Read The Cowboy Genie's Wife: A Paranormal Romance (The Dirty Djinn Series) for Free Online

heifer. Who cares about strangers’ cows?
    Fazil, apparently.
    He nodded, jotted notes, and promised to report something about something to someone on his next visit.
    Clearing her throat shut both men up. “Maybe we should check on that thing, honey?”
    Sam smirked and tipped his hat, shaking his head apologetically toward a retreating Fazil.
    A dog she hadn’t noticed earlier raised his head in acknowledgement of their departure, before flouncing back down. Fazil scratched behind its ears and tossed a tripped-up toy in the air. “Bluetick.”
    “What?” She freaked, swatting and brushing off her legs. This caused much amusement to the various flannelled men doing ... totally nothing but sitting and sipping cola.
    “The dog, babe.”
    “Who names their dog Blue-fricking-tick?” she hissed into his ear.
    “It’s a breed.”
    “Does the dog have an actual name?”
    “Bluetick Smith.”
    “I’m done.”
    Fazil’s warm laughter made this almost normal. Almost okay. This was his real life. Ranch, animals, small town, the whole bit. It freaked her out for all the wrong reasons.
    “I’m in a place where the bakery has an ice cream shop right next door to it. Let me guess, the bakery doesn’t sell ice cream.”
    “Correct.”
    “And the ice cream shop—”
    “Parlor.”
    “Of course. The ice cream parlor doesn’t sell baked goods.”
    “Correct again. Wouldn’t be right. Ready for the best part?” He waited for her nod, eyes twinkling. “They’re cousins, who inherited the shops from their mothers.”
    “Who were sisters?”
    “Nailed it.”
    She couldn’t stop shaking her head at this place that made Fazil so happy. Then the smile cracked as reality—her wretched reality—swooped in to destroy his small-town Utopia. “So...”
    “The phone call?”
    “Yeah. I meant what I said, Rosa. Nothing was found.”
    “Where?”
    “In the apartment.”
    * * * *
    K udos to her for holding it together until they got in the car.
    The second her door slammed shut, however, she lost her shit. Not that he blamed her. He was halfway there himself. Everything he’d held inside at Sam’s threatened to erupt. “Bodies don’t disappear. Is there something you didn’t tell me? Who else did you go to about this?”
    “No and no one! Maybe your contact went to the wrong condo.” She took a deep breath, bottom lip clenched between her teeth. Her long lashes fluttered and her nostrils flared. “I’m scared.”
    He wanted to touch her. Grab her and tell her everything would be okay. Like an idiot, he tried, but she flinched at his touch. “Let’s regroup. You killed a man. You left a man. Now there’s no body. That’s all I got.”
    Rosa choked out a breath and lay back against the seat. “They’re coming for me.”
    “Who?”
    “Cops!”
    “Calm down, babe. Think about it. The body’s gone and no one’s said anything. He hasn’t shown up as missing.”
    “A dead body can’t disappear, Fazil.”
    “Exactly. It doesn’t. Are you sure you killed him? I mean, killed him dead?”
    “There’s another type of killing?”
    “Hell yes, and I do mean that. Look, you weren’t dabbling in any—”
    “No!”
    “And he wasn’t Other?”
    “No. Not that I could tell. Being married to you made me sensitive. Lowercase s . I would have noticed if he had any powers. I’m sure of it. His sole talent was asshole-ism.”
    And resurrection.
    “What are we going to do?”
    Good question and one he didn’t know the answer to. In times like these, there was one option left: lie.
    Lie hard.
    Lay it down so thick you couldn’t lift your foot from it. “I wouldn’t worry about it.”
    She rolled her eyes so hard, he thought her lids would snap. “Sorry? Are you advising we drop it?”
    “Of course. Otherwise, we wait for something that might not happen. Maybe you left the door open on the way out and someone robbed him. They got nervous and hid the body.”
    “Really?”
    “Yeah.” No .
    “You’re not