Page 52 of The Aura Answer
And now she wanted to go back and look at that artwork before it disappeared again. But she had no superpower for that.
And to make her head even dizzier—that handsome Brit at the counter with clerks swooning at his beck and call hadkissedher. Mousy little schoolteacherher. He’d held her and called herluv.It was undoubtedly an unconscious habit, she told herself.
She wasn’t Evie—she couldn’t think two mind-altering things at once. So she mentally erased the comfort he’d offered. Nope, no way, not going there. Superpower was what she wanted.
If she wanted to see those sketches, she needed Evie. Or even Pris. While Nick chatted, she hastily sent a family text. There was time before dinner. Maybe someone could break away?
Evie answered instantly,on my way.
Even the way her sister drove, it would take her nearly an hour to reach the city. Gracie hoped she brought Jax. Evie could tell when people were lying, but she wasn’t good at persuading them to do things. Nick might be, but Mrs. Janus knew them. Verity probably didn’t. Her thoughts were bouncing like her sister’s.
When Nick was finished and sauntered toward the exit as if he hadn’t a worry in the world, Gracie showed him her messages.
His dark eyebrows shot up, and he studied her for half a minute, making the heat rise to her cheeks. But they needed to do this.
“You’re right. We need to stake out the gallery while we wait,” he said, surprisingly. “Make sure those sketches don’t disappear before Evie arrives.”
“You think they’d come back to steal them again?” Horrified, she hurried to the car.
“The sketches do seem to have someone’s attention, don’t they? Maybe we ought to have someone following Mr. Turlock Jr. the way Bertie did.” He clipped on his seatbelt. “So far, he’s the only one we’ve seen asking after them.”
“Evie doesn’t have arealdetective agency. I think that requires working with the police or lawyers a bunch of years. She doesn’t know how to follow people.” She drove back towards thegallery wondering how one did a stakeout. She’d read a million mysteries but fiction wasn’t the same as reality.
“Bertie wasn’t exactly a real detective but he followed Teddy,” he said in amusement. “Let’s stop at the little sushi place we passed and stock up. Pity detectives can’t drink wine on duty.”
“It’s the middle of the afternoon! I’d fall asleep. Coffee will work better. Although their pastries won’t be as good as Pris’s.” She pulled into a coffee shop where she knew they had decent restrooms. She remembered that much about stakeouts, and she wasn’t urinating in any bottles.
He grinned. “I don’t know if that’s the mother or teacher speaking, but I like it. I stand corrected.” He pried his long legs out of her small car and took her arm as they went inside.
She’d justtoldhim what to do. When was the last time she’d told a grown man what to do? And he’d listened? Her ex never had. She wasn’t part of Evie’s agency, so she had never bossed around R&R. Her domain was little kids and other teachers, none of whom were male at the elementary level.
Maybe using her superpower was going to her head, in which case, she was probably in deep trouble. Timid Gracie had no business telling people what to do.
They carried their coffee and snacks to the car and returned to the gallery neighborhood, where Nick directed her to a driveway.
“The thieves parked there. It gives a good view of the alley and the street, so we can keep watch.” He sipped his coffee without concern for private property.
Nervously, Gracie backed into the drive, certain a silver-haired owner would run out with a shotgun and blast them into the next world, leaving Aster with only a criminal for a parent.
Twenty
“There they are,”the delightfully nervous schoolteacher murmured as a black SUV circled the block looking for a parking place.
Nick had thought Gracie might crawl under the car rather than spend this last pleasant hour with him, but he’d finally teased her into talking about her daughter, which had led to her tentative attempts at writing. He’d been having a fine old time.
But he studied the unfamiliar SUV with puzzlement. “I thought you texted Evie.” Nick tried to see inside the dark windows as the big vehicle circled. Was that a dog in the back seat?
“For reasons we’ll probably never understand, my sister seems to have enlisted our cousin Iddy. How do we want to do this? Can I park somewhere else now?” Gracie reached for the keys in her ignition.
He’d have to remember that he made her nervous by asking her to do anything improper.Hewas the callous bastard who trod all over meaningless regulations. She did things by the book. Not seeing an advantage in staying in this spot now, he nodded at a car pulling out on the street. “Grab that spot andlet’s give your family a minute to go in and engage whoever is handling the gallery. Who is Iddy?”
“You met her at Thanksgiving, Idonea, tall veterinarian looks like a spooky witch? She takes after her father.” She skillfully parallel parked the Kia in the opening.
“Ah, the one with the raven, right. Is her father a warlock?” Nick had no idea how weird this family could get but he was ever curious.
Gracie laughed as the SUV’s driver stepped out with a raven on her shoulder. “He claims to be Cherokee. Maybe there was a medicine man in his ancestry. We’ll never know. I think he’s in Hollywood these days, giving sensitivity lessons to writers or producers or some such.”
Evie climbed out with a golden retriever—Honey, their mother’s dog, if he remembered correctly.
