Authors: Kate Allenton
kissed her cheeks. “How are you, Sophie?”
Sophie grinned and her cheeks tinted as she handed Marshall two of her sunflowers as well. “And
these are for you.”
He lifted them to his nose and inhaled a deep breath. “Beautiful, but not half as beautiful as you.”
He winked, sending her hormones in a tailspin.
“Cut the crap, Marsh,” Jack grumbled. “Do you want to get a room or are you going to show us
what you found?”
Marshall’s brow rose challengingly. Sophie felt the tension building between the two friends. She
laid her palm on Marshall’s arm, pulling his attention back toward her. “What Jack is trying to say is that we really appreciate everything you’re doing to help us.”
“No, he’s not.”
“No, I’m not.”
Sophie grinned and shook her head. “Well, I am.” She turned to glare at Jack before settling her
gaze on Marshall. “Did you have any luck?”
Marshall glanced over to the man behind the counter before ushering her into the shooting gallery, down the corridor, and through one of the doors. It opened up into a meeting room she’d never seen. It was dark and secluded. She tried to imagine what types of deals went on behind these closed doors.
Pictures covered the wall, while fake plants were stationed around the room. There was a long table and a bar, with liquor bottles sitting on top, in the back of the room. The room was as mysterious as the man they were there to meet.
Marshall pulled out a chair for her to sit in before gesturing to the one next to it for Jack. “You’re going to want to sit down for this.”
Jack’s brows dipped, but he sat down next to Sophie. She could tell he was as bewildered as she.
Marshall walked across the room and returned with a file. He tossed it across the table to Jack. Jack opened it and started thumbing through the papers. “It appears Psychic Valerie did indeed have an
account in her fake name. Not only that, but she had money in it, a large amount of money, in fact.”
“Oh?” Sophie asked. “Were you able to trace the source?”
“Of course I was, Sophie. You underestimate the lengths I would go to please you.” Marshall
grinned and winked. She chanced a quick glance over to Jack in time to see him rolling his eyes.
“Who’s the source?”
“There are several smaller deposits that date back to when she started working at Mystic. It
appears she rented space at Mystic but her clients paid her directly. Anyway, most of deposits are small and I’ll start tracing them. I started with the large amounts first. Prior to her death, there were ten deposits totaling one hundred thousand dollars made into her account.”
Marshall’s words pulled Jack’s gaze out of the file. “One hundred grand?”
Sophie’s mouth parted. That was a crazy amount of money. Maybe not to Jack and definitely not to
Marshall, but to her it was a whole boatload of money.
“Yeah, but the kicker is where it came from.”
Jack’s jaw ticked while he waited for Marshall to explain. Sophie could see that Jack’s patience was thinning.
“Who?” she asked.
“Mayor Thompson.”
Sophie shook her head, thinking she must not have heard Marshall right. Jack was now smiling, his
grin growing wider by the minute.
“The mayor?” she asked incredibly.
Marshall nodded. “One and the same.”
Jack leaned forward and clasped his hands together. “She must have had something on him.
Something good that she was using to blackmail his ass.”
Sophie shrugged. “Or maybe she was his mistress. We could sit here and guess all day.”
Marshall leaned back in his chair and held Sophie’s gaze. “I’m thinking she knew something, and
that money is hush money. Maybe he had a reading, and she knew more than he wanted her to, even
though I don’t see him killing her.”
“Psychic hush money.” Sophie leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs. “I’m sure that goes
against the code of ethics, if mediums or psychics have one. I wouldn’t know. I haven’t read that section yet.”
“You will,” Marshall rang in.
“Or not,” Jack replied.
It was obvious these two held different opinions and views on what she was now referring to as her curse…or rather her gift.
Jack rose from his seat. “It appears we have some questioning to do.” He gestured toward the door
and waited for Sophie to rise.
Marshall stood. “One sec.” He held up his finger and walked to the back of the room, returning with a present wrapped in pink paper and tied with a bow. He walked around the table and kissed her cheek.
“Happy birthday, Sophie.”
“You didn’t have to do this.” Sophie’s hand flew up to cover her mouth and her cheeks heated as
she took the present, almost dropping it because of the weight.
Jack grumbled something beneath his breath but she ignored him.
“Open it,” Marshall urged.
She set the present down and tore into the pink paper much like a child would do at Christmas. Her fingers trembled as she opened the box. The same gun she’d put on hold was lying in the case. Her heart raced with excitement as she tossed her arms into the air and reached for Marshall’s neck, giving him a peck on the cheek. “Oh, my god. I love it. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
He nodded to a case sitting on the counter by the door. “There are bullets, too. Why don’t you go
squeeze off a couple of rounds? I’m sure Jack will wait.”
****
Marshall figured out it was Sophie’s birthday, but he’d bought her a damn gun.
She was busy loading the clip before she remembered Jack was in the room. “Do we have time?”
He nodded and she was out the door, positioning herself in one of the stalls.
Marshall and Jack stood at the door, watching as she put on her ear protection. “A gun?”
“Nothing sexier than a woman with a weapon.” Marshall shrugged. “She wanted one and it was her
birthday.” He patted Jack on the back. “Not to mention she needed protection.”
“I’m her damn protection.” Jack turned on his best friend.
Marshall held up his hands. “Dude, I’m not saying you can’t protect her.” He dropped his hands.
“She wanted one and couldn’t afford it. Today, being her birthday, was the prime time to give it to her. I don’t think she would have taken it otherwise.”
Jack scowled and turned to watch her again. “She needs a background check and permits.”
Marshall handed him the documents. “Done and done.”
Jack turned back to his friend. “Why are you going to all of this trouble for a woman you hardly
know?”
Marshall leaned against the doorframe, his gaze on Sophie. “She’s worth it. You know it and I know it.”
Marshall glanced over at Jack. “What are you going to do about the mayor?”
Jack shrugged. “I’m going to question him and probably get fired.”
Marshall patted Jack on the back. “That’s great. I need someone to run the company while I
implement my new program.”
“New program?”
Marshall nodded and his gaze settled on Sophie reloading her clip. “Yeah, it’s still in the infancy stages, not much to tell yet.”
Jack let his head fall forward. A headache formed in his temples. All of this time he’d thought
Marshall was screwing with him about Sophie, but he wasn’t. He knew Marshall like the back of his
hand, and the look in his best friend’s eyes said it all. The asshole liked her too.
Rubbing his hand over his face, Jack looked up. “You know that favor you owe me?”
Marshall nodded.
“I’m calling it in.”
“Shoot.” Marshall switched his gaze back to Jack.
“Don’t.” Jack shook his head. “Don’t make a play for her until this is over. I need her to stay
focused.”
“Seems you have a slight advantage by spending so much time with her, but your time is running
out, my friend.” Marshall nodded once in acknowledgment. “After you catch this guy, all bets are off.”
Jack walked outside with Marshall and retrieved the knife that Sophie had found. He handed it to
Marshall. “Sophie found this at the crime scene.”
Marshall handled it delicately by the edges and examined the knife casing. “This is unique.”
“Any idea where it’s from, where to start looking?”
Marshall turned it to get a better look at the other side. “It’s custom. Someone paid a pretty penny to have this made.” Marshall pointed to initials at the bottom. “This is the maker. You should start with him. If I had to guess, it was either a nice present for some type of accomplishment or for someone like the mayor as a gift.”
“Crap.”
Marshall handed it back to him. “Things aren’t looking too great for the mayor. Are you going to
question him when you leave here?”
“Yeah.”
“Can you have your people run the prints? “
“You know, if my guys run this, it won’t stand up in court.”
“Yeah, I don’t think they’re going to believe where Sophie is getting the information either.” Jack shook his head. “No. If it is the mayor’s, I’d rather keep that little bit of information to ourselves. I’m not sure where this is going to go.”
“Sure.”
Marshall wrapped the knife in a handkerchief and stored it in his armrest. They both walked back
inside to see Sophie grinning from ear to ear as she ripped off her headgear and held out her target. All of her shots were in the middle of the chest and dead center. She was a natural.
Marshall clapped and headed straight for her. “Well done, Sophie. You’re already getting better.”
He took the gun from her and set it back in the case. “Since you mastered that, after your case is solved, we’re going to have to start hand-to-hand combat training.”
Her mouth parted. “You’d teach me?”
He nodded. “Absolutely, I think all women should know the basic defenses needed to kick an
assailant’s ass.”
Jack walked over to where they were. “She’s an accountant, Marshall, not a damn spy.”
Sophie’s eyes narrowed and her excitement deflated. She shrugged. “What’s the matter, Jack?
Afraid I’ll kick your ass?”
Marshall chuckled and threw his arm around her shoulder. “Don’t listen to him. You can be
anything you want to be, Sophie Masterson.”
Jack reached for her gun case and grabbed her hand. “Right now, she’s
my
partner, Marshall.”
He started pulling her toward the door.
“I’ll see you tonight, Sophie.”
Sophie glanced over her shoulder. “You will?”
She pulled Jack to a stop and turned around.
“Eileen must have heard I babysat when Jack was at her house. She called and invited me to your
birthday dinner.”
“Perfect,” Jack grumbled as he grabbed her flowers from the counter on their way out the door. He
ushered her into the SUV.
“Anything else you want to tell me?” Jack asked.
“It’s my birthday.” Her cheeks reddened. “And my sister-in-law always does a birthday dinner for
me.”
He nodded and threw the SUV in reverse. “What time do we have to be there?”
She pulled out her phone and shot off a text. A ding sounded and she answered. “Seven o’clock at
Flannigan’s.”
Jack glanced at his watch. The morning had already escaped them. They still needed to go question
the mayor and, to top off the day, he was going to be spending it with all of her friends and family, looking like an ass because he didn’t buy her a present. Hell, he didn’t even know it was her damn birthday. It wasn’t as if he could leave her alone to go buy a present, and he damn sure wasn’t leaving her in Marshall’s care while he went in search of the perfect gift. Not that he knew what a perfect gift would be, not for Sophie. He was up shit creek without a damn paddle and no one around to throw him a life preserver. Fantastic.
Sophie ran her hand over the gun box sitting in her lap. The metal in her hand made her heart race as she remembered the feeling of empowerment from shooting off the rounds. She’d been ready to
jump for joy when she realized that she’d actually hit the target. She felt less of a victim with some way to defend herself, all thanks to Marshall.
“Can we stop by my house? I need to grab a few things.”
“Sure.” He took a right onto the next road, heading in the direction of her house.
“Listen…” She placed her palm on his arm. The small contact sent tingles through her body as
memories of what they’d done last night flickered through her mind. “I’m sorry you’re stuck with me. I know you didn’t want to work with me from the beginning, and now all of this is screwed up and it’s my fault.”
He took her hand and laced his fingers through hers, holding it as he drove.” This isn’t your fault.
The girl was dead long before you showed up and this psycho would have kept killing even if you didn’t temp for your brother. None of this is on you. If anything, you’ve helped get the case back on track.” He turned into her driveway and parked, slowly scanning the area as he followed her inside.
He closed the door behind them and threw the lock before he followed her into her bedroom. She
grabbed another bag from the closet and set it on top of her dresser. He stepped up behind her and held her gaze in the mirror. “I’m sorry about this morning.”
She held his gaze, not breaking contact. “It’s your defense mechanism. I get it.”
He turned her to face him. “I don’t think you do.”
He crushed his lips to hers in a kiss she was sure would melt her brain. He held her with a
gentleness she’d longed for, needed, and craved. Why was he doing this? It’s as if someone flipped a switch. It didn’t make any sense. She pulled out of the kiss and waited for the fog to clear. “Why now?
What changed?”
He leaned his forehead against hers. “Sophie, I don’t know what this is between us, but it’s more
than just lust.” He lifted his head. “You’re smart and beautiful, and I have to admit the way you handled that gun turned me on.”