Black Dust Mambo Read Online Free PDF

right.”
    With a resigned grunt, Layne eased back down onto the carpet. He looked at Kallie from beneath his bloodstained lashes. “By the way, this is McKenna. She’s a shaman. McKenna, this is Kallie. She’s a hoodoo.”
    “Charmed,” Mc Kenna said, her tone anything but.
    “Be nice, Kenn,” Layne warned.
    “Oh, please, not on my account. I wouldn’t want her to strain herself.” Kallie flashed the nomad leprechaun a sweet-as-fresh-baked-apple-pie smile.
    “Strain this.” McKenna lifted a hand, then extended the middle finger, an equally sweet smile on her lips.
    Looked like the leprechaun had some sass to her. Kallie couldn’t help smiling again—but hopefully not in any kind of way that could be misconstrued as friendly.
    “Hate to break up a good catfight and all,” Belladonna said, her voice once again a velvet purr, “but paramedics and carnival security are on their way up. I suggest y’all get your shit together.”
    “Lovely,” Kallie muttered.
    Mc Kenna bent over Layne and touched her fingertips to his temples. Her eyes closed. Kallie felt power flow from the woman and into Layne, power as deep and strong as an ancient river sure of its course. Power deeper even than Gabrielle’s—and, until now, Kallie had never felt energy as intense as her tante ’s.
    Just who is this leprechaun anyhow?
    Kallie studied Layne’s fairy-sized former wife. Her small, sharp features cast the illusion of childlike youth, but now Kallie noticed the crow’s-feet at the corners of her eyes and the laugh lines bracketing her sensual mouth. Still young and good-looking (okay, really good-looking), yes, but definitely older than Layne, maybe even by a good fifteen or twenty years.
    Which one of them had ended the marriage? The way the leprechaun kept touching Layne made Kallie think the divorce was still fresh enough to act as an aphrodisiac— must have you since you’re no longer mine.
    Not that it was any of Kallie’s concern. Well, maybe a little, given that she’d just saved the man’s life. She frowned. Didn’t that make her responsible for him? Not that she needed or wanted the responsibility, since she was still trying to figure out how to handle her own life, but still . . .
    She remembered the shock that had tingled through her the first time she’d looked into Layne’s green eyes, remembered the inner finger-to-the-lips hush that had followed.
    “Here.” Belladonna shoved a wad of pink material that smelled faintly of irises and green-tea-scented body lotion under Kallie’s nose—Kallie’s well-worn and comfy pink bathrobe. “All kinds of officials are going to be here any minute. And you shouldn’t look like the stripper hired for a bachelor party.”
    “A horror movie bachelor party,” McKenna murmured, opening her eyes and lifting her head. “The stripper of death.” The little nomad’s expression suggested she wasn’t entirely kidding.
    “I said be nice, woman,” Layne growled. He sat up, pain crinkling the corners of his eyes and tightening his lips. But his pine-colored gaze held only humor.
    Kallie snatched the robe from Belladonna’s hand. She slid her errant bra strap back onto her shoulder again, then rose to her feet. Chin lifted and holding Mc Kenna’s gaze, she belted on the robe. “So how is he? Layne, I mean?”
    Mc Kenna shot her a sharp glance. “How do ye mean? In bed, or healthwise?”
    Kallie blinked. “Healthwise! I’m sure he’s fine in bed.” When Mc Kenna’s lips parted as though to speak, Kallie hastily held up a hand and blurted, “No. Don’t answer that. Totally not necessary.”
    “Hello, I’m right here,” Layne said. “I’m fine. Dandy, even. In all ways. So I’ve been told.”
    “He’s good, aye.” A knowing smile curved McKenna’s lips. “Now healthwise, I found no trace of foreign magic in him, and everything seems to be in working order. Thanks to you.”
    Kallie stared at her, decided the nomad’s words were sincere, then