“Don’t make me arrest you, Santiago,” Kellen rasped from his prone position on the kitchen table.
Nick growled in response. The pony-sized dog at their feet mistook the noise for a game and barked joyfully.
“Not now, Burt,” Riley told the dog as she landed a series of slaps to Nick’s hands.
Finally, he released the detective.
“The last time she got involved with an investigation, she got shot,” Nick snarled. “The answer is no. She’s not doing your job for you.”
Detective Weber stood and straightened his tie. He was an attractive man, always dressed as if he was ready to take a disapproving in-law to the Olive Garden after church. “Assaulting an officer is against the law, dick,” he reminded Nick.
“Pretty sure a jury would make an exception for you, assface.”
She slid off Nick’s back. “Can you two idiots keep it down? If my grandmother hears—”
“This is precisely why I am here.”
The mint green kitchen suddenly seemed very small and very cold as Elanora, terrifying matriarch and nationally known psychic medium, stepped into the room. Her sniff was full of derision.
She was petite with ramrod posture and looked as if she wore a coat hanger under her layers of flowing black. With her pinched frown and sterling hair swept back from her face with bird feathers, she reminded her granddaughter of an old, disappointed Stevie Nicks.
Briefly, Riley wondered if her grandmother had murdered the bird that donated the feathers. Nothing seemed out of the realm of possibility when it came to Elanora.
“Your behavior is positively unseemly. My granddaughter is most certainly not getting involved in another homicide,” Elanora announced briskly, glancing at the case file Kellen left on the table. “She is dangerously untrained, and I have absolutely no faith in her ability to control even the most basic of powers. Look at the two of you. One minute alone in a room with her, and you’re behaving like children.”
Riley rolled her eyes. “Thanks, Grandma.” Elanora preferred Grandmother. Riley preferred to mess with her just a little bit.
Nick pointed in Elanora’s direction as he leaned into Riley. “Listen to your scary grandma. You’re not doing it.”
He was lucky he was hot even when his dimples weren’t on full display. He was also lucky that Riley was a patient woman. He was new at this boyfriend thing. So she could ignore the occasional gung-ho alpha blunders and tolerate the adorable macho over-protectiveness. Because deep down she knew he was still tied up in knots over their recent adventure in taking down the city’s mayor, his communications director, and a few bad cops.
Both she and Nick had walked away with a bullet hole apiece as souvenirs. While she’d moved on, he was still stewing about it and—like a good girlfriend—she was giving him the space to stew about it.
Elanora gave Nick an imperious glance followed by a stiff nod. “Perhaps you’re not as useless and uneducated as you appear to be, Nicholas.”
It was practically a gold star.
“Thanks?” he said.
“While I appreciate you all feeling as if you have the right to make decisions for me, you don’t,” Riley announced. “None of you do.”
“That’s right. This is Riley’s decision,” Kellen said smugly.
“Kiss-ass,” Nick snapped.
“You two, out.” She nudged her grandmother and boyfriend toward the door.
Burt barked and cocked his gigantic head.
“You can stay. You trust my judgment,” she told the dog.
Elanora’s eyes narrowed. “I did not come here to be ignored while you continue to make a mockery of the guild.”
“No, but you did arrive unannounced. You can’t expect us to drop everything and entertain you.”
“Entertainme?” Elanora scoffed. “My daughter and granddaughters are blessed with psychic gifts that should have foretold my arrival.”
“Yeah, well, they didn’t. So you can’t expect me to drop everything right now. Go home with my parents. Drive them nuts. You like doing that. We’ll catch up soon.”
