Dead and Disorderly (Behind the Blue Line Series Book 2) (12 page)

After a thorough grilling from Nigel that left her charred and more than a little exposed, he dropped Nahia off at the store because her car was there, another source of amusement to him in a long line today. As much as she wanted to be mad at him for prying, he was her best friend, and she would have told him everything eventually anyway. She was just mad at him for being so smug about his matchmaking prowess.

The bell on the door jingled overhead as she walked in through the front. It wasn’t often she got to enter her domain like that, and she found it helped her to see the store as a customer, in case things needed to be moved or shifted to better accommodate the clientele. Mags looked up from where she was leaning against the counter casually flipping through a magazine and waved.

“Hey girl! I told you to take the whole day off, I’ve got this!” she said with her trademark wide grin and a conspicuous wink.

Nahia smiled at a couple of her regulars as she made her way behind the counter and flopped down on the stool. Being in the store, on her home turf, was like a weight had been lifted from her that she hadn’t realized she’d been carrying. “I know, but my car is here, you know?”

The redhead’s grin turned lecherous. “Oh, I see. Yeah, that could be a problem.” She stepped around her to cash out a customer, and then they were alone in the store. “So…the suspense is killing me! How was it? I mean, I’m sure it was awesome if you left your car here and came in just now, but
details
! A girl needs details!”

Nahia gave her friend a tired grin and tossed her purse into the cubbyhole it normally resided in when she was at work. “It was…” she trailed off as she mused on it, her eyes closing involuntarily.

“Amazing, wonderful, spectacular, incredible, life-altering, stop me if I go too far.”

She couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah, all those,
and
a double chocolate martini.”

Mags’ eyes rounded, and she looked suitably impressed. “Nice. So what are you doing here? I figured you two would want to spend the day together. You know, getting to
know
each other in the biblical sense and whatnot.”

Her friend could be described as many things, but subtle was not among them. Nahia couldn’t help but chuckle. “Yeah, it didn’t quite work out that way.”

Mags hopped up on the counter and let her legs swing like a little kid in a grown up chair. She was diminutive enough that the idea wasn’t too much of a stretch. “Trouble in paradise already?”

She shook her head immediately. “Not at all. Just, the day went all sideways.” At her friend’s raised eyebrow, she replied, “You were right, by the way.”

Mags picked up her previously discarded magazine and flipped through it idly. “I never get tired of hearing that,” she pinned her down with a pointed stare, “and I hear it a lot. But please feel free to tell me what I was right about.”

Nahia looked down at her hands and over at her bag. “Well, it’s kinda weird and more than a little freaky.”

Mags snorted and made a face like she’d sucked on a particularly angry lemon. “I’m sorry, have we met? Hi,” she held out her hand for Nahia to shake, “I’m Magdalena Benton, physical medium, clairvoyant, and part-time sales clerk.”

She grinned ruefully as she took her friend’s hand, careful not to linger. There were certain things she’d just as soon keep to herself. “Okay, I get it.” She then relayed the adventure at the mansion, right down to her impression of a football as the guys sprinted out the front door.

Mags’ green eyes were the size of dinner plates. “Whoa! You weren’t kidding about sideways. Jesus.” She started fingering the medicine pouch around her neck out of habit. “Why don’t we start at the beginning? Tell me about the staircase.”

She shuddered, still very unsettled by the experience. “It was…” she searched for the words to explain, finally settling on, “very weird. It was like a movie, the lighting changed, the time of day changed, everything was different, but not. It was like the house was new, and loved, and Mrs. McManus was on the staircase in this lovely evening dress, it was peach and complemented her red hair and pale skin. The lights were on, the kids were laughing, and it was beautiful, so hard to reconcile with how it is now. It stopped as soon as I let go.”

Mags gave her a wry grin and ran a hand through her spiky red locks. “Yeah, that’s how it starts. I knew you had it in you.”

Nahia grimaced. “I kinda wish I didn’t.”

Her friend sniffed and set the magazine aside. “Eh, you’ll get used to it. Now, let’s talk about the flying chifferobe. First of all, I had no idea you were an antique furniture junkie.”

It was her turn to sniff. “Feh, it’s just a hobby. My grandmother had an antique store and I worked there during the summers when I was little.” Tiring of her spot on the stool, she stood up and shoved her hands in her back pockets as she began to pace. “It was so crazy. I could feel him. Just the rage, really, but it was intense and kinda overwhelming. So, so angry. He literally shoved us into the room and then left us there behind a locked door. The only thing I could think of was to try and bring him out. It was either that or take the door off, and there was no guarantee he would let us.”

“So you taunted him, and he got pissed and tossed a dresser at you. How’d that work out for you?” The look Mags gave her was drenched in disappointment.

She felt like a she’d been caught smoking behind the school. “Yeah, I know. Seemed like a good idea at the time. I figured I could draw him out and make contact with him.”

The redhead smirked and crossed her arms. “You made contact all right. You learn anything useful?”

Nahia paused in her wandering and stared at the ceiling as she replayed the scene in her mind. “You mean besides learning Nigel screams like a girl?”

Mags’ full lips twitched and she snorted, trying to contain her amusement. “I have a hard time believing that you didn’t know that already, but yeah, besides that.”

She only had to think a moment more. “Actually,” she went straight to her purse and pulled out the tiny rosette she’d retrieved from the debris. “I need you to examine this.”

Mags looked concerned as she eyed the wood sliver. “Examine or
examine
?”

She hummed, but refrained from pressing the wood into her friend’s hands. “Which do you think?”

The spunky little redhead hopped the counter and held out her hand. Nahia carefully placed the wooden rose in her palm and waited. Mags blinked, and cocked her head, before looking at her with her most serious expression. “Once I’m done with this, we’re gonna have a conversation.”

Somehow Nahia knew that was not what she wanted to hear.

Nico was grateful he lived not too far from the hospital, because as he collapsed into his favorite overstuffed chair in front of his obscenely large television, he had nothing left to give. Mrs. I. was fine, though a little shaken up from her fall. Peter, her oldest son, had just arrived with his oldest, Simon, when he did, and was glad to see him. The doctors explained it was a combination of exhaustion from working all the time on her various post-retirement volunteer functions, in addition to not eating. Peter and Simon took her home with much fuss, because she was an adult and didn’t need to be looked after, even though she’d been diagnosed with a mild concussion and the doctors recommended it.

Now that he was home, he took a moment to soak in the quiet. He knew he had to call his mom and Nonna, as well as get back to his sister with sage brotherly advice which she would promptly ignore. And then there was Nahia. He sighed in pleasure involuntarily.

Gathering his laundry from yesterday, he walked inside his laundry room, pondering the previous night. He really hadn’t planned on taking her to bed, just dinner and a conversation, maybe another bone-melting kiss. The escalation in their relationship was as unexpected as it felt natural. He was not a guy known for his emotional availability in a relationship, much more accustomed to the hit and run style of management than actually putting in a lot of time and effort. But this, this ‘thing’, this connection he felt to her was almost organic, completely effortless on his part, which was, in itself, even stranger than the woman of his affections.

He sighed her name as he went to the fridge for a beer before returning to his chair. He knew he only had a little while longer to put off his family, and wanted to take advantage of it as much as possible. Nahia Nizhoni, a name that made the speaker want to sing it rather than just say it, the sounds rhythmic and lyrical. There was an understated beauty to the names that matched the owner perfectly. She’d been incredible today, taking on whatever the hell had been in that room, fighting back against something only she could hear, but had made itself and its rage abundantly clear to all involved.

He’d carried her out under his arm, not realizing it until they were outside and he suddenly remembered the gun in one hand and woman under his other arm. That must have been a sight. She’d not commented, thankfully, but he could think of nothing else besides getting her out of there and away from whatever had assaulted them.

The urge to protect her, to be with her, was an overwhelming force in him, and he didn’t know how to fight it, or even if he wanted to. His washing machine beeped, and he got up to move his stuff to the dryer. As soon as it started, he went to his room to grab a change of clothes to toss in his duffle. He’d call his mom on the way; it was the only way to keep the conversation short, and like earlier today, he had somewhere to be.

Nahia had a lot to think about after she and Mags closed the store and she returned home. There was nothing, nothing she wanted more than answers, but her friend seemed pretty convinced getting them might be more trouble than they would be worth. The knowledge gleaned from her friend’s gifts weighed heavily on her mind as she kicked back on the couch and flipped on the television to distract her from her ruminations.

The ghost of Donnell McManus was angry. He’d been angry in life, and now his anger had no restraints since it no longer had a body to which to attach. The voice of her father wafted through her mind then, something he’d said when she’d first gone ghost-hunting, that time at an abandoned asylum: “Those people were disturbed when they had bodies. What do you think is going to happen now that they don’t?” It remained a very salient question.

She was uniquely equipped to fight back if she chose to, having had a fair amount of training in the course of her faith and her hunts, but did she want to? What good would come of it? Why was she so drawn to the damn house?

When Nico had surprised her by taking her back to the house, she’d been delighted. Nahia had honestly thought his first experience with the paranormal would be his last. He was a normal guy, not like most of the ones she’d come across in the field, and this was not only not his scene, but well beyond his depth, too. And yet, he’d come back like a champ, and she had to respect him for it.

It was one of the many things she appreciated about the man, and though she’d only met him a few days prior, she felt easily as close to him as she was to Nigel. Closer, even, given their explosive sexual chemistry from the prior night. It was a key that fit into a lock, crass as the analogy was, opening her to new experiences, ones she’d never had or even knew she’d wanted.

She was, with him, the same person, only changed, better, and that was lot to ascribe to a relationship of only a few days. Up to this point, she’d not even bothered to stick around more than a couple weeks, with most men having outlived their entertainment value only a few days into the adventure, and yet, Nico… Nahia sighed and hoisted herself off the couch to grab a beer from the fridge. If she was going to brood, the least she could do was drink while she did it.