Cloaked in Malice Read Online Free PDF Page A

paramedic.”
    “And you haven’t changed a bit, Cassanova,” I quipped.
    “Oh, hi, Mad, sorry.” Ted took out his False Alarm paperwork and called it in on his two-way.
    Johnny Shields elbowed Macri out of the way. “Full-time paramedic and volunteer fireman. The name’s Johnny, Johnny Shields. Maybe we could have supper sometime?”
    “Nice to meet you all,” Paisley said.
    The guys, damned near to displaying their colorful plumage, barely cared.
    “Paisley, I went to school with the peacocks here, but I seem to be invisible today.”
    “Ah, no, Mad,” Ted said, keeping an eye on Paisley.
    “You sure have a lot of false alarms, Mad,” Johnny said, wiping the metaphorical drool off his chin.
    “My fault,” Paisley said. “The false alarm, I mean. I buried my parents recently. They would never let me call for help. Now, I get trigger happy when someone hyperventilates.”
    “Is that what happened?” Detective Lytton Werner asked as he came through the front door of the shop. “You hyperventilated, Madeira? You didn’t OD on brownies and make yourself sick?”
    The detective had given up using my nickname when I broke up with him to go back to Nick Jaconetti, my on-again, off-again since forever. Werner tried to keep our current relationship impersonal, but so much debris had gone over the bridge between us as to be laughable. “You know, Detective, you’re still cute when you worry about me.”
    “Watch that cute stuff,” Nick said, arriving practically on the detective’s heels.
    “And who called you?” I asked, standing to greet my guy with a quick kiss.
    Nick held the kiss longer than I’d intended, then he claimed me by sliding an arm around my waist. Nevertheless, he and Werner managed to give Paisley a quick once-over.
    I should have been insulted, but I was comfortable in my skin.
    “I called Nick,” Werner said with a “don’t sass me” raise of his chin. “Calling for reinforcements is knee-jerk when I don’t know whether to worry about you or wring your neck. Matter of getting you some protection. From me.”
    Whoa, loaded statement, considering our past. I shook a finger Werner’s way and forced him to turn to Paisley, or had he done that on his own? “Detective Lytton Werner here, at your service,” he told her, and I half expected him to click his heels and kiss her hand.
    I tried to temper my snicker. “As you see,” I said, “I have just one big gaping wound. No need to worry.”
    It took Paisley’s admirers about ten beats to drag their gazes from her to me.
    “I was kidding. Get the ambulance back on the road.
    “See you later, boys,” I said, and they all stepped toward the door, even Nick. But I grabbed his hand and pulled him back. “No, you stay.”
    Werner’s lips firmed as he left. I’d probably always regret the one who got away, but hey, he deserved better than she who called him “Little Wiener” in third grade, because well, it stuck. Even I slipped once in a while, and Eve, my best friend, she called him that all the time. Which was nothing to what she called Nick, but that’s a story for another day.
    After the drooling stumble-squad left, I introduced Paisley, officially, to Nick and made us each a cup of tea.
    “Do me a favor, Paisley,” I suggested, “spread your outfits on the fainting couch so I can look them over.”
    Our eyes met, hers and mine, and I knew she strongly suspected that I didn’t want to touch them. Well, I could do damage control regarding her supposed knowledge of my psychic gift later. Right now, I wanted to see more of what she had to show me while I tried to figure out a way to get her to leave the valuable treasures overnight.
    I wanted to know what they had to say; I just didn’t want to make a spectacle of myself while I read them. Nickwould play a prominent role in my plans. I’d make him the responsible one, the guy who’d hold the hose while I set the pile of dry leaves on fire, so to speak.
    That’s how