“805-555-8742,” I said. My lips still tingled. He nodded.
“King!” someone called from out in the hallway. “PC is here.”
“I’ll be right there,” he responded. He turned and walked out of the room. At the doorway, he turned. “I’ll see you around, Parker.”
I raised my hand in a half-wave. He nodded and left.
Bringing fingers to my lips, I pressed at the sensitive skin. Oh, I’d definitely be seeing him again, even if I had to commit a crime to guarantee it.
Like Parker and King? You can read more of them in the San Amaro Investigations series. It’s also available in audio narrated by Greg Tremblay.
Don’t forget to check out A Debt Unpaid, a novella that occurs between A Haunting at Midwinter and the first book in the series.
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A Debt Unpaid
A Debt Unpaid
A Debt Unpaidis a San Amaro Novella set betweenA Haunting at MidwinterandWormwood Summer.
Parker Ferro has a problem. His last job ended with him in the hills of San Amaro, presumed dead. He’s back with only one thing on his mind: vengeance. Now if only the attractive Paranormal Crimes detective who wants to arrest him will get out of the way…
A Debt Unpaid is a 18k MM urban fantasy short.
One
At ten o’clock at night, there were only two kinds of people on the San Amaro buses. One was people who had just gotten off shift and had the glassy look of an incredibly long day. The second was people who were about to go on shift and either had a half-awake look or were flat out napping on their way to their jobs.
It was usually a quiet time on the bus. No screaming babies; daycare closed hours ago. No college kids yet, either — the bars didn’t close for another three hours.
In fact, there was only one person anyone was avoiding on the bus: me.
Shifting in the uncomfortable plastic seat, dirt dribbled out of the cuff of my pants, even though I had crawled out of my shallow grave almost forty-five minutes ago. I could feel the soft, fine grit that made up the hills of San Amaro in every pore and almost all of my orifices.
No one wanted to sit near me. Whether that was because I stank of sweaty panic or because I kept muttering about exactly what I was going to do when I got to my destination was up for debate.Iwouldn’t want to talk to the filthy guy talking to himself in the back of the bus, either.
The upsetting thing was that usually I was a guy who dealt with weirdos and the things that made other people shiver. As the city’s top paranormal PI, I was the guy that someone called when they had a problem and the police wouldn’t help them.
The bus creaked as it pulled to a stop, the hydraulic brakes hissing. A woman in teal scrubs rushed to get off the back of the bus, glancing at me when I stood to follow her. She clutched her purse tighter when it was just the two of us on the sidewalk, the bus already trundling away.
She was probably the night nurse for some rich guy who still thought nurses should dress like they were pinup girls. Unfortunately for him, I was sure the agency she worked for had a uniform code which didn’t involve fishnets and high heels.
Her eyes were wide, and she looked around, but it was late at night and we were the only two people on the street. We were on the main road, which was flat. Stretching behind us in the dark hills were mansions so big they could probably fit my entire apartment building in their garages.
I could tell that she wasn’t going to move first. She didn’t want to give me the benefit of walking behind her, and possibly catching her unaware. After all, I was the guy covered in dirt with a bruise on his face that said a few hours ago someone had tried very hard to mess my pretty mug up permanently.
I didn’t want to touch the injury again, because every time I did I saw colors like I was sitting on the beach underneath the Fourth of July fireworks show.
“I’ll go first,” I said. “I’m not here for you.”
She frowned. “Are you okay?”
“Eh, I’ve been worse.” I offered her smile, but it must not have been very reassuring because she approached me like you might a wounded tiger.
She was the mouse, I had a thorn in my paw, and it was only in the fables that this ended in friendship instead of a very small appetizer for very hungry feline.
