The Hitwoman Hunts a Ghost by JB Lynn Page A

went rigidly taught. He carefully put me away from him so that he could step back and look at me. His gaze was guarded as he looked me over. “You’re talking to the lizard.”
    “So?” I tightened the belt on my robe, just that I’d have something to do besides watching the concern on his face.
    “Last night, on the video, you were talking to your cat.”
    “I like the cat,” I countered, hoping the lizard would know that comment was directed at him.
    “About the cat…” Patrick rubbed his chin nervously.
    It felt like a giant ball of ice settled in my stomach. “What about her?”
    “I sort of accidentally let her out.”
    “She was going to look for the beast,” God supplied helpfully. Apparently, he’d taken my threat about the crickets seriously.
    I frowned at the idea of the one-eyed cat searching for the grammatically-challenged dog.
    Patrick thought my expression was meant for him. “I’m sorry. I opened the door and she just slipped out. I tried calling her to come back, but she ignored me.”
    “She ignores everyone,” God muttered.
    “She’ll find her way back,” I told them both. “It’s not her I’m worried about.”
    “You’re worried about yourself?” Patrick asked. “Is that why you were banging on my door last night?”
    “No.” I shook my head, despite the fact he was half-right. “I’m worried about DeeDee, and Delveccio, and—” Realizing I was about to reveal my search for Ghost, which would necessitate a discussion about Ms. Whitehat, I cut myself off.
    Patrick narrowed his gaze. “And?”
    “Nothing.”
    “Nothing?”
    “It didn’t sound like nothing,” he prompted suspiciously.
    “Well it was.”
    “Are you keeping secrets from me, Mags?”
    I shook my head, not trusting myself to speak.
    He rubbed the back of his neck, signaling his agitation. “Keeping secrets. You’re even more dangerous than I imagined.”
    Wanting to reassure him, I hurriedly said, “It’s not what you think.”
    “Then what is it?”
    If I wanted to protect him from Ms. Whitehat and her organization, he could never know I was being blackmailed into working for them, so I decided to tell him a bit of another secret I’d been keeping.
    “It sounds stupid.”
    “Try me.” Crossing his arms over his chest, he leaned back, fixing me with a cynical stare that had me wondering if he knew I was keeping a real secret from him.
    “It’s about my sister.”
    “Jewel?”
    “I keep telling you, her name is Marlene, not Jewel.” I huffed, annoyed.
    “Sorry. It’s just that I knew her for years as Jewel.”
    I scowled at him, wondering, not for the first time, how “well” he’d known Marlene in her position as a professional prostitute.
    As though he read my thoughts, he chuckled softly. “Jealous, Mags?”
    “No,” I said too quickly.
    He smiled slightly. “Good. You have no reason to be.”
    “About this secret,” I said, needing to move the focus away from things I might or might not be jealous about.
    He raised his eyebrows, encouraging me to continue.
    “I need to find out what happened to Darlene.”
    His eyebrows fell and scrunched together as his expression turned to one of puzzlement. “The dead twin?”
    Since Gypsy had told me that my for-sure-dead sister Theresa had told her that Darlene was alive, I wasn’t sure how to answer his question without sounding every bit as crazy as he worried I might be.
    Ignoring my silence, he continued, “She was murdered, right?”
    “That’s what we were told,” I said slowly.
    “You have reason to believe differently?”
    I couldn’t tell him a psychic had told me she was still alive. “A reason? No. But I’d really like to understand what happened to her. Will you help me?”
    He shook his head slowly. “You’re looking for a reason? A lot of times there isn’t.”
    “But—”
    He raised a finger in the air to silence me. “I don’t see how anything good could come from this.”
    I couldn’t very well tell him