Free A Triple Scoop of I Scream by Gabrielle Holly Page A

ribbon. She grabbed hold and reeled it up.
    “It’s not the door she wanted to show us,” Toni said. “Well, that’s not the only thing she wanted to show us. Look!” Tied to the other end of the ribbon was a dusty book.
    “Daisy’s journal!” Liam said.
     
    * * * *
     
    “Completely fried,” Mike said and tossed the camera onto the table among the empty beer cans. He draped his arm over Bridget’s shoulders.
    “Both of them?” Thomas asked from across the booth.
    “’Fraid so. You really do a number on the equipment, Bianchi,” Mike said.
    Liam laughed and squeezed Toni’s thigh under the table. “You can say that again.”
    “He was talking about the cameras, you perv,” Toni said, nudging him.
    She sat between Thomas and Liam and was secretly relieved that their horny exploits hadn’t been recorded. Thomas rubbed her other thigh. Her pussy immediately grew wet. She smiled at the involuntary reaction. Even away from the influence of paranormal energy she was achingly hot for these two men. A realisation suddenly dawned on her. Maybe it wasn’t the absence of a ghost that had caused her last fling with Thomas to fizzle out. Perhaps it was the absence of a third person. Did she need two lovers to satisfy her? Could the three of them build a relationship together?
    “I think so,” said Liam.
    Toni jerked her head to face him. “What?”
    “I think we could make it work.”
    “I didn’t say that out loud!”
    Mike cleared his throat. “What’s going on over there?”
    Toni felt them all staring at her. “This is at least the third time Liam has… I don’t know…read my thoughts.”
    Thomas leaned across Toni and looked at Liam. “Is that true?”
    Liam shrugged. “I guess so. I’ve been able to do it since I was a kid—only with certain people, though.”
    “And you did say that you had seen and heard Daisy and Vinnie, so you’re obviously psychically sensitive,” Mike added.
    Bridget nodded. “That would make sense. The energy we felt during the last, um, episode was way more intense than the one at the Buckman Inn. If you put a psychic medium and a telepath together it would figure that the experience would be far more powerful than just one alone—powerful enough to explode radios and topple heavy cabinets.”
    Toni shook her head and cracked open another beer. A telepath, well, that’s just great. Now what?
    Liam squeezed her thigh in response and then tapped the dusty journal with his other hand. “Let’s see what old Daisy has to say.”
    Toni took a swig of beer and opened the cover. She thumbed through the pages. The front of the book was filled with tight, neat, evenly spaced cursive writing. She stopped at the last entry. The handwriting sprawled loosely over the page and the end of each line drooped downward. Toni cleared her throat and read—
    “My dearest Vinnie, in the weeks since you left me I have thought of nothing but being with you again. Have you heard me crying at night? If only I could tell you how much I loved you and how much I still do. If my father hadn’t stopped me that night, we would be together now as man and wife. I can still picture the rage in his eyes when he found my suitcase packed and my purse stuffed with money from the till. He had never laid a hand on me until that moment, but even as he was beating me the pain within my heart was greater. He locked me in his office and didn’t open the door until they came to tell us that you were gone…”
    The words on the page blurred through Toni’s tears. She blinked to focus on the final lines. The light in the room changed. The five in the booth looked out into the shop. It was bathed in a soft pink glow. The surfaces gleamed and the destroyed cabinet beside the mirror was upright again and filled with merchandise. A door with a polished brass handle stood adjacent. The mirror was whole and reflected back an ice-cream parlour from a different time. Green plants hung from the ceiling in baskets