Robin said, “I just wish she’d come to us earlier.”
“She had no idea what was going on,” Val said. “I cannot imagine how freaked out she was.”
“Well, Russell House is sticking by her,” Monica said. “I already talked to Grace and Philip.”
“Mom and Dad are fully in Kara’s corner,” Robin said. “They both love her.”
“God knows she’s missed,” Monica said. “I’m moving Drew to the day shift, and he’s not happy about it.”
“It’s all going to work out.” Robin rubbed Monica’s back. “We’ve caught the ghost arsonist and banished not one but two tormented ghosts, one of whom was a very bad dude.”
Monica looked at Robin. “I told you I would.”
“Would what?” Val asked.
“Kiss Gabe,” Robin said. “So did you?”
Sully stood. “Okay, I don’t need to be here for this.”
Mark joined him. “Yeah, I’m gonna check on Kara.”
The men both left and Robin and Val stared at Monica.
“Well?”
Monica smiled. “I may need to repeat the experiment once I’m showered and have clean teeth. For science.”
Val held her hand up and Robin gave her a high five. “It was good.”
“It was definitely good.”
Monica smiled. “You don’t have to be so smug about it.”
“We’re your best friends,” Robin said. “Of course we’re smug about you bagging a hot fireman.”
“I was married to a hot fireman for twenty-five years.”
Val leaned forward. “And now you have another one. Icon.”
Robin pretended to wipe a tear from her eye. “Grandma Trujillo would be so proud.”
Monica snorted. “You two are ridiculous.”
“That’s why you love us.”
Monica stared at her two best friends and realized that while she’d felt pretty lost after Gil had died, she’d never felt alone. And she never would. “I love you guys.”
“Love you too,” Robin said.
Val said, “It would be ridiculous not to love you. And I’m not ridiculous.”
Sometimes Monica saw the future; sometimes she didn’t. But with friends like she had, no matter what happened, she could handle it.
No matter what.
Epilogue
The house was ready. For the first time in six months, the house was actually ready. Monica wanted to giggle in relief and dance at the same time.
New furniture? Check.
Fresh paint? Check.
New floors? Check.
It had taken a long time, but her house finally felt like home. A new home. Familiar pictures hung on the walls and a few things had been saved from the home she’d shared with Gil, but most all of it was new.
Gabe swept in from the back porch, a plate of barbecue in his hand. “Here. Try this.”
She bit into the tri-tip he held out for her to taste and bit the end of his finger playfully. “Delicious.” She smiled.
“Hmm.” The corner of his mouth turned up, and he leaned in to kiss her. The kiss started out playful and turned hot and heavy within seconds. “Very delicious.” He moved a hand to her waist and slid his palm over the curve of her hip as he took her mouth again.
“Gabe.”
“Mmm.” He kissed from her lips across her jaw, teasing the sensitive spot behind her ear. “You’re wearing that perfume I got you.”
“The meat.”
“The meat?”
“On the grill?”
“Oh.” He drew back. “Right.”
“We should call everyone and tell them not to come.” Monica let out a breath and tried to calm the heat in her face. “It’s Valentine’s Day. Who has a housewarming party on Valentine’s Day? They probably all want to stay home anyway.”
Gabe kept the door cracked to the back porch. She could hear him laugh.
“Everyone wants to see the house.”
“I guess we can accommodate them for one night.”
“Are Jake and Kara coming?”
“Yes, but later. They’re hosting the Valentine’s dinner at Russell House, then coming over for drinks. Probably around ten or so.”
“Logan gave me a curfew.”
Monica laughed. “That kid cracks me up.”
“Me too.”
Logan had decided that he liked Glimmer Lake enough to try a year of school in the mountains. His mom had been reluctant at first, but when Logan talked about all his new friends and learning to ski, she got on board. Gabe was being a full-time parent and a fire chief for the first time ever.
It was a lot, but he and Logan seemed to be doing pretty well.
Monica was still working full time at Russell House, but since Kara’s case had finally been settled and the house was finished, she felt like two mountains had been taken off her back.
Mandatory counseling and a year of probation had been the resolution to Kara’s case, which put her back to work as soon as she’d healed from her skin grafts.
Even though she’d technically been on sick leave, since she was staying in the caretaker’s quarters with Jake, Monica didn’t feel like Kara had gotten much of a break.
“I think I’m going to send Kara and Jake on a vacation before the summer rush crashes into us.” Monica set out wineglasses and a bucket of beer for Sully. “They need a break.”
Gabe came into the kitchen bearing a foil-covered plate. “You’re a nice boss.” He kissed her cheek.
“I try.”
“I’m going to send my guys up to Northern California for a three-week intensive training session before summer.”
“Awww.” She kissed his cheek back. “You’re a nice chief.”
“I know. They love me.”
Monica heard something buzzing and scanned the room. “Is that you?”
Gabe held up his phone. “Nope. You.”
“Nuts.” Her gaze raced around the family room. “Where did I put it?”
“Did you leave it in the bedroom?”
“No, I hear it.”
“Is it by the—?”
“Oh!” Monica opened the fridge. “Found it.”
Gabe laughed, but it wasn’t the first time she’d found her phone in the fridge.
She answered it before she looked at the number. “This is Monica.”
“Mrs. Velasquez?” The voice on the phone sounded a little out of breath and more than a little panicked. “Is this Monica Velasquez?”
“Yes.” She pulled the phone away, but the number didn’t look familiar. “Are you okay?”
“I just… I’m not sure how to ask this. I don’t even know if you remember me.”
“Does this have something to do with Russell House? If there’s a guest emergency, I’m not on site, so you’ll have to call—”
“What’s Russell House? I’m sorry.” She took a deep breath. “I do apologize; I’m not making any sense. My name is Dr. Katherine Bassi, and I believe I spoke to you around seven months ago about—”
“Precognition.” The name and voice settled into place. “Yes. Yes, I do remember you. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I’m… unsettled. But I’m fine.”
“Okay.”
Gabe was making questioning faces at her, but Monica could only shrug. She had no idea why Mark’s old friend was calling her.
“I’m calling because something happened very recently, and I don’t understand it, but I remembered our conversation months ago.” She cleared her throat. “And I am so sorry if I seemed dismissive at the time. I admit, hearing about your… friend’s experiences seemed so out of the realm of scientific possibility that I was probably patronizing. I apologize for that.”
Monica felt a knot form in her stomach. “Dr. Bassi, what happened?”
“Are you the friend, Mrs. Velasquez?” Her voice was urgent. “I need to know if you were using a common distancing tactic to—”
“Yes,” Monica told her without hesitati
on. “I’m the friend I was talking about. I experience precognition through dreams.”
“Then I need your help.” The woman’s professional tenor had dropped away and her voice was barely over a whisper. “Someone tried to commit a violent crime yesterday. A shooting. It could have been very bad, but it wasn’t. Because… I saw it happen before it happened. And I helped stop it.”
“Okay.” Monica let out a long breath just as the doorbell rang. Gabe went to answer the door as Monica continued talking. “Katherine, I’m going to get your number and call you back in about five minutes with some friends of mine. Everything is going to be okay, but I have a feeling you’re going to want to talk to all of us.”
“Thank you. I don’t know what’s happening, but… thanks.”
“Trust me.” Monica caught Robin and Val’s worried expressions and waved them toward the back porch. “You are not alone.”
Get ready for your next Paranormal Women’s Fiction addiction when you meet three new friends in the Moonstone Cove series by Elizabeth Hunter.
Keep reading for an exclusive sneak preview of the first book, Runaway Fate, coming Fall 2020.
First Look: Runaway Fate
If Katherine Bassi could have predicted a time and place for her life to change irrevocably, it would not have been at the Blue Wave Gym on State Street at four forty-five on Thursday afternoon.
Her yoga class started at five o’clock, so at four-thirty, Katherine hopped on one of the few available treadmills to warm her muscles up. Properly warmed muscles were a prerequisite to get the most out of her twice weekly yoga class. The class was focused on flexibility and joint maintenance, two areas Katherine knew were vital for older women.
Dr. Katherine Bassi wouldn’t have predicted that her life would change that Thursday. She wouldn’t have predicted it would change at all, and she was perfectly happy with that.
She was a forty-seven year old physics professor at Central Coast State University. She’d been married for twenty years to a man she adored. She was the happy and indulgent aunt to four children her siblings and in-laws were raising and had no desire for kids of her own.
Her life didn’t need to change. It was exactly what she wanted.
As she pushed the buttons to increase her workout pace, she glanced around the gym.
On her right was a young man wearing a college sweatshirt, his head down as he listened to music and jogged at a steady pace.
In the row before her was a middle-aged blond woman in ruthlessly coordinated sportswear sweating her heart out on an elliptical machine.
The Blue Wave Gym gave a discount to student and faculty at Central Coast State, so the number of blue and green sweatshirts and t-shirts around the aerobic machine room was noticeable, but plenty of ordinary people from town were mixed in as well.
It was one of the reasons that Katherine enjoyed going to this gym. She was too often surrounded by academics since she and her husband Baxter were both professors, and it was nice to break out of her limited social circle.
“Hey!”
Katherine looked over her left shoulder.
“You dropped your towel.” A freckled woman with a curly cap of short dark hair held a white towel out to her.
“Thanks.” Katherine reached back and grabbed it, then folded it in thirds and placed it on the small bar below the control panel on the treadmill, all the while never slowing her pace. “Were you waiting for this machine?”
The woman shrugged. “I’m good. I’ve got time.” Her eyes seemed focused farther down the row of machines.
Katherine glanced at the clock on the wall. “I’m just warming up before the five o’clock yoga class. I’ll be done in a few minutes.” It was four-forty, and she would need at least ten minutes to walk to the yoga classroom and set up. Katherine hated being late for anything, but especially classes. She slowed her treadmill to cool down.
“I can wait.” The woman’s eyes swept around the gym before coming back to rest on something or someone farther down the row. Her eyes narrowed, but she didn’t move from her spot near the wall.
Katherine turned back to the closed captioned television that was broadcasting the local news. There was something about the classic car show on Beach Street that weekend. The weather forecast jumped onto the screen. Seventy-five and sunny on Friday. Seventy-three. Seventy-six. Yep, pretty much perfect all week.
When you lived on California’s Central Coast, you didn’t get to complain about the weather.
At four forty-four she stopped the treadmill and grabbed her towel. She dabbed her forehead and looked for the dark-haired woman, but she was already on a different machine.
Gym goers were shuffling locations as some left for the day and others switched workouts. Katherine saw the color-coordinated blond woman heading toward the hallway where the yoga classroom was located and wondered if she was a new attendee.
She walked toward the aisle, passing another young man running steadily on a treadmill. A blue and green hoodie covered his head, and something familiar about him made Katherine pause at the back of his machine.
It came in a flash.
Katherine saw the man stop and pull a black handgun from his sweatshirt. It was black and had an odd bar sticking out from the brown wooden handle. The world moved in slow motion as the young man raised the gun and started firing across the gym.
Once, twice, again and again. He didn’t stop. The world around her was muffled, but she heard people screaming. Glass shattered. More screaming.
She blinked and the world around her came back into focus. No one was screaming. The gym was filled with the sounds of treadmills and pumping workout music. The clock on the wall read four forty-five.
She was standing at the base of the young man’s treadmill when she saw it start to happen.
He unzipped his blue and green sweatshirt and reached inside.
It wasn’t a dream.
“Gun!” Katherine screamed and dove for the man, knocking him off balance. He toppled back and fell on her. The treadmill track shot them off the rear of the machine and into the aisle.
“He has a gun!”
The world compressed around her. She was struggling with the man, but he was so much stronger. Where was the gun? She saw it in his hand, and she reached for it.
He elbowed Katherine in the temple and rolled away, trying to lift the firearm and take aim.
“No!” The blond woman stood over them, her face red and angry. She reached her hand out and the gun jumped into her palm.
Katherine blinked.
The young man elbowed her again, snapping her head to the side. She saw stars and rolled into the still-spinning treadmill as the man scrambled toward the blond woman who had his gun. He was on his knees when the compact, dark-haired woman leapt over two treadmills and jumped on the attacker, forcing him back to the ground with a thud and a solid punch to the jaw.
“Stay down!” She looked to be about a third of the size of the man with the gun, but the woman grabbed his shoulders, forced him to the floor, and yelled into his face. “Calm down! Stay down!”
As if by magic, the man’s body went limp and he relaxed completely.
The blond woman was holding the gun on the man, but her hands weren’t even shaking. She glanced at Katherine. “Ma’am, you doing all right?” She spoke with a pronounced southern accent. “He hit you pretty hard. Think you might be bleeding on your forehead a little.”
The dark-haired woman glanced at the woman with the gun. “You a cop?”
“No.” The blond woman laughed a little. “Just grew up with a lot of good ol’ boys. You doin’ okay?”
“I’m good.” The dark-haired woman didn’t move off the man. “Please tell me someone is calling the police.”
Katherine rolled up to sitting and propped herself against the front of a stair-climbing machine. “I’m okay.” She watched their attacker lying completely still under the small woman. “I think I’m okay.”
Everyone in the g
ym had fled and most were milling around outside on State Street. Katherine could see them through the windows.
A man in a bright blue shirt ran over to them. “We called 911.” His muscles bulged from beneath his shirt and the word “trainer” was emblazoned on the front. “What can I do? Do you want me to hold him, Toni? How can I help?”
The blond woman didn’t move an inch and the dark haired woman the man called Toni didn’t budge.
“I think we’ll just stay right exactly where we are until the cops come.” Toni kept her hands pushed into the man’s shoulders, but the young man who’d wrestled so fiercely with Katherine had gone limp. He showed not a hint of resistance.
The trainer looked at the woman with the gun. “Uh… miss?”
“It’s Megan, sweetie. Megan Carpenter. I’m good here,” the blond woman said. “I’m new at the gym, but I’m real good with guns and I can wait with these nice ladies for the cops.” She glanced down. “This is a real fancy extended magazine, young man. I don’t think this model is legal in California.”
The young trainer was running his hands through his brown curly hair. “Oh my God. Holy shit. Patrick and Jan are gonna kill me.”
Katherine cleared her throat. “If you’re talking about the owners, I doubt you’re going to get in trouble. No one could have predicted this.”
Except she had.
She had seen the man pull the gun from his sweatshirt. She’d seen him raise it and shoot people. She’d heard screams and glass shattering.
But it hadn’t happened yet.
Katherine glanced at the clock. It was four forty-nine. In four minutes, everything about her life had changed.
She looked at the two women named Megan and Toni. All three of them were exchanging nervous glances and trying to pretend not to notice the others’ scrutiny. Katherine had never seen either of the women before that day, but she could read the question on both their faces.
What on earth just happened?
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Psychic Dreams: A Paranormal Women's Fiction Novel (Glimmer Lake Book 3) Page 22
