Forbidden Touch (13 page)

She heard a car door shut quietly. She was out of his arms and out of the shower before he even lost his smile.

When he pulled the shower curtain back, she wasn't in the bathroom any longer. Had she heard something? He shut the water off, then grabbed a towel and quickly dried off. She was back in the bathroom and breathing heavy as she threw on her clothes. Noticing the panicked state she was in, he hurriedly put his on as well. She'd heard something, and from the speed she was dressing, she had seen something as well. Well, that was one way to get rid of a hard-on, he thought as he slipped his shoes on.

She put her finger to her mouth to let him know that he needed to be quiet, then turned out the bathroom light and took his hand. "Wait…" he whispered. He picked up his slacks and rummaged through the pockets until he had retrieved his cell phone, wallet, and the keys to his mother's Tahoe. The house was completely dark now. She led him out into the hall. He picked up the duffle bag that contained their clothes, and followed her to the kitchen window.

There was a patrol car in the driveway, but no one was in it. The door bell rang and Mitch went very still beside her, then realized that she'd made them both invisible again. Even the duffle bag he was holding was invisible. He didn't have time to think how cool that was, because she was pulling him in the direction of the garage.

She opened the door, then asked for the keys in a whisper. He held them out and felt her hand close over his to take them away. The door to his Tahoe opened, and he crawled through to the other side without being asked. His heart was beating ninety to nothing. He hadn't bothered to open the garage door; it would take too long for it to rise, and that would alert the police officer. It was a good thing that he had parked behind the garage door that the stolen car was pulled in. If they had to bust out of here, hitting a police car would slow them down a lot.

Ciera didn't start the engine right away. She waited and listened to the movements of the police officer. She heard him ring the bell again then talk on his radio. "215 to dispatch."

"Go ahead 215." A woman's voice said over the radio.

"I'm at 1135 Cross Avenue, and there's no sign of Foley. There aren't any lights on, and the door is locked. He may have already come and gone, but I think we need to go ahead with the warrant. He may be coming back, so we need to get an unmarked to sit close."

"10-4, 215. The unmarked is in route. E.T.A, ten minutes. I just received a call of shots fired at 1490 Maple. They need back up."

"10-4, I'm in route," the officer said, and Ciera heard him step off the porch. She listened closely as his car door shut and the engine came to life. She let out her breath, then let go of Mitch's hand.

"He's leaving, but there is an unmarked on its way. We have about eight minutes to get out of here. Did you leave any evidence that you had been in the house? They're getting a search warrant. They can't know that you're in Arkansas."

He thought for a minute. He had turned the lights off in the basement and grabbed his dirty clothes from the bathroom. "Did you turn out the lights in my mother's room and bathroom?"

She nodded. They had become visible again when she'd released his hand. She looked up at him in horror. "Yeah, but that chair you broke will certainly give them a red flag." She opened the door and raced back into the house. She was only gone a few seconds before he heard the garage door being raised. She poked her head back around the door and looked at him. "Back out of the garage, and I'll come out the front with the evidence."

He quickly moved behind the wheel and started the vehicle. He had it in drive and was moving before the garage door made it to a complete stop. He backed out, then watched as the door began to close again. He threw it in park and moved to the passenger seat. The back door of the Tahoe opened a minute later.

Ciera put the chair pieces and the wet towels, as well as the bloody sheets from his bed, in the back seat and then got behind the wheel. She looked behind her and backed out of the driveway. They were four houses away when they saw the unmarked police car round the corner. She obeyed the traffic laws, and held her breath as she passed the car. Mitch turned in his seat to look behind them as she watched in the rearview mirror. The car pulled over on the side of the road and killed its lights two houses away from his mother's house.

Ciera turned at the stop sign and he relaxed in his seat with a sigh of relief. He sat there in silence for a few minutes, wondering how in the hell they'd found him. He asked Ciera as much. "They don't have anything on record that I have a house here. The house is still in my mother's name." He paused a moment. "But I guess they would think to look at my mother's house," he said a little sadly.

"Did you bring your cell phone with you?"

He pulled it out of his pocket and flipped it open. Before he had a chance to read the first of seven text messages, Ciera had grabbed it from him and thrown the piece of technology out the window. He started to ask her, "Why the hell did you do that?" then it dawned on him that the cops would be able to track him by his cell phone. He put his face in his hands and cursed himself. How could he have been so careless? He had put a big-ass target on their heads. The cops would be able to find him anywhere he carried the thing.

So, they knew he was in Arkansas, but without the phone, they wouldn't be able to track him. They would find the cell phone, unless it rained and ruined the thing, but they wouldn't find them. Well, he was hoping they wouldn't.

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Chapter
20

"Well, there went our hide out, thanks to me," Mitch said.

She laced her fingers with his to comfort him, but they didn't disappear this time. "Are there any psychic houses around here? We need to find shelter. I should have known they would look at your mother's house. They may not have even thought to track you by your phone. Mine can't be tracked or traced, and if you think you need to use it, just ask me. Of course, I don't have to tell you not to tell anyone where we are, right?"

He shook his head, but didn't say anything. He rubbed his thumb over her finger absentmindedly. "There's one on the other side of town. It should still be open." he said as he glanced at the clock in the radio. It was only a quarter till nine. "Take a left at the light. It's about a mile up the road, on the right."

She followed his directions. He'd been right. The neon hand in the front window of the little house let her know this would be their first, and hopefully last, attempt to find a legitimate psychic. Ciera drove past it then pulled in an alley about a block away. The alley was dark, and she drove to the end of it to park the Tahoe in an empty parking lot behind a building that was closed for the night.

They got out and locked the doors. She walked to him, and taking his hand in hers, they instantly lost their visibility and walked to the little house.

Mitch was smiling the whole way there, thinking of all the things he could get away with while being invisible. He wished he could be at the station like this while they were trying to locate him. And he wished he could go mess with Gracie "Barbie Doll" Potter and Lazarus. He would scare the shit out of his partner. Mitch lost his smile. Well, Lazarus had been his partner. Even if they did get this all straightened out, he was sure he would never be a cop again. He had noticed that five of the text messages had been from Lazarus before Ciera had thrown the device out the window. He thought, with how weird his partner had been acting, that just maybe the guy would believe all of this shit, but he wouldn't ever be able to tell him. He knew now how dangerous it was to know about Ciera's kind. The other two messages had been from Brad. Mitch assumed the pizza guy was at the game, and probably wondering where the hell he was. Or maybe he had read in the newspaper that he was wanted for the serial murders. Brad was probably glad he hadn't shown up.

They made it to the house, but there was a problem. Someone inside would definitely notice if the door opened on its own. There were a couple of vehicles outside, so they patiently waited for a customer to exit. It wasn't long before the door opened and a middle aged woman walked out with a smile on her face.

The smile didn't comfort Ciera in the least. If it had of been a true psychic, the woman would have probably ran out the door screaming. Great things, no matter how much people wished for them to happen, just didn't happen very often. The world was a cruel, dark place, she thought, as she slipped into the house.

The room was dim and smelled of burning incense. She could tell by looking around that all the rooms would be small. There was a glass souvenir case set up against one of the walls, and Ciera walked over to browse, pulling Mitch with her by their adjoined hand. There were a lot of different religious items and stones. Glancing at the label under them let her know that they promised prosperity, good health, good fortune and love. "Please," she whispered as she rolled her eyes. She knew before they even looked at this woman that she was a hoax.

Ciera heard a voice coming from the back of the house. She tugged on Mitch's hand so he would follow her. They stopped in front of a door where strands of colorful beads hung as a curtain. She could see two women sitting across from each other at a table, and knew right away which of the two was getting screwed. The "pretend psychic" was laying it on thick too. Ciera rolled her eyes again then turned and led Mitch back out the way they had come in. She didn't wait for the door to be opened for them. She opened it herself, and they walked out. Mitch shut it quietly behind him.

He showed her where one other psychic place was in the city, but it turned out to be worse than the first one. She continued driving south. There was another one that he knew of, but it was a few counties south of there.

They rode in silence most of the way, with her in her own thoughts about the killer and different places they may be able to go hide temporarily. Mitch's thoughts weren't so complex. He had one thought on his mind, and that was of Ciera standing naked in his shower all wet and ready for him to teach her the act of lovemaking. He knew he needed to be thinking of a plan to get them out of this mess, but it was too exhausting to pull his thoughts away from the mental picture of her naked with his hands on her body. He hadn't really even gotten to touch her before the officer had shown up.

He glanced at his lap to realize this specific thought was going to cause him more trouble than he could stand. He wished that he had Ciera's ability to make himself invisible. He shifted uncomfortably in the leather seat and managed to rearrange certain parts of his anatomy so it was a little more bearable, and hopefully less noticeable. He wanted to groan again in his discomfort, but he knew that Ciera would hear it, and he wasn't sure that she couldn't read his mind with all the dreams of his that she had entered.

He thought back to those dreams, and wondered how he hadn't caught on to what she was trying to help him do. Maybe he knew, and maybe he also knew if he saved the victims that he would've never gotten to meet her.

He let go of the thought as he recognized his surroundings. "It's up here on the left. I think you can just pull around back," he said, and she nodded.

This place was out in the middle of nowhere practically, and there weren't any flashy neon signs to pull tourists or the gullible in. There was only a single, white wooden sign out in front of the house with black lettering that read:
What Does Your Future Hold?

Ciera was wishing that she knew exactly what her future held as she pulled around back of the house. There was a small parking lot and an old shed with a lawnmower parked under the lean-to. It looked almost homey here, like this wasn't just a house for reading palms, but rather the scammer lived here as well.

She shrugged, and they got out. The place was deserted. No one else was here. It was going to be tricky for them to slip inside without the swindler knowing. Heaven forbid the woman think she was actually seeing something paranormal for real. She looked at Mitch, who had just rounded the back of the vehicle. "I think I should go in alone, visible. I will be able to tell if she is lying or not ... I think," she smiled. "Maybe I will even let her tell my fortune." He nodded, then propped himself up against the back of the Tahoe. She left him there and walked around to the entrance.

She wasn't paying attention, which was really careless of her. She was looking down at her feet when she began to walk up the old wooden steps. Two feet, attached to two legs came into view at the top of the steps. Ciera came to a halt and looked up at a middle-aged woman. Her graying hair was tight to her head, and a small bun sat low in the back. She was dainty looking, but as Ciera met the woman's eyes, she knew that she was anything but fragile. There was more wisdom there in those baby blues than Ciera had collected in her whole existence.