Third Eye Watch

By Nipa Shah

Set in Detroit, Samvir Raina, the handsome and sexy hero is an FBI Secret Agent who is busy solving crimes in his hometown. Serena Shaw, the heroine is a sassy, impulsive, and outspoken gallery owner who witnesses the kidnapping of her neighbor. When the two meet, passion explodes like a firecracker between them.

Third Eye Watch is a book of passion, humor, and friendship. The heart-tugging romance between Serena and Sam will make your heart skip a beat and their quest to solve a major crime will keep you on the edge of your seat.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Nov 10, 2016
• ISBN: 9781365523755

Book preview

Third Eye Watch

THIRD EYE WATCH

By

Nipa Shah

FIRST EDITION: JUNE 2016

Copyright © 2016

COVER DESIGN BY LAXMI KANTH

Third Eye Watch is a work of fiction.

Names, characters, and incidents are all a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons; living or dead, business entities, events, or locale is entirely coincidental.

MY MOTTO

If you fail to achieve your goal, change the strategy, not the goal.
~ Lord Krishna

DEDICATION

This one is for you, husband.

30 years ago you said, Why don’t you just write a book? I finally listened! But, just so you know, I won’t be making a habit of it (habit of listening to you, that is, LOL)

(Yes, the next book will for you, kids!!!)

KNOWLEDGE and IGNORANCE

Perseverance in (seeking to gain) the knowledge of the Supreme Spirit, and perception of the gain that comes from knowledge of the truth: This is called knowledge: all that is contrary to this is ignorance.   ~ Bhagavad Gita 13:11

PRologue

PRESENT DAY

Serena leaned against the kitchen counter drinking her second cup of coffee, and browsing the newsfeed on her phone. The television was on in the background, tuned to the local news. She heard BREAKING NEWS and looked up.

A female African American reporter came on the screen; behind her was a yellow crime scene tape partitioning off an area around a parking lot and a female anchor sitting behind a news anchor desk was asking, Tell us what you’ve learned, Christy.

The reporter pointed to the space behind her where a few cops were milling around a dumpster and said, Jen, all we know is that the body of a young woman was found outside this dumpster a few hours ago. And although the police don’t have many details yet, the body is of a young woman in her early twenties.

The reporter faced the camera and continued, They tell me that the body was discovered by a homeless man who had been digging through a dumpster for food.

Serena’s hand trembled, and her coffee cup dropped and shattered into a thousand pieces.

She watched as the image on the television screen changed and now she could see two medics wheeling a stretcher covered with a white sheet, obviously overtop a dead body. Soon, the camera panned back to the news reporter who was going on and on about the crime scene.

But Serena was no longer listening. She already knew what the reporter didn’t know.

When the newscast moved on to another story, Serena reached for the remote to turn the television off, then stopped and looked down when she felt glass crunching under her shoes. Sudden tears filled her eyes she stared for a moment at the remnants of her favorite coffee mug. Then shaking her head in disgust, she brushed the tears away.

Which idiot cried over a broken coffee cup?

Bending, Serena carefully picked up the tiny shards, allowing her mind to drift back to the night six months ago when her next-door neighbor Sofia had been kidnapped. That same night, she, Serena Shaw (former employee in a dead-end job and current owner of an eclectic gallery selling unique one-of-a-kind items) had acquired thought-reading abilities.

GIRL GONE

SIX MONTHS EARLIER

At half past seven, Serena walked into the lobby of her apartment building, annoyed at herself because once again she'd allowed herself to be suckered into helping a procrastinating colleague complete a project that was due the following day. 

The lobby was empty, and the super was missing in action, as always at this time of the night. But bless his soul, he had not forgotten to brew a fresh pot of coffee and lay out sugar cookies on the circular counter that doubled as his desk. Also on the counter were three small packages waiting to be picked up by the tenants of the apartment and a large bouquet of fresh mixed flowers.

Serena bent her head and inhaled their sweet fragrance, smiling as the scent of lilies and roses filled her nostrils.

Grabbing a cookie, she munched on it as she walked to the elevator bay, nodding politely at a man waiting there. A very old man, she thought, as she threw a quick glance at him noting his stooped and wrinkled form.

When the elevator arrived, she allowed him to enter; then followed him absently while she scrolled her Facebook wall, mentally rolling her eyes at the posts and status updates that shouted, My life is so much better than yours.

One of these days. She muttered, reminding herself of her promise to deactivate her Facebook profile.

As the elevator doors were closing, a large hand shot in, forcing them to reopen. Serena looked up to see two tall and muscular men standing outside the elevator and her stomach lurched with unease when two sets of pale blue eyes checked her out before stepping inside.

She quickly moved back to make room for the new entrants and the elevator doors closed silently. When one of the men reached out to punch the button for the ninth floor, Serena swallowed a gasp realizing that in her absorption with her Facebook wall, she had forgotten to press her floor upon entering the elevator. Her apartment was on the ninth floor, and it looked like these two men were also getting off there.

The small elevator felt so cramped that Serena could barely breathe. The old man was huddled to her left, looking as if he was trying to disappear into the elevator panel. She too pressed back more, but when her body encountered the hard and unyielding back panel of the elevator, she pulled her arms tightly around herself and waited for the elevator to stop moving.

As the elevator continued its slow ascent, Serena’s lowered gaze narrowed on two pairs of perfectly polished shoes. Even in the dimly lit elevator, they shone so brightly that she had an asinine urge to lean in to find her reflection in them.

I wonder whom they’re visiting on my floor?

Her five neighbors were all students or young adults like she and none of them seemed the kind to entertain men like these two – men who looked like goons even under their tailored suits. She glanced sideways at them again surreptitiously, noting their hulking form and bulging arms. Her eyes narrowed.

Holy crap! Were those guns bulging under their arms?

Just then the elevator halted on the seventh floor, and they danced the elevator dance, to allow the old man to get out.

Get off the elevator with him Serena!

She hesitated for a minuscule of a second and then she too got off on the seventh floor.  As she walked purposefully towards the apartment to her right, she felt two sets of eyes boring into her back.

When the elevator doors closed and Serena stopped, turned around, and doubled-backed towards the stairwell noting that the old man watched her from the open doorway of his apartment. Serena nodded to him politely, then pushed open the steel door to her right and descended the stairs to the lobby.

She was panting when she finally reached the ground floor. I need to get serious about losing the excess pounds! The lobby was empty, but she still peered into every corner while she hurried towards the lounge set against the back wall.

The tinted glass sliding doors opened with a whoosh and Serena entered it, breathing a sigh of relief to find it completely deserted. Dropping her laptop and purse on a chair, she removed her coat and boots, and fell on the couch, sighing softly with relief.

Her phone rang just then, and she jumped. Settle down! she told herself when the caller I.D. showed the call was from a girlfriend.

When she hung up the phone twenty minutes later, her stomach rumbled making her realize that lunch had been a long time ago.

She padded barefoot to the door to peer outside and seeing no one, decided that she’d hidden long enough. Saying a quick prayer, she left the lounge, and walked swiftly towards the elevators, glancing around nervously to make sure no one was lurking around.

She entered the elevator and punched the buttons to all the floors; just in case, and then anxiously waited for the doors to close, breathing a sigh of relief when no hands waved them open this time.

When the elevator finally reached the ninth floor, Serena peered into the brightly lit vestibule before exiting it. She glanced around nervously. There were six apartments on each floor of the building –two to the left of the elevator, two to the right, and two directly across from the elevator, of which one apartment was hers.

But no one was lurking around, and so Serena hurried to her door and inserted her key, absently noting the light that seeped from underneath the door of the apartment next to hers.

That's unusual.

Her next-door neighbor, Sofia last-name-unknown, a fair-skinned European girl (and who was insanely thin, from Serena’s POV) was usually not home at this time of the evening.

Then again, when was the last time I saw her?

Serena entered her apartment, gently closed the door, and when she heard the lock click shut, she leaned against it, taking deep breaths to calm her elevated heart rate.

She wasn’t easily spooked, but something about the two men had frightened her.

xxxx

Quickly changing into jeans and a thick sweater, she opened the balcony door and stepped outside into the crisp air to enjoy the view for which she paid 'an arm and a leg.’

She lifted her face to the dark moonless sky and felt her body relax inch-by-inch, as the cold night air filled her senses.

In the distance, she could see vehicles looking like matchbox cars crawling on the brightly lit Ambassador Bridge, which linked the US to Canada. And below her, the city looked peaceful under the night sky, the darkness of the night hiding its many scars and bruises.

Her mind wandered as she thought about how dramatically her life had changed in the past few months. She'd not gone away to school, then three months ago, at the ripe age of twenty-six, she had moved out of her parents’ home and was now living alone for the first time.

Barely a month later, she and her boyfriend of three years had called it quits, both of them feeling relieved to put a dead relationship to bed. But when that had happened, she had thought that she'd miss him desperately. To her surprise, she hadn’t, which was strange because she had really liked him. Or maybe, she had simply liked the idea of having a boyfriend.

On the professional front, her job as social media coordinator was BORING. It wasn’t that the job was bad, it really wasn’t. After all, she got to do fun things like run contests, chat with random people, record videos, and create content in different forms as part of her job managing the company’s social media properties. And the paycheck was good too.

But working in an office all day, confined to her desk and her computer made her feel like a square peg in a round hole. She liked being around people. She liked traveling. And she especially loved buying pretty things. So what was she doing living such a boring life?

She looked up at the sky again, as if seeking answers from the universe.

But YOU have the answers. Serena nodded to herself. She did, didn’t she?

Forever and ever she had dreamed about opening a shop –an eclectic gallery carrying unique artifacts and décor from around the world. Her dream was to go on trips to cities like Mumbai, Singapore, and Istanbul, buying items rooted in history and culture from local artisans.

And upon her return, she’d spend her days telling her customers about her travels to faraway lands and stories about how she had found a certain ‘one-of-a-kind’ item in a town that was ‘off-the-beaten-path.’

The sound of a car honk in the distance startled her out of her daydreams. She sighed thinking about the kind of money she would need to open a gallery. It would be lots and lots! Because, in addition to having enough money to cover her operating expenses, she would also need to maintain an extensive inventory of products to attract a particular type of clientele.

Where was she going to get that kind of money?

When the next big gust of the chilly breeze shook her entire body, she decided she had had enough of the view for the night, and went inside, locking the balcony door behind her.

xxxx

Stripping as she walked, she stepped into the shower to warm her chilled bones. After slipping on her tattered red sleep shirt, she got under the covers and turned on the television. But tonight, even reruns of Friends weren’t helping her.

She felt restless. Uneasy. A glass of wine may just do the trick. Serena got out of bed to pour herself a glass of chilled Chardonnay when a sound outside her door made her pause on the way to the kitchen.

Usually, she would have ignored the noise because the apartment walls were paper-thin, and sound traveled easily between them. But today had been a weird day.

Without switching on the light in her living room, she sidled up to the front door and put her eye to the peephole.

She was taken aback to see her neighbor, Sofia, standing in the middle of the vestibule, speaking agitatedly on her phone. Serena watched her when barely seconds later, she hung up and stalked towards Serena, causing Serena to rear back in surprise.

But instead of the dreaded knock on her door, Serena heard another door open and close. Calling herself all kinds of stupid, Serena released a shaky breath and stepped away from the door. Sofia’s door was next to hers, so it had just looked as if she was striding towards Serena’s door.

God. I’m totally losing it today.

She went into the kitchen and poured a glass of the wine she’d promised herself, took a long gulp of the sweet chilled liquid, and walked back to her bedroom.

But even the wine failed to relax her, and she found herself still awake when the opening music of The Late, Late show, with James Corden came on.

Chocolate might help.

So once again, she wandered into the kitchen and hunted in her fridge for the leftover slice of a chocolate cheesecake.

Taking it to bed with her, she ate it while watching James Corden host Carpool Karaoke with his special guest for the night, First Lady, Michelle Obama. Dropping the empty stainless steel plate on the floor, she watched the show until her eyes finally felt leaden.

After struggling to stay open for another ten minutes, she decided to skip her nightly flossing-brushing routine, turned off the lights, mumbled her nightly prayers in the dark, and dropped into a dreamful sleep.

THE FALL

Serena awoke with a start. Her bedroom was very dark, and she wondered, are my eyes even open?

Slowly, as her eyes became adjusted to the darkness, she could see the faint obscure lines of her bedroom furniture and knew she was awake. She lay in the dark listening intently for the sound that had woken her, but all she could hear was her heartbeat, racing as if she'd been running.

Releasing a shaky breath, she fluffed her pillow and turned it over; then fell back on it, enjoying its coolness.

The image of the two men tried to invade her mind, but she forced them back out and began silently chanting some prayers that were programmed in her head and which had been a big part of her upbringing.

Then she heard a loud scream.

Serena bolted up; the sudden action caused her head to bang against the headboard.

Ouch, she cried out softly, rubbing the spot on her head with both hands.

Another scream came, this time louder than the first, except, it was cut short as if someone had clamped a hand over the screaming mouth.

In the eerie silence that followed, Serena huddled on her bed with her knees drawn up to her chest.

Ok, color me officially petrified, she whispered to herself in the darkness. Then mentally squaring her shoulders against her fear, she flung the covers off herself, fished out her cell phone from under the pillows and jumped out of bed, ready to dial 911.

Her foot landed on the empty stainless steel plate she had dropped earlier, and she found herself wobbling, trying to find her footing. But her momentum caused her to slide a few inches, and she lost her balance, landing on the carpet with a soft thump.

Serena saw stars when the back of her head hit the bed frame and almost caused her to faint. Dazed and hurting, she remained on the floor for some time. Then slowly, still feeling disoriented, she got up and sat on the edge of her bed holding her head in her hands.

She lifted her head, trying to listen to the muffled sounds coming from the other side of her bedroom wall, which was a common wall that she shared with Sofia’s apartment.

At first, she heard faint sounds that indicated that things were being thrown around the room, sort of a like a child tossing his or her toys in anger. Then it sounded as if something or someone was being dragged across the floor.

Hearing a door open, Serena got up gingerly and shuffled to her front door to peer outside. Pitch-black darkness met her eyes, scaring her. Had she become blind after the fall?

She glanced around the living room and was relieved to see the faint outline her couch and coffee table. Ok, not blinded!

Once again, she put her eyeball on the peephole and this time she saw two men and a woman, waiting for the elevator. Their backs were towards her, but she knew them all. She had shared an elevator with the two men earlier that evening and even from behind; the tall woman was easily recognizable as her neighbor, Sofia.

Just then the elevator arrived, and the three of them shuffled in. Then turned around to face the door. In the split second before the elevator doors closed, Serena noticed Sofia’s bruised and bloody face. It looked as if she'd been hit, repeatedly, in the face.

Serena stepped back from the door and located her phone, which had landed underneath the bed. Then, she dialed 911.

It was 3 am.

xxxx

Serena sat on her bed massaging the back of her head. She could already feel an egg-sized bump on it. When she happened to catch a glance at herself in the mirrored doors of her closet, she let out a tiny shriek.

Her eyes were red from interrupted sleep, and her hair was a bird's nest. And she was wearing an old, ratty, and quite translucent t-shirt, which was her usual nighttime outfit, through which her bra-less-ness was quite evident. Just what I don’t need, getting arrested for indecent exposure!

She washed her face, splashing cold water repeatedly to lessen the redness of her sleep deprived eyes. Then she snapped a black bra in place, covered it with a black Pistons T-shirt and shimmied into a pair of tight blue jeans. Then she dragged a brush through her hair, and fastened it in a knot at her nape, clasping it with a clip.

Even though she’d been expecting it, the loud knock on the door made her jump. She rushed to open the door, but the knock sounded again, and this time, it was accompanied by a sharp voice.

Ms. Shaw, open up. FBI.

FBI? Who the heck called the FBI? Serena opened the door cautiously, leaving the chain on, then felt stupid about it. Yeah, cause a ‘chain’ is going to protect me from the bad guys!

A woman’s face appeared through the narrow opening, and behind her stood two men in the uniforms of the Detroit Police Department.

Serena closed the door and reopened it; this time without the chain when she heard the elevator ding, so she glanced behind the three of them and saw more cops spilling out into the vestibule.

Just then, across the hallway, a door opened, and a young man called out, Serena, what’s going on? Are you alright?

The young man’s name was Isaiah, and he was a twenty-something-year-old first-year medical student at Wayne State. People had told Serena that he claimed to be a very good friend of hers, implying they were more than friends, which had