Death by Devil's Breath by Kylie Logan Page B

and irritated.” He lifted the back of my purple shirt and peeked. “It’s even worse on your back and your neck. Something tells me scratching it will only make it worse.”
    “Well, I’ve got to do something!” I wailed. Tears streamed down my cheeks and mixed with the itching powder on my face. “Nick, it hurts!”
    “Right.” He kicked the costume to the back of the bordello, but just as he went up front to shut the door and put out the Closed sign, Sylvia walked in. She had a bag from one of the hotel shops in one hand and an iced green tea in the other.
    “Hi, Nick!” Didn’t it figure, she noticed the gorgeous hunk and completely ignored her half sister, fidgeting and crying in the corner. “What brings you here?”
    “Maxie needs help.” Nick zigzagged around Sylvia and headed in my direction. “Someone’s—”
    “Someone?” Sure there were tears streaming down my face, and my skin felt like it was on fire. That didn’t stop me from pointing a finger at Sylvia. “That was a sick prank.”
    Sylvia clicked her tongue. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. But why . . .” She gave me a careful look. “Why are you so red?”
    I jumped up and down and waved my arms. “I’m itching to death!” I wailed. “Because you . . .” Another pointed finger that she completely ignored. “You’re a sneak, Sylvia. And I won’t let you get away with this. I’ll get even.”
    She closed in on me, her golden brows low over her eyes and her gaze on the welts on my neck. “You think I did that to you?” Sylvia tsked her opinion. “You don’t know me very well.”
    “I do know you very well. That’s just—” The itching on my back intensified and I screeched. “The costume was right there.” I swung my finger away from Sylvia and toward the back of the bordello. “You had all morning to mess with it.”
    “Because you were gone all morning, and most of the afternoon doing I don’t know what.” The way she nodded made her golden hair gleam in the overhead lights. “I may have been justified wanting to get even since you abandoned me and left me to do all the work all day, but I didn’t do it, Maxie, I swear.”
    Nick stepped between us. “And right about now, none of it matters. You . . .” He looked at Sylvia, then at the front door, where a group of loud-talking women had just stepped in. “You have customers. And you . . .” Before I had a clue what he was about to do so I could make sure he didn’t, Nick twirled me around and shooed me toward the door. “The only thing that’s going to help you is a long shower. I’m taking you back to the RV. Now.”
    *   *   *
    Don’t ask me how Nick knew I needed a little pick-me-up, but when I got out of the shower, I found him sitting on the bench behind the driver’s seat of the RV. There was a can of Coke open on the table in front of him, and when he saw me, he poured it over ice and told me to sit down and drink.
    “Better?” he asked.
    I took a long glug of soda. The bubbles tickled my throat, and I nodded. Just like Nick had instructed me before I showered, I’d put the clothes I’d been wearing into a garbage bag and I swept the bathroom floor and rinsed down the shower really well to make sure that none of the itching powder still lingered. I’d hauled the garbage bag out of the bathroom with me, and I pointed to it.
    “You going to take it and collect evidence?”
    I guess the way he raised his eyebrows should have told me everything I needed to know.
    “Come on, Nick.” I slapped the table. “That’s got to be a crime. Sylvia—”
    “It wasn’t Sylvia. She was clueless.”
    “In case you haven’t noticed, Sylvia’s always clueless.”
    “Well, this time, clueless in a good way. I don’t think she’s the one who put the itching powder inside your costume.”
    “Then who—”
    His shrug said it all. “The costume was out all day, right? While you were . . .”
    I timed my next glug of