The Curse of a Single Red Rose (Haunted Hearts Series Book 7) (24 page)

Sophia tugged on his shirtsleeve, giving him no time to absorb the house or its former grandeur. “Do you hear that? That’s Elsa’s voice. They have to be upstairs.” She darted around him.

“Sophia, wait. Let me…”

It was no use. She’d raced up the staircase that curved along the right side of the grand entrance hall. He took the steps two at a time to catch up with her. By the time he’d walked across the balcony and entered the nearest bedroom, Sophia had found Dylan.

The two of them had wrapped their arms around each other, and he had gotten there just in time for the kiss. Mush filled the room. He wanted to shout there was no time for that, but then he decided to leave the couple alone in their sweet reunion. He’d had one with Jerilyn earlier that year. Nick understood the sudden release of fear after someone he loved had been threatened. No, he wouldn’t interrupt Dylan and Sophia’s moment. He turned his head away and noticed the other occupants of the room, Charlotte Soileau, Elsa Madsen, and Collin McVey.

No one seemed to notice his entrance, no one opened his or her mouth to tell him what was going on. It was as if he were watching a scene through a two-way mirror. Elsa was seated on the floor. Charlotte was patting her pale cheeks, and Collin was rubbing her back, uttering soothing words. Her eyes fluttered open and focused on Collin.

He cleared his throat to get their attention. “What just happened here? Has Les Wakefield been here?”

Collin’s head popped up and it seemed to take him a moment to realize whom he was talking to, as if he was coming out of a deep slumber. “No, he hasn’t.” It seemed that was all the man planned to say.

Elsa stared at him with big eyes. Charlotte acted the strangest of all. Her mouth moved but nothing came out of it. The whole bunch of them acted as if they’d been sleep deprived. Whatever had just gone down had sucked the energy out of all of them.

Nick shifted his attention to the reunited couple. Dylan seemed to be coming out of his stupor at a slightly quicker pace than the rest, perhaps due to the rejuvenating appearance of his girlfriend.

He held Sophia as if he’d never let her go. “Are you okay? Did he hurt you? Where did he take you? How did Nick find you?”

She drew in a deep breath. “I’m okay. No, he didn’t hurt me. He took me to The Grove, and Nick didn’t…”

The unexpected arrival of Les Wakefield cut off whatever she had been about to say.

****

The atmosphere in the room changed as soon as Les stepped through the door. No one moved. Elsa had known from the moment she opened her eyes that it was too soon for them to relax. She studied each face, each person’s shock at the unexpected entrance of Les Wakefield. His appearance should not have been unexpected.

Mania glowed gray-white in Les’s eyes, and she couldn’t turn his gaze away. A gash on the side of his face evidenced how Sophia had managed to get away from the man. Blood oozed from the already healing wound giving him a ghoulish appearance. His flesh could have been made from gray paste. The man didn’t look like himself.

Les’s mouth moved. “Did you really think you could leave me, Celia?”

To Elsa, it seemed the words that Les uttered didn’t match the motions of his lips. The voice didn’t sound like Les.

He stared at Sophia as if no one else was in the room. “I won’t let you leave again.” His statement sounded more pleading than demanding. Heartbreak rattled in his voice.

The horrible truth settled into Elsa’s soul. The man standing before them was only the flesh-covered shell of what used to be Les. The man who controlled Les had loved and he had lost. He thought Sophia was Celia, and he blamed Les for taking her away from him. Dueling emotions controlled him, and dueling emotions were a dangerous state of being.

Sophia backed away from Les with Dylan still clinging to her. “I’m not going anywhere with you.” She shook her head, tears running down her cheeks. “I’m not Celia.”

A high-pitched whine escaped him, followed by a voice that scratched her eardrums. “Don’t you understand? He has to live this out, over and over, until…”

The words screamed through Elsa’s mind.
Someone has to die.

She struggled to her feet as the man who looked like Les but sounded like someone else took a step toward Sophia. Collin pulled Elsa further away from him. Every instinct screamed at her. She needed to get between the man and Sophia.

Everyone and everything in the room blurred as if she was viewing the scene through a dark oppression, as if she could actually see what the dark force that controlled Les and surrounded them looked like.

Nick Moreau’s hand lowered until it rested on the top of his service weapon. The strap on his holster snapped open. The gun slid out of its cradle.

Elsa held her breath. No one moved. No one dared to breathe.

“Step back from her.” Moreau’s command boomed around them.

The man didn’t seem to hear him. He moved another step toward Sophia, and Elsa tried to move closer to them, but Collin still held her back.

“I’m warning you, Wakefield.”

The man finally turned his head toward Moreau. A streak of white-hot light shot across the space between them, zapping Moreau’s gun hand with laser precision. The gun flew out of his hand and slid across the floor. Panic distorted the cop’s features.

“Do not interfere with my justice.”

Soileau inched along the wall while pulling her weapon out of its holster. Her goal was no doubt to get behind Les, putting the man between herself and Moreau. Elsa stared at her in horror. No, that wouldn’t work. Bullets wouldn’t stop the spirit who had taken control of Les Wakefield. There was only one way to stop him.

The tension in the room was already wound tight. What Elsa was about to do might uncoil everything and shift the whole scene into chaos. She shouted at the man to get his attention. “Who are you?”

He swiveled his head and pointed a finger at her. “You will stop interfering.”

She stepped toward him. “I will not.” Fear trembled in her voice instead of courage. To her ears, she sounded weak instead of strong.

“Someone has to die.” His answer was non-verbal, yet it roared at her. Everyone in the room except Les pressed their hands against their ears. So she wasn’t the only one who had heard his redundant response. Elsa was tired of his mantra.

“Who are you to decide that?” She hoped he would reveal his identity.

“He must pay. Someone has to die so that he can live, again and again and again.”

The man stretched his hand out toward her. His eyes flared with murderous intent. Before he could follow through with his intentions, he crumpled to the floor. A man Elsa had never met before stood over the man who looked like Les Wakefield with his gun still in the air. The new arrival lowered his weapon and caught Moreau’s eye.

Moreau appeared to come to life. The dullness disappeared from his eyes. “It’s about time you got here, Petrie.”

“It took me awhile to make it all the way around the house. When I got back to the front, I saw him just as he went in the front door.”

Petrie holstered his weapon and pulled a plastic handcuff from his back pocket. “Les Wakefield, you’re under arrest for the kidnapping of Sophia Cannon.”

Les blinked as if he were waking up from a bad dream.

Chapter Nineteen

Four Months Later, July 2015

Elsa had slept through her second night in a row without a nightmare. Maybe she could live the rest of her life without dreaming about Les Wakefield’s eyes or his voice or his creepy insistence that someone had to die, but it might take more than time passing to make that happen. She stumbled into the kitchen to find Collin at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and his laptop.

The sleepovers were getting more frequent. One day soon he would ask her to move in with him. His mother would have a fit.

“It’s about time you woke up.”

Elsa loved his early morning rumble, a delightful mixture of manly bass and Irish brogue. She adored his first thing in the morning look too. Razor stubble and tousled hair.

She stood behind him and wrapped her arms around his neck, bent over and kissed him on the cheek. “You could have woke me up.”

He turned his head to meet her gaze, eye to eye. “The last time I tried to wake you up from a sound sleep you almost gave me a black eye.”

He reached back and pulled her around until he had her seated in his lap. His warm fingers slipped behind her hair and curved around her neck. The guy wasn’t afraid of a little morning breath. The kiss was delicious, but she had come to learn not all of Collin’s kisses were so sweet. Some of them lingered on her mouth, tingling her lips for hours. Collin was a delicious mixture of fast and furious, and slow and sweet. So unpredictable. He had inserted a healthy dose of spontaneity into her usually ordered life.

With him, she would find the adventure she had craved. They had spent many a late night and early morning discussing the things they wanted to do and the places they wanted to go. Life with Collin would never be routine or mundane.

One of the places she really wanted to go with him was Ireland. She was still working on that idea.

He traced her jawline with his fingertip, a maneuver that always sent a current of electricity jolting through her. His words didn’t match the look in his eyes. “Dylan’s coming over in a little while, and then we’re going to go meet a guy about a new project.”

She leaned her head back and pretended to glare at him. “Uh-huh. The last time you told me that one you went to the hotel without me.”

“No worries, love. I’ve done all the exploring of haunted hotels I’m ever going to do. There are other things I’d rather explore.” He laughed, a deep bass gurgle of pleasure that reminded her how much she loved being with the man.

“So you’d rather work with Dylan than with me?”

He blinked at her. “I didn’t say that.”

“You just said—”

He laughed and tightened his arms around her. “I just said we were meeting a man about a project. Dylan is thinking about buying old houses and flipping them. He’s tired of contracting jobs with homicidal maniacs.”

“I bet he is.” So was she.

“How would you like to spend some time in Galveston?”

“Collin…I’d love to go with you, but I have to find another project.” She wasn’t giving up the career she’d begun to follow him around the country while he built his. Her career might take her to the opposite side of the country. The thought suddenly depressed her. Neither of them had considered the conflict between their careers and their desire to tackle new adventures together.

“No. No. Please don’t get that look on your face. If this works out for him, it could mean more work than he can handle by himself. He’s going to need a good project manager.” He wiggled his eyebrows.

“I don’t need you to find work for me, Collin.”

His good mood vanished. “That’s not what I’m trying to do.”

“It sure seems that way.”

“Aw, come on, Elsa. I’m not trying to… I just thought… Wouldn’t you like to work together again? I would.”

She considered his question. Sure, she would. But she had worked so hard to build her career on her own merits. She hadn’t wanted it given to her. Pride fought with desire. “I wanted to specialize in older homes. Pre-World War II.”

“That’s what Dylan wants to do.” He rubbed her back up and down her spine. It was an unfair tactic. “You don’t need me to find you work. I know that. If that’s what you want, then go for it. That’s not what this is about. All I’m saying is that if we could find a way to work together even if it means someone we know hands us the job I’m willing to give it a try.”

“So then why am I not invited to this meeting?”

He smiled. “You never gave me a chance to tell you that you were invited to come along. In fact, Dylan was planning to talk you into coming. He wasn’t sure you’d want to work with him.”

“Oh. Well, that’s different then.” She considered the entire conversation for a long moment. Had she misunderstood? Maybe. It didn’t matter. She was willing to give it a try, just like he was. “I’m not interested in being business partners with him.”

Collin snorted. “Who would be?” His hand did circular motions on her shoulders. “When we’re done working with him, we move on to something else. You find the projects you want to work on, and then you hire the best contractor you know.”

“I could do that. I wonder if Clint is available…”

“Clint? Who’s Clint?”

“He worked with me on a job in South Carolina.” She hoped the tease in her voice was obvious. Teasing was an art, and she wasn’t quite sure she was a master of it. Collin was an expert. How did he like a taste of it?

“You wound me.” He placed his hand over his heart.

“I’m teasing, you know.”

He shook his head, a mournful expression on his face. “I wasn’t sure.”

Time to change the subject. She bit her lower lip. Should she mention it or not?

He looked sideways at her. “What are you up to, Elsa? I know that look.”

“Sophia told me that Dylan’s friend Jordan is coming back to New Orleans next week, and he’s bringing some other guys with him. They’re going out to Wakefield Manor.”

Hadn’t Dylan mentioned the ghost hunting expedition to Collin yet?

Collin’s eyes narrowed. “No.”

Okay, maybe he had. “But Collin—”

“I already told Dylan that I’m not going back out there, and I don’t want you to go either.”

She added a bit of sugary sweet cajoling to her tone. “I know the hotel is off-limits, but the manor house doesn’t have to be. People explore abandoned places all the time, and as long as we don’t get caught…”

He shook his head and disagreement rumbled in throat. He was about to explode with his objections.

She waited for it.

“You almost got killed in that house. I don’t want you to go back.” There he was. Collin, the protector. She wondered when he would emerge.

He leaned toward her, so close she could kiss his lips without moving but a fraction of an inch. A sudden move like that would surely distract him.

“I promised you I wouldn’t let you go back.”

“You promised you wouldn’t let me go back to the cemetery. In fact, you promised you’d tie me up and hold me down if I tried.” She grinned. “That kinda of sounded like fun.”

He shook his head. “No, love. It’s a very bad idea. It’s not good for you, girl.” Oh, his Irish was strong on him when he wandered into protective male mode.

She had planned the discussion, intending to hit him with her arguments one at a time, hoping to break down every one of his. Together, his reasons for staying far away from Wakefield Manor were strong, so strong they were almost unbreakable. One by one, she might manage to damage them enough to change his mind.

“I’m pretty sure the evil spirit left the house with Les.”

“What? Are you suddenly an expert on Les Wakefield, now? You can’t know for sure if the spirit has left him.”

She would do what she had to do, but she didn’t want to disappoint him. His opinion mattered to her. She adopted a serious attitude. Being light-hearted wasn’t going to change Collin’s mind, so she needed a shift in strategy.

“The man that kidnapped Sophia didn’t act anything like Les Wakefield, and Sophia said he talked about hating Les, like he was forcing Les to do what he was doing.” She leaned back to make sure he was listening to her words and not concentrating on her lips. “Someone’s spirit had taken over Les. I want to know why. Don’t you?”

“If the woman that runs The Grove hadn’t seen him dragging her into the woods, Sophia would be dead. There are dark forces at work. You don’t mess with dark forces, Elsa.” He was so adamant in his opinion. Now who sounded like an expert?

“But Sophia’s not dead.”

“My grandmother taught me to stay away from dark forces that I don’t understand.”

And his mother pretended they didn’t exist. Mary Pat refused to discuss her mother-in-law’s gift. She left the room during any discussion of the reason his family had left Ireland, and the conversation always ended before Elsa heard the whole story.

She sighed. His grandmother had no doubt given him good advice. Dealing with forces that Elsa didn’t understand had left its mark on her. “I’ve learned too much about the Wakefields to ignore what I know. I have to understand why Les did what he did. I need to know what’s significant about the rose. I need to know who the skeletons were. I have to find out what the link between Celia and Delia is. I have to find out who
he
is.”

Collin snorted with derision. “There’s nothing significant about the rose. It’s just a legend. Oh, Elsa, darlin’, surely you can live without knowing all the answers.”

Oh, but he was wrong.

The rose was important. Every vision she had had since she began work on the hotel had added another layer to the Wakefield mystery. Instead of finding the truth, she had been left with even more questions. Trying to figure out how all the visions fit together kept her awake some nights. No, the mystery of the Wakefields had gotten into her blood. She couldn’t ignore its call.

A knock rattled the front door. Elsa was glad for the interruption, but feared his mother had seen her car parked in front of his house again. She always acted so innocent when she was intruding, even though she claimed loudly for all to hear that she didn’t want to intrude.

Elsa waited in the kitchen while Collin answered the knock. Moments later, Nick Moreau followed Collin into the room. She groaned. She’d seen too much of the cop the last few months. It had taken them hours of conversations to get their story straight. The prosecution needed to go to trial in the Les Wakefield kidnapping case without any hint that something paranormal had happened. It had been difficult to orchestrate all their eyewitness reports without seeming like that was what they had done.

The serious expression on the cop’s face caused her stomach to jerk. He sat down at the table across from her and leaned on his elbows. His hands covered his face for a moment. The man appeared to be beyond weary.

Collin’s anxious voice pushed Moreau to speak. “So what’s up?”

Moreau lifted his tired eyes. “I have some really bad news.” He sucked air between his teeth and let it go slowly. “Les Wakefield has disappeared.”

“Disappeared?” Collin glanced at Elsa. “You mean he escaped?”

“The guards have no idea how he got out. One moment he was in his cell and the next the cell was empty. It’s like he just…”

Collin held up a hand in warning. “Don’t say it, Moreau.”

“I’m sorry, McVey. It has to be said. Wakefield seems to have vanished into thin air.”

Moreau had just changed her mind for her. Exploring the manor and the hotel without Les’s permission while he rotted in jail was one thing. Revisiting those places when no one knew where he was…that was quite another. Galveston suddenly seemed like a wondering place to work.

The End