Hidden Magic

by Daniels, Wynter

  Not much knocked him off balance but she sure as hell did. He forced his focus back to his case, the reason he’d come. He handed the deck back. “You’re the fortuneteller. Tell me what my future holds.”

  She gave him a wary smile then started laying the cards out in three linear formations. “We’ll start with your past.” Her frown gave him pause—not that he believed in any of this—but she was so much prettier when she didn’t appear so concerned.

  He followed her gaze to a colorful card that read, “Temperance.”

  Her eyelids shuttered for a moment, which gave him the opportunity to drink in her beauty. But too soon her forehead crinkled and she opened her eyes. “You had pain, lots of strife in your last love relationship, mostly over money you were giving to someone down on their luck. Your lover didn’t like that. You wanted to believe in her but she…she shattered your faith in love.” She glanced up at him and he caught a glimmer of tears but she lowered her gaze too fast for him to confirm that.

  He thought about Nadine, how they’d fought about him helping his sister financially until the arguments had ripped them apart and she ended the engagement. Yeah, he supposed the whole thing had destroyed his dream. Damn it. He’d hoped the ache was gone forever but there it was again. “Well, I guess that could be sort of true.”

  More like hitting the nail on the head.

  But whose previous relationships didn’t end with some sort of discord? Just a lucky guess, although a very specific one. “What else?”

  She flipped several cards over and appeared to study them. “You care very deeply about your family. And your work as well. Why do I see some overlap between the two? Maybe a family owned business.”

  That was one way of looking at it since his grandfather was the mayor, and technically his boss. Or more accurately his boss’s boss. And his father had been a cop, but he didn’t like to think about him. “Yeah, sort of.” Shit, how the hell was he supposed to concentrate with this gorgeous creature so close? He focused on the contours of her neck and shoulder, thought about how her skin would taste.

  She pulled her fallen sleeve up into place. He had to wrest control of his brain but damn, it was tough to concentrate on anything but the woman’s assets.

  Turning over three more cards, she grinned. “This is a very good one.” She tapped a card, a depiction of a man and a woman, each holding a cup. “A new relationship is coming your way.”

  After Andrea and then Nadine, he’d all but written off the possibility that he’d ever find that happily ever after. He captured Jilly’s stare and his heart seemed to kick up a notch or two. “That wouldn’t have made me particularly happy yesterday, but today…”

  She tore her gaze away and he was pretty sure she was blushing. Hard to tell since the room was so dimly lit. When she flipped the next card, her frown returned.

  Three swords pierced a heart.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “Probably nothing.” Then she took his right hand in both of hers and closed her eyes, which gave him more time to stare at her, something he wouldn’t mind doing all day. Her hair looked so silky as it grazed the top of her shoulders, one of which was bare and tempting as hell. “You work with rules and you have great respect for those rules.”

  “Rules?” All he could think about was the feel of her hands against his. She had a firm grip and her skin was soft and warm. He couldn’t stop his imagination from picturing her running those long fingers and black painted nails all over his body. A wave of lust washed over him.

  “Hmm. Maybe law. It’s not a family business. You work for the government, don’t you?”

  Now she’d captivated not only his libido, but all his attention. “Actually, I do.” His grandmother must have clued her in on his life.

  She furrowed her brow. “You’ve had a tough time lately, at work, I mean. Finding the answers you want. You love your job but you have trouble letting go of it when you’re off the clock, especially lately. It’s even invaded your dreams.”

  Shit. How the hell did she know that? He hadn’t told anyone. This was getting a little too creepy. “I guess that’s true.” He took back his hand. Breaking the contact felt like such a loss.

  What was up with him? Must be that Jilly reminded him how long it had been since he’d had a woman. But it was time to get her out of his head and on to the matter he’d come about. “Do you ever get impressions from objects?” He fished a silver heart charm on a black cord out of his pocket and handed it to her. The necklace had come from Hannah’s car, which they’d recovered from Gideon’s Pond a week ago.

  Jilly examined the necklace then closed the charm in her palm and held it to her chest. “I specialize in psychometry.”

  “Psycho what?”

  She gave him a patient smile. “Psychometry. I pick up on vibrations left on objects by the people connected with them. Whose it is?”

  “You’re the psychic. You tell me.” He folded his arms over his chest. This ought to be interesting. No way was she going to figure it out.

  Closing her eyes, she rubbed the silk between her fingers. “It belongs to a very young woman.” She gasped, clutched the necklace in her fist. “She’s in trouble, grave danger.” She knitted her brow in concentration then suddenly opened her eyes and frowned. “It’s gone, she’s gone.”

  Okay, now she definitely had his curiosity piqued. He leaned closer. He wasn’t fully onboard but maybe there was something to the whole psychic thing. “What did you see? Is she still alive?”

  The inner edges of her eyebrows curved upward. “I’m sorry. I can’t tell. Is she someone you care about?”

  “No, well yes, sort of. I do care about her. Can you see anything else?” Did she really feel something in the object? He couldn’t totally wrap his head around the idea of anything supernatural being real but how else would she know know Hannah was in danger?

  She shut her eyes again and rubbed the charm between her fingers. Then she looked at him and shrugged. “Sorry. I don’t get anything else.”

  Damn it. She hadn’t told him a thing that would help him find Hannah. Everything she said she could have gleaned from watching the news. Except that he didn’t tell her the necklace had belonged to Hannah. They hadn’t released anything about the find to the media. Had to be a lucky guess. She was probably a shyster, albeit a beautiful one.

  He schooled the disappointment from his expression as he took back the jewelry and stood up. It had been worth a try. Too bad it was another dead end. But he’d known it would be. Worst part was he’d never get to see the exotic beauty again. “Thanks anyway.”

  “Wait a second, who are you? Why’d you want a reading?” Jilly tried to glean Zander’s thoughts but telepathy wasn’t her forte.

  Why had he let her hold that necklace? Whoever it belonged to had reached out to her, only for a moment. But in that instant she’d needed Jilly’s help. Desperately.

  He fished in his coat pocket and took out a worn school photo of a teenage girl. Her strawberry blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail and her cheeks were dusted with freckles. Setting the picture on the table, he pointed at the teen’s face. “I thought maybe you could help me locate her.”

  Jilly studied the photograph. Was that the girl from her vision? She couldn’t be sure. Her face was so familiar. Then she remembered—she’d seen her on the news. Might have been the same person from her vision but she wouldn’t swear to it. “That’s the girl who disappeared, right. Was that her necklace?”

  His lips flattened into a tight line. “Hannah Saxon. My grandmother had an idea you could help me, but I don’t think you can.”

  “Your grandmother?”

  “Nell Parsons.”

  Of course. The man had the same emerald eyes, the same square face as Nell. She couldn’t hold back a smile even though she was still quite shaken. “She’s a lovely woman, one of my favorite clients.” She mentally chewed on the connection between him and his grandmother and Hannah Saxon. A
vague recollection surfaced of a brief conversation she’d had with Nell about one of her grandsons, whom she’d said she’d love to introduce to her. Was this some sort of weird fix-up? “Wait, you’re the cop?”

  “You’re psychic, don’t you know?” His mouth curled into a grin. He was just as handsome as Nell said. But he’d come under false pretenses and she loathed being lied to.

  She didn’t need her psychic gift to see what she’d missed earlier. His dark hair was cropped military short and his green eyes held an intensity she’d rarely seen in a man so young. She had few male clients and none of them wore a suit when they came to see her. Why hadn’t she realized before. Of course he was a cop, the last sort of person she wanted to be speaking with since she wasn’t really who she professed to be. But she couldn’t shake the connection she’d forged with the girl in her vision. Hannah was in trouble and maybe she was the only person who could help her. Hannah needed her. The gravity of that possibility sat like a concrete block on her shoulders.

  “I work for the sheriff’s office.” He set his hands on his waist and she caught sight of the black edge of a leather holster at his side.

  She touched the part of her shirt that covered her scar, then immediately clasped her hands in her lap. How could she help the police when they might be after her for what she did to Jamal? Not that she’d made herself easy to find. She’d Googled not only her old name, but Jamal as well and had found nothing—no news clippings about him being stabbed or her being sought by the New Orleans police. No, she was being paranoid. But cops had always been the bad guys in her world growing up with a drug addicted mother. Their presence meant her mom was going away, and Lauren would be dumped at one god awful foster home or another where people would abuse her in some way.

  But this man was local, Nell’s grandson. What could he have to do with something that had happened five hundred miles away?

  She flashed on the young woman in her vision and a chill chased up her spine. Connecting with anyone in the physical plane on more than a superficial level was rare for her but she now and had psychic bond with Hannah.

  Maybe she could help Hannah if Zander would give her more of a chance. “Why’d you come here? I got a feeling from that girl’s necklace but you don’t think I can help because…what, you don’t believe in anything beyond what you can see with your eyes?”

  He snatched the photo off the table and put it away. “I’m doing my grandmother a favor, because she wouldn’t let up on me until I came to see you. Let’s just forget about it. I did what I promised my grandmother I would.”

  She’d tried to steer clear of the law since she left New Orleans but she had a strong feeling that she could help him with his case. It was the right thing to do. How could she let him walk away if there was even a tiny chance she could save that girl’s life? But Zander had written her off so quickly, before she’d really had a chance to try to glean more information about Hannah Saxon. “Can I see her picture again?”

  He scowled, staring hard at her, then finally shrugged and handed her the photograph.

  She ran a finger over the image and felt an oddly familiar sensation. Did she know her? Or had seeing the teen’s picture broadcast over and over tricked her brain into thinking she’d met her? Something told her the familiarity ran deeper. A few times before, she’d psychically picked up on certain vibes during readings that victims of abuse unknowingly gave off. Maybe she was sensitive to it since she used to be one of them. She wondered if Hannah had been such a victim. “She grew up around here, right?”

  He narrowed his eyes. “Sure. If you’ve seen Hannah’s picture on the local news, you must have caught the interview with her parents. They’ve played it a bunch of times.”

  “Oh, right.” She picked her brain to remember. Yes, she had seen the interview. Hannah’s father was a buttoned-up business type and her mother had done nothing but cry the entire time.

  Obviously Hannah came from a family that loved her, something Jilly had never had. “What are they like, the parents? I mean, beyond what we see on TV.” She handed him back the picture and he stashed it in his breast pocket.

  “The dad’s holding it together but he’s pretty torn up. And her mother…” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Listen, I’m sorry to have wasted your time. I should go.”

  She rushed to the door and blocked his way. How could she explain the sudden connection she felt to Hannah without revealing her own past? She found an unexpected warmth in Zander’s eyes and drew a breath laced with his piney scent. A pleasant ache settled low in her belly.

  What the hell was going on behind his amazing emerald eyes? “I really want to help, Zander. What are you afraid of?”

  He held her gaze for a long moment. “Afraid? Definitely not, just skeptical. Like you said, you don’t have any experience working on missing person cases and frankly, I’ve never conferred with a psychic to solve one.”

  For reasons she couldn’t understand, Jilly didn’t want him to leave yet. “Can I hold the necklace one more time, just for a minute.”

  He hesitated, then handed it to her, his skin grazing hers. A spark of heat spread out from the spot.

  Rubbing the smooth metal of the charm, she shut her eyes and it was as if someone gave her a shove into another place and time.

  Icy fingers clawed at her throat. The man was after her, his hands fisted at his sides, his face red and sweaty. He was holding something, a weapon. He was going to kill her.

  Jilly tried to hang on to the vision but it dissipated as quickly as it had appeared, like steam in a clear blue sky. She opened her eyes. “I can’t see him, but there’s a man and he wants to hurt her. Or there was. I’m not sure.”

  He widened his eyes. “You get if all that from her necklace?” He took the jewelry from her, examined it as if he’d find his answer there.

  “Maybe if I could see and touch more of her things I could get a sense of how—and where—she is.” At his hesitation, she went on. “The occult is nothing to fear. Look, you came here to enlist my help, right?”

  He rolled his eyes. “To be honest, no, I didn’t. If you know Nell, then I’m sure you’re aware her husband—my grandfather—is the mayor. The mayor is the sheriff’s boss and I work for Sheriff Van Horn. Frankly, I had no choice but to speak to you. Not only did my sweet old grandma beg me, but my boss ordered me to because his boss insisted. But I’ll tell you the truth. I’m not afraid of the occult. I just don’t believe in this…” He waved a hand through the air. “This stuff, any of it.”

  When he turned to leave, she set her hand on his sleeve and felt his muscles quiver beneath her fingers. He spun around to face her. “What?”

  She let go. “Give me a chance to help.”

  His hesitation gave her hope. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I need to make a call. It was…nice to meet you.” He shoved a twenty into her palm.

  As he strode out of the store, Jilly silently asked the Goddess to bring him back, to convince him to let her help find Hannah. It was more important than staying under the radar as she had for the past year.

  Unbidden memories filled her head. Herself as a teenager, alone and frightened with no one to talk to, no one to care. Had Hannah felt the same way?

  I have to help her.

  Now that she’d had a glimpse of the girl, she couldn’t just abandon her.

  * * * * *

  “Now what?” Zander muttered under his breath as he paced the parking lot. Why did she have to be so damn alluring? He’d always dated white women, but everything about Jilly was beyond sexy.

  Christ, hadn’t he learned anything from his time with Andrea and then Nadine? The last thing he needed in his life now was a woman.

  He should walk away, tell his grandmother he’d tried, but the psychic was of no help, just as he’d planned. Only Jilly had obviously hit on something and he couldn’t explain how. And how the hell had she figured out so much about his personal life with her tarot cards? Gave him chills just thin
king about her accuracy.

  But his bottom line was finding Hannah Saxon as soon as possible. If there was even the slightest chance she that Jilly could help… No, his logical mind wouldn’t allow for such a possibility. He had to just forget about this angle and move on.

  Temples throbbing, he got into his car and phoned his grandparents.

  “Parsons.” His grandfather’s gruff voice ought to belong to a man half his age.

  “It’s Zander, Gramps.”

  “Sandy? Sandy who? How’d you get this number?”

  Zander inwardly smiled. “Gramps, it’s Zander. Put in your darn hearing aids.”

  “Oh, Zander,” the old man said. “You need to enunciate better. How are you, son?”

  “Listen, I went to see that psychic Grandma likes. That’s not going to work, though. Would you tell her I tried?”

  “I figured it was a dead end, but you know how she is. It’s old fashioned police work that’ll solve this one. You understand how much pressure I’m under, don’t you?”

  He understood perfectly. His grandfather was facing a tough opponent in the upcoming election, his first serious contender in his decade in office. The last thing he needed was to appear soft on crime, especially in the upscale neighborhood where Hannah lived, which formed a big part of his grandfather’s base. Zander’s first and foremost consideration was Hannah Saxon. “I understand, Gramps. I won’t let you down.”

  “I have faith in you, son. That’s why I fought for the grant money to send you and the sheriff to the FBI Academy. Prove to the citizens of this town that you know what the hell you’re doing.”

  “Yes, sir. I’ll do my best.” Zander disconnected then sank lower in the driver’s seat and listened to his stomach grumble. Lunchtime had come and gone. He glanced at The Black Cat Café which sat only twenty yards or so down from Mind’s Eye. He’d heard their food wasn’t half bad, as vegetarian stuff went. What the hell.

  As soon as he stepped inside it was as if he’d been transported back in time to the seventies. The booths were covered in bright turquoise vinyl and hanging macramé baskets overflowed with vining greenery he suspected was plastic. To his right was a small area with a sign on the wall advertising ‘Spiritual Readings.’ Most of the space seemed to be dedicated to the eatery part, though. He just hoped he could get something that resembled a burger.