Then she
laughed harshly. “That means it will be a while before anyone finds you three,
and I’ll be long gone with your book by then. I’ll make it look like Marcus was
the killer all along. He showed up to attack you and the detective came to your
rescue, only to wind up dead as well. How tragic. Case closed. End of story.”

“None
of us are ever truly alone,” I said as much for my benefit as hers. I had to
count to ten and breathe deep to maintain my composure, feeling a major panic
attack coming on.

“How
philosophical of you. Pity. We might have actually worked well together. Unfortunately,
you’re up first, darling. Any last words?”

“Yeah,
I’m
sick
of people trying to control
my life,” I said loudly, then waited a beat.

“Okay.”
She frowned. “Is that all?”

“No,”
I said, feeling real fear set in, realizing things might not go according to
plan. “I’m tired of people
attacking
me!” I yelled, then waited again.

“Sorry
to say, but that’s life.” She aimed the gun at my head.

Oh my God, I really might die!
“You’re an
animal
. A
beast
. A
wolf
in sheep’s
clothing, dammit!”

“Honey,
I think you’re crazier than even I am,” she said, and started to squeeze the
trigger.

“There’s
a method to my madness,
honey
, and I
think you’re going down. Your reckoning is
coming
!”
I slapped my hands on my thighs, and a loud howl and crashing noise sounded
behind Natasha.

Her
eyes sprang wide, and she whirled around all in one motion. The fence that Nik
had resurrected came crashing down upon her, knocking her to the ground and the
gun out of her hand. With my heart pounding, I scrambled to retrieve the gun,
then pointed it at her, but she was out cold.

“Good
boy,” I said, as Wolfgang stood on top of the fence, keeping his hostage
secure. Nik came home for lunch most days and let Wolfgang out. When he’d
surprised Marcus, I’d assumed he’d stuck to his same routine, so it was a safe
bet that Wolfgang had still been outside. And I knew from past experience that
no fence, no matter how big, could keep him out when he set his sights on me.

He
started his habitual wiggle all over from head to tail when his eyes settled on
me. His muscles bunched like he was about to pounce. Panic started to seize me,
but then I realized I was stronger than I thought. I was through with letting
everyone and everything control my life. It was time I took charge for a change
and push my fear aside.

“Don’t
you dare!” I pointed my finger at him. “Stay right there until I tell you that
you can get up, mister.”

He
let out a big whine and then plopped his humongous fanny down on the fence,
wearing the biggest doggie pout I had ever seen. The expression on his face was
pathetic, and yet I felt my heart crack and begin to melt. But then I saw a
stream of saliva ooze from the corner of his mouth, drip off his jaw, and land
on Natasha’s forehead.

I
gagged and called 911, then snapped my phone closed.

“Listen,
Wolfy, you and me … we need to have
a talk.” His tail whipped wildly and he still shook a bit, but he sat right
there obediently, listening better than any human I’d ever met.

After
all the scary things that had happened lately, the emergency crews arrived in
record time. Detective Matheson was first on the scene. I gave him a quick
version of my report just as Natasha was coming to.

She
gasped. “Elephant … on my chest … get it off,” she rasped.

Boomer
went to grab Wolfgang’s collar.

“That’s
okay,” I said confidently. “I’ve got this,” I continued, shocking him judging
by the arch of his sky-high eyebrows.

“You
sure?” Boomer asked, looking skeptical.

“Positive. The beast and I have come to an
understanding, so to speak. I will show him a
little
affection, and he will absolutely positively refrain from
licking me.”

“And
he agreed?” Boomer’s brows lifted even higher. “How can you tell?”

“Instinct.”
I shrugged. “Sometimes you’ve just gotta have faith.”

“Kill
me already,” Natasha wheezed.

“That
would be too easy,” I snarled at her. “No one takes something that belongs to
me,” I snapped. “Wolf, come,” I said, and he immediately obeyed. I held up my
hand. “Okay, okay, that’s far enough.” I petted the top of his head, and his
eyes rolled back beneath his fur. He plopped down onto the ground and rolled
over, squirming back and forth with his bare belly beckoning me. I nearly
gagged again as I eyed his stomach. “You’re pushing your luck, buddy,” I
managed to say. “That one’s gonna take some time. Come on, let’s go see Daddy.”

Wolf
rolled back over at the word Daddy and bolted up the steps of my deck, charging
through the open sliding door and out of site.

“As
I live and breathe …” Boomer’s jaw practically hit the ground it hung so
low.

“Killer
 … 
unhandcuffed  …  danger  …” I pointed to Natasha attempting to
slide out from beneath the fence.

“Right.
I’m on it.” He snapped to attention and did his job.

Meanwhile,
I followed Wolfgang up the steps and inside my house to see him sprawled out on
top of Detective Stevens, slobbering all over his face as Nik pleaded with him
to get down, to no avail.

“Wolf!”
I snapped. “
What
did we just talk
about?”

He immediately backed off and sat
down at my feet, whining pathetically, his fanny wiggling nonstop. I stroked
him between the eyes and behind the ears this time, and he looked as though he
were having a seizure. He rolled onto his back one more time and gave me a
hopeful look.

“I told you we’ll renegotiate that
at a later time, depending on how well you behave, but it’s not going to happen
today. So you may as well go lay down.”

He blew out a snort that was in a
word—disgusting—and got to his feet, then walked over and eyed my couch. I
would have to mop with bleach at least three times. Prissy reappeared, let out
a loud hiss, and vaulted to the highest part of the couch she could reach. He
turned his sights on her with
almost
as much affection as he had for me.

“Don’t even think about it,” I said,
stabbing my finger at him, “because that, my friend, is a total deal breaker.”

He plopped down onto the carpet and
let out a huge sigh that said
oh, woe is
me
, his tail thumping the floor steadily, but he wasn’t fooling any of us.

“Okay, who are you and what have you
done to my dog?” Nik asked, his face etched with a mixture of shock and total
amazement.

“Let’s just say we’ve come to an
understanding.” I unlocked his handcuffs.

“Good,” he said as he got to his
feet and rubbed his wrists. “Because there’s something I’ve been meaning to
talk to you about.”

The rest of
Saturday had been a whirlwind of interrogations and paperwork, so Nik and I had
to put our talk on hold. Sunday he picked me up for church, and we went together
for the very first time, much to the delight of the mamas. Then we went to my
parents’ house for our family brunch as usual. There was no getting out of that
one, and we both knew it. Only nothing was same ole same ole anymore.