“True.”
“What do you want? I’ll give you anything. My firstborn child—”
“That seems more like a punishment than a reward.”
“Okay. How ‘bout I buy you dinner?”
“If bydinneryou mean a nice bottle of wine, you have a deal.”
“Done.” My eyes slid closed. “If I fall asleep, just leave me here. In fact, if I die, just leave me here. My rotting corpse will add to the occult aesthetic. Eventually, I’ll become a friendly poltergeist that haunts the shelves.”
“Are we entirely certain you don’t already have a ghost? Madame Zelda gives off strong spectral vibes.”
“She’s flesh and bone beneath that caftan, as far as I know.” My eyes cracked open again as a thought occurred to me. “But it is odd she didn’t come in again today. That’s nearly a week she’s been MIA. A dozen missed appointments, and that’s not even counting all the walk-ins we’ve turned away.”
“People were pissed when I told them they couldn’t get a tarot reading.”
“I know. She’s missing out on a lot of money. And that woman loves money. I thought she was just off on an another ayahuasca trip — and I do meantripin the psychedelic context — but now I’m starting to get really worried.” I paused. “Plus, something kind of strange happened the other day…”
“Strange? In this town? I’m shocked.”
“This wasn’tspookystrange, though… It was juststrangestrange.”
I proceeded to tell Flo about the altercation I’d had with the Irish giant by the dumpsters, describing his semi-menacing manner and clear desperation to get in contact with our resident psychic.
“Jesus Christ, Gwen!” Flo pushed me up off her shoulder so she could properly glare at me. “Why didn’t you tell me this right when it happened?”
“Um. Hello? I was a little busy…” My eyes shot to Hetti, who was meticulously wiping down the gold espresso machine across the room. I dropped my voice to a whisper. “…gettingkidnappedlast night! Then, I was forced to stay at Graham’s place. And we were slammed with customers until literally five minutes ago. When was I supposed to find spare time to tell you about some weird moment with a vaguely hostile lumberjack-looking dude named Mickey?”
“Fair enough. But did you at least tell Graham about weird dumpster dude?”
“Why would I tell him about it?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” she drawled, voice thick with sarcasm. “Maybe because he’s running point on your case and trying his best to keep you safe?”
“First of all, it’s notmycase. It’s a case about animal sacrifices that, coincidentally, involves the alley behind my shop. Secondly, he doesn’t give a hoot about my safety. I just happen to be caught up in his crosshairs at the moment.”
“Is that seriously what you think?”
“That’s seriously what I know,” I declared. Though, for some inexplicable reason, at that exact moment a memory of Graham’s moonlit face in bed last night popped into my head unbidden.
You’re safe here, you know.
You’re safe with me.
I bit my lip hard enough to banish the deep timbre of his voice to the darkest recesses of my brain.
Flo merely shook her head, almost as if she was disappointed in me. “I don’t know what it’s going to take for you to remove the horse-blinders you seem to put on whenever he walks into a room—”
“I have a secret!” I cut her off, not wanting to go down the delusionalGG + GG = SOULMATESroad she was dragging me toward with all her might. “About last night.”
She was instantly intrigued. Her brown eyes widened in expectation and her voice became breathless. “Well? What is it?”
I glanced again toward Hetti, knowing she was in earshot. The barista seemed thoroughly occupied with washing dirty coffee mugs in the industrial sink. Plus, even if she was eavesdropping, I figured she wouldn’t bat an eye at the details of my unorthodox abduction.
“Is it about Graham?” Flo pestered. “Did something happen between you two?”
She was hopeless.