My Wicked Valentine

by Lotta Smith

  “It’s complicated,” Brian answered.

  “It’ll be easier to explain after you’ve watched the nine o’clock news,” Rick chimed in. “You’ll be surprised. Speaking of a surprise, you’re gonna have a bigger…mmm—”

  Rick didn’t get to finish the sentence. Or rather, I didn’t let him.

  I didn’t know if Rick was really going to be a blabbermouth about Brian’s big plan for Valentine’s Day, but as a BFF of Fiona and Brian, I didn’t want to ruin the surprise.

  Just to silence him for a moment, I kissed him on the lips. He seemed to like that because he kissed me back.

  “Swoon!” Jackie danced, making kissy noises.

  “Swoon!” Sophie exclaimed, and she was sporting a kissy face.

  In the corner of my eye, I caught Fiona kissing Brian. Who-hoo! Love was in the air!

  * * *

  Love Mandy, Rick and Jackie, and want to stick with them? Perfect! Tap here to witness their continued fun!

  In case you’ve missed...

  Here’s the beginning Wicked for Hire, the beginning of everything!

  Prologue

  966 Park Avenue Tower

  11:48 AM, November 10…

  With a weird moan, her whole body shivering, she collapses onto the sofa.

  I think she’s lucky that she’s already sitting on the sofa as she crumples. If she was standing, she might have cracked her head on the marble floor like Humpty Dumpty—which won’t be pretty.

  She’s lying there, totally motionless. One elbow’s stiffly bent at a right angle, as if she’s turned into stone as the result of looking Medusa in the eye.

  I gasp—fearing she’s dead.

  Rick Rowling, the head of the FBI’s New York Paranormal Division and my boss for the past two days, approaches and touches her neck. Looking totally blasé, he confirms that she’s still alive.

  I let out a sigh of relief.

  On the other hand, Rowling announces that we leave the place because “It’s boring.”

  My eyes widen with a total disbelief.

  Of course, I disagree with him, but he brushes off my objection, stating that he doesn’t care about all the crap of making arrests, prosecuting, and taking cases to trial. Again, he says that it’s just a minor issue and he’s way too busy for that. “You know what? I have better things to do,” Rowling declares, turning on his heels to leave the condo.

  “Excuse me, Rick,” I call to his back.

  “What?” he asks, without turning around.

  “We can’t just leave,” I say. Then it suddenly occurs to me that offending my boss isn’t in my best interest, so I add, “I’m afraid.”

  “Why not?” He cocks his head. “Mandy, don’t be such a killjoy. The NYPD can work on the boring stuff, such as deciphering the social pathology of crimes and so on, because they have time to kill. On the other hand, I have no time to waste.”

  “Okay, so we don’t need to decipher the social pathology of crimes, but we do need to figure out the whereabouts of the human-eating monster, don’t we?” I point out.

  I’m not joking or exaggerating.

  I’m talking about a practically imperishable ghoul which could eat up the entire population of New York State, if not the whole world.

  Read for FREE on KU!

  About the author

  Hi! My name is Lotta Smith. I’m the author of Paranormal in Manhattan Mysteries and Kelly Kinki Mysteries. I love everything comedy, from novels, TVs, to movies. In my teenage days, I was addicted to mysteries that involves amateur sleuth duo of a hot male professor and a quirky female student—with a light touch of romance sprinkled on top. So I went to medical school, partly because I wanted to see real dead bodies, and mostly because I was determined to meet sexy professors (specializing forensic pathology, perhaps) and go a-sleuthin’.

  I got to see dead bodies and learn about the danger of petting zoos (sometimes, kids have their lips bitten off by…say, a pony!) but unfortunately, sexy professors were absolutely nonexistent. Recently, I realized that I’m a hopeless unromantic.

  I’m hard at work writing new books.

  To hear about new books and discounted book sales, please sign up for my newsletter at:

  Lotta Smith Newsletter

  And check out my other books on Amazon

  Paranormal in Manhattan Mysteries:

  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KJK96RF

  PI Assistant Extraordinaire Mysteries:

  Book 1: Ghostly Murder: http://amzn.to/204aWJ4

  Book 2: Immortal Eyes: http://amzn.to/1T4DKC3

  Book 3: Deadly Vision: http://amzn.to/1og0Pp9

  Also, there’s a bundle of 3 books available…

  Confessions of the Assistant Extraordinaire: amzn.to/1R3GaO6

  Did You Like My Wicked Valentine?

  Let everyone know by posting a review on Amazon.

  I’d highly appreciate your review! You can post a review—good or bad—here.

  Thanks in advance and happy reading!

  Xoxo,

  Lotta