Ghostsnaps (Knead to Know Book 4) by Liz Schulte Read Free Book Online

pulled a couple batches of cupcakes out of the oven, then led Phoenix into the café. Sitting on the couch with my back resting against one arm so I’d be able to face him, I patted the seat in front of me.
    “Don’t you have things you need to do?” he asked, refusing to sit while edging toward the door. “Because I know I do. I should really go.”
    “Yes, I have a lot of work to finish,” I said. “But right now, I want to be here for you more than I want to bake.” I patted the cushion again. “I feel like you owe me this.”
    He sat down, giving me a perfect view of his side profile. I smiled to myself, more than tempted to lean forward and kiss his cheek, but I resisted. “Now, tell me about your troubles.”
    His eyes flicked toward me, then away. “It isn’t your concern. I’ll handle it.”
    “I don’t mind getting involved. I want to help you. You just have to let me.”
    He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Maggie,” he said in a warning tone. “I don’t push into the parts of your life that you don’t want me in. The least you could do is offer me the same courtesy.”
    Lies! He had done nothing but force himself into my life. He had me followed. He constantly showed up uninvited. “You have a selective memory.” He was trying to make me mad to distract me. I released my breath. “And I never said I didn’t want you in my life. I do. Besides, I’m not going to dive head first into your problems.” But we both knew I would. “I just want to hear what’s going on. Sometimes talking about things makes the answer easier to see. Why does everything have to be a secret? Whatever is happening is obviously personal to you. It won’t be to me. I’ll have a cooler head, which means I might see something you can’t.”
    He sighed.
    “What did the person take? Could it have just been a random burglary?”
    He shook his head. “Nothing. As far as I can see, everything is accounted for. Nothing was disturbed at all.”
    Hmm, that was strange. “So they were looking for something?”
    “I assume, but I don’t know what or where they looked. Nothing appears to have been touched. Apart from the scratches on the lock where it was picked, it’s actually pretty clean. Including fingerprints. I only found mine and yours.”
    “You have my fingerprints?”
    “Yes. I lifted them after the first time I took you there.” He pursed his lips, glaring down toward the floor.
    How could he live the sort of life where fingerprinting your girlfriend was a normal thing? I shook my head, but let it go. “I guess that leaves out a jinni. They wouldn’t need to pick a lock. They’d just transport in.”
    He glanced up. “I don’t keep anything inside my apartment…as you know.”
    He didn’t keep anything work related there, that was true. But he had plenty related to his past. And in someone’s past, there was always weakness. Maybe that was the problem. He was looking at this from the jinn point of view and he couldn’t find a reason someone would target him. But what if this had nothing to do with that. “Is the apartment in your name?”
    He shook his head. “Of course not.”
    “Is the name you used completely unconnected to you or did you choose something more sentimental?” Phoenix didn’t seem like the sentimental type on the surface, but the fact he still went by his real name told me maybe everything wasn’t as it appeared where he was concerned.
    He didn’t answer.
    “Is that the only thing that’s happened?”
    His mouth pursed. “What are you thinking?”
    Baby steps were the best I was going to get with getting him to share information. “Could this have less to do with whatever you are doing now and more to do with something from your past?” Not that I could imagine the dorky kid in his yearbook as the type to have enemies, but Phoenix wouldn’t tell me how or why he became a jinni. That wasn’t a decision that could be made lightly. Something bad must have happened to