Spirited 1 Read Online Free PDF Page A

handbag.
    The cop held it in the air over her head. She jumped for it but he stood a full head taller. “Give that back. What, are you in the fourth grade?”
    “I’m a police officer and you made a stupid mistake sneaking into my apartment.”
    “I explained that.” She hadn’t exactly admitted that a ghost lured her into his home, but her half-truth should have been explanation enough. “I told you. I got locked out.”
    “I’ll just bet you did. I doubt you would have intentionally crawled through my window if you’d known I was a cop.” He advanced on her slowly, reminding her again of an ancient warrior. A lethal air stirred about him as he moved.
    A smart woman would have retreated, gone for help. Jeez, any woman with an ounce of intelligence wouldn’t have walked through his front door in the first place. But something about this man made her want to stand up and fight.
    “What are you talking about? Are you going to give back my purse or what?”
    “Or what.” He kept the purse out of her reach. “We need to talk first.”
    “Very mature. I swear you cops are all alike.”
    “Had dealings with police before?” The smile on his lips belied the condemnation in his eyes. “Why am I not surprised?”
    “Jeez! Not the way you think.” She threw up her hands in surrender. Sanity finally reared its head and she backed toward the door. The cop kept coming.
    Jules grappled for the knob behind her back, but the cop slapped a hand to the door over her head before she could tug it open.
    She met his gaze and froze at what she saw.
    A vermilion aura swirled around the cop like a red haze originating from the center of his chest. Jules gasped. How was this possible? She’d seen auras around ghosts, the flashes of color reflecting the spirit’s soul and mood, but this was the first time she’d seen it around a living person.
    For a nanosecond she couldn’t think or even breathe for the fear choking her. She needed to escape. Get as far away from him as possible, but she couldn’t do that until he let her go. Masking her fear with an irritated tone, she snapped, “I thought you wanted to talk to me. How is trying to scare me talking?”
    “Do I frighten you?”
    “No,” she lied.
    The swirling aura around him faded to a muddy brown, and he seemed almost sad. He held up his free hand, palm out.
    “I’m really not trying to scare you. But you’re headed down a bad road.” His deep voice had lost that gruff tone and came out oddly soothing. His aura shifted again, this time to green, and she sensed protectiveness and concern.
    She swallowed past the sudden lump in her throat. “You want to talk, fine, we’ll talk. Just back up a little, please.”
    He nodded, lowered his arm, and stepped back three paces. Disappointment darkened his features. He stared at the handbag, and the frightening aura receded until she could no longer see or sense it.
    “Ernie and April are good people. You could ruin their lives by bringing drugs into their home. Not to mention you could destroy your future.” He sounded like a dad giving a speech to an errant child.
    She could argue with him or she could try to reason with him. They were both adults; time to reason. “Okay, why exactly are you under the misguided assumption I’d do drugs?”
    “I found the bag.”
    “What does my purse have to do with anything?”
    He frowned. “Not your purse. I found the bag of drugs inside your purse.”
    “You went through my purse?” Jules crossed her arms, fury and a familiar pain knifing through her chest. He was just like her ex-husband. “You had no right!”
    “It was in my apartment,” he replied through clenched teeth.
    “It’s my property!”
    “That you left in my apartment after you broke into it last night. I could have arrested you for that alone.”
    True enough. Despite the anger pumping through her system at his invasion of her privacy, she at least owed him the courtesy of listening. Ghostly-induced