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“Maybe.” The part of me that wants Dante thrashes around in my chest. “But the moves you put on her looked exactly like the moves you use on me. I know I’m nothing special, just a notch on a belt, but it still stings to see it so blatantly displayed.”
“Tessa!” It sounds like his head hits the door in frustration. “Please, don’t think that.”
“Leave me alone. Believe it or not, almost being drained to death by an energy vampire is very exhausting. I don’t have the strength to deal with this too. It isn’t all about you.”
“I… I hope you feel better tomorrow.” Dante leaves for his room next door.
I check the lock, then kick off my shoes and rip off my sexy black dress. In my mind, it’s garbage anyway. It will always remind me of tonight—the emotions, the rejection, and the feeling of my life being sucked out of me. I throw it in the trash bin instead of the hamper.
* * *
The next morning, I wait for the guys to begin their exercise routine before I venture out of my room. I sneak down the stairs and out to the garage, where I grab Kurtis’s BMW keys and slip into the car’s leather seats. It’s quieter than Evan’s muscle car, and I don’t think I can handle smelling that woman’s perfume lingering in Dante’s SUV.
I make it all the way to Carmen’s shop before Evan texts me in our group chat.
Evan: T, where are you?
Tessa: Out.
Kurtis: No shit.
Tessa: Needed to clear my head. Be back in an hour or two.
Kurtis: Don’t you dare scratch my baby.
Tessa: I won’t, precious.
Dante: Be careful.
I don’t reply, tossing my cell on the seat and walking up to Carmen’s psychic reader shop, but the door is locked. I glance inside, but I can’t see her. The lights are on, and the store sign is blinking open.
Maybe she’s with a client. I hop back into the car and decide to do the next item on my agenda first.
Fortunately, I have enough cash stashed away to disappear without the trace of a credit card. I need to prepare for that.
The small city we live in still has almost every kind of boutique shop and big box store. I pull into an electronics store which specializes in gadgets to spy on cheating spouses. I buy three listening devices for the cars, three for their bedrooms, and trackers for each guy. I toss all the packages into the store’s outdoor garbage can. I install the tech in Kurtis’s car in the parking lot before I even pull away, checking if it works. The info is already streaming into my new burner phone.
I head back to Carmen’s shop to see if she’s free.
When I arrive, the door is still locked. It has been over an hour, and it isn’t unheard of for a session to go over two hours, but something buzzes in my head that it isn’t as benign as that.
I bang on the door. It’s not cool, but I’ll deal with the consequences if she’s mad because I disturbed a reading.
She doesn’t pop her head around the corner to scold me.Hmm. I open up my senses and try to read what’s happening in the shop, but the old crone has done a masterful job of warding against prying psychics. I should have guessed that. I could walk away, but I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if Carmen is in trouble and I didn’t even try to help.
I curse and look around for security cameras or a witness, but the area is clear of both. I grab a rock from the landscaping and smash it through the window, then I shove my hand through and unlock the door.
Good, no alarms. I didn’t think she would be the type to own one, but you never know. I keep hoping that she will come crashing around the corner from her back room to yell at me, but no such luck.
Running back to her reader room, I find it empty, then I quickly scan the shop. Other than the damage I caused, nothing seems out of place or looks suspicious. However, I know better than most that appearances can be deceiving. I open my third eye to see what’s underneath.
Most emotionally valuable items have an aura or faint cord to their owners, especially stuff they regard as precious above all else, but I can’t detect anything that Carmen treasures.
I reexamine what’s in the shop. It feels like something is off from when I visited with Evan. Accessing my eidetic memory, I recall how things were and notice old tomes are missing, as are some of her trade tools. On its own, it might mean nothing, but the place feels vacant, like a hotel room—no attachments, no history, no connective threads.
Perhaps it was like this when I was here before and hadn’t noticed because Carmen’s energy is overwhelming. Even people who aren’t sensitive to the world would perceive the power around her. She fills up spaces with her presence.
I dig around her desk-like sales counter. Stacks of papers and books litter the area.
