“Can you find out who I’d talk to? Who would treat this with discretion?”
He let out a lengthy sigh and sat back. “It’s going to be hard going to the authorities without a plausible explanation as to how you came by this information. Trust me. I’ve been down this road before.”
Of course he had. How could he tell others about his wife’s psychic visions? He’d have to make something up, like maybe he got the information via an anonymous tip or something equally as lame.
I wondered if that was how they’d met. She’d walked into his office with a tip, tears glistening like the finest ice in her baby blues as she begged for his help. He razzed her. Called her a crazy dame. Told her to beat it and not to come back, but the big palooka just couldn’t get her out of his head. He’d fallen for that cat’s pajamas, and how. Twenty-four hours and three bottles of shine later, he was rapping his knuckles on any door he could find, searching for the dish who’d stolen his ticker, vowing to get handcuffed to the doll if it was the last thing he did.
It could happen.
“I thought about calling in with an anonymous tip, but —”
“— but the first thing they’ll do is send in a uniform,” he finished for me.
I was beyond thrilled that he understood. Heck, I was thrilled he was even listening to me.
“Let me see what I can find out,” he said. “I have a few contacts in the area, just not this town in particular.”
I nodded and stood. “Thanks so much. I really appreciate it.”
But he stopped me with a hard glare. Or, hard-ish. “Just don’t do anything stupid before I check around.”
“Like what?” I asked, my expression completely innocent.
“Like what you’re thinking right now.”
That was totally eerie. It was like he knew me or something. “I would never.”
I grabbed the carafe and started for the drinks station. Cookie gave Bobert a quick kiss and followed me.
“I think the customer at thirteen needs a refill,” she said, adding a wink.
I turned. Took in the alarmingly alluring form of Reyes Farrow. Tried to pretend I wouldn’t be willing to trade nonessential organs for a night with him.
“Go talk to him,” she said, urging me that way.
I gathered a plate and bowl off a table as we strode past. She took it from me and cleared the rest of it, erasing my excuse to go to the back instead of toward a certain brooding ball of fire.
“I can’t talk to him,” I whispered.
“Sure you can.”
How could I tell Cookie what I saw? The darkness that enshrouded him. The eternal fire that bathed him.
“Just ask him how he’s doing.”
“I better not,” I said, shaking out of it. “Besides, I’m going to marry Denzel Washington. I watched one of his movies last night. There are no words.”
“That’s kind of sudden. Have you told Denzel?”
“No.”
She straightened with her load. “Have you told Denzel’s wife?”
“No. But I did name my mattress after him.”
“Well, there you go. You’re practically engaged.”
“You cuttin’ us off, sweetheart?” Mark grabbed my elbow from his seat behind me, his fingers biting into the tendons much harder than necessary to get my attention.
I tried to jerk out of his grasp. Instead of freeing myself, though, I sloshed coffee over the rim of the carafe. It splashed to the ground and onto my boots. My new suede boots with a topside zipper.
A wall of heat hit me from behind, but I simply stood in shock at first. That anyone would just grab me. That anyone would feel he had a right to. Ignoring the heat that swirled around me in an angry mass, I raised my lashes and focused first on the large hand that still had a vise grip on my arm, then on the asshole it was attached to. The diesel mechanic was laughing at me for spilling coffee. They both were. And a spark of anger flared to life inside me.
Oddly enough, nature chose that exact moment to grace us with an earthquake. I’d never been in an earthquake, not that I knew of, so the novelty should have shaken me out of my stupor.
It didn’t.
Anger arced around me like electricity even as the earthquake grew stronger. A couple of the patrons screamed. In my peripheral vision I saw some grab for the edges of their tables while others dived under them. Dishes rattled. A glass fell and shattered. A woman cried out for