Read Hot Trick (A Detective Shelley Caldwell Novel) for Free Online Page B

park, climb to the second floor and stumble down the hallway toward my apartment. I rented a one bedroom in a condo conversion. In my mind, the joy of home ownership was overrated. I liked the idea of someone else having to take care of any problems, though since I’d moved in I’d had none.
    All night my adrenaline had been up and down like a roller coaster. As I unlocked my front door, I’d hit bottom. No cats came to greet me.
    Alarmed, I called, “Sarge? Cadet?”
    No meow.
    A cold lump settled in my stomach as I went on alert. The cats always greeted me. Always. That they were no shows meant they were hiding.
    From what?
    Rather, from whom?
    My pulse rushed a shot of speed through me as I wondered if Snake Eyes somehow knew where I lived.
    Drawing my gun from its holster for the third time that night, I held my breath and listened intently for any sound. Nothing. Two steps inside the apartment and the door slammed behind me.
    I whirled but before I could get off a shot, the intruder knocked my arm to the side and relieved me of my gun.
    “And here I thought you would be glad to see me.”
    “Jake!”
    Before I could tell him off for scaring me, he shoved me against the door and covered my mouth with his. I melted against him and my exhaustion vanished as parts of my body that had been neglected for days—or was it weeks?—awoke as if an alarm had gone off. I ran my hands through his hair, my fingers brushing the earring in his right ear. A black diamond. He stroked my breast with one hand and dipped the other inside the waistband of my pants, and my head went light. Heat surged between my thighs before he even touched me there.
    One little part of my mind wanted to let go, to let Jake do me as only he could, but I didn’t have time to let him have his way with me tonight. Jake had become well-versed in Tantric sex before we’d ever met, and believe me, he was a marathon man in bed. Or out.
    Hmm, maybe I could get some shut eye while he did me?
    Even as I was imagining one inventive position of which I was particularly fond, crawling skin at the back of my neck was followed by a buzzing in my brain.
    Great. Two hours of trying to connect with my twin and Silke chose this moment to respond.
    Horrified that she might be eavesdropping on my extracurricular activity, I shoved my hands between us, pushed at Jake’s chest and tore my mouth free.
    “Silke,” I gasped.
    Use my land phone. I shouted at her over our psychic airwaves.
    Groaning, Jake collapsed around me even as the phone rang.
    “Sorry.” I wiggled out from under his arm. Hot from the contact, I tore off my jacket and tossed it on the couch. “I have to talk to her.”
    “Of course you do.”
    I gave him my best I’m sorry expression as I picked up the phone. And then I focused on Silke. “What took you so long to get back to me?”
    “I had my cell off.” Her words were nearly swallowed by blaring hip-hop music.
    “Your brain too?” I asked, referring to the psychic link.
    “I knew you were calling me. I got back to you as soon as it was…convenient.” Silke punctuated the statement with a giggle.
    “Have you been drinking?”
    “Of course I’ve been drinking. I’m at a club. I’ve been dancing, too, with Sebastian until he left.” Silke sighed. “So what’s so important that you couldn’t wait until morning?”
    “A murder. The victim drowned. In the Chicago River.”
    “Oh, I’m sorry,” Silke gasped. I could hear her take a big breath before asking, “What does that have to do with me?”
    “The woman was tied up in a trunk like Sebastian was. A car trunk, but you get the similarity.”
    “Not really.”
    “Silke, this is not the time to be in denial.” Or dense. “The car was driven into the river in the last couple of hours, sometime after Sebastian escaped his trunk. Only the Martin woman didn’t escape hers.”
    “Well, it’s a little weird but I still don’t see why you think it’s all connected. Sebastian