Page 9 of Dead Heat

“I won’t be embarrassed enough to be bribed,” Caeden said. “You can do mine.”

I touched his head. “You’re afraid of losing all your teeth.” I paused. “And returning to elementary school naked.”

Alicia choked back laughter.

I never considered myself a party trick, yet here I was. Better than being reviled and feared.

Maybe.

“What else can you do?” Scott asked.

“I can drive people crazy.”

Alicia rolled her eyes. “We know that already.”

“No, I mean literally insane. Plunge you into madness.”

Her whole face brightened. “That’s hardcore.”

“Which is why I don’t use it.”

“Still, it would come in handy in a dark alley, right?”

“I avoid dark alleys, and so should you.”

Caeden gazed at me in wonder. “Man, I wish I had a power like yours.”

“You don’t need her powers, dude. You can make three pointers,” Scott said.

Caeden fist bumped him. “Yeah, I can.”

“Is Grampa here?” Alicia asked.

“He is.”

She waved to the spot where I pointed. “I got an A on my math test.”

“Good job,” Ray and I said in unison.

“Can we see the balcony now?” Scott asked.

I gave them a tour of the house beginning with the balcony, which elicited excited chatter as well as a few physics questions I wasn’t equipped to answer. Then they marveled over the number of empty rooms and devised creative plans for each of them, none of which I would implement. I wasn’t interested in hosting horror movie nights for teens no matter how politely they asked.

“Sorry about that,” Ray said, once I shut the door behind the trio. “She shouldn’t be sharing your personal business.”

Three months ago, I would’ve been desperate to find a way to plug the leak, but I was a kinder, gentler, less paranoid Lorelei now.

“Let me make it up to you,” Ray continued. “How would you feel about having an actual library?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like the kids said, you have plenty of empty rooms. Why don’t I add shelves to one of them and use them to store books? I’m picturing those floor to ceiling shelves that require a rolling ladder.”

I gaped at him. “You want to build the Beast’s library.”

Ray hung his head. “That might be where I got the idea. Renee was a huge fan ofBeauty and the Beast. She was an avid reader like Belle.”

“Can you make the shelves?” Ray had worked as a carpenter before he died.

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