Three Tequilas (Althea Rose 3) Read online

  “Follow it,” Luna instructed.

  “With my mind or physically?”

  “Depends. What does your gut say?”

  “In this instance, I think I’ll follow it physically,” I said, and closed my eyes again to get a reading on the light. Opening them, I left the backroom and walked through Luna’s store, the light growing stronger in my mind. Opening the front door, I paused and turned my head, looking around until I located the glow. In moments, I stood at the back of Luna’s Mini, the light in my mind all but blinking frenetically. Reaching down, I popped the back open to find Herman, his arms curled around a plush panda bear toy, looking up at me from the trunk.

  “Caught in the act!” Miss Elva chuckled from the porch, shaking her head down at Herman. “You may want to leave those two alone. Looks like they’re getting to know each other better.”

  I glared at Miss Elva. “Herman doesn’t even like pandas.”

  “You don’t know that,” Luna chuckled. “Sure looks like he does from here.”

  Finally, I laughed and pulled Herman from the trunk and threw him over my shoulder. Seizing the panda as well, I looked up at Luna.

  “Herman’s keeping the panda. Your loss.”

  “Fair enough.” Luna smiled as I sailed past her towards the store and into the side that housed my shop. Plopping Herman back on the leopard print chair, I tucked the panda into his lap, looping one of his arms around it.

  I hated to admit it, but he did look marginally happier with the panda on his lap.

  “Okay, so you wanted a buddy. Now you have one.”

  Did I mention that my life is not a normal one? As I stood there talking to a plastic skeleton, I could only imagine what the members of Cash’s family would think. They were probably all at their high-powered office jobs, holding meetings and signing contracts.

  Well, I held meetings too.

  Our clients were just decidedly different, was all.

  Chapter Eleven

  An hour later, Miss Elva and Luna had put me through my paces and I felt like I was well versed in the locator spell. I moved to my shop to open the screen so Hank could bounce over into Luna’s side of the store. I hadn’t been able to leave him at home this morning, what with the safety issues and all. I don’t think I’d be able to live through something happening to Hank.

  “Devil beast!” Rafe hissed and zoomed across the room to hide behind Miss Elva’s shoulder.

  Hank, sensing it was playtime, ran across the store and barked up at Rafe, his rump shaking back and forth in excitement. Hank really liked to rile up the ghost.

  “Call him off!”

  “Rafe, we’ve been over this. You know he won’t hurt you. He just likes to play.”

  “Give him the skeleton to play with. Dogs like bones, I hear.” Rafe peeked over Miss Elva’s shoulder and looked down at Hank.

  Hank gave one short, sharp bark and Rafe ducked again.

  “For such a mean take-no-prisoners pirate, you sure are afraid of a tiny little dog,” I laughed at Rafe, and he popped his head up to glare at me.

  “I fear nothing!”

  Hank barked again and ran behind Miss Elva, causing Rafe to shriek and fly across the room. A game of chase ensued, and we all dissolved into fits of laughter while Rafe freaked out.

  “The beast! Call him off!”

  Hank cornered Rafe on a table, dancing below him with his tongue lolling out.

  “Hank, buddy, come here. I’ve got a treat for you,” I said, pulling a treat from my purse and giving Rafe a break.

  “Stupid devil beast,” Rafe muttered, slinking back to Miss Elva’s side.

  “Now honey-bear, I told you that dog just wants to play. You need to not give them so much ammo to laugh at you,” Miss Elva soothed. “Hank’s just a sweet doll baby who wants to have fun.”

  “I don’t trust it,” Rafe insisted.

  “Try not flying around so much, and maybe he won’t chase you,” Miss Elva said.

  The door to Luna’s shop swung open with a bang and we all jumped. Hank immediately ran across the room to investigate.

  “Trace?” I asked, surprised to see him standing in the doorway. And then I took in his appearance. His lip was cut and his right eye was almost completely swollen shut.

  “What happened?” We all gasped at once, while I rushed across the room to grab his arm and drag him inside to a pretty loveseat tucked in an alcove of Luna’s store.

  I sat next to him and immediately reached out to turn his face towards me so I could examine his wounds.

  “I’m fine,” Trace said bitterly, pushing my hand away.

  Have I mentioned the male ego? Yeah, it’s annoying.

  “You’re not fine. You’re clearly hurt and I want to see your bruises,” I said, annoyed with him. Trace turned to look at me, but made no comment when I ran my hands through his hair, testing for any other lumps or scrapes.

  Let’s be honest, all men like to be fussed over. Even when they pretend they don’t. I swear, a man gets a cold and it’s like the world is ending. More serious injuries than that? Well, we all knew Trace would want us to cluck over him.

  And cluck over him we did. Luna brought a glass of water and some Advil, Miss Elva ran her hands over his arms, testing for any internal injuries, and Hank licked his hand. When we were all satisfied that nothing more was amiss, we sat back to hear what had happened.

  “I interrupted someone trying to break in last night. They knocked me out, though I’m not proud to admit that. But they did – then I awoke to this,” Trace pulled a card out of his pocket – about the size of a playing card – and turned it over to show the same Aztec snake drawing we had seen twice before.

  “You were knocked out while they were there?” I gasped.

  “Yeah, my house got tossed. I spent the morning with Chief Thomas going over everything. The only thing taken was my laptop.”

  “You didn’t call me,” I said, shocked and a little hurt that he hadn’t reached out to any of us.

  “I had a lot going on. I’m telling you now,” Trace shrugged it off and I tamped down my annoyance. After all, I’d been guilty of the same thing yesterday with Cash, hadn’t I?

  “What would they want with your laptop?”

  “I’m assuming they were after some of the coordinates for the dive sites,” Trace said, leaning back and closing his eyes.

  “Did you have those? You didn’t tell me.”

  “I didn’t. The professor alluded to a few areas. But he never gave up the actual coordinates. Only said we’d discuss it once we were out on the boat.”

  “Here, child, let me fix you up,” Miss Elva said, motioning for me to move from the loveseat. I bit my lip and watched as Miss Elva laid her hands on Trace’s face, murmured a few words, and then eased the bruises from his face. In a matter of moments, the swelling was gone and Trace was looking at Miss Elva with a bemused expression on his face.

  “I could marry you. Thank you,” Trace said, leaning over and planting a light kiss on Miss Elva’s lips.

  “He dares! To touch! My woman!” Rafe screeched, startling all of us as he flew at Trace. Trace, oblivious to the ghost, shivered as Rafe rushed through him.

  “Rafe, knock it off,” Miss Elva said mildly and Trace looked around.

  “What?”

  “Nothing, let’s stay focused here. So, we’re clearly being targeted,” I said, returning to the important topic.

  “We’re being targeted, that’s for sure.”

  “So what do you do?” Luna asked, looking back and forth between us.

  I met Trace’s eyes.

  We spoke at the same time. “We have to find the treasure first.”

  Luna threw up her hands in disgust.

  “Well, it’s obvious y’all have a death wish.”

  Chapter Twelve

  “It just makes sense,” I argued with Luna.

  “How in the world does it make sense? The professor was murdered because they thought he might know about t
he treasure. What do you think is going to happen when you actually have the treasure?” Luna demanded, her hands on her hips.

  “Oh, did someone say treasure?” Rafe asked, his eyes lighting up with glee. I’m assuming that treasure to a pirate is like mint-chocolate chip ice cream to me when I’m PMSing.

  We ignored Rafe.

  “Listen, if we find the treasure and turn it in to a museum or something, then we’ll be off the hook.”

  “Can’t we just find the guy who’s killing people and turn him in? Wouldn’t that make more sense?” Luna asked.

  I shook my head.

  “If there’s one, there’s more. We’ve got to find the treasure.”

  “I remember some of the areas the prof was talking about. Even though he wasn’t exact, it was hard for him to explain what he wanted without giving me some sense of direction. I’m sure I could at least get us started. Plus, if we spend some time studying the route the treasure fleet took, I suspect we can follow the paths of some of the more recent hurricanes and see where ships tend to end up. I think we could begin to narrow in on an area to start in.”

  “Treasure fleet – why, I know…” Rafe began.

  “I’m glad to hear that. You’re precisely the person I’ve been looking for.”

  We all jumped at the melodic English accent that wafted towards us from the door. As if on cue, we turned as one to see a dainty young woman with sandy blonde hair and an honest-to-god pillbox hat on her head standing in the still-open door of Luna’s shop.

  “Trace? And, I’m presuming, Althea? I’m Nicola, Professor Johansson’s niece.”

  “That there’s a nice hat, honey,” Miss Elva observed.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Oh, well, yes, thank you. I know you Americans aren’t terribly fond of hats, but it’s hard to break the habit, I suppose,” Nicola said as she touched her hat gently.

  “I don’t know about that. I like a nice hat. Though I really prefer fascinators myself. I think it just completes an outfit, you know?” Miss Elva and Nicola looked at each other in mutual accord.

  I did not like this woman. That was literally my first thought, and I had no idea why. But years of being a psychic have taught me to trust my instincts.

  “I thought hats were on their way out. Aren’t you a little young to be wearing that trend?”

  Nicola raised an eyebrow at me.

  “A hat is always in style.”

  Well, then. I guess I knew where I stood.

  “I’m sorry about your uncle,” I said, deciding to start over with this girl.

  “Yes, well, we are all distraught, of course.”

  I blinked at her. A less distraught person than this girl I had yet to see, impeccably buttoned-up as she was, with not a hair out of place and no makeup smudges under her eyes from crying.

  “Sure don’t look like you’ve been up all night crying or anything,” Miss Elva said, crossing her arms over her considerable chest.

  Bless you, Miss Elva.

  “Ah, the British stiff upper lip and that. One must always save face.”

  What she said was true – yet I decided I’d be keeping a close eye on this one.

  “You said you were looking for Trace. How did you know to find him here?”

  “It wasn’t terribly hard. I stopped at his boat and when I saw that it was docked, I went down the list of names of people my uncle was working with. Althea’s was next on the list, and this was listed as her place of business. I’m assuming you are Althea?” Nicola looked directly at me.

  “Why do you think I’m Althea?” I asked, crossing my own arms over my chest. Nicola sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

  “Are you Althea Rose, the underwater photographer and – judging from this shop,” Nicola looked around and sniffed, “also a psychic?”

  Did that bitch just sniff at my shop? I lifted my lip in a near-snarl, but Luna put her hand on my arm and stepped forward.

  “Actually, this side of the shop is mine. I’m Luna. So… interesting to meet you. I’m surprised you were able to make it from London so quickly.”

  That was an excellent point.

  “Yeah, you must have hopped on the first plane out upon hearing the news,” I said, doing the math in my head. It would have taken quite a bit to get here this early in the day after news made it back to London. And this girl had not a single dark circle under her eyes. “But you don’t look very tired,” I finished.

  “Are you Americans always so suspicious of people?” Nicola asked, her temper beginning to show. I kind of wanted to push her, just to see where it would take us. People reveal all sorts of interesting things about themselves when they lose their tempers.

  “I’m Trace, this is Althea, and Miss Elva, and Luna,” Trace said, standing and coming forward to shake Nicola’s hand. She immediately twinkled up at him and I groaned. Hank snorted and didn’t bother going to greet Nicola which immediately caused me to raise an eyebrow.

  “Here we go,” I mumbled to Miss Elva, and she snorted.

  “Lovely to meet you, really, just a delight,” Nicola cooed, and I think all of the women in the room collectively rolled their eyes at the same time.

  “Are you here to take the body home?”

  “Er… no, actually, I’m here to continue the expedition.”

  “What expedition?” I cut off whatever Trace was about to say, and even though he shot me a quick look, I think he realized what I was trying to do.

  Nicola looked around, then stepped in closer to the rest of us.

  “Well, you know. The expedition to find El Serpiente.”

  Miss Elva sucked in a breath and clucked her tongue. “Child, I’d be real careful about where you drop that name around this town.”

  Nicola looked startled for a moment and then her features smoothed out.

  “Of course, you’re right. I do understand the confidential nature of this project.”

  “Do you understand the dangers as well?” I couldn’t help but pick at her. Something about her absolutely precise nature bothered me.

  “My uncle was just murdered in cold blood. I’m well aware of the dangers,” Nicola said dryly. I felt my lip curl up in disgust again.

  “Well, best of luck to you on finding what you’re looking for. I’ve got work to see to,” I said, deciding then and there that I was having nothing to do with Miss Priss. I gave Nicola my patented polite ‘screw you’ smile and breezed into my side of the shop. The last thing I was going to be doing was helping this Nicola chick out of a bind. There were already enough warning signs from the universe, thankyouverymuch.

  “Thea.”

  “Trace, don’t even,” I began, turning to look at him as he crossed to sit in the client’s chair across from me. I shuffled a pack of tarot cards out of habit.

  “Going to give me a reading?”

  “You can’t afford me,” I said, a bitchy smile on my face.

  “I can if we take this job,” Trace smirked back at me, appreciating my bitchiness. That was something I liked about Trace – my being a brat to him never put him off all that much.

  “She’s offering us an additional $25,000 if we complete the expedition and help her find who murdered her uncle,” Trace said softly, his gaze holding mine.

  “That’s nice of her. No.”

  “Aw, come on, Althea. We were going to hunt for the treasure anyway. Might as well make some extra cash on top of it.”

  “Nope. I’m good,” I said, shaking my head at Trace.

  “Well, I know you’re good. But I’m not. I still have student loans I’m paying off. And it would be nice to buy a little place down here instead of renting,” Trace pointed out.

  Shit. I’m a sucker for a guilt trip.

  I narrowed my eyes at him and then glanced at Luna’s side of the shop. Trace had pulled my privacy screen closed and I was certain Luna and Miss Elva would distract Nicola.

  “I don’t trust her.”

  “You don’t have to trust her to
work for her,” Trace said.

  “On an expedition like this? Um, yeah, I do,” I said.

  “Come on, Thea. Think about it – we know the water, we know the boat, we know diving. She doesn’t. She’s the one who’s out of her element here. Not us. We’ve got the upper hand.”

  “What about the psycho going around killing people?”

  “He’s doing that already. Who says this’ll make it any worse? I’ve got a feeling it’s not going to stop until the treasure is found.”

  “Someone else can find it, and we can stay clear of it.”

  Trace leveled a look at me. “Is that really what you want to do?”

  “No, I want to find the treasure,” I admitted. Damn it, but apparently I also had an excited child deep inside me who was desperate to go on a treasure hunt.

  “So?”

  My mind was working furiously. “Here’s the deal,” I finally said. “A hundred grand, half up front and non-refundable, plus we get a twenty percent share of the value of any treasure. I retain copyright of my images, she pays for all trip costs – gas, food, etc. – and we arrange for a GPS locator signal and tracking by the Coast Guard or Chief Thomas.”

  I couldn’t believe I was agreeing to this. I had to have lost my damn mind. Cash was going to be furious with me.

  Trace let out a low whistle.

  “Driving a hard bargain, are we?”

  “A man’s already dead. It’s the only bargain I’ll take.”

  “I can’t see her agreeing to the tracking signal; this is supposed to be a private expedition,” Trace pointed out.

  “It’s your boat. Put one on anyway.”

  “Then how about we don’t say anything about that aspect of it at all?”

  Finally in agreement, I nodded at him.

  “Go do your work. Tell British out there to get some sunscreen, too. She’s going to fry out on the water.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “This is a highly unusual contract,” Nicola repeated later in the day, scanning the documents my attorney had thrown together for us at my request. Thank goodness for my mother the psychic and her crack team of lawyers – they were used to unusual legal requests.