Spirit of Seduction (2 page)

One of the owners of the salon walked past,
helping an elderly client to the door. Emily picked up a nail file
and started working on Ryan’s nails. Last thing she needed was for
her boss to find out about her psychic powers. That part of her
life was over. She waited until the woman was out of earshot before
speaking. “I’m not sure what you want from me, Ryan, but—”

He gripped her wrist to stop her from filing
his nails. “You helped the police with a murder case a while back.
If I hadn’t seen Becky or her ghost or whatever that was with my
own eyes I’d have never believed it, but she needs something from
me and I don’t know who else I can turn to.”

She slipped her arm out of his grasp. “I
don’t do that anymore.” Terrifying memories flashed through her
brain but she banished them in an instant.

One of the other nail techs caught her eye.
“Everything okay, Emily?”

“Fine.” She leveled a warning stare at Ryan.
“I can’t have this conversation here. No one knows that I’m…what I
used to do.” She’d left New Orleans to get away from her mother and
the fortunetelling business she ran. But she’d been drawn back into
the only life she’d known and gravitated to the psychic community
in Raleigh. Until a killer frightened her into denying her own
powers.

He shrugged. “Then let’s get out of
here.”

“I have more appointments.” The lie left a
sour taste in her mouth. In truth, the notion of spending more time
excited her more than she cared to admit—even if he did dislike
her—but being this close to him, touching him, made her yearn for
the opportunity to convince him to give her a chance.

He rocked his chair back on its hind legs
and narrowed his eyes. “That’s funny because I specifically asked
for your last appointment. And when I got here there were no names
written in the slots after mine.”

Damn it.

She worried her bottom lip between her
teeth, eying him. “The last thing I’m going to do is get involved
with another murder case. I’m through with that.”

He leaned toward her. “I know we got off on
the wrong foot but Becky always said you were good people, the sort
of woman who’d go to bat for your friends no matter what. She needs
your help now and so do I. Was she wrong about you?”

Her stomach knotted. “Ryan, I don’t
think—”

“There’s something else. I keep
having…daydreams about you. Someone…hurts you in them.”

That gave her pause. Why
would she have appeared in
his
visions? “Maybe you just feel guilty for being so
mean to me at Becky’s birthday party two years ago.“

He frowned. “Yeah, I do. Sorry about that. I
might have had a few beers that night. You didn’t deserve what I
said.”

The long awaited apology eased some of her
apprehension, but it didn’t change the fact he’d believed she was
faking her gifts like some sort of con artist.

“I think the visions might be…” He scooted
closer. “…I don’t know, prophetic?”

“Not necessarily. You shouldn’t worry about
it. I’m not. It’s probably nothing.”

He shook his head. “Emily, you’re a part of
this whether you like it or not.” He tore at a hangnail.

Automatically, she grabbed his finger and
used her nipper to vanquish the dead skin.

He pulled his hand back. “Becky’s ghost said
something. She told me to heed my visions.”

Her heart lodged in her throat. “Those were
her exact words?”

He nodded grimly.

Becky was obviously reaching out to her from
the other side. She’d been a dear friend but did she want to put
her life on the line again?

When the Raleigh police had asked her to
help them with a missing persons case last year, she hadn’t
hesitated. But when the killer learned her identity after a
newspaper reporter leaked the story of her involvement, her life
had taken a decidedly terrifying turn. The notion that something
like that could happen again was too frightening to even consider.
Much as she’d loved Becky, she wanted no part of whatever Ryan was
asking of her.

“I can’t help you, Ryan, I’m sorry.”

“You have to.” His voice was too loud in the
small salon.

She refused to be outed as a psychic at her
place of business. She liked it too much here, the anonymity and
the normalcy. “There’s a coffee shop down the street where we can
talk.”

Relief shone in his eyes. “Let’s go.”

She nodded stoically then said her goodbyes
to the rest of the staff.

They walked in silence toward the coffee
shop for several minutes, each step heightening the turmoil brewing
inside her. The last time she’d channeled a murder victim’s spirit,
she’d put her life in jeopardy. The police detective had assured
her he’d keep her identity secret but he’d failed, big time. That
had been the beginning of the month-long terror campaign the
murderer had waged against her. She forced the memories from her
mind.

Finally, Ryan spoke. “Why are you so
reluctant to help me? I thought you cared about my sister.”

She bristled at the condescension in his
tone. “I’ve tried to stay away from anything to do with the psychic
arts. I had a bad experience on that case you mentioned.” Her
headache flared.

He set a hand on her back. “I’m sorry.”

She didn’t want the contact to feel so good.
The only thing worse than being attracted to a man who thought she
was a fake was knowing he didn’t feel the same way.

Stepping away from his touch, she gave him a
half nod. “You said I was in your vision. Tell me about that.”

His lips flattened to a thin line. “A man
dragged you off. I heard you scream and I knew he’d…”

“Killed me?” Her voice broke on the last
word.

He dropped his head and a lock of hair fell
onto his forehead, strand over glossy strand. “Yeah. Then I saw
Becky’s…ghost or whatever. That’s what made me take the visions a
lot more seriously.”

“What were Becky’s exact words?”

“Heed your vision.”

Her legs turned to jelly. Ryan hooked her
arm and she let him support her. Luckily, they’d arrived at the
coffee shop.

He opened the door and she brushed past him,
picking up on his scent again. She wished she didn’t find
everything about the man so damn attractive. She wrapped her arms
around her body as she approached the counter.

Ryan held up two fingers for the barista
then led Emily to a cafe table and pulled out her chair. When she
sat, he squeezed her shoulders and bent to whisper in her ear.
“Thanks for coming.”

His breath gusted warm over her neck and
shoulders. A quiver of arousal rolled across her skin. But she had
to get over it. Ryan was the last person she should be thinking
about that way since he was pressuring her to return to the shadowy
world that had frightened her away.

He went to the counter to pick up their
drinks.

I like my coffee
black
. She mentally sent him the message to
test his psychic intuitiveness.

He set the coffee on the table and took a
seat. “Black?”

She nodded, unsure if he’d gotten the
message or if he’d merely assumed.

He scooted his chair closer and smiled at
her with that sensual mouth.

Her lips tingled. She yearned for a taste of
him but being drawn into anything supernatural was the last thing
she wanted.

“Becky thought so much of you.”

Her throat thickened with emotion at the
mention of her friend. “It was mutual. She was a good person. The
police haven’t come up with anything concrete yet?”

He shook his head heavily. “They’ve just
about given up. Her boyfriend was at the top of their list of
suspects, but he swears he was home at the time of the murder. They
said there wasn’t any evidence to tie him to the scene but Tommy’s
uncle happens to be a sergeant for the Kenton Police Department.
Pretty convenient, huh? But anyone who knew Becky and Tommy had
witnessed the two of them arguing. Shit, I don’t know why they
stayed together for so long.”

His eyes misted but he immediately squared
his shoulders and cleared his throat. “Nothing will bring her back
but if her killer is caught at least I’ll have some closure, and so
will she. I’m hoping you can help with that.”

She shifted uncomfortably in her chair. “I’m
not very experienced with this sort of thing. I was asked to assist
the police in finding a missing person. That’s not the case with
Becky.”

“That’s true, but if you’re psychic—”

“I am,
Ryan. There’s more than one kind of psychic power. Most people
with what you might call ESP have a mix of two or more
gifts.”

The door opened and a young couple came
through. Thankfully, she didn’t know them.

“What about you? What’s your gift?”

She wrapped her hands around the cardboard
cup. “I can see into the past.” She didn’t want to mention that
she’d been able to communicate with spirits that had crossed to the
other side or Ryan would surely expect her to try with Becky. That
was the part of her power that now frightened her the most. It was
what she’d had to do for the last case and it had landed her in
danger.

“What else?”

“I’m an empath as well. Mostly I sense
emotions.” She attempted to tune in to Ryan’s feelings but he
seemed to have an impenetrable wall around him or maybe she was
rusty. She’d been consciously trying to avoid using her gifts for
ten or eleven months now.

“What was your bad experience with that
murder investigation last year?”

She drank her coffee and recalled the terror
she’d felt in the weeks she’d worked with the Raleigh PD. “As soon
as my name and photo appeared in the paper, the threatening calls
started. The killer began leaving notes on my car and someone broke
into my apartment when I wasn’t home.” She took another sip to
quench the dryness in her throat before continuing. “They posted a
guard outside my door at night but he managed to get around him.”
She clasped her hands to keep them from shaking.

Ryan rubbed the calloused pad of his thumb
over her knuckles. “It’s okay. I’m here.”

“He would have killed me if the officer
hadn’t knocked to check on me. When I didn’t answer he broke down
the door. The murderer was holding me at knifepoint and the cop had
to shoot him.” She shut her eyes but the tears came anyway.

“I’m so sorry, Emily. I didn’t know. I
swear, I’ll never let anything happen to you.”

Why should she trust him?
Becky had thought the world of him. She’d called him
the tough guy with the big heart.
Said he was a black belt in two martial arts and
an expert marksman yet he volunteered at the local animal shelter
and rocked drug-addicted babies at one of the hospitals in the
area.

She slid her hand away and forced her
concentration to the case rather than the feel of Ryan’s touch.

“I never believed in any of this stuff but I
saw a freaking ghost with my own eyes. I don’t know what the hell
is real and what isn’t anymore.” He pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Look, would you just come with me to her house? See if you can
contact her or pick up on something. Maybe she’ll tell you who
killed her.”

She shook her head. “When spirits pass,
their memory is wiped clean of all the negative energy they dealt
with in their earthly life. She might know she met an untimely end,
but I doubt she can tell us exactly what happened or who was
responsible.”

“Would you try? Maybe she’ll give us a
clue.” The pain in his expression broke her heart. “Please. You’re
my only hope.”

How could she turn him down? Becky had been
like a guardian angel when Emily first arrived in Raleigh. She’d
fed her and even loaned her the money to pay the security deposit
on her first place. How could she not help Becky’s brother if there
was even a chance he might be able to get justice for her once and
for all?

She sucked in a breath for courage. “Okay.
I’ll do it.”

Ryan lifted his hand to her cheek and she
couldn’t help leaning into his tempting touch—a touch that made her
feel safe, despite the precarious situation she was walking into.
“Thank you.”

She couldn’t manage to return his smile, not
with panic gripping her insides. She prayed this would go better
than the last time she’d gotten involved with a murder.

The scenery went from city to suburban to
lush rolling hills as Ryan drove north on US 1 toward the bedroom
community of Kenton, but the sun had already set and the darker it
grew, the more tension tugged at Emily’s shoulders and neck.

She drifted back in time a year, to the day
she’d channeled Nancy Baxter’s spirit. The ghost spoke to her, told
her the last place she recalled being. It hadn’t taken the police
long to find the body after that. If only Nancy’s ghost had been
able to reveal the identity of her killer, Emily might have avoided
the most frightening month of her life. But she supposed it was
usually a good thing that spirits were always spared such painful
memories.

“You okay, darlin?” Ryan’s voice jarred her
back to the present.

Her cheeks heated at his term of endearment
even though she was sure he meant nothing by at. At least he wasn’t
calling her a shyster anymore. “Yeah, fine.”

He rested his right hand on his jeans-clad
thigh. His impossibly broad chest rose and fell with a breath and
she bit her lip to keep from sighing at his perfection.

Think about something else.

“How much farther to Becky’s house?” She’d
only been there twice and the last time had been that birthday
party, an event she’d tried to block out her mind for so long.

“Only a few more miles.” Ryan ventured a
quick glance at her. “Is it my driving? I might be going over the
speed limit, but I’ve been traveling these roads my whole
life.”