Serafina and the Virtual Man - By Marie Treanor Page 0,43

and her best friend and employer was a psychic.

Perhaps it would have been best if he had just vanished into whatever nothing or afterlife was waiting for him, but he was reluctant to leave her just yet and was ridiculously pleased that she obviously felt the same. That was what held him back. Why he hadn’t answered her last night.

Because he’d always sensed emotional damage in her, and he’d suddenly realised he was adding to it. Genesis Adam, supergenius, just not always quick on the uptake. She’d even removed the tape from her webcam again, and he’d just sat back and looked at her.

And fantasised a little. Well, a lot.

Even made-up to lose a lot of the expression that made her so beautiful to him, she was stunning. She had a body to die for—if you weren’t already dead—and he longed to bury himself in it, right up to his balls, and give her the best sex of her life.

He suspected men always fantasised about giving women the best sex of their lives. He wondered how many actually succeeded. Of those, it seemed unlikely that many managed it after death.

Why wasn’t she at her computer? She’d left it on, and he could see through the webcam that she was in her office. He could hear voices, and when he upped the volume, he heard JK and Sera talking about the body with a man who seemed to be a policeman.

Shit, that was quick. And JK sounded weird. No wonder…

“Your dad’s coming this way,” Sera shouted suddenly. “Get out through the flat.”

What? Elegant, tough, don’t-mess-with-me JK still hid from her parents? Amused, searching for distraction, he listened in, heard a door slamming.

“What do you want?” Sera’s voice asked, with enough contempt to ice the blood. Adam was surprised. Sera radiated tough and mouthy, much in the same way that JK did, but Adam had grown up in a similar environment if a different city, and he’d never recognised any malice or reasonless disrespect in either of them. Until now.

“Jilly isn’t here,” Sera said shortly. “Elspeth, would you please go over the road for some milk?”

“No,” said the middle-aged lady uncompromisingly.

Uh-oh.

But everyone seemed to ignore the insubordination. “She works for you, doesn’t she?” JK’s dad retorted.

“None of your fucking business,” Sera said.

The webcam suddenly moved, as if Sera had knocked the laptop with her coat or her arm, and Adam could make out most of two people: the slim, feminine figure of Sera and a dumpier man in grubby trousers and an expensive brand-name rain jacket.

The man snarled, “You were always a foul-mouthed wee—”

“But at least it’s only my mouth that’s foul. You don’t scare me, Mister Kerr.” She slurred the word mister in a deliberately insulting manner. “What’s more, you can’t scare Jilly anymore either. If you were to go near her, she’d break your arm and probably your face. If she got to you first. Me, I’d just mash your obscene knackers.”

The man had gone very still. Adam could imagine his mouth falling open in shock. Adam knew how he felt. Bile rose through him with reluctant, terrible understanding. Oh fuck, surely not…

“Did you imagine I didn’t know?” Sera was all but whispering. What’s more, it was she who’d stepped closer, crowding her friend’s father. “Do you really think the world’s full of women like your poor wife who can’t live with you or her own silence without a bottle of vodka in every teapot? Stuff that. Let me make it plain. If I ever see you again, if Jilly ever sees you again—hell, if you so much as leave a message on her phone, I’ll find you. And I’ll make sure your so-called friends—inside and outside of prison—know exactly why.”

The man swallowed audibly. Adam felt sick to his stomach.

JK’s dad spoke in a strangled voice. “I’d never hurt Jillian.”

“Not now. She’s too old for you. Plus, she can fight back, and trust me, she still might if she gets a whiff of you abusing anyone else. Even if you think about it, you’ll go to jail for what you did to Jilly. Now, get out.”

He got out. Adam was vaguely aware of it, as he was of Sera saying apologetically, “Had that on my mind for a long time.”

“I could tell,” the older woman said faintly.

“Not a word to Jilly,” Sera warned.

“Poor little Jilly…”

Poor little Jilly indeed. Adam wanted to take her in his arms and soothe away the nightmare, make her forget. He wanted to smash her father’s