Scared, angry, guilty, ashamed, mourning, affectionate.
Put together on the outside, falling apart on the inside.
Also, rich AF. Used to being able to throw money at most things.Has connections,but doesn’t trust any of them to ask them for help.
Powerful, feels powerless.
He also didn’t mention anything about becoming the alpha. So likely he’s not the second oldest either. He’s not here for gain.
He’s here for justice.
And to protect what he has left.
I get this guy.
And if I solve this for him, it could changeeverything.
“The fates are clouded,” I droned, trying not to lick my lips. Speaking of gambling, I was about to make a big leap. But I needed to if I wanted to get any sort of traction with my mother’s legacy. “There is so much pain and confusion swirling, it is hard to get a read. I…” Here it was, the big wind-up. The make-or-break moment where I was really going to lean into the con.
But I was doing it to help someone, right?Or helpmyself?
“I need it to be clearer, I need… I need…”
“You need what?” my client asked, his eyes opening as he leaned forward. But this time I didn’t give him my patented look to get him to close them again. Instead, I locked eyes with him and spoke as levelly as I could.
“I need to see the crime scene.”
Chapter 5
Paul
And the Walls Came Tumblin’ Down
It wasas if someone had slapped me.
I’d been doubtful when I’d entered the modest home that supposedly belonged to one of the greatest proven psychics of the current century. That doubt had almost turned to outright rejection when I saw the woman waiting for me was not Ophelia. No, the apparentlylateand great seer was no more, and instead her daughter had taken over.
She was gorgeous in a way I hadn’t expected. She had a strong jaw and nose, but piercing, mismatched eyes—one emerald, one baby blue—framed by thick lashes and incredibly full lips. Her cheekbones were strong enough to perhaps slay forty Philistines, but there was a delicate softness to her skin and complexion.
But I wasn’t here to see a beautiful woman. I’d nearly turned right around and left right then, sure I’d wasted my time, but something about the younger woman’s words and the way she’d stared at me, like she wasreallyseeing me, had made me stay.
Fool that I was.
“Absolutely not,” I said, jerking my hands away from her. The plight of my family wasn’t some tragic tourism spot for someone to get their true crime jollies!
“Why not?” she asked in surprise, likeIwas the one who was strange for rebuffing her.
“Why not?” I repeated. “Because it’s ridiculous. Not only is it utterly insane to have a stranger at the crime scene—which, mind you, has already been forensically cleaned by an entire team, both physically and with magic—but for all I know, you’re a fraud.”
The temper that had leaked out with my siblings bubbled to the surface again, cracking like a whip through me. I was a fool. Chris was right. I was looking in inappropriate places to deal with my grief.
“Enough of this,” I said, standing up.
I didn’t really have any expectations for how the psychic would react; pondering it hadn’t even crossed my mind. That changed in a millisecond when her eyes drilled into mine, her face going slack while she began to speak.
But something wasdifferent.Her voice was lower. Raspier. Instead of the honey-smooth drawl she’d had before, it was something more primal, as if she had been possessed by something not of this time.
“Me? A fraud? Of course. A fraud who knows that you haven’t slept for more than an hour since this happened, that every time you manage to slip under, you have nightmares of what that room looked like when you first stepped into it. And how you are relying on that wolf healing of yours to deal with the effects. But as time passes, no amount of food, no number of cigarettes that you started smoking again, or stimulants will be able to restore you.”