The Deadly Diadem: A Paranormal Artifacts Cozy Mystery (Paranormal Artifacts Cozy Mysteries Book 2) by Tegan Maher (paper ebook reader txt) 📗

I brushed a stray strand of pink hair off my forehead. “That car brings me many pleasures,” I replied. “It sits in the garage until I’m ready for it, and nobody will put me in jail for leaving it home alone. It doesn’t leak fluids, and I expect it to scream. It’s one of the reasons I drive it.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Talk to me in ten years when you’ve got three or four of them tugging at your skirt.”

I cast him a sideways glance. “Yeah, because I’m big on wearing skirts. Wanna place a little wager on it? Your shiniest, most treasured object at the time?”

“And what do I get if I win?” he asked, grabbing the leg of my black leather pants and climbing onto my shoulder so he wouldn’t be trampled in the bar.

“The gifts of silence and peace because those three or four fictional monsters that you’re delusional enough to think I’ll have won’t be chasing you all over the house to pet you with sticky fingers and squeeze you like a stress ball.”

He shook his head. “Not good enough. How bout we put a pin in it like you did mine and just say I get to pick my prize when the time comes?”

“Deal,” I said, confident that it didn’t matter because I was going to win.

I pulled the door open and stepped to the side for a minute to let my eyes adjust to the dim interior. The place was as crowded as the lot indicated, and I hoped Eli had managed to snag our favorite table before the hoards had descended. He had, and his face lit up when he saw me.

“Here,” he said, pulling a Longboard from a bucket of ice and handing it to me. “I figured you’d be as ready for this as I was.”

I took it from him and tipped the bottom toward him in thanks, then took a long pull from the bottle. There was no cave in my future because the beer was so cold that it had a few ice crystals in it.

“As much as I want to hang around and watch you be degenerates,” Axel said, grabbing a chip from the basket and dipping it in the salsa, “I have poker to play.”

“I thought the game didn’t start until after hours,” Eli said, but he shook his head.

“They’ve started playing early bird rounds. He figures it’s a good way to boost liquor sales without dealing with people throwing cue balls at each other.”

I nodded. Though fights weren’t common in the bar, they did happen. It was, after all, a blue-collar place, and sometimes things got a little crazy. Also, most people there to play pool and blow off a little steam leaned toward cheap beer, and that wasn’t where the big profits were.

“Good luck,” Eli said, smiling. It amused him that my skunk played poker though it irritated him when he decided to sit in on the games and Axel beat him.

Axel puffed an arrogant breath out. “No need for that. I make my own luck.”

“Yeah, well don’t make that obvious,” I said, shaking my head.

“I never do.” He hopped onto the railing that ran along the wall and scurried across it and around the corner, hopping over pool chalk and empty rocks glasses as he did.

“Where’s Jake?” Eli asked after he was gone. “Don’t tell me he ditched us to hang out with that professor again.”

“Okay,” I replied, reaching for a chip. “I won’t tell you, but he did.”

Eli pulled out his phone and scrolled for a second, then whipped it forward. It made a whip-cracking sound, and I smiled.

“Yeah, but I’m happy for him. He deserves to find somebody nice.”

“How do you know she’s nice?” he asked. “Have you met her?”

I shook my head. “No, but I trust his instinct.”

Eli scoffed. “That’s like saying you’d go back in time and trust the crew of the Titanic.”

There was truth in there because Jake hadn’t had the best of luck with women, but all we could do was hope.

“How was the presentation?” I asked, climbing onto the stool across from him so that I could watch the crowd.

“About like watching paint dry,” he said, his tone wry. “Mom did a good job, though, and I think people who didn’t already know the material inside out were pleased. She got a couple oohs and aahs when she showed them the artifacts. I pulled a couple things from the shop to add to the usual stuff she got from the museum, and they were particularly impressed by Blackbeard’s boot buckle.”

I raised my brow. “Say what, now?” We didn’t have anything that we could directly attribute to the infamous pirate, so I had no idea what he was talking about.

He gave me a wicked grin. “I took that buckle we found on our last dive. We have no way of knowing that it didn’t belong to Blackbeard.”

I shook my head. “You’re terrible.”

“Maybe, but they liked it. It jazzed things up a little.”

We sat quietly for a few minutes people-watching. A group of rowdy spring breakers were playing darts and had apparently made a drinking game of it because one of them nailed a bullseye and the rest chugged their beers.

“That crowd’s gonna be lovely in another hour,” I said, tipping the bottom of my bottle in their direction.

“Probably,” he replied with a naughty gleam in his brown eyes. “But the blond’s hot and I think he’s been checking me out.”

I wagged my finger at him. “No playing with the tourists. You know they just get all needy. You’ll find yourself in some awkward long-distance relationship, and I’ll have to listen to you whine. Plus, he’s too young for you.”

He arched a brow at me. “Says the woman being pursued by a guy a few hundred years her senior.”

I lifted a shoulder. “Which is one of the many reasons why he’s still pursuing rather than catching.”

“That and the fact that we don’t even know what