Free Mixed Feelings (Empathy in the PPNW Book 1) by Olivia R. Burton Page A

looking.
Chloe must’ve adjusted the seat for herself earlier that day, so at least I got
a chuckle watching Mel fold himself in where her small body had been so
comfortable earlier. He was able to manage , but it required pressing his knees to his chest.
    After some fumbling between
his legs—and, of course, an obnoxious kissing sound directed at me as he
did so—the seat shot back and he stretched out. I frowned at him and
turned off the car to make it clear that I was not taking him anywhere.
    “ Hey, Jeeves, where we going?” Mel asked, his eyes roaming to watch my hand
as I tucked the note into my jacket pocket.
    “ You ’re going to get out. I’m going home.”
    “ I ’ll join you; we can warm the place up.”
    I sighed. “ Mel. ”
    He grinned at me and gave an
amiable shrug. Turning my rearview mirror so he could poke at his Fillion-esque
hair, he explained .
    “ I ’ve got news. There are indeed children missing. While that’s,
unfortunately, not atypical, this batch has the
cops scratching their heads. Three children, two girls and a boy, have been
taken in the last few weeks. What makes these particular kidnappings
interesting is that the police have no leads. Zilch. Nada.”
    “That’s all you found out?”
    “Let me finish before you run
your mouth,” Mel said. My eyelid gave a hearty spasm
and I felt like smacking him. “All three children were removed from locked
homes, where they should have been safe. First little girl was in bed and then
she wasn’t. Second was in the backyard; Mom swears she stepped inside just long
enough to grab a pair of gloves off the counter. The little boy was home sick
from school with his mother.”
    “No breaking and entering?”
    “Nothing of the sort. If
these aren’t the kidnappings you’re supposed to solve, I’ll take a vow of
celibacy.”
    “ Oh, don ’t make this a choice between your abject misery and
the safety of small children. I can’t make that decision.”
    Mel snorted, rolling his eyes good-naturedly. “What about you? You’re the
one they hired; I’d better not be doing all the legwork here.”
    “Chloe and I went to see
Merrin today. She spouted the usual foreboding nonsense, said she’d make me
something, claimed we could stop a kidnapping— we ’re hoping to get a call about that sooner rather than later—and
we gave her some cash.”
    Mel made a small, thoughtful
sound before jerking his chin. “How’s she doing?”
    Despite Mel being, well, Mel, I wasn’t surprised by his concern. Something about
our little witch friend made her the only woman that Mel didn’t shamelessly
flirt with. I’d seen him hit on girls who had turned eighteen mere seconds
before and also on women in their sixties. Merrin, however, had only gotten a
pat on the shoulder and Mel’s suggestion that she eat a nutritious dinner; he ’d even offered to buy her the meal.
    “ She ’ s … living with someone? Or
someon e ’s living with her. It was a
not-person-someone, far as I can tell. Super hot, but off. I think she was a fairy. ”
    “ Ooh, ” Mel hissed, his face
contorting like he’d been burned. “ Super- hot
fairies are generally bad news. Well, most are bad news, but the lookers you
really don ’t wanna fuck with.”
    “ Even you don ’t wanna fuck
with them?” I asked, amused by the nervous frustration jangling through him
like a can of pennies, even as I winced against the clamorous experience of
being so close to it.
    “Even I wouldn’ t risk it. ”
    “Then it must be
serious. I’ll keep that in mind.”
    “ Don ’t go getting your pretty little head ripped off,” Mel suggested,
reaching out to ruffle my hair.
    “ Okay, ” was all I could get out. His fingers tugged my hair
lightly as he pulled away; lust flared up from his core and I jerked my head
back to lessen the contact. “Anything else?”
    “ I ’m going to see if I can get the parents to talk to me, offer my private
eye services. Nothing seemed off to