Gypsey Blood Read Online Free

The killer is an alien, right?”
    “No.” Matt set the empty cup down with a thump. He held his thumb and forefinger an inch apart. “But, I’m this close to catching this damn maniac, and I need every advantage I can get. I think your mother has a gift.” He let out a heavy sigh. “Damn it, I think she can guide me, give me some direction. I could use the edge.” He lowered his voice. “By any chance, are her gifts hereditary?”
    Her fingers tightened around the cup. She avoided his eyes. The crystal warmed sending the weird sensation through her again, and his determination hit her like rolling waves, almost drowning her.  
    “It was written all over your face.” Matt tipped her chin up with a forefinger. “There was some sort of a connection between us at the meeting. You could see...feel some of what happened to me.”
    Rita couldn’t toss it off, pretend nothing had happened. “Ah. That was a first for me. More than anything, I sensed your pain.” She wouldn’t tell him about the crystal, and didn’t intend to tell him it was happening again. It wasn’t his “need to know.” She squirmed in her chair and glanced around the shop, keeping her features expressionless. “You’re from New Orleans , huh? I understand the rebuilding is still going slow from Katrina all those years ago. Must have been rough.”
    “It was rough for everyone.” Matt gave her a puzzled look, raked his fingers through his hair, stared into the space over her head. “My dad died in that flood. And my mom’s still suffering from depression.” He clenched his fist, his knuckles whitened. “One evening, last May, my twenty-year-old niece Carlie was walking home from work at the Thrifty Shop. This fuckin’ bastard grabbed her off the street. They found her body the next day. Same M.O.”
    The empathic connection slammed her, so sharp she cringed at the depth of his grief, his raw anger. She squeezed her eyes shut. “Oh, God. I’m so sorry.” She couldn’t imagine having to cope with all he had been through. Rita fought to get her jumbled emotions back in check. “You have a personal stake in this case. Why are they letting you stay on it?”
    “For the same reasons I can’t divulge. You don’t realize what kind of danger is stalking the streets of Keyport right now.”
    “You’re not talking to a rookie here.”
    Matt frowned and drummed his fingers on the tabletop. “Look, I’ll make you a deal. If your mother is willing to try to help me find an edge, I’ll tell you what I can.”
    “That sounds like you’ll just skirt the truth. No way.” The disappointment on his face made her stomach sink. “Besides, my mother packed her crystal ball away years ago. She’s out of the crystal gazing business.”
    Two young women at a nearby table were covertly eyeing Matt. To break the tension, she tilted her head in their direction. “You have admirers.”
    He shrugged, didn’t bother to look. “I like the view in front of me.”
    Rita raised her eyebrows. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “You’re a detective. Figure it out.”
    Sipping more of her lukewarm coffee, her hands trembled. Johnny Cash now “Walked the Line.” She felt as if she was walking it with him.
    Matt suddenly clasped her hand and looked into her eyes. “Listen, would it hurt to at least ask….”
    An electrical current buzzed up her arm. The crystal heated between her breasts. Air trapped in her lungs. The dishes clattering, the whirring blender, and the babble of voices became a mixed cacophony of sounds that faded into the distance. Her peripheral vision turned pink and fuzzed. Her thoughts tripped into a no-fly zone.
    A customer bumped into Matt’s shoulder, the moment shattered, and he quickly pulled his hand away. He inhaled a deep lungful of air and exhaled slowly. An impish grin split his lips, then vanished so fast she wondered if she had really seen it. He threw her a pleading look.
    She wanted to reach over and stroke his