Ghost of a Chance by Katie MacAlister Read Free Book Online Page A

personally. But I’ve heard his name
mentioned. He’s my husband’s business partner. Meredith runs the
local bank… Oh. Pixie, come over here.”
    “Des-de-mona! It’s not that hard to
remember!”
    Slowly, Adam hung up the phone, his face a
frozen mask. I got to my feet, my hand on Pixie’s arm, prepared to
shove her out the door and race for the car if Adam took even so
much as one threatening step toward us. “Karma… Marx . Your
husband is Spider Marx, the real estate agent?”
    I pushed Pixie behind me, backing us up
three steps toward the door. “I believe we’ll be on our way now. I
have a few things to do before tonight—” My lips clamped down on
the sentence. I had a feeling Adam wouldn’t appreciate hearing
about Spider’s plan for the house that night.
    “Like finding an outfit to wear at the
séance,” Pixie said from behind me.
    “What?” Adam asked, still coming toward us,
his face red with anger. “What séance? What the hell are you
talking about?”
    “Run, you idiot,” I said, spinning around
and shoving Pixie none too gently out the door. She must have
decided it was wiser to lip off to me than Adam, because she raced
for the car.
    “You can tell your husband that it’ll be a
cold day in hell before I let the likes of him take possession of
my home!” Adam bellowed from the verandah.
    Despite his anger, I felt an odd sort of
kinship with Adam. I knew what it was like to be on the recipient
end of Spider’s immoral actions. Although Adam’s problems weren’t
mine, a horribly annoying compulsion to help him refused to be
squashed.
    I stopped in front of the car and looked
back at him. “Look, I’m really very sorry about this whole mess.
Clearly something is going on that’s not at all right. I don’t know
what I can do, but I will be happy to talk to Spider about it—”
    “You can talk all you like! The house is
mine, and it’s going to stay mine!” he yelled, his eyes blazing
with a cold blue anger.
    “You’re understandably angry now, but if we
could just sit down and talk this out—”
    “There is nothing to talk about. I’ll warn
you right now, Karma Marx: I protect what is mine. Stay out of my
house!”
    “That’s going to be a little difficult
considering she’s supposed to be cleaning the house tonight,” Pixie
pointed out from the safety of the car.
    I wanted to strangle her on the spot.
    “Clean? You want to clean my hou—”
Understanding dawned in his eyes, chased by rage. “You’re a damned
exterminator, aren’t you? You’re here to destroy my wards!”
    The use of the word “ward” was interesting.
It told me there was more to the man in front of me than was
readily apparent.
    “It’s not my choice,” I said simply, meeting
his furious glare with one that I hoped expressed sympathy. “I will
see if there’s something that can be done to straighten up this
mess. I don’t know what I can do, but I will try. Perhaps if you
talked to Spider—”
    “I don’t need your damned help! If your
husband tries to step foot in my house, he’ll regret it. So help me
god, you’ll both regret it!” he bellowed, marching back into the
house and slamming the door.
    Pixie looked thoughtfully at the house as I
got into the car. “He really was pissed, huh?”
    “Understatement of the year,” I murmured as
I turned the car around.
    She sat back with a faint, satisfied little
smile. “Tonight’s going to rock. I can’t wait to see what he does
to the flower chick.”

 
5
    Spider was home when we returned an hour
later.
    “Keep your cape on until you’re in your
room,” I warned Pixie in a low voice before she got out of the
car.
    “Why. Is he another bigot?”
    “Spider can be extremely unpleasant when he
puts his mind to it. I’d rather you were under his radar.”
    She pursed her lips, but nodded.
    “Leaving so soon?” I couldn’t help asking as
Spider carried two large suitcases out to his car. I leaned against
the garage door,