Chapter 8

The curtains were thrown open, letting in streams of bright autumn sun as Wade sat shuffling through her tarot deck. She was wearing knee-high heeled leather boots and had a bright yellow scarf tied loosely around her neck. A streak of purple ran through the bangs of her dark brown hair.

“So,” she said without looking at them, lifting one of three cards she had laid flat on the table, “what have you gotten yourselves into now?”

Nathan dropped his bag to the floor and flopped down on the sofa across from her. Jim joined him, though with a little more restraint and ceremony than Nathan thought Wade deserved.

She was a year younger than them, but carried herself so maturely that most people assumed she was at least over thirty. She was beautiful, with dark, exotic features and a short but curvy figure.

Shuffling the previous three cards back into her deck, Wade glanced up at Nathan assuredly. “You reek like a harpy,” she said. “Slumming in less desirable locales these days, Nathan?”