Free Hiding Jessica by Alicia Scott

dark brow. “You’re so determined not to trust, Ice Angel,” he whispered softly. “It almost makes me wonder what you fear.”
    Her back stiffened immediately, her eyes growing cold.
    “If I lose,” she clipped out slowly, each word dripping frost, “I promise not to question your methods again.”
    “Fair enough,” he concurred, his face not giving her much ground. His gaze fell to the red deck, his hands deftly counting out cards from the bottom of the deck. At the eighth card, his hand froze. Abruptly he flipped it up to face her.
    And she was staring at the three of diamonds.
    She could not stop the flood of outrage that seized her.
    “That’s impossible,” she snapped, and promptly reached for the three cards on the corner of the table, turning them up. Her eyes scanned over them. But what had once been the eight of spades, queen of hearts and three of diamonds was now the eight of spades, queen of hearts and nine of clubs. “You tricked me,” she accused. “You cheated somehow; kept the card up your sleeve—something like that.”
    He took the cards from her without replying, shuffling them easily back into the deck.
    “Maybe I didn’t cheat,” he told her evenly, setting the deck down on the corner of the table. “Maybe it was magic.”
    He brushed by her, feeling the anger that radiated from her like icy heat even as her face remained frozen.
    “There’s no such thing,” she said tersely, her hands balling at her sides in her effort at control. He had bested her in a way she had not been bested in years, and even now her mind rebelled against accepting it. There was no such thing as magic.
    He stepped down into the living room, glancing at her over his shoulder. And his eyes fell almost casually to her balled fists, then smoothed back up to meet her eyes with his own level gaze.
    “Maybe,” he told her, “you should believe in magic. Maybe you should believe in me.”
    He could already see the retort forming on her lips, and he didn’t feel compelled to await its arrival. He calmly walked away even as he felt her eyes throw icy daggers into his back.
    Behind him, he heard a dull thud, like a fist pounding a table, and as he walked up the stairs he began to grin.

Chapter 4
    F or the rest of the morning, Jess did her best to ignore Mitch. This wasn’t easily accomplished. When she went outside for a walk, it was only to hear cries of “Jessica” behind her. Already duped once, she refused to take the bait the second time. However, she also forgot to turn when Bill called out Miss McMoran, earning another knowing grin from Mitch. Still, by midafternoon she was doing better. To help herself, she trained her mind to think of herself only as Jess McMoran, thirty-year-old schoolteacher. She daydreamed possible memories of college and early aspirations of becoming a teacher while she walked through the freezing January afternoon.
    It was like an actress preparing for a role, she told herself. For a few days, she would immerse herself in the other person. And then she would simply be Jess McMoran. Except this role entailed a lifetime job.
    Did a lie built upon a lie become a truth?
    It would, she told herself fiercely, as she huddled under the thick warmth of Jamie’s borrowed jacket. By sheer force of will, she would make it.
    Mitch, Bill and Jamie had their meeting at three. True to her word, she did not attend, merely walking gracefully by on her way up to her room to read. Mitch had won the bet, though she’d be wary about being taken in again.
    Her blue eyes narrowed as she topped the stairs. Magic was simply a trick, a sleight of hand. She hadn’t caught it this time because she hadn’t been looking closely enough. But next time, next time she would keep her eyes sharp. She didn’t believe in magic, only mankind’s knack for deception—something Mitch Guiness had apparently mastered.
    At four, a pickup truck pulled up outside. From the upstairs loft, she could look out a window and